This is the LAST WEEK to enter the 3 girls seniors Top Model Search! For only $199 you will be entered into the 3 girls Top Model Search AND the National Senior Portrait Artists (SPA) Model Search, where you could win a trip to the Riveria resort in California and a national modeling contract!
You MUST call the studio by THIS Thursday, September 30th, to enter. We will then schedule you for a 15-minute headshot session. For details on each of the contests, read on!
Peace and popsicles! 341.4170
Senior Portrait Artists (SPA) Model
As a 2011 high school senior photographed by one of the top model studios - 3 girls photography - you can enter to be a NATIONAL SPA Model! Each senior who enters will receive:
a set of 10 model comp cards
listing on the national spamodels.com site
eligibility to win a national modeling contract
The 15 NATIONAL winners will receive a modeling portfolio and an all-expense paid trip to model at the 2011 SPA event in Palm Springs, California, at the Riviera resort in February, 2011!!!
3 girls seniors TOP Model
3 girls photography will also select our very own TOP Model from our 2011 senior model entries! One of our model entrants WILL win the title of 3 girls seniors TOP Model this year!
The winner will receive:
an exclusive modeling trip to shoot with Jen, Spruce, and a national guest photographer!
a modeling portfolio from the shoot
a video session from the modeling shoot
facebook images from the modeling shoot
a set of 10 model comp cards from the modeling shoot
eligibility to win a national modeling contract
exclusive billing as the 3 girls TOP model of the year!
The 3 girls TOP Model will kick off our 5th annual Lights. Camera. Fashion! show on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011, at the UCO ballrooms!
Finalists will be announced by November 1st, 2010. The 3 girls TOP Model winner will be announced in January, 2011.
fortunately the rain let up just a bit for the homecoming royalty to make their debut at halftime of the edmond north/del city game this past thursday (which they WON - YAY HUSKIES!!). and i must say - everyone looked AWESOME!! well, okay, for the sake of honesty the guys didn't exactly look AWESOME, but they looked exactly like they should at halftime of a football game (assuming you're the ones PLAYING the game, that is...).
katie, cailin, miranda, lee ann, & madeline were simply stunning - SO proud of you girls!!
CONGRATULATIONS KATIE DEAN AND RYAN ADAMS - EDMOND NORTH'S HOMECOMING QUEEN AND KING 2010!
no excuse, really. i had this really cool blog post in my mind last night. then we had some major technical issues. then i fell asleep for 2 hours. then i got up and finished everything i had to do before today.
and now i'm completely and utterly exhausted. two days straight of up-all-nightedness for one creative (or technology-related issue) reason or another. and now i'm heading to bed. hopefully dreamland will refresh my memory on that really cool blog post...
i saw something online the other day that made me realize that many people don't quite understand what it is that makes us professional photographers. whether it be a lack of educating our clients on our part, or simply misunderstanding, i wanted to put it into perspective for those who might not understand the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur.
the post that i saw was something along these lines: person one: 'does anyone know where i can get really cheap pictures?' person two: 'just go to the photography department at school! their cameras are just as good or better than photographers' cameras.'
what stunned me the most was that this person thought that it is the camera that makes the photographer. which couldn't be farther from the truth. the camera itself is merely a tool - nothing more.
take these instances, for example: let's say i go out and buy a $75,000 custom-made guitar. this guitar has all the bells and whistles that any musician would drool over. i strum until it sounds pretty good. does this make me as good as carlos santana or jimi hendrix?
take my friend gary box. he has a rockin' pair of green scrubs that he likes to hang out in for comfort, and darn if he doesn't LOOK like a doctor. he is also really interested in surgery and got a scalpel for Christmas. he reads books about surgery on the weekends. does this make him a doctor? or even a hobbyist doctor?
if i purchase emeril's cookware, does that mean i'm going to be a famous chef?
if i want a great steak, i have a choice. i can either go to outback or i can go to morton's of chicago. both are beef, from the same source, doesn't that make them the same?
