Miss Nim & Friends

Soooo with our awesome lobby and kid-friendly and funky selves...we've decided to start our own storytime! I was fortunate enough to meet the coolest young lady...Miss Nim who has been looking for a place to call home...

Miss Nim is an incredible chick who is full of beautiful, thoughtful and amazing ideas! Miss Nim will host storytime in our lobby every Thursday morning at 10am! We'll share a story, maybe a craft or game and some awesome goodies!! Miss Nim is our version of a 2010 Mary Poppins! We hope storytime catches on and we can all share, learn, laugh and enjoy each other!! HERE'S TO YOU MISS NIM!!

P.S ~ Miss Nim will be making an appearance at our booth during Family Fun Day at Shine On Yoga on September 18th! Make sure to stop by and meet her -- we know you'll fall in love!

Much Love & Many Blessings,

Rachel and The Team at Thirteenth Moon

Misty Forest and some Creative Patience

So for those of you that didn't know...I LOVE KIDS! I love my kids and I love 'just about' all other kids!! I often hear things like, "no one ever makes her laugh like that"...what can I say, I'm blessed. I remember I was always the one to try and make everyone laugh, apparently since I was a baby. My dad and my brother will tell you a few interesting stories, but I won't let them! Even sweetie Savannah that came in last week was pretty freaked out as she walked through the door of the studio. I thought to myself, "oh no", but we played, she loosened up and we cracked up together! By the end of our session Miss Savannah didn't want to leave and decided to sit on me! I put my camera on "auto" mode and asked her mommy to take a picture! It makes me feel like a million bucks when kids warm up that much!! I feel like a superstar! Here we are after our session!

So, once we moved into the space on North Thornton Avenue we met and I instantly fell in love with Leah (director of the Misty Forest school). She is this amazing chick with great energy and always has the cutest shoes! We got to talking and as my luck would have it -- she had been searching for someone to teach photography to the kids of Misty Forest! If she hadn't have asked me, I was about to PAY HER TO BE ABLE TO DO IT!

I have to be honest and say that my first lesson, well, I was scared to death! I was scared the kids would think I was a giant dork and that I had no clue what I was talking about! But alas, my creativity didn't run away from me and I came up with a killer plan! The kids are designing and making their own pinhole cameras! I still remember my experience with my first pinhole camera and it was amazing to me! Now when I told the gifted kids at Misty Forest that we'd be making our own cameras they got excited. Then I realized that they thought we were going to make our own DIGITAL SINGLE LENS CAMERAS. I laughed and I told them as great as it is they thought that much of me -- that I was taking them OLD SCHOOL!!! The kids faces became stained with confusion...but they started to understand soon!

As with all teachers I knew that if I was to make my pinhole camera vision a reality it would take a lot more time on my part then originally planned. Thanks to the greatest hubby around he made some phone calls and got over 25 one-gallon paint cans donated to us for the kids to use for their cameras. Here I am explaining to the kids how we'll design and construct our cameras out of paint cans!! I thought I was losing them for a few minutes (<----- see the little one laying down) but once Miss Leah got out all the fabric and crayons to start their personalization of the cans they were totally into it!

So these pinhole cameras will be used to start taking real (old-fashioned) pictures with next week. I still have a hill to climb as I'm still trying to figure out where I'll get the film for the kids! Now I know I can buy it for them, but some donations would be great!

I'm super excited as each kid will start taking photos this week. I can't wait to see their expressions when they see how the photos turned out. The suspense will probably kill them as they'll have to wait for the pictures to be developed, just like I used to when I started out. Everything in our lives and society is so "instant" now, I think so much was better back when we used to have to "wait" for the good things. But maybe this will teach them a great lesson in creative patience!!

Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to keep you posted on their projects and the art show that will show off their work!!

Much Love and Many Blessings!

Rachel and the Team at Thirteenth Moon

My best review yet!

I received this email the other day from my very first bride. I photographed their wedding a long time ago and lost touch. Being that she was our first bride, we held a special place in our heart for her...so after some Facebook searching, she popped up and this is the email I received from her!





