A photo by Tamme Stitt-Spiezio.
Ware went on medication, and sometime thereafter met Stitt-Spiezio through Facebook, with whom she felt a connection. Stitt-Spiezio convinced the fellow former policewoman to give Goddess Girl workshop a shot. “It was an amazing experience and the pictures have allowed me to see myself in a way that I hadn’t seen myself before … as being pretty,” said Ware. “The running joke at that Goddess Girl was that I was going to be the only one there wearing combat boots … and I was. I brought a pair of my combat boots and I rocked them with an amazing white gown.” [Editor’s note: See this week’s Celebrations of Love special section.] Stitt-Spiezio later created a side by side image of a photo of Ware in Iraq set next to her Goddess Girl shoot.
Social media, good and bad
Facebook has been a blessing in many ways for the business, but has also been a source of grief. Tamme and Christene are very open and proud of their marriage, and were featured together on the front page of the Poughkeepsie Journal review of gay marriage’s first year last summer. Around when Tamme Stitt Photography reached a boom with the benchmark of 3,000 likes, Stitt-Spiezio said she posted about how her “wife delivered a cup of coffee” to her. Much to the surprise and disappointment of the couple, Tamme Stitt Photography went down over 100 likes within a few short hours. Stitt-Spiezio said though she was “nervous as hell” to lose so many fans so quickly, she ultimately concluded she didn’t really want to have their business anyway.
Stitt-Spiezio has employed strategy to help boost her photography business’ success. She has begun to photograph and feature classic boudoir photos on her Facebook page, and by paying the $10-a-pop “promotion” fee to have her pictures show up on more people’s feeds, one of her photos got 100,000 views — far exceeding any expectation. Stitt-Spiezio said she specifically staggers the posts of her photos to 6 to 7 a.m. or 5 to 9 p.m., to ensure her work does not wind up lost in her fan’s morning newsfeed.
Jeanna Fish Stapleton of Niskayuna started following Tamme Stitt Photography when she saw Stitt-Spiezio’s ability to make women of all sizes look beautiful. “I decided to see if she could do the same for me in an individual shoot,” said Stapleton. “For the first time in a very long time I was not critical of my looks, I loved each and every picture. She has since photographed me during pregnancy and recently took our first family photos which will be passed down for generations. She doesn’t take photographs, she captures memories and makes time stand still.”
Tamme is an amazing person who is a gifted photographer. She has enriched the lives of many by changing the way they see themselves. I love seeing the world through her eyes in her pictures. Thank you, Tamme.