Changing Hosting

Hey, everyone! We're changing hosting companies and will most likely have intermittent/sporadic/unreliable email for a day or two. If you don't hear back right away from us, please do re-send your email or give us a call so we can take care of you!

Thanks so much!

Proof Prints Now Included!

We have something new to announce at Prints Charming Photography! Sweet printed proofs included with our newly-priced photo sessions!


Online proofing works really well for a lot of people, but it's hard to beat printed proofs that you can take with you to show your friends without having to be on a computer and online. =)

Special thanks to our customers' suggestions on ways to continue to improve our services!

Pretty Amazing Picture

I saw this picture on the Strobist blog so I checked it out and thought I'd post it here, too with a link to the original picture on Flickr.


Pretty amazing how powerful the on-camera flash is nowadays. =) You can click on the picture to see the original picture on Flickr if you like.

Relaxed Portraits

Way too many customers - particularly high school seniors - come to us kinda nervous about their pictures. Hey, our goal is always to make them fun and to have a relaxed, casual, enjoyable time, so don't sweat it or lose any sleep!

And the more relaxed you are, the better the pictures generally turn out.

Here are two faves from tonight's session that I had a few minutes to post about. Between Taylor's fun personality and her parents who knew just how to make her crack up, she didn't stand much of a chance to sport a serious face. =)



I love laughing pictures. =)

Cool Bumper Sticker

Saw a cool bumper sticker the other day. I can't remember the exact quote (if you know it, leave a comment with the exact quote!) but here's the idea:

"Never forget who you wanted to grow up to be."

Pretty profound, I thought...

Google Reader

Hey, I know this is kinda old news since Google Reader isn't really new anymore, but I am just loving Google Reader. I keep up with 70 blogs (and RSS feeds) that way and it's been a huge time-saver for me.

Here's what my homepage looks like

Instead of having to visit 70 sites on a regular basis, I just open my Google home page and it shows me what's new in a reader window. I'm sure a lot of people don't use it yet so I wanted to tell all of our readers about it just so they know!

Here's the Google Reader window from my homepage. If you click on it, you get a full-screen window of just Google Reader, helpful for blogs like mine with big pictures.

The only downside is that it's not quite as convenient to leave comments, which is pretty big bummer, actually, since everybody loves comments. So, use Google Reader to save some time with everyone else's blogs and sites so that you'll have enough time to comment on ours! =)

Hope you have a really wonderful day!

Lorraine & Harry's Wedding

We're excited to share some of our favorites from Lorraine & Harry's wedding at the new "I Cross My Heart" wedding chapel out in Choctaw, OK. I like this black & white of Harry finishing up getting dressed.


I was really impressed with the guys' "getting ready" room. Check it out, they had their own really sweet pool table!

Harry showing some of his mad skills on the pool table

Lorraine's beautiful bouquet

Nice evening light in the garden behind the chapel

We took advantage of the great evening light and got some pictures in the garden before the ceremony.


The chapel had some really cool chandeliers and I love how this shot shows one of the heart-shaped candelabras (bottom left corner of the picture) they had at the front of the chapel.

I just love these first-dance images

The father-daughter dance was so touching I was fighting back tears myself!

Some of the beautiful table decorations

Throwing the garter!

I love this picture of the two of them mingling with the guests and having a great time.

Time for the grand departure!

Lorraine and Harry, thanks so much for having us! We were honored to be your photographers and we had a great time photographing your special day!

Qdoba's Anyone?

I'm running out for a late lunch before heading to my next wedding at 4pm. Anyone want to join me for a burrito? I'll be heading out in the next hour or so, probably. That way I'm not too hungry during the wedding. =)

Give me a call if you want to grab some lunch... 405.623.7381.

On Priorities and Goals

We've recently been really struggling over a huge decision with our business that would be a huge step in the "crazy busy" direction. I can't really go into details, but in our struggle these last several weeks one short story (presumed fiction, but great nonetheless) has helped us to keep in mind what's important.

I read this story sometime last year from one of my faithful email forwarders (we all have a few of those people in our lives, no?) and it made a debut recently on a couple of my fellow photogs' blogs and it was a perfectly-timed reminder. Enjoy!

A wall-street investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."

The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."

The American offered, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you will run your ever- expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15 to 20 years."

"But what then?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions?...Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

~ Author Unknown

Let's not lose sight of what's important to us and what our real goals are! I love stories like this that bring life back into perspective.

Mac OSX Leopard

Okay, I know right off the bat a lot of PC users are going to shut off and not read this just because of the title, but you're missing out! I had a good laugh with a PC friend of mine recently when I told him there are two kinds of computer-users: Mac users and future Mac users. I'm a recent convert from PCs and never really had any complaints about them, but I sure do love my Macs now that we've switched over.

