more favorites from my recent shoot

New Program

I am trying out a new program for my photography.  Today I had an amazing shoot with a little baby.  OH MY GOD I am in love with these photos.  Please enjoy them as much as I am.  I want to also thank Barrie for reminding me about this program.  It is making everything SO fun to use and work with!

You wont even believe how my day started out...

Let's start with last night.  I was sick.  My stomach was very upset and I went to bed early.  During the night, the A/C in our room woke me up at 1am.  Ice started to form and defrost and was dripping...kind of like the sound of a dripping faucet....lovely.  So, then I start thinking about today and all that I have to do ie: TASP starts and my summer job starts.  I am awake from 1am until 5am when I finally drift off back to sleep.

I wake up at 8:45 and feel like I was hit by a truck.  I come into the office where from 9-12 I spend on the computer with tech support trying to get the blog up and running that I post for the summer program...it is now 4pm as I write this and the problem is not resolved.  I take a quick shower (while on tech support) and get dressed at my computer with my family bringing my clothes.  I finally hang up with them and go to spray my hair...only I spray EYEBALL WITH HAIRSPRAY.  I won't go into detail about words I was saying at that moment.

I finally got my butt outside and started shooting.  Unlike last summer, I am not pregnant so my energy is different.  I am awake (for the most part) and I start to see kids I remember from last year.  My mood improves and my photos are really starting to come together....now, if I could just post them.  I have to finish up with some dorm photos tonight, but here are a couple of photos to show you.  I am in love with the lifeguard one.  Even though it is "posed", it works.  I can't post photos of kids in a recognizable way for security and privacy reasons, but I think you will get the idea.

I am hoping for a better night.

fun with photoshop

I have been playing around with photoshop today.  I was inspired by some photos I saw recently.  :-)

This is the same image, but just touched up a bit with photoshop.

Original image above Photshop below

another one...before photoshop and after:

Exciting news!

Yesterday I was contacted by a local business who has a ton of wall space they want to have MY photography in.  ONLY mine.  They are a new daycare/childcare school that will be opening up in September.  They already have 83 families on a waiting list.  This is huge for my business.  I am more than excited to do this.  It will be SUPER expensive to begin, but they will let me put things up gradually as well.  I have some great images to put up and I am excited to go through them and imagine filling their space artistically where the photography is one whole piece of work.  It inspired me to take some photos of Manny when I got home.  Here are my top favorites.  

Friends

Here are some photos from last summer.  We went out to MN to visit our friends.  Ava was in LOVE with Kylie and still talks about going to visit her friend again.  Me and Kathleen have been friends since we were 14 or so...that is a good 25 years now.  I am very lucky to have such wonderful friends in my life.  My friends make me laugh and keep me grounded.  Thank you.  :-)

Early morning crew photos

So now I am working on my end of the year projects for "A Year in the Life at Tabor".  This is the hard part of my job.  I have to edit thousands of photos, organize, photo enhance them and then make them all pretty for some sort of a show for each student in the form of a slide show.  It is very time consuming and tiring...UNTIL, I get to look at some pretty amazing images from this past year like these...I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  :-)

Barbie!!

I was recently talking with a friend about a childhood shoe...thats right, I said shoe.  It was my navy blue strap slide on Dr. Scholls which I coveted!!  I loved them so very much.  It made me want another pair so I went online and got myself a pair!!!  This time, I went for the Barbie edition!  Another one of my childhood passions...AND to boot...this barbie on my new shoe is the very first barbie I ever got as a child!  What a great day of shoe shopping!

Six Years

Six  years ago today we got married.  Six years doesn't seem like a long time when you think of it.  So much has happened in the six years.  We started out just us two and now we are four.  Yesterday we went to Ned's point for a picnic with friends.  We all flew kites and had a wonderful time.  Ned's point is a place we went to right after we got married to take some pictures with our bridal party.  Here is a photo of us yesterday.  Happy Anniversary!!

Here are some photos of the kids...just for fun.

What is new and exciting??

