Wendy and Johnpaul: Down at The Creek

Early last week, I headed up to Boerne to shoot an engagement session for Wendy and Johnpaul, whose wedding I'll be shooting in June. It was a fun and relaxing session, especially since we ended up having a wonderful meal and wine half-way through the shoot!

I love couples who are up for anything, it makes it so easy to get great images!

So sweet and romantic:
Check out the gorgeous light:
I love bare feet:


The wedding next month will take place in Boerne at the beautiful St. Peter's Catholic Church, which has been Wendy's church since she was a little girl. I will have my second-shooter, Marie, along with me for this one. I really can't wait!

Cinderella

Steven Curtis Chapman is the singer of a song called Cinderella, which is one of the most perfect father/daughter wedding songs ever. He is the father of six, three of them are adopted girls.

Sadly, his youngest daughter, Maria, died on Wednesday in an accident at their home. My heart is just breaking for this family.



To read more about this amazing family, go to stevencurtischapman.com

I should be getting a package from UPS today!

I can't wait, I can't wait!!!! It's my new lens, and I wasn't expecting it until Wednesday, which was going to be a huge drag because I have an engagement session on Tuesday and I really wanted to use it. Now it looks like I'll have it. Yippee!

May 19, 2008 05:16:00 AM SAN ANTONIO TX US Out for delivery
May 19, 2008 01:36:00 AM SAN ANTONIO TX US Arrival Scan
May 18, 2008 10:00:00 PM HOUSTON TX US Departure Scan
May 16, 2008 11:39:00 AM HOUSTON TX US Arrival Scan
May 14, 2008 12:24:00 PM HODGKINS IL US Departure Scan
May 14, 2008 06:07:00 AM HODGKINS IL US Arrival Scan
May 14, 2008 02:57:00 AM INDIANAPOLIS IN US Departure Scan
May 14, 2008 01:44:00 AM INDIANAPOLIS IN US Arrival Scan
May 13, 2008 09:41:00 PM COLUMBUS OH US Departure Scan
May 13, 2008 07:38:00 PM COLUMBUS OH US Shipment received by carrier
May 13, 2008 05:08:36 PM US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

I was planning to do a little shopping, but now I'm going to stay home and wait for the big brown truck. Then I can do my "gotta package from UPS" dance in the drive way. Maybe I'll even take a picture of my UPS guy, if he'll let me. It's a wonderful day!!!!!

Business Update

I still haven't turned my flash on. I'm scared! I need to make sure it is completly dry, no H2O in there. A few more days, then I'll check it.

Ya know, I started this blog to chronicle the journey of my business, but I find myself writing more about my personal life than I planned. So I thought I'd do a little recap on where things are, and where they're going.

I've set up a four-year plan for getting things going, and this past Spring was the beginning of year two. Why four years? Well, that is the amount of time that I had until all of the kids were in school, and I can't work full-time until then. So it made sense to use these first years as a time to learn about the business, network with other photographers and vendors, build my client base, and add to the arsenal of necessary equipment. When all of my kids are in school, I should be working at 100%. The goal at the end of that year is for the business to profit enough that I am making the same amount that I would have made as a school nurse (that was my plan 5 years ago, my how things have changed!)

To further break it down, I've devoted this year to specifically learning shooting techniques. There is an overwhelming amount of information available, from seminars to webinars, photography forums, DVDs (I have a bunch), and finally hands on practice. My goal is to be able to capture the image in camera as close to perfect as possible, with little post-processing necessary. One of the biggest strides I've made in the last few months is that I'm able to "see" the final image before I click the shutter. I'm hoping to attend at least one major seminar that is focused on off-camera lighting techniques, but these are usually very expensive so I may have to continue to settle for DVD learning.

Next year, beginning in January, I'll shift my focus to business techniques-things like pricing for profit, marketing, finances and accounting, and finally branding. This stuff isn't the most exciting to learn and put into practice, but I enjoy it more than I ever imagined that I would. One thing that I've learned from being a member of a pro photography forum is that taking good pictures is the least important factor for a successful photography carreer.

My final year before full-time will be devoted to fine-tuning the whole operation. I should have a decent idea by then of what it takes to be profitable, and I'll decide if I can make a reasonable living doing this. I think I have a decent shot, but the world of photography is changing every day due to the digital revolution, so there are no guarantees.

I know I have about two-dozen blog stalkers who have followed along the last couple of years, thanks so much for keeping up with me! It's been a fantastic journey so far and I'm planning to go MUCH further in the coming years.

Oh, its no fun to post without including some pictures, so here are a few images from the session I did of my kids:

Why Does Cheerleading Cost So Much?

Warning-this might turn into a bona fide RANT. I'm angry and trying very hard not to use too many CAPS while typing, but it's a struggle.

My daughter D is starting her first year as a Clemens cheerleader. We had a meeting before tryouts and learned that the total cost will be about $1500 for the year. There were some rumours among the parents that it is more, but some other parents whose daughters have already participated a year or two said that that number sounded about right.

