I just want to take a moment to introduce myself for those of you who don’t know me. I have been photographing families across the Gulf Coast for 10 years now. It is my mission to serve women in helping them see how beautiful their roles as mothers are. Society diminishes that role often, and I believe it is one of the most beautiful, sacred titles a woman can hold. My work is built completely around this mission. 

I am a child of God, chosen and beloved. This means that I’m a firm believer that truth, light, and love always prevail. If you have a moment to listen with open hearts and ears, I’d love to share some truth with you today. 

I was contacted by Ms. Jane about reserving a session to document her family welcoming baby L. We spoke on the phone, and she shared with me how this was going to be something that was precious to her as they had all had a very rough year. She was so excited to do something for herself and the ones she loves so dearly that would make her smile. As you could imagine, I was so humbled and thrilled to get to be a part of that. We spoke in detail about planning her session, and she so graciously decided to gift the hair and makeup pampering to her daughter, Daisy. Preparation emails and questionnaires were sent to Ms. Jane, and we were all set to welcome them to the studio. 

While I don’t typically photograph sessions on Saturdays, this was the day that was most convenient where the group of 8 of them could be together. I was happy to accommodate that, and I welcomed them on February 17th. My licensed cosmetologist, Stephanie, was there with me as Ms. Jane and her family arrived. Daisy was introduced to Stephanie, and the rest of the crew was welcomed as they arrived and waited in my client lounge area. Wardrobe from my studio collection had already been prepped and set aside for them to choose from. Stephanie began hair and makeup application as I photographed baby L. This is my standard procedure as I know new moms are tired and appreciate efficiency. Baby L was an absolute angel as we photographed all of the requested looks including an heirloom outfit, the cutest and girliest Moses basket I’ve ever seen, and a sweet swaddle with bows, as well as my typical workflow of posing. 

At some point after this portion (probably a little over an hour in), Baby L gave hunger cues, and I brought her to Daisy in the hair and makeup chair to nurse which she did for about 20 minutes while Stephanie continued to work. Daisy spent about 1.5 hours with Stephanie, and this was the only time she had Baby L. After nursing I burped Baby L and changed her into the outfit that matched (big sister) E’s that Ms. Jane had chosen for them. E had spilled something on her matching dress that they were worried about. I assured them that we could edit it out as was done. Ms. Jane voiced to me that photographs of her three grandbabies together were very important to her. That is where we started as Stephanie continued to work with Daisy. E and M both were so proud of baby L, and they both loved on her as we documented them together. As we wrapped up this portion, M and E took a little break as I swaddled baby L and got her prepared for the remainder of the session which she slept through in its entirety. Ms. Jane also expressed to me that the photographs of her with her grandchildren were also of top importance. We proceeded with this part of the session as Daisy finished with Stephanie.

As I was photographing other members of the family, I was not present for any exchanges between Stephanie and Daisy other than the introduction and the short time that I brought baby L in to nurse. However, I have spoken to Stephanie at length about this day and have complete trust in her as a professional as I have been present during exchanges with her and my clients at other sessions and have worked with her since early 2022. She confirmed that Daisy did ask for contouring which Stephanie feels like she provided according to our usual standards (I address this standard in more detail later in this statement). She has also stated that she did allow Daisy to see her makeup and hair in a handheld mirror. I also have a full length mirror placed very prominently in my studio about 5 feet to the left from where Daisy sat. At no point was anything said to either Stephanie or me that Daisy was in any way dissatisfied. 

Everyone was then dressed in wardrobe and we proceeded to photograph the remainder of the session which was about 40 minutes in length. We began with photographs that included Daisy with Baby L. Stephanie brought E back to her chair and curled and styled her hair so she’d feel special. E adored every part of this. This was done at no cost and out of pure kindness. Stephanie then remained at the studio in the room where we photographed for the entire duration of the session. She even at one point stepped forward to fix a particular curl for Daisy that she saw out of place. As we wrapped up the session, I asked if anyone had anything else they’d like to document, everyone expressed that they were pleased with everything and ready to wrap up. 

Just before leaving Ms. Jane and I set up a date for their gallery reveal for March 9th at 3 pm as they would be celebrating E’s birthday the week before then. Ms. Jane, Daisy, and her husband Alex attended the gallery reveal and watched a slideshow that displayed every one of the 153 photographs included in their gallery. There were also a set of 4×6 prints of all 153 photographs available to see. Ms. Jane spent the majority of time with the prints as I helped her choose which images that she wanted bound in her album that we planned for her. The only thing expressed to me that day from everyone was how pleased and thankful they were for these memories. 

