Holiday Market Prints Soon to Come

I'm typing this up while I upload the pics for Holiday Market. That's right, ten days after Holiday Market, prints will be picked up today/tomorrow (Tuesday). With fortune (and a good wife) on my side, those prints will hit the mail on Wednesday. If that happens, then we'll be in under the two-week mark. Which was slower than I'd hoped, but I told everybody it would be at least one and up to two weeks before they'd get their pics.

Why so slow? I've been busy, aight?!? Not to undermine my legitimacy, but @PEaCe Photography is a side project. So real work comes first. Also, those product photos I did last week had a much greater return on investment, so those pics took priority over the Holiday Market pics. Additionally, I'm still streamlining my workflow. Having Adobe Lightroom makes things WAY easier than last year, but I still didn't shoot the pictures in the careful way I'd need to so that I could push it all through Lr instead of applying each boarder individually.

 Nevertheless, photos are currently uploading. Still... And there's no way I'm staying up to see them finish because I've got a grad tomorrow that is going to have me out until pretty late tomorrow.

Here's my cute kid.

Goings On

Thanks to all the happy people who came over to my photo booth or picked up a print at the Tallassee Farmers' Market Holiday Market!

Holiday Market turned out to be a pretty good success. It wasn't a huge money maker, but I mainly do Holiday Market and Trade Day just to get my name out there and practice on low pressure clients. I covered my costs and recouped some costs I didn't cover on Trade Day. The real test of Holiday Market will be if it stirs up some additional gigs.

Holiday Market pics should be ready to print and mail later this week. They'll hit Facebook before they print, and I'll amend this post with a link when that happens. I've also got pics of the Christmas Parade sponsored by the Tallassee Chamber of Commerce. Those pictures should go up later today.

[Amendment:  Holiday Market pics are out, and I forgot to post the pics to FB first. My bad. They're up now, though. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.390532951030825.93500.174367212647401&type=1&l=7d828790f6 ]

As soon as I finish this post, I'm headed to Phenix City to take some product photos for Genesis Home Decor. I'm excited to branch out into a new area of photography. It's always good to add a new tool to your set, and this is one which actually could prove quite profitable. These are coming at a bargain rate, but even that is helping to repay the household for stuff bought with non-business funds.

I also have some Christmas photos to take for a couple sets of family friends, but those are pro-bono. It's always good to practice, and friends are more patient with trying out techniques than paying customers.

Plenty going on. AND grad season is beginning at the end of this week.

Holiday Market

It's time for Holiday Market! "What is Holiday Market?" you ask. It's a local arts, crafts, food, etc. market put on by the Tallassee Farmers' Market. It occurs in conjunction with the Tallassee tree-lighting ceremony and Christmas parade. The market is open Friday from noon to 6PM and Saturday from 8AM to 1PM.

So why am I excited about Holiday Market? Because @PEaCe Photography is going to be there with a really awesome photo booth, and I'm @PEaCe Photography! Keeping with what worked well at Trade Day, I'm charging based on the size of the group. Groups of 1-3 people are $1, 4-6 people are $2, and 7-there's no more room are $3. At trade day, I couldn't handle a group larger than about 7 people, which is one reason I'm going tent-less this time. (The other reason is so that I can just compensate for the sunlight rather than try and control it.)

I'm hoping for better results this weekend than we had at Trade Day back in October. I've got far less $ sunk into being at Holiday Market, so I'm hoping to pull back into the black this Friday and Saturday.

The equipment I borrowed from Village Photographers couldn't be picked up until this afternoon, the real garland and wreath I'm using wouldn't survive the additional wear and tear of being set up for days on end, I just didn't feel like stringing all the lights over my backdrop stand, and so for all these reasons  and more I wasn't able to get in a full test of the set up. But trust me, it's going to be great.

The resulting pictures will be somewhat different from day to night. So I'm hoping a lot of folks come Friday evening for the most dramatic lighting. Folks who get theirs done in the day will still have a great picture, it just won't have the deep contrasty awesomeness of the night time shots.

Since I only had pieces of my backdrop up at any given time, my sample photo selection was a bit limited. Nonetheless, I have the cutest kid around for a model and I was able to compensate for the lack of the flash effect I wanted by tweaking the levels in Adobe Lightroom. Below are the resulting samples.

Customers can select from the following boarders:

Holiday Market, Up and Out

The pictures from both Day One and Day Two of the Tallassee Holiday Market are now on their way! You can also view the pictures online by clicking your day above.

If you would like to purchase more prints of your pictures, they will cost an additional $1 per 4x6. You can also get your picture as a .JPG file via email with full rights to use it however you choose for $5. Please email me (p e c a s p e r s @ g m a i l . c o m - without the spaces), call 334-452-3PEC (that's 334-452-3732), or message me on facebook to make arrangements.

Here are some things I learned from this event:
1) Always have a back up.
2) Take allergy medicine the day before because I will inevitably be downwind from a smokey grill.
3) A tripod will make editing simpler.
4) Doris's tent does go higher!
5) Go even bigger on the backdrop/scenery.
6) I need a seating option that is both wider and more stable.
7) A festive, fun thing for little kids to hold is great, but it would be better if it was something they could keep. (I had a few little ones who didn't want to give back my jingle bell.)
8) People like to buy things they can take with them, but most will not place an order for you to send them stuff.
9) It would be good to have a calendar to make portrait appointments on the spot.
10) Long underwear will make you sweat during set-up, which will leave you with cold feet later.

It was a great experience. Tripp Storm of the Tallassee Farmers Market was a pleasure to work with. I made some other good contacts. We did little more than clear expenses, but I think we'll see the benefits further down the road. Thanks to all who came by the booth!

Holiday Market Day One Done

Alright folks. The first day of the Holiday Market is done. I've downloaded the pictures to my laptop. I'm charging batteries. I'm about to reformat all my memory cards. Then, I'm going to sleep. I'll be up about 5 AM to be ready to go set up about 6:30 to be ready to shoot by 8AM. That's what I call early.

Today wasn't a rousing success. I think I probably cleared the cost of the business license. However, I talked to a lot of people who are planning on coming by with their kids or grandkids before or after the parade tomorrow. I'm expecting big things for day two.

You might have seen my facebook post about needing to borrow a camera. My camera stopped working right before activity started to pick up for no discernible reason. It had happened momentarily earlier in the day, but this time it seemed to be a complete failure. Only Jessica's prayers can give any explanation to why it started working again after a half hour of not. Nonetheless, it's working again. I was able to finish out the night taking pics. I probably missed four or five opportunities for photo sales, but I'm pretty sure I'll catch those folks again tomorrow.

No fear for tomorrow. Richard Patterson of Village Photographers was on his way in our general direction and Jessica met him at the interstate to borrow a pair of cameras, just in case. Also on tomorrow, I realized the tent can go about a foot higher! I'm stoked, because that means I can actually have people standing if the group is too big. It just occurred to me that it also means I'm going to have to do something extra to keep the backdrop from blowing in the wind. I think I can handle that, though.

See you tomorrow!

Holiday Market Is TODAY

Tallassee's Holiday Market starts at noon today! You should come out and have your picture made before the Christmas Parade. If you do, it'll look a little something like this:

See you at the Market!

Holiday Market Is TOMORROW!

The Tallassee Holiday Market begins tomorrow at noon at Veterans' Park. That means we are less than twenty-four hours away. Drop another couple of hours off for the fact that vendors can set up as early as 9:30AM, and we find ourselves in the middle of crunch time. So why am I posting about it?

Simple, I want to see you there!

The Holiday Market will be open at the park from noon until around six o'clock when the Tallassee Tree Lighting ceremony will occur on Friday. Then on Saturday, the Holiday Market will be open from eight in the morning until around noon when the Tallassee Christmas Parade will come through town. Saturday's market will be on the sidewalk in front of the Mt. Vernon Theater.

@PEaCe Photography will be set up taking pictures much like we did for Trade Day as well as taking orders for a small selection of local and/or seasonal photo prints. I'm really excited that we'll be working with a much cooler backdrop and better lighting. The results will be fantastic, I guarantee it.

Come get your picture taken for only $1, and I'll mail you a 4x6 as a postcard. Bring your whole family and get a picture taken to use as your Christmas card. I'll cut you a deal on large orders or sell you a high resolution image, just talk to me at the market.

And, here's our third option for postcard boarders! I'll post full mock ups with the actual back drop later tonight.

Holiday Market Is on Its Way!

The Tallassee Holiday Market is coming up on December 2nd and 3rd, and I'm planning on being there with a photography booth much like I had at Trade Day back in October. I've been emailing with the market manager in an attempt to get power so I can use my Novatrons this time, but I'll survive if I have to make do with a Village Photographers Metz.

For some strange reason, I'm still awake. (See the time stamp on this post.) During this insomnia episode, I've come up with a few options for the boarders around my Holiday Market pictures. Here are the samples:

I already see a couple of issues with them, so these are not final. And no, I will not be using the same backdrop and scenery as I did for Trade Day. It's just that it's hard to come up with a sample picture for something you haven't done yet, and Peter's really cute!

I expect Holiday Market to be better than Trade Day, as I hope to get better (both photography skills and business success) with each event/gig. I'm really looking forward to it.