In the mean time, I am migrating my hosting company.  The thought of it makes me nauseous because I am terrified I will lose data.  This is happening starting tomorrow and will transition over the weekend.  If you can’t find me… you know there are problems!

Let’s hope for the best and stay tuned for awesome new changes!

UPDATE:  I think my blog and site is transferred onto my new host with no issues!  Yay!  Many props to the people at www.Hostgator.com for making that happen.  I was really please with the service I received from them.  I started the process 24 hours ago.  It’s complete.  Without a hitch.  And when I emailed them a question (because I am the village idiot when it comes to this stuff)… not only did they answer, but they PICKED UP THE PHONE AND CALLED ME to explain.  Really?  A hosting company does that?  Yes.  They rock.

Summer Availability. My summer weekends are booking up.  I am shooting two weddings and so those two weekends are out (7/24 & 8/21).  I am also in Quogue (Hamtons, Long Island) for the Fourth and a good amount of time the first week/weekend in August and Labor Day.  So those weekends are out, unless you happen to be there, in which case:  wahoo!  book a session!  So my weekends are sort of filling up, and if you are thinking July/August beach sessions, let me know so we can get you on the books, otherwise we’ll need to look at week nights.

Weekday Schedule. Childcare is switching up for the summer, maybe fall… I can now do newborn sessions Tuesday – Friday, starting around 9AM rather than only Wednesdays & Fridays.

Fall Sessions. I will be back after Labor Day but will be out definitely one weekend in September, usually it’s the weekend immediately following Labor Day, but I will keep you posted.  The very last weekend you can book a session and still hope to get holiday cards and prints is November 20th.  All holiday orders will be due by December 5th or they will not be delivered by the Holidays.

The Entire Family. Last year I did so many amazing fall sessions for holiday cards and with every session, mom jumped in for a few… and everyone asked “where was the dad?”  It bums me out when I can’t see the whole family representing, especially if it’s just a stunning session.  So I don’t care if you are a single mom, two moms, two dads, grandparents, whatever the make up of your family, I really want to see you all.  Now of course if you are super dead set on just kids, just kids it will be… but really, when else can you get that fabulous family image with ALL OF YOU in it?  Summer snapshots aside, even I am having a family session where even I will step out from behind the camera.  So try to make it happen.  You will be happy you did.

Summer  or Fall, can’t decide? Do both.  Any client that schedules a full family session prior to September 1 will also receive a discounted Fall mini-session so can you have some current fall pictures if that’s what you want for your cards (and yes, of course the mini can be just the kids).  I love River Road, I love Wheatlands Hill, and I am looking for 1-2 more hidden locations in town that I will love just as much.  So if you are North Shore or relatively close, we’ll talk during your full session and figure it all out!

OK, now that we covered that… I wanted to show you some of the awesome frames that have come in.  These are ones that I ordered for my own home.  I have a nice triptych coming in for a favorite client, so as soon as that is installed, I’ll post it up.

These frames are amazing.  They are totally and fully customizable from the colors used, to the trim, to the width of the frame to the size of the image.  They are sophisticated, hip, adorable, preppy and shabby chic… it just depends on what you want to do with them!

Here’s one from Janey’s room.  It makes me incredibly happy every morning when I walk down the hall and see her face before I see her face!  This is a 6″ frame, pink and white, no trim… opening is 11X14, matted on masonite, fine linen texture spray, no glass.

And here is one, completely different vibe, in our downstairs bathroom. It’s brownish bronze 6″ frame with a gold bronze trim, custom sized to 14X20 width. I fit it with mirror. I have an obsession with backing frames.

I thought I’d provide some background on why we thought this product was important and why we like it so much.

It’s all the rage for photographers to develop workshops.  There are countless workshops out there that range from teaching Moms with a Camera (MWAC) how to shoot… how to edit… how to go into business… how to brand… and so on. But not everyone has the time or effort to develop a workshop, and not everyone should.  Just like good and bad photography, there are good and bad workshops.  I spent 13 years at IBM, nine of which were in Corporate Learning.  I lived, breathed, ate and slept training.  So when I decided to “write a workshop,” it was not on a whim.  It was no different than what I have done for most of my professional life.  It just happens to focus on photography versus technology.  I think it’s important that you know that while it’s a trend, and people say “jeez, isn’t everyone doing it these days?” I have been doing this for a long time.

