I Heart Faces~Anything But a Face!

This remains one of my all time favorite non-face pictures of my children. They were "cleaning" the toilet...and playing in it. Before chasing them away I captured this shot that tells a very good story of 2 little children "helping" Mommy. :)

Head on over to I Heart Faces for other awesome entries!

Daisy Cottage Designs Giveaway! (THE WINNER!)

This giveaway is now closed!

The winner of the $30.00 gift certificate to Daisy Cottage Designs is.....

Kyrie, from K-Marie Photography!

Congratulations, Kyrie! We'll be contacting you by email :)

Happy Valentines Day! In the spirit of love, I am so excited to be coming together with Lauren from Daisy Cottage Designs for a fun giveaway! 

I meet so many Moms who are staying at home with their children and doing something they love at the same time. Lauren has definitely found her niche! Her daughter is almost one and she is the inspiration for Lauren's beautiful creations. Her work is high quality and each piece is lovingly made as if she were making it for her little girl. I love the styles and bright color combinations she comes up with! As a photographer, I love being able to find good props to use, but as a Mom I enjoy them even more :) If you're not a photographer, enter to win something for your kids or your friends kids! What a great gift it would make!

I am SO excited to announce that we will be giving away a $30.00 gift certificate to use in Daisy Cottage Designs Etsy shop!

The flowers are interchangeable, so they can also be worn separately which I love!

The crochet newsgirl beanie--adorable, right?

Here is what you have to do to enter to WIN!

 "Like" both Daisy Cottage Designs and Cammi J Photography on Facebook. Leave ONE comment saying that you like both pages and that's it! You're entered!

 (If you do not have a Facebook page, you can "Follow" our blogs, Daisy Cottage Designs  and Cammi J Photograhy and leave ONE comment saying that you are a follower of both blogs.)

 EXTRA ENTRIES!!!
 Here is a way to win extra entries! Post about this giveaway (link back to this page) on your Facebook status, blog, twitter, buzz status--any way you can to get the word out! You get an extra entry for every place that you share! (For instance, if you share on Facebook and your blog, you would get 2 extra entries totaling 3 entries.) Leave a comment saying where you shared the news about this giveaway.

 Winner will be announced next Monday! You have until 10pm CTS on Monday to enter,. Good luck!

For this Child I Prayed...

Jessica has been through so much for several years, I wouldn't even know where to begin. She had severe health problems that resulted in 3 separate surgeries (read her story here), delivered a beautiful still born baby girl almost 3 years ago, her husband lost his job for several months--I could go on and on. All the while she yearned for another baby with all her heart. Finally after 2 years of prayers, she got the news that she was expecting again, but was apprehensive because there was no guarantee that the baby would make it full term. The condition that caused baby JoLynn to die could very well happen again. This pregnancy has been very different from her last--she is on constant watch from both a specialist as well as her normal OBGYN. She gets sonograms every few weeks to make sure everything is going well, wears a PICC line to make sure she is constantly getting the nutrients that she needs and has to give herself shots a few times a day. She's been hospitalized several times, but  made it past 30 weeks and doesn't have much longer before her scheduled C-section date! We are so thankful that things are looking so good and can't wait to meet her beautiful baby boy in about a month!

Jessica, you are a beautiful woman inside and out and I'm so thankful that we are close friends. Thanks for letting me document such a precious time in your life!

Jess found this blanket and immediately knew she had to get it--it sums up the last years so perfectly!

You would not know that it was 20 degrees in this picture--we were SO cold! It was worth it though!

{You}

You complete me. You are patient, understanding, sweet and kind. You smile and comply while I make you stop so we can take self portraits every where we go. You laugh when I confess that I finished off the rest of the chocolate. You hold me when I have a bad day, help me with the kids, buy me soup when I'm sick and smother me with kisses till I can't breathe. ;) You are my soul mate, my man, my hero. I can't believe that I get to spend my whole life with you, serving the Lord, raising our children, living, loving and laughing the whole way.

Jasmine Star Workshop

I'm still in awe that I got to attend a "Branding You" workshop by the amazing Jasmine Star. I'm not sure when I started following her or how I found her but I've been drooling over her work for a few years now.
  I read every blog post about her, JD and Polo. I admire the engagement sessions and the weddings. When I found out she would be speaking just a few hours away, I knew I wanted to go! I was so excited when my husband worked it out for me to go and made a little getaway out of it.

You should have seen us all, giddy with excitement to meet her and get our picture with her! Yes--we are stalkers. But in a good way. I think.

The workshop was about "Branding You". She had about an hour and a half to speak, and it flew by. The main topic was "How to brand your Online Presence."

 5) Differentiation

-why are we positioning ourselves to look like everyone else? You need to stick out and play your own game. * Intangible competition. What makes you different, and why aren't you showing that off?

*Choosing Photographers not Photographs. Once your pictures pass "the good test", clients then need to pass the "you test". As long as they think your pictures are good, they want to know if they like you.

* Can you say, "I am different." ?

4. Selective Clientele

*Your initial contact with them is your website or blog. You need to put SO much of yourself into your website! Set it up so they know you and like the photos before they even see them!

*Meeting and interview. By the time they see you, they should feel like they already know you.

*Who is your client? If you don't know they type of client you want to shoot, how can you know how to target them?

"IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF ON YOUR WEBSITE, THEN SHAME ON YOU". --Jasmine

3. Reach

*National recognition. When your work starts getting recognized on other blogs, etc, people start focusing on you. Put your work out there. The worst they can say is no!

2. Archival Marketing

 *try to have your work featured online rather than in magazines, because it will be there forever.

*IN your blog posts, tag locations, etc, so that it will come back to you

* Slideshow galleries are so important. It's an online commercial starring your clients for you.

*Comments. People will not leave comments for an organization. They will leave comments for a person. Be personal!

*Facebook. Put 8-10 awesome pictures on facebook, and then a link to your blog where they can get more info.

1. FREE!

*All of these things are free. Jasmine's average bride spends $10,000.00 on her wedding collections and she's never spent a dime on marketing.

Well, there you have it. A good portion of my notes. :) I hope this helps you in some way and that it wasn't too confusing! It's hard to put an 90 minutes of a workshop into one short post, but hopefully these tips will give you something to work on like it did me!