Building Mr. Snowman
Head ball,
Belly ball,
bottom ball-
Done!
Building Mr. Snowman
is always
lots of FUN!!
-unknown author
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Okinawa Photographer - get what you pay for
WHY Are Professional Photographers So Expensive?
By Shawn Richter, Caught on Film Photography, www.cofphoto.com
This was originally written in 2007 to communicate what goes into making a photography session, this article is directed at a photographer's audience. This article has been shared countless times. I'm posting it so that Rising Sun Memories' friends will know that they get what they pay for when selecting a personal photographer.
Thank you Denise
In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home "photo printers," we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not paying for the actual photograph; they're paying for the time and expertise.
THE AVERAGE ONE-HOUR PORTRAIT SESSION
First, let's look at the actual work involved:
- Travel to the session
- Setup, preparation, talking to the clients, etc
- Shoot the photos
- Travel from the session
- Load images onto a computer
- Back up the files on an external drive
- 2-4 hours of Adobe Photoshop time, including, cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
- 2-3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, packages prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
- Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.
THE EIGHT-HOUR WEDDING
A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it's not uncommon to end up with 1,000 - 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, if a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!
( Don't forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)
THE EXPERTISE AND COST OF DOING BUSINESS
Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now cost under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photograph, run a website, etc. And don't forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities and insurance.
In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo can not.
THE CHAIN STORE PHOTO STUDIO
Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.
Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don't have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.
The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. What the chain store bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos... while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.
THE REAL DEAL
Professional, personal photographers are just that----- professionals.
No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.
Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors cost $1.50 at the drugstore. Still most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.
The added attention and quality that a persona; photographer gives is worth every penny.
Friday, 12 November 2010
Okinawa Maternity Photography - mommies-2-be
The heart of a child is the
most precious of God's creations
-Joseph Whitten
Rising Sun Memories is looking for YOU!!!!
The video quality isn't important. What is important is YOU! Use the video on your camera, on your phone or a laptop. Then upload the video to Vimeo, Youtube or Facebook, etc. Title your video "Rising Sun Memories"
Last but not least email your link to Rising Sun Memories via the contact form here
That's it easy peasy...
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
- Please get your submissions in by the deadline of November 18th, 2010 (Okinawa time).
- Rising Sun Memories will review them and pick the best person who will represent this session.
- You will be an active part of this experience!!
- You'll also be in front of the camera ALOT
- Please note though the session and experience is "free" Maternity attire is your responsiblity
- Rising Sun Memories will provide a MEMORABLE experience =)
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Okinawa Family Photography - THANKFUL
...is more blessed to give than to receive.
Act 20:35
finely handmade hair accessories by Felt So Sweet
Rising Sun Memories is very excited
to be giving a Mini Session!!!
Random Acts of Kindness Give A Way
This give away will have a little twist!! You're going to help Rising Sun Memories by nominating the person for the give away. Yes, that means you can NOT nominate yourself.
Rising Sun Memories is looking for a person who is always thinking of others. Rising Sun Memories will need you to write an essay, no more than 500 words, about the person you are nominating. Tell us why this person has touched your life or how you have seen this person touch the lives of others.
Random Acts of Kindness Rules
- Nominate a giving person
- you may not nominate yourself
- the person must reside on Okinawa
- Rising Sun Memories will pick the winner from the essays received
- The session must be redeemed within 6 months of winning
- The session may NOT be redeemed for cash value
- Nominations will be received from November 11th to December 11th 2010 (Okinawa time)
- Winner will be announced on December 25th, 2010 (Okinawa Time)
- Winner must sign a model release so that Rising Sun Memories may use images for promotional and advertising purposes
- email essays to risingsunmemories at gmail.com
Monday, 8 November 2010
Okinawa Newborn Photography - legend of the crane
O flock of heavenly cranes
cover us with your wings
- Japanese Mother's prayer
The Legend of the Crane
Throughout history, birds have been viewed as animals of special value and have been ladened with meanings often derived from legends and stories that have survived over many generations. The Crane may conceivably be the oldest bird on earth; there is fossil proof that they existed over 60 million years ago. Greek and Roman myth tended to portray the dance of cranes as a love of joy and a celebration of life. The crane was usually considered to be a bird of Apollo, the sun god, who heralded in Spring and light. Throughout all of Asia, the crane has been a symbol of happiness and eternal youth. In Japanese, Chinese, and Korean tradition, cranes stand for good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years. Existing in fifteen species which inhabit five continents, the most majestic is the Japanese Crane which stands almost five feet tall with its wing span of more than six feet and its white body capped with its red crown. The Japanese refer to the crane as “the bird of happiness;” the Chinese as “heavenly crane” believing they were symbols of wisdom. The powerful wings of the crane were believed to be able to convey souls up to paradise and to carry people to higher levels of spiritual enlightenment. Over time, the crane has also evolved as a favorite subject of the tradition of paper folding – origami. It is said that a thousand folded cranes, one for each year of its life, makes a wish come true.
Shortly after the end of World War II, the folded origami cranes also came to symbolize a hope for peace through Sadako Sasaki and her unforgettable story of perseverance. Diagnosed with leukemia after being exposed to radiation after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sadako became determined to fold 1,000 cranes in hopes of recovering good health, happiness, and a world of eternal peace. Although she completed 644 before she died, her classmates folded the remaining 356 to honor her. A statue was raised in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to commemorate her strong spirit.
Traditionally, flocks of 1,000 cranes are offered at shrines or temples with prayer, based on the belief that the effort to fold such a large number will surely be rewarded. Chains are often given to someone suffering from illness, as a prayer for their recovery, as a wish for happiness, and as an expression of sympathy and peace.
Little Miss "M" has been featured before but last time she was still snug as a bug in a rug in her Mami's belly. You can see her Mami's session here
Okinawa Maternity Photography - mystery
God's ways are as hard to discern
as the pathways of the wind,
and as mysterious as a tiny
baby being formed in a
mother's womb.
Ecclesiastes 11:5
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Okinawa Newborn Photography - shisa シーサー
Discovering Okinawa
Shīsā シーサー (lion dog) can be seen on top of roofs or at gates of Okinawan homes and businesses, and even on street corners. From small to large, old and new, shisa lion help ward off evil. How they come to be used as protectors is a story told and retold over the centuries so often that many different stories resulted.
Here is one of the more popular ones...
Long ago on the Japanese island of Okinawa lived a young boy named Chiga-san. The small village that Chiga-san lived in was terrorized by an angry dragon. The dragon would suddenly appear from the sea to attack the village and it's unlucky villagers. One day, after another attack, the king of Okinawa came to the village and approached Chiga-san.
"I saw the dragon and the troubles it is causing you," the king said and pulled out a piece of rope with a small statue attached to it. " Here, take this shisa lion and place it in front of the village. It will protect all of you from now on."
Chiga-san took the small statue and looked at it. It was a boring brown color. The face of the shisa looked like a lion, except much fiercer, with a snarl on its lips. Chiga-san bowed to the king and placed the shisa on the beach in front of the village, then went back to playing with his friends.
The next day the villagers heard huge waves crash on the beach -- the dragon was approaching. They ran out of their homes, their eyes on the beach where the shisa statue sat. The dragon leaped out of the ocean and swung its head from side to side, then stopped.
The small staue of the shisa lion began to tremble. A loud sound came from it, like a muffled lions roar, and suddenly the statue cracked open. A huge shisa lion sprang out and attacked the dragon. They disappeared under the ocean and the villagers feared the shisa lion was dead.
Suddenly, far out in the ocean, what looked like a fountain of water rose into the air. The villagers and Chiga-san held their breath. They heard the roars of the shisalion and the bellows of the dragon, then all was quiet and the water slowly fell back to the ocean. The villagers gasped in surprise. A small island was now where there had been none.
Chiga-san frantically looked and looked at the ocean fro the shisa lion, but it didn't reappear. Then, when he looked down at the sand, Chiga-san jumped back -- the shisa statue was there, all in one piece and not a crack on it.
The village was never bothered by the dragon again. Word soon spread around Okinawa of the shisa lion's bravery and protection of the village. Soon, other villages made their own shisa lions, and the shisa became known as the protector of the islands.
I hope that you like this shisa story as much as I did. Click here to learn more about Shisa.
This story appeared in December 1998 issue of Kidnaround Magazine.
Friday, 5 November 2010
Okinawa Newborn Photography - butterfly kisses
If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.
- Vincent Van Gogh
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Okinawa Photographer - one day only
You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.
- Maxwell Maltz
ONE day ONLY!!!!
We will DOUBLE your money!!
Rising Sun Memories is doing a ONE day advanced session sale.
This sale is being held on November 6th at the Schilling Community Center Craft Market at Kadena AB.
This promotion is available to both new and existing clients. Not only that you may purchase more than one session at the discounted rate!
This is a great gift! For baby showers, wedding present, or gift yourself later on in the year with a fun, creative portrait photography session!
Example-
a regular session: $300.00 - half price $150.00 - value $300.00
Certificates CAN NOT be redeemed for cash value. Certificates will expire on December 2011
LIMITED availability.
Looking forward to seeing you on November 6th at the Schilling Community Center!!!
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