St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

I received a blog comment yesterday about how I process my iPhone photos – you know, these:

I do this now with all my seniors. Mainly because it’s something fun that I want to collect from all the sessions and can hang in the studio. And, it takes like five seconds. Typically, I’ll shoot it towards the end of their session.

I shoot with my 50mm f/1.4 wide open. I just focus on the photo I took of them on my iPhone that they are holding up and that lens provides such an amazing blur! I have a couple of more of these in my files so I’m excited to build a collage for the new studio! Get creative with your seniors!

A few weeks ago, I did a few mini sessions in the studio, and Nikki and her family stopped in. I died over these adorable kiddos! I love how parents dress their children…seriously, the shoes and tights and – oh my so adorable! Anway, I’m excited about a project in October where Nikki is hiring me to do a shoot with her oldest “F” – it’s gonna be amazing! Here’s their cute family.

Okay, not really.

But, another photographer prompted me to think about my “ideal client” and so I have:

My ideal clients are those that like to show off their personalities and have a little fun. For me, it’s about capturing the moments and reflecting who they truly are. I hear time and again from my clients…”wow, that is soooo (insert name)” when they look at their proofs. I know plenty of people that are more “traditional” that I can refer leads to if that’s what they are going for. But for me, my ideal is just like my senior from Friday. Willing to get a little silly…and rock a mustache on a stick! More from Brittney’s senior session later!

This is something I started working on last week and finally got them finished and samples ordered. LOVE these!

They are my new, high school senior memory books. My reps get them free if chosen. And, others can purchase with prints on the website when they place their orders. I will be selling these templates at Pink Ink Studios in the next day!

Watch me!

Memory Books from Holly McCaig Designs on Vimeo.

Two things. 1) I love traveling. And, 2) I love Arizona.

In April of 2008, I made my first trek out there after Audra and I hung out the summer before in Chicago at CHA. She invited me to come stay with her family and made plans for us to drive up to Sedona for the night. This is a dream for two photographers. The weather was absolutely perfect. And, I left Arizona with my heart tugging, wanting to relocate there. Even though the first thing I said as we left the airport was, “everything is brown!” I still loved the fact that you never have to fight with rain or snow. Okay, maybe they have a short monsoon season, but that’s okay. Ahhh. I can get used to that. I’ve been out there three times and am working on my fourth trip this October.

Being a southern girl – growing up mostly in Texas, Florida and Georgia; living in St. Louis, Missouri was NOT on my top list of places to make home. If I didn’t have family here, I’d be gone in a heartbeat. Seriously, this humidity and lack of lengthy springs and falls is for the birds. I kinda miss the fact that we had a swimming pool and an ocean outside our backdoors in the south. Le Sigh.

So, Audra’s mom let us use her timeshare in Sedona and we made the drive up on Saturday morning. But, not after I stopped to buy brand new sunglasses at the Ann Taylor outlet. Audra’s new iPhone was tempting me the entire trip too. Once we arrived, had lunch and mozied around. We took our sunset Pink Jeep tour. Our guide was fearless and awesome. The families that were on our tour was amazing too. However, when we got to dinner, I realized, my brand new sunglasses were gone. This is becoming a running joke for me. I can’t hold onto a pair of sunglasses. They were on my head during the Jeep tour, but because it was a sunset tour, when we came off the rocks it was getting dark – so they went in my shorts pocket. Or so I thought.

I absolutely LOVED the Jeep trip! As we braved the bumpy ride and protected all our expensive camera gear (we took a lot up on the rocks with us) we knew it was the best thing ever. I am shocked I didn’t take more photos – I think I was just in awe of the beauty of nature and how things have evolved. Now, we wait for Audra and Jeff to deliver their beautiful new, baby girl…then, next Spring, we hit the Grand Canyon in another Jeep tour!

Last fall, I started prepping some of my more fine art/travel photos for sale. I put a few on some jewelry – my Missouri ones like Ted Drewe’s, Route 66 icons, funny signs in Missouri. They were all pretty popular. I just ran out of hours in the day. Now, I want to make them for sale again. I love these treasures. So, I am starting out with selling the prints first. Then, as time permits, having more jewelry made with them.

Here were some of my favorites as we made our stop over on Jerome on the way home that Sunday…where I immediately had Audra drive me to the Apple store so I could buy my first iPhone (yah, so, I’ve purchased four already…don’t judge my necessity to rely on all things Apple). I’ll be sure to share some Sedona ones in the coming days too:

I’ll be selling these online but they take a while to get uploaded. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night having a Linda Blair, Exorcist moment and am nursing today. I’m not sure if it was food poison or it’s the flu. I don’t feel awful, but exhausted.

Now…to book my trip to Phoenix. I am scheduled to be there for a week in October. I get to see the new baby and take an amazing workshop with Melissa Jill! Very exciting! I may not come back this time…shhhh, don’t tell!