2012 Fall Portrait Sessions

Autumn is here! It’s my favorite time of the year to do portraits and I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming sessions that I have planned. Want to be a part of the fun? Here’s the 411:

portrait sessions:
A full-length family session is the best way to get personal, custom portraits of your family. Sessions are done at the location of your choice and last for up to two hours, so it can be at your favorite park, downtown at the River Walk, or even your own living room. We will have plenty of time for natural, lifestyle images and clothing changes if desired. The portrait session fee is $150 for evenings and weekends, or only $125 for those that take place M-F between 9am and 2pm.  Immediate family only, please.

mini sessions:
Mini sessions are short and sweet, and are designed for those that don't need a full-out session.  Lasting only 15 minutes, they take place on selected Sundays at specific locations. Each mini is good for 2 people (two kids, one kid and one parent, etc) but you can book two consecutively to get a whole family. Mini sessions are $50, and include approximately 15 proofs in an online gallery, but you can still take advantage of any of my great products such as custom cards, fine art canvas, or portrait collages.


Here is the Mini-Session lineup for 2012:
Bracken Pumpkin Patch October 9th,  from 9am-12pm (perfect for the little ones!)
Rock Wall Ranch October 21st, from 3pm-6pm (for a rustic and truly-Texas look)

holiday cards:
One of my signature products every year is Holiday cards!  I'll have a gorgeous selection to choose from, and for those that want something completely different I offer custom designed cards.  Please note that a $200 print order is required before custom products (including cards) can be ordered.

2012 deadlines:
Please note the following holiday deadlines:

Last day for sessions: November 25th
Last day for orders: December 2nd
Last day for deliveries: December 19th

I can't wait to see everyone this season.  Book early to secure your portrait session!

Change is Good

It has happened too many times to count: I walk into a recent clients home and see the images that I created for them framed and hung on the walls, but instead of being elated and thrilled for them, I am a little sad. Sad, because I know that if they had just gone a little bit bigger it would have looked soooo much better.

What makes me feel worse is knowing that it's my fault. I wasn't taking the time to tell them how much impact a large, beautiful portrait has, I wasn't showing them exactly what it would look like, and I was letting my clients down. Even if they didn't know it, I did.

So, I'm making some changes. For one, I want to find out, before the session ever takes place, exactly what each client wants from their portraits. What kind of mood are you hoping to convey? How and where do you plan to display your images? In order to find all this out, we need to talk, so step one of my new procedure is to schedule a pre-session consultation.

 We can talk about locations, clothing choices and anything else you need to know to make it a great shoot. This will help me so much when it comes to taking pictures of your family. For example, if you mentioned to me that you would love more than anything else a single framed portrait of the entire family to hang on the mantel, well now I know that I absolutely must get a horizontal image with everyone in it. If you said that what you really want is a series of gallery wrapped canvasses that you can hang on the staircase, I know that we need to get at least one vertical image of each family member in a similar setting that can be hung together.

  Another thing I'm doing differently is...Presentation Sessions! (So excited about this.) About one week after your actual shoot day, we will meet again. I'll come to your home to do an amazing presentation of all of your images. You get to see them BIG, projected onto a screen, in a slideshow that is set to music. We will go through them together so that you can choose your favorites, and then comes the best part...I will show you exactly what the images that you have chosen will look like on your wall! Can you imagine how easy it will be to make a decision about your images if all the guesswork is eliminated?

This is Casey's bedroom. She has some artwork on the wall, but she mentioned that she would love to have an image of each of her daughters here instead:

 

Here is what I designed for her:

 

These are 20x24 prints, with 6 inch Parisian Frames in Brown Cow with Wavy trim in Gold.

Now, typically in the past, my clients would order two 8x10s for this space, and since I didn't know what they were doing with the images I couldn't make any suggestions. Here is what I have seen all too often in my clients homes:

 

You might be laughing but I REALLY have seen this.

These two changes to my process-the pre-session consultation and the after-session presentation appointment-are going to do so much to help my clients get exactly what they want from their time with me.   The guesswork is eliminated, the process is so much more fun and intimate, and the final product is going to be stunning.

Like I said before, I am sooooo excited!!

Until next time,
leah