I haven't had much chance to post every day, but I have been working hard on little details for my business.  A lot of great opportunities are coming and I want to be sure to be prepared and ready for them.  Like I had mentioned before, my packaging was a huge deal for me.  It took me a lot of time to finally decide on colors, style of how I wanted to be seen, and what kind of photography I want to offer.  I have had my business now for 11 years.  You would think I would have all of that all set by now, right?  My business has changed and grown in all that time.  I started out doing wedding photography and portraits, never really felt like the wedding work was my calling and always wanted to be true to myself.  If you love your job, you will never work a day in your life right?  I wanted to stay true to that and figure out who I was as a photographer.

Being at Tabor has opened a lot of doors for me.  It has made me look at what I really enjoy doing, what kind of photography is exciting to me?  It is always when something looks beautiful, when I capture a moment I had not expected and the stars all align.  I have had many moments like that here with senior portraits, and with A Year in the Life at Tabor.  I get to go out my front door, take photos of what I think is beautiful, in this beautiful setting, take a few more steps and I am home with my family.

Now that the summer is practically here, I get to do more of the same photos...I get to take photos of the Tabor Academy Summer Program and write a blog about it.  The job I have during the summer never existed before I created it.  I love the job.  I go out every day, take photos of anything I want, post them, chat about them.  I create a DVD for the kids of the summer, and make up some flyers and cards for the program.  I love every aspect of it.  I love creating, shooting, managing my time, and myself.

I hope to make my senior portrait business grow.  I am working hard on trying to market myself correctly.  My friend Michelle is going to be helping me with more packaging products and design stuff.  She is a graphic designer and soon to be mom of 2!!  She has wonderful ideas, great contacts and knows some beautiful products on the market.  I am so happy to have her on board as well as Patty...(shout out to Patty) who has been so wonderful to have work with me.  I am hoping my dream continues to expand and grow into something wonderful.

My nephew went to his Jr. prom.  I took some photos, followed what my heart told me to take photos of, and feel that they represent my true self.  I absolutely love them and cannot stop looking at them.  They are posted on my new facebook page for my business:  MOJAPHOTO Photography and here they are again to look at...just a couple of my favorites.

Postcard

I have been busy creating a new postcard to go into the summer mailer for Tabor.  I am going to make the card 5x7 glossy.  Information on how to contact me and what services I provide to families/students will be on the back of the card.  Here is the front.

Packaging

For some time, I have wanted to make some sort of packaging for when I get a photo order in and I send it out.  For now, what I do is put the photo order in a plastic sleeve with some hard cardboard packing and slide it into a white mailing envelope that is around a 9x11 size.  I usually write with a sharpie on the envelope and I know that the images are safe and will not bend in the packaging.  This has frustrated me though because I feel that my photography is good but the presentation falls flat.  I want my clients to be excited to get the proofs/prints/product from me and feel like it is a special present that they are about to receive.  This year I have made efforts to change the direction my business is going in to get it into a higher gear.  I hired my very dear good friend to help me in the office and straighten out my papers and filing system.  She has been amazing at her job, fun to work with, and has had some great input for my business. My office is streamline, my desk is de-cluttered and my mind is free to create and put energy in other aspects of my business to make it successful in my eyes.  She recently found me a company that makes boxes for shipping.  I have ordered a bunch and have made some labels to put on the front of them as well. The box will be finished off with some white ribbon tied in a neat little bow and the inside will be lined with white tissue paper.  I am hoping the effect will be great on my clients.  Here are the products...I would love your input.  Feel free to comment.

Doing a show...

Ava put a show on for us tonight.  She used the fireplace as her stage.  She called it a ring dance show.  The name originated from one of Manny's toy rings that she was holding.  She had me hold the microphone so I could ask her questions while she danced and she would respond to them.  Before the show started, she said that she really appreciates when people don't cry at her shows.  This comment was directed toward her brother.  She is so funny!!!  I dont have any photos of the show, (sorry, you will have to see a live performance, no sneak peeks!)  Here are some photos of her for fun.