Halloween 2007

Anyone who knows us, knows that we are REALLY INTO Halloween. We've become local celebrities in the last couple years, starting with just a graveyard on the front lawn.

My husband is an actor in local theatre, and a few years ago I (kinda) jokingly suggested we make a sortof "costume" for the house, using basically "stage flats". So just for kicks and giggles, we talked to a friend of ours who designs sets for a local theatre, and she came to our house, got measurements, and custom-designed a facade for our house. 2 years later (last year), we decided to actually give it a go.

If I had known how long it was really going to take, I never would have started it...I figured we'd get a few friends over for a weekend, build it one day, paint it the next...wrong! Six weeks later, just one week before Halloween, we were still finishing up the last of the painting. A few friends came over for a "castle raising" and voila! The Egan Castle was created.

It caused quite a stir during the six weeks it took us to build, neighbors dropping by to check on our progress and cheer us on, cars driving by and slowing down, cell phones whipping out to call friends, etc. Seeing the excitement from the neighbors helped motivate us to keep going.

On Halloween day, the local news station sent someone over to get footage and interview us, and we made the evening news. A couple radio stations talked about it as well. That night, we easily had 500-600 people, probably more, come to our door. Crowds gathered in the street, sometimes applauding, and many parents said "thank you sooo much for doing this!".


Making people smile, especially kids, makes ME smile, and all the work was worth it!


THIS YEAR:
Now that the castle was built, we could do more specific themes. About 6 months ago, my husband Bill suggested Harry Potter's Hogwarts, so I immediately started a list of ideas, and started buying things early, to spread out the cost. Our good friend Leslie volunteered to help with decorations this year, and she made some really amazing contributions. We could not have pulled this off without her.

Having help from someone who was just as excited as we were, gave us the freedom to be more creative, more detailed, and between the three of us, we decorated the inside of the house, and recruited 8 other friends to come dressed as Harry Potter characters on Halloween night.

Halloween morning, we did a radio interview on K-LITE with Gary and Katherine, and we heard from friends later that most of the other local radio stations also talked about Hogwarts, and even the local SB Independent newspaper. Our "cast" showed up about 6pm, and kids started coming in trickles and we would take turns giving little tours through Hogwarts.

The moment it got dark, the guided tours very quickly turned into a solid mass of people flowing through the house, with a line around the corner, for 2 1/2 hours straight!
We quickly adjusted to this, and we all picked a spot outside or inside, and I monitored the flow, at the front door. People waited in line from 10-20 minutes, and a lot of people came through multiple times. It was great to see so many people having so much fun, including our cast!

"Harry" and "Ron" were inside, often playing wizard's chess and joking with kids and adults, and getting their pictures taken. "Delores Umbridge" and "Hagrid" were also inside, pointing out the interesting things to see, and having fun with everyone. "Madame Rosmerta" took care of passing out the candy and toys, while "Dumbledore", "Luna Lovegood", "Nymphadora Tonks", and "Snape" stayed outside in front, interacting with the waiting crowd.

The next morning, I got out the calculator, and estimated based on average flow, and in 2 1/2 hours, we easily had between 1000-1200 people come to visit "Hogwarts". WOW!

How will we top this next year?

Oh we will....!

This has now taken on a life of it's own, more people want to help next year, and we've been talked into putting up a website.

Ideas for next year's theme are already in the works...but it will be kept a secret until late next year....

I HATE SPAM!

I used to share jokes and other fun stuff with friends and family all the time. It seemed that every time I forwarded something that I thought was cool, one of my friends or family would reply, telling me what I'd sent was a hoax, and I had to then email everyone again and apologize. Sigh!

How are you supposed to know what's ok to forward? Personally, I rarely forward anything anymore, it's just not worth it. Someone turned me on to a great site for checking out emails, and now I check out EVERYTHING before I even think of sharing.
Snopes2. This site is interesting reading, and you'll recognize a lot of familiar stuff.

Now, I have a strict policy not to forward anything that says “forward to___number of people” because it shares email addresses of everyone involved, with spammers somewhere along the way. Guaranteed. Every time I’ve done this, I get more spam within just a couple days. For instance, you share an email with 20 friends, but then multiply that by 20 strangers, x20 strangers, x20 strangers, x20 strangers...within days your email address and the email addresses of your 20 friends could potentially be shared with 360,000 strangers, and any of them could be “spammers”.
These things make me so angry because they take advantage of good people with good intentions who want to share something cool, or fun, or informative and they think they’re doing a good thing.

