Last Saturday I kicked off my 2015 spring/summer wedding season by photographing Matt and Chelsey’s big day up in my hometown of Oconto Falls.  I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I love photographing weddings up in that neck of the woods.  I always feel like I am home when I drive into that city and Saturday was no different.  The ceremony was held at the Catholic church I have belonged to my entire life and when I found out the reception was at Romy’s Holiday Inn in Kelly Lake, I immediately started craving the broasted chicken and tips I remember from my high school days.  

Now I met Matt and Chelsey last year when I photographed their engagement session and fell in love with them as a couple almost immediately.  Matt is funny, quick-witted and silly.  Chelsey is gorgeous and genuine and quite possibly, the sweetest girl I have ever met.  She smiled and giggled throughout our entire session and it was contagious. You can’t help but be in a good mood when you are around these two.   The wedding itself was picture perfect.  They had THE most spectacular spring  day.  Sunny and 60’s for April in WI is pretty amazing.  Their wedding party and families were wonderful to work with.  I could joke with them and boss them around and they just went with the flow.  Father Joel did a wonderful job with their wedding ceremony.  His homily was one of the best I have heard and you could tell he really knew and cared for these two.   The reception was full of laughter and drinks and dancing and fun.  You can’t ask for anything more. (And the chicken and tips at Romy’s did not disappoint. )

Matt and Chelsey, I feel honored you chose me to capture this day for you.  I had a blast following (bossing) you guys around and I truly hope you love these images.  Congratulations!!!!

You know you are a big deal when The Antique has your names on the mirror!  

Gorgeous cake from one of my favorite bakeries in Green Bay, Monzu.  AH-mazing.

They had the BEST first dance.  It started off nice and sweet….

and then after this dip, they turned things up a notch

and the crowd REALLY got into it!

and then their awesome wedding party joined them….

and then they finished nice and slow again.  It was fantastic!

Congratulations you two!!!  

*****EDITED to reflect changes in my schedule as of 02-01-2015.  I am now booking into November 2015.  February-November are completely booked up.  Please book early, especially Baby’s First year sessions, as I cannot guarantee availability to everyone at this point.  Thanks!

So, it’s that time again.  Time for my annual beginning of the year update on this crazy little photo business of mine.  2014 was a really, really great year for me.  Both professionally and on a personal level.  Let’s start with my life at home.  Our house is absolute craziness most of the time and I kind of love it.  Sure, there are times I want to run screaming out the front door and into the first establishment that will give me a cold Bud Light Lime to slam, but honestly, that doesn’t happen too often.  (mostly because I know that after one beer I’ll be so sleepy I’ll want to go to bed by 9pm and I can’t do that when my ‘work’ day starts at 9pm)    Eddie has had quite a year.  He started wrestling last winter and starts up again this coming week.   He played t-ball this summer and joined Cub Scouts this fall.   He finished a great year of kindergarten in June and started 1^st grade in September and is doing awesome in school.  I am sort of floored by the changes in him since the school year began.  He went from being my little boy to being….well, a big kid.  He is so mature and he uses all these grown up words and you can sit and have a real, in depth conversation with him now.  He just gets things now.  Does that make sense??  It’s just crazy to see on a day to day basis.  On one hand I am so sad he is growing so fast and no longer my baby boy.  But on the other hand, it is awesome to watch him change and become his own little person.   The thing I am probably most excited about with him is that he has taken up an insane love for the game of football.  Pauly and I are both HUGE football/Packer fans and it is amazing to be able to sit with our 6 year old and watch a game and have him understand what is going on.  He knows the player’s names and is quickly starting to grasp all the concepts and strategies of the game.  It’s fantastic!

Bob also had a great year.  He is still a bit too young for sports, but he tags along to all of his brother’s games and meetings and is good at keeping himself occupied.  He will talk and play with any kid you put him next to and is our little social butterfly.  He started 4K this fall and is doing super at his first year in the same school as his big brother.  He is quite the little lady’s man and every time he sees a girl from his class that he knows, he leans over and whispers, ‘that is my girlfriend’.    His interests are very different from his brothers and in true four year old fashion, nothing holds his attention for very long. That is, except for Ghostbusters.  The kid has been obsessed with the movie for well over 2 years now.  Every once and a while he will look at me out of the blue and say something like, “I feel like the floor of a taxi cab” or “Who does your taxes?”  (I you know the movie as well as I do, you’ll get that)It’s so funny to hear his adorable little voice quoting Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd.

