I've recently been going through old albums and boxes of prints that I need to get organized. There are SO many containers full. When my grandmother passed, I took the prints and albums from her house because they were the most important to me of everything there. They literally tell the stories of hers and all of our lives. There is something so emotional and powerful about holding these images in my hands and going through them. Images from our lives can truly bring us back to a moment in time. We can feel it in our body and our emotions are triggered. My grandmother was lost way too soon and my grandfather much earlier than her. Most of the younger cousins never had the chance to meet them or did for only a short time. But we have these images to share, to tell them the stories about them and have visuals of who they were and what they did. They especially love seeing images of themselves and their parents younger. When I look at those images, I get very emotional. I was fortunate to have a lot of time with my grandmother as a child and she was one of the most important people in my life. She had Alzheimers and I ended up taking care of her at a young age myself and that whole experience was difficult. However, when I look at images of her from before then and of images of us together, it's overwhelmingly happy emotion. It brings me back to those summers we spent at our cottage or the days we spent singing and dancing around her kitchen. It brings me back to her quirky personality and the way she used to sit and curl her hair every morning at the table with her tea and a cigarette. Looking at images from even before I was around teaches me my family's history. Further, it shows the difference in culture, clothing and settings that are nostalgic and educational. I fear many are losing this. This ability to pull open an album or keepsake box of prints to view and share. Let's face it. We take SO many Digitals. TOO MANY digitals. We don't truly enjoy them or look back at them. What will we do later to Hand them down? "Here's my password and 100,000 photos. Enjoy." I want the future generations in my family to be able to pull out albums and prints of the most important times in their lives and enjoy them rather than them sitting on a hard drive with excessive amounts of images that include outtakes and 10 of the same image. I want them to feel and touch the images and sit next to each other viewing them and laughing/crying. I keep framed images around my apartment and will have more once I have more space. These next two are images I clearly remember taking many years ago of two important people. They are more valuable to me now because this cousin is grown and graduating college and I can look at this and remember that exact day I took the picture. The second is the man who was like a grandfather to me and passed away two years ago. I never got to say goodbye and he was so special, I am happy I have this image of him to look at every day as I walk by that shelf. It puts a smile on my face. This image was taken in Italy the first time I spent a full 3 weeks there. It was an unbelievable experience and though, I have many digital images from it, I printed the most important ones so I could enjoy them and looking at them can take me right back to that life changing trip in an instant. It's especially great to see these images if I'm having a tough day or not feeling well because they always put a smile on my face. I've been taking old images and creating high quality albums. This one is already more valuable to me since these girls are growing up so fast and they seem so much older than they were even 3 years ago when they were taken. Their personalities shine through and I can't wait to hand these printed products down to them later on. I print photos taken with my good camera and even iPhone photos. I choose favorites that capture moments that were really special or important. I keep them displayed and as the previous ones mentioned, they continue to become even more valuable to me as time moves forward. ![]() So, why do I share this all with you? Because I want you to PRINT YOUR PHOTOS. There are so many apps to help you organize and print your cell phone favorites in little books or prints. They may not be the best quality but they are still worth printing!
As for hiring a professional, whether myself or someone else, take advantage of having those images printed for you. Not only will that already be done and you don't have to think about it when your life is already so busy, but they'll be on quality you know will last. Many of the images I'm going through are actually faded and grainy (and makes me sad) which happens to prints over time if they are printed at places like CVS and Shutterfly. Your most important images, the ones you hire a photographer for, should certainly be printed on the BEST quality that will truly last to hand down to future generations. Don't let your children and grandchildren miss out on this beautiful tradition of pulling out prints and albums and being able to see the stories of theirs and your life. Best, Nicole
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My goal is to always capture clients in a truly authentic way. This boy is always on the move. He does NOT like posed photos or being told to do a particular thing like many kids his age. But, if you engage him, let him explore and play, he is in his element and every bit of his personality shines through. THAT is what I want to capture for YOU. Your family's true personalities. The little and big things that make each person unique at this very moment because that time is fleeting. This boy will change interests over time, but his love of climbing trees, running around and eating berries off a bush will be frozen forever in these images.