Occasionally though, you’ll get something that is worth sharing, in which case, good policies are:
1) When you receive something that seems worth passing on, check it out first to see if it’s legit, snopes2.com or any number of similar sites.
2) Cut and paste the relevant part of the text and start a new email, rather than forwarding, ‘cause often there are old email addresses still attached, that also get forwarded.
3) NEVER send to everyone on your address list. Just share it with close friends/family who you think will appreciate it.
4) ALWAYS put every recipient’s email address in the “BCC” rather than “TO”. Or, send to one person at a time. This keeps everyone’s email address private.
5) NEVER ask people to forward an email, unless it’s something that is truly an emergency, and you’ve verified that it’s true


I have these policies because I HATE SPAM, and I want to keep my friends and family safe from spam too.

Please continue to send me stuff you think is cool, I like that you think of me! Just please check it out first, and keep my email address private if you send it.

foofing

"A non-technical photographic term for bouncing the light from a flash unit off of a nearby wall or other neutral-colored object in order to diffuse and redirect the light. It produces far more natural looking light (and shadows) than firing a flash directly at the subject.

While shooting the couple's first dance, the wedding photographer swiveled the head of his flash to one side so that he was foofing them rather than blasting them with hard light."

from the Urban Dictionary

I heard this term used by Denis Reggie at Partnercon, and I can't wait to try it out!

PARTNERCON, 2007

My sister Kim took me as her guest to the Pictage Partnercon in Los Angeles. I'd actually never been to a photographer's conference before, and I'm so glad I went. I'm hooked, and I can't wait until the next one!

All the classes we went to were awesome, and so informative. I love/hate that there were choices of classes for each session (times like this, I wish I could clone myself!). I got something valuable out of every class that I took. Topics covered everything from marketing, photography tips, and working with people.

I am inspired, and have already started implementing some of the things I picked up at the conference, like starting this blog for one! Also cleaned up my website a bit, revamped my marketing materials, and am working on starting a newsletter.


What really impressed me about this group of people was the feeling of community, and how everyone was there to help each other. Even though we were all in the same business, there was no feeling of competition, and I like that. It fits in with my personal philosophy and attitude about wedding photography.

I live in Santa Barbara, which is a major wedding destination city. There are hundreds of wedding photographers in this town, but there are also several hundred weddings here on any given weekend during wedding season. There is plenty of work for everyone, and we can all help each other out.


Thanks Kim for turning me on to this conference and community of photographers!

Introducing...Becca!

Becca will be assisting me today with Nicole and Neal's wedding at the beautiful Santa Barbara Mission. We're hoping it doesn't rain, but if it does, we could get some really fun photos...I love photos with umbrellas, they're always good!

Becca is a natural at photography, and gets some really great shots. She's got an eye for framing, and an instinct for what to capture, AND she's incredibly sweet and a talented singer/songwriter, as well as a spokesperson for Teddy Bear Foundation, and the Make-a-wish Foundation. I've know Becca since she was a little girl, and I am proud to be working with her!

Introducing...Ashley!

I recently did Ashley and Mike's wedding with my husband Bill who also DJ'd for them. They were so much fun, and one of my favorite couples ever! I love to see two people so much in love, and excited to be married to each other. This first photograph was taken after the wedding party photos were done, and the couple were praying together. It was such a sweet moment, it still brings tears to my eyes.

Ashley told me a while ago that she wanted to be a wedding photographer, and I said I'd love to have her assist me some time. Soon enough, an opportunity came up to help me with a wedding that my regular assistant was not availble for. I'm so excited to be working with Ashley. She's one of those people that everyone falls in love with instantly when they meet her, and that's the kind of person I want to bring along with me to photograph a wedding.
Love ya Ash!

My first post

Ahem....hi! I've never done a blog before, but have been recently convinced that it's important to stop being a hermit and get out there into the community so to speak.
So, since I'm new at this, please be patient with me and forgive how awfully unoriginal I am being with the formatting of this page because although I am very computer-savvy, I'm in new waters here, and have no idea what I'm doing....but no worries, I'll learn!

My best friend since high school, Victoria, dubbed me "Shmelle" way back when, and it's stuck ever since, so this blogspot title wrote itself. I like it and I'm stickin' to it, and that's what Shmelle has to say today....

Will write another blog soon about the Pictage Partnercon that I went to last week with my sister Kim...hey, how often does one, um...'blog" (is that the correct verbage?)