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Family spirit, captured

This photographer forsakes posing in order to focus on family and the moment.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published November 26, 2006

Welcome to the enchanted tire shop.

After several months of sweat and a few thousand dollars, Sheri Kendrick has transformed an old tire store at 380 34th St. N into the new home for Enchanted Forest Photography. While she still gets walk-ins looking for repairs, Kendrick said she's slowly getting rid of the new-rubber smell and forming a creative oasis for her experiential family photography.

"We were outgrowing our spare bedroom," said Kendrick, 37, who founded the business with her husband, Ingmar Slomic.

Kendrick named the business for its original location in the couple's Hudson home on 20 forested acres. After they moved to St. Petersburg in 2003, Kendrick's "beater" van was stolen and recovered twice and repaired at the Ice Cold Air auto shop with which she now shares a building. As she shopped for business space, the auto shop's owner offered her the empty tire store.

Kendrick sits on a puffy couch in the refurbished showroom, watching a slide show of sample pictures and telling stories about the subjects. She says she wanted to create a warm space for her business because home and comfort are hallmarks of the way she shoots.

"Part of my job is to get people to relax," she said. "I try to get deep inside and capture their spirit."

Kendrick said she shoots subjects in her studio, and often outdoors in their favorite locations, but prefers something she calls "Home is Where the Heart Is," through which she visits people in their homes doing their favorite things to capture a moment.

"It's a record of that whole time of their life," she said of the approach, which is especially useful for fast-growing children.

Kendrick is fond of children as subjects because they have no ego and are just themselves. She also photographs pregnant mothers, newborns and births. Kendrick also volunteers her skills to a nonprofit, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, which deals in what the group calls "infant bereavement photography."

"Very often, pictures are all these people have" to remember a child stillborn or that died early in life. Kendrick said she's thinking of starting a similar volunteer organization to provide memories of older children stricken with terminal illnesses. She said those photos can help with grieving and healing.

Unlike some photographers who shoot families and weddings to pay the bills while they pursue creative projects on the side, Kendrick said her focus is on the family. She said she gets involved in knowing her clients, not just their images.

"If there was one thing on this planet I could save, after my family, I'd save my pictures," she said. "That's the feeling I try to give to other people.

"I want to be part of people's lives. I want to be their photographer for life."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified November 25, 2006, 22:31:03]