PUBLISHED!

In addition to my portrait photography, I have been doing a little Commercial Stock Photography over the past several years. I submit mainly to a microstock agency called Shutterstock and have mostly just done it for fun, submitting some of the many shots I take of my kids, or non-people shots. In a microstock setup a photographer will rarely find out where their images are being used, but last month I got a nice surprise when a friend e-mailed me after seeing a photograph of my kids playing by the edge of the Columbia River in the American Rivers calendar sent to its contributing members. My kids landed the month of August and it just goes to show that sometimes all you need to have fun is some water and a bunch of rocks!! For more about the American Rivers organization go to www.americanrivers.org.

Professional Education!

Well, in November I went to several Photography Seminars to further my photographic education! One of these seminars featured a renowned digital retouching artist named Jane Conner-Ziser. After studying her methods of eye enhancement I decided to put the techniques to the test and used this image of a friend's daughter as my sample. I think the eyes turned out great (although she had pretty amazing eyes to begin with) and I can't wait to use these new methods on more images in the future!

Holiday Card SPECIAL!!!

Well, here it is. My Holiday Card SPECIAL for this year. I will admit that this is not an idea I came up with on my own, but I have tweaked it to fit my own vision! Isn't this fun!! Each person gets their picture taken individually and any expression (goofy, serious, happy... etc) will work great! Then I will put the composite together and we are all done! While it would be ideal to have all family members together at the same time (it really is a fun session) I am able to work around busy schedules since each family member gets their picture taken individually!

So the special is 50 holiday cards (5x7 Flat, 2-sided cards) with envelopes and one storyboard (11x14 or 10x20) for $250. This includes the session fee so you are getting $350 (session fee and products) for $250.

If interested please call and set up your session as soon as possible as you will want your final order in time to mail out for the holidays!
509-205-4065



Here are the pictures individually so you can see them a little better!

Now Accepting Credit Cards!

Now I know this is something that is expected these days, but for a small business it is hard to justify all the fees involved when you don't have a large sales volume every month. Well, I found a credit card merchant that met my needs and just signed up today! Now hopefully I can get the business coming through my doors to justify the expense!!!

Speaking of business coming through my doors, check back in a couple of days to see my Holiday Card Special!!! It is a FUN ONE for sure!!!

Fall Family

Well, autumn is in full-swing here in the Tri-Cities! We managed to complete this session on Sunday, after having to cancel on Saturday due to very high winds! LOVED the colors this family picked to wear!! What a great compliment to the beautiful colors surrounding them in these portraits! Here is a sampling of the images I have sorted through so far.

"School" Portraits!

Well, my son had his school portraits taken last week. I have not seen them yet, but have high hopes as the company who took them is a well-respected, local business. But I just had to give Brandon a "rehearsal" the night before. He HATES any clothes with buttons, snaps or collars, so I think this sweater was a good compromise. He refused to smile with his teeth, but a nice expression anyway. Overall a keeper and I look forward to comparing it with what comes home from school!! Of course I still have to get a couple copies of the school picture to put in the scrapbook! :-)

EYE CONTACT!!!

Just look at the big, beautiful eyes on these kiddos! Cooper was very cooperative and sat right down where I asked him to, but his little sister was constantly on the move.... the only time she slowed down and stayed put was for a diaper change!

My Daughter... the Little Ballerina!

I grabbed this picture before ballet class this week. My daughter isn't too keen on me taking her picture, EVER, so we agreed that I could take a couple pictures if she got to put on a (very, very) little bit of make-up! It worked for a couple clicks of the shutter and I managed to capture this sweet expression!

Note to self: don't leave the eyeliner out on the bathroom counter where my daughter can reach it when I am not looking! That evening while I was getting my son ready for bed she snuck off and drew all over her eyelids!

My Las Vegas Friends!

Well, we were back in Las Vegas for 12 days recently visiting with family and friends. My kids and I visited with 8 different families on 8 different days plus 3 more families for a park play day! Busy, busy! Here are some of the sweet faces I managed to capture plus 10 little toes to boot! And while we miss our friends dearly it is wonderful to have these memories of them that will last forever!

Here is the newest member of the first family we visited... Baby Preston!




Next we visited our old neighbors and saw Brandon's best friends, twins Max and Mitchell. They were busy playing in the sandbox but stopped to humor me for a quick picture!




Next we have Baby Christian. He was not is a smiling mood but was content with his Tummy Time! I had the front door open so maybe there was just too much to look at out in the wide, wide world!


And now our dear friends Kailin and Baby Carson! For Kailin I just placed her in front of a kiddie pool that was up against the side of the house for a nice, bright background!




And finally the beautiful Julia! I have enjoyed taking her pictures since she was born and it is so much fun to see the little ones grow up through the "eyes" of my camera!!

Heading Outdoors!

Here we are a couple weeks later with Heidi's outdoor session! Heidi, you ROCK! We survived the smelly alley at the Uptown Mall and you even braved the spiderwebs to meet our goal of getting some great portraits!! Thanks also to Heidi's "posse," Ian and Julie, for all your help!

Don't worry, there are more to come... and some smiles too. :-) This is just the tip of the iceberg!

I am liking the SENIOR SESSIONS!!!

Pretty in Pink!

My first Class of 2008 Senior came by this past week and we had a great time! Even though she tried very hard to convince me otherwise, I have decided that Heidi is indeed very photogenic! BEAUTIFUL eyes, flowing golden-brown locks, and a pink cowboy hat... what more does a girl need?

And we are not even done with the session yet - I am looking forward to doing the outdoor portion next week!







There is such a thing as too much pink! So here are a couple different colors thrown in the mix!!

Family Friends.....

This past weekend we were thrilled to meet up with some old friends we had not seen in about nine years! It was great to catch up and see eachother at a new stage in our lives: as PARENTS! I was asked to capture the kiddies, and had great fun doing so!

This little guy was all business... the business of playing, and would not take a break to smile for me! Too cute!




And this is the cousin of the little guy. Seriousness must run in the family! Everyone started off playing in the splash pool, hence the bathing suits.


Then the kids came out in more proper "portrait attire!" But still no smile......


Move forward a couple days and into the studio. At last, a smile! I had a fan on her and it would switch from a high to low setting. When it was high, she would laugh and giggle......

And then when it would switch to a low setting she would frown and wonder where the wind went?!




And finally, a new little one on-the-way. Isn't pregnancy AMAZING!! I have to get all my pregnancy/baby fixes through other people these days as we are all done having our own!!!

Today's Session

This brother and sister have the most amazing eyes! When I saw Ella for the first time, I knew I would get some great portraits of her, and I was not wrong! Little brother Grady was a bit more difficult, but I managed to capture a few great expressions in spite of his best efforts to avoid me. Enjoy!









And the "always in motion" Grady



At the end of the session we headed down to the river. Here is a quiet, maybe thoughtful, moment for Ella!

Baby Cuteness

Well, I finally found someone to take pictures of here in the Tri-cities! While I am working on getting the "business side" of my business together, I still need my picture-taking fixes. This little cuttie is my neighbors' granddaughter, along with her big brother. Neither were in a smiling mood, but we still got some adorable portraits! My neighbors' yard is blooming with lots of flowers which added nicely to the outcome, I think.