Sneak Peek

This cute little 5 month old was the reason for this session! He is such a happy baby, smiling easily whenever anyone talked to him. His older brother and sister were just as easy to shoot during the session, and seemed to enjoy their time in front of the camera. I should have their proofs ready soon, but for now, enjoy the sneak peek!

Opryland Resort and Convention Center

I just wanted to share some pictures from our visit to the Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN. I've never seen a hotel/resort like this, it was just unbelievable. There were 3 large atriums with glass paneled ceilings, and tons of plants and trees inside as well as water running through it and waterfalls. We even took a boat ride through one of the atriums, and had the best lunch at one of it's many restaurants. I don't normally shoot flowers or landscapes, but in this place you just can't help it.

Pond Pictures

Card Prices (Change Again)

Okay, I realize the card prices keep changing, but hopefully this is the last time. I set the prices for cards as low as possible to offer them as a convenience for my clients. After I selected a printer for the cards and set the first prices, they then changed the minimum quantity to 12 instead of 24 AND increased the prices. I have selected a better printer, which has allowed me to lower the prices per card on all sizes except the 5x5s, and now all orders must be in sets of 25. Please email me if you have any questions. I may even be able to give you a price for ordering cards in increments of 1 after the initial set of 25.

PRICES
4x5.5 Flat: $26.00 Folded: $36.00
5x5 Flat: $30.00 Folded: $40.00
5x7 Flat: $32.00 Folded: $44.00

Availability & Mini Sessions

After a few months of sessions and our daily routines changing because of the school year, I have come to realize that the best time to do sessions is weeknight evenings and weekends. Outdoor sessions will only be booked for the last hour before sunset. If you're planning to book a session, please keep these times in mind.

I hope these changes do not inconvenience anyone, but I am a stay-at-home-mom and my photography business is new so I'm still working on the best way to balance the two, and as far as when to conduct sessions, this seems to be the best schedule.

Also, you may notice on my calendar that I'm only booking 1-2 sessions a week right now. The reason for this is so that I may have proofs available for veiwing quickly, as well as delivery orders quickly. September is completely booked, but there are sessions available in October and November is wide open. Start thinking about fall portraits (outdoors of course!) and holiday cards!

If you would like a mini session, which would typically include 10-30 minutes of shooting with a smaller number of proofs, possibly around as many as 5-10 proofs, for just a milestone portrait or card/announcement/invitation for holidays, birthday parties, or other events, then please contact me.

If you have done a session with me already and would like to use a photo from that session for a card/announcement/invitation, please contact me.

Contest Details

For this contest there will be 3 age groups like last time: 2 weeks-2 years, 3-10 years, and 11-17 years. The entry that receives the most votes in each age group will receive a free session and a $50 credit to apply to their order, and each entry will receive a free session and a $10 credit. No one will be obligated to purchase more pictures.

To enter simply send 1 photo of your son/daughter between the ages of 2 weeks and 17 years to christi@christisullivanphotography.com by Thursday, September 18. A simple snapshot of your son/daughter having fun over the summer will be perfect. Please do not send in professional photos. All entrants should live in one of the areas served listed to the right, or be willing to travel to King George for the session (or to one of the areas served if an outdoor session is requested). **One entry per category per family. If you have 3 children, one in each age group, you may submit an entry for each one. If you have more than one child for one age group, please only submit one photo.**

I will post all photos by category here on my blog on Sunday, September 21st. Send all of your family and friends here to vote for your entry between September 21st and September 28th (polls close at midnight). The winners will be announced here and notified by email on Monday, September 29th.

Having the contest now will allow the winners and entrants time to schedule a session if Christmas portraits/cards are desired.

Start sending in your entries today!

4x6s are now available!

I've had many requests for 4x6 size prints, and even though I originally did not intend to offer these, I want to make my clients happy. I also see where it would be nice to have that size as an option especially for cake smash sessions or any time you might want 4x6s for albums or for scrapbooking. So 4x6s are now available for $7.00 each (if you're getting 50% off prices then that's $3.50, or if you booked on/after August 16 then you'll receive the 25% off prices at $5.25).

