"Click"

My Snow Baby

 

I love that first winter that they can be outside and explore the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked him if he cared that his mittens didn't match and there were two of the same hand- he told me he honestly didn't mind. I believed him and went with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday, everyone!

 

Price Change Announcement

 

The  new 2012 sitting fee for portraits will be $75, every other detail of the session will stay the same.  If you schedule your appointment with me before March 1, 2012 you can have the 2008 - 2011  sitting fee.. 

 

 

 Scheduling doen't mean that your appointment has to take place before March 1, it only means that we have you marked on the calander for any day this year before March 1.

 

Thank you and Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Julie

Happy Birthday To US.....

 

 JCL Portraits turned 4 and we're celebrating the big day by doing taxes. Ha!

 

 

 

I was thinking back over all of this last night and thought I'd do a quick post about things I've learned over these past three years:

 

• If I knew what I know now about starting and owning a business, I would have chickened out and never have done it.  I'm very happy that I was in the dark about a lot of things when I started and learned them as I went.  We kind of just filled things out one night, closed our eyes and hit send- voila' we were a business.  Then reality hit and papers started to make their way into our mailbox.

 

• An accountant can make for a happier marraige better than any marraige counselor can. I least I think, I've only used the accountant.

 

• Taxes stink, give me a million dollars and I still wouldn't be able to figure out how to fill out those forms- which is why the above is so important

 

•  Other photographers are such a blessing, don't be intimidated- be secure in your work and get to know each other.  They can keep it fun.

 

• You actually spend less than a quarter of your time taking pictures- the rest of your time is spent doing business stuff. 

 

• You aren't going to get rich in three years but you'll get some pretty neat equipment that you wouldn't otherwise have.
• The thrill of buying stuff goes away

 

• Buying cute little hats, props, chairs and backdrops doesn't make you a good photographer, it just means you have less room in your back porch. In the camera is where the magic happens.

 

• I'm never fully satisfied- well, I'm satisfied for about 20 hours after a session then I want do things different, improve it this way and do it better the next time. It keeps me up at night.

 

• I haven't touched a project that didn't have to do with photography in the last 4 years.  I just now pulled out a quilt from under my bed  that I started when Rebecca was 3 1/2. Haven't touched it since then.  I just need to put the binder on it now and she'll finally have her quilt.

 

• People are really nice. I think of each of my clients after each session and wonder how they're doing throughout the year.

 

• Balance is tricky.  Things are never perfectly in the middle and balanced like those nice posters want you to believe. I'm always running from side to side between my family and my business hoping one of them doesn't fall off the end.  So far so good.

 

• I couldn't do it without my husband 
• I'm constantly out of my comfort zone yet I feel more confident as a person than ever before.
• The more I learn, the more I realize that I have a lot more to know

 

Happy Birthday to us, thank you all for making it happen..... here's to many more..

 

 

 

Baking Day {My Real Life}

Someday I'm going to go out and buy a couple of cute little aprons and lightly powder their cute little noses with flour.  Then I'm going to place perfect cut out cookies in a pan and pretend that they did them themselves.  I'm actually not being sarcastic- I really do want to do that, those pictures are so cute.  And while the expression on the kids are real and absolutely adorable, the surroundings aren't- at least not in my world. 

 In my world, my four year old dresses herself in a vest with no shirt underneath and pants that are one season too small for her. My baby, well,  he flipped over and ran away just after the last tab was snapped on his diaper- I didn't bother to go chasing after him with clothes.  In my world, mom puts a lump of bread dough in front of each child and has them shape, cut, roll and mangle it- hoping that they'll stay busy enough that they don't touch the food that everyone else has to eat.....  and I have to remember that this is how my life is. It's how we do it and it's perfect in all of its imperfect messes.   It must be captured- even when the photographer in me has a hard time with the clothing, imperfect light, the messy counters and a gazillion other distractions in the room that I have taught myself to notice.  The mama in me never wants to forget this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..... while they were doing that- I got 8 loaves of bread made and about 8 dozen cookies....  and we'll do it again in another week and a half. 

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

 

A Summer Tea Party {My Real Life, Livingston Co. Photographer}

 

I'm still looking back at the pictures from last summer while we were up north- reliving them a little bit. Somehow when you look back at pictures, they get a little  bit more precious than when you first take them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower confetti:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the fun evening, Brita!

 

 

 

 

The Mail Lady Pulls Through {My Real Life}

 

In Aubrey's world, the UPS guy brings her suckers {from my printing company} and the mail lady brings birthday money to the kids and picture money to me. These two people are pretty much her favorites.

 A couple of weeks ago on our way home from dropping the big kids at school, she asked if we could stop and get a donut- we often do this on the days we're out and about.  I told her not today, I don't have money for donuts right now.

 "you just have picture money?" 

yes, just picture money. 

She paused for a second and said, "you should ask the mail lady to bring you donut money, too" 

 

 

 On Wednesday, the mail lady pulled through.... or so she thinks.

 

 

What's On My Wall

 

One of the most fun parts of owning a photography business is finding out what people buy after it's said and done. For the most part  the smiling portrait style photos are the biggest sellers which isn't surprising, I have plenty of those myself-they're then accented with the more non traditional images.  Since I know what's on my client's walls, I thought I'd share what's on mine.  I just ordered my wall last month and these are the photos I chose. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I ordered each of these in a matted 16x20 frame and it takes up the entire back wall of my house. As a disclaimer my house is far from a showcase house- it's cluttered with kids' toys and knicks in the paint from  one too many ministicks games and chair twirling gone wild episodes. When I look at these they make me smile though-  and helps me to remember that chipped paint and clutter really isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of life.

On the far opposite wall above my desk looks like this.

 

Please excuse the dying Christmas tree plant in the corner, it's not pretty but I love the lights at night when I'm working- it feels so cozy.  Someday I"ll replace it with a fake that I can't kill.

I have to run to the school quick- somehow I forgot to get Kaarina's lunch in her backpack today.  She'll probably panic if she realizes that it's not there. Have a great day!