Seaside Topsail Photography

Topsail Insider Intro

Christa 0:01

Welcome to the top. So insider podcast where locals vacationers and those looking to relocate to the greater topsoil area can hear all about the wonderful businesses and events in our beautiful coastal Carolina towns, including Hampstead. Topsail beach surf city. North Topsail Holly Ridge and Sneads ferry.

Coming Up!

0:25

Coming up. A wonderful interview with a local photographer for your family beach portraits. Here all you need to know before booking your session. You'll also hear a couple of really touching stories. One of which went viral with shows like good morning America and the today show. Calling her for interviews.

Intro to Amy Shores

Christa 0:52

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Topsail Insider podcast. Today I am interviewing Miss Amy Shores, the owner of Seaside Topsail Photography. It's one of the leading photography businesses in the Topsail area. So thank you so much for joining me, Amy. How are you doing?

Amy 1:08

I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you

Christa 1:12

I'm so glad you're here. You ready to jump right in?

Amy 1:14

Sure.

Christa 1:14

I know that you do a lot of Beach Family portraits. I saw them on your website. They're really beautiful. Thank you. I love them. You do over 150 shoots per year, right?

Amy 1:24

Yes, mostly in the summer. That's definitely our busiest time, but we do shoot all year long

Christa 1:29

Summer's coming hard and fast, so you better get

Amy 1:31

like crazy

Christa 1:32

Good. I'm glad to hear that you do a lot of sea life photography. You do all the beaches and the sunsets, you also do something that I'm gonna call artwork. Okay? It's more than photography because you're taking your wonderful shots and then you're putting the lyrics on top of that. And I'm sure there's some editing in there, but you make 'em look so amazing and beautiful and they're lyrics that I recognize, that were some of my favorite songs back in the day. So I love those. You do wedding photography, you do senior and graduation portraits, you do infant photography. You have your work on the walls of local businesses and you're selling them there, and you just opened up your own printing company, which is huge.

Where Amy’s from, what brought her to Topsail

Christa 2:11

Before we get into all that, I wanna talk about your history a little bit. Can you tell me where you're from?

Amy 2:16

Sure. Absolutely. So I was born and raised in Ohio. I was born in a small town called Wapa, Canta, Ohio. Home with Neil Armstrong. That's our little claim to fame. My mom actually worked at his museum, so she was got to meet him a couple times. Super nice man. Yes. I had a wonderful family. I have a brother. My two parents were my best friends. I absolutely loved growing up in Ohio. Still have lots of friends there. I went to Bowling Green State University and I went into education and I was a teacher for 28 years.

Christa 2:47

Okay.

Amy 2:47

Okay. I absolutely love teaching. I retired last year. I had found my love drifting more towards photography. I had done that on the side and done a lot of weddings on the weekends and I got up just about every morning for. Sunrises and I took sunset pictures

Christa 3:04

at the, here on the island. Yes.

Amy 3:06

We, I moved to Topal Island about nine years ago. I was teaching in Raleigh and came to Topal on vacation and thought, why in the world am I not living here? So, I applied for a job and got a job teaching in. Pender County and I finished my career in Pender County and I fell in love with the community. I fell in love with the parents and the children. This area is just so family oriented and kids are my love. I miss the kids, every day I still get A child will send me a text and say, Hey, I saw this guy this morning and I thought of you and it's the best gift in the whole wide world.

Christa 3:42

What grade did you

Amy 3:43

So I taught kindergarten for 17 years and then I moved to fifth grade and I ended my career in fifth grade with 10 year olds and taught with some of the most amazing people and still keep in touch with so many of them. One of my favorite times in the mornings when I'm out at Sunrise is taking pictures of the surfers. And it's almost inevitable that I recognize multiple surfers. I'll be students that I've had in the past and the wave at me. Make sure you get me Ms. Shores,

Christa 4:08

I love that. That's really special.

Amy 4:10

truly is. It combines both of my loves, kids and photography and so it it makes me very happy.

Passion for Photography and Mother’s Gift

Christa 4:17

How old were you when you started developing your passion for photography?

Amy 4:20

I've always been interested. I would say my passion grew a lot when I moved to this beautiful place. It's hard not to fall in love with photography when you wake up to those beautiful sunrises on the beach. I honestly started just with a cell phone on the beach. If I had time before school started, I would go and it just started my day off on the right foot to. Breathe it in and be grateful for, living in this beautiful place. And my mother was living with us at the time. She had moved down from Ohio and I would take her out there every once in a while to the beach and show her my pictures. And she loved to be with me. And it was about four years ago. She passed away about three weeks before Christmas.

