I can’t believe how fast this summer is flying by!  I am getting ready to head up to Detroit to go to a workshop, so I wanted to post about the mini sessions before I go.  I will be back Wednesday night, so if it takes a while to get an email or voice mail response back from me in the next few days that is why.  I’ll have my laptop, but I know we are going to be busy day and night…

And I know that I owe some sneak peaks,  I will try to get at least one more out before I go, but no promises!  It’s been a busy week and I have been working all hours to get some galleries and orders done before I go.  I also had a fun request from Norm Van Ness (a great photographer as it turns out!) over at NBC channel 24 and managed to fit taping a session and editing pictures for a “Darn Good Question” segment.  It will air either this Tuesday or next Tuesday at 7PM, so watch if you would like some tips on taking better pictures of your kids!

OK, mini session info:

The summer mini sessions will be colorful, fun, and nostalgic! I’m going to have several themes to choose from, and they will all be in cute spots around downtown Grand Rapids. Backgrounds will be picket fences, steps, flowers, or alleyways which I will choose based on the theme.

Themes (choose one):
Lemonade stand with bowl of lemons, old table & cloth, etc.
Watermelon slices with trike/wagon (or parents can buy an ice cream cone from a local shop)
Old- fashioned pull toy (for babies)
Colorful pop in glass bottles with straws: 7-up, orange crush, etc. (older children only)

I suggest colorful clothes and bare feet or sandals!

Dates:
Friday July 31 8:30 AM – 11 AM and 6 PM – 8:30 PM
Sunday August 2 8:30 AM – 11 AM
20 minute sessions every half hour, your session will be shortened if you are late.

Cost: $250 (plus tax)

You get:
Mini session fee, with at least 10 proofs viewable online
Designer 3×3 mini accordion album (see pictures below)
3 full resolution digital files on disk and loaded online at mpix.com
OR $240 credit toward prints at lower collection prices

Additional albums can be purchased for grandparents, spouse, etc for $25 each

Who:
Best for one or two children
Three or more children will be treated as a group with no promise of individual shots (I will try my best!)
Babies must be sitting and comfortable on the sidewalk or little red wagon

So I don’t post without a picture, here is a sneak peak of what is included in the mini session package:

Happy 4th everyone!!  Have fun and be safe!  I will try to get more sneak peaks up this weekend if I can, I am working to get the last sets of proofs from before my vacation and some more albums done.

Edited to add…newsletter has been sent out!  Let me know if I forgot to add you, I had a lot of requests buried in emails. 

I had these images all ready to share though… I need to try to get more pictures of the albums before I send them out.  I just love the colors of this one and had to show it off!

Some inside pages:

Nice thick pages:

Albums are a great way to get all your favorite images… and show them off to your kids as they grow and their children too!

I was talking to one of my clients last month, or maybe it was May…it’s all a blur right now   She told me about the business she is starting and passed along her website.  I was blown away!  So very creative and fun, I had to get my kids in to get paintings with her.  Especially before Duncan gets too old, his huge 8 year old feet were already pushing it.  So I set up a session with Sara and tonight we went to her house to make our intial hand and foot prints.

First up when we got there was to go through her books to get ideas of what we wanted.  We ended up getting things that went with each of their rooms.  Then Sara got out the canvases.

Duncan was up first, I think we’ll play a guessing game at what his picture will be!  I’ll update the blog again when we get the final product, so post your guesses in the comments…actually I will give someone a gift card if they guess all 3 right before I reveal the final paintings!!  He got to do a hand and a foot!   (please excuse the photography, Lucy was extra clingy so I had her in one hand and the camera in the other, not easy to do)

Lucy was next.  I have no pictures as I was “helping” her…distracting her from getting upset that her feet were being painted!  She did a lot better than I expected, Sara did such a great job with her!  What do you think her painting will be?

Finally Aidan, since we were having a hard time trying to decide on a good way to do what he wanted.  My little obsessed boy, he has the silliest interests.  His will be tough to guess, whoever gets all 3 will earn their gift card!!

So check out her site, I love it because I have a hard time finding good kids art for their rooms…but I love these!!  And will treasure them forever, like photographs, they capture my babies forever as they grow way too fast!!

And I have to give a shout out to Jean, another client…Sara told me tonight you designed her logo, I LOVE it!!!  It’s just perfect!!  I have the most artistic clients!

This was so fun to do, something totally different than my usual.  I think my favorite shot is a little hard to see, I’ll attach it bigger below, the model is so beautiful and I love the light with the dark wings

Hmm, what else is new?  I hope all my moms out there had wonderful Mother’s days!  Mine wasn’t the greatest, Lucy wasn’t feeling well and had some tantrums, Tim was out of town seeing his friends in CA that he hasn’t seen in 8 years!!  so I was playing “single mom”  I have so much respect for the women who do that every day!!  But I got some wonderful handmade gifts from the kids, cards in the mail this year (instead of handed to me) and flowers   Aidan said he gave me the best gift of all, a hug!  I have to agree!  And I liked Duncan’s card from school where he said I was 23 years old!

I have to share a story…Aidan came home one day telling me he needs to have a date with Grace.  OK, the kid is 4…so I wanted to know what he thought a date was.  It’s all about candy was his answer, but Sydney and Trevor said it’s about kissing and they’re WRONG!  Too cute!

And Lucy is talking like crazy now, I love this age!  The one that melts my heart is when we say I love you to her, she says “too” back.

I am working on catching up, but look out for a ton of session coming up in the next few weeks!  Maternities, families, newborns, babies, seniors, and a wedding!  Fun!!

In the meantime, I did too much research into what could cause this tonight. One thing I found is that some email filters don’t like when you link to the site I use to blog. I’ve taken that link out, emailed myself again and it went through to my inbox, yeah!!! SOO, hopefully that is solved, but I am now wondering what all got lost. I apologize to you all!!

I’ve been busy trying to work this weekend on some albums and canvas custom orders… and I have another session to get to and put a sneak peak up here, hopefully I can get that up tomorrow!

One last thing…I’ve been working on a sample for the 12×12 decorative canvas to bring along to show. I just found this program where I can show you what it will look like until you see me next! Cool huh? I’m working on this one for Lucy’s room, two birds, one stone