Goodbye, Old blog!!

Yes, it's time to go. You've served me well, Blogspot Blog, but it is time for a newer, sleeker, sexier blog to take your place. I know you won't take it personally.

Seriously - update your bookmarks! The new SDP blog is nice and easy to remember:
www.sarahdickersonblog.com

What's new? Well, it just LOOKS better. But now, you will be able to download pricing and product guides (the latter still in progress), read a FAQ on portrait sessions, read about me and my work (like you REALLY want to do that..) as well as easily link to my main site, Facebook page and Twitter for those of you who do that. Plus the usual blog stuff.

There will not be any further posts to this blog. I've imported over the summer's posts to the new blog (from mid-May onward) and all new posts will be to the new blog from now on. So....as I said..change your bookmarks! And enjoy! (and let me know what you think....)

oops.

If anyone has recently tried to contact me through my email link on the right side of this blog, I didn't get it. It's because I'm so hopelessly bad at writing HTML, I put my own email address in wrong. Soooooo....if you are wondering why I'm ignoring you, I'm not. Your email went to that big internet wasteland in the sky. Try your request again! We're now good to go.... :)

Missouri Dressage Classic - some brief notes

One of the things I love about my photography is the wide variety of subjects I photograph. As you can see from the posts below this one, I've been on a tear with weddings and human portrait sessions lately. Well, this past weekend I had to shift gears back to equine work with the Missouri Dressage Classic.

I just literally got home and am already beginning editing - so exhibitors, be patient and keep checking my main website (click the proofing link!) regularly as I will be posting riders by alphabetical order, last name. I should have all riders up no later than Thursday evening - as I have three, count 'em THREE weddings next weekend!

I hope I was able to photograph all of the exhibitors who wished to be photographed. I'll have a full-blown blog on the show up shortly with some of my favorite shots from the weekend, but here's a sneak preview for you of Nicole Bellah and the lovely Sydney, winners of Saturday night's Prix St. Georges Jackpot. More to come shortly!!

image ownership

As I take a short break before my personal busy season kicks into gear (3 horse shows, 5 weddings and a farm shoot in 6 weeks!), I thought I'd post a bit about photo copyrights.

I work very hard at what I do. I put in incredibly long hours photographing horse shows and weddings. I earn part of my living taking and selling images - and my livelihood depends on fair compensation for the images that I take.

Lately, as I am an avid Facebook user, I have come across not one, not two, but several instances of my images being used on Facebook, with my watermark on them. If you are using an image of mine from my proofing site that you have not purchased, in any way, you have committed a violation of copyright law.

If you have purchased a print from me and would like a small electronic copy for internet/Facebook/Twitter/email usage, just let me know. I'll size one and send it to you. If you have booked a wedding, engagement, senior, or any other shoot with me, the same applies. I will be more than happy to provide you small electronic images for sharing on Facebook and other social networking sites - if you have purchased images or booked a shoot with me.

I hate to go be Negative Nellie, but what was a one time occurrence has turned into a bit of an epidemic. If the copyright abuse continues, I will have no choice but to enforce my rights in a more strict manner. My husband, who works in law, is having his firm draft a copyright agreement to go on the front end of my proofing site; in the meantime, please realize this is my livelihood and although I love photography more than just about anything else (except maybe Jim!), I have to be compensated for the time I put into what I do, or else I'd go hungry. Do you ask the guy at Sonic for a free Route 44 limeade? Would you feel awkward doing so? Think about that when you take copyrighted photos. It's just not cool.

Airline History Museum Hangar Dance - pics coming!!

The second event I shot last Saturday was the Airline History Museum's spring hangar dance. This dance is held twice per year and as I've gushed in previous blog postings (such as here), is SO much fun. The dances feature the big band and swing sounds of the Moonlight Serenade Orchestra - a band that's near and dear to my heart as they played at our wedding reception - and are increasingly well-attended, with an estimated 500 in attendance at Saturday's event.

I shot the event and am working on photos as we speak. They will be on my proofing site this week and may be purchased. As advertised at the dance, 50% of all proceeds from the sales of these images will be donated directly back to the museum - I'm basically covering my costs and donating the rest. If you aren't a member and are an airplane buff, I HIGHLY recommend joining the organization and becoming a volunteer -they need more help! You can stay up-to-date on museum happenings on their blog.

Here's a sneak preview. I'm hurrying!

UPDATE Wednesday 5/20: The first section of photos are up here! The rest should be up by the end of the evening.

SDP is looking for a few good seniors!

It's here. Senior photo season is kicking into high gear and SDP is launching full-bore into the senior photo market! What does that mean for you, the 2010 senior?

