Here's a few images from a recent session with our newest model. Clicking on the images will bring them up larger.

This past weekend, I closed a deal with a local women's clothing boutique to be their official photographer, using our model team to model their clothing for images to be used in their store, online and in other advertising.  In turn, they will promote our studio through their social media network, provide a display area in the store for our marketing materials and samples of our work as well as feature our photography on their walls. 

I've been seeking an opportunity such as this for some time now but I hadn't found the right store to partner with.  I believe this store and their demographic is ideal for us as not only do teen girls love this store but their mom's often will shop there as well.  Several of our models love to shop there and the styles they carry are very popular with our target clients.

Now, the task at hand is getting a marketing campaign together that announces our partnership, how it benefits our clients and schedule our models for fashion shoots wearing the clothing the store sells.  I think the latter is going to prove to be the toughest as many of our girls are on vacation at the moment.

 

 

Jodi's mom's surgery went well and she is expected to be released today so that is great news.  They were able to clean out the blockage and she will have a follow up visit in 6 months.  It was a long day of delays apparently but it's all behind her now.

I got to shoot a new model team member and even though it was warm, we had a lot of fun and created some beautiful images of her.  I'm looking forward to Jodi getting to see them and do some retouching of them. 

Tonight we are having an HOA meeting that could be quite entertaining.  One of our pools has been structurally compromised and it appears the only fix is a new one.  In the mean time, we have another pool for the residents to use but people are saying it's "too crowded" (I said that in a very whiny tone when I wrote it) at times.  The uninformed are complaining about the pool should have been fixed before the season, and "what am I paying dues for if the pool isn't open?"  Ignorant stuff like that.  What started out as a couple cracks has now turned into about 30 and the pool has literally shifted int he ground.  I would suspect all of the rain has caused this as well as possibly the pool being empty for some time as they tried to fix it but with the water table as high as it is, they couldn't repair the cracks because the water kept coming in, pushing the repair material out.  It's a mess but I'm looking forward to seeing the ignorant people make themselves look foolish at this meeting. 

Jodi is in St. Louis today as her mother is having a procedure to unblock an artery in her neck.  She has been having stroke like symptoms and they ultimately discovered the blockage.  We are praying for a successful procedure and a full recovery for her.

In Jodi's absence, I conducted a sales session yesterday evening and it went quite well.  We have quite a few sessions booked for the summer months which is an improvement over last year as many wait until the fall.  The opportunity for us is to schedule more summer sessions and our incentives we are offering to do so are working.

We are suppose to have a really nice weekend, dry and very mild temps so I hope to get some outside work accomplished.  I need to get some planting done and our garage still needs some straightening.  De-cluttering our lives is quite a bit of work.

I had a short weekend after working Saturday but I did get to relax a bit on Sunday and enjoyed Father's Day.  Jayson was with us all weekend, spending Father's Day with JD and we had a lot of fun hanging out together.

JD seems to be recovering pretty well from his surgery.  Physical therapy is going well it seems so we expect him to be throwing a baseball again by the end of the summer.

We've been busy booking up summer dates and preparing for the crush that the fall always brings.  I'm getting ready to purchase some more gear for video and dive into that more.  I shot some video at our last shoot and although I am happy with a good chunk of it, it could have been better if I had a couple other tools to use. 

A fellow photographer we met at St. Louis came to town this past weekend and I set up a photo shoot for him to participate with us in using several of my models.  He is a former concert photographer trying to get a senior portrait business going in Tennessee and I've mentored him a little bit on the business, sharing what has been successful for us and giving him some ideas to implement for himself. 

Since he was coming, I wanted to do something creative, something that wasn't the norm for our business or his.  I came up with the idea of a "Warrior Princess" theme since we already had some items at the studio that could be used for the shoot.  I chose a black Jovani gown, a feathered collar and a masquerade mask for the model's outfit and the morning of the shoot, I found a pretty cool sword on Craigslist for just $15.  That completed the outfit and all we needed was some great hair and makleup.  I challenged our makeup artist to come up with a look based on my vision and she did not disappoint. 