Christa 5:01

sorry to hear that.

Amy 5:02

I had lost both of my parents four months apart, so it was a really difficult time. But she passed away right before Christmas and underneath a Christmas tree was my first professional camera. It was like her last gift to me. I'm sorry,

Christa 5:14

sorry. You're gonna make me cry. That's incredible. Yeah.

Amy 5:17

And I just started going out after that. I could feel her and both of them and it became like therapy to me. You don't need to sell them and you don't need to do all the other things, but just connecting with something so beautiful makes you realize that what a gift you had, I really feel like that was her kind of sign for me, that I'm gonna give you one last gift and. Yeah, it was

Christa 5:37

beautiful. Aw, thank you for sharing that. Sure. Absolutely.

Photography Classes

Christa 5:42

Is this all self-taught or did you take any classes?

Amy 5:45

So I did take a couple of classes online and then I also took a class. That's taught at Cape Fear Community College right over here in Surf City. They have a intro to photography class.. It. Teaches you the basics of any kind of DSLR camera. And then there's also advanced classes after that. I would highly recommend it to anybody who's interested in just upping their game a little bit. But honestly, also online. YouTube is such a great teacher now.

Christa 6:11

mean, No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Every

Amy 6:13

time I get a new camera, the first thing I do is go on YouTube and listen to all the experts. That have already used the camera because they have so many tips and different things to share. And it really it ups your game a lot. Hundred

Christa 6:25

percent. It's amazing. Yes.

Family Beach Portraits

Christa 6:27

Okay, Let's talk about the family photos. Sure. It's very popular here. When did that take off?

Amy 6:33

In the last few years, I think that through all of the covid people realize how important family was and how important our time is, and I think back to when my kids were little and I didn't do enough of that. And again, with my parents being gone, I would give anything to go back and have those portraits done again. One of the problems I had as a single mom with three kids growing up, I could never afford to do that. I pride myself very much on making it professional and affordable at the same time because, It. It's such an important thing to document and I can't tell you how many times I will do a family photo shoot, let's say a year ago, and through this past year, someone will reach out and say, Amy, I lost my dad this year, and if you have any other photos, is there any way

Christa 7:19

how about that?

Locations and Times

Christa 7:23

It's not just hopping out in front of the waves and snapping a picture. There's a lot more that goes into the work that you do prior to the photo shoot, I would assume, because you have to pick the right location. The right time of day. It gets windy on the beach oftentimes. How do you decide where you're gonna take the family

Amy 7:40

sure. So there are several things that go into it and families, a lot of times if they come regularly have specific spots that they wanna go to. But one of the most sought after times in the one the time slot that we fill up the most is called the magic hour. So it's the hour right before sunset. That's when

Christa 7:57

Okay. the clouds

Amy 7:58

and the colors change. A lot of times we get the pinks and the beautiful purples in the sky.

Christa 8:03

so pretty around here. exactly.

Amy 8:05

And the sun isn't so bright. That's definitely, especially in the summer, that's one of the most sought after times. I always try to find a spot that has a little bit of shade, the Surf City Pier is one of the Favorite spots for everybody. But it's really neat too because The pier is a great spot, but then you just move 10 steps down and then you just have the ocean in the background. And if you turn around the other way, you have the dunes in the background. So in that one spot, you can get several different backgrounds, several different looks,

Christa 8:32

I didn't think about that. Yeah.

Amy 8:33

Yeah.

Christa 8:33

That's awesome. And do you shoot sound side at all or is it just mostly surfside?

Amy 8:39

I do both. I shoot a lot of prom pictures on the sound because the kids don't wanna get their dresses, dirty or sandy on the beach side. If people want a sunset, obviously you have to go to the sound side. And actually several people request sunrise too, I did a proposal last year at Sunrise and it was absolutely

Christa 8:56

beautiful. I

Amy 8:57

The warmest part, 12 to two, I don't recommend most of the time in the summer because it's just so hot so we do early mornings and then I do a lot in the, during the magic hour, but a lot of families also like to have the shoot done right at their home, especially if there's multiple families staying there because obviously beach parking is not the easiest at the pier. I do a lot of family shoots going to the location where the families are Especially if. They have small children or elderly parents who can't climb the Steps and all those things. We just, we go all the way up and down the island.

