My Blog
Updates, Adventures + Ramblings
Well, isn't it just like me to neglect this page? If you've been here before, you know I'm terrible about working in silence and not letting anyone in on the behind the scenes stuff. I want to change that. So here are the things I've been working on, as well as these projects I've been talking about. 1. New process for receiving pictures This is the BIGGEST change, as well as the first new thing to have official lift off. Clients are now able to view ALL their pictures from their photo session and select which ones they want to purchase. Yes, this means that Clients will be paying a fee per picture. But this allows them to save money (if they're on a budget) or get more photos than I would normally give them. There's no limit to how many pictures can be purchased! So far, Clients have had a positive experience with this. "Very user friendly. Easy to navigate, organized. I enjoyed the experience." -Madison E. New editing styles - you get to choose I'm also offering two different editing styles. 1. Basic edit - $3 per photo This means I brighten dark photos, or darken photos that are a bit too bright. Sharpen images and enhance colors just a little bit and that's it. A simple, basic edit. Or 2. Extra edit - $5 per photo As you can guess, you get extra. More colors. More editing. (like whiter teeth or acne removed) If there's a person in the background that shouldn't be there, I'll remove it. Along with anything else that is a distraction. This is the option for people who really want their pictures to look like works of art. This is when my inner graphic designer meets my inner photographer and magic happens. 2. Prints I've been terrified to take the plunge and offer prints to my Clients. I usually just give them the digital images and let them print them off at their favorite pharmacy. And while this is still an option, Clients who are wanting their images to look more high end will now be able to purchase their prints from my website. This is something I have not taken the time to set up.. YET! But I have looked into it and decided that this is something I want to offer my Clients. I will announce when this is officially up and running. But for now, it's waiting on stand by. 3. Merchandise To create my own wearable, tangible art has been a dream of mine since I was a teenager. (the very early 2000s) But I didn't have the resources and it just wasn't a realistic goal for me at the time. At 30 years old, it hit me... We live in a day and age where print-on-demand exists. People print your products and ship them out for you. So why am I not pursuing this!?!? So I began to jot down my unique ideas and thoughts of things I wanted to create. But was much too busy working for clients to take the time to create anything. So finally, 2 years later, I am taking the steps to move forward to my dream. I'm trying to take time off so I can have more time to create these designs. I'm already planning the promo ads and videos to reveal what my products will look like. But you best believe this girl is excited!!! This is something that has not had "lift off" yet, but we're working on the turbo engines. Just hang tight folks. 4. More Packages Most people want the basic family portraits. The pretty prom poses. The special memories of Graduation. It doesn't have to be fancy (although I do my best to make it look that way) They just want these beautiful moments captured in a beautiful, timeless way. But I'm going to offer more packages to the Client that wants more out of the experience. These packages are still being named and I'm ironing out the details. But here's what it will look like... Luxury Package This is where the Client will grant me an "allowance" to spend money on anything needed for the photoshoot. If they want special props, special backdrop, smoke bombs, costumes, the works. They can give an allowance as small as $25. It won't buy much, but if that's what they want to allocate to me, that's what I will use. Or if someone has $500 they want to invest into their photoshoot, then that's what I will use to make their photoshoot experience top notch. The goal is to NOT spend every dime, but to spend until the dream is created. I will check in with the Client with every single purchase made with their money, and all receipts will be shown to the Client(s) so they can see exactly how their money was spent. It's a lot of details and a contract will be involved, but this is a luxurious package for high end Clients. Vacation Packages It's something you may have heard or seen at different Resorts where they offer a "Photography" package. They basically have photographers on site, ready to take your picture. At the end of the trip, you purchase which photos you want from your trip. I thought wow, what if families could bring a photographer with them? To have someone take photos of them so they can just enjoy the moment. With this package, you can! If an individual Client or family is willing to have me follow them around while on vacation, I will capture their wonderful time together and they will be able to select which pictures they want to purchase from their trip. Filming will also be an option for this package. I have stayed with families before and filmed their time together. It was right before Christmas. It was a special time for all of them and I felt like part of the family. I had a wonderful time and laughed so much. The footage that I captured then is now even more special because one of the family members passed away. I have all the details almost fully sorted out for this package. I'm hoping to launch it soon. Elopement Package A Client actually sparked this idea. She said she wanted me to be her wedding photographer, but she wouldn't have a big wedding. She would get eloped. It didn't take long and I was seeing elopement pictures from other photographers and dreaming of what my own photos would look like. I plan to first travel to locations only in the US, and then expand to international trips. More details will be shared as this gets set up. Let's land this plane. In closing, you can see I have a lot of stuff under my hat planned, and is waiting to be executed.
