Kelly - Maternity & Family

 Meet Kelly.

Momma to one with one on the way. She's a beautiful, strong, intelligent woman and I was honored that she asked me to do her photographs. She wanted a more urban type feel and so I thought the downtown Kannapolis location would be perfect for her. It would give a subtle feel of city with a beautiful mix of country. The location was perfect for her family.

Kelly is also gorgeous (pregnant or not). Throughout our shoot I talked to her about possibly doing some modeling after she had her baby. I meant every word. Her facial features and natural slim physique is exactly what I am looking for in my newest female model.

Her husband was so patient. He is one of the best male clients I've ever worked with. He didn't fuss at his wife or daughter and let me pose him or did anything I asked. Because I specialize in lifestyle he was comfortable just being himself, walking with his expectant wife and his sweet daughter and letting me snap away.

I'm exited to announce that Jase has arrived, is healthy and ready for his first professional photographs. I will be photographing him within this week. I am so excited to see this precious little boy! Thank you Kelly for this amazing experience!

Meet the Model: Michael

Michael, Michael, Michael. This is often what I'm thinking in my head while I am on a modeling shoot with this amazing model. I met Michael back in the Spring when I instantly connected with his amazing mother, Patty. I first noticed his potential in modeling at his mothers cancer shaving party. He had a certain look I was going for especially as a more "serious" model and had a gorgeous face. He can pull off both the "clean shaving" look and also the scruffy look which makes each of our shoot possibilities endless.

Michael is also one of my most difficult models. He would be the first of all of them to grab my camera and start snapping pictures of random things or myself. My shoots with him seem to take double the time - but we always end up with extremely awesome and successful photographs.

Check out some of Michael's answers:

1. Have you ever modeled before working with Meg Martino Photography?

A little. I had people that would ask me to do a shoot here or there. 

2. Were you surprised that you were asked to model with me? What were you expecting?

I was a little surprised and I'm not sure what I was expecting. Weirdness, because you are weird. 

3. What has been the most challenging experience? 

Meeting your expectations. 

4. What have you learned from modeling? Would you recommend someone else model, even just for fun, if they were asked?

Yes, I would recommend it and I learned to just have fun with it. Meg is fun. And life is short. No need to be serious all the time. I feel like when people are so serious all the time life becomes boring. 

5. What has been your favorite experience/shoot with Meg?

Definitely the night shooting. I'm looking forward to more of that. The colors are so bright and it's my style for sure. 

Michael has since become one of my best friends. He's a great model and is open to new ideas and creative props and locations. He's also an amazing tattoo artist (if you are interested in his information for work please private message me on my facebook page).

I have high expectations for Michael and look forward to what the future holds as far as his modeling and the portraits take both of us. I use him for a lot of creative face shots and plan to add more creative ideas to our shoots.

I'm also grateful for the few shots that Michael has capture of me by being just himself. He's one of the most genuine people I've met. He doesn't always show his sensitive side but it's there and it's one of the things I love most about him. Make sure you hit him up with a comment or two on how awesome he is and check out his full portrait rolls over on the Meg Martino Photography facebook page. You will be sure to enjoy them!

Meet the Model: Ben

I am doing a new series here on the business blog called "Meet the Model." I am hoping to grow my model rotation to 10 people; I currently have five (one new one!). I hope to introduce them each to you and share some of their experiences so that you don't think I just drag people around telling them what to do....well, I sort of do that.

I met Ben a long time ago through our church. He was an instant friend. He comes to all our family functions and just loves on the littles and on our family. As I ventured into photography I knew from the beginning that I wanted him as one of my regular models. Ben has such a pretty boy face and style; but I also know after working with him that he can be edgy when he wants too.

Our very first shoot in June was very much like this. Very preppy and light. I had not worked a lot with male models at that point (they are my favorite to work with now, so easy and carefree) and so Ben was an original guinea pig on me learning to style men.

As Ben and I's friendship has grown and our partnership as a model/photographer I've learned his style, his likes and dislikes via colors, etc. When you are a photographer and you have a regular model you don't want to just have them show up. It's a team effort. I now prefer to style all of my models a few days before a shoot and Ben was super gracious in letting me style him in our second shoot that we will mention in a moment.

Our second shoot was in August. I took a mini break in July to do some events/weddings as well as catch up on editing. I also took some time this week to talk to Ben about his experiences. Check it out:

1. Have you ever modeled before working with Meg?

No. Working with Meg was my first official modeling gig.

