So on with the baby bumps! My first maternity shoot last week was with Sara and Chris, and their baby bump, a girl who will be coming in about ten weeks. 

I am trying out some new backdrops I made from fabric purchased from JoAnn who was having a 50% off sale. This is a Waverly print that I’d initially bought to make upholstery for my dinner table chairs but could not resist hanging up for a shoot. Turned out pretty well, don’t you think?

 I also purchased a knit to wrap around my subject and safety pins to make sure the material clung nicely to her beautiful curves.

Didn’t know Sara had a pretty little butterfly tattoo on her belly. This bottom-up shot was an irresistible one.

This is a field near my house that just filled up with wild flowers thanks to the beautiful weather we’d had about a week and a half ago. It was perfect for some outdoor couple shots.

My signature Chinese umbrella was the perfect prop and shade to diffuse some of that light around their faces. 

Watch out for baby girl Angus’ arrival in about two months!

For a lady with three kids, I’d say this is pretty hot, doncha think?

I have more boudoir artistry here.

Thanks for letting me photograph your family again, Nat!

She finally let me take a few pics of her!

Love you, gal. Thanks for your friendship!

Kajsa and her girls were one of the first families I photographed when I got into this business. Last weekend, she finally convinced her husband Brad to join them for a complete family session. We picked Borlin Park, this sweet little spot by the Monroe riverside. 

Dad Brad and older daughter K.

And the adorable N!

Here are more of my favorites:

My absolute fave!

What a beautiful start to the summer season. Thanks Kajsa and fam!

A little fist bump for a job well done, dad!

Confident yet respectful, a little serious, a little playful. He has such an open smile, without any of the attitude one would expect from a young man just turned 18. He will be going off to university to study engineering, taking after both his parents.

Mom Kelli and dad Bob engaged me to take their son’s Senior pics. Girlfriend Gaby, who was also present at the shoot, is one lucky gal!

Pretty cool considering I only paid $20 for it. It has a 135mm lens on it. I wonder if the owner (a neighbor a few blocks away) has another lens for it. I loaded a film on it today to try it out. I’ve not loaded film since the 90s!

When I entered the business last year, and studied the way things were done, I knew that this could not be something I could go into without doing some sort of…revolutionizing. This is a competitive business made even more challenging with technology pushing us along in a current that some of us may be unwilling to be swept up in. 

Everyday, I hear my friends, who have been consumers of professional photography for many years, complain about the high prices they’re made to pay for prints. Everyday, there’s one person I know who’s buying the latest DSLR and learning to take pictures the way I did a year ago. Just two months ago, I attended a workshop by a master photographer who herself admits that time is running out on the traditional commissioned photography business, but is yet unwilling to do things differently. 

I came away from that conference feeling anxious and worried – worried about this business I’m getting myself into. Or am already knee-deep in, wading deeper by the minute. Do I really want to get myself mired this early in a business model that is unwilling to accept that it’s slowly becoming irrelevant in the face of progress? Or am I going to be the one to open my eyes, look around and start figuring out how I can build a new business model for myself. It may not be as lucrative as the print business was ($150 for a 8×10 was what this master photographer was charging – no kidding!) but it can be sustainable, that’s all. And it has to BE RELEVANT.

I can take what’s still workable in the old model, but build on top of it the needs and wants of the new client; the customer who wants to share her images online on Facebook and her blog and on her iPhone WITHOUT having to upload like scores and scores of 10MB files . The customer who wants prints but would rather have a DVD so she can print them off at Costco herself. The customer who just wants to make slideshows and digital scrap-pages and Animoto videos of my photos and hers because this is what she enjoys doing. The customer who does not want to pay $150 for an 8×10 because she can get the same paper from an online printer at $40 a pop because this same printer needs to hit critical mass to stay afloat as HIS customers becomes more digital.

About five months ago, JTPA started using Zenfolio to do my proofing. On top of my DVD and print packages, I offered a one-year hosting of all the proofs so my customers could come back all year round to enjoy even the photos they’ve not purchased print rights to. They started asking me if they could share their password-protected galleries with their families, and I said yes. Pretty soon, these customers were creating what Zenfolio calls their “Collections”, all the way allowing me to keep what is legally mine but emotionally theirs – their photos, their memories. We were sharing, and miraculously, I was making money not only because they kept coming back to visit their galleries, but because they would spot a picture they’d somehow missed, and buy a download here, a print there. 

So here’s the spiel: All JTPA packages include annual hosting of every single proof you see in your gallery, which means you get to come visit within 365 days of your images “going live” to enjoy them – even the photos you’ve not purchased print releases to.

My offers respond to a growing demand for digital over print, not only for economical reasons but for convenience as well with increasing accessibility to different image-viewing platforms like mobile phones, digital frames and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. These platforms typically do not require high-res images which means you should NOT have to pay for them as you would traditional prints. Zenfolio does not provide social media integration for now but I foresee it happening in the near future. If this happens, I promise that you will be able to share, through your hosting with me for a small yearly price (or free if you commit one session per year with me), your digital proofs as profile pictures, wall photos, twitpics and what have you.

Zenfolio, are you listening?

In short, here’s what all JTPA customers get: Prints, a DVD, music videos and ALL your proofs hosted on one site for a year to enjoy and share anytime.

I still have not figured this whole New Media Photography (or NMPM, to add onto our acronym-infested world) thing out yet, but I think I’m on to a good start. Make no mistake, I want to be profitable, but I think the more important thing here is we photographers need to first figure out HOW TO REMAIN RELEVANT in a world of cheaper digital cameras, printers going mass and not just the consumption but sharing of data among our customers.

Randy arrived first. ”That’s my photographer right there!” he’d shouted props at me to his groomsmen (still gives me a tingle to hear that from my clients!). We shook hands and Amar, my assistant, went with them to take their prep shots.

I sat and waited for Jenn to arrive to her staging room, and when she did, was she a bundle of nerves! Every once in a while, when she was putting on her dress, checking her makeup, she let out a little cry, “OH, MY GOD!”, possibly indicating that she was perhaps just a tad anxious.

But nothing compared to when she saw what Randy had gotten her for her wedding present, for Jenn just looked at them silently for a while and starting waving her hands frantically in front of her face. “Oh NO! I’m going to cry!!”

In a gold Nordstrom’s box, nestled a pair of Chanel diamond earrings. Jenn works in fashion and the double Cs not only paid tribute to her passion, but also Randy’s family name, Chan. “Double Cs, for the Chans,” she’d said as she tearily but happily put them on.

Here are some of my favorite shots of the wedding:

Jenn and Randy’s wedding rings, by my assistant, Amar. Please check out more of his work here. 

Insane shoes!

The dress.

Getting a breather.

Bad-ass bridesmaid!

Almost there!

After the vows.

The kiss.

Throwing it up for married!

Hailing a limo for a ride to the reception!

Catching some bubbles on the way.

Dancing the night away.

A few things were clear on your wedding day, Jenn and Randy. That you have friends who adore you and family who love you to both to death. That you guys have a damn fine sense of style. That even when things don’t turn out the way you’ve planned them to, you always find a way to work it out and move on, which are crucial ingredients for a marriage. And man, can both of you DANCE!

Thanks for letting me be part of your day, Jenn and Randy. It was an honor and I wish you both every happiness!