Upcoming Contest and Card Pricing Changes

Keep checking the blog for details about a new contest I'm going to have this month. I originally planned to have one in October, but after thinking about how it takes about a month total to put out details, receive entries, and the voting time, plus the time for everyone to schedule their sessions, and at this time of year you will want to start thinking about Christmas cards and such. In order to get the winners in for a session in November or possibly earlier, this contest needs to happen soon. So, start looking for that photo of your little one (or big one) enjoying the summer fun!

Also, my cards are now going to be offered in sets of 12 instead of 24, so the prices will be changed, which I will be posting soon.

Almost 12 Months Old

You might remember this little girl, I took her pictures in June and she's almost 12 months old now. Since she'll be celebrating her birthday soon, her mom wanted a picture for her birthday announcement, and then we did a cake smash. I'll be sharing the cake smash pictures once they're all done.

I love that she looks like she's thinking here.

She's not happy with us here because of the hat that mom brought along! On the larger picture I can even see a little tear. Normally I don't like pictures of children crying, but I do like to include images that show a range of emotions, and this is one of the emotions she expressed during the session and we do want to remember every little detail of their expressions as they grow, so it's worth sharing.

***

I'm slowly catching up from vacation, where I actually thought it would be possible to work, but I do not know what I was thinking. Between having 2 little ones with us, spending time with our friends in Mississippi, and time on the road plus time exploring new cities, it just wasn't possible. Plus the internet was on and off at my friend's house, and one hotel did not have wifi. The last two hotels we stayed in did so I was sure to take advantage of that late at night to catch up when everyone was sleeping because I knew that getting everything settled back home would take some time. Do you ever feel like you need a vacation when you return from vacation? It's a lot of work, but definitely worth the opportunity to make memories as a family and to expose the kids to new things. Most of all I was just happy to have the time in Mississippi with my friend, and as much as being home is always nice especially after so much time on the road and 4 hotels, I miss her so much!

Thank you for your patience!

Since I have been gone for the last 2 weeks with limited internet connectivity, many of my clients have waited patiently for their orders and I appreciate that. I have received many emails that I've been responding to, but if I have missed your email, please let me know. We do not go out of town often, and we don't ever go away for this long, so this is not normal practice!

I'm Back!

It's been a while since I've posted here, but I've been out of town since last Tuesday on an awesome trip. My best friend, who was my college roommate at VT, lives in Mississippi, and even though I just saw her and her little boy in April in Williamsburg, it was time to visit them at their home. We haven't been to Mississippi in 3 years, which was when we went down for their wedding when Mykenzi was Camden's age. Since then they'd moved and obviously had a little boy, who is just 6 days older than Camden. So, we decided to drive down there, and in order to break up the car time for the kids we made several stops along the way in cities we wanted to see, that we otherwise would not have.

