I know I’ve been a bit quiet lately, which usually means we have so many things going on that our blog posts suffer.

January is always our time to finish all of our albums (I’ll show some off soon) from our late fall and winter weddings and prepare for the upcoming year. We have a lot of great things planned and we are really excited.

This year is shaping up to be very busy. While we still have a few open dates, many of our Saturdays are booked for wedding season. We’re working on our plan for the year, trying to find new ways to provide even better customer service and quality. We just installed new studio management software to help with efficiency and order tracking.

New sample albums are the works. Our album companies have been been busy too, with fresh new albums and products.

We can’t wait.

We attended Imaging USA a few weeks ago, the national convention of the Professional Photographer’s Association. The inspiring seminars and talks and the chit chat with our fellow photographers, always stirs the creative juices.

Marketing is a necessary evil for us. If we can’t find new clients, we can’t do what we love. Barb has been working on a marketing brochure and campaign for high school seniors and was thrilled to find that she won first place at the international AN-NE marketing awards ceremony, which was presented at Imaging USA. Kudos to our wonderfully creative graphic designer Anne Lehman. The award wouldn’t have been possible without her.

I’m proud of Barb – it was a ton of work.

Steve

Tomorrow, Sunday the 14th,  we’re donating our time and expenses to photograph The Reindeer Ball, supporting abused and neglected children through The Mercy Foundation and A Child’s Place. If you’re attending the ball, please stop by to say hello.

I’m putting the finishing touches on some very cool wedding albums. Most of our work is actually after the wedding. We spend a lot of time on creative design and making each and every photograph look it’s best, enhancing and retouching for blemishes.

Here’s a couple of before and after samples from an album I’m working on today.

straight out of the camera

The final version after color and density correction and some selective highlight and contrast filtration.

I knew I wasn’t going to leave the other figure, but wanted to have some extra room for cropping.

The final version – this just worked best in sepia tones with some selective darkening or burning in, to enhance the mood – toned down the graffiti on the wall.

Barb and I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!!