Cloud 9 Happenings

The New Website is Here!!!

I am so excited! Our new website has finally launched. This has been my summer project which I was soooo hoping would be ready before the Fall/Holiday rush! And what do you know .... my wish came true.

This new website was designed to give both new and existing clients up to date information on the studio - What the latest specials are, what products we are featuring, when we are going to the beach, etc.

The web address has not changed ... so go check it out! www.photosoncloud9.com

Great new website features:

• Calendar - I am working to fully populate it, but this calendar will let you know when we are running Studio Specials, Studio Events, Limited Edition Sets, etc.
• Investment and Details Section - This section gives a lot of information to our potential clients to help them be better prepared for their session. You veteran Cloud 9 folks will get some usefull tips too :)
• Mack-Daddy Galleries - My personal goal is to keep the galleries fresh and updated. The new software for the galleries will make this easy for me to do! I also added a new one ... First Birthdays, since we are now offering special First Birthday packages for those who missed out on the BabySteps plan.
• BLOG - Instead of being whisked away to another website for our BLOG, it is now incorporated into the website. Pretty nifty eh?
• Lots of other goodies ... you just need to explore!

I will still be making adjustments and finishing touches now that the website is live. Notice my image in the About Jeanine page is still missing. You know I would be the hardest one to get done! HAHAHA But you know how it is ... if you don't say "we are launching today" there is always one more thing to do and one more thing to add!

So explore, enjoy ... I hope you LOVE the new website as much as I do :)

Please note ... I will leave this BLOG site up for about a month ... after that it will be inactivated since all blogging will exist right on the website!! So if you have subscribed to the feed, please make sure you transfer your bookmarks to the new website! 

Halloween Sample Image

Yeah! I am so excited, the phone was ringing off the hook yesterday from people who got our email and saw the BLOG about the Halloween Quick Picks!Looks like Friday is the most popular day so far for folks making their appointments. So if that is the day you want, you better call!

Anyhow, I finally did a mock up yesterday afternoon of what the set will look like. It still isn't complete, I need more flowers and more pumpkins, but this will give you guys the general idea! Poor Eryn, I shoved her in last year's Halloween Costume to get a sample image for everyone to see.

The great thing about this set is you don't have to bring your child in a Halloween Costume to reep the benefits! You can choose an adorable Fall Outfit too :) Have you seen the new clothes at Gymboree? Yikes! Jeanine will be shopping there soon!

Oh and you are not allowed to laugh at the plastic wrap on the hay bale ... there is no way I was going to get hay all over the studio yesterday ... don't worry though ... it will be taken off for Halloween :)

 

It is Time to Think About Halloween!

Can you believe it? I was shopping last week and everyone had their Halloween stuff up! Then on Saturday in one of our sales sessions someone asked if we were doing the Halloween QuickPicks again this year and if they could go ahead and book their session.

So to answer everyone's question that is burning deep inside you ... YES ... Halloween QuickPicks are back bigger and better this year. You are all going to die when you see this year's Pumpkin Harvest. Just because we live in a state that only knows two seasons, hot and hotter, doesn't mean we can't have a Pumpkin Harvest!! My backdrop just arrived today and I have been pumpkin shopping all over town to put it together. It just seems no one store has enough pumpkins for me! LOL ....

I have the sign-up sheet all ready to go at the studio ... PLUS since Halloween is on a Friday this year, we went ahead and opened up session times for Thursday as well. I am cutting you guys off at 4pm on Friday because I want to go Trick-or-Treating! Thursday we will be staying late :)

For those of you who didn't do our Halloween QuickPicks last year, here is how it works:

- Bring in a canned food for our local Food Bank - NO SESSION FEE!
- Bring in your little tyke all dressed in their costume and ready to go
- Each session lasts for 10 minutes
- The sessions are for CHILDREN ONLY! No adults ... my set is designed for the "little" people
- Print packages will start at $65, or individual sheets will be available for $35.
- You will look at your images right away in the sales room and purchase! No wait!

As you can imagine, there are certain hours that book up faster than others. If you have a specific time requirement, you better call us soon to get on the calendar!

Are you guys ready for a "spook-tackular" Halloween! Call today at 813-994-4552 to get on our Halloween Calendar!

p.s. One little restriction ...  no studio credits can by applied during our QuickPicks. We do these for fun, to raise food for the community plus they are at such a discount already, adding credit on top of that would send my accountant into a tizzy!

High School Seniors - LOOK OUT!