I cannot wait to start moving forward with each of these things. But it's one step at a time. I can't do it all at once. Although that would be pretty cool. If you read all of this, you're amazing. Message me the code "AMAZING" to receive 50% off your next photo OR video package. That's another thing I'm going to start doing, is hiding discount codes throughout my website. But only those who read certain paragraphs, or look at certain pages will see it. It will be like finding the golden egg! You're amazing, wild child. Thank you for being here. -Lady
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WELCOME! My Lord's.... TO ISENGARD! Let's get right into this blog post.... Here's a list of all the pages that haven been recently updated...I've been working all weekend on updating as much as possible. Here's what I've done so far. Click any of these buttons to visit these pages. Added new footage to these pages... Added new photoshoots to... Added graphics to these pages... Besides the obvious changes I've listed here, there's a lot of other pages I've updated.
I've updated headers, moved content around, deleted some pages, prepped some pages for newer content to be added and tweaked some content on pages that needed some touching up. (Just trying to make everything look a little neater.) The End Game My goal is to get everything from the past 3-4 years added to my site. I would love to be caught up with everything, so when I have a photoshoot or filming session, all I have to do is create the content and add it to my site. The problem is, when I transferred websites, I didn't hustle enough. (pauses to take a deep breath. that's heavy truth.) I didn't work hard to get all my content added. I added enough and then got busy with work. Had a bunch of weddings, photoshoots, traveling, and the website was neglected. I should have worked harder to add as much content as possible. I know, life happens, but during my down time I should have made it a priority to add more content. And I didn't. I chose to work on other things and continued to neglect the website. All the neglect adds up. So here I am, years later, adding all of this content that should have been added YEARS ago. Some pages, the last thing I see on it is from 2017. That's 6 years. That's CRAZY! Other pages aren't as bad, with the last photoshoot or graphic or video being shown is from 2019. That's only 4 years worth of content that needs to be added. But with having so many pages, the different time gaps can add up to a LOT of content. Fortunately, not every section will be updated. Some pages have old content and it will not be updated anymore. It was stuff I made in the past, and I have no intentions of working for that client or organization anymore. But I still want to showcase it. Motivated / What's to come I have suddenly been extremely motivated (for whatever reason) to get everything updated. I LOVE the newer content. How polished my creations are looking. I want people to see what I've been working on these past few years. I'm proud of my hard work and I have a website so I can display that hard work. So I have been trying to add content as much as possible in between projects that I'm doing for clients. Adding content from the smallest projects, leading up to my larger projects. (like creating a portal to my weddings section. It's going to be a MASSIVE project that will take up a lot of my time. But I'm excited for it!!) I've been making sure to put content in chronological order, as best I can, but as far as what pages gets updated next, honestly it depends on how "big" of a project I think it will be. If it seems daunting or as if it would require a lot of time, I move on to something of a smaller scale. Something I know "oh, I've only got 5 graphics to upload here. No big deal." Or I can analyze a page and see there's only 3 areas that need to be updated. The header, a gallery added, and maybe some text moved around. Now that sounds simple, right? A lot less daunting. But when thinking of creating my weddings portal, I see in my mind how I want it to look, and I know there will be a lot of steps to making it look beautiful and also be functional. I also don't know entirely how I'm going to execute this idea, so it will be something I have to figure out along the way. Trial and error if you will. That sounds like a bigger project, don't you think? In Closing... Please sit tight as some of these pages are still waiting for content. Still waiting for "something cool" to happen. I'm working as much as I can on my website, my baby. My gallery. In fact, as I'm typing this, it's 1:25 AM. I'm tired, my head is beginning to hurt, but I wanted to get this finished. I love this place. It's like my house. And I want people to walk in and love what they see. I want it to represent me and my imagination, my creativity, my heart and passion for art and creating. I want it to be obvious as well as beautiful. I know it won't be perfect, so I try to do what I can and accept that "this is good enough, I need to move on." You can get so stuck on perfection, you forget to move forward. So I am trying my best to make it beautiFULL here, and move on to what's next. I have 2 really big projects under my hat that I want to start working on, and I feel like finishing my website would help me to move on to those projects confidently and without the stress of knowing my website is neglected and underdeveloped. That's it for now. I have more to update but this is what I've got so far. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. You're a legend! -Lady Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset, Repeat. One of my favorite summer time songs by Luke Bryan. He said it best, but I'm putting my own spin on things and saying "Travel, Work, Dream, Repeat". I've been doing everything I wanted to do this year! I've been traveling to the mountains, the beach, visiting family. While also breathing life into my past dream of creating music. I cannot wait to upload my content on here. I've also been working incredibly much. It's been so much fun and has supported my travels. Also, WOW! Has it made this year fly by. It's so exciting to see work picking up and my calendar is slap full. I love this new normal. Unfortunately though, it causes me to forget things. Like updating my blog. Oops. What's new? (Photography wise) Besides Prom, softball, and color run pictures, I recently did an engagement shoot. And there's other events in the bookings.
