Dress-up vintage princess

Today my daughter put on her "pioneer princess" dress. She wears this dress every day that she can (I make her take a break sometimes so I can wash it). I was doing a session anyway, and I couldn't resist some antique portraits of her. She even wore her cowgirl boots, which is as authentic as it gets for us. The dress is actually vintage 1970's - my mom saved a few fun dresses from when I was little.

Let's talk fall!

It's time for fall portraits! For most photographers this is the busiest time of the year. Now - get your small violins out :) - last fall my work/life balance was seriously awry. My husband even asked me at one point if I planned to join the family for Christmas... This year I need to be a mom first and photographer second.



So I've been giving this a lot of thought. At first I thought I would just limit my sessions to something realistic (I did probably twice as many last fall as I should have). If I do that then I'm already fully booked through the 3rd week of October. I'm not loving the sound of that. I'd like to still do more families, babies, seniors & children's portraits, and I want to keep providing the same value to my clients. So here's what I've come up with:

* My sessions will have to be shorter. Probably 40 proofs or less. (I usually have twice that for a family session.)



* Less Photoshop up-front. I try not to do a lot of photoshopping just in general, but I never post something in a gallery that I don't feel is "finished". This fall my plan is to do a few fully-photoshopped images, maybe one for each pose, so you can see what the finished product will look like. The rest of the images will be as-shot. Then you can tell me which images are your favorites, and I'll get them the way I like them. This will be a big departure for me - it will be hard to do - so I'll appreciate your support :) :). But I don't want to be spending time on images that aren't your favorites - I think this will help me a lot.

Question - What if you want to buy a CD?
Answer - I'll never give you an image that I don't think is ready to print. Just tell me which of them you want, even if it's all of them, and they'll all be done.

* I will do some mini-sessions on Saturdays in great locations, and do short sessions for as many families as I can fit into my day. (And around soccer schedules...) These will be 30-minute sessions.

IMPORTANT NOTE - I am requesting that your session fee be paid within 5 days of reserving your slot for these mini-sessions. My session fees are a low $60, and I apply $40 of that to your print order as long as you order within 30 days.

Saturday at the Bosque - November 7th
This will be at the end of the good fall color in the bosque (I think this week and Halloween will be the 2 good weekends.) I did a bunch of these sessions last fall & loved them! Let's do it again! I have a couple of new locations to work with so it won't be quite the same.

Sessions will start at 10:00 - call or email me to get on my schedule!





Saturday in Old Town - November 14th
Old Town is a really flexible and beautiful place for portraits. It's great any time of day and even when it's a busy Saturday I can find back alleys and corners with great color and vibrancy.

Sessions will start at 10:00 - call or email to get on my schedule!





I'm thinking of doing some Halloween day sessions - I have a couple of outdoor locations I've been wanting to use for a long time. Let me know if you're interested - I only have time for 2 or 3 afternoon sessions.

Please know that just because I'm trying to save myself time, I don't intend to compromise on quality. You will get the same beautiful colors, clear skin, and professional quality that I always deliver. And I stand by my guarantee - you will love your pictures! If you have any concerns, I will fix them, do a re-shoot, or give your money back.

I'm going to do a fall giveaway too but I think this is enough of a post for one day... so check again tomorrow for that! :)

Extended family pictures - in the bosque

I thought I would take a minute and answer some questions that I get asked about my proof processing. So first of all, I take too many pictures. I know this. I'm working on it. :) For sessions with little children or family groups, I feel like I need to get a lot of images because 1) kids move & change expressions fast, and 2) I don't want to end up having to ask for a re-shoot because something technical went wrong & I didn't end up having anything to work with. (This has only happened once & I vowed - NEVER AGAIN!)

So, depending on the group size, I come home with somewhere between probably 50 & 250 images. I go through them all, toss the ones that aren't keepers, and sort though the rest to find the best. Sometimes with groups I will combine pictures to get a good shot of everyone in the picture - sometimes I do that later with help from the customer. My goal is always to get the best possible family picture, no matter how many people are in it, so with your input & the help of Photoshop I make that happen.

With many of the pictures I end up re-cropping (this is also something I'm working on to get right in-camera) and I tend to enhance the colors & contrast. I have some fun photoshop actions that I sometimes use (and always can on request!). When all this is done, I convert them to black & white and build your gallery to post on my website or to view in person. (Another aside - I'm going more & more to viewing proofs in person - it eliminates miscommunications and I think you get exactly what you want that way, because you know what I can & can't do.) My sessions tend to range from 40 to 100 proofs. Then it's the customer's job to pick! That's the best part. So many people have mentioned that there are too many good ones to choose between - that makes me so happy :) that I have a hard time sympathizing.

This session was set up by a great family with whom I've had the privilege of doing portraits before. Their extended family was in town, so this is a big session with lots of different groups & individual portraits. For some reason I'm processing this one backwards (I sometimes read books sort of backwards too, much to my husband's disdain) so the last pictures taken are the ones that are ready to go now. The rest of the gallery will be ready in the next couple of days. Thanks, this one was really fun!