Our first stop was at a hotel in Radford so that we could visit the Virginia Tech campus the next day (it was move in time there so we couldn't get a hotel in Blacksburg). It was awesome though to see everyone moving in, and really brought back a lot of memories to my husband and I. We try to visit the campus once a year, but this was the first time that we actually walked through our old dorm, Lee Hall, which is where we both lived our Freshman year and also where we met. It was neat to show all of this to Mykenzi and to explain it to her. We left there and drove to Nashville where we had dinner at The Aquarium Restaurant at the Opry Mills Mall, which was delicious, and we strolled around the outside of the Grand Ole Opry House and through the Gaylord Opryland Hotel (this place is absolutely gorgeous, pictures to come soon). Then we made the trip to Mississippi where we stayed with my friend's family, and after several days there, waking up with all 3 kids playing, going shopping, and lunches and dinners together, it wasn't easy to leave. They took us to many of their favorite local restaurants, and her husband is a HUGE Alabama fan so we went over to Tuscaloosa for some great ribs at a restaurant called Dreamland, shopped for a while, and also visited the University of Alabama campus. We then traveled to Savannah, GA because believe it or not, Mykenzi loves Paula Deen, and since I've been trying to teach her to name states on a map, she has learned that Paula Deen lives in Georgia, so we added that stop to our trip, which was rather out of the way. We had her all pumped up to eat at her restaurant, The Lady & Sons, and then I did some research and found that people wait for hours to just put their name down to eat at this place, and we decided to tell her that it just wouldn't be possible (who wants to wait in line for hours with 2 kids?). When we arrived we saw that the line wasn't too bad that evening (although we were starving and didn't have time to wait) and since we get up early with the kids we figured it would be easy to put our names down once the host came out to accept names (they don't do phone reservations for parties less than 10). We were there 30 minutes early and were the 5 table in line, but the first to select the earliest time, so we were all excited that we were actually going to get to eat there. We had some time to walk around Savannah (beautiful place by the way), and when we actually spotted Jamie Deen walking down the street right toward us, and we just stood there. When he reached us, before we even said a word, he bent down and started talking to Mykenzi (who by the way was given a pamphlet with Paula Deen's picture on it the night before by a lady running a touring service who found out she was a fan of Paula Deen's, and she held on to that thing all evening and the next morning went looking for it again, and proceeded to carry it around town with her all morning). Mykenzi clammed up as she often does around strangers, and we teased that she was star-struck since she didn't talk for another 15 minutes or so even after he walked away, but we did get his autograph. Paula was out of town so we didn't get to see her like Mykenzi was really hoping for, but we did see the other son. Lunch at The Lady & Sons was amazing and so filling, we definintely weren't disappointed there. After all that excitement and full bellies we headed to Wrightsville Beach, NC, which is pretty, but I enjoyed Downtown Wilmington the most. We actually saw the filming of a One Tree Hill scene this morning, and we saw Bethany Joy Galeotti. We weren't close enough to hear the dialogue, but we were close enough to see her and to be shhed by a crew member (Mykenzi was loud, but I was probably just as loud in pointing out who we saw to her). In addition to that we saw several public locations where One Tree Hill is filmed, and we spent a little time on the beach for Mykenzi (Camden hated the sand and refused to be put down).

Hopefully I'll have a chance to post some pictures soon, but it's just been crazy lately! I hope you're enjoying the last of summer. While I'm not at all eager to send my daughter back to preschool next week, I am very much looking forward to fall which is my favorite season!

Holiday Cards are Here!

Here is a small sample of the holiday card designs I'm offering this season. Some of them can really be used for any occasion, not just to extend holiday wishes to your family and friends. These cards are all 5x7 or 5x5, but I may be able to format some of the designs to 4x5.5. Future designs will include size 4x8. While all of the designs on my site will be shown as flat cards for now (meaning you only see the front), most of the designs are also available as folded cards. You can view the rest of the holiday cards on my website in the Cards gallery. More designs for any occasion will soon be added.

Birthday Girl Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peak of yesterday's birthday girl!

Happy 1st Birthday!

This little girl came for her one year session today! What a sweetie! Can't you tell? She was just adorable, and constantly on the move! This isn't her full sneak peek, but I just wanted to share a couple now.

Holiday Cards & More

Here is a sample of one of the holiday cards I'm going to offer this holiday season! I'm so excited about this set that I couldn't wait to show at least one of them. Soon the rest of the holiday set will be available for viewing on my website, along with cards for birth announcements and birthday invitations, all which can really be used for any occasion!

This card is a 5x5 flat, so I will be adding prices for 5x5s as well as prices for folded 4.5x5, 5x5, and 5x7.

Family Session

Another gorgeous family! This family was fun and so quick, they only took one hour for the whole session, and we did a lot of different poses. Here's a sneak peek from their session, I hope the family likes them!

Here's one of my contest winners! She's such a sweet girl,

and such a big helper with the two little guys!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these shots of all 3 kids together!