Did you know that Christmas is only 37 days away? I am a chronic procrastinator, but I have committed myself this holiday season to not procrastinate! I already have the kids’ stocking stuffer gifts, our family photo session has already been done, and my house is on it’s way to being organized and clean for friends and family to come over during the holidays. Whoo hoo for me! :)

On the other hand, I’ve been getting quite a few session inquiries for the holidays, and I wanted to let you know that I only have 4 dates available until my holiday session cut off date.  I have also added a great Digital Collection to my prices just for the holidays! Contact me for a full price list and for my available dates. I will be taking the last two weeks of December and the first week of January off (except for already scheduled sessions!)

Aren’t these Christmas cards so cute!? They are so much fun and so very different, which I happen to love. This is a small sampling of the cards I am offering right now, or I am also extending the offer to upload your chosen photo to tinyprints.com so you can create and send out your Christmas cards yourself. This offer is open to all 2011 clients, just contact me for info.

Her Photoshop actions were some of the very first that I ever bought, and I can honestly say I am still using them to this day. 99.9% of the black & whites that you see on my blog or website have been processed with her black & white actions. One action in particular, I can run all the way through with no tweaks and I love it.

So I contacted Amanda quite awhile ago asking if she would allow me to host a giveaway of her actions on my blog. I get the most inquiries about my black & whites and how I accomplish “the look”. I always direct people who ask to Amanda Keeys, and I hope that they have purchased her actions along the way. She quickly said yes and so here we are!

So I thought it would be super fun to give away her set of Essential Black & White actions. Believe me, you WANT these actions.

Here’s how to win (entries are blog comments, make a new comment for every entry, scroll to the bottom of this post and click “leave a comment”)…

You at least need to leave a comment here…but every other way to enter is optional! The more entries you have the more chances you have to win!

Leave a comment here saying you want them! (1 entry)

Share this giveaway on your blog, forum or facebook!! (2 entries)

Go to my Facebook page and “like” Amy Schuff Photography, or tell me you already have! (1 entry)

Go to Amanda’s Facebook page and “like” Amanda Keeys Photography, or tell me you already have! (1 entry)

Go purchase a set of Amanda Keeys’ actions or something from her etsy store, come back here telling me what you bought! (5 entries)

I’m going to run this until this Sunday, October 2nd at midnight (pst). So go!!!

Thank you Amanda!!!

ps. Those of you who have stuck with me the past couple months will probably notice I’m enabling blog comments again. I realized I needed to if I wanted to host a giveaway! :)

I really wanted to host one last event because I feel it is so important to get photos taken, especially around the holidays. If you never take them all year, this is a great excuse to do it! Prints, Christmas cards and images on CD can be purchased separately. With a mini session, you are not restricted to only purchasing a CD package. Contact me for a detailed price list.

I’m hosting two dates this year, one in Sacramento and one in Roseville, the exact locations will be revealed to those who book the sessions :)

Please contact me as soon as possible to reserve your time slot!

So contact me at this link

or this one

or if you can’t stand to wait a second longer…just go here.

If you contacted me through my website contact form and I didn’t write you back, please contact me using this following form and I will get back to you so soon you will be amazed and shocked! :) You can also email me at amy@amyschuffphotography or call 916.420.8889. Thank you for understanding!!

I usually draw blanks when I go to write blog posts and today is no exception. At first, I was excited about turning 30, how grown up I would feel, so mature it sounds to be “in my thirties!”…then I had a panic attack, oh my gosh I was turning 30!!! Now…I think it is going to be totally fabulous :) I do feel older today, thinking back that I got married in my teens, had all three of my children in my 20′s, I wonder what will make my 30′s memorable? I’m hoping my 30′s are adventure-less…in a good way. I want to spend my 30′s watching my children grow, sipping coffee with my best friends, taking small travels with my husband and photographing families who are in the middle of their own adventures. I feel like that is adventure enough for me.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! I truly appreciate each and every one of you that stops by my blog each time I post. This blog has always been for my family, my children, but knowing that you stop by makes it all seem a little more worth while. So to commemorate this wonderful month of June, I am embarking on a photo challenge. Since I was born on the 1st, I’ve always thought that I should have a birthday MONTH instead of just a birthday DAY anyway! I would absolutely love it if you would join me in this 30 day photo challenge that I found on Pinterest. I didn’t realize that the lady who created it was challenging her blog followers to do this challenge starting today as well. I thought the subjects were just wonderful and interesting, so I am participating. (See the challenge at the bottom of the post!)

