Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Check out our Reviews: Raleigh Photography
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Friday, February 3, 2012
Day 33: A day in the life of a photographer
Man what a couple of days it has been. I was busy doing lots of little activities for the business that needed to be taken care of when I get the call... "She had the baby". Normally I would be looking at my schedule to see when we could bring the newborn into the studio for his or her first photoshoot. But the surprise is that it is a baby cow! Now I have already forgotten the formal name for this type of cow. My friend did tell me but all I can remember is the nickname for them, the Oreo cow. Oreo because the are black on both sides with a white stripe that rings the center just like an Oreo cookie. Oddly she was skidish-evidently unusual. But once I set out on foot instead of in the gator with 7 kids, my girlfriend and myself then I was able to get close enough to get some decent shots. (As I re-read that it might seem the obvious reason would be the 7 kids and 2 adults but I can say with pretty good certainty that is not the reason. We have been doing that for that last 5 years since we moved out here and my friend for at least 4 more in addition to that number! I am putting a couple of shots below. So a lot of excitement and she was so cute.
Today was filled with retouching the final images on my bridal portrait for their final selection, packing and getting the house ready for my upcoming trip and of course answering emails. Although I did get one little surprise that those of you who are facebook friends are already aware of... My youngest decided to pour baby powder all over the bathroom floor so she could ice skate. Gotta love kids! So ingenious and insidious all in one! ha ha! And I am SO mad at myself for not taking a picture of it. Can you believe it? ME NOT TAKING A PICTURE! You know I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed not to think of that!
So here I am at 1:23am wrapping up my day. Goodnight!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Day 31: A day in the life of a photographer
I guess I need to rename my title huh? Because really it has become 2 days in the life of a photographer. Well the last two day have been very busy although it is a bit of a blur. Ordering Save the Dates for clients, lots of back and forth email on differing products, wedding dates, consultations or explanations of packages and the biggest chunk devoted to editing my bridal session. What most people don't realize about photography is that for every one hour of shooting we have about 2 hours of editing behind the scenes. And that assumes you are an experienced pro that shoots pretty much on target without a lot of mistakes to correct. That doesn't even include backing up and burning all the files ( A MAJOR TASK WHICH I HATE) but clearly VERY important, album designs, proofs to order, packaging, shipping and I could go on and on. Someday I am going to time every piece of the puzzle and REALLY know how much time a wedding takes. And of course some shoot require more editing that others. My infant sessions always require more retouching because their skin can be kind of flakey or blotchy and let's face it they are so stinking cute I am not letting them go out the door like that! Same for a bride who has been stressed out and has just that one little blemish that yes make up helps to hide but the camera can be SO TRUTHFUL at times. That one doesn't usually sneak out of my studio either.
Today was a little more low key since I stayed up till about 3am last night finishing my bridal and posted it in the am. That left me free to check my 2 hours of emails. (Yes, I spend between 2-3 hours each day corresponding on email.) I am STILL astounded about that but I guess after being in business for almost 10 years you get a lot of new inquiries, really old ones, random ones and not to mention all the spam! But the majority of the day was spent on backing up photoshoots to disk and writing my business plan for the year. It feels good to put it on paper. I was always anal with New Years Resolutions until I had my first child, then there just isn't that time for introspection I guess. So this was a lot like that... And I liked it. I wrote down what I really want my business to be in the next 5 years for me and for my clients. It is a good feeling. Now mind you on a side note I had a whole other computer downloading my video for the whole year of the family. Nothing like multitasking on 3 computers at one time. I must be insane or severely ADD. (Which by the way, my brother Caid says I am...) Good problem to have when you are juggling a business, two little one's at home and I won't even pretend I juggle the house because anyone who has been over knows I got over that a LONG time ago.
I rounded off the day with a bike ride with the girls then off to dinner with my favorite photographer friends. We have a group of girlfriends who are all in photography that we try to get together AT LEAST once a month. Sometimes we all make it but most of the times we are missing one or two but this was a very close to having everyone night. It was so fun to hang out with people who 'get' your life. They get it as a Mom, they get it as a photographer and they get it as a wife. I love you girls and thank you for being such WONDERFUL friends. (That is the two glasses of champagne coming out!) ha ha! Speaking of which being a bit of a tea totaler (is that right?) I hope this doesn't sound like alcoholic rambling in the morning. Oh and if you think the bad grammar is a result of the champagne let me help you with that one.... It's not. I always got A's over C's in English. A's in content, C's in grammar and I never seemed to get it. So hopefully you can over look it. I have some pictures from the park where we rode our bikes but sadly they are sitting in the camera downstairs. Maybe I can get them up in the morning before you read this post but for now my bed is calling me. Only 3 hours of sleep makes this photographer grumpy and tired. Goodnight!!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Day 22: A day in the life of a photographer
As I said in past blog posts my job is not all glamour although I do love it. But today I spent probably 4 hours alone fighting with my computer on why the printer was just printing blank pages. Whether it was the lovely microsoft windows updates or something I don't know. I just kept restoring back to previous dates, removing recently installed softwares, running new virus and malware protectors and on and on... I finally did get it working. Then I got to work on things I DO enjoy. I made the last edits to one of my brides albums and sent those off and spent the rest of the night working on one of my maternity sessions. A little bit of a challenge being that the older brother wasn't so thrilled about kissing Mommy's tummy. To say a little head swap was in store is an understatement. But I think we pulled it off. But Mommy looks so cute with that big belly. It should be any day now!
Day 21: A day in the life of a photographer
12:07am
Me "Ugh. I have to blog."
My husband "Do it tomorrow."
Me "I can't. I already missed yesterday."
My husband "Blog twice tomorrow, stand on one leg and run twice around the house and it will all be ok."
HUH? ha ha. My husband always makes me laugh. It's one of his talents. If you are one of my brides I wish for you to marry someone who can make you laugh in any situation. It always comes in handy I have found. Well, except when I was in labor with my 2nd child. I remember John joking around and literally no response coming from me. Finally he said, "Do you want me to stop talking?" Me, a resounding "yes."
So a day in the life of a photographer. Today is Saturday so not having a wedding to photograph I spent most of the day on the computer. I processed the rest of my New Orleans Images and backed them up on line. Then I spent the rest of the day downloading and coding financial transactions in Quickbooks and capped it off with processing my little girls award ceremony from school. She got the golden rule award. I couldn't be more proud.
The only thing left was a nice date night with my husband. The only thing saving this post from my tired brain dead blog is the pictures from day 2 of shooting in New Orleans! Enjoy!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Day 19: A day in the life of a photographer
Oh the glamorous world of photography. It's always fun coming back in from out of town for work right? A thousand emails to return, boxes piled up to open and a list of TO DO's a mile long. Well most of the day was literally spent returning emails and phone calls but I am looking forward to narrowing down my new and exciting products I will be carrying next year. That is one of my favorite things about going to convention, seeing all the new things. FUN FUN! I will be getting this one right away for myself!