Hey all! I feel like I haven’t been here in ages! With only blogging weddings this month I feel like I have neglected my poor blog and unfortunately I am not going to be back for a few more weeks. We are moving into a new house this weekend and the next two-three weeks are sure to be chaotic and crazy(as the past two weeks have been!). I just want to let everyone know that for the next 1-2 weeks I will have very limited internet access and will not be spending as much time as I normally would editing and shooting sessions. I have a handful of sessions next week and between moving and trying to get all of the sessions on my computer out the door, I am sure things are going to be a little bit insane….okay, a lot insane. So please bear with me! I promise to get up and running as soon as I possibly can and will keep you all posted as to when that is! Thanks so much for your patience during this exciting and crazy time in our lives!

And I’ll leave you with a couple of my own family photos from this fall. My friend Amanda shot them for me and even though my boys were anything but cooperative that day, we got some awesome images!

The chaos that is.  I just wanted to let everyone know that there will be a few changes coming to Erika Krause Photography very soon.  A while back I posted that we were trying to sell our house.  Well, it sold!  YAHOO!  However, closing is the 9th of November, so the next 2 months are going to be pure and total chaos.  We need to find another place to live and get 37 years of life packed up.(yup, my husband has been here his ENTIRE life)  And when you add the stress of moving to the 50+ sessions and 3 weddings I have between now and then, well, I may be in the looney bin on Christmas time.     So, in the meantime, there will be a few changes.  I will still do a sneak peek, but it will be just a handful of images and I am going to try to not write a whole lot on the blog.  Blog posts take me forever and I know that people love them, but something has got to go.  Also, if you have a session booked with me in the first 2 weeks of November, you may be getting an email from me to reschedule.  Thanks for understanding.  And stay tuned for a blog post about where we are moving to!  Okay, back to the grind, but first here are a couple shots of my sweet boys. 

I can’t believe I forgot to come here and post that I would be out of the office for a while.  Hopefully most of you saw it on the website and Facebook.  My boys and I spent last week up in the Minocqua area with my family and had the most lovely time.  great weather, nice little cabin in the woods and nothing to do but be for 6 days.  It was heaven.  But I am back to shooting again tomorrow so the blog won’t be so bare starting later this week.   Here are a few photos of my sweet sweet boys from our little getaway last week.  Such loves.

our first afternoon there, both boys stripped off their clothes and headed straight into the lake

Ed became quite the little fisherman while up there.  He caught about 10 fish and learned to take the ‘scabs’ off too 😉

the boys enjoyed some ‘mountain climbing’

some family walks…

and even got a few souvenirs including these matching butt flap jammies that Momma HAD to have

Hope you all had a great week!  Stay tuned, I have a family, twin newborns and a fabulous wedding coming up this week!

Tuesday morning I headed up to the Spruce school to photograph their final 5th grade graduation.  The little red schoolhouse has been open and teaching children for over 120 years and unfortunately it was decided that this is the final year.  This 2 room schooldhouse was a one of a kind gem in our area and taught children from Kindergarten on up through 5th grade.  My mom attended Spruce school, many of my friends and now many of my friends own children attended this final year at the schoolhouse.  It was a bittersweet day and lots of tears were shed as we watched the final three 5th grade graduates move the tassels on their caps from one side to the other.

unfortunately, this sign no longer applies…lots of hugs were being handed out to some very upset kiddos that would have to head to the ‘big school’ next year This photo of Simon shedding a tear just did me in….ack.one of the Spruce school alumni who is headed to college next fall gave a fabulous speechOne last reading of Where the Wild Things Arethe graduates.  A bittersweet moment for them I would imagine.  Happy to be moving on to middle school but sad their younger siblings won’t get the awesome experience at Spruce that they had. One last time singing the Spruce School song with Mr. Dessartmany a tear was shed that afternoon…but I saw lots of smiles tooone of the things the graduates look forward to is ringing the bell on graduation day!and clinging the clinger! Onto 6th grade!

Hey all!  First off, before I dive into all the boring business lingo, I just want to thank each and every one of you loyal blog followers for sticking with me this past year.  In February 2011 I quit my full time job to forcus more time on my family and my little photography business and since then, things have exploded!  I am busier than I ever thought I would be and loving every minute of it.  It is amazing how your outlook changes on being busy when you actually LIKE what you are doing!  So to all of you that read this blog and have asked me to do your photos in the past 15 months, THANK YOU!  I couldn’t do what I do without you!

Now for the changes.  In May 2011 I implemented a new system where in order to get a cd of your images you have to purchase at least $75 worth of high quality, retouched prints from me.  I thought of it as a win/win situation.  I was able to continue to do what I love at a reasonable price, pay my bills and give my clients high quality prints of their images.  Nothing bothered me more than to see one of my images, that had obviously been printed at a crappy one hour photo lab, displayed somewhere .  It was maddening!  I also implemented a referral system.  If you refer one new client to me who books and orders from a session, you get a free 5×7.  If you refer two new clients to me, you get a free 8×10.  And if you refer three new clients to me, you get a free 11×14.  Quite a few people have taken advantage of this referral program and for that reason, it will not be changing at all.  Again, it’s a win/win situation for everyone!

