Sally Hopkins was seldom in photos because she typically was the person shooting them.
Mrs. Hopkins liked to take pictures of clients in natural settings. Atlanta's Winn Park was one of her favorite spots to shoot black-and-whites or color prints.
Recently, she and Karen Varsha, a friend who also specializes in portraits of family and children, took photographs of each other. Just for fun.
"When she was sick, she had not shot any photographs in a while, so she helped me with a shoot that I was doing," said Mrs. Varsha of Atlanta. "She called the next day and said that she'd called two clients to shoot. She had not done any in a year. That's how much she loved it."
Two years ago, Sally Morris Hopkins of Atlanta was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The 44-year-old mother of two died Tuesday at Hospice Atlanta from its complications. A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Hopkins was born in Baltimore but raised in Richmond, Va. There, she graduated from St. Catherine's School. She then entered the University of Virginia, where she earned a bachelor's degree in communications in 1988.
In her senior year of college, she began dating UVA senior John David Hopkins III of Atlanta. They'd met as freshmen during a luncheon, but she told him in later years that she had no recollection of the encounter. Mr. Hopkins, though, remembers it well.
"She paid no attention to me whatsoever," he said. "She was from Richmond, knew lots of people coming to UVA, and her boyfriend in high school had been a quarterback. She didn't need to talk to a kid from Atlanta. She never remembered that luncheon, but I remember it distinctly."
After college, Mrs. Hopkins lived in Washington, D.C., and sold advertising for a computer trade publication. Her future husband attended law school at the College of William & Mary.
In 1994, the couple married and moved to Atlanta, where the tennis and yoga lover became a homemaker. She started her business, Sally Hopkins Photography, after the boys were older.
"It was something she always wanted to pursue," her husband said, "and she was a natural."
On her business website, Mrs. Hopkins said her love of photography came from her father, who always kept a camera handy. She was the same way.
"I strive to capture the essence of a child through a single photo," she wrote on the site. "There is nothing more gratifying than when a parent tells me I have captured their child's or spouse's spirit through my photographs."
Mrs. Hopkins and Mrs. Varsha had talked about opening a studio together.
"We had photography in common in a big way," Mrs. Varsha said. "She loved photography and brought out the beauty of people in her photos."
Additional survivors include two sons, John David Hopkins IV and Foster Morris Hopkins, both of Atlanta; parents Dewey Blanton Morris and Nancy Edmunds Morris of Richmond; and a sister, Katherine Morris Walmsley of Charlottesville, Va.
About the Author
