Yesterday I decided to take the day off, which is always hard for me to do, but I did it.  I spent more time with my family and doing things that I needed to do.  Today I am working and I realized that this would be my last blog of the year, so of course I had to say something.

I just want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year filled with much success, joy and love.  Learn from your mistakes and try to be the best person you can possibly be.  That doesn’t mean try to be perfect, it just means do the best you can.  Help those who need help and make sure to take care of yourself and your family to the best of your ability.  Thank you all so much for allowing me to share my experiences and thoughts with you.  Below are some of my favorite images from this year and I look forward to creating more great images!

This year’s Holiday Cake competition was a blast!  All of the wonderful professional, faux and down home cakes, cookies, cupcakes and other delectable sweets were beautiful and irresistible.  Whenever I go to photograph these wonderful events, I must make sure that I eat first because after it’s all over, you can taste whatever you want!  Anyone who loves sweets would enjoy that part.

The contestants are so warm and helpful.  They take the time to answer any questions you have about their desserts, even how long it took them to make it.  I spoke to one of the contestants and she said it took her about 82 hours.  Could you imagine working on one cake for 82 hours?  Of course they weren’t consecutive, but that’s still a lot of time.

Walking through the ballroom capturing images, I couldn’t help but be amazed at the artistry and talent of everyone there.  First to come up with the elaborate ideas and second to be able to make that idea come to fruition.  All I can say is “bravo”.  It reminds me of the first time I saw Cake Boss on TLC.  I was like “Wow!”.  It truly is incredible.  If you haven’t seen any of these cakes or the shows they have on TLC, then boy do I have a treat for you.  Enjoy the images below and try not to drool on your keyboard.

We started outside of my studio and took several shots.  Being that he is a bass player in his school’s orchestra, we of course had to have some portraits with his bass.  In fact, I think he spends more time with his bass than he does with his friends.

After finishing up outside, we moved the session to Stone Mountain Park.  I think everyone and their brother was at the park that day.  Luckily for us I have a favorite spot that too many people don’t frequent.  There were a few hikers that came through, but they kept going and didn’t interrupt our session.

In some of my sessions I have to direct my clients as to how to pose.  Sometimes I literally have to do the pose for them since many people are visual.  Other clients are quite natural in front of the camera and all I have to do is make sure my lighting is good and shoot.  This session was the former.  I kept trying to get him to relax and he kept telling me he was relaxed, he just didn’t know what to do.

As the session went on, he got a little more relaxed.  He just seems to be a very serious young man, which there is nothing wrong with.  I know he’s got a  lot on his mind being that he has to take the ACT next weekend.  Plus he has a crazy schedule, so I really can’t blame him.  At any rate, we got some great images and below are just a few.

Happy viewing!

Being that I was in my high school and college marching bands, I know a lot about them. Unfortunately I was unable to attend the game and see the bands, but at least I was able to attend and photograph the kickoff festivities.

The kickoff was extremely enjoyable.  I was in a suite full of volunteers and participants at the Civic Center where the guests were greeted and fed delicious foods and desserts. Just being there made me soooooooo hungry.

While I was there I met some really great people, some of who I photographed like Angie Stone who put on an awesome live concert.  Raheem DeVaughn put on an excellent concert too, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any images of him.  (sadness) I had never seen either of them in concert before, but I tell you I’d love to see them again.  I also saw Tommy Ford of “Martin”, whom I was unable to photograph, (darn it); Terri J. Vaugh of “The Steve Harvey Show”, and Jasmine Guy of “A Different World” and stage productions.

As you can tell I had a great time and I’d like to thank Ms. Patty Green of “Ms. Patty Cakes”.  If you haven’t heard of her yet, you will.  She is a fabulous woman with a good heart and is always helping those in need.  I also want to give a shout out to other fabulous people I met like Steven, Isaiah, Gloria, Darnell, Mark and numerous others that I can’t list because my memory fails me.  Enjoy the images from the event.  I know I enjoyed taking them.

Basically you will host a party and invite your friends.  The party can be a children’s birthday or themed party, a girls-night-out/boudoir/bachelorette party, a holiday party, whatever kind of party you wish.  I will provide you with invitations to send out to at least 10 of your friends.  You will need to schedule your friends in 15 minute intervals for each of their sessions.  Instead of the regular $85 sitting fee, all your guests will pay is $20 to hold their slot, which will be used toward their purchase of prints.

I will provide a link on my website for them to review their images and order.  I will also provide them with a code that will apply their $20 deposit to their order.  Those that place their order within 7 days after the images are posted will help you, the hostess receive 15% commission on those orders to be used toward your portrait purchase.

One last thing, if you book any portrait parties with your guests the day of the party, you will get an additional 10% commission on the timely orders to be used toward your portrait purchase.  Any bookings subsequent to the party, you will get 5% commission. Just make sure when they book that they mention your name.

Now, doesn’t all that sound really cool?  It’s a great way to have friends over, have fun and get some great images as well.  As a suggestion, since this is a party, it would be great to have refreshments for your guests to enjoy as they eagerly await their session!  Please call or email me if you want to schedule a party.  If you are not a part of my monthly newsletter, please feel free to click the link to the right that says “Subscribe to our newsletter”.  In it you will find all types of interesting information like sales, discounts, new products and offerings.  Again, it is monthly, so I won’t be inundating you with emails.

Thanks for reading as usual and have a great day!

Have you seen those Vistaprint business card commercials that talk about making the right first impression?  Well that’s what head shots do for you.  Some head shots show your personality or at least try to and some show what you do, usually by wearing a uniform or something industry specific.

