St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

We celebrated our family Christmas last night and it was nice. Except for eating WAY too much, I think we all had a great time. Santa brought me the ever so cool Fuji Instax Mini – now to load up on tons of extra film. I have so many plans for this camera with the studio! Some pictures from yesterday:

For those seeing images of my dogs in crazy “get-ups” no fear. They don’t stay on very long. Unless it’s a sweater to keep them warm when it’s cold outside.

That’s Jake & Andrea’s gianormous dog, Pirate.

OMG – best dessert ever. Chocolate Truffle Mouse Cake. Yah, I said that.

Poor Andrea was sick.

The camera – and some funny pictures. 10 film packs go fast!

My brother’s beer – gotta love Schlafly! Too bad we didn’t have any Christmas Ale.

This afternoon we are heading out to St. Charles to my uncle’s home. The extended family will be together. This year, we opted to do no gift giving except to the little ones. I’m so glad for this. It helps keep the focus on family and enjoying company rather than feeling pressured to buy gifts for so many people. I like keeping things simple.

Merry Christmas.

I am excited to share a senior basic book with you that I designed for Bobbi Jo. My basic books are just 7 x 7 in size and have about 34 pages to them. That’s 17 spreads. Each one comes with a printed cover that I can custom design, or you can choose from some of my previous designs. Now, Bobbi Jo can have a nice collection of all the images from her high school senior portrait session. Take a look!

I really love the option of albums for clients. When you consider the cost of printing all your images from a session, it’s really just a nice way to get close to every one, in a nice and presentable way. I work with top album companies and my prices range from $350 to $1200 for albums depending on the size, paper types and cover options.

I also love in-person proofing, and my studio is going to be moving towards this for all clients as the main option (unless you’re reordering or are out of town). It truly allows my clients to discuss their needs with me – like where to hang certain images in their homes, seeing true measurements of sizing and can put products in their hands. I’m a firm believer that you’re doing a better job at servicing your customers when you can help them this way. In my studio, clients come in and we first chit chat, then I show them a custom slideshow on my big tv. Clients sit comfy and cozy as if they are in a living room. Then, we begin the process of sorting through their images. Using the program, Pro Select, my clients can easily tell me which items they love, hate and are on the fence about.

I know for a fact that it’s hard to choose images. I tend to give a little more in my proofing sessions. I prepare a few specialty product drafts to show them too. If someone does not see something, they won’t know about it to buy it. With Pro Select, I can show them what their images would look like cropped a certain way, how they might appear in specialty collages, or even in my custom designed greeting cards and albums.

I created these little crafty bits of cuteness a while ago, but knew that I would eventually need to get them printed out for my own use (which we will be using this Saturday). You see, for weddings that book with us starting in January, we set up our backdrop and have props at receptions. This is just a fun way for guests to interact and it’s no extra cost to the bride & groom. While we’re not a photobooth company, it’s a little something extra we like to provide to our clients. Remember, we recommend CI PhotoBooth for on-site printing and a real photobooth service to hire!

These are some of the props I created to set up at weddings. They are fun, easy, and disposable – let’s face it, parties can get a little crazy. If you lose one of these bad boys you won’t be out a lot of money. You can easily re-print what you need and, I love that I can customize the thought bubble ones for each event. Cool huh?

If you’re a professional photography company or a photobooth company and you use our items, please share your images on your blog with us! We may just reward you! Purchase them here at Pink Ink Studios – scroll through my personal store to see all of them.

Print them on heavy duty card stock. I used a textured stock for embossing on at my local craft store.

Cut them out and adhere with a glue gun – the little dowels are found at any craft store or hardware store.

Then, display them in a cute jar at your next event!

I wanted to create some new props to use for Lollipop Smiles and for parties or other fun sessions and figured it was a good idea to share them with other photographers (or just for anyone really). So, I have a line of new products now at Pink Ink Studios. They are called Smiley Faces. Simple printouts that you download after purchasing. Print on cardstock and cut out. Adhere to dowel sticks or anything you want really. Here’s some that Amanda’s cutie pie, Miss. Haley printed and attached to some fun straws. She loved the pink set of mustaches!

The beauty of these things is that if they get stolen (which let’s face it, happens at parties and events) then you can easily print out new ones. Plus, it’s not an expensive investment. Great for photobooths and wedding receptions too! I have a bunch to start out!

You can get the lips in pink and in red.

The mustaches come in brown, pink, blue and woodgrain.

I have ideas for more, and will do a post if you all buy and use them. Send me your pictures and I’ll share them here. If I use your photo then I’ll send you another set for free. Visit my store at Pink Ink Studios to purchase.

Hey everyone! I am actually planning these for January. If you want to get on the books early and reserve your spot, you can! But, this post has a dual-purpose. I am also selling this promotion concept to other photographers through my company, Pink Ink Studios. One thing we all know as photographers that are in the midwest, it gets cold. It gets snowy. Business slows down for a lot of portrait photographers. So, I put this together as I am running my Valentine’s Day Mini Sessions Promotions for other photographers to learn from. I’m still entertaining the idea of running mentorships online for other photographers too. This is just one way you can peek into my brain and learn a little something extra from me too.

My mini sessions are going to be on January 16th. This gives you plenty of time to get your photos done and your order in to me for your choice of either a set of 25 Valentine’s Day cards or 2-5 x7s and 1 set of wallets. These are hosted in my studio and appointments are in 30-minute increments. If you’re interested, just contact me via email for now at holly@hollymccaigdesigns.com. Soon, my splash page will have a link on how to sign up.

If you’re a photographer interested in my promotion packet, you can purchase it at Pink Ink Studios.

• You get a text document that outlines my plan along with how to schedule your timeline, pricing information and how to use the other items included.
• I have also included two 5 x 7 greeting card templates to offer to your client.
• You get two promotional templates, including a 5 x 7 postcard design to mail as well as the above web graphic that you can use on your blogs and on your social media fan pages and sites.
• Finally, I include a spreadsheet that let’s you keep track of your appointments and the timeline of your event from the host date to the day you deliver your final product.

This set is just $34.99 – I have a few other “mini session” packets that I’m working on if Valentine’s Day isn’t for you. Of course, you can easily adapt this to other mini session promotions like Fall, Boudoir, Christmas, Halloween and so much more!