Check out the guided tour here and be impressed! It's going to be easier than ever to backup and find things, and just work in general with this new upgrade. Can't wait for it to come out on Oct 26th.


PC users, don't worry, Microsoft should have a lot of these features copied within a year or two. (*tongue in cheek*)

Edmond Photos for the Chamber

I recently did an assignment for the Chamber: a long list of photos around Edmond that they wanted for their new Directory and apparently for their MySpace, too! Pretty cool how businesses can use MySpace as well for networking, etc. We have one that you can see here if you like, but it's been a chore to keep it up to date. Facebook automatically imports our blog as we post new things, so I've really been liking Facebook better these days since it saves me a lot of time! (Check out our Facebook profile here.)

Anyway, if you'd like to see the Chamber pics, you can see them here.

If you have a Facebook (or MySpace, I guess =) account, look us up and add us as a friend! We'd love to hear from you and keep in touch!

Cards, cards and more cards!

It's that time of year and everyone is wondering what they'll do this year for Christmas cards. Well, we have available a fresh new set of 18 Christmas/Holiday cards featuring your photos that I think you'll love.




Besides Holiday cards, we have 18 newly designed birth announcement cards and 18 save-the-date cards, too!

More samples are forthcoming as soon as we have a minute to show them off. Don't hesitate, though. If you're interested in cards, let us know! We'd be delighted to help...

There are three options for printed cards for every need and budget:

1. The thrifty photo greeting cards are printed on professional Kodak photo paper (one-side only) and start at $2.80 each for the 5x7-sized cards. Minimum order: 25, order by increments of 5 after that.
   
2. The folded greeting cards are press-printed on a slightly glossy cover stock with UV coating available as an option. Prices per pack of 25 cards (5x7 in size) start at $168. Minimum order: 25 cards (one pack), must order by increments of 25 after that.
   
3. Press-printed flat cards (not folded) are also available, perfect for save-the-date cards or baby announcements where the added quality of the heavier paper and press-printing are appreciated. Prices per 25-pack start at $83. The same quantity minimums and increments apply as with the folded cards above.

Oh, and keep in mind that envelopes are included in all of the above prices, too.

Brock & Alisha's Proposal/Engagement

I recently had the opportunity to photograph yet another cool couple actually GET engaged. Yep, yet another proposal/incognito engagement session! It's such a cool idea and I'm always impressed at how many people actually think about doing this. The photos are always so meaningful and being able to see that moment in pictures for the rest of your life is just priceless. It's one of those things that I really wish I had done for Holly and I when I proposed.

It started out in the park right next to the Civic Center downtown. You know, where they make the ice rink every winter. Brock brought his A-game with a beautiful picnic spread - so romantic!


Then, before Alisha had time to suspect anything, Brock was up on one knee with a ring in his hand! You can see that he did a great job of keeping it a surprise up until then since Alisha's in a state of shock.

A downtown picnic!

All this time, I was hiding behind some statues. Actually, I had my camera peeking out from between a bronzed man's legs. Alisha had looked my direction a few times, actually looking right at me, I thought. And then, when she bent one leg for this picture, it was just too perfect and I was pretty certain she must have spotted me.

They continued eating for just a few more minutes and then packed up and headed my direction. Alisha was totally shocked that I was there! So, she hadn't spotted me after all. I was wearing my undercover disguise... An floppy hat in my best attempt to look like an Asian tourist so my camera would go unnoticed. =)

Then we headed down to Bricktown and got some great engagement portraits together.





Amtrak was meaningful to them since they had recently taken a trip down to TX on the Heartland Flyer together. Any time we can incorporate something meaningful like that into the photo session, I'm all for it!


These are my favorites from the session. Playing in the fountains!

Brock splashes Alisha

Alisha gets him back

Thanks, Brock & Alisha, for being so fun to work with and for allowing me to capture your most special day! I'm always so grateful to be able to work wish such cool and fun couples.

Brock & Alisha's Proposal/Engagement Session

I can hardly wait to share the pictures from my most recent proposal session, but it's so late I can barely keep my eyes open.

Brock & Alisha, I'm uploading them now to proof them online, so they should be online for you and ready to see sometime tomorrow morning. In the mean time, here's my favorite sequence of pictures from the session...


In case the pictures weren't actually worth 1000 words: 1) Alisha calls Brock over in her most (tricky) subtle and inviting way. 2) Brock falls for it (humors Alisha) and takes a closer look. 3) Alisha moves her foot and Brock jumps away just in the nick of time before getting soaked. =)

Check back tomorrow for a bunch of the cool pictures we got from this session. I'm heading to bed!