However, after taking a good hard look at the business end of things during tax season, I do have to make a few changes to how things work.  Nothing to major, but I wanted to make everyone aware!  These changes take effect to all sessions booked after May 1, 2012.  For sessions that are already booked, you still get the ‘old’ pricing.

First off, the minimum print requirement to get your cd of images and copyright release is going up to $100.  Most people ordered over $100 of prints anyway, so this isn’t a huge change, but needs to be noted.

Secondly, my lab has raised their print prices, therefore I have to raise mine a bit as well.  Not all prices changed, just the ones in bold print.  The new print prices for 2012-2013 will be as follows:

8 wallets               $16.99

4×6                     $12.99

5×7                     $17.99

8×10                    $32.99

10×13/11×14             $49.99

16×20                   $89.99

20×24                  $139.99

The third change is in regards to newborn sessions.  These sessions are one of my very favorite things to shoot (and I have been shooting OODLES of them lately), but they are VERY time consuming.  A typical session with a child lasts 45-60 minutes.  Newborns take at least two hours and can take up to 4 hours if we have a fussy baby that doesn’t want to sleep.  In the past I was only charging $20 more($140) for a Newborn Session than I was for a Child Session($120), but if you look at the time that went into it, that just didn’t make any sense.  So as of May 1, 2012, newborn sessions will now be $160.

And change number four is that all ‘breakouts’ from the original session will be $20 each.  For example,  if you want to do a newborn session with your brand new baby, but would also like to to have your older child’s 3 year pictures taken that day as well, that will be an additional $20 charge.

And this is not a change, but I wanted to just mention again that there is a travel fee of $50 per hour for anything farther than 20 miles from zip code 54302.

Now, along with those changes, I am also implementing a Baby’s First Year package that will benefit those of your that choose to document all stages of your little one’s first year of life…from itty bitty to kiddo.  If you book 4 sessions with me in your baby’s first year (typically: newborn, 3 month, 6 month, and 9 month) you will get their one year photo session FREE!   And if you book 3 photo sessions with me in your baby’s first year (newborn and any months in between), you will get 50% off  your baby’s one year session.  And with both of these packages, you’ll get a free 8×10 of any image from the one year session.   I wanted to find a way to thank all my repeat customers who continue to choose me to capture all of the memories from that amazing first year of your baby’s life!

Okay, I think that is it.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at info@erikakrause.com.

And would one of these posts be complete without a couple photos of my little monsters?  I think not.  Enjoy!

Bob got a new haircut last week and we tried out a mohawk on him.  I loved it.  Just cracked me right up.

And both of my bambinos LOVE puzzles.  We could do them all day long…

And one more of my baby (yes, I know he is almost two, but for now, he is still my baby) for good measure!

Have a great Monday all!

So, a few months ago we decided to put our house on the market.  This was a hard decision, especially for my husband Pauly.  You see, he has lived in this house his ENTIRE life.  Yup, his parents bought this house 40 years ago.   They brought him home from the hospital here and he has never lived anywhere else.  Even during college.  (I know, I was shocked when I first heard it myself, but it is true)  12 years ago Pauly bought it from his mom and built her a new house just a few miles away (he’s a carpenter, so that is not as odd as it sounds).    And it is not that we don’t want to live here, we both love this house.  We love our neighbors.  We love the big backyard.  We love that we have put a TON of work into it and finally made it our own.  However, since I started this little photography business, it has grown to a point where almost our entire basement is overflowing with photography props, supplies and cameras.  We decided that if I am going to continue to run a business out of our home, we are going to need a separate space for that business and this house just won’t work for what we need.  And as much as I dread the moving/building process, you have NO idea how much I look forward to having an actual photo studio in my home!!!

We put our house on the market 3 months ago and would really like to sell it before we break ground on our new home.  If you know anyone looking for a cute, well-maintained and affordable home, will you pass along our info?!   If so, I would certainly appreciate it!  Since Pauly has lived here for 35 years he knows this house inside and out.  It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch with a finished basement and has a 2.5 stall detached garage.  1700 total square feet.  We have done a lot of updates the past few years including new siding, windows, insulation, flooring  and a new roof.

It is going to be so hard for us to walk out of this house, the house where we brought our babies home for the frst time.  The house where they took their first steps.  And I am sure it is going to be harder for Pauly.  35 years of memories in one place is a lot.  But it’s part of life.  You can check out all of the info on the house and LOTS of photos here!  Thanks much!

Tuesday afternoon Hilde and her mom Sara came up from Reedsville for Hilde’s 2 year photos.  She turned 2 back in December, but with the holiday craziness, we weren’t able to get her photos done until this week.  Now, I did Hilde’s six week session and her one year photos as well, so I knew I was in for a morning filled with cuteness.  When I first brought out the camera on Tuesday, Hilde was a bit shy.  But after a little silliness with her favorite stuffed animal, it didn’t take long for her to warm up and the smiles to start appearing.  She did fantastic and we got so many cute shots!

Sara, it was SO nice to see and chat with you again!  I can’t wait for baby #2 to get here in June so we can do some photos of BOTH of your kiddos!   YAY!  Enjoy the sneak peek!!!!

isn’t she a hunny!!!It isn’t a smile, but I LOVE this shot.  such a little love.