Isabel Sam Photography – Lexington KY Photographer

The “Lights, Camera, Senior Fashion” Show is officially changing this year! It was such a huge success that I decided to open this up to two more age groups and we’re changing some of the model aspects of the show!

Here’s what’s the same:

This is still a major fundraiser for MADD!

We’re still going to rock fashions from local boutiques! Buy local and be happy!

Models still get free model sessions and portrait sessions!

Minimum purchases are still greatly reduced for all models!

Models can still earn their pictures for free through the spokesmodel program.

High school seniors are still the main attraction! If you are a member of the class of 2013 – email isabel at isabelsam dot com to get all the info.!

Here’s what’s different:

The name, obviously!

Moms with babies 18 months and younger will be modeling baby carriers from Mother Nurture!

We’re including children ages 8-12 in the show this year too! WAHOOO!!!

This year child models and Senior models will have my model program extend into a national model program. Children could win a photo shoot and scholarships, high schoolers could win a model contract with AIG!

There are now multiple tiers in the model program: Print models up to Fashion Show models. You can choose what’s best for you!

Spokesmodels who do a great job can earn a $1,000.00 scholarship for college!

The informational meeting is coming up on 2/11/12! Please email isabel at isabelsam dot com to get an invite to model! I’m so so so excited for this year and all the crazy fun we’re going to have!

And lastly, let’s end with this video from last year’s show.

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 was a fantastic year for you and that 2012 will be filled with even more blessings and peace!

Before having children I was able to give some time and images to grieving parents who sadly had to endure a still birth. It’s awful to have to give birth to a dead child. Awful. An organization started up a few years ago that gets volunteer photographers together so there is an “on call phone tree” of sorts to get a photographer to a hospital when a baby has passed. Many times the images this photographer takes will be the only ones ever taken of that baby during his or her time here on earth.

This organization is called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS). They hold a fundraiser every winter looking for “North America’s cutest kid”! You basically get pictures taken by a participating photographer and then one image is uploaded to the contest. Anyone can vote to get their child more votes towards winning the contest and each vote costs $1 which is donated to NILMDTS. Winners get thousands of dollars in fabulous prizes. Official contest rules are located HERE.

I’m going to tie this model contest into mini sessions at Mother Nurture AND my spring fashion show. This year I’m going to include moms wearing babies and 8-12 year old children in the fashion show. So, here’s how you can get your child into this model search:

1) Call me (513-550-1329) to schedule a mini session at Mother Nurture on January 28th. The session fee including the entrance to the model search is $50. There is a minimum product order of $150 and anyone who spends more than $200 gets a $25 gift card to Mother Nurture!

2) RSVP by emailing me isabel [at] isabelsam.com that you are coming to the informational model show meeting on Feb. 11th. Anyone who models in the show will automatically be entered into the model contest

OR you can do the BEST of both worlds!!!!

3) Already know that your child WANTS to model in the fashion show? Email me (isabel at isabelsam.com) and I’ll send you the information for modeling! I’ll fit you into the mini-sessions at Mother Nurture on Jan. 28th for your model session and you’ll get a $35 gift card to Mother Nurture! (The advantage to this one is that your model session will be photographed earlier, thus more time for voting, and a bigger gift card to Mother Nurture since there is a bigger minimum purchase for the fashion show.)

And last, but not least, the official blog poster for the model search.

P.S. If you are a current high school junior who is interested in modeling in the fashion show, don’t worry, I am going to tie you guys into a model search that is specifically aimed at high school seniors.

Get excited people! It’s that time of year again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This fall we’re teaming up with Mother Nurture here in Lexington! It’s a wonderful store that helps green mothers and their babies make it through pregnancy and those difficult first years of life. I’ve had to buy so much of the products they sell in their store online! I wish I had a store like them when I had Solomon. Sigh.

BUT, now I have them here in Lexington and they are fabulous! So, our businesses got together and decided to throw a mini session party at Mother Nurture!

As usual, here are the rules of the game:

When: Saturday, November 12th from 10am to 3pm. You’ll sign up for a 15 minute session in a 30 minute time slot!

