Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 1:01pm
Monday. Monday is going to be a good day. Why, you ask? Only because something super exciting is going to happen. The next step in this journey of mine is about to start. I’m having my initial phone consult with the folks that are developing my brand!! I will finally get to talk all about what Life. Now Photography means to me and have it interpreted into something tangible. Something for everyone to see and experience. And that makes me happy. So very, very happy. I don’t know how long the process will take, but there will be some changes around here! Good changes. So check back soon…
And on a total tangent, here’s a pic of me in the car from earlier this week. I was on my way up to the city to go to lunch with the Hub. He had been out of town since Sunday and I missed him. And I know, I shouldn’t be shooting while driving…but I couldn’t help it. I was inspired by someone else who did this shot, only way better:
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 3:12pm
Aren’t they sweet? One of my favorite things is receiving baby announcements in the mail. I usually display them on our fridge for at least a month (ok, maybe longer!). Announcements are a great way to share images of your newborn with friends and family. Oh how I wish we’d had our photographer do our announcements! For starters, I would’ve had access to wonderful photos of my baby. Shhh, don’t tell anyone that I didn’t have professional photos taken of our babies. I think I just had major pregnancy brain (you pregos out there know what I mean!), and I didn’t think to schedule a newborn session in advance. And we all know that our pregnancy brain turns into mommy brain as soon as the baby actually arrives, and mommy brain is WORST than prego brain!!! You’d think I could’ve just taken my own pictures of them, right? Right, because any time that I wasn’t feeding, burping, comforting or changing the baby (which was ALL the time), all I wanted to do was try and get decent, in focus pictures of them. In reality, all I wanted to do was sleep!! And when I wasn’t doing that, there was the minor issue of keeping my house clean and my husband fed. Oh yeah, and attempting to losing my baby weight. But I digress…
I did eventually send baby announcements out. When the baby was, oh, 4 months old! The moral of the story? Book your newborn sessions while you are still pregnant! That way you are guaranteed adorable baby pictures and you can have someone else (read: not YOU) do your announcements for you! And if you’re really organized, have your addresses ready before you have that bundle of joy. Then all you’ve have to after the baby arrives is decide which birth announcement design you want.
Speaking of…here are a few samples of some baby announcements I’m offering. These are all designs that I would’ve used myself. Obviously, all text will be personalized. And if you’d prefer a different color scheme (say, to match your baby’s nursery), we can do that, too!
Feel free to pass this information along to any pregnant friends you may have!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 2:01pm
It’s raining. Hard. What a great day to stay inside, all snuggled up and warm. After I took my 2 kiddos to school thats exactly what I did. For about 30 minutes. Then I had to get up because I had so many things swirling around in my head. First, I was bummed that I didn’t get to go see my friend, Michelle, today. She lives in Santa Cruz and I haven’t seen her since our photography workshop last year. It was going to be so good to see her! But there was no way I was driving over HWY 17 with this weather. So we will reschedule. I went to hear The Becker give a talk last night as part of the SMUG photographer meet-ups. It was great. That guy is passionate about photography! So I had a lot of the things he said floating around my head. And I wanted to get out there and shoot! But the weather disagreed. Still, I managed to go outside, with my umbrella, and take some rain shots. This was my favorite one:
Hope you are all staying dry today. Or wet, if you feel like going out there and stomping around in some puddles.
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 4:25pm
GO!
Information has been posted :) See the “Information” link in the menu above.
And because I’m pretty excited about this, I’m going to be having a fantastic grand opening sale! So tell all your friends, because this is awesome!
Here’s the deal:
YOU: Reserve a date between January 4, 2010 and June 30, 2010 for your custom photography session
ME: Doing the happy dance, decide to offer you 50% off!! OF EVERYTHING*!!
Just in case you missed it: 50% OFF OF EVERYTHING!!
I have to say, I am jumping the gun a wee bit here. But a girl can only hold out for so long (keep your jokes to yourself, please). There are still a few things I need to get in order before I’m 100% operational, hence the delay until 2010. But the fact that I am the most impatient person in the world and just CAN’T wait to get info out any longer is working to your advantage. And I just want to see you be happy. Really.
So if you are expecting a baby, celebrating a milestone (anniversary, child’s birthday), wanting to give your special someone a sexy gift for Valentine’s day, thinking ahead for Mother’s / Father’s Day gifts, or just want to have a fun photo session to capture your Life Now (see how I did that), BOOK NOW! Use the “Contact” link in the menu above and we will get it all squared away.
