Holiday Season

Well, Christmas is upon us and due to a very busy senior season I really haven't had much of a holiday portrait season. If anyone is interested in getting holiday portraits taken just call me at my studio, but unless you work fast to place your order enlargements probably won't be back in time for Christmas. For the few people that I have taken portraits get your orders in quick or it may be new years day before you receive them.

Currently in Mexico

If anyone needs to get a hold of me fairly quickly I'd suggest email, I'm not going to be checking my phone messages at the studio until Monday the 23rd. If you want to schedule a session leave your name and number, I'll be booking people in the order they call, and with the holidays upon us, I have a feeling there is going to be a mad rush for portraits for photo cards. Call soon or you may lose your spot.

We had a really fun creative studio session last night for Kane's senior portraits. We did a lot of really cool poses with his guitars and we even broke out the fog machine towards the end. As usual we fill the entire place with fog and set off the smoke detectors. It took a good thirty minutes to clear the place out. We got some really good shots though and the smoke didn't overpower Kain in any of them which can happen fairly easily if you're not careful. It was a really good session and I would say this probably concludes the senior portrait season for the year. It should be mostly family portraits and children for the rest of year.

Newest Senior Slideshow

I know these portraits are from last season, but I felt Nathan's portraits deserved a slideshow, so here it is!

Shepler Family Portrait

I'd say this officially begins the holiday portrait season. We had a really nice, fairly short, portrait session Saturday morning with the Shepler family. Little Scott really ran me ragged trying to get a smile. I tried every trick in my arsenal and I just couldn't get anything above a little smirk. Next time though, I've got a bag of feathers with his name on it. We'll get a smile no matter what.

Tessa - Class of 2010

Here is my latest High School Senior Slideshow. I'm really enjoying making these, they're really time consuming, but they are so much more exciting than my old slideshows. If you've had your portraits taken by me this year and want to order one of these, all you have to do is provide me with the music you want included. For licensing reasons you need to own the music I use, so give me a CD and I will do the rest.

Senior Slide Show

Here is a slideshow of about 30 of my favorite shots from Stephanie's portrait session earlier this week.

Stephanie's Senior Portraits

We had another awesome studio session last night. We tried some really cool things and got some of the most dramatic shots I've ever taken. I really love this red background with her black top. Very cool. There are more of her poses in my gallery, plus a couple of fun behind the scenes shots from this session on my FaceBook page. Check it out!

Morgan's Senior Portraits

We had a nice long studio only senior session last night and we worked in a lot of new props I've acquired over the last couple of months, and we used a couple of older props in interesting new ways. We got some really outstanding shots, but this one blows me away. You can bet you will see this shot again, most likely printed up as a 16x20 and hung up at my studio.

Kyle's Senior Portraits

I hope this isn't the last outdoor senior portrait I take this year, but with the way the weather is going I'm thinking this might be it. If that's the case though, what a way to end the season. We nailed the exact right time for perfect fall colors and every single pose was just perfect. I was really really happy about how everything came together.

Britney's Senior Portraits

After a really fun session down at the dam we spent a couple of hours in the studio doing some really nice casual shots. We also spent some time in her cheerleading and Berryette outfits, and got some really cool shots. I'm working on a montage for her, I'll get that posted as soon as I finish it.

This is a portrait session for the record books. We hiked down to the dam, spent about 15 minutes taking 38 portaits, and then hiked back to our cars. You get in, you get the shots, you get out, that's they way to do it. We tried 2 different poses, one with the dam as the backdrop and one with this pool, and they both turned out really nice, but the kids' expressions in this shot are perfect. Aside from there being so much green in the background as opposed to the beautiful fall color present everywhere else, you just can't ask for a better family portrait.

Levi Kamden 3 weeks old

Here is little Levi. We had a really fun session with him. He was awake a lot more than you would expect from a 3 week old. We stuffed him into all sorts of little sacks and made him do all of these really cute things. This is a really excellent shot of him though, his toes sticking through the bag are really great. This one is getting printed up nice and big to hang up down at the studio.

