Baby steps...

just for the business right now, my daughter is very close to her own soon.  I wanted to thank all of my family, friends, co-workers, and friends of friends for pushing my Facebook page over the 100 "Like" mark.  These truly are baby steps for my business and I appreciate every small move forward.

I am pleased to announce that I have a wedding booked for next summer, I know it's down the road but it is something to look forward to.  I am very excited to share in the wedding festivities and shoot such a wonderful event.  I can't wait to book more shoots around it.   

Today I took business cards to The Birthing Inn, in Tacoma, WA... they are the only freestanding birthing center in Tacoma.  I am hoping to move into the realm of labor and delivery photography, very excited about this as well.  Witnessing a birth is an amazing thing.  Please let friends and family know that I would love to book a labor/delivery shoot for a substantial discount, Contact Me for exact amount.  I would love for this shoot to be in July or early August, so email me soon.  Keep in mind that I'm in the South Hill, Puyallup area, so a close hospital would be ideal.  The recipient would receive a shoot beginning when she goes into active labor, all of the labor itself, and an hour post delivery.  My shoot would include pics of mother, family, birth itself, weighing, first bath, foot prints, and introduction to the world.  Tasteful images, within the realm of what mom feels comfortable with. 

I have started the process of finding a professional photo lab for prints.  In the past I shot only B&W film, processed and printed myself so this is a new thing for me.  Trust somebody else with my work and hope they make it look as fabulous as I do, scary.  This will also lead to a more standardized table of booking fees/packages that will be available for clients. 

Okay, off to have some dinner with the family.  Good night. 
Melissa

Shoot what you see...

so I took these around our yard before the rain flattened everything. 

Oh the weather....

in Washington makes us shoot indoors sometimes.  Today was one of those days... dry but ick.  Ugly, gray skies.  I dragged in the backdrop stand, cleaned off my Grammie's old table, and brought in a few flowers before the rain ruins them tomorrow. 

Nature in Washington

So, I wanted to take my daughter outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.  When I got out to the front lawn I found a little mess.  Instead of just asking the guys to clean it up I had my husband hold our daughter and chased down my camera.  These were not the images I thought I might capture today, or any day for that matter, but I shot where I was and got what I got.  Check 'em out.

Uh oh, why are there feathers on our lawn?

Really?  More feathers?  I wonder when Gizmo (Grammie's cat) caught another bird?

Oh my goodness, not what I expected to see.  I thought there might be a little bird laying in the grass.  Instead, I only found a leg and some internal organs.  Ewww.

It's crazy, but I stood there with my camera and was totally amazed by this little creature.  I thought I would be totally grossed out by him but I just wanted to shoot more.  Am I crazy?  I've been behind my lens before and been totally detached from the event in front of me.  It's like this switch triggers in my brain that just says, "how's the light, what do I want to focus on, am I going to get a good shot?"  I love being so comfortable behind my lens, it's like I was meant to have a camera in my hands. 

Anyway, just wanted to share a little piece of my day. 

I plan on increasing my posts, increasing my shooting, and talking more about getting my business rolling forward more now that summer vacation has landed.  In fact, I just made a new logo for my business.

Happy Father's Day

I thought it would be nice to share a picture of my kids that we took for my husband for Father's Day.



Thomas top, Tyler left, and Sophia right.


I hope you enjoy it as much as we did taking it.

Dreams starting to come true.....

Well, I think they are beginning to.  Had an opportunity fall in my lap.  A chance reunion with an old friend, Joel Telling, led me down the road to a photo shoot Friday night.  This was a stressful, exciting, amazing, last minute deal scored late Thursday night.  With almost no time to prep my nerves were a bit frazzled.

The event itself was put on by the Tony Taj Gallery, and The Finerie clothing boutique in Seattle to benefit Susan G. Komen for the cure.  I worked with a wonderful woman, Wendy Wood, to provide images for a company called Post on The Wall.  

I worked through the evening on two memory cards, I would photograph for about ten minutes and then switch out with a blank.  While I filled the second card my images were downloaded onto a computer, uploaded onto a screen at the event, and live online at the same time.  It felt a bit awkward to work in this manner, had to check images between guest shots but turned out to be quite fun. 
  
I met a lot of interesting people and hopefully some of them I will be doing more work with in the future.  I can't wait to see what this amazing evening will lead to next. 

Top Left: Welcome Sign   Top Right:  Tony Taj Gallery   Middle Left:  Benefit For Susan G. Komen   Middle Right:  The Finerie clothing boutique   Bottom Left:  Artist Jesse Torres Jr./Tony Taj   Bottom Right:  Work by Tony Taj

 

Top Left:  One of the beautiful models   Top Right:  A few of the guests including Karla Rava of Aster Event Planning  Middle Left:  A few of the guests including Wendy Wood, Fashion Show Producer   Middle Right:  Shoes in The Finerie  Bottom Left:  Another of the beautiful models  Bottom Right:  The guys behind PostOnTheWall including Jason Smith

Top Left:  Tony Taj's family  Top Right:  More of the beautiful models  Middle Left:  One more of the beautiful models  Middle Right:  Jose Torres Jr. with his father  Bottom Left:  A very funny couple enjoying the music and drinks  Bottom Right:  A few more of the models

How time flies....

One year has already gone by.  My baby girl, our only girl, turned one on Saturday, June fourth.  I decided to go through the DVDs of images that I have sitting around and pulled an image from each month.  It's amazing how much she has changed and how much faster time passes with each child.

June 4, 2010-Our brand new Sophia Lucille

One Month-July 2010

Two Months-August 2010

Three Months-September 2010

 

Four Months-October 2010

Five Months-November 2010

Six Months-December 2010

Seven Months-January 2010

Eight Months-February 2011

Nine Months-March 2011

Ten Months-April 2011

Eleven Months-May 2011

Twelve Months-June 2011

My little girl had no idea she was being born into a photographer's life; she is a beautiful model and I have loved capturing all of the changes so far.  I know there will be many more changes in the years to come and I am proud to say that I am the photographer that gets to capture all of those moments.  Her smiles have been worth all of the sleepless nights, and the laughs worth all of the baby spit up and dirty diapers.  She has an amazing way of bringing a smile to my heart every day.  I love my Sophia Lucille.

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