Where: at the green areas around Mother Nurture (2891 Richmond Rd # 102 Lexington, KY 40509). If the weather doesn’t cooperate we have a back up plan in the store!

How much: $50 session fee and $150 minimum product order. We, of course, have special mini session packages for you too!

How to schedule: Call me 513.550.1329 or email me isabel (at) isabelsam (dot) com to set up your session.

I’m so excited for this partnership and sooooo excited to see your lovely family soon!!!!

xoxo,

Isa

Deanna is a wonderful wedding planner, event coordinator, and mama who is half of the Great Expectations team here in Lexington. She’s been wanting some family pictures for a while and we’ve sort of chit chatted about them, but with the busy season upon us, we hadn’t actually put it together. Well, fast forward to a few weeks ago, I needed to test out some new equipment and asked her if she and her crazy wonderful family wanted to come along for the ride and of course she was ALL OVER THAT! So, we made it happen!!!

Her little girl who does not like rain. At all.

Her son who is becoming too cool for his mama.

Her daughter, again, who basically would have had me take only pictures of her the whole entire time if we would have let her!

They were all photo bombing each other’s portraits. It became downright silly!

Deanna’s one request was to have a picture that showed off how much she loves her children. We played a couple of games, and then we made some magic happen. Done and DONE!

Thanks for looking and thanks for all the laughs, Deanna and your crazy kids!

Up and coming blog posts include:

Clarence’s senior portraits shot at Jacobson park in Lexington.

Deanna’s crazy family portraits shot at a super secret groovy place in Lexington

and Barb and Pat’s party like a rockstar crazy wedding at Mary Queen Catholic Church in Lexington!

To see a quickie preview of all of that make a fun clickie HERE!

AND since I’ve been spending all this time editing and processing other families and have posted nothing of my own lately….here are my little, wonderful, beautiful, and smiley baby boys!

Well, I guess there is one big boy in there too.

Happy Day!

There was once a beautiful tiny little girl named Layla Grace. When she had just joined the ranks of “toddlerhood” her parents noticed something just wasn’t quite right with her. They took her to the doctor….and to make a long story short…the little sweetie was diagnosed with cancer. Yes, the ugly cancer. Unfortunately, cancer won over her little body. She joined the angels in heaven around this time last year. Her sweet mother wrote about all their ups and downs on her blog and twitter account and thousands of people started following her. The world mourned when sweet Layla left us.

Out of all this tragedy, the Layla Grace Foundation was born. You see, there are tons of ongoing research for many types of cancer, but childhood cancers don’t really get the same amount of attention. Layla’s foundation is working on changing that and helping parents deal with the ups and downs of helping their children live.

One way that you can help the families who are going through this awfulness is by giving to the Layla Grace Foundation and that’s where I come in. On April 9th photographers across the USA are putting on a portrait party for Layla! We’re offering mini-sessions to our clients and ALL of the proceeds go to Layla’s Foundation! How GREAT is that?!

Here’s how you can get SHOT for Layla!

Go here: http://store.laylagrace.org/categories/Portrait-Party-%2711/Lexington%2C-KY/ and purchase a session.

On April 1st I will get an email with everyone’s information and email you about your session.

When you purchase a session you get one 8×10. I’ve decided to also give you 3 of the best high-res retouched digital images from your session as an extra happy thingy.

I am offering a 25% discount on additional purchases at your viewing session.

Then bring your happy face to Jacobson Park in the morning on the 9th and get ready to have some FUN!!!!!

Thank  you, my wonderful readers, for loving on these families!

Love,

Isa

Hi Friends!

I started having contractions over the weekend, they’ve stopped now, but I’m at a point where I feel completely miserable. I really think it’s time for me to step back and say that I’m on maternity leave and try to “relax” as much as possible before baby #2 flips our world upside down! I’ve heard that the transition from one child to two is the hardest, and honestly, I’m really scared. Solomon was an incredibly difficult baby and I’m so scared that this next year is going to be even harder!!

