New Year and New Changes in Packages

First let me say, I am NOT increasing prices. I just can’t do it right now in this economy. When so many of us have to scrap together what we can for the extra stuff, the last thing I want to do is make a special memory cost more. However, I am changing things up a bit and here are some of the reasons why. The only way I can justify increasing the price of packages is if I do these things: Take classes to improve my skills, have my photos critiqued and to make sure my equipment is able to be kept up (camera cleaned, website cost, printing cost, branding cost and so on). Since I have already established I am NOT increasing prices here are the changes I will be making. See old prices here:

1.         1. The Extraordinary Series will be the only package that has the CD included. 

2.         2. The Basic Package and the Lasting Impressions Package will have more prints added to them in place of    the CD being removed. 

3.         3. There will be no more white bordered pictures (Lasting Impression Prints) vs. black bordered pictures. I hope this will lessen the confusion when choosing a package. 

Some other changes you will see are:

1.         1. Starting in July 2012 I will have my studio up and running and will be able to start to offer in studio and on  location photography.

2      2. You will see a new look coming about the same time the studio opens. I am in the process of re-branding  my business with web designers and sprucing up my blog as well. 

        3. I will be using only professional equipment. This is how I started and this how I will be going. I do not use  off brand flashes or lenses. This is more expensive but I believe it is worth it.

4      4. I do already have 4 new classes booked for the upcoming year. I am addicted to photography!

My dreams for 2012 for my business

  1.  Opening up my studio.

        2. Buy a few more lenses to complete my lens need.

    

        3. Gaining new clients and friends. 

4.        4. Continue to build my craft and refine my style.

5.       5. HAVE FUN!!! I do love what I do after all. This is my passion. I am a Photographer ~ Thanks J*. 

6.       6. Continue to keep my business DEBT FREE BABY!

I know these past few years have been hard on EVERYONE. Everyone in this country has felt the sting of it in some way or another. We have been living in the studio for a year, strangers are renting out our home and life has been HARD. We started taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Freedom Class and slowly but surely we are working our way out of this hole and we will be in our new home next June! Just in time for my daughter to turn 2. She has never spent one night in her room that her Daddy and Uncles worked so hard to decorate for her while I was in the hospital. My biggest dream is to watch her sleep in her own room that was made just for her. 

Merry Christmas everyone and I wish all of you the best New Year ever! Thank you for helping me make my dreams come true. Without you guys, my art is nothing.

XOXO

Kimberlee Peterson

Unity Among Families of Military Heros

I think I have been avoiding writing and posting these pictures. I don’t think the pictures are terrible. I guess it is because it is the first time I saw my dad’s headstone and was able to lay a wreath at his grave. In all honesty, it is the first Christmas function I have been involved in with my dad since I was a little girl. My mom always told me my dad loved me to the best of his ability. I did get to reconnect with him before he passed and did get a half way apology from him about running out on me. He also was able to meet his only grandchild before he passed. You can see those pictures here. He was very proud of her.

The experience was joyful, sad and had a sense of unity. My father was buried in the new section since he passed away a few months ago. My Aunt passed two months after him and she is 7 rows behind him. So, when laying the wreaths down there was a flood of emotions from everyone around me. People were laughing as they reminisced about their loved ones. Others were crying because the pain was just too new. I saw military placing the wreaths and then saluting the graves and children laying down wreaths at their father and mother’s graves. In the misted on all of the emotions there was a sense of peace between us. You could look someone else in the eyes and just know we were all feeling the same thing and we were not alone. Overall there was pride…pride in those who served our country and pride that so many people showed up to help remember our loved ones. 

I am not really sure how to close this blog so I will just show you some of the pictures from that day and of my father. You can see the rest here. 

The Art of Criticism

Today I took a leap…not a flying leap, a leap of faith. Faith in myself and my art. I submitted one of my pictures to be critiqued. I use to do this often and then sort of fell off the wagon.  Part of the reason was because the critiques were being based on their personal style and not the overall ascetics of the picture. The other reason was because some of the places I was going got caught up in a lot of drama. I can understand some of the drama. Here you are putting your art out there and wearing your heart on your sleeve and then someone comes and rips it apart. Luckily, this never happened to me (probably because I played it safe) but I have seen a few places run off some new talent and I would feel awful for those people. 

