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Let the good times roll

Published by Kelly March 30th, 2008 in For Kicks and Giggles, Our Biz-Nas and Photoganza. 17 Comments

Well me and bed rest are trying to get along but I just can’t seem to keep my feet propped up long enough to constitute “bed rest”. Oh well, I have definitely chilled out much, much more than normal Kelly would be given the fact we had guests all weekend and a trade show.

Our esteemed guests were none other than my New Jersey Hooker….Ms. Chrissy and her “too cool 4 skool” boyfriend Jay. A.K.A.- OUR LIFE SAVERS!!!!

I am not even kidding when I say they worked their butts off for us all weekend.

Starting from night one they were out on the porch cleaning frames, painting easels and packing up their vehicle and ours with all our trade show crap. Can I mention that we met Jay for the first time on Friday and there he was giving his time and muscles for the fruits of our labor. Jay you are AWESOME! I told them I would give them MAAAAAAD props on my blog because I was blown away at their generosity. WE LOVE YOU GUYS AND COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!!!!!

Not to mention they played with Chloe and Charlotte like they were being paid. Mama thanks you!!! I hope all my fattening food paid for you being our Kellan Studios roadies all weekend.

Jay, I just have to tell you that when I uploaded a picture of you to our flickr you got a super fruity comment from some guy saying that your “inner light was captured.” Ryan is GOOOOOD if he was able to do that with the click of a button. If you want your inner light back…let us know and we will ship it to you in New Jersey.

We miss you guys already. Apples to Apples and Wii tournament next time you are in town.

Oh and thanks for the gift for Bennett. Even though it was meant to be a joke, it is still pretty darn cute.

On to some Chloe pictures….Chloe….Chloe….Chloe….Chloe…Chloe (this is meant to be chanted)

Okay, twist my arm.

I just have to show you how she looks in an ultra perky ponytail. Every time I put one in her hair Ryan and I get a little freaked out because we start to see glimpses of what she is going to look like as a teenager, especially if she has a hoodie and jeans on.

She is apparently mesmerized by something on the computer…the face is hilarious.

We would also like to introduce two new members of our family…her front teeth. We call them her hippo teeth due to the insane gap and how round they are. They absolutely crack me up. It is SOOOO hard to get her to show her teeth, but if you say the word “flower” instead of repeating the word like a normal child she makes this demonic sniffing face….I had to shoot the picture fast…thus blur….but you can clearly see our little hippo baby.

Showing us her belly button while sustaining eye contact with Baby Einstein.

For those of you who care…because frankly we really don’t….we still do own Charlotte. Poor, poor, poor Charlotte. She is so neglected. Here is a rare cameo appearance and only because Ryan asked me to take a picture of her. She gets love from 7:00-10:00 pm each night (after Chloe is in bed..sad but true)

And just in case you are writing a book about Chloe. Our favorite thing to hear her say is Elmo…but she calls him “Ellllbow”. Strong second is “Wow”. She just walks around saying over and over…”Wow…oh wow…wow…oh wow.” It is wicked cute.

We are also very proud of her quest for perfect oral hygiene. We don’t naturally have great teeth in our family so it is nice to see her taking the initiative. She is pretty obsessed with carrying a toothbrush around and rubbing it on her teeth trying to break through. Some give teething rings, we give our child a toothbrush.

She even takes her platform for clean teeth as far as caring for her stuffed animals. Her heart…it is just solid gold I tell ya!

In honor of the 2008 baseball season kicking off today…Chloe represented her favorite team loud and proud.

Go SOX!!!!!!

That is your weekend wrap up. I am sure your eyes are burning from all the photos. Exploiting my friends and family is what I do best!

Tired. Busy.

Published by Kelly March 13th, 2008 in Our Biz-Nas and Photoganza. 26 Comments

Equals no blogging. Yeah, I am afraid this blog may gather a little dust over the next few weeks as we are under the gun with our business right now. Oh and we are having a baby in a few weeks…so you can only imagine my recently released analness starting to tighten again. You know I love loose ends about as much as heartburn….so the house projects that just need “finishing work” all our Kellan redesign (stay tuned for our new website…SOOOO much better) new pricing guide, another ad due, a trade show and a wedding shoot all in the next three weeks…….GAG. Here we go again.

Not to leave you totally high and dry and void of Kelly love…because your fidelity means the world to me. Through thick and thin…pinky swear…wait for me!

I just can’t say enough about all God is doing in our business and how this allows me the freedom to be home and to update our
wonderful home as well as pay down our debts….anyway…we booked a bride a few months ago for engagement photos and a May 17th wedding. Well lo and behold, she won “Bride of the Year” through another magazine/guide from our area. It is mostly a local guide with maybe a 100 mile distribution area…but still. This means our photos will be used throughout because her article is the main spread. HELLO MC FLY!!!! Free publicity…yes please! The only poopy part is her wedding is 2 days AFTER the magazine goes to print, so none of our wedding photos will be in it. But check out some of the engagement shots Ryan and I took this week.

