Isabel Sam Photography – Lexington KY Photographer

If you haven’t already noticed this, today, the interwebs are on strike.

There are two bills out there called SOPA and PIPA which are supposed to protect copyrighted content on the internet, but actually will do much much more harm than good.

I’ve also been on the receiving end of having my pictures ripped off, put on other “I’m a really good professional photographer, please hire me” websites and have had to deal with that insanity. I’ve also had very expensive reception venues steal my images to use in their promotional materials, when I would have and had offered to give them files for free. Then I find some crappy pixelated image with my logo halfway cropped out is in their materials for new brides. Yay.

Would I like the process to be easier to deal with those “wackos”? ABSO-FREAKIN’-TOOTELY!!!!

The thing is, though, that there already are processes and laws in place to protect US! Yes, that’s right! They might be a little difficult to navigate, again, I’d LOVE for them to be easier, but SOPA/PIPA are not the way to do it!

If you’d like to get involved and tell our government, who is supposed to WORK FOR US, here’s a link to one of the most hilarious blackouts I’ve seen today. The Oatmeal. Go make our government work for us!

And thank you for listening to my first political rant on my website. I’ve got more in me, but I’ll probably save it for personal encounters – if you want to go there.

Love to you all,

Isa

We had fun yesterday at the Bridal Bliss Classic! It was great meeting so many fun brides who laughed with us at fun Happy Booth photos and told me I have a “creative eye”. People are great, but geez, I’m still tired from yesterday!

Anywho, so, a few weeks ago I had to submit some photos for this advertising thing I’m doing. The funny thing about this, though, was that this group emailed me asking me for photos like it was nothing. They had no idea that we just moved here to Lexington and I actually don’t have wedding images from the Headley-Whitney museum. Nothing. At. All. I’ve just shot a couple of family portrait sessions there. Sweet Beth must talk me up too much! Soooooooo, what do I do? I call up my flexible and adorable and happy models and say “be ready at this time and this date!” AND, guess what? They were TOTALLY READY!!!!!!!!!! Soooo, off we went to break in to the museum grounds!

Now, while I was getting this shot, we discovered that there were TONS OF MOSQUITOES attacking one of my fabulous models. So, we ran this photo session into quick time. Anyone who has seen me photograph family photos at weddings – yeah- that’s where I went.

Oh and a quick tip: if you eat lots of citrus, mosquitoes don’t think you’re so sweet. Yep. Trust me. I’ve lived in mosquito land and haven’t been bitten and I LOVE citrus! (Google it, it really is true!)

The end. And thank you, my models, for having fun with me! I love you guys!!!

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!

Over the past few months I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking me why I started my business, how I got started, how did I know the timing was right, how do you be creative, why are you a photographer when you have degrees in completely different fields, etc… So, I figured I’d turn my answers to some of these questions into blog posts!

As many people know, I was one of those professional students. I went from undergrad straight to grad school and was even offered a place in a PhD program. I suppose I’m no dumbie When I wasn’t too far from finishing grad school I was offered quite a few corporate jobs and I took one of them. Then I got pregnant and I realized that the corporate job was sooooo not family friendly. I had second shot some weddings and knew that I really really loved doing that!!!!!! Plus Bernie and I had been having some conversations about what we really wanted to do with our lives and came back with that we are happiest when we are serving the Lord. The wedding season does make you work really really super crazy hard during the warm time of the year, but during the winter down time, we would have the flexibility to go on mission trips and be serving the Lord! Plus, we would be able to spend more time with our children while they are growing up! It seemed like the perfect win-win for us! So, we went ahead and decided that I would start up my business and we haven’t looked back!

Now, even though I do love my job, it is not all glamour and roses! I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it is to have a three month old and a two year old while running a business. Basically, imagine going to work one day and having a constant tornado running around you the whole entire day while you are trying desperately to be able to grab your desk to hopefully get work done. That is my every single day. It’s crazy. I seriously don’t know how I get my images back so quickly to clients. Thankfully, the happiness and gratitude I get from my super wonderful clients outweighs the bad days and I can keep on picking myself up and move forward. I know that one day these little boys are going to be much bigger and I won’t feel like everything is so crazy and we will all be happy fulfilling our great purpose in life. God is good and I thank Him for the brains and eyes He gave me!

OH and onto another subject, I was looking through some pictures I took in December and this one popped out to me! It is from a random time Bernie was playing with the boys and Solomon wanted to go in a ride in the little shopping cart! If ONLY I could get him to ride in the big ones in the store! ;-D (It’d be so much easier to keep track of him!)

