Under Construction

Well, now, you all out there thought I up and forgot about this here site, and the business all together, didn't you?  It has been an eventful 2011, both personally and for my family.  I am so happy it is spring, for many reasons, but one of the best is that I can get out with you all again and my camera!

As you can see above, the new, and professional, home for Circle the Sun Photography is finally under construction!  Yes, I've actually started editing the template and adding pictures to a design I purchased a year and a half ago.  I will not be deleting this blog, but I will be password protecting it after the new site is up and running.  For privacy reasons (client names and ages, etc) I will keep this site as a private archive only.

The best of my work through 2010 will populate the lovely galleries over at my new site.  The web address will simply become circlethesunphotography.com (just take the blogspot out of this address).  That web domain currently brings you to this site hosted here on blogger, that redirect will be disabled soon.

The new site as shown in the little peek above has four pages, a home/landing page (with my favorite photo from last fall), an about/info page, a portfolio page (currently planning to have seven galleries), and a contact page with email submission form (I know, how far have I come!?!).  On the info page you will be able to click on over to the new new blog.

You read that right. . . I have two new sites under construction.  Circle the Sun will have it's own domain and professional photography site, and I will also be moving on to another new site for my personal web presence.  Many of you check on over at my family blog now here on blogger, and that site will also become locked once my personal domain is up and running.  Over there I'll have 5 blogs under one domain name. . .yes, five.  Well, to be technical, only four of them are mine, the fifth will be manned by husband and his homebrewing partner in crime.

At my new site I'll run four blogs (really one with four clear cut categories, each with their own page)- one for my personal ramblings, one for creative projects, one for pediatric cancer posts (for this category only all of the posts from the old blog tagged for cancer will be imported to this section so Josh's story, in its entirety, will be available to other families), and lastly a section just for photography.

Unlike this blog the new photography one won't be dedicated solely to sneak peeks and session pictures.  I'd like to share other photographic work of mine, photography course work, as well as tips or equipment reviews, and well, basically anything photog related that pops into my brain.  It's exciting and I hope you'll pop on over there and continue to follow my photography journey.

Thank you for your support and kind words this winter.  I look forward to seeing you all this spring and summer.

Goodbye 2010!

All 2010 Galleries will expire at midnight tomorrow, 1/17/2010.  There will be a $50 fee to make a gallery available for purchase again after that date.  

The Photographer's Favorite Package will be issued for any albums that have not redeemed that credit in another matter offered via the multiple emails sent out in December. 



In other news, the website will be pretty quiet during my winter hiatus as I prepare the official home of Circle the Sun Photography to be launched and the new blog is under construction.  Sessions for 2011 are filling up rapidly, if you would like a session with me this year please contact me as soon as possible for my availability from April 2011 throughout the rest of the year.  Some months are already closed for bookings and others have limited availability. 

We all can use a little Gingko

nom nom nom nom

They say Gingko is good for increasing memory and concentration.  This little guy took that all too seriously.  Talk about baby brain building.  When I showed up at Jeffrey Mansion and Park in Bexley today, I was saddened to see the gorgeous Gingko tree had dropped all of it's leaves.  But then I discovered they were all over the ground, and hadn't been swept up yet.  They had also dropped so recently they were still silky soft and perfect for babies!

3rd session's the charm!  No sickies, happy baby!

And for my third session I had today, a little peek for them below.  Yes, it was the day of gorgeous and amazingly blue eyed babies (and kiddos).  All of their families also had family portraits taken but they are saving those for the holiday cards and gifts.  So I won't show them till after the holidays.

Yes we are just this adorable, thank you.

I also am hoping that rolling around in the Gingko leaves myself that I'll find my concentration boosted and be able to keep churning out proof galleries in time for all of your holiday gift plans. 

I'm looking forward to getting all of 2010 sessions up here on the blog after the busy season dies down, and also to finally launch my website with all of these wonderful photos plastered all over my portfolio galleries.  So it may be a little quiet here till the New Year, but there is so much awesome stuff to come!

Back in the Saddle

The end of summer was a rough one for me personally.  Two children who are friends of ours, died, of pediatric cancer.  One of those children from the same cancer my son has been fighting for 2 years.  The toll both deaths, only weeks apart, took on me was unexpected and exhausting.  Mixed in there my son had his first post chemotherapy scan, the one he relapsed in last year, and it was clean.  Or as we call it in oncology world N.E.D., no evidence of disease.  We are relieved.  My eldest also started kindergarten, and had to have an abscessed molar extracted, all within a week. 

