About your Photographer
I like to think that this will be my legacy.
My name is Mar.
Correction: My name is Margaret Theresa Martinez.
My mother named me after two of my great grandmothers...
and she is very proud of that.
You can call me Mar.
My obsession with photographs comes from a combination of elements.
My grandmother.
My grandmother is known as "the camera lady" and "the paparazzi" in our hometown of Colorado City, Texas. Her camera is her companion EVERYWHERE she goes. People expect it and they love it. She makes a trip to print photos out as often as she can, and she gives them away. For her, this is how she loves.
My mother.
My mother is my biggest fan, assistant, and contributor.
She has helped me buy cameras, lenses, props, and invest in my education.
Taking photos is so much work.
It's impossible to do without a team and when I say that my mother IS nine-tenths of my team. I mean it.
It's buying all of the camera bodies and lenses.
It's monthly fees and upkeep for a website, functioning gallery.
It's the hours before the sessions charging batteries and prepping memory cards.
It's filling up with gas and dropping off the kids at Nina's house, 20 minutes away.
It's showing up early to set up and staying late to tear down and clean.
It's waiting for the photos to upload to that expensive computer.
Then it's hours of culling through images to remove the ones with a blink or that are out of focus.
It's hand editing each image for 10 minutes plus.
It's sending out your previews and juggling 10 other galleries with deadlines.
It's doing final checks for consistency, uploading your gallery and sending out the finished work.
It's answering all of your questions and doing my absolute best to help you.
The price of photography isn't for the time spent together.
The price of photography is all of the time it takes that you don't see.
It's for all of the expenses that you'll never know about.
All of which I could't do without my village, especially my mother.
You've probably met her if you have visited the Christmas sets in the Studio with me this season.
All props, all things extra, that's mom.
I would call myself a minimalist when it comes to my photographs.
I like clean. I like solid colors. I like simple.
So when you guys want fun and props, that's all her.
I was raised and molded by women who give.
I was taught by women who are ambitious and chase their passions.
My mother always wanted to be a photographer so when she saw the spark in me, she nurtured it.
Building my own legacy
So being raised by mothers that invest in others and invest in their own made me ask myself...
What legacy am I leaving?
How do I flood my own family with love and light and still sprinkle it across the universe?
Smiles, Laughter, and proof of love.
I take photos of my family every day.
Every day I hear "MOOOOOOOOOOM" and get the eye rolls.
After the eye rolls come the giggles and the biggest smiles followed by silly faces.
What I have done is successfully documented our lifetime of love so far.
A life full of love, laughter, and light.
I GET TO SHARE THAT!
...and I get to share it with YOU!
My family, and the women before me, invested in me so that I could find out what it is that I am meant to share with the world.
I am supposed to share these laughs and this forever with you.
In the real world, we're too busy living the moments we'll remember.
We're loving and laughing and experiencing it.
There is no time to grab the camera and do it again.
When there is time for the photo, there isn't always a time to print it.
So come and laugh with me.
Come and play.
Come giggle and share all of your love with me.
I'll hold the camera and preserve those moments that you're living.
I'll help you save those hugs and kisses forever.
I believe with every part of my heart that this is what I have to offer the world.
How can I sprinkle love and light across the universe?
I can pour my love of photographs and laughing into your family.
I can pour my love into your own memories.
One smile at a time, that love and light we create is what I hope my legacy will be.
