Christmas fun via Jib-Jab

I want to wish you all Merry Christmas and my gift to you is the gift of laughter. Here are some videos I 'made' using JibJab.com and starring myself, my wife Sandy and daughter Molly.

JibJab.com is offering 52% off on its $12 yearly membership if you use this code -10JJEOY - I did it today - best $6 I've spent in a long time.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Gift Cards and Gift Certificates

I'm really happy to introduce a couple of new features for my customers - gift certificates and gift cards.

First things, first: You must purchase these from me directly - not through the website. To make a purchase email me your interest (shawn@coldhollowphoto.com) or call me 782-5317. I will walk you through the process and create a customized card and/or certificate.

Gift cards start at $10 and go up from there.

Gift certificates start at $75 - which is the standard sitting fee for family photos and includes a $25 print credit.

Frequently asked questions ...

1. How do I get my card/certificate? We can mail it to you - it comes printed onto a magnet so you won't lose it. Or, if time is a factor, we can email you the file and you can print it yourself or email it to a friend.

2. How long are they valid for? No expiration. They are good for any product/photo/download on our website and can be used for shipping charges.

3. What do they look like?

Here's a sample gift card (which are perfect gifts for folks with kids with action photos on my website. With the code on the card they can order pictures (and downloads, if available) themselves whenever they want. You don't have to give them your credit card. We put their name on the card and create a unique code - beware, if they share the code and someone else uses it, we are not repsonsible.)

Here's a sample gift certificate - great for giving the gift of family portraits. They start at $75, but can be made in highger amounts if you want to help defray the cost of a wedding package, cover the cost of an entire senior photo session ($99), etc ... They cannot be redeemed through the website, but can be converted into a gift card.

If you have any questions or would like to place an order, please email me shawn@coldhollowphoto.com or call me or Sandy at 933-8849 or 782-5317.

Cheer Challenge update

A number of folks have emailed me through the blog looking for Cheer Challenge photos. These will be posted soon - a number of factors is delaying their appearance.

First, there are over 2,500 photos. I need to edit out at least some of them before they are posted to the site. Unfortunately, I'm extremely busy with other projects right now.

Secondly, in the past I have divided the images by teams, I don't think this will be possible this time around. To sort these in this manner isn't practical.

That said, they will appear chronologically starting from the practice round to the end of the competition. If you know when your team competed (and the team before and after them) it might help you narrow down your search.

I may be able to do something within the website to organize the photos by teams at some point, but for right now the plan is to put these images online unedited (I'll remove the truly blurry photos, etc ...) and in one big gallery.

Remember that the 99 cent downloads are unedited in any way. You can crop them or enhance them yourself.

If you order any prints (4x6, 5x7, etc ...) I will crop and enhance the photos before they are printed.

Thanks for taking the time to reach out to me to show your interest in looking at these photos and please email me if you want to be notified when they are uploaded shawn@coldhollowphoto.com

Take care!

99 cent downloads now available for select folks

As my business has continued to grow, I've been trying how to find a way to reward those teams, schools and leagues that hire me to do their sports photography.

I think I may have found a way.

Starting immediately, any photos I take for any league, school or team that hires for their posed photography business will be able to instantly download any action image from any games they play or just 99 cents. Also, I've dropped the cost of 4x6s by a buck and I am offering CDs of all the images I take of any one player in any one season for just $34.99, plus tax.

I also can do photo collage posters for $49.99. Shoot me an email - shawn@coldhollowphoto.com - if you have any interest in these unique gifts.

A couple of logistical things: I no longer edit photos before I upload them. Wish I could, but I'm far too busy at this point.

If you download an image, it will not be cropped or edited. You will have to do that once you get it. If you order a print or a CD, those images will be professionally cropped and edited before you receive them.

Here's the difference between unedited and edited photos.

This is the original image as it appears on my website:

Here's a cropped and edited version:

Here's an alternative crop:

As you can see there is quite a bit on enhancement than can occur with these unedited photos.

If your current school, team or league photographer isn't offering these services and you would like to switch to our service, please let me know. We are pretty tightly booked, but we can always find a way to make room for more customers. If you would like to see samples of our work, letters of reccomdendation and sample price lists, please contact me and I'll get them to you ASAP.

A little of this and a little of that

I've posted the latest Little League all-star photos from Friday on the website and should be able to get some more games in later this week.

I'm teaching a photography class in Montgomery each Tuesday in July. If it goes well, I may try to do the same in other communities. If you know of a town that might have some interest in hiring me, let me know.

My goal is to help people progress from taking pictures to making photographs by learning more about the manual settings on their camera and by using some tried and tested tips and techniques (say that three times fast!) I learned along the way.

Also, I thought I'd share a couple of photos.

One is of a good friend Jim Hill - who said he won a bet for showing up at a little league game with his cute-as-a-button daughter Lizzie dressed like the naked cowboy - only with short - thank God. This photo is apropos of nothing, but I know it will annoy Jim and I live for that.

Next, here are some fireworks photos from the Lake Carmi fireworks show. There's nothing I enjoy photographing more than fireworks. That's all I got for now - stay safe, hug your kids and keep cool --- Shawn