By now most of this year's High School Seniors have had their portraits completed by the school's "contract" photographer. This would be why our phone has been ringing off the hook! There is just no way in a quick 15 minute session that a photographer who does not know you, or care to know you, can possibly capture who YOU are in a senior portrait. Once kids see what they had gotten, they are now calling us to re-do them! Especially once they see what their friends have had done at our studio.

That is great for us. It gives us the opportunity to show people what can be possible with their Senior Portraits. They don't have to be the cheezy portraits like what I had done in high school. OMG I still have a wallet of me standing on a "94" with a checkerboard floor. AHHHHH it is horrible. Plus I wish someonoe would have done a clothing consult with me! What did I know at 17 about what would look good or bad in a photo?

Here are two recent seniors that we did. Think back to what your senior portraits looked like, or look at what these kids are still getting from the "contract" photographers. Now ... imagine how amazing you would have felt had these been YOUR Senior Portraits! See below ... trust me ... it was hard to only pick 3 of each session to post here!

  

 

 

This below image is a sample of our HOT NEW SENIOR IDENTITY POSTERS. They are 15x30 in size and are photographed using props brought by the senior that represents their hobby, sports, interests, etc. We then turn it into a poster with a great saying at the bottom to create a truly unique representation of who they are!

   

Lots of News!!!

Ok ... we have so much going on even I am having trouble keeping track of it all! And for those of you who know me ... I am the Queen of Multi-tasking!!!

I wanted to give everyone a bit of a heads up of some of the things coming up at the studio. More details will be released shortly for each and every item!

School Pictures - If your kids are in Kindergarten through 11th grade it is that time of year everyone grits their teeth at... School Picture Day! Nobody likes them, but everyone has to take them. Well who says that School Pictures have to suck? We have decided to do our own version of school pictures in the studio! Thas right ... we are setting up a couple of  mini-sets to choose from on September 30th and October 1st. The sessions will be 5 minutes and pre-pay. We will have packages starting at just $25!! Just like your school picture packages. I will be releasing more details here on the blog this weekend ... so stay tune! AND WHATEVER YOU DO ... DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON BAD SCHOOL PICTURES! This will be availble for individual children ONLY in K-11 grades.

Both October Beach Weekends are SOLD OUT! - Can you believe it? I am so excited that this many people are in Love with our Beach Portraits. Here is the thing ... I am trying to convince David we should stay down at the beach for a few extra days during the week to "relax". He said ... only if we can book some sessions! Gotta love the financial guys ... always thinking of the bottom line. So I figured I would throw it out there. If anyone is interested in booking a sunset session during the week of October 6th let me know!

New Website Launch - This summer one of my projects has been working with Brad Savage from Digital Brainz on designing a new website for the studio. This one is going to be awesome!! Lots of cool galleries, lots of information and easy to navigate! The launch will be next week. Stay tuned!

Fall Newsletter Mailing - We are getting ready to mail out our FALL NEWSLETTER. For those of you who got it last year should remember how cool it is! If you have moved recently, please be sure to call the studio to update your contact information. I guarantee you will not want to miss this newsletter!

Halloween Quick Picks - Halloween is on a Friday this year ... so we are going to expand our Halloween Pumpkin Patch Quick Picks to two days! October 30th and 31st! This way if you have a big party to go to we won't hold you up! We are starting to take reservations for these quicktakes. Call the studio today for more details.

Phew ... I know there is more ... but I don't want to overload you too much! As I said ... more details on all of the above will be coming to the BLOG Soon! So keep checking back in.

Sneak Peak Session

So last Friday I had the joy of photographing this little 2 year old boy! I LOVE the energy at this age. Every mom comes in very stressed out about how active they are, but I assure everyone ... it is normal!!! That is why we always emphasize, you never know what you will get at 2 years old! I always promise something fun and exciting :)

His mom emailed me over the weekend and asked for a sneak peak since her sales session isn't until Saturday. So mom ... here you go!!!

Oh and on the first image this little guy is playing with our new studio pet! Everyone ... say Hi to "Flash"! He does wonders to occupy the little ones :) We have had several clients bring in their pet fish in the past and sessions always go so well, so I figured it was time we had one at the studio for everyone to share!

Fabulously Fun Christmas Card Sale!

Our new 2008 Christmas and Holiday card templates are here and ready for some action!
If you had a portrait session already this year and were hoping to make Christmas cards from the images, now is your chance to do so and save some money! Buy your cards now before the craziness of the Holiday Season is upon us! We have over 50 new designs to choose from!

