Life’s most precious miracle…pregnancy.  A prenatal portrait is the ultimate expression of hope and beauty.  Older siblings get excited that they will soon be having a new brother or sister.  The moments just before delivery are precious.  The excitement of a new arrival, the wonder of whether its a boy or girl, the glow in mom’s face and the kids just waiting for a new sibling to play with.  Meet Baby Kiera, before she was born!  Here are a few photos from mom’s prenatal session that was done on location in the middle of the eigth month.  You will see some of her newborn images in another post.

A longtime client of mine called to thank me for the wonderful photos of their newborn daughter that I just took the other day, and also to begin the ordering process of birth announcements, photographs for relatives and albums.  Rather than using any digital files for personal use to order things from ‘big-web’ mass merchandisers, she told me that her family is supporting local businesses in the area, and ordering everything through our studio.  What an fabulous comment! 

Small business makes up 70% of the nations economy and employs that much of the workforce.  According to the SBA, depending on the business, you are classified as small if you employ under 750-1,000 employees!  Those are still some pretty large businesses.  But, look at all the ‘local small businesses’ just in the Mentor and surrounding area.  There is almost any service or vendor available, for anything you need.

Our local economy in this upcoming year is going to make or break by the survival of local small business.   Use their services and order products through them. Please support them, and tell them you are directly supporting them.  I have begun the same!  They’ll appreciate it and spread the word just like I am.   Ordering online by mass merchandisers and importers is only taking money out of our local economy.  Think Lemonade!

We just posted our company page on Facebook!    If you have a FB account, log on and become a fan!  We’ll get some images linked to your FB page too.  Just send a friend link and become a fan.

This is the first of what may be a new category of posts.  The Knowledge Base.  Here you can get consumer educational information on how to invest in professional photography, what to look for, what to stay away from, etc. 

Our first post is on the Wedding Paparazzi.  They’re all over!  You go to any wedding anymore, and romantic candlelit services have a blue-green glow of LCD and cell phone screens, clicks, beeps, etc.  People running all over the church, dropping batteries on church pews, jumping up on the altar to get that close-up, hiding in the flowers, and the list goes on.  This is so rampant, that there’s even TV commercials depicting an actor that thinks he’s a wedding pro.   Still haven’t figured out ‘the why’ in this, because the bride and groom hire a professional to record thier images.

So, here is the consumer knowledge:  Being a professional photographer for over twenty years, it is my job to capture a couples wedding day…without retakes.  There is an enormous amount of pressure to do this weekly.  I make it a point, at every service, to meet with the priest or minister to go over ‘the church’s rules and policies for phototography’.   Most all churches have specific areas to be in, an not to be in.  Use flash at certain times, no flash for the others.  We ALWAYS respect the churches policies.  But, the guests with their pocket kutcher-cams just ‘have at it’ during a service without even knowing that they’re disrupting other guests, the couple, the officiant, and also…..your hired professional photographer (no matter who it is).  

This is the kind of photo that happens:

I bet Uncle Bob is glad he got his shot, because I missed, not mine, but YOURS.  I’m actually about 30 feet behind him shooting with a telephoto lens.  The couple was just presented with a ceremonial plaque from the church by the priest and after a few coughs and an ‘u-um’, he finally turned around and realized I was behind him where I was supposed to be.  For the record….I did get the shot before UB blocked the view, because I saw him coming.  Glad he was about 10 seconds late getting there.

So, we can’t change what people do anymore, but we can encourage them to enjoy themselves and leave the cameras for the reception.  Getting invited to a wedding is an honor…you shouldn’t have to work while you’re there.  That’s why couples hire professionals.  We’ll get it, don’t worry….just have fun and enjoy yourself.

Lauren and Matt are troopers!!  What do we do in a Cleveland winter?….go out and shoot!  Since Lauren and Matt have their wedding booked in August, the hottest month of the year, they decided to do their e-session during the coldest month of the year.  We had a great time and there was new snow falling during the session.  As we trudged through about 10 inches of snow in some spots, we found some awesome spots to shoot.  Can’t wait for your wedding later this year…you guys are going to have some great images.  Here is a web link to the full session that is online.   Enjoy!

Remember Tina and Rob, the haunted house wedding from last year?  Well, I just finished uploading media images to the Style Network, which is part of the E! Network, for their yearly ‘best of’ wedding TV show special.  The show is called Most Outrageous Weddings and will air this Saturday, December 13, at 9:00pm.  It will be repeating throughout the weekend also.  Check your listings for the Style Network…for us DirectTV users, its channel 235.  The media people and producers at the Style Network were great to work with and I think they even worked in a credit in the end of the show.  Set your TiVo’s….this will be a cool show! 

We’ve been designing some really unique holiday cards this year.  We can take photos from any of your previous sessions, or, come out and photograph your family.  Our cards are custom designed and printed on premium card stock.  This is the same stock we use for our Save the Date cards. 

If you’re still looking for something unique to send this year, give us a jingle or an email-jingle and we’ll get you started.  Here’s a sample card design.  This is a 5×7 postcard style design.

