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!