Clothing Choices

Christa 9:29

I did see where you do help people out picking what clothes to wear. What do you recommend?

Amy 9:34

Yes. So some people like a certain, color scheme, this is what I tell people who aren't sure what they want for their color. I tell them to Google Beach family photo shoots, and if you just click images, there are hundreds of images of all different kinds of patterns that people use and it just gives them a much better idea. I don't typically recommend white because unless you're super tan, it tends to wash

Christa 9:57

people I bet a lot of people ask for that though, don't they?

Amy 9:59

They do. And if it's the end of summer when everybody has good color, it looks a lot different than now when, we haven't been out in the sun maybe so much. But

Christa 10:07

But no, it's terrible right now.

Amy 10:09

I don't think there's ever a bad choice. It's just what people prefer. But, I did a shoot last summer., and they had. 26 grandchildren, each grandchild had a number on their shirt, starting with the oldest to the youngest, and

Christa 10:25

shoot. I love that

Amy 10:26

thing. And then each separate family, there were four separate families, had a different color shirt. So one family had blue, one family had orange. So I could never remember all those names. So I'd say, okay, orange family, let's.

Christa 10:38

Go. That's brilliant.

Amy 10:39

was, they made for some of the cutest pictures and there were actually two babies that were not born yet that had their numbers. So they held up the little onesies with their numbers on 'em. But I just thought that was, I have never

Christa 10:51

seen that before. That's adorable. Oh my gosh, I love it.

Length of Photo Sessions

Amy 10:53

thing.

Christa 10:54

How long do the photo shoots generally take

Amy 10:56

We offer a few different packages. So we have mini shoots, which are usually about 30 minutes, and that would be a small family or even a couple that's engaged. We do the hour shoots anybody that has multiple families, we recommend at least an hour,

Christa 11:10

just

Amy 11:11

because it's a lot of switching in and out. I'm one of those people though that unless I have. Somebody right after me. I don't count minutes if I'm having fun. It's just, it's about fun and about them getting the experience they want and the pictures they

Christa 11:24

want You're making memories. Yeah, absolutely. You're recording them, but you're making them too.

Location and Wardrobe Changes

Christa 11:28

Do you change locations? Do you change wardrobes?

Amy 11:31

Yes. I have done a lot of the changing of locations clients will want some beach photos and then they might want something on the sound. Or, I've done a lot on trails, especially in the fall with leaves and different things. That's always a beautiful one. Senior portraits are one that we do a lot of clothing changes. Yeah.

Christa 11:49

I was gonna ask you about that because I was looking at your work and I did notice that there were some wardrobe and location changes. Sure.

Amy 11:55

So especially girls, senior

Christa 11:57

girls love

Amy 11:58

to change

Christa 11:58

clothes Mm-hmm. and I don't blame

Amy 12:00

no, I don't

Christa 12:00

either. For

Amy 12:01

shining moment and then the guys are like, are we finished Five pictures and I'm good. It's about them having the experience. I did senior portraits for a girl that's, Graduating from Tops. I did them back in the fall and I think we went to four different locations on the island, but it made for such beautiful pictures and she got all different kinds of looks and it was, they were absolutely

Christa 12:21

beautiful and she will treasure those for decades.

Weather

Amy 12:24

You got it. Absolutely.

Christa 12:26

How often do you have to reschedule for wind or weather, period?

Amy 12:31

It unfortunately you know, it happens in the summer. Typically, we tell clients if they're here for a week, we try to schedule 'em the first session towards the beginning of the week in case of weather. If it's their last day of vacation, we tend to say can we push it up a couple of days just in case we do our very best to get everybody in. You just never know. The beautiful part about where we are too is rain doesn't tend to last all day. So a client will say, they'll text me in the morning and say, Amy, it looks like rain this afternoon. And I'll say, let's just give it a little bit of time. And sometimes it's just a couple of hours and then it's gone. Yeah, so

Under the Rainbow

Amy 13:07

I did a wedding last summer and this was amazing. The weather looked terrible, and we thought, okay, we're gonna have to just have the wedding inside. It was supposed to be a beach wedding, and all of a sudden right before it looked, okay, we're gonna go, we're gonna go. So the family walked down, the music started, everybody got in place. And as the bride was coming down, she was walking down to somewhere over the rainbow. And I promise you, the biggest rainbow came across the sky and nobody

Christa 13:33

can see.

