Category Archives: events

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Enter our contest to win $5,000!!!

Book your portrait session today!

March 22, 2010 – 9:36 pm

I’m excited to announce that we will be participating in this year’s Baby & Child Portrait Contest, hosted by our fabulous lab, Millers Professional Imaging!  As with our mini-session sale I announced yesterday, all print proceeds from these sessions will be donated to our March for Babies team (click here if you haven’t heard about this yet)!

Let us help document your child’s ever-changing stages with priceless portraits that will be with you for a lifetime! Schedule an appointment with us from now until May 31st , and your child’s portrait will also be entered into the contest. A range of prizes will be awarded from $500 – $5,000 in cash, which goes to the family of the winning portraits!

Portrait sessions are limited so please call or email today to reserve your child’s appointment.

Contest Rules

  • Children, infant to age twelve, are eligible.
  • Images must be taken between January 1st and June 21st, 2010.
  • Only one image per session can be entered into the contest.

Don’t forget about the $59 mini-session sale!  Book your slot today at www.swadleystudio.com/book!

By Lori | Also posted in business news, little ones, non-profit, specials | Comments (1)

$59 MINI-SESSION SALE!!!

Proceeds to benefit March for Babies

March 21, 2010 – 6:41 pm

If you didn’t read my post yesterday, stop now & read it :-)

Alright, now that you completed the prerequisite reading material (I trust you did…), you get a reward!  YAY for rewards!!!

We have blocked off two days in our schedule to raise money for March for Babies.   On March 27th & April 3rd, we will be holding an entire day of mini-sessions at a beautiful outdoor location 10-15 minutes from Winchester, VA.  What are these mini-sessions, you ask?

  • 30 minutes of photography
  • Any kind of session (family, high school senior, baby, child, maternity, headshot, engagement, pet, you name it!)
  • All images will be online for 2 weeks for viewing & ordering
  • One complimentary 5×7 of your choice with your print order
  • PLUS! You get a disk of your images for Facebook use (with our logo) to show off to all your friends!
  • PLUS!  For baby & child sessions, we’ll enter your favorite image into our upcoming baby & child portrait contest (I’ll be announcing this tomorrow!)

And don’t forget… all print proceeds from these sessions will go to Team Remembering Logan & Cannon :)

Tell all your friends, and make a fun outdoor day for everyone!  In case of rain, the makeup day will be April 11.  If you can’t make the makeup day, we will credit your session fee towards a regular session on another day of your choice (you’ll still receive all the perks of the mini-session that do not come with our regular sessions).

What are you waiting for?  Go book your session! www.swadleystudio.com/book

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By Lori | Also posted in business news, non-profit, specials | Comments (1)

The Photobooth is here!

virginia photo booths for rent

June 24, 2009 – 5:03 pm

I wrote a short article for the Blue Ridge Bride e-newsletter, and thought I’d post it here for my loyal blog-readers to see!  There will be another article coming out in next month’s newsletter about “The First Look” that I worked on with Amanda of Lux Photography.  If you’re getting married in the Blue Ridge, add yourself to the newsletter here, & apply to become the next Blue Ridge Bride or Groom!

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The Photobooth: Back & Better Than Ever!

Want a sure-fire way to keep all your guests entertained throughout your reception?  Then hop on one of the hottest trains in the industry and rent a photobooth!  Whether you choose a traditional photobooth that prints a photostrip within a matter of seconds (like the kind you used to see at the mall), or a full-service professional booth hosted by a photographer, you and your guests are sure to enjoy the excitement that a photobooth will bring to your reception!

Some thoughts to consider when choosing your photobooth:

Print Quality - If opting for a traditional booth, make sure the company uses archival paper & inks.  Many booth companies still use digital prints that fade in a matter of weeks.  Find a company that guarantees their prints to last a lifetime
Logistics - Make sure to discuss your photobooth plans with your reception venue.  At an average of over 700lbs, a traditional booth is hard to transport and sometimes is unable to be in the same location as your guests, but takes up less space when set up.  A full service booth is simple to transport and can be set up anywhere without an issue, but can take up more space.  Sharing your photo booth plans with your venue will give you a better idea of what they can accommodate.
Appearance - How will the aesthetics of the booth affect the overall atmosphere of your venue?  If your reception is in a grand ballroom, you may want to forego a booth with distracting graphics that will take away from the grandeur of the event.  Ask to see a picture of the actual booth itself so you can prevent any upset to your wedding ambiance.
Wait time- Are you willing to sacrifice the convenience of onsite-printing to get the quality & unique shots a full-service booth offers?  While full-service booths give noticeably superior, professional results along with accommodating larger groups than the traditional booths, they also generally come with a longer wait time for your images.  Depending on the photographer’s set-up, you can expect to wait anywhere from an hour up to a few days to have printed images.  Both the traditional and full-service booths offer online viewing of all your images within a few days of the event with the option to purchase a disk of all images for your printing needs.
Cost - Due to the complexities of transportation, along with the convenience of on-site printing, traditional booths tend to cost more at an average starting price of $1000 with lots of options you can add for an additional cost.  Full service booths can cost about half that, depending on the photographer hosting the booth.  In any case, be sure to ask for a list of all costs that will be associated with renting a photo booth.