So the next question is why on earth would we want to teach our clients how to take better pictures?  Won’t that cost us our jobs?  And won’t that encourage people to try to go into the market and further saturate it with MWAC who shouldn’t be there?  And what if people who know nothing about teaching tackle this and just pass on bad information?  Is this just an easy way to make a buck?

We feel very strongly that our clients are smart, educated and have a good sense about them.  We are incredibly grateful for them, and we value their thoughts and opinions.  We know that our clients understand that it takes more than a nice camera and a 2-3 hour workshop to become a professional.  In fact, we spend time educating them about our journey, and our mistakes and lessons learned.  They walk out of our workshops knowing just how difficult it is to master the craft and build a profitable business.

We also think it is a GOOD THING if our clients know how to use their cameras.  Really.  We are secure with ourselves and our value add and our talent.  We don’t really feel like we need to hide what we know on an introductory level.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with a client wanting to understand the functionality of their cameras that they spent so much money on.  Additionally, if they are educated on composition, perspective, bad versus good post-processing, then they are much better able to understand how to select a qualified and competent photographer when it comes to that time.  Our workshop focuses on getting it right, IN THE CAMERA, as step one.  That is something that anyone with a DSLR should be able to do.  Does it mean they will stop hiring professional photographers?  Gosh, I hope not.  In fact, I make sure I let my clients and workshop participants know that I still pay a professional full price for MY family sessions because how on earth will I ever get GOOD photographs of ME with kids and husband?

We believe that workshop or not, there are some new photographers who might be attending our workshop with hopes to start their own business.  Depending on your market, this might be inevitable and it’s your choice if you want to teach to them or not. My opinion is that there are hundreds of resources available that sell branding, pricing, actions and business plans with just the requirement of a blog or website — there are considerably more of these amazing money making resources than there are workshops to actually TEACH people how to USE a camera.  We developed our workshop so that you could communicate first hand your journey, your time and effort and participants can understand that it is not an overnight process, but can take years.   We also believe that by attending your workshop, they will begin to develop an understanding of basic skills that perhaps they were lacking even though they had already purchased all the “in a box” marketing, business, pricing and brand elements.  In this case, our workshop can actually help set expectations and perhaps stem the flow of hasty market entrants.

Our workshops are also FUN.  It’s a morning or night out, without the kids, focusing on something that we love.  Our participants get a chance to hang out, chat, and learn.  The cost is reasonable.  They get an amazing 70 page workbook as a take-away.  Is it a lot of hard work to get a workshop up and running?  Yes, sort of, it gets easier, but it’s work.  Will we make a fortune teaching these?  Perhaps not a fortune, but definitely profit.  More so if you consider the incremental clients you may gain.   And sometimes we get so caught up in being the untouchable all-knowing photographer that we forget to connect and make it real on a different level with our clients.

We would love to be able to screen every professional photographer who has purchased our workshop and make sure they understand how to effectively deliver our content and to make sure that they are “good” photographers.  If you are in business with a studio name and website, you can purchase it.  We provide you with almost everything you need to run a workshop.  We’ve been really thoughtful about this and tried to provide you with common pitfalls and how to avoid them, things you can do to prepare, and a basis of talking points for every slide.  We believe in you, as we believe in our clients.  And if you invest in our product, we will do everything we can to help you be successful.

That said, we do reserve the right to decline your purchase and refund your money if we feel that your portfolio (as displayed in the website/blogsite you provide upon purchase) is not displaying basic fundamental issues that this workshops instructs upon.

We know we are not alone in our line of thinking.  There are other photographers that have built workshops for their clients — wonderful, reputable photographers that we respect and admire.  There are even other photographers who have built similar workshops to sell to other photographers.  We have immense respect for them and we are happy that they have a competitive product that will drive us each to be better.