The New Canon G9

So, my favorite point-and-shoot has been upgraded and is now the unbelievable G9. For a pretty impressive list of features and commentary, check out this post on it.


*Trying not to drool on keyboard*

Seriously, if you're considering a camera purchase in the near future and you know a thing or two about how to work an SLR, you might just fall in love with the features you'll find on this baby.

Skate Pictures

For the last couple of days I've been scavenging pictures all over Edmond for a project for the Chamber of Commerce. They had a long list of pictures of cool things around Edmond that they wanted updated stock photography of, so I was literally all over town for two days. It was really a lot of fun and I couldn't have asked for better weather.

Here's a sequence I got yesterday at Mitch Park's skate park. I put the new 1d Mark III to the test and got some great pictures at 10 frames per second. Fun times!


And here's the first shot I took there. I checked out the three guys who were there and introduced myself to Robert, the first guy to do a cool trick. I asked if he'd mind if I snapped a few shots of him getting some air or something and he was happy to help. I had no idea how high Robert was going to jump. He jumped clear out of my frame and into the sun, which made for a really cool shot, I thought. X-Games, here we come!


Seriously, though, if you're planning some cool adventure and would love to have it documented in awesome photos, let me know! I'm really giving some thought on how to create a market for and get into adventure photography.

As always, would love to hear what you all think!

Baby Jantz & Family

Michelle is one of those rare individuals who can make anyone feel comfortable and who makes me feel like a gifted comedian. Thanks for getting my odd sense of humor and corny jokes, Michelle! =)

We had a great time today getting some relaxed and fun family portraits including the newest addition, baby Jantz! After a lengthy and valiant attempt by the rest of the kids, we finally coaxed a few brief smiles out of him. I don't know how he could resist... my cheeks hurt after smiling so much at his older siblings trying to amuse him.

Here are two photos that caught my eye from the session. Thought I'd do some quick editing and test Holly's patience since it's long after bedtime. (Sorry, Hon! I couldn't resist the terrible pull of the computer...)



Okay, and now it really is time for bed. =)

Oh My Goodness!

I was tempted to title this post something about the actual subject matter, but was afraid it would seem too self-promoting. But, check it out... Someone has nominated Prints Charming Photography for Small Business of the Year at the Edmond Chamber of Commerce and it wasn't one of us. =) We're just one of about 30 or so others, but we're the only photographers so far, which is exciting.
Anyway, just saw it on their newsletter a moment ago and couldn't wait to share the exciting news. Thanks to our wonderful customers who have really helped us so much over the years, and special thanks to whoever nominated us!!! You guys are great.

Random Tuesday

I just love the changing weather this time of year when it finally gets cool enough to work in jeans and long-sleeved shirts again for a change. Something about the cooler weather is causing spiders everywhere to spin webs that float in the breeze. It was really wild last night seeing hundreds of the thin floating webs slowly meandering through downtown. I think I pulled 30 or more from my face in the hour I was there. Pretty crazy!

It's time for dinner, but I think I have just enough time to post a picture from tonight's senior session. I like how the light made it through the downtown skyline in just one little beam to light up Emily's face in this photo.


Well, thanks for keeping up with our blog. I have a ton more to put on here as soon as I can pull myself away from all the retouching and other pressing needs. Take care!

New Business Cards!

We're just a little bit excited around here since our new business cards arrived. Seven different designs so far, sporting super-cool pictures from recent senior, family, baby, child, family engagement sessions and even a wedding.

Check 'em out! We'd love to hear what you think of them!








I took the pictures in our kitchen on one of our black wooden stools, so that's why the backgrounds aren't completely black. Gotta run to our next session!

Brock's Proposal, Engagement to Alisha

Well, we're back from Colorado and we hit the ground here running! I can't believe it's been over a week since we blogged last. It's already been the busiest season ever for us and we have four wedding weekends in a row coming up, besides a jam-packed schedule full of Fall family sessions and high school seniors who are thinking ahead to get photos while they still have a tan and the weather's still nice. =)

Last night's session was fun and noteworthy. Brock planned a picnic downtown by the Civic Center and before Alisha knew what was going on, he was on one knee, ring in hand! Even though she looked my direction a few times, she never did spot me, shooting under a floppy hat and hiding between the legs of one of the statues on the side of the park. Can't wait to post some of them for you. Brock & Alisha, here's a ring shot you can use right away if you like!


Engagement photography is always a lot of fun since the couple doesn't usually have any trouble forgetting I'm there and just getting caught up in each other. And that really makes for the best pictures.

Lots more to blog about, but I have to run to another commercial photography session. My 2nd today! Fun times...