fox&wagon photography

Matthew & Erin Wetzel – Maternity Portraits in Tacoma, Washington

Stacy — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:40:59 +0000

I owe you a blog post. Heck! I owe you 4 blog posts! Well, I can give you one for now. So let me start with Matthew & Erin Wetzel – two of my best friends. I shot their wedding in 2008, their maternity portraits in 2010 and we just recently did a newborn session with baby Phoebe Isobel. That tells you how long it’s been since I’ve shot this session! Yeek! Needless to say they have a photographer for their family for life.

I met Matt and Erin at their home in Tacoma before we set out. They wanted an urban engagement-style maternity session so we headed down to Thea Foss Waterway and Museum of Glass. We caught the last minutes of daylight in early December. I have to say, for my first maternity session these came out pretty good!

love!

It’s no doubt these two love each other very much. I am SO happy for them and I just know they’re going to be amazing and loving parents. <3

Oh! And you should probably follow Erin’s blog. She’s got some great stuff on there about farm fresh food, crafts, healthy homes and the baby!

The Lazios – Family Portraits

Stacy — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:52:57 +0000

Wow! I’ve been so busy lately! Now that’s not meant to say, “Ha, I’ve got a lot more going on in my life than you.” What I mean by that is that I owe you guys a blog post and I just haven’t been able to get to it. Until now. Yay!

So in all my busy-ness I’ve had four photo sessions and I volunteered to take photos of Santa Claus for the Better Business Bureau in Dupont. My camera has never worked that hard in just a month’s time! Phew! As much fun as I’ve had, I can’t wait until this year is over. I think then, hopefully things will die down… for a little bit.

Let me start out with saying… Boys are so much fun! The Lazio family participated in my discounted photo session back in November. Tiffany brought her husband, Don, and two sons Brendan and Logan to the Point Defiance Park. Those boys are hilarious!

The rain held back for a bit while we walked around the pagoda, the duck pond and the train tracks. Thanks guys for showing me that great photo location!

I’m going to try something with every family I photograph. If they’re up for it, I want to let someone in the family be the professional photographer.

I handed my camera over to Brendan for this next one.

And Logan took these next two!

Love this Logan. Love it.

And my absolute favorite from my session that day.

Thanks again, Lazio family! I’m one family closer to my goal.

What’s in a name?

Stacy — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:16:29 +0000

Well, I think everything is in a name. A name gives personality, character, meaning to most anything. And spelling someone’s name correctly means so much.

I am very happy with the name I was given. Some of you know the story behind my name. Like most people, my name wasn’t the first that was chosen.

So, I’m adopted. My biological mother, if she kept me, was going to name me after her sister: Cynthia. I tell that to a lot of people and they take a step back, look at me and say, “No, you’re not a Cynthia.” Sorry, Aunt Cindy!

When I was handed over to my parents, Chuck and Peggy, they were tossing around potential names. Beulah (pronounced Bew-lah) was a joke for awhile. Ha. Ha. Then they thought, “How about Red?” Yes, Dad, Red Wagoner is PERFECT. Mind you, my dad’s name is Chuck. Chuck Wagoner. Chuck Wagon.

Finally they got serious. My dad wanted to name me Stacy and my mom was hoping for Sarah. Obviously, Dad won. [Side note: my biological family found me this year and I find out that I have two half-sisters and a half-brother. One sister named Sarah and the other named Sara. How weird would it have been if my mom got her way? My brother, Kylan, would introduce us, "These are my sisters, Sara(h)."]

The point I am trying to make is that it is important to someone if you spell their name correctly. Especially if they have a business. My name is Stacy Wagoner. I own Stacy Wagoner Photography. I hope that people, when making reference to my company or telling their friends about me would spell it correctly. I won’t get any business if people are looking for Stacey Wagoner Photography!

I keep making reference to Sheri Baldwin of Sheri Baldwin Photography. She has this problem too. People often spell her name with two “r”s. We joke about how people spell our names incorrectly. When we read our misspelled name, she reads her name “Sherrrrrrrrrri” and I read mine as “Staceeeeeeeeey.” It’s silly, but we’ve come to the realization that no one, even if our names are right in front of their faces, will spell our names right. But I hope by reading this, you will remember how to spell S-T-A-C-Y. (o_0)

I own stacywagoner.com… I suppose I could buy the rights to staceywagoner.com, but that would defeat the purpose.

Taira & Ethan – Child and Family Portraits

Stacy — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:23:29 +0000

Last August, my best friend proposed to me at the baggage claim at Sea Tac Airport. Without hesitation I said yes. Then he and I thought about it… How are we going to pay for it? He works full time at a wonderful company based out of the Northwest, but I haven’t had a full time job since 2008.

I was inspired by the couple from Spokane, Wash. that raised nearly $4000 collecting soda cans to pay for their wedding. Well, I stopped drinking soda 5 years ago, and my fiancee can’t drink a can of soda every 40 seconds (that’s what they estimate it took to collect all the cans). I decided to do the next best thing. Something that I’m good at (I’m not good at drinking soda). I am offering discounted portrait sessions and all money received will benefit the cost of my wedding dress. My future wedding photographer and really good friend Sheri Baldwin said she “can’t photograph [me] in a cheapo wedding dress” and I don’t want her to!