To Start your experience, reach out today so set up a no-obligation consult to get to know me and what I have to offer you. Here's the thing. I want you to ENJOY your images regularly. I don't want them to be forgotten on your computer or iCloud. Did you know that seeing images of themselves around the home increases a child's confidence and sense of belonging? How important is that? Printed images can literally change your day around. Imagine you are having a bad day and you then see this beautiful image of your family together on the wall or you pull out the album or prints and it turns your mood from frustrated to happy. This is why I believe in a COMBINATION of digitals and printed products. I know you want to share on social media and you may want them for small projects later on, but I also want you to enjoy them. So, social media went down today and we all freaked out, right? I've had clients tell me that the main reason they want digital images is to share on social media and I've even had people say, "well, if something happens to my phone, all of my pictures are on Facebook and instagram so I'm all set." NOPE! Guess what? ALL technology is vulnerable, whether social media, your phone, your computer or your iCloud storage. My boyfriend is a tech guy. He admits this is true. I hear horror stories from people I know whose Instagram suddenly disappeared and was never recovered, a phone that died and all photos were lost, a cloud service that had a glitch and things went missing. IF you are good about backing up every photo you have in multiple places (hard drive, external drives, AND cloud, the chances you'll lose them are high. However, even if you do this, they can still be lost. Imagine losing all of those beautiful memories? Sure, we have them in our heads but how do you share them with others, with your children as they get older and don't remember or your future grandchildren? The other thing to think about in terms of digital images is that we take SO MANY photos now. Let's be real. To get that one picture we want (even me in some situations), it takes a bunch of outtakes. I mean, I take pictures of my nephew with my regular camera every week but I also take a TON with my phone. This is just a few screen shots of series of shots I've taken. SO, what do you think you'll do later on with your images? Hand your child(ren) your hard drive(s) or iCloud password(s) and say "here you go. Here are the 100,000+ photos from your life. Enjoy"? Just thinking about that overwhelms me. So, I have two suggestions: 1. PRINT YOUR PHOTOS, even your phone photos. Sure, they may not be the best quality products, but do it anyway. Then, you will actually be ENJOYING them. You can use apps to print collages, end of the year photo books, and other items. As for your professional images, all of those cheap consumer labs are about quantity OVER quality so they won't look exactly as the photographer has created them (coloring/contrast/etc) and won't stand the test of time. Stay tuned for my post coming up on this. I was going through old photo albums and the professional ones from 35+ years ago are still looking great. The ones we printed ourselves? Blurry, grainy, faded just like those memories. It made me really sad. 2. When you invest in professional photography, you are investing in an experience where an expert captures your family exactly as you want. You get to be IN the pictures and you are capturing the more special memories of your life. It's not something you do every day, maybe not even every year. So, choose someone who will print them for you on a quality that will last for you to hand down to your children later on. If you are investing in professional photography, invest in professional products for those images as well. It will be WELL worth it. If you have a combination of digitals and printed product of your most important and favorite images, you can be absolutely sure that you will have them 30, 40, 50+ years from now!
Imagine when your child is grown and heading off to college, how valuable these images will be to you and how easy it will be to put out that album, that keepsake box of prints, look up at that piece of wall art and remember when they snuggled on your lap or held you hand while walking. What is the other advantage to having your photographer print all of your products? They design them as well. So, you don't have to do ANYTHING but choose you favorites. I mean, you are BUSY. You have a lot going on and that is one more thing off your plate. It will be done for you instead of becoming a task that could get put off and never happen. Or that takes away from time you could be doing something else. Trust me. It's worth it. I just wanted to share these thoughts after that social media crash where I saw so many people freaking out! X, Nicole Your brand is extremely important. It defines your business and what you offer as well as who YOU are. Your business is an extension of YOU. Defining your brand is crucial so that you stand out from everyone else around you. Whether you are service or product based, you will find that once you figure out what you want your brand to be, it will then become easier to define your niche, pricing and marketing plan. The images you use to marketing yourself and your business are also part of your brand. They show potential and current clients WHO and WHAT your business is and entices them to want more or at least it should! The images you use as your head shots, in your printed materials and in all virtual outlets need to capture your personality as well as what you are trying to convey to your clients. Do you have a service based business? You want to entice your target market to work with YOU over another business. What sets you apart? What pulls them in? I work with clients by having an in depth planning meeting where I learn more about their business as well as their personality and we talk about your goals. I also assist in choosing wardrobe and offering styling advice and ensuring that you feel stress free heading into our session. Branding sessions don't have to feel like a lot of work. They shouldn't be stiff and boring like traditional head shots. They should be fun. After all, this is your business, your baby, what you get out of bed in the morning to do every day! Let's work together to create images that make clients want to work with YOU and buy YOUR products.
To learn more, please visit my Head Shot and Branding Page AND/OR Contact ME to discuss your custom branding session. I first visited Cinque Terre in 2011 and fell in love with it. I've gone back many times since and have made friends who are like family there. I consider it a home away from home. This year, I decided that I want to share what makes Cinque Terre so special with others! With my knowledge of the area, (both the tourist and off the beaten track spots), locals who can fill in the gaps, and my experience there, I think I am the perfect person to show you this magical place. We will hike, enjoy amazing food and drinks, explore these perfect villages and learn from locals. You will have 6 days of my time, guiding you to the best spots, places to eat and shop and best of all, you will see it in a way you wouldn't otherwise. We will dine at the best restaurants, take a sunset cruise, enjoy a local wine tasting and so much more! Bonus, get some professional images of yourself in this amazing location. It's ALL included! View just a taste of the Cinque Terre in the images below and click the link at the bottom of the page for more information and to sign up! Email me at nicole@nicoleoneilphotography.com with any questions! Learn more about this unique experience!
I'm a big believer in things happening for a reason. A little overshare but I want to share my experience in case it helps anyone else and also speak to the expertise of this client. In the Spring, I started to have horrible back issues and was at the point where I was in so much pain, I was hunched over walking and in pain constantly. I decided to seek out a chiropractor. I contacted three in one day and one replied back within an hour (I literally never heard back from the other two). Within a week, I was in much less pain. This all stems from a major trauma almost 6 years ago which caused my body to go into fight or flight for an extended amount of time as I dealt with major anxiety and other issues. As the different parts of our bodies affect each other, my major digestive illnesses over the last 5 years, I believe, are caused by this happening. If I had realized how directly related my spine was to all of this then, I probably would have started chiropractic sooner and wouldn't be to the point I am now. But, I feel confident this was one of my missing pieces and that my back and system will continue healing. If you are in the Norwood area, I highly recommend Saulnier Family Chiropractic. Dr. Marc is knowledgable and helps many! At my first appointment, he mentioned they were looking to get new family photos with their 3 year old in the Fall. We set up a date eventually and had some beautiful weather at Belkin Farm in Natick. I love when clients pick a place they frequently spend time together. It makes a session very special. Marc and Jill have lots of love for their beautiful girl and she is full of personality. I absolutely adored capturing her. I have been waiting to share these images because some reveal that they are expecting and I couldn't ruin the surprise! I can't wait to capture their new addition, a little boy with this big sister. Enjoy! Contact me today to book your session! All February in home lifestyle sessions receive an extra $100 product credit if booked by January 30! When you find out your chiropractor can juggle. When you're three, it's very hard to be told you can't go play in the ridiculously crowded playground that is basically all mud from recent rain. But also in true 3 year old fashion, it's back to smiles shortly thereafter.