With that, if you are a photographer interested in seeing what else we have to say, please visit www.snapshopworkshops.com, follow us on Twitter and friend us on Facebook.  If you are client looking for a workshop in your area, please contact us at snapshopworkshops@gmail.com and we will do our best to find you someone to connect with!

Thank you!

However, I also believe that you can get customers for life when you have made a mistake and you feel like you’ve lost them.  I think sometimes fixing something what was broken, and making everyone feel really good about it, can almost be more effective them being really awesome from the start.  It builds a camaraderie, and a sense of “we are in this together, we are invested, we are willing to work together for a great outcome.”

I had sort of a bad experience at the gym yesterday.  I typically don’t blog about bad experiences or post about them because I really don’t like to throw vendors under the bus.  I wouldn’t want someone to do it to me, even if I had really screwed up.  But since I am really happy right now, I’ll tell you a little bit about it.

There is a guy who works at the gym who was trying to enforce a policy.  He is a very nice guy and it is an important policy.  But by enforcing it, and not bending it for me, it royally screwed up my day.  On any other day, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.  But it was a big deal yesterday.  I have worked so hard to lose weight and force myself to run and exercise.  I was looking forward to going to the gym like Christofer looks forward to riding his new bike.  I had the timing planned precisely so that it would line up with getting home for naps, a client visit and a peaceful rest of the day.  I pretty much spent my morning screaming at my kids… any day that I do that is a bad day.  But I have about 4 galleries to get out, I am about to be late on one (sorry Newman family and Alexis and Lisa), and am launching our workshop product.  I kept saying “calm down, not their fault, just make it until 10 and you can get to the gym, run out this anxiety and everything will be SO GOOD!”  In past months I think I would have bailed on the gym totally and forced early naps.  So I am about to leave for the gym, kids are ready, and I realize I haven’t packed snacks.  I pack them up.  While doing that, Janey takes her shoes off.  I put them back on.  She poops.  I take them off, I change her diaper, I put them back on.  Christofer has to poop.  This takes 20 minutes.  Janey takes her shoes off.  Christofer finishes.  Janey’s shoes go back on.  We get in the car.  Janey unbuckles her car seat (yes, she can do that).  I pull over and buckle her back in.  We get to the gym at 11:10.  I drag them through the parking lot, and it IS dragging since Janey won’t hold my hand (and it’s kind of raining).  I get in, I pay for child care, I get them to childcare.  I am down to about 45 minutes to work out.

But I can’t work out because I don’t have my lisence to leave my kids in child care.  And this is the new policy.  Must have lisence.  [Go ahead, all you people that are wondering why on earth I'd be driving without my lisence... I HAVE a lisence now, it just wasn't on me].

Again, any other day I would have been very happy for the exercise to not work out.  In fact, in the parking lot I had briefly contemplated getting Starbucks and going to Monkey Joes.  But I really needed it and I.WAS.MAD I couldn’t work out.  I was probably short.  That said, on my Scale of Bitch, I was about a 4-5… not the 8 or 9 I would have been a few years ago.  But I was still ticked.  I had an unpleasant conversation with one of the staff who probably thought he was doing the right thing, but it came across 100 wrong to me, everything about it.  No way he could have known about my morning, but the lesson learned there is that if a mother is on the edge, don’t push her over.  Bend the rules.  Let it go.

So I left.  Angrily.  And complained.  And I stewed over it for about 3 hours.

Last night I received one of the most pleasant emails I have ever received from a company I complained to [although to be honest, I think I've only complained to about 2 companies over email].  It was dead on with apologies, but also still underlined the policy.  It didn’t make excuses, it didn’t disparage the employee… or me.  It was just right on.  And I received another apology today.

The net of it is that I caught someone on a day when they had probably been given direction and was fed up with people trying to bend the rules… and he caught me on a day when I needed a “no questions asked, just bend them” response.  But prior to that, I had been thinking I would cancel my membership.  I was pretty happy working out outside and was thinking that it would be easier just not to belong to a gym.   Yesterday afternoon Owen and I were trying to figure out where I’d go if I joined somewhere else.  But by last night, after reading the response, and again this morning, I can tell you now that I wouldn’t dream of canceling, I will probably be a customer for life.