It means that SDP is building a portfolio of Kansas City area high school seniors over the summer to help us launch into this new market - and we need YOU to help us do that! Four lucky seniors will get a complimentary style session and some wallets for friends. If you are interested in being one of our senior models and getting an incredible shoot, please email me at sdickersonphoto@gmail.com or contact me through the contact form on our website.

The rules: you MUST be a 2010 senior. I will have a short questionnaire for you to fill out, and hopefully you'll be one of the four who get this shoot! If you miss the boat, and aren't one of the four, can you still get a special deal? YOU BET! All seniors responding to this offer will get a special rate on their style session if they book by June 30 - so tell your friends!

I hope I can help you start your senior year off on an awesome note, and you can end up with some shots that will make all your friends jealous! :)

William Woods Dressage this weekend plus new show on schedule

Sarah Dickerson Photography will be covering the William Woods Spring Dressage Show at the William Woods University Campus in Fulton, Missouri this weekend (the 25th/26th of April). We will have proofs available for viewing at our table (in the show office area) beginning Saturday afternoon. This show is very full and very hectic, with a start at 7am and going until 7pm (or later) each day with no lunch break and one 10 minute break every two hours. Therefore, it is understandably going to be very hectic for us as I will be in the arena almost that entire time. Please be patient when it comes to your proofs - we will get them onto the computer and ready for you to view as quickly as possible, but especially Saturday there may be a fairly good lag time in getting them up for you. Don't forget, all proofs will be online as soon as possible after the show as well - so if your show schedule precludes you viewing proofs at the show, never fear, as proofs will be on my proofing site (www.sarahdickersonphoto.exposuremanager.com) for at least the rest of 2009. As I am showing my own horse at the KCDS show the following weekend, you can be sure I am motivated to get your proofs online as quickly as possible!! :)

Please note I've also added another dressage show to my calendar - I will be photographer for the Iowa Dressage Classic to be held at the beautiful just-opened facility, the Maffitt Lake Equestrian Center in Cumming, Iowa on October 3rd and 4th.

See you in Fulton this weekend!

New online proofing galleries are UP!

Goodbye, old online event galleries, hello, new!

Sarah Dickerson Photography has upgraded our online galleries, which means you will have a much easier proofing and ordering experience along with expanded print options!

Our new galleries are located at:
http://www.sarahdickersonphoto.exposuremanager.com

I have uploaded the entire KCDS March show to this site. You may order images from the show on EITHER proofing site. The old one (http://sarahdickerson.instaproofs.com) is still up and will remain up until the posted events on that site expire in a few months. You may still order on this site.

From now on, all events will be posted to the new proofing site. The new site is now linked from my home page. What does this mean to you?

- higher-quality viewing. I was quite disappointed in the uploaded image quality in my old galleries - images tended to look a bit soft and muddy.
- More ease of use. The new interface for ordering is VERY simple, with options and prices right next to each print.
- More products and prints to choose from. More sizes, the introduction of metallic prints (VERY cool on black and whites!), and products such as mugs, notecards, even a puzzle!

I hope you enjoy the new gallery. Please do comment and let me know what you think.

want more than just a photo?

I've been collecting textures lately, I've even made a few of my own - both handmade and photographed. I've been experimenting with some photos as I've done this. While I believe they certainly can be overdone - I've seen some photographers use them on most of their work - or at least most of the work they're putting up, I think it does have a place in certain applications. I've also found it can do a lot in hiding an ugly background! Below are a few of my projects. This is definitely a work in progress, but in my quest to provide clients with some really neat ideas, I'm excited to be able to offer one-of-a-kind type pieces like these.

It's horse show season!

I can't tell you all how excited I am for the KCDS Kickoff Competitions next weekend! I have a brand new display, tons of cool new ideas, and lots and LOTS of fun stuff planned! If you are showing, here are a few things to note:

- If you want your rides photographed by SDP, you WILL need to sign up with us. This can be done anytime there's someone at our booth (which should be just about any time you're around!) Sign up is free.
- We have LOTS and LOTS of cool stuff planned. Stop by our booth and find out exactly what! I promise everyone will like! :)
- We have a backdrop available to us for still shots with your ribbons, or just a portrait of your horse. If you'd like SDP to take one of these shots, just stop by and ask! Even if I'm shooting in the arena, we have back-up gear (and a back-up person) that can handle these shots.
- Have a young greenie and worry about a photographer scaring him/her, but still would like pictures? Never fear! I am open to all kinds of requests, such as shooting only when you're at the opposite half of the arena from me (minimizing shutter noise), or even shooting from the stands if you have rides in Hale arena! Your horse will never even know I'm there.
- Did I say we have lots of COOL things planned?

I'll see you next weekend!

