We were pretty nervous about cutting it all off, but I was also VERY sick of the daily fight!  And boy I think it suits her well… isnt she cute!!!!

I better post quick or it will be Tuesday… lol….. Jerid took me to a new spot to take photos this weekend… and wow I was in love!  With the green, with the trees bending, and of course with the man who took his time to show me such wonder…. I am a lucky girl, and I need to remind him more….  really, he is amazing, and even when I am mad at him he surprises me with something thoughtful, Happy A day baby… here is to many many more 

I think I need to stop time here…. she is amazing and beautiful, and is growing up before my eyes……. I am so not ready to be the mom to a teen…..

and because if I dont show this one, mom and meme may kill me  Here is me and the little mr…..

speaking of the little mister…..

So I want to know who you are… and who has made it to my new blog…. so leave me some comment love and somebody is going to win a free session or if you live far away a $50.00  amazon gift card……………

comeon now…. who are you…. you already know me!!!!!

And because I couldn’t figure it out  If you want to add my blog to your blog reader here is the address to use…..  feed://www.kellybennettphotography.com/blog/?feed=rss2

“Do not spoil what you have , by desiring what you have not, remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”  Epicurus

 

Such true fitting words for such a long crazy emotional week.  I haven’t wanted to pick up my camera, I haven’t wanted to write and yet I can’t really explain to anyone why.   Sometimes closure comes when we least expect it and what it leaves us with we were just not quite ready for.  Thank goodness I am surrounded by all these beauties that I always hoped for… 

She must stop growing up… it is starting to scare me…..

How can a child be this incredibly cute and cause such tremendous chaos?????????????????????????????

And this one…. when I snapped it I wanted to be her.  I wanted to run in the sunset light, carefree with my hair blowing in the wind.  I wanted to be barefoot without a care in the world.  I wanted to actually remember what it was like to be like her.  

And since I can’t I will take capturing the moment.  I will be thankful and grateful and in awe that she is this carefree, isnt that what it is about really? 

To figure this all out…. but overall I am loving my new blog…. what do you think????

In spite of all the sickness swirling around in our house we managed to have a wonderful weekend. We dyed eggs and Austyn drew photos of me and Makenna…..



McCall tried to eat everything in site including hard boiled eggs……

The little girls hunted eggs until Savanah figured out that some were full of chocolate…..








Makenna was not impressed that she had to get a ladder to get her basket down

More of the little mister….


the little girls loved their new glasses…… so cute!!!!

We missed everyone in California and wish we could have been there…. We love you all!!!!

He made me laugh… really really hard… the kind of laughing that you love that makes you laugh for days… I love that about him, that and so many other things.
He is gracious and humble, he is strong and sincerely kind. He is amazing, in his 89 years I am sure he has seen so much. He is a wealth of knowledge, a sweet friend a wonderful man. Thank you thank you Don for humoring me in my photographic wonder… you are simply amazing and I love you.

His beautiful colt… who really needs a name

beauty… all around us. Promise not to tell Jerid… but I honestly love it here.. the beauty, the wonder, the way the light hits the grass.. the open land the mountains………… shhhhhhhh!!!!!

and sometimes photos just speak to me.. they ask to tell a story and they ask me to be their author.. I feel so humbled so blessed, so absolutely in awe….

think about this one, his hands…
imagine all that they have held.

I couldn’t have asked for an easier session or for a more beautiful girl. Jamie best of luck in the Miss Utah pageant….. may you wow them all with your beauty and grace…

Written by an excellant photographer, Shawn Richter, Caught on Film Photography, San Diego, CA

…………………
In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home “photo printers”, when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here’s why.

Simply put, you’re not just paying for the actual photograph, you’re paying for time and expertise. First, let’s look at the actual time involved. If you don’t read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won’t bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let’s not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don’t compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won’t come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you’ll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you’re there, you’ll also spend $200 on other things. They don’t have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Needless to say I spent the last week in bed with a bad case of pneumonia…. yuck.. I felt a bit like I was in hibernation. The little girls were busy destroying the house… and mr McCall finally sprouted a tooth!!!!! Most everybody has a runny nose here now and we are just hoping for a sick free Easter! (fingers crossed)
He really didnt want to show off his tooth for anyone to see….

nope not even when I promised him a treat….

He is STUBBORN….. geesh I shouldnt have expected anything less right?

Comeon little man…….please………



O and he is on the move….. so much so that he crawled into the woodstove…….. (we promptly declared it spring and removed it from the house…..)

back to the tooth at hand…. I finally I mean FINALLY got him to show off his little chomper…. isnt it cute?

I promise to catch up on sneek peeks this week…. promise…. when my kids stop whining and I stop coughing……