Welcome to 2012!!!

Yay!  Although, honestly, I am still trying to figure out where on earth 2011 went, I am welcoming 2012 with open arms.  :)  I wanted to share a few changes with clients for this year.  Nothing huge but a few different things that I am excited about.

1)  Session days
Newborn sessions will now be held only on Tuesdays with some other weekdays possibly added in beginning in February.  There will not be any held on weekends.  Family sessions will be held on Saturdays.  Family sessions may be booked for Tuesday afternoons only if there is not a newborn session previously on the schedule.

2)  In-person proofing
You will now have the option to meet me for an in-person proofing session.  Rather than ordering online I will come to your home and go through everything with you in person.  I will bring my bag of samples with me including a variety of sizes and products; this will allow you to work with me right there in your house and touch and see the various options.  Have a wall you are thinking of decorating?  I will be there to help you figure it out!  Wondering what a brag book is? You can see exactly what it looks like.  I will walk you through the ordering process, help you lay out ideas for yourself and family and do your order for you so there are no mistakes.  If you would like in-person proofing simply let me know at your session and we will set up an appointment.  Proofing sessions will be held on select Sundays only and weekday afternoons when possible.

3)  Slideshow Add-Ons
Did you love your slideshow that you saw when you got your proofs?   The slideshow that you receive with your proofs will now included at no additional cost with all full digital packages.

4)  Complimentary Shipping
All orders totaling $1000 or more will now receive complimentary shipping.

5)  Package of 10 Digital Files
After a year off of my price list, the package of ten digital files is back!  You now have the option to purchase five, ten or all files.  Single files are still available after a $500 minimum purchase.

6)  Complimentary Set of Proofs with Collection A
With the purchase of Collection A ($1500) you will now receive a set of bordered 4×5 proofs of every image in your gallery.

7)  Classes!
I will be offering my Get Manual class at least two times this year so stay tuned for dates.  :)

It’s that time of year!  I don’t know where the months have gone but it is New Years Eve – CRAZY!!!!  So, time to reflect on my top ten favorites on the year.  I cheated a little teeny bit this year.  :)  So from 10-1.

#10b.  Moment of love between this family who was told their daughter might not survive the day she was born.  ::love::

#10a.  Mothers rarely ask for nursing photos.  I love this quiet, beautiful moment and wish more moms would do a shot like this.

#9.  After trying three years for a baby, this photo is priceless.

#8.  The colors, the outfits, the light, the adorable kids, this is a perfect family portrait  :)

#7.  Seeing his bride for the first time, Renzo’s reaction was wonderful.  Knowing that bride since she was about seven years old made it even more special to me.

#6.  A toddler and a newborn.  One of the most difficult shots to get but this one is just one of my favorites ever EVER.  One of the most adorable big sisters!

#5.  I did photos of some gorgeous baby bellies this year.  These are my top two favorites.  :)

#4.  This moment between father and daughter was made even more special when someone pointed out his arms crossed are also American Sign Language for Love.  ::melt::

#3.  My favorite family session ever so two shots from that.  Them just being a loving, adorable family.  No posing involved.

#2.  The birth.  One of my favorite moments that I have ever ever photographed in my life and my favorite moment of the year.

#1.  My favorite image of the year.  I will probably never get another family and nursery like this again in my life.  It hangs as a 20×30 canvas in my office.

I have had an amazing year and I cannot WAIT to see what 2012 brings me!!!

Thank you all for a wonderful year and happy holidays!!!

All righty.  It has been a great week of giving away things that I love.   Some of them totally related to my job and others, eh, nothing to do with my job (although wine and coffee sometimes get me through, the wine afterwards of course).  But that is what makes it fun!  Thankfully my server has been able to withstand triple the regular traffic I’ve gotten LOL!  And hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out my photography and will come back to visit after this is all over as well.  :)  Today is the last day and I am ending with one of my absolute FAVORITE things that I love and cannot live without especially at this time of the year.  Kind of like how I started the week with two types of coffee, I end the week with two types of shopping.  Yay shopping!!!

Target and Amazon

Love love love love.  I can find pretty much anything I need between those two stores.  And, as a side note, I am also obsessed with my Amazon Prime.  In fact if I cannot find it available with Prime shipping that person is not getting it.  :P

So!   Today I am giving the last winner their choice of either a $50 gift card to Amazon.com or to Target.  Anyone across the country can enter today!  And as a bonus, the gift certificate will be sent via email so you can use it right away.  Just in time to get yourself a little something special for the holidays or for someone else.  Simply leave a comment below, you have until midnight tonight.

Good luck!!  And thanks so much for visiting!

I would love to tell you everything that Jen and Audrey do here in Rhode Island.  But honestly I couldn’t even begin to list it all.  Let’s just say they do a LOT.  Like a LOT LOT (on top of having three and four kids, respectively).  You have seen Jen on here before, we did photos of just her a few weeks ago (in fact go read that and then you can see everything she is involved in!)  But this time we included Audrey with her in order to do some pictures for Rhody Mamas.  If you have not discovered them yet on Facebook you simply MUST.  It is the THE place to get all of the info on sales and things going on in RI and on the internet.  They just launched their website HERE and have a very active Facebook page HERE.  But since they started this and had no photos we decided to get some done for them.  (Let me tell you, between Dani that morning and these two that evening my self-esteem took quite a hit.  Such gorgeous gals!)  We hit up the Capitol building, an area down by the river and ended up in Prospect Park overlooking the city with the setting sun.  Love it!

