This year is a little (actually a lot) different for me as far as scheduling goes. I usually spend all of November shooting Christmas sessions but won't be doing that this year. We'll be busy preparing for a very special delivery, and let's face it-no one wants to see me crawling around on the ground with a giant belly anyways! Since I'm cutting out a whole month, the pink coffee photoart calendar is almost full. And I don't want anyone to miss out, so I thought I'd share what I do have available.

The short version: if you want to schedule a shoot do it soon. The long version is below.

August
- One Open Date
- And a possible opening around Grand Rapids, MI at the end of the month. If you want to snag that date send me an email for more details.

September
-Three Open Dates

October
-Two Open Dates
And that's it for 2010! Okay, if someone asks really, really nicely I might take one client in November...might.

Ahhh! It's hard to believe how fast this year is flying by.

Calendar by Red Velvet Art.

*Disclaimer* I completely stole this idea from Tara Whitney. She's a genius and my absolute favorite photographer, so I don't feel bad about it. :)

I have such fun clients and always get excited when I see how they display their prints in their homes. Some of them are really creative! So I thought it would be fun for everyone else to see...a happy little dose of inspiration and ideas.

The first clients I'm featuring are Candice and Dustin. Enjoy!

They ordered my Cappuccino Package, which includes lots of prints. Perfect for a collage! I like how Candice mixed black and white frames to make her display. It gives the wall a whimsical, less structured feel.

Want your house featured? Send me some photos!

Anderson and I love our Life Group at church. LOVE IT! Right now we're going through a study on marriage, and our leaders challenged us to do the Great Date Experiment. So last week we went on Great Date #1. It was so much fun. :) We brought the camera, because when we first started dating we took pictures all the time!

We learned some fun stuff about each other. Like, if we had to pick a different city for us to live in, we'd both choose NYC. And we played "Would You Rather" while we waited on our dinner...I love that game!

It was refreshing to do something different and take the time to really focus on our relationahip and talk about the areas that make God happy and the areas that we need to work on. If you want to participate in the Great Date Experiment, you can print the dates, starting with #1 right here. Try it!

In other news, I received an abnormally large amount of photography/business questions in my inbox over the weekend. We all know I'm not good about responding to them or posting answers here on my blog. So I've decided to give in and try Formspring to answer a few of them each week. Maybe this will be more efficient than trying to keep up with FAQ posts. Fell free to submit one. This should be fun!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We spent yesterday at church. Anderson played and I sang, so we were there for ALL THREE services. It was really exciting though-I loved it! What a great way to celebrate all that Jesus has done for us. Then we went to my parents' house for a yummy lunch...and dinner. What is it about holidays that makes us feel like we can eat 12 meals in one day?!

Anyway-Here I go again, trying to keep up with regular FAQ posts and realizing it's been a long time since the last one. I'd like to make this a weekly thing, so you can know when to expect them. Buuut, maybe we'll start with monthly and work our way there. :)

Rachel asked:
What role do you play in dressing your clients?

I actually stay pretty hands-off in this area. I do encourage them to wear something they are comfortable in; something that expresses who they really are. Not everyone dresses like an Anthropologie ad everyday, so why do it for pictures? Same thing goes for families matching. That sucks a little bit of the fun and personality out of a picture for me. Have you ever watched What Not to Wear? They always talk about how outfits shouldn't match, but they should go together. That's how I feel about coordinating multiple people. They should just "go" together...you know?!

I do give a few basic pointers like:
When in doubt go for solids.
One statement piece makes for a bigger "WOW" factor.
Pick bright color over black and white.
Layers make an outfit more interesting. (Although, this is tough to pull off here in the Florida heat!)

