Archive for December, 2007

Merry Christmas!!!

December 26, 2007

The fam, from left to right: Krista, Dad with Rosie, and Mom with Willie and Grace between her and Ellie

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a great day with their friends and family, and that the holiday wasn’t too hectic.

It was such a great time for me yesterday. I went home on Christmas Eve, and was able to enjoy a wonderful dinner with my parents and sisters who are on break right now, and then wake up and open presents with the family.

Every year my mom makes a great Christmas breakfast for us, and this year I wanted her to have a chance to relax a little bit, so I took care of cooking for the troops. I made eggs Benedict, but I left the hollandaise sauce to my mom. she does such a great job with it and I didnt want to ruin everyones day by improperly cooking it.

After breakfast, we took a hike around the farm as a family, which is something that we haven’t done for a LONG time. While we were hiking, i grabbed some photos of the family since we aren’t together very often any more. Its weird because we have all lived at home until two years ago, and we never spent much time together as we grew older. Now, when we have time together, it means a lot more to remember those moments.

Here is mom and dad with Jessie(right) and Deacon(Left)Christmas night we drove into the “burgh” for a cousin get together. It’s a tradition that’s going on 20 years of Pancake dinners. We do this because there are so many people in the house, that feeding everyone any other way, would be a HUGE undertaking that no one is up to because it is Christmas and we want to spend time together.

I hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas.

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One Republic

December 14, 2007

This week has been a crazy week for me. It is obviously Christmas time, and that means a ton of parties going on. This week has been exceptionally busy because I am shooting at Diesel every night this week. On Monday we started off the week with a KILLER concert by new group One Republic, and they put on a crazy show. They currently have two songs on the radio, but the one it is best known is “Apologize”.
I am also getting my Christmas cards finished up. I owe everything that I have right now to the clients and couples that have become my friends and given me a chance. This year the theme is “Who Needs Mistletoe” I am also offering a discount on all of my photography right now. For a limited time, weddings, events/parties, lifestyle sessions, and portraits/head shots, may take 15% off. But this is a limited time offer and is not good for events that happen after May 1st.

This is the back, and you will have to wait to see the front, but I think that it is one of the best looking cards that I have ever seen.

In keeping with the “Who Needs Mistletoe” theme, I would love to hear some funny mistletoe stories from parties, the office, etc.

Tonight we are shooting a music video at Diesel. Actually it is over the course of the next two nights, and it is more of an intro to the website, and a My Space commercial. It should be pretty cool, and I will try to get something edited before the Steelers game on Sunday to show you the club and what we are trying to do.

Anyways, something that Jasmine Star mentioned on Tuesday was creating a notebook with ideas and thing that you learn about photography. Two years ago i started a folder that I would place pages from magazines in. It was shots that there was something more to than just plane visual stimulation. On those pages are notes about lighting, poses, trends, anything that I can come back to and see something new in. There are times when life is just to busy to get to try everything that you want to, so for me this folder is a way of going back in time, seeing past present, and since we know the cycle, future trends in clothing, posing, and lighting. For me, this is a way to help me through technical problems, and inspire me when I am slacking.

I would love to hear what other folks do for inspiration. How did you get yourself through that period of brain block?

Brides, I believe that this is a great way for you to prepare for your wedding as well. If you see certain poses, or types of locations, things that you want included in your wedding, flowers, linens, dresses, colors, anything, this is a great way to convey what it is that you are looking for, and when you get stuck on a detail, you can look into your folder, and work past your current problem or indecisiveness. Sometimes we all need to be inspired, let others help you do that.

EDIT: Last night was the 102.5 WDVE Christmas party, and it was a blast. Pittsburgh Steeler Big Ben showed up to do a Christmas song for the crowd, and Brett Keisel joined in for the fun.
Here is Ben Roethlisberger and WTAE Tv’s Sally Wiggins hanging out during the show.

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December 4, 2007

Many of you are not familiar with the albums that I offer, and to show you the quality of the product, I wanted to show you the albums as they come.

The first album is a Kiss Wedding Book. These are beautiful hand made albums, and they are what I use for an engagement book. They are a beautiful album, the turn around is unbelievable, and the customer service is the best that I have ever experienced. These albums are the standard album that I use for my engagement/guest books, but they are also available for family, children, and senior sessions, as well as wedding albums.

They are a really cool albums that comes in great colors like brown, blue, black, purple, and green, and the leather is so soft and supple. They get shipped in this really funky bag to protect them. As my business grows, I am intending to move all of my storybook albums over to KISS. Their customer service is honestly probably the best that I have ever experienced anywhere or in any industry.
My second album is an Leather Art album. These are also beautiful albums, they come in a wider variety of sizes, but you only get to choose brown or black. These are also great choices for family, children, and senior sessions, but they take about 8 weeks to receive.

They really are a beautiful albums, and I am very pleased to offer both.

As a side note, for other photographers out there. Kiss Albums was started by photographer Kevin Swan, and their customer service ROCKS!!!

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