I am finally putting to use one of the golden gems of advice I received from Justin & Mary Marantz from their Spread the Love Tour.  They mentioned they send their brides & grooms little notes, packages, gifts, etc., throughout the year as their wedding approaches.  Well, I decided to try the “movie night” gift since I thought I could pull it off.  I grabbed two lovey dovey movies from Target, some Crunch ‘n Munch, and a little handwritten note & put them in these boxes.  They are just a little gift to remind my couples who will be married soon to relax, take a break from planning, and enjoy a movie night with their love.  That’s all.  Hope they enjoy them.

PS – I haven’t mailed them yet, so hopefully this doesn’t spoil the surprise.  No one reads this thing anyways, right?

“Rain drops on roses & whiskers on kittens…la la la la la la la….these are a few of my favorite things!”  (Sorry about the singing….at least it was only in your head & not in your ears).  This magazine is the ONLY magazine I’ve gotten consistently over probably the last 5 years.  I love it.  I always look forward to getting at it.  I think it’s pretty, it’s crisp, it’s clean, and it’s simple.  It’s what I strive to be.

When I went to the Spread the Love tour with Justin & Mary Marantz they talked a lot about your “brand” and how important it is.  That you don’t want to simply be a brand, but that you want to make your business a love mark.  So that when people see your brand, your logo, or your name, it instantly invokes feelings of love, devotion, need.  When people see the following icons, they invoke immediate feelings (usually good)….

And I think the reason I love Real Simple (magazine, products, e-mails, website, etc), is because they are a Love Mark for me.  They illicit feelings of cleanliness, order, simplicity, calm, and so on…all things I want in my life.  So that brings me to think of my logo, my company, my brand (aka: me).  What do I want my clients, customers, friends to feel when they think of me?  What feelings to I want to come to mind when they think of me and their experience with me as their photographer?  Basically, why would I want someone to WANT to hire me?  Not really looking for any answers here, just thinking out loud.

I was at a meeting of professional photographers the other night and got to talk with the guest speaker.  She basically asked me, “What are you looking for?  What is your goal with this business?”  I suppose that is a simple question, but sometimes simple is good.

Oh, and I really like Real Simple’s tag line:  Life Made Easier.  Think I could copy it?  Could I use it for mine?  People Made Prettier…haha!  Not that one.  What are your thoughts?

Photos:  Just looking through my Real Simple magazines again at their photographs.  They may seem simple, and not very interesting.  But for some reason they speak to me, draw me in, and I need to find out why.  What is it that I like about their style?  Why are they one of my Love Marks?

AHHHH!  I’ve got less than an hour to blog!  Today has been fun, but busy.  I got a head shot from my friend Stacy (which required extensive grooming on my part), took the kids to lunch as a treat, prepared our lovely babysitter, Lauren, drove to Alexandria, and attended the DC Spread the Love Tour with Justin & Mary Marantz, got locked in the garage, had to walk umpteen blocks to get cash to get my car out, & finally made it home!  Let’s say my day was filled with a good deal of prayer!

Anyway, about the photo above:  This is our youngest daughter, Brooke.  She’s 2 and a half & has been in her own “big girl” bed for about a year now.  While we don’t tell her she can’t come out of her room in the morning, she has usually sat in her room calling for us when she’s ready to get up.  Well, today she opened her own door & surprised me in my room while I was getting ready.  She came in with her eyes all glazed over from sleep, her mouth & nose all crusty, and carrying every toy she could fit in her tiny hands.  Then (after a quick diaper change), she spread out on the floor and watched cartoons on the TV while she woke up.  This is her deep in thought while watching Peppa Pig.  What could she be thinking?

A side note on this 365 thing, or more some personal ponderings that I could get your imput on:

1) what if there is more than one thing I do in a day that I want to share a photo about?  What do I do?

2) what if I shoot an image really late & want to share it, but I know it’ll be too late – is it okay to share the next day, or is that cheating because it wasn’t taken that day?

I guess I’m learning as I go along.  Thanks for stopping by!