Attention Athens, East Texas, and DFW area seniors (and their parents)!

Graduation is just around the corner and before you know it, it’ll be time to send out graduation announcements and to swap wallets of your awesome senior portraits with your friends and classmates. Don’t wait until the last minute to book & shoot your senior portraits … Christina McCall Photography has Class of 2011 special collection options (which include your session fee) available for booking right now!

As of today … only seven more full custom senior portrait appointment times are available this spring!

Want more details? Email CMP at christina [at] christinamccall [dot] com, call 903.477.9069, or use the contact form!

The last day to schedule a senior session this spring is April 22nd — all sessions held after this date aren’t guaranteed to have your print/custom portrait art order in your hands before your graduation date!

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Technically the 12 Days of Christmas don’t begin until Christmas Day … however, because I know all of you are going to be busy enjoying the holidays and time away from the office and computer during that time period (like I plan to do as well), CMP’s 12 Days of Giving is starting a bit early … as in Monday, December 13th!

What is CMP giving away, you ask? Well … the specific daily gifts are a surprise, but the total value of all 12 days worth of gifts is nearly $1,900.00! Just the last two days combined gift value is $900.00!

So … don’t forget:

… drop by DAILY to enter (i.e. comment on that day’s post) to win. Posts will be live as of  12:01 am CST each day — and the deadline to enter is 8 pm CST that evening. Winner will be announced before 10 pm CST each evening — my dear friend random.org will help select the winner each night.

… tell everyone you know to drop by and enter to win!

… limit one prize (aka gift) per person/household to be fair — I want to spread the Christmas cheer all around!

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For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask!

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For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask!

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Back when it was quite a bit toastier (weather-wise) out, I met up with Shelby for a vintage inspired portrait session …

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… and here’s a closeup of one of the parents’ outfits (from post #1) that would also be great inspiration for an engagement session!

For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask!

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For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask! These also are great inspiration ideas for any female looking for coordinating/color ideas, expecting or not

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Family Wardrobe inspiration #2 (#1 was posted on August 27th!)

For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask!

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Family Wardrobe inspiration #1 (#2 will be posted on September 10th!)

… and here’s a closeup of one of the parents’ outfits!

For purchasing information, click the contact link below to ask!

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Outfits coordinated/photographed by Michele Anderson.

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With digital, that is so much easier (sure, film can be scanned so you can edit the images). And clients wonder with digital why their images aren’t available for viewing almost immediately after the session (I’m right, admit it … its okay).

Well — because many of us photographers shoot in an image format known as RAW. And you just can’t download the images and upload them to an online gallery when they are in RAW format. That takes some conversion to a format that is probably a bit more familiar to you — JPEG/JPG. That’s the format your point and shoot uses …

Even still — you’ve hired me (or another photographer) to not only capture you but to make you look awesome. And if we just downloaded the images from our cameras, converted the images from RAW to JPG and uploaded them, we wouldn’t have begun to do the job you hired us for. That’s where lots of nitty gritty time is spent in what is dubbed the *digital darkroom.*

In my case, I use a couple photo editing programs – one to do basic edits and convert images to a recognizable format (aka JPG) and another to prettify them. And that takes a bit of time … I always provide a basic color edit for all images in your gallery. Then — with full length sessions – I convert everything to b/w, then pick my favorite five images or so and do at least one artistic edit to them. When I have an image that really inspires me, there may be more than one artistic edit of it available.

To give you an example of what I (and other photographers) do behind the scenes, I pulled one of the SOOC (straight out of camera) images from Hannah’s session that I still had on my computer and edited it five different ways: basic color, basic black & white, two artistic edits, and one black & white artistic edit. For that one image — no retouching, just an exposure tweak and my other post processing for each version — I spent about 15 minutes (with a couple  interruptions). Now times that by 15 to 40 (depending on your session type) and now you’ll understand why we photographers tell you its anywhere from a week up to three weeks before you see your galleries!

Now for the edits themselves …

For the fellow photo geeks out there, on this particular image — shot as the sun dipped below the horizon — I shot it at 1600 ISO, f/4, 1/250 at 50 mm. I was in a hurry to wrap up the session before all the light was gone, so I cranked up the ISO but forgot to bump down my aperture or shutter speed. It was a great image of Hannah, so I didn’t want to trash it. So … first step was to fix the underexposure, then I enhanced the colors and so on. And yes, the artistic b/w edit is a different style than the basic version.

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Solution: CMP’s Super Mini Special!

What do you get?
A 15 minute time slot — great for a really quick family/children’s/couples/maternity/teen/adult solo session and  seven day online gallery with 5 images to choose from PLUS a choice of one of two gift options: (1) 10×10 Mona Lisa Collection Mini Masterpiece OR (3) 3×3 Luxe Accordian Albums (containing all 5 images, 1 design per set).
Product a la carte value: $100

How much?
$100 (yes, this means the creative/session fee is waived!)

Date #1: Saturday, May 1st – there will be only five morning time slots beginning at 9 am, must be on time!
Location: Athens area (rural/park-like environment, location details upon session confirmation)

Date #2: Saturday, June 5th — there will be only five morning time slots beginning at 9 am, must be on time!
Location: Athens area (rural/park-like environment, location details upon session confirmation)

We’ll have samples of both boutique items with us — choose which boutique item you want on the spot, your online gallery will be available for ordering any additional items (and/or for choosing the image for the MLC Mini Masterpiece) within 36 hours. Please note: all galleries will expire after seven calendar days from launch!

These are just samples — the accordian albums with this special will not feature a 2010 calendars as these do! You will be able to view a sample of the special edition album design at your session.

Middle image is the 10×10 size Mona Lisa Collection Mini Masterpiece

To have your luxe boutique product in hand to gift on Mother’s Day, orders are due no later than Tuesday, May 4th at 5 pm! For Father’s Day, orders are due no later than Thursday, June 10th at 5 pm!

To book — contact us ASAP. Sessions will be booked in the order payment is received!

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