Anything that can go wrong will go wrong....

Hello everyone,

This is Laura, Beth's office assistant. I do not want to be the bearer of bad news but this week has been pretty tough here at BMP, and all of this could not come at a worse time.

Over the weekend Beth was unloading her equipment at the end of her afternoon and fell on the sidewalk. She fell very hard hitting her head on the concrete. After a trip to the hospital she learned that she had suffered a severe concussion and her brain was bruised in two places. Results from an MRI will tell us if any fractures resulted from the fall. Beth is home resting but a full recovery could take many weeks.

Unfortunately, I will most likely be cancelling all shoots scheduled for the next two weeks. Beth is simply not well enough to stand for long periods of time because of the risk of further injury. When we are more certain of Beth's recovery time I will do my best to reschedule everyone. I will also most likely be cancelling all in studio ordering sessions since it is very painful for Beth to read or use a computer. Because of this I am asking that those who need orders placed to please submit orders online if possible. I know that custom items such as walls or Christmas cards are not available on the web. If you are interested in those items please call or email so that designs can be discussed and so that we can do as much progress with the order over phone/email as possible.

I will be updating the blog again with hopefully much better news! We will all do our best to get everyone rescheduled and to keep orders moving. We are all very sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you all so much for you patience during this time.


Laura
Office Manager

2nd Annual Halloween Charity Event

I think most of you guys read about our 2nd Annual Halloween Charity Event in our newsletter, (Laura has filled many of the spots)... but I just wanted to send a reminder. My goal is to fill every last spot and raise even more money this year!

I hope your evening is going well...!

Beth

Cancellation 'excuses'... the best one ever

I know I don't share many personal stories on the blog... not as many as I would like to anyway. But I had to share this story - it just happened.

My clients are wonderful... really. Everyone is very respectful of our time, and I probably get onyl one or two last minute cancellations per year. Really, I am very lucky. But this morning I got one... and it is the best excuse ever. I started grinning when I got the message.

My client this morning had a family portrait session with us. I have never had the pleasure of meeting her or her family. However, they are very active in the community and she sounds like a really cool person.

So this morning I get this message... "Beth, it is 9:01 and we have a 9:30 appointment... um... we are going to need to cancel. I feel terrible... my husband just got this really unique opportunity he could not pass up. He got paged because he is a professional car driver*, and Tom Cruise and his family requested he be there. They want to meet up with all the teens from his movie Red Dawn and go drive go carts*."

(*I tweaked the story slightly to hide what they are actually doing, to protect their privacy... but you get the gist of it.)

Hilarious.

Anyway, if anyone ever needs to cancel on account of meeting up with a Hollywood celebrity, I totally understand!

:)

Have a good day!

Beth

Blog Update (....a big one!)

Okay, I admit it. I have been slacking when it comes to the blog! But I am finally going to get cross that one item off my to do list: “Blog update”. The problem: it’s going to be huge...!

For all of you out there on Facebook, please go ahead and tag me! I will happily send you some pictures for your Facebook pages. I usually try to post images for my clients’ Facebook pages when I can.

So…. What have I been up to, you ask? Well, here are some of my favorites… and definitely some more to come soon!

Enjoy!


A baby shoot waring special duds. Isn't this guy adorable???

This is a pose made popular by a photographer in Colorado... with dad being a huge Tiger's fan, I thought I would try it. I was really happy with the results...

The last half day wedding I did... at the beautiful Meadowbrook Mansion. Isn't she gorgeous?

One of my closest friends had an idea to go and shoot on the railroad. I was really happy with the outcome...

I think this one is hilarious...

A shot at sunset with three cousins... I love this shot.

Three brothers. I have been photographing these guys for a while now. The oldest boy is such a gentleman... not to mention a great brother!

This was part of a family shoot -- and they decided to bring the old car. Love it!

Ahhh... my college roommate and one of my best friends in the world... .....Isn't her little baby cute?

An Engagement session just before sunset. I love this moment...

A walk through the woods....

A blondie with a bunch of flowers. Mom brought the flowers, and I love the sunflower up against her blue dress. She was such a wonderful little lady to photograph.

I love this image!

A photo from a session earlier this summer. He brought his golf gear and started jumping when he teed off. Hilarious. ...it's kind of like how I golf....!

A super fun family session earlier this year...

A tender moment with mother and daughter...

A senior shoot... Isn't she beautiful?

A SUPER fun family shoot... These guys were a blast!

