I have always wanted to “Day in the Life” photo sessions. This is where I come to your home, and photograph you on and off all day-the children waking up in the morning, brushing their teeth, making pancakes as a family, getting dressed, doing some sort of family activity that would be normal for you guys, like going to the library or going grocery shopping, or making a craft- then making dinner, getting jammies on, reading books in bed, then photos of them sweet and asleep.

But, you have to know how to do photojournalistic photography well. And this, I do NOT know as well as I know how to be a portrait photographer. Yes, I can get a beautiful portrait of your little one standing in a field with the gorgeous Boulder foothills behind her, but I have not yet mastered photographing inside and doing it in a really artful, creative, fun way, you know?

Those “day in a life” sessions are so, so special. I KNOW people choose me as their photographer because I capture the connection a family has together, and I capture a child or baby’s true personality (all the quirky expressions and such). So, it would be AMAZING if I could come to your home, and photograph you doing what you always do.Capturing the every-day way you connect and the laughter over spilled blueberries.

One thing I know for sure is that I need a few new lenses. I am not just saying that. In my photography circles, it is a joke when someone blames some kind of failure on the type of lenses they have, but really, I think that is a good starting point. My good friend is also a nikon user so I am going to see if I can borrow her good zoom lens (pretty please kim?) for a few days and practice.

If YOU want a day in the life session, I will price it like a family photo session and discount it by 50%. This is outrageous, bc I am not going to spend an hour or two with you and your family, but an entire day. And you will get A LOT more photos.  So, the first person to email me at boulderbabyphotography.com gets this extra special deal. I am so excited! It will be so cool to just hang out with a family all day, photographing them just being them. And capturing the connection and true interactions they have when just being themselves, versus how they are when they know this moment is going to be turned into a portrait. Don’t get me wrong-I DO get the kinds of portraits where families are connecting and, for that brief moment where i have my intern hit me on the head with my flip flop, I do capture true happiness and joy and laughter. But a day in the life is extra special.

If you are a photographer reading my blog right now and do these kinds of sessions, please contact me, I would love to do one of my own family! I know that I can capture them doing what they do, but I am honestly such an important part of their lives, so I need to be in the photos.

It would be the most beautiful album, something I would want to do every year.

So, I am  moving into my new/old house August 1st. I am going to deck it OUT and make it a wonderland for kids. If you have not seen my pinterest page yet, take a look (I love sharing it with others, it is so much fun).

When the house is all ready and beautiful and cluttered and messy as it is in real life, I will have a photographer come to MY house and do a day in the life session.

For now, here are just a few photos I took the other day of my kids, starting in the car (at a stoplight!) after picking up Amelia from preschool, to right before bed where they are playing in the sand at the park in their jammies. My intention was not to do a day in the life type thing, I was taking photos like I always do of them, but they are fitting photos for today’s blog post.

On an even happier note I did the most beautiful session with a really cute 5 year old today. Sunday I get to photograph some old clients who moved out of town and scheduled me in for the few days they would be visiting Boulder. I can’t wait.

xoxo stacey

ps.  Check out the photo of Elijah in the tree. See Simba up there with them? He has grown into this humongous cat somehow in less than a year of life. Check him out here in a photo shoot that I brought him along with as a “prop” bc he was such a darn cute kitten.

Oh Amelia, you are so spunky, full of life, so fun, and you are MINE. All mine. I am so lucky to have you.

The other day we were talking with a new neighbor (we just moved to south boulder), and we were discussing names and nicknames briefly. Amelia named herself “Me-me” right off the bat-as soon as she could start talking. So we call her Me-me or Amelia or Amalea or Ami.

As we were talking about this, she proudly stood up, shook herself off as if to make her presence known to us, and announced that her name is “Amelia, but mommy calls me her firecracker.” And she was so proud, It melted and broke my heart all at once. First of all, it hurt my heart a bit, because when I call her “my little firecracker” it is ALWAYS in reference to how Elijah is my buddha baby and Amelia is, well, quite the opposite.  She did not realize that being a firecracker might not be the best thing to be. And it melted my heart because she was so, SO very proud that mama gave her a very special name.

