{Sunny days!}

Sunny days have finally started showing, of course mixed in with some rainy days. I am sure you are tired of me talking about the weather, but I am huge on weather. Basically, if I don't have nice weather, then I can't do sessions outside! I need to be outside.  Now I can guarantee you that once the summer officially hits, and it gets into the 80's and 90's I will be complaining that is too hot.  The perfect weather for me is sunny, with temperatures in the lower 70's. If I can find a location that is like that all year round, I will be a happy panda.

So what have I been up to?  Same thing as usual, editing photos, setting up schedules, complaining about the weather, surfing the internet and all that good stuff.  My husband and I took a trip to the park this past Thursday, and just walked around.  I love walking around with him, it has been one of our constant activities since we have been dating, and that was almost 7 years ago.  We like to pick a location and just walk.  And whatever we find interesting, I typically photograph.  Here are a few from our latest "expedition":

With that last shot, I actually laid in the grass with my camera.  I'm a pretty hands on/physical photographer. I love the look on peoples faces when I am rolling around on the floor to get the images that I want.

I also wanted to say congratulations to Shimul & Shiv!  I did their maternity session a few weeks ago, and they had their baby boy, so congrats to them!  I have been on a baby kick lately.  Since being pregnant, babies take on a whole new world to me.  It's weird, I can't explain it, but things have already changed! And that actually amazes me.  I think this baby is going to be super creative because I now have all these ideas to set up concept shoots and I am embarking on new creative projects.  One of them being painting.  I can't paint to save my life, but I painted a piece and I loved it, and so did some of my friends.  I'll share it with you, but keep in mind that I am no Picaso or Van Gogh:

Now, you may be asking, what is that?  Well this is my ode to all the pregnant geeky/nerdy/offbeat mothers out there.  The little pink thing is baby Cthulu, and SHE is pink and is wearing a crown.  I have no idea where the whole concept came from, but it's a part of me.

I have also updated my website...again.  I am going to say that being creative means never being satisfied. Which can essentially be a good thing.  I am always changing and always changing for the better. Which is why my website is on a change.  It is the first thing that people see, it is essentially my handshake. My spokesperson.  It is what represents me to my clients, their friends, and their families.  So of course I want to put my best foot forward.

For now, I am going to head to bed. I have an engagement shoot set in Philadelphia tomorrow, well today actually since it is 1:31 am.  Tata for now! Pin It

{Pregnancy Series-Week 21: Me!}

Being that I am pregnant, and I photograph pregnant women and babies all the time, I wanted a fun way to track this journey of my pregnancy and to share it with you.  After all, my photography is my life, and by proxy you are sucked into it. With that being said, I am going to do a weekly picture update featuring my expanding belly and myself, and sometimes including my husband and props and all sorts of fun stuff.  I think this would be a cool way to update folks and later on, the baby (when she can read) can look back and see how awesomely geeky her parents are!  So with that, I present you with the first in the series, week 21. Yay! We are 1 week past the halfway mark!!!



Now keep in mind, almost ALL of these pictures are taken randomly by me, so they will not be all flashy. Pretty much when I am having a good moment during that week and not feeling like a whale, I will break out the camera. But I definitely hope to incorporate more awesomeness in the future.

I would love to offer this to clients in the near future. A weekly or monthly portrait session package with witty sayings and captions. What do you think? Pin It

{Creativity for Engagement Sessions}

Hello my lovelies!  Did you enjoy your day today? It reached 82 degrees here in Delaware (or at least that is what my car told me) and I was in absolute heaven! There was a light breeze which made today perfect! I spent the day with my grandparents, mom and sisters, even though I should have taken advantage of my newfound energy and hopped up on the Spring cleaning. But I figure, Spring just started, the cleaning can wait!

Now that it is finally warming up, more engagement sessions and such are being schedule. I am super excited, as I love engagement shoots as much as I love weddings.  The engagement shoots give me a chance with the couple before the wedding to know their personalities, what they like, and for them to get to know me also.  Now although the engagement session is significantly shorter than your actual wedding, it still is a very important session. And I love nothing more when I have a great couple that puts time and consideration into making an epic session. Whether it has a theme or awesome location, it's always great to see that love come out on camera with a story being told.  With that being said, I want to share a list of some of my favorite wedding/engagement sites for you to get some inspiration for your session.  For me personally, I don't think anything is over the top. So if you want to go with a picnic theme, something with balloons, or something from your favorite movie...like, let's say, "The Notebook" then go for it! Creative couples rock!  I have also been featured on some of these websites also!  Here they are

http://emmalinebride.com

http://glamourandgraceblog.com/

http://www.utterlyengaged.com

http://sparkleandhay.com

http://www.thebrokeassbride.com

http://weddingchicks.com

Definitely check them out and get all the inspiration you need. Also, WeddingChicks has an awesome section where you can customize FREE wedding items, such as monograms,invitations, save the dates and more. I absolutely love and adore them

So let's get back to your engagement session.  As I've said before, it is important. This is you and your fiancé showing how much you love each other and the story of your love!  Definitely pick a location that has meaning to you or a location where you can carry out a theme.  Parks, wineries, restaurants, cafe's, ice cream shops, farms, open fields with flowers, etc are always good places to start. But keep in mind that if it is a private residence, ask the owner/manager for permission. We definitely do not want to run from cops while shooting!  If you have a theme go for it. I personally love themes that come from movies. How about, "Dirty Dancing". Him in all black, her in all white, and bam! Instant awesome session. And the best part is, you can dance! What else?  "Titanic", "The Notebook", basically any awesome vintage movie (I love vintage by the way), heck, incorporate zombies if you want.

