Proms, Dance Recitals and Simon

What a busy weekend! On Saturday, we had a dance recital to photograph for Morton Community Center. It is always a fun event. Especially to see the really little ones who are so excited about performing onstage. That was in the morning, and then in the evening we had the Lewis Cass High School Prom. We have been photographing it for about 7 years now and it is always a lot of fun. This year was a little strange because I began noticing that some of those attending the prom were the children of my Classmates! Yikes...I am getting old.
Anyway, here are a couple of photos from those events.
On Friday, my wife and I brought our new son, Simon, into the studio for his first "portrait" session. He did pretty well. I will say that is very difficult to photograph your own children since they don't feel they have to listen to you. We thought the "bibs" without shoes or shirt was a good introduction to Indiana and my family. I may be biased, but he is just too darn cute!

A few quick shots...

Yesterday I had to come in to the office on my day off to do a little paperwork. While I was here I decided to see if I could get a really good photo of Simon. I can get him to smile without any problems, but as soon as I put the camera to my eye...he would stop smiling. Luckily the little guy has eyes that look GREAT when he isn't smiling too big. I did a couple of "window-light" shots to really show his eyes. This is one of my favorites.

Okay....It's been a while, but with good reason!

I haven't been to good about updating this blog lately. Sorry. As many of you know, my wife and I are adopting from Ethiopia....I guess I should say that we now HAVE adopted from Ethiopia. We made a whirlwind trip there 2 weeks ago and only got back last week. We came home with our little guy, Simon Kebebe Ailor, who is just amazing. The trip was amazing, difficult, exhausting, thrilling, emotional...etc. I still haven't processed it all into words just yet. Here is a photo of our little guy. As my son was attached to my hip during most of the trip, I didn't get to take nearly as many photos as I would have liked. I did get to take photos of some Children at the Yezelelem Minch feeding program. They do an amazing job of providing a hot meal for over 720 kids a week. I just thought these three little girls were beautiful and I had to take their photo. I got a lot of amazing photos of the kids that day.

Into Africa!!!!

Well, to all of you who have been keeping up on this blog, you know that My wife and I are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. On March 17th, we officially passed court and Simon legally became our son. What this means is that once his birth certificate and passport come through...we are off to get him and bring him home!!!!! It is looking more and more like we will be traveling during the last week of April. Ailor Photography will remain open during the week we will be gone, but our hours might be a little limited. I will post our exact dates and hour changes here as soon as I am 100% sure.
We GREATLY appreciate everyone's support and understanding during this time. This will, in no way, delay anyone's sittings or orders as Dana will continue to be here to provide service. Thanks again, and keep checking here. Once we are home I can post some photos!

Thank you J&C!

I would like to thank the Lafayette Journal and Courier for making us the "Blog of the Week" this week. I was very surprised when they called, but grateful for the free publicity. I was even more shocked that they chose to run the excerpt about our adoption. The little guy is famous and he's not even here yet!
As a reminder... Ailor Photography is offering $10 sitting fees in February! If you book an appointment for a sitting between February 2nd and February 16th and bring a copy of the coupon below, your sitting fee will be only $10!!!!!!!! Call today as times are going to fill up fast!

Modeling Sitting

Wow! Did we get some cool picts. or what? On Saturday we had a modeling sitting which is one of my favorite things to do. It is usually 6- 7 outfits with Hair and make-up changes...the works. Since it is winter, this sitting was all done in the studio. Thanks to a great model who was fun and had great taste in outfits, we got some really cool photos. Check them out:The second one here was taken on one of our newest backgrounds. It is very modern and looks great with any solid color. ESPECIALLY black or white. Thanks again for a fun sitting.
Everyone don't forget out $10 sitting fee special for February! Check out the details and coupon in my last post.

$10 SITTING FEES IN FEBRUARY!

To celebrate our first year at our new location, we are offering $10 sitting fees from February 2nd - February 16th. Schedule your appointment during this period and bring in this coupon:
and your sitting fee will only be $10! That is over 60% off!!!!!! Good for all family, Senior, Business, and Childrens studio portraits. CALL TODAY TO MAKE YOUR APPOINTMENT!!!

IT's A BOY!!!!!!!

I have mentioned on this blog before that my wife (Wendi) and I are adopting a child from Ethiopia. We were not expecting to get a referral and find out who our child was until early spring. However, yesterday afternoon we were totally shocked to get a call and find out that we have a 15 month old little boy!!!!! He is so adorable that I can't describe him. We are not allowed to post photos of him online so if you want to see him....you will have to stop by!!!!!

We decided to call him Simon and keep his Ethiopian name as his middle name (Can't post that either...sorry). We are not sure what we will call him since he already recognizes his birth name, but for now we will call him Simon.

We have a little road ahead of us with paperwork, travel shots, court dates, immigration dates and travel, so it will be a little while before we can have him home. We appreciate all the support and kind words we have heard from everyone and look forward to you meeting our little guy.
~Mark

Dickens Success

We had a great time on Saturday during the Dicken's of a Christmas. We took a lot of photos and raised $220 for The Jubilee Christmas. This was our first year taking photos with Santa, but rest assured it will not be the last. Next year we would like to raise even more and if things go well, we might offer to match the amount we raised! At the LUM they told me that they are providing for over 1600 Children this Christmas and we are glad that we were able to help.
Merry Christmas!
Mark and Wendi Ailor

Set for Photos with Santa - Thanks Traci!

A special thanks to Traci from "Walnut Street Traditions" for helping us create our setting for the Santa photos. Here is a photo of me (trying to look festive) on the set. We hope to see you all here tomorrow for your photos with Santa. Remember...it is all for a good cause!
Merry Christmas!