Category: News
We were hacked! It wasn’t the first time–it happened back in 2003 when I was running a tie dye business (yes, interesting tidbit there, no?) and it was as much a huge hassle then as it is now. The good news? We were able to restore an earlier copy of the blog and I didn’t have to completely start over. I’m smart–I make back-ups. The bad news? I had spent nearly all night a couple days ago fixing the broken images and posting several sessions from the last few weeks. I nearly fell asleep in the chair waiting for an upload to finish and went to bed without making a back-up. Murphy was alive and well that night because the next morning…everything had gone *poof.* And I cried.
Pardon Our Dust | Phoenix Photography
Shellie December 18, 2009 2:36 am
In importing my posts from the blog on our old server, the images were lost. So I have to manually re-add them to some 50+ posts. It will take a while but I’m working on it. Good thing I saved this project for my “vacation” which is really more of a “staycation.” ;)
December News | Phoenix Family Photographer
Shellie December 1, 2009 10:40 am
I can’t believe it is December 1st already! It feels like it was just late-July and then I blinked…POW!!
In our house, we have a tradition that Santa’s Elves bring a candy cane and leave it on the Christmas tree every morning in December. And the Elves usually don’t bring just any old candy cane…they bring the nice thick Bob’s large candy canes. For years we would have to scour all the local stores to find them and then buy them individually, usually at 35-50 cents each. And that was if we could find them in time. This year we decided to downgrade to regular candy canes just to make it easier on ourselves and wouldn’t you know it? Last week I noticed that Walmart has a box of 2-dozen big canes for 4 bucks! I bought that (and we’re already bought several dozen regular ones) so now I think our kids are going to have to come up with a way to give out a whole lot of regular candy canes!
(Disclaimer: I much prefer Super Target or Fry’s to Walmart but sometimes I have no choice but to head into Walmart under duress…like when it’s midnight the night before Thanksgiving and I still need a bunch of things!)
December promises to be a full month which is good as far as I’m concerned, because that means it will go by quickly and before we know it, Christmas will be here! I’m so looking forward to Christmas morning. I think I’m more excited as an adult than I was as a kid! Having two small children at the same time (K and D are 3 and 4.5…only 18 months apart) makes it extra magical! We also will be lighting candles December 11th through 19th for Chanukah in honor of my paternal grandparents who passed away when I was young.
We adopted a family through the Angel Tree for an online community I’ve been a member of since 2002. I had planned on taking the kids shopping for the gifts for the 3 children (outfit, book, game and treat for each) but I decided to order online so I could be sure we’d get everything we need. We’ll still make a trip to the store for the treats that were requested (things like candy and chips). I feel so blessed to be able to help another family this way. We usually do Angel Tree through a local retailer but adopting a whole family has been nice!
Tom and I are renewing our vows later this week–we’re having an intimate chapel ceremony with just the kids, my parents and Tom’s parents. Then we’re returning to the house for a mini-reception consisting of party platters from one of our favorite restaurants….Olive Garden! A fabulous local cake baker is making us the world’s most adorable cake–I can’t wait to get my hands on it so I can photograph it and share the pictures here. I’ve only seen a sketch, but wow!! I had to get her to promise to make Katie’s birthday cake in January; she’s so talented. I’ve also taken on the task of creating bouquets for myself and the girls and boutonnieres for Tom and the boys. I had never given much thought to how bouquets are made (we eloped when we were married in 1994) but once I started photographing weddings I started planning my own bouquet for our vow renewal, even though we weren’t sure when we’d actually do it!
Lastly, it may appear that I’ve been a little remiss on posting sneak peeks on the blog. I’ll give away a secret–we’re going to be changing to a new blog design YET AGAIN and any images I post now will need to be reposted once we make the switch, so I’m holding off for a couple weeks (WordPress will allow me to preserve all my posts and information but not the images). Hopefully that will be the last change we’ll make for a long while–it’s been a journey discovering what will work for us and while I think this blog design is cute, it doesn’t really scream “ME” or “US.” We’re also changing our portfolio website to match the new “feel.” We’ve actually had that portion down for a month or so because we had feedback that it was difficult to navigate and it frequently would freeze up–but a change will solve that problem!
So for now, Happy December to you and your’s! Be on the lookout for our make-over! :)
One contest, three awesome prizes!! | Phoenix Photographer
Shellie October 21, 2009 11:57 am
I feel like livening things up a bit around here and I want to meet new people and see some new faces as well as spread the word about the gorgeous photography Tom and I are doing, so I decided it’s a great time for a little contest.
