Vacation

Well, we wrapped up most of the 2009 senior photography season last week and it was time for a little vacation before all the craziness of the 2010 season starts. With us handling the Lafayette Jeff senior contract we know this year is going to be a wild ride.

My wife and I decided to make a trip out to visit her family in Lancaster Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend since it is in the gap between senior seasons. It was a nice trip where I got to go trout fishing for a couple of days and even get to see my father-in-law fall in the creek. Fun for me....not so much for him. We also got to see our nephews Brandon, Andrew and Mason and spend some time having fun with them. I took the camera along to take some photos of the boys playing soccer and do a portrait session for them also. Here are a few of the best.

Here is Andrew on the "Pump-track"

And Little Mason on his scooter just before he flipped over the handlebars and crashed

Here is Brandon posing for his portrait.

And here is the best (and only) photo of all the boys...Mason just wasn't going to do what we
wanted him to do.

In all we had a really good time even with the 11 hour drive each direction. It may take a few days for my back to recover, but that is okay. We have our photos of the boys and trout in the freezer!

A fun couple of shoots!

I just wanted a chance to make a quick blog entry so I could post these photos. On Monday I had one of my senior REPS come in for a sitting and we got a chance to use my new "lockers" background. I have to say that it came out really cool. I have been working on getting this background together for a while. Thanks to Main Street Mercantile I got it finished last week. I am really looking forward to seeing what ideas we can come up with using the lockers.
Today I had a sitting over at Purdue. It was an engagement sitting and they had hired the Boilermaker Special to be there for some of their photos. I think every one of their photos came out great, but this is one of my favorites. I can't wait for them to see all the photos.

OPEN HOUSE!!!!

Okay...finally after we are ready to have an open house for the new studio. We moved in here on February 1st, and we have been swamped with work ever since. We are just coming out of our busy senior season and we thought the timing was perfect to have an open house. We looked at the downtown gallery walk schedule and decided to have the open house on May 15th from 6pm - 9pm. We hope that anyone who is looking for a photographer for families, children, seniors or whatever will stop by and check us out. Even if you're not in the market for a photographer and you're just curious...stop by anyway. We look forward to showing off our new studio and letting everyone greet our staff.
Speaking of staff......Ailor Photography would like to welcome an addition to our team. Ashley Blissitt will be coming onboard as our Children and Family portrait specialist. Ashley worked for us about 5 years ago (when she was only 16!) and was a great addition to the studio. She went away to college in Florida and after graduating wanted to get back into the photography business. We are really looking forward to having her with us and having her help our business to be the best.

One BUSY weekend!

Wow did we have a busy weekend or what! We are coming to the end of Senior portrait season, but that just makes us busier than ever trying to get orders and graduation announcements done in time. We had a lot of those in the past week. On Saturday we had the Morton Community Center Dance Recital to photograph from 8am until 12:30. I followed that with an engagement sitting on Purdue Campus (it was a beautiful day for it and the pictures are great). I had a short break after that and then off to photograph Lewis Cass High School's Prom in Kokomo. We have been photographing that prom for about 6 years now and we always have fun. I enjoy coming up with background ideas to fit their themes and colors. It is always a challenge to come up with something that is fitting, but not the typical "Cheesy" prom background. I think we did pretty good this year. My wife has helped me out with the prom the last couple of years and we always take our "prom picture" to start the night off.

Spring hurry up and get here.

Well, we have had some good weather lately and some bad, but I did manage to squeeze in a few outdoor sittings while it was nice. Maybe I can do a few more this weekend. It is good to get outdoor and take some photos after being in the studio all winter. Here are a few photos (both studio and outdoor) from the last week or so.

We have been working hard this spring. We are getting our first Mailer together to send to Lafayette Jeff's 2010 senior class. Since we will be the studio handling their yearbook portraits we want to let them know that it will be a big improvement over what they have had in the past. Our quality is better, our prices are lower and our customer service is great. We know that no one like to be told where they "have" to have thier photos taken, but we believe that once they have a look at what we offer, they would choose to come here anyway.

We have also been getting things ready for the Lewis Cass High School Prom on May 2nd and the dance recital at Morton community center the same day. I will be very very very busy that day, but it should be a lot of fun.

Anyway, it looks like this weekend is supposed to be beautiful so get out and enjoy it. I know I will.

An evening of fun photography!

My wife is a "faculty fellow" for a floor of girls at Purdue. She thought it would be fun to have the ladies of 3 south over to the studio last night for some fun photos. It was a lot of fun and we got some really good photos. The RA on the floor brought along her boyfriend for a few shots also. It was all pretty fun. Here are a few photos to give you an idea.

NEWS!!!

Ailor Photography has just been made the official senior portrait photographer for Lafayette Jefferson high school. We will be bringing our high quality and reasonable prices to create images of all the graduating seniors.
Sometime in May we will be sending out a flyer and appointment schedule to all the 2010 seniors to give them all the information they need. We know that may students and parents do not like being told "where" they have to have thier senior portraits taken. Ailor Photography believes that with our quality and prices we can create portraits that everyone will be thrilled with. We plan to be a large "step up" from what you have had in the past.
If you have any questions about Jeff senior portraits, please give us a call or drop us an email. We will glady help you in any way we can.

Expanding even more!!!

Okay...this one really isn't expanding, but it is making better use of our space and giving us a second camera room. In the new studio we had a back room that has a restroom, a large dressing room and two other rooms that we didn't have much use for. They have been filled up with the old tenants stuff for the last month. However, now he has his stuff out, we tore down a couple of walls and have begun making the area into "Studio B".
In this space I have a few ideas. As you can see we are making it a high key (white) background. However it doesn't end there. We are going to use this space as an "experimental" background area. I am wanting to create some backgrounds with that "retro", "High Fashion" look. Something with a little style and attitude. Keep checking this blog to see how the space developes.

Right now we are just doing some construction and a little painting and organizing. In the end we will have camera room space totalling over 1300 sq.ft! Give us a call or stop by anytime to check out our new studio. We would love to give you a tour.

An unusual Sitting....to say the least!

In my last blog entry I mentioned that we had a British television crew coming in with a couple to tape them getting a portrait taken. They mentioned that the couple would be bringing thier dogs for the photo. That isn't a problem with us since I love dogs and have no problem with people bringer in their pets. This was a little different though. The couple had 1 big dog (a pitbull), 1 HUGE dog ( an English mastiff) and ....A MONKEY! That's right...a monkey. It was really cute.
It was kinda strange to be pointing the camera at someone while simultaneously having someone point a camera at you. They are going to keep on touch with me about the program and I will try and link to some video on thier website. Also my friends in England Ian and Shiv and Siobhan and Dean...keep an eye out for me on Channel 4.

Is spring finally here?

Oh the weather this week really has me ready to head outside and do some location photography. I am a lover of winter and snow, but even I have had my fill and am ready for a warm up. Last week was just a tease. I am really looking forward to the spring so we can get back to our outdoor photography. I know we have a lot of clients just waiting in the wings for the good weather and hopefully it is just around the corner.
This past week we had quite a few sittings and a good variety. We had children, couples, familes and of course seniors. Here are a couple of cool shots from some senior guys.













This upcoming week should also be an interesting one. On Thursday we will be a part of a British television program. I am not sure about all the details of the program, but I know that a family is coming in for a photo with their dogs and that it will all be filmed by a television crew and end up on Channel 4 in Great Britain. Pretty cool. I hope that my friends in Birmingham and Manchester get a chance to see me in action. Siobhan and Ian...keep your eyes open.