People We Love: Mika Beth Edwards
Every once in a while, you cross paths with someone and just… fall in love. Maybe not love love, but you become life-long friends, mutual admirers and encouragers. They inspire you, continuing to do so the longer and better you get to know them. Their work just fascinates you, impresses you, awes you every time. We’re in love with a photographer (several, actually), and her name is Mika Beth Edwards.
We are always in need of photographs around here; primarily, we use them as samples for our photo cards, but they also inspire us through color, pattern, setting, occasions and subjects. We love looking at the photographs that customers send in with their orders, especially of the little kids and families. Last November, we knew we would need photographs to use with the new designs for 2009. Instead of using pictures of our friends and family, as we have in years past, we called upon our blog readers to submit pictures. There were a few stipulations (submitters had to hold the rights to the photograph and allow us to reproduce any selected pictures, the photos had to meet quality criteria, and had to be appropriate), but anyone whose pictures were selected won a gift certificate for our photo cards. Pretty cool, right? Lots of people submitted pictures, and we used as many as we could. This is where Mika Beth comes in to our lives. She sent us the following pictures:
How could we not fall in love with the vibrant, rich colors, the clarity, and the patterns? Simply beautiful!! We had to know more, see more, so we visited Mika Beth’s website, which consists of galleries of her photographs (divided into portrait and senior categories), Bebe and Beau (a boutique with which she is affiliated), and her blog (where she showcases recent photo shoots). The business is run by Mika Beth and her husband (she takes the pictures, and he does the books), and her passion for her vocation and subjects shines through. We asked her for more pictures, to use or inspire us or simply to look at, and she sent us TONS! Here’s a sampling of her work:
These family pictures are wonderful for framing on the wall, preserving in an album or scrapbook or sending out to family and friends on a photo card.
These portraits are all amazing! Some of them are senior pictures, capturing youthfulness on the verge of adulthood, while others are pictures of children in all their beauty. Her attention to detail–blades of grass or leaves in the background, a twinkle in an eye–is stunning, and the colors perfectly accentuate the subjects. And the subjects’ emotions–playfulness, independence, innocence, love, peace, joy, strength–all shine through. Simply wonderful work!
Oh, the babies. Mika Beth seems to have a true passion for photographing toddlers, babies, infants, and newborns (especially fresh from the hospital newborns). She captures their innocence and beauty, their personalities (because those are already starting to come through), their sweetness and serenity. They are all so beautiful, and her lens does them justice. Mika Beth, these babies make us smile.
So, why have we introduced you readers to Mika Beth? First, she is a talented photographer whose works should be enjoyed by many and not kept hidden away. Anyone near Arkansas should give her (or her husband) a call to set up something. Second, to show the value and power of photography at capturing and preserving moments. Whether you hire a professional or not, take some family pictures; you will want them down the road. Third, to show how photographs, people or events in life (births, birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc) can provide inspiration. Is a loved one graduating soon? Getting married? Having a baby? Turning four? Are you stumped on how to celebrate these events? Over the next week or two, we’ll take a couple of these pictures and use them as inspiration pieces for choosing stationery and invitations. So please, come back next week for more.