What about filming? I recently had the privilege of working with singer and guitarist John Cox. Check him out on Instagram or youtube, as well as Apple music or Spotify. I was able to take some pictures with him and his band and record him performing live at a bar & grill setting. It was truly a pleasure and they sounded great. I hope for more opportunities to film live performances like that. I can't wait to share the footage here on my site. Besides that, I've been filming my travels and making little videos for my TikTok. (@Ladymusicc) Sounds stupid but I really enjoy vlogging. It's so much fun. I see why so many people do it. I hope to purchase a Go Pro one day to better capture my adventures. Putting the Musicc in Ladymusicc As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been pursuing music. Due to how busy I've been, it's been hard to find the time to be alone to record. To have the privacy and silence needed. And also to be uninterrupted. But I've managed to find time in the craziness and I've recorded 5 original songs. Two were for my parents as gifts for Mothers & Father's Day. "She" and "My Dad". Of course, they loved it. Another one was for a wedding video I'm working on. I thought it would be fun to put an original song in their by yours truly, as a gift to my friends. I haven't told them, but I hope they love it. I wrote it with them in mind. The other two was strictly for fun. "Take Me To Summer" was a song I wrote in March, longing for the sizzling heat of summer to return, and yearning to return to the beach. The lyrics came to me in pieces. I had to put the song together like a puzzle. I wrote it over the coarse of a month or so. Revisiting it, trying to get it just right. Finally, I was content and felt it was complete. I was friends with a girl named Summer, so as a nod to her, I incorporated her voice into the song. We've gone separate ways, but hopefully her voice will serve as a glimpse of how much fun she was to be around. "A Women You Should Fear" came as a surprise. I discovered the track and was immediately inspired. I have a playlist of saved songs I want to record too. I listen and sing or freestyle along with the music. If I feel like it fits, and I can see myself recording to it, I save it. If it doesn't, I dismiss it. While listening to the backtrack of this song, I began to freestyle. And there the lyrics were, rolling out effortlessly. I quickly sat down and wrote what came. I hate leaving a song unfinished, so for the next 3 days I continued to work on it until it was done. I loved it so much, I decided to start recording it. After a week or so, it was finished. It was a spontaneous project, unlike "Take Me To Summer" which had much thought and anticipation. I created that song like I said, in pieces. Like putting together a puzzle. It happened in layers. "AWYSF" was quick, direct, and to the point. It happened in layers as well, but was much more clear, direct and came together much more quickly. I have other tracks I'm working on, and hope to record them soon. It was honestly so much fun to type those paragraphs speaking about my music. Can you tell I'm a little excited? In Closing I haven't said much, like I always do. But I've been working away. Busy schedules. Jam packed days. But also taking time to do what I said I wanted to do. Travel, create music, take more pictures and film. I am so blessed to have had the ability to do it all this year. I have been enjoying it so much.
