Name needed for new blog!

I have decided to use this blog for more than photography, I have decided to use it for whatever I want since I am not certain how many people read blogs anyway.  So, from now on if you see posts from my life that's what the blog is about, just life as I know it.  I must come up with a new name for it, and as I look around at the Internet there are so many great blog names.  I think of myself as creative, but choosing your own cool name is like making your own logo, too hard.  So if you have any ideas please let me know. 

It's official....I changed my business name.  Since 2007 I have been Sassafras Photography by Landi Whitefield.  I love the Sassafras, because it was sassy you know.  However, as a business decision I had to just go with my name, I know boring....but at least no one can duplicate it...well not unless they are criminally inclined.  My new business name is Landi Whitefield Photography.  Since I shoot for Lake Granbury Living Magazine, I noticed they published some of my pictures under my name and some under my business name.  Confusing, so I had to change it to match my domain which I guess I should've done in the first place.  I know that my blog and all still says Sassafras Photography by Landi Whitefield, but as soon as I get around to it I will change it all.  Yuck, busy work that I don't like!  Assistant anyone? 

I had the joy of photographing a 10 year anniversary vow renewal for my friend Melanie.  It was a wonderful ceremony and a lot of people came to see them re-commit to each other.  Melanie is the mom of 3 little ones and I think it is so special for the kids to see their parents commitment to each other in such a special way.  I must say that as a photographer this was fun because the stress of wedding #1 is not there.  Melanie and Mike are great people and she made a beautiful bride.  They were cut ups too, so it was fun!

I am certainly up late, realizing that it has been more than a while since I posted a thing.  Which means I have been busy.  I have been taking lots of pictures for a new magazine in town called Lake Granbury Living.  This adventure kept me quit busy, but was a lot of fun.  I am sorry to say that to date the digital version is not online.  But if you live in Granbury you can pick one up for free most anywhere.  I even made my first cover!!!  Above is the photo I took of Jeanelle Morris which ended up on the cover.  What a lovely lady she is!  She is the former librarian here in Hood County and is instrumental in the libraries expansions over the years.  In the future, you can view the magazine digitally at www.hometown-living.com but I am not sure when it will be up, soon I hope.  I would like to include some of my favorite photos from this issue that I took.  Some are advertisements, and some were photos for feature stories. 

 Yummm, food photography, I must say I really enjoy it!  This was from Antonio's Ristorante Italiano in Granbury.  I actually ate lunch with Antonio and got to know his story a bit.  He is Mexican born but trained to be a chef in Italy.  He is dedicated, because he supports his wife in Mexico while being a single dad here in Granbury all the while cooking up a storm.  I got to eat the food in the picture and I must say he's a great chef.  I took several more for the magazine, but I must post another entry for the coveted ones.  Those meaning some Texas country music super stars!  My close friends have been begging.....

Small Town Photo Girls Rock!

I got reconnected with a friend I grew up with in Claude, Texas this week.  Yes you heard it right, those that know me well know that I lived there from 0-15.  My classmate, Amy Horn, contacted me through Facebook and told me about her daughter that is not only an aspiring photographer, but a great one, and is only in her teens, just think of what she will be if she sticks with it.  Her name is Cassidy Horn and her website is cassidyhornphoto.com She is a killer Ranch photographer!  I am so impressed.  Her mother was asking about a nagging question that really bothers her about photography today, which is how do you get people to quit asking for CD's and rights to her images?  

Cassidy, I have no great answer for you!  I know that sounds bad, but I know that my other photog friends that have been in the business for 20 plus years still struggle with this new delima in photography. How can we convince people that getting photos professionally printed is the way to go?  Well, we could tell them that at professional printing houses they have computers that are color corrected and will produce the best color in an image.  We could also tell them that they do that all day long and they know what they are doing.  Most people do not know this (I do because I went to school for photography), but unless you have a really expensive pc monitor, they are not color balanced and even if you buy a gadget to color correct it, it won't work on the cheap ones.  Now for the great part, photographers that use a MAC are sometimes better off because the monitors come color balanced, and the gadgets that they sale to balance the monitors do work on a MAC.  Here is a gadget that I have used in the past and really works great with MACS, but they are not cheap:  http://www.xrite.com/home.aspx

There is an entire science behind color in photography, and I could go on and on about that, but I will stop and add...paper quality.  Print houses use special types of papers and when you hire a professional photographer the paper can add to a photograph.  Also, cheap photo paper will eventually turn yellow, just like a 70's photo.  Good paper is archival quality.  When people send (I nearly said develop, does that tell my age?) their photos to their local drug store to print a person who isn't a skilled craftsman runs the machines and controls the colors, and therefore good luck with what you get.  I have a great photographer friend who has had clients opt for Ms. Mom photographer for their wedding because she sold them the CD for nothing, and when they were unhappy with the results they brought them to their trusted, professional photographer and asked if she could fix them!  Well, bad photography cannot always be fixed!  Out of focus prints cannot be fixed, it is basically trash unless you are going for a soft focus look!  Also, unless shot in RAW, you cannot completely fix Jpeg files that are completely a terrible shade of green or too dark or too light when shot.  This has to do with White Balance, and I will save that for another day.  

