blog - Page 13 of 33 - Destination Wedding Photographer Stacy Reeves

Happy Birthday to me!

December 23, 2009

Every year I whine and complain about how awful my birthday is. I’ll tell just about anyone who will listen how I was completely jipped out of a real birthday, how I always get the shaft when it comes to gifts, and how virtually every birthday I can remember was spent sitting at home watching football while everyone else prepared for Christmas. I have serious birthday issues, that I will readily admit. Those birthday issues also became Christmas issues, and my lack of a “real” birthday made me a total Ebeneezer Scrooge when it came to all things Christmas related.

This year, I decided I was ready for a change. My wonderful boyfriend Jason gets most of the credit.. Christmas is one of his favorite times of the year, and he gets really excited about lights and Christmas music and all that jazz. I didn’t want my “Bah Humbugs” to bring him down this year, so I committed to enjoying both my birthday and Christmas to the very fullest, and man am I glad I did. We have had such a blast this year celebrating the dual festivities, from a stellar birthday dinner with so many of my college friends, clients, and wedding industry colleagues, to decorating the house with lights and tinsel and stockings as we listened to Jason’s patented Christmas mix, to a full week of holiday festivities. Now, finally, the big day has come, and I am beyond thrilled to finally be the ripe old age of 26! 25 was the best year of my life thus far, and 26 is looking to blow it completely out of the water. Bring it on!

See? Santa and I are totally buddies now.

Every year I appeal to my blog readers to help me celebrate my birthday by giving to a great cause. Last year I recommended Kiva.org, Thirst Relief, and the ASPCA as great options for your small donations, or the fantastic website Free Rice for those of you who want to do a good deed but are a little strapped for cash.

Although I still support all of these causes and highly recommending sending a few bucks (or clicks) their way, this year I want to switch it up and offer to do something for my readers. From now until midnight on Christmas Day, you can receive a $50 discount on the Mind Your Business workshop by signing up using THIS LINK. That’s ten solid hours jam-package with honest, useful, and applicable advice that’s going to help you start booking more clients and making more money IMMEDIATELY! Personally I think it’s a pretty good investment, but I guess I am a little biased. Remember, you must use THIS LINK to get the discount.

If you’d like to offer me a birthday or Christmas wish, I would greatly appreciate your comment on this post, and so would the North Texas Food Bank, since I will be donating one canned good for every comment received in the month of December! We’re well over 100 cans, which is amazing, but my personal goal is to get it up to at least 150 cans before the month is up, so get to commenting, and have a fantastic Christmas!

Jason, my mom and I at Gaylord ICE! for my birthday last year.

Myself, Jason, and my mom at Gaylord ICE! for my birthday last year.

By stacyreeves | Posted in Personal | 44 comments |

Mind Your Business Scholarship

December 18, 2009

In the spirit of the holiday season, I’ve decided to offer a scholarship to my Mind Your Business workshop. If you haven’t heard about the workshop, you can get the full details here, but essentially it’s a one-day workshop focusing on the business aspects of beginning a career in professional photography. Being able to take a good photo unfortunately has only a small impact on how successful you’ll be as a photography business owner. I’ve seen so many talented photographers fail or give up because they just didn’t have the business sense to promote themselves and run their businesses effectively, which is heartbreaking and completely avoidable.

The winner of the scholarship will receive complimentary registration to the workshop on Sunday, January 24, including lunch. However, travel fees are not included, so if you live outside of the DFW area you should be prepared to provide your own transportation to the workshop.

To apply, e-mail me at info@stacyreeves.com with “Mind Your Business Scholarship” in the title, and answer the following questions/prompts:

1. Tell me about yourself and your family.

2. Tell me how you got into photography, and how your business has progressed thus far.

3. What problems have you faced in your photography business?

4. What do you feel is holding you back from achieving your business goals?

5. What have you done to give back to your community in the past year? (It’s okay if your answer is nothing, I understand that starting a business can be all-consuming!)