But taking the time to update my website, is something I have not made a big priority. I have some big projects I've been working on. And I'm hoping once they are done, I can start making my website a priority again. Enjoy these last moments of summer. I know I will. Until next time, -Lady Hello friends! A lot of changes have been happening behind the scenes and I'm so happy to share those changes with you. A LOT OF NEW CONTENT! After years of sitting in my computer, I FINALLY added many new photoshoots to my Clientele section. Be sure to check out the photoshoots section for Family and Events. And you'll see a lot of new stuff there. ;) I still have a lot of photoshoots to add. Like stuff for couples, graduations, senior portraits, family shoots and so on. So over the next few weeks/months, my goal is to add all of that content. It is long over due, but I'm excited to finally have a start on it. New projects! Something I have wanted to do for many years (since I was a teenager) was to produce my own music. I didn't know what style I would have, as I was obsessed with several genres, but I knew I wanted to produce my own music. I had been writing since I was a child. I stopped for a few years and picked it back up when I was a teenager. It was my way of expressing myself when I was in a dark place. I was struggling with low self-esteem, bitterness, depression and even suicidal thoughts. Writing poetry and songs was my escape. A way to let it all out. As I got older, I started to look into what it would take to make my own music. I either had to buy expensive programs and teach myself how to make music or buy a Mac laptop just to use Garage Band, which I thought was ridiculous. So I came to the conclusion that it wasn't something I wasn't going to be able to do at that time. I set that dream aside but continued to write when I was inspired. Fast forward to over 15 years later, I got inspired to make a song for Caleb. (My "at the time" boyfriend) I had written a song for him but I wanted original music to go with it. I looked into hiring someone on fiverr to make the backtrack for me. But when I started to estimate the cost, it was climbing into the hundreds. I thought surely there's a cheaper alternative. I turned to YouTube in hopes of finding an instrumental track that I could bend my lyrics too. And to my surprise, I unlocked a new level of YouTube that I did not know existed! Music producers were putting their tracks out there, for FREE! Free to use music! If you wanted to stream the music, you could purchase a license. But for personal use (like uploading to youtube or soundcloud) the tracks were free to use. I was so excited! I spent hours and hours listening to tracks by different producers, hoping to find the right fit for the song I wrote for Caleb. I found one that I loved, but found so many more I could see myself using for other songs I had written. Suddenly, it wasn't just about one song for Caleb, but I started to think on a bigger scale. What if I could FINALLY produce my music!? My songs! After years of them sitting in my computer, and being read on my website, what if I could record my vocals to music and people actually listen to my words rather than just read them? It was so refreshing to feel an old dream wake from a long slumber. I'm not a great singer and by no means want fame, but to pursue music as a hobby and another form of creating art, sure! Why not!? I need a new microphone that has better quality, but I have managed to record one song. I posted it to Youtube. Which you can listen to here. If you dare. It felt uncomfortable to me to sing it because I was trying to copy a male singer. This is an original song wrote by me, but the music is from a famous band "Keane. It's their song "Somewhere Only we know" but I wrote a song to their music called "Something Only We Know". A song about a relationship I had back in 2017. I loved how my lyrics fit with their music. And 5 years later, I finally recorded to it. It was fun but I definitely want to start working on projects where I am starting from scratch. Not copying someone else's singing style. But for now, it will serve as an ice breaker. In Closing I have lots of plans to travel this year and make music. I hope to get back into photography, but if not I definitely plan to film. I have so many videos I want to make. But that will come later.
I have a lot of plans and goals. I feel like I can never get it all done. But I'm going to try my best too. Or at least prioritize which is most important to get done first. Thank you so much for reading and visiting my website! Have a wonderful day. -Lady In closing If you're one of the many who checks this page regularly, thank you! You're amazing. If you're reading this right now, thank you. I'd love to hug you. I hope you have a wonderful day. Thank you (again) for checking in to see what's new. As I upload new content and update pages, I will make posts here and say what's been updated. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas. With love, -Lady greetings friends! First off, I want to say that FOUR NEW photoshoots have been added to the Prom page. Click here to check out these four NEW photoshoots. (Link will open in a new window.) As I said in my previous post, I wanted to get back to updating the website. I have SO much content that needs to be added. So every day, I am taking one page and adding content to it. I recently went through my entire website and wrote down every thing that needed to be added. The Prom page was the first to be updated. Other pages are soon to follow. So hopefully soon, there will be tons of new content for you to see. job update I also shared previously about how my part time job was becoming a burden to me. That's usually a sign it's time to leave. After much prayer and consideration, I did put in my 2 weeks notice. And as of June, I was full time with my business. However, I still needed a part time job to help pay my bills. Around the time I had resigned, I was at a Graduation party for one of my clients/friends. I was speaking with the Father (of the Client) when he told me about DoorDash. Sure, I heard about it. But is it really that great? I decided to pursue it, at least to get me by. And four months later, I'm still doing it and I LOVE IT! It's perfect for me because of the flexibility. I can go out of town at any time I need too. I can schedule photoshoots or be booked for weddings at any time and my job will not get in the way. I can also take time off for my family and other Clients when they need me. Which brings me to my next point.... NEW EXTENSION OF LM SERVICES? I mentioned in my last post to stay tuned for some news. I'm sorry for the wait, but here's the expansion.. Or, "New Service"... Pet/house sitting! I've honestly been house sitting (or really, "pet sitting") for 5 years now. Word of mouth traveled about me to different people needing someone to look after their pets. Before I knew it, I had built a list of clientele. I'm very blessed and happy these people have used me and some on a regular basis. I thought it would be interesting to open it up to other people. Perhaps people who book me for photshoots or weddings would also want me to look after their dog or cat?
