Congratulations to class of 2011 !

Class of 2012 :  Do you want free senior portraits and a $50 gift card in a very easy way?   I am looking for senior reps for class of 2012.

What is a senior rep? Senior reps will be my representatives, and refer their senior friends to me for their senior pictures. It’s very simple.

I need one senior rep from each high school. I need senior reps in Los Angeles area and in Phoenix area.

Senior reps will receive free senior portrait sessions, and after 3 referrals, they will receive a $50 gift card that can be spend at a store of their choice.

If you are a class of 2012 and a people person or know of someone, please contact me at info@memoriesbyfaria.com to schedule an interview and feel free to share this info class of 2012.

About 2 weeks I saw a post by Emma Smith on facebook about a styled shoot in Santa Monica. Glad I checked it out and used the discount to sign up.

It was such a wonderful and fun filled styled shoot. It was really cloudy which worked like the perfect soft box. I love shooting in cloudy days because of the perfect lighting situation no matter what time of the day it is. The location fulfilled my wish #38.

Another best part of the styled shoot was meeting some of the wonderful photographers from Southern CA. There were a total of 4 models, Natalie, Patrick, Sarah and Darragh, and 10 of us; however, we were able to work cooperatively, and get a ton of wonderful shots. I saw how other girls were using high fashion model poses, just like the ones that you’ve seen on America’s Next Top Model. I like watching ANTM, but shooting high fashion model photos made me realize how much I enjoy shooting real emotions and lifestyle shooting.

I have to give credits to the following people for making everything so wonderful. 

Event organizer/Stylist= Emma Smith Couture Clicks ( emma jane photography) 

Wardrobe- La Belle Elaines Seattle

Accesories- Renee Pawele Bride ( Orange County)

Floral- My Wedding Blooms ( Los Angeles)

Hair/Makeup- TM makeup and Hair ( Los Angeles) 

Last weekend, I met a few wonderful girls at the styled shoot organized but Couture Clicks and Emma Jane Photography. Blog on last weekend’s styled shoot is coming soon. Since it was a jam packed shoot, we didn’t get enough opportunity to mingle or get to know each other. That’s why, a few of us decided to meet up for dinner on Saturday night. Because of some unforeseen reasons, everyone wasn’t able to make it to dinner. I am glad I was able to go to the dinner. Lily and I had a wonderful time at the dinner, and I have to admit, I walked away with a few great suggestions from her and rethinking about different parts of my business/busyness now.

Coming Soon: * Minisession is on Jul. 2. I would love to work with you. Please book your session and email me at info@memoriesbyfaria.com

* Mike Colon workshop is coming up this Thursday. Yes, the celebrity and international wedding photographer. I am above and beyond excited. Not excited about the drive though. It will be about 2 hours drive for me each way. Did you know his rate starts around $30k for a wedding? I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that over dinner on Saturday night.

* CO trip starts next Friday! How am I going to sleep this week with so many exciting events coming up!

Every blog becomes more interesting with a visual. Here’s today’s. This one was taken at 17 miles drive in Carmel, CA about a year ago.

I’ve received a few inquiries about minisessions because it’s an easy way to update family pictures, capture beautiful moments with your kids as they are growing up, or update headshots. That’s why I’ve decided to offer minisessions this summer.

Minisession date: July 2

Location: Glendale, CA

Investment: $100. Early bird special $10 off, and ends on Jun. 17.

Minisession includes preconsultation, 25 min. fun filled session, 10 edited high resolution copies, online gallery for prints and 1 8″x10″ print.

Please email me at info@memoriesbyfaria.com to book your session. 50% session fee is required to secure your spot.

Just entered my third week of summer vacation. Trying to come out of my workaholic mode, and getting there, but still struggling with sleeping in. I was really used to with waking up by 5 a.m. every morning. Don’t worry, now I can at least sleep in until about 8. Those of you who have to work, don’t be jealous.  That’s all I can say right now

Highlights from past week.

* Really ! ! : Last Sunday night, when I logged into my facebook account, I saw on my news feed, a comment made by David Jay. I went to my fanpage, and saw this,

I couldn’t believe it. I was stoked. His work, eagerness to help others out, and bring the photography community around the globe together is amazing. “DJ, You Rock ! “

Took me a week to get over it.

* Look Forward To: A couple of days ago, I finalized my first summer trip. Going to CO in less than 2 weeks. I wanted to go to Seattle to visit my high school friend, but the tickets were too expensive for me. Clicked CO, and saw the tickets. Can’t wait. Is it time to go to the airport yet?

* Minisession is coming up. Jul. 2^nd in Glendale CA. Please share this info with others. Would love to see you all.

* Accomplishment: Today finally I learned how to take a snapshot of the screen. I know, I am really not tech savvy, and hey, I’ve been trying to learn it for past 4/5 weeks and finally I got it !