Amy 13:33

speak.

Christa 13:34

Oh my gosh. It

Amy 13:35

just one of those moments that you just never forget. But you can't plan that. I could try that a million more times and it would never happen. And the music set to that as well, But I thought, That's her gift for being so stressed out all day long. Because, brides are, they want everything to be perfect,

Christa 13:50

of course.

Amy 13:51

know, and I thought, and they made for the most beautiful pictures, so they got married literally under the

Christa 13:56

rainbow. I'm gonna look for those pictures

Touchups

Christa 13:58

on your site. What about touchups? Do you offer that as well?

Amy 14:01

Oh, absolutely. So my pictures are always edited, so I use Photoshop and Lightroom. I don't tend to overed. I just take out, things

Christa 14:09

that blemishes,

Amy 14:10

right, or if the hair is blowing in somebody's face, I do my best to, calm

Pricing

Amy 14:14

that down.

Christa 14:14

Do you mind talking about your pricing structure

Amy 14:17

No, not at all. Not at all. So our typical Half an hour mini session starts at $185 and it comes with about 30 pictures, edited pictures. All of our pictures are loaded in a digital Dropbox file, so they're sent digitally and once the clients have those files, they can print share, they can share the link with whomever they

Christa 14:37

want. So I just wanna hear that again. You said 30 edited pictures? Yes. That's a good amount. Yes. That's nice.

Amy 14:43

It really is. And again, it goes back to I, I'm about making it affordable and making sure everybody can have those pictures taken. So our 60 minute starts at $250 and then if there are multiple families, the price goes up, if, depending on how many pictures they want and all those

Christa 15:01

things. Gotcha. So

Amy 15:02

I'm honestly not one of those people that counts pictures either. It tends to be more pictures than we quote, but I, if I look at pictures and go, this picture's incredible and they're at 30, there's no way that I

Christa 15:14

can't Amy's throwing in another one.

Amy 15:16

You got that right. Because why

Weddings, Covid and Going Viral!

Amy 15:18

not?

Christa 15:18

Okay, so we talked about wedding photography. You do weddings all over though, it's not just on the island. correct? Yeah,

Amy 15:25

yes, I did. I had a wedding in Leland. I have friends and family in Ohio. I have had clients that have paid for me to go to Ohio to do

Christa 15:33

weddings. Oh, wow.

Amy 15:34

wow. Yeah, I've done senior portraits in Minnesota

Christa 15:36

clients

Amy 15:37

paid to, for me to come to Minnesota, so that's my dream too. I love the island, but I just wanna share this photography with anybody. We have family in New York, so we go up there and I do some shoots up there as well, but, Wilmington is a hotspot. I've been to

Christa 15:52

Beaufort. Oh, you go down to Wilmington a lot? Yes, I have. Oh, Beaufort. Yeah.

Amy 15:55

Yeah. I have weddings scheduled in Wilmington this summer, and the riverfront down there is

Christa 15:59

beautiful. That's, yeah. So yeah. There's a lot to look at around here. It's gorgeous. Absolutely. Yes. So speaking also of weddings. I want everyone to hear about the wedding story that went viral.

Amy 16:13

Oh, it was just, it was one of those moments that I'll just never forget. It was during Covid. I had a wonderful couple that they were supposed to get married in Hawaii, and obviously during Covid nobody was allowed to travel.

Christa 16:24

Oh yeah. Nobody

Amy 16:25

was allowed to go anywhere. This family had a family beach house on Toso Island and the couple lived outside of Wilmington, so they reached out to me and said, we still wanna get married, but we just can't have anyone there. And if we have our officiant and you come to the ceremony on the beach, would you take pictures for us? Absolutely, I lived across the street. So I said, sure. So the day of the wedding, I went over and I walked in and the bride was getting ready and she was frazzled, and she said, Amy, we still don't have the groom's ring. Oh,

Christa 16:54

Oh, wow.

Amy 16:55

I said, okay, take a deep breath. It's fine. There are worse things right. So she said the FedEx driver was supposed to be coming with the ring. Would I leave a note on the front door for him? So I just wrote a note and said, FedEx driver, we are around back, getting married. If the ring comes, will you bring it around back, taped it to the

Christa 17:11

front door.

