That’s right folks, it’s been a crazy couple of weeks and I am ready for my vacation. I will be out of the office though November 4th. I will NOT be checking voicemail and will have limited email access. I will try to respond to urgent emails as quickly as possible, all other emails will be addressed upon my return on the 5th. I wish you all a wonderful week!
Stacy
PHEW! It’s been a wild and crazy fall season! In the last week I have had 2 sets of 1 year old twins and 3 newborns, not to mention several other “regular” sessions, and again that is just in the last week! Believe it or not I am even ahead of schedule with proofing! We leave for vacation on the 27th so I am working extra hard to have everything (or as close to it as possible) done prior to leaving for over a week. I have SO many sneak peeks to put up. I may not get to all sessions today but I will try hard in the next week or so to get as many as possible up for all to enjoy.
Did I mention the nutso weekend we have?? My husband is in a wedding this weekend, so tonight we have the rehearsal and then the wedding tomorrow and we have tickets to the Packer game on Sunday… did I also mention it’s my DH’s birthday on Monday… Have I mentioned how crazy we must be to continually keep up at this pace! Thank goodness for that vacation, right now it is badly needed!
Here are several sneak peeks, I’m sorry I don’t have time to write about each family, but as you see I have yet again the cutest clients ever!
Ok so it has been brought to my attention many times over the last several days that my ingenious mini session plan has a flaw (what you say, a flaw, couldn’t be!)… yea yea, it’s flawed. Anyone wanting portraits taken with their school age children can’t schedule a mini session. Now I know it may seem as if that was done on purpose, but honestly it was a complete oversight. I guess what it boils down to is of my clientele I would say 85% or more are children under the age of 6 (and their parents of course), and yet I have had no less than 6 calls about what to do for the school age crowd… SO here’s what I’m going to do. My Thursday mini session day has not booked nearly as well as my Monday mini day so I’m changing Thursday to Friday (well not actually making Thursday Friday, just changing the sessions to a new day…). SO IF you have children over the age of 5 and would like to schedule a mini-session you will now be able to do so on Friday, October 24th. Mini-sessions will begin at 1 and run until 6. I’m assuming the 3:30 to 6:00 block will be the first to fill, so if you’re interested in having a mini session done I would highly recommend calling the studio first thing in the morning to schedule your ideal time.
ONLY 2 dates remain for the Holiday Super Session, if you’re thinking of having family portraits done and plan on ordering prints, gifts for your families and holiday cards this is the session for you! Call soon as I don’t expect the last 2 days to remain for much longer.
I had a fun family session earlier today with a fantastic family. They came for family portraits 2 years ago when their little guy was, well, little… and now he’s a big brother. I love sessions like these, the family was fantastic and didn’t have any preconceived notions of what a family portriat “should” look like, instead they just had fun and rolled with the punches. I’m posting a favorite daddy/son portrait below. Doesn’t get any more fun that a tickle session with dad :).
I know you’ve all been waiting on the return of the blog and it’s finally here! I am back on track with proofing and orders are slowly but surely filtering in which means I have time to get back to blogging. First order of business is holiday portraits! Here’s the down-low… All portrait orders must be received by November 15th in order to guarentee holiday delivery, this includes holiday card orders, NO EXCEPTIONS. Any sessions held in November or December will not be guaranteed in time for the holidays unless otherwise discussed. If you’ve already scheduled a session with me for the month of November your portraits will be in before Christmas. At this time all regular portrait sessions guaranteed for the holidays are filled, BUT there are two wonderful alternatives for you if you are still hoping to have portraits done for holiday gifts or cards. The first is the Essentials Mini Session, these will be held on October 20th & 23rd. Each session will be approximately 20 minutes long and will result in 10-12 portraits to choose from. All ordering will be done online using the online shopping cart. This is the perfect session if you’re hoping to order cards and a few gift prints for friends and family. The other alternative is the Holiday Super Session, this is the perfect session if you still would like the traditional family portraits, portraits of each child and portraits of your children together, or if you would like a change of clothing. The Super Holiday session will be approximately an hour to an hour and a half and can be done on location in the Valley. Holiday Super sessions are LIMITED to a few select dates, please email or call me if you are interested, these will be handled on a “first come first serve” basis, for the best choice of dates please call or email the studio soon. Again this year there will be pre-designed holiday cards offered at a discounted price. I will be working this week at adding those designs to the blog and a link on the website. The cards will be available as is with your choice of image(s) from your session. More information will be coming later this week. Essential Mini Sessions will be held on October 20th & 23rd from 9:00am to 2:30pm running at half hour intervals. Mini sessions are $65, no clothing or backdrop changes. Holiday Super Sessions are $600, they include a box of custom holiday cards and a $450 print credit to be applied toward your portrait order.
As usual I will always make room for maternity and newborn sessions, if you are an expectant mother or have a new baby please call or email the studio, I have sessions set aside for these time sensitve sessions.
