We’re currently looking to hire a college student to work part-time in our processing “department”. If you know anyone that would be interested, send them my way (via e-mail). We’d prefer they have basic knowledge of editing digital images, but we’re willing to train on the specifics.

Ahhh… it’s that time of year again. Beginning this week, we’re officially into our wedding season. We’ve got engagement shoots, pre-wedding bridal shoots, final wedding meetings and even an evening out with a former bride and groom who just want to hang out with us for a while! This is what we wait all winter for… the chance to get our heads back in the game and start being creative again.

A few changes have taken place with the arrival of the 2007 wedding season. The most important one being that, after a lengthy battle with our original album company (which displaced several of our Fall bride’s packages longer than we ever want to have happen again), we’re switching over to Album Crafters. This is a great company that comes highly recommended by many others in my field. I’m so thrilled to be upping our quality, while at the same time, trying to maintain the low prices that we really want to offer our clients. I’ll still be designing every page in the storybooks, but Album Crafters will be binding my designs in beautiful covers picked out by each bride.

We also have new employees who will be working with us this year: Emily Tribula, Karla Gannett & Amanda Grantham. These ladies will be filling the role left by Laureen Horwedel (who abandoned me for The Big Apple!). They have giant shoes to fill (which is why it’s taking THREE of them!), but I’m excited to add each to the team. Add to these new friends our old standards, Christy and Kamille, it’s easy to see why Jeff & I feel blessed to be surrounded by people who want to see this business soar!

Hopefully, 2007 will be our best year yet. With the brides that we have lined up, I can’t imagine anything less!

Today is my son Parker’s eleventh birthday! Hard to believe I’m old enough to have a kid that age, eh? Come on… just play along. Anyway… it’s also Carolina Jr. Cotillion weekend with Mrs Ann Cherry. I get to hang out with nervous middle-schoolers as they come in to get their formal pictures made. It’s always fun to see the dresses that the girls pick out, their fancy hair-do’s, and the cool new ties that the boys wear (some of them have fancy hair, too!). This morning, Jeff will be taking Parker down the road to a local men’s shop to get a great looking Spring tie (see below!)… probably not what the child thought he’d be doing on his birthday.

I had a shoot last night with Mike and Stacey Wiggins and their adorable Lesley (with eyes that could MELT you!). She wasn’t all that happy to hang out with me, but I managed to get a few really sweet keepers. The good thing about Mike and Stacey is that they understand the importance of just letting me do what I do best. Every child is different… and every angle that I choose is unique to their little faces. Sometimes I’m able to have a few “standards” that work with everyone or that shout “this is a Melanie photograph!”, but for the most part, I really like to personalize the images you receive. As you look through the galleries, you might think to yourself, “this is exactly what I want!”… but once your child is in front of me, my eye may see something entirely different. I guess the moral of the story is… trust me! Let me have the freedom to design a sitting around your family and not around someone else’s. Afterall, no one wants to be part of a cookie-cutter shoot!