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  • Maria Martins

    I'm a traveler, portraitist, and a lover of nature and all its mysteries. For 30 years I have helped create magical moments for families through fine art portraiture. I look forward to continuing my work by helping you capture your next timeless portrait!

    Asheville | Avalon | West Palm

There really is nothing better than swinging on a shaded porch swing on a sunny summer day.

At Unique Image, we strive to make your experience here comfortable and relaxed, like coming to a second home. It’s important to us that you enjoy yourself here. Being a home-business, the environment is more casual and friendly, allowing you and your family to feel more at ease. There’s no photography experience quite like ours.

Let our family take care of yours. Join us on the porch for a summer sunny day portrait! We’ve saved the perfect seat for you. This porch swing has been witness to beautiful family portraits, delicate Communion portraits, senior portraits, Easter portraits, birthday portraits–you name it, this swing has been a part of it.

Grab a glass of cold iced tea, your loveliest sun dress or slacks, and meet us out back for a nice swing on the porch!

Posted in Summer Portraits
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Whether you’re graduating in a few weeks or in a year and a few weeks, it’s the perfect time to come in for your senior portraits. The summertime is ideal for rich, gorgeous portraits, especially when our gardens begin blooming in June.

Senior portraits are not just formal suit and dress head shots made to fill a spot in the yearbook. They are so much more! They’re renderings of your personality, capturing who you are at this very moment. During our sessions you can be relaxed, silly, glamorous, reflective, and most importantly: deeply yourself. This is a chance to show off who you are! Your athletic and artistic sides, your outfit you feel the best in, and bringing the things that you cherish.

We are here to give you the most authentic portraits possible, celebrating this special occasion in your life as you come into your own as an adult. Come into the studio with multiple outfits, props and accessories that help express what makes you, you, and don’t forget to have fun!

Hope to see you soon!

Posted in Senior Portraits
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Your accomplishments,  your hard work, and the growth from the challenges you’ve overcome, have brought you to this one moment as you sit amongst your family and peers to accept the reward of your efforts. And it’s not your diploma.

Diplomas are pieces of paper that testify your advancement, but it is not the most important gift you have been given today. The large graduation ceremony is an occasion to celebrate your success, but even that is not significant enough to be the gift you truly deserve. The presents, the cards, the party, and the money, are still not as important. It’s really very simple, and often so brief that many miss the opportunity to receive it.

Years of achievement rest easily behind you and the unlimited possibilities of the future wait ahead, and in this moment you are free. This is the deep breath before the plunge. You stand suspended between two worlds and in this stillness you are given the chance to reflect. It may seem like an anticlimactic gift, but this is an opportunity for the observer to become the observed, giving you a moment liberated from responsibility and action and allowing you to just be.

Acknowledge this moment. Honor yourself.

Life gets busy, and not many moments are perfectly reserved for self-inquiry. Always remember this inward place, because knowing you can always return to it is one of the most precious gifts you receive today.

Congratulations Class of 2014, and welcome, Class of 2015! I’ll leave you with the poignent poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Go forth and be the captains of your soul! 

Posted in Senior Portraits,Uncategorized
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Mamas, you’re positively glowing!

The happiness of an expectant mother produces such a lovely radiance. Expecting mothers are absolutely gorgeous! They bear a beauty that’s embellished by a proud smile and loving glow, transforming the woman that was into the Mother that will be. You have a special opportunity to witness the uniqueness of this beauty and to cherish it.

They are carrying a little life in their body, participating in one of the oldest and most universal rites we have as living beings and as women. This is something to celebrate graciously in whatever way that you can. One of the simplest ways being to furnish an artful rendering of this special time with professional portraits.

And we don’t want to leave the father’s out! This time is special for everyone involved. Bringing the significant other into the portrait creates a whole new scene, one that is intimate and evocative, creating a portrait that truthfully expresses the love you have for each other.

Embrace the miracle that is happening right before your eyes, and honor it as an everlasting art-piece.

Posted in Maternity Portraits
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No matter how old your baby may be now, they will always be your little baby.

Whether you want to capture the beginnings of a lifelong bond with your newborn or commemorate a relationship that has lasted through so many tears and laughs, we are here to make the beautiful portrait magic happen. Let us tell the tales of your lives’ stories together, bringing the narrative of motherhood and devotion into art that you can treasure forever.

Your relationship is unqiue. There is no format for the perfect Mother & Child Portrait. We understand that relationships are complicated and varied, and that a truly evocative portrait captures your subtle connections. Be yourself! Do what feels natural and authentic to your interactions and let us handle the rest!

Celebrate the Mother you are, you have, and you love. It’s one of the most special opportunities in this life to be a parent, and we’d love to help you capture those magical moments to save as lasting pieces of art. Gift certificates also make a great present for mom!

Hope to see you soon.

Posted in Mother's Day Portraits
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