I look forward to a fantastic and
as you all see I haven’t blogged in the last couple of weeks. For those that have checked up on me I appreciate your thoughts, for those wondering where your sneak peeks are I am hoping to get them out soon. There is a reason I haven’t blogged the last couple of weeks… I just don’t have the time. I love blogging and showing sneak peeks, I really do, but I have been SWAMPED the last few weeks and as much as I would love to take the time to blog some days I barely get my emails returned. I’m guessing future clients wouldn’t be happy to see I’m blogging but can’t respond to their emails. For those that have asked why some sessions have been blogged and not others it has nothing to do with pictures turning out or not turning out. As much as I would love to blog every session it just isn’t possible, particularly in the crazy busy season of seniors and soon holiday portraits. If I haven’t blogged your session please don’t be assume something must be wrong, trust me if something was wrong I would contact you immediately. There is no rhyme or reason to my blogging, it’s just a matter of grabbing, proofing and posting, something I don’t have much time for right now. I have tried really hard with my seniors this year to post a slideshow of each one of them, right now I have a list of 11 seniors I have yet to blog. I will post a slideshow of each one, it just might be after they receive their proofs. Again my apologies for not keeping up this summer, I just need to stay as close to on-top of my proofing as I can and unfortunately that means my blogging as to be moved to the bottom of the list for another week or two.
On a quick side note, I have hired someone to help out with the computer work in the studio and will be hiring one more person to help with all the paperwork and orders soon, which should get things turned back around here. I’ll be posting more about my new employees soon!
Oh gosh, so in my haste of trying to get caught up on the blog a couple of weeks ago I forgot this little guy! Turns out I had a couple of clients I missed during my “catch-up” day and I want to make sure I get them posted now. Little N was just the sweetest. He was a happy camper most of the time, with just a few short bursts of boredom and a moment of shock when we stuck him in the grass. His huge beautiful eyes might just suck you in so here’s your warning :).
I have photographed this little one 4 times in the last 2 years, it is amazing to see how much she has grown since I first met her. She has turned into a spunky and delightful 2 year old with a head full of beautiful blonde curls (and a HUGE assortment of fun hair pretties to go with it!) and a passion for all things on wheels. All mom would have to do to grab her attention was ask her about the car that was driving by, or the airplane in the sky (even if it was only pretend), she would stop and look with just enough time for me to snap a shot or two. I think mom was a little doubtful as to what I managed to get but as these previews prove there are going to be more than enough great shots to choose from (I think I’ve narrowed it down to the best 43!). Enjoy!
It’s raining seniors! I try really hard each year to limit my seniors, not because I don’t enjoy doing them but because they are very time consuming, but inevitably I end up taking on more than I planned because I do enjoy doing them so much. This year is no exception, with at least one senior session scheduled every work day from now through the end of August and even a few scheduled in September. I have 2 seniors and a 2 year old to showcase tonight. Below is the first of the 2 senior girls. Ms. A is the younger sister to a senior I had a couple of years ago. I always enjoy when I can photograph 2 kids from the same family. It’s fun to hear what the older sibling is up to and it’s a challenge to live up to the older siblings portraits, while still making the younger siblings portraits really portray them and not reflect the older one’s portraits too much. Ms. A is no exception. I had a blast with her older brother but just as much fun with her. She had a few ideas of what she wanted, some of which were locations we did with her brother but we still managed to make those location reflect her and show off her personality. I hope she enjoyed her day as much as I did. Enjoy the show Ms. A and family. Your portrait book should be ready in about 3 - 4 weeks.
Wow! I’m overwhelmed by the amount of people inquiring about the assistants position. If you’ve emailed me about it the last couple of days, I have been out of town on a family camping trip. I will be reviewing all emails over the next day or so and will start setting up interviews for the following week. I will continue to accept inquiries until Wednesday at midnight. Again thank you to all that have shown an interest I am really excited hear from so many people.
Serious inquiries ONLY! I debated whether I should even put this on the blog but figured I have nothing to loose and could possibly find a fantastic person by doing so…
I’ve gone through my fair share of assistants the past 2 years, from a few high school kids helping me out to friends that offered to help a day or two a week but then had to move on to other things (graduate degrees, full time jobs…). With the crazy busy holiday season fast approaching my latest assistant had to say good-bye this week as she had an amazing offer for a full time position she just couldn’t turn down. I’m happy to report she will still be helping out with ordering appointments though. I am in need of someone about 8-10 hours a week, some weeks more some weeks less depending on the time of year. The right person would need to be comfortable on the phone taking and confirming appointments, handling mailings and perhaps some minor accounting (invoicing clients) plus be very comfortable with a computer. I need someone that is dedicated to sticking with me as it seems I no sooner get a person trained and they need to move on. If this sounds like something you might be interested in please call (882.0585) or email me (artisticimpressions@new.rr.com). I would like to have someone hired sooner rather than later but will make sure it’s the right fit first. If you’re not interested but know of someone who may be interested please pass the information along. If you are a photographer or photographer wanna be please don’t apply, I have enough stress in my life without having to find out down the road I was used for information.
