Ashley Brawner Photography

***NOTE: due to how Spring Break falls this year, Kylin’s Benefit Shoot Out will be moved to the weekend of April 13-15 & we are adding a few extra spots as well as a few boudoir sessions as well***

Kylin Holt, daughter of one of my best friends Tiffany Tuggle, has a mitochondrial disorder/disease. Kylin is one of the sweetest little girls you will ever meet. She’s surprised everyone, even the doctors, by all she has been able to do. This little one walks, runs, laughs, giggles and babbles just like you’d expect a bouncing toddler to do. And while just looking at Kylin you may never know there is anything wrong with her, Kylin eats through a feeding tube and spends more time in doctor’s visits in one week than most of us do in 6months. She has many struggles that my kids will never know and yet she’s concurred many of the milestones that I take for granted with my own children. They have been trying to pinpoint the exact disease/disorder that Kylin has… Meanwhile, Tiffany (Kylin’s mom) takes on many responsibilities and wears many hats.

Tiffany is the kind of mom and friend you want to be like. She’s room mother for her two older girls, taxi for their extracurriculars as well as Kylin’s many doctor appointments and still manages to help her friends and family and be there when they need someone. On top of all this, Tiffany has taken on helping plan a walk for mitochondrial disease, to raise money and awareness for the disease/disorder that Kylin has and for kids out there like Kylin. Every year I do Springtime photoshoots… This year at our spring family photo shoot day, we will be taking donations and a percentage of all shoots will go towards Kylin’s fundraising goal. Tiffany, Kylin’s mom, will be at the shoot as well, so you can meet her and find out more about Kylin and her story and what you can do to help.

Below the photo is the link to make your $50 deposit for March 31st. Appointments will begin at 8am. Please include a note with your payment with your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices for your preferred appointment times. Thank you and I look forward to meeting you!

***NOTE: due to how Spring Break falls this year, Kylin’s Benefit Shoot Out will be moved to the weekend of April 13-15 & we are adding a few extra spots as well as a few boudoir sessions as well***

***NOTE: due to how Spring Break falls this year, Kylin’s Benefit Shoot Out will be moved to the weekend of April 13-15 & we are adding a few extra spots as well as a few boudoir sessions as well***

The other night my family and I decided to venture out to our town square and look at the Christmas decorations before they were taken down. We hadn’t been to see them yet and it was the 2nd of January, so we knew they were coming down soon. We went up and sat in the sleigh and hung out with the kids and during our visit up there met two different groups of people, which we really enjoyed talking with.

And of course I snagged a few pics for them… I always feel for people when I see moms and dads or one person always stepping out of the photos to hop behind the camera, thus making them end up with no photos of them all together. The first group, one of the gals is an aspiring professional photographer and we talked shop (and about Vampire Diaries, which I have recently fallen addicted to) and of course I loved that! And the family we met afterwards had several mutual friends with us and needed family photos soon and they run an athletic business that has rec teams for kids, something I had just been talking to my hubby about for our kids (& of course their kids and our kids hit it off and wore themselves out… I’m pretty sure they all slept really well that night). How crazy is all that? Just in a small trip to look at Christmas lights… You never know who you might meet or what opportunities you may come into just being open and friendly to anyone you meet, even in a small last minute decision to do something simple –  Anywho, since I’m pledging to maintain my blog with you guys, I thought I’d share a couple photos from that night and the awesome people that we met.

Visit the event on facebook for details: Butler Family Benefit

I’m going to preface this with the fact that I’ve always known that photos were a very important and vital part of every day life… But it’s not been more real to me than it has in the last couple weeks, with the death of a friend & client and then photographing a sweet newborn baby girl who is on life support.

The last couple years I’ve really kinda struggled with who I am as an artist, where my passion truly is and what do I want to “specialize” in, etc because I really and truly love just photographing pretty much anything (especially when people give me creative control)

I went to Jeremy Cowart Photography’s LifeFinder in Atlanta (thanks to a sweet friend taking me along (Thanks Daniel Stancil)… And Jeremy really spoke to me about finding my voice and what I want to do to give back with my work… Not just for me but for me to give back in using my God-given talent, gifts and time that He has me here for.

These last few weeks I feel like I’ve really realized some things about where I want to be and who I want to be as a photographer, with the loss of the Butler family and with the time I was able to spend with Baby Presley yesterday. I have a pretty big heart and sometimes my intentions and ideas are more than I can possibly make time for with my family, but visiting and photographing Presley only took a few hours of my time, but will mean much more than that to them and the time it took to get the photos from archives of Kelly & her family only took about two days but it is way more than two days worth of memories for the children and family members that are this side of Heaven.