So, over maternity leave, I’m planning on checking email as I can and I’ll reply to emails in order of importance. (Not that you’re all not important, I just know that there will only be so much I can do! I will have a toddler to take care of, I’ll be recovering from delivery, and nursing a tiny baby every two hours – and that alone is a full time job!)

Anyway, some of my wonderful clients are getting ready to have their first tiny bundles of joy and so I thought I’d leave this post with some things that worked for us with our crazy Solomon and a few pictures from some of my last shoots.

So….babies….well, a lot of them come out with their nights and days completely mixed up! I totally suggest getting the Happiest Baby on the Block to learn lots of super fabulous tricks to help your baby sleep! This was also our answer to Solomon’s 8-10 hours of screaming that doctors just called “colic”. This video seriously reduced the screaming to a total of one hour a day. It was heavenly!!!! Oh and I recommend the DVD over the book just because some times you have to see what they are talking about!

Also, the Dunstan Baby Language was really helpful at leading me down the path of not believing those doctors and figuring out what exactly it was that Solomon needed. I knew it was sleep, I just couldn’t get him to nap until I found the Happiest Baby on the Block. (I’ve met a handful of people who claimed that they could never distinguish the cries, but I started noticing that the people who couldn’t hear the differences were ones who haven’t had much exposure to other languages. I have a feeling that their “ears” aren’t used to listening for subtle differences.)

Gripe water works much better than gas drops.

A comfy glider and ottoman is worth its weight in gold! You will be spending hours – days in it when your baby is tiny and sick!!!!!

Nursing hurts. It’s really really painful, but it goes away 6-8 weeks into it. Just trust me on this. I know those lactation consultants say “it’s not supposed to hurt”, “you must be doing something wrong”, etc…. The hospital I delivered Solomon at had lactation consultants who hadn’t nursed anyone in 25 years. They don’t remember! Also, for a whole lot of women, those $300 Medela pumps don’t pump enough milk for mama’s who go back to work full time. You’ll either need to supplement with formula or rent a hospital grade pump. AND, yes, hospital grade pumps make those $300 pumps seem like little toys. Oh I rented mine from a pharmacy instead of a hospital and saved $20/month. The best hospital grade pump is the Medela Symphony. You will fall in love!!!!!

Keep track of what you eat that first month you nurse. Some foods you eat may alter the taste of your milk and/or make your kiddo sick. The biggest culprits out there are asparagus, cabbage, chocolate, spices, and depending on your child – milk products.

Be super flexible with everything! Little children change so quickly and can’t communicate like we do…so be ready to be flexible!

And some of my fabulous clients…….(I know I just pulled these off of facebook…right now my office has been pulled apart and is located in 4 different sections of the house! So, I’m using a laptop instead.)

Steph loves loves loves her pups!

Barb & Pat are engaged and their wedding is going to be super rad in July!

The Justin, Asha, & Yoda combo is the best! Seriously!

I think I have fallen in love with this family! And Michelle is truly a Belle!

And who couldn’t love a family that throws a mini-party for their “Happy Birthday Jesus” Christmas card?!

Thank you, friends, for making 2010 so much fun!!!!! I love you all!

Isa

Sarah, who is the oldest sibling in this bunch, has been wanting to give her mom a beautiful picture of all her children and her grandchild for Christmas! Luckily, I photographed a friend’s wedding and when she saw the pictures – she was all over getting me to shoot some sibling portraits! Her email asking for the session was so completely awesome and sweet – I just COULDN’T turn this awesome group down! So, we fit in a portrait session the last time I was in Cincinnati!!!!! We held it at a park since a cute four year old was present – and you know how awesomely cooperative four year olds are!!! So, we basically did speed shooting in between breaks for the kiddo. I think the images turned out fantastically and really show off their personality! I know your mom is going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this Christmas gift!

So, how do you start out a photo session with a four year old who has a droopy face over having to behave for a portrait session? You let him swing all he wants.

And then go play on the jungle gym. Duh – what else does a four year old want to do????

