Trick or Treat

I want to start by saying that trick or treat this year sucked.  And by sucked I mean that even though Avery got to go for a walk and get candy and dress up, it was really not much fun and almost no one in the neighborhood participated.  It makes me sad for the kids.  I had one family that even gave stickers.  I mean talk about spirit, they embody it.  I am not sure if they could afford candy or not or if they chose stickers for other reasons, but the fact that they were out there giving out something, that was nice to see.  It is better than nothing.



The fact that some people, like this one, did not have a sign saying 'No Candy' or anything upset me.  But the fact that THEY WERE HOME pissed me off.  There was one house in particular where the guy was home and actually came to to the door to turn his porch light off and on again trying to indicate that he was not participating.  Idiot.  IF we were T&T at night and the light had any meaning at all it would be the opposite meaning anyhow, ON would me 'I AM giving out candy' while OFF would mean 'I am NOT giving out candy'.  Then I have to tell Avery that he is not home because otherwise she was asking me why he did not want to give her candy as if it were something that she did that caused him to not give her candy.  Shheesh.



All that being said Avery still had a good time dressing up.  And she was darn cute too.

Weekend at the DeRuyters

I had a great time a couple weekends ago despite the cold.   Here are some previews, you can find the full versions on Smugmug which allows way better printing.

Zaria turns 6

We had lots of fun last weekend at Zarias 6th birthday party.

From Zarias Birthday 2009

Pumpkin carving

From Zarias Birthday 2009

Bobbing for apples.

And it was pretty scarry too...

From Zarias Birthday 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/meltsley/ZariasBirthday2009#5394913577932969586

Weekend Shoot at the Backlers

We did a really fun shoot at Brian and Chrissy's this past weekend. I got some great shots and I think the kids had a good time having their pictures taken. Chrissy had some neighbors over, the DeRuyters, who were fantastic and real sports about everything especially considering the weather. The weather was a bit on the cool side at around 40 degrees give or take a few most of the time.

More previews to come.

Some Current Pricing, asked for by Chrissy

Print Pricing
8x10 ~$3
8x12 ~$5
11x14 ~$9

Survey for Moo cards

I guess the first thing I want to do, now that I have a blog, is to ask for help in picking some images to put on the front of my new business cards, to be made by Moo.

So far I have 61 images, which I am going to have to narrow down to 50 at the most, but reasonably I want to get down to 10. So I am enlisting all of you to help me whittle this down to, hopefully, 10 images. I will then order up some cards with the winning images on them. For your troubles I will give you 5 cards, to do with as you wish, hopefully to give to someone you think wants their pictures taken.

I am mostly interested in 2 things with this experiment. First I want to find the 10 'best' images from the ones I already randomly decided were some of my better works. Second I want to find 10 images that represent the kind of work someone would want me to do. As in weddings, babies, children, portraits, families, etc. No one would hire me to take pictures of their trees, yet I included that as an option only because I like the image.

So I am interested to see what you like and what you think would work well as a business card. Be imaginative in you choices, I am interested in your opinions after all. Don't be afraid to be critical, though I find fault with much of my work for minor technical or artistic reasons I lack the objective eye that you bring to this experiment which allows you to see things I cannot. Be strong in your convictions too, if something needs to be said I want to hear about it. I can praise my work all day by myself but I find it hard to find fault with much of it So while I may not want to hear it I need to hear it. Don't feel afraid to not pick any, but please be kind enough to tell me why.

Many thanks,
Matt

edit: survey closed. Cards are here and look great. my next post will be what they look like.