Happy Birthday to my little Miss P

Two years?? Really?? Where has the time gone? I still call her my baby. Is that bad? I think people are a little confused when they find out I am referring to her, but she is still my baby and I want it to stay like that for as long as possible. There are so many things I love about miss P. She is fun, spunky, feisty, lovey, sweet, pretty, happy, and all girl. I forgot how busy two year olds are, but the cuteness super cedes the marker on the walls and clothes, the cupboards that are emptied, the shampoo that is poured out, the glue sticks that are eaten like chapstick, the toilets that are played in, the diapers that are removed and all the other craziness and at the end of the day I still think she is the cutest thing imaginable.

Happy birthday Miss P, Paigie girl, Paigie Pootsie, Sissy Sue, Stinker Bum. I love you!

Shouldn't be posting!!

I should be editing and packing! We leave for Guatemala on Wednesday afternoon and I have two sessions left to edit, laundry to finish, kids to pack and maybe me to pack!! And so, in Staci form, I am procrastinating. I think it helps me avoid the reality of what I really need to be doing.

I went to the coolest cooking class that my friend Sara put on down in Vegas. She has a biz called Downtown Cooking. It was fantastic! I tried recipes that I would have never considered and really enjoyed them. I am going to make one of the salads for Douglas tonight (I think he will pass out that I actually cooked...it has been a while). I actually went down to take pics for her and attending the class was an added bonus.

I felt like my booth at What Women Want was a success. Those were a few LONG days, but we passed out around 800 cards and I scheduled a few sessions. I was so glad to have someone with me both days. Thank you Anne and Douglas!

I am enjoying my children lately...just had to put that in because I feel like I gripe about the challenges more than anything. J is in a crafting stage. He wants to color, glue, cut, pom pom all the time which is great by me. Paige is the cutest little pill. She gallops where ever she goes which is a little memory I really never want to forget. They LOVE playing out back with the hose and since summer is here YUCK, it is a good thing.

D is biking again and aside from him waking up my lazy sleeping each morning, I am glad he has something he loves to do. He has already scheduled four century rides for the year.

I made the decision that I need to have a cleaner again and always. I just can't keep up with it and it makes me a mean mom. As long as I work, I need someone to take care of that. There is just not enough time in the day to do it all.

Business has been busy. That is good, but also requires a lot of motivation, planning and efficiency. Hard things, nuff said.

Off to hang some pics in a dr. office, fix Anne's daughter Marissa's hair for her preschool graduation (she is in Hawaii) and editing photos. Fun times.

I need a little help...

I am updating the pricing for my photography biz and am in need of some help. I have a few ideas, but I am not sure which is better. My main goal is to increase the amount I make per session and to weed out the clients who are looking for bargain basement photography prices. I also really want my clients to start printing more through me. So here are my ideas. I would love any thoughts.

Idea #1:
Increase my price significantly, but include a large print credit. This would allow my clients to get at least one large print through me.

Idea #2:
Just increase my session fee. It would be more than the session fee would be if I included the credit (total minus the print credit), but less than the total price of #1 (does that make sense?)

Example of the two with arbitrary numbers...
#1 is $300 with a $150 credit so you pay as a customer about $150 for the session
#2 is $200 this just includes a session fee, but is initially a smaller investment than #1

Here are some thoughts as well. I would like clients to order prints through me rather than just disks for a few reasons. First, the quality of, say Costco prints, is subpar and when I spend HOURS editing photos to get them just right, it seems like a waste to then print them and get a lower quality print. Also, I think many people buy disks and then really never print much of anything. That also seems like a waste. My goal really is to create art for my clients and mediocre printing kind of thwarts that.

At the same time, do people just want the disk anyway? Will this deter people from using me? Should I care or just accept that I wouldn't be a good fit for those people anyway.?

I thought also that maybe I could offer digital packages that include x amount of print credit and x number of digital files. Would that satisfy people's need to have digital files.

Okay, so now that is confusing, but I really would love some input!