So, I joined this new forum called Chic Critique. They just recently started the forum which is cool because you can learn and grow with the site. They also have a very unique way that everyone critiques each other. They call it the Sandwich Method. This means that when you are critiquing others, or they are critiquing you, that they first say something positive about the image, and then say what you can improve on or constructive criticism followed by another positive comment.  I like this because this cushions the ego a bit but it keeps away the photogs that would rip another photog a new one over his/her picture. 

I am happy to say that I did get some very positive feedback on my picture and she was super sweet about all of it. It reminds me of what Jasmine Star says to think about when being critiqued. She says to think about three things before you take in any criticism: 1. is the criticism constructive? 2: Is the source trustworthy? 3: Is the intent to help and not harm? If you get a yes from all three of those then take the constructive criticism in and learn and grow from it. In Jasmine’s case she was blowing out her skies. (I do this all of the time too). She says in her new magazine Exposed that she has improved on it some but she still does it and she is okay with that.  

After your work is out there to be picked apart it can be scary but it is a necessary part of improving your art. Not to mention, you will learn new tricks and probably make some new friends, and that is never a bad thing. 

It's Been A While

I know it has been a while since I have written on the blog but there is a good reason…besides that I am busy. I have been doing a lot of thinking. I have been reflecting on this past year, my business turning one and what the future holds. I have been sabotaging myself in a lot of ways.  I have been comparing my work to others, I have been playing it safe out of fear that no one will like my style and I have been tossing around the idea of concentrating on just ONE...as in the number 1…area of photography to take up and become specialized in that. I would love to tell you the answers to all of this but the truth is I am still mulling it all over in my head. So for now I will share with you a session of my daughter at the Pumpkin Patch. If you see me on face book I will always say my daughter is my hardest client. She is comfortable with me and she is very high energy. So, these shots consisted of my mom, my husband and me wrangling her in to certain areas and just shooting how she interacts with the environment.  The session only lasted about 45 minutes but believe me we were WORN OUT afterwards. You may notice a few bracelets in the pictures…that is called bribery!

$10,000 Holiday Bloggies Bash by Laura Winslow Photography

Photogs this is an AWESOME give away. One person will walk away with $10,000 worth of goodies! My favorite with the gift certificate to use at Crave Photography. Andee is an amazing person and photographer and mentoring with her has made me a better photographer. Follow the link below to check out all of the goodies and how to enter.


http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2011/11/21/10000-holiday-bloggie-bash-laura-winslow-photography/comment-page-18/#comment-73494

Tie Dye Cupcakes and First Winner of Help Me Pay My Bills

Congrats to Elen for winning the first Help Me Pay My Bills Face book Deal. She got a great photo session for only $46.49 (plus tax).  Since so many people are loving this idea I will be doing another one next Tuesday at 8pm CST on my face book page. 

I am trying to be a little bit craftier since my daughter is getting older and loves to try new things. On Halloween night I decided to bake tie dyed cupcakes. She loves cupcakes and I just had to try these out. I got the idea from Little Hero Capes Blog. I did cupcakes instead of the cake so instead of pouring the layers into a pan, take one tablespoon of the first color and pour into all of the cupcake trays, the one tablespoon of the next color and so on. I used a different spoon for each of the colors. At the end I used a tooth pick to swirl the colors in the molds before popping into the oven. I also recommend using super moist cake mix because I heard that using the food coloring can make the cupcakes a bit tougher. Bake the cupcakes as it says on the box and this is what you get….

 

New Afforable Packages and Halloween Fun

Hey everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Halloween! This year Halloween was amazing. The past few years we have not had very many trick or treaters and last night BAM! We had well over 100. I don’t know where all of these kids came from but we LOVED having them stop by. We pulled out our lawn chairs and passed out candy for hours. When we ran out my little monkey didn’t want to go to sleep. So, we walked her up and down the street to see all of the kids and dogs dressed up and Daddy took her into a haunted house. My daughter is 16 months old and LOVES to be scared. My husband use to build haunted houses and perform in them for his old fraternity at Southern Miss. Evie got to the end and she didn’t notice that our neighbor was trying to hand her candy. She turned her head just in time to see this bright red glowing face right at her level and flipped out lol. I was standing at the end to rescue her and when we started to leave she actually kept pointing to it and acted like she wanted to go back. What can I say it is in her blood muah ha ha ha!

