Happy New Year!

It's that time of the year when we all think about the old year and make plans for the new. We're actually still holidaying (yes, that is a word, I just looked it up =) with family, but we're at the very tail end of it so it feels like my last chance to blog before work officially kicks in again.

First of all, we are so grateful to all of you, our blog readers, customers, friends and family who have all helped us to grow again this year by spreading the word about our services! We're honored and humbled to have such a great base of support.

2008 has come and gone so quickly, yet so much happened! I thought I'd outline some of it here...

30 Weddings: Actually, the final number was 31 for this year, still low enough for us to maintain our small boutique personal-touch experience and yet have a little bit of a life on the other 21 weekends of the year. =)

Seaside Wedding: 2008 marked our first destination wedding to the white sand beaches of Seaside, Florida! It was a really great experience and I hope we'll have more opportunities to travel and photograph at great locations like that. (Preferably warm! =)

Low-Res files: This year was our first year to offer low-res files (optimized for on-screen viewing) to customers. With the overwhelming rise of social networking sites, our customers love being able to post professional-grade pictures from their portrait sessions. We've always included high-res files with our wedding photography, but adding low-res files saves disk space and time uploading.

Twitter: Speaking of social networking, we got a Twitter account this year! Check us out (and follow us if you like!) here. (http://twitter.com/csangree) I think we're still getting the hang of using it, so we'd love to hear from you if you Tweet!

PickPic: Probably my favorite development this year was moving from Pictage to PickPic, our own hosted proofing and ordering solution. It's been a much easier transition than I expected and a much-improved experience for our customers. Not to mention the major quality improvement in printing by being able to use our favorite pro lab for all of our orders.

Mac Pro: This year we upgraded to an 8-core big daddy Mac Pro to help keep our time at the computer as efficient as possible and it's really made a big difference in our workflow and computer time. They're pricey, but it makes sense when we spend at least 60 hours on the computer every week.

iPhone: I managed to hold out until the end of 2008 before getting an iPhone, but I've been looking forward to owning one for ages! It's been really great to have a phone that actually syncs with my Mac calendars, contacts, podcasts, music and even folders of favorite photos that are always on hand if needed.

Home Security: I've always been security-conscious, but we stepped it up after our auto-burglary in March of '08. It's nice knowing that even if the power is cut to the house, and the phone and cable lines are cut, our monitoring company is still notified of any alarm at our house. Gotta love technology! =)

Recycling: Yes, we just started recycling this year. I didn't think we had much trash that could be recycled, but after starting to recycle I was amazed at how much white paper and other recyclable material we were quickly collecting. Honestly, I'm a skeptic of "global warming," but I am a conservationist and if everyone was able to conserve and reuse more I do think it could have a big impact on landfills, etc.

Goals: For years, I was a real goal-setter at this time of year. I would type up pages of goals with timelines, etc. but life happens. While goal setting and priorities are important, so many of the best things in life were not a part of my goals or plans. I think in the last few years we've had a vision for where we were heading, but then we pretty much just rolled with the punches on a day-to-day basis, receiving grace and strength for today from Above.

Please forgive my rambling and run-on sentences! I have two little girls calling for their Daddy and requiring attention every 30 seconds, so it's sometimes hard to think through a complete thought and get it typed before the next interruption distracts my train of thought. =)

Plans for 2009

We would love to start gardening a bit this year. Our foray into gardening in 2008 was to plant sunflowers and morning glories and we really did enjoy it. We've been thinking it would be really cool to be able to grow some grape-tomatoes and maybe some hot peppers... So we'll see how green our thumbs get! We don't have the best soil where we currently live (does anyone in Oklahoma have nice soil? =) but with some composting, topsoil, and manure we should be able to remedy that over the next year or two. Plus, there's something relaxing and therapeutic about gardening.

We plan to soundproof our office a bit more. Eventually, we'd love to buy or build a home with the office a bit removed from the living areas of the home (and with a separate entrance, too) but that's probably a couple of years out.

And then there are all of the normal resolution-type plans, like getting out of debt, back in shape and a more balanced life (work/play/etc.), but I think this post has already waxed long, so I'll try to wrap it up. =)

Best wishes to you for a wonderful 2009! May you prosper in every truly important way!

Merry Christmas!

It's been a wonderful Christmas! We got to spend some time with my family in Pennsylvania and the kiddos traveled very well which was a huge blessing. We always kinda dread the trip with our two small kids, but they did really well.

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well, and were able to enjoy some good times and make some great memories! We mailed out more Christmas cards than ever before, but I'm sure we still didn't reach half of you... One of these days we'll get a little more organized and we'll start in October. =)

Anyway, here's our card! Holly spent a few days pulling this together and due in large part to the card-designing expertise of our good friend Trinnica up in the Tulsa area. Thanks, Trin!




MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

A Great Birthday :: 35!

