In With The New

We have been working very hard on some improvements for our photography business and we are very excited about all the new changes! Below, is a little insight into what we've been so busy with lately...

-We finally registered our business name! And yes, Medford Photography was still available locally, so there is no name change! We probably should've done this already, but we wanted to make sure this cool thing we created was gonna stick around for awhile first! :)

-Now that we're a little more official, we will probably be making enough to file taxes on the business this year. We are saving every receipt, calculating mileage, and basically tracking our every move to make sure we do things by the books. This is definitely an overwhleming, yet exciting experience and we're ready to face it full-on!

-We are slowly, but surely, beginning to get our schedule under control. It will probably take approximately three months for it to catch up with us, but it's starting to look like we might have some success in that department and we are really looking forward to seeing it all come together!

-We now, have a logo! We had an awesome opportunity to work with with the talented Bethany Cullen, of 2 Degrees of Artistry, a graphic designer and artist, who helped us create a wonderful logo that we are extremely proud of! You can check it out in the top righthand corner of most of the pages on our website. And incase you don't catch it, the top tree is actually camera shutters. ;)

-Along with the logo, we finally decided to work on a watermark. We are happy with what we've came up with and it's going on all the photos that are on our client proof cd's, which are now low resolution only. Just as every other photographer, our photos are copyrighted basically right as they're taken. We have emphasized that to our clients and most, if not all, of them have signed agreements that they won't print or have them printed, etc... without written permission from us, although, very few have actually followed through with the agreement. It's a bit of a slap in the face to us, after puting all of our hard work, effort, and long hours into making the photos what they are today. Don't get me wrong, we have amazing clients and we totally love them, without a doubt! But the copyright issue just seems very trivial to anyone that's not in this business and that's a general fact thesedays. Well, it's not trivial. And not only that, it's against the law and especially after signing a contract--that's a whole other story. Not to mention, having our photos printed at somewhere such as Walmart highly degrades what we do and we would never stand behind that type of quality, with something we hold so dear to our hearts. The paper is thin and weak and the colors are very inaccurate and just plain gross. Our prices for prints are competitive with stores such as those, although the quality is unbelievably greater, the color is true, due to our extensive monitor callibration, and the options are nearly countless. It may not be one hour photo, but would you rather have your pictures on low grade paper in an hour or on high quality paper that lasts a lifetime, for nearly the same price? The prints we sell depict our work the way that we intend it to be seen and they stand the test of time. That's what we want to represent, as a business.

-Which leads me into the next update...all prints are now sold through us! Not only that, but with upgrades to our hosting site that came about a few months back, we are now able to take orders through our online client albums! So basically, it can be 3:30 in the morning and someone can place an order for prints (or other products such as keychains, callendars, gallery wraps, metal art, etc...) and within a few days, it will be shipped straight to their door! This takes a lot off of us, so that we can focus more on taking pictures, scouting, editing, and endlessly critiquing ourselves. Not to mention, it's just easier and more appealing to our clients, since they don't have to make various appointments with us to place orders and pick them up, etc...

-We are now lightscribing our client proof cd's. We've had this option right at our fingertips all along, but it didn't even cross our minds until just recently. We've just been labeling cd's the old fashion way...with a sharpie (even though we have ventured out into the colored ones over the past year). That may have been a bit unfitting, but our photos speak for themselves, not the cd labels. Even so, we do have great clients, and they deserve great labeling on their proof cd's. We are happy to have this option and it's definitely a big upgrade in the right direction!

-Our wedding packages will now include a $50 print/product credit, rather than 50 photo save the date/thank you cards. These were a great start for us and we really enjoyed giving them to our clients. However, we started to notice a small trend...cloud nine sets in once you're a newlywed and nothing else seems to matter, not even your photo thank you cards. And that's great, we want our clients to enjoy every aspect of newlywedded bliss as long as possible! :) Which is why we're moving on to new things. The print/product credit will allow our clients to pick and choose what they would like, as they please, since ordering is done online now. I think this change will be appreciated and welcomed with open arms!