It’s that time a year again…time to update your family portrait.  Everyone always says they want a portrait taken in the Fall.  Well, now’s your chance!  Plus, they make GREAT holiday greeting cards.  Our award winning photography combined with custom designed greeting cards will have your family and friends in awe.  So, here’s the deal…..Be one of the first 13 booked sessions and we’ll give you $50 off your session, a FREE 5×7 print, and a $25 credit towards your order or greeting cards!  But you must be one of the first 13 to book and be photographed by October 25th.  This is a $135 Value!  Email the office now for more info or availability.

Trumpets Rule!…as we say here around the house.  Evan has such a blast playing with the Music Alliance Honors Band.  He took trumpet lessons through his school and then began playing for the Honors Band last summer.  The Honors Band is like an all star team of musicians from about 30 parochial schools in the Cleveland area.  They meet once a week to produce three performances throughout the year.  This past Christmas, the band played at Lakeland College’s auditorium and it was absolutely stunning to hear about 50-60 6th-8th graders perfom. 

Here are some photos from the spring Honors Band.  The theme this session was Jazz.  The band played at the annual Kids Show at the Great Lakes Mall and attracted hundreds of people to watch.  The kids had so much fun too.  The got to wear ‘jazzy’ ties.  It was fun watching them compare ties and show them off during the performance.  Songs included Gonna Fly Now, You Really Got Me Now, Celebration, In the Mood, Close to You and other jazzy favorites.  No one missed a beat….incredible! 

Music Alliance is located in Mentor, Ohio and their website is http://www.musicallianceinc.org/   The Honors Jazz Band was under the direction of Franklin Adams and David Littman.  Here are a few photos from the event.  Enjoy and watch for more.

We are so thrilled here at the office…our website won the 2008 Ohio Visual Excellence E-Commerce Award for Best Photographer Website in Ohio!!  This award is given out by the Certified Professional Photographers of Ohio.  I had just attended the Professional Photographers of Ohio Mid-East Regional Conference in Dayton, Ohio this past weekend.  This conference brought in some big speakers like David Jay, Parker Pfister, Gary & Pam Box, Doug Box and Rod Evans.  And of course, I was asked to speak on Saturday on the trade show stage about proper lighting on location.  But the highlight of the weekend was the awards ceremony on Saturday night.   I entered the print competition, album competition and the e-commerce competition.  All three prints scored Honorable Mentions, the album missed the blue ribbon merit by one lousy point :(  , but the website took the prize!

Websites were judged on thier originality, content, photographic quality, and consumer ease-of-use.  The only way this can be achieved is with user friendly website design software.  I take care of the photography and content, the web control panel does the rest.  A big thanks goes out to my friends at FlashPalette Web Design for creating the custom template and control panel software that I use.  Lindsay and Yongtong are awesome and just super to work with.  Plus, their sites look so much more different than most of the mass marketed look-alikes out there now.  Thanks guys….FlashPalette Rocks!!

Thanks to the Professional Photographers of Ohio and the Certified Professional Photographers of Ohio for awarding us with the 2008 Visual Excellence E-Commerce Award.

Here’s a few photos of the program I put on.  It was titled “See the Light in Location Photography”.  Thanks to all who attended.  It was so nice to hear all of your comments and speak with you afterwards.  Thanks to my great friend Craig Weiglein of Mansion Hill Studio and Gallery in Newport, KY for taking the photos of the speaking gig.

Wow…did you see it?  Last night was the last full lunar eclipse we’ll experience until 2010.  So, what does a photographer do on a slow Wednesday night?  Break out the camera.  Gosh it was cold out there!  The sky over Cleveland was perfectly clear and the full moon disappered right on schedule.  Here are a few images of the eclipse.  One is the moon at full coverage at 10:51pm.  The other is about 10 minutes into the final phase.  The star in the final phase photo is actually Saturn!   The moon had a really cool orange tint to it during the eclipse.   Now, how did I bear the cold?  A combination of the Internet and my trusted ace Canon gear.  I followed the timeline and images from NASA that related to the Northeastern US.  Then, using a remote video monitor and remote camera trigger, I sat inside the warm house with a cup of coffee and fired shots of the eclipse.  Only had to go outside a few times to re-aim the camera.  The Canon gear withstood the ultimate freeze test too.  It was outside in 15 degree cold for about an hour and a half.  Every shot fired and the camera worked flawlessly.  What was really cold was the aluminum legs on the tripod!  Grabbing those with bare hands was like the kid and the flagpole in Christmas Story!  Enjoy the images.

It’s official!  The new website officially launched on New Year’s Day.  It was a huge project, but it finally got completed.  The new site features multiple photography portfolios for different lifestyles of work that we do.  Our newest, Fine Art, will grow as the year goes on.  The site also features a Client Preview feature with a shopping cart that is managed right in our office.  It is also compatible with widescreen HD monitors and features various musical tracks within the Portfolios.  Take a moment and view the new site…it’s awesome.  www.northbayportraitdesign.com  Happy New Year everyone!

A new website has been in the works for some time now.  It’s getting close, but still needs some updating yet.  And just when we’re ready to post it, a major update gets announced.  The new site is going to have some slick animations, more portfolio galleries and a state of the art e-commerce proofing/ordering system.  It will also be compatible to wide-screen monitors and HD displays.  We’re waiting on the new software update in the next week or so.  Then, the site needs to be completely reconfigured to the updated software.  Hopefully, it will be online in December sometime.