Thirst Relief International Auction
I've had so many cool charity projects and opportunities come my way lately, it's been AWESOME! For those of you who aren't familiar with the Thirst Relief International auction, let me explain….every year, a bunch of top tier wedding photographers who attend the WPPI convention (which is the largest photo convention in Vegas) donate their time for this very worthy cause. Thirst Relief International will be sponsoring its 3rd annual mentor auction this weekend for a chance for the winning bidders to have a one-on-one consulting session with the photographer of their choice during the convention next month to help raise money to provide clean drinking water to people who need it the most. You will have the opportunity to bid on me (a "Session with Hession") to discuss marketing, sales, business management, work flow or whatever else you need help with right now once the auction begins.
The auction will start this weekend on February 9th at 10 a.m. EST and conclude on the 12th. You can sign up and pre-register now on the auction site, fotoVerite. According to Becker, there was some confusion last year about the way the auction runs. Most people are used to using eBay, which ends at a specific time, so people go in at the last second and place a higher bid (called sniping), not allowing someone else to bid even higher. This auction has an anti snipe feature so the auction doesn't end until someone is not willing to pay any more. Once the auction has ended, if there was a last minute bid, it extends the auction by a few minutes, allowing the person who got outbid, to place another bid, extending the auction by a few more minutes allowing the other person the same opportunity. This goes on until someone is no longer willing to bid higher which is the fairest way to run an auction and most like a real world live auction.
Details of which photographers will be available to mentor will be posted soon on the Thirst Relief blog and of course I'll provide a direct link to where you can bid on me as soon as it's up on Saturday morning and if you read my auction bio closely, my faithful blog readers will be the first to know about an awesome service that we're launching next month, specifically geared towards photographers and business owners. 😉 But, you have to come back on Saturday morning to find out the inside scoop!! 😉 Happy Bidding!!!
27 Dresses
Last night, John & I finally had our date night together! He's been working on taxes for the past month and has been buried in receipts…lol…poor guy. Anyway, after our meeting with our CPA we went to dinner and then he took me to a "chick flick" that I've been wanting to see for awhile now. We saw "27 Dresses" with Katherine Heigl, who was phenomenal in this movie! I saw so much of myself in her, it was hilarious! For any of you blog stalkers that are in the wedding industry or who are brides to be (or if you've ever been a bridesmaid a lot) I highly recommend that you go see this movie…it had such a great (but predictable) ending too… 🙂
Jessica’s Update!
In case you missed this post last week, check out the whole story first…but we have AWESOME news to share…in just ONE WEEK, all of my faithful blog readers have managed to raise over $2,300 for Jessica and we still have 1 more week until we surprise her with the donations. 🙂 Her friend Jess, e-mailed me with an update on her condition last night. Jessica had her MRI last week and is scheduled for a partial mastectomy and port placement soon, then she will get a few weeks to heal before starting chemo. She will have 4 rounds of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation (5 days every week for 6 weeks) and even though they still don't know what "stage" she's in for sure because she hasn't had the lymph node biopsy (that will happen with the partial mastectomy) they do know she's at least stage 2 possibly stage 3 right now. She will be going in for genetic testing this week to see if that played a part in her getting breast cancer. The doctors are now suggesting that if she wants children down the road, she'll need to freeze her eggs soon since her fertility will be affected by all of this. Can you even imagine dealing with all of this at age 30?! To make matters worse, she found out that her insurance won't cover that and it'll cost at least $10,000! We are raising money for her for this because we know that she will survive this, like so many other things in life she has already conquered.
Anyway, I just wanted to post an update for all of you WONDERFUL people who have placed donations for her cause and have offered amazing items that will be raffled off next week in connection with the donations. We will be surprising Jess next week with the bank deposit slip from all of the donations and we'll be sure to post pics of her reaction on the blog!!! 🙂 For every $10 that is donated, your name will be placed in the drawing twice and for every $20 that is donated, your name will be placed in the drawing for 5 chances to win one of the awesome prizes she's raffling off. We donated a gift card for a free portrait session with a high resolution CD included (valued at $599.00), a local dentist office donated a free Zoom whitening session, an optometrist donated a gift certificate for a free eye or contact lens exam and free frames, there are several pairs of IU basketball tickets (16th row, valued at over $100 each) to upcoming home games in Bloomington, Julie's Flowers of Geist donated a $500 gift certificate for flowers or home decor, Faith-Full wedding chapel donated a $175 gift certificate to be used for vow renewals or weddings, Indy Candle Lab donated a gift basket of candles, Bone Fish Grill donated dinner gift certificates and more donations from local restaurants and businesses have been pouring in over the last few days…so there are a few ways we're asking for help from our faithful blog readers if you haven't had a chance to donate yet:
1. You can make a donation on her website (and indicate "Raffle" in the subject line) which will automatically enter you into the drawing for the great prizes and most importantly, it will help a very worthwhile cause!
2. If you are a local business owner or manager and would like to donate something for the raffle, please contact Jess at [email protected]
3. Or if you're like us, you can do both!
Thank you again to all of you who have donated, we're thankful to have such a loyal group of supporters!! 🙂 XOXO
Now hiring…3rd side-shooter for 2008!
We have one coveted position available right now! 🙂 We are looking for one more side-shooter for this year who can join our awesome team and help us out occasionally on the weekends….here's what we're looking for in the ideal candidate:
* Experience photographing weddings (a MUST) either on your own or with another photographer…preferably in a more candid, artsy and journalistic style. (Must be able to pose & photograph formals too though)
* Must understand how to photograph in manual mode 100% of the time…if you don't understand ISO, shutter speeds and apertures, please save us both some time – please do not apply. I'm not looking to extensively train a new person for this 3rd position, you should already have extensive knowledge of lighting, camera techniques, settings, etc.
* Must have great communication skills, sense of humor, personality, ability to direct and pose groups of people quickly and efficiently, and the ability to predict and capture the moment as it's happening – timing is the key to great photographs!!
* Ability to work nights & weekends
* Must have your own reliable transportation
* Must have internet access (and check e-mail frequently!)
* Must have professional appearance and demeanor
* Must be willing to release the copyright of your images to us (we will provide the equipment for all photo shoots, we shoot entirely Nikon)
* Ability to take initiative, work hard, follow directions, think on your own and have fabulous organizational skills!!
To apply, e-mail me your online portfolio (NOT high res images…please don't overload my inbox) to [email protected] with your resume and a paragraph about yourself, why you want to work with us and your desired compensation rate.
And just for fun, here is something hilarious to read – and oh so true!! Check out one of my favorite blogs, Fabuluxe, who posted about this very topic a few weeks back…LOL… 🙂
Changing your last name…
Since my business already had my maiden name in it, there were many reasons why I didn't change my name after the wedding, but I've heard from many brides what a pain it can be and how long the whole process can take so when I ran across this site called Miss Now Mrs. I wanted to tell you all about it! If any of you have used it, let me know how smooth the whole process is and what you thought of it… 🙂