We want to get to know you....so we thought we'd start by telling you some random facts about us...If you are reading our blog, feel free to leave us some random facts about yourself in the comment section. We'd love to hear from all of you!
HOW WE MET
Chuck and Beverly met in 1980 when we both worked at a bank in downtown Atlanta. There are 13 years difference in our ages, but it's never been an issue and we are as crazy about each other today as we were the day we married. Between us, we have four children...Doug, 40; Carla 39; Chris 21 and Katherine 17. Chris and Katherine are ours together.
CHUCK
Chuck served several years in the Vietnam War. He was there in the late 60's and was with the 821st Combat Security Police. That's actually where he got his first start in photography. He documented his time there and maintained his sanity through taking photographs.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Chuck is originally from Ohio but moved to Atlanta to attend the Art Institute for Photography. He later opened his own photography studio in Lawrenceville, GA and had it for many years. His photography has won several awards. He has photographed hundreds of weddings during his photography career.
Chuck was made an offer to sell his photography studio and did so, beginning a new career in Bank Security where he was Director of Security for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta for 14 years. He now works full time for Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo) as a Regional Security Coordinator (which means he works internal investigations and bank robberies).
SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT US
During the 1996 Olympics, Chuck and Beverly formed a partnership with THE VARSITY Downtown for the purpose of trading Olympic Pins. The Varsity Car Hop Area was torn down and we constructed a giant 10,000 sq ft tent and rented it out to vendors from all over the world for the purpose of trading Olympic Pins. Christopher (only 7 years old at the time) designed a trading pin for The Varsity which we had manufactured and sold at The Varsity. The Pin became knows as "The Varsity Onion Ring Pin) and was an instant hit. However, the Atlanta Olympic Committee decided that the pin (a drawing by Chris of the Varsity Onion Rings in the shape of Olympic Rings) was too close to a trademark infringement on the Olympic Rings and they confiscated the pin. This caused quite an uproar within the Atlanta Community. Local News Affiliates broke the story of the pin on all the Atlanta new stations. Eventually, the story of the pin was featured on the Evening News with Tom Brokaw and was talked about on national TV by Katie Couric was mentioned on Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio program and appeared on the front cover of the Wall Street Journal, Europe. Here's a website where you can view the original pin plus knock-offs manufactured by others
Varsity Onion Ring Pin (scroll down the page to see the pin). Here's an article that appeared in the local
Atlanta Business Chronicle.
BEVERLY
Beverly grew up in the Atlanta area, attending school in DeKalb County and at Georgia State University. Her initial interests were in the Music Industry, and she worked for a local radio station, was a buyer for a chain of record stores and attended Georgia State University in the Commercial Music Program.
She was later hired by Bank South, where was employed for nearly 10 years. It was during this time that she met and married Chuck. When Chris was born, Beverly chose to become a stay-at-home mom and began a Painted Clothing Business called "Christopher Originals". She stayed at home with Christopher during the day, painted at night, and on weekends traveled the SE participating in juried Art Shows.
Beverly's career changed again in 2000, when she was hired by Scholastic Book Fairs and became their Business Development Manager for the SE. This was primarily a sales and marketing role in which she was able to build a department from the ground up, through creating marketing and promotions to schools throughout the Southeast.
WHAT BROUGHT US HERE....
When the economy took a downturn in late 2008, Beverly was laid off from Scholastic. It was a devastating time in our lives. Shortly after the layoff, her father was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and died this past summer, only 8 weeks after having fallen ill. Being unemployed afforded her the time to be with her Dad during his illness (something that would have been impossible had she been working full time). It was also during this time that Chuck suggested that we revamp the photography business. We jumped back into the photography business, giving it everything we have and since this summer, have focused every minute of our spare time to building this business.
WHAT A BLESSING THIS HAS BEEN
The photography business has been such a blessing to us. We have met the most amazing and wonderful people. We genuinely love photographing people and capturing their special moments.
INFANTS AND CHILDREN
We are often asked what age group we enjoy photographing the most....truly, we love them all. Each age group is so different, yet so special. The infants and children are so amazing. Photographing them is truly like seeing God's work right before your eyes. They are so sweet and so innocent...we love to photograph little ones....they grow up so quickly and before you know it, that little baby is starting high school.
HIGH SCHOL SENIORS
Getting to know and photograph our teenagers and High School Seniors has been fabulous. We have met some of the most awesome teens and have gotten to be good friends with many of them. This world is still full of plenty of fantastic, amazing teenagers! Facebook has been such a catalyst in helping us develop our High School Senior business. We LOVE our seniors and want to continue to follow their lives for years to come.
FAMILIES
Photographing families has always been special.....people's lives are so hectic these days...it seems like families just don't take the time to have a family portrait done, like they did in years past. However, We are starting to see many families who are trying to make time for a family portrait. Mom's are realizing that with the blink of an eye, their children will be grown and gone and they are reaching out to us to have a family portrait before it's too late. We love photographing families and capturing the love they have for each other.
WEDDINGS
Brides and Weddings have to be the most amazing and most romantic times of all. It is always such an honor to be asked to by a bride to photograph her wedding. The excitement, the romance, the commitment and love that a bride and groom share is like nothing else. It's one of the most joyous times in a couples life and we absolutely adore our Brides and love photographing their weddings.
WHEN ILLNESS STRIKES
Another aspect of our photography that we love is photographing large family groups. Families today are larger than ever before. Families are spread out and they are not often all together at one time. We also meet families every day who have just found out that a love one is terminally ill. Families are reaching out to us more and more asking for a large group photo session in order to preserve the memories of having all of the family together. These are special times for these families and for us as well.
That's a little bit about Chuck and Beverly. We'll tell you more about the rest of our family in a future blog. In the meantime, please leave us a comment. Feel free to comment on our blog....or tell us about yourself....if we have photographed you, please say hello and know that we appreciate and value you as a customer. If you've thought about having us do your portraits, just know that we'd be honored to do so. We thank God for each of you whom He has brought into our lives.
Beverly and Chuck
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