Christina McCall Photography | Athens Canton Kaufman and Tyler Texas Family, Children, and Senior Portraiture Photography

I recently received a phone call … one of the very few to leave me speechless. Stunned. In shock …

Congrats to all the other Readers’ Choice winners as well — at least two former coworkers and several relatives of other friends and former coworkers made the list as well!

And to show my heartfelt thanks to each and every person who voted for Christina McCall Photography as the Athens Review’s 2009 Readers Choice Best Photographer, a two part gift to all of you:

Part 1: a spring/summer mini session giveaway!

One commenter will receive a 30-45 minute Serendipity (aka Mini) Session to be held no later than August 31, 2010. Session will be held in Athens, Tyler, or Canton – winner’s choice. Prize includes waived creative fee + online proofing gallery with 15 images + blogged sneak peeks + (1) CMP Signature Line Mounted 8×12 Art Print. No other prints/products/files included in prize — winner will receive 10% off any items purchased. Value: $160.

To enter: Simply leave a comment here on this blog post answering the following question:

Which portrait session type you would like to win (maternity, newborn/infant, childrens, family, senior/adult individual,  couples/engagement, or pet portraiture (dog/cat))?

Deadline to leave comment entries: Sunday, March 14th at Midnight — winner will be announced on Monday, March 15th. Prize is a waived session fee +  (1) CMP Signature Line Mounted 8×12 Art Print– no other prints/products/digital files included.

Please note: Comment entries left on Facebook (both my personal profile + the CMP Fan Page) are not eligible for consideration due to Facebook policies on giveaways, sorry.

… and of course …

Part 2: Not the winner? Be one of the first five people to book a spring Off the Beaten Track (aka 90 minute-two hour full custom) session by March 31st and receive half off on the creative fee (regular creative fee rate: $200, first five people to book during March: $100). Session must be scheduled for no later than May 2, 2010. No need to mention this thank you special, your creative fee invoice will automatically reflect the discount!

And all Off the Beaten Track Sessions that book a spring or summer session by April 30th will receive 15% off their print/collection purchases (this is our regular spring special).

Thanks again to everyone that voted — and here’s hoping 2010 continues to be a great year for CMP!

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Cross-posted at Sit.Stay.Snap. on Friday, February 5, 2010 …

You know its been a crazy start to 2010 all-around when you haven’t had an opportunity to post an official ’we’re open for business’ announcement for your pet portraiture division!

While I haven’t had a chance to make the announcement on either blogsite, there are a few pet sessions in the queue awaiting sneak peek posts that will debut throughout the spring.

Meanwhile, I figured it was past time I announce the Sit.Stay.Snap. Spring/Grand Opening Specials for pet sessions!

Option A …

Save $25 on your Quick Snap creative/retainer fee or $50 on your Adventure Session creative/retainer fee
(Regular price: $100 and $200; Seasonal special rate: $75 and $150, respectively)

or choose Option B for even greater savings!

The Pawsh Collection
Our grand opening blowout special
90 minute to 2 hour on location session
30-40 images in online proof gallery
1 disc of artistically edited digital files (print up to 8×12 in size)
1 10×15 Artist’s Choice mounted fine art print
All for $500
A la carte value: $1,050

Deadline to book one of these two options is April 30, 2010.

And because it wouldn’t be a photography blog without a photo … here’s one to wrap up the post with!

On the 22nd, I joined in with 70+ other photographers worldwide to help spur the relief effort donations for Haiti as a participant in Helping Hearts. The deadline to forward documentation for a chance to win a complementary session and a disc of 15 high resolution digital files was Saturday night. Only a few entries were received … and the random generator chose … Dave & Amanda as the winners. Congrats guys — check your inbox and confirm that the 13th will work so I can notify Tara Winery as well.

Thanks again to the few who donated to the relief efforts in Haiti and to Tara Winery for access to the session location.