2. Where you surprised that you were asked to model? What were you expecting from a photo shoot?

I had always thought it would be cool to try modeling but never actually pursued an opportunity to do it, so I was slightly surprised when Meg asked me. 

3. What has been your most challenging experience?

The most challenging thing so far as been perfecting my "hard" face ha ha

4. What have you learned from modeling? Would you recommend someone else to model, even if just for fun? 

I think I've learned best that I should stay on this side of the camera, ha ha. I really enjoy watching Meg's creativity come to life and helping make that happen. To me it's a lot of fun being out there laughing, trying out different ideas and watching it all come together to an amazing final product. I would absolutely recommend others to model with her or model in general. 

5. What has been your favorite/most fun experience with Meg?

I think my most fun experience so far with Meg had to be this last shoot. We laughed a lot, had so much fun, and I felt much more comfortable with the modeling aspect than I did the first time. 



Overall, Benjy has absolutely nailed his part as a model. He is a very strong model giving me both glimpses of seriousness and laughter. One of the things I appreciate about Ben is his willingness to accept my personality and silliness. When we are on a shoot that can take 4-5 hours he is light and fun the entire time; even as I'm bossing him around. He's very open to trying new artistic poses and has one of the most genuine spirits I've ever encountered.

He also has an understanding that he is not allowed to model for anyone else....ever.

Look for Ben's next spread the end of September. We are doing a fun and unique night time shoot that will be sure to knock your socks off!

Enjoy these few photos of Ben too! :)

Their Back!

The Jackson brothers....are back. Add in the princesses of the family and BOOM you got an amazing family, brother, maternity shoot.

With James going off to college and me needing photographs of all four boys together I had to get them together quickly to do photographs. I'm never sure what craziness I'm going to get with them. I don't think they can be serious for more than five seconds, which is always good, because I'm never serious for more than five seconds and if I am, it's not good.

With this crew you can always find someone doing something crazy. I seriously have to go through five or six photographs before I can get to one that's not too crazy too post. In the few shoots that I've done with these boys and Aleena I've learned so much about their personalities.

Sweet Tyler never wants to smile for me. I'm constantly watching for a chance to snap a photograph quickly when he does smile. They are rare but beautiful. This black and white (above) is one of my favorite group photos of all time because sweet Ty is SMILING. And smiling good. My life's work is complete.

Dan is a poser. Seriously, this guy is ready for me to photograph him at any minute. He's great with directions too. Him and Aleena are expecting a little girl (any day!) and so we coupled this shoot with their maternity shoot. The shots we got are out of this world gorgeous. The love between them two is indescribable. I can only capture a minute portion of it.

Aleena is naturally beautiful. And that hair. Can someone please tell me how I can get beautiful hair like that? She came in feeling a bit insecure (what 40 weeks pregnant woman wouldn't?) but you can tell through her pictures that she is loved; feels that love and is beautiful.

James is one of my regular models (as is Michael). He knows that he's going to be asked to do model like poses and always comes with a good attitude. Him and Michael are also the biggest goofs of the bunch. James kept to his word though and was pretty serious the entire shoot when I needed him to be. Well...sometimes. (When he's not climbing into trees).

And Michael. Lastly, Michael. Michael is one of my main male models for my company. I have a list of models I keep on hand to keep my portfolio fresh. Michael is very good at letting me try artsy photographs on him; but he is the biggest goof of them all. He's also the big brother and will help me get everyone serious when I need to get business done so we can move on. I know our shoots are always double the length in time because they love to have fun.

At the end of the day as crazy as these boys and this family is they are incredible. They are one of my favorite families to shoot because they aren't afraid to just be themselves in front of the camera. They aren't afraid of people seeing their craziness; they embrace it. That's what we need more in front of our cameras. People who are comfortable. As always you can find the full album on the facebook page. Click here to go straight there.

Patty's Boys

 It's been a bit since I've written about my shoots but I have been one busy photographer. I am excited to share this next roll with you on these crazy brothers.

This shoot inspiration came as a surprise for their mother. I met their mother at the church we attend and when I met her I felt an instant connection to her. She and I are kindred spirits. The same goes with her sons, husband, and family. I felt like I was literally dropped into an instant family. Patty had mentioned that she wanted more candid shots of her son James (he's the third oldest and just graduated high school). The boys and I got together and started talking. Why not surprise her with some updated photos of all of them together. She has four of them, so we are missing Daniel, but we plan to do another re-shoot in the next two weeks to include him as well.