Amy 17:12

So we go down and it's probably. About the middle of the ceremony and all of a

Christa 17:16

sudden oh, the ceremony had already started. Oh,

Amy 17:19

no ring yet. So we just, we were just winging it, whatever. It's fine. I would've given her one of my rings to use or whatever we needed to do. We are halfway through the ceremony and I hear the bride say He's here, and I look over, and this wonderful FedEx driver is running down the

Christa 17:36

dunes, waiting. No way.

Amy 17:38

Yes. Saying, hold on. So

Christa 17:40

the bride, I just got chills. it was just, it was

Amy 17:43

amazing. So the bride, her name was Savannah Turns and sees him. She starts running towards him. So it was like one of those moments. So I just started snapping pictures because it was just amazing. And he was so fabulous because it was covid. He like stopped and leaned way over and handed the package over to her. So I just documented, I thought it was one of those great moments. So we went on with the wedding and it was a beautiful day so I posted what a wonderful person this FedEx driver was, his name's Joe on Facebook. And I thought, it'd be a feel good story for all of my friends. Yeah It. I posted it probably in the evening. The next morning my phone rang and it was a reporter from Raleigh who said, we just saw your story. Would you be willing to do an interview? And I said, absolutely. Then my phone rang and it was Associated

Christa 18:29

Press. Oh my gosh. And

Amy 18:31

said, your story is going viral.

Christa 18:34

I. And

Amy 18:35

we would love for you to be able to share this with whoever wants to share

Christa 18:39

the story. Yeah.

Amy 18:40

And I was blown away and I said, of

Christa 18:42

course. Did you have to call and get permission from the bride? and Joe, the FedEx driver.

Amy 18:46

I reached out to Joe and I reached out to Savannah and we were so tickled with all of it

Christa 18:51

because I bet,

Amy 18:52

honestly, probably 50 times that day my phone rang Good Morning America called the Today Show, inside Edition Ellen. So we were on Good Morning America and all these places, The best part for me was Savannah, who had to have her wedding canceled in Hawaii, it brought joy to her.

Joe, the FedEx Driver

Amy 19:12

So Joe and I have become such good friends. We've just stayed in touch and so he met a beautiful lady and they just had a child. And Joe. Reached out to me and he said, Amy, we would love nothing more for you to come to the hospital and be one of the first people to meet our baby. Boy, that's so sweet. And it was just, and I took

Christa 19:32

pictures. Okay, wait a minute. Did she spot him in All of that viral thing? It's like, I gotta meet that Joe.

Amy 19:39

They are just the sweetest couple. And the quote during all of the interviews during that time was, love wins. And and I think it's so true in general, And that all came out of a missing wedding

Christa 19:49

ring. Isn't that great? crazy? That's wonderful. I love that story so much. Thank you for sharing

Amy 19:54

Oh, absolutely.

Toddlers and Infants

Christa 19:55

We talked about your senior portraits but we didn't talk about your infant photography. I would imagine shooting children would be difficult because you don't know what they're gonna do. If they're like my boys, they're making goofy faces the entire time I wanna shoot a photo. So how do you manage the children when you're trying to get these great shots, and especially toddlers and infants what's your trick?

Amy 20:18

I'll start with the toddlers. Toddlers. Being silly, I probably have a song Baby Shark. I don't know how many times

Christa 20:26

you poor thing, but it

Amy 20:28

usually works. Sometimes I'll put, if they're very little, I'll put like a little toy at the end of my lens so they know to look at the giraffe or they know to look at, some kind of something that gets their attention. But you know what? The beach is so fun. I let 'em run up and down the beach and I chase 'em around and those are the best

Christa 20:44

pictures I bet they are. absolutely. They're just being natural. The

Amy 20:47

smiles of just joy. So those are amazing. Are

Selling Photography Locally

Christa 20:51

So you've got your workup, but how many different places around town now?

Amy 20:55

So I have my work at Bosens. I have my work at Breezeway, restaurant. We have a new gallery called the Locals that I have some work in there as well. But I love to be able to share my work even if people. Aren't in a position to buy what's there. I love to share the island of people. To me that's a gift.

Christa 21:13

Do you have the prices or your contact information, do they buy them there on the spot or do they have to contact you to purchase them

Amy 21:21

they can buy them on the spot? I have QR codes on the price tag so they can use their phone and pay for it and walk out of the restaurant with the image right there

Christa 21:29

Modern technology. Yeah.

Amy 21:31

that funny.

Christa 21:31

funny. I love it.