Next up is props, even if you are not going with a theme, props are always fun. The most important prop being the engagement ring. But since your session tells a story, props that reflect your relationship should always be on hand.  Do you like dogs? Bring a dog! Borrow a dog if you have to.  If you are doing a picnic, then bring a blanket, food, cookies, wine glasses, anything you can think of to make your session pop.

With these being the photos of you two before you are married, you want them to be memorable! Remember, we are telling the story of your love and relationship. I say we because I just take the images, YOU are the main characters!

Till next time!

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{B is for Baby}

Not that I am going baby crazy or anything, but being pregnant does make me appreciate maternity/newborn/child photos even more. Every little squishy cheeked baby that I come in contact with makes me love what I do even more.  I have to control my urge to squee when I see them. Yes, I used squee as a word. Thankfully my awesome clients know how much I love babies and kids and don't look at me like I have a tentacle growing out of my forehead.  I recently did a mini-session with the super cute and adorably Serenity Rose. I actually did her moms maternity session back in the fall, and when Serenity was born I did her newborn photos, and now she is a squishy faced, bright eyed four month old who is teething!  Let me just say that rolling around on the floor to photograph babies is not as easy as it used to be. But with her cute little face, it was totally worth it.





Now tell me that is not an adorable little baby!

So I am looking forward to the weather warming up. This week into next it is supposed to be in the 50's, but most days are supposed to be cloudy or rainy, and this does not please me.  I am about to go outside and do an anti-rain dance to bring back sunny weather. My husband keeps telling me that once it does get warm, I will be angry because it is too hot, and then wish that it was cooler.  He may be right, but I have so much more options to do fun things when it is sunny and warm!

But that is about it, I just had to share this adorable little baby with you! Now off to watch some random tv and enjoy the rest of my evening. Pin It

{Updates!}

It's Monday, a new start to the workweek. I spent 7 hours on Sunday working on updates for my site and such, and wanted to show you.  I updated my start page, and I am totally in love with it!  I have kept my promise to not start a new site, but updating and adding to the site is something I can totally do! So head on over to www.MarisaTaylorPhotography.com, and let me know what you think!

Also do not forget, I have the Spring (although the weather definitely does not feel like it!) Contest going on!  The way the contest works is simple, once we reach 500 fans over at my Facebook Page, the contest officially starts with prizes going out daily for one week. So that means...7 prizes and 7 lucky winners.  Right now, the page is sitting at 465 fans. Only 35 more are needed to get to 500 and get the prizes rolling. So share the link with everyone that you know!

And that is about it for now! I have new backdrops and props coming in which I am very excited about! Adorable babies to photograph, and weddings coming up! Pin It

{Happy Sunday!}

It's Sunday! The last day of relaxation before most go back to work on Monday. For me Sundays have always been relaxing days, even at a young age, we never did chores on Sunday. We just went to church, came home, ate and lounged around the house all day. Now that I am an adult, married and have my own home, it's pretty much the same. I especially love Sundays during the spring and summer because I love spending them at the park.  It's quite, not a lot of people are there, and I can just lay out my blanket and read for hours, sometimes I even fall asleep!  Which is something I would have never done while lounging in a park back in New York, but Delaware is fairly quiet.

So this Sunday, I have quite a few things I would like to blog about and share with you. I was going to space them out over the next few days, but knowing me, more topics will come up, so instead of putting things on a a back burner, I will just let it all out now! So here we go:

Is becoming a photographer easy?

In one word...no. It is extremely hard, time consuming and expensive. I will tell you this though, I have not regretted it.  Sure, the desire and passion for photography is a huge aid in pushing you to pursue a career, but it takes a lot more than just desire.  Besides purchasing equipment, because obviously you need a camera for this career, you also need to purchase and invest into a lot of other things and this is where it starts getting expensive.  There are many out there who are totally going about the wrong way in becoming a business, and this can be detrimental to their careers as well to the memories of their clients, because if something goes wrong, then what is there to do?  Let's start with insurance. For your own protection you need both liability and equipment insurance. If someone trips over your camera bag or lighting stand at a wedding, and they blame you, you don't want everything you have worked for to go down the drain. Or what if, God forbid you leave your equipment in the car, and it is stolen. That is thousands of dollars worth of equipment that is gone, just like that, and it could take quite a while to acquire what you had before.  And talking about equipment, let me not even get started on that.  My two favorite words when it comes to equipment are "main" and "backup". Trust me when I say, you need  backup of everything. You even need a backup of your backup!  Backup cameras, backup lenses, backup flash units, backup cf cards, backup lighting, backup batteries, the list goes on and on.  You do not want to be at a wedding, have your camera or lens drop and that is the end.

