Flowers are blooming and the weather is warming up here in the Hudson Valley - it’s time to get back outside and play! For a very limited time I am running portrait specials to entice those of you who have been holding off on getting your photos taken and give me a great excuse to get outside, take some photos and meet new people! Specials are being offered for a very limited time and my availability will fill up fast so don’t hesitate! These special promotions are for portrait sessions - modeling, Facebook and/or business headshots, maternity, newborn, children, families, couples, boudoir and high school juniors & seniors! See below for specials on each. All specials apply to sessions taking place within an hour of New Windsor, NY unless otherwise noted (which includes areas such as Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Newburgh, Wallkill, Middletown NY, New Paltz, Brewster, Danbury CT, Ridgefield CT, Nanuet, Kingston, Westbrook, Central Valley, Goshen, Mahwah NJ, Rhinebeck, Bedford, Spring Valley, etc.). If you would like to take advantage of one of these deals but live further away, let me know and we can either come up with a location in the middle or I will give you a quote for further travel.

Headshots

Get a mini session (approximately 30-45 minutes), online proofing and ordering and 2 edited high resolution images for your personal and promotional use for just $100 through April 3rd! Whether you need new photos to represent your business identity, starting or adding to a modeling portfolio, a facebook profile photo or you just want to treat yourself, headshot sessions are relaxed and can take place almost anywhere. Limit one person per headshot session.

Maternity and Newborn

I don’t think there is anything that I love more than photographing maternity and newborn sessions - now through May 1st, book a maternity or newborn session and get 50% off your session fee! If you book BOTH a maternity and a newborn session, not only do you get 50% off each session (that’s like getting one free!), but you will also receive a complimentary 20 page brag book filled with your favorite photos! Since these are my absolute favorite sessions and they almost exclusively take place in my clients’ homes, I am extending this offer a little further than the rest - this offer is for anyone within 90 minutes of New Windsor, NY (zip code 12553 if you’re searching the radius!) - this extends into parts of NJ, PA and even the southwest corner of MA, all the way down to Fairfield, CT where I first started my business.

Children, families and couples

When you book a session at regular session rates and place your order within 1 week of your online gallery activation, half of your session fee will transfer over to a print credit! That’s a savings of $50, $125 or even $187.50, depending on the session! Sessions must be completed by May 1st and must take place within 1 hour of New Windsor, NY.

High School Juniors and Seniors

FREE sessions! That’s right, I said it - FREE! Pre-pay for a minimum $200 purchase and receive a 1 hour session absolutely free! Want to spend even less? Like NOTHING?! Apply to be a Senior Rep and if you’re accepted, you could get a free session AND earn free products just for referring your friends! You want more? You also get Rep cards with your photo on one side and a special offer for your friends when they book too! Senior Rep program is only open to Class of 2011. Send me a message via e-mail (info@autumn-photography.com), facebook or twitter if you’re interested in becoming a Rep! This offer is through June 1st - Rep program is available until further notice.

Boudoir

Sexy and tasteful boudoir photographed in your home (or a hotel at your expense if you wish) - book a 3 hour session at $350 and receive a 5×5 20 page photo book free! Sessions include full retouching and a password protected online gallery. Do you have 3-5 friends that would like a session as well? Let me know and I can provide you with a special rate when they are all photographed at the same location on the same day! Offer ends June 1st.

Sorry, no photos to share here - due to the sensitive nature of boudoir photography, I value my clients’ privacy and never share them with anyone.

It’s FINALLY ready! I have worked on designing a new website for a couple of months now and it’s finally at the point where I am ready to show it off! It’s new, it’s colorful, it’s fun and it’s totally ME! Thanks to the awesome Showit Sites software, I built this baby from scratch! More tweaks to come when I have some time but check it out! =)

www.autumn-photography.com

(same web address)

It is such an honor being voted “The Knot Best of Weddings 2008/2009″ by my brides! Thank you so much to those that voted and had such wonderful things to say! For those that don’t know, it’s a huge magazine with all of the wedding vendors nationwide that were voted “Best of Weddings” by their couples - it’s a fantastic resource for finding the best wedding vendors! Congratulations to all of those who were also voted “Best”! I grabbed my copy at my local Barnes & Noble - don’t forget to grab your copy of this comprehensive list of the best wedding vendors as voted by real brides! Now they just need a vote on “Best Wedding Clients” because I know mine would make that list! ; )

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced that Autumn Photography has won the 2009 Bride’s Choice Awards™!

“We are excited to launch this annual award program to honor high-performing vendors based solely on the experiences of our WeddingWire community,” according to Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “This year’s recipients have set the bar high, exhibiting excellent service and expertise in the wedding industry.”

From the e-mail I received:

“Congratulations! You have been chosen to receive a 2009 Bride’s Choice Award! This award recognizes vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellent quality of service, responsiveness, professionalism, value of cost and flexibility.

