Ethan at 3 Months

Last weekend it was time for Ethan to come in for his three month portraits. Just like before, he gave us a bunch of expressions.
We also did a "Little Parts" session. I'll have a composite up here shortly.
Make sure to see the slideshow.

Senior Portrait Ambassador Reps Needed

Check out this new slideshow of a bunch of senior portraits. Just click on the image above. To see the full-sized slideshow in another window (instead of right here on the blog), just follow this link.

We're still looking for a few more Juniors to be our senior portrait ambassadors in their schools. Right now we need one more representative from each of these schools:

Dublin Coffman
Dublin Jerome
Thomas Worthington
Worthington Kilbourne
We're all set for Dublin Scioto

If you attend a smaller school, private school, or one in another town, please let us know if you're interested in this program. We have opportunities for many other schools.

This is a great way to get discounts on your Senior Portrait Session and your Senior Pictures. You also earn $10 to $15 for every High School Senior you send to us. In addition, the Seniors you refer to us will receive 16 free wallet prints. This is a great opportunity but it's also limited to a few select seniors so you need to get in touch with us right away.

Here's all the info on what an ambassador is and how to apply to become one:

What is the Squier Ambassador Program?

Squier Ambassadors are high school juniors who are chosen to represent Squier Photography to their friends and acquaintances for their Senior Portraits.

What does a Squier Ambassador do?
A Squier Ambassador agrees to:

1. Have their Senior Portraits taken by Squier Photography in April or May of their Junior year.


2. Show their Senior portraits to friends and acquaintances and tell them how much you enjoyed having your portraits made.


3. Pass out as many Ambassador Cards as you can. The more you hand out, the more chance of earning rewards! Your friends must turn these cards in for you to receive credit!


4. Represent Squier Photography exclusively.

What does a Squier Ambassador receive in return?

1. A Deluxe Senior Sitting for $50 (regularly $100): this sitting includes a variety of indoor and outdoor poses at absolutely no cost to you!


2. If you order your own senior portraits within two weeks of us posting your proofs online, you will receive a $50 credit toward your order. If you order after your proofs have been online for two weeks, you will not receive this credit.


3. Ambassador Cards with your photograph on it to pass out to friends. Your friends receive 16 free wallet prints when they return your card and have their Senior Portraits taken by Squier Photography. The cards also allow us to track how many referrals you have sent to us.


4. $10 cash for each senior that we photograph that you sent to us. If you send 10 or more seniors, you will receive $15 for each after the first 10.


5. Up to two additional sessions at times of your choice during your senior year. These can include a family portrait session, individual session or a friends session.


6. If you have a facebook account, we will provide a way for you to link your senior portrait slideshow directly onto your page.

Rewards accumulate for every referral until December 31, 2008.

How do I become a Squier Ambassador?

Just send us an e-mail or call us at 614-798-0189 and we'll send out an application. We’ll let you know if you are selected as a Squier Ambassador. At that time we will set up a time for your Deluxe Senior Portrait Session.

Baby Bonanza 2008

You may remember the post last month about the Baby Bonanza. You also may be wondering what happened, because I never blogged about it. Well, it did happen! I'm just a bit behind in my announcement posts. It took place on March 15th and it was a whirlwind of a day for us.

Not only did we have the show (where I photographed the events, too), but our son's Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts was the same day. It was his last year, a crossing over ceremony, so we couldn't really bail on him. We had someone help out in the booth for the last couple hours and pack up. I drove back as soon as I could to help load up the car, then back to the Cub Scout banquet.

Anyway, the Baby Bonanza took place at the Aladdin Shrine Center near Easton. It's an interesting venue with tiered levels and lots of stairs. Thankfully, there are a lot of ramps for everyone with strollers, so that wasn't a big issue. It made it easier to load and unload the booth, too.

And while I'm on the subject of the booth, here are some pictures of it. This year we had a double booth and it was so nice having the space to talk and visit with people.
We even had a coloring table so the kids had something to do while they waited for their parent to finish talking. You can kind of see it in the picture below down on the right. Parents loved that their kids had a place to hang out instead of haning on ... to them. ;-)
One of the highlights of the Baby Bonanza each year is the Diaper Derby. Yes, that's right -- baby races. Who knew they'd be so fun? Well, if you're a parent, you can understand why they're funny, at least. Here they are at the start of the race. Off in a flash!
There was much concern when one baby didn't understand the rules. These two stopped and tried to give an explanation, not realizing that another baby was racing toward the finish line.
After the grueling race, the winner had no comment.
There were also activities for parents like how to use your stroller as a piece of exercise equipment and how to cook meals quickly that the whole family will eat.
And, of course, there was fun for parents and kids together.
That parachute looks like so much fun. I think we have a smaller one somewhere. I should go find it.
There was a lot going on throughout the entire day. And, of course, there were tons of vendors who had all kinds of things for your kids. I can't wait for next year. Though I hope that's the only thing we have to do that day. We were exhausted at the end of the day.