In summary of today's blog, I must say that the only thing that I can tell Cassidy or prospective clients is that you get what you pay for!  However, I must tell Cassidy that sometimes you also have to go by the old saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  I used to give out the CD, but now that I do this for a living I didn't for a long time, and I still don't like to!  However, I have decided that I have to adapt to the ever changing world of photography, and I need to join them.  I now sell my images on a CD after a minimum order of $250.00 in prints has been purchased for portrait sessions only.  There is of course an additional fee for the CD, but at least I feel the clients will have professional quality, color corrected, prints to compare to their cheap drugstore prints.  I have had clients see the difference after purchasing a CD and asked if I would print some for them anyway.  If you hire me as your photographer I want my prints to look beautiful on your walls, they are part of my reputation, and I don't want to look like a dime store cowgirl, I want to look like a Nieman Marcus gal!  

Also, to Cassidy:  Tell them that you have to pay for college somehow! You just can't give it away! 

Excitement is in the Air....

I feel like I am getting back to normal, or normal for me I am back to shooting more often.  I have played exclusive mommy for nearly a year since I had Maizey.  I think that happens when you have a baby, or for me my children are center stage.  Since I waited nearly 7 years to have my second daughter, it was like starting over with less energy because I was older.  My photography took a back seat through no fault of it's own.  I think I feel like I can function again and that I am ready to get back to work and get really busy, both as a mom and photographer.  I just took pictures a couple of weeks ago of a beautiful child, and he is the son of one of my MOPS friends, for those of you that don't know, it stands for Mothers of Preschoolers, and for those of us that work from home and have small children it is otherwise known as sanity.  I love MOPS and wish I had known about it with my first child.  I am not going to post their names, but I just have to show a picture of this little boy that is truly beautiful and so is his mother, they would both make great models.  I am excited to shoot, shoot, shoot, no people though or not today anyway!  LOL!

Cattlehearding in Photography....

If you have grown up around the agriculture industry like myself you will fully understand my analogy between the "portrait studio in a box" and herding cattle.  Let me explain what I mean to the rest of ya'll!  Last night I allowed my children and my nieces and nephews to go and get their pictures taken together at a little place called Portrait Innovations, you have probably heard of it since it is the nation's largest portrait chain.  Gasp, you say if you are a photographer or if you are a lover of fine photography which of course I am, but I must say photographing your own family is right up there with the most "gag me with a spoon" thing a photographer can do, not all the time,  but when there are kids of certain ages in the family.  My oldest nephew is at the age where he is too cool for school and Aunt Landi knows nothing, and my older daughter along with her cousin of a same age smile like dorks, or not at all for their mother, so I gave in and said let's just let them have their picture at the photo in a box for my sanity and their's.

I haven't been in to one of those places lately and I have wondered why they have been taking so much business from us perfectionist photographers this year, so what better way than to go find out.  I must point out though that I did work at Family Photo in Amarillo while I was studying photography at Amarillo College a couple of years ago.  I will say that I know for a fact that if you want to be a photographer you can "get your chops" at a photo in a box.  I was one of the oldest photographers at Family Photo when I was there, with the lovely 18 year old's that really enjoyed putting me in my place...God Bless them.....but never the less I stuck it out and by golly I learned something.....how to pose large families quickly, how to pose really well if I have to, and customer service.  I don't regret for a minute my time there, I worked my butt off, and so do the little fly by night photographers there, especially during the holiday season.  When I was there they were scrambling to try to compete with Portrait Innovations, the national chain, and of course they took a hit, but they are all still in business, and this year probably doing really well, for one reason...everyone is broke. 

Unfortunately, I think people are forgoing professional photography and opting for the cheap quick version because this year everyone is feeling the pain of money spent in the past, and the first thing to go is luxury items such as photography.  Which in turn makes us professionals broke because we aren't working as much.  Many professional photographers are trying to figure out how to compete, and really I must say we can't.  We just paid $100.00 for a million pounds of photos and the disk for them, I can't compete with that.  For their $9.99 special I can't even pay my shipping and handling fees and then get all the prints they include, no way.  But one thing that you forgo when you choose a place such as that....quality.  They do not edit photos, so if you don't get what you want you can try again with another photographer, but there will be no art about it.  The cheese factor, you will get all of that and then some.  Quantity, you will get that, but who in the heck needs a million photos of the same image, some of you, but if you are my clients, I know it isn't you.  I will honestly say that my clients do not ever go for packages, they always want the control to choose what they want, and professionals give you that option.  Also, passion, I will say that when you work in a "photo in a box" that you are tired by the end of the night and you are shooting someone new every 15 minutes or so, so you are not really caring about making it look like art at the end of the day.  Sorry that is the hard truth, and some of the photographers are just there because it is a job, not their passion, so if you must, ask for a senior photographer specifically...oh great how I am giving you insight into the inner workings of the cheap photo place....stupid me, but if you are gonna go there you will, I can't stop you, I didn't even stop myself.  Here are some more hints....don't go when your baby needs a nap and expect the poor photographer to make the kid smile.  Don't threaten to spank or beat your children before they are photographed, don't even glare at them, leave the room if you are a control freak parent.  Oh did I say that, yes I did and most of that applies to professional photography as well.  If you want the great smiles just leave the room when your toddler is playing control freak with you, they will smile perfectly for us strangers most all the time.  Okay no more tips on that, but I must say one thing that never changes about the cheap photo places....feeling like you are being ran through a shoot like a bunch of cattle.  There is nothing personal about it.  Please remember that professional photographers strive to keep you as clients forever, and we not only want to give you art, we want you to feel like you are important to us, and you are, we do this for a living.  I wish I could just give it away to everyone, but I am guessing you wouldn't go to work everyday for free either.  Yes it is a job for us, but it is also our passion, and you won't find that in a cattle shoot!  Long live the professional photographer!!!!