In-studio dancers
We sometimes get dancers who would prefer to come to our studio to get their dance portraits done. This year, we invited a whole dance studio to come see us for their portraits. Below are a few of the results:
Results for category "Children"
One Intense Kid
It doesn’t take much to see how committed some kids are to their activities. Whether it’s sports, dance, school, or even karate, you can tell pretty quickly how deeply they love what they’re doing. And one karate instructor seems to have some pretty great students, who adore him – Rick of Rick’s Karate. This little lady, seven, came to us for something unique and which demonstrated some of her skills.
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Thank you VERY much…!
So, mom brings in her kids for some much-needed portraits. The kids were super cooperative, and we did some pictures in the studio and some out in our portrait park. It was great fun. We were done in short order because the kids were great! But as they were leaving, the little boy (who is three years old) said “Thank you VERY much.” It was so sweet… he had very good manners. We quickly learned where he got it from, as his mother also thanked us very much. Happy people rock! 🙂
Casual Friday
We’re flexible enough to offer portraits in formal, traditional or casual attire. We photograph people, dogs, horses, cows and even iguanas. We have been up and down the coast, and in our own studio and the portrait park out back. And nothing strikes me as more fun than a family who enjoys being together. It showed today. 🙂
Speaking of babies…!
Oh the babies we’ve seen!
I shouldn’t have to keep repeating this, but I will. I love babies!
This little guy is 7 months old. He had some wobble problems, both sitting and standing. But he was quite the trooper and made his mom happy with several fun and adorable images.
Ugh! Customer Dis-Service
I’m just going to tell you this one straight up. No names, of course, but you’ll get the gist.
I went into a local office supply store which also has a copy/print center. I only needed 25 copies of something, and figured it would take a few minutes at most. I walked in, up to the copy/print center and removed my originals from the folder I’d brought along. And waited.
There were three employees (well, three people all wearing the same color shirt with the same logo on it… one assumes that they were employed there) in the copy/print center. One of the employees was talking with another, quite probably something that had nothing to do with me. In fact, I was never even acknowledged. I stood for at least 30 seconds (think that’s short? Stand up, check your watch, wait 30 seconds) waiting until the employee finally said “I’ll be with you in a moment,” only to continue a non-work-related discussion with another employee; for about another 1-2 minutes. I was seconds away from walking out when she finally asked how she could help me.
Nobody should have to wait that long for service when there are THREE employees doing virtually nothing else. What happened to customer first?
This is less a complaint (although you wouldn’t know it from what I wrote above) than an observation in how important customer service truly is to our business. Many of you could just as easily drop by the mall portrait center and get your photos taken… and you’d like be happy with your purchases. It’s great fun to have portraits done, and you might even get a good bargain in the process.
But here’s my point.
At EVERY step of the way, we are going to give you the best customer service possible. When you call, we are going to answer the phone promptly, respond to all your questions, and make sure you understand everything about how we work. If you have to leave a voice message, we’re going to call you back as soon as possible. When you come in for your session, we are going to spend some time before we break out the camera to get to know you. If you have small children, we’re going to let them get acclimated to us, and maybe even have some fun (See “How to Play Monster“) in the process. We’re going to listen to you, give you our opinion, help you decide on the best course of action, and take pictures until you are satisfied. When you come in to view the portraits, you are the ONLY person we care about right then. We will greet you, show you into our projection room, and make sure you are comfortable. During the order process, we will not SELL you anything… we don’t believe in high-pressure tactics. We will work with your expectations, your needs and your budget to get the best possible results from the images we captured.
Our finished products will last for many generations. We don’t print our products on-site, because the images from many quick print systems fade after only a few years. Ours are guaranteed (YES, GUARANTEED) for a lifetime (and more) not to fade. And if there’s something wrong with your order, we’ll fix it. Period. No qualms or arguments. Just bring your order back to us within 48 hours (two business days) and we’ll be happy to fix whatever is wrong.
We like people… it shows in how people like us. We’re fun-loving people so we’re going to have fun with you. But you’ll always get great customer service, because I cannot stand customer DIS-service!
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How to play “Monster”
I’m in the unique position of meeting up with parents who have small children. Thankfully, all of these small children have an array of games that I have quite frankly almost completely forgotten over the years. Just a few weeks ago, I was reminded how to play peek-a-boo, and not long before that I received a complete training session on “tea party” (not the political one, either).
But last Friday I was thoroughly schooled on how to play “Monster.” If you’ve met me, you know that I can appear to many very small children as monster-like proportions. But little Miss Sarah wasn’t daunted. In fact, SHE was the monster, and I was the person “to be chased.” Well… it turned out to be a lot more fun than I remember. And there are a LOT of great hiding places in our studio. 🙂
Sarah as the monster:
Sarah as Sarah:
Little Miss Vivian
Well, here’s egg on my face. 🙁
I had blogged all the entries into the Most Beautiful Baby contest… except Vivian, whose portraits we did a week ago today. In fact, her mother traveled with Vivian from Greensboro, NC to have portraits done. The thing is, I just didn’t get around to putting her pictures online.
BUT… rest assured that she was included in the judges selection panels. So they all saw her, in addition to all the other entries.
So, without further adieu I give you Miss Vivian. 🙂
And the winners are…
… but first, a few kind words.
This is our seventh year with this contest. We’ve enjoyed them all. Half the fun is meeting new people, and the other half is all the great kids we see.
As many of you know, the contest awards prizes for first, second, and third places, and two honorable mentions. Here they are, in reverse order:
Brennan and Grant are 9 months and 22 months respectively. They were both a lot of fun, and just seemed to shine in front of the camera. Our Honorable Mentions:
Grant
Brennan
Our third place winner has been here a few times already, including for Easter Portraits, Halloween pictures, and holiday portraits. We’ve gotten used to seeing her around here, so when she showed up for the contest, she was a natural. Introducing Miss Morgan:
Morgan
Moving on to our second place winner, I need to first say that she was probably the most friendly baby almost instantly. Even her dad said “I can’t believe she is this cooperative.” And she was a lot of fun, because she was just so ready to play and have fun. Our second place winner, Miss Brylee:
Brylee
<drum roll noise>
Pretty much before she set up the portrait sitting, our first place winner’s mom told us “this is THE most beautiful baby.” Well, everyone says that… and they were all beautiful babies. Really. But because our judges are independent and chosen almost at the last minute to do the judging, we know that they are being fair in their assessment for the photos submitted. With that little disclaimer (sorry 🙂 ), I give you the First Prize winner of our Seventh Annual Most Beautiful Baby Contest, Mister Ethan:
Ethan
Prizes for this year’s winners were generously provided by the following. Please support them for supporting our fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital:
- Reverend Di’s Weddings
- Summit Community Bank
- Purple Iris
- Hair Cuttery
- Blockbuster Video
- Shoney’s
- JayDee’s Family Fun Center
- Pikeside Bowling
- Chick-Fil-A
- Hoss’s Steak & Sea House
- Hair Designs
- China Kitchen
- Hair Central
- Clydes Karate
- 9West Hair Salon
- Tupperware
- MVB Bank
- Around The Panhandle Magazine
- Pampered Chef
- Orchidstrated Designs
- Regal Cinemas
We also want to thank all our judges, the wonderful parents, our incredibly patient staff and especially Suzanne who got the ball rolling on vendors back in November. This has been another great year with the contest, and we look forward to it again in 2011.
Little Miss Brylee
Another competitor in our Most Beautiful Baby contest, Brylee was ready to go pretty much straight out of dad’s arms. She spent a few minutes looking around and then easily decided this was a fun place and was smiling and having a great time shortly after that.
