Holiday Card Designs

I am so excited to introduce holiday card designs for 2008! Things are going to work a bit differently this year, so let me explain the process.

I have created an album in the "Client Proofs" section of my website that contains a wide variety of holiday card designs. I am very excited about them and hope you find them as beautiful as I do! If you want to order cards from me this year you will need to go to the website www.uppercasephotography.com and click on "Client Proofs." Then click on "Holiday Cards" to view the designs. You can click on the first card to view it bigger and then use the "prev/next" buttons to scroll through the designs. If you find a design that you like note the number of the card above it. It will say "photo 3 of 29" for example. This is how you will let me know which card you would like to order. Here are a few answers to commonly asked questions about the cards:

1. What kind of cards do you offer? I offer 3 types of cards all in the 5x7 size. The least expensive is a 5x7 front-only card printed on photo paper just like a regular photo. The next step up from that is a 5x7 card printed on cardstock both front and back. The most expensive and most impressive of the cards is a 5x7 folded card printed on cardstock and folded just like a regular greeting card. Any of the cards shown can be made into any of these three types of cards. If you order the front-only card, what you see is what will be printed. If you order a postcard style, what you see will be the front of the card and I will design a back as well. If you order a folded card, what you see will be the front and I will design the inside and back of the card as well.

2. How much do the cards cost?
5x7 (front only): Design and set of 25 cards $42.00
Each additional set of 25 cards $28.00
5x7 (front & back): Design and set of 25 cards $57.00
Each additional set of 25 $38.00
5x7 folded card: Design and set of 25 cards $95.00
Each additional set of 25 cards $65.00

3. How many cards do I have to order? The cards come in sets of 25 with envelopes, so you must order at least 25 cards to place an order.

4. Can changes be made to a card design? I can change the color scheme of the cards and the wording. So if you see a card you like and it's in blue and brown but you would like it in red and green, that is not a problem. If you see a card that says "Happy Holidays" and you would like it to say "Merry Christmas" that is also not a problem. I will not, however, be making significant changes to the design and layouts of the cards offered. This is a bit of a change from past years but I think it will make the entire process easier for all of us!

5. You have used a photo from my session in the samples but I like a different card. Do I have to use the card that already has my family's photo on it? Of course not! I placed photos in the cards just to aid in seeing how the finished card will look. You most certainly can pick any card that you would like.

6. Can I order additional cards later if I run out? Yes, as long as you order in sets of 25. Also keep in mind the amount of turnaround time it takes for me to get the cards to you.

7. When is the deadline to order holiday cards? You must place your holiday card order by December 1st. Of course, the sooner you order the sooner you will have your cards. If you have already had your session, I encourage you to go ahead and place your order before the holiday rush.

8. What if I don't like any of the card designs? If you don't like any of the designs than what is wrong with you because they are beautiful! No seriously, if you don't find something you like, please email me and we will talk. :)

9. I love the cards, but I haven't had a session. What do I do? Well, call or email me and we'll see what we can do to get you on the calendar. :)

And because a blog post just isn't a blog post without a few photos, here are a few of the designs. Be sure to go visit the album on the website though, because there are many more designs there!

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions at all or would like to place an order. I am going to be out of town for the weekend shooting beach sessions, but will return on Monday.

Let's Hear it For the Girls

It seems like I've had a string of lovely girls in front of my camera lately. This weekend was filled with more girls!

Here's Campbell at her one year session. It always makes me a little sad when my baby planners "graduate." I miss seeing them every three months and watching them grow. If I'm lucky, though, they come back to see me a couple of times a year! Campbell was as sweet and beautiful as ever for her birthday session.






Luckily, these two adorable twin girls have a couple more sessions in their first year. They are six months old here and just doubly cute! I am amazed at how they are so similar in some ways but so different at the same time.






Even my design work has been girly lately! Here are a couple of square collages that I have worked on recently.


I sent one of my own girly girls off to second grade this morning. One down and two more to go, as the little girls don't start preschool until September 5th. I think we are all ready to be back into a steady routine. :)

An update on my availability for the fall: My weekend dates are filled for September, October, and November as of right now. People sometimes have to change dates for some reason, so contact me if you would like me to let you know if a weekend date becomes available. I have plenty of weekday openings for all three months. I plan to book on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 9:30am for studio sessions. I will also book on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons/evenings for either studio or outdoor sessions. Please contact me as soon as possible to reserve your date. All sessions are reserved on a first come first serve basis.

