Holidays and Special Offer

Starting December 15th I will be off the rest of the month for the holidays. I will continue to update my blog and reply to emails as I can; however, all client orders must be completed and paid for prior to the 15th in order to ensure delivery before the holidays! Following the holidays, I will resume my usual office hours starting January 5th. :)

I am currently scheduling January and February. I will likely be making some changes to my pricing structure for the upcoming year, due to the expense involved with providing quality portraits. However, I am willing to honor this year's prices for those who contact me in the next two weeks to schedule a session for January or February. Your session date and time must be set and session fee paid within 7 days of scheduling to hold your reservation under my current pricing. Following your session, prices are good for 30 days after the posting of your gallery. Please contact me between now and December 19th to take advantage of this great offer!

Thanks to all of you who have given me the privilege of photographing you and your families this year. I look forward to working with you all again in 2009!

It's Finally Here!

I now have a website!

http://stepstonephotography.com/

For all of my loyal blog fans, you can access the blog through the link on my homepage. :) Isn't that handy?

Be sure to stop by and check it out!

New Logo

With a new name comes a new logo! After much blood, sweat and tears (well, not really, but it *was* a time-consuming task!), my new logo is ready to go on my forms and soon-to-be website!



I am also going to be in the new phone book being distributed this fall, so be sure to look me up! :)

Changes Ahead!

Hello everyone! As some of you might already be aware, I am making quite a few changes this month.

The biggest change is my business name. I have now registered to operate as Stepping Stone Photography, and will be listed in the phone book this fall! With a new name comes new business cards, forms, email address...the list goes on! I have taken this month off from sessions to focus on all the administrative work involved with this. The best part, though, is that I will soon be looking to design a website! I will continue to keep everyone updated on how to contact me as these changes take place.

In addition to the name change, I will also be re-evaluating and adjusting my pricing and package structure. My goal is to ensure that I'm able to cover my expenses and offer a variety of quality custom products and simple packages to make your choices easy for you. The packages and session fees will cater to specific types of sessions, since the needs of high school seniors are different from those of parents seeking photos of their child's first year. I am pleased to have completed my portfolio-building/practice stage, and thus am no longer offering the 50% promotional discount that I have offered during this period. I may occasionally seek out specific type of sessions in order to obtain specific shots for my portfolio, and will post more information about those opportunities in the future.

I'm excited about the changes ahead, and looking forward to this new stage in my business!

Time flies when you're having fun...

Hi all! It's been awhile since I updated. I was out of town shooting an event last week, and this week have been trying to get caught up, if that's possible! :) You might notice I have changed my blog header. I hope you like it; if you're disappointed your child isn't on it, please realize that it doesn't mean anything--I just did this quickly and tried to find recent pictures I knew would fit properly in the little boxes without looking too out of place, and represent the varied ages of the children I work with. Keep bringing your kids to be photographed and when I update it maybe one of theirs will go up next time! :)

For news:
-I have updated some of my forms, and my contract, to reflect new policies and answer questions that have come up here and there.
-I've been participating in two study groups and enjoying the assignments for those; will post some of the photos soon.
-I will be purchasing a new background color in the near future, though plan to be doing indoor sessions for newborns and young infants only until winter, except in the case of bad weather or special situations.
-I'm currently scheduling June for those who have already contacted me, and have possibly one more opening in May. I will start senior sessions in August.

I am adding some more links to my blog. Of specific interest is the link to Project Childhood. From their own information page, "Project Childhood...is about creating a unified front among professional photographers in order to accomplish one goal: TO CELEBRATE CHILDHOOD." Definitely in line with my views on children's photography. Check them out!

Will update again tomorrow with some pictures! Stay tuned!

Pricing and Policies

Sorry, no photos in this post...It's time for another exciting round of announcements!

As most of you know, I have been running a promotional 50% discount on prints and session fees while working to establish my business and build my portfolio. I plan to continue with this discount for a few more months; however, starting April 15, the discount will only be available if an order is placed within two weeks of receiving your proofs. Orders placed later than that will be at full price. I wanted to give everyone a heads-up on this policy, and I will be updating my contract to reflect it.

Scheduling:
As of right now, I have room for one more session this month, though my Saturday spots are already taken. I am still running a newborn special, where I will waive the session fee and provide a complimentary 8x10 for newborns during the month of April (newborns must be 2 weeks of age or younger), so if you know anyone who has just had a baby, be sure to let them know. This special ends April 30, but stay tuned, as I will be running a new special for May and June!

I have a few openings for May; however, my Saturdays are limited, so be sure to schedule ASAP if you want a weekend shoot! I will be on vacation one week during May, which is also going to limit my availability. (If you are wondering, we're going to Mexico! Thanks to my hubby, of course...and yes, I will come back with lots of photos to share, so be watching!)

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to schedule a session! Hope you all have a great week!

Scheduling in the Upcoming Months

At last winter seems to be over and we can begin to move sessions to the great outdoors! I'm looking forward to all of the great opportunities that come outside of the confines of our homes--and excited not to be lugging around a backdrop stand to every session. :) The warmer months tend to fill up quickly, so if you are considering getting portraits done in the coming months, be sure to call and schedule now!