We live in a digital world. We want everything at our fingertips. For many photographers, myself included, the digital age brought a shift from ensuring our clients had quality products to providing digital images instead and basically for free. I followed the trend. I thought I was doing what was best for my clients, my business and me. But, I don't think that is the case. I think as an industry, we've been doing a huge disservice to our clients and to ourselves as artists. A few weeks ago, I went looking for an old picture on an old external hard drive. I then, discovered folders of personal images I hadn't even remembered existed. I spent hours looking through folder after folder of images forgotten, collecting "dust" on these old drives. I also thought of the day my laptop was stolen and with it, two hard drives that had a bunch of my personal digital items on them (work stuff was luckily backed up in many places). Or the time I lost two hard drives at once. They simply stopped working on the same day. Those images and documents are gone forever OR I can pay $1000 to see if they can possibly be recovered. I hear people who lose everything from their phone when it dies. Again, gone forever. My boyfriend is a tech guy. He has told me that even the cloud storage we've come to love and rely on is highly vulnerable. UGH, right? My solution is that it's best to have both hard copies and digital. SO, as much as you take so many (TOO MANY) images, make sure you print out the ones most important to you to be sure they are safe. And also, try to be more intentional as you take images on your phone. It's easy to snap 20 images at a time but you need ONE good one. It doesn't have to perfect. It just has to capture that memory. Every so often, I pull out the old albums from my grandmother's house. I go through boxes of prints I am starting the daunting task of scanning and putting into new albums. I even have some framed prints that I still keep in my home. I love seeing my family back then, my grandmother and her siblings at a young age, my mother and hers as well and then, of course, us when we were little. At the time, you could only get prints. You didn't just buy the negatives. And, so, I have these memories because they were printed and on high quality papers that would last. Here is one framed picture I have of my mother and I. I'm so glad they had this and not just a negative because I would not have this print to enjoy, 37 years later. And this was printed through a professional studio so the paper and inks were archival and great quality for it to last this long. Shutterfly or similar would have been fading by long before now. How are you going to hand down your images someday? We take SO MANY. I have almost 14,000. YES, FOURTEEN THOUSAND images on my phone and that's just since the last time I deleted a bunch. Add on all of the images I take with my camera and that people send me. How do you hand that down? Do you hand over a hard drive or a password to cloud storage and say, "here you go. Good luck weeding through 100,000+ pictures I took over my lifetime." Are they even organized to easily locate images? I can say, I'd be pretty annoyed if someone did that to me and I wouldn't ever actually look through them all and enjoy all of the memories of those special moments. Plus, we don't even know what formats pictures will be in. I used to give CDs but my computer doesn't even have a CD drive. USBs are already becoming obsolete. Technology changes FAST. When you have digitals, you have to back up everything and continue backing it all up to the latest technology. Even if you have it in a cloud, there is no guarantee it will be safe and free from loss.
So, that brings me to the benefits of product over digitals. If you spend money on a photo shoot with a professional, you are wanting great images of your kids and your family, memories that will last a lifetime, if you can easily view them. How fun to go back 20 years from now when your children are off to or out of college and see those beautiful moments you spent together when they were little. How great to hand down some tangible products, easily viewable to them and their future kids and grandkids. To me, THAT is the long term reason why we take photos and the reason we invest in photography. Maybe you're unlike most of my clients who come back telling me they still haven't done anything with the digitals they have, months or years later. Maybe you print some. But, where? Shutterfly? CVS? I can assure you, those won't stand the test of time. See my comment above. They also can't be guaranteed to even look close to what a professional lab does. Every printer is different. I match my files to my labs. I can't ensure what you print elsewhere will look right. I've had countless clients come back to me to purchase new products because they tried not their own and were disappointed. I want clients to have the absolute best quality products to pass down through generations. I want you to actually ENJOY your images, your investment every day in your home, whether with beautiful wall art or an album to browse through and share with others. I want to provide a full service experience from beginning to end, from planning the session down to every detail and then helping narrow down your favorite images from the session (let's be honest, they aren't all favorites) and find the products that work best for you. It ends with design and personal delivery of your finished items. I offer a wide range of products for every need. Some don't want to hang a lot of pictures on the wall. Albums, to me are the best option. As I look through my grandmother's albums, I think of this. Even better, they aren't albums like when we were young, so there aren't prints now slipping out of the sleeves. My prints last from 75-120 years depending on which you get. Albums will last 100-200 years (depending on how you care for it) so you can be