So, there she is on the left, being the awesome firecracker that she is.

xoxo stacey

ps. this is just another great photo for the product/commercial photo shoot we did for Urban Baby Bonnets. My very favorite hats in the world.  For real, not just because I am their photographer, but because the design works so well and the fabrics are so, so cute. More soon.

pps, only in Boulder will a photographer be so lucky to find a Komby (a vw bus) on every corner and, only in Boulder, will you find a nice and friendly owner to let you stick a couple cute kids in cute hats in it and take some photos. Well, on second thought, aren’t ALL vw bus owners nice and friendly? I doubt it is just a boulder thing.

I know, this is a super heavy photo post. I am up at 1:30am, that is not too late, editing photos, after just getting back from visiting my dear friend, Kim, and her family and doing a little portrait session at this gorgeous location she found in Englewood.

Of course, I DID bring my two little ones, and the first two photos are of them. How freaking sweet are they? I LOVE them. I brought along another Kim, who is mentoring with me and helping out, and I was teaching on shooting into the sun. And Elijah and Amelia just love to ham it up, so we could not help but get photos of them, too.

Ok, so I have not posted newborn Sammy’s birth photos yet, but will soon. They are really grainy bc he was born at night and in the hospital, and I do NOT use flash, especially at a birth (what birthing mother would tolerate THAT?). So, I just need Kim to run the photos through her spiffy little noise program and then I will put them up on the blog.

So Sam is now 13 days old, and apparently he does NOT like to be photographed. He was just not a happy newborn tonight. But, what we got was sweet, and I still love all the photos, even when he is crying. He can do what he wants.

The last set of photos is of me. Me, me. Kim took photos and video while I was shooting and hanging out with all the little ones. So, this is just a behind the scenes peak.  Can not wait to show you all what the video is for! It is going to be fabulous.

Ok, off to bed at a decent hour tonight.After having the best day just chilling out with my own kids, not working, then spending time doing what I love (being a photographer), I can really rest well tonight. It was a good day.

xoxo stacey

I am so, so, SO excited about this. I LOVE leading workshops. My passion for teaching is off the hook. I spend hours on the phone with mom photographers all over the country mentoring them on their photography and businesses. I can’t help it. I know my life is already totally overbooked, but other moms helped ME when I was first starting out and one of my greatest pleasures in life is helping another mom find her confidence, her artistic soul-when that spark in her belly gets LIT up and everything is full speed ahead from there. And one of the best parts? They realize they can get PAID for doing what they love. And paid well. And from there on is the never-ending journey of how to nurture that passion, create a solid, worthwhile income for the family, AND be the super mom that we have always dreamed of being. I am still figuring that last part out, but believe me, when I do (and I WILL), I will share it relentlessly on my blog.

About the WORKSHOP

Get ready-This is going to be the most fabulous, most interesting, FUN workshop you have taken in a long time. It is ALL about how to envision, create, collaborate, and BOOK those baby and children product jobs that are so interesting and fulfilling to do.

What I have found is that there are “product photographers” out there. They are represented by agencies and agents and start their services at like $10,000 and offer services that I would not even want to do (like working alongside a stager and stylist to get that one shot dreamed up by some man in an office at their corporate ad agency:). But I love MOM owned companies-and up until now I have always just done product baby, children, and maternity lifestyle photography in Boulder as people have asked-I have never set out to make it one of my main things. Usually it is a friend of the product’s creator that recommends me and we go from there. I make about $2000-$4000 on shoots like this, and I love it!

Really, nothing is better than a product shoot. Yes, I love capturing just who my 1 year old client is in that very moment of his life, but when that photo is printed by the thousands and shown to mothers around the world, I feel a special kind of connection and pride with my art.

The mothers viewing the photograph are drawn to that bright expression the baby is making, but they are also taking in the soft, warm, fuzzy blanket that he is snuggling in as well. So it is a win-win. You produce a photograph that brightens up some one’s day, and then your client’s product is sold! It is a really rewarding, fun, interesting, and lucrative subset of the baby and family photography industry.

I have been getting a lot of emails from new as well as already-established photographers lately wanting to learn how to get these kinds of jobs and how to exactly go about it.

So… I am going to have a weekend where we shoot multiple awesome products at several very different locations with different types of light and models. The weekend will be jam packed with shooting for real baby product companies, having fun and getting to know other local women photographers, and just having a lot of giggles out of tickling, pinching, and googling over all the sweet, fat, squishy babies we will be photographing:). You may even find that one of your own photos from the weekend ends up in a national ad or magazine:)

Overall, this weekend is meant to give you a solid introduction into the how-to’s of baby product photography. We will also go into detail on how to find these jobs and, most importantly, how to choose the right products to photograph for YOU to enhance your portfolio.