New SDP identity

Ever since I decided to sit down and file paperwork to become Sarah Dickerson Photography, LLC, I've been struggling with my identity. No, not my PERSONAL identity...the business identity. I'm a graphic designer by education and a marketer by profession...so creating collateral and marketing myself is second nature. I have been STRUGGLING with a logo though...I've not been happy with anything I've done. The business grew in 2008 way more than I ever thought too - many more shooting opportunities than I ever thought I'd had - so I kind of had to band-aid my marketing and promotion as I went along. Now, as I have two weddings behind me, have my first horse show of the season in two weeks then kick into full swing, I'm more organized.

Here's the new SDP logo. Below are business cards for my two distinct ventures - my "people" photography and my equine photography. PLEASE..let me know what you think!

The website remodel and expansion is coming along VERY well and about all that is left is to set up the galleries for the equine portion - I really have just a bunch of random photos thrown in as placeholders and not necessarily the ones I'd choose for portfolio representation.

Here we are:

From collateral

From collateral

From collateral

Next up? Finishing event display system design! No, I'm not staying busy at all!

soooooo excited!

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going on a shoot day with two of my favorite local photographers (bet they didn't know they had a stalker!), Kelley Walker-Chance of Kelley Photo and Josh Solar.

We'll be wandering around the River Market area and doing some fun shooting with a few models and playing around with off-camera lighting. Something I love and want to learn more about.

I'll post my pics here after we are done! I can't wait!

Award time!

I was thrilled to find out that SD Photo won numerous awards in the Iowa Department of Transportation's photography contest. I was in Iowa several times last year for fly-ins and airshows and had a lot of really great shots from those events. So I figured awards, great, good for the studio, publicity, etc. right? But then they sent me a huge stack of these really cool calendars, which had several of my shots within including this one on the cover:

Sarah

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. A new year brings lots of new and exciting things to Sarah Dickerson photography. The calendar is filling up - actually better than I had hoped for! If you are interested in booking a horse show or wedding, please inquire for rates and availability - my Saturdays are starting to fill!

I'm very excited about some of the things we have in store for this year. I will be bringing at-show proofing on the road in 2009 to a horse show near you - meaning you can see and order proofs right at the show, schedule permitting. This will be available at all shows longer than one day, and available at one day shows subject to show scheduling. Look for our booth and stop by! As per usual, we also will offer online proofing after the show - and we get those photos up QUICKLY so check back often if you don't see them yet!

In an effort to do our part during the hard economic times our country is facing right now, I've kept prices down this year. What that means is that you will find print prices that are well below industry average. We will also be offering some at-show specials and periodic email specials.

If you're curious as to where we are headed, check the calendar section on our website. Oh and did I mention website? I'm SUPER excited about the website as it will be expanding dramatically in the next few weeks. I will be adding two distinct sites - an equine site and a wedding/people photography site - both linked from my main "splash" page. So my address will remain the same for all of my work - you'll just choose where to head from there - equine, people, or this blog.

And last but certainly not least, I've made it a point to upgrade equipment this winter. I won't get into tech-speak, but in layman's terms I've upgraded my Canon equipment to the best of the best, both in camera bodies and in lenses. I really look forward to giving it a good workout this year.

I'll have some more updates in the coming days, until then, stay warm!

Long Hiatus

I have let my blog go. I have SO MUCH to share with you all. In the coming days, I'll get up some shots from the following:

Greater Kansas City Arabian Horse Association Pony Express Show
Kansas City Regional Foxtrotting Horse Association Pony Express Show
Antique Aircraft Association National Fly-In
Airline History Museum Fall Hangar Dance
...and some photos from my vacation to Washington, DC!

I've got a few shoots coming up as well so now that life has slowed a bit for me, I'll have some time to share what I've been working on, and update the galleries on my website as well. They are long overdue for it, in all categories!

Hang tight!

Sarah

Website is UP!

My new website is now officially live. Please check out http://www.sarahdickersonphoto.com/ and let me know what you think, good, bad...and ugly. You'll see lots of changes to the galleries throughout the year, and increased information on the site as I get things up and running. Enjoy!

And, since I promised ages ago to get the photos up from my first wedding, here's a teaser to prove I'm not lying. :) Heather was a gorgeous bride, and she was just so happy.

Website up soon!!

My new website will be up within about 2-3 days I am told. The URL will be www.sarahdickersonphoto.com. I'll of course post here when it is up...and my blog is linked from my website. I would love to have comments, suggestions, and critiques from everyone on how I can make it better!

I'll let ya all know when it's live! :)

New Website

I'm still in the very preliminary stages, but I'm in the process of putting together a really nifty Flash-based website to promote my work. Originally, I'd slated a new website to go up sometime over the summer. However, I really need to have business cards on hand soon and obviously, a website is going to need to go on there!

Stay tuned. I hope to have it go live in about two weeks, and I'll have a whole handful of new images by then as well. I'm very excited! My blog, of course, will link through the site and I will continue to update it constantly!