A portrait of me, (taken by my husband!) on June 1st, the first day of my 30′s.

Now…for the big reveal! Thank you so so much for all the lovely people who entered into my Session Giveaway. I am truly honored that so many of you would like for me to be your photographer! Only one entry could win though, and that goes to…

#26: Rachel who said “The last time we had a family photo was three years ago right after our son was born and that was by a friend. We have been married 10 years this summer and have never had a real family portrait done! We would love to!”

Rachel has been notified and I am anxiously awaiting her email back!

For everyone else who didn’t win but would love an opportunity to schedule a session with me, contact me asap and I will honor HALF OFF my session fee! And with my summer special already in effect, that means your session fee will only be $75. A HUGE savings that can go toward my awesome digital collections that display your rockin’ photos! This special is only valid until June 8th, so contact me asap!

amy@amyschuffphotography.com

It is an easy thing to push aside, to not save for, to put last on the priority list. The common misconceptions on a photo session are;

It’s a lot of work

Your husband won’t want to do it

It is too much money

The kids will hate it

The photographer won’t get any good pics so the session will be a waste of time

I am here to tell you every single one of those thoughts are 100% wrong and I’m here to prove it to you.

Us as Moms know that every single day our children change, they get bigger, they start doing grown up things, saying grown up things (Just this week I heard, “What does betrayed mean?” “Did you know some parents don’t take care of their children?” “What is the dog having surgery for and what is “getting fixed” mean?” …. holy cow). We do our best to keep up the baby books (ha!) and jot down funny little things they say. We take pictures of them with our phones and save school homework that shows the day they started writing their 5′s the right way. Every now and then we hold the camera out in front, sit a child on our laps and take a photo of ourselves. Just to document that we were here…our faces were in the picture.

You deserve more than an iphone shot every few weeks. Your walls deserve to be plastered with beautiful family photographs, ones that you can be proud of.

I love taking photos of people, love seeing them interact and being a fly on the wall to their love. I absolutely love taking photos of Moms and Dads, who most likely hadn’t had a photo taken of themselves together since their wedding day.

My friend and mentor Michele from Pinkletoes posted this on her facebook the other day and it spoke to me because this is exactly how I feel;

“If you have not had family pictures taken within the past 3 years, promise me right now that tomorrow morning, you will find someone to do it. I don’t care if it’s a neighbor, I don’t care if it’s a portrait studio, I don’t care if it’s a tripod and a remote. Just do it. We have no guarantees in life, but at least we can have the photos to prove that we were here, we were together, and we were happy.”

So with that, I am giving away a photo session. Here’s the info;

The winner can include up to 5 people who you consider family, pets included (let me know if you have 11 children ok? we’ll work something out :)

The winner and I will decide session location within 30 miles of Sacramento, CA.

The winner will receive a full session (1-2 hours), styling consultation and CD of 8 – 10 rockin’ images.

I receive the satisfaction of helping out a family who deserves photos and also a signed model release.

The session must be held before September 2011

This session is not applicable towards birthday parties, events or weddings. This is for a standard session where we have a blast for a couple hours and you get memorable photos in return.

Anyone can enter, past clients, photographers, etc, (but no one related to me of course) and if you don’t live in Sacramento and want to enter on behalf of a deserving family who lives around here, go for it. Or if you live in Hawaii and want to fly me and my husband for an all expense paid vacation to take your photos there…I won’t argue with that :)

No purchase necessary to enter or to win.