Then you play a game of tickle monster!

Then play tag and tickle monster together!

Then a game of “squish together”!

Then you play chase and dance a little.

And now the kiddo is a little bit more worn out…so you just get him to cuddle in the middle of his explorations.

And that my friends, is how you get natural and happy smiles out of a kiddo when you need him to look cute with big people. It’s exhausting, yes, but it’s so dang cute!!!!!

Thank you so much, Sarah, for having me out!!! I have no clue how you’re going to choose one canvas for your mom!!! BUT I know she’s going to LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!

Many blessings to your sweet family,

Isa

P.S. Want to see more? Their complete video of images is embedded below.

P.P.S Mom still doesn’t know about this Christmas gift – so if you know this family keep this to yourself and NO tagging on Facebook! Got it? Got it!

So, I have this incredibly long to-do list that I’ve been wanting to attack for who knows how long! It just keeps getting longer and longer and longer. I hear all these crazy people who have no children and their own business tell me stuff like “make your to-do list and start getting things done”. Yeah, “let’s see them get all this done and juggle life” is what other mother’s tell me! Basically, what I’ve ended up doing is just prioritizing what I’ve GOT TO GET DONE OR I’LL FREAK OUT and everything else goes on a back burner. Ya know what I mean? And my clients can totally vouch for me getting done what I need to get done! Some of them have gotten their wedding images back in two weeks – yes, 2 Weeks!!!!!

Well, here’s something that’s been on the back burner that I’m going to get done in the next 12 days. I’m updating my investment guide! That’s right! Now, don’t freak out, none of my prices are going up! I’m just adding stuff to it that I’ve started offering that’s not on it!

So, since my business is quite the visual one…I thought I’d let you guys keep me to my word! Here are my pieces of wall art that all need to get on my investment guide!

First up: The Canvas. People tend to know what this is. It’s a photograph that’s been printed on canvas, given extra TLC and UV protection, has been stretched over a wooden frame, has backing paper, and even little silicon feet added to each of the four corners so this beauty will never scratch your walls. It only needs one hook to hang on your wall. That’s right, one teeny tiny hole in the wall for this. I also use a printer that uses very environmentally friendly inks and your canvas is guaranteed for 100 years. You can’t really beat that, huh?

So, here’s a sample.

Next up, is the Float Wrap. It’s basically a large photographic print that has been wrapped around a board with a sponge in it. Gator board is then attached to the back of the piece to allow you to hang this on your wall with just one screw. I, however, have found that I can use command strips and then no one has to start World War III in their house over holes in the wall. YAY for Happy Happy marriages!!!! Oh and the gator board allows this to “float” approximately one inch off your wall – hence the name “Float Wrap”.

Here’s the front of one of them:

And the back of another float wrap showing the command strips.

The next product is called a Metal Mural. These are basically multiple squares of metal that have had the photographic image printed over them. You then use metal hooks to connect the whole piece. It comes with everything shown except for the type of screws you need to hang this into the wall. Depending on the size of the mural, you could need 3-5 screws to hang this in your home. Metal Murals look especially cool with really grungy or edgy photographs.

And last, but not least, are my Acrylic Prints. These are fantabulous for really colorful prints. They almost look like a big thick piece of plastic that has the image melted over a back piece that’s been embedded into the plastic. (I hope that makes sense!) Anyway, if you have a really colorful image that you want to showcase – this is the piece for you! It even looks better when it’s back lit! All of these, no matter the size, require four screws to put this into your wall. The screws are covered by the metal circles you see in the corners.

Here’s a front view:

And a side view:

So, that’s it! I’ll be adding these beauties to the investment guides very soon!

Until later,

Isa

Happy Saturday morning! I’m working on tweaking my family portrait sessions and I’m looking for a LARGE family! So, if you live in the Cincinnati area and have 10 or more family members you can get together for one hour – you could be my guinea pigs! YESSSSSS!!!! You’ll get a one hour family portrait session together and five retouched images on CD for your awesome help! Email me at isabel at isabelsam dot com!