LAA 2009 Photography Competition Winners

Best in Show: John Troxler Bleeding Heart
Judges Choice #1: John Troxler Bleeding Heart
Judges Choice #2: Deb Saine Red Rose
Creative Imaging Award: David Bowles Contemplation
Virgina Lewis Award: Kaylee Ervin Skylight

Advanced
Landscape/Architecture
1st John Troxler Cloudy Reflection
2nd Ann Weigand Just Another Indiana Icon
3rd Ann Weigand In the Desert
4th Wallace Dibble Long Way Home

Nature
1st John Troxler Bleeding Heart
2nd Jack Burger Lupines
3rd Jeremy Ashcraft Adult Swim
4th David Bowles Contemplation

Open
1st Ann Weigand A Simple View
2nd Jeremy Ashcraft Frontier Christmas
3rd Don Hershberger See-Through Still Life
4th Don Hershberger Aftermath

People
1st John Troxler Trackside with Andrew
2nd Dale L Sullivan Spanish Fiesta

Amateur
Landscape/Architecture
1st Beth Johns One Room School House on Walton Road
2nd Jud Barr What's Beyond
3rd Philip Reismiller Springmill Sunrise
4th Marta Ulrich Deutsch Garden

Nature
1st Deb Saine Red Rose
2nd Phillip Reismiller Rose Breasted Grosbeak
3rd Judi Barr Patterns in Ice
4th Harriet Murdock Rincon The Elegant Egret

Open
1st Donald Weikle '48 Buick at Vera Mae's
2nd Judi Barr Rusting Red
3rd Donald Weikle Lights!
4th Phillip Reismiller Into the Wild Blue Yonder

People
1st Marta Ulrich Grace
2nd Carla Baker Cousins
3rd Clint Andrew Brown Eros
4th Marta Ulrich Carter

Youth

Open
1st Natalia Martin Flowers
2nd Rachel Sims Mexico Beach
3rd Kaylee Ervin Roller Coaster at Sunset
4th Joseph Shafer Karly and the Horse

Little Children's Ministry

Had a great day photographing everyone at Little Children's Ministry yesterday. Everyone did really really well, there were a few children last time that were quite shy that did a complete 180, and smile as big as they could. That was really great to see, and aside from the fact that a full 50% of the kids had runny noses the pictures turned out great. Don't worry parents, the runny noses will be taken care of in your enlargements, it just means a little bit more work for me.

LAA 2009 Photography Show

Ok, the show has been hung, it looks amazing. There is some really awesome work this year. I have a couple of favorites that I saw while hanging, but it's anyone's guess how the judging will go. The judges are both arriving today, Angie at 10am, and John and 2pm. They'll get me their scores and I'll punch them in tonight, so we'll be able to start working on the documentation for the show tomorrow and of course writing the checks!

I also wanted to announce the Photography Show Facebook page. We'll be able to post pictures of the winners, talk about the winning images, and keep track of important dates. This will also be a great way to keep people updated on rule changes as there are probably going to be some major changes in 2010.

So if you're interested in the LAA's annual photography show, click the link and become a fan:

LAA Photography Show Facebook

Facebook Fans

Thanks a ton to all of my fans over on Facebook. I'm up to 36 fans in a week. That's not too bad at all. I think all of my new customers from last week signed up which is just awesome. I'm loving the feedback that I'm getting on my work and the updates I'm giving. Based on this reaction I'm going to keep it going, but I have no plans for stopping this blog any time soon. They both seem to serve their purpose. If you want to become my fan on Facebook just click the link and hit the "Become Fan" button at the top.

Facebook

2009 Wedding Highlights

Here are some of my favorite shots from my 2009 weddings. It was a really great year, I had more fun this year than any other year since I started. I met a lot of really great couples and I hope they'll be customers for life, especially once the little ones start arriving. Congratulations to all of my 2009 newlyweds!

Teresa and Chris' Wedding

I hate to always mention the weather in conjunction with my work, so I'll keep it short this time. The weather was gorgeous! This was a Saturday for the record books, the only thing better than working on a day like that is not working on a day like that. The wedding itself was very nice and both sides of the wedding party was a lot of fun. I had a really good time and I could tell everyone else was having a blast. The reception was a riot, the DJ was playing a custom playlist hand picked by the groom, tons of classic 70's pop, Glenn Campbell and Gordon Lightfoot to name a few. I'm not sure if it was the playlist or what, but the dance floor was filled the whole night. Everyone from flower girls on up to grandmothers was out on the floor rocking it. That's the best thing to see at a reception, it's very disappointing when no one dances and it can make a wonderful day end on sort of a flat note. I also need to mention, I've never been to Culver Cove before, and this place was amazing. It's a bit of a drive, but totally worth it, I wish more couples from this area would use that facility for their receptions. Congratulations you guys, I wish you all the best.

Free Wallets!

Got your attention didn't I. I'm very excited to announce the introduction of Free Wallet prints. If you choose, you may order up to 10 sheets of wallets from your order and get them absolutely free. The catch? Of course there is a catch, I will include my logo on the front of all free wallets. These wallets will serve as promotional pieces for me, getting my name out to your family and friends. These wallets are available to all of my current high school seniors, they're already turned on in your online proofing store, just select the images you want and add them to your cart. I'll add them to your order and you can hand them out at school. You save money and I get a little bit of added publicity. Win/win!