sure your grandchildren will still have those memories of you and their parents and can share with their own children. The thought of this gives me goosebumps, honestly. There are options for every need, from small products to large and in different styles to suit your taste. They aren't cheap but that is because they are only the best quality and ensure quality control by an actual person through every step of the printing process. They are well worth the investment. YOUR memories are worth it. Think about how you spend money on a weekend away, a great dinner, fake lashes, skin care. You do you. Spend on what you want and see the value in for YOU. This photography investment is just spending money on quality products that will last a lot longer than any of those things. ;) Now, does this mean I don't offer digitals? Absolutely not. I see the value to clients to have digitals to add to their yearly albums that also include cell phone pictures. Sure, these won't last as long and aren't the highest quality, but they are still very important. I also know it's fun to share on social media and have images on your phone to look at. So, digitals are still offered. They come in some sets complimentary with albums and other keepsakes and they are available in sets of images at a premium price. Please remember, many photographers are giving them away for free. This is a mistake of the photography industry. These people are not making an income on their most valuable product. I value myself and the art I create. I have worked very hard to learn and grow and I continue learning and growing to provide beautiful images to my clients and seeing as digitals can be printed as many times and on as many different mediums as a client wants once they are released, I do have to figure that in when I provide digitals. Hopefully you can respect that. This is my art, this is what I work hard to create for YOU, this is my original work. Sure, I would do this all for free if I didn't have to actually make a living but that's not the case. I need to provide housing, food, health insurance and everything else everyone else does. ;) Let's chat more about preserving those precious memories in a concrete and lasting way. Don't hand over your hard drive one day to your children. Spare them that task. :) Lifestyle Sessions have become my absolute favorite! I love capturing "real life" for people. While it's fun to have a nice posed or fun pic for your holiday card, lifestyle sessions provide memories of what your life is like together, of your true personalities and what you do together for fun. Whether it's at home, playing in the playroom or yard, baking cookies, or simply doing every day things like this family did, or out at a park or out enjoying the city, these are a perfect way to document your family!
When Kayla contacted me to do a lifestyle session to document her son turning two, her pregnancy, and their last shoot as a family of 3, I was excited! They have a gorgeous bathroom and little A likes to hang in there. It's where they get ready together for the day and for bed at night, so it was a perfect place to grab some shots. We also did some on the bed (another great family spot), and outdoors just spending time together in the yard. I highly encourage everyone to at least try one of these shoots and see if you don't fall in love with the results. ;) Contact me to learn more and enjoy these images. {click to see larger} HI! It's been a while! I have made a promise to myself and my business that I will be better about blogging. I have been spending months reworking my business to be sure I can provide a very personal, custom and all inclusive experience for every single client. This new model will also allow me time to blog and focus on sharing the awesome images and products I offer. I want to start by showing off his beautiful album. It is my Signature Heirloom Album. It is a 30 page, 10x10 custom designed album, printed on super thick archival paper with a beautiful leather cover. This is my top selling album. The quality and size is perfect for preserving the beautiful memories I capture for my clients! This album is guaranteed to last 100 years if kept out and up to 200 years if stored mostly in it's box! There are so many great options available including the following:
4 additional sizes Image cover Other cover options # of pages I belive albums are the best way to get all of your favorite memories in one, easy to view and share place to last more than a lifetime! It's the perfect product to hand down to the next generation. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have my grandmothers albums. Negatives (physical or digital) won't stand the test of time. An album definitely will. Contact me today to learn more and book your experience! Every year, I spend the slower months going over my last year, analyzing my business, and figuring out what I need to do for the coming year. This year, I did a much more thorough analysis than I ever have and realized I needed big changes. I have been working hard to create a new business model that will be great for me and my business but also great for my clients. I am beyond excited for 2017 and being able to provide every client with a very personal, custom and high end portrait experience from start to finish. I'm overjoyed that each client who has experienced this new model has been extremely happy with their experience and have received beautiful art and products that will last multiple lifetimes.
I look forward to continuing to capture beautiful memories for my past and new clients, freezing those moments in time and providing a way to enjoy them every day. Contact me today to learn more about booking your own Portrait or Newborn Experience! The following are available: Family, Newborn, Head Shots, Senior Portraits, Lifestyle and Styled sessions, Events, and Weddings. |
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