CARD SPECIAL – 2 WEEKS ONLY!

Save 35% off our Regular Card Pricing!

How Do You Take Advantage Of This Special?
1. Call us to set up a short 15 minute appointment

2. Come by the studio to select from one of our new designer card templates

3. Choose from your favorite images we saved from your session

4. Decide how many you want and save money!

5. Check this off your Holiday TO-DO List!!

It is that simple!! Call us today to setup your time to come in by September 6, 2008.

Here are a few of our new designs. This year we have the fun 5x5 sized cards as well! Remember all our cards are full color front and back, plus they come with envelopes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Week at the Studio

While last week was completely a girly girl week, this week saw its fair share of little boys! The week started off with two 1 year old sessions. Both of these boys are in our baby plan and have now graduated into the realm of toddlerhood! Luckily I will be seeing a lot of these babies as they continue to grow in our Small Wonders children's club.

First we start of with McKaide. As you can see he was extremely happy until we brought out the birthday cake. This is why we do the cake last! That and the mess that comes along with it. You still gotta love the crying picture. Someday this will be playing on a slideshow at his wedding. Blackmail pictures are a sure sign that you are a loving parent :)

 

Next up is Tajai! This first image shows him with the "O"! This is the first image in his "ONE" collage. I am still working on designing this collage and it is going to be sooo cute! He really hammed it up with my letters. Now look at one of his cake pictures. Seriously ... don't you just want to take your fingers and pinch his little cheeks?? OMG too cute!

I NEVER get tired of photographing my babies! Each session is a new adventure.

Next up we go back in the stages a bit to a little 3 month old girl. She has a ton of family over in England, so we always try and get a blog up for her to show the baby off "across the pond".

Macy is a georgeous 3 year old that we have had the pleasure of photographing for the past 2 years. Look at her hair and her eyes! She will definately be breaking some hearts when she gets older. Right now I am guessing one look at her dad and she melts at least one man's heart!

Her mom shares my obsession for tu-tus and ordered this one online to match her "Miss August" birthday tshirt! She is lucky that she walked out of here with it :) My sticky fingers almost hid it while she wasn't looking!

 

Girly Girl Week

This has been a very busy week at the studio! In fact it has been bussling with lots of girls! Big girls, small girls and itsy bitsy girls. I wanted to share a few of the images with you guys. As you can see, God was smiling on my camera this week! All the girls were little angels for their sessions. It was so hard for me to pick only 2 or 3 images from each session to share! These moms are going to die when they come in to see the rest!

This first little girl we have been photographing since her mom was pregnant! She is now 2 years old. Yikes! Where does the time go? It is so crazy to me to see how fast children change and grow. The best part is we have become such close friends with her parents that now it is like photographing family. We love you guys! That is honestly the best part of my business. I think it is the Italian side of me, kinda like the Olive Garden commercial ... Once you are here ... you are family :) Once you step into my studio ... you are now my family.

 

This next girl just had her 3 year birthday! She came to us when she first turned 2 and has been with us ever since. In fact ... if you search through my blog you will see pictures of her new baby sister too! She is so stinking cute now. Her mom tells me that she looks forward to coming to the studio for pictures now because she gets to play dress up and play with Ms Jeanine. Doesn't that melt your heart?

 

Ok now seriously ... have you ever seen a newborn smile like this while sleeping? I wish I could take credit for some magic spell I cast to make her do this, but I just happen to be ready with my camera when she smiled. I will take credit for the pose though :) It is amazing what you can make a sleeping baby do!

 

  

Next we have Angelina who came in with her latest dance recital costumes. She is 12 years old and LOVES the camera! It was so much fun working her and her mom. I am in the midst of creating a dance collage for her and will post it on the blog when it is done. Doesn't she look amazing!!!

Rocking Tots

So I had this idea buzzing around in my head of doing some Rocking Tots portraits. Today I got to play around on two fun kids (my neice and nephew!). Nick is 1 1/2 years old and Madison is 3. They are used to their aunt having crazy ideas and therefore having to be my guinea pigs!

You all know I LOVE my tutu pictures ... This time we brought in a jean jacket to "punk" up the pictures.

For little boys I am in LOVE with the skater look. I am definately going to have to make this miniature skateboard a fixture at the studio for baby boys portraits.

Enjoy!

P.S. if you want the Rocking Tot look for your next session, just let me know and we will have everything ready to go!