Since spring is here and the sun is sticking around longer during the day, I am now able to schedule evening sessions a few days a week beginning as late as 5:00 PM, with the possibility of starting even later as the days grow longer. I will be available for only one Saturday each month, but can take more than one appointment for that same day if we're able to coordinate schedules. Please be aware that, due to high demand for weekend appointments, I may not be able to hold a tentative Saturday appointment open for you if you have not yet confirmed date and time with me.

I am currently scheduling appointments for high school seniors during the months of August through October.

For those who have asked me to hold a slot for you in April, I will be contacting you soon to set exact dates and times, to determine how many openings I have left in April.

Lastly, I will be on vacation for one week during the month of May, and therefore my availability for May will be somewhat limited. Be sure to call and schedule as soon as possible to make sure I can fit you in!

Scheduling and Promotions

As we are approaching spring (thank goodness!) our schedules tend to become very busy! The warmer seasons are perfect for photography, and I'm quickly penciling in upcoming sessions. For now, I want to make everyone aware of my current schedule and availability:

I can currently take up to 8 sessions per month. If you are considering a session in the coming months, please let me know now and I will pencil you in to hold your spot--we can decide on an exact date and time later.

I have an opening for one newborn or infant session next week, but other than that March is officially FULL. :) I still have 5 openings in April, and 6 in May.

Due to the need to add to my portfolio in specific areas that I wish to specialize in, I'll be limiting the number of slots I'm willing to fill with other types of sessions. However, I'm confident that I will be able to fit everyone in as quickly as possible.

If you know anyone expecting the arrival of a baby, please pass along my name and number and let them know I will waive session fee and provide a complimentary 8x10 for any newborn session during the months of March and April. The child must be under two weeks of age for a newborn session.

For those who are not already aware, I have begun a customer loyalty program, which provides you with a punch card that I will punch for each paid session. After five sessions, you will receive the sixth one free!

Thank you all for your continued business!

Links

Things have been so busy lately, I haven't had a chance to update as much as I'd like! But I wanted to quickly mention that I have added a "Links" list to my page, and you can view the list on the right-hand side, below the "About Me" section.

Included in the list of links are the web pages or blogs of different photographers I admire, for whatever reason--whether it be their work, efforts they have made to help me in the learning process, or both (mostly both!). Feel free to check them out; there's a lot of good stuff!

Additionally, I have included a few links to other interesting photography blogs, as well as a "Bereavement Photography" link to an organization called "Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep". This organization exists for parents who lose an infant and would like to preserve the memory of their precious child. These are professional photographers who volunteer to provide their services for families who are referred to them. Though viewing the photos on the site is heart-wrenching, it is also amazing that there are people out there willing to donate their time and skills to help these families in their time of grief. They do a beautiful job and I'm sure the resulting photographs are forever treasured by the families who have lost a child. I am including this link because I want to spread awareness of this organization's existance, and if a family you know someday suffers a tragic loss such as this, you can pass along the information and provide them with a way to preserve the last moments they have with their baby.

I hate to end on a sad note, but I guess this would be a good time to remind everyone to give your children extra hugs and be thankful for every day with them!

Finally!!

After much anticipation, my new (used) D200 arrived at 2:00 PM today via UPS, along with my new 50mm 1.4 lens (hello camera, goodbye $$!).



iIt has been a harrowing ordeal, but after:



1. Realizing I didn't have the right memory cards

2. Trying to watch part of an introductory DVD with my children harrassing me the whole time

3. Making a trip on black-ice interstate to Best Buy to purchase two CF cards that were NOT budgeted for

4. Panicking many times about breaking everything

5. Lamenting the fact that by the time I got a card the light is GONE...yep, it's nighttime, so all I've got is lousy overhead lighting and the kiddos are in bed. :(

6. Inability to attach the lens properly--hello, mounting index???? there is none!!!

7. Testing with the old lens to make sure I wasn't crazy (okay, I am, but for different reasons)

8. Multiple checks of the manual

9. Multiple checks of the menus

10. Inability to get the computer to recognize the card in the drive......it is now 12:00 AM and I have FINALLY gotten everything working properly so that I could share with you my very first photo, taken only a few short moments ago:







*Whew!*

It's gorgeous, admit it!!!! Hahaha (I should add this is unedited--this shot was just an effort to make sure the lens would autofocus!)



Oh, and don't worry, I did not really risk my life just for the CF cards. I had to go out of town for something else and we made a detour so I could get some, but hadn't realized the roads were bad until we were on them! So I figured as long as we were out risking life and limb I might as well get my memory cards!



Can't wait to play with it some more tomorrow!

Big Excitement

I finally bought a new camera! Well, a used camera, but new to me! It and my new lens (and backdrop stand!) should be arriving tomorrow via UPS. :) I think I know what I’m going to be doing all weekend! I am very excited, and nervous too, to use a bunch of new equipment. So, who wants to be my guinea pig???

Since I’m so late getting this started, I’ll probably do quite a bit of reminiscing with a few entries. Here are some favorites from my nephew’s last session, when he turned 6 months old:

a little different processing on this one:

a personal favorite: