studio

One of the most unexpected bonuses with respect to my photography business would be the business I bring in from studio bookings.

I can't even begin to tell you how fortunate I am that the giant space in our house meant for the formal living room makes the IDEAL studio space.  When my business started taking off and I was getting inquiries about studio bookings, I was squishing studio equipment into this room with lots of furniture, an old carpet and dark window treatments.

Over time, we realized that we NEVER used this space for family, the space was right by the front door and the five gigantic floor to ceiling windows provided the perfect northern light (ideal for natural light photography).

That's when my supportive husband suggested just going for it, and dedicating the space for my studio...and that's exactly what we did!

 I think I've already shared that we put hardwood into the studio, but we also recently upgraded the window treatments.  We bought 10 sheer white panels that are perfect for softening the light.  I can also use them to do some really pretty silhouette work with the giant windows.

We also put in a dedicated organization corner for all my props and backdrops.  I try not to be TOO prop heavy, but I do rely on lots of stools/chairs/baskets/throws for my sessions.

I have also upgraded my backdrop equipment and can successfully have up to four backdrops ready to go at all times which helps a lot with transitions during my sessions.

And one of my favorite little parts of the studio is the tv I have mounted above the fireplace.  We had an extra flat screen at the house, so Andy hooked it up so it would constantly display all my photos on a slideshow.  This is a great opportunity for me to showcase my work, to let my clients see all the different types of photography I provide, and I've even had returning clients come and beam when they see their child or their family on the screen.

I love the ease of having the studio right in home (no travel), and it will help me keep my business going during the long cold winter when outdoor photography is at a minimum.

Plus - holiday mini sessions are always a huge hit, and I just may have some things in store for those this year too!!

beachin'

This past Sunday, I had booked two family photo sessions at a beach a little over an hour away.  Normally, I wouldn't do this, but both of these families were girls I went to high school with...and haven't seen since we graduated in 1998!  I "re-connected" with them through facebook ages ago, but I was eager to actually see them and meet their families.

Because we were doing the sessions at a park/beach, Andy & I decided it may be fun to bring the kids along.  So with the awesome assistance of my mom, we packed up the car before 8am, picked up my mom and went to the beach for the first half of the day.  And while I was reuniting with my old high school friends, Andy & my mom spent the morning with the kids.  I asked Andy to take pictures, and he did!  Love that man of mine!

Overall, they had a good day.  Taylor would have stayed out on the beach and water all day!  I had no expectations of Alex actually getting in the water, so even though he was in his swimsuit, I didn't even pack his swim diaper.  Well, within five minutes, he was waist deep in water, so my packing skills weren't exactly on point.  He loved the water and the sand, but after awhile, in typical toddler fashion, he just wanted to run around and explore.  Thank goodness my mom was there and they could tag team the kids.  And when I returned 2.5 hours later, they were eating ice cream for lunch, Alex had no pants on and both were full of chocolatey smiles, so I think it was a success.

 As for the photo sessions.  I will admit that my tummy got a bit twirly as we were driving to the beach.  I hadn't seen these girls in 17 years, so I was anxious and excited at the same time.  But it was so amazing to see them.  And they both looked so happy and beautiful with such gorgeous families.  It made my heart explode a little! 

And here are a few sneak peeks their sessions:

 I kinda wish this beach wasn't so far away.  I'm sure the kids would love to go back, and I know a few great people nearby there too! :)

SIAT photography - nine month old niece edition!

Again, I don't often share my photography sessions on my personal blog, because most of you likely couldn't care less about it (and I don't blame you), but since my session this past weekend just happened to be my nine month old niece, I had to share.   Because she's family.  And adorable.

 Side note - on Friday, my sister-in-law and I were talking about photography ideas, and I asked her if she had any cute pajamas and a night cap to use with the tiny bed prop.  By 11am on Saturday morning, my mother-in-law MADE that all white outfit you see above.  Seriously, my kids' Nana is super talented in the sewing and knitting arenas.

And once again with the website pimp - you can find my photography facebook site at:  www.facebook.com/SIATphotography

Enjoy the beginning of summer - I know my kids are!

HARD. WOOD. (floors)

My title proves I'm a mature one, no?

I'm going to take a little break from talking about my children (wha?) to talk a little bit about the gorgeous upgrade we recently put into our home.

To give a quick background, when you walk through the front door of our house, my husband's office is immediately to your left, our formal living room is immediately to your right and you walk into our foyer.  Our foyer and staircase have these gorgeous real santos mahogany floors that lead into our kitchen (also in the same mahogany).  When the floors are clean, they truly are a thing of beauty, but because of the color of the wood, any smudge or crumb shows very well, especially in natural light.

The formal living room, however, did not have hard wood floors.  It had this dingy gray/blue flat carpet that has seen much better days.  But since we never ever used that room, we really didn't mind that the flooring wasn't ideal.  

Flash forward to the end of last year, and my photography business started to boom, and I decided to offer Christmas mini sessions in my home.  Knowing I had a lot of space in that room, I created a set right in the middle of that room, around my furniture and used studio lighting to achieve my final results.  Because the carpet was nasty, I even created a fake wood floor drop for the photos.

my set was created around my actual furniture.

But based on the success of the Christmas minis, I started getting more and more requests for studio portraits.  And since this room has gorgeous natural northern facing lighting (my favorite way to shoot), my husband and I decided it made sense to turn this room into a full time studio.  So out went the formal living room furniture, and in went the full time studio equipment.  I had an Easter mini session and that was even more successful than the Christmas minis, but I knew one thing was certain, the carpet needed to go!

Now ideally, if I could have picked what kind of hard wood to lay in that room, I probably would not have went with the santos mahogany for two reasons.  The first being the fact it's very unforgiving on dust/smudges/crumbs and secondly, that stuff is EXPENSIVE, yo.  But, it connects right to the foyer and trying to match two different woods next to each other would definitely lose the open/seamless look that I truly love.  So we bit the bullet and paid for the mahogany.

 Andy pulled up the old carpet himself to save us some money, and to prove that he is a stud of a man.   You can see the natural light better in the above picture.  It's gorgeous.

And then the finished product!

ooh la la!

So now I'm in the process of really turning it into my studio.  I have a sitting area.  I have an area for all my backdrops, and I am the process of getting a shelving unit for all my props and accessories.  There is a tv above the fireplace (to the left of the above picture) and I display hundreds of photographs I have taken of my clients on it in a slideshow-esque format, so current clients can see my past work too.

A neat little perk to this is that since we have designated this area of our home as my home business, the cost to upgrade to hardwood floors in this room is a business write-off for tax purposes.  Hey, any little bit helps!

But my absolute favorite part?  The floors make a gorgeous floordrop for some of my pictures!

deja vu - cousin style.

Last night, I took some photographs of my niece, Susan.  She's the sweetest, no?

And when I was snapping some pictures of her in her adorable dress and bonnet made by my mother-in-law, I had a freaky deja vu moment. 

This wasn't the first time I photographed an adorable girl in a homemade dress and bonnet made by my mother-in-law.

Cousins! Left: Taylor (7.5 months old) Right: Susan (6.5 months old)

The fact they are both looking up and to their left is just icing on the cake.  These cousins have a lot in common, but one of the ways they are both the luckiest is that they have an incredibly talented Nana who makes the best little outfits for them to wear.  Swoon.

SIAT photography - Easter Minis Edition

Over the weekend (prior to me getting the worst stomach flu of my life), I had the opportunity to take Easter photos of 14 beautiful kids from eight different families. Ages ranged from three months to seven years.  I'm not lying when I say beautiful either.  Every kid that walked through my door was gorgeous, dressed to impress and full of smiles.   It really was the easiest mini session ever.

Here are some of the sneak peeks from that day!

I had so many people wanting to do shoots during the Easter Minis that I've actually booked additional dates for more kids to come in.  And that makes me so happy.  And it's not because of the extra cash, but it's because I seriously LOVE giving families pictures of their gorgeous babies.  It really is one of the best feelings for me.  I feel so lucky to be able to do this as a side business. And the above kids' smiles just solidifies it!

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