Worthington Kilbourne Baseball 2008

A couple months ago I was asked to put together the baseball schedule for the Worthington Kilbourne Wolves baseball team. We had done this once before, two years ago, and it was a lot of fun, so we were excited to do it again.
The poster usually has a photo of the seniors on the team along with the schedule. This time they had a theme for the poster (last time they didn't want one). We were lucky in that we got one of the only warm days in March. There was a big snowstorm the day after these pictures were taken. In the top picture you can see the storm clouds rolling in.

Sarah and Jenna

Sarah and Jenna were here a few weeks ago for some portraits. Sarah is only a few months old and already has a great personality. Jenna is a great big sister -- she loves to help out with what she can.
See their slideshow and leave a comment below.

Carson is Two!

Carson came back for his two-year-old portraits the other day. He's gotten so big. I hadn't seen him in a while. It's really cool when kids start answering your questions and they make sense.
Make sure to see his slideshow. Leave a comment below if you want.

Jared

A few days ago Jared came in for his Sr. Pictures. He was great to work with and we ended up spending a lot of time on his session. Be sure to see his slideshow and leave a comment below.

When did toasters get so big?

OK, this isn't a normal blog post for me. The other day our toaster oven died. We'd had it for almost seventeen years (it was a wedding gift). It turns out that with this particular kind of toaster oven, you're lucky if it lasts two years.
We loved that it had a bracket to mount it under your cupboards -- no wasted counter space. It was great. You put the bread in, pushed down the lever, and in a few minutes the lever popped up to let you know the toast was done. Makes sense, right?

So why do almost all toaster ovens out there have a timer on them rather than a lever?
And the timers on most of them are loud! Kind of a grinding noise that's sure to wake everyone up if you happen to want toast before other people are up. And if you see that the toast is done and you want to stop, you have to turn the timer back to zero and it still stays on for a while. Why can't you just pop the lever up when you see that it's done?

And the biggest reason for this post -- Why are they so big? It's toast. We don't need to bake a pizza in there (there was actually one at Sears that could fit a 12" pizza).
That one was, admittedly, one of the larger ones (but not the biggest!). It just happened to have a 12" pizza pan come along with it.

And another thing -- none of them mount under the cupboards. So not only are they huge, they take their huge-ness and plant it on the counter.

You might ask, "why not just get a regular toaster?" Well, you see, once you have a toaster oven, you get kind of spoiled by it. Kind of like having a garbage disposal. It's hard to go back. We reheat leftovers in there, warm up those frozen french bread pizzas (yes, I see the irony), toast waffles that we've frozen after making too many (we actually use a waffle iron -- something our kids' friends have never seen before). Our youngest needs his "Tommy Burgers" when we're grilling outside (he prefers them with only cheese (no meat) and toasted -- in a toaster oven! Not on the grill).

So, anyway, a toaster (oven) is kind of a necessity at our house so after Lynn looked online for a replacement (they don't make them, anymore), we headed out to find a new toaster. We were successful, but we had to make a bunch of compromises.

It wasn't the smallest, but it didn't have a timer. It actually has a dial that goes from "light" to "dark" -- what a concept. Instead of a lever to push down, there's an electronic button to start toasting, but I can live with that. There's another button to stop it mid-way through if you see that you're about to have a high-carbon breakfast. And there's even a dial with temperatures like "350" and "400" on it so we know where to set it for heating up frozen french bread pizzas. It broils, bakes (a pie, even -- it says so right on the box!), and comes with an instruction manual with many "mouth-watering" recipes.

I know, I just took the time to blog about a toaster, but it feels good to get that off my chest. I'm tired of cereal.

Brilee's First Birthday

Brilee came in yesterday to celebrate her first birthday with lots of clothes and lots of cake. She was such a trooper -- with all of the outfits I was getting worried that she'd crash. Needless to say (once you've seen the pictures) she was more than up for some serious cake-eating.

Be sure to scroll down to see all the pictures.
Enjoy her slideshow!

Casey and Quinn

I've been photographing Casey and Quinn (and their brother and other sister) for several years. The family was one of our first customers once we went "full time" and have seen us through our journey. A lot has changed since then both with them and our business. It's amazing to watch them grow. Wow. I didn't mean to get so philosophical or nostalgic on you. ;-)

Anyway, we dodged the light rain last Friday to get some wonderful portraits. I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on out. Make sure to see their slideshow, too.

Nathan at 6 Months

You might remember Nathan from the first couple times he was in (3 Months, Newborn). Well, he hit the six month milestone last month and of course he was in for some portraits.
This time we did a baby parts session and he was perfect
Be sure to see the slideshow.

Heather and Zach

Over the weekend Heather and Zach stopped by for their engagement portraits. They're getting married out of town in a couple months so they figured it was about time to do the engagement pictures.
Check out their slideshow and leave a comment.