First, I’m in between studio space right now.  Although the space in Bremerton was beautiful (once you got through the door), it wasn’t working for me on many, many levels.  I’m taking this summer off to focus on the weddings I have booked, but in the fall will be focusing on finding a great place that will work for my needs and also for my brand.  I’m finding it hard to adjust to not having the studio to fall back on to meet clients and do shoots if it rains, but very soon I’ll be so busy that I won’t have time to worry about that anyway.  My summer and fall are almost totally booked up with some gorgeous and exciting weddings.  I think I have a handful of weekends left (1 in August and September, and 2 in October that are not filled).  In early November I will be taking time to rest from my busy wedding season, prepare for some exciting speaking engagements that I have and spend time with my family over the holidays.  Can you believe I’m already talking about the holidays?  But that’s life when a calendar starts getting filled.

Second I’m transitioning into focusing on mainly wedding and engagement photography.  This is the part that I’ve been afraid to go after.  I’ve felt for a long time “WHAT IF?”…….what if I don’t book enough weddings, what if people don’t like my work……Well I’m still thinking what if, but now it’s WHAT IF?  What if I did mostly just weddings?  How would that make me feel?- AMAZING!  I LOVE weddings!  What if I worked on the weekend and was able to reign in my working so that I stopped working at 6pm everyday?  WHAT IF I actually had the schedule and job that I dreamed about when I first started this whole crazy idea of being a wedding photographer?  I’ve been inspired to really go after what I want in my business and it feels great!

That doesn’t mean I won’t do any Lifestyle sessions, but it does mean that I will be doing them less…..as in much less.  A Lifestyle session with me will be any portrait session that does not have to do with a wedding or engagement and all my Lifestyle sessions will be one price.  I feel like this will streamline the brand that I want to put out there, and also simplify my life, which is another thing I’m trying to do.  I have some great contacts and people that I enjoy calling friends that I will refer out to if I am booked and cannot do a session and I feel great about that!

So with that, I will continue back to my everyday life and conquer the potty training of an almost 3 year old little boy…..Happy Friday! (Here’s to warmer weather for the Pacific Northwest very very soon!)

Dad:

My dad  is doing ok considering.  He finished his first 2 surgeries.  The 2nd surgery was very long (18 hours) and during that surgery an artery was cut a little bit and he lost a lot of blood.  They did a transfusion and everything else went ok.  Since the surgery was so long and he had the transfusion, they decided to finish up the last little bit of a bone graft in a separate surgery, and that will happen in the next few weeks as his body recovers from the other surgeries and transfusion.  The most critical part of the surgery is over, so we are thankful everything went as well as it did.  Thank you all so much again for your concern and thoughts, it really does mean a lot.

Camera Gear:

Ok this is a big one that has got me a little frantic.  As I wrote before, I sold all of my Canon gear faster than I ever thought possible.  I ordered my new Nikon gear, but none of it has gotten here yet!  EEEK!  I’ve been borrowing and renting until it all gets here, but man!  Talk about stress!  I think I’m going to be very happy with Nikon though.  My first shoot with the Nikon equipment is on Sunday, a senior shoot.  And of course I’ll be using the new stuff at the workhsop tomorrow.

Schedule:

My busy season is definitely starting.  I’ve already started scheduling both last minute 2010 seniors and 2011 seniors for over the summer.  I have weddings galore coming up this summer and I just can’t wait to start those again!  I’m looking for more engaged couples.  So if you’re an engaged couple looking to get married later this year or in the future, be sure to contact me for some SUPER deals!  YES, I’m talking SUPER deals  Here’s what’s coming up for me:

May 16-19   Newport Beach, CA for the Escalate Live Conference (I’m SO exicted about this!!) There’s still tickets left if you want to make it too!

May 25        If you go to my church in Poulsbo, I’ll be giving my monthly photo class at 10:30am, it’s free and we’re working on photography basics

May 28       This is my ANNIVERSARY with Nate, 12 YEARS  I’ll also be hosting an Arbonne Party at my home.  GREAT skincare, if you want to come let me                      know!  I’ll get you an invite!

MAY           Baseball season will finally be DONE!  YIPEEEE!

June           The kids will be out of school, what will I do with myself

June 19      My wedding season starts with a super wedding down in Oregon.  I can’t wait!

I’ve also rescheduled the Hawaii Out of the Box Wokrshop for Saturday August 14, so if you want to get in on this one, in an amazing location, email me and I’ll give you the details!  Plus you can start making your travel plans now

I’m going to be posting a Feature Friday blog later today about an amazing client that I’ve had in the past so stay tuned for that post also  As I leave here’s a few of the senior I did this week.  Another Allyson, her full post will come early next week!

I wanted to post a few updates here quickly about things going on.  First of all thank you to my awesome clients for being patient as I catch up from traveling.  Many posts are coming with jobs and projects I’ve been working on and orders have been sent out!

Next, unfortunately with the health of my dad and the seriousness of his surgeries (2 more coming up), and the critical aftercare we’ll be watching, I have postponed the Hawaii workshop.  This will be rescheduled for sometime in August or early September.  I’ll keep you updated and still can’t wait to get out there!  This decision didn’t come lightly, but I just felt like IF I needed to get to Houston quickly, it would be better for me to be closer and here on the mainland.

Also, I’ve made the switch!  This has been a long time coming as I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth.  But this week my new Nikon camera will be here and I’m so excited about it!  I’ll be sure to post my thoughts and struggles (as I’m sure there will be some as I get used to a whole new camera system).  As soon as my lenses arrive I’ll be extra excited!

Lastly I have some spots left in the May 8 workshop here in the Seattle area.  If you know anyone wanting to really step up their game in their business then send me an email or see the link above under “INFO” and sign up.  We’ll be giving away lots of great things to help your business!

I’m going to leave with an image from a wedding I  2nd shot at last year that I never got the chance to blog!  As I catch up on some blogging, this will definitely be in there.  How could I have forgotten this little gem?  Also, Escalate Live is only a few weeks away!  It’s in Newport Beach, CA and  there’s still tickets available- AND if you can’t make it, they will be broadcasting it live!  This is sure to be an amazing conference!

Looks really magical on the outside right?  I felt like I was staying at Disneyland or something.  First off I’m going to say that this is our first time in Vegas, when we were looking for places to stay, we obviously wanted the cheapest, but nice so that we could spend money on other things.  This hotel is right across the street from the MGM where the convention is happening and we got a KILLER deal, I mean KILLER (5 nights PLUS roundtrip airfare for $287 each) so we booked it.  Well, evidently this is considered the “party” hotel.  Oh well, lesson learned and next year we’ll probably just stay AT the hotel that the convention is at.  As it is, although our hotel is right across the street, it takes about 30 minutes to walk from our room to the convention center.  HEY, at least I’m getting my exercise in!  I think yesterday I walked about 10 miles!

So we got in late Sunday night, my senses were overloaded from the casino area that you have to walk through to register for your room and get to the elevators to the rooms, and we settled into our place.  We got upgraded to a remodeled room so it’s pretty nice.  I’ll take a picture of it for tomorrows post.  It was about 12:30 in the morning, so we decided we were a little hungry from our trip (we left our house at 4pm) so Nate and I ordered room service.  When I called they told me it would be 2-3 hours!!!!  YIKES!  So I upacked all my stuff and we just decided to call it a night.

Monday (yesterday) I got up and got ready to pick up our registration badges and find out where the Shootsac booth was where I’d be working later that day.  Then we got some lunch.  I went back to the Shootsac booth to work and demo the Shootsac.  It was SO fun, and I loved telling people about the features of the Shootsac and show them how it functioned.  It was a CRAZY 3 hours, but so much fun!  Jessica was there, Keats was demonstrating the new Shoot Tote and the whole Shootsac team was just amazing!  I got a new Hip Slip for my computer and I’m SO excited!

After that I limed back to the hotel room (I forgot how much your feet hurt when you’re on them ALL day long, I was instantly reminded of my days in retail!).  Nathan and I decided to go get some dinner at Diego’s inside the MGM.  Nathan love Mexican and their food was pretty good.  The atmosphere in that place was awesome!

Next we headed down the street to the new Louis Vuitton store to meet up for the [b]school night shoot with Becker, Joe Photo, JVS and Nick Adams.  GREAT information.  I didn’t take a TON of pics but learned a LOT that I can take back into my own business at home.  I also got to meet face to face with a lot of forum friends that I’ve chatted with but never met in person.  Thanks Larry Reeves for showing me some great tips on night shooting with natural available light, Andi Grant for helping me with settings etc, Cathy Crawley for just being so darn cute and Alyson Cohen for showing me tip too!  And thank you Michael Fletcher for becoming a new friend!  I enjoyed talking with you while we were waiting

Here’s the ONE shot I thought I got last night.

Then Nathan and I walked briskly back to our hotel room, because we were F F F FREEZING outside and we crumpled down onto our bed and fell to sleep!  More updates tomorrow about today’s craziness.  Thanks for following along!

In a little over 2 hours Nate and I will be on our way to VEGAS!  I have so many feelings right now I don’t even know what to do.  Excitement for everything that’s going to happen there in the next few days (shoots, meeting people, classes).  Excitement about being in Vegas for the first time EVER.  Yes you heard me right, I’ve never ever been to Vegas in all of my 31 years of life.  Bliss about being away with Nathan for the first time ever in our married life!  You see we got married at 19, spent a few nights in a hotel, and that was it.  That was our honeymoon.  We always talked to each other about going, but then life got in the way.  School, work, then we started having kids, and we lived far from family, then Nate joined the military and we moved and moved and moved.  Here it is 12 years later and we’re taking our first couples trip.  I’d say it’s about time!!!!  Anyway, I’m so excited about the energy I’m going to be around at WPPI and I’ll be documenting everything everynight I’m there, so stick close to the blog for the latest updates!  And with that, ADIOS!  I’ll post from the hotel room tonight with a pic of the hat Nathan hopes I NEVER wear anywhere around him in Vegas!  I happen to love it but Nathan thinks it’s the ugliest thing EVER!  What could it be?  Stay tuned, we land in Vegas at 10pm!

This will be my first year going and I don’t think I can GET anymore excited!  A friend and I were chatting last night and we were both saying that we were like young school girls again, all giddy with excitement!  There’s TONS of things that I can’t stop thinking about- my first trip to Las Vegas, my very first trip away with my husband in the almost 12 years that we’ve been married (EVER!), all the products I get to actually touch and see at the trade show, all of the photographers that I adore in practically the same place for me to socialize with….I could go on and on and on.  But one of the MOST exciting things for me about this trip is to be able to actually meet face to face with so many photographers that I’ve befriended or who have befriended me online!  What an amazing opportunity to connect with friends that I’ve been conversing with for almost 3 years on different forums, etc…..some from half way around the world!  SO exciting for me!

I thought I’d post my schedule for WPPI, so hopefully I’ll get to connect with anyone else who is going to be out there and at the same events.  There is literally SO much stuff going on that it was hard to pick and choose what I wanted to do, but since my awesome husband will be with me (this is my birthday present from January!!!) there’s stuff that we’re doing together that doesn’t have anything to do with the convention!  If you follow my blog and you’re going to be at WPPI, leave me a comment on where you’d like to meet up!  I’d LOVE to meet you!

My WPPI Schedule

Sunday March 7:

• Arrive in Las Vegas around 10pm, hang out and get settled

Monday March 8:

• Trade show in the a.m. whenever we get up
• 1pm-4pm SHOOTSAC booth! Come say hi and check out the new covers and the new hip slip!
• 6:30-8:30 Jasmine Stars Platform Class
• 8:30-9:30 WPPI Pool Party
• 10:00 Super Secret [b]school night shoot! Can’t wait!

Tuesday March 9:  This is going to be ONE busy day!

• Probably more trade show in the morning
• 2:30-6:30 Victor Sizemores desert shoot (Seriously SO excited for this and all the people I “know” going!!!
• 10pm I’ll be stopping by the PIF (Pay It Forward) Party to say hi to my friend Emma who is running the party!!!
• 11pm-1am THE [b]school PARTY!!!! I’ve been looking forward to this ALL year and THE main event I wanted to attend- yes yes I’m geeky like that!

Wednesday March 10:

• Today is a free day with Nate, we plan on going shopping, going to the SPA for a couples massage and just hanging out and having fun. Maybe we’ll see you around?
• 6pm we’ll be going to the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur, it’s supposed to be pretty cool!
• 10:30pm Show with Nate at the Stratosphere (DATE NIGHT!)

Thursday March 11:

• 9am-11am Photographers Ignite! This is it friends, we’ll see if all my memorizing pays off and spend 2 hours hearing from other fabulous photographers via 5 minute presentations!  I can’t wait!!!
• After the presentation we’ll be heading back home to Seattle!

So there you have it…..that’s my schedule.  OH!  Some of the booths DEFINITELY on my list to check out at the trade show are:

Shootsac, Tave, Vision Art Book, Dream Albums, WHCC, Miller’s, Mpix Pro, GNP Frame, Kimbra Studios, Totally Rad Actions, ProDPI, Hill & Usher, Triple Scoop Music, Canon, Zenfolio, Moo, Album Exposure, ProSelect, Go BEE Bags, ProPhoto, Photobiz, The Photographers Toolkit, Drop It Modern, Not So Perfect Tins, Simply Canvas, Rice Studio Supply, The Knot, Borrowlenses.com and I’m sure many many others.  These are the vendors though I want to talk to  and get to know products better because most of them above I use in some form or another.

Well that’s about it.  I hope to meet and connect with as many people as I can!!!  If anything changes, I’ll update it here.  I’m looking at a few other shoots, but have to see.  Happy Friday!!!  Oh, and one last image from the Portland shoot….

Foods are cooked much faster by pressure cooking than by other methods, and with much less water used than boiling, so dishes can be ready sooner. Less energy is required than when boiling, steaming or oven cooking. Since less water is necessary, the foods come to cooking temperature faster.

I love wikipedia because there’s so much information on there.  Sometimes I feel like my life is a pressure cooker, how about you?  I often post on here about how fast I think life moves and my life doesn’t show any signs of slowing down soon!  I remember when first starting my business, and reading some blogs that I follow.  Some of the authors talked about life getting so crazy that they had neglected their blog.  I didn’t think there would ever be a time that I’d seem so busy with things that I wouldn’t be able to blog!  It seemed unfathomable…well fast forward 2 1/2 years later and it’s happening on a weekly basis to me.  BUT NO MORE!  I love to write, it’s an outlet for me, and as I’ve been examining other parts of my life, I’ve realized just how important it is to fill your life with the things that have meaning to you and that you love.

Rest assured I HAVE been busy behind the scenes working on a lot of things and I wanted to update and share about some of those things here on the blog!  First off I’ve been working feverishly on my Ignite presentation for WPPI!  If you follow me on Twitter, you saw I did the “craziest” thing the other night (insert blatant sarcasm here)…I DISCONNECTED from everything web related.  I closed my e-mail program, I turned off Skype, Yahoo Messenger, and Microsoft Messenger…OH and Facebook Chat.  I love connecting with people around the world answering questions, chatting about business, or just catching up with virtual friends, but I needed to CONCENTRATE  I had a deadline to submit my slides and I DID IT!  Now I’m reciting over and over and over again.  I think if I absolutely needed to, Nathan could recite my presentation for me!…..not that he EVER would in a million years.  I think Nathan would probably rather have a root canal on 5 teeth at the same time than speak publicly.  BUT at least he’s a sounding board for me…and in some weird sort of way, I feel better that he’ll be out there in the audience quietly reciting every word I say along with me.

Next I wanted to give a recap of the great bschool meet up we did in Seattle last weekend!  I’ve been so excited about how the photography community has grown in this area over the past few years.  People are coming together and HELPING each other out!  We’re connecting and establishing relationships.  It’s refreshing!  So we had our first meet up at Studio 1000 inside Hotel 1000 in Downtown Seattle.  We had 15 photographers come out that evening.  Thanks to Emma from emmajane photography for helping secure such an awesome location for us to meet and for giving us a tour of the hotel.  I SOOOOO want to do a shoot there.  Can you say PERFECT Boudoir location?  Any of you ladies out there wanting to do a tasteful shoot for your guy?  Send me an e-mail and we can chat!  And speaking of shoots, we will be planning a shoot for photographers in March, so if you are a photographer in the Seattle area and missed the first meet up, stay tuned here for the next one!

I also had the opportunity to go to Portland last Sunday to meet up with some more photographer friends I’ve made.  I had asked Heather from Heather Jones Photography and Hal from Rosecity Photography to give me some pointers on off camera flash.  I’ve been wanting to delve into OCF a little bit, and they were gracious enough to meet up with me and shoot and show me some tips!  I learned a lot and can’t wait to go back to learn more!

GOSH!  I have so much more to write about….I want to talk about the workshops coming up and my WPPI schedule, but I think I’m going to have to do TWO posts in one day!  Here’s a hint….in May I’ll be hosting 3 workshops!!!  One in Hawaii, one here in Seattle, and then another very special workshop where other photographers can help out too!  This post is getting a little long so I’ll end with a shot I got from my day in Portland.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day!

Here’s a quick recap of the models from the workshop.  If you’d like to be considered for the workshop in May, send me a message!  I need a few couples to model for me!  I’m full on Seniors.

The workshop started off with introductions, then going over all the great products that some really amazing vendors donated, and then we dove into what it takes to set up a photography business.  I’d like to thank Brandon Perron for coming up from Portland as a guest speaker to present and teach with me.  We had lunch and then the fun began.  We had 7 models and a huge 2 hour live shoot along the Bremerton waterfront.  We finished the day with discussions on workflow and editing.  My favorite part of the workshop was the interaction we all had as photographers.  I’m a firm believer in all learning from each other and I’m so happy to be able to add 15 more photographers to my friend circle!

If you missed the February workshop there will be another in May with more guest speakers like Brandon and more awesome models!  The cool thing about this workshop is that all the attendees get to use their images for their portfolios.  My motivation behind this was to put together something that I wish I could have had when I was first starting out or even as I grew and wanted to focus on my business more.  Thank you to EVERYONE who helped out with this!  From the caterer, to the vendors, the venue, the attendees and speakers, the AWESOME models and the salon who helped out!  It was an amazing day and I hope to have many more!

Now!  A quick update of other awesome things that are happening in my schedule.  First and foremost I’m so STOKED to announce that I’ll be speaking at WPPI this year!  If you’re not familiar with this convention, it’s the largest Wedding and Portrait Photographer convention in the world!  It happens every year in Vegas and this is my first year going.  Well I guess I wanted to kick it off with a bang, so I’ll be helping out at the Shootsac booth on the tradeshow floor on Monday 3/8 from 1-4.  And then the closing program of the convention is an all new Photographers Ignite program.  I’ve  blabbed all about this on my Facebook page and even have an event notice on my Fan page, so if you’re going to be in Vegas at the beginning of March stop by and say hi or come support me at Photographers Ignite!  I’ll be speaking on some business topics  It’s just so surreal sitting here thinking about how 3 years ago I was surfing the web looking at WPPI, hoping that someday I’d attend and following some really awesome photographers that speak and present there.  Now I’m actually going and speaking in the same program with a lot of the same photographers I started following 3 years ago and look up to in the industry!  Truly a surreal and UNREAL opportunity that has been dropped in my lap!