I actually had an engagement shoot a few weeks ago where one of my favorite lenses dropped onto concrete steps and broke (thankfully I was able to have it fixed later on), but if that was my only lens, then the shoot would have been over and the couple would have been unhappy. I cannot stress enough how important backups are! In addition to equipment and insurance, you need to get a business license, and the fees vary from state to state. And one big thing, that many seem not to take into consideration is taxes. As a business you MUST pay taxes. If you are not paying taxes then you are not as professional as you think you are.  Plus there is the cost of advertising and promoting, purchasing business cards and such, and many times, especially in the beginning, the weddings or events you shoot are at a cost to you, but as you go on, you will start making a profit.

For me, I am thankful that the stars aligned correctly for me.  With support and knowledge from friends and other professionals, I was able to embark on this adventure (and I say adventure because it truly is), and for me, I am exactly where I want to be. Living life, having fun, and having a job where I LOVE doing what I do.

But in the end, no matter how hard I push for my business, or how strong my desire is, I would not be where I am without YOU. My clients, are the ones who made me successful. If it was not for them, I would just be another "starving artists", and I cannot express how thankful I am to them for all that they do, their awesome words, their trust, and their support.

Textographer!

What is this textographer?  Well, I found this on Offbeat Mama a few days ago, and I absolutely fell in love with it.  Basically, the folks over at Textographer.com take a picture that you submit, and then make the image out of words. The words can be lyrics to a song, a poem, a love letter, anything that you would like. But the words themselves compose the actual picture. It is AMAZING!  If you are looking for a very unique wedding item, or a gift for anyone, then this is perfect. My husband and I are planning to take one of my maternity photos and our daughters newborn photo (she is due August 18!) and have them compose one of the pictures from the lyrics of "Mother Earth Father Time" from Charlotte's Web (our daughters name is going to be Charlotte!) and the other picture will be composed from a letter we both will write her.  I cannot wait!  But definitely check them out! With that being said, I have included a link to my favorite rendition of the song: Mother Earth Father Time

And next up is a letter I received a few days ago and it almost moved me to years. I am quite an emotional person if you can't tell.  The letter was from a guest at a wedding I shot two years ago (wow I can't believe it has been two years!).  I thought I would share it and share what I sent back:

dear marisa

hello! my name is lauren, two years ago you shot the wedding of my very good friend sara. im almost positive that you dont remember me, but during dinner you were seated at my table, and we sat and talked a lot about business and dreams and just random stuff. i didnt tell you then, but you made a major impact on me, and because of that i wanted to thank you.  i have to say that the fact that you enjoy what you do radiates. you are such a positive and fun person and it seems like everyone you come in contact with loves you. i remember at the wedding when things were getting hectic you took charge and seemed to cool everyone down. you were nothing but smiles (even though it was so hot outside) and i can tell that you genuinely enjoy what you do.  but with everything, there was one thing that you said while taking pictures that had everyone laughing, but it was so profound, and that was "love is only the beginning".  i cant tell you how strong and meaningful those words are, and trust me, it has gotten me through alot. so i just wanted to say thanks for being awesome, thanks for loving what you do, and thanks for being you. you have helped me without even knowing it.

xoxo lauren

Wow, was all I could say.  I have always been taught that what you say impacts someone. But I didn't really think of it until I received this letter.  I mean, just think about it. A simple "thank you" to someone could make a world of difference. Even actions do the same thing. A small smile to someone who is having a bad day could make their entire day better. This letter made my entire day, well week actually!

In other news, um, where did the warm weather go?!?!  It was so nice, then all of a sudden we are back to wearing full jackets and scarves.  We are about to enter April right? Why is the temperature in the 30's and 40's again?  I desperately need it to be warm again. I have some adorable baby sessions lined up that I need to be outside for! In addition to the upcoming engagement shoots!  Oh warm weather, I need you!

Till next time!

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{I love my clients!}

I can say it a thousand times more and it will still be true. I absolutely love and adore all of my clients. You guys are so awesome, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting me with your important and priceless memories, and for bringing me into your family and special events. I'm very big on emotions, so with every maternity shoot, baby session, engagement and wedding, I get just as excited as you are!  If it were not for my clients, I would not be where I am today. You guys allow me to do what I love, which is photographing awesome people. So thanks again!

With that being said, I added a new page to my website, www.MarisaTaylorPhotography.com, that showcase some of the awesome words that my clients have said about me.  You can see these under "Client Raves". To see more of my reviews (since not everything is on the website), head on over to Marisa Taylor Photography on Facebook, click on "Reviews" and check them out!

Here is a review from Shimul, whose maternity session I did about 2 weeks ago. She is due early April and I absolutely cannot wait to see the baby for his session



In other news, I have some backdrops and new props coming in, which are going to make my newborn/baby sessions very exciting.  I cannot express how much I love baby shoots!  Babies are so amazing, and their little dynamic personalities are so unique.  I think I am a bit more excited since I am having my own baby! I already know that as soon as we get home, I am going to be busting out newborn pictures left and right!

Well, that is about it for now. Stick around! Pin It