Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Reopening Studio Letter

Here is a copy of my letter in case you didn't/don't get one:


Hello, again! It’s been awhile and I hope you and your families are all doing well and not stressing out too much with all the holiday activities and planning!!

I just wanted to update you on my current business endeavor. As many of you know, back in June I closed my Freeze Frame Photography studio in Bluffton to go work for a studio in Huntington. After giving it an honest try for six weeks, I realized it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So as of August 4th, I was unemployed, or as I like to call it, retired. The timing ended up being a blessing as I became engaged the end of July and had a wedding to plan for October 18th. I was still doing some photography on location, as I didn’t have the studio anymore, but had kept plenty of my equipment. The wedding was beautiful and Andy and I are very happy and living just a few miles west of Bluffton now.

After much thought and discussion, we have decided to build a studio here at our home location. Andy is busy right now with framing and running wire and all the construction stuff needed to get it ready for me. He is being so accommodating in doing things for me.

It is going to be a little different than the old place. Size being a big factor. But one of the things I wanted was to scale down. I won’t be doing the custom framing like I did in town, although I will still be able to frame your portraits for you. The way the studio will be set up, I won’t be able to do as large of family groups as before in the old studio. I can still do them outside or at some other location. I also won’t be there all the time. Everything will be by appointment, which isn’t so different from before, since no one ever just came in and decided to have their photo taken. We are also not that far from town. We are located about 2 miles west of the Gerber Bridge. Our address is 0339 West 100 North, Bluffton.

I will still be focusing on Family and Children portraiture, with Seniors, Weddings and Business portraits also. We are setting up a viewing area in the studio where you will be able to view your images on our projection screen like we have done in the past few years. The pricing, specials and album programs that I have had in the past will be used again. I am also looking into all kinds of other products and services that I can add.

We can start booking your sessions at the new studio beginning January 5th, 2009! You are more than welcome to call before that to get your appointment scheduled. Just to entice you, if you call and book your appointment, pay your session fee at the time of booking, before January 31st, I will give you back ½ of your session fee at your time of ordering. For example, a family of 4 Session is $60. You will get $30 towards your order. Valid on sessions from January through April 2009. Another money savings offer I am adding will be when you order the same day as your viewing and put ½ down, you will be given 5% off your order, if you order and pay in full you will receive 8% off. If you pay with cash or check, you will get an additional 2% off. You will also have the option to purchase or receive free your edited images on CD.

If you would like to contact me to schedule an appointment or if you have questions, please call me at 260-820-1909 for now. I’m working at getting my business number moved but its still being done. You can email me at my new address also, andree.shearer@gmail.com . I can’t wait to get back to work!! I want to thank those of you who I’ve talked to for encouraging me to re-open my studio. Your kind words and flattery worked!

Sincerely,

Andree Shearer
Have A Merry Christmas & A Blessed New Year!!

Carpet is here!

After a week off for the holidays the carpet layer is here installing as I write this. I'm so excited!! It's the beginning of the final countdown to getting everthing in there. Of course, (ug) moving and arranging everything is next. I have "moved" everything in a thousand times in my dreams, just without the sore muscles and bruises. I also dreamed that the carpet ended up being a horrible orange color. Which it is a "rust" color so I wasn't far off on my worries. But it will look fine once everything else is in there.
I have been working on sending out some letters. In case you don't get one, I just want to extend the offer here. Any sessions booked and paid between now and January 31st will be HALF OFF!! You can schedule your session anytime between now and April of 2009.
I'll post the letter in the next post. Now I need to go out and bug them.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Website is up and running!

YeeHaw!! This morning when I first got on the internet my homepage popped up with my new webiste! I'm so excited to have something back up since it was lost by my hosting company back in June. I still have a lot of work to do on it, like all the wording stuff. The part that's not as fun. I would rather post images all day. I never was good at all the text stuff. It takes me forever to figure out the right words, layout, commas or colons, etc.
Now I'm tempted to work on it but I have plenty of baking and wrapping to do for Christmas. And I'm sure I forgot something for somebody so I'll probably have to scramble off to the store with everyone else! No it's not old age creeping up on me, I've always been a little forgetful, scatterbrained or unorganized. Call it whatever you want.
I can't believe another year is almost over. It was a good year, but I'm excited and ready for 2009. I'm ready to get back in a studio and get to work. Right now we are just waiting for the carpet to be installed then it's Moving time!! I have lots of ideas of how I want it to be laid out but it never seems to work the way I draw it out on my graft paper. So we'll see.
I just want to wish you a very Merry Chirstmas. A Blessed New Year! And thank you for your support and business over the years!!!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008


Here's another one of my favorite wedding photos.

First Day Blogging


I am just checking out this blog thing. I've read others but haven't had one of my own, so I thought I'd give it a try. I have many other things to do today so this is it. I'll do more later. Hope you have a nice day!!