Isabel Sam Photography » Isabel Sam Photography's Blog

So, I’ve been kind of sort of keeping a secret for a while. I actually announced it to the world MONTHS ago on my personal facebook wall, but I just haven’t publicly announced it here. You see, I am now in my third trimester with baby Sam version 2.0! YAY!!!!

And I waited so long to officially announce it because with my first pregnancy, some people were really bogus towards me, so I decided to just not announce it so early this time around. It’s not like it’s a really big secret, though. I’m totally showing, duh!

Anyway, so here’s our new little boy we’re expecting come mid November! (This was taken at 18 weeks, so he’s a heck of a lot bigger now!)

So, how do I do this and my business and my Solomon and my marriage, too? I honestly don’t know. I have days where I feel like I’m losing my mind just like any other mom of a toddler. I just get even more responsibility added to it! I’ve heard that the transition from one child to two is the hardest, so I’m kind of freaked out about that, but I’m sure that some how we’ll make it. The next couple of years may be blurry, but we can do it!!!!

Anyway, on to the business side of things. I’m already done with my weddings for this year. I decided not to overload myself with 8-16 hour days in my last trimester. If you end up planning a quick, cute, and shorter wedding on the fly in the next few months – I’d still be SO happy to shoot that!!!!!

And I am still taking portrait sessions up until I can’t do it any more. I’m actually still quite agile, I have my limits, but I can still do everything but lay on my stomach for a shot!

So, that’s the BIG announcement!

And for the smaller one….. My awesome canvas printer is having a sale! If you order a canvas between now and Aug. 30th you get a 25% discount! SWEET!!!!

I’m off to bed! This body needs rest! Nighty night, friends!

xoxo,

Isa

You know when you’ve hit that time of year where you just feel totally overwhelmed?! I’ve officially hit it!!!!!!!!

I’m going to work on digging myself out of this….so please pray for me.

In the mean time….a preview of Phil and Heather!

My baby brother, who is about a foot taller than me now, just finished his bachelor’s at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign! I just can’t believe it! We’re so stinkin’ proud of him!!!!!

We came in on Saturday evening and went straight to campus. Quincy was there in his gown getting pictures taken already! He wanted TONS OF THEM!!!!! I was totally not expecting this and felt SO GUILTY for not bringing more gear – but we had fun! He literally ran around to all his spots he wanted pictures and just kept on posing! I think this is my very first, pose free, suggestion free random shoot I’ve ever done!

Bernie took this one at the gateway arch.

Yes, this is exactly how he was – the entire time!

He took a VERY similar picture to this one his freshman year, so he needed one for the end of this ride.

My mama just completed her second Master’s degree and wanted to wear her robe too to celebrate. She kept on asking if I was getting her cape in the shot! JAJAJAJAJJAJA

The three alum! We all completed our Bachelor’s at UIUC.

Bernie and I couldn’t be in Quincy’s department graduation hall because Solomon had just totally had it by that time of day. BUT my sister let me know when his department was ready to walk and I RAN in there and grabbed this with my 85mm.

CONGRATULATIONS, Quincy!!!!!!!! We are SOOOO Proud of you!!!!!

I love him, OH SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Who couldn’t use a little Solomon fix, right?!

Merry Christmas! I hope yours was great!

I’ve been working on a commercial project for a construction management firm called Solica. It’s been pretty fun running around and photographing what they’ve done!

They are super anxious to get their images back, so I thought they might like a quick preview!

Here’s an interior of one of their buildings!

And they actually didn’t build this building, but they are fixing up a portion of it…so they wanted an exterior shot.

I know I normally don’t photograph anything other than people, but I thought this might be something fun for me!

And nextly (yes I just invented a word) we went to our church’s Christmas Eve service to celebrate Jesus’ birth! I took some pictures during the service and Solomon worked really hard to attract all the attention his way. (Poor Bernie!)

That’s it for now! I wish you all a great and wonderful and superly even betterly New Year!

Much love,

Isa

Hello Friends!

I’m sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. We’ve been pretty sad over here. 2009 has really been a tough year for us. I’m praying for a better 2010!!!!!!!

Anyway, some good news is that I got to go to the Creation Museum to celebrate my MS-IS graduation! Solomon wouldn’t have sat through a long and boring commencement…so we did something else instead!

