CELEBRATION DAY 6

Current clients and future clients are going to love this announcement…

This week I’ve announced things that will both upgrade my offerings and also make things easier for my clients. I always get asked if I offer collections. I have finally decided to start doing so. Starting February 1, 2008 I will be offering three Photo Collections that include what clients typically order and a new price structure. This is in addition to my new photo decor line.

1. My tabletop and gift collection includes items for those who prefer smaller photos and are on a tighter budget. It has an 8×10, quite a few 5×7’s, some wallets, and by repeated request, two low resolution digital files for sharing on the web. There is an option to purchase an album with 20 – 5×7s for an additional reduced fee.
2. My basic wall and gift collection includes a few wall sized portraits, a few 8×10’s, quite a few 5×7’s, and the two lo-res files. There is the option to purchase a deluxe flush mount album with 20 -8×10s and a mini purse album for an additional reduced fee.
3. Finally my deluxe wall and gift collection include many wall sized portraits, a few 8×10s, quite a few 5×7’s, the two lo-res files. There is the option to purchase a deluxe flush mount album with 30-40 8×10s and a mini purse album for an additional reduced fee.

All of these collections include add-on options for a reduced cost. Of course you are always welcome to purchase as you always have, ala carte, there just isn’t any price break with you do so.

My contest involves naming these collections. I have racked my brain and come up with many ideas, but I’m sure many of you would be able to do much better than I would, they say “you can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle.” The names should all have some sort of cohesion, reflect my business model (check out my website), and be creative. I’ve thought of using names, locations, actions, etc.

Please submit your entries via email to trista@lookwhojustblouin.com. I will have my marketing company review them and help me pick the best choice. I do reserve the right to not use any of them, but I will still reward the best entry. All entries need to be received by midnight CST tonight.

The prize is a $100 gift card to Look Who Just Blouin Photography and a $100 gift certificate to Wild Child Children’s Boutique. If you haven’t been to Wild Child, BTW, they are so much fun, you will have so much fun shopping there for your children.

Have fun brainstorming!

It’s personal…Faces Photo Contest

Okay, please play fair, you can only vote once/household. Please don’t vote once at work and once at home. Thanks for keeping this fair, it takes me a long time to sort through all the IP addresses and names and I should be sleeping at midnight especially since my immune system has crashed and I’m feeling under the weather. There is my guilt trip, now have fun!!

We have a great variety of submissions, I love all these adorable expressions. Please post your vote in the comments section of this post (right below the last entry photo #9).  Votes will be counted until tonight at midnight CST.

Please choose the photo that is the most genuinely expressive look:

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Make sure to get those photos to me by midnight tonight

Check out the details of the contest in the “CELEBRATION DAY 5″  post below. Can’t wait to see those expressions!

And the winner of the friendship essay is…

Heather Slane! I had an English professor from PJC judge the entries.

All of the entries were wonderful though, thank you for sharing your stories, they were all beautiful.

Here is Heather’s winning entry:

I don’t know if there are adequate words to describe my friendship with Alison.  I moved to Brewton, AL in June of 1993.  Knowing I had no friends down here, our new next door neighbor decided to introduce me to the daughter of one of her friends.  We hit it off and have never looked back.  Her birthday is March 15 and mine is March 16 – it seemed that we were destined to be kindred spirits.  We were absolutely inseparable.  Only a few short months after meeting, we were on our way back from doing some country line dancing at Mustang Sallys in Pensacola.  It was the wee hours of the morning and as was our usual style, we closed the place down.  We were on the backroads coming into Brewton – Alison driving and me kicked back with my feet up on the dashboard – when I felt the car jolt.  It scared me half to death and as I was telling Alison that, she lost control of the vehicle and we went flipping and skidding upside down and somehow when the car stopped, we were upright.  I was hurt worse than Alison, but we were both okay.  This sealed the deal on a lifelong friendship – you can’t go through a near death experience with your best friend without realizing that we could have lost each other.

 

Now, almost 15 years later, our friendship is stronger than ever.  She’s in Opp, AL and of course I’m here in Pensacola, FL, but we both know that all it would take is one call and we’d be there for each other.  I was there for her through the loss of her 5 week old beautiful baby girl and she’s been my rock this past year with Seth’s Autism diagnosis.  On the night she was calling me to tell me that she was pregnant (after the death of her little girl), I was getting ready to pick up the phone to call and tell her that I was pregnant.  It was extremely fitting that we would be pregnant at the same time and our boys are just 3 weeks apart.  My prayer is that they will grow to one day be the best of friends just as their mothers are! 

CELEBRATION DAY 5

Whew, I hope all of you are having fun. This has been quite a trip for me. Four days of celebrating and I’m really getting into this. I’m glad to see that you are too. I’ve had some great feedback on the changes I’m making to  my business and all of you seem to really love the creative contests and gifts I’m giving out. So here’s today’s goodies…

My announcement today has literally been right in front of your face but it is so vital to my business, that it deserves its own day. My new tag-line “…it’s personal.” For the last 4 1/2 years I’ve had another line, but when I was re-evaluating my business earlier this month, I realized that what really set me apart from other photographers is that my shooting style is very personal, my interaction with clients is personal, my business in every way, shape, and form is personal. There is no one shoe fits all scenario with my business.

