I wanted to remind everyone that my search for a mentee is still going on. I’ve had a couple people email me asking if it was “too late”. NO! It’s not. I will continue taking inquiries through Wednesday of this week. So you’ve got 3 days left. I am hoping to make a decision by Friday.

I am truly humbled at the response I’ve gotten. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!! Thank you for sharing yourselves with me! You’ve all been amazing. I am already having a hard time thinking about who will get this opportunity. However, know if you don’t get chosen this time it is something I may extend and offer again.  Again, I thank you!

One other reminder.

Remember today is the day! It’s going on right now! (just started so don’t worry you didn’t miss much…yet)

One other big announcement I’m thrilled to let you all know about is a labor of love my good friend and fabulously talented, Maile Wilson of Relish Portrait Studio, is launching. Get ready for this ladies….how cute are these???

Like many of us, Maile was tired of trying to find a safe way to carry her camera with her without having to lug a whole camera bag of stuff along. And 9x out of 10, an ugly camera bag at that. Recently there have been a few products that have stepped in and saved the fashion forward woman photographer and have filled the gaps nicely. However, what I love about Maile’s bag is that it works not only as a functional alternative when I’m shooting but it’s perfect for the times when I want to take my “stuff” with me but I’m not necessarily “playing photographer”. So all the times when I go to events where I’m ….just ME!!!! Woot!  Going to a wedding where I’m a guest, going to a shower, going to freakin’ SEA WORLD….this bag will work!!!

I was fortuante enough to see a prototype of the bag a couple months ago. Maile totally asked for input and feedback and was completely commited to creating a bag that would not only be WAY FREAKIN’ CUTE but functional. I loved that. There is ample room inside the bag for your camera & a couple lenses. The inside compartments were stury and the dividers velcro in and out so you can adjust the openings to fit your equipment. They are really versatile.

These are not only going to be great for the pros but perfect for those of you who have invested in your equipment and want a safe way to carry it with you while maintaining that fashionista persona you’ve worked hard to establish!

The offical announcment was made on Maile’s blog and she’s just about ready to roll into production on these. If you are interested on getting on the mailing list to be one of the first IN THE KNOW on these then you can sign up
here.

Congrats Maile! These are going to explode! Get ready!

I promised I would post the card designs available for the Holiday Mini Sessions ( if you haven’t booked there are still a few spaces available so email me at: chasity@studio423photo.com or call me 210.219.0113 to lock in your session).  This year there are four different designs and I just adore them all. I keep trying to decide which one I want for my own cards this year. I’m thinking I’ll just order a set of each design. I’m so not good at the self control thing.

Originally I was going to only offer the 4×6 flat cards.  If you’ve ordered cards from me in the past you know how awesome those are. Then I started thinking….what do I send out myself? I send out the 5×7 folded cards. They are a-may-zing!

Here’s a little blip from the email promo about them:

Let’s get one thing clear. These are not your average photo greeting cards that you print from a kiosk while picking up your prescription or grabbing bread & milk. These cards are high quality, custom cards, printed on fine art linen paper that would make even The Grinch’s heart skip a couple beats.

Again, you get to choose from the following four designs. Text is all customizable.

ahhh. pretty things make me happy.

Be sure to check out the new email blast that went out this past weekend with more details about the Holiday Mini Sessions. You’ll find more info regarding the products you’ll receive and how to schedule your sessions!

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Shine On!

If you are a photographer this is for you.

I would like to extend my hand and reach out to my fellow photographers by offering an opportunity for both personal and professional growth.  An opportunity to gain a clear vision on where you’ve been, where you are and where you are going. An opportunity to connect and an opportunity to learn.

I’m seeking a mentee. I am offering a free 6 month mentorship to a fellow photographer who is ready & willing to take the next steps and who is willing to commit to their business and to this opportunity.

This is open to any photographer, anywhere. No need to be local. We will communicate via email or phone.

What do you need to do?  I’m asking you to either post a comment here expressing your interest or email me at chasity@studio423photo.com. Please include your website and/or blog information (no worries if you don’t have one).

