ACP on Display

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Today is a big day for ACP–my new logo and “look” will be on display at the Wedding Festival. I hope you’ll stop by to say hello if you are there! I am so excited–and a little nervous–about really debuting my work and my business…I’m certainly not new to the photography scene, but I’ve definitely been working behind the scenes, and it’s time to bring ACP to the front!

Here is a quick (icky quality) photo I snapped of my display tonight. I still have a rug and a couple of other things to add when I arrive Saturday morning, so I’ll take some more photos and post them after the Festival. 🙂 I’m looooovin’ my display!

See you at the Wedding Festival! (And hey, my booth is in between a wedding cake vendor and a caterer. Yummo.)

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Me, MIA

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I know, I know, I’m being a terrible blogger!! Please forgive? There is so much ah-ma-zing stuff on the horizon for Amy Clifton Photography–and for you, my amazing friends–but I’ve definitely neglected my poor blog in exchange for a brand-new ACP. I think the trade-off will be worth it if you can just hang in there with me for a little longer. 🙂

First big news, I have a winner for my contest!! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who expressed interested and sent in their photos. Drum roll……Holly and Mark have been married for 15 years and have no (I repeat, NO) photos since their wedding of just the two of them. They have two beautiful children and lots of family portraits, but nothing of just them. *Gasp!* They are a hot little couple, and Holly is such a sassy girl, so I can’t wait for their session! (She also is my hair stylist, and I would drive to the ends of the earth for a haircut from her. Seriously, she saved me many years ago from a disastrous near-mullet, and I am forever grateful. (Hmmm, do I need to say “disastrous” when I’m also saying “near-mullet?” Seems a bit redundant.) Anyway, send me a message if you need a great stylist!) Stay tuned for their photo shoot and the big ACP surprise that comes along with it!

Next big news is that I finally selected a logo to represent ACP! It was a much bigger decision than I expected, largely because my designers did such a rockstar job and I liked everything they gave me. I can’t wait to debut it along with my new website! The sample I saw of my website completely blew me away…I hope it will have the same effect on y’all!

I shot another killer session with a band in the studio last weekend…those pics are coming soon and I’m crazy about them, and this weekend I’ll be photographing my first-ever maternity session. This couple has already gotten me all teary-eyed over their super-sweet love story, and I haven’t even met them yet! I’m so ready for their portraits!

Again, I hope you’ll forgive me for being super-MIA and that you’ll stick around for all the changes coming soon. Also, for my former clients who have completed their surveys–thank you. I am truly taking everything you say to heart. I appreciate both your complements and your suggestions, and I welcome them always–with or without a survey. And finally, because it’s just wrong of me to not post a photo, here’s a sneak-peek from last weekend’s band session!


It’s Tradition!

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As promised, here are the photos to go along with the post!

It seems that every year, Christmas gets busier and more hectic and I can never believe when the day has already come and gone! This is such a special season, so it makes me sad (and a little guilty) when I can’t savor it due to the busy-ness. The routine of traditions, though, keeps things sane for me. We used to tease my dad about his love for “tradition,” said in the tone of the father in Fiddler on the Roof. 🙂 As I have gotten older, I have become so appreciative of these traditions and the order, predicatability, and sentiment they hold.

Some of our family’s Christmas traditions include:

1) Advent calendars and the Advent wreath, in anticipation of Christ’s birth on Christmas. My parents made me a cute felt Advent calendar my very first Christmas, and I still use it at my house all these years later!


2) Hanging the “Clifton Family Ornaments.” My dad came from a huge family (9 kids) that moved a lot, and he doesn’t have many artifacts from his childhood. He does have 3 antique Christmas ornaments, and each of us hangs one on the tree.

3) Christmas Eve church, pimento cheese sandwiches and soup, and staying up entirely too late wrapping presents. We are a last-minute family!

4) Me (and Pearl, my cat) spending the night with my parents on Christmas Eve and Christmas night.

5) Christmas stockings! Even though I’m officially an adult, I still get a stocking, and I always fix my parents’ stockings too. Hello, “stocking stuffers” are some of the most fun gifts! My mom made our stockings when I was a baby…


My grandparents’ gift to each of us is always a “portrait” of Ben Franklin, rolled up and tucked inside a little stocking on the tree. 🙂 Gift-giving from them is all about the Benjamins, baby…

6) Christmas brunch. We have the same breakfast every year…nothing fancy, but it’s always yummy. Cinnamon rolls, arranged into a tree or wreath shape (my mom’s artistic touch), Pillsbury crescent rolls with “little smokies” inside, and fruit, all served on Christmas plates.

