Friday March 26th is National Epilepsy Awareness Day, also known as Purple Day. Lavender is the color for Epilepsy Awareness! In honor of Purple Day, on March 26th and 27th we will be offering a limited number of special 1/2 hour sessions for $50 (regularly $75). Also, place your order from this session within 2 weeks and you will receive 10% off your order. The entire $50 session fee will be given to The Epilepsy Foundation of Central Ohio (EFCO).

To schedule a portrait session with Squier Photography on either Friday March 26th or Saturday March 27th, please call 614-798-0189. The number of sessions we can do per day is limited, so please call soon for the best choice of times. Sessions may include up to 5 people. The session fee of $50, plus $3.38 sales tax ($53.38 total) must be pre-paid in order to save your time slot. We accept cash, check (made payable to Squier Photography) and all major credit cards.
Why do we care about epilepsy?
Our family began our journey with epilepsy in December 2007 when our oldest son was diagnosed with epilepsy. Robbie is part of the 30% or so of people with epilepsy who do not gain good control of seizures through medication. Robbie’s seizures are non-convulsive and are not what most people think of as seizures. They often cause him to have memory loss and confusion which can cause problems in school. He shows very few outward signs that he is having a seizure. Robbie is an amazing kid who keeps a great attitude in spite of the struggles that seizures have brought into his life!
The EFCO provides families in the central Ohio region with many resources including support groups (for teens, parents, and adults with epilepsy), a summer camp for kids and teens with Epilepsy, an annual conference for both medical professionals and people living with epilepsy, and advocacy and training in the community, schools and workplace.
A few tidbits about Epilepsy:

• Epilepsy is a neurological condition caused by sudden brief changes in the brain’s electrical balance. This disturbance affects the brain’s normal functions and produces changes in a person’s movement, behavior or consciousness
• There are at least 30 types of seizures
• Approximately 1-2% of the population has epilepsy. This is about the same number of people who have cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease combined

Remember Ellia Schultz? She’s the little girl with Treacher-Collins Syndrome that we’ve been following for about a year, now. Every so often I do some new portraits to show the progress with her many surgeries.

A week (or so) ago I had the opportunity to take some family portraits.
This next one really seems to catch her personality.
Of course, her brother and sister were photographed, too.This next one shows what he’s like. He was always trying to pick things up and play.
I love the way the wind caught her hair and the sparkle in her eyes.
She loves to swing.
Don’t forget to see the slideshow. Leave a comment below, too.

You may recall the story of Ellia (the little girl with Treacher-Collins syndrome). There was an article in Columbus Parent about her in January (and I hear a follow-up article is coming). I posted about it in January. The last portraits we did were before her jaw surgery so her appearance has changed a lot since then. Last week I went over to her house for some updated pictures. We’re going to be following her progress with periodic portraits (nice alliteration, eh?) after each surgery she has.
I wasn’t completely sure how she’d act, but she was a doll. Blowing kisses and trying to get into everything.

Check out her slideshow and leave a comment.

Wow! What a crazy last couple of months. We had our best holiday season to date. Sometime this month we’ll get our Christmas cards out. For, uh, next Christmas? Yeah, we’re really getting a jump on things.

This post will be a sort-of “catching up” post. We have a lot going on.

First of all, thank you to all of you who stopped by from October through December. We really appreciate every customer. We also appreciate all the referrals we received from people. That’s the best kind of advertising there is. And speaking of referrals — remember, if you’re a member of Angie’s List, we are listed up there so it would be great to see some comments from you.

We have a picture in the latest issue of Columbus Parent magazine. It’s on page 14. We also have an ad on the facing page.

The article is about a little girl with Treacher Collins Syndrome and how the family is working through the issues. The article is online so take a look if you haven’t seen the print version. Our image is also on the home page of their Web site right now.

There’s a fundraiser for her at Lucé Restaurant and Cafe in Powell on January 24th. There will be a silent auction (we’ve donated a package) and I think a portion of meals will be donated to the family. The restaurant is located at 3499 Market Street in Powell, Ohio.

In other news, one of our pictures is in the current issue of The Perspective, the student magazine of Dublin Coffman High School.

The article is about Junior Corrinne Haynes, a very talented dancer. Her leaps and moves made for some great images. I’ll need to get a copy for our archive.

Our last bit of news for right now is about our new blog contests (coming soon). Each week or so we’ll be having a contest with a question. Be the first to answer correctly and you’ll win one of several prizes. There will be more details in a later post so check back soon.

Again, thanks for making 2007 our best year so far.

A few days ago on Friday we had the opportunity to speak at the Marysville MOPS group. MOPS is an organization dedicated to Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers. We do this from time to time and it’s a great way to show these moms how to take better photographs. We mostly talk about how to get the most out of your point-and-shoot digital camera. We have examples of a “typical” picture and what can be done (very easily) to make it much better.

Then the rest of the time is a Q&A; session. That usually lasts a good half hour or more and could go longer if it wasn’t stopped.

We also show some of our work, of course.

If you’re involved with an organization that needs speakers, give us a call (or send an e-mail). We’d love to talk about it.

Here’s a picture because I don’t like posts without some sort of image.