Shannon Holden Photography

Winding down the year. I’ve still got to pack up my Christmas decorations, find a place for all the new toys that invaded my house, and figure out how to lose the 5 pounds I gained in the last 10 days. We had a wonderful Christmas at my home, and I hope you all had a fantastic holiday as well.

Coming soon … I’m very excited to be putting together a Client Concierge area for my website. This will be a private area on my site, accessible only by current clients, where I hope you will find a treasure trove of information to help you before, during, and after your session. Detailed topics will include suggestions on clothing, location suggestions with photographs, sample product images, and much more. As I continue to create this site, I wanted to turn to you, my clients, for input. What kinds of topics would you find helpful? Are there questions you’d like me to address on the site? Any other suggestions?

Please contact me via email or post your suggestions here. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

I’ll leave you with an image of my little girl. She is almost sixteen months old. I did not do formal 15 month portraits of her, mainly due to time, but I was happy to capture a few images of her sweet (and somewhat mischievous) personality at this age. She is talking like crazy and cracks us up daily. What can I say? I love her to pieces!!

What a season! This has been my best holiday season so far in this business – I’ve had wonderful clients, orders moving (mostly) smoothly through the lab, a busy but manageable schedule, and I didn’t get sick. Usually, I get sick, thanks to my kids bringing germs home from school, sometime during the holiday rush, which puts me further behind. I managed to make it through the season without any major illness in me or my kids. Woohoo!

And now, I’m excited to have some time off. My last session for 2007 has been shot and will be edited soon. The last of my holiday orders are arriving from the lab today. And thus, once those last few items are off my desk, I’m going to spend some quality time with my family. I work A LOT in the months of October and November. A LOT! My kids and my husband are so understanding, so supportive, never complaining about the toll it takes on our whole house for Mommy to be working around the clock. So as a promise and a thank you to them, I am going to close up shop for the next few weeks. We are going to bake cookies, watch movies, play outside, sing carols, wrap gifts, visit with family and friends, and celebrate the everything that Christmas means.

Thus ….. Shannon Holden Photography will be closed from tomorrow, December 20, through Monday, January 7. My business phone line will be set to voice mail only. I will be checking email and voice mail once daily and will respond to any urgent issues as soon as possible. Anything non-urgent will be addressed after January 7. Thank you to everyone who has shared a little part of your life with me this year. Thank you for entrusting these memories to me. I will hope to see many of you again in 2008.

Keep reading the blog! I will try to post a few more session glimpses from these past few months, and I’ll probably share some personal shots too, if I pick up my camera in the next few weeks. (wink, wink)

For today, I leave you with one of my last sessions of the year, and a sneak preview for these fun clients. S Family – I’ll have your full presentation ready for you by tomorrow.

Miss A is full of spirit! I’ve gotten to meet so many little ones this year the same age as my daughter. Miss A was just like my little girl, very eager to explore, very impatient at being stuck in one place. She was such a trooper to endure the suddenly cold day. Her little hands got so cold! I had a fantastic time seeing her sense of adventure and curiosity. And look at those precious tiny boots! What a sweetheart!

Merry Christmas to a very special little man. A child’s first Christmas is so sweet for me. I know they won’t remember it, and I know they probably won’t understand (and might even be overwhelmed by) the flurry of activity, the opening of gifts, the magic of Christmas morning. But for me as a mother, it’s the beginning of the anticipation of my child’s future Christmas mornings. I imagine what it will be like when I can start teaching them the story of Christmas, and I imagine their expression of wonder as the magic of the holidays starts to come alive around them. I think about the cookies we’ll bake, the decorations we’ll spread around our yard, the cards we’ll stamp and mail together. I remember all those memories with my parents during my own childhood, and I can’t wait to relive them as a parent.

So Merry 1st Christmas, precious little one. And to your Mom and Dad, thank you for not only being great clients but also for your friendship. It has been an honor to be your photographer this year, and it has been a true gift to see your son grow in these 8 months. I definitely count you all among my blessings for 2007!