First off, congratulations to Stephanie, yesterday’s winner according to Random.org.  Stephanie I emailed you so make sure you get back to me!  :)

Ahhhh..Day 3.  Today is for the locals (or people willing to drive here).  One of my most favorite things.  Wine.  Who doesn’t like a good bottle of wine??  (Well I guess there are people that don’t.  But I don’t know any of those people.)  Unfortunately pesky little interstate and mailing laws prohibit me from mailing my favorite bottles of wine to anyone.  BUT I can give away a $25 gift card to my most favorite wine store – The Savory Grape down in E. Greenwich.  It’s a wonderful place if you haven’t discovered them yet!  They are extremely knowledgable and very helpful.  They even keep track of your purchases if you sign up for the club card and can recommend wines based on past purchases.  And they give a discount when buying six bottles or more.  Not that I would EVER do such a thing.  ;)  (It’s my husband.  All him.  I sent him to buy this and he came home with eight bottles. See??  Bad influence.)

Anyways.  Free money ($25!).  To buy WINE with (and they have some GOOD stuff).  If wine is not for you, stick it in someone’s stocking who does like it!  Same rules as always, leave a comment below for your chance to win.  Entries accepted until midnight, winner selected tomorrow.  Obviously you must be 21 years of age or older to win.  Or give it to someone 21 or older.

Good luck!  :)

So if you have been following my Facebook Page you may have perhaps noticed that it is my birthday week.  It started on Saturday as I will celebrate an anniversary of my 29th birthday this coming Saturday.  I love my birthday.  Being eight days before Christmas has always had it’s challenges but I love it.  When I was little I used to get excited because whenever it was birthday time, there were always lights on people’s houses to see.  Who else (other than December birthdays) can say that?  There was some combining of gifts over the years but for the most part my family and friends did a great job.  Now that I am older and have a business of my own, I have decided to give away five of my favorite things for my birthday week.  So stay tuned all week to see what I’ve got for you!  To enter the contest you only have to comment under the post.  Easy peasy!  Make sure to leave your email when you send in your comment so I can reach you.  Comments will be accepted until midnight and I will select the winner the next morning.

First up today, one of the most important things in my life.  COFFEE.  I cannot function properly without coffee.  I just can’t.   Now I admit, I am a bit of a cheater when it comes to coffee.  For regular coffee in the morning, it has to be Dunkin Donuts.  Don’t bring me Starbucks, I won’t drink it.  But for specialty drinks, it’s Starbucks all the way (the exception being Dunkin Donuts Mint Hot Chocolate – that’s pretty awesome).  So today’s gift to one lucky winner, a $20 gift card to either Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.  You can choose.  The other will go into my wallet into my husband’s stocking.

Leave a comment to be entered to win and good luck!

Ahhh…it’s been a while.  Back to this.  At least for this week.  ;)

1.  It is SUMMER!!  The first day of summer is officially today.  At least I think.  I didn’t pay too much attention to that stuff when I was in school.  Either way I am excited.  Beautiful weather, possibly temperatures NOT dipping back into the 50′s requiring us to do shoots with warm clothes instead of cute summer looks…  Summer.  It’s here and I am so glad to be back outside.

2.  On that note Daily Tea is having a great sale right now on summer dresses if you need some ideas for little girls. Think how cute these would be in pictures!!  I must try to resist….  I love the bright colors and patterns for photos.

3.  And on THAT note, there is a summer calendar update coming up after this post. So if you want to book a session this summer you will definitely want to read that.

4.  I am starting to think ahead to fall sessions.  Yep.  It’s already that time.  We photographers are kind of like clothing stores – we are always planning and thinking ahead to the next season.  I know, it’s crazy to even consider putting on jeans and sweaters or getting photos for holiday cards…I know, really.  But this is when we start shopping for holiday card templates and planning holiday mini sessions, etc.  This year I think I am going to be going to the great state of NY for some sessions if I can arrange it with this one family…

5.  Kind of a big one – we are MOVING!!!  Just about 25 minutes north of where we are now so it won’t affect my business.  But still.  We are moving!  Finally after all these years of my husband’s medical training we are in a place to settle down and stay a while (at least we plan to!) and are buying our first house.  Craziness – we are actually becoming real adults.  Home ownership.  Scary.  It’s happening in early August so I will be unavailable the first part of the month (again, see details in the calendar update post)

And since it WAS just Father’s Day weekend, I am cheating for the last five and posting my top 5 favorite daddy shots from this year so far (in no particular order):

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**Please note this post has been pinned to the top.  Scroll down for recent posts**

Booking will resume beginning February, 2012.

THANK YOU FOR A GREAT 2011!!!

Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to photograph a wonderful event.  A fundraiser gala put on by Sweet Peas Village of East Greenwich that was benefitting Children’s Wishes (click on either of those names to learn more).  It was held at the gorgeous Bistro 9 restaurant right in East Greenwich on the golf course.  Not only was it an amazing undertaking by the committee that planned it, it was beautifully set up by Bistro 9 and so so generously donated to by over 30 different groups.  There was autographed memorabilia (Boston of course!!), fishing trips, golf outings, spa treatments, wine baskets, photography services, lots and lots of things.  Altogether, the event raised $15,000 – a wonderful amount to help the children of Rhode Island!!

First, three of the amazing women who put together the event.  (There were a few others involved, but at the time this image was taken only three were present.)

I’m not sharing images of the gala itself because I don’t have image releases, but I thought I would at least share the amazing venue: