As 2008 comes to a close, I want to thank you for your support and friendship.  I sincerely appreciate all of my past and current clients and look forward to working with my future clients.  Thank you to all of the photographers that have inspired me, befriended me and helped me become the best I can be.

I hope that 2009 is the best one yet.

Merry Christmas!!

My daughter Gracie has really gotten into the spirit of the season - first, she donated her hair a few months ago to Beautifull Lengths for cancer patients and she was so excited that she was helping someone who needed it!  (before and after pics below)

Well now she is running (or maybe walking some :)) for arthritis.  She is really excited to be able to help people, and I really want to help her exceed her small goal - the run is next weekend.  If you can help her out - AWESOME!  If not, I completely understand…blogs sure beat going door-to-door.  :)

Bells will be ringing this holiday season as thousands of runners and walkers hit the nation?s pavements, pathways and parks this winter to fight arthritis, the nation?s most common cause of disability.

I will be one of those people, tying jingle bells to my shoelaces to participate in the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, a 5K fun run/walk to benefit the Arthritis Foundation. And YOU can help, too! 

‘Tis the season for giving! Won’t you sponsor me in my effort to raise funds to fight arthritis? Arthritis affects more than 46 million Americans, including 300,000 children, costing the U.S economy over $128 billion annually. The Arthritis Foundation needs our help.

Please visit my Web page to join my team or make a secure, online contribution to help me reach my fundraising goal. The donations I raise will help fund the Arthritis Foundation?s mission to prevent, control and cure arthritis.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support Arthritis Foundation, Eastern Oklahoma Chapter.

 

Here are the before/after pics from her very worthwhile haircut:

OK, I am a bit biased since it is my family…  :)

Special thank to my great friend, Brett Rojo for going along once again to help us capture this image!

Just a quick post today - I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday!  I also want to thank all of my clients for a fantastic year - without you, we wouldn’t exist!

We have made a lot of new changes to streamline our processes and to serve you better and faster! And an added side effect is it is helping us go green!

For starters, our wedding clients can now pay a retainer online, fill out our bridal worksheet online and even sign our contract online electronically! This streamlines everything and makes the whole process paperless!

For our senior portrait clients, you can also book your sessions online! just pick your date and time, and pay for the session - it’s that simple!

And as far as green goes, besides getting closer to being a paperless office, we have added some new green-friendly cover options to many of our books - just ask for details!.

Truth be known, my wife is actually who is over the top when it comes to going green - but as I started researching myself (and watching the Planet Green some - don’t tell anyone) I realized just how much waste we produce! As a company we didn’t do too bad - as a family (a large family) we were terrible!  So I decided it’s time to stop being lazy and do our part.  We now recycle just about everything we can, and we are focussing on trying to reduce our energy costs and use less resources.  We are also really trying to buy locally (it’s really hard in this age of the Internet) to support local vendors and to get the edge on trying to reduce our carbon footprint.

http://www.carbonfootprint.com

Want to learn more about going green and reducing your carbon footprint? Go to http://www.carbonfootprint.com.

Tyler is a senior at Glenpool High School and is into music…we had a lot of fun roaming around downtown.  Here are a few of my favorites from the session!

Justin is a senior at Broken Arrow High School (go Tigers!) - he is really into politics and debate, and had some very cool ideas for his photos.  Here are just a few of my favorites!

Jordan was a blast to photograph - she is a Bishop Kelly High School Senior this year, and we got some great images! If you are one of Jordan’s CLOSEST friends, she might let you have the login info to see all her proofs - but you will ask her.  But for the rest of you, here are a few of my favorites!

Friday, I had the privilege of shooting a small ceremony for Amber and Mel at Cedar Rock Inn in Tulsa, and then had 2 hours with the couple for portraits!! I have to be honest - I need more of these! I love having that much time to work with a couple…

Here are a few-

I have been asked about an article I wrote last year for a bridal website - I used to have it on my blog, but since it’s been lost, I thought I would find it and post it here for reference especially with the economy the way it is these days - here is the article:

So you have decided to get married - congratulations! This is one of the most important days of your life, and careful planning will help make it perfect!

Before your head starts spinning (unless I?m too late, and this has already happened) from looking at all of the choices of wedding cakes, caterers, wedding venues, florists, wedding photographers, videographers, and venues available, I would suggest you take a step back and look at some careful planning. There are a LOT of choices to make regarding your wedding,and life can get stressful if you do not step back and look at the big picture from time to time.

My advice is this - prioritize what is important to you. Is that perfect location the most important thing about the day for you? An elegant spread of food? The perfect flowers? A fun DJ with enough lights to land a plane? Maybe all of these things are what you are looking for, but most of us are forced to stick to some kind of a budget.

Make a list of all of the vendors that you will need to secure. Also write down how much you have to spend (or how much your parents have told you they will spend). No matter what your list looks like, put everything on your list in order of importance to you. Start splitting up the budget based on your priorities. This will give you a clear idea of how much to expect to spend on each service. If the venue is the least important item to you, it doesn?t make much sense to book one that is 3/4 of your entire budget - you get the picture.

As a photographer, I get quite a few inquiries from brides telling me that wedding photography is their number one priority - more important than anything else to them ? but more than a few have spent their entire budget on the venue and related items and have very little left to spend for the most important thing to them. These brides end up in one of two situations. 1) They choose the wrong photographer based on price and are not happy with the results or 2) They end up going WAY over budget.

There is no need to break the bank?if you take a little time to plan before you start booking vendors, and plan to spend according to your priorities, you will be surprised how easy it is to get everything you want within your budget and you can actually enjoy the most special day of your life.

Chad Moss is a wedding photographer in Tulsa , OK. His blend of photojournalism, traditional and glamour styles makes him one of the most sought after photographers in Oklahoma and the surrounding states. Visit Chad?s website at http://www.chadmoss.com or view more articles on his blog at http://www.chadmoss.com/blog/.