Yikes.

So this one time I got really, REALLY behind on the blog.

[Insert photo sessions, trips, and life ramblings here from the last eight months.]

Just kidding. I'll catch up one of these days. Soon. Promise.

Flat 4 Video Interview

As a preferred vendor for Apple Brides, we were approached to have a video interview done about Jordan and I and this little business of ours, Flat 4 Photography & Photo Booth. I was a little hesitant at first because I am usually really awkward and uncomfortable in front of a video camera, but we decided we were all in and we went for it! And let's be honest, Jordan is a big fan of being on camera and would probably have a 24-hour reality TV show of himself if he could. ;)

The video was created from start to finish by Megan and Rob of Rogue Heart Media, who are not only an awesome duo but who are extremely talented, fresh, and super professional! Seriously, if you ever need a video team for any reason (wedding, business, personal use, etc.), you must check them out... and while you're at it, go like them on Facebook. :) 

We really had no idea what to expect and we were absolutely floored by the outcome. Although there were, of course, a few choice comments from Jordan and I after we first watched the video: "Wow, I need a tan!"... "Do I really sound like that in real life?"... "The camera adds 10 pounds, right?" I guess everyone is their own best critic! 

Thank you so much Apple Brides and Rogue Heart Media! Now go check out the awesome video featuring yours truly...

The Story of Flat 4 Photography & Photo Booth from Rogue Heart Media on Vimeo.

GIVEAWAY!!

I am usually really sensitive to crossing over between my "personal life" and stuff with Flat 4 Photography. I hate the idea of spamming my friends... but I feel like this is something that can hopefully cross over since it is for a good cause and gives you a chance to win a sweet prize; a prize I would want to win if I wasn't the one doing the giveaway. :)

As posted on the Flat 4 Photography blog:

We’ve all seen the NFL football players sporting pink accents in their uniforms this month. Or people changing their Facebook profile pictures to be highlighted in pink. And of course, the pink ribbons are everywhere. Does it all really make a difference?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we believe it makes a difference to spread the word. Too many people have fought breast cancer and lost the battle, and even those who’ve fought and won, well, it’s still too many people fighting. I saw this quote today and it made me realize the importance of this month:

“The more you know, the less you fear.”

With that said, Flat 4 Photography is doing a giveaway for all of our Facebook fans in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. Here are the rules:

1. 1. If you are not already of fan of Flat 4 Photography on Facebook, you need to be in order to participate. CLICK HERE to become a fan!
   

2. 2. We posted a slideshow of some of our favorite Photo Booth pictures on our Facebook fan page. Find it. Under the slideshow, there are options. Click the “Share” option.
   

3. 3. This will bring up a box that will ask to post our Photo Booth slideshow to your Facebook profile. There will be a box where you can write “What’s on your mind?”, which is basically giving you the option to add a caption to the slideshow. In that box you need to write something along the lines of: I support Breast Cancer Awareness and the Flat 4 Photo Booth! Okay, that’s pretty generic, but you get the idea. Mention something about Breast Cancer Awareness and something awesome about the Flat 4 Photo Booth -- be creative, or not, it’s up to you!
   

4. 4. Click “Share” again in the bottom right-hand corner of the pop-up box to successfully post the slideshow to your profile!
   

5. 5. Leave a comment under the Photo Booth slideshow posted on OUR Facebook page letting us know you posted it to yours. This is all based on honesty -- we probably won’t have time to check up on everybody to make sure you really did it. But keep in mind that cheaters and liars wet their beds. Just sayin’...
   

6. 6. You’re done! Unless you want to be really cool and post it more than once. :) We will draw one lucky winner chosen at random on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22nd at NOON! You can post the slideshow once per day until then for an extra chance to win, so up to five chances!! Just follow the above directions for each post. Please don’t post it more than once per day though... your friends might hate you.
   

Ah yes, the PRIZES!

The lucky winner drawn at random will receive... drumroll, please...

A pink, long-sleeve Nike Dri-Fit shirt (size Medium) and a $25 gift card to Victoria’s Secret!

You may be thinking this is a not a very “gender neutral” prize. Well... okay, it’s not really. But I bet any male out there can think of a lady who would LOVE to have this prize as a gift. So we better get some guys participating too!

NOW GO ENTER TO WIN!!!

A Busy Year...

Every once in a while, I like to look back through our blog at random old posts. I usually end up looking at posts from our travels in Europe, but today I decided to look at what we were doing at this time last year.

HOLY LORD. We've been busy this year...

Just to give you an idea, at this time last year, I had just announced our business name and logo, Flat 4 Photography, on the blog. From then until now we have:

- photographed numerous families and random humans

- got Max, our crazy, incredibly feisty puppy

- bought our Photo Booth

- Jordan graduated from law school and took the Bar (he finds out his results next week!)