And then there is our little Josephine.  If you follow my Facebook page at all you know that this little girl is giving us a run for our money.  She is, hands down, my most challenging child.  She is crazy and destructive and honestly, so, so fun to watch.  I mean, she is a tiny tornado and can destroy a room in 20 seconds flat, but it’s amazing to watch her energy and enthusiasm while doing so.   She is ALL girl and definitely knows what she wants.  But she can be a defiant, sassy little witch when she doesn’t get her own way.  Oh, the tantrums.  I was NOT expecting the tantrums from her yet (isn’t she still my itty bitty baby!?!?).  Besides being a bit witchy sometimes, she is also smart, sweet and in my totally biased opinion, absolutely gorgeous.  Oh, and HUGE.  She is at least the size of an average 2 year old and is 16 months old.  She’s a giant baby.  Clothes that I bought for her 2 year old photos next summer are already too small on her.  I have taken to calling her the beast.

Now, let’s move into the business aspect of things.  I always refer to this photography gig as my ‘little’ business, but 2014 proved that it isn’t such a ‘little’ business anymore.  I photographed 15 weddings and over 240 photo sessions.  Yup.  You read that right.  240+ photo sessions.  I was shocked when I saw that number.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I am so so thankful to all of you who have chosen me to photograph your weddings and families and babies and, well, your lives.  I could not think of another job that would give me the satisfaction, flexibility, friendships and most importantly the itty bitty baby snuggles that this one does.    It’s a pretty sweet gig, let me tell you.

That being said, after some serious pondering over the past few weeks, I have decided that some things are going to have to change this year.  Most importantly, how many sessions I take on.  You see, I have a really REALLY hard time saying no to people and I took on WAY more sessions that this one-woman show should have in 2014.  There are some weeks I photographed 10+ sessions AND a wedding.  And that means I was up until 2-3am editing photos as I had no time to do it while the kids were awake and my editing work ‘days’ start at about 9pm (and when you are up with the kids by 6am, that creates one sleep deprived momma).  I was constantly at my computer and during the months of October and November, I spent so little time with my kids it makes me sad. (it got to the point where Bobby would burst into tears every time I sat at my computer as he knew I’d be sitting there most of the night).  I feel like I missed the last 2 months of the year because I was so focused on my ridiculous workload.  Which is funny because one of the reasons I started doing this photo thing full time was to be able to spend more time with my kiddos.  And this year, the exact opposite happened.

Now, I tried to reserve 2 days a week for editing only so I wouldn’t have to  work while the kids were here, but like I said before, I have a hard time saying no.  If one of my regular clients emailed me and said they forgot to book and ask me to squeeze them in, I did.  If someone emailed and said they just had a baby and forgot to book a newborn photographer early, I would book them on an editing day and hope it would all work out.  Well, it always worked out, but I always felt like I needed to check myself into the looney bin.    So, this year, I am changing things up a bit and it is my New Year’s resolution to stick to it.  So, here are the changes in no particular order:

I will only be taking 6-7 sessions per week and I will only book sessions 3 days a week.  The days I shoot will change every week based on my client’s needs, but I need to have editing time during the week, while the kids are at school, to save my sanity.  Plus, I need to save time for rain dates, another thing I failed to do last year.

I will still take on 15 weddings a year, but Saturday/Sunday photo shoots aren’t going to be available often.  I know that stinks for some people who can’t take off work during the week or make weeknight shoots work, but right now, I need my weekends reserved for my kids.  If a weekend is the only thing you can make work and I don’t have a wedding and can make the date work, I will photograph on the weekends but the session fee will go up $50.

