Hey everyone!  I am leaving tomorrow for a stem cell transplant to hopefully cure me of Hodgkins Lymphoma.  Due to this, I am not able to hold my usual Senior Rep/Model program this Spring.  As a small replacement, I am running a senior contest.  This contest is inspired by the heart of my business.  I strive to really get to know my clients and develop a session that is unique to each client.  So, I want to get to know you!!  Here are the details you need to know in order to enter.

1.  Student must be a 2011 or 2012 graduate.

2.  I will take up to two students from the following schools:  Kouts, Morgan Township, Washington Township, Hebron, Boone Grove, Valparaiso, Wheeler, Kankakee Valley, Chesterton, Merrillville, Andrean, Lake Central, Highland, Crown Point, Hanover Central, Hobart, Westville, Portage, South Central, North Judson, Knox, Lowell, Munster.

3.  The number of prizes depends on how many schools are represented.  I will only hold the contest if at least 10 schools are represented.  Then, there will be one grand prize. If 15 school are represented, there will be one grand prize and one second place prize.  If all 23 schools are represented, there will be one grand prize, one second place prize, and one third place prize.  So – spread the news!  Tell your friends from other schools!!

4.  What do you have to do?  Take a photograph or have someone else take a photo of you holding up a sign of your favorite quote.  Please email the photo to me at holla@samanthauphold.com.  Please include your name, phone #, school, year of graduation, your quote, and tell me three things about yourself.  I will pick up to two students from each school.  The photo does not have to be anything fancy.  Feel free to be as simple or as creative as you want.

5.  I will accept photos until May 5th, 2011.  After May 5th, I will select the photos (again, up to two from each school).  The winners will then be determined by a vote.

6.   The grand prize will be a custom designed photo session and all of the digital images from the session (at least 35).  This is the cd of the edited, high resolution photographs with reprinting rights.  This is a $2500 value!  You will have the reproduction rights to your senior photographs, forever!  You can print them as much as you like, make cool products with them like, open house invites, phone covers, wall art, jewelry, etc!   If 15 schools are represented in the contest, the second place winner will receive a custom designed photo session and 10 digital images.  This is the same cd, but with 10 images of my choice.  This is a $1025 value.  If all the schools are represented, the third place winner will recieve a custom designed photo session with 3 digital images.  This is a $475 value.  This contest is a HUGE GIVEAWAY!  Don’t miss out on this!

7.  The prizes are non transferable.  I reserve the right to cancel the contest at any time, for any reason.  The session will be held at a mutually determined location and date.  This will not be until June, 2011 but possibly after.

Here is an example of the photograph I took yesterday, with the help of my niece, Alaina.  You do NOT have to submit two photos.  I just really liked the full photo, but you couldn’t read the sign, so I posted two.

Obviously, this photo has a lot to do with my journey through cancer.  Here are the 3 things about me.

1. I once had lunch with Billy Corgan, the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins.

2. I love pickles, but never eat the butt end. Yes, there is a butt end.

3. I once peed my pants in the bookmobile (in the name of friendship).

Click the following link to “Like” my Samantha Uphold Photography Facebook page to be notified of the latest news and contests.

I can’t wait to see all of your submissions!

It’s been pretty quiet around here.  I hope to be fully recovered and back in the swing of things by June or July.  If you are interested in a session then, please email me at holla@samanthauphold.com to be put on the waiting list for when my business fully re-opens!

I had a little break from treatment, and happened to feel wonderful.  I took it as the perfect opportunity to squeeze in a session with this chunk-a-licious baby boy!  Is he not the cutest little guy you have ever laid eyes on?!?!?!

Before I announce the winners, I would like to take a moment to thank all of my 2010 clients – sincerely, from the very bottom of my heart, for your business this past year.  As I was going through the images for the contest, I realized that I held my first portrait session after I started chemotherapy treatment.  Which then led me to realize, I held ALL of my sessions this year while I was being treated for this horrible disease.  I’m incredibly lucky to get to live out my passions through my daily work.  Many of you know how hard it was for me not to be able to teach this past year.  However, each and every one of YOU allowed me to keep doing something I truly love, in spite of the difficulties I was facing with my health.  Many of you have become friends and cheerleaders through this time in my life, and I am grateful for each and every one of you.  People always comment on how positive I have been able to stay throughout this crazy, horrible mess called cancer.  Please know, that you all made that positivity something that was much easier for me to feel and live each day.  THANK YOU for choosing me to capture your families.  THANK YOU for being patient with me through this time.  THANK YOU for your care, concern, prayers, offers of help, hugs, and well wishes.  THANK YOU for allowing me to continue to have this part of my life.  This was a huge part of what kept me going, and for that I could never thank you all enough.  I hope you can feel all the warm fuzzies I have thinking about you all.    You guys are incredibly special to me, and have blessed my life more than you know.

