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headshot editHello Everyone! Tara here.  I am the lucky first Tiptoe lady in line to bring you my All About Me post so let's get this contest going, shall we?

I am the oldest Tiptoe lady at 36 (gasp!) years of age. I totally feel like I am somewhere around 28 though, on a good day! I was actually born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania but moved to Charles Town when I was 5 years old. Because it is such a small town, I do still tend to feel like a transplant, even 31 years later. I live in Kearneysville with my husband, Donnie and 2 kids, Maddox and Gabriel whom I love and a dog, Milly and cockatiel, Bubbles whom I do not love. As you might can guess, I am not an animal lover!

I, along with my two partners, Lisa and Jennifer own Tiptoe Studios. I actually retired from shooting about a year and a half ago. My current role is scheduling sessions, handling emails and phone calls, assigning shoots, handling the financial aspects of the business and conducting mostly all of the ordering sessions. You know, all the fun stuff, lol! I do thoroughly enjoy what I do and appreciate every day that I have the opportunity to be my own boss and set my own schedule. It gives me the flexibility to be more involved with my kids' school and leaves plenty of Me-Time which I absolutely require in order to stay sane!

A few things that make me, me...

I am a closet introvert! It is through a lot of practice and effort that I can definitely handle myself in a crowd, but what you don't see is the part when I go home and isolate myself in a quiet room by myself to "re-charge my batteries"...for a few hours...and normally with a glass of wine!

I am not a fan of big emotional displays. Or small emotional displays. Or of emotions in general. Please do not cry in front of me unless you are watching a Tiptoe slideshow or you are a small, hurt child.

My nails are painted 99.99% of the time. Plain nails make me sad. (But I don't cry about it, lol!)

My sister is a nurse who happened to also be a hairdresser once upon a time, so she still cuts and colors my hair. My biggest repeat request when I have her do my hair is to not make it look like "PTO mom hair". On that note, I am currently the PTO president of my kids school and have been for the last 5 years!

I love TV, like, ALOT. I frequently put every TV in my house on the same channel when I am watching a show so that I can wander from room to room, cleaning or whatever and still be able to keep a continuous eye on said show!

I do not like blueberries, raw onions or wasabi. A few other dislikes are capri pants, Subarus and Kanye West.

As soon as I drop the kids off at school, I crank the radio up and sing (loudly) along to 80's rock, 90's alternative music or gangster rap, just depending on what mood I am in. AND I think I sound great AND I don't care who sees me rockin' out!

I love TV shows, movies and books about an apocalypse! It can be any apocalypse, zombie, power, natural disaster, whatever.  If it's about the end of the world, I am fascinated!

I retain a lot of useless information about a wide range of topics. But, hey, when I am ready to go on Jeopardy, I am going to kick ass!

Us girls...

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The boys...

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In parting, I will leave you with what I think is some pretty damn good advice...

blog me

XOXO,

Tara

 

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Hi Ya'll, aren't you glad the sun is shining today??!!  We certainly are! Despite the dreary weather this month, we haven't let it put a "damper" (see what I did there 😉 ) on our productivity! We have been super busy not only shooting several sports teams, preschools and weddings but also designing and preparing for the launch of our brand new website! On June 1st, we will be making the big change but in the meantime, we have a little contest to get under way...!

Every day this week, there will be an "About Me" post from 1 Tiptoe lady, giving you the lowdown on her life. You know, personality quirks, likes and dislikes, funny stories; pretty much anything we want to throw out there to our captive audience, lol! Read these carefully and thoroughly because on Tuesday, May 31st we will release our 1st Ever Tiptoe Studios Scavenger Hunt! There will be questions plucked from each blog post for you to answer and maybe a "find the object" portion thrown in for good measure. All answers must be submitted to our email, tiptoestudios@yahoo.com, June 1st by midnight to be entered to win! The prize? One lucky winner will receive a 15 minute Tiny Session with 10 print released images, a $500 value! Want to increase your chance to win? You can receive one additional entry each for liking our Facebook page, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram and subscribing to the Tiptoe Studios blog. So, shall we get this thing going? Here is the first portion of our All About Me Series:

Tiptoe Beginnings...

 Sometime in 2004 in what feels like a galaxy far, far away, Tara Showen, Lisa Mercer and Jennifer Gustines met while working at Jefferson Security Bank in Charles Town, WV. After a few more years of "working for the man" we decided to strike out on our own and Tiptoe Studios was formally created in July of 2008. In the beginning we had no studio and shot on location in Charles Town, Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry.

Sorry about the picture of a picture but we were disposable camera type of girls back then so enjoy this little gem!throwback

With the addition of a studio around 2010, we also added Ande Compton who we never imagined would stick with us through thick and thin for the next 6 years! Ande started out as our office girl but quickly impressed us with her edgy and modern style of photography and has since escalated to part-time photographer while attending Shepherd University.

In January of 2014, Beth Williams, a longtime client (and Jennifer's cousin!) joined us as our Winchester area photographer. Her eagerness and persistence has helped us spread the Tiptoe word and we consider ourselves lucky to have her!

We moved into our current studio space 4 years ago this September and we have enjoyed being in the center of downtown Charles Town. For those of you who have never visited, stop on by sometime for a visit! We love to show our studio off!

