Tips for shopping online! {Delaware Lifestyle Portrait & Fashion Photographer}

Hey everyone!

If you are like me, you loathe going shopping. Sometimes it's just to much to wake up, roll out of bed, put on acceptable clothing, get the kid(s) ready, load the car, drive, deal with traffic, deal with people, not have any coffee, get to a place to find your item only to find out that your item is not there. I know this makes me sound anti-social, but I swear I'm not!  It's just that when I go shopping, I want to get my item and get out without any interruptions.  Which is why I do a lot my shopping online! And I have learned a couple of things. So here are some of my favorite ways to shop.

Amazon Prime:
$79 per year, but it is WELL worth it and pays itself off. With Amazon Prime, you get the following benefits:

The benefits include:

• FREE Two-Day Shipping on eligible items.
  Note: If the item you're ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship, we'll get it to you two days after it's back in stock. Remember to check the cut-off time shown on the detail page. Orders over $1300 may require a signature.
• FREE Standard Shipping on eligible items.
• FREE No-Rush Delivery (typical delivery one week after placing an order).
  Note: You may receive promotional credit for selecting No-Rush Shipping. Credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon.com account once the first package from a No-Rush Shipping-eligible order ships. You'll receive an e-mail as soon as the credit is available. You may select No-Rush Shipping as many times as it's offered to you, but you won't be eligible for the credit if you cancel your No-Rush Shipping order or return items from it.
• Shipping Upgrades to expedite delivery.
• Free Prime Instant Video access for paid or free trial members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
  Note: Instant Video isn't available to customers receiving free Amazon Prime shipping benefits through Amazon Student, Amazon Mom, or as guests of another membership.
• Kindle Owners' Lending Library access to members in the U.S. For more information, go to Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
  Note: Customers in a paid membership, free trial or receiving a free month of Prime benefits with a Kindle Fire activation are eligible. The Kindle device must be associated with the Prime account that's eligible for the benefit.
• Early access for members in the U.S. to download a new book for free every month from the Kindle First picks. For more information, go to Kindle First.

Note:

• Amazon Prime isn't available for customers who purchase products for the purpose of resale or use Amazon Prime to ship products to their customers or potential customers.
• Your Prime Membership may be subject to sales tax in some states.

(taken from Amazon's website)

The free two day shipping alone was a win-win situation for me. Especially during Christmas.  But I love that if I order something, in two days it will be in my arms, and that makes me incredibly happy.  My sister loves the Kindle Owners Lending Library and the fact that you can stream over 40,000 titles.


In addition to Amazon Prime, there has been another thing that my friends have been buzzing about, and that has been Amazon Mom.  The benefits of Amazon Mom are:

• 20% off diapers and wipes subscriptions with Subscribe & Save (exclusive to Amazon Mom)
• 20% off other family essential subscriptions when 5 or more Subscribe & Save items arrive on your monthly delivery day (exclusive to Amazon Mom)
• FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items with Amazon Prime
• 30-day trial of unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Video. Note: In some cases, it may take us 24 hours to activate your streaming benefits.

And that is just for the three month trial period! If you want to extend your membership beyond three months, you get the following benefits:

• 20% off diapers and wipes subscriptions with Subscribe & Save (exclusive to Amazon Mom)
• 20% off other family essential subscriptions when 5 or more Subscribe & Save items arrive on your monthly delivery day (exclusive to Amazon Mom)
• FREE Two-Day Shipping on millions of items with Amazon Prime
• Unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Instant Videos
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library
• Other Prime benefits: invite up to four household members to share your Prime shipping benefits for free
• A 15% baby registry completion discount

But wait! Things get better! There is another site that I love to use in conjunction of my Amazon Prime account. And that site is called Ebates.com .  So basically Ebates.com has different cash back rewards for shopping at different online retailers and sometimes in specific sections of those retailers.  You have to look every carefully at how much you will get back for shopping.  But basically you sign up for an account (you can click the link above), look through the stores and the offers that they have for cash back, and click on that store to start shopping! It's very important that you click on the store link from the Ebates.com site so that it can create a tracking ticket that will monitor your purchase to see if it qualifies for the cash back. Usually the cash is back in your account 2-3 days later.

I just found out about Ebates.com only a few weeks ago, and I wish I had known about it last year when I was ordering things almost every week!

So I hope this helps you shop and save you some money! Enjoy!

Pin It

Tips: Photographing lifestyle sessions at home {Delaware & Pennsylvania Child and Family Lifestyle Photographer}

As a photographer, I am constantly presented with many challenges when it comes to the location, lighting, and backgrounds at my sessions.  And I pride myself in being able to flex and bend with these different situations.  When I have a session, it's done in one of three places.  Outdoors, my clients home, or in my home studio.  Okay, my home studio is more of a dedicated room, which technically is my dining room, but it's my office & studio now.  I wholeheartedly follow the sound advice of Tim Gunn, "make it work!".

Today, I am going to talk to you about working within your clients home for sessions.  I typically photograph in home sessions for maternity, newborn, and families (especially when they have large families...the largest being 37 people so far!)  I utilize much of the space in their home, and there are some definite go to shots that I do.  Homes are more intimate, and many clients, especially their children feel a lot better being photographed in their own space.  You can get your clients to relax more when they are in their own surroundings, and let me not forget the benefits of air conditioning indoors when you are having sessions during the summer!

Before the session, I always recommend my clients remove any clutter or objects that they don't want seen in the photos.  Particularly in the living room, the bedroom, and the nursery.  And if there are a couple of blank walls, with great window light all the better!