So my contest today has to do with the most personal of all aspects in my business, the face. Think of the variations that the face can make to express what the mind is thinking. Thousands! (BTW: That is the reason I NEVER ask a child to smile because the face can’t lie and the viewer of the photo will KNOW that the expression is disingenuous.) Please send in the most genuine photo you have of a loved one’s face, it could show any of the emotions, but it must be real and not contrived. I will post the photos tomorrow and we will have another round of voting.

The winner will receive something to make their face look even more beautiful:

1. A $50 make-up gift certificate.
2. A $60 gift certificate from Heidi Grether of Studio 28 for a consultation, style, and cut. Heidi is the BOMB when it comes to hair. She is the only stylist I would trust my hair with and I would cry if she ever moved. She will give you a look that is the most flattering to your face.
3. And to top it all off, a $100 gift card from Look Who Just Blouin Photography so that you can show off your newly freshened up look.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT:

1. Only one entry/family.
2. Send the photo to me in a SMALL size in .jpeg format to trista@lookwhojustblouin.com. Big files will not come through to me. I will email you back letting you know I got it within two hours. If you don’t hear from me within that time, your photo did not go through and you need to try again.
3. This contest is only open to those living on the Emerald Coast.

Have fun and get them to me by MIDNIGHT CST.

~Trista

And the winner of the wall arrangement contest is…

#2 – Marianna Taylor. Thanks to everyone who voted, it was a very competitive race. All runners-up will receive a gift certificate for a complimentary 5×7 print from their next ordering session. Thanks for participating!!

The winner of the friendship essay contest will be announced later today.

 In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple different wall arrangements that were sent to me after the deadline for the contest from a regular client of mine.

Bedroom (2-16×20’s):

and Family Room (4-11×14’s and 16×20):

Trista

Send in those friendship essays!!

Spend some time and write a couple paragraphs about what makes you and your friend’s friendship so unique and you could win a girl’s night out and a $100 gift certificate for a photo shoot with you and your friend.  I’ve only gotten one entry so far, so send ‘em in! Entries are due by midnight tonight. See the post below this for all the details.

CELEBRATION DAY 4

Remember, these announcements are all new to me and I had to learn something new about my website this morning so I could share it with all of you.

As many of you know, I’ve been doing ProShow Gold .exe slideshows for the last four years for clients to view their photos. This can be problematic because it does not work on Macs. Since Macs are becoming a lot more common, I’ve decided to change my slideshow format.

My announcement for today is the introduction of the friends and family slideshow. After four years of experimenting with in-person and online ordering, I’ve come to the realization through my experience and the feedback of clients that in-person ordering works the best for what I have to offer. Other photography businesses that simply sell their clients a handful of 4×6s that they can slap around the house in various corners do very well with online ordering. But because my clients are ordering their photos to display in artful ways, they prefer my help. In fact, here is an email I got a couple days ago from a client who had online ordering due to her distance from me: 

“Hey Trista – so we would like to order the jumping picture larger. =) The 8×10 is just not big enough. I’m sure if we were local, we definitely would have benefited from your guidance during an in-person ordering session. I’m not sure what it is … but I had this vision of doing a gallery display wall with a bunch of images in different frames and differing mats.  But there’s no real ‘centerpiece’ or focal point and I think the 1-2-3 Jump picture should definitely be that.”

And this is just one sample of the type of feedback I get in favor of in-person ordering. It confirms my belief that this extra level of service is something I do not want to eliminate. That being said, I also get a lot of people who want to share their photos with friends and family via a web-based slideshow. So I am bringing the best of both worlds together. I will offer online slideshows as a benefit to those who purchase any of my new collections (which will be unveiled in the next couple of days). That way, family and friends can view your photos and if they want to order, they can do so as well.

You can see a sample slideshow (photos from a trip we took as a family to Disney world last year) on my website. Go to the main website and over on in the bottom right corner, click on Client. Enter the password “personal” and the slideshow will open up, it might take a minute or two but it will open.

In the spirit of friends, my contest and prize today have to do with friendship. I will award a girl’s night out for you and your best friend – a $30 Rave theater gift card for a chic flick (or whatever movie you wish to see) and a $15 gift card to Drowsy Poet to sit and chat over lattes after the movie. I will also throw in a $100 gift card for Look Who Just Blouin Photography so that you and your friends can have a few photos taken together. What must you do to win? Send me a short two paragraph essay on what makes you and your friend’s relationship so unique. Maybe you met while skiing in the Alps or maybe you have a special ritual of going to Timbuktu every Easter together or maybe you both just really love to talk politics. Just make it specific. I will have a professional communications expert choose the winner, which will be announced tomorrow and I will share your essay on the blog. Good luck! Send your essays to trista@lookwhojustblouin.com.

Please vote for your favorite arrangement

Here are the entries I received yesterday. Please pick your favorite and then vote in the comment section of this blog post (make sure you click on the comment section immediately below the last entry). One vote/person please. I will be checking IP Addresses and will only allow one vote per. I will accept votes until midnight CST tonight and will announce the winner tomorrow morning.

I will be posting celebration day 4 shortly. I just have two more things I need to get lined up before I do.

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Keep those wall arrangement photos coming in!

I’ve only got one entry so far. I KNOW for a fact that over the last four years I have sat with clients at their dining room tables hammering out hundreds of wall arrangements. Please don’t tell me that you got your beautiful 20×24’s, 16×20’s, and 11×14’s in and they are still sitting in my pretty boxes!! Send those photos in. Don’t worry if they aren’t perfectly straight on the wall or have a little dust on them, heaven knows mine aren’t.