We will be shooting such a wide range of products, you will definitely be able to build a complete portfolio from just this one weekend. I have so many great companies for this first workshop-Baby Hawk, GoGreen Baby Diapers, Belle Baby Carriers, JP LIzzy Diaper Bags, Toofeze Teethers, maternity wear, high end children’s fashion, etc… It will be a great product portfolio for any baby photographer.

Here’s the tentative schedule (the much more detailed one will be sent out a few days before the workshop).

Saturday, April 28th

8am-9am Boulder Farmer’s Market-Baby Hawk Baby Carriers-plan on shooting at every shoot-practice makes it more fun and you will produce amazing portfolio shots in the end. We will just jump straight in to this one!

9am-10:30am Meet in the park and we will provide coffee, tea and a light breakfast-picnic style. I will teach on the basic outline of a product shoot and answer any questions about that morning’s shoot. Go over the plan for noon shoot and lighting.

12pm-1pm Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, Co- Designer Diaper Bag shoot. Follow me around as I point out why certain locations/poses/angles look best for this type of product and how I choose the locations during such a bright time of day. Then disperse on your own or together to find some yummy lunch on Pearl Street.

6pm-7pm Wonderland Lake, Boulder, Co. Variety of smaller of baby products-blankets, pacifiers, changing pads, hats, burp clothes, etc… This is a beautiful location and big enough for us to set down a little gaggle of babies in different spots and be able to rotate-each getting a good amount of time with every baby and product. Great opportunity to learn how to shoot into the setting sun as well.

7pm-8pm Wrap up talk and picnic style catered dinner. I will speak about what we learned today and outline certain necessary points in planning, organizing, and pulling off a successful baby product shoot.

Sunday, April 29th

8am-9am Chautauqua Park, Boulder Co, East Side above the theater. Children and toddler high-end fashion shoots. During shooting, we will discuss the different poses and backdrops that work for the branding of each clothing company. We will also focus in on how important expression is for fashion shoots and I will show you my tricks and tips to get certain looks.

9am-10:30am Meet in the park and we will provide coffee and a light breakfast-picnic style. This morning’s talk will be on choosing and sourcing models and locations, the importance of stylizing your photographs to the exact branding of each company, and how to create a flow of photographs for a fashion shoot that tells a story.

3pm-5pm Scott Carpenter Park Pavilion-One on one sessions with Stacey to be scheduled. 20 minutes each.

5pm-6pm Scott Carpenter Park, Boulder Colorado. We will meet at the pavilion for a catered dinner and talk. I will go over how to begin booking products sessions, how to communicate best with your clients to ultimately produce for them images they will love, and how to refine your style and portfolio to attract the kinds of companies that fit well with YOUR branding and what YOU love to shoot.

6pm-Sunset Skate Park at Scott Carpenter Park. We will be shooting high end boys clothing as well as a few baby products. There are great angles here and a lot of fun graffiti to play around with.

Investment: Normally $795, but since this is my first baby product workshop (which makes it even better since it will be a lot more fun and laid back), I am offering this session for only $375. This includes catered meals, snacks, extensive teachings, and an opportunity to build a COMPLETE product portfolio so that you can begin shooting on your own right away. It also includes 1 one-one session where we can review your images or you can feel free to ask me just about anything about anything-no holds bar-I like to be an open book:)

The fine print:

-There will be a limit of 6-8 participants per weekend.

-Must have a DSLR or SLR camera and be able to shoot on manual or Aperture Priority-(contact me first if this is a problem and I can help).

-No need to be in business or plan on being in business-if you are doing this just for a fun weekend, OR hoping to get stellar images and become Boulder’s #1 baby product photographer, either is fine. Even if you are a mom entrepreneur yourself and want to learn and get some great shots of your own product, I am down with that!

-We will try to work with the Boulder weather as it comes-but certain shoots may need to be rescheduled if there is rain. Rescheduling should be fairly easy with such a small group.