So if this gets to that one guy, I am sorry there was such mis-communication between us.  If it gets to Dave, you are doing your company right in building a really great brand and customer loyalty.  And if it gets to Christian, thank you, I will take you up on that offer if for no other reason than it gives me NO EXCUSE to not get there 3X a week for the next month.

And if it gets to anyone on the North Shore looking for a gym, you are crazy not to join: http://www.latitudesportsclubs.com/

For my husband, my kids, my family and friends.

But today I am completely and totally indebted to Western Digital, specifically my friend Constance.

Last summer I came home from vacation with a blown hard drive on my brand new MacBook Pro.  I thought to myself “luckily I didn’t keep much on that drive.”  All my client work is backed up on portable drives, DVDs and my Drobo unit.  All my family stuff is backed up on external drives, with the exception of the last 6 months running, which is on my desktop.  Apple recovered my laptop harddrive picture folder and I promptly moved it over to my desktop.

Flash forward two weeks.  Come home from vacation and think “hmm, we must have lost power, my Mac is totally off.”  Quickly learned that totally off actually meant totally dead.  On the bright side, it was covered under warranty.  On the dark side, my hard drive was dead.  Six months of every day images filed under “Daily Life” were GONE.  Along with invoices, bank statements, quicken files, and other mundane details.

Long story short, with a few strange turns, my friend Constance at Western Digital was able to recover my drive in it’s entirety and I received it back this weekend.  I have full res files back of some of my most favorite days with my kids and family.  I spent last night sifting through them, and backing them up, and ordering more Drobo drives, and backing up more…

Needless to say, today I am beyond happy and at total peace that our family history as I like to tell it, is back in tact, and safe.  You know the moral of this story.  Here are a few favs… not for any technical merit or review, but just because (as Christofer would say) “they make my heart super happy.”

If you are interested, email me and I will send you the sale pricing.  If you can’t access your gallery, let me know and I will re-instate it.

Here’s the skinny:

• Sale runs until SATURDAY AT MIDNIGHT… once it becomes Mother’s Day, it’s too late
• I need payment via cash, check, PayPal or credit card by SATURDAY AT MIDNIGHT or the prices will no longer be valid
• 6.25% applies to order — I will send you an invoice/total when you place your order

No exceptions.  At all.  And you know how flexible I am… but this time when my sale ends, your sale ends.

A VERY big thank you to Helen Makadia who helped with setup, logistics and capturing images.  I could NOT have done it without her.  She is an awesome photographer and friend and I am excited that she’ll be able to teach the workshops out in the metro-west area.

A thank you also to the participants.  Due to some unforeseen issues with setup, and then insane traffic, I ran 10 minutes late and had to catch up.  I appreciate that you waited it out and stuck with me.  I know I bombarded you with content.  I hope that once you have some time to kick back, you can use what I provided you as a manual, or just a cheat sheet — we didn’t cover it all, but it should be an easy read.  Remember… Messy Toy Room scenario is what to do when you have a dark house.  Find the one window that has light, clear out the clutter, subject to the window and shoot!

I can’t wait for tomorrow in Arlington… and to hopefully bring you Snap Camp! soon.  Please don’t hesitate to email me with any feedback (good or bad) about the session as well as with any questions that you might have!

Thank you and goodnight!

I am so incredibly excited to announce the first workshops developed by SnapShop Workshops: Oh Snap!  Quick Tips for Fab Pics! Oh Snap! is an introductory workshop for parents who want to learn how to take better pictures of their children using their DSLR cameras (think Canon Rebel, Nikon D80, etc.).  So many people say to me “I have a nice camera, but I just don’t know how to use it…”  We developed Oh Snap! Workshop with you in mind.