6. Please include 5-10 examples of your work that you feel best reflect your style and ability.

The most important thing I will be looking for is brutal honesty and accountability. The more genuine you can be in your answers, the better!

Applications are due by midnight on Monday, December 28, so that gives you ten days and two weekends to put your applications together! Even if you have already registered for the workshop, you’re welcome to apply, and if you’re selected as the winner your registration fee will be refunded in full. Plus, everyone who applies will receive a business-related surprise from me! :)

I look forward to reading all of your applications!

By stacyreeves | Posted in Workshops | 11 comments |

Racy Steeves Boudoir – Grand Opening

December 14, 2009

I’m so thrilled to finally announce the official grand opening of Racy Steeves Boudoir Photography. This has been a project many, many months in the making. I’ve been in the photography business for many years now, but I had always made up my mind that boudoir wasn’t right for me. I’m fairly conservative, and although I’ve always loved the playful sexiness of perfume ads, Victoria’s Secret catalogs, and fashion shoots, all too often when I went looking for “boudoir work” I found images that made me blush like mad and feel dirty for even viewing them!

Finally, in early 2009, I realized that there was a huge market for classy, sophisticated women who wanted boudoir images of themselves that were both sexy and tasteful. I decided to try my hand at it, and I enlisted several of my friends and clients to do “trial runs,” so to speak. Each of these girls came into the session nervous and tentative, excited about doing the session but terrified that they would be embarrassed or that the images would reveal those flaws that only a woman can see in herself. Slowly but surely, as I worked with each girl, I began to see a different side of them come out. They became confident, outgoing, playful, sexy, and most of all, their self esteem went through the roof. By the end of each session, ladies that would normally be self-conscious in a short skirt were strutting around in lingerie feeling like they were on top of the world. It was an amazing revelation for me, to see how allowing a woman to feel sexy in a safe, positive environment can make her feel beautiful in a way she never thought possible. Yes, I do love creating lovely images, but that ability to bring out the confidence in every woman is truly what drove me to launch my boudoir division. It’s wonderful to know that I can be a part of making a woman feel great about herself – and the guys are pretty fond of it, too!

For the past six months I have been creating my business plan and working with my designer to create a brand that I hope reflects the type of image I want to create and the type of client I want to work with. It has been a true labor of love and I’m beyond excited to finally open my doors for business! In an effort to keep this blog wedding-focused and safe for browsing at work, I decided to create an entirely new website and business identity for my boudoir work. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.. Racy Steeves Boudoir Portraiture!

If you’re a regular blog reader, don’t forget to add Racy Steeves to your RSS reader (I recommend Bloglines or Google Reader). If you’re interested in commissioning a boudoir session for yourself, head on over and let me know!

PS :: My brand and blog for Racy Steeves was designed by the incomparable ladies at Luxecetera. They did my branding for my wedding site as well. I truly cannot say enough good things about Luxecetera.. Their work is superb, they’re consummate professionals, they’re easy to work with, their prices are completely reasonable for the service they provide.. Their waiting list is long, but it’s for a good reason! If you’re considering rebranding your business, I cannot recommend them highly enough. You will have to wait until June 2010 at the earliest, but TRUST ME, it’s so so soooo worth the wait!

By stacyreeves | Posted in Boudoir | Tagged Boudoir, racy steeves | 6 comments |

Jamie & Garrett’s Houston engagement session

December 12, 2009

Sometimes being a little delayed on my blog postings is a blessing in disguise.. In this case, I’m currently shooting 3-4 sessions a week, and unfortunately, because of the cold weather most of them have a kind of dark, bare, wintery feel to them. It was such a breath of fresh air to relive Jamie and Garrett’s engagement session, which is about as sunny and happy and summery as it gets. I absolutely love the feel of this session, which was held at Discovery Green park in the midst of downtown Houston. You just can’t look at all these bright colors and the big bold balloons and their adorable dog and not smile! I also love that Jamie has quite possibly the most beautiful skin I’ve ever seen – flawless, people! – and that they were both brave enough to jump in the splash park at the end of the session! Here are a few of my favorites from their shoot:

