About Ashley Whitehead Ashley Whitehead

Ashley Yvonne is a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Birth, Maternity and Newborn Photography

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Ashley Whitehead | Tampa Newborn Photographer - Part 18

Tampa Newborn Photographer

Author: Ashley Whitehead

  • Tampa Bay Birth Photography Featured on Barefoot Birth

    I’m absolutely thrilled to be on Barefoot Birth’s blog yesterday. I have worked with Charlie Rae a few times and can say she LOVES her job. She featured two of my mama’s births that happen to be best friends. Dana gave birth to Aria Skye in December, you can see her blog post here. Katie gave birth to Connor James in January, you can see his blog post here.

    I’ve pulled a few amazing comments from these two best friends from Charlie Rae’s Barefoot Birth blog post, but if you’d like to see more, please visit here.

    ” Katie lived with Adam and I in our first year of marriage (Adam knew we were a package deal, lol), and she lived with us in another house in the couple months leading up to Kaia’s {Dana’s first daughter} birth and I truly believe that’s how Katie got fertile enough to conceive her firstborn Kylie, since the doctors had always told her she wouldn’t be able to have babies because of her severe cysts and fibroids in her ovaries, then my pheromones are all around her, she was at my first birth and conceived her first baby a couple weeks later.”

    “People say we are like twins. There is never one without the other!

    Birthing our babies was the most amazing adventure to have together. We are so in tune with each other that I knew when her contractions started, before she called me.”

     

    How sweet! I hope I get the pleasure of working with some more best friends through the adventure of their children’s births!

     

    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography

     

    Blog Post Author: Ashley Whitehead

  • Who Do Our Kids Look Up To? {Tampa Bay Florida Photographer}

    Miley Cyrus before the VMA’s 2013

    (Photo Courtesy of Celebs Wallpaper.net)

    There has been a lot of buzz around the MTV VMA’s show this week. The biggest buzz is Miley Cyrus, her performance and the impression she made on the minds of young children. I was past my years of watching Hannah Montana when it was on TV but I have seen a few episodes and can say that the Miley Cyrus we saw on the VMA’s Award Show is NOT the Miley Cyrus we use to see on Hannah Montana. I’m sure she wants to break away from the popular Disney show and that’s fine, show the world you’re grown up but I think she’s gone too far. Yes, she has the right to be who she wants but I wish she would have had more thought as to what she would do to millions of children around the world that are watching her. Being a celebrity you have so many people watching you, there are responsibilities as a celebrity to be a role model for kids.

    A comforting thought is that even though young children may look up to celebrities and may follow their every move on all the Social Media sites, they aren’t going to try to be exactly like them because hey, they really don’t know these people. So who do they know? Who do they look to for guidance and examples of good behavior?

    I recently read a GREAT article from Verily Magazine and I wanted to share a really few good points.

    “So who are your kids watching the most?  You might convince yourself its a popular boy band, a movie actress, a country singer, or a gold-medal athlete—but don’t be naïve. Kids may seem to follow their favorite celebrities every move, but the one they’re seeing up close and personal is you.”

    “Whether you are an aunt, uncle, grandparent, sister, brother, friend, or teacher, remember that you may be the greatest role model in their lives. Kids are waiting for your approval, your warnings, your reactions,  your guidance, and watching whether you do as you say. You have more influence than any untouchable and unattainable celebrity seen on a screen or heard through a speaker.”

    So even though Miley Cyrus maybe put a few bad thoughts and actions into our children from her performance, we really have the power and influence over our children. Be sure to do what you say and mean what you say because they’re always looking at us, even if we don’t know it.

    Be sure to check out the full article here for some talking points to go over with your children about the performance they saw so maybe you can get through to them about whether this behavior was acceptable or not.

    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography.

    Blog Post Author: Ashley Whitehead

  • A Husband Submits a Song about his Wife of 75+ Years {Tampa Bay, Florida Photographer}

    This story comes from a man, Fred who wrote a love song to his wife, Lorraine. A radio station was holding a singer/ song writer contest and the husband decided to write some lyrics for his wife and enter into the contest.

    Although the song didn’t meet the criteria for the contest, the radio station took special note of the lyrics and contacted the man to let him know they wanted to professionally record the song for him FREE of charge. This brought the husband to tears because he had JUST lost his wife only a month before after 75 years of marriage.

    Take a look at this Vimeo Video ending with the husband listening to the professionally recorded song that he wrote for his wife Lorraine. “Oh Sweet Lorraine”

     

     

    A Letter From Fred from Green Shoe Studio on Vimeo.

    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography.