what many people fail to realize is the amount of education and time that go into creating a professional photographer. a true photographer can create a phenomenal image with almost any camera. but putting a professional camera into the hands of the untrained, does not create a photographer necessarily. there is so much more to our craft - the mastery of light (professional photography is often referred to as 'painting with light'), creating depth, expressing emotion and feeling, the art of posing, and the cultivated eye of the artist, just to name a few things.
there is much, much more to the distinction, but i wanted to introduce you to the generality of the professional, and why it is we do what we do. we are committed to ongoing education and mastery of our craft and our skills. we do not rely on any features of our camera to do the work for us, rather we put the camera to use as our own tool in creating the final work of art.
if anyone wants to talk more about this, you're more than welcome to email me anytime at info@3girlsphotography.com. photography is one of my favorite subjects on the planet, and i'm always looking to educate and share knowledge!
**in my defense, i actually WROTE this last night around 11pm. but apparently the button next to 'publish' says 'preview'...**
to set this up for you, let me just say that i am really awesome with directions. i rarely get lost, and can usually find my way around anywhere in the car (my husband, on the other hand, can find his way around anywhere flying a PLANE, but on the road can be challenged at times... ;). you can tell me quick directions and i can visualize it and get there with no problems.
however, this weekend in dallas is another story. but after yesterday, i THINK i've figured out the culprit (hee hee). :)
heading down, i managed to make it right to the hotel and convention center with no issues whatsoever. then came the airport. i head off to DFW to pickup sana, todd, andy and kia and decide as i get closer that i am WAY smarter than the navigation system in my car (thus angering her and making her 'recalculate' on numerous occasions on this jaunt). as andy is calling and giving me updates ('at the baggage claim', 'just got outside to such-and-such gate'), i am looping around the airport WAY far out in a circle next to tall grass and obscure air cargo signs. it was straight out of european vacation ('look kids - big ben! parliament!').
after eventually backtracking twice and following a remote parking bus, i manage to make it to the terminal and find my peeps. at this point, todd hops in front and gets the oh-so-glamorous job of being in charge of navigating ('just follow the blue line on the navigation system and we'll be all good'). todd, however, has my personality. which means we like to have fun and get distracted easily... so after a few 'oops! we're going north! we need to go south!' loops, we eventually get on track and head towards the hotel (stopping for lunch at the awesome cracker barrel mentioned earlier).
the next evening, we head out for a really late dinner when the show wraps up, and this time andy hops in the front seat. i feel much more confident as andy is more focused and we're all hungry (so i figure this should be easy). AND the restaurant is only a mere half mile away (YAY!).
insert road construction, road blocks, one way streets, and yes - an actual 'big ben! parliament!' roundabout (that is deserted), and you end up with us finally making it CLOSE to the restaurant and parking next door at a fedex kinkos (it was a 'you can't get there from here' scenario). fortunately the small hill we had to walk down to get to the restaurant was pretty easy to navigate. :)
however, last night put my dear friend mike hanline in the front seat in the directional role. while i won't go into my thoughts on his driving skills, let me just say that he is on top of the navigational skills. we managed to make it to our destination far away with no wrong turns or mishaps of any kind. and his directions for heading back were just as clear. thanks mike!!
so in order to make myself feel a whole lot better, i have decided that the antisdels and bondurants must have come to dallas with some misdirectional aura about them that messed with my awesome driving skills. but in their defense, the drives and meals were some of the best times and best stories, so i'm pretty sure there's a reason for everything... :)
i'm down in arlington for our regional convention this weekend - SWPPA (southwest professional photographers association). you pronounce it SWAPPA. i just like saying that out loud. SWAPPA. (giggle).
anyway, it's really an incredible time, and though i wasn't sure i'd be able to get away until last week, i'm super glad i came. i'm not a big fan of conventions in general, and i can't sit still for more than 2 minutes at a time (and only if i have something shiny to stare at). which makes it sound less than appealing.