Later this month, we will also introduce Snap Camp!  Burn the Auto Off. At a Boot Camp you burn fat, at Snap Camp! you burn auto, meaning we teach you the real nitty gritty on how to get off Auto Mode and really use all the awesome power and functionality behind that nice camera (and we talk about all aspects of composition, processing, etc.).  Stay tuned for that.

If you are a photographer and looking for details on these workshops — like maybe you’d like to deliver them to your clients as well — shoot us a line at snapshopworkshops@gmail.com and we’ll put you on our email list and you’ll be the first to hear about our line of ready-to-teach workshop products!

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I am even MORE excited that I will be delivering these workshops starting THIS WEEK at the newly branded ISIS – Parenting Starts Here.  As you know, ISIS Maternity is a phenomenal resource for families in the Boston Area.  I think everyone knows that they go so much farther than maternity.  Their prenatal support is unparalleled… and so are their newborn, infant, toddler and family offerings.  I know as a new mom I attended everything from Infant Massage to Baby Signs to Social Butterflies.  I also used their Brookline storefront as my one-stop-shop for everything I needed in those early months.  So they are now rebranded to “ISIS – Parenting Starts Here” and it makes perfect sense.

Still with me?  Since I have a gallery in their Prudential Center location (in the Charlestown Room) and since I had so many inquiries from Boston Moms on my workshops, I approached them about partnering and they offered me the opportunity to be part of their brand new launch!

I will be teaching on Wednesday night in Brookline and Thursday night in Arlington.  Usually these speaker events are only available for ISIS Members, but because of the brand launch, non-members may attend as well.  For more details and to sign up,  visit: ISIS Expert Speaker Series. Please note that the rates/fees apply only to this special series with ISIS and that future classes may be offered at higher, non-promotional rates.

Without further ado, let me properly announce Oh Snap!

Do have you have a DSLR camera and want to learn how to take great pictures of your kids?

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Many parents purchase DSLR camera in hopes of not missing a moment of their children’s lives, but are not totally satisfied with the images when they appear on their computer screen. There are so many functions and buttons and and reading the manual is overwhelming. And with that, the camera sits on Auto mode and makes for a very expensive point-n-shoot.

Oh Snap! is an introduction to a series of workshops aimed to teach parents how to take better pictures of their children. Though high level workshop content will be delivered, it is also a forum to ask questions and get some answers (bring your camera and manual!). Participants will walk away with cheat sheets for common situations which will help them improve their photos with just a basic understanding of the basics of their camera.

• training your eye to find the light,
• composition and perspective,
• auto and semi-manual settings,
• lens and focal length selection,
• output: downloading, storage and printing

But then I sat back and I really thought about what my friend was trying to accomplish. And how important her goals are. And how this is her dream. And rarely do one’s dreams translate into doing so much food for so many people. So I searched back through my 6,778 unread gmails and I found her notes to me. First I paused and realized that she is looking really good. Like WTF good. For the love of Jack Bauer, Melora, you look HOT!

Then I went over to her website (www.helpinghandbags.co.uk) and read through the material. Then I logged onto the site and I purchased. Today it arrived. Not only do I love the bag itself, but I am so happy I could support her cause. So even if you can’t swing a bag right now, please take a moment to read through what she is doing and give her some props.

Baby Paige will receive a complimentary photography session and mini print package in her FABULOUS nursery! Stay tuned for that blog sneak peak, it’s sure to be beautiful!

Second and Third place winners will receive gift certificates as promised… and the Fourth and Fifth place finalists will also receive a little treat… more to come in your inbox as I get through the weekend and get caught up from vacation.

I really want to thank you all for your participation, the voting, and being just awesome contestants. Sometimes contests can go a funny way, especially with comments on the blog… and I am really happy that I was able to publish almost all the comments that were made and that they were all so lovely and supportive. I am thrilled and it’s inspired me to run a few more throughout the year! Stay tuned!

[For the guy that wrote the hysterical comment about taking the bus and cleaning the house... I laughed really hard, but I couldn't figure out if people might think it was too oddball if I published it... but you did have my husband and I rolling... mostly because I am the wife that doesn't clean!]