Came across this great Pay-It-Forward project today: Roadside Families and knew I had to share it with all my readers on Blogs of Photogs! I’ll excerpt the “rules” below from their website, but the basic premise is this; photographers taking photos of other photographers family and then paying it forward, all with no money exchanged~ a beautiful idea!

Rules for Paying-It-Forward (note from Mary, this is from their website)

1. Once you and your family has been photographed, you have 30 days to photograph another photographer’s family. Don’t be that person that holds up the line because you procrastinated!
2. A photographer and their family (defined) can be any family group that consists of a photographer and his/her family. This could be a regular nuclear family, distant cousins, twin siblings, or conjoined twins. Whatever.
3. Be creative. Let loose! Free your mind!

Rules for Submissions

• Nudity or vulgarity will not be acceptable. Keep it family-friendly.
• Images can be no more than 900 pixels wide (including your watermark).
• Yes, you may watermark your image.
• To keep the chain going, you need to link to your own family post here on roadsidefamilies.com. This is called a permalink, and the url is shown on each post. For example, if JMC shot Joe’s Family and Joe shoots Kelly’s family, then when Joe posts Kelly’s photo on RoadsideFamilies.com, he needs to link to the one JMC shot of him.
  Example (at the top of the post):  Photography by Joseph,     Click here for Joseph’s family photograph
• IMPORTANT! Follow the step by step instructions below for submissions.

So, check it out and find a photographer to photograph your family and then you get to go shoot another photographers family. Love to hear about those that have already done this! Great idea!

best,

Mary

Katie Campbell, of the Portland, OR area, is a newcomer to professional photography– only “doing it full time since September”  as she mentions in her blogsite. Although her portfolio isn’t as fleshed out as photographers with much longer established careers, her captivating images don’t reveal her “newbie-ness” in the least. Things I especially like about Katie’s site are her writing style; you really feel like you get to know her after just reading a few of her posts, her obvious love of photography, and the clarity and feeling in her images. I love how Katie has customized her blog-site to encompass everything, including the flyout links to twitter and facebook on the side.

I enjoyed Katie’s blog and also liked reading about her travels to Africa too~hope you will as well!

~Mary

Nicole Mlakar works out of the Austin, Tx area, specializing in photographing pets and their people with fabulous results. Her blog features loads of adorable furry friends and their owners, showing so many wonderful expressions and playful moments. Nicole does an amazing job in making photos that really capture all the different charming facets of her clients and showing the deep connections with their pets. Enjoy!

~Mary

Seshu Photography (blog here ) is based in Connecticut, New England, but Seshu travels extensively to capture lushly gorgeous wedding, engagement and portrait images that are a flawless mix of candid in-the-moment captures fused with beautifully posed images. Seshu was born in NY, but lived in India for 12 years before returning to the US. As he mentions in his bio, he straddles multiple cultures and comfortably immerses himself into their prized traditions. I know you will enjoy his work if you haven’t yet heard of Seshu. Make sure you follow him on twitter too, as he has lots to say and lots of great advice.

Enjoy!

Mary

Megan Borders (Photography by Meg) works out of the Tri-Cities area of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland in WA. Her blog and site have a mix of beautiful candid portraits of toddlers and children, and highly styled and posed images of newborns, families and seniors. Most photographers seem to excel at one or the other, documentary style, or the gift of working with people and arranging them just right for an almost commercial look and feel; Meg seems to have talent in both these areas. I know you’ll enjoy her blog and the alluring images within.

best,

Mary

Uniquely You Photography Blog features Sarah Ulrich’s gorgeously clean, fresh and bright photography. Sarah has both a photography and a design background which are evident in her work as well is in her amazing design offerings to photographers (here) Sarah works out of Lincoln Nebraska, specializing in babies, children and families. Her work is equally amazing on location, or in studio for newborns and maternity. Enjoy!

Carin Krasner makes the most amazing images of food. I came across her from a cookbook of sorts I have with cocktail food cards and the images were so stunning I had to look her up. She doesn’t have a blog, but her site has such wonderful still life images on it, including more recent work. Carin is an accomplished photographer with quite a lengthy resume of work~ ranging from  California Pizza Kitchen to Whole Foods,  Disney to Walmart~ enjoy!

Mary

I’ll put the link to the layered .psd file for this card I made into the freebie section in a minute. Let me know if you like it! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

best,

~Mary

Audrey Woulard, has been working out of Chicago as a portrait photographer for about 7 years, near as I can remember. Audrey and I were friends online on a parenting board for many years before either of us ever pursued photography as a career, so I got to see her go from starting out to skyrocketing to fame in a fairly short period. Audrey’s work has a very distinctive style, a commercial feel that caught the eye of national campaigns such as Pottery Barn Kids a few years back. Audrey is an extremely successful business woman as well, offering many variations of workshops over the years that have brought her as many aspiring photographer fans as she has photography clients. I’m convinced that if Audrey writes about a product on her blog, or uses a hat, blanket (remember that?) etc in her work, then you ought to buy some stock in it~ her cult following is that strong. Her work has been featured in many places, including the cover of Professional Photography magazine and is the inspiration for many photographers who are just starting out. If you haven’t checked out her blog before, I know you’ll enjoy it.

On a personal note, please forgive my neglecting Blogs of Photogs. Its crunch time for finishing up all my client work. I hope to share a freebie card I designed within the next day or so, hopefully you can use it for last minute orders, or maybe even for your own neglected card! Happy Holidays to all!

~Mary

I usually try to limit my posts and review to those photographers who have blogs, as the name is “Blogs of Photogs” but after coming across Skeisvoll Photography, I just *had* to share their site with you. Monica & Erik’s portfolios are so jam packed with awesome commercial and fashion work~ I know everyone will enjoy seeing their website. ~Enjoy!

~Mary

ps, my cousin (see previous posts) is doing much better, still in hospital (5 wks now) but out of coma, not on vent, doing phys. therapy and OT, etc. Long road to complete recovery, so keep him in your prayers please.