GRRRRRR.... Anyone Else Had One of THOSE Days?

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!

Ok, I'm just sayin'.......

My green screen backdrop got here yesterday afternoon, and because of the butterflies (www.butterflybyjulie.blogspot.com/), I didn't get out here to hang it up and ops-check it.

So tonight I try and lower the backdrop stand and the whole freaking thing blows up on me! On the right side, the rod that holds the crossbar up broke, and the entire crossbar dropped across my temple, backdrop and all. Ok...that wasn't bad enough, but I could DEAL with a quick fix for that.

My step-daughter, Peri, was trying to lower the left-hand side and whatever held the entire left side up shattered. She brought me about a gazillion pieces of backdrop stand in her hand.

UGGGGG! So I have this new backdrop, no stand to hang the new backdrop on to practice on this whole green screen-thing, and have this BOGO add out all over the Internet based on the next two weeks practice time.

I must be Murphy's daughter....anything that can go wrong usually will.

Dammit.

*grumble....*

Yes, I Know, It's Been Awhile

Things are finally slowing down around here. Ok, maybe not, but at least things are getting to a manageable level.

The day job kept me hopping between May and June. On my birthday (June 30th; be sure to mark your calendars, as I always love e-greetings on my special day, LOL), my oldest son, Chris, came home for two weeks between assignments. He got out of South Korea, after serving a year there, and is now over in the Azores for the next 15 or so months. He's loving it there!

During Chris' visit, my husband, Johnny, was rear-ended on his way to work. So insurance work ensued. The week following Chris' departure brought Johnny's neck/back surgery, to include a 4 day hospital stay (making me so glad that we chose our local doctor so that he could be admitted to the hospital where we both work). I am also very thankful to my powers-that-be for allowing me to take a portable phone and laptop up to the second floor so I could continue working while sitting with him.

Now that he's two weeks and a few days post op, the staples have been removed, his pre-op pain is gone, and now we have to focus on keeping him busy doing things that he enjoys, but won't mess with his healing, which is proving to be quite challenging. He is not a couch 'tater by nature.

Prior to the early-summer festivities, I was given an outstanding opportunity to be a photo-journalist for a local publication, here in Wayne County. If you get a moment to do so, please go check out Down Home Magazine's web site. You can view past issues in PDF format. Prior to Johnny's surgery, I was shooting and writing for the upcoming issue. I'm very excited about this one, because it is personal to me. I can't tell you about it now, but maybe I'll share with you, after publication, why the most recent article is near and dear to me. :)

Over this past weekend I was able to do two shoots. One was the 9 month portrait of my favorite red-headed bundle of joy, and her big sister, who is also a stunning red-head. The following day I did a maternity shoot for a friend of mine who is also a red-head, as is her daughter, and significant other.

During the first shoot, I learned that 44 is no match for 9 months and mobile! That child was hard core mobile. :) She was sweet as could be, but fast as all get-out! What's a photographer to do? Get on the floor and try to keep up, of course! Sometimes the baby is faster than the shutter finger, however, soooo...But we got some good shots, both of her and her big sister and the two of them together. I always enjoy those girls when they visit. They are well behaved, sweet tempered, and just as good as gold. :)

Right before I started the shoot Saturday, I found that I had black swallowtail butterfly eggs/larvae in my parsley plant, which gave me the idea for my other blog, which I call The Butterfly Chronicles. I started taking pictures for my camera-as-science-project blog that day. Follow the above link and check it out. :)

On Sunday, my friend Crystal came to the studio to graciously let me take pictures of her mid-section. Honestly? This girl glows! I know every pregnant woman is beautiful (at least in my humble opinion), but pregnancy really suits Crystal. She brought her boyfriend, Will, and daughter, Amber and let me go to town on them with the camera.

I had never taken maternity portraits before, and was really looking forward to the opportunity. My red-headed 9 month old session from the day before was supposed to be my first, but she decided to take the plunge into life outside the womb about a week before our scheduled shoot. :)

Crystal, Will, and Amber were very gracious about letting me into their world for an hour that afternoon. There is something really intimate about shooting an expectant family. I was priveledged to be allowed into that inner sanctum for that time.