With so many options out there, you’re sure to find the booth that’s right for you!

-newsletter

By Lori | Also posted in business news, specials, weddings | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Come see us at Valley Earthfest!

Eco-friendly event in Berryville, VA

June 5, 2009 – 10:00 am

It looks like tomorrow will be a SPECTACULAR day, so if you haven’t made plans yet,  you should come to Valley Earthfest!  This is an awesome event that the whole family can enjoy.  There will be a children’s activity tent, an environmental film festival, a petting zoo, live music, and even a lawn gnome costume contest!  There are just too many activities taking place to mention here, so go to the Valley Earthfest website and check it out.  On top of all the activities, there will be all kinds of eco-friendly businesses exhibiting… everything from local organic food vendors to eco-conscious home improvement businesses to your Earth lovin’ family photographer (ahem, that’s me!)!

Also, this event is a Zero Waste Event!  Accoding to the site, “The goal at a Zero Waste Event is to distribute only materials that are recyclable or compostable (not any materials that will be landfilled). There will be Zero Waste Stations for recycling and composting available to everyone”.  How awesome is that!?!  I think LOTS!

I hope to see you there!

Valley Earthfest 2009


By Lori | Also posted in green | Comments (0)

Our Green Initiative

Eco-friendly photography practices

May 13, 2009 – 12:23 am

(10-day Blogathon #9!  )

I’m happy that I finally have a chance to relay some important information!  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we are “greening” our business to reflect how we live in our day to day lives.  Living responsibly is something that is so important to us in our personal lives, and we are so excited to take it a step further into our businesses.  We will be constantly looking for more ways to achieve less of an impact on the environment, and improve the well-being of those in our community.

To us, “green” is not just using paperless billing or recycling your office paper (although, those are wonderful steps that everyone can do immediately to have a big impact on our environment). To us, “green” is taking responsibility for the effects that we are having on the environment, caused not only by the man-made materials we use everyday, but also how we live our lives, and how we choose our suppliers.  Another issue that I think goes along with being “green” is helping our community, and all those in it.  Maybe it’s not the government’s responsibility to help those in need (I’ll leave that argument alone), but we strongly believe that “We are our brother’s keeper”. If every one of us occasionally made one small gesture to help someone in need, then imagine how much more pleasant all of our lives would be.  Just by one small gesture…

Moving on, I’d like to list a few things that we are currently doing that we consider to be a part of our Green Initiative.  If you have any questions or suggestions for us, let us know!  We are constantly reviewing our processes to find more ways to GO GREEN!

  • We offer Green albums! More on this when I get a sample with my images… two clients have already taken advantage of these, and they LOVE them! Wait until you see the “green” details of these albums!
  • No direct mail campaigns
  • Email marketing campaigns are hosted by Vertical Response, an environmentally-friendly email marketer
  • We offer Virtual Web Meetings to wedding clients through Sightspeed - I have lots of Northern Virginia clients, and this saves on gas tremendously!
  • Paperless… well everything possible!  From billing, to sending brochures, to paying our bills online… everything that’s possible is done paperless!
  • No more plastic CD cases!  We have a super-cute trifold holder now that our clients can easily recycle when they find a new home for their CD (we found that most clients don’t use the plastic cases anyway, because they have some sort of bulk organization system that does not require individual cases)
  • When we exhibit at bridal shows and must hand out literature, we qualify the clients first (asking wedding date) to eliminate unnecessary waste
  • Printed proofs do not come in our packages - all proofing is done online for 3 months, so we no longer have a need to print 1000 pictures to let the clients see for a week and then find a place to store or dispose of them - plus, all our wedding clients receive all high res files for printing, so they can print only those pictures they want anywhere they’d like!
  • Recycling of any product we need to dispose of… including paper, electronic equipment, plastic, boxes & packaging, etc.
  • Use of rechargeable batteries.  Our cameras of course use only rechargeable batteries, but we use AA’s for our speedlights, which we average about 40 batteries for each wedding (we actually used disposable AA batteries up until 2007, can you imagine all that hazardous waste?)
  • Periodic tree-planting!  We live in a tiny townhouse with only 400 sq feet of backyard (YIKES!), so I can’t offset my carbon usage there, but I do have a small portable nursery that I grow trees from seeds (organically), and when they are healthy enough to survive on their own we find a lonely spot in the woods or down a back road that needs some love :-)
  • Energy Star rated electronics are used, and we keep all computer equipment unplugged when not in use.  I’ve created a quick start-up routine with power strips, surge protectors & extension cords that doesn’t interfere with my time-management.
  • I offer complimentary photography services to non-profits (if you are a non-profit, get in touch!)

And to come…

  • Our hosting company is changing in June to Thinkhost, an environmentally-friendly hosting company operating 100% on wind and solar (we are using Thinkhost for our personal site currently, and we LOVE them!)
  • And something I’ve wanted to do for a while…   Starting in June, we will donate 5% of your bill to one of 3 charities…. and YOU will be able to decide which one your money will go to!  I’ll announce the charities next month when I nail down the last one :)

Thanks for logging in & be sure to check back tomorrow for the last day of the Blogathon!!!

:-)

By Lori | Also posted in green | Comments (0)