Benefit for the Tischer/Stornetta Family

Home is where the heart is. There is no place like home.

That is why losing your home is so devastating.

Imagine all your possessions, those little things that make life more comfortable and to which you have attached precious memories...gone in an instant; to have no place, nowhere to go back to, to lay your children down at night, to call your own. Pictures, stuffed animals, heirlooms, treasured keepsakes...gone.

That is what Darcy Tischer, her boyfriend Tayler Stornetta and their two precious children are experiencing this very moment. Their Cathlamet, Wa  home was destroyed by fire in the early morning of July 24th. Thankfully, the family was able to escape the flames safely, but the home was utterly destroyed. They are now left to pick up the pieces and try to rebuild their lives.

When terrible things happen, it is our duty to do what we can to lift each other up. Darcy's sister, Tiffany has created a "Go Fund Me" page to benefit Darcy and her family. You can find more information, as well as photos of the home, here.

In order to do my part to help, I will selling art prints from my gallery and donating 100% of the net proceeds to the family until August 1st, 2014. Prints can be ordered on my website and will be shipped directly to your home. This way, you can help a family get back on their feet after a disaster, and have a beautiful piece of art to hang on your wall.

If you would like to order a print to benefit the Tischer/Stornetta family, follow the link below.

http://nicoleyorkphotography.zenfolio.com/artprints

Thank you for doing what you can to help a family in need.

Conceptual Family Portraiture: Neverland

I have done it. SQUEE!
For a long time I've known that I wanted to move away from traditional family portraits and toward something more creative, and more indicative of the spirit of the family that I'm working with.
Don't get me wrong, I love traditional family portraits because they are classic and stand the test of time. But they don't move me. They don't tell a story. There is no magic in them, and all my life I feel as if I've been chasing magic.
I had all kinds of ideas to make this happen, but no families willing to take a risk and step off into Neverland with me.

Until now.

A project like this took quite a bit of planning. I story boarded ideas (I wont embarrass myself with those sketches) and brainstormed with the Mom about what angle to take. At first, we thought that we might have the family play the roles of Peter, Wendy and the lost boys...what could be more perfect for a family with 3 wild little boys? But something didn't sit right.
The whole purpose of portraits like these was to say something about the family and who they are together. If they are playing parts, then they aren't being themselves. It struck me that it would be much better if the family were taken off to Neverland themselves. INSPIRATION struck.
I immediately knew what I wanted to do.

Each photo is a composite of several photos.
The background had to be photographed separately, with the camera on a tripod. Then the family members were photographed in the scene so that I could remove the tools we used in order to make them appear to be flying, such as stools, ladders and a couple of times even Mom and Dad's feet!

The pieces were all composited together in Photoshop, where Tinkerbell and Peter himself made an appearance, and the final product is what you see below.

It sounds awfully technical, right? Let me tell you, we had SO much fun. There was a lot of silliness, a lot of laughing, and quite a bit of jumping around. Mom and Dad told me that their boys had NEVER begged to have their photos taken before. That was quite an accomplishment by itself!

I feel like the results speak for themselves.

I look at these images, and I see a family that loves to be together, that is warm, adventurous, and a bit silly.

What do YOU see? I would love to hear from you, and even more, I would love to take an amazing journey like this with YOUR family. Oh what wonderful worlds we could see!