So here three different ways to win:

1. Tell me in the comments section when was the last time you had family pictures taken.

2. Head on over to Facebook and “like” my page – www.facebook.com/amyschuffphotography – come back here and tell me in the comments section that you did so.

3. Tell everyone and their Grandma about this giveaway…Facebook, Tweet or Blog and come back here to tell me you did! Tag my Facebook page in your status update! (If you don’t know how to do that, in your status update box, type @amy schuff photography until you see me in the drop down box and click!) My twitter username is @amyschuffphoto.

You must use the comments section to enter and each way must be put in as a separate comment to count for three different entries.  No entries on Facebook will be honored. Only 3 comments per person. The giveaway closes at 11:59pm on May 31st and winner will be chosen at random on June 1st…which is…a very special day :)

The giveaway is closed and the winner will be announced on June 1st!

I love families!!

If you have a special Mom in your life, these Mini Sessions on April 3rd would be a great gift for her.

Please contact me asap if you would like to schedule a session! I only have a few time slots open in the afternoon of April 3rd (if those fill quickly, I may open up more in the morning).

Mini Sessions are simply this…

$50

30 minute Mini Session for 4 people ($15 per additional person)

10-15 images in an online gallery to order from

Hint Hint…HUSBANDS!…this would be an awesome Mother’s Day gift! I absolutely LOVE it when a husband/Dad gets in front of the camera for family sessions simply because he knows it will make his amazing wife happy.

These sessions are not only for Moms! If you are an engaged couple, a grad or just a family who wants a great photo, please feel free to contact me!

We’re having these sessions in Old Sacramento, a place I truly love (if you’ve never been there…go! It is so much fun!) I wanted these sessions in Old Sacramento because even if quite a few sessions are booked that day, all of them will take place in their own little part of Old Sac, no two Mini Sessions will look alike!

Please know that the $50 Mini Session fee only includes 4 people (You can always add more people for an additional charge) and is not long enough for any wardrobe changes. You will presented with an online gallery of 10-15 images rather than the minimum of 30 you would receive at a Classic session. The Minis are also not for newborn portraits. We need much longer than 30 minutes to capture a newborn’s photos!

Contact me so I can answer any questions you may have and to schedule your Mini Session! Also, if you feel a Classic Session would be a better fit for your family, please contact me so we can schedule that as well.

amy@amyschuffphotography.com or 916.420.8889

For your convenience, you may also use this contact form!

Amy Schuff Photography offers gift certificates, they are custom made for each client and can be purchased in any amount. The gift certificate will be gift wrapped in the simple style of Amy Schuff Photography and will include all the necessities to get ready for your loved one’s session.

Please contact me for information or to purchase a gift certificate! Deadlines to order a custom certificate are December 17th.

There have been some inquiries about holiday cards and I just couldn’t let those families who haven’t gotten their photos taken yet to go by the wayside. So here is YOUR chance to book a photo session and send out some amazing Christmas cards or receive gift prints perfect for Grandma…Auntie or even just yourself! As with all photo sessions, a CD of images and enlargements can always be purchased.

Please don’t wait to contact me if you would like to schedule a session. The date is November 20th and that is only a week & a half away! I will help you with your outfit choices and guide you through the preparation process.

These sessions will get booked FAST so please don’t wait!

(These Holiday Sessions are limited to 3 family members, additional family members may be included for $15/person)

Here is another example of some of the holiday cards I am offering this year. I just simply LOVE this year’s selection! I need to choose which one I’m sending out myself!

Lily is the only one tiny enough to fit in it, Abby is very distraught that she doesn’t fit at all!

If you want to incorporate this pedal car into our session, please contact me and let’s talk about it! I’m thinking a little boy wearing a pub cap and a tweed blazer, or a little girl in a yellow vintage dress…oh the ideas I have! I can’t wait to incorporate this into my nephew’s 1 year old session. I hope I can pull off my vision for him!