hello stella I Fort Myers Newborn Photographer I Fort Myers, FL

"Meet Stella Ann Spanberger...8 lbs, 4 oz and 19 inches of pure perfection", a description I borrowed from her parents, Jake and Beth. Stella arrived on New Years Eve and we just had the pleasure of meeting her this past weekend for a newborn session. Beth is still in awe and can't believe she is the mom of this beautiful little girl. Well, we can believe it! Here's a peek at a few of our favorites. We are so happy for this little family! Oscar and Bailey are making their little sis feel right at home...

Year in Review-Twenty Thirteen

Looking back on this year, we have so much to be proud of and thankful for...

We upgraded lenses/camera equipment in the last part of 2012 and have throughly enjoyed the investment in our business this past year. We see the rewards session after session!!

The numbers... We had the delight of working with 31 Families, 25+ Children, 7 Newborns, 3 High School Seniors, 9 Expecting Moms, 6 Couples, and a few headshots mixed in along the way. 

We continued to take classes through Kelby Training and Creative Live and would love to travel in 2014 to a photography related education conference.

Our photography took us on two vacations in 2013 to capture weddings in Mexico in January and to New Jersey/New York in October. Both working full-time at our other jobs, we managed to fit in 5 weddings this year. I say "fit in" because the real work really begins after the wedding. Countless hours of post processing while juggling our other portrait sessions, full-time jobs, and family. Matt and I have decided to cut out weddings in 2014 and focus on portrait photography. 

Social media... Molly has created a Pinterest profile for the business and has populated boards for traveling to SWFL (many of our clients are from outside of the area), Meet Molly and Matt, as well as inspiration for clothing and posing. We continue to blog our photos as much as possible to highlight the story of each session and drive our fans back to our website (SEO). We have also been active on Google+ and Instagram in 2013. We also did a Project 52 posting one photo a week to our Facebook page with the theme of "This is Our Life". 

In early 2013, Molly set out to contact several of her community friends to market Molly and Matt Photo, LLC and grow our client base. The referrals continue to come in and we can not thank our clients enough for sharing our passion for photography. 

We joined PPA (Professional Photographers of America) and were highlighted on several photography blogs for weekly challenges, including our recent portait of the LeSage family that won second place through Rock the Shot! 

Work/Life balance seemed a little better in 2013 but if you ask Matt he may have another answer. During the holiday busy months, we scheduled family time this year and it really kept things manageable. It was hard turning so many clients away but it meant so much more to be with our little one. 

Goals for 2014 include working on branding and continuing to offer a creative, fun, and modern approach to photography in Southwest Florida.

Happy New Year from Molly and Matt Photo! 

Somebody's Getting Married Today I The Lake Valhalla Club, Montville, NJ

Somebody's Getting Married Today!! 

Congratulations to Erik and Caitie on their recent wedding on October 26th, 2013 at the Lake Valhalla Club in New Jersey. What an amazing wedding this was!! The family, the friends, the food, the venue! We had such a fun time capturing the celebration. Going through all the photos, it was hard to decide what to share from the Schaum wedding. So many beautiful details...

Venue: The Lake Valhalla Club
Transportation: The New York Trolley Company
Florist: Morningside Greenhouse
Hair & Makeup: Samantha Youngman
Cake: Palermo Bakery



fORT MYERS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER | The Kim/Pak Family

One of the best things about doing portrait photography is truely the people you get to capture. The laughter, the smiles, the love and relationships within a family. Bona, our dear friend, was down visiting for Thanksgiving and arranged a photo shoot for her and her sister, Sujin, and their mom, Rosa. Bona's mom had been wanting photos for quite some time so they were really excited to have us behind the camera. We fit the photos into their busy schedule before Rosa rushed off to her restaurant, Origami, and Sujin to NAMI.

We got what we were looking for with every session: emotion, laughter, fun, FASHION, and most of a snapshot in time of who these ladies have become and just how special they are to each other. I think we nailed it! 


FORT MYERS MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER | AWAITING BABY MYERS

I always get giddy when I have inquiries for doing a maternity portrait session in SWFL. Katie and Kyle were in the area for Thanksgiving with their family and wanted to capture this exciting time in their lives and use our gorgeous beaches for the background. We met up at Casa Ybel, one of my fav spots for photos on Sanibel. Katie was radiant and as gorgeous as can be. Here's a peek at our time together last week...

FORT MYERS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER | Riley + Cole + Ella

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas... Here's a few of our fav pics from a recent session with Riley (almost one 1!), Cole, and Ella at South Seas Resort on Captiva, FL. We grabbed a few fun shots in the Scoops and Slices candy store at the resort then headed to the beach for a beautiful sunset! 

FORT MYERS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER | Romine Family

It's almost Thanksgiving so I thought I'd share a family I'm thankful for working with...  

The Romine family came to us as a referral from another client, Tessa LeSage (thank you!!!). They were looking for a local photographer to work with, as they have been traveling to the other coast for the past few years to get their family photos taken.  Could I be the lucky local photographer to fulfill their "artsy fartsy" style? It turns out I was and Jonathan, Megan, and Ava were so easy to work with and had a fun color scheme amongst the beauty of Koreshan State Park. Sharing highlights from their session this week!