Most of you know that I always ask people to book early.  And those of you who have been using me for your photos for the past few years know how early I book up, especially in the summer and fall months.  However, lately, the winter months are booking up just as fast.  I have no availability in January/February anymore and have maybe 8 sessions available in the months of March/April.  That is it.  After that I will be booked solid for the next 4 months.  And in the past 2 weeks I have booked 15 sessions for June/July/August.  With these new session changes that I am implementing this year, I fully expect to be booked through year’s end by May.  And I am going to start referring people to some of my other photographer friends if they call and I don’t have the space in my calendar, no more squeezing people in when I really don’t have the time. (I’ve been doing this for years now, but expect to have to do it on a more regular basis now).  Honestly, I feel sort of guilty about this.  I get how hectic our lives as parents can be and how easy it could be to forget to book a yearly portrait session.  I forget to book things for my kiddos all the time.  Dentist appts, sports sign-ups, things like that.  However, I have to put my foot down at some point and 2015 is the point.  

I am also taking quite a bit of time off in 2015.  Especially this summer.  We have 3 vacations planned and I have decided I am not going to feel guilty about taking time off during the busiest time of the year.  In my mind, the memories with my kids are just as important as working.   During the month of July I will be out of the office 22 days.  That leaves about 6 days to shoot.  That is it.  So, if you know you need photos in July of this year, contact me early.  Like now.   😉  And August isn’t much better.  I am out of the office the 17-25^th.   So again, book early!!!  (If you know you will need itty bitty photos while I am gone, let me know and I’ll help you find an awesome photographer to help you out!)

Also, I have done a lot of researching other area newborn/portrait photographers during the past few weeks and in order to stay competitive, there will be a few changes to my pricing as well.   Weddings prices are staying the same as are kiddo, maternity and family sessions.  Newborn sessions are now $180 (previously $160).  And the print purchase minimum and disc price are also going up just a bit.  After averaging out all of the print orders from 2014, I discovered that clients are purchasing much more in prints than I expected them to when I first started offering this option.  I hope it is because they are realizing that the quality of the prints from my lab are worth the cost compared to the price and quality of the prints from Walmart/Walgreens.  The average client purchased just under $200 worth of prints this year (my minimum was $125 to get the disc), so this year the minimum is going up to $150.  I also offered my clients the option of forgoing the print purchase and just purchasing a disc outright.  The cost of the disc was $70 in 2014 and will be going up to $100 in 2015.  That means that a kiddo session and disc of images (approx 50-80 images) will now cost $220.  Like I said, after researching the competition, I believe that is a fair price for my time and for beautiful photos of your wee ones.  And if you booked your 2015 photo shoot last year, don’t fret.  You are locked in at the old 2014 prices!  If you have any questions or concerns, please email me to discuss.

The pricing for my Baby’s First Year package (for those parents that want to capture every stage of their little one’s first year) is staying the same.  For those of you that don’t know my Baby’s First Year package is either 4 or 5 sessions in the baby’s first year of life.  (check out the website for more details).  I started offering this a few years ago and wanted to find a way to thank my clients that keep returning to me to capture their baby’s milestones.  However, lately I have been thinking.  So many of my clients book 3 or 4 different sessions with me each year for their older kids.  They’ll book a 2 year session, a 3 year session and a 5 year session for each of their kids and in the past, paid full price for all of them.  Well, starting in 2015, if you book 3 or more sessions of any kind with Erika Krause Photography, you will receive $25 off each session fee and a free 8×10 from each shoot. (the $25 discount for all sessions will come off of the final session fee for 2015.)  Just another way of saying thanks to all of you for choosing to support this fantastic career of mine.

Okay, so I think that is it.  Sorry for the super lengthy post, I get a little long winded sometimes.    Again, to all of my current and future clients, THANK YOU!  So many of you have become much more than clients to me.  You have become dear friends and I am so grateful for all of you.  Thank you for sharing your lives and your precious little wee ones with me.  I love watching them grow in front of my lens.

If you have any questions about anything mentioned above, please shoot me an email to discuss!  info@erikakrause.com

Erika

Ps-stay tuned.  My website which hasn’t been updated in almost 3 years is getting totally revamped in the next few weeks and you will finally be able to view it from mobile devices/iPhones!  Yahoo!  I’ll let you know via Facebook when it is live!