-customer service – responding to all emails and phone calls
-booking and scheduling shoots
-processing contracts and paperwork
-coordinating the shoot
-executing the shoot in a creative and artistic way (even when lighting is very challenging)
-downloading and sorting of images
-picking favorites for clients image gallery
-narrowing down favorites even further for blog post
-editing of all images
-uploading images to gallery
-corresponding to client about gallery and how to order
-ordering prints for client
-burning disc of images (includes making a pretty label for disc)
-mailing disc to client (packaging it in an attractive manner)
-creating and posting a blog post of favorite images
-designing of album in Photoshop
-ordering of album
-packaging album appropriately and shipping of album
-archiving files
-responding and posting via social media sites
-updating and maintaining websites
-keeping software and equipment updated and clean
-maintaining financial records for accounting & taxes

… And I’m sure there is more. So many people starting out think that owning and operating a photography business is cake. The photography part of it is definitely fun!! But you also have to be very organized and detail oriented to do the business part. I do everything myself which is rewarding but also stressful at times. If you are starting out, I hope you find this post helpful.

Overall, I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for the world!!

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Virgil the cat lives in the store!

Please let me know what you think of it! (Or if you see any mistakes — I’ve been staring at it for weeks so I might have missed the obvious, thanks!) ?! Have a great day!! -Sara

…I’ve traveled the world taking tons of images. I love looking at these images but never knew quite how to show them or share them with the world. One day a burst of inspiration came over me and I sat down at my computer and started adding words to my fine art images, and I loved what I created! A few weeks later I woke up and remembered a dream in which something told me to call my new line “SoulFotos”,  so of course I immediately wrote that down and now that’s the name of my inspiration line!

I then ordered some products using these images and loved the results — they are printed on beautiful high quality photo paper. I decided to give them out as Christmas gifts to friends, family, and people I just met. The feedback was amazing! And viola… my SoulFoto line was created!

SoulFotos is my way of spreading love, hope, beauty, and faith to the world in a time when we need this more than ever.

These images are on greeting cards, bookmarks, post cards, posters, and affirmation cards. They make great gifts for your friends or yourself. Put them in your car, on your nightstand, or tape them to a mirror. Look at them often and smile!

If you wish to purchase them, right now the South Co-Op in town is selling them and one of my favorite stores in Salem called Journey’s also carries them. You really should see the final product in hand as they printed beautifully! If you live elsewhere you can order them online through etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/saralil

I hope you enjoy this inspiration product line I bring you as much as I enjoy creating them!!

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Happy Wednesday!!

My favorite building on the property was the Yard House Pub. I felt like I was back in Europe!:

*Please note I did not take these images – I borrowed them from the lodge’s website.

I’m so very honored!! Thank you to all my wonderful clients!!

The press release is below:

Corvallis, Oregon — January 25, 2011

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Sara Lil Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Photography.

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Sara Lil Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Sara Lil Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Sara Lil Photography is among the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at www.weddingwire.com/SaraLilPhotography

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

If you are a high school senior and need your yearbook photo turned into the school let me know this week so that I have time to prepare, order, and submit it for you. The yearbook deadline for this is the week that I’ll be gone.

I will be spending my weekend with my daughter, husband, mother, sister, nieces, and grandmother — it’s going to be a perfect Mother’s Day! Little Lily couldn’t wait until tomorrow to give me the gift she made! I love it!!:

She remembers her wedding day fondly, as do I — I was her maid of honor and they were married under one of the biggest oak trees I’ve ever seen. It’s was a beautiful wedding! We kept talking about that day. She remembers telling the photographer that they didn’t need that many photos and that they were in a hurry to get to their party. The photographer (who was also a friend of ours) kept saying that they are very important and quickly continued to snap dozens of frames. We then headed off to the reception and partied late into the night. It was a great event! The hall was rockin’ with everyone dancing!! And it was all documented so well thanks to the photographer!

We sure are glad to have those photos now. Those photos mean the world to her, to her children, her in-laws, and to my family. They are now a family heirloom that documents the special love they had. As many of you know, my sister’s husband died suddenly at the age of 30.

Photography is so much more important than one might realize. Photographs freeze time — you can’t recapture a moment, an event, or an experience once it’s over. Photography is a way to document your memories, your life, your love…