Unlike other awards in which winners are selected by the company, the Bride’s Choice Awards are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds through surveys and reviews. That means your past clients have spoken on your behalf and chosen you for this honor!”

I would like to thank my past clients for speaking on my behalf and helping me win the 2009 Bride’s Choice Award! You’re awesome!

…and I am so happy to have a new place to call home! We closed on our house Monday (after many delays) and we are still in the process of moving our stuff in. I’ve been busy painting ours and Jaedyn’s bedrooms so we don’t have to deal with sleeping in rooms that smell like paint and Sean has been busy moving all of our stuff. Of course the weather last night and this morning is not making it any easier but we’re getting settled in slowly. My Dad arrives this afternoon from Florida and I’m so excited! I booked his flight well over a month ago, when I thought we would be closing before Christmas and certainly settled in by now! It’s making things a little more hectic but it’s worth it in the end. It’s going to take me a little longer than anticipated to get set back up as my desktop’s harddrive decided to revolt against me… it turned off and will not even pretend to turn back on and this happened Sunday night, the night before our closing! My best friend and computer genius was trying to diagnose it over the phone and by photos I was e-mailing and thinks that it’s the power supply (which is easy) but since we’re in the middle of moving an hour and a half away I haven’t had a chance to take it in yet. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get that taken care of. Thank goodness for back-up discs and external harddrives! UGH… it’s just a pain! I really hate my laptop and I don’t have all of my programs loaded on to it so it’s going to take some time to get the desktop fixed and/or load all of my programs onto the laptop. Fun times. Of course with all of this going on my phone and e-mail start blowing up like crazy and I’m tryng to keep up with everything from my Blackberry in the midst of moving! I am technically off through this weekend but I will try to get back to everyone as soon as possible!

Single digital files are now available for purchase from weddings and portrait sessions! As a wedding client, your files are included with your package and delivered with your final album. However, many couples (or their friends and family) wish to get a file or two prior to this. Portrait session clients now have this option as well! Digital files are unmarked and printable to approximately 8×10. Just choose the image(s) you would like to purchase from your gallery, choose the “digital file” option from the “size” drop down menu under the “prints” tab and choose “pickup” as your shipping option (so you aren’t charged for shipping!). Your file will be e-mailed to you within 48 hours.

Congratulations to my friends Robert Norman and Landau Photographers whose photos also appeared in the premier issue of Wedding VOW magazine!

So, the last couple of months or so have been pretty crazy around here and I haven’t as much time to update my blog as I would have liked… so…. I thought I’d share a quick sampling of recent weddings, engagement sessions and family sessions. If you’d like to view the available slideshows for these events, please click on the photos!

Hope everyone’s staying dry today and if you have to drive, please be safe!

Mike & Dana

Al & Danielle

Aimee & Tim and their dog Cowboy

Mark & Peter’s Civil Union

I had a meeting today with a couple that is getting married next year and they asked me a question that has been asked many, many times… “Are the proofs touched up?”. Now, I have been asked this so many times, but this couple really made an impression on me and I thought maybe I should use my blog to show you all exactly what I mean since it’s difficult for me to put into words with no real example. There is original (straight out of the camera), proof (what you see in your online gallery and printed proofs) and final print quality, well, for me at least - I can’t speak for other photographers. Here are some examples of the originals, proof quality and the final print quality. Of course, on these small little blog photos it may be difficult to see all of the differences, but you get the idea.

Please note, if your monitor is not properly calibrated, the colors, contrast and vibrance may differ from what you would see in an actual print.

The first image - the original - is quite flat and dull looking. This is actually intentional. With pro cameras you want to make sure that YOU make the decisions on the contrast, sharpness, etc. Because the same settings don’t work on every photo, you don’t want the camera making these decisions for you as it can easily be overdone. You can always add more [contrast, saturation, sharpness, whatever] in post processing - you can’t always take away. Because these straight out of the camera shots are so lifeless looking and don’t really show you their true potential, I do make minor adjustments to all of the proofs. Every printed image (whether in the album or loose prints) gets some extra special attention. =)

Next month I’m photographing Mark & Peter’s civil union (my first!) and last weekend we went out and did an engagement/casual session before the big day! Thankfully, we bumped up the time a bit, because it started raining about 20 minutes after our originally scheduled time! Whew! First we headed over to picturesque Binney Park in Greenwich and walked around for a while. Getting these two to relax and forget about me was tough at first (as it usually is), but then they relaxed, opened up and we actually drew some onlookers! Of course, like most people, they got a little embarrassed that everyone was watching them, but I told them my philosophy - “well, let’s give them something to look at and talk about in their boring little lives!”. After a great time and lots of laughs at the park, we headed back to their place for a change of clothes and to pick up their adorable dogs for some more photos. We got yelled at by the lifeguard for bringing the dogs on the beach… come on… it was the tiniest little corner of sand no where near anything or anyone! Oh well… at least we managed to get a few great shots before being booted out of there! I can’t wait for their civil union next month - knowing these two, I’m sure it’s going to be a LOT of fun!