Sprinkled throughout this blog are images from both shoots. I hope that you've enjoyed reading my blog thus far, even though I know I've been rather slack about keeping up with it, lately.

Holy Cow...What an Interesting Month Thus Far!

Hi, all!

Just wanted to give you a brief rundown of the last couple of weeks or so. Small business ownership is not all it's cracked up to be, so you really have to want it to make it work. Trust me. It ain't for the faint of heart!

Let's talk about the Spring Fling for a moment, shall we? It was fun. Don't get me wrong for a moment. I had a good time, as did the kids. Ok, till it rained, but that wasn't anyone's fault. Just know that after all the prep time spent in the world, it's entirely possible that you will not make a sale. Period. It's also entirely possible you may not hand out a brochure or business card. (This would have been the case if I hadn't had the two kids begging to peddle the literature, LOL...Gotta love those kids!) Even though I had a huge inventory of art prints, people were not feeling the whole "art print" vibe, and had a tendancy to walk on by. Of course, hindsight being 20/20, I can see from the picture of our booth that we needed some help. Can you say ZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZ? I knew you could. Of course, I also had to consider the economy. The lady across the way with the cute handbags and snazzy displays didn't do much better than we did, from our observations. (Note to self: Snazz up your display a little bit next time, and maybe even offer a service. You know, a lot of parents might have wanted a 4x6 print of their little darlin' with their face painted...next time, just OFFER it...)

Forward to the following evening. My friend Cindi Pate dropped me an email and asked me if I wanted to be a regular contributor to Down Home Magazine, which is a local publication for our county. Of COURSE I want to be involved. So that was happy news. I'll be shooting in Wayne County at various locations in the coming months, so if you happen to see me, stop by and say hello!


Fast forward a little more to last Friday. I was so excited that I finally got to meet my friend Sandra Carrington-Smith. She does a local blog on the news web site here (although took a bit of a break to work on her second novel). She has both fictional and non-fictional works due to publish in 2010 and needed jacket shots. After emailing over several months, speaking on the phone numerous times, and being weathered out, we finally met last Friday. Let me tell you...Sandra is a doll! Not only is she a fantastic author, she is also a life coach, mom and wife. I REALLY enjoyed meeting her face to face. She had told me she wasn't photogenic, but that wasn't exactly the case. That girl commanded the lens. :) Talk about a breeze to shoot. All models should be like her. I am going to post a couple pictures that we took that afternoon at Oak View Park in Raleigh. I am also linking to her book sites. Her non-fiction work is Housekeeping for the Soul. Her fiction is the first of a series: The Book Of Obeah . Check them out when you get a minute.

So that brings us to the present. It's the winding-down of Memorial Day, 2009. I'm about to call it a day, take a bubble bath and then roll into the bed. I just want to remind everyone to think about the soldiers and airmen that gave their lives in the past so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do today. Also...I'm giving a shout-out to all of our current active duty members to thank them for all the sacrifices made so that we remain free, and to their families....

Till next time, y'all!

Jules

Tips For First Time Festival Vendors - or Learn From My Mistakes...

Today is Monday, May 11, 2009. Back the clock up a couple of days and that's where we'll start.

As some of you know, I'm vending at the Lucama Spring Fling Festival on May 16.

This is my first festival as a vendor. Ever.

I've been aware of this since, oh, I don't know...about early February, I think. Since then I've been selecting and obtaining art prints to show/sell at the festival. I have acquired show-packs to mat these images, as well as donated a couple of framed prints to the festival (one for the silent auction, and one for the winner of the car show).

After I put all the prints in the mats, and then mounted them on the backer boards and poly-bagged them, I realized - this past Saturday - that I hadn't put my company sticker on them. Um, whoops? That's not cool. Fortunately, the poly-bags are resealable, so no harm no foul. I printed up a couple of sheets of labels and un-sealed the poly-bags and put my info on the back of the backer boards, and resealed the bags. This should have been done earlier. (Make a mental note of this, people...the devil's in the details...)

