Heather Essian Portrait Arts | blog

be sure to update your bookmarks and subscribe to the new blog address www.HEATHERESSIAN.com

this blog will no longer show updates. we’re going to a blog-site only web presence. i’m excited about this because my website was being neglected and i hadn’t updated it in over two years! for me, there’s no sense in updating a blog and a website. yay for cutting down on responsibilities!

when i opened the package that cindy and peter’s album arrived in i gasped! it was just so beautiful…big and beautiful. a 16×12 canvas covered flush mount album. i was so proud flipping through the pages, seeing how lovely their images looked. the album tells the story of their love and wedding day perfectly.  it was just another reminder as to why it is so important and wonderful to invest in good photography as well as an album that will showcase your images well! they gave me full creative control and let me design it as my heart desired-i’m blessed to have such great clients that trust me to do so. it really felt like an art piece to me .

i received the magazines that cindy and peter’s wedding was featured in this week! it’s always so exciting to be published in magazines and it could not be done without the exquisite taste of those i work with. they are beautiful inside and out and their wedding was beautiful as well!

to see more of the design go here

{back of the album}

hope you all had a lovely holiday! we had a grand time with our little harper on her first christmas.

2011 holds many new adventures for us, and we couldn’t be more excited to see what God has in store.  we are launching our church The Paradox Church that jim (my sweet husband) is the lead pastor of…that’s right, i’m a pastors wife and harper is a preacher’s kid, Lord have mercy on us.   and with his transition from my business partner to pastor, his presence with heather essian portrait arts is no longer. which means i’m on my own! so with all of our new changes i will be taking much less portrait sessions this year than the years before.  i’ll take a limited number of sessions each month in order to keep up the quality of work we’ve always strived for, as well as me being able to care for our little harper full time. so if you or someone you know wants to book a session with us please do so as soon as possible so that we can be sure to get you in when you desire.

another new-ish thing is my design business art-is design. for the past 4 years i’ve offered holiday card templates i’ve designed to other professional photographers. i’m pursuing this business even more this year and plan on adding many new product templates, book templates and of course card templates. so if you haven’t already checked out the website please do! we’ll be launching a blog for art-is very soon where i will give marketing tips and will be featuring other photographers. it’s sure to be big fun! “like” our fan page on facebook to keep up with the goings on over at art-is.

check out these two marketing calendars we’ll be adding to art-is website this week:

PHOTOGRAPHERS! here is a sneak peek at a few christmas card designs for this year. we will be adding a complete set of 10 card designs to our art-is template website tomorrow! and we’ll be offering a discount code for early purchases.

{these card templates are offered to professional photographers only}

{chocolate}

{christmas garland}

{vintage}

{candy}

this candy design above is one of our first folded designs! so you’ve got the front, back, and inside spread of the card shown here.

please spread the word about these templates to your other photog friends!

photographers, if you haven’t heard of pictage you’re missing out. pictage is one of the largest proofing companies in our industry.  i’ve been with them since ‘06 and have been super happy to be one of their clients! jim collins (pictage ceo) has really helped to take pictage to a new level.  they really care about their clients, and sincerely care about our experience with them.  they are ever evolving and working hard to out do themselves each year.  i like them.

they are putting on a family and kids photography conference/workshop next month called pictage u and i’m speaking and teaching at it! when they contacted me about being an instructor i was humbled and blown away…and then nervous.

i will be teaching right along side some amazing photographers who i know i will definitely learn from as well.  one thing i love about this conference/workshop is that it’s affordable!

you get to listen to each instructor speak on subjects that they are passionate about and ways that have helped their business to succeed.  i’ll be speaking on creative products, how to offer them, and how to sell them. as well as our studio space and why it works for us, and loads of more business info! we will also be doing a demo shoot where each photographer will spend time shooting a family or child demonstrating the way they approach that type of session.  and even better, the next day you all get to spend time directing and shooting the models.  great portfolio opportunities!  it sounds like the perfect workshop to me. and i get to be a part of it!! there will also be mentoring sessions available for individuals as well.   i’ll be giving a mentor session on retouching and overall image improvement in photoshop. a crash course if you will to make your photos look even better! mentor sessions are a great way to learn quickly what you need to learn without spending loads of time and money in a classroom.  i’ll be offering mentor sessions to photographers in the months to come  covering many different aspects of photography. contact us for more information. we’d love to chat with you about mentor possibilities!

CLICK HERE go to the website to get more info and to learn about the other instructors.  i hope to see you there!

to read a recent blog post i wrote on products on the pictage blog go HERE.