Another senior shoot. She has amazing eyes...

And last... but not least... my friends Courtney & Jason. This is an excerpt from their album. I have to admit that I didn't blog about it because I was afraid about getting more wedding inquiries. However, I'm now completely done with weddings, and I am happy to say that this will be my last full wedding for a long long time. (Yes, I shot a ceremony for two other couples, but I didn't do the entire wedding...)

So, this is it -- and what a great way to leave the whole wedding scene. These two are wonderful. I can't wait until I get to shoot their kids! ;)

Doesn't she have killer eyes?? Love 'em!

______

Well, that's it! Sorry my updates are sooo late!

I still owe you a couple more... I'm working on them, I promise!

Have a wonderful evening!!!

Beth

Slower Responses for next 48 hours (E-mail/Voicemail)

Hi guys!

I am in the process of transitioning e-mail and voicemail to a new system over the next 48 hours. We expect the transition to be complete tonight, but I just wanted to warn everyone in the interim. Right now, e-mail and voicemails are going to four different places (all of which we can - and will - check!) Normally, I am able to handle urgent issues on my Blackberry, however even that is down for the next 48 hours. If we take a little bit to get back to you, please bear with us. We are moving to a system that will allow us to move faster and respond to e-mails and voicemials much quicker in the future.

Thank you for your patience!

Beth

WDIV Channel 4 - Vote for the Best {Portrait Photographer}

Today I had this e-mail come through... "Your business has been nominated for 4 The Best". I was very interested...!

I then realized that someone had signed us up for this contest through television station Channel 4 - WDIV. I have known about the 'best wedding photographer' category for some time, but I don't really do weddings... (yada, yada)... and so I never signed up. But, I guess one of you guys has signed us up for the "Best Portrait Photographer". (This person even added some verbiage from our website, some images and our website...!) I didn't even know the category existed -but I guess it does and now we are officially part of the contest!

Now, I suppose I don't really believe in bribing folks for votes with free stuff, and I'm not really into the whole 'begging for votes' thing either. So, here is what I will do.

If we win, I will do a free all day Saturday (donations only) charity event next spring. Here's the kicker: it will be the charity of choice for whoever signed me up (and I have zero idea who that is.) Charity events are always a great idea -- for everyone. We will ask the person who nominated us to come out of the woodwork at that time... until then, I promise not to ask! (kinda fun, huh?!)

Sooo, here goes... if you would like to vote for "Beth Merritt Photography" as the best portrait photographer in Detroit, you click this link.

Thank you to whoever signed us up. It's truly flattering. It's one thing for someone to say 'I like your work, but quite another to have someone say 'wow, you're the best'!!!!

(Thank you!!!!)

My last wedding...

I haven't been completely honest with you guys... I said I don't do weddings. Well, that was partially true. I was winding down, but wasn't completely done, per se. That is until today. Today I shot my last wedding for a while. I won't say that it will be my last wedding ever, but with our business being incredibly busy with children, families, and seniors, I wanted to create a definite place for us to focus. Weddings won't be a focus for us, but if we find the right circumstances, we might shoot another one. (We are suckers for touching stories...!)

Anyway, about the wedding today... I have been excited to tell you guys about this wedding from the moment I heard about it.

A couple months ago, my friend Jill approached me and was talking about her friend that was getting married. Her friend Karen was looking for a wedding photographer. Karen's husband has passed unexpectedly a couple of years before. She was left with three young children, the youngest of which was barely a year old. His passing was heart breaking.

This afternoon I asked Jill how they met and my jaw dropped when I heard the response... They had been introduced by Maryann Gilliam who in 2006 had assistance from the Armada Community and the ABC television show Extreme Home Makeover. Maryann Gilliam’s husband, David, was a firefighter and paramedic who died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve 2005. Maryann, 32, was left with six children (ages eight months to 12 years old) in a small farmhouse David was renovating. The family’s story reached the ABC TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” and the rest is history.

It was at this new house, that the children would meet their new dad. I love the irony... A house built for the purpose of helping a family cope with their own tragedy helped another family move forward with their life.

I will let the pictures do the talking as I like to do most of the time. I will have you pay special attention to the top left photograph though. Tears were streaming down my face as I took this photo. When this photo was taken there was a very moving slideshow that everyone was watching with photos of their family... and this new dad took time out to comfort this little boy during the duration of the slideshow. From the moment where these three young men walked their mom out to get married, it was incredibly moving, and I was truly honored to be a part of it...