So, I have this idea. As my husband says when I get an idea RUN! But this idea will benefit you all and myself. If you guys don’t know my situation let me give you the cliff’s notes version. I was on bed rest for 6 month due to my water breaking early followed by other complications; my daughter then developed Sandifer’s Syndrome which is fancy for saving the worst colic you have ever seen followed by spasms. I had to quit my full time well paying job to take care of her. I then took on photography as a full time job. Not the best idea in the economy but it is the only thing that I knew I could deliver to people that would be worth being paid for.  I am not the craftiest person on the planet. Anyways, with the mounting medical bills we were forced out of our home by our own will and moved back in with my mom. We actually converted her garage into a 400 square foot room and that is where my daughter, my husband and myself stay. This area will eventually become my studio YAY! We are renting out our BRAND SPANKING NEW home to a nice, single mom of three kids. So, I am HUGE on spread sheets and listed out all of our bills. Not our every month bills but our in collections and we want to sue you bills. I have been thinking how can I get these bills to go away with the small amount of money we have left over after our normal bills, the remainder of the mortgage that the renter is not paying (we didn’t charge enough), we still have tons of medical bills every month, car note and ….you get the picture. So this is where my bright idea comes in. I decided to formulate packages just for my social media friends that reflect the bill that needs to get paid ASAP or else!  This will be an affordable way to offer my services and feel like we are getting out of a hole. So this will benefit you as a client to get affordable packages and me because I will be able to get back into my home eventually. We are aiming for January of 2013. 

So, if you love or like this idea, please post this on your social media sites. I will be posting the first one tonight @ 8pm CST! Now these packages are just to pay off one bill so there will only be one package available at that time.  I will post the package on my wall located here: https://www.facebook.com/EmotionalAccordPhotography and the first person to comment on it will get it! You will have to pay for the package immediately through PayPal to hold this for you. You will have one hour to pay for the package or it will go to the next person that posted a comment.  Thank you in advance for just taking the time to read this and spreading the word around. 

Now for a few pictures of my Little Monkey. Please pray for her. We are hoping there is not a surgery in her near future. 

A night on the town with Blink 182

I won tickets to see my favorite band of all time Blink 182. I have always loved the poppy punk beats and the singers have the most unusual and charming voices ever. Not to mention if you ever listen to the words of the songs they just make you smile. 

My husband, my brother, his friend and myself all met up at the Cynthia Mitchell Woodlands Pavillion where  I was to be able to listen to my favorite band live for the first time. I was a little nervous they wouldn’t sound as good live as they did over the radio but they did not disappoint. 

When I walked through the gates I became that excited high school girl again. My mind fell away from the fact that I was 31, married and with a 15 month old daughter at home. Tonight I was relieving my high school days and would dance until the show was over.

Matt & Kim started the show and I quickly became a fan. They are a hilarious duo with some mad skills. Plus Kim shook her bootie for us so who could complain!  They were followed by My Chemical Romance that had a killer set and made me fall in love with their music all over again. The energy of that band is amazing... not to mention how cute they all were in their Halloween Costumes. The night ended with of course, Blink 182! I never wanted them to get off of the stage. They sound better in person than on the radio and pulled out some new songs and didn't disappoint us by bringing back all of their old ones that we all love. Travis' drum solo was simply AMAZING. I wish I could watch them play every night. I could never get sick of that band.

I wasn’t able to take in my professional camera so I took my back up point and shoot. This is a Sony Cybershot that has an amazing zoom and great pixels. It is the next best thing to when you can’t take a professional camera. Below are some of the pictures I took of Matt & Kim, My Chemical Romance and Blink 182.

P.S. I did remember to buy my daughter a Blink 182 onsie before going home. I wouldn’t turn back the clock in a million years if it meant spending the entire night away from her.  Like Blink 182 says, I guess this is growing up"!

XOXO

Kimberlee Peterson

CEO / Emotional Accord Photography

Headed Down County Road 101

I spent all day charging my batteries, cleaning my lenses and trying to get into the sounds of County Road 101 by listening to all of their songs on their website. My cousin, Dwayne Holt, is the bassist and I wanted to make him proud and take the best photographs I could of them playing in the Silver Spur Club at the Pasadena Rodeo. I knew they had a pretty good following and recently won Fan Favorite at a local Battle of the Bands Show.  These pictures had to come out perfect!

As we drove south in the middle of rush hour traffic I was getting more nervous as the minutes passed. What if they hate the pictures? What if my lenses aren’t good enough, what if I am not good enough? UGH! I was giving myself a headache. My husband did what any husband would do. He reached over and turned on the radio to drown out my pity party. At least that did take my mind of the nerves a bit. He patted my leg and told me that everything would be fine. Like always, I just really wanted these pictures to be fantastic. 