7) BBQ for dinner, and taking allllllll day to unwrap our presents. Yes, we are the family who takes turns opening gifts one at a time. 🙂

8) Setting up the tripod (or this year, a step-ladder since I forgot to bring the tripod) and taking a family portrait in front of the tree…me, my parents, and my grandparents. Whenever possible, we also round up the cat(s) to be included…I’m pretty sure my dad has sustained some flesh-wounds over the years trying to hold a feline for the family picture. He’s a good daddy!

This one is a few years ago, but I included it because of the squirming cat my dad is attempting to wrangle…

This year’s family photo, Christmas 2008…we had a wonderful day!

I hope that everyone in blog-land had a wonderful Christmas and that you celebrated–or created–some traditions of your own! I’d love to hear about them…let me know what you and your family or friends do the same way, every year!

Merry Christmas,
Amy
(I’m still up, so it still counts as Christmas, right??)

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Two of My Favorite Things…

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No “raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens” here; two of my favorite things are photography and music. (Although kittens are cute and I DO enjoy getting flowers…) I simply love live music. I love bar bands, I love small acts trying to make it big in an intimate club, I love 20,000 seat venues with huge sets. I love live albums. I love hearing an artist cover a song or play a new arrangement to one of their own hits. I am moved every time I hear the crowd singing along with the band.

When I go to a show, I absorb all the extra stuff going on: the crew scurrying around with their walkies and laminates, the FOH sound stage, the switching out of guitars, how the set list is arranged, and the stage lighting. Especially the stage lighting. As a photographer, my eye is trained to “find the light,” and while I’m rockin’ out to a band, I’m also being blown away by the back-lighting, by the colored beams of light finding their way through the haze, by the single spotlight that illuminates the artist during an acoustic moment. And I’m always wanting to capture that in photographs.

If I could add anything to my own photographic “set list,” it would be concert photography! I’ve taken some pretty cool photos at concerts over the years, some with my point-and-shoot camera, some with my mid-grade digital SLR and a zoom lens, some with permission, some not so much. 🙂 Ah, how I would love the opportunity to shoot with my good camera and lenses!

I’ve found that country artists are pretty open to concert-goers having cameras, so when I saw Gary Allan recently in Asheville, NC, I went up front to take some photos with my p&s…



I love the crazy lighting in this one!!


As I’m further developing my photography business, I’m gaining the opportunity to work with some musicians in and out of the studio, and I’m beyond excited to combine these two passions! Stay tuned for more music-related images in the future!

Here’s to You…

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*Note: I don’t usually “journal” on the blog, but I do hope you’ll take the time to read this post…*

I love music–all kinds. And yes, that includes country. Even the bubble-gum kind that inspires my dad to rant about how “that’s not REAL country; Hank Williams Sr., now that’s country!”

Rascal Flatts have a fun little song about all of the reasons why they hit the road and go on stage night after night–the kids who pile too many people into their car just to get to the show, the cute girls hoping to catch a glimpse of somebody famous in the back parking lot, the moms and dads who leave their babies at home and dance up a storm in the aisles. The chorus says “You’re the heart and the soul and the reason we do what we do; here’s to you!”

The reasons why I do what I do with photography are many: inspiring others to look at the world in a new way, creating art from everyday experiences, preserving too-fast moments, documenting life and love, and capturing personal history. As in the Rascal Flatts song, though, it isn’t so much about the art or the final product as it is about the individuals, the lives, the stories captured in those prints.  I do not take it lightly when you trust me with your wedding, your newborn baby, your family moments. I get to know you and your story, I plan, I prepare, I pray–both for my abilities and for you. I do this so YOU have your life documented, so you can relax and enjoy your wedding day, so you can always remember that new-baby smell, the giggles of your toddler, the transformation of your child into an adult, and the love that you share with your family and friends.

In the past week, two of my newlywed couples have just lost a loved one–in one case, the groom’s father, in the other case, the bride’s father. Both have shared how they displayed photos from their weddings at the memorial service, and both have shared how much these images mean to them and their families during this time.

I have a hard time expressing how humbling this is to me:  not only was I allowed to play a part in the story of their love, but I also am playing a part in the story of their loss, and ultimately in their healing. It is truly an honor.

YOU are the reasons I do what I do.
Here’s to you.