I think head shots provide people with what to expect.  Not everyone likes surprises. Let’s say you’re going to hear a speaker’s presentation on  ”women’s issues in the work place” by Pat Smith.  Pat could be a man or a woman.  Considering I’m a woman, I think I would be more likely to bond with a woman on this particular subject than I would a man; therefore seeing a picture of Pat would help me determine whether or not I want to actually go to that lecture.  Again, their impressions may be right or wrong, but at least they have something to cling to so they won’t be waiting for the unknown to show up.

So before you have your head shots taken, I would suggest you think about what it is you want to portray in your head shot.  What kind of business do you do?  Do you want to look friendly?  Knowledgeable? Serious? “Businesslike”? All of the above?  Depending on various factors and a good photographer, you can achieve what you are looking for.   You may not have a particular image in mind, which is ok too.  A great image will likely impress many people regardless of their preconceived notions.

Can you tell what the women below do?  What do you think their images say about them? I’m very interested in finding out what you think.

Whenever I photograph Ms. Johnson, there is always a reason, aside from just wanting pictures taken.  Although, she does love pictures and loves having her picture taken, this session had an additional element added on to it.

Considering she is from Sierra Leone, she wanted to commemorate African Liberation Day by being photographed in her native attire.  She brought three lovely outfits that were vibrantly colored.  They worked very well with the surroundings and helped enhance the image.  We used various areas within the park with each individual outfit to accent her and what she was wearing.  She had the most lovely shoes, but they weren’t the best for walking over non-flat surfaces.  Luckily she brought some “walking” shoes to get around.

As usual, she was very good natured and wanted to try different things and go to different places.  At one point I thought she might sink into the lake as she was a bit closer to the edge than I wanted her to be.  Note to self: soft mud/sand/dirt are not conducive to standing when wearing high heel shoes.  Those familiar with Stone Mountain Park can probably tell where we were in each shot.

This session was so much fun and it’s always a pleasure to see and photograph Ms. Johnson.  Below is a peek at her session.  If you have a comment, please feel free to leave one.  I’d love to read what you think.

When she first arrived, she stood in the middle of the pavilion with her hands poised in a very dainty way.  She was basically frozen, just looking around as other children and adults walked or ran past her.  It was like she was trying to take it all in and didn’t quite know what to do.  It was actually priceless.  What came to mind was a princess being put in a room with commoners and not knowing what to do.  Of course I captured this moment, considering she was still and all.

Next there was a pinata, which seemed to be the most difficult pinata to pop ever.  All the children got to whack it twice, with 3 to 5 hits per try.  Mind you, some of the children couldn’t hit hard enough to break an egg with a stick let alone a pinata, but it was still difficult.  Before it was over, most if not all of the adults had taken a swing at it too….hard swings.  The men took huge hits at it and finally the candy came out…reluctantly, but it came out.

After that there was an Easter egg hunt, a dance contest and a game of musical chairs.  All in all it was very entertaining, especially the dance contest!  Cake and ice cream were served and then the children went to play on the playground.  Now how much more fun could that be?

It was a beautiful day to have a party outdoors and an even more beautiful day to capture images.  These are special memories for her family and friends, who I believe will cherish them.

Well I met them both at Hembree Park in Roswell and we immediately recognized one another, even though we had never seen each other before.  She had a sweet face, just like her sweet voice on the phone.  As I drove in, she waved to me and smiled at me like she had known me all of my life.  That was very comforting because I knew that the session would be very relaxed with a good dose of happy.

J.C. was so laid back and easy to work with.  We moved to different locations to get different shots.  He even changed clothes a few times.  The hard part was finding even lighting because it was a bright sunny day without a cloud in the sky.  It was about 10am, so the sun was pretty high in the sky, but we were able to work around it for the most part.  Well it was a wonderful session and I was very happy to meet with them and of course to photograph J.C.  Again, it’s difficult for me not to enjoy any session I have!

Have you figured out what it is yet?  It’s a free consultation!  Yes, I am excited about it and I will tell you why.  One purpose of a free consultation is first and foremost, having the opportunity for me to meet you in person and vice-versa (I love meeting new people).  Meeting in person allows us to determine whether there is good chemistry and plus it’s easier to get comfortable with someone in person than it is over the phone.  No one wants to work with someone they don’t like or makes them uncomfortable.

The next thing a free consultation does is allows you to ask questions and to discuss what you want to achieve from your session.  I also bring samples of my work and products so you can see and feel what I offer.  You may have some really cool ideas that you want to incorporate into the images and I’m all about collaboration.  I do have ideas of my own and those ideas may change after meeting you.  My goal is to capture the best of you and to make you happy with what I capture.  When I photograph people, I’m not just trying to make you look good, but I am trying to tell a story and show the real you that you may not show to others often.  If I were to break it down, the reactions I’m looking for are “awwwwwww”, “oooooooh”, “that’s so sweet”, “that’s awesome!”.

The last thing the free consultation does is lets you know what to expect before, during and after the session.  No one likes to be in the dark, wondering what’s going to happen next and when it’s going to happen.  When you prepare for your free consultation, it is a good idea to have some questions in mind.  Perhaps even write them down to make sure you don’t forget.  Even if you do forget, you can always call me back at a later time or email me.  Basically I try to make the sessions as worry-free and fun as possible.

So now you know, not everything that’s free is good or worth it, but I hope you also know that my free consultation is.