Friday night, May 8th, I think to myself, "Oh! I really need to put a couple new pictures on my brochure, and get those printed up." I have known about this for weeks and weeks, and KNEW I would need to update my pictures, but, holy cow! I hadn't printed and/or used those brochures since a year ago, and guess what? Prices have changed. Portrait packages have changed. Long story short? This should have been done earlier. (Yes, you're on target if you are detecting a theme, here.) Questions you should be asking yourself if you have literature and hand outs at your festival:

• Do your price lists need to be updated?
  
• Have you added or removed services and/or products?


• Has any of your contact information changed?


• Have you added any selling points since you last handed out your literature? (In my case, we built a stand-alone studio that has ZERO traffic because we are by appointment only, which is a definite upgrade from shooting portraits in the dining room, as we did a year ago.)


• Do you have updated or new graphics to add to your fliers, pamphlets, price lists, etc.?
  
• Do you need printer ink in the right colors so that you can accomplish what you need to do?
  

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, you really need to think about making the changes and printing all of your literature a little earlier than a week before you need them, especially if you have a full time day job, like I do.

I had a printer driver issue yesterday, just when I needed to print out 50+ double sided, high-quality brochures on fancy, glossy brochure paper. It took me all of two hours to resolve the issue, but that was two hours that I lost. Now here I sit, in the studio, waiting for Johnny to get back with more ink, getting ready to print the remaining 32 brochures this evening, after having worked an 8 hour day at my full-time job.

I believe, if you look up the meaning of the word, "fragged" in the dictionary, you may very well see the following picture:

Yes, that's me, in more relaxed times. You might also find that image if you were to look up, "procrastinate," as well.

Lesson learned? Get it done as early as feasibly possible, even if you think it's only going to take a second. Guess what? Not only did I build a studio, the economy took a serious dive, and I eliminated some portrait packages, added some new ones, and pricing changed all the way around. Translation? All of my Info-Pak literature needed to be updated, as did my brochures.

Always expect the unexpected. My printer has never given me a lick of trouble. Until I needed 50 color, high quality brochures on a Sunday evening before I had to go back to the day job in the morning. Not a fun feeling.

Until next time, y'all! :)

What Your Customers Can Do For You...

Because I own a small business that has only been around a short while, I have found that I must find ways to generate business. Expensive marketing tactics won’t do it for me. I learned very early on that one must keep the business expenses quite separate from the household expenses, therefore, I cannot dip into the grocery budget to pay for that pretty postcard and the direct-mail campaign that comes with it.

I am lucky, in some respects, in that I have a “regular day job” that pays the bills until such time as my photography studio can do that for me. In the meantime, I network as much as I can as time allows, rely a lot on word-of-mouth referrals, and get exposure wherever I can.

I also know that customer service is so important, and possibly even more so in this economy when everyone is watching their expenditures. Doing something that will cost me a potential client, or driving away an existing one is something that I keep in my mind at all times.

While we, as business owners, constantly ask ourselves, “What can we do for our customers,” how often do we ask ourselves what our customers can do for us? I learned a very valuable lesson in what our customers can do for us over the weekend while doing a portrait session.

I was very fortunate that my customer was a woman I’d worked with some years back who needed portraits of her two beautiful girls. I had just re-worked my entire pricing schedule to be less intimidating, and a little more budget friendly, and this was the first session that I had done using the updated pricing. After the shoot, we reviewed the RAW images. This is something I would not normally do, because, like a lot of photographers, I’m kind of funny about letting people see the raw images because of the potential for over or under exposure, and I would normally let a customer see the color corrected proofs, after they’d gone home. At any rate, she had asked me if there was any way she could see the images before she left. So, not wanting to send her away unhappy, yet worried she would be critical of the untouched images, I went ahead and pulled them up. We went through all of them, applying a rating system to them so that she could narrow them down to her favorite 30 or so images. She didn’t notice the white balance, and really didn’t pay much attention to the exposure. She was looking at expressions and interaction between the girls.