Once you’ve communicated that you are interested in the opportunity I will connect with you via email to get to know you a bit more.  Once I’ve made a decision I will announce it here.

Can’t wait!

I missed a couple more days of my blogging but things got crazy around here again. All sorts of good stuff to post about but for now I’ve got to just give you a little teaser.

I’ve got a big announcement to make later this evening. I’m finalizing all the details, recovering from NASA space camp, editing a wedding and a senior session and taking care of sick lil’ guy. Hoping to pop in this evening with all the details.

Later peeps!

A huge shout out to my sweet friend, Christine,  for helping me take care of a few lingering blog issues last night. Christine offers straight up some of the best business insight around.  She’s insanely talented and just a sweet sweet chica.

She also pointed me in the direction of thedieline.com where I’m drumming up a little branding inspiration.  It’s been a long week thus far and I have more work to do than ever so I’m not going to make this a big post but I will leave you with these two images I found on thedieline. I needed some humor and totally appreciated these.

This concept is by Dan Crawford. That Dan, he’s a funny man.

And this just makes me laugh til my gut hurts.

Enjoy your night!

If you’re a photographer you should stop reading this and go Register NOW!  Then you can come back and read the rest of this….I’ll wait.  Go! Go! Go! Please!

this is me waiting……………………………………………………………
and waiting……………………………………………………………………
and waiting………………………………………………………………………………….
still waiting…………………………………………………………………………………..

oh super you’re back. oh, you aren’t sure if you want to get the audios of the summit??  it’s on sale for $49 today and then goes up to $99 tomorrow. Either way, it’s a steal for what you’re getting. 16 hours of knowledge from some of the best in the industry? Are you going to be able to sit at your computer to listen to the entire summit….for 16 hours in 2 days??? Yea, that’s what I thought. I’ll wait while you go purchase those.

waiting…………………………………………………………………………
waiting…………………………………………………………………………
waiting…………………………………………………………………………….

Ok, awesome!

I’m so excited about this! So excited. I was even more thrilled when I found out it was on an actaul day when I was available. That often happens to me…you know, something amazing is taking place and you have an appt. to get your teeth cleaned or some garbage like that…(not that getting your teeth cleaned is garbage but really….who wants to do that instead of *insert name of something more exciting than getting your teeth cleaned here*)

So today is already much better than yesterday! Hope to see ya’ll there!!!!

I’ve determined that although I committed to blogging every day for a month I obviously didn’t take into consideration that there are 4 Saturdays and 4 Sundays in a month. I’m cheating on my commitment. I will blog every weekday for the month. I’ve met that goal. I will still give up my Starbucks though for bailing on my original commitment. No worries. 5 days a week is better than what I was doing so I feel like I’m still making an increased effort.

Today is just a quickie post also. I just got home from spending 5 hours in the ER with little man Parker. Poor guy.

He got a runny nose and a bad cough over the weekend and by last night he had a high temp and rapid breathing. We were up every 4 hours doing breathing treatments and this a.m. he was still breathing super fast. I called the pediatrician but they couldn’t see him til this afternoon. I decided not to wait and took him to ER.

5 hours, 1 rectal temp, 3 breathing treatments, 2 chest xrays, 1 dose of oral steroids, 5 hours of oxygen and 4 stickers later we are home and he is sleeping. They came close to admitting him but determined he was making progress with the breathing treatments so they discharged us to come home. We’ll have to continue the treatments at home (which we are pros at due to Hudson’s asthma) every 3 hours and then follow up with his pediatrician in the a.m.

I’m super bummed since he just started preschool last week. 4 days of school and already sick. I am praying this won’t be a repeat of last year. AGH. I don’t know if I can survive another season of that. Send up some prayers!

Hope to return to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Had a fun senior session this weekend that I can’t wait to post about and still need to get up pics from Rebekah and Darren’s Labor Day wedding!

The phone was ringing and ringing and ringing.

I’m not sure how long it rang  before I answered it.

“Hello?”

“Are you watching it?”

“What is this? I don’t understand. I don’t understand what they are doing? I don’t understand what this is?”

“Are you watching it? Is it on?”