We are trying to settle in to our new routine with school as our metronome instead of oncology appointments.  We are hoping for less surprises.  But life is full of them, isn't it?

My deepest gratitude to all of you out there.  My clients and supporters.  Thank you to those of you who had sessions in July and have been waiting patiently and with an exceptional amount of understanding to finally see your pictures.  Special thanks to the West, Keyser, and Sperling families.  Your proofs are up or will be up soon.  To those of you who helped keep me distracted in August, your sessions will be coming up shortly to the proofing galleries.  I am hoping to have a great week of editing this week.

As far as scheduling for the remainder of 2010, I am happy and sad to announce portrait session bookings are now closed (outside of a limited availability for holiday mini-sessions).  If you have previously discussed a session with me via email or at another session and we have not narrowed down a date, look for an email this week, if you don't receive one by the weekend, feel free to pop one my direction.  If you haven't scheduled a session for 2010, I look forward to meeting your family in 2011!

Back to editing!

Double the Princess Puppy

There will be pictures, lots and lots of pictures on here soon.  I have 9 sessions in my processing queue so it is time to get cracking!

This gem of sweetness was from today.  I was just running through the pictures from today's session as they downloaded, sometimes I just need to reassure myself that I did get all the shots I thought I did, and this one just screamed "share me."

If you are planning or hoping to have your child/family portraits taken with Circle the Sun Photography, now is the time to send me an email (and to the 5 of you who have in the past few days. . .the replies are coming)!  I will most likely be closing bookings for 2010 at the end of August, if not sooner.  Another reason I had to post this picture, how can you resist this double dose of cuteness?

I Felt the Earth Move Too

I know, you are all a little scared. Strange things are happening. The blog, it's like up to date.

Do you need a moment?




It's okay.
I understand.
Hopefully the blog will stay this way. I swears, I am going to try.

Below you will find little peaks at all of my recent sessions that I have finished proofing. Also you'll find I finished up all of my Picture Spring photo assignments, all 30 of them. From April, *cringe*. You can see all of them at once, if you follow this link.

Also, I've mentioned it before, but a real bonafide website is coming, contracts are being signed, things will be uploaded. I have to work on narrowing down my portfolio, but it IS coming. It will take a while as I will have to work in between proofing and other projects, but decisions have been made.

And in true nutjob form, I signed up for Picture Summer too. In my defense I signed up like 6 weeks ago, but seriously it is a good learning experience for me, and a great exercise in non-portrait photograph creation. You'll see a couple of those below. I will try to post those as close to the day as possible but I may post a few at a time here and there. You can see them all here.

Returning to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Hey everyone out there. Just wanted to let you know that the "downtime" here at Circle the Sun should be lifting soon. April has been full of hospital visits and stays for my son, and then I went and got sick (bad plan), and the husband was out of town (directly coinciding with the former, yeah, really bad plan), and then more hospital time for the boychild (only one chemo week left to go, thank everything).

I, with clan in tow, am hoping to ease back into our version of normal this week (I'm scared of the laundry pile. . .it's. . .scary), and that includes some photo editing and returning emails! I can not express how much it pains me, the things that have slipped through the cracks this month, it has been a long mind-numbing haul.

For any of you that are curious, I have been keeping up with the daily photos for my e-class, they just haven't been getting posted, so I'll have those to share as well. And well, since I can't post without a photo, some happy sunshine for you all.



As always thank you for your patience and support, it means so much to me that so many of you are willing to put up with my often lack-lustre and spotty customer service while my family plows through the last of this second chemotherapy protocol. You all rock.

Sign up for fall color!

I know, in the heat of summer it's hard to think about fall and wool sweaters, but now is the time to send me a message and sign up for a fall colors session. Last year I had a complete different camera and less experience, this year we are going to snag some AMAZING photos.

Whether you are thinking about solo, couple, family, or child portraits in the fall colors, now is the time to contact me so I can save you a slot and have you meet me out there in the beautiful leaves. Prime slots will be given on a first come first served basis. I will try to accommodate everyone, but depending on the interest, weather, and length of the fall color this year, spaces may be limited.

