A thousand words--Anne Companion Photography blog

Monday, March 30, 2009

Petite princess (yet another newborn!)

Such a sweet little girl, and she just loved to be all curled up! I loved that she could be all mad one minute, and the next minute she was sound asleep again. Enjoy!





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Friday, March 27, 2009

New look to my website!

Check it out! :D http://www.annecompanionphotography.com.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mom, it's cold!


A few days ago, when it was sunny and warm, I was struck with the idea that I needed a "Springy" portrait of my kids, so I picked out some outfits and herded them outside, only to find the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees, clouds had moved in, and the wind had started to blow. Oh well, still got a pretty cute one of them. ;)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Another newborn, 7 days old and a chunk!

This little guy was a big one! And I'm guessing that because he was overdue when he finally arrived he wasn't about to curl up again, he resisted the "in the womb" poses! Slept like a champ, though, as you can see!



Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Are you wearing your green? How about I save you some green? Book a session with me TODAY, and the session fee will be just $50, that's half off! I'm spreadin' some Luck O' the Irish today!

(Session can take place anytime this year)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Supersized family session

We had one of those amazingly beautiful March days for this session, a good thing considering the weather the past few days! Add that to the fact that this was one of those sessions that require all of the stars and schedules to align, and you get a fabulously lucky afternoon!






Thursday, March 05, 2009

Sweet newborn, 8 days old!

Loved this little girl, she liked being swaddled up tightly and snuggled close, just like a newborn should be! We had to lure her to sleep to get the nakee shots. ;)







Wednesday, March 04, 2009

So you're getting married!

I saw this post on Willow Dawn Photography's blog today and thought it was so good I had to share it here (with permission!). All about wedding photography costs and the benefits of hiring a professional photographer:

so you’re getting married!

Are you happy with your wedding photographs?

April 25, 2008

I asked that simple question on a forum I frequent (not photography related) with a diverse membership. Women from all walks of life, every socio-economic bracket and from every corner of the country. Even a few from other countries. The results?

42% replied - No, they were not happy with their wedding photos.

58% replied - Yes, or Other.

I found the results interesting and posted a follow-up poll…

… if you could do it over again, where do you wish you had spent more money?

46% responded with photography

28% said they wish they had spent more money on their rings, and

the cake, hall (location) and dress filled out the remainder with 8, 9 and 10% respectively.

It seems fitting that the photos are the one thing most wished they had budgeted a greater deal of their budget for. After all, once the cake is cut, the food is eaten, the songs are danced to, your dress is cleaned and preserved, the only thing you have daily are your rings… and your photos. I was amazed to find out that photography is usually only 10% of a bride and grooms budget. Really, for one of the two things that will last past the actual wedding day? And the number of “experts”, wedding guides and websites that are recommending that to save money, hire a “new photographer”, a family friend, a relative. OK, I’m the first to admit that there are some amazing cameras that make taking a nice photo much much easier than in years past. But the camera is really only one part of the equation. I had a friend just last week ask me why she always got red-eye in her pics still? After all, she had a fancy DSLR. Or why all the pics of her kids were blurry. She paid a lot of money for a “nice” camera. Why oh why would you want to trust one of your most important days to just anyone. Even if they can show you some nice pics. Do you really want to bank on them getting lucky on your special day?

Part 2 of “… are you happy?”

I had asked the simple question in the format of a poll, and many of the respondents left comments as well. Thought I’d share some of them.

- I didn’t put much thought into our wedding photos at the time and I was disappointed with the results.

- I cut back my budget on some other areas so I could get the photographer I wanted… So glad I spent the little extra money to get who I wanted!!!

- I figured I’d hire a friend of a friend to take pictures so that I could save some money. Big mistake! We don’t have one good shot of DH and I together. We have some nice ones of the entire wedding party but I don’t have any of just us. I should have come up with more money for better photos… but I was naive about weddings and stuff.

- YES! We spent over 1/3 of our budget on photos and it was worth it. We had decided before much else was planned that the photos would be our top priority. Our amazing photographers didn’t disappoint!

- Yes, we were thrilled. We paid a lot of $$ for a very highly recommended photographer, since pictures were very important to us. Besides awesome photos, he was just a great person to have around that day…he kind of became our “buddy” for the day and helped relieve a lot of the stress.

I saw an article from theknot.com breaking down the average wedding costs:

– The bulk of the average wedding budget is dedicated to the reception venue ($12,722, or 45%); followed by the reception band ($4,105 on average, or 15%); and photographer ($2,651 on average, or 9.5% of the total average wedding budget).

Let’s take the national average for photography, $2651. That sound like a LOT of money, right? And it is, if your wedding photographer simply showed up for a couple of hours and then hands you the memory card from their camera. Don’t laugh, I’ve seen that offered. But the reality is that for a small, simple wedding with 4 hours of coverage the day of the wedding, the photographer works at LEAST 40 hours! That’s an average rate of $66 per hour. But Uncle Sam wants his cut off the top… Leaving the photographer with an hourly wage of $47.71. BUT WAIT! Did the B&G order any prints? An album? Announcements? Thank you notes? Mother’s Albums? A custom guest album (which are way cooler than a traditional silk guest book, btw!)? ALL of those things must be paid for out of the photographer’s fee! What about purchasing and maintaining their equipment? Have you seen the cost of a new high end, professional camera lately? Be sure you are sitting down! And what about things like insurance? Never hire a professional without insurance! Most halls and churches require all professionals working on their premises to maintain insurance. And the photographer has to pay for that. How about continuing education? Good golly, Miss Molly. Technology changes faster than the weather. There is always something new to learn and discover. Oh, and when you work for yourself, there’s no 401k with matching funds from an employer. So a wise photographer is taking a large chunk of their income and saving for the future.

My point in all of this rambling is that photography is an art. An expensive art. When you are looking to hire a photographer, for any important event in your life… you are hiring a person to create art. For you. The items that you reach for in the event of a fire. The preservation of memories that can’t be replaced. Isn’t that worth splurging on?

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

March specials from Anne Companion Photography

Hope everyone is staying warm in this little cold snap and I hope you enjoyed the snow! :) I have a couple of specials to tell you all about, one just for March and one that will last until the end of June. First the one for March: I usually waive the session fee with pre-payment of a $300 retainer towards your order when booking a session, but this month the retainer will only be $250. So, book before the end of March and there is no session fee, just a $250 retainer which is entirely applied to your print or digital order! And for the special that lasts through the end of June, I have lowered print prices on the most popular sizes, 5x7's are now $20 (regularly $25) and 8x10's are now $35 (regularly $40).

Finally, I'm still on the lookout for newborn twins! I am giving away a session for newborn twins and I will include an 8x10 portrait, so if you know someone expecting twins, let them know!