-We are currently exploring the land of photo books and we hope to extend our focus more in that direction. We already sell them, but there are a few other professional photo labs that we have been looking into and we're in the process of narrowing down which ones produce the highest quality books at the best prices. Photo books are such a creative approach to displaying your memories and they've really came a long way over the years. There are so many different options out there right now and we can't wait to get our hands on them!

-Starting in a few days, once everything comes in, we will also be accepting credit cards as payment for our services. This should be a positive addition to our business and we're looking forward to opening new doors.

-We have already made a few changes to our website, but we have plans to continue building on that. Once we're able to expand on everything, we hope to add additional pages and sections to continue appealing to our viewers.

-We have concocted a really cool new flash setup that is completely unique and it's producing outstanding results for us! We can't give away our secret, but I will say, that the odds are slim to none that anyone else out there has came up with this kind of work of art!

-We are putting more emphasis on discovering new visions and ideas for our photo sessions and our wheels have really been turning. We're looking forward to putting it all into motion and continuing to learn and grow from our new developments!

I'm sure there's lots more, but those are all I can think of for now. We are definitely facing 2011 in a whole new light and we're very excited to see what the future holds for us and our clients!!

It's A New Year

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!! We sure did! It's so hard to believe that 2011 is already here! Where in the world did 2010 go?! I am totally loving all of this snow that we are getting pounded with (hence the fact that I am able to sit down and catch up on this blog a bit). It is so beautiful and it makes me feel like a little kid again! I can't help but not love it!! We have high hopes that 2011 will be one of the most memorable years for us. If it's anything like 2010, it surely will be! Below, are some of our hopes for the new year.

• First and foremost (and I'm sure you could probably guess what this one is going to be), we want to do some major maintenance on our scheduling. We hope to space out our photo sessions and weddings enough that we're able to get caught up on editing in between them, as much as possible. I realize that this may not always be the most realistic goal, but we're really going to work hard at it. Being completely caught up on editing is one of the most amazing feelings and we weren't aware of how gratifying it actually is until we were able to have a few true days off over the holidays. It was such a huge sense of accomplishment and we want to be able to feel that as much as we possibly can, to minimize stress and to keep our sanity. We have absolutely no choice but to get it under control. It is the only way to stay positive, be true to ourselves, and still thoroughly enjoy what we do.

• We want to allow ourselves more time to learn and grow. There are so many different aspects and techniques of photography, whether is be with lighting, camera settings, posing, location, etc... We want to explore and discover new options that we haven't came across yet. This should prove to be a big advantage to ourselves and our clients. We are anxious to bring new perspectives and ideas to the table, as we expand our work and build on how far we've already come.

• We would love to do more travelling, both in our personal and professional lives. This, of course, demands goal number one to be carried out before it can happen, but we are optimistic that it can be done. We want to photograph more destination or not-so-local weddings, in addition to the ones we do that are closer to home. Travelling has always been a love of mine, so I am very excited that we both have this goal. Of course, we will, most likely, have to do some exploring into the best ways to market ourselves for that, but we are up for the challenge.

• It would be such an honor to have our work on display somewhere, whether it be at a hospital, airport, restaurant, etc... or in a magazine. This is something we will definitely have to look into, as far as how to go about it, but if we're able to accomplish this goal, it will be one of our main staples in 2011.

There are going to be a few changes coming to our business in 2011 that are already in the works and we couldn't be more excited about them! We already consider our work in photography to be one of our most treasured gifts and we hold it very dear to our hearts. With that said, we have finally came to the sole conclusion that we should do more to make sure it is also presented in the best way possible. This particular change will not only do a lot to protect our name and benefit us, but also our clients. Stay tuned, we will elaborate more on this as it is introduced into our business. We are truly looking forward to introducing many new, positive angles to our business!

We cannot wait to meet all of the new faces that we are going to be photographing in 2011! 2010 has surely proven to be a year of making new friendships and strengthening some of the ones that were already there, thanks to our work. We look forward to all of the opportunities and experiences that this new year has to offer and we are going to approach them with smiles on our faces!!

Booked

I know I'm like the worst blogger ever and there's probably no possible way I could catch anyone up on everything we've done in the past few months...we can barely keep up ourselves! Basically the best way to stay updated on new photos on our website is to "like" our fb business page (www.facebook.com/medfordimages). I know that doing it that way lacks a lot of the personal details that could be blogged about, but I will definitely try when time allows!