OK. $1500 is a TON of money and I'm a bit incredulous that we have to spend so much, but I allowed her to tryout anyway. However,I don't think there is any other school activity where the parents have to pay for EVERYTHING. Football, soccer, choir, band, as far as I know the school provides uniforms for all of these activities. Why not cheerleading?

And here is the thing that I'm particularly fuming about. (I'm so mad, I think I'm going to cry again.) The cheerleaders are REQUIRED to purchase their own letter jackets as FRESHMEN!!!!! AND it costs $300! The team (or the team director, I should say) has dictated what should go on the jacket, and the upgrades come out to $230. The jacket is $70 and the added patches and crap will be an extra TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY DOLLARS. (Sorry, screaming again.)

What I want to know is, what happened to EARNING one first? And why do we have to pay for it? No one else does.

I seem to be the only parent that has a problem with this. I'm used to paying through the nose for private gym cheerleading, but this is a public school and we are paying MORE.

The saddest part of all is that I am now hesitating to put my youngest in Cheerleading because of the cost. I think she would love it, she already wants to do it, but this is insane.

Why has this been allowed, and what can I do about it?

Edited to add: I emailed the cheer coach today with my concerns, and found out that the jacket is not required. So now I am deciding whether to cancel the order or not-I have 48 more hours to decide. What to do, what to do...

Splash

Have you ever had one of THOSE days? Yesterday was a mess for me, and so now I'm just trying to chill and enjoy my Mother's Day. Since I had the enormous pleasure of eating lunch at my fav seafood place with my mom and I'm now sitting in a completly clean, quiet house doing my favorite thing (blogging), yesterday is quickly fading into a distant memory. But, I think that I need to tell the story to completly purge it from my brain.

I've been planning to photograph my kids for ages, in fact the last time was exactly 3 years ago. So I conspired with my sister-in-law to take pictures of my kids and hers as a gift for Mother's Day for both of our moms. We settled on a date, time, and location, and I even managed to go shopping for outfits for all six of the kids. So far, so good.

At the last minute, my sis-in-law couldn't come with her kids, so that left just me and my four. "OK, I can still do this," I thought. I have done dozens of portrait sessions and I've never (ok, only once) had a shoot turn out bad. Besides, it should be easier to photograph four kids than six, right? WRONG.

I absolutely can not pay attention to both my kids and my photography at the same time. So, my pictures look like I took them with a point and shoot camera-no cool lighting techniques or unusual angles, no cute expressions, just "say cheese" smiles. Uggh. I plan to HIRE someone next time. Not sure who yet, but this isn't a job that I can do myself.

But, that wasn't the bad part. No, the bad part of the day was later, at a photoshoot that I was REALLY enjoying. I'll just skip to the chase and get to the disaster-my SB800 flash, which is just about as important to me as my D200 camera, fell into a swimming pool.

It was my fault. I lost the screw which holds it onto the stand a week ago, and hadn't bothered to replace it. When I arrived at the home where I was to do the shoot, I asked if they had a spare screw, even though I was pretty sure it was a long shot. Of course, none was to be found, so I went right ahead and stuck my flash on the flash stand with no way to secure it. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

The girl I was photographing was my neighbor. She was gorgeous in her prom gown, and here is the last shot we got before the big splash:

So what happened was, a gust of wind came from nowhere, blowing the umbrella forward. "D", in an effort to save the equipment grabbed it. I started to say "Awesome save" but right at that moment, the flash seemed to jump straight into the air and hurl itself 10 feet across the lawn and into the pool. So what came out of my mouth was "AWWWW." I ran to the pool, fished it out, and opened it up in a frantic attempt to dry it out as quickly as possible.

I finished up the shoot without using flash, but man I was so bummed. I almost cried. No, I think I did cry, but not out loud Thank You God.

Here are a couple more images from the rest of the session. I've known this girl since she was 10 years old, and I can't believe how grown up and beautiful and sophisticated she is!

I heard somewhere that if you get electronics wet, you should dry it out for at least a week before you attempt to turn it on. So that is what I'm doing. I put it in the sun, I've put it under the blow dryer, back into the sun and now I'm leaving it on the window sill until next weekend.

Wish me luck.

Divine Intervention

I met a fantastic mom a few weeks ago when I worked my portrait table set-up in Boerne. Cathi had been looking for a photographer to do her daughter's senior portraits, and she really felt like it was divine intervention that I happened to be there. We talked a little about what I do, and she quickly plopped down a check for the session fee. I'm still not sure what sold her on me, but I'm so incredibly happy that we found each other. Last night we were finally able to get together for the shoot. Holy cow, it was a great shoot. We started at 5:30, and at 8:30 we finally stopped because it was starting to rain. I think "S" could have posed for me all night, and I'm not kidding when I say she was a natural. I didn't have to tell her what to do, she just fell into great poses and expressions in every situation. Cathi, your daughter is amazing. Beautiful inside and out. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to get to know her a bit!