I “launched” Love Revolution earlier this year because I wanted to help somehow but was so overwhelmed with ideas that I wasn’t really sure HOW I was going to best help with it and I really think that with these two recent events, I know how I want to help and give back.

Above and beyond photographing weddings, babies, boudoir, families, seniors, my own personal concept work, etc… I want to use my time and work to give back and to help others and families that find themselves in these circumstances that are beyond their control… So that’s what Love Revolution will be… Not necessarily revolutionizing people’s lives but bringing them MORE than just memories through LOVE and other means, be it photography or something else… Just about giving back.

Starting this year 2012, Ashley Brawner Photograpy, Photobooth (by Ashley Brawner Photography), and Blush Boudoir Photography will be donating 10% of all revenue to help support local charities, fundraisers, etc… Be it something like the fundraiser we did earlier this year for Ketren, the one we are currently doing for the Butler family or to help raise money and awareness for Huntington’s Disease (something that has personally affected my family and I), or just buying some personal (and/or primping) items to take to the local women’s shelter.

I hope that you will help support me and these families and if you are looking for ways to help, please feel free to contact me at ashley@ashleybrawner.com – Any and all help is greatly appreciated… Even if it’s just behind the scenes helping organize things.

Rest in peace Kelly, Dustin, Brooke and Braylon – and God bless you Presley, we are praying for you sweet baby girl!!

Brooke. Future A lister. No lie… You need to make sure that you keep up with this starlet because you WILL be seeing her on the silver screen, I have NO doubts. I can’t say enough about her, she’s simply stunning. She has the class and elegance of Julie Andrews(she’s one of my FAVES) or Grace Kelly, and I would say as versatile as well. Brooke was up for whatever we threw her way… And I do mean whatever… She scaled walls, climbed over railroad tracks, laid in a street… Anything for the shot. Kelli Burns was the stylist for the shoot and her work is fab. Combine a fab stylist, a flawless model and a great location and our shoot was nothing short of fabulous. Here are a few of my personal favorites from Brooke’s shoot.

this (below) is the wall Brooke scaled for this shot… I’m about 5′8″ and the door is over my head… what you can’t see is that I’m hanging off the side of the wall with my camera wrapped around my arm to get this shot… Gotta do what you gotta do to get the shot

okay… and here’s the last one… I could post pictures of her alllll day! she’s soo pretty!

Hey guys!

Sooo… I know I said that I was going to be WAY better about blogging this year, and soo far.. I have not been!

BUT!! ((and yes, thats a big but)) It is because I have been busy with shooting you guys

and… launching a new line of photography, as well as putting in more time on my commercial work

my website is now live, www.ashleybrawner.com

its not 100% completed (and yes, its really a lot more work to do a website than you would think) but its there.

all that being said, I am going to be catching up my shoots from Jan 1 and maybe even a few of my favorites from 2010 (we shall see)

thank you & goodnight… stay classy my internet friends and blog stalkers

I had the privilege of shooting one of the CUTEST lines of clothing for the launch of their Spring 2011 line, Swanky Baby Vintage. If you are a fan on my facebook page, you saw posts about this…And I am soo excited about the launch today!!

Soooo… Without further delay, here are some of the CUTEST little girls modeling two of the cutest outfits ever!! Make sure you check out Swanky Baby Vintage at www.swankybabyvintage.com

Happy New Year!!!

And… Just a little update for you all…

2011 has some BIG things coming up!! I already have almost 20 weddings on the books from this month up until November and several months that I am not taking anymore weddings (dont want to get soo busy that you dont get all the attention you deserve for one of the biggest days of your life!) Soo… without further delay, here are some updates for you guys broken out by category

Personal: I will be maintaining what you call a 365 photo project… I will be taking a picture a day, sometimes it may be whats going on in my life, a highlight from that day, something that speaks to me or has personal meaning… or maybe just something that I think is kinda cool. I will post these images on my personal blog, that you are more than welcome to check out… Havent decided yet if I wanted to post them here as well though… Thoughts?

Professional: New website. New blog updates. New pricing. New exciting opportunities for me AND you to get in on the action and some fun give aways and events! You guys have probably seen where I have asked for models for shoots… And there will be more of that in the new year for ABP. I cant wait to share with you all the exciting things coming up! I am also going to attempt to maintain regular postings on my blog of all my recent shoots and favorites. Also! Many of you have asked for mentoring sessions, tagging along, etc… So I will be working in opportunities for you guys to do so as often as possible. Many of you have already tagged along with me on a shoot or a wedding and I have really enjoyed it, a lot! So stay tuned for that!