For the location, I wanted something dark and a bit spooky so we used a local winery that has been featured on the television show, "Ghost Hunters".  The location turned out to be perfect, except for the mosquitos.  Our model did a great job for us and we captured some amazing shots.  Jodi has only had an opportunity to edit a few shots so far but here they are.  You can click on the images for larger versions to see greater detail.

For the afternoon, I had set up another shoot for us at a nearby farm and a Bohemian fashion theme.  "Boho", as it is called, is a hot fashion trend right now and we took our models shopping for outfits for the shoot earlier in the week.  The outfits would reside in our dressing room's closet after the shoot for others to use for their sessions if they choose.  The girls picked out some great outfits with the help of Jodi.

Back at the studio after the morning shoot, we had lunch while our makeup artist prepared the three models.  In the interim, I got crafty and cut up some fabric into strips to hang from a tree at the farm, to create a backdrop of sorts for a scene.  It turned out pretty well I think.

The farm was a great location for this shoot and it was a little wild too as we had chickens, cats, horses, hogs and cows surrounding us.  We used some of the buildings, equipment and fields for the backdrops and we finished near sunset with amazing golden light.  I don't think I've ever had so much fun on a photo shoot before.  Our models were fantastic and our new friend from Tennessee was a blast to shoot with.  Here are a few shots that Jodi has edited and I'm sure I'll have plenty more to past in the future.

We had a "toasty" session with twins last night as temps were said to be in the upper 90's.  We got it in though and it was fun despite the heat.  We have two more shoots set up for this week and then I have the weekend off!  Actually, I will be working on our new website a lot so I'm really not "off" of anything.  I would like to find a little time to go fish for about an hour or so.  I may do that early on one of the weekend mornings. 

The rain is not helping our photo shoot schedule any as we had tow sessions washed out.  Fortunately, this is not our busy time of the year and we are able to reschedule fairly easy but it's not desirable.  I also have a friend coming in from Nashville to shoot with me this Friday.  I've scheduled a couple of my models and the makeup artist so we will have plenty to do while he is here.

JD seems to be doing pretty well with his recovery.  He has had some discomfort but it has been better than expected and he sees the doctor tomorrow for the post op follow up visit.  He should get to know a bit more about how things went and what the expectations are as far as getting back to using his arm more and returning to baseball. 

During JD's surgery, it was discovered that he had a partial tear of his rotator cuff.  That was a surprise to all of us since the rotator cuff had never been mentioned during previous exams or the MRI.  The good news is that it was repaired and he is on the mend.  He starts physical therapy next Tuesday and he will just have to see how throwing goes later in the year.  I do not know what time frame he is on for that and I'm guessing that will be determined by how well therapy goes and what his doctor says. 

With my mom in the hospital, I headed to St. Louis for a visit.  She was in pretty bad shape for awhile but the drugs seem to take hold and her condition improved which we are thankful for.  They were targeting her going home today so hopefully that happens. 

We got in a photo shoot yesterday but today's is not looking all that good.  Flooding is happening all around us and it's going to get worse it seems as more rain is in the forecast.  We are definitely in a bad weather pattern right now and it's a pain for our business. 

Today is JD's surgery and we are praying that all goes well and his road to recovery will be short.  He'll be in a sling for at least a week and depending on the nature of the repair, it could be much longer.  We are hopeful he needs more of a "cleaning out" than a surgical repair.

Rain is upon us again and it is absolutely creating headaches for us with reschedules.  We just need a period of dry weather to get the shoots in that we need to.

When you work Saturday, it makes for a short weekend and I didn't get much accomplished other than mowing the yard, going to the grocery store and fiddling with the website a bit.  Since we have 4 seniors to shoot in the next 6 days, I don't think we'll get very much done outside of that this week.

JD has surgery on Wednesday and we are hopeful that they don't find much wrong.  He'll be in a sling for at least a week and much longer should he need structural repair.  Hopefully the surgery will resolve his issues and he will be able to finish up his senior year without pain and discomfort.  He will likely have to take some classes the following summer or fall to finish up his degree as he had some credits not transfer and he'll have to make those up.