Yesterday was one of my best birthdays ever. I heard from so many old friends that it really made the day (and me =) feel special. Holly spoiled me again with my favorite breakfast - strawberry crepes - and we were able to have a nice long date over steak dinner and then enjoy Australia, the movie, at the new all digital theater in town.

So, thanks to everyone who dropped a line, called, Facebooked, etc. -- you all had a part in making it a really great birthday! It didn't quite hit 73 degrees today like they were forecasting, but it's still been a really mild weekend for December and I'll accept that as a little birthday gift. =)

In the last couple of weeks, Holly was able to get lots of new photos up to help decorate our own house and not just everyone else's! =) It's funny how it works that way... how does the saying go? The cobbler's kids don't have shoes? =) Well, we're all set for photos now, with beautifully hung pictures and frames from the bedroom hallway all the way through the living room and kitchen. What a rewarding project!

We have a ton to do before the holidays, so it's going to be another very busy week. We've managed to stay caught up on holiday cards for our customers, but we're behind on wedding retouching and are doing our best to catch up before the holidays.

That's pretty much the news in these parts! Be safe with all of the crazed shoppers out there this time of the year! Ordering prints or gift cards from our website would be safer and less hassle. =)

Actually, I seriously should have blogged about our new gift cards a few weeks ago. Oh well! If you have someone on your list who could use one, we do have new gift cards available. The website says "gift certificates" still, but you can order the new gift cards here if you like.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Snug-Its and Otterboxes

I've had recent experiences with two really ingenious products that I thought I'd share with you. No, I don't get any kind of residuals or kickbacks from these plugs, I just enjoy passing along tips on cool products. =)

The first is an ingenious silicone jacket for your digital camera, called a Snug-It. I bought one of these inexpensive protectors a few months ago for our little pocket camera (a Canon SD800IS, but they sell them for every brand!) and it has successfully protected it from drops, bumps and other forms of torture and abuse! Here's what they look like if you're having trouble picturing it.


The second really great product is a case for the iPhone made by Otterbox. I got the Defender case, which isn't waterproof, but it's pretty much shock-proof and has a screen protector. They make cases for iPods, Blackberries, Palms, etc. They're probably the best cases I've ever seen and they seem to be having a bargain bin sale going on, too, with lots of great cases to popular devices. They retail for about $50 each, but I was able to pick one up for about half that at my local electronics wholesaler. Here's what my case looks like...


Anyway, just wanted to pass along that info in case it was of any help to any of you! I love hearing about new, innovative and useful products, so if you have any to share, feel free to leave a comment!

Oh My, It's December!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, friends and great food! We stuck around and enjoyed Holly's family for Thanksgiving again this year and were pleasantly surprised when Holly's oldest brother (Titus) flew back from LA to join us for a few days. It was deliciously relaxing and rejuvenating... the way I always hope holidays will be. =)

Brides, today is the last day to submit your story for the $1500 giveaway by Photographik.org! Let me know if you're interested and we'll help however we can (i.e. submitting photos from your engagement session, etc.). I'm taking the banner down from our home page now, but you still have all day to put your name in the hat!

Well, we're officially behind in retouching. It's been hard to keep up with traveling for weddings, sickness in between, and now the holidays. Thankfully we have a fairly open week this week, so we'll be working hard to catch up starting tonight. Today I have to head down to Cleveland County to be a witness in a trial against a local gangster who happened to have some of my stolen property from the big theft earlier this year. So, yet another day out of the office... Seems like when it rains it really pours.

And we can't blog without including a few pictures, so here are a few favorites from recent sessions...




























I'm sorry I haven't done a better job of blogging them as we go along, but I always feel bad blogging when we have so much else to do.

Christmas and Holiday Cards for 2008!

We've had lots of interest in holidays cards for this Christmas and New Year's so we've finally got our act together and put up a gallery of available cards! If you're interested in cards this year, we'd be delighted to help. We only have two or three session available which will allow you to have cards back in time to mail out before the holidays, so if you haven't already had your photo session with us, time is a-ticking. =)

Keep in mind that we can change the text to say whatever you'd like and we can change most anything on these cards if need be. Also, the watermark won't appear on your finished cards like it does on the gallery samples, too.

Here's a link: Christmas Card gallery for 2008.

Keep in mind that it can take up to 2 weeks to get your order back, so now's the time to order. If your session has already expired, but you're interested in ordering cards from a session earlier this year, just let us know and we'll get it back online for you to order from. =)

You know what, I was going to post one or two of our favorites here, but let me save you a step and just post our sample cards here.


















If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you!

Dilbert

I love Dilbert comics. Most of the time they're funny and I just read them through and move on to the next one, but this morning at breakfast I read this one and it made me chuckle out loud, so I thought I'd share it.

I think the Dilbert kind of humor has grown over the past few years with The Office TV show doing so well. Is it just me, or do they seem very similar in humor style?

It's going to be a very busy weekend! Time to retouch a few more photos before heading out to the wedding for today. Hope to post some faves for you soon...