Fairytale Photographer for Kids :: Adara’s Bookbrush

Fairytale Photographer 9art photography, concept & lifestyle photographer, joplin mo- fairytale sessions3

The fairy tale series custom makes stories in words and photographs around the personality of your child. We create exclusive experiences for your child that set up a story no one can duplicate.

It is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between 9art photography and author Lancelot Schaubert.

We’ve been waiting to announce this idea for months…

As long as Mark has been a photographer (a ‘ whoa, I get paid to do this’ photographer), he has tried to figure out how to create new things. How to make something beautiful with my work. As long as I’ve been a writer, it has been my goal to attempt works of revolutionary quality spanning different genres. Inspired by the creator who instilled creativity in our very beings, we both want to innovate, to weave imagery that delights and moves emotions.

We cannot, and will not, settle for being ‘just another photographer’ or ‘just another writer.’ We both have a long way to go still and decades of learning ahead when it comes to improving our crafts and forming meaning… but we’re giving it our best shot, every step of the way.

So far, Mark has had two separate categories of work, both of which I enjoy tremendously: the images he creates for paying clients (family pictures and the like), and the images he creates simply to be creative, to make something as close to ‘art’ as he can manage. I can say the same — I have been commissioned for editing and copywriting or the occasional article and short story. But there’s also the work I slave away on in the mornings, the work that will one day find an vibrant audience of awesome people like you.

The time has come to fuse the two together by fusing our work once more. We want to produce work that is gallery-worthy, yet collaborates with clients. The limited edition fairy tale series will accomplish that, and we would LOVE for you to collaborate with us.

What is it?

A series that custom caters stories in words and photographs around the personality of your child. We do that by meeting with you, finding out about your child and their unique personality. We take those details and plug them into a unique story and a surreal photo shoot.

The images:

Each shoot will fall under the same general ‘series’ of fairy tales, but will set up unique themes and tones. Each set of images will feel like a fairy tale… but rather than basing the shoot on an already existing fairytale, we are creating a BRAND NEW fairy tale around the images.

In the first session with little Adara, for instance, we knew that she loves dressing up like mythic heroes, and adores books. Mark created a set of images based on those facts. And you guys know I love Mark and all of his work.

The images created for each shoot will be surreal and mystical, with hints of things that can only be explained by the words that accompany them:

Fairytale Photographer 9art photography, concept & lifestyle photographer, joplin mo- fairytale sessions1

The words:

You guys know my work, I’m not going to pat myself on the back. Either you like it or you don’t and if you don’t, you’re not reading this right now. After Mark read a children’s story I wrote about his own child and then working together on Cold Brewed– he knew we needed to do a project that gave an exclusive, luxury experience for parents to remember the quirks of their children.

Imagine the delight of your child the moment they discover a brand new fairy tale starring HIM or HER as the main character!

The packages:

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Since this is a brand new concept in both the photography and literary world, we had to think carefully about how to present the images and text. We decided there would just be two packages.

These packages start at a higher level than our traditional offerings, but we think it’s worth it for the full experience, the products you will receive, and the level of artistry we will strive to accomplish. The items presented in the package are simple but beautiful. If you’d like to see samples of our extremely high quality, lay-flat photo books or our aluminum metal wall portraits, Mark would love to show you in person.

The poem included with package 1 will be a 1 page offering. The story runs longer and provides more details. It’s perfect for fusing the images to the tale in a full-bore picture book.

PACKAGE 1 ($1350)

customized, on location fairytale session, starring your child

customized poem featuring a story that features your child

20″ x 50″ aluminum wall portrait (w/ poem included in display)

PACKAGE 2 ($2500)

customized, on location fairytale session, starring your child

customized, full length children’s short story

8 x 8″ lay-flat fairy tale book (combining story & images from session)

full, aluminum print wall display featuring story & images (one 20 x 50″ print, two 20 x 14, one 20 x 20)

For the sample images and story, we used Ellie Ann’s little girl, the awesome Adara:

Fairytale Photographer 9art photography, concept & lifestyle photographer, joplin mo- fairytale sessions2

Adara’s Bookbrush (poem)

In the back of their yard
near that hole in their fence
little Ara found books
stacked as high as a prince
from the Fae.

And she opened one up by the hole
that led down a dark way…

It had wordings inside
she had never once heard,
but beside it: paint brushes
with WIPE ON A WORD
in gold letters engraved on their sides.

She picked one and wiped it
upon the word “sword”
beside her a blade in a scabbard
was moored
to the bucket as if it had always been there.

So she picked up the book
and she walked through the gate
and she wiped the book’s words
and its words became wonders,
and the wonders, adventures,

but it all made her late
for her supper.

————————————————————————-

Fairytale Photographer 9art photography, concept & lifestyle photographer, joplin mo- fairytale sessions4

Adara’s Bookbrush

Adara’s backyard was a bigger backyard than any other yard on the block. Her house was an old one with many old nooks, and the yard that came with it was bigger than big, was big enough to hide many things, was bordered by walls of bushes as if the house itself hid at the center of some hedge maze.

All that to say, there were many places to play in Adara’s front yard and back yard. She often did ballet in those secret places, but she had only found a few secret places so far. It would take many, many birthdays for her to find them all.

She stayed away from the tippy-tail-rear-back-end of the backyard, for back there the fence had a hole in it, a place where the gate should go, a black hole, she called it. She often climbed trees to try and peer over the gate, but she couldn’t see a thing.

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But one particular Tuesday, the broken wooden bucket by the hole looked less-than-empty from where she swung on her swingset.

She walked over. It was full of a giant stack of books like a growing stalagmite of some unfinished idea: old used-up books, young never-before-used books, fat books that had sat too long, hyperactive-looking thin-to-win books, and even books made more for looking at than looking in.

Beside them, a stack of paint brushes with WIPE ON A WORD engraved in gold on their sides. She opened a book – a looking-at book – and wiped a brush upon the word “sword.” Beside her appeared a blade in a scabbard tied to the bucket and leaning on the earth. She wiped the word “stone” and a stone appeared, then “lantern” and a lantern appeared on the stone.

So she shouldered the sword.

And she hoisted that fiery sunshine lamp.

And she made her way through the black hole in the fence into the dark, book and brush in hand.

On the other side, down the way of the red-rocky path, she met a hedgehog the size of a house who only had one eye. She quietly sang a prayer, came up behind him, and said “Hello.”

The hedgehog jumped and roared.

Adara nearly wet herself, but she stood her ground, ready to grab that sword.

“Oh hi,” the hedgehog said. “I’m sorry, I cannot see behind me with this eye.”

So Adara flipped the book’s pages until she found the word “monocle” and brushed over it with her bookbrush. A pair of one-eyed reading glasses with a golden chain appeared. Then she painted over “rearview mirror” and a mirror like the mirror on her momma’s van landed in the grass beside her. She attached the mirror to the hedgehog’s cheek, fixed the monocle upon his eye, and then said, “There.”

“I can see!” The hedgehog said, “I can see ahead and behind of me!”

Later she came to a hawk who couldn’t hold his babies because of claws. “Don’t come any closer,” he said, “or I’ll scratch you to pieces.”

Adara understood the problem – she had held babies before, had always dreamed of one day growing up to be a mother. She found the words “leather glove” and brushed them over. A yellow, leather glove just like her dad used to trim the bush walls showed up at her side. She picked it up and put it on the hawk’s super sharp claws.

“Oh thanks,” he said and he picked up one of his chicks. “Oh thank you, thanks miss…”

“Ara,” she said and went on her way.

As she went, she used the bookbrush to conjure up roller-skates for a slow turtle, hand-stitched clothes for these talking dolls, ear plugs for an owl that worked the nightshift, and a giant bottle of antacid pills for a dragon with way way too much heartburn. There was a unicorn that needed his horn trimmed, so she conjured giant clippers. To a hungry hungry caterpillar, she gave a free coupon to a Chinese buffet that had been hiding between the book’s pages. “You can serve yourself as much food as you want there,” she said. For a traveling singing group of garden gnomes that had been off-key, she brushed up an old fashioned tuning fork

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And then she needed the time – and none of the creatures on the other side of the gate knew the time – so she brushed up a clock and realized she was late for her supper.

She looked for words like “time travel device” and “teleporter” and “super speed running boots” but couldn’t find any thing that would help her get home sooner. She kicked herself for forgetting to bring another book, a different book with different things inside.

“Need a ride?” the gnomes asked, and they took her to the house of the unicorn, who let her ride bareback to the dragon’s den, who flew her to the owl, who called the turtle, who skated her to the hawk, who carried her gently to the giant hedgehog. She rode with or rode on every single one of them until she got back to the hole in the fence, to the gate and, setting the book and the bookbrush down, she heard her mother say:

“Ara!”

“Here, momma.”

“Whoa. You feeling alright? You look flushed.”

“I feel wonderful,” Adara said.

“Yeah… where have you been?”

“I’ve been painting books to life.”

_____________________________

If you have questions regarding the sessions, the writing, or the products included, please feel free to contact Mark or me. And if you live outside of the Joplin, MO area, we’d love to talk about traveling to you to include your child in the series.

(417)-622-1379

markn@9artphoto.com
lanceschaubert@gmail.com


 

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  1. sedula

    So awesome you guys!

    1. lanceschaubert

      Thanks, sis! We’re super excited about this one!

  2. Helen Ross

    Hi Lance and Mark. Such a wonderful and innovative idea. And love the story and photography. Wishing you both every success.

    1. lanceschaubert

      Thanks so much for the compliments and encouragement, Helen. It means the world!

  3. Custom Fairy Tales for Kids :: The Chicken Steeper | Lancelot Schaubert

    […] Remember our custom-made fairy tales? […]

Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

Please comment & share with friends how you prefer to share:

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