This shoot was done in NoDa distract of Charlotte. NoDa is one of my most favorite places to photograph people because no matter how many shoots you do in that area you can make them all look unique with all the different textures, colors, and natural props. Because I am already fully acquainted and close to these boys I knew this shoot would be fun. Not just that, but I knew they'd pick on me since they had never seen me in my "professional" lets get good photos mood.


We got there an hour late due to some difficult in getting the surprise squared away. We didn't want mom to know that we were doing it so we had to fabricate a good story. My goal for each of the boys was to capture their personalities and bring it to life. I wanted to focus in on James and do his senior portraits and than use Tyler and Michael in poses that I could add to my portfolio.

Just seeing what a client shows up in in regards to clothing choice tells you a lot about their personality. I also wanted to make sure we got plenty of shots of the boys together and even some fun ones.

We were extremely pressed for lighting and time since we got such a late start. I didn't want to shoot night portraits of the boys and wanted to focus on using the light I had from the sun.

Overall the session was crazy. We had lots of laughs, cracked up, joked, and got some amazing shots of these boys. We are getting together again very soon before James goes to college so we can make sure we get those shots of the boys and Daniel. We don't want to leave anyone else out.

And if you made it this far in this blog entry you get to see a "not posted to the web or facebook" photo of Michael hugging his new favorite tree. ;)

Check out the rest of their session over on my facebook page by clicking here. 

Where I Started

I really felt compelled to share how I started in photography many, many years ago. I've always had a creative and artistic mind. I started writing in a journal when I was 10 years old. I kept many journals for years. I would always get annoyed because my mother would find them but it never stopped me from writing.

My writings were very dark. As a teenager despite my outward appearance of being joy filled I was very depressed. I also was a dark thinker. I had a lot of anger towards a lot of people and let it fester within which caused most of my writings/poetry to be geared towards hate, anger, depression or sadness.

From there, I picked up a camera. I continued to write but wanted a new and fresh way to express myself and my inner thoughts/pain. I started with my camera phone. Than I graduated to a cheap DSLR. Like really cheap. It was border line disposable. I did simple shoots, nothing serious, and took photographs as a hobby for years before even considering I had any sort of talent to do it professional. (Still debating that to this day.)

A lot of my photographs where simple. I took a lot of pictures of my sisters and my children because they were consistent subjects in my life that were willing to let me pose them, work with them, or let me shoot lifestyle shots of. I had no idea what I was doing with lighting or anything technical. I just knew what I wanted on the screen, what theme I wanted, and went with it. Easy as that.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted each photograph to represent a season of my life, my child's life (I was a single mom at the time that I started getting really serious about my hobby) and/or to represent a struggle that someone faced. My sister and I got together one time she visited and did a shoot on depression in teens. We knew it was a very relevant issue and wanted to bring it to life.

I also took lots of film of my daughter. I wanted to capture sweet and even rough moments of our life together when it was just the two of us. I rarely spent time at home during the year I was a single mom and so every moment we had together meant more to me than anything. She was always so easy to capture because she is just like me and doesn't mind openly expressing herself.

I also did lots of self-portraits. I've lived a rough life and I used my photography as a therapy piece. I believe in art. I believe that participating in art in any way whether painting on a canvas or taking a photograph can help you rid yourself of certain pain and thoughts. It's at least a tool.

Some of my previous work is too "dark" too share. Some of it I shot for myself. Some of it I shot for a purpose. I did a lot of it for practice.

I wanted to share all this because I know a lot of people give up on their dreams and passions. Starting out I never thought I'd do anything further with photography. It was a serious passion and love of mine but I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be decent enough or skilled enough to start a business. Nor did I believe that anyone would support me.

I learned quickly however that you always have room to grow. You won't always be the best and that's OK. You just need the passion and drive to move forward despite that fact. I also realized quickly that I didn't need anyone else to support me. I just need to know that this is where God is wanting me. This is where God is desiring for me to go.

My goal is to one day host workshops for men and woman wanting to use their photography as a means to express themselves. With art, there is no limit. And when you press on through the challenges and into your dream you change not just your own life but many others around you. I also believe that if more people who feel inclined to be an artists in any way would pursue that dream than art would be more alive today than it ever has. Creativity would be revived. I see it coming back and my prayer is that many more artists will embrace it.

I also hope that those who are holding on by a thread to a dream will live it. Sometimes you just have to take the first step. It won't be easy, but if you fail while trying, you aren't really failing. Because so many people never even start.