  • The S Family – Phillipe Park {Tampa Bay Family Photographer}

    The ‘S’ Family

    S Family August 2013
    The S Family at Phillipe Park in Safety Harbor
    Family Photography by Ashley Yvonne Photography

    I met with this family at Phillipe Park in Safety Harbor on a hot, hot day! Regardless of the temperature, I was AMAZED to see mother Jenni running around after her little girls with a smile on her face and energy radiating from her. I know many, many great mothers and she is the description of a great mother. (Yes, I’m sure if you go to Urban Dictionary you’ll see her name under Great Mother!) Dad thank you for being such a great sport and roughing it out with us in the heat!! You are definitely smitten on your little girls!

    I had a wonderful time getting to know this family of four. Thank you as well to baby sitter, whose name has escaped me! You were a HUGE help and they obviously love you to pieces as are evident in the smiles on their faces.

    S Family August 2013
    The S Family at Phillipe Park in Safety Harbor
    Family Photography by Ashley Yvonne Photography

    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography.

     

    Blog Post Author: Ashley Whitehead

  • Inspirational Speech from a Famous Actor {Advice for Our Kids}

    I didn’t watch the Teen Choice Awards but recently stumbled across this video of Chris “Ashton” Kutcher, he revealed his real name in hopes of connecting with the young audience in attendance and those watching. This was such an inspiration to not only young children that aspire to be like him, but ones like me as well.

    Our kids have so many influences around them both good and bad. We try everything we can to let them see the good and hope they aspire to be “good” in every way. Most of the time we don’t have control over what they take in but I believe messages like these can help them see that even a famous actor is a real person, who has real problems and who has real emotions. He too once worked at a grocery store and outside in the hot sun. He started from the bottom and worked his way to where he wanted to be.

    As for adults, sometimes life can get rough and tough and in the business world alone, you feel like running a Small Business can be such a complicated task. He took a piece of Steve Jobs from a recent movie he was working on and said this, “Everything around us that we call life was made up of people that are no smarter than you,” he said. “And you can build your own things, you can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life — don’t live one, build one.” Its nice to be reminded of things like this because we can feel like we aren’t as good as other people may be. Hearing something like this is inspiration to keep going and get to where I want to be. I want to build my small business into a successful Tampa Bay Photography Studio.

     

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    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography.

     

     

     

     

  • Professional Albums vs Shutterfly {Tampa Bay Baby Photographer}

    I wanted to expand on my topic of Print Lab Comparisons and talk about Albums. We’ve already discussed the quality of images from  non pro labs which you can view here.

    I know many companies like Shutterfly offer amazing deals on Albums for as little as $60. It seems like a great deal, I know. If you think about any product that is consistently offered at a extreme low price, it could quite possibly mean that the product is of low quality. And when I say quite possibly, I mean, it usually is.

    An example, a very close friend of mine spent thousands on her wedding photographer. They came out absolutely beautiful. She specifically asked for pricing with a DVD of images. She was advised (by a few of us) to get her album designed and printed by her wedding photographer. She decided to design her album, which took her weeks to get the right style she wanted. She thinks she spent about 5 hours adding the photos to the templates she bought. She decided to send her template to Shutterfly because she got a deal on an 10×10 Album. She wanted it to be bigger then that but she didn’t see spending more money on an Album. It arrived, she liked it, just satisfied enough that she gets to see her wedding photos in an album. I specifically remember her not being overly enthusiastic but her words were “Hey, at least I have some of my photos in one place.” Fast forward six months, after family members, friends and her and her husband opening and closing the book, some of the pages are falling out. Fast forward a year, now she’s kept the book on the shelf permanently because three pages fell out completely, five pages are hanging by a strand and one is wrinkled from someone spilling water on it. Now she’s going back to her photographer for a 40 page Album. Her Shutterfly album was only 20 pages and she wants a lot more photos in this one. She’s already spent around $125 and her time, and she feels she’s wasted the money and is slightly embarrassed that she has told people she doesn’t have an album of her wedding photos. Now, she’ll get an Album with double the amount of photos and she doesn’t even have to spend time designing it. Oh, and if someone has an accident, it won’t wrinkle up, because pro albums have water resistant pages! She regrets not spending the extra money in the first place and said she was embarrassed by the quality of the album that represented the most important day of her life.

    I know of many other stories related to this that represent other non- pro labs and I sincerely hope that this hasn’t happened to you. If you’re one of my families, let me know and we will get a FAB album pronto!

    Just as I stated before, after all the time, money and effort you’ve placed into a session or event. Don’t let a non-pro lab’s album degrade the quality of the images that were professionally photographed. Not to mention the work you did to create something for the photos whether it be your wedding details, an outfit, etc.

    Contact us if you’d like to learn more about our Pro-Lab Album options 813.277.6275 or email info@ashleyyvonnephotography.com

    Ashley Yvonne Photography, a Local Florida Photographer in the Tampa Bay area specializing in Family and Children Photography, Portraits, Water Birth and Newborn Photography.