On Location Natural Light Family Photography

On Location Natural Light Family Photography

Saturday, December 31, 2011

2012 Changes!

First off, Happy New Year!!!  It has been an amazing year. I shot more sessions than ever before, and had so many new AND repeat clients this year!

Many of you know I try really hard to only change things once per year.  I rarely increase my prices, and when I do it's because my overhead has gone up for whatever reason and I have to.  I appreciate and value every one of my clients so much, and I hope you all can understand that I am only one person...so I am doing the job of at least 3 people on my own (emails, phone calls, shooting sessions, editing, proofing, ordering, packaging, etc) as well as running a household.  And that is why I have certain ways I have to do things, so I can be as efficient as possible because I do strive to give you the best quality experience possible.  I know that every time I have to change things or increase my prices, I do lose a few clients.  It makes me super sad, but it makes me truly appreciate those who value my time and talent and decide to continue to come to me to capture their memories.


New:

Low resolution images available for purchase with a $300 minimum purchase or FREE with $500 or more print purchase.  Low resolution images are NOT for printing, but for the sole purpose of social networking...such as email, facebook, blogs, etc. Cost-$100

I will no longer be offering full resolution discs for sale. I hate to do this people, I really do...but it kills me when I find out my images were printed cheaply like at Walmart.  I tested this out for 1 year, and I tried to give my best reccomendations of places to print that do a professional quality job that is available to the public, yet people were still going cheap.  Most pro-sumer (professional quality labs available to the public) are not as expensive as people think, and do not cost all that much more than crappy labs that completely ruin your photos that I worked very hard to make perfect for you.  With that, you will now only be able to get prints exclusively from Stacy VanDyck Photography's professional lab through me.  Your photos are an investment and are worth more than discolored, grainy, blurry photos printed at a lab that doesn't really care how your photos look once printed.
(I will still offer individual digital images for purchase, for those of you who need them for making your own cards and such)

I understand many of you were confused and frustrated with the fact that in order to print small format prints, you had to spend a minimum purchase first,and then you could add on the smaller ones to your order.  I did this for many reasons, but mostly because I have requirements from my lab in order to submit photos, and if you just order a bunch of small ones, the order total is not large enough for me to submit to my lab.  Also it was to encourage my clients to purchase a few large prints, rather than just a ton of small ones. Many of you were very hesitant about buying anything larger than a 16x20, but all of you who did, fell in love with prints and saw how much they added to your walls.  I have decided to add back in small format prints to your gallery shopping carts.  But to do this, I am going to be increasing my order minimum to $100.  This means you will now be able to purchase 4x6s and 5x7s again, but all orders must be at least $100 in order for you to submit them to me.  So, if Aunt Betty only wants 2 5x7s, she will have to add them on to your order and they will come with your order.  She will not be able to place an order herself, unless it is at least $100.

Also, from now on, I will only be going to the post office to ship out of state orders no more than once per week.  I just do not have the time to go multiple times per week, and it takes away from time I could be working on other orders, editing, returning phone calls, or family time.  This means it might take a little longer to receive your orders.  I do want to remind you all that if you are in the local area, you do NOT need to pay for shipping at check out.  There is an option of  "local pick up".  This means you simple stop by my studio and pick up your order when I have notified you it has come in.  If you are not able to come to the studio for whatever reason, I am more than happy to deliver to you, or meet you to drop it off. I appreciate you all understanding.

Now I am saving the best for last here....All of my regulars should love this :)
New Client Reward:  I understand that there are literally dozens of options for you when it comes to photographers here in Minot.  I understand that MANY of them are much cheaper than myself, and you might think you are getting a much better value by going to a new photographer that charges a lot less.  That is totally your choice.  But those who continue to choose me for their photographer will be given a FREE 4x6  flipbook of all of your images ($80 value).  This means if you have EVER had a session with me you will automatically be awarded a free flipbook.  You will not have to order it, it will come free with your paid session and print order!  This comes strait out of my profit and is a thank you for being a loyal client of mine. This offer is good on any 2012 session!


I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season this year.  I can't wait to see what 2012 brings!

*Update*

I realized just now I left a really exciting thing off my 2012 list!
I received a lot of inquires after I shot my first real life style session in late 2011 so....
I am going to be adding Life Style Sessions into my specialty sessions.
Life Style Sessions consist of me coming to your home for your session.  I use the natural beauty of your home and your family to create photos that capture your REAL family.
An example of a Life Style session I did can be seen here:
Life Style Family Session
These can be Newborn or Family Sessions!
These types of sessions can last upto 3 or 4 hours, as they are meant to capture your daily life.
I will also have a few pre-qualifications that must be met in order for me to shoot your session as a life style session.  I will be dedicating another blog post to the details on this type of session soon, as well as updating my website to include the info and pricing for it too!
Price is to be determined still.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Agreed!

Rachel is probably in my top 3 for cake smashes. She was very happy about eating cake. She could have gotten messier, but she wasn't afraid of her cake like my last few cake smashers have been. She was cracking me up the whole session with her nodding yes or no to everything. The whole time she was eating her cake she was nodding yes in agreement.












This last one is sissy "helping" to clean up :)


Monday, December 12, 2011

Sleepy Diva

Oh little miss Violet. She is just too sweet. She lets us change her into a ton of different outfits, pose her, and puts herself to sleep. She really couldn't be any more perfect. I can't believe she is already almost 3 months old.












Glowing Belly

Is this mama not one of the most beautiful glowing mamas ever? She has the most perfect little bump! I can't wait to meet this little princess in a few weeks!








Saturday, December 10, 2011

Miss Serious

Two out of two sessions now, Miss Ava has barely cracked a smile for me. She doesn't get upset, like at all....but she just will not smile. Mom, Dad, and myself were all acting like complete idiots trying to get her to smile...but no. But that is okay, because she is still totally adorable, smiling or not. :)














more girls!

I have been wanting to get my hands on my friend Katie's girls for a while now. They both have these BEAUTIFUL big blue eyes and long eye lashes. I have been having so much with fun with all the baby girls in my studio lately. A good majority of my outfits and props are baby girl things because, well, it's just way easy and fun to find girl stuff. :)










Dress Up

That is what we did with sweet Noelle...that is until she was just not having it anymore. Luckily we got lots of great family shots, and at least a couple of her before she let us know she was flat out D.O.N.E. We had way too much fun putting all of my girly outfits on her :)