After we went through all of the images and she’d made her selection, I asked her to be honest with me because I was really interested in her opinion of the session. She stated that the review of the raw images was a wonderful bonus, and made the selection of her images much easier. I had been worried about the technical side (and the possibility of wasting her valuable time) for nothing.

Long story shorter, I have learned that there is nothing wrong with asking your customers for feedback, and even going a step further and asking them what would have made their experience better.

I know that I am probably telling you all something that you already know, but in this dog-eat-dog economy, putting your financial wants aside and focusing on your customers wants and needs may put you ahead in the long run. I understand that I will be taking the baby’s 9 month photos in a couple of months, and she is going to be passing out my business cards at her office while showing off her prints.

That little extra time spent gained me valuable insight into what makes my clients tick, and you can best believe I will be incorporating all of her suggestions into my sessions from now on.
‘Till next time….

Be Careful, VERY Careful, What You Wish For - You Just Might Get It. :)

Well, well, well...

After all these months of grousing that I simply didn't have enough to do pertaining to Wall 2 Wall Photography, suddenly, BANG! It must be busy season. :)

We did take some down time in March/early April. My oldest son came home on leave for 30 days. He's in Korea with the Air Force, and hadn't been home in almost four years, so I took a couple weeks of vacation from the day job; the first week he was here, and the last. During that last week, Matthew, my 16 year old, flew out from Nevada for spring break, and we were able to do family portraits, which we hadn't had done since...oooohhhh.... 2004 or so. How sad is it that a portrait photographer didn't have a portrait of her own family? Well, we surely rectified that. I also got some goof-shots of the two older boys, as well as some pictures of all three boys, and the three with their sister. (You will find these throughout this particular post.)

After taking Matt and Christopher to the airport the week before Easter, I decided to really start knocking out some networking for the business. I had joined a local networking site (inside919.com) while he was here, then ramped that up a bit. Then, last week, quite by accident, I was perusing golo, which is a local news channel blog-type site, and met Kisha via a blog post. She has a wedding planning business. We emailed back and forth over the last week, and I am SO excited for her. She does have a web site, and if you or anyone you know in the Eastern North Carolina area, is getting married, you will really want to go check her out. She is the owner/operator of One Fine Day Wedding Planning.

Now, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, Wall 2 Wall Photography will have a booth at the Lucama Spring Fling Festival on May 16. This is going to be SO much fun. Lots of activities, and Shelley told me last night that there will even be a pie eating contest.

So between prepping for the festival, shooting spring in North Carolina, scheduling portrait sessions, well...Like I mentioned in the title of this blog post, be careful what you wish for. :) In this case, however, that is not a bad thing!

Until next time, y'all!

Missing Child - Goldsboro/Wayne County, NC

Folks, this isn't for me, but I wanted any and all of you that might be following this blog to please read below. A friend of my son, Matt, is missing and needs medical attention. I am posting a picture of her that I took last year, but the ones in the links below are more recent. She has been missing since early Monday morning, and I received the following from her mom, Michelle, earlier this evening:

My daughter, Ashlee Michelle Davenport 16 is considered to have ran away Monday April 13 morning between 4:25am-4:45am.Ashlee is 5'8' 118 pounds light brown hair hazel eyes. She has the cartlidge of her right ear & her belly button pierced. She has dental issues as far as a her top front teeth are not straight. She also has the initials MS carved into her hip. There is a picture of her on kenlynews.com, newsargus.com and wral & witn.I got a phone call from her dr. Monday morning and she has some medical conditions in which she needs medication immediately! She has a heart condition which she needs to be treated for ASAP! Dr.is very concerned because she needs to be seen immediately!If you have any info whatsoever, PLEASE call my cell phone anytime 24/7@ 919-922-9967 or call the Wayne County Sheriffs Department @ 919-7311481 or Detective Sgt.Tammy Odom @ 919-580-4065.