****Be warned…lots of photos! I can never narrow it down, especially when it is a couple who is really natural in front of the camera.

I love her reddish/brown hair, it just gives all the photos that extra pop! Me and color….LOVE IT!!!!!

no seriously…look at that hair and huge smile.

We think Derek is a cross between Bruce Willis and Kevin James.

Look at Ryan’s dedication to getting “the shot”…risking life and limb. What can we say?

Totally worth it, look at those blue eyes shining.

LOVE DAY

Published by Kelly February 14th, 2008 in Our Biz-Nas and Photoganza. 19 Comments

Wow, you guys are awesome…way to swoop in and give your opinions and votes in 24 hours!!! We even consulted one of our fellow photographers who is from Lynchburg, but now lives in a much bigger, open-minded city. She understands the “conservative vibe” of this area but also our photography style. Thanks Amy!!!

After much debating and even prayer….YES…God DOES care….we have decided to go with:

DRUM ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Soiree’ Ad

Now you may look back at the voting and comments and think….UMMMM…didn’t the majority vote for E? Yup, you are right about that. The majority of you did. It does have the most “mass” appeal. I mean we LOVE this photo, it is the shot we have on our postcard business cards…so we hand it out all the time…BUT…BUT. There are a few schools of thought we needed to be true to.

1.- We want to make a presence in this magazine. We want you to stop when you see the ad and go “whoa!” We also want to rule out anyone who would look at that photo and say…”I wouldn’t want a shot of me and my husband like that.” Great, there are tons of photographers that will give you a much more conservative and posed documentation of your day. That is the beauty of photography..everyone has their own style. We love to capture the RAW, unposed moments. We asked Sarah and Jeff to kiss…this was the moment we captured…and it is AWESOME. It is the passion that every couple should have on their wedding day.

2.- We will have one major spread of photos displaying our favorite “golf couple” showing the fun, classy, beautiful wedding that Kaely and Doug’s wedding was. We also have another article written about us with more of our photos and the publishers have a disk of images to use as stock images throughout the mag they will give us credit for….so we have tons of press in this magazine showing our scope and range. The ad needed to be a show stopper. You know when you flip through a magazine you rarely look at the ads, well I would say ours would catch your eye. Memorable.

3. We are about to make a MASSIVE price hike in two months when this magazine drops….so not only will we be separating the curds from the whey on our conservative style brides…we will also be gleaning a higher end clientèle. This is extremely necessary. God is growing Kellan Studios by leaps and bounds and we have been blown away by his provisions for us financially. I could never stay home with Chloe and Bennett and we certainly could have never afforded to move without God blowing our socks off with all the bookings this year. However, I also need my husband to be around more. So less weddings for more money is GOOD BUSINESS!!!! We are swimming with the big dogs now and we need our prices to reflect that and we need to be able to upgrade our equipment…..that ain’t cheap my friends seeing as we have to buy in duplicate…..Have you priced TWO Canon 5D’s……plus lenses and lighting? Keep it on the back burner…we will be selling one of our 20D’s later this year and holding on to one as a back up…anyone, anyone, anyone in the market????

So tonight I shall romance my husband with the sweet sweet cheesy goodness of homemade mac and cheese…thank you Donna at Spuddy Buddy…..I can’t wait to try your recipe!!! I am a painting fool right now getting the kitchen painted and parts of the bathroom. Don’t get me started…we still have no freaking bathroom. We do have a 95% tiled floor, a 20% tiled bathtub….progress right? So we still have to take baths….slow goings on baths! I mean tonight is Valentines Day…that means you do the “good shave”. I have a humongous belly and a little bathtub. The gymnastics are simply stunning if not incredibly comical! Wish me luck.

Ryan’s gift was a slam dunk for V-Day. I love remembering something he mentions and actually recalling it on the day I need to. I am horrible at being thoughtful..HORRIBLE!!! Can we say gift card queen!!!!

Anyway, what do you give any graphic designer nerd????? (If this is your husband…then go get these for him…he will love you!)

Helvetica Movie

The study of the typeface Helvetica. Yes, I have had my hand slapped plenty for using the word “font” and not typeface which he has explained to me eleventy billion times the difference, but my eyes glaze over and my brain starts smoking. Me no compute!

The runner up was non other than a Helvetica mug…oh yes…there is such a thing:

Helvetica Mug

But they have been sold out for months…..sadness.

My last runner up was this bit of nerdery office decor. This would have been great in Ryan’s office, but it is WAYYYY over priced.

Byte Russian Dolls

How funny are those?

Thank you again everyone who voted and commented, we really did evaluate each and every word you said and appreciate your input and enthusiasm. I will leave you with a quote from Ryan this week.

He walked into the living room and randomly said,

“If Bennett turns out as good as Chloe did, I am going to start studding myself out because I make cute kids.”

Oh Ryan! You wish.