Personal & Professional: One of the biggest reasons that I work from home, is so that I can be there for my kids and my family. I am soo very privileged and blessed that God has allowed me to have a passion for something that I can do because I enjoy it and to be able to make it my profession. I will be taking my time home more seriously this year though. It is great to be busy and to have work, but everyone needs some R&R … Especially with 3 kids . Because of my need to be completely confident in the work that I give to you as my friends, customers, family and clients, I will be revamping my schedule to allow for specific off days. The off days may change, some times as often as weekly, but for the most part will stay the same and be consistant. I want to be sure that I am well rested and have enjoyed time with my family so that I can give my family my best and give you guys my best. After all, you dont want a half awake person with coffee stained shirts working on your pictures .

With all that being said… My new site and new pricing (see note below on pricing) will be live effective January 15th…Anything booked before January 15th will be grandfathered in at the 2010 rates.

I hope everyone has had a safe and happy holiday season! And heres to making 2011 better and bigger than 2010! (and a sneak peek from the first shoot of 2011)

*Pricing: You may ask yourselves why photographers charge what we do… And I saw an EXCELLENT explanation for this on a fellow photographers blog, so in a nutshell, here it is: When I charge you for your sitting, your prints, your dvd of your images… You may say/ask yourselves why you should pay me for a disc or a print when you could do that yourself for so much less… Or why I charge what I do for the sitting when Im only with you for maybe an hour or so. It is soo much more than that though. On average, for every hour that I spend shooting with you, I will spend 2 to 3 hours culling and editing those images(sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the specific needs of your shoot, event, wedding). The editing time doesnt include all the time that goes in to planning for your photography needs… It may include setting up the location, scouting the location, loading and reloading equipment and/or props, among many other things. You are also paying for quality, artistic interpretation/design and my experience… I pride myself in the amount of time that goes in to each image because I want to make sure that you are not showing people images that do not capture who you are and are not of high quality. Yes, you can go pay $15 for a sitting fee, and you will probably get 1 or 2 pretty good images, but I can assure you that you wont have to worry about only getting 1 or 2 good images with me. I produce quality work from an experienced artist/photographer and I take utmost pride in it… And you should too! You shouldnt look back at your photos years from now and wonder what you were thinking .

I kinda forgot to do my own Christmas cards this year to send out…

But then I realized that everyone (for the most part) that I would send a card to is online…

Soo, here is this years Christmas card & not to be cliche’, but the reason we celebrate isn’t for presents or Santa Claus (though they are both SUPER fun & Santa LOVES white chocolate macadamia, btw)… It’s because many years ago a baby was born, to save us from ourselves and to give us hope and a new life. We don’t call it CHRISTmas for nothing. One of my favorite Christmas songs growing up sums it up nicely…

Come on, ring those bells,
Light the Christmas tree,
Jesus is the king
Born for you and me.
Come on, ring those bells,
Every-body say,
Jesus, we remember
It’s your birthday

Okay guys!! I know you have been awaiting the launch (relaunch) of my website and it’s almost here! I’m very excited with the direction we have chosen to go with it and really feel like it will go along with all the different things that we encompass with Ashley Brawner Photography! Keep checking here and I’ll update you on when the site is ready to go live! I’ll also be catching up all my missed blogs that I haven’t had time to post .

Get excited!

We have SIXTEEN (16) weddings booked for 2011 already and I have several months completely booked… Sooo…. Make sure you contact me ASAP to make sure your date is still available. ALSO – Prices will be going up effective January 1st on all packages (weddings, lifestyle photography, commercial photography, etc). I will still honor any 2011 weddings and shoots booked before the end of the year at the 2010 rates.

AND…

To close out the year with a bang and to celebrate all the new and exciting things coming to Ashley Brawner Photography… I am offering gift certificates at 50% off! WHOA!! And yes, you read it right!! If you purchase a gift certificate for someone, it’s 50% off! Sooo… a $50 gift card is actually worth $100!! You can NOT beat that!!

Lots of things are happening and we are very very excited about all the exciting new adventures and new people that we are going to be working with on projects, etc. Stay up on my blog and facebook page and I’ll keep you posted about opportunities for you to get involved AND to let you know the cool things that we are launching!

And just so this isn’t a completely wordy post…. Here are two teasers from a wedding I’m editing now