I’m so excited!!!!!!!
*Deposit must be received by November 30, 2009 to be eligible. Collection pricing does not apply during this promotion
Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 9:14pm
I’m thiiiiiiiis close! To opening up shop, that is. My price list is finalized and I’m just waiting on a few samples of product that I’ve ordered. Once I get those and take some shots of them, I will post.
I’m so torn. There are times when I want to go full steam ahead. I want to do mini-sessions for the holidays, start taking maternity and newborn clients, schedule some of the boudoir shoots that people have asked for, etc. Just do it all NOW! But then I remind myself that I just left my job 3 months ago. That I’m still doing some work on myself and for my family. So I need to take it sloooooow. I need to do things in a non-stressful manner. I can’t let myself get to the place I was at before I stopped working. Because that was NOT a good place! Ask my husband, he’ll tell you…
And I really want to start off with all my ducks in a row. With my logo done, my stationary ordered, my packaging figured out. I want people to get the whole LNP experience from the get-go. Because you only have one chance to make a first impression.
So I wait…
And wait…
Not-so-patiently…
Until I just can’t take it anymore and I have to take matters into my own hands...
Do you see the tongue??
So hopefully, the next post you read from me will be it. The big announcement. With all the details. Because I just don’t know how much longer I can take!!!
P.S. That’s Mulligan in those photos. He is such a good dog. If that were me, I would’ve knocked Owen over trying to get to that dessert…but his humans have trained him very well.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 3:03pm
Just wanted to update everyone on my business status. I’m so thrilled at how many people have expressed interest in doing a session! Folks are looking for everything from boudoir sessions to maternity sessions! I’ve even been asked to travel for a couple sessions! Woohoo!
I’ve been “unemployed” for just over 11 weeks now, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been workin’! I’ve been researching products and vendors, printing labs and, my favorite, paper goods! Because I want my stuff to be pretty! Have I talked about my unhealthy obsession love of paper? No? Really? Are you sure?
That’s my paper drawer. It’s a little full. Yeah…
But as I said, I’ve been busy! I’m even meeting with an accountant this Friday. And I’m excited about it! Honest! I like numbers. I was in AP Calculus in HS. Sometimes I wish I’d been a math major in college. But only sometimes…
Anyway, check back soon, because my pricing is almost done. And you can bet I’ll be running a REALLY GOOD grand opening special. K? K.
Monday, September 14, 2009 at 2:58pm
I’m not quite sure how it happened. All I know is she was pregnant, she had the baby and then the baby turned one. Just like that. At least that’s what if felt like to me! I’ve known Jessica for a VERY long time. We went to junior high, high school AND college together. And we’ve been out of college for, um, 13 years now. Yeah…we’re kinda old like that.
I was so ecstatic when she found out she was preggo. And being how I have two boys, I was even more excited when she told me she was having a girl! Finally! A reason to buy pink! And even though she REFUSED to tell me the baby’s name until after she was born (and therefore ruining my chances of getting her the perfect gift I had planned), we are still friends :)
I got to meet sweet Simone about 6 weeks after she was born, and I was smitten. I mean, look at her!
These next few shots are ones that I hope her parents can look back on and remember just how little she was. I mean, they used to give her baths in their kitchen sink. I’d like to see them try that now!
A few months later, Miss Simone had grown so much! Look at those cheeks! And look at those eyes!
I really didn’t think she could get much cuter. But then she went and turned one on me. Can you please look at that hair? I mean, come on…I can’t help but love it.
I can’t wait to see her when she turns two next year. Something tells me she’s going to have pig tails, what with all that hair. Man, I really hope she does! Maybe, if I’m lucky enough, Jess will let me do her hair. Because I can’t exactly do that to either of my boys.
Love you, Simone-y!
Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 1:11pm
I can’t believe summer is almost over. Although you’d never know it from the weather we’ve been having over the last few days! No one in the Bay Area has A/C. We just don’t need it. But the last couple days have been scorchers! Makes me wish I did have A/C!
One of the things I love about summer is my dahlias are in full bloom:
So even though I’m lookig forward to cooler weather, Im not looking forward to the end of summer. Maybe I love summer because it’s the season I was born in. Well, at least I can look back on this picture once the weather gets super cold and be reminded of summer. Now if only looking at it could make my feet warm up, too. Because I HATE having cold feet.