Walls are the perfect in home backdrop! Utilize them to their fullest potential!

Another favorite spot I like to photograph my clients in is their bedroom.  It's a simple yet meaningful location, especially when you are photographing a tiny little newborn on a giant bed.  If you have the whole family cuddling onto the bed, even better! For bed shots, I usually photograph straight on, and depending on the action from the side. It more so depends where the light source is coming from.

For bedroom shots, I always recommend that my clients either have an all white, down comforter, or a light, solid color comforter.  You want the bedspread to be as simple as possible as to not distract the eye from the subject.

Windows are also another favorite spot for me to photograph in. I totally adore back lighting, and windows provide the perfect light.  Typically when I photograph clients in front of windows, I tend to overexpose by two stops to blow out the light from the windows.  

I pride myself on making sessions work at any location that I am at.  Before going into a session, I typically have a layout of what I plan to shoot, and where. When I arrive, I usually ask for a tour around the house to see what works best, and how easy it is to transition.  Especially when having sessions with newborns, you don't want to move them around too much, especially the new mom.

In the end, make it work with what you have!  If you are a lifestyle photographer, and you don't have your own space for a studio, embrace that challenge and maximize it! Find different spots in the house that have gorgeous light, go in with a plan of attack so to speak so that you transition easily through sessions.  While it would be totally awesome to have your own studio, realize that you don't necessarily need one, especially if your focus is lifestyle photography.  The only thing holding you back is you, get out there and show your talent!

Pin It

Finding your passion {Delaware lifestyle photographer- Marisa Taylor Photography}

There was a time, when I had completely wanted to give up photography. I will admit that it just wasn't thrilling me anymore. I was working too hard, without anything in return. And then I had a wake up call, also known as pregnancy. It was then that I realized I had to start focusing on photographing what I wanted and less of what was expected.

I thought I was supposed to be good at every type of photography out there. Weddings, boudoir, landscape, portraits, family, nature, etc. I thought, that as a photographer, I was supposed to offer all of this. And to be honest, by offering all of these things, I was wearing myself very thin.

I do love photographing weddings, they are full of love. I love photographing boudoir, making women feel beautiful rocks! I love photographing nature, because I adore flowers and am a bit of a tree nugget. But what do I love more than all of that? Photographing love and the growing family! This means maternity, babies, kids, and families. That's where my passion lies. So does that mean I give up on photographing everything else? Heck no! It just means I focus on what I want to shoot, and if other things come my way, and give me a chance to be extra creative, I'm all about it.

So my advice to those just breaking out into this is shoot everything until you find your passion. And once you do, run with it! What's the one thing that makes you happy about photography? What do you enjoy shooting more than anything? Find it, and grow with it.

Learn everything you can, continue to grow, and dream big.

Pin It

Tips for a successful session! {Delaware Lifestyle Portrait Photographer}

The more family sessions I do, the more I learn about children and babies. How they react when they don't have a nap, if they are hungry, if they want to play.  Now, by no means am I an expert at child behavior, but I have been dubbed the baby whisperer more than once.  I love family sessions (as well as newborn and childrens sessions) because it gives me a chance to showcase your amazing family being, well...amazing!  I know that things can be hectic at times, and you wonder to yourself, "How in the world is this lady going to create amazing images when the kids are losing their minds". Don't worry. This is why you hired me!  I have some tips for you that will help you in preparing for your upcoming session, and help you the day of.

1) Understand that kids will be kids.  There is nothing we, as adults can do to change that. It's ok if they want to run around and not pose for every picture, sometimes the most amazing images come from the candid moments.

2) Don't get flustered. Don't let them smell fear! If your child senses that you are getting frustrated during the session, more often than not, they are going to get frustrated too.

3) Explain to them the night before what is going to happen the next day. Make a fun story at bedtime if you need to.  If they are prepared for a fun day in front of the camera beforehand, that's usually when they are the most cooperative.

4) Make sure they are napped and fed before your session.  This is extremely important for toddlers and kids, especially if you have them on a schedule.  If it calls for it, schedule your session according to their eating/napping schedule. Nobody likes a rumbly tummy.

5) If you have a newborn, keep them awake PRIOR to the session, and feed them right when they arrive. Usually when you keep the baby awake, and feed them right when you get to my home studio, or I come to your location, they are nice and ready to fall asleep. This makes those adorable newborn poses much easier to accomplish!

6) Dress comfortably!  I used to hate when my mother dressed me up in clothes I didn't like for pictures. While I understand that you want your little ones looking their greatest while they are captured on camera, make sure that they, and you are comfortable!

7) Reward system! Aka Bribing.  Some parents love it, some parents don't.  But be prepared to have something with you, during your session, that you can reward your child with. Happy children=happy pictures!

8) Hydrate! Nothing is worse than having a dry mouth and being thirsty during your session. Have some water or juice on hand so that no one gets thirsty.

9) Schedule your session at a familiar location.  Usually children do best in environments that they are familiar in.  So if your child doesn't like new places, schedule your session at a location that is familiar to them.

10) Bring a piece of home. If you are coming to my home studio or booking your session at a new location, make sure you bring a piece of home for your child. Whether it be a toy, blanket, or a picture.  It should be something that reminds them of home and comfort.

Lastly, but not least...

11) Be yourself!!!  It's your pictures, be yourself! Have fun, get loose, be comfortable. It's all about capturing your family as a family. Full of love and laughter, and togetherness!

Pin It