I’ve noticed that a lot of my friends and clients are photography enthusiasts, so what could be better for Serenity Pictures than a photo contest? With photography-related prizes?
The Grand Prize winner is the entry with the most votes and will receive a Grand Session Collection from Serenity Pictures ($775 value!).
The Runner Up is the entry with the second most votes and will receive a full year of membership to Clickin’ Moms (a $50 value).
Honorable Mention will be chosen by moi and will receive a copy of The Digital Photography Book ($25 value).
Here’s how it works:
1) do a little photo-session with your child(ren) or another special child in your life (see Resources > Tips above for some pointers!).
2) submit your favorite shot (or another recent image) to shellie@serenitypictures.net . be sure to put CONTEST in the subject so I don’t miss the entry! please also include your name and phone number so i can contact you if you win!
3) become a fan of Serenity Pictures on Facebook, if you aren’t already. just click here or visit http://www.facebook.com/serenitypictures and click “Become a Fan” near the top of the page
4) get as many people as you can (friends, family, neighbors, co-workers) to vote for your image — send them to our Facebook page so that they can view the contest entries and vote for you!! (link in #3)
5) the winners will be announced on Monday, November 23rd and contacted via e-mail/phone.
6) votes will be counted based on the number or “like” or “thumbs up” clicks each entry receives. comments are allowed but are not counted as votes.
The Rules:
1) entries must be submitted by the end of the day on Friday, November 14th.
2) voting will be open beginning Saturday, November 15th and ending at end of day on Friday, November 21st.
3) one entry per person
4) entries must be of a child(ren) under the age of 18
5) photos taken by professional photographers are not allowed
6) The Grand Prize session must take place in our San Tan Valey studio or on-location in the East Valley. The prize must be redeemed by February 29, 2010. A signed model release will also be required prior to the session.
7) we reserve the right to remove inappropriate entries or comments or modify the contest in the event it is necessary
***Grand Session Collection includes:
~ location session ($175 value)
~ 18-24 fully retouched digtial negatives on keepsake DVD ($600 value)
~ 18-24 5×7 reference prints in a keepsake box (incl. with negatives)
New Website in Progress | Queen Creek Model Photographer
Shellie September 26, 2009 5:24 pm
We are working on configuring a new website and a new blog! Right now, the blog and website probably aren’t working properly, but the HTML site is up at http://www.serenitypictures.net/html in the meantime!
Here’s one of my gorgeous little model, who’s been helping me test our new studio!
Studio News….Moving, sort of!! | San Tan Valley Studio Photographer
Shellie September 1, 2009 11:23 pm
We received word a little over a week ago that the 141 Boston studio cooperative we participate in will be closing its doors permanently as of the end of the month. At first we were heart-broken; it hadn’t been that long since we’d found the studio and we really couldn’t have asked for a better location (great place to do outdoor shots as well as indoor). But you know the saying that goes something like “When one door closes, another opens…”
After processing the news for a few days and evaluating our options (leasing dedicated space, being 100% on-location or commuting farther to another co-op) we realized that the home studio idea was the best solution as it is incredibly convenient, allows us to keep our overhead as low as possible and is clean and private compared to sharing space. This is the third time we’ve set up a studio in our home but this time we’ve approached the project a little differently–and we’ve designed it from top to bottom to be as functional and client-friendly as possible. It’s also the least disruptive to our children and family life, which is a priority for us as well.
I plan on posting images of the “make-over” once we’ve finished…but of course I forgot to take good “before” pictures before we moved all the original furniture out of the room!
I’ll just share a recent cute image of my son…I’m not sure what he was doing but it’s a cute snap!
Everything Looks Funny | East Valley Photography
Shellie August 9, 2009 5:35 pm
…because we’re again playing with the site and WordPress. Hopefully for the last time. :D
Swamped | Phoenix, AZ Photographer
Shellie August 3, 2009 11:09 am
I’ve been swamped with editing and I have so many new images to post–hopefully I can get everything updated quickly! :)
Changes | Phoenix, AZ Photography
Shellie June 11, 2009 11:54 pm
If anything looks messed up, it’s because we’re working on the site. We’ll be experimenting with a couple gallery plugins over the next few days so things may be wonky until we finalize our changes!