Amy 21:33

We do a lot of shows in the summer and the fall as well. We do. Art shows. There's sneeze Ferry does a shrimp festival that we do every year. Ottoman Top Soul on the south side of the island is just a, it's a huge event. In those shows. I sell coasters, I sell eight by 10 paper. You know, It doesn't have to be the big framed canvas. So we just try to make something for everybody,

Christa 21:56

Yeah.

Song Lyrics

Christa 21:57

Okay. So I wanna talk about the photos that you're putting the lyrics to. Yes. How did you get the idea what's the status of that project?

Amy 22:05

Music has always been so important to me. I love anytime that I'm going through a rough spot, that's what I turn to. And even if it's not something bad, something good, to be able to have note cards or stationary or framed print It's been received very well and I actually asked for people to send me artists they would like to see as well.

Christa 22:25

I'm gonna send you

Amy 22:26

yes, please do. I always, it's so interesting to see what people

Christa 22:30

love, right? Mm-hmm.

Amy 22:31

sometimes it's a person that I would go, there is no way that I thought ac d

Christa 22:36

C would

Amy 22:37

be their favorite band,

Christa 22:38

was just thinking about that. I. Some acid rock and they're sending you these lyrics like, dude, you've gotta put this

Amy 22:45

Yes.

Christa 22:45

In front of that beach scene.

Amy 22:48

But you know what, it speaks to somebody. Absolutely. And that's the beauty of it.

Christa 22:52

Can we buy any of those now? Where are they, Where are they for sale?

Amy 22:55

sale? Yes. So we are working on our online store, which is a huge process. But on my Facebook page, there are images that people will say, Hey this is an image that I love. They'll message me, can I do this? We can do paper, we can do

Christa 23:07

print Um, you're doing it on demand right now? Yes. Okay. Yes. Gotcha.

Amy 23:11

And then My

Only 6 Months!

Amy 23:12

dream is in the near future to have an actual store, brick and mortar. And we only full-time started the business about six months ago. I'm just a dream chaser. That's what I

Christa 23:21

say. I didn't know you just started six months ago. Yeah. Yeah. Full

Amy 23:25

six months ago. I did a lot before, last year, in the last few years, weddings and things, on the weekends when I wasn't teaching and those kind of things, but we just, I made the leap. I decided that, you know what? Life is too

Christa 23:37

Good for you

Amy 23:37

not. Say what if?

Christa 23:39

Right? Absolutely. And so,

Amy 23:41

um, I've learned that along the way, life teaches you things maybe the hard way sometimes,

Christa 23:45

Mm-hmm. but you

Amy 23:46

do it while you can because we're not guaranteed anything. And so I am so happy. I'm terrified, but I'm happy and I can't tell you how many people say, I'm so proud of you for doing what you've done, because it took a lot of courage to, to walk away from that guaranteed security of a job. But I'm, I wake up every day so grateful yeah. I just I have a dream. I'm gonna go

Christa 24:10

it. I love it. Yeah. Keep doing it. Thank you.

New Printer

Christa 24:15

Okay, so moving on to the biggest news that you have right now is you have started this new printing business. Tell me about that and why you decided to go in that direction.

Amy 24:26

Yes, absolutely. So it was a huge investment and a huge step for us. But I was selling so many. Canvases and pieces of artwork that I had to send out to be printed, and it was costing me way too much money, and then I would have to up my price to sell to my client because I had to make back my own printing costs. I sat down with my son and we thought, okay, we're gonna invest. So we bought the best Cannon printer that there was out there. It's a 60 inch printer. But it is absolutely incredible.

Christa 24:56

I was wondering I saw a picture on Facebook and it looked like a lot of machinery

Amy 25:00

Yes, it's a monster. And to be honest with you, I had no training. As a matter of fact, it was so big, it was delivered by a semi-truck.

Christa 25:08

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Amy 25:09

Oh my gosh, what have I done?

Christa 25:11

yes. Yeah.

Amy 25:12

But it came and I was. So excited. Was it easy? No. Did I cry a lot? Yes. Yes. Because just teaching myself the, the graphics now we build our own wooden frames that the canvases wrapped around.

Christa 25:25

Oh wow.