Coming soon--I will be introducing Christmas cards for the 2008 holiday season. When I have them ready I will create an album on my website so everyone can take a look and pick out the card that is just right for their family this year. Be looking for details on the blog soon!

Simple & Sweet

I love shopping for awesome clothes to photograph my kids in. I love it when you all show up with awesome clothes or items from home. I love being on the lookout for new and interesting props. I love finding a great new spot to photograph someone. But as much as I LOVE all that stuff and think it's important to get the right look to my photos....what it really all boils down to is pretty simple. A sweet expression on a beautiful and well-lit face.

Here's Madison's sweet face:




And here's Eden's sweet face:


And that's about as simple and sweet as it gets, huh?

(Okay, I must admit that I also photographed Madison in a pink tutu and Eden in a teacup, but that's not the focus of this post now is it! The ones posted were my favorites from their sessions.)

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my previous post. The winner of the drawing for the brag book is Ginny Mikkola. Congrats Ginny and I can't wait to create a brag book of your stunning girls!

My Own

Downtown has quickly become one of my favorites places to take portraits. There is so much interesting color and texture and it goes great with cute trendy clothing! On Sunday I took my own kids downtown for a few new photos. Usually they don't enjoy the whole photo process when I try to photograph them together, although they tend to do better separately. But because their daddy works downtown, they think it's such a treat to go down there and they did much better than usual for the photos. We may be doing all of our sessions downtown now-ha!




Claire is letting her hair grow long and I think she looks super cute in her braids.


Stella is finally starting to take some steps. We're in trouble now!


Notice the major lack of teeth Grace is sporting these days! She starts 2nd grade next week.


I think it's time for another blog contest as well. I'd love to know that you all are out there reading, so here's how to enter the contest. Just leave a comment on this blog post saying anything you want (make sure to include your name though!). Leaving a comment will enter you in a drawing for a free 5x7 brag book with your next session. The brag book will contain 20 images from your session bound together with a spiral binding and a frosted cover. Perfect for carrying around in your purse to show off your new photos! Good luck and I'll let you know the winner in my next post.

Class of '09

I am excited to have some senior sessions on my schedule for the fall. I have so much fun photographing this age group--they usually have a great sense of style plus they stay still! I must admit though that it makes me feel a bit old, but really I guess I am getting a bit old! I had the pleasure of photographing Emily this week. She is a natural beauty into basketball and lacrosse (tough girl!) so we wanted her portraits to reflect her natural, easygoing style. She smiles nonstop and when we tried some "nonsmiling" photos she only smiled bigger. :) Good thing she has a great smile!






We also stopped by the studio for a more "formal" shot to match her older brother's senior portrait.


I hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be blogging again next week with more new photos from recent sessions.

Hard-Cover Coffee Table Books

I am excited to be able to offer a new product to my clients. Imagine a beautiful hard cover bound book featured most of the images from your session! These books turn out so nice and are truly a work of art to be displayed and treasured for years to come. Here are a few photos of a sample book I just received to keep in the studio and carry with me to proofing sessions. This is a "family themed" book filled with images from a recent beach session that you may have seen on the blog. Please excuse my not-so-great product photography--it's raining today so I had to take these on the kitchen table while perched on my daughter's booster seat! The photos could never do justice to how lovely these look in person.






If anyone has questions or would like to receive pricing information on these books, just email me at julie@uppercasephotography.com

I am digging out from under the pile of work that collected while I was away at the beach and hope to be posting some more new client images very soon!

Beautiful Boys

I am blogging from the beach once again, but no beach pictures yet this time. I do have a couple of beautiful boys to show you from before I left home though. I usually try to pick a boyish word like handsome to describe the boys, but there is really no other word to describe these two other than beautiful!

Here's 10 month old Roman--a walker already and a lover of all things Elmo:






And here's three-week old Caleb. With his beautiful parents, he was doubly blessed in the gene pool! He slept so sweetly for me and his parents were wonderful, trusting my vision for every shot.






We are enjoying HOT weather here at the beach, but luckily there's lots pools, water slides, etc to cool us off. Tonight is Japanese Steakhouse night for all 15 of us--yum, one of my favorites! I hope you all are having a great week too.