Engagement session of Jamie Riley and Garrett Roy at Discovery Green park in Houston by Dallas wedding photographer Stacy Reeves

By stacyreeves | Posted in Engagements | Tagged discovery green, engagement session, houston | 13 comments |

Secret Life of a Wedding Photographer

December 8, 2009

*******As part of the Cans for Comments drive, for every comment left on the blog in the month of December, I will donate a canned good to a local food bank. Please leave a comment and help out those in need!*******

I’m fairly sure that if you asked my friends and family who has the best job in the world, the vast majority of them would say me. In the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the country and the globe (next year I’ve got scheduled stops in Paris, Venice, Rome, New York, Playa Del Carmen, and New Orleans) all on paid vacations, working one or two days per trip and enjoying the rest. I get paid thousands of dollars for what is perceived as one day of work. I get to spend time with beautiful people doing something that most people enjoy as a fun hobby. Almost every Saturday night I get a great meal by some of the best chefs in town and I get to party on the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning – and I get paid for it! Talk about the good life, huh?

The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers recently published an article on the Secret Life of Wedding Photographers. Based on public perception of wedding photographers, this is what most people think our lives are like:

Source: ISPWP

ISPWP followed up on that perception by studying the weekly routines of 50 wedding photographers. Based on the results of that study, here is the ACTUAL breakdown of time spent during an average week in the life of a wedding photographer:

Source: ISPWP

As someone who has been doing this full-time for several years, I can attest that that graph is about as dead-on as it gets. And notice how just about everything except the “Taking photos” part involves a computer? I always joke that so many people get into photography because they’re sick of spending Monday-Friday 8-5 sitting in front of a computer doing boring, menial tasks, only to find out that for most people, being a photographer involves spending Monday-Friday 8-5 sitting in front of a computer doing boring, menial tasks.. Only this time you work nights and weekends, too! Granted, it is absolutely a labor of love – there is nothing in the world I would rather do, and I am so beyond thankful that this is my life. In fact, I twittered earlier that I am probably the only person on Earth who is really sad when the workday ends, or sad when I have to stop working to do something personal like to go to doctor or run errands. However, the reality is that I work 60 to 80 hour weeks most months, and I probably spend more time in front of a computer than anyone with a “regular” office job, as well as sacrificing my Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.

There are so many quotes I can relate to in that article (particularly about April-November being one long blur), but the biggest one is from a photographer who calculated that for every bride she books, that equates to 90 man-hours of work. Hard to believe, but true for so many of us. I posted this article so that brides who stumble across my blog can understand that although it may seem like you’re only paying for a few hours of shooting time, there’s so much that you don’t see, so many hours of behind the scenes work that you’re investing in without realizing it. Yes, it’s true that your photographer has a pretty awesome job – but it’s not because they work so little, it’s because they get to work with great clients who appreciate their talents and their long hours of hard work – hopefully, people just like you. :)

*******As part of the Cans for Comments drive, for every comment left on the blog in the month of December, I will donate a canned good to a local food bank. Please leave a comment and help out those in need!*******

By stacyreeves | Posted in Personal | 43 comments |

Lisa and Grant’s Aggie Wedding

December 5, 2009

The best part of shooting my friend’s weddings is that it feels like a mini-reunion, and I get to spend a day not only with clients that I love, but also with some of my favorite people, and we’re all there to celebrate a really happy occasion and have a great time. Lisa and Grant’s wedding was like all of that times ten. I had the joy of getting to watch their relationship blossom when we were all together in an organization at Texas A&M, and I truly can’t think of two other people who are more deserving of love and happiness. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who knows Grant or Lisa and doesn’t think the world of them, so it’s no surprise that their wedding was packed with friends and family who traveled far and wide to come to tiny little Ennis, Texas (home of the greatest drive-in ever!) to see them get married. Here are some of my favorites from the wedding day:

Aggie wedding photography of Lisa Kirk and Grant Speer in Ennis Texas by Dallas wedding photographer Stacy Reeves

