Since Boulder has been super cold and rainy all week, I have had to reschedule all my portrait sessions and am finally able to catch up on blogging and emails. Which is always a good thing, but trying to reschedule 6 photography sessions in one week is a job in and of itself.
Things are so very wonderful right now though! Let me tell you all about it:) We had our second Zulily sale-it started yesterday, for my other business (Karmababy.com), and in the first two hours we sold more slings than we did during the three day event two months ago. Which is fabulous news as I try to clear out 1000 slings of old inventory and get the business ready to sell (photography is my complete passion, I don’t want to do anything else!). So, if you want a beautiful, designer or organic baby sling for your little one, check it out-there is only one more day of the 50% off sale.
Reg, my new sales manager has had a super busy week (ya think-I have been shooting non-stop lately!). She ROCKS. She is so easy to talk to, knows what size prints would go well where and with what other prints, and is overall just making my business and life run so smoothly. I am actually kind of shocked. For those of you who have been reading my blog for years now, you know that I am always writing about how overwhelmed I am. Well, right now I am more booked than I have EVER been, and I am not stressed-not even one little bit. The last two years I have put so much work into streamlining my workflow and outsourcing what I don’t love to do, and it has totally paid off.
I have the beautiful client site (you only get to see this when you book:), that tells clients every single detail they need to know to prepare for their session. It has a beautiful product guide, session guide, what to wear page, stuff I love and where to buy it, and a wall display guide. It has really helped me to cut down on emails with every session. Before the client site, I would sometimes spend hours communicating with clients about how to prepare for the portraits.
I have Kellie, my office manager extraordinaire who has taken over order fulfillment and arranging for shipping/pickup/drop off of orders with clients. She also does my bookkeeping. Oh, and she basically runs all of Karma Baby on her own.
I have Heather, who helps occasionally with editing, and she is a super photoshop genius who can take 80lbs off of someone and it looks real. I am serious. She edited the amazingly awesome session below. No, no weight was edited off this mother. Yes, she is truly that beautiful, nothing was edited-edited, only color enhancements, etc… If you are curious, I think she used the new Florabella actions. Aren’t these photos GORGEOUS? Contact her if you are a photographer looking to get help with some of your editing work.
Now I have Reg, who does everything that has to do with ordering. She comes to your home to help you look at what would work best, and shows you samples, takes your order, and sends it off to Kellie. Seriously, before Reg, I would sometimes exchange 15 emails with Kellie and a client before we worked out how to pay and where to pick up. Reg makes everything simple and easy, and then prints and canvases can get to my clients so much sooner.
Let’s see…what else have I done to make it so that I am wonderfully relaxed and happy? House cleaners. A must for me with a husband and two little kids. Once a week or else the house goes downhill. Heidi, my amazing nanny, who is like a second mommy to Amelia (what are we going to do when she moves in the fall??!). Living in cohousing, which has made it so that I always have someone to watch my kids in a bind, always a grown up to talk to, and so many children for my kids to play with. And meals a few times a week all together. So perfect.
So yes, things have come a long way in the last year. I was so, so very stressed out all the time before, and now I am happy and totally supported by all the wonderful woman who play such major (and minor) roles in my life. Life is good.
This is Emerson. You may remember his newborn portraits I did last year. He looks so much the same! But I always say that when the baby is still fairly bald at a year (like my Amelia). Stunning eyes, beautiful mama, a gorgeous little family. If I could post every single image from this photography session, I would. We started at their house in Boulder, which has the quintessential white porch swing and old, lovable dog, and then we headed over to Wonderland lake in north Boulder to do some outdoor portraits. The night was perfect (this was mother’s day, btw, which was one of the nicest days of the year so far), and Emerson was happy. One of my favorite sessions to date!
More in the days to come. I am about three to four weeks behind on blogging (from old Boulder photo sessions as well as the San Francisco ones), and will *try* to catch up.
xoxo stacey