If you have already mentioned it to me, please message me again, I have probably misplaced it! With me, better to message me twice, then hope I've remembered!

New Things

So I am still trying to get my footing after Josh's relapse into cancer-ville. I am hoping to get ultra caught up in the next two weeks. I am also exploring some new options for gallery viewing, as seen above with some pictures I took in California of our host family's daughter. I wish I had more opportunities to do beach shoots, so much fun, and so much to learn!

On vacation

I am going on a very last minute vacation with my family for the next week. I had intended to take some work with me, but we decided the family laptop with its already fragile hard drive shouldn't make the trip.

I hope you all will continue to be so exceptionally and wonderfully patient in waiting for your proof galleries and sneak peeks. It has been a tumultuous few weeks, with getting my son's port removed, recovering from surgery, then embracing all the activities we've missed and finding out 13 days later that a tumor has regrown in his lung. Surgery was supposed to be Monday June 29th, but were given a week delay to go enjoy some time with Josh while he still feels well. He has a rough road ahead of him. His lung surgery will be July 7th, with intensive radiation, and rounds of in-patient chemotherapy to commence a week and half after surgery.

I will still be working on your projects, they keep me sane, and let me not think about the cancer for a while. I will still be taking photos, I just can't guarantee a two week return on your proofs at this time. So if you are already booked, no need to cancel, if you want to book send me an email, we'll talk.

I've got to get to bed, I've got a plane to catch in 6.5 hours.

Enjoy Yourself, Invite Me to Your Party!

Here's a great idea, sit back, relax, and enjoy your party or event. Let me worry about where I put the camera. Watch your baby eat her first birthday cake and be with her, I've got the pictures covered! Okay really this is my niece and my brother didn't hire me to come out, but I wouldn't mind doing more parties/occasions. It was a lot of fun. So if you've got a party coming up or an event you just want to be part of and not photographing, invite me, I'll take pictures, lots of them. I can't help myself. Oh and below, my daughter's birthday, I managed to get these while chasing them through a park, but just an idea of how having a photographer along can really be fun for your next occasion.

Your Questions, Answered

I recently acquired a heap of free business cards, and by a heap, I mean 1000. Some of you have asked for them, and you have a point, they are pretty handy. If you want some ask me, I've got plenty to pass around, wallpaper the bathroom with, shred and use as mulch.

I've also been taking in a lot of your feedback and working on a few things.

One of those items is still in the very early stages, but is an actual order form that you can email back to me or print out, it's pretty wicked, and I think you will really really like it. I thank you all for putting up with my current and non-existent system for ordering.

The other is some changes you may have noticed today to the sidebar. As some of you, my current clients of family and friends have been forwarding me along to friends and family of yours who don't know me, there have been a lot of questions to be answered for the newcomers. You know like who I am, what all I do, what I charge, etc. I've created a FAQ section and have begun filling it with all the questions I could remember or think up. If you can think of any others I should include, or are actually bored enough to have read through the ones I have and find anything unclear, leave a comment and let me know so I can add it or fix it.

Some of you may want to check out the print/product pricing link, I have some new things I am doing and I am sure there is something there you may want to get your hands on.

Got any other ideas for me? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear it.

Sneak Peek of changes to come.

Here's what I got to do for an hour, take pics of my cutie pie niece Ella! I can't believe how much she has grown since december! This is just a sneak peek, full proofs to come in 5-10 days. You wouldn't even guess she spent half the shoot crying.

Oooo New Toys

Look upon it with awe. New toys are on their way to my house. Somebody got to stalk a bit of ebay action today and got herself some new toys. Thank you to all of you who contributed donations to the new equipment fund and to my hubby for my birthday present! I know a real white backdrop people, not some sheets over my rickety upended table. Yes your child can now actually stand without me spending hours in photo shop putting white behind their head. Why you could even get in the photo with them, I know we're talking some crazy talk now! And with some basic lights now I hopefully won't have to be a total slave to sunny days to light the photos! And yup, that's a black backdrop too, I know it's getting all fancy now! I do "heart" ebay, got this from a photo equipment supplier for about a third of the market price, woot! Oh and you know I'll be playing with it when it arrives.

Now, what to set my sights on next for the donations equipment fund? Hmmm, so many choices!