The last week or so has been quite busy for us as we split time between putting the finishing touches on our studio and doing senior portrait sessions.  My legs are dead tired and one of my knees is giving me some trouble from all of the bending, squatting, running up and down stairs, etc...  Such is the price we pay I guess.

We're really pleased with how our sessions are going and the comments from our clients have been very complimentary.  Our last two shoots have been at Loose Park, a popular KC destination for photographers and their clients.  We've been turning heads at the park because we show up with out utility wagon full of gear and our clients clothing.  We use studio lighting on location and we have a pop up changing tent that our clients use to do their clothing changes in.  We've had other photographers comment on how well prepared we are and what a great idea the changing tent is.  We even had one family approach us about doing their photos based on how much gear we bring and how much effort we put into our sessions.  Guess the extra work is paying off!  Not to mention it justifies why we charge more than the "Craigslist and Facebook fauxtographers" out there. 

We like to give our clients sneak peaks on our Facebook page prior to them coming to the studio to make their selections.  We don't show them the very best images as we save those for the viewing session, but it does give them an idea as to how some of their photographs look.  Here's a couple we posted last night from a session last week.



We have a couple Senior portrait sessions scheduled this weekend.  We will be doing both at Loose Park, a beautiful park near the Country Club Plaza.  Like most areas, the park was hit by the drought and has lost some of it's color and beauty but there is plenty of photo opportunities there and I'm excited about getting to shoot at a new place. 

JD called me yesterday to tell me about how he's been working with his head coach on his slider.  He told me he has learned how to throw a "real" slider.  He has always thrown his curve and slider with a knuckle on the ball.  He says the way he throws it now, it bites much harder, he has more velocity on it and it has late break.  He said the Coach loved it and called it "filthy".  JD said he was able to throw it for strikes right from the start and coach said to keep working on it and he'll have something special come Spring. 

He has been "enjoying" the 6am workouts that started this week now that official scrimmages and practices have ended.  They'll do conditioning and strength training 4 days per week throughout the fall and winter as they prepare for the 2013 baseball campaign.  It can't get here soon enough for JD, and us.

We had a fun weekend at Casa de Williams as Jodi's mother, aunts, sister, cousin and great niece came to KC for a girls weekend.  They spent their time shopping and visiting and we made sure that no one went hungry.  We all went out to dinner on Friday evening and then Saturday morning, after several of us went to the neighborhood garage sales, Jodi and I cooked a large breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, and french toast.  We only snacked in the afternoon and then I grilled pork steaks to go with baked potato's, butter noodles, green beans, deviled eggs and cornbread. 

Here's the breakfast crowd:

After dinner, we celebrated Aunt Lonna's birthday with cake and gifts.  Here's Lonna with her goodies.

While they went shopping on Saturday, I put the bonding primer down on the basement floor so it would be ready for the epoxy the next day.  After everyone left on Sunday, I applied the epoxy while Jodi sprinkled the flakes into it.  It appears to have turned out really well.  Now I need to put the baseboard up and do some small paint projects. 

As promised, more about last weekend in St. Louis.  My mother was hosting a family dinner on Thursday evening and it appeared we would not be able to make it on time.  Fortunately, Jodi was able to leave work early and we were able to surprise my mother.  I enjoyed the food and visiting with all of my siblings and their spouses.  It was nice to get together "just because".  Usually our gatherings are for holidays or special events.

The feedback from our fireworks shows has been nothing but positive.  I'm quite proud that a suggestion I made a year ago at our club shoot last fall came to fruition and was so successful.  We are now talking about our club doing a show there every other year to show what the pyrotechnicians on the west side of the state are capable of. 

We were happy to get to spend some time with JD over the weekend as well.  I only got to see him Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon but Jodi was able to spend more time with him and that was good for her.  They went to lunch and did some shopping with some of her relatives and then he came to watch the fireworks shows as he does every year.  He doesn't want to do what I do but he really likes coming to watch.

Our photography business has really picked up and we have quite a few sessions booked between now and the end of the month.  We had a pre-session consultation with a client last night and we were pleased to hear that they really like the natural look of our photography and that is why they chose us.  The Senior said that a lot of the images she sees makes the subject look fake, or plasticky like a mannequin.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of photographers out there who aren't very good at photo retouching and that is the result.  I guess some folks like that but that's not what we sell.  If you can't see the texture in the skin, they've gone overboard with the skin smoothing.

Jodi has family coming in this weekend and I will be the lone man in the house.  Her mother, sister, two of her aunts and a cousin are all coming in for a girls weekend.  One aunt and the cousin are flying in from Phoenix.  They are calling it an "invasion".  I know Jodi will enjoy having them all here and so will I.  I like fixing breakfast and grilling for company.  I have work to do also so while they go shopping and running around, I can get that done.

Barack Obama after his first debate with Mitt Romney. 

I'm back from St. Louis, tired and sore.  It was well worth it though.  Our club put on a pretty spectacular show and we were told it may have been the top show of the night.  It was a lot of work as we spent at least 20 hours while there prepping and assembling the show.  I wound up leaving the park at 1am Sunday morning, after arriving at 8:30am the day before.

Here is the video from the show.  For best viewing, click on the word Youtube at the bottom of the video screen.  Once on the Youtube site, click the icon at the bottom of the video that looks like a gear and then choose 720p for the video quality setting.

I'll post more about our weekend in St. Louis later.