Have a great holiday and thank you for all of our clients for your love this past year!




Kratt Wedding I The Strand, Naples, Florida

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Kratt on their recent wedding at The Strand in Naples, FL. What an amazing venue for Stephanie and Stephen's celebration on October 12, 2013.  We loved photographing these two and know you will enjoy their wedding images as much as we do. Stephanie was a ridiculously gorgeous bride. Her dress was probably my favorite photograph yet!

Venue - The Clubhouse at the Strand
Event Coordinator: Amanda and Becca
Cake: Stefanie Watson @ Stefanie's Sweet Confections
DJ: Gil Blake
Officiant: Missy Ordiway @ Making your "happily ever after" last a lifetime
Hair and Makeup: Hope Artistry








 

And a few giggles over my laugh... I think they were laughing with me, right?

FORT MYERS MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER | Awaiting Baby Spanberger

We are super excited for our close friends, Beth and Jake, who will be expecting their first baby in January. We headed to Alva, Florida for a rural setting to capture Beth with only a few weeks to go. Horses, gorgeous trees, and even a waterfront view made this session unique to the couple. They brought their dogs, Oscar and Bailey, which made for a fun adventure as we became acquainted with the farm's horses. 

Most of you know maternity is my favorite! I'm now looking forward to photographing this little one in January. Will they be having a boy or girl? Stayed tuned in the coming weeks to a follow-up newborn session of Baby Spanberger on the blog.  For now, enjoy highlights from their maternity session...

 



Rock the Shot I Sanibel Bicycle Family

Totally in love with this session and this shot!  It's artsy, creative, and so this family.  This is the second time I have photographed them and we have become really great friends. They knew they wanted something out of the ordinary so we decided to rent bicycles on Sanibel Island, Florida. Tessa put together a primary color clothing pallette for her family and even managed to rent bikes to match- all planned! This shot was an opening on the bike path that I wanted to grab and when I walked out to look in I saw the word BIKE on the side walk- how perfect! I took several images and really ended up liking this one with them out of focus. I included a shot below of how low I ended up going to get the perspective I wanted. Not the normal family portrait at all but it will make a cool canvas in their house! I processed it using Lightroom and Nik Software. 

Molly and Matt Photo strives to offer unique and creative portraits in Southwest Florida...

 

Bethany & David {Engaged} I Fort Myers Engagement Photographer I Fort Myers, FL

Congratulations to Bethany and David on their upcoming wedding in November! We were introduced through a common friend (Sarah Martin) and were thrilled to photograph them in Downtown Fort Myers during the 4th of July weekend.  Matt and I spend a lot of time in the Fort Myers River District as a family with our daughter Lillian.  We appreciate and revel in the architecture, art, culture, and commerce as a unique urban backdrop for sessions.  Bethany knew she wanted to start at the yacht basin and work our way to the gorgeous banyan tree near the court house and we stopped at various DTFM favorites along the way including the Whitehurst Federal Building (Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center).

Here are the highlights from our session… Enjoy!

 


 


 

FORT MYERS MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER | AWAITING BABY MARTIN

It's happening! Buddy and Annabelle are pregnant with baby number two! If you follow us at all, you likely have seen the Martin family in many of our posts; we are with them almost every weekend. These past few weeks have gone by so quickly and Annabelle is looking GORGEOUS! This time around it's a girl and she will be inheriting much of Lillian's wardrobe. Matt and I do not have baby fever and are moving forward with plans to keep our little family of three (plus Beacon). I only bring that up because it's a question I get asked at least twice a week and when your best friend and sister are pregnant, everyone expects you to be next. Back to Annabelle... we are very excited for December to arrive and to assist the Martin family in the first few weeks of newborn bliss. Watch for pics of baby Martin later this winter! For now, here are highlights from the Martin's maternity session at their house and Fort Myers Beach. 

 







How to plan clothing for a photo session...

I am so excited about my recent order from Shellybee Originals. I discovered her profile on Instagram and instantly fell in love with her designs and decided a mommy and me skirt duo would be groovy for Lil and I wear. I ordered the skirts with the intention of using them for family photos scheduled later this month with our photography friend, Rob, of Old Sparky Productions.  Matt and I did marketing photos from him earlier this year and he offered to take our family photos in exchange. If you know me, you know that I love getting family photos almost as much as I love taking them.  We decided on Downtown Fort Myers for the location since Lillian is usually in good spirits walking through the streets like she does on nights for Art Walk and Music Walk. Lil is a big supporter of the River District! 

PHOTOGRAPHER- check

LOCATION- check

INSPIRATION PIECE- check

Below are the Shellybee Instagram posts that inspired my purchase...

We have matching skirts, now what? I tell most of our clients to pick an inspiration piece and then choose items to compliment it.  Our shopping trip to Old Navy yielded a colorful Boston tee that I thought would be cute, especially since our dog, Beacon, would be joining us for the photos. Now to put together my outfit and something for Matt. I'm thinking black or pink converse for Lil. We'll see how this comes together. Stay tuned!