To book a portraiture session with Christina, contact us via email at christina@christinamccall.com or call 903.477.9069 today.

Over the past week and a half, I’ve contemplated at least a half dozen ideas, debated donating artwork for fundraising, and a few other group efforts to help raise money for the Haiti relief efforts in addition to my own donations. Then — this morning, a fellow photographer and constant inspiration of mine, Michele Anderson of Pinkletoes Photography announced the launch of Helping Hearts.

With Michele’s & Lyndsay’s basic plan in mind but some location and date differences — here’s how all of you can help the people of Haiti and get a sweet Valentine’s treat from CMP for yourselves …

Here’s the deal:

You and your sweetheart could win a romantic photo session to take place on Saturday, February 13th at Tara Winery!

• This session will be photographed by CMP (aka me) & will be held on Saturday, February 13th at Tara Winery — located just outside of Athens (thanks so much to Patrick & Susan Pierce for their generosity!).
• Session is for up to 2 adults and will last between 60 and 90 minutes.
  Updated to add: by popular request, yes, this can be a senior/adult individual session too.
• Winner will also receive 15 fully processed, high resolution images on CD. Print to your heart’s content!
• Value of session and digital files (if purchased a la carte): $1,650.

How to win:

• Make a MINIMUM donation of $10 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund, Doctors Without Borders, Compassion International, the Humane Society of the United States’ Haiti Relief Fund for Animals, or Hope for Haiti Now.
• All donations MUST be made between Friday, January 22nd and Saturday, January 30th to qualify.
• Forward a copy of your receipt(s) to christina@christinamccall.com. Screenshots of receipts w/ confidential info blacked out is okay — I won’t be keeping these emails other than to record your name and email address — as soon as I copy and paste those two pieces of info into my contest entry file, the emails are deleted permanently.
• All entries must be RECEIVED by midnight (Central time) on Saturday, January 30th.
• Winner will be drawn at random and announced on the blog on February 1st.
• This will give you nearly two weeks to shop and find a babysitter, if need be.
• You can enter as many times as you’d like, but each entry must be the minimum $10 donation.

Other details:

• Session participants must sign a model release.
• Session must be held at Tara Winery on Saturday, February 13th.
• If the winner does not claim his/her prize by Thursday, February 4th or cannot claim the prize, then another winner will be randomly drawn.

But wait! There’s more!

If you are a photographer and would like to hold your own Helping Hearts event to help Haiti, please contact Michele ASAP so she can send you everything you need to get started!

The fine print: This giveaway is not sponsored or promoted by the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Compassion International, the Humane Society of the United States, or Hope for Haiti Now.

Apologies for the delay — when it rains, it pours, or so it seems. Computer problems are the source of the delay for the January 2010 newsletter as well as the launch of the new Sit.Stay.Snap. gallery site … but the good news is that the newsletter at least is sent out and uploaded here to the site!

Click here to view the html version — or click here to view the .pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) version. And for those of you who missed one or want to sign up for the newsletter list, here’s the link!

I’m still tinkering with all the gallery sites as well as the layout/look of this one behind the scenes, hoping to be done in another week or two!

Meanwhile, I’m taking a second evening off (in a row!) from the computer in general — somehow I managed to seriously offend my left knee yesterday while taking down Christmas trees and decor. And no, I wasn’t on a ladder or uneven surfaces, so what exactly I did is a mystery still. I can stand on it and carefully use my ellpitical, but there will be no running, stair climbing, squatting, duck walking, or pivoting on that leg in the short term

Quick sidenote: Many of the non-session images that’ll be appearing in the coming weeks are from the past three years — I decided to take some time while scouring external hard drives for images for the gallery sites to set aside the ones I haven’t edited or (in the case of those shot in RAW format) even looked at once downloaded and process them. The one from the New Year’s post was taken last April when I scouted a session location just before sunset. Tonight’s image was taken in the Spring of 2007.