Easter Pictures and New Pricing....

Well...here I am...on my first vacation in almost two years and I'm sitting in front of my computer.

Ok, you know I can't stay away from it for long, LOL...

On the front burner this week?

• My oldest son is home on leave for the first time in over 3 years;
• I just finished the Dutton's Easter portraits and put the package into the correct hands;
• We just established a few new portrait packages to accomodate the needs of more of our clients.

We spent the early part of the week enjoying the spring weather and landscaping our front yard. We had quite the little assembly line going on. Chris would dig the hole, I'd plant the greenery, and Johnny would drop the mulch. It's looking quite nice, actually, and we're almost finished!

During my down time, I finished working on Rhonda & Mark's kids' Easter pictures (some of which you will see here), and put everything on CD.

I've also been corresponding with Shelley regarding Wall 2 Wall's donations for the silent auction at the Lucama Spring Fling Festival. Did I mention that y'all need to show up for that? It's going to be a lot of fun, it's in May, so the weather will be amazing, and Wall 2 Wall Photography and Lori Carver's Tupperware booths will be there. Here is the URL so you can check out all the details: http://lucamacic.com/festival.html

I hope to hear from all of you soon. It's been kind of quiet this winter and I, for one, am ready to kick things up a notch. :)

Until Next Time.....

~~Jules

Artisans and Craftspeople Wanted

Hey, Y'all!

This blog isn't about me. (Yes, I know...hard to believe, right?)

It's actually about a small-town festival in need of vendors. Lucama (North Carolina, for those of you who aren't local to us) is hosting a Spring Fling Festival on May 16, 2009.

This fesitval is in need of vendors. Wall 2 Wall Photography will be there, and I'm hoping that any of you out there reading this will be there, too. If you are an artisan with a craft to show off, then please get a booth. If you are a craftsman/person with wares to sell, please get a booth.

The web site to check out is http://www.lucamacic.com/ and if you should have any questions, please contact Shelley at Shells4you@hotmail.com .

We look forward to seeing you at the Lucama Spring Fling Festival!

Ok, So Now I'm Not Slack - Just Busy!!!

Hi, All!
I may have been slack last month, but this month I've been busier than a one armed paper hanger in a paper factory....

Now that the Joint Commission has been and gone, the craziness at my day job has come down to it's regular low-key status. This gives me the opportunity to spend more time building the photo business...

We've recently come up with our own Economic Stimulus Package. This package includes the following:

Economic Stimulus Photos on CD Package - $130.00
This easy to use, economy-friendly package includes the following:

• Pre-session consultation
• A minimum of twenty of the best images of the session in jpg format on CD;
• One user-friendly directory of all images reduced for use in email and on the web;
• A second user-friendly directory of all images for prints up to 8x10 in size (we offer very reasonable prices on prints larger than 8x10);
• License agreement for printing and other uses (mugs, mouse pads, tees, etc.);
• Instructions for use and support after delivery;
• One 11x14” print of your choice.

Please give us a call (919-921-6328) a call if we can help you with any of your portrait needs.

We still have our Standard-Traditional Packages, too...

Traditional One-Pose Packages:
The "Standard Traditional" which includes

• 1-8x10,
• 2 5x7, and
• 16 wallet sized prints (retouching included) for $50,

the new
"Traditional Plus" which includes

• 4-8x10's,
• 8-5x7's, and
• 24 wallet sized prints (retouching included) for $75.

Both packages allow you to pick your pose immediately after the session.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to book an appointment for a photo session.

Cheers and Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Julie

Yes, I'm Slack, Okay?

Yeah, I know...It's been over a month since I've posted anything out here. I've been busy, busy, busy...