Now onto the winners!! It was a mighty close race down to the very end last night.

The grand prize winner of the complimentary session and a 16×20 canvas ($775 value) is the Klepsch Family!!  Congrats you guys!  I can’t wait to see you again this year!

The second place winner of the complimentary session ($225 value), is the Dovellos Family!  I already know what session Mom is thinking of for the coming year, and Aleka – wouldn’t TODAY be just perfect for it???  Well, if the snow stopped blowing, it would be perfect.  We don’t need another windy session, do we? 

And, the third place winner of a $100 print credit, is the Palm Family!  Mom is currently serving with a ministry in Uganda at this very moment.  All prayers for her and those precious orphans she is loving on right now would be much appreciated!  If you wish to follow her journey over there, you can find her blog, here.  I am mighty excited to see if there may be a new addition to their amazing family when it comes time for our next session.

The winner of the free session *just* from leaving a comment is  Emily Guzek!!  That winner was picked by random. org  She left the winning comment number.

Thank you all for your votes and comments!

Here we are again, folks!  The Image of The Year Contest 2010 has begun.    THANK YOU to all of my 2010 clients.  It was an honor to capture you and your families.  Thank you for stopping by to vote.  Make sure you “like” Samantha Uphold Photography on facebook to find out about specials and keep up with the latest news!

Click here to be taken to the facebook page.

Please vote for your favorite photo at the very end of this post.  The winning client will get a complimentary session and a 16×20 canvas ($775 value).  The 2nd place winner will receive a complimentary session ($225 value), and the 3rd place winner will receive a $100 print credit.  Encourage all of your friends and family to vote AND to leave a comment at the bottom of this post.  After the contest is over, I will enter every person who leaves a comment into a drawing.   One person will win a complimentary session!!    Everyone can vote once (votes are monitored by IP address), and the contest ends on February 1st, 2011 at 11:59 pm.

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Anytime I get a chance to photograph twins, I am in heaven.  I had SO much fun with you guys.  Thanks for being so adventurous! 

If you have been following this blog for anytime, you are quite familiar with this beautiful family.  I’ve been photographing them for a few years now, and I simply adore them.  At the beginning of this session, the girls came bursting out of the truck with coloring pages for me, accompanied by lots of hugs and smiles.  It really doesn’t get much better than that.  It has taken me a few days to get around to writing this blog post, because there is so much that I want to say.  There is so much on my heart right now, and while I normally don’t post too many personal posts on this blog – I feel the need to get it out.  It’s been a challenge to figure out how to express just what I’m feeling right now, and what exactly it has to do with these photographs.  But, it’s all jumbled up inside me, and I’m going to try to put it out into words.  Bear with me, as this may be a little ramble-y.

I have been wanting aching to do a session with a family on a bed in a field for quite some time.  It is not a new idea.  I have seen many other photographers do this, and I’ve always thought it was just perfect.  I had to find the right bed frame (which turned out to be just a $5 headboard from an antique store).  I had to find the right family (I knew Lovelyn‘s would be up for this!).  Then, I had to find the right space (a field I had permission to shoot in with the right low hanging branches to hang paper lanterns).  Once I had all of this into place, it was just a matter of getting everything set up and in place.  Who knew that day my husband, who hadn’t had overtime for months, would be working.  To say I freaked out a little bit would be completely accurate.  I was frantic that I wasn’t going to be able to get this all set up on my own.  Good thing we have a truck, and I’m not too much of a weakling.  Oh, and did I mention this was the day before chemo treatment #12 of 12.  Yeah, I was tired, stressed, but also so. incredibly. determined. that nothing was going to stop this session from going off without a hitch.  I made this happen, one of my dream shoots – while having cancer and going through chemo. And, for that, I can say I am pretty proud. The results just thrill me over and over again each time I look at these images.  But, for me, it is so much more than the light, exposure, even the setting of these photos.  There is SO MUCH in these photographs that bring me to tears these days each time I look at them.