-Payment is due in full to secure your spot and can be paypaled to ($375) boulderbabyphotography@gmail.com or a check mailed to Stacey Potter Photography, 4734 Hampshire St, Boulder, CO 80301. To pay by credit card, please call my office manager, Kellie, with your info and she can process it for you over the phone- (720) 352-8665. This is non-refundable but can be transferred to another photographer or credited towards a later workshop or session.

-Each participant must submit 8-10 photos from the weekend within 2 weeks with a copyright release for all the companies to be able to use your images if they would like to.

-Please register by Monday, April 9th to secure your spot.

Thanks everyone and I am so excited to meet and get to know all these new, amazing photographers! Please don’t hesitate to call or email if you have any questions, or if you just want to chat! 720-310-0336. Oh yes, and if you want to registar please email at boulderbabyphotography@gmail.com or call my office manager, Kellie, at (720) 352-8665. Thanks!!!

xoxo stacey

News first-I booked up all my Boulder mini photography sessions so I have opened up October 5th, October 12, and October 22nd. Email me asap if you want to book a session, you can read all the info here. Some will be at Wonderland Lake in north Boulder, one will be at Chautauqua in south Boulder. Either way, we will get beautiful, amazing photographs!

Barb Uil (aka Jinky Art) is just magic. She is my most favoritist photographer, blah, blah, blah, I have said this 8 million times on my photography blog. But really, these photos are beautiful and stunning and sweet and magical. I love them. I can’t wait to move in to our new home so I can put up beautiful big canvases. I still am in awe that she photographed my family. And really captured who we are. For sure.  I strive to be half as good of a photographer as her. As always Barb, I love you! Thank you!

So, news on the being-sick-thing. I am definitely surrounded by loving, supportive people who want me to heal and get better from this chron’s (autoimmune). I called my mom crying yesterday and she jumped on the first flight out there. That is a GOOD mom, right? I have a procedure tomorrow and hopefully we will find out what is going on. I saw a naturpath today and and plugging away with my awesome acupuncturist, Kate, but I am up to 40 mg of predizone (steroids) and ug, that SUCKS. Send me some good healing-belly-energy if you have some to spare.

xoxo stacey

ps. happy jinky art photos of my family are really helping me feel better:) Nothing like beautiful photography of your own family from your favorite photographer to make you happy.

pps. Thank you mom, Luanne, Natasha, Kate, Kellie, Adam, Rich, and Arturo for being such a solid community of support for me. It means everything to me to be supported.

Okay, okay, you all know I have been gushing and awing over Miss. Barb Uil, Jinky Art (from Australia) FOREVER. She is my favorite photographer EVER, and I am so inspired by her daily.

Well, I am the kind of person that just goes for it. You know? I have an idea, and I DO it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

9 months ago I wrote Jinky an email telling her how fabulous Boulder was, how cool my cohousing community is, and how perfect it would be for her to do one of her US workshops here in Boulder. And….a few months later, she wrote back and said YES!

So, I hosted Barb and 30 photographers from all over the country in my home and community a few weeks ago. It was awesome. I learned so much, and was inspired to change my art in a way that is already filling my heart with joy.

So, whenever, 7 months ago, when we decided to have the retreats here, I asked Barb if she would have time for a family session. This is before i asked my husband. I casually one day, after making sure to make him HAPPY, asked him if we could throw down $5k on a shoot with Barb. My idol.  My favorite photographer in the WHOLE world who is coming to OUR house. He answered with a big fat, absolute, “NO.” Anyways, Barb wrote back and said she had no time as the workshops were hectic and too much was going on.

Two days before she arrived I got a casual call from Barb: “So, Stacey, did we talk about me doing a shoot of your family as a thank you for hosting? I hope you can come up with something that is amazing and totally YOU guys.” In two days. Two days.

So I freaked out. I told all my neighbors and friends and posted on my photography forums that BARB UIL was photographing my family. MY family. In two days. What ideas did they have?

Nothing.

I was taking Amelia on a walk the next day and saw that my neighbors had brought their orange vw bus out of storage. Well, I remembered an awesome shoot that Barb had did with a vw, and thought it would be perfect. AND, I used to be a dead head, (even though I was only 15 when Jerry died)-but I did go to SIX shows and had front row center for the Grateful Dead’s very last show in Chicago. And I wanted to drop out of school and get a vw bus and follow the dead, but a good teacher talked me out of it. So I went on to get my college degree and then my master’s in Boulder where there are a lot of old deadheads anyways.