I have been abundantly booked this year already leading into 2023. But there are openings for 2023. I will post this service and details about it, along with pricing on the "Services" page. But until then, I'll just leave this here for any inquiring minds. before I say anything, I want to say thank you! Before I jump into what I've been up to, I just want to say thank you!
It's been TWO YEARS since I've updated this part of my website. And frankly, I'm embarrassed. And I apologize. BUT! I want to say thank you for the sudden growth in views that I've had. A lot of those views have been coming here! I'm so grateful that you are wondering what's "new" or "what's next?" That's why you came to this page, right? So thank you to the influx of viewers that I've recently received. And for those who have been looking at this page, I'm about to drop some updates for you! Not today Covid! I'm working!
Wow, so... since my last post:
My "Series: Inspiration" is still something I am eager to do, but I have decided to post-pone it until another year. In the meantime, I am still working and chopping away at my to-do list. Speaking of which, here's what I've done to the site recently.
This is a short update, but I wanted to mention the things I've done thus far. Thanks for checking, Your views are greatly appreciated. Until next time, -Lady Gee wiz, I'm just the worst when it comes to keeping this area updated. Since I last updated this area, (which was forever ago) I had just quit my job to take some time off and look for a new job. During my "vacation" people began to hire me for different odd end jobs. My "vacation" time began to grow. What was only supposed to be 2 weeks without a job, became 2 months without a job. I was getting work and getting paid to do the work. I was making enough to meet my needs, but I had no clue from week to week where my next paycheck was going to come from. It was scary. I definitely had to trust God to take care of me and provide for me during that time, but He did. I learned to trust Him to take care of my finances. Eventually, someone asked me to house sit for a lady who is a retired school teacher. She was in the process of losing her husband of 40+ years of marriage. They were both school teachers and they have both touched the lives of many. (Their names will not be mentioned for privacy purposes.) Of course, I didn't know this at the time. I was simply helping take care of their house and dog. After he passed, She asked me to come back and help clean and do things for her. 7 months later, I'm still very active in her life and am helping her do many things. This has been my part time job since August of 2019, and I absolutely LOVE IT! We are in the process right now of preparing for a big event in memory of her husband. I've learned so much about these amazing people, and continue to learn more about them. It has been a privilege to have this part time job. It's been so rewarding in more ways than I can express. I'm truly blessed. New projects This year so far, I've:
So far this year, I've kept myself busy. updates to the site I've been doing a lot of research and learning about how to run your business effectively. How to market, how to advertise, how to make money, etc. It's been very educational and interesting to learn. I feel like I've learned a lot, but now I'm trying to apply it all. One of the things I've been learning about is to simplify your website and how it looks. Make it easy for Clients to understand what it is you do and how you can help them. Why they should choose you, and how you're going to benefit their lives. So to help convey all of this, I've decided to:
All of this will take time. It's a process, but I'm hoping to make my sight look cleaner, more professional and make it easier to navigate. I want my Clients to see what they need to see more quickly. Not jumping through hoops or looking around aimlessly. It's a lot of content because I make a lot of stuff, but I can help my Clients find what they need to know and find it quickly. free photoshoots You heard me. I'm planning on giving away more "free photoshoots". I LOVE giveaways. I've been so busy lately that it hasn't been a priority, but I really would love to start having more photoshoot giveaways. It's really great for people who are on a budget and feel like they can't afford a photoshoot. It's also good for me because people are more motivated to volunteer themselves as my models, and I will get to add more to my portfolio. If you would like to enter any of these "giveaways" follow me on my facebook page. Facebook.com/Ladymusicc thanks for reading.
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LadymusiccThey call me "Lady", my name's Corinne |