2020…a year of beauty & strength

24 December 2020

Wendy Andrews Photography 2020 Portraits

2020
Thank you for helping me see more beauty, more vulnerability, more strength.
Authentic, honest & real.

Headshot clients, Personal Branding, High School Seniors, Families, Mothers & Daughters, My 506070(80)+ project & Boudoir clients…thank you for trusting me to hold up a mirror and allow me to reflect your beautiful person back to you.

This crazy year.
Lives well-lived, yet gone too soon, the photographs remain. Sue, Julie & Lori. Honored to have photographed your strength as part of Amazing Strength-an after cancer experience. The exhibit was on display earlier in 2020.

Also in 2020, a published image, that will always bring me back to the photo session on a paddle board in the lake on her 50th birthday…because age is just a number.

Two of my portraits were on exhibit at the Warehouse Gallery. The joy in her smile makes everyone step back & exhale. I look at the next image and am immediately transported back to the river on that unusually mild October afternoon. I can feel the sting of the bug bites as I tried to hold my camera steady.

Time is an odd thing, especially in 2020.
Facebook memories shows me images of families with babies, our photo session from a few years ago, now they’re walking and talking with their own personalities! Those portraits have the ability to freeze time & make that moment available to return to.

Perhaps my senses are more acute this year.
I’ve watched a grandmother cry; a grandfather’s tears well up in his eyes at a maternity session as I showed him an image on the back of my camera…his first grandchild about to be born; a woman who stared at her portraits without words, gasping at the confidence she saw; the dad with tears streaming down his face as he unwrapped an enlargement for over his fireplace knowing his kids (young adults) will always be there; the high school senior starting to recognize their potential…

My own tears fell as I attended/drove-through three funerals this year. The lump in my throat as I saw at each one, a familiar face & expression that took a little coaching to get to, staring back at those who gathered. I’m honored my portraits are important enough to be displayed to honor each person, friend, wife & mother.

Thank you to those I’ve had the honor to photograph this year. Thanks for reaching out for your updated social media images, your dating app images, to preserve your family memories, to stop time as your high school senior prepares to launch into the world and for entrepreneurs as you launched your new businesses!

Thank you to those who have allowed me to create this year. To create art for the walls of your home & to give as gifts.

“A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it”
-EdwardSteichen 2020.

Thank you for helping me see more beauty, more vulnerability, more strength.
Authentic, honest & real.2021…I’m ready!

Never alone

24 December 2016

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For beautiful eyes,
look for the good in others;

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For beautiful lips,
Speak only words of kindness;

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And for poise,
walk with the knowledge
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that you are never alone.
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-Audrey Hepburn

A beautiful, young couple. In love and waiting for the arrival of their first child.
It was an honor to get to know them during their Maternity Portrait session.
They enjoy the outdoors and nature and were hoping to have their portraits
in the woods.

We were fortunate with a peek of sunshine on the day, it made the below freezing temperatures seem warmer, at least.

At their Image Reveal last night, they were excited to see the photographs
and relieved they didn’t look as cold in the images as we were while taking the photos.

Memories preserved for a life-time. She will never be eight months pregnant
with her first child again, except in her Maternity Portraits.

We all deserve to feel beautiful-

18 July 2016

2 Comments

During her photo experience, she was a natural beauty in the street clothes she had selected just for her photo shoot. She changed into her softball uniform and swung her bat like a pro. Each pose and expression easily achieved with her electrifying smiles, her eyes sparkling, her personality bubbling.

Toward the end, we left her mom and grandmother at a picnic table in the shade as we went back into the woods. She gave me more expression, energy & if it were even possible, more enthusiasm. We laughed a lot.

When she thought our session was about to wrap up, I pulled out her flower crown. (During our consultation and wardrobe follow-up messages, I found out her favorite colors & then I hand-made a crown to compliment her personality). It’s sometimes a gamble–a flower crown and a tulle skirt by surprise.

This client had given me her trust and allowed me to place the crown on her head, and just went for it. She transformed from the girl in street clothes, to the athlete ready to play ball to a princess in the woods.

During her photo reveal where she saw her slide show and images for the first time, I know she felt special. She felt seen. She got a chance to see herself the way the world sees her. Full of life. Beautiful.

Masterpiece of Nature

2 April 2016

©WAVphoto
You deserve to become
a work of Art
because you are
a Masterpiece
of Nature.
-Leedina

Women who trust me

27 January 2016

2 Comments

A strong woman is one who feels deeply & loves fiercely.

Her tears flow just as abundantly as her laughter.

A strong woman is both soft & powerful.

She is both practical & spiritual.

A strong woman in her essence is a gift to the world.

-unknown

I see strength & beauty.

I’m grateful for a woman’s trust on the other side of my camera and wonder how she interprets my gestures when I see THE shot. Often I wipe a tear from my eye when things line up and I have the photograph to show her how beautiful she is to the world.

I see a woman’s strength, not in skinny, perfect make-up or designer clothes. I see strength in her journey up to the moment I press my shutter. I see her beauty shine when the wind messes her hair, laughing with her girlfriend, on a mountain, in the woods.

She’s the woman I love to photograph, her stories, pain, resolve, laugh lines and
all the reasons she is who she is today.

That is real. She is a beautiful woman.

She will exist in my photographs for all time.

be you

19 November 2015

4 Comments

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“One thing I know for sure is that life goes better when you’re ‘you’.
-Oprah
Continue reading →

The journey

25 October 2015

Maybe
the journey
isn’t so much about
becoming anything.

Maybe
it’s unbecoming everything
that isn’t you
so you can
be
who you were meant to be
in the first place.

I found this quote on #jfindsyoga/sexyfoodtherapy.com on Instagram.
Thought it worked well for this photograph I took during a yoga retreat. The retreat was filled with incredible moments: women bonding, laughing, supporting. Nourishing food and wine, Forrest bathing, meditation, aromatherapy, singing bowls, bowing practice, hikes in the woods and on the beach, perfect weather, yoga and beautiful souls.

More photographs to follow.

Namaste.

Beautiful women

20 September 2015

2 Comments

A strong woman is one who feels deeply & loves fiercely. Her tears flow just as abundantly as her laughter. A strong woman is both soft & powerful. She is both practical & spiritual. A strong woman in her essence is a gift to the world. -unknown author

I’m always grateful for a woman’s trust when she’s on the other side of my camera. While I attempt to make her feel relaxed & beautiful, I wonder how she interprets my gestures, especially when I see THE shot. (I’ve been told) I sometimes make sounds – like an audible smile noise, sometimes just “yesyesyes”, quite often a tear forms in my eye when everything lines up & I hope the photograph looks something like my vision!

I see a woman’s strength. Its not in the form of skinny, in perfect makeup, in designer clothes. I see strength in what she’s been through on her journey up to when I press the shutter. I see her beauty shine when the wind messes her hair, when she laughs with her girlfriend, when her feet are bare, in the earth, on a mountain, splashing in the shallow water of a chilly lake.

She’s the woman I love to photograph. With her stories, with her pain, with her resolve & her laugh lines and all the reasons she is who she is today. That is real. That is a beautiful woman.