Over the weekend I was watching Peter Jackson’s wonderful movie, “The Lovely Bones”, and it made me stop and think for a moment about how fragile life can be and the importance of love, family and relationships.

When we go through those difficult patches in our lives, the bumps and rough spots, we discover that the most important things to us, the things that really matter are our families and those we love and treasure more than anything else in life.

For many of us, it’s not just the family we have around us that we turn to, but those who are no longer with us for one reason or another. In addition to my wonderful family here, I’m fortunate to have my parents and brother, even though they’re many miles away in the UK, but we do get to talk on the phone as often as we can.

But what about those of us who are not so fortunate? When I thought about that question for a moment, I realized that one of the amazing things about my work as a professional photographer is the ability to give people a “hug on paper”, a permanent connection to the past and their family, which they can enjoy and draw comfort from for the rest of their lives.

The moments that pass us by every day might not seem significant at the time, perhaps even mundane, but we need to stop and take stock once in a while to understand what we truly have, and how precious those things are to us.

A hug caught today in a child’s photograph or a family portrait really can last a lifetime and may become one of our most prized treasures further down the road. Don’t let another moment pass by without capturing the love and spirit of your family, something you can celebrate for many years to come…

Our lives are a series of important milestones (childhood, graduation, marriage, raising a family) and we value our photographs so much because they capture memories of such happy times. But, it goes much deeper than that – we’re not only holding on to memories, but also what it felt like at the time, the emotions and love that go with those memories.

I believe being a photographer isn’t only about creating photographs – it requires empathy to truly capture those “images inspired by you”. Later, as you admire your portraits, you’ll recall the feelings of love and joy from those precious moments.

It’s tempting to put off having portraits created “until the time is right”, but our daily lives conspire to keep us distracted from the most important things. Our children will only be this age RIGHT NOW; there’s only going to be ONE wedding day; senior year is GONE before you know it; our families are ALWAYS worth celebrating…

Take time to connect with the things that inspire you – call NOW for a friendly chat about how professional portraits can enhance your life and the lives of those you love.

I know it’s still cold out there and it’s only March but, like a lot of people right now, I’m looking forward to summer 2010! Hopefully, spring is just around the corner and we can finally see the back of the frost and the cold!

Here’s a portrait of Amy that we created last summer on vacation in Florida, but could just as easily have been made here in Oakland or Somerville. Spring is coming and we’re ready for it!

On Saturday Feb. 27th 2010, I had the pleasure of attending another wonderful concert by the Wolf River Chamber Orchestra at the First Congregational Church on S. Cooper.  As with all their concerts, I aim to capture a little of the spirit of the occasion, although I know my camera doesn’t do full justice to the talent of both Mr. Langley and the members of the orchestra, all of whom put their hearts and souls into their performance.

The music was so amazing, in fact, that I almost forgot to take photographs at one point because I was so engrossed in the energy of the performance!

I strongly urge anyone who has yet to attend one of these concerts to go to the next one! Mr. Langley is an amazing conductor, and the musicians are all, without any doubt, real professionals at their art. For me, it was most certainly worth the effort of driving from Oakland TN to see it! Perhaps we can persuade them to perform in Somerville TN sometime too.

For more information about the orchestra, you can visit their web site here: http://sites.google.com/site/wolfriverchamberorchestra/

With all the cold weather, rain, snow and ice we’ve had lately, it was a great feeling to be able to get out and about again with the camera for an hour or two (at least before the thunder and rain returned!). This time I wandered from Oakland TN to Somerville TN and back again.

Roaming around with a camera, simply discovering things that catch my eye, is one of my favourite ways to keep my photography fresh. Yesterday, I found some great subjects as diverse as the Grocery Store on highway 194 and graffiti on an abandoned home. Heaven only knows how long that house had been left unoccupied, but it must have been a number of years – it sounded as though the wind itself was about to blow it down!

A rusty drain cover, with some great texture and an old barn also captured my imagination.

This is a great exercise for anyone with an interest in photography – just go out with no particular purpose in mind and allow your inner eye to see the things your “looking” eye might easily miss…

Saturday 13th September 2009 saw the second annual Cotton Pickin 5K run and the first annual cotton candy 1K fun run in Somerville, TN.

As a proud sponsor of the event I had the privilege of photographing the event for Fayette Cares, which is also Merrick Photography’s chosen local charity.

Here is a photograph of the overall winner of the 5K race, which saw almost 300 runners take part this year.

If you ran in the race and would like to see the finished photographs, please go to www.collages.net and login with the username “cotton pickin run 2009″ and password “21925″.