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Just a quick personal update...I had the chance to sneak off to Texas to visit family for the weekend, so I took it! My wonderful hubby, Mike, and I went down to Dallas to visit his family and stay the night. The next afternoon, we zipped over to North Richland Hills to visit my family for a Crawfish Boil. Then we crashed at a nearby hotel and drove home via SW Oklahoma so I could do a pre-deploy photo session for OpLove on the way home. (Surprisingly enough, the time at my in-laws was more pleasant and relaxing then the rest of the trip!)
I still have one or two sessions from last week to post here, in addition to the OpLove session from today. I'm already hard at work processing the pics, so stay tuned! And I might even sneak in a pic of me and/or my beautiful 10-month old niece, Makayla (I call her my M&M) from this weekend. :)
I just wanted to say that Animoto ROCKS!!! I sampled their services with an OpLove promo video a couple weeks ago (see previous post). The video was awesome, to say the least. I have had sooooo many comments on how great and beautiful it was, and it even brought some people to tears, me included. So anyways as I mentioned before, I've added their videos as part of the freebies that I provide to my OpLove clients. Animoto is such a wonderful company because they donated their services to OpLove photographers for our military clients!
I just finished making a video for one of my fav OpLove clients: Jay, Mandi, Lance, and now baby Liam! I've known them for almost 3 years and have had 3 OpLove sessions with their family. It has me teary-eyed previewing the video because you can actually see all the love that they share! And it doesn't help knowing that he'll be shipping out again soon, and the family is moving far away during the first part of July. :'( So I won't get to photograph his homecoming. But I can truly say that I am proud to know them, and I greatly appreciate his service and their sacrifices! It has been an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of their lives and to photograph such important occasions.
Yay! I did a session for Jen and Erica a couple weeks ago (see previous posts). On Sunday, I had the opportunity to photograph them again with some additional family that's visiting from out of town. Unfortunately, Erica wasn't feeling very well and therefore not her usual playful bundle of energy. :( But the rest of the family still had fun playing "king of the mountain", seeing six new geese babies, climbing, and having a foot-race. Dad should be returning from deployment around the first of July, so stay tuned for more family pics! Here's a couple b&w pics from our session.
Last Thursday, I met Karen and her family for a session at the Rose Garden in Will Rogers Park. After much excitement getting there (about 10 cop cars, 2 helicopters, an hour of traffic, and 1 loose horse in the city), we finally got our session underway. It was not an OpLove session even though Matthew was dressed in his BDUs. It was a pre- pre-deployment session, meaning that he deploys later, but they still wanted the patriotic theme of OpLove sessions. Caleb had fun playing at the park, growling at the squirrels, and finding the big orange fish! Here are some of my fav pics from the session:
I just created a new video for promoting Operation: Love ReUnited. The video is comprised of images I have taken over the last several years of my OpLove clients including pre-deployments, currently deployed, and homecomings. Click here for the link to the video which I will also post under "Recommended Links" at the bottom of this page.
I have carefully considered and reviewed this service provided by Animoto. As a result, I have decided to start providing a video with the session photos on disk to each of my OpLove client's as an added gift. Animoto is providing this video conversion service to all OpLove photographers free-of-charge for our clients. So stay tuned for videos to be posted of my OpLove sessions.
Hey All!! Just to give my clients added security that I will retain their photos long after the proofs expire, I recently signed up with a new (well, new-to-me) off-site backup service. This service provides two separate server sites to ensure that my data (your photos) will be secure regardless of any tragedy that may befall. This service is an added protection feature to further guarantee that a copy of my client's photos will remain available. This is all in addition to my client's photos being on their own individual disks placed in their paper file, as well as an overall hard drive back-up which is secured in my fire/water proof safe.
As of this date, despite major computer crashes, memory disk failures, and re-formatting hard drives, I have only lost one client's photos in over 7 years. The loss occurred after the client ordered and was delivered his photos, so at least I was able to deliver his proofs and photo order. So please understand that this new "insurance & assurance" plan is not being done out of necessity, but rather out of added security to protect your precious photos!
I had an action-packed session this afternoon with Jennifer and 2 1/2 year old Erica. We had fun at the Rose Garden in Will Rogers Park where Erica played peek-a-boo, chased geese, climbed on rocks, and did ring-around-the-rosy with her mom. Oh ya...her dad is a marathon runner, so of course she wanted to run and run and run. I bet she sleeps good tonight. :) Here are some pics from our session today.
I had an OpLove homecoming session scheduled at Tinker AFB for this evening. It's been in the works for months. I just found out this morning that the homecoming is on the flight-line, and therefore no photos can be taken...by anyone, even family! The only exception is an authorized letter, with my security clearance, signed by the appropriate officers, presented prior to the event. You know, I really understand all their rules to maintain their security, but don't ya think they could have told my client this before the day of the event? My client has called, has left messages, and has talked to a wide variety of people about me having access to photograph her hubby's homecoming for months. It was never mentioned until this morning. So needless to say, I don't get to capture the wonderful reuniting of their family (which includes a 9-month old baby). Total bummer!! :( So now, I think I'm going to start the process of getting this elusive letter for future homecomings so that my clients will not have to be burdened by this chaos.
I was recently contact by the Editor-in-Chief of Army Wife Magazine, Brandy. She was interested in writing an article about me and my participation in Operation: Love Reunited. We had the interview 2 days ago, on Tuesday, via Skype (we both had bad hair days, so no video was recorded). :) Anyway, the June issue of the magazine is about Art Appreciation, so the article should fit in nicely with the theme! Upon her request, I sent her a handful of photos I had taken at OpLove sessions. Once I find out which ones made the cut, I will notify those clients that their photos were selected! Brandy said she would let me know when the issue is released and the link to see it online. I'll be sure to pass it along to you as well as post it on my website. :)
Click here to see the general link for Army Wife Magazine.
BTW...thanks Brandy for the opportunity to spread the word about OpLove. We love the increased exposure to better serve our beloved military! You rock!!! ;)
I had the pleasure of meeting another OpLove family at our session on Thursday. Michael, Shannon, and little Payton are such a cute family! It was quite windy at the park, but we managed to survive without blowing away (although it was questionable at times)! Payton is 2 1/2 years old and just adorable as can be! Oh, and I learned that Shannon is 15-weeks pregnant. :) Luckily, Michael should be home from his deployment just in time to see the newest addition to their family being born! Congratulations to this wonderful family, and I'll see you at Michael's homecoming!!!
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