Our 200th Post! Let's Party!

Oh! You need some pictures I hear? Something pretty to start off your weekend? SURRRREEE!

Enjoy! :)

Now go sign up to be a follower over there on the right so I can hit the magical number 30. :)

UPDATED TO SAY: Thank you Annette for being my Lucky #30! lol :)

Secretly Featured?

I have discovered this new site (which I'll post about later) where you can do certain things to earn points, which you can in turn trade in for Amazon.com gift cards. And you basically don't have to do anything. Anyway, one of the things you do to earn the "bucks", is to use their search engine. So I am poking around, and apparently somebody liked Lourdes & Terrence's Trash the Dress session and featured an image on their blog! Very nice! I LOVE my work being featured on other blogs, or in print, and anytime someone wants to do that, you are totally welcome to, as long as the image is watermarked with 'Heizer Photography', there is a link back to my site, and of course you ask me first.

I didn't actually know about my image being picked up by this person, and I love being featured, so anyone, in the future, PLEASE tell me if you are going to use one of my images somewhere on the web. First of all, you need to be very careful about copyright infringement, because stealing images is illegal, and secondly, it's just good manners. Anyway, this gal gets a pass because she did provide all o my information, I just wish I had known at the time! Then if I know, I can link people back to your blog too!


http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/15-beautiful-modern-love

Hey!

Now I have 28 followers! Yay! I feel popular! Thank you Miss Jennifer Pearce! lol
Seriously, I have become obsessed.

Another thing, couponing? Whoever invented this is brilliant. I just had my first couponing experience yesterday and got boxes of name brand cereal from Target for 24-66 cents a box, and soup from Walmart for 8 cents a can. Thank you to MyLitter!

Work Order; UPDATED as of 11/6

Here's where we are on the list folks!

*Byard Family
Sidhu Family
Stephanie & Joey's Wedding
Marissa & Matt's Wedding
Anthony & Elizabeth
Barnett Family /Jake's Senior Portraits
Katie's Senior Portraits
Sara & Matt Engagement
*Maria & Rudy's Engagement
Annette & Matt's Wedding
Sara & Matt's Wedding
Amanda & Cody's Wedding
Katrina & Charlie's Wedding
*Sara's Baby Pictures
Joey's Baby Pictures
Olivia & Alex's Wedding
Cathryn & Justin's Wedding
Maria & Rudy's Wedding
The Herlache Family

Christy & Jon's Maternity

Astricks denote sessions near completion.

Also take note that I finally put up the booked dates section on the blog, it's at the bottom of this page. If you see any mistakes or anything left out just let me know!

Alisa and David are MARRIED!

Alisa and David married on the beach at Asilomar in Pacific Grove on the California Coast. the weather was totally perfect for pictures, everybody was excited and cooperative (lol) and well behaved, and although I showed up right on time- Alisa told me, "Oh, I knew I didn't have to worry about YOU!" LOL The DJ and the harpist had some issues. SO GLAD I use Mapquest!

Obviously, there was quite the beachy theme to the wedding, with an underlying sea turtle flair! Alisa told me about how the family had happened to stumble into some hatching sea turtles on the beach awhile back and how it had sort of come to represent the family! Their cake was topped with two little sea turtles, and the cake adorned with shells and coral. The groom's cake was the cutest little underwater Finding Nemo cake, and instead of a guest book, Alisa and David had everyone sign on a surfboard! How awesome is that?

By far the most memorable part about the day was Alisa's dance with her Dad. I swear to you, everyone in that room was teary, INCLUDING ME! They danced to Stevie Nicks' "Landslide," and it was completely awesome. (Which you are listening to now. :) )

Alisa was so kind to get me an AWESOME room at basically a little cottage ( it had a kitchen!) around the corner from the venue for the night. LITERALLY, I could have walked back and forth to the wedding. (I didn't, knowing I'd be coming back in the dark, I didn't want to get kidnapped! lol) I slept like a rock, and did a little siteseeing around town before loading up the car to head to the Bay Area, where I had an appointment with a client.

Alisa and David, you two are definetly owed a very public THANK YOU for all of your support that weekend. I hope you have some idea how much your words meant to me at that very low moment I was feeling professionally.

The day after their wedding I had scheduled a meeting to try and smooth things out with another client. They had booked me over a year ago, but I had never worked with them... yet somehow some slanderous statements written by them about me ended up online in a bridal forum... A fellow vendor, and bride who follows the forum, and knew a couple of my brides were in there, saw it, and alerted me to it. The whole thing was shocking, and based on a HUGE miscommunication on their end. I was really upset over the whole thing, especially since things had been so manipulated online, and obviously, my client wasn't happy, which made me even more upset. Although I don't believe I did anything wrong, there was clearly a misunderstanding between us.