- bought our 10-acre property in Chattaroy

- photographed 10 weddings from spring to fall

- done over 20 Photo Booth events

- been featured multiple times on local bride blogs for photography and our Photo Booth

- gotten over 600 fans on our Facebook fan page

I realize most of what I just mentioned was about our business, but quite honestly, our life has pretty much revolved around that for quite some time. And obviously there were many things I didn't mention to fill in the gaps throughout the last year... but I have to say, I am pretty proud of our little business that isn't quite so little any more. :)

Jordan and I were talking about it the other day and I asked him, "Did you ever think when we started this business, it would be where it is now... just a year later?!" When we really think about that, I'm pretty sure we had no idea what we were in for. At this time last year, I truly thought this would be a nice little side business that would earn me a few extra bucks so I wouldn't feel so guilty about buying lattés from Starbucks. And don't get me wrong, it's not like we're totally breaking the bank or anything, but let's just say we never would have been able to buy our property without Flat 4 Photography!

God is so good.

Here are a few random pics I dug around on Facebook and found since I was tired of doing posts without any pictures of us. The first one is of me shooting a wedding in Chewelah and the second one is one of my favorite Photo Booth pictures of Jordan and I at our Grand Opening Party in the spring.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us -- and put up with us -- in the last year! Even though I can say this has hands-down been the busiest year of our lives, we have been blessed beyond belief.

Hopefully next year I'll be writing another post like this one... :)

FEATURED!

This is going to be a short and sweet post, which if you've followed my blog at all you know is NOT like me. :)

I just had to share...

Our Photo Booth is featured on Spokane Bride Blog today!! I don't know why but I am SO EXCITED about it! I just think it's a great thing for Flat 4 Photography.

To see the post on Spokane Bride Blog, click here.

Closing comments... I cross my heart and PROMISE the next post will be wedding pictures. :)

Grand Opening Photo Booth Party!

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE GRAND OPENING OF THE

FLAT 4 PHOTO BOOTH!

Unfortunately that picture wasn't taken with our Photo Booth, but I figured you'd get the point. :)

We have been pretty consumed the last couple weeks with getting our Photo Booth put together in time for our GRAND OPENING, which has been an absolute blast! Picture Jordan and I running between Lowe's, JoAnn Fabric, and my parents' house for two weekends straight... and we are almost there. :)

Anyway, if you missed the invite on Facebook, here are the details for our GRAND OPENING party (which also happens to be my birthday party as well!)

WHAT: A Photo Booth Birthday Party!

WHEN: Friday, April 2nd from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM

WHERE: Raw Sushi & Island Grill

523 W. 1st Avenue (click here for a map)

MORE INFO: It's two parties in one! We'd love for you to join us in celebrating Whitney's 26th birthday and the GRAND OPENING of the Flat 4 Photo Booth!

It'll be an open house style party, so feel free to come and go as you please -- come for dinner, grab a drink, or just stop by to say hi and get your picture taken in the Photo Booth. :) Appetizers will be provided.

Please don't feel the need to bring gifts, but if you feel so inclined, we'd love to have you contribute to help fill our "Box of Props" for the Photo Booth (this does NOT have to be something expensive -- think fun sunglasses, a boa, hats, a rubber chicken, or anything you think would be funny in a Photo Booth picture... the sky's the limit!)

Please RSVP to WhitJM10@yahoo.com so we can get a head count for appetizers. Feel free to bring friends -- we want to spread the word that our Photo Booth is up and running!

We would love to see you there! Please let me know if you have any questions. Raw has AMAZING food, but it's not just sushi; they also have great teriyaki dishes too. Click here to check out their menu and website.

It's going to be really fun!!!!! :)

P.S. Stay tuned for Dawn + Dave Wedding photos in the next couple weeks and another fun photo session I did this weekend!!

Blog love! And life...

The last couple weeks have been a little nuts, but in a good way... for the most part.

Jordan started school this week, the beginning of the END! He has one semester left, thank God. I know the end is officially in sight, but for some reason it still feels so far away. His schedule this semester does not help one bit -- he has three 7am classes a week and three night classes that end at 8pm. Seriously, not right!