The first family to help and contribute to the dress fund and take advantage of my discounted sessions was the beautiful Taira and her super cute son Ethan. We were so blessed to have such a beautiful October day at Wright Park in Tacoma. It was sunny, warm and dry! Ethan was such a ham and so good. Oh but he was such a boy too! He would see acorns underneath the trees, pick them up and put them in his pocket. He did it again and again. Taira and I were afraid his pants were going to fall down with all acorns he stuffed in his pockets!

This shoot has got to be one of my favorites. Don’t tell Ethan, but he’s freakin’ adorable! Take a look at our fun fall portrait session.

I couldn’t decide if I liked the color or the b&w version better. Which do you like?

Thank you so much, Taira and Ethan!

Avery & Riley – Children Portraits

Stacy — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 00:05:59 +0000

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet the Farr family in September. Mom, Kimberly, had contacted me and asked if I would do a photo session with her family and most importantly her two girls, Avery and Riley. How could I say no?! I didn’t! Haha! So I met Kimberly and Daniel, Dad, and their daughters Avery and Riley down at the Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Wash. on a beautiful afternoon. What an amazing day it was! The sun was perfect, there weren’t that many people and we got so many great shots!

Avery is 5-years-old and is definitely a girlie-girl. She had no problem posing, twirling and smiling. Riley is 2-years-old. Kimberly said she’s the tomboy of the two. And she was! She was always running away and wouldn’t sit still. She was hilarious! We got her to relax for a few shots including this amazing family portrait!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this next series with Riley and Daniel.

I am so glad I bought balloons for the girls. Not only did I get some of my favorite shots, but they loved them!

I can’t wait to do another photo session with the Farr family again!

Send me an e-mail to book a fall photo session before the rain comes!

Kristen – Teen & Model portraits

Stacy — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:47:07 +0000

I’m so excited to post these pictures even though I’m not finished editing them. I have another session waiting for me to edit, but — as you can see below — I got distracted by editing Kristen’s teen & model portraits.

Kristen is another girl that I work with. Beautiful inside and out. She is always so grateful and smiles all the time. For these pictures, it was hard to get her to not smile! (I didn’t want her to smile for a few because it was the look I was going for.) Once I edit the rest if them you can see her beautiful smiling face, but for now be happy with these!

I love this one; her hair, her skin, the colors turned out wonderful!

But for fun, I wanted to change up the color:

Don’t forget to come back to see the rest!

Keyontae – Senior/Teen portrait

Stacy — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:37:40 +0000

Keyontae and I have been trying to get together for a photo session since we started working together on the newspaper. So one mid-morning last week we met up in Lakewood and I took her over to the Fort Steilacoom Park. Holy cow! I had no idea that place was so big! We didn’t have as much time as I had hoped, but I was able to snap off a few great shots of this beautiful 18-year-old.

Technically she’s not a senior anymore, but she’s at the right age for one!

One thing I did to these photos that I haven’t done in the past is use a “sharpening” action to the shots before I post them on the web. I don’t know why I hadn’t figured that out before! Unfortunately photo quality seriously fails on the internet which is why sharpening up photos before posting is always a great idea.

Thanks to Totally Rad Actions for their free samples, I was able to use “Slice Like A Ninja” sharpen action to fix up these photos. I also used “Boutwell Magic Glasses” to give the photos more life. If I had the money, I would totally spend it on the TRA1 – The Original Totally Rad Action Mix… or TRA2 The Revenge… or the Totally Rad! Dirty Pictures… Oh I can’t decide!

Roxy – teen/model portraits

Stacy — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 23:01:23 +0000

I was so excited to edit these photos that I got them all done in record time! Yay!
I can’t say this enough, Roxy was so much fun to work with. We’re already planning another shoot this summer. We’re going to emphasize an urban/city feel or a country feel. Kind of depending on our moods… hehe!

So here is what you all have been waiting for…

And as expected from a 15-year-old… haha… <3

Roxy- sneak peek!

Stacy — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:59:51 +0000

I love teens! I had the wonderful and exciting opportunity to photograph Roxy the other day. She is my parents’ goddaughter and she’s absolutely gorgeous. Roxy is 15-years-old and already has so much talent as an artist. Her mother is an artist so I see where she gets it! (See her mom’s website here.)
So I drove to Sammamish to hang out with Roxy, her mom and her brother. I’d like to thank Roxy’s brother for being a great assistant and holding my reflector. He has tremendous patience for us girls!
I’m not yet finished editing the photos, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peek!

It was so much fun working with Roxy and I can’t wait to get more teen clients!

Get my learnin’ on

Stacy — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:46:31 +0000

So I’ve noticed a lot of photographers have referral or reward or representitive programs to help them get more business via word of mouth.

You refer your friends or family to me to get a photo session or to do their wedding and you get rewards! The more you refer, the more rewards or discounts you get. Now I haven’t figured out the numbers yet so I’m going to do some research and you will be the first to know.

Do you have any ideas? Post a comment and let me know! Any advice is appreciated.

Time to ask around to see how others photographers work it!