For you photographers that want to know what was in my bag that night, I had my Canon 5D Mark II, the extra battery pack with the two Canon batteries, my flash (just as a back up), my Canon EF 50mm 1.4 and my Canon EF 24 – 105mm 4.0 L IS. Now why didn’t I have a 70 – 300mm 0r a 70 – 200mm. Well that is simple….I am broke and can’t afford to even rent one.  So, I took what I had and was going to make the best of it. By the way ladies, all of this fit into my teal hobo Kelly Moore bag. LOVE that purse/camera bag. I was able to fit my keys, inhaler, eye drops, paid meds (because my right eye is still jacked up), ID, phone and makeup. It is a fantastic bag!

So, when I got there I was introduced to the rest of the band and they are super sweet guys and a pretty good looking group. They are all married with families but hey nothing is wrong with a little eye candy right!? They began to set up and I started to get a feel for what lens I was going to use. The place was pretty dark and my 4.0 wasn’t cutting it. Thank God my Canon has a good wide range of ISO so I could crank it up without a lot of noise showing in the pictures. I mainly used my 50mm 1.4 since I could open it up more without using the flash. I had to get clever for the 4.0 to get the close up shots. I had to take the pictures when their yellow and orange lights would flash. That is the only time I had enough light to use that lens. But hey, it got the pictures that I needed. 

So all in all it was a great night of good music, good food and good company. I hope you guys enjoy these shots. I love photographing bands. I have now added into my budget enough money to rent my 70 – 300 and I plan on being able to buy it in about a year. I refuse to buy anything on a credit card so I am saving up for it. 

To see the full gallery click here:

 XOXO

Kimberlee Peterson

CEO/ Emotional Accord Photography

Why I shoot in Raw and not RAW

I have been taking a Creative Live Photoshop Class with Lesa Snider dealing with Photoshop CS5. However, in doing so she made some valid points on the Raw vs. JPEG controversy we see. First let me say I love how she finally set the record straight that Raw is NOT an acronym it is just a word i.e. a Raw image. So I will refrain from yelling RAW at everyone and sounding like I am growling at them! 

 

Lesa made some great analogies when comparing JPEG and Raw to baked goods. She said, and I am paraphrasing here, that JPEG’s are like the already baked cookies. You can’t do much to add to it or change the cookie itself. You can frost it or put sprinkles on it but you are limited on what you can do. Meaning when you shot JPEG the camera is already doing some in camera correcting (or what it thinks is correcting) for you. It is probably changing the vibrance and doing some color correcting. So, once you pull this up in PS you can adjust the settings but you do not have full control since the camera has pretty much done corrections for you. Going back and trying to change the picture with all of the settings pretty much means you need to scrap that cookie and start again. 

 

I am a HUGE control freak…yes me..I see all of you out there smirking at me like this is no surprise lol. I can’t help it, I see how I want an image to be and I like to make that image come to life in PS. So bringing up Lesa’s analogy again, she said that shooting in Raw …not RAW… is like having the raw ingredients to make your batch of cookies. So now there are multiple possibilities to changing the batch of cookies. You can make it with real butter or that light stuff, or you can add nuts or pull the nuts out or add chocolate chips…yummmm chocolate…okay sorry back to where we were.  So even though when you upload your Raw photos they may look dull and lack that luster you wanted you can quickly bring it back to life the way you want it in PS.

I did recently accidentally photograph a session in JPEG and I did notice a huge difference. Thank God my lighting was pretty accurate and I didn’t have to do much to the pictures but it could have made me a very unhappy person. 

So the moral of the story is if you want that complete control over your images Raw is for you. If you think your camera has it down, then JPEG is for you. I will also add that shooting Raw will allow you to photograph in high resolution maintain the integrity and the quality of your original picture.

On a side note to the side note: Always save a PSD of your file before converting it back to a JPEG. This goes for if you photograph in Raw or JPEG. Having a PSD will give you a back up to the Raw file that maintains the original quality of the picture. So if you need to go back and change anything you can see your full menu in PS and change what you need to. I also think that you should keep a recipe on each photo you do. If you ever want to go back to that photo and know what you did, step by step, to get there it is all written or typed out for you. 

Okay so my eye is getting better and better and should be back to its old self very soon. Thank you for all of the concerns. I love my clients!

XOXO

Kimberlee Peterson

The Romantic Comedy Photographer

www.emotionalaccord.com