I, on the other hand, have been way in over my head with photog stuff! :) I started a photography class that I think will really help me improve in a lot of areas. Did I mention this happened to fall on Monday nights, the one night a week Jordan doesn't have class? Of course. I was also able to be the second shooter for a wedding last week, which was SUCH a great experience. Don't get me wrong, I did have a couple freak-out moments, but I survived and learned so much! I shot with Keri Doolittle, who is an amazing photographer and a HUGE inspiration and mentor of mine... not sure that she even knows that, but she is! She has been so incredibly helpful and willing to answer so many questions I've had in the last few months. I am surprised she hasn't blocked my email address from her inbox after all the emails I've sent her. :) Anyway, she posted some pics from the wedding on her blog and put some of mine up too -- so exciting to see some of my pics on another photographer's website! I included my pics from her site below, but click here to see the full post.

Another blog I follow, Wheat Blossom Weddings, just featured my 'engagement' photos and our Photo Booth on their site! Lindsay, of Wheat Blossom Weddings, has been a friend since middle school and we have had fun reconnecting now that our future career paths have crossed. :) Anyway, click here to check out Wheat Blossom Weddings and the blog love they gave me and Flat 4 Photography.

All of the above are the good, crazy parts of the last two weeks.

Not that the rest has been bad, but just a lot of feeling like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back... with everything. And I am left feeling overwhelmed with life and simply unable to keep up. There are so many things I want to focus on and devote time to lately that I haven't been able to do any of them well, or in some cases at all. Working out, the dogs, every facet of my photography business, the house, MY MARRIAGE...

I know, I know... that's life. But sometimes it just swallows me and I hate that.

With that said, Jordan and I have decided to go to my lake cabin for the weekend, just us and the pups. We never go to the lake this time of year, but we decided we really needed a weekend together out of Spokane -- it feels like it's been FOREVER. It's a catch-22 because we have so much we could get done at home this weekend, but I hope going up to the lake will give us a chance to relax and recharge a little bit and simply spend some time together with no distractions. At least that's the goal...

I can't take credit for this picture -- I think my Mom took it last winter at the lake. Granted there is not as much snow this year, but this is the view I will be looking at all weekend. So if I don't answer my cell phone or my emails, you'll know why... :)

Flat 4 Photography

I know it's taken forever, but I can finally post my business name and logo since it's all finished! So, as you've probably already figured out from the title of this post, the name of my business is going to be Flat 4 Photography.

I wanted the name to be edgy and urban, and I also wanted it to have some meaning behind it. Our address when we were living in London was actually Flat 4, and since I truly fell in love with photography when we were there I figured it was the perfect name! I really love it, and I LOVE my logo too!! The amazingly talented Alycia Staggs created it for me -- she does incredible design work as well as awesome websites, and I really just admire her as a person. :) And she deserves a trophy after working with my crazy indecisiveness and randomness! Check out her website by clicking here. I hope to have her do my website down the road once I save up some money!

So, without further delay, here is my business logo!

I am slightly retarded and couldn't figure out how to post the images she sent me of the final logo, so I had to convert it to a JPEG, which made it a little less clear than normal. But you get the gist!

Any thoughts, comments?! Let me know what you think! :)

Big news!

No, I'm not pregnant. :)

I had a big life epiphany this weekend...

I officially decided I am not going to go back to school for my Masters in Teaching. [Insert big sigh of relief here.] At least not any time soon. So, in lieu of that, I am going to start my own photography business. 

Okay, you might be thinking I'm nuts, and to be honest, I might agree with you. But honestly, I really, truly feel like this is what I'm supposed to be doing. For the first time in a long time, I am making a big decision based on what I'm passionate and excited about rather than what I think is practical. This is a huge leap of faith for me.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. And I know I can always go back to school if I decide that's a better option down the road. 

I know starting my own photography business is going to be a long building process and I won't be able to just do photography for a few years, but I'm okay with that. I'm excited about that! I have already started building my portfolio, researching how to start a business, and... I even have a name. :)

Stay tuned for the big name reveal! I have a few things to work out before I tell everyone. But I promise I will soon!

With all that said, I am going to primarily focus on taking pictures of families, babies, seniors, pregnancy, engagements, weddings, and pretty much anything else people want. So... if you're needing any of those types of pictures taken or know someone who does, PLEASE LET ME KNOW or give them my contact information! I need all the practice I can get at this point. :)

I recently did some family photos for Jordan's brother, Joel, his wife, Julie, and their adorable little boy (my nephew), Beau. Here is a sneak peek of some of my favorites...

I will probably be posting more samples on the blog until I get my own photography website going. I would LOVE any feedback, ideas, and/or advice you might have! Also, if you have any links to great photographer's websites or any great online wedding albums of your friends, I would absolutely love it if you could email them to me! I am convinced that this is the best way to get creative ideas. :) My email address is: WhitJM10@yahoo.com.

Here's to a big new chapter in my life! Woohooo!!

P.S. Does anyone know someone who knows how to make Flash websites and doesn't charge more than my house is worth?! ;)