Amy 25:26

You always have to leave area for the wrap. I didn't know how to do any of that. Yeah. So I called on people smarter than me and my friends, and that's what you're supposed to do in life. Right? And in this the last six months, what we've accomplished

Perfect Canvas

Amy 25:38

is pretty incredible. I have a wonderful rep through a company I work with, and he said, Amy, I think I've found the perfect canvas for you. It is beautiful, it is shiny and the best part, it is made from a hundred percent recycled water bottles. And for this, it's incredible. And it honestly is the best canvas that I've used. And for this area it's, we're strong on protecting this

Christa 26:00

ocean Absolutely.

Amy 26:01

And the environment. And what a great way to incorporate this beautiful island through my art using recyclable

Christa 26:08

materials. I love that.

Amy 26:09

So, that's what we use. We can print up to, 60 inches. We do small prints, we do large prints, we do all kinds of things. I want it to be affordable and I want it to be beautiful

Christa 26:19

what's

What’s Coming Up? Busy Season with Son, Business Partner

Christa 26:20

coming up for you? What are your plans for the future? What's going on?

Amy 26:22

So I'm, our busy season is coming up summer, so we still have some availability. It's quickly, getting filled, but we have, I think we have 10 weddings this summer.

Christa 26:33

Yeah, that's a

Amy 26:34

I don't even know how many photo shoots My son is my business partner. He does all of the online communicating. He posts advertising for me, and he's in charge of all that. And the best part for me is he has to talk to me at least three or four

Christa 26:47

times a day. Yeah.

Amy 26:49

I kind Keep him near. Yes, Yes.

Christa 26:52

talk to mama. Exactly.

Amy 26:54

And my dream is for, I just want all my kids. To be involved in it. I would love to leave this someday to them and go, mom did this for

Christa 27:01

us.

Amy 27:02

Nothing would make me happier

Christa 27:03

than that. I bet. Yeah.

Final Thoughts - Join Me on the Beach or for Coffee

Christa 27:05

Are there any any last thoughts on what you want us, the listeners to know about you, Amy Shores and your business?

Amy 27:12

Just that I would be absolutely honored to share in any kind of life event that anybody has coming up. I love to be around people and you know what, even if. All you wanna do is go walk the beach with me in the morning and take some pictures with me. Most of the time I'm by myself. I can't say that I don't have the makeup on from the day

Christa 27:31

before,

Amy 27:31

cuz I probably do when I roll out of bed. Sometimes people will say, Hey, are you Amy? And I'm like, oh, what do I look like today? Should I say yes or no? I'm not sure.

Christa 27:40

I dunno who you're talking about. No, it's not me. It's not me. She's crazy. That's funny.

Amy 27:47

A lot of vacationers will come and say, Hey, I follow you. Is there any way that maybe we could meet for coffee that makes me so happy? And to be able to just. Sit down and meet somebody new and for them to go, wow, this island has people that are so welcoming. I think that's so important. That's the impression we wanna leave them. Right. So call me or say, Hey, will you come teach me how to do this or that? I'll meet you on the beach anytime. It's my favorite place to be. If I could put a little shack right on the beach, I'm sure that's where I would probably live the rest of my life. That would be amazing. Yes,

Christa 28:18

I would love that too. It's slide over. Amy, I'm coming over. Whatever. Okay. Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure sitting here with you and getting to know you. You have such a great energy. Thank you. And I've just really enjoyed this. Thank

Amy 28:32

too.

How to Reach Amy

Amy 28:33

Thank you.

Christa 28:33

Okay, so I'm going to tell you how to reach Amy Shores at Seaside Tops Photography. Her phone number is nine one zero. 2 8 4 6 3 0 8. Her email address is Amy a m y@seasidetops.com, and her website is seaside tops.com. She's on Facebook. She's also on Instagram, so you can find her there. Her pictures are wonderful. Her website is just loaded full of wonderful photos, so be sure to go there too. If you weren't able to write any of that down, don't worry. I'll always put all that contact information in my podcast description.

Closing

Christa 29:10

Thank you for joining me. Thanks listeners. Thank you Amy. I appreciate it. And we will see you around tops all. Hey, thank you for joining me today on Topsail Insider. If you like today's episode, please hit the follow or subscribe button so that you can get the Topsail Insider Podcast delivered automatically to whichever podcast platform you're listening on. And if you're a business owner and you wish to set up a pre-interview or you want to advertise, please email me at topsailinsider@gmail.com. Please also find, and like the Topsail Insider Facebook page, I provide links to the new podcast there each week, as well as providing photos of the businesses that I'm highlighting along with any of their upcoming events. So, hey, let's do this again next week. I'll see you around Topsail