I was really nervous and ended up spilling my guts to Alisa and David, who were equally shocked over what had been said, told me everything sounded ridiculous, and how could anyone ever think ANYTHING negative about me and promptly offered to accompany me to my meeting to testify to the couple what a professional I am! I didn't let them do that, but I'll love them forever for giving me the confidence to go forward and face the issue head on in hopes of straightening things out. This was the first conflict or complaint that I have basically EVER received since I have been shooting so the whole thing was basically traumatic for me. Especially since I had never even worked with this couple before! The whole thing was quite ridiculous, but it had been blown up to a point where things needed to be aired out.

The meeting went well from the client's perspective and things were smoothed over from the outside. They told me they were happy and comfortable with me, and they did apologize for what had happened. But for me, I just could not let go of all of the things that had been said about me. The statements were so extreme and offensive to me- and I am sensitive, I'll admit it- but I just could not get over it. I was so nervous and intimidated by the client that I wasn't at all myself around them. I was more like a withdrawn, stuttering mouse and no doubt submissive. I lost just about all of my take-charge assertive work attitute that I need to do my job. I also started experiencing panic attacks in the days that followed, just thinking about working for them. Ultimately I got so upset knowing how bad it would be for us to work together, that I would likely be a thorn in their side the entire wedding day, and I would be so uncomfortable around them I knew I wouldn't be able to do my job to the level at which I normally operate. We would both get less than what either of us deserved out of the experience. We ended up amicably resolving the contract, they received a full refund, and to my understanding were able to hire a wonderful set of [very expensive] photographers who were able to cater to every single one of their needs- and far better than I would ever be able to... I like to think of myself as the "Target" of wedding photography. Not so cheap or low quality that you'd equate me with WalMart, but not a Macy's either. Target is good, solid, you know what you'll get, sometimes you get a surprise or two, and mostly you're pretty happy. But why go for a Target if you can afford Bloomingdale's? Get the best you can afford, and you'll be much happier for it. You can't get WalMart quality at Macy's, and you can't get Bloomingdale's personal shopper at Target. Get what you need, and that will make you happy. You have to have reasonable expectations.

I work on the assumption that all of my clients trust me implicitly to do my job without any direction whatsoever, and that is how the vendor-client relationship SHOULD function. If you don't trust your vendors, then you shouldn't hire them. With your other vendors (djs, hairstylists, etc) you should be communicating and probably meeting several times before the wedding. The communication level is very high, and on the day of, they just do what they are supposed to do. With a photographer, once you're booked, I don't need a single thing from you until the week of the wedding. All I need is my final confirmation, which most importantly tells me where to go and when to show up, and then I do my job. And you trust me to do my job, which is to capture every single important moment as it happens, to keep an eye on the timeline and make sure things run smoothly, to make sure people who aren't supposed to see you before the ceremony don't, and those that do, do; to either help guide you to the best location for photographs or orchestrate it on my own, to keep an eye on the light, and to watch the clock and the guests to make sure you actually have people there at the reception when the time comes to toss the garter or cut the cake and that people haven't drifted away, among many, many other things like fixing bustles and giving directions on cutting cake...

That's what I do, and I do it without having to think about it. I don't need any direction or guidance to do that (although a schedule is very helpful) as it is ingrained in me. If I were to write out directions, or a guide as to what I do and how I operate on wedding day, it would far exceed 40 pages typed. It's alot, but as a vendor, I am the expert on my own job. I don't know a thing about being a dj and would never try to manage that, and I don't expect you to know a thing about photography and don't expect you to manage that either. As the expert on myself and my own role, my place is to guide you to make sure you get the best experience possible. And that is exactly what I strive to do. Even if it means rubbing my entire body ( and wedding work-outfit) on the outside of some dilapidated old pick up truck to make sure you won't get a speck of dust or fleck of paint on your suit. That's just me. I crawl on the floor, climb light poles and use my body as a giant duster. I'm flyin' my freak flag for ya ladies.

:)

Anyway, LOOOOONG post here, 83 pictures from Alisa and David's wedding! And THANK YOU one more time Alisa! I don't know what I would have done without your encouragement that day! www.AlisaAndDavid.Shutterfly.com

The new family!









Uh, oh the waves attacked!!!























Reception Details







Fooooooood

Jon & Christy are PREGNANT! (Preview)

I shot Jon & Christy's engagement pictures at the Marin Headlands, and Baker Beach in July of 2008. I shot their wedding that August. And today, I shot their maternity session. This is jsut a preview, so more to come.

Oh, and they totttttalllly named the baby after me. (Or maybe they just liked the name. Nahhh, we'll go with the first story! THEYRE NAMING THE BABY AFTER ME!!! lol)

Baby Emily is coming soon! 37 weeks 2 days and counting! (Or was it 38 weeks and 2 days?) Either way we are getting close! Christy is still on bedrest but we're in the safety zone now!

The text on Christy's belly is actually what is painted or stenciled to Emily's nursery room door. I shot an image of it, and then added it into this image. We didn't have blocks or anything to put on Christy's tummy, so I thought this was a good [top-secret] alternative!

PS: YES, this song is from Dumbo. My first choice was "Two Pink Lines" by Eric Church, since I believe it involves the mention of a shot gun, but I couldn't find it, so I went with Dumbo. Since, if it's not a weird choice, it's not mine. :)