So the bus idea was perfect. We took it up to this ridge in north Boulder. And got these photos. Is she the most freaking amazing photographer you have ever seen?

Then, casually, she says later that night “It would be cool (or maybe she said neat? I don’t know or remember Australian lingo) if we did a series of shoots with your family in Kombi’s.” Btw, “Kombi” is what they call vw buses in AU. Never heard it before, but I like it.

I posted IMMEDIATELY to my Boulder mom’s groups and to craigslist looking for two more buses. The next night we had an awesome red bus out in a field. The night after that we had an amazing yellow Kombi that was driven into the MIDDLE of a sunflower field. I kid you not. Freaking amazing. A full-on sunflower field.

So, here are a few photos from the first of the shoots. I am not sure why I am so lucky, but I know that the more I open myself to others, the more these amazing things and opportunities land in my lap. I just feel like it is unreal.

Thank you Barb, I love you!

xoxo stacey

Yeah, lot’s more beautiful ones like this to come. Thank you Heidi, I love you and your photography is amazing!

These are mine, by the way, and me.  Sunflowers and all. Wonderful, magical shoot. Could not get better than this….

Sigh…will write more tomorrow and give lots of props and links to this photographer. Had to post it now though, I love it SO much! That is me and my beautiful little, sweet, wonderful family.

Yeah, not a lot to say about this photo. She chose her own clothes for our friend’s birthday party yesterday. She insisted. Bathing suit, cowgirl boots, two dora band-aids, and a marti gras necklace. My girl knows how to dress fine for a party. Looking at this photo, I realize I REALLY need to get our family portraits done soon. She will NOT EVER look at me when I have a camera. It is ridiculous. But she will for other photographers.

Well, Jinky Art is coming to MY house on Friday for 6 days of workshops in Boulder. I am SO psyched.  Amelia and Elijah are definitely going to be models. I have so much to prepare for this retreat, and can not believe that after 8 months of planning the time has arrived. For those who don’t know, Barb Uil (Jinky Art) is my very favorite photographer in the world. She is  coming all the way from Australia for two amazing workshops here in Boulder, at my house+community house no less! Her photography is so whimsical and soft and beautiful and speaks to the heart of childhood. Every photograph is a work of art. I love being able to make a living as a photographer, and realize that a lot of that is because I can take really great portraits that capture the joy and love in a family, but her work is this amazing, timeless, breathtaking art, and I want to be able to create with the same tenacity and energy that she does. So watch out-I am going to be a new photographer after this week. I will post LOTS and LOTS of photos as we go along, too!

Now off to finalize catering, models, props, locations, etc….

xoxo stacey

I have a very long list of sessions and family times to blog. Millions of pictures. Well, at the very least, thousands. I can cut that down to a few per blog post, but that is so hard! I have so many photos on my computer, I hate deleting any of them. But, a few days ago, I went and deleted about 1000 of my own family photos. So hard, but it had to be done. I think I have taken 10k in the last two years, just of my own family. How will I enjoy that when I am old? I am going to cull them down to the best, then make an album for every year, and then blow up the very best as canvases and float wraps.

Anyways, this was Adam’s 35th birthday party. 35! We met when I was 21. We are getting so old (well me, I am a mere 31, so there). He is looking GOOD though. Gotta get a good pic of his newly finished tattoo (my bday present to him, along with a weeklong meditation retreat).

Off to Breckenridge for the weekend for a family only-no shooting at all-feeling free and being well kinda weekend.

Because my boys love those babies I love these two photos, for sure. Adam *finally* told me the other day that he “wasn’t against having another baby if the circumstances were right.” Told ya. It would just take some time for him to come around. I have been saying this forever! Glad the day came. Coming up with new baby names as I write….

Super wonderful sales manager Reg, with her new baby. Love those baby feet! So sorry we have to represent the competitor’s baby sling. What’s up with that Reg?

And then it turned windy. We were being blown all around-crazy Boulder wind.Eli’s face ROCKS. (fyi-my Elijah is in blue here-Eli is the one rocking the yoda extreme jedi scream there.

ps. if you know me well, then you are not wondering why my husband’s 35th birthday party blog post is all about kids and babies. There were indeed a lot of adults there, but they are just not that cute.

xoxo stacey