We believe Tiptoe is so successful because of our shared customer service related backgrounds and also because we genuinely love each other and get along so well! We often get inquiries from people who are eager to join our team and the underlying comment is always, "you guys just look like you have so much fun!" Well, we honestly do! It helps that we were friends before business partners and it is something that we try to never to lose sight of, even when we are elbows deep in editing and spending hours upon hours in meetings in the studio. If you follow our Facebook and Instagram pages, you can see that we spend lots of non-Tiptoe time together as well!

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There are a few people who deserve some pretty big thank yous for helping Tiptoe truly flourish along the way:

Art Henderson- Art taught us so much when we first began Tiptoe Studios, including the very basics and, more recently, he taught us natural light girls a little bit more about studio lighting as well! Thank you Art!

Lindsay Hall and Chasity Eggleton- These girls were our Missouri and local photographers and we truly believe they were instrumental to making Tiptoe Studios the success it is today. Even though major life changes have taken us on different paths, we still believe that "once a Tiptoe lady, always a Tiptoe Lady" and consider them our Tiptoe Family even now! Love you, ladies and thank you so much for everything!

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So that ends the "Tiptoe beginnings" portion! I hope you read it carefully... Tara is up next and will be posting later on today!

XOXO!

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I absolutely LOVE weddings!  Nothing makes me happier than capturing the TRUE love that a couple shares on their wedding day.  I instantly flash back to my wedding day almost 7 years ago and my heart just about explodes.

I first met Cari-Ann and Paul back in December and we immediately hit it off.  I couldn't wait to start working with them.  The engagement session was great so I knew their wedding day would be AMAZING!

Here are a few TEASERS from their day...and for the first time in weeks the rain held off!

ENJOY!

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Just wanted to get a couple teasers to some of my favorite people!! Their BIG day was absolutely gorgeous! And we made some extra time during their bride and groom pictures to revisit the spot that we did their engagement pictures! Which made it so unique!!  #rumseymonument #shepherdstown #clarionhotel

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Wedding season is here and we kicked it off with an open house at BVINTAGE today! It was such a blast getting to talk with our incredibly talented locals! I loved all these boss ladies and what each one of them offered! Please Tiptoe brides if you haven't checked out BVINTAGE, WOODEN RUFFLES, MOUNTAINEER POPCORN COMPANY, SUGAR WHIPPED, WEST VIRJENI, AND MAKEUP BY CEEJAE please do so SOON, they had some of the cutest, sweetest, and most delicious things EVER!

Follow this link to see just a couple pictures I snapped today!

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Oh my goodness...Susie has grown up!! We first shot Susie with her family years and years ago, and have had a couple different shoots throughout the years but now it was time for her SENIOR shoot, which I was so excited for because her shoots are always so much fun! She always had great ideas and wore the cutest outfits! Plus it helps that she is so good in front of the camera! So I knew that this senior shoot wouldn't be any different!  We spent hours shooting, on a super windy day, and I just wanted to share some of her gorgeous teasers!! Love this gal!

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Hey guys, just a friendly reminder that the studio will be closed this weekend, April 8th-10th. The whole Team Tiptoe will be in NYC looking at all the latest and greatest camera equipment! Thanks for understanding! We are so very excited! You can follow our travels on social media all weekend! Just follow the links below!

Tiptoe Instagram

Tiptoe Facebook

Tiptoe Twitter

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Love is in the air! We have invited our local friends in the wedding industry to provide you with a fun day that will get you in the mood for the wedding season. We want to give you a jump start on perfect wedding gifts for the weddings you are attending this summer and also to provide local brides with access to some of the best of what Charles Town has to offer for their big day!

Where: B Vintage 304 W Washington St Charles Town WV 25414

When: April 16th 12pm-3pm

Something a little extra for our Tiptoe brides who are in attendance!!
wedding drawing

VENDOR LIST

B VINTAGE is hosting and they have lots of decor to put a unique and personal touch to your wedding day!

WOODEN RUFFLES will be here to take orders for custom signs that make timeless and thoughtful gifts for the brides and grooms in your lives. She will also be here to take orders for Wedding Day Signature Boards.

MOUNTAINEER POPCORN COMPANY will be providing information about their options for bridal showers, wedding favors and wedding day popcorn bars.

SUGAR WHIPPED will be here providing samples of popular wedding flavors. Sugar Whipped is a local small batch bakery offering all types of wedding desgins for all budgets.

 

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Hey guys! Just wanted to give you all a quick run down of all the things we have coming up at Tiptoe!

  1. Tiptoe Teaches- our workshop #2 on how and where to find the LIGHT!

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2. Our annual MOMMY and ME sessions for Mothers Day!MommyMe2016

3. Our spring  school portrait sessions! Tiptoe school day 2016

4. Our Tiptoe Teaches workshop #1 on how to use your fancy camera! PhotographyWorkshopFlyer

5. Client appreciation special for the month of May!past client appreciation month

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This is going to be a trip of a lifetime for the 5 of us at Tiptoe! We have been planning and prepping for this trip for months! And THIS Friday we are hitting the road, off to NYC!  We are visiting B&H photo store to do some major shopping!  From the videos and websites I have researched, this is like the ultimate photo store on the East Coast!! And I am going to feel like a kid in a candy store!! Ahhh!! We will keep you all posted on social media this weekend with all our adventures... Well most of them! LOL!! 2000px-I_Love_New_York.svg images-2 images-3