For those who didn't know..

...I was published in the paper for my bald eagle photo I uploaded here in December!!! :) HOW AWESOME!!!!! I'm still pretty excited about it haha

Bippen - Maternity Mini

I LOVE BABY BELLIES!!! I absolutely LOVE maternity photography. Theses memories will last a life time! I'm soooo pleased with how these photos turned out, and yes I am a sucker for black and whites.

Dillard - Sweetheart Mini

THEY'RE BACK!!! These guys are so easy to work with and are truly fun and kind people! & yes...they have ANOTHER session booked for the end of the month! :) :)

Neff - Sweetheart Mini

I have to admit, when I was first contacted by her, I was intimidated. I had never worked with a teenage couple before, but I must say...young love is sweet love! <3 & we have had parent consent to post these online! :)

Eaton Newborn

This was a rather quick session but she was such a sweet little girl. I just love the tiny squishies.

 

Graham!!

So these girls were freaking adorable!!! I always can tell when siblings just get a long and actually love each other, and these two were SO sweet. <3 I hope I get to work with them in the future. Totally a photogenic family.

Baby Wheeldon

Mom sure thought she was being cranky, but she was one of the best babies I've had the pleasure of working with. I'm new to the newborn world, but I must say I'm VERY pleased with how these photos turned out!! <3

VALENTINES DAY MINI'S!

These kids were FANTASTIC!!! If you can't tell by how the pictures turned out, they were all so easy to work with and such a joy!!! <3 I hope I get to work with them again!!

Dillard Family! - February

These guys are AWESOME! They've never had family photos done before so I was sooo happy they decided to hire me to be their photographer. I was even happier when they told me they were booking me for ANOTHER session in March :)

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

I have been seriously behind on this blog!!! I was overwhelmed with a huge amount of sessions when I got back from Christmas vacation, and it's been almost two months since I've posted. I will be adding ALL the new entries starting where I left off. It may take a few days but it will be up! I feel absolutely horrible I've gotten this behind. There will be very few photos on the catch up entries, but once I'm caught up, I will add more that 2 or three to the current sessions.

I'm also going to be editing the top photo to but up my more recent work. Thanks everyone for reading, following, and supporting.

You paid WHAT for a photographer?

I'm writing this primarily because personal friends and even family have asked "Why do photographer's charge so much" since we just "push a button on a camera". I'm here to explain why we charge what we do.

First, there is something called COB, or Cost of Business", and that is a breakdown of how much it costs to run your business divided by the number of days you spend conducting sessions. Some photographers high ball that number, I personally low ball that number. I charge half of what it thinks I should!

Second, we do not just "push a button on a camera", professional photographers who take pride in their work go above and beyond to learn angles, lighting, ISO's, shutter speed, and apertures. That is just IN camera, outside of the camera we have to learn proper editing techniques so photos aren't over and under exposed, while adding a bit of an artistic flair to each photo. Photographers are like finger prints, everyone has their own signature techniques, looks, edits, angles etc.

Another thing to consider, a photographer may spend an hour of their time with you, while capturing your beautiful images, but our work doesn't stop there. Once we get home we spend hours editing your images. Editing times of course depends on length of the session and number of shots, but editing wedding photos can take 10-18 hours! That could be a total of 26+ hours we work for you.

When purchasing a CD of your images, the price isn't high just because we feel our work is worth it, we have to account for the cd, the label, the case, the packaging, the envelope, the postage, and the tracking (if applicable).

Personally, I am a stay at home mom running my business, so I don't have "work" to put in front of you or your photos. Stay at home wives have to do laundry, cooking, cleaning, along with their own personal hygiene. I'm also a mom which means I have to cook special meals, do extra laundry, clean up toys (that when stepped on can be EXTREMELY painful haha), as well as making sure a 36inch tall human doesn't hurt himself, get into anything that can hurt him, walk out of the house, or break things, play with said tiny human, and teach him things he will need for the rest of his life. Then lastly a business owner, I have to create ads/flyers, create marketing material, create contracts, take photos, edit photos, create prints, create CD's, ship prints and/or CD's, spend HOURS promoting my business personally, and finding the proper target markets, as well as holding contests when I reach milestones, and finding ways to be certain I'm giving my clients the best deals possible. This is basically three full time jobs when you think about the time that goes in to everything. That is why 68% of small businesses ran by stay at home mom's do not succeed.

All in all, photographers do much, much more than just simply pushing a button. If you've ever paid a photographer $20 for a session with a cd of images, you will understand what all we do. I know these prices are not something EVERYONE can afford in this economy, so I run a few games to offer discounted sessions as well as offer discounts, and I even offer a payment plan for big events like Weddings and Children's 1st year milestone bundles. If you need a payment plan for any other session, don't hesitate to ask because I WILL WORK WITH YOU! <3

The Buzbee's

These two were funny. He is celebrating his 20 years in the service! Once we got there is started to sprinkle and did it off and on, so we rushed and mashed the 90 minute session into just an hour but I think it worked!! I'm not sure hubby was very happy about one outfit ever 20 minutes though. haha. I am in LOVE with how these photos turned out. See what happens when you have fun during a shoot? ;)

Baby B - 6 days new

Friday I got to work with this precious little one (who didn't help my baby fever at all). She was pretty set on NOT sleeping, until the very end. They all turned out amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these photos. Hopefully you enjoy all of them as much as I do. <3

Baby Lindquist

First off, this little one was the LEAST fussy baby I have ever had to deal with giving his age! Secondly, he gave me a serious dose of baby fever! He was so adorable! I'm not late posting this, he was born in December so we decided to give the shoot a Christmas feel! <3 I love every single photo. I hope to work with him, and the rest of his family again in the future.

Mazzeo Wedding

Well, I have officially worked my first wedding! I learned so much from this experience, and there is still more to learn. These are just the posed photos following the ceremony. I will add more of the ceremony/reception later on once I finish editing the entire evening. I'm only about half way through!

CONGRATS TO THE NEW MR & MRS MAZZEO!