I loved how Lisa incorporated an item from both her grandmothers and grandfathers, including an Aggie ring, a cross, a bible, and a rosary. There was so much significance and meaning tied into her bouquet!
Aggie wedding photography of Lisa Kirk and Grant Speer in Ennis Texas by Dallas wedding photographer Stacy Reeves

So you remember how I mentioned that this would be the most Aggie wedding of all time? Here’s some visual proof:
Aggie wedding photography of Lisa Kirk and Grant Speer in Ennis Texas by Dallas wedding photographer Stacy Reeves

Look at all of that Aggie bling! With over 70 Aggies in attendance, we estimated that there had to be at least $35,000 in gold in that pile of Aggie rings (and at least $3 million in tuition money to earn them)!
Aggie wedding photography of Lisa Kirk and Grant Speer in Ennis Texas by Dallas wedding photographer Stacy Reeves

By stacyreeves | Posted in Weddings | Tagged aggie, ennis, wedding | 25 comments |

HUMPDATES

December 4, 2009

It’s been a long long time since I posted a Humpdates, but the time has come! So many big announcements, so little blog space.. here we go!

Pricing Guide Update
For those of you who are familiar with my Pricing Guide for photographers, I want to let everyone know that the guide has recently had a major update. I’ve heard from a lot of portrait photographers that they really like the idea of creating a system of pricing that accounted for cost, taxes, and desired profit, but they weren’t sure how to translate that into portrait photography. After doing some research with some of my portrait photographer friends, I’ve come up with some modifications to the process in the guide that can be very helpful for photographers who primarily shoot weddings. If you’re a portrait photographer who needs some help getting your pricing in order, check out my pricing guide, especially the final chapter!

Mind Your Business Workshop
The response to my workshop has been FANTASTIC! I’m so excited to be helping so many of you get your business where it needs to be. I’m working on some great gifts and surprises for the attendees, as well as a few really helpful guest speakers. I also wanted to clarify that this workshop is not designed solely for full time photographers, part time photographers, wedding photographers, or portrait photographers. The workshop is about building a good business no matter what your subject matter is and no matter what your long term business goals are, be it a source of “fun money” on the side or a legitimate lifelong career. If you’re running a photography business of any kind and you’re not making as much money or booking the types of clients you want, this workshop will help you. I guarantee it! Seats are EXTREMELY limited so I cannot guarantee how long registration will stay open, get your seat while you still can!

Important December Dates to Remember
December 10 – Thursday Therapy – Happy Hour for all DFW wedding industry professionals at Sambuca in Plano. If you work in the wedding industry in the DFW area, come join your colleagues for dinner and drinks and lots of networking!
December 11 – Print order deadline. If you need prints, canvases, digital negatives, or anything else before Christmas, your order must be placed no later than Friday, December 11. Orders placed after that date requiring holiday delivery will incur a significant rush fee.
December 21-28 – Stacy Reeves Photography is closed for the holidays. We will be unable to respond to e-mails, phone calls, or fulfill orders during this time.
December 24 – Stacy’s birthday!!

Birthday Celebrations!
Since December is Stacy’s birthday month (and here in Texas we like to do things BIG), we’re planning several events to celebrate the big 2-6. Come join us at Cru Wine Bar in Plano on Monday, December 14 or at Medieval Times in Dallas on Wednesday, December 16 (or, if you’re a real trooper, at iFratelli’s in Las Colinas on December 24). For more details, view the Evite here (and don’t forget to RSVP).

Cans for Comments
For the entire month of December, I will donate one canned good (or $1 worth of another item they need badly) to a local food bank for every comment left on this site. Since I was a little late in announcing it, I’m retroactively counting all the comments in December so far. If you’d like to help out needy families in the Dallas area, all you have to do is leave a comment on ANY post on my blog. I look forward to reading all of your thoughts and helping out those in need! For more information on Cans for Comments and other participating blogs, click here!

By stacyreeves | Posted in News, Workshops | 11 comments |

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