We recently caught up on editing for the first time since we started photography!! It lasted about 3 days until we realized we still had four small projects to work on and then on the 4th day, we had another photoshoot. There's also another one this week with our new lil niece that we haven't even gotten to see in person yet and we're very excited! After that, the crazy schedule of actually taking the pictures won't start back again until January 4th (although the craziness of editing this week's shoots will probably go well past that).

During those 3 days, we did get some of the plumbing done on our new bathroom, thanks to Isaac's cousin! We've had a brand new jet tub, still in the box, sitting in our shop since mid-summer. If you are female, you know how tempting and torturous that is! To have one for that long and not be able to use it should be a sin! Our bathroom has been torn apart to the point of unrecognizable for about 4 or 5 months now and in the works since before then. We had plans to finish it this past summer, but it's looking like it might not be until next summer or later. Right now, it has partial flooring (no, not tile, just whatever it is you put down before you lay tile--and only on some of the floor), most of the plumbing, no walls (the sheetrock materials have been sitting behind our couch in the living room for about 3 months now), and that's about all. The toilet's sitting in what part of the closet that's left and it's new because we had to replace it before we could move in. Cannot wait to conquer this bathroom so we can start on the other one and the laundry room, then move on to the fun things like new countertops. I've got high hopes that we can manage all of that, plus life and photography in this decade!

This year has been insane for us! And it's came and gone faster than ever! It seems like the business blew up overnight and before we knew it, we were buried...eating, sleeping, and breathing everything photography without a second to stop before doing it all over again the next day. We are so greatful for every bit of it and could never ever take any of what we've been blessed with for granted. With that said, we've gotta get it under control! We have been gradually trying to do that and we won't know if our method will be effective until months from now. January is completely swamped, without a doubt...2-3 shoots a week every single week we're able to book. February and March are slowly getting there but we're hoping to space it out as much as possible to keep our sanity.

Most people don't realize how much we put into a simple photoshoot or wedding. Simple is hardly the word. We're hoping to add some insight to this through a new section of our website, at some point...just like everything else...when time allows. It's very extensive though and it takes a lot of hard work. Any given person can't just go out and buy a nice camera and call themselves a photographer. There are sooo many different aspects of every angle you have to cover before you should even start working. I know we've only been doing this for a little over a year, at this point, but we have a lot under our belt now and we're still constantly learning--we take pride in that. Once you stop learning, you should stop photographing because then, you will lose your spark. It's better to be humble and accepting of new ideas. You never know what you could gain just by trying something new.

Speaking of trying something new, we have realized that our schedule has allowed for nothing in that area whatsoever thesedays! Yet another reason to get it under control. Most of what we're having to do at this point is just get done, with no time to experiment or put new ideas to good use because our time is so limited. We have missed out on so many aspects of life, both personal and professional, because we have somehow managed to overbook. We'll take full responsibility for that part, but there's only so much you can try to consider when you're having to book clients 6 months in advance because the calendar is already so full. We're trying really hard to manage things differently but if anyone has any tips to add, we'd sure be happy to have them!

Last but not least...MERRY CHRISTMAS if I don't blog again before then! And HAPPY NEW YEAR too!! Hope everyone's holidays are truly as blessed as ours!

Saying Thanks

If we've done your pictures and you want good quality prints that are cheaper than the leading retail stores, we now have online ordering enabled on our edited albums at http://www.medfordimages.zenfolio.com/. There is also a promotion going on right now for free first class shipping or discounted priority and next day shipping on all $25 orders. There are tons of options from different photographic paper types to greeting cards, calendars, cutting boards, metal murals, holiday ornaments, etc... All of which make great Christmas gifts! Use coupon code HOLIDAY1. Valid for an unlimited number of uses from now until December 31st, 2010. We also have gift certificates available that can be applied to session prices or online print/product orders. Contact us at medfordimages@gmail.com for more info. And as always, thank you guys for all of your unending support! Hope you have a great Christmas and an even better New Year!!