Opinions needed ASAP

Published by Kelly February 12th, 2008 in Life in General and Our Biz-Nas. 44 Comments

Alright guys, we need your opinion and I know you have them so lay your cards on the table. Ryan and I have an amazing opportunity to partner with a new bridal magazine dropping this spring. We are thrilled to be apart of this and they even picked one of our weddings as their main spread AND wrote an article about us and with us on our perspective as a married couple being photographers and what we recommend brides ask photographers. The distribution includes several larger cities and is going to be a huge boost to put us on the photography map in our area.

Okay, so our ad is due on Friday for the spring/summer issue. We are debating back and forth what photo to use. Can I tell you how hard it is to pick ONE shot that represents you? Do you go the romantic route, artistic, humor, abstract, close up, far away? The options are endless. I need you to vote on the picture that strikes you the most.

These are the runners up and as you can see they are all completely different in tone and that is where we keep going round and round. All will include the pink “K” logo with our contact info. Most likely they won’t have many other words…unless we get extremely clever.

Option A:
Sarah and Jeff. This picture has sizzle factor PLUS PLUS. We are debating on saying something like “Chemistry isn’t just a subject you studied in high school”

The question is…yes this picture is VAVAVOOM but is it too much?

Option B:
Kaely and Doug. This was the wedding that won the spread, so there will be tons of photos of them in the magazine, but they are our all time favorite wedding….so classy, so fun, so very summer!

Option C:
Sarah Bridal. Coy, beautiful, elegant.

Option D:
Kristie Bridal. Natural, playful, beautiful

Option E:
Bonnie and Todd. Romantic, dreamy, sweet.

ARGGGGGGHHHHH…HELP!!! Vote, vote, vote and leave opinions in the comments. I will show you the winner next week. Thank you so much!

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Tradeshow madness

Published by Kelly November 7th, 2007 in Adventures in Pregnancy and Our Biz-Nas. 28 Comments

The trade show went something like this.

FASTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
TIRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
FEET SWOLLENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
BACK SCREAMING SOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
VOCAL CORDS WEAK FROM GIVING THE SAME FREAKING PITCH over 150 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But heck we pocketed some sweet moolah by booking two weddings on the spot which more than made up for our booth cost and advertising for the year and the inquiries are starting to pour in. So praise Jesus because this is what keeps me home with Chloe and Porty and I can’t be more thankful.

The booth turned out really really nice. Very cozy. I was furiously sewing two little pillows for the chairs, bought some throws, candles, rocks, soft material and lots and lots of frames with all sorts of photos including two enlargements on easels we got form Ikea. Packed my bird cage, plants, lamps and other things laying around my house that would work and off we went. It was hot and I am pleased with how it came out. Every trade show we take it up a notch and I already have some ideas for next time. We have to slowly invest in our booth.

So here are some shots from the day. They are kinda far away so you can’t see a lot of the details of the booth…but you can see a very hot saleswoman working the belly for five hours. My brother in law, Joe, was my hero as he filled in for Ryan while Ryan was shooting a wedding that night.

We were SLAMMED this weekend, can I just say that again? We set up on Friday and then ran errands for hours that night, slept for a few hours and got up and immediately worked on the booth some more for 3 hours then the show was 5 hours and an 1.5 hours to tear down, drive home and put everything away. I think even my hair follicles were sore. Next day CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN and decorate and bake and have fun at party for four hours while being a mom thrown in there somewhere. I still can’t seem to catch up on sleep. You would think I was four months pregnant or something.

Here you go….. What I can’t magically do in these pictures is make the hideous carpet, emerald green walls with gold trim or white lattice work from the booth next to us go away. This is an old abandoned department store that had it’s hayday about two decades ago.

So picture nice clean carpet and a solid black background and you may get a better feel. Next time we are figuring out a way to have a curtain up behind us all the way across. There are so many gaudy booths and they offend my eyes.

My lovely assistant and fill in photographer while I am on maternity leave….Joey Joe Joe

If my boobs don’t distract you enough to hire us, let me show you my preggo belly. SAH WEET! “Feed my child!”

“No, I can’t shoot your wedding for a meager $500 but what I can do is tell you all about double chins.” (Disclaimer…they did NOT ask us to shoot for $500 that was for dramatic purposes….but all three of us have the looking down double chin action going on…what’s up with that?)

Come on knock on our door…we’ve been waiting for you….

I’m gonna need a bobby pin stat….apparently the side of my head exploded and it is falling into my face in chunks. Can nobody tell me this?? NOBODY????

and what to my wandering eyes do appear….but my wee little one bringing the fun. She is so ridiculously straight faced in public for the first 5 minutes. I swear she has a personality but you could call me a liar when you meet us for the first time.

Lighten up Chloe….I know you are having a crazy staticy hair day…but give grandma some slack. I need you to cast a charming spell over the booth so people book us, this is not the face I was hoping for.

So don’t you feel like you were in the heart of the action? One of those nervous brides scouring each booth for free candy, coupons, basically anything free you throw at them? My life is just too exciting, I know, I know.