If you’d like the chance to go to WPPI both Shootsac AND the [b]school, two of my FAVORITE things in photography are giving away 10 FULL REGISTRATIONS over then next week or so!  Click on each of the links above to see how you can win a registration and join me in Vegas baby! and BELIEVE me, both the Shootsac AND the [b]school are SOOOO worth the money spent!

I also have some very exciting projects coming up in the next 6 months.  Here’s a small recap of my schedule, I’ll for sure be blogging about them as they get closer!  So if you want to schedule your portrait session OR your wedding send me your request soon!  I’m booking up FAST!

March 7-11:  Vegas/WPPI

March 25-April 4:  Boise

April (end):  Hawaii

May 8:  Out of the Box Workshop #2

May 29:  Star Shooter Workshop

June starts my wedding season as of right now!

August 31-September: AFRICA for Star Shooter international workshop

I’m SO excited about this year to come.  I have lots and lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes and hope to be able to share those things with you as they develop too!  As I leave, here’s an image that I just loved from the workshop!  Thank you Taylor for being such an amazing model!

So first off, there’s been some minor changes, to my little blog, and some more will come shortly!  I’m very excited about them!  First off, as you can see to your left I have some great sliding information bars, that keep you up to date without having to go back to specific posts I’ve done.  ”New Stuff” is the past 10 posts I’ve written for quick and easy navigation.  ”Promotions” let my clients know the current promotions and fun things that are going on in my studio.  I also have a new “Workshop” tab to keep all workshop information up to date without having to write a whole post on it.  In about 2 weeks I’ll be giving my first workshop to other photographers and I’m so excited for the people that are coming, I can’t wait to meet everyone!  Lastly, I have finally started a Facebook Fan Page.  Thank you David for finally talking me into it.  Over the next few months, the galleries will be moved over from my personal Facebook page and I’ll be talking more business stuff over there.  We have some great discussion areas so come and be a fan of my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter!

Next I have some great new ways to display my images on here!  I love to post lots of pictures, especially from weddings, but felt like my posts got to be a jumbled scroll of infinity.  Now I can post all the images in a slideshow or lightbox format and I’m SO excited about it!  I’ll also be featuring different weddings and sessions very very soon and they’ll have thier own tab at the top of the page!

And now for the biggest changes…..my portfolio’s.  I’ve been working very hard over the past year to get some great shots for my portfolio, showcasing what I deliver to my clients!  I now have a new portfolio page, designed by MOI!  And updated galleries to showcase my work.  These are truly portfolio’s as most of my pricing and other information is still found here on the blog.  Two of the 4 galleries are done….Weddings and Lifestyle.  The other ones, Seniors and Commercial are still in the works so I’ve just linked them to categories on here for now  I have some BIG plans for seniors this year and those portfolio’s will get my full attention after the workshop.

Let’s see what else is there to say.  I thoroughly enjoyed Becker’s live chat today with Jasmine Star, both of these people are very positive and inspirational to so many photographer’s, including me!  My little Kasen is totally obsessed with Thomas the Train THE MOVIE and watches it AT LEAST 2 times a day.  Tomorrow night I get to go to my first Pinewood Derby, as Braedon is in scouts this year and has his first race.  I’m so glad that Nathan was home to help him with building the car and weighting it properly because if we’re being totally honest, I have no idea neither an inkling of interest to do that…..THANKS NATE!  hmmmm lastly, my desk looks like a bomb of papers hit it, and I’m frantically searching for a great accountant in the Seattle area, so if you read this blog, and are in the Seattle area with a great accountant, PLEASE!  Share the love

Here’s some screen shots of some of the changes around here for your viewing pleasure, or better yet, you can click on the Portfolio tab at the top of the page and view them for yourself! OH and there’s only 3 1/2 more days to vote on the wedding images!  Happy Thursday everyone.