THE FACE...
First it was my face, which had a cyst (quite a large one, I might add) that had to be removed...again. Those of you that know me know that it was removed once in March, then I had to go back a second time in March because he didn't get it all, so they attacked it again. Then after several follow-ups at the derm's office, here in Goldsboro, they decided it had come back and needed to be removed again. In July. Went back for a few more follow ups. Still didn't get it all, so I saw a surgeon in October who was sweet, but wouldn't touch my face with a ten-foot scalpel, so I got a referral to be seen by a plastic surgeon in Greenville in December. On the fifth of that month I had surgery for the fourth time. And to say he laid my cheek wide open was an understatement. Good that he gave me post-op drugs. God knows I needed them! Went back on the 12th to have the stitches removed, and was scheduled for the final (yeah, right) follow-up today. Last week my cheek swelled up, felt bruised and then did some things I don't guess y'all want to read about, but needless to say I figured that the perCYSTent thing had come back with a vengance. Turns out (I find out today) that the self-disolving stitches are not my face's best friend, and now I've got an infection. But I'm cool with that...I really thought surgery #5 was on the horizon. An infection is the BEST possible news I could have gotten. So, anyway...the next thing on my agenda has been....

THE DAY JOB
As many of you know, I work at the local hospital. The Joint Commission has re-organized something called, "The Environment of Care" which is a major-big deal for accredited facilities such as the one I work for. At any rate, almost 100 policies had to be reformatted and submitted to Senior Management for review and that has taken up most of my 40+ hours weekly at the day job. Soooo, when I come home, I'm fragged to say the least.

TECHNOLOGY
This actually forced me to unplug for the better part of the week after Christmas. After being inundated with an ungodly amount of spam, and typing policies, and receiving an unnatural amount of text messages I finally just got a clue and didn't check email, Facebook, MySpace, the web site, etc., etc. I finally just stopped and took a few days off from everything.

All of the above made me reflect and set some resolutions for the new year. Read on:

1. Under-promise and over-deliver: Translation? Instead of trying to do and be everything for everyone all the time, make fewer promises, and then give more than expected. That way, if time constraints limit you, you haven't bitten off more than you can chew, and even if you only deliver what you promised, you've still met your commitment. (I think of this one specifically for all the fund-raising I have a tendency to do. I'm only one person, therefore, I cannot single-handedly coordinate the Arts & Crafts Auction for Relay for Life, and the whatever else needs to be done, and the other misc. fundraisers, and United Way, etc., etc.) Also create a BALANCE for giving and taking. If you give too much and take too little, you burn out. If you take too much and give too little, well, that's just greedy. Everything in moderation and balance.
2. Family first! (Ok, family first AFTER God...but I have secular friends, too, LOL) I'm finding that if I take the time to do the fun things with the family, I come out of it with a little less time on my hands, but am more refreshed and can do more with less time. Seriously, that extra hour of Guitar Hero or bowling is NOT going to kill you financially, I promise!)
3. Do NOT sweat the small stuff. I'm learning the hard way that stressing out to the point of insomnia over such trivialities as the DDJ, you have nothing left when it comes time to stress over really legitimate things. Case in point? My mom's biopsy came back bad. If I worry about my day job and the ridiculous things all of that encompasses, I will not have the energy to focus on caring for my mom and her emotional needs. What happens at the office stays at the office and if it goes south? Well, then, it will just stay south until 8 a.m. the following business day.
4. Take care of yourself. Yes, we're busy; we are moms, career women, friends, cooks, housekeepers, homemakers, etc. If we don't take care of our own needs (ohhhh, I dunno, a hot bath, favorite t.v. show, good book, etc.) then we can/will not be able to adequately take care of what is important to us: spouses, children, friends, jobs, etc. This includes eating well and exercising, even if it's just a well balanced snack and a walk around the block.
5. Always work on bettering yourself. This can be anything from learning a new skill or craft to setting realistic (BITE SIZED) goals for yourself. Otherwise, you stagnate.

Okay, so I guess that is it for now. Do want to thank Brenda for her verbiage on resolution #1. That was more eloquent than anything I could have possibly come up with!

Until next time....