The weather is getting nice(r) out! I see green grass starting to poke through the brown, dormant stuff in my yard. It broke 60 degrees yesterday. Yes, another “busy season” is shortly upon us which includes YOU, seniors!! So, to entice you out of hibernation and out for a FUN photoshoot featuring fabulous YOU, I’m including 50 complimentary wallets for anyone booking their senior package by May 1st. No, you don’t have to have your shoot DONE by May 1st, just scheduled. What’s not to love? You can choose up to 3 images for these 50 wallets, and of course you can order more wallets, enlargements and much more in your custom online gallery after your shoot – or in person at my studio in a proofing/ordering session where I can show you some of our fabulous products in person, including INCREDIBLE senior albums we are getting in shortly!

Our packages can be viewed here - you can do as little as the shoot itself and ordering whatever you wish from your online gallery, to ordering a CD of your full-resolution images, and purchasing print packages and/or albums. Yay for SPRING!

A few pretty large announcements to make this evening!

First and foremost, our pricing has JUST adjusted for 2010. All of our online price and product guides (found under the information/investment tab here, and the investment and pricing tabs on the main sarahdickersonphoto.com site) are now updated and uploaded to reflect this change. These prices are effective immediately (March 5, 2010). For those of you that have a copy of my old price sheet but have not yet booked a wedding or portrait session - whether you met with me for a consult, at a bridal show or have been in contact with me regarding my services via phone or email, I will honor the old, quoted prices for 90 days – which is June 5th, 2010. (This doesn’t mean you have to have completed your shoot by then, it simply means you must book your session or wedding by this point to take advantage of the older rates).

Brides and clients who are already booked with me – what does this mean to you? Absolutely nothing. Disregard! You booked in under our previous rates – so the rate sheets and product guides in effect when you booked your session or wedding are the rates that will be in effect for you all the way through your wedding or session and ordering. You’re good to go!

You might have also noticed a bit of “housecleaning” around the SDP blog and website. I hope you like the changes!

And while we are on the subject of houses, our studio is moving into a new home effective June 1st. This is SUPER exciting news and deserves a post of its own – which it will get in due time! Sarah Dickerson Photography will be located inside of Shana Vaughn Designs and Salutations in Briarcliff Village and I am SO excited to share the news! We will be building out a workspace and are already using the meeting space inside Shana’s shop for client consults. Look for much more on this to come – photos, updates, and perhaps an invite to an opening reception??

Well, I am going to eat crow after my last post about my move away from horse show and equine competition photography. I was asked today to photograph the Kansas City Dressage Society’s March Competition at Hale Arena (the American Royal Complex) in Kansas City, Missouri, March 27 and 28th, so we’re going to sneak this one onto the calendar before the wedding season fires up in mid April.

Competitors, we will be offering some of the same great at-show specials that were hugely popular at some of the shows we attended last year, such as the Iowa Dressage Classic and Missouri Dressage Classic. And, we’ll be offering our usual artistic twist to standard competition photography! Look for more information forthcoming….see you there!

I shot the American Hanoverian Society inspection held at the St. Louis Equestrian Center early last fall, and never had a chance to blog it. For those clients and fans of the wedding and (human) portrait variety, equine photography is how I got my start. I’ve moved in a TOTALLY different direction with my work, but I thought this would show a different side to what I do or have done. In 2010, as of now, I only have TWO equine events I’m shooting – the William Woods University Dressage Show April 17 and 18, and then this inspection again in July. Weddings, senior, engagement and other portrait sessions have taken up my entire calendar this year!

Here’s a peek into my “other life” as a photographer.

Everything is being changed over including our printed collateral as we speak, but here’s a new way to book Sarah for a shoot!

816.560.6412

Give us a jingle, and update your contacts!

Also, while I’ve got you – two more places to follow us for updates. Show your support and be a fan on our facebook page at our Kansas City Wedding, Senior and Engagement Photography fan page! Also, follow along for all of our little day-to-day updates on Twitter at @SarahDickerson!

Neyam called a couple of weeks ago and scheduled a Valentine’s day couples session with her husband, Shakti. The forecast started looking not-so-hot a few days before the session – but they were game to continue so we didn’t reschedule. Perhaps we were just HARD HEADED but we were out shooting in winds up to 30mph, creating wind chills in the single digits. The wind would cut right through your jeans – I don’t think I felt the fronts of my thighs again until bedtime that night! And…they got caught in traffic – bad traffic – as snow squalls caused temporary whiteout conditions in part of the city leading to huge pileup accidents that made national news – two in Kansas City alone had 40 cars plus involved. So, most importantly, everyone stayed safe. And, we got some gorgeous snow right at the end of the shoot, which of course made my trip home a bit dicey, but the results were worth it. THANKS AGAIN to Lori Fetterling for assisting with lighting – especially in the conditions we faced! And thanks to Neyam and Shakti for sticking it out. I’m getting sick of saying that to ALL of my couples this winter, but it has been one. horrible. winter.

Enjoy!

I always encourage couples to do an engagement session with me if I’m shooting their wedding, and it’s because it “breaks in” the photographer-client relationship. Call it a dry run, if you will. You get the uncomfortable stiffness in front of the camera out of the way, and you get to know me and how I work. Come wedding day, me being all up in your face with my camera is old hat. (well, maybe not IN your face, but….) Well, I got to know Megan and Jeff a leeetle TOO well Saturday as when we were shooting at Union Station towards the end of the shoot, I fell down the stairs. I fell DOWN THE STAIRS. In my hurry to get a new memory card, or maybe another lens…I don’t even remember, I just remember completely missing a step with my foot and going oh *@!*&$ before I even started going down because I knew what was coming. I fell down 3 or 4 steps, and ALL that stopped me was Megan and Jeff’s legs. With my 5D Mark II in my hands. Luckily, the camera is just fine and I’m a little stiff but (hopefully? tomorrow is the 2nd day after!) ok.

But that’s just a small part of the day. It was a decent day – cloudy but still and at least not frigid, and we had fun. We got coffee, we visited, and we shot like crazy. Mike Tsai (of 4Honor Photography) who will be second-shooting for me some this year, joined in for a while to try a lens as well. We went all over the Crossroads District and Union Station, and here are the results.

Thanks to good friend Lori Fetterling for helping with lighting! Megan and Jeff, I am very much looking forward to shooting your wedding next January, you all are a blast!

Megan has the brightest smile ever!

love, love this shot.

um, hot…ridiculously.

Megan was super brave to bare her arms outside! brr!

My husband Jim and his band-mates from Archive played a fundraiser at St. Pius X Saturday night. They are four guys with full-time jobs and family and hobbies who get together and practice every Tuesday night and play out a handful of times a year. They play classic rock covers and they are actually quite good. If I do say so myself.

I took it as another opportunity to further break-in new gear for 2010 (yay!) and play around with technique. These are on Facebook as well (what? You aren’t a fan of the Sarah Dickerson Photography page? Go now!) but here are some of my favorites for all of you blog followers.

Super-talented hubby Jimmy!

Callie and Adam are a seriously awesome couple. Callie is new to Kansas City, having moved here from Alabama. She contacted me to do their engagement session a few weeks ago, since it was going to be a bit difficult to have shots done back at home. All I can say is that I’m seriously jealous of their wedding photographer – because they will have it EASY with these two! They have a serious connection as well as an uncanny ability to work it out for the camera! They were so at ease and had so much fun, all I had to do was some minor directing and shoot away! Guys, I hope you enjoy these as much as I’ve enjoyed prepping them for the blog.

A Mizzou fan and an Alabama fan. Uh. Oh.

Isn’t tiny, 4 month old Bella adorable?

seriously. ridiculously. HOT.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph something a little different than the usual engagement, wedding and senior images you see on this blog. The Airline History Museum at the Kansas City Downtown airport recently acquired a Lockheed L1011 for static display and touring at the museum. This aircraft was scheduled to arrive Saturday afternoon after a bunch of planning and coordination to even get the plane in the air. The arrival and landing would signify the last time this plane would ever fly. Being a pilot and obviously being airplane-obsessed, I was there to watch the fanfare, along with my husband Jim. Well, I got to do something he didn’t – which was tag along in SkyTracker 41, the local NBC affiliate’s news helicopter while they shot video of the arrival. I got a unique perspective that no other photographer on the field got of the airplane’s arrival – which was an air-to-air perspective. Following are some of my shots!