"Thank you so much for helping to make my wedding so memorable! The pictures look so awesome and I had so many compliments about how you got down and dirty during the wedding to get the best photos ever! The pictures you took where you were literally crawling around on your hands and knees looked so awesome! Also, I lost my sister shortly after the wedding and those were the most recent pictures we had of her. You captured her in all of her glory during the wedding and at the reception...real classic pictures of her doing the soldier boy and line dancing! Thank you for making her stick with me during these hard times!





Always Grateful,





Pamela Wood"





So can you believe it? I cried for an hour after I read that email! It made me realize that wedding pictures or studio pictures can end up being so much more for some, and that is why I love being a true part of people's lives. It's why I'm working so hard to bring people together. So I'm a photographer, BIG DEAL! Why can't I have a storytime and watch people enjoy space and time together...and know that it's something I helped bring together! What can I say, I really believe in Karma!!





So, for you Pamela and Leigh...I am the one who's FOREVER GRATEFUL and here is one of my favorites of her gettin' her groove on!!

Many, Many Blessings,

Rachel and the team at Thirteenth Moon Photography

We've Come Home

So much has happened for us over the last few months! I contemplated sharing how we ended up getting our great space right next to Dandelion Communitea Cafe, and then I thought..."let's just roll forward." So, all that I need to say is the universe and it's forces, whether you call the power "God" or "Buddha" or whatever brought us to the PERFECT PLACE!!

We're still just before our opening, when I can begin to dedicate the majority of my time to the studio space and my clients! We've been busy designing and building and making backdrops, lights, and props OUR WAY! I have been in search of the perfect person to be my "star" for a weekly story time and I was blessed to meet her last week! Miss Nim will be joining the team when we host our first story time on Thursday September 9th at 10am! The lobby of the building is perfect for children and parents to relax and feel comfy! The walls are filled with color and delight as enchanted giving trees and recycled owls surround you! It really is such a great place with such a beautiful feeling!! Take a look...at this camera phone picture I took of the first day we got into the building...this is where we'll be, this is where Miss Nim will be each Thursday morning at 10:00 am waiting with her storybook, her friends and her treats!! Children make up such an amazing part of our lives as parents...and we want to share that feeling with other local families and kids...we want to bring families together for fun and FREE interaction!! Of course our goal is to sustain ourselves and our lives with our talents and services, so we hope that some of our families will meet us, see what amazing art and photos we can offer to them for amazingly low and affordable prices and blow every other photo studio out of the water!! Art doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be made from the highest quality products with the highest price tags! It's all in the eye of the beholder and I want people to experience our space, ourselves and all of our goals!! We want to make our life, our "business" something more than just a bottom line...we want it to have meaning and have a solid place in a community of amazing being that are made up of people and pets of all backgrounds, likes, dislikes and interests...if we all just share one common goal, about enjoying life in it's many forms, we could do so much!

So as our movement towards our opening continues forward we attempt to give ourselves more to do and more to photograph! Just recently we contacted "A New Beginnings Pet Rescue" to offer our services to them completely free of charge...and we were welcomed with open arms! We can say that it wasn't as easy as we thought it was going to be! We armed ourselves with one small basket (for the little doggies) and a small background set up in the back hallway of a busy PetSmart on a Sunday afternoon! By the time we left, we were drenched in sweat and covered in dog hair and a few other "doggie treats"! We got a few good photos, but not as many as we hoped for. Some of the staff at the store actually complained about our presence and said that the flash from our set-up was distracting them. We did the best we could, as we were stationed just outside of the employee break room and were often stepped on and over by staff and their visitors. The dogs were extremely distracted by all of the sounds and movements. Our hearts went out to each of them, as we pulled them from their cages and brought them back to our little set-up for their mini photo session. We would've brought them all home with us if we could have! These dogs had some of the sweetest dispositions we had ever encountered, even after all they had been through. They have (thankfully) been rescued by Abby and Jen...the two amazing ladies that put the rescue together and try their hardest to find homes for all of the souls!

Abby and Jen seemed extremely grateful for our presence, when, quite honestly it is WE THAT ARE BLESSED TO HELP! Please visit http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/anewbeginning.html to see how you can help too!!

So with many, many things in process and so many things still floating about over our heads, stay tuned to our Facebook page and our new BLOG for all of the announcements, updates and just random thoughts!!

Until then...Many, Many Blessings!

The Team at Thirteenth Moon