Known as the original ‘Mama Bird,’ Shari Miller has become a prominent & beloved fixture in the Chaparral Firebird community. Photo by @jasonmyersphoto

ARIZONA SINCE 2009

We moved to Phoenix from Toronto, Canada in January of 2009. I left my corporate career to make the move across the border and planned to stay home for my son’s high school years.

My son, Matthew, enrolled in Chaparral in August of 2009 and graduated in 2013. He decided to join football, a sport he had never played, as a great way to get to know some kids and that’s where it all began. I joined the football board officially in 2010 and became quite involved with the team and program. I had always been the “momtographer” and so I started to shoot the games and provided photos as a gift to the team. I am a big believer that if you, as a parent, have the desire, talent and ability to capture a team, you should. After 4 years, my time was done and it was time to move on to something new.

I was asked to stay one more year to help the team make the transition. I agreed, and at the end of the that year, I was contemplating going back to a corporate job. A football parent who had an incoming freshman and an upcoming senior asked if I’d come back and shoot if parents paid me to do it. There were enough families that still wanted photos of their kids…and that’s how it started. In order to shoot that season, I needed to get ramped up and SLM Images, LLC was born. The name is simply my initials. I never thought it would go anywhere. I figured I’d shoot that season, make enough to buy a new lens and be done. Never did I think that this little business of mine would ever take off. Chaptown had something different in mind, for sure!

Since then, things have changed and I now capture a number of Chaparral teams including: Football, Swim & Dive, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Lacrosse. My business grew organically by word of mouth and now it seems like every year a new team comes my way and I love every second of it!

I think of myself first and foremost as a Sport Photographer who was just lucky enough to have a community wrap their arms around me in love and support. But when you spend as much time as I do with student athletes, it was a natural evolution to also move into portraits. I offer both senior portraits for high school seniors, as well as family portraits. In the last 4 years I also started offering a Media Day for my teams where the athletes get to come into the studio and do creative shots very similar to what would be done at the collegiate level. The kids love it and I do too. It’s yet another way to capture them during their high school years.

So, for me, this little gig is bigger than just taking photos. I know just how difficult it is to try and capture your son or daughter doing what they love and then also get to watch it. You can’t shoot and watch at the same time, trust me! So, I tell my parents that it’s not about the photos. Sure, they are nice for the memory books. But more importantly, what I do gives parents the opportunity to be there for their kids. Authentically, be there. That means they don’t have to worry about trying to get “the” shot and watch the game thru the iPhone screen. They can sit back and watch it happen with their own eyes, lock it into their memories and know I’ve got them. When they look back on those images, they’ll have the memory of being there, in those moments with their kids and their kids will have that memory, too!

I get to capture all the moments so they can just live them! At least that’s what I try to do and for many, their entire 4 years of high school have been documented by yours truly. It’s a job that I am blessed to have and one that I never take for granted.

In this Covid-19 era, my business has been essentially closed. My last game was a Lacrosse Game on March 6th. If I had only known then what I know now, I would have cherished those moments even more. I just opened up a few dates for a 6-foot session for my clients who were to receive Spring Minis as part of their senior portraits. We’ve been out doing a few Cap & Gown shots and just enjoying the chance to see everyone, even at a distance. For my seniors, it’s the end of their high school years and I’ve been with them all along the way. There is nothing that would keep me from capturing their final months as a Firebird.

I’m choosing Chaparral Athletics to receive the proceeds because this is my town; my community. Everyone needs a place where they feel part of something and that what this school does. For four years, kids from all over come and are part of something. CHAPTOWN is our small town here in a big city. It’s a community of administrators and coaches and parents and athletes who all come together and do amazing things. For over a decade, Chaptown has been home to me and for all these students, I want it to always feel like home when they are there. Being a public school, there aren’t always enough dollars to go around and the teams and coaches and boosters work hard to give these kids the best experience possible and give them a chance to go on to the next level playing a sport they love.

My business was built because of Chaptown and I am forever grateful.

Shari has chosen Chaparral High School Athletics as her beneficiary, who will receive 100% of the proceeds from the sale of her ‘CHAPTOWN’ custom trucker hats.

Follow Shari on her website, www.SLM-images.com, and on Facebook and Instagram.

Learn more about Chaparral High School’s athletic program at https://chaptownsports.com/.

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