* I did a styled shoot yesterday organized by Emma Smith and Couture Clicks. Please don’t laugh. Every single muscle in my body is sooo sore from the constant movement. You must be wondering, so? This says how lazy I  am. It serves me right for making myself so outrageously out of shape. I should join a gym. In fact, my younger brother, Adnan, bought a 2 year membership last year which I still need to activate. I am still sore. I promise, when I’m done with my soreness, I will activate my membership.

* To Do: I like my website, but since I am trying to get into wedding photography, I need to work on making it geared towards wedding. Help. I am in vacation mode which is not helping.

Last weekend I had the priviledge to work with Jennifer Weems again. The moment she asked me to second shoot with her, I said yes. I knew this would also fulfill my wish #32. Even though I was in LA, I drove up to Phoenix that morning, and didn’t want to lose the opportunity. I am so glad I did because I got to work with another amazing family. Both the bride and the groom’s families were wonderful, and their house was amazing, full of large windows that allowed lots of natural light. Seems like they knew I am a natural light shooter, and gave me the perfect opportunity. Check out a few of my favorites.

I can’t believe I am reading this book after my first year of teaching. Ron Clark is the Jasmine Star of teaching. Amazing student test scores, and award winning teacher from NC.

My first year teaching was filled with good and bad. I’m definitely working on improving several different aspects of my first year teaching.

Homework. Overall percentage of students completing homework was shocking. Even though I rewarded those kids that did their homework, and gave detention to those kids that didn’t, the result still didn’t improve because the kids that were doing their homework did it because they wanted to. Not because of the rewards. Rule #16: You must complete your homework everyday. This means, every student had to complete their homework every day continuously to earn a reward as a class which built community and team work.

This brings up my next point. I had several students that would make effort, or do an act of kindness or something positive and then came up to me asking for a reward. Rule #15: Do not ask for a reward. He talks about how he handled the same problem that he had as a teacher too. I won’t get into details about this, but I am definitely going to try to incorporate this technique into my teaching.

There are many more wonderful ideas, tips and procedures on how to handle different problems in this book such as saying thank you (I had students that never said thank you), how to handle unappreciative kids (I had students that told me that I should give them food everyday or this and that, and never appreciated anything, and it’s not their fault. They never learned it.).  I am still reading it. Can’t put this book down. I will write again once I am done with reading the book.

And I don’t have a kindle. I still prefer hard copy of any book.

To Be Continued…….

Since I booked my CO trip suddenly because cheap air fare and etc., I’ve decided to postpone the minisession date. I would love to do a few minisessions, because it’s a quick way to get some great family/children/headshots done, and enjoy a nice, stress free photo shoot.

When: Saturday Jul. 2, 2011

Where: Americana, Glendale CA

How Much: $100 includes 25 min. session, 10 edited digital negatives, an online gallery, and a 8″x10″ print.

Why: A wonderful way to update your family portraits, capture memories with your kids (they grow up really fast), get some headshots done for modeling, facebook or just have a few nice pictures.

Minisessions will be offer in the morning so that we can avoid the crowd and get some wonderful pictures.

Book your session by Jun. 17th and receive $10 off of your session. Your session will be only $90.

Where do you post reminders, kids’ A paper, or your grocery list? On your refrigerator, right? Imagine seeing your loved ones, your family, your kids, or your guests posting your save the dates as a reminder on the refrigerators everyday.

I was stoked to see the first magnet that I ordered before making it available for my clients. You will LOVE it. The quality is absolutely amazing. The color came out exactly how I saw on my computer screen. Now you can order yours.

Available sizes are 3”x4.5” and 2”x3.5”. Individual pricing and bulk order pricing are available. Please email me at info@memoriesbyfaria.com for more info.

If you ever heard photography is 80% business and 20% photography, then you heard it right. If you’ve never heard of it then now you know. I am experiencing every bit of it.

For the past 2 days, I’ve been working on coming up with a business plan. Of course I sat down with my notebook and a pen (Sorry, I am very old fashioned when it comes to technology other than cameras), I ended up with either stalking other photographers’ websites, blogs or searching for that highly anticipated handbag that I still haven’t found. This is the end result after working hard for 2 days.

First, I tried to identify the type of photography I am focusing in, and then brainstormed where my potential clients are. And believe me, I am a rookie at this. I have absolutely NO business background. I feel like spelling busyness. Let’s get back to our topic (see ! I’m doing it again). Then I tried to identify how I can reach these clients and that’s where I started to struggle big time.

Then, I tried to divide my plan by months. I wrote down what I want at the end of my first months and then at the end of my second month, and third and no so on after that. That’s where I stopped. Drove myself crazy on this. Identifying the exact steps that I need to take to reach these goals was not easy.

At least I am working on my wish #44. Glad I wrote down my wishes. Even if I am my only blog reader, I am keeping myself on track through 50 wishes in 150 days.