but i had some great reasons that pulled me into coming at the last minute, and some incredibly close friends who i was excited to spend time with. so here i am. right across from six flags, cowboys stadium, and the ballpark. IN-CRED-I-BLE. is all i can say about that... (reeeeeally want to go to six flags, but wishing my little peeps were here with me instead so we could all go).
i'm already exhausted and we're not even halfway through. i'm coming home with so many new things on the horizon for us, new backgrounds and furniture, and new ideas in general, that i haven't even got my thoughts organized yet. i SO love what i do - the passion for a photographer's craft is something that never goes away in my eyes.
yesterday i picked up my good friends kia and andy bondurant, and sana and todd antisdel (from antisdels photography and SPA (senior portrait artists - spartists.com)) from the airport and we headed to the world's best restaurant - CRACKER BARREL. i think it's putting it mildly to say that these guys eat there a LOT, as todd was flexing his vast knowledge of all things cracker barrel. it was a great time where we all got crazy drunk on sweet tea (the ACTUAL sweet tea, not sweet tea vodka - sugar, remember??), but sana and i were a bit disappointed that we were the only ones that wanted to shop at the conclusion of the meal. so sorry honey, i won't be bringing home that custom-painted cracker barrel rocking chair you've been longing for...
i'm VERY excited about the new things coming our way, and SUPER pumped about sharing them with you guys in time! til then, have a wonderful weekend everyone, and BOOMER SOONER!!!
so a good friend recently challenged me to blog more. or blog at all i suppose. and i took her up on it (i'm sure i'll regret this in about a week - roughly the same time you start to get annoyed with yourself by committing to that new exercise plan you were so excited to start).
so here's the deal - i'm going to blog at least one post a day for 30 days. that's it. no extra hard rules of content requirements, image requirements (i'm on the road now, so images are difficult at the moment), or length. just a post per day.
and if i lose i have to pay a heavy penalty, so i'm determined to make it. i'm not competitive by nature, but i don't like paying fines either, so that's a good start to motivation.
for those of you that blog, what is it that keeps you from it for periods of time? it's not that i don't LOVE to blog, it's actually quite the opposite - i like to blog too MUCH. it's not that i don't have topics i want to blog about, it's that i have too MANY. i can't ever decide what to type so then i end up rambling (admit it, that's exactly what you were thinking RIGHT NOW). but i love to talk, and i love to type. so if you're still with me at this point, let's see how long we can roll...
just a few quick updates! first - as most of you have noticed our website is a bit wonky these days. no worries! we've got it under control and should have everything where it should be in the next few days.
second - we're getting booked up FAST for this fall - WOW! so we want to let everyone know that if you're planning your family portraits for the fall that you'll want to call now to book the best times!
we do have 3 specials for our families this fall - Urban Families, Christmas in October, and Fall Leaves - that we want to share with you before they are completely booked. Urban Families only has 5 sessions left available, and Fall Leaves only has 6 sessions remaining. both of these sessions are our full family sessions on location at one of our exclusive sites.
Christmas in October is our annual Limited Edition Christmas Card Special sessions designed for our clients who are looking mainly for Christmas cards. these sessions are 15-minutes, and include one outfit. they also carry a special session fee of only $35, and this is the one time of year we have special print and Christmas card pricing.
NOTE: Christmas deadlines are thursday, november 11th. all sessions photographed on or before this date are guaranteed to have your final portraits delivered by Christmas.
so grab your calendars and call the studio anytime during normal studio hours (monday through thursday from 9am to 4pm) to book your family portraits today! 405.341.4170
have a great week everyone! peace and popsicles - jen :)
introducing 3G SPORTS!!
3 girls photography's very own Spruce Derden is now photographing local edmond sports - WOO HOO!
be sure to check out www.3gsports.net often to order your favorite images from the games.
spruce is a sports FANATIC, and has been published in some of the best magazines in the country, including Sports Illustrated (no, not the swimsuit issue, but i'm sure he's working on it!). so if you see him at the games be sure and say 'hi' and then check out www.3gsports.net to see what he was up to at the game!
