Our “Here I Grow” baby program is one of our popular offerings. We just finished up Mallory’s program last month, and now we don’t get to see her any more!

Mallory’s mom received 3 sessions throughout Mallory’s first year, and then got a framed collage with her favorite photo from each session. These are a lot of fun to do because, for a pretty low price, you get to watch your new little one grow up over the course of the year, and see it all captured in portraits.

Here’s what Mallory’s mom had to say about our last session at 12 months old.

I  am again impressed with your work, Tracy! I cannot believe the amazing pictures that resulted from such a challenging day, since Mallory was teething and so out of sorts! Thanks for working your magic….we will enjoy these collages for a lifetime!

I love working with babies, and would love to capture your little guy or girl in his or her first year, too.

We’ve got a great deal going on for the Here I Grow program through the month of February and until March 5th.

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Baby Photographer

If You’re In The Graduating Class Of 2011, You Can Earn Big By Being One Of Our ‘11 Ambassadors, Plus Get A Ton Of Great Stuff For Your Own Senior Portraits

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been interviewing students to be our Ambassador Models for the graduating class of 2011. So far, we’ve selected students from Palmer, Manitou, TCA, Palmer Ridge, Pueblo West, and Cheyenne Mountain, and this weekend interviews are set up with 3 or 4 more students.

But, we would still like to have Ambassadors in several other area schools, especially Rampart, Liberty, Pine Creek, Air Academy, and Falcon.

We’ve put together a pretty great program for the ‘11 Ambassadors including:

• 5% commissions on the sales made to anyone an Ambassador refers to us. That can be by directly speaking to another student, or even if someone sees your portraits on Facebook and calls us from that, that counts as a referral for you!
• $50 portrait credit for participating in our ‘11 Ambassadors Group Portrait Session
• A cool slideshow (like the one you see below) of your own portraits for you to post on Facebook
• Facebook images of your portraits
• Much more!

If You’re Wondering What You Need To Do As One Of Our Ambassadors…

It’s really pretty simple. All we need you to do is to pass out all the information cards we give you. Give them to the other students in your class, or even other students in the class of ‘11 at other schools. If you know friends from youth group, sports, or other places, you can give them to those students as well. (No, you’re not allowed to just leave the cards in the bathroom at school… You actually do have to give them away to peole.

We’re Only Accepting Applications For A Short Time

The Group Portrait Session is coming up quickly on February 27, so we’re only accepting applications for ‘11 Ambassadors for a couple more weeks, and then, to be fair, we’ve got to shut it off. So, if you or someone you know is in the class of 2011, and would like to be considered to be one of our Ambassadors, simply complete the application form. We’ll review it and contact you to talk about setting up an interview.

There’s only a couple more weeks to apply, so turn in your application right away!

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Senior Photographer

Only a children’s photographer (or a do-it-yourself parent) can probably really appreciate this one.

In fact, this strip wasn’t nearly as funny when I first read it long before I was a photographer.

Enjoy!

-Tracy

We Need Models!

That’s right. We’re looking for kids, ages 2 - 7 to be models for sample portraits for several brand new Limited Edition sessions we’re planning to offer to all our clients this coming spring through fall.

First, a little background.

Since October, we’ve had a modeling program going for kids 0-15. Through that program, we’ve gotten dozens of great, fun, and whimsical children’s portraits as samples for our website and displays. You can see the slideshow below.

2010 Brings Several New Session Styles

This year, however, we’re planning to begin offering Limited Edition sessions for children’s portraits which will include Cowboys & Cowgirls, Train engineers, Baseball players, Fishermen, and others. But, in order for our clients and new clients to see what we can offer them, we have to have samples.

You’ll Get A Free Portrait + $100 Of Studio Credit

We certainly won’t ask you to volunteer your child without something from us in return, so we’re offering all of the kid models we select a FREE Facebook image from your session (This image will have all of our normal digital enhancements and retouching done to it), plus $100 of studio credit which you can use if you want to get more images from your session. All of the purchased images we deliver to you will also have the full digital enhancements and retouching, PLUS you’ll get them in digital format. That means you have the images to keep! Those of you who have worked with us in the past know that we don’t ever give out our digital “negatives,” so this is really something special that you can take advantage of.

Booking Sessions Now For February

But, we need to begin getting the images now so we can start displaying them in our promotional pieces and on our website, so we’re going to begin with the Cowboy/Cowgirl and Train Engineer sessions. If you’d like to have your little guys and girls be a part of our Limited Edition model program, please visit our website at springs-kid-models.com, and fill out the application. There is a deadline on this program, so be sure to apply soon!