We went with some friends and did just a short visit. We’ll totally have to go again when it starts warming up, because the place was pretty cool and they’ve also got this outside area that looks fun, but it was too cold for little Solomon! (and maybe Solomon will have a longer attention span in a few months!)

So, here’s a few pictures….

I hope you enjoyed them! Rachel is next and then comes the happy booth party!!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!!

Ours was CRAZY!

Anyway, I would like to invite you all to a party! I have some of my art on display at Caribou Coffee on Cox Lane in West Chester, OH – and, yep, you guessed it, that’s where the party is! So, come on by this Saturday, the 5th of December from 3-5, get something warm in your tummy, and jump in the Happy Booth for some goofy pictures! That’s right, the Happy Booth is coming!!!!!!!!!! If you like your pictures, you can even order them a week later off my website! (And if you’ve been a slacker about getting some pictures done, we can do a few nice ones in the booth )

Fun-a-licious!!!!!

I hope you had a great candy day!

Here’s how ours went….

Solomon had some ravioli for lunch.

He isn’t exactly a non-messy eater yet…

so…yeah…

He gave me some of his wonderful expressions!

And then rubbed some more in. Typical.

I didn’t believe his innocent looks…

No matter how many he gave!

We then had to throw him in the tub…because he was just that disgusting!!!!

We put him in his doggie costume for just a little while.

He trick or treated at three houses.

Everyone thought he was really cute!

Here’s a curious face!

And here he is happily lounging on Daddy’s lap

I hope your Halloween was even more fun than Solomon’s!

I love going green. I really do think that we have a great responsibility to take care of our home here on this earth. When I started my business, I kept that in mind and have actually arranged a lot of my business around this philosophy.

One of the reasons I give my clients their images on DVD instead of 4×6 proofs is to avoid wasting paper and essentially our precious trees. The canvas company I use is extremely environmentally friendly while still producing an excellent product that (with the proper care) will last for at least 100 years. My album company offers albums that are “animal friendly” as in ‘No animals were harmed in the making of my albums’. Despite all this, I have been still been looking for a more “Green” solution to my albums and prints. I haven’t been happy with the Green options out there, until I recently found a company that I believe supports my very personal and custom style of photography – yet is outstandingly Green!

Every fiber of my being just wants to take this and Run Run RUN with it! Just chuck out the old albums and get in the new ones (okay, I know chucking isn’t great…please don’t put me on blast!)! Hang up the new prints that are printed on beautiful paper that wasn’t detrimentally harvested! BUT, then I think of my wonderful clients. You are the ones who loved the albums. Would you be sad for them to leave? And, it’s also not exactly cheap to go green. Album prices could go up 30%. 30% is a lot in this economy when job security isn’t a sure thing. However, these new albums would be even more beautiful than the current ones. (I’m only talking about switching my album and printer vendor. I’m still totally thrilled with the canvas and card printer!)

So, here’s where I’m thinking of going with this. I either go completely and totally green (which is kind of what I want to do). Or should I ease into it by starting to offer a completely green package? I mean, my current business model isn’t bad, I am probably 90% green at this point, which is nothing to sneeze at! But, what do you want? What would you prefer? I would love to hear what my awesome clients would have to say about this!

You can leave me a comment or shoot me an email isabel [at] isabelsam dot com

Thanks for listening!

Oh and P.S. Here’s a little preview for Tom and Ashley!

Bernie, Solomon, and I went out a few weeks ago to this home show they do around the Cincinnati area (it’s called Homearama if you want to look it up). This particular show typically likes to show off new home designs that are in the 1-2 million dollar range, but this year they went a little smaller and focused on interior design. This was perfect for us, because, you see, we can’t figure out what to do with our house!!! Not that our house looks bad, we actually get compliments whenever people come over, it’s just that, we just don’t know what to do with it! And I’ve been especially struggling with what to do with my office! I just can’t decide!

So, we went to get some inspiration! I don’t know if we were all that inspired (I did get majorly inspired by one office…but I don’t know if I can pull that off in my own – I know sad!) by what we saw, but it was a nice little outing

Solomon is now big enough to sit facing forward. He loves it!

I loved this private fort for a little boy!

Solomon was a little mesmerized by everything

Thanks for looking

Stay tuned! Tom and Ashley and Cooper and Milo are next!

Oh and P.S. Thank you for the Christmas gift submissions! All have been great so far! Keep ‘em coming! This is going to be one HARD decision!!!!