Nighty night friends!

Eh some people have been complaining about the lack of baby photos….

To the complainers – I’m sorry!!!! It’s hard to juggle a business and getting my kiddos published…..but I KNOW I should be….so here are a few for your viewing pleasure!

Grandma came to visit my cutie baby for a couple days.

Yep. He takes baths like a pro! (Well…not really….yeah…not really at all…)

Yes, it’s time to adore his baby yawns and double chin.

My little Solomon is taking on big boy puzzles now like a champ!!!!!

Baby hugs are the best!

AND lastly, but not leastly…..we’ve discovered a Monkey Joe’s here in Lexington!!! Solomon LOVE LOVE LOVES it there!!!!!!! He can burn a whole days worth of energy in ONE HOUR FLAT! Boo-yah!

Okay, friends, I’m going to go help get some boys down for their (and hopefully our) sleeping time!!!! Happy dreams to you!

Love,

Isa

Soooo this whole attempt at taking a maternity leave has kinda gone bust! I’ve been back for weeks – I just didn’t have the guts to admit it!!! I still need to attack a mountain of emails, so please be patient, but it’s exciting to begin working again.

I feel so much better this time around with Ezequias! I think it’s due to much better care in the hospital, using the Belly Bandit, and of course a baby who doesn’t cry all the time. (Thank you, Jesus!!!!!)

Anyway, I am able to shoot portrait sessions again and meet with potential clients no problem. But, I don’t think my body can handle a full wedding yet. I need some more time to be able to be on my feet for eight hours in one day. Luckily – I have some more months before that comes back and my brides all know that I can’t wait to be able to roll around on the ground again for my funky shots! Woot to recovering!!!!

Okay, friends, I must get back to nursing my little one. Have a great night and Happy 2011!!!!

Much love to you,

Isa

Our second little man made it into the world 8 days ago! He’s adorable and his big brother is in love with him!!!! I’m still feeling kinda crappy from labor and delivery….and from three feeds a night…so please forgive the short post. I promise to post more later!

In the meantime….here are a few pictures from his first days.

With lots of love,

Isa

…..because some people have been complaining lately.

So, for this run, we figured we’d take Solomon to see some horses since there are a heck of a lot of horses in Lexington, KY!  Anyway, Bernie had a day off last month and we used it to go to a place called Keeneland which is kind of a big deal around here when it comes to horse races and some horse auctions (or so I have been told). They were in the middle of some kind of races that were going on for a few weeks and people had told me that we should go there early in the morning when the horses are being exercised. And so we packed up Solomon one early morning and took him over there. I think he even ate his breakfast in the car! We get there and start asking people where the horses are at (we seriously had no clue!) and EVERYONE tells us that we should have gotten there earlier!!! And we were so late (it was like 8:30) that we probably wouldn’t see many horses and it went on and on and on. So, I kindly explained to them that we were just going for fun and our son is just two  years old and he’s never seen a horse and we’d be happy with just one horse that’s out and about. Seriously, just one horse, we’re not picky and he’s two years old.

Anywhoo, there were like 6 horses being exercised! How flippin’ great is that?! Solomon went up to the fence to look out where everyone else was standing and a horse came by and his rider even had him stop so the people could look at the horse! How cool is that?! Well, apparently it wasn’t so cool. The horse probably looked gigantic to Solomon and he was hiding behind our legs trying to peak out at the giant in front of him. He was curious, yet pretty scared.

So, we just used the time to play with him at the park. We saw some more horses, and Solomon would look, but then he’d decide playing with his mini soccer ball and daddy was just so much more fun!

And here’s a few pictures of the fun time we had

Solomon LOVES to play outside with all of his balls. He is totally and completely all boy!

These are little statues of famous jockey’s. I thought it was so stinkin’ cute that Solomon was their same height!

My boys together just make me smile!

Yep, that’s it for now! I know I’ve got other things I need to be posting, but ya know, I’ve gone crazy – so just enjoy this for now. I’ll seriously work on getting more posted before the next crazy comes. I promise!

Click here for information on my upcoming maternity leave.

I will sticky this to the top of my site until after maternity leave is officially done!

Thanks for your patience, friends!!

xoxo,

Isa

We’re still alive friends! We’re just really busy with unpacking and getting a toddler accustomed to a new place. I promise to post some new pictures soon! AND if you want to get in on the mini-sessions action – there are still a few spots remaining for October 16th!

With love,

Isa