Sarah asked:
What kind of archive system (backup) do you use for photos? How do you organize client info and contracts? I keep waffling between a variety of options and I really need to settle down so I can get organized! So...what's YOUR office looking like? :)

All my files are backed up on an external hard drive. When it fills up, I just buy another one. This is the one I'm using right now. And so far, I'm only on my second one. These babies are small and hold A LOT of files. Also, I keep a copy of each session on my computer until the client places an order. It has a huge hard dive, so storing all those files doesn't slow it down. Then after they place an order, I delete the files on my computer and just save the external hard drive copy. Backing up your images is an absolute MUST, and this process works well for me.

I HATE keeping up with contacts and info. I mean, really just hate it, so I keep it very simple. If you're TYPE A you might need something more sophisticated. But all my client info is stored in spreadsheets. I use the info from the contract they sign to populate the spreadsheets then just add new info throughout the process as needed. There's some cool CRM software that does all of this too, but like I said: I keep it simple! Having everything stored in one place has saved me from a lot of headaches. Each tax season gets a little, teeny tiny bit easier. Anderson and I only almost killed each other once this year. I'll take it!

Rebecca asked:
I like how you sometimes include random people in the background of your images. It makes them feel more real. I noticed it recently in your session with Kristin and Brian. There's a shot of them at a bus stop and a lady is riding by on her bike. You also do it a lot with your beach sessions. How do you make this happen?

Hmmm...luck?! A lot of my sessions happen on the weekend in high-traffic areas. I used to try not to get anyone in the background, but it was really frustrating at times! Then I had a few surfers show up in the background of a beach session and realized I loved those images. Like you said, it feels more real. So now I just try to be aware of what's going on around me and catch some of that in the images. Sometimes it makes an image feel more intimate to me. Like, there's all the chaos going on but the subjects of my picture are unaware of it. Try this-instead of waiting for someone to walk out of your frame, make an effort to catch them in it!

These are from the photo booth at a wedding we went to recently. I love photo booths! Wouldn't it be fun to have one in your house???!!!

NOTE: I'm leaving this post at the top of my blog for awhile...scroll down for new stuff!!!

Want to know how I do what I do?
Here's your chance to ask me anything!

When I started in this industry several years ago I wish I would have known someone who was doing this type of mentoring program; someone I could ask all of my embarrassing photography business questions. I truly believe I could've saved myself a lot of frustration, headaches and moolah. (I won't bore you with all of my examples!) Now I get questions from other photographers all the time. Really good questions! And while I love hearing from you, I just don't always have the time to sit at my computer and respond to all of them. Regular FAQ posts on this blog seemed like a good solution, but I find myself overwhelmed with answering all the questions. I want to! It's just hard. So I've come up with a fun solution for me AND you!

Here's the deal: I'm a one-on-one type of person. I prefer to sit in a relaxed setting and chat openly and honestly with someone I feel comfortable with. And now I'm at a place where I can offer that to other photographers with my mentoring program: "How to Make Pink Coffee". I want this to be a unique experience for photographers at all levels. This isn't about me telling you how great I am. It's about me answering your questions and telling you where I screwed up and where I've done well. Then helping you think of ways to implement fresh, new ideas into your own business.

I'll tell you my secrets to:
-branding your business
-pricing your work
-finding your editing style
-blogging
-using social media
-scouting for locations
-choosing the right clients for you
-saying no to the wrong clients (tactfully, of course!)
...and SO MUCH MORE!

And this is my favorite part: "How to Make Pink Coffee" is also an opportunity for you to shoot a photo session with me. (You get to pick the type of session!) I want you to experience the fast-paced craziness of a real photo session, so we will be working with actual clients, not models.

BUT WAIT, there's more! (I've always wanted to say that!)

Because this is Love Month I want to GIVE AWAY a spot to one lucky photographer. Yay! If you're interested leave a comment on this post telling me why you'd like to have this opportunity. Make sure to include your email address. You have until Friday, February 12th. I'll choose a winner at random and announce it on Valentines Day.

And...anyone who signs up during the month of February* will get $75 off the regular price of $650.

Want more info? Contact me for a full package and all the fun details!

*Remember, February only has 28 days this year. :)