Marketing a new idea

I had the idea last summer but tossed it aside. "People won't be interested," I told myself. "I'm too busy." I had a few other lame excuses/reasons why I wasn't going to pursue the idea and left it at that.

Then at the end of may a friend asked if I would be interested in doing exactly what I had thought about last year! Of course I said yes and the next day I got to work taking sample shots and putting a plan in place.

So, what did my friend ask me to do? She has invited me to do a "back to school" picture session for her small homeschool group. And her reason for inviting me is great. School pictures provide a record of our children's growth and change from one year to the next. She realized she was missing out on that. I know my mom kept all my school pictures and it's fun to look back at them now and see my own growth and development. (I won't mention that I can also see some questionable hairstyle and clothing choices in the same pictures.)

I plan to contact several local homeschool groups to offer this to them. If any of you know any groups that would be interested, please contact me, or pass this along to them! I would also be interested in speaking to small preschools about this service.

Maternity Shoot - and what it really looks like when you're expecting twins

I was thrilled to take maternity pictures for my dear friends Denver and Andrea. They are expecting twins and I am so, so happy for them. I can't wait to meet these two special babies.

He'll be a great big brother!

And....just to prove that carrying twins isn't all wonder and smiles, this is what it might feel like at the Smith house these days. :-)

The Arling Family

I had a fun time taking pictures of this family from my church. It was a change of pace to photograph a family of teenage boys instead of toddlers and little kids running all over the place! I almost didn't know what to do with myself.

If it's been a while since you've had family pictures, don't wait! Call me to schedule today.

Photography Workshop

I just finished Composition 101: Creativity on Purpose, an online workshop taught by Sarah Allred. I felt like I was back in school! We had homework every week and I usually waited until the last minute. It was great to be challenged every week and think about different aspects of what makes a picture work. I'm very excited about shooting again after taking this class.

Week One was all about shooting from different perspectives.

Week Two explored using things like line, pattern, scale and simplicity to enhance pictures.

Week 3 focused on cropping. (I think my oldest is getting tired of having a camera in his face by this point).

In Week Four we talked about making photos black and white on purpose and worked on putting all we learned into our photos.