I will miss you, summer…
Wendy
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 10:26pm
I don’t even remember how this all came about. I just know I didn’t suggest it. I don’t think I even knew this was considered its own type of photography. But it is. Oh man, it really, really is.
I try to surround myself with beautiful people. It’s a requirement. If you want to be my friend, you have to be beautiful. And my friend K is no exception to the rule (OK, it’s not a rule, it just happens to be that all my friends are beauties). Her hubby is in finance and has been working crazy long hours. So she wanted to give him a little present. I can’t think of anything better than some sexy shots of her. What man in his right mind wouldn’t love these:
I had 20 of her favorites printed out in 5×7 and we placed them in a lovely red box. The lid of the box has an image of her, too, and it’s signed “love, me”. I’m kicking myself for not taking pictures of the box as we speak. Sigh. It was beautiful in its simplicity. Just like her.
I thought I would feel awkward doing this shoot, but it was awesome! I definitely plan on offering boudoir sessions once I’m open for business. There’s nothing like capturing a woman’s sensuality. We are all sensual beings and it’s amazing watching someone transform from shy and insecure to bold and confident. That’s worth capturing for all eternity!
K, thanks for trusting me to do these for you and M. You have been so generous with your support and your patience!
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:00am
I’ve loved photography for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, I wanted one of those Kodak 110 cameras that were long and skinny, remember those?
So old school...
I took a Black & White Photography class my senior year in college. I remember having to borrow a friend’s SLR camera since I didn’t have one. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and attending UC Santa Barbara (that’s a different post), and I would drive up the 101 every Tuesday for my photography lecture and then drive back up again on Thursday to use the dark room to develop my stuff. The days in the lab flew by. I would walk in there when they opened at 10:00 a.m. and the next thing I knew they were kicking me out because it was closing time!
After college, life got hectic and photography took a back seat. It wasn’t until I had my second son in 2007 that I got my first DSLR. I’d had a digital point-and-shoot for many years but was finding that I wasn’t able to get the type of images I wanted with it. I was starting to feel very limited by its…limitations. So I upgraded to a DSLR. A few months after that I bought these two DVD’s. Then I signed up for an amazing workshop in 2008 and another one earlier this year, and I haven’t really looked back.
I recently read a post on a message board that talked about the road to becoming a photographer. Here is part of it:
“Do NOT compare your work or where you are in your photography journey to someone else and where they are. Instead, compare yourself to where you were just a few weeks/months/years ago. That’s the true test of if you’re a good photographer. You should always see an improvement in your work. When I quit focusing on where I wasn’t and focused instead on how far I’d come since I started, I realized I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought I was.”
See, the thing with photographers is that we always have doubts. About whether we are good enough and whether people will like our work. After all, photography is very subjective. Some people still like the old-school studio look with the grey marbleized backdrop. And even if you didn’t ever really like it, that was your only choice (Exhibit A would be my high school senior pictures, and I’m NOT going to show you those!). I have doubts about whether or not I’m “good enough” almost every day. After reading the post above, I decided to take a look back through my pictures over the last year. And all I can say is wow. I have tons of pictures from last year where I have no idea what I was thinking with regards to my settings. I would be shooting outside, in bright light and have my ISO set to 800! Or I’d be inside my poorly lit house trying to take pictures of my fast-moving kids and my shutter speed was at 1/80, my aperture was at f8.0, my ISO was at 100 and I couldn’t figure out why they were all blurry and dark! Then I went through a phase where I shot wide-open all the time. Even when I had multiple subjects and they were on a swing. My rational? I wanted that blurred background. What I got instead was blurred everything! And while my images now are not always perfect, they are better. I know to set my shutter speed first if I have a fast moving subject that I want to freeze in motion followed by my aperture so I can get a correct exposure. And I know that I need to bump my ISO, or switch to a faster lens if I’m inside my (poorly lit) house and want to get images of my kids.
So I’m improving. Every time I push that shutter release button I learn something. Every time I mess up a shot I learn from it. So hopefully the next time I’m having doubts about whether or not I should do this (a.k.a. at some point tomorrow), I can think back to the me of last year and know that by this time next year, I will have learned at least 5,000 things.