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Children’s Photographer
Springs Kid Models

What the future looked like in the 1960's

Every Monday morning, I receive a business coaching Email from MondayMorningMemo.com. This week’s Email was pretty interesting to me because I have this love-hate relationship with all things technological, AND, I’m old enough to remember 1969.

Here’s a tidbit from the Email.

Had you asked us in 1969 to describe our vision of 2009, we would have told you of flying cars, driverless cars and carburetors that would get 200 miles per gallon.

If you told us the cars of 2009 would travel at the same speeds and get about the same gas mileage we were getting in 1969, we would have rolled our eyes and thought you a fool.

Once, at a friend’s house, we pulled out some articles from a 1960’s-era Reader’s Digest which predicted this very thing by the 1990’s. The illustrations were great. Think Jetsons.

One other quote from this Email caught my attention.

(Few) in 1969 would have said, “In 2009 we’ll carry cordless telephones that will have TV screens in them and all the world’s knowledge will be at your fingertips because you’ll be connected to a thing called the worldwide web. And that TV screen will show you any movie and let you listen to any song, any time you want. And you’ll be able to tell it where you want to go and the screen will show you a map of how to get there. And as you travel, the map will continually update to show you where you are. The map will even talk to you and tell you where to turn. And there won’t be any long distance charges.”

But, it’s the Email author’s concluding question that really sums up the challenges we all face in our tech-mad world. His question should make us evaluate what’s real and what’s really important to us.

When’s the last time you had an extended, face-to-face conversation with someone who was important enough to you that you turned your cell phone completely off, rather than just setting it to vibrate so you could check to see if the caller was important enough to interrupt the conversation?

I even see people doing this in church, of all places. They just can’t bear to turn off their phones, afraid of missing some meaningless, trivial text message or phone call.

Some of us can remember “front porch” days, when people would sit on their front porches and have real, meaningful conversations with their families and neighbors, and there were actual relationships and connections made with people.

Let me put in a little plug… In a way, this is what portraits help you do. They help you connect. They help you remember. They help you remember relationships and connections. Especially family portraits. So, while I’m not exactly pushing family portraits in this message, I am encouraging all of us to once again cultivate the relationships in our lives.

Thanks for reading my muses today.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs photographer

Though not a Great Horned Owl, it's the only owl photo I have been able to get.

At least that’s what Mr. Owl thought.

Here’s a little story that will give our readers a little glimpse into our life in the country.

This evening, I was hiking in the forest by our home and heard a few Great Horned Owls calling to each other, so I thought I would try to “call one in,” which means to try to attract one close enough to see it well.

I found a spot by a tree at the top of a hill that had a clear view of the trees around me and sat down to begin my “owl attraction technique.” After about 10 minutes of motionlessness while calling in the owls, I decided that it wasn’t going to work so turned my head to my right and spooked Mr. Owl who had been sitting on a tree branch about 15 feet above my head and a little to the right of where I sat. He flew off to a safe distance away and perched on the top of a pine tree and watched me. Now he was about 60 - 70 feet away and looked like he was wondering what I was.

So I continued with my owl call, remaining perfectly still and after a few minutes, he came in for a closer look, landing on a branch in a tree about 15 to 20 feet right in front of me. After a couple more minutes, he must have decided I was too big to eat and flew off to the top of another tree.

This is just one more reason why we love to live out here in the sticks.

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs photographer

Many of our clients may not know that we also photograph weddings, and have done several at many of the most popular area wedding venues. We’ve done some in some out-of-the-way locations too, like on the top of mountains, on a gazebo in the middle of a pond, and in the middle of a plant nursery!

I love to photograph weddings even though they’re jam-packed events that can sometimes be a challenge to work.

Like the time we photographed an outdoor wedding in Green Mountain Falls, and as soon as the wedding was over and the family portraits were done, it began to rain. The rain went through the bride and groom formal portraits and all the way through the outdoor reception. Rainy weather at night in the mountains is rarely warm. My son, Kramer, and I were soaked by the end of the night, but the camera gear did great and we got some really nice photos from this wedding.

For those of you planning weddings for 2010 or 2011, we have some great new packages. Plus, here are a couple of tips to help you plan for your wedding day, and to make your day go more smoothly.

TIP #1
Be sure to book your wedding vendors 6 - 9 months in advance. The more popular vendors may be booked more than a year in advance. We have a wedding scheduled for July of this year  that was scheduled with us in January of last year. Don’t wait! Tracy had a woman call him yesterday asking about photographing a wedding in 2 weeks! That’s an extreme example, but look around for your wedding vendors plenty of time before your wedding day.