For those of you that don’t know me or follow my updates on facebook or my personal blog, I am currently waiting to find out if I still have cancer.  I will most likely know on Dec. 8th.  The past few weeks have been trying.  I haven’t been able to work at school through my treatments (I am a 5th grade teacher).  Luckily, I’ve had photography to give me something to keep me going physically and mentally.  It’s been one thing that the cancer hasn’t been able to take away from me through all of this.  I am so thankful for it.  I tried to post this blog on Tuesday morning, but I couldn’t get through this part without dissolving into tears.  I’m not exactly succeeding right now, either.  Tuesday was one of the hardest days I have ever faced.  Yes, battling cancer has been tough.  It isn’t nearly as hard as it was to come to grips with what Tuesday brought. On Tuesday, I drove to Indy with my mom to visit my Godmother, Robin.  Robin was recently diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable pancreatic cancer.  I had been down to visit her once since her diagnosis, and she had just one chemo treatment under her belt.  We laid in bed and talked a lot that day.  I will forever cherish that day.  The love and connection I have with this woman is more than I can express in a blog post.  She is like a second mother to me.  She has always been such a bright, warm, welcoming, loving, perfectly wonderful piece of my life.  I’m not sure how much is appropriate to share in this post, but I will just say that the reality of her situation was drastically set into focus on this visit.  I had started to come to terms with the severity of this all, but the first few moments of our visit hit me like a ton of bricks.  I realized, really realized, that cancer may permanently take her from us.  And, we TALKED about it.  I don’t know how to wrap my head around that.  I again, laid with her in bed, holding her hand, the both of us bawling, affirming our love for one another.  We were both desperate for the other to really, truly feel and understand how much we meant to one another.  What a wonderful blessing to have that moment, yet what a horrible feeling at the same time.  It is so strange to me to have those two feelings and so many others together all at the same time.  Thankfulness, love, fear, sadness, anger, hope…..all hanging out in the same place.  It is a challenge trying to understand how to manage them all.  To say this has been hard for me is an understatement.  To say this has been hard on her is not even starting to describe what she has been through.

Today is her 60th birthday.  I love her with all of my heart and then some.  I could never tell her enough how much she means to me. Happy Birthday to my most special Godmother.  Love you bunches and bunches, forever and ever.

So, what in the heck does this have to do with these photos?  These photos give me something to smile about.  These photos give me hope.  These photos give me something that defies cancer, that defies the crappy parts of life.  These days I am clinging so tightly to anything that brings that into my life.  In these photos, there are so many of those things……like…………

these 5 faces

the love between twins

(My Mom is a fraternal twin, Robin is an identical twin. and I have twin brothers.)

the joy in simple moments

that I got to witness little guy is showing us “the wheels on the bus” and the robot. 

those two expressions – aykm?  :swoon:

childish wonderment residing with the sweetest heart

baby cheeks and smiles

joy in simply being with the ones you love

snuggling on a bed with the ones closest to your heart

This photograph means the most to me….I see so much in it.

I see how different emotions, that don’t normally seem to go together can reside side by side.

I see the eyes of a mother loving on her children and dreaming of the future.

I see SO MUCH LOVE.

I see that empty space on the bed where there is always room for more.

Thank you for being a part of my life.  Thank you for letting me share in your beautiful journey.  I love you all, and please know how much you do for my heart every time I get to see you!

Sweet, studly, athletic AND plays the guitar?  What a guy!! 

I love it when a family can so easily just “be” in front of my camera.  I love capturing them playing and laughing together.

Thank you for letting me capture these moments for you and for being so FUN! 

One of my favorite families + downtown Chicago + 60 some degrees in November + fantastic outfits (do you SEE the little one in Matilda Jane and Ugg boots?  Eeee!!!)  = pure bliss for me (and probably the biggest sneak peek ever).  I love capturing moments for your family!!!  Thank you, Bennetts.  Thank you! 

AYKM?  I just fell in love with this new kiddo clothing line.  Seriously.  It’s bananas (oh, how I miss my Rachel Zoe! :’( ).  Wee People