Wedding Tips

So I know these short posts and long breaks in between are starting to become a habbit, but I'm working on it. I just have a hot minute today, but I thought I'd let everybody know that we published a new section on our website last night. It's called "Tips For Your Wedding Day" and you can get to it from the "Happily Ever Afters" page that is linked in the "Galleries" section. If you are getting married or know someone that is, this info could make a world of difference! We've been trying to build it up for awhile now, before we decided to stick it on the site and I'm sure there will be much more added, as we continue to photograph weddings. Go check it out for now and watch for updates (the best way to do that is to "like" our fb business page at www.facebook.com/medfordimages).

What would you have changed?

Sorry it's taken me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to blog again! We have been so insanely non-stop and it seems as though it may never let up!! Just when you think it can't get any more hectic, life takes the words, crazy busy, to a whole new level!! Don't get me wrong, it's good busy-ness and we are beyond thankful for every challenging minute of it, but it definitely makes our heads spin from time to time.

I know I said I would post a preview of baby Brooklyn before, but they are already up on the website and fb now, so all of that madness has beaten the blog, as far as previews go. You can go check them out though. She's quite a looker and her mommy and daddy are going to have their hands full beating them off when she gets older (I'm sure they would like to scald me for saying that too, but it's true). If you're checking out the Babies and Bumps album on our website, she's the one in the boppy with the sweet pea metal art, also the one holding up the peace sign, she's the one totally konked out on the stool too. There are a few others, but I can't think of them right off. Once you see which of the many cute lil angels she is on our website, you'll be able to pick out the other ones of her.

I have sooo many interesting experiences to catch everyone up on, but I think they'll have to wait til later. I do, however, have a note about Wedding Photography that we worked up for everyone to open up about and relay their input. Every comment counts, so please let us know what you think:


What Would You Have Changed About Your Wedding Photography?

As photographers, we are always looking to improve our work ethic and the techniques that we use to perform our jobs. Without getting too personal, what are the most common complaints that you have had or heard about your wedding photography or someone else's? You may not be married yet, but we've all heard horror stories. Here are a few examples: the formal pictures after the ceremony took too long, they were in your face the whole time, not enough candids and too many posed shots, disruption of special moments, the price was too high, lack of professionalism, too professional and uptight, the turnaround time took too long, etc... Feel free to expand upon or add to the list. Please help us create priceless photos and provide the best service we can. Thank you so much for your input!! It is greatly appreciated!



P.S. We LOVE you guys!!!

Brooklyn, Aspen, and Paige

We had three days of pictures in a row, starting this past Thursday evening. Two newborn shoots, one of which was Miss Brooklyn, of course, and a bridal session. Brooklyn was amazing for us! She slept most of the time, but those make the best pictures for lil bits. I'm sure we got some good ones. After all, how could we not with a baby as cute as she is!! Preview coming soon...for real! Sorry I've been a little behind on those, we've been trying to catch up on editting like crazy lately, and it's still not happened yet!

The other newborn shoot was good too! Aspen is her name. She's cute as a button! She wasn't a fan of us that night, but eventually, she fell asleep and of course, that made for some good pictures. I just wish we could've done something to help her feel better, her lil cry was so heart wrenching. We did get some that we really like in between breaks and while she was crying though, but you'd never know it. It's amazing what you can get in a split second! Her mommy brought an angel halo and wings made of feathers and is going to let us keep them as props...big thanks to her for that! They made some really adorable pictures, for sure!

We had a great bridal session with Paige this past Saturday. She made a gorgeous bride...simply beautiful! Of course, we can't show anything until after the wedding, but we're really happy with her pictures. I would be devastated if a photographer let something like that leak pre-wedding, if I was the bride to be but unfortunately, I've actually seen that happen before...and I'm sure it can't be a pretty thing to have to go through!

But anyways, back to the story. We took a lot of pictures and it was difficult to narrow it down to the edits. We started out with double the amount that we normally do, but eventually got it down to the right number, although it was definitely hard to do! Their wedding will be here in no time! It's slowly sneaking up on us and we're really looking forward to it! A little less than a month and we'll be watching it all come together before our eyes...can't wait!!