TIP #2
Brides… one of the most overlooked detail of your wedding day is your shoes. No, I’m not suggesting that you get the fanciest shoes you can find. Just the opposite. In fact, I’m suggesting that you get the most COMFORTABLE shoes you can find. I’ve seen brides wear flip-flops. Under that long dress, your shoes aren’t visible anyway, so why not be comfortable? I’ve also seen lots of brides wearing high heels or really tight shoes and they’re miserable all day.

TIP #3
If your’e going to hire a DJ, get a really good one. I’ve seen some DJ’s who just sit behind their desks all night and never engage the crowd. The best ones act as emcees and keep your party moving. If you get a bad one, everything stalls out and your guests don’t know what’s happening, and many of them leave before the important events.

That’s all for now.

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Wedding Photographer

p.s. enjoy the following show!

This really is a poodle!

Everyone has a wild side…

To prove my point, check out these crazy ways to groom your dog!

Yes, that really is a poodle, believe it or not. This was all part of a grooming competition that occurred last summer. Amazingly, the photographer, Ron Netherland, of the UK, travels thousands of miles every year just photographing these dogs at the competitions.

To see more of these unbelievable transformations, you can visit the MailOnline webpage which reported on Mr. Netherland’s work. There are poodles that have been transfomed into things diverse as a chicken, a psychedelic snail, the panda you see here, a camel, a horse, a pirate, a Pittsburgh Steeler, and my favorite, a buffalo.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR POOCH?

OK, I admit, I have drawn some inspiration from the above website

A new dog breed, the Buffadoodle ;-)

Coming in February…

An announcement for a special we have planned for your furry doggy friend. In fact, if you have a dog you would like to be a model for our promotional pieces, please give us a call or Email us with a photo of your puppy or dog.

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Dog Photographer

Disclaimer: All photos on this blog post and on the MailOnline page were taken by photographer, Ron Netherland.

Colorado Springs couples - Mark your calendar for the Push, Pull, or Drag him in Valentine's Day Portrait Special!

…for a great portrait party and special!

We hear it all the time, how a wife doesn’t have any photos of just her and her husband. Unless a man and woman are getting engaged or married, they almost never get portraits done of just the 2 of them.

After photographing people for several years now, we’ve learned how hard it is to get the guys in for portraits.

So, ladies, we’ve made it super easy for you to bring your guy in for a portrait this year.

#1 - Most important… The session will only be 15 - 20 minutes! Your husband, boyfriend, or best friend won’t have to put up with me for very long!

#2 - The session is only $25!

#3 - You get a FREE Facebook image from the session for your Facebook profile!

#4 - If you want to order anything else, all our portraits are 50% for this special only

#5 - It’s right before Valentine’s Day. You can tell him to do it for you…

THE DETAILS

The session date is February 6th, so it won’t even conflict with the Super Bowl. I’m telling you - we’ve thought of everything for you.

The times for the sessions for this special are limited. We’re only going to do sessions from 10 to 3, so if you want to get in on this, you’ve got to call us or Email us ASAP before we’re all booked. The deadline for reserving your session is January 29th, so contact us before that date.

We’ll plan for outdoor sessions unless the weather is just really crummy. If that’s the case, we’ll arrange for an indoor location, and will let you know ahead of time where it will be. But, we’d love it if we had one of those gentle, Colorado snows for this session date. Then you would get Snow portraits too!

If you’d like to get in on one of our Push, Pull, or Drag him in Valentine’s Day sessions, please call us or Email. This  special is good for married couples, engaged couples, dating couples, friends, even high school students.

Thanks for reading.

-Tracy
The Colorado Springs Photographer

Are you North America's Cutest Family?

Hey everyone. I thought I would let you know that as of last Saturday, we are participating in the International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Family and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. (NILMDTS.org)

Do you think that you and your family are North America’s Cutest Family? Well, we’ll give you the chance to prove it! Many exciting prizes will be awarded and the Grand Prize Winner will receive a new car!

Here’s the Model Search Special:

$30 entrance fee includes a 30 to 40 minute model session and one image submitted to the national gallery.

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Each vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).

Grand prize international winner will be determined from the 52 city finalists. The winners will be selected from the finalist gallery by photography and modeling industry experts.

Call us at 719-749-0043 or Email us now to enter your family in this great and exciting contest.

Thanks for reading!

-Tracy

The Colorado Springs Family Photographer

*Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. For more information, visit http://sandypucmodels.com/.