Here are a few of my favorites from today... Enjoy!

Beth

Ballerina Needed!

Hello!

I am in need of a ballerina. Should be someone in High School with a Tutu and point shoes. Must be willing to go in crazy (safe) places and get pictures. I will compensate them for their time.

Interested parties should e-mail me please! (beth@bethmerritt.com)

Thank you!

Beth

GQ Urban Session...!

So these kids were SERIOUSLY GQ. Strait from the runway, baby!

Mom a fabulous job dressing them, and the kids themselves we just really a lot of fun. Thanks for doing all that posing for me guys.

Here are my favorites from the shoot...

Enjoy!

Beth

Brosko Family Pictures

So, occasionally (usually at the end of a day of shooting) my last session will be on site at a special location. Laura provides me with an address and my GPS tells me how to get there.

At this location, I was shocked to discover that I was about 10 houses down from the Goforth residence (I just posted their pictures tonight.) I asked them if they knew each other and they did not. Small world though!

This family was hilarious. I had them do a specific shot where they had to stand just so, and they all wound up falling backwards into a patch of dense bushes. No one was hurt and everyone was laughing really hard.

Here are my favorites from the session...

Enjoy!

Beth

Special Event with the Minewiser Family

I recently had the honor of documenting a very special event for a family I have been taking pictures of for a long time now. I am sure you guys will recognize them.

It was wonderful to be chosen to be part of such a special day for them, (thanks for inviting me Jen!)

Here are my favorites from the session... I love the one of the two kids cuddling with Mom. So sweet!

Enjoy!

Beth

All Smiles!

So when this little lady walked in she was ALL smiles! Seriously cute.

Mom and Dad were laid back and really had fun with the session.

Here are some of my favorites from the session...

Enjoy!

Beth

The Goforth Family

I recently spent a couple hours with the Goforth Family. They were a ton of fun, and really allowed me to have fun and shoot the way I like to... the pictures really allowed me to capture their personalities.

The first picture is one of my absolute favorites. This woman hates getting her picture taken and we were able to surprise her in a way that allowed me to capture this great moment.

These guys scheduled this shoot in response to my post about why I am a photographer. How are all of you doing in that regard? Did you find someone to take your pictures yet? (Especially all you photographers out there that read my blog.) Anyway, I am following through on my promise: our family shoot is next weekend and yes, I will post my mug on the blog for all of you to see that I kept my word.

Last but not least, there is a quote I read tonight... "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."

So true....

Hope you guys are having a great night tonight!

Beth

Ray

So, most of you guys probably know that I have a 9 year old cat, who name is Ray. (That is the name he came with and we thought it was mean to change it.)

What you don't know is that he is a huge, powerful, stubborn mule! (But I love him very very much.) Unfortunately, our little guy got really sick this last week. His liver stated to fail and he needed to be hospitalized for most of this week. The doctors didn't think he would live more than a couple days. He refused to eat unless we were there, so we have been traveling to the vet three times a day. He went in extremely feeble, and by this morning he had recovered enough that he was ripping out his IV and giving the nurses quite a run for their money.

Anyway, I think they had had enough of him, and so he's back with us now. Which is good because five days in the kitty hospital was almost two grand... ouuuuuch.

So, I have been neglecting my blog, partially because I have been busy, and partially because I have been at the vet's office all week ....Time to play catch up....!!!

Hope you guys are enjoying this beautiful day...!

Beth

Hak Urban Session

A little while ago I met up with the Hak family to do three urban sessions. I was super happy with the results. The girls are gorgeous and the little guy has these cazy cute curls. (Very fun to shoot.)

Here are my favorites from the session... Enjoy!

Beth

White Urban Shoot

I have to say Monica (our new graphics person) is way better than we were at dressing up these photos - don't you guys agree? (It's not even comparable...!) I am really excited to see the card samples she is coming up with...!

This little man is a repeat customer, and his mom is the best. She is from the Czech Republic and helped me with tips when I was in Prague. (By the way, I owe you guys those pictures still. Maybe this weekend if I get a chance to do personal pictures. ...That doesn't happen much!?!!)

Well, here are my favorites from the shoot. Enjoy!

Beth

VandeVeegaete Little Guy is ONE!

We recently met up with one of our favorite little people... and we celebrated him turning one. My favorite is the tight headshot where his eyes just shine. So precious!

;)

Enjoy!

Beth