On Tuesday, March 25th at 2:41 am, I received a 654 word message from Daisy which stated at length that she was extremely displeased with her makeup along with several photographs of up close images of her eyes and images of a previous makeup application by a different artist. I promptly responded to her at 5:39 am (well before my typical office hours) and let her know that I would be back in touch with her ASAP to address her concerns. I spoke with Ms. Jane on the phone at 3:15 pm to notify her of the situation as she is my contracted client, and I let her know how I planned to address it. Our conversation was pleasant and kind, and she was happy with what I proposed.

At 3:45 pm I responded to Daisy with this exact message “I’m so sorry that you’re upset. I hear your concerns. I have re-edited the images that include you for you. Here’s the link. I hope you’re much happier with these. Stephanie is my preferred hair and makeup artist, and I really enjoy working with her. My other moms seems very happy with her as well. I’m so sorry that your experience was different.” Also included was a link to an online gallery that included 39 edited photographs (every photograph that included her from the 153 image gallery) in which I (among a few other things) darkened her eyeshadow and added blush for her to the point where I felt it still looked natural and not heavily photoshopped as this would not be reflective of what I would want to be representative of the work that I produce. 

Daisy replied restating her original complaints and that she was still extremely unhappy. My exact reply to Daisy was “I absolutely hear that you’re upset. I would never dispute that. While I do not agree with your opinions about your makeup services, I do understand that it’s upsetting to you. I can assure you that had you expressed to me at any point that you preferred this look or to work with certain artists I would have been happy to accommodate that. Stephanie stayed for the entire duration of your session, and she would have more than happy to make changes at any point. 

Hopefully, you’re able to look past the flaws that you see in the makeup and see the beautiful moments and the love that was documented of your family. Please let me know if there’s anything further that I can help you with.”

This was met with another reply from Daisy that included statements such as: “put your pride aside”, “I will forever hate them”. This made it clear to me that at this point no conversation would be fruitful or pleasant. My exact reply was “I listened to every concern you had and did my very best to offer you a solution. The way that you have continued to communicate aggressively and disrespectfully to me is not ok. I’m going to draw a line here and end our communication. As your mother was my client who paid for the session, all further communication will be done with her.”

I have since been in contact with Ms. Jane multiple times specifically to address this. She is very happy with her gallery of portraits and does not request anything from me. Should that change at any point, I will be more than happy to make whatever accommodations that I can to make sure that she feels like she had a great experience as my client. 

Daisy’s hair and makeup is consistent with my other work displayed on both my website and social media. The reason that I include this service is so that mother’s can enjoy the extra pampering and not having to worry about adding this task to their long list of responsibilities. I clearly state this across my brand. It is never meant to change their appearance but rather enhance their natural beauty and for them to feel empowered in that. I specifically instruct all of my hair and makeup artists to apply makeup with this in mind. It is unfortunate that Daisy desired something differently and there was clearly a miscommunication at some point with the look that she desired. However, had either Stephanie or myself been made aware of this at any point in the process, we absolutely would have been happy to provide the extra time and services to make sure that Daisy felt as beautiful as she truly is even if that meant providing something outside of what we typically do. Stephanie is competently skilled, qualified, and able to provide that. She would have done so happily and without hesitation or question had she been given that opportunity. 

I am not sure what Daisy’s hopes are of continuing to express her displeasure. My greatest hope is that she would know how abundantly loved and cherished she is by her heavenly Father. I hope that she is able to see how beautiful her role as a mother is and walk proudly in that as that is always my hope for every mother regardless if I have the honor to photograph them or not. 

To address Daisy’s public Facebook post… I would like to state that every word was seen by both Stephanie and me, and they were extremely hurtful… especially those of you who know me in some capacity – that cut particularly deep. I pray that we would remember that words spoken online are not meaningless or innocent, especially when they are directly spoken about a person who actually exists and lives a real life. I pray that we will teach our children to do better than that. I pray more than anything and above all else that everyone who chose to speak negative words would know how abundantly God loves you as well, just as you are, speaking words of harm and all. My desire is that if we were to ever see each other face to face, I would be able to smile at you and reflect that love to you. I’m praying diligently about my heart getting to that place. I know Jesus will carry me there as he has done many times before, faithfully healing my heart as the good Father that He is. For those of you who spoke words of kindness on my behalf, I also saw those words before they were deleted, and you will never know how much it meant to me that you decided to speak out when you saw an injustice. I’m also so incredibly thankful for the friends that I have praying for all these same things faithfully. You know who you are. I treasure you!

For anyone who may face a similar storm, our pastor shared these words in our perfectly timed message from last night. They spoke to my heart the exact thing that I need for encouragement. I hope they would do the same for you…

²² So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord’s servant^[e] must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. – 2 Timothy 2:22-26.

I would love to share the beautiful images with you. Unfortunately, I am not able to at this time include any photographs with the children per the request of Daisy.