{Sneak Peek} My Family - holiday portraits

One of the most difficult jobs I get each & every year is taking our family portraits. It's not that I couldn't give that job to someone else and I'm sure eventually I will, but I really love this challenge. It takes a little planning and an extra dose of patience, but in the end it's totally worth it.

This year I started the 'plan' with a little inspiration from Pinterst for our clothing. Out of the previous 6 Christmas card photos we wore black/red and/or some variation of the colors, with the only exception being the year we announced Grace's *girl* status, which we wore pink/black/grey for. We ended up going with an earthy, neutral sort of 'John Deere' color scheme (which if you know me well or have been to my house, you know that I've got a small collection, so it's not all that surprising).

 

Once I had all my clients images caught up and ordered, I decided I better get going to get our photos taken.  About a week before Christmas I said, 'Today is the day', and without an actual shooting place in mind we set out to make some other deliveries & just happened to be going the 'back way' and when we drove past a place I'd been wanting to shoot forever and the lighting was perfection, I knew we had found our place. 30-45 minutes later, we ended up with these, mostly taken on the tripod with the camera timer, as my remote has decided to malfunction outdoors, the couple of me with the munchkins were taken by the hubby.

I must say these are probably my most favorite family photos to date. I love how they came together and even with shooting via the tripod, for the most part, everyone, is paying attention.

{Sneak Peek} The Jones Brothers

These little cuties get to come visit every couple of months, partly because I'm Auntie, but also because we like to torture them with photos.  This session is probably went the smoothest of any and all it took was a little semi-bribery.  I simply told Little B he could cooperate, even though he hates pictures, or we could make it take, all.day.long.  He quickly obliged & was so cute, hamming it up with his baby brother. I think he really does like to have his photo made. 
I also did a something a little different than my 'normal' style of shooting all outdoors, on-location.  I set up my little portable studio in the kitchen (which, made me decide my house, is just 2-sizes too small).

Anyways, here's a few (okay, more than normal) of my favorites.

{Real Life} Kiddos PJ Party

One of the things we do with our kids for the month of December, well, not even a whole month, but from the 1st until Christmas is a countdown calendar, with a special activity each day.  Some days we make projects, some days we bake cookies, some days we 'relax' & have slumber parties by the lit up Christmas tree.  On this day, we had a couple friends over & had a pajama party!!! 
I blew up the air mattress, stuck it in front of the tree & the kids had a free for all jump fest.  We took a few photos & then they watched a short Christmas movie while eating popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels & an assortment of other things thrown in a bowl.
I'm pretty sure it was one of the funnest things we've done this December and hope that next year we can do it on a little bigger scale, with lots more room!!! 

I love these shots and the best part was the fun for everyone.

  Normally I wouldn't keep the blurrs, but it really sums up the afternoon. Pretty sure that all the kids were beyond ecstatic that they were allowed to jump on the 'bed', especially because they could jump from couch to bed without any trouble at all! ;)

 Thanks to our friends M&E (of course their mommy too) for joining us.
 

{Sneak Peek} We're going Back 2 School

This is a special project for me. My oldest started her very first year of school, ever. I knew I wanted to do something special and then I ran across an image from a photo session on Pinterest that inspired me to create a themed "Back to School" session to document this big event for her.

I wanted to include more than just her for the photos though, so I did a little 'model' casting on my Facebook fan page and in the end I had a terrible time deciding which 2 other children to use in the session. I had some input from a few people & ended up choosing Miss J & Mr A to pose with my little Anna for some FUN back to school portraits.

I really love how this came out. The location I chose couldn't have been better either, there was actually a school bus parked there the morning of our session!!!

Now for a little looky at what I came up with. These kids were SO cute together, I look forward to doing a few more themed sessions in the upcoming years.

 I'll be in touch with both mom's later in the week with a gallery link. Thank you so much for the fun and celebrating back to school with us.

{Pricing} 2011 Holiday Portrait Pricing

Fall is almost officially here which means that the holidays are also on there way in.
Time to start thinking about those family portraits. Here are the 2011 Holiday portrait price guides for Amanda Pratt Photography.  Valid October 1st thru December 3rd, 2011.

These are the sessions:

 These are some special 'print' packages:

 Sessions available: Mondays 9am-5pm, Saturdays 7am-6pm, a few select Sundays, other weekday appointments available upon special request.

**Some fine print: The Portrait Collection prices include a 45-minute family session. As always, I do not charge a per person fee, pets are always welcome and there are no limits on the number of poses we create during your session; however, these sessions are meant for family portrait sessions.  These prices are only valid from October 1st through December 3rd, 2011.Tax is not included in the collection price. No size or quantity substitutions are permitted.  Additional prints, print collections, storybooks, wall art, etc may be added to each order.  Payment is expected prior to the scheduled session;  printed products, digital download, etc will not be submitted for processing without full payment.  Other restrictions may apply.

Questions or to get on the books drop me a message: aprattphotog@cot.net or give me a jingle 604.8789 (you can even text me your name & request).

{Mini-Session} Carnival Fun

The fair is on it's way!! In just a few short weeks the annual county fair will be here to celebrate this fun event & give my awesome clients a chance to get some fun portraits for a fraction of the price, I've got a few time slots scheduled for Carnival Mini-Sessions .

Included with your $75* session fee is a disk on 10 final images and a printing release. Session fees must be paid prior to your session.

Times available:

Wednesday evening sessions:

7:00pm  7:30pm  8:00pm  8:30pm

Thursday sessions: 

morning- 9:00am, 9:30am, 10:00am  

or evening- 7:00pm 8:00pm

Saturday morning: 9:00am 10:00am  11:00am 

Drop me an email or give me a call to schedule your Carnival Fun mini.

*$75 covers time, talent of your photographer and the 10 image medium-resolution disk, printable to size 8x10, you may add additional images to the disk for $15 per image.

Spring Mini Sessions

It's time for Spring Mini-Sessions. The inaugural session in the Seasonal Mini Series.


These sessions will be offered for one day.  There are 7 spaces available between 9am & 2pm, booked on the hour & 1/2 hour marks.  April 30th, 2011.  Sessions will be held in Yreka at a location yet to be determined, once we're closer to the date I'll be revealing which location I've chosen for optimum springy-ness.

Book your session by Friday April 1st & receive a special print package with your session as well.  All session fees must be paid in advance by April 25th.

Every session will receive a 5 image disk with printing rights & a mini-accordion album; tax and shipping is included.

Book yours today by calling: 604.8789, dropping me an email at info@amandaprattphotography.com or reserving on the Facebook Fan Page.