Deserving Family Award

Here are the families that were chosen for the

"Deserving Family Award":

AUSTIN - The Andrus Family. Mother, Elizabeth to a 3 & 5 year old has been battling cancer for 2 years. It has returned and spread. Getting pictures with her husband & kids is important right now.

HOUSTON - The Harmon Family. Very hard working family that are struggling right now, yet they continue to put others first and selflessly

give to others. Love that.

DFW - Kinz & Roxy McElvain. Young couple that are fostering to adopt Kinz's 3 young siblings due to his parents lack of good choices.

ALSO - there were so many single moms that were nominated. I have a heart for single moms, so I will have a day of mini sessions for them. The session will take place on October 23rd at Common's Ford Park in SW Austin. If you know of any single moms that deserve this and financially couldn't do it, please tell them to contact me asap to book their session. They will get a 30 minute session and will receive approximately 20 edited digital images.

THANKS AGAIN!!! I am honored to be able to take these amazing

family's pictures.

FALL SPECIAL

Summer Special

$50 0ff5x7summer special, originally uploaded by amy_melsa.

My weeekend

How do I even describe in words what happened at this retreat led by Jen Hatmaker. wow. hmmm... Whenever I think about what happened the tears are right there. I haven't even been able to describe to my husband yet what happened. Truly amazing. The emotions are so raw right now and I hope they stay that way. Let me just say that at the end of the retreat I have never seen so many women at the "altar" on their knees. Barefoot. If you ever get the opportunity to hear Jen speak - it is a MUST. Her book - "Interrupted" will change you. And, I swear I am not saying this b/c she is a friend. My prayer from now on will be "Jesus, take me down. Down to where you were". "Whatever you do for the least you do for me" is what He tells us. And I pray that I will never be the same after this.


This was when Jen was telling a story about a missionary serving in a different country that had a women bring her dead baby to him that she couldn't feed and asked for a box to bury him properly in. When he found one to give her she got down on her knees and praised God for the box. Same missionary, visiting a church later in America heard a lady come to the altar praising God that "He found for her the periwinkle color SUV she was looking for". This make me ill.
Someone dies of hunger every SIXTEEN SECONDS (64% of Americans are overweight or obese). Roughly 1 billion people in the world do not have suitable housing, and 100 million are entirely homeless. 40% of the world lacks basic water sanitation. 4 out of 5 children worldwide work every day instead of go to school. In the hour that Jen spoke 1,625 children were forced to the streets by the death or abuse of an adult, 66 children under the age of 15 were infected w/ HIV. Should we really be focusing on getting the right color car? Getting the perfect, plush, expensive carpet in the sanctuary? Buying our kids name brand, way overpriced shoes when millions and millions of children don't own one pair? Building a multi-million dollar facility to worship in when you could us that multi-million dollars to save millions of CHILDREN'S LIVES, really?! Do you really think Jesus would want you to come be entertained in a beautiful-top-of-the-line church on Sundays rather than feed starving children? I'm just saying..
Before Jen could even finish her talk a woman came to the altar and literally smacked down her shoes.
Women flooded to the altar. There were 3k women there. Women were literally taking off their jewelry, their coats, giving away their designer bags that now made them cringe to look at. When you hear about the crisis that is going on in this world you just don't look at all this "stuff" the same.

and left like this. humbled. broken (me being one of them) ready to truly sit at the Rabbi's feet. be real disciples.

Easter

Luke and I were laughing today as we took our younger ones to an egg hunt about how when we only had one child (13 years ago) we would dress him up real nice for Easter. We'd purchase him some really nerdy (girly) outfit, fix his hair, put on his dress shoes and take him to hunt eggs with 5k pictures. Boy have times changed! With #4 we are lucky if he is even wearing a shirt! Could care less about the underpants. I would be happy to dress him up a tiny bit, but he is determined to dress himself and I only have so many battles I can pick with 4 of them. So, my little orphan child, thank you for at least wearing your pants.

Successful hunt!!

Sweetness!

Senior

Senior photo session.

I have pictures of this girl chasing my boys around when they were little - about 8 years ago. When her mom emailed me about them coming into town to get senior pictures done it took me like 10 minutes to grasp that Hannah was a senior in high school. Gasp.

Can't believe how fast time flies.

Studio?!?

Well, I never thought I would want/need an indoor studio, but time hava changed! Sooo.... coming in March (hoping 1st of March, but realistically mid-March) I will introduce my new indoor home studio. I will only be using the studio for little ones (birth - one). It will be cozy and warm and kid friendly (home).

Pictures will come soon!

February (Cancer)

Starting this month I am going to be picking one charity each month to honor and donate to. What exactly does this mean? One Saturday per month I will be doing a day of mini sessions. Half the proceeds will go to the charity I choose that month.

A mini session is $100, 30 minutes and 10 digital images. The location will be determined approximately 2 weeks before the session.

This is a great way to honor a charity that has impacted you or a loved one.

For this month I will be donating to cancer research in honor of my Aunt Carolyn who passed away from cancer. She would be turning 61 this year.

Please contact me if you are interested in being a part of this special day.

New print

My cousin from Houston (Kimberlee Combs Photography) took this of my little one and me. I decided to have it printed square (which i LOVE), on matboarded with metallic finish. It looks AWESOME! Contact me about ordering one for your home.

20 pages of notes

is what i took last night at a photography conference. it was jam packed with awesome ideas. so refreshing. new things are coming for amy melsa photography!

Wedding Number 10!

This past Saturday I had the honor of photographing a beautiful wedding. The ceremony was at a Methodist church downtown and the reception was off of San Gabriel. It was absolutely beautiful! I would have to say that weddings are definitely not my specialty, and I get so anxious and nervous before them. I ALWAYS shoot with a second shooter. You know...just in case. You never know what can go wrong. I love being able to watch such an amazing, personal, life-changing event and be a part of it. Of course, there have been some weddings I have photographed that might have been planned about 7 days before and weren't taken too seriously. at all. But, to each is own...

This wedding this past weekend was a long time coming. Bride and groom had been dating for like 8 years! They were so excited and in love. The wedding was beautiful and I am so thankful to be a part of it!

The "C" Family

Sunday I photographed the family that bid highest on my session donation at the Bill Glass Banquet (prison ministry). Luke and I went to the banquet with some friends of ours and were BLOWN away by the choir that was there. I snorted/cried. Anyways, the mom in this family was the worship leader for the choir. She is truly amazing. We are going to go visit their church soon. The whole family is very talented musically! I had a blast photographing them. You can really get a sense of the family dynamic when photographing them for 2 hours. This family has fun together.

Oh, and also - the dad, Greg Curtis is a songwriter/producer and has worked w/ some very big names. He travels w/ his talented sons to LA often. I saw him the night after I photographed them on A&E, The Jackson Five reality show. He was in the studio when they were recording. Pretty cool. HILARIOUS guy.

Texture

a little somethin somethin i have been playing around w/ in photoshop.

Learned something new!

Did a collage last night. I've never done anything like this before in Photoshop. Not, because it's super hard, just because I have never had the extra time to figure it out. I LOVE learning something new in PS. It's a new goal of mine for 2010!!

My new fave item

Today I received my new bag/purse in the mail today and I LOVE it. I love the size, the look, the quality, everything. Best of all, my sister-in-law made it! You can get one too for only $40 and pick from several great fabrics. Just email me if interested and I'll forward your information.

Ms. America

It is my goal to not only take more pictures of my kiddos, but to print them! I am horrible about printing. Here are a couple I took in the backyard. Isn't she precious!?