I was sitting in my living room with my 9 month old daughter on my lap. I don’t remember any more of our conversation after that but I remember those first few exchanges between myself and my husband like I remember our wedding vows.  I remember the confusion. I remember staring blankly at my television. I remember I literally could not comprehend what I was watching.

In my exchange with Mark I remember vividly saying that I didn’t understand what they were doing but at that point I didn’t even know who they were.  Regardless of the “realness” of the situation I really still thought this was something……else. Something so far removed from what it actally was.

And I sat there. Just watching it all unfold. I witnessed the world that I lived in change. Forever.

The 2nd plane hadn’t hit yet so no one really did understand what they were doing or what they were going to do. No one knew that by the end of the day 2,993 people would lose their lives, over 6000 people would be injured in 3 different U.S. locations.

8 years later the pain of that day is still almost unbearable. The pain I feel as an American citizen. Nothing more. I didn’t know a single person who died on this day. I didn’t know a single child left without a parent.  I didn’t know a single fire fighter, port authority officer or police officer. It doesn’t matter.  It changed my life forever.

In May I made my first trip to NYC with Larissa, our exchnage student from Switzerland. We only had a few days to see the city so we had to make sure we prioritzed where we were going to spend our time.

#1 on my list was Ground Zero.

Larissa was obviously familiar with the events that had occurred.  I explained to her that as an American I felt being at  Ground Zero was ….just necessary.  As a photographer I wanted to document it.  I was afraid though. I remember worrying I would absolutely be too emotional to even shoot.

I was.

I remember when we got out of the taxi, like 3 or 4 blocks away seeing the buildings that were still under construction. The buildings that had been damaged and destroyed.

The whole expereince was almost surreal. We stood there amoungst tourist from all over the world.  All speaking different languages and talking to those we were with telling them our stories. The stories of where we were when we first heard the news and how we cried for days, weeks & years afterwards.

I will never forget that day or what it felt like to see it almost 8 years later. Today I remember those who suffered loss that day and those that will continue to suffer at the hands of those who forever changed America.

Here are a few images from my visit

FDNY Memorial Wall

A view of construction

FDNY Ladder Co. 10

The Sphere residing in it’s new home at Battery Park

Don’t you love how the 2010 highschool seniors are so clever and they came up with that fancy “SEN10R” thing??? how cute is that? we had nothing like that in ‘94!

So today you get to meet the lovely Miss Lizzie. Oh, how I love thee. I first met Lizzie when she was just a young thang..8th grade. How old are you in 8th grade? Yes, I had taken on the brave role of leading this 8th grade group of girls in our youth program at church. As much as I would love to write all sorts of craziness here about them, the truth is they were an astounding group of young women. The group was full of leaders and Lizzie was definitely one of them.

We are going on 4 years together now and Lizzie is still a leader. This year is definitely bitter sweet for me as I watch my girls enter their senior year and prepare to face the world. I know they are more than ready to get out there but it’s always hard to let go. They have blessed me beyond any words I could ever write here.

We had a little mini session for Lizzie back in the summer and I hadn’t gotten to post them so I’m happy to finally get to share these!

So proud of you Lizzie!

It’s fall right??? I know, it’s still hard to tell around here but I KNOW it’s just around the corner!!! It has to be just around the corner! I’m ready to break out the pumpkins, eat some turkey and head out for some Black Friday shopping! However, before I suit up and prepare to tackle the holiday crowds and fight for my $5 Easy-Bake-Oven I’ve got to kick off the holidays with my annual Holiday Mini Sessions!

It’s time to start scheduling those family photo sessions and get a head start on your Christmas shopping & Holiday cards. This year the theme will be “Red & Gruene” (clever, I know). I’m heading to Gruene, Tx to photograph my families this year!  Super way to get your family photos taken and head over for dinner at the Gristmill, do some dancing at the Gruene Dance Hall or do a little shopping of your own!

October 17 &18
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Gruene, Texas

Spaces are very limited this year so book early!  Take a peek at all the details  and then email at chasity@studio423photo.com or call me at 210.219.0113 to reserve your spot! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone soon!