They were set up!

My first engagement shoot! EVER...I have always offered a complimentary engagement shoot with my packages however Brendon and Alison are my first couple to do it!

Three years ago...Alison says it was a very public "set up!" by Brendon's boss and friends and family eagerly watched over the next few weeks as their relationship grew.
I guess they knew!
A little after 2 years later Brendon asked Alison to Marry him ;-) The rest and the best is yet to come!

Brendon and Alison are getting married early this year, we met this evening to view the ceremony location at Sanctuary in thee Cove, in Coopers beach and WOW what a stunning location!

Here are a few shots from the engagement shoot!

Looking forward to the big day!

xox

3 days of Sunshine...

Hey friends!!!

What a lovely few days of sunshine we just had! I thought I had better get out and about to enjoy it before the storm sets in!!!

Day one (Tuesday)...
I took the kids up to Houhora Heads, it was so lovely as the tide was in, so the water came right up to the bank. Kids has a ball and Cameron even swam longer then usual as the sun was so hot it kept here warm! (normally her lips turn blue after 20 mins in the water and she shivers away!) I looked through my photos and decided not to post any, as Dallas decided to go in his birthday suit...and I don't want to scare anyone!

Day two (Wednesday)...
We picked up our cousin Michelle and Izaak and headed out to Ahipara! When we got there we saw some runaway horses galloping full bull along the beach!!! So funny.
 The kids played in the rock pools for about an hour, then we had chippies and juice on the beach to top it off...before the sun blazed down and we were literally sweating just sitting there! So it was off to get some ice cream then home for some shade!

Day three (Thursday)...
Today we planned to go back up to the heads but for some reason did not happen like that! We ended up staying home and getting outside. Made an slip in slide (it was a bit budget!!!) and put the little sprinkler on for a wee while.

Ok so Dallas is still in his birthday suit!!! but at least its not too scary!!!

Well that was our 3 days of sunshine! now the rain has set in so its kids inside ALL day! Well this afternoon has been pretty quite, the big kids have gone to Digger Nana's and Dallas is having a big snooze.

This mornings activities were Dallas putting make up on Poppa!!!

He is actually putting make up on, not popping a pimple!!!

And Cameron doing another lovely picture for me, you know I have boxes of these! How sweet!!!

And to finish off a couple of photographs of the beautiful sunsets!

Happy Friday!!!
xox

Huge Canvas for Christmas???

Ok friends...after much thought I have come up with a competition...
2011 is going to be a fantastic year...

The prize is a huge A1 canvas, printed on a light canvas, valued at over $250.
The canvas can be from your photographs (that I took) OR one of my scenic prints that are available at the time.
Competition will be drawn on the 1st december 2011 (and will arrive just in time for christmas!).
Competition ends 30th Nov 2011.

Who can enter?
* Anyone who's wedding or family photos I have photographed or will photograph between 1 Dec 2010 - 30 Nov 2011.
Terms and conditions...
* To enter you must complete one of the following (these are your entry forms!):

1)   Leave a (positive!) review for my photography on my  finda page.

2)   Leave a (positive!) review for my photography on my corporate events guide page.

3)   A testimonial for my photography, sent to me via email stacey@staceymilichphotography.com

4)   A referral that is followed by a confirmed booking (that follows through before 30 Nov 2011 - so if you recommend me to a friend that actually makes a booking and has photos before 30 Nov 2011)

* Obviously you will only be able to leave a testimonial once you have had me take your photographs.
* You may enter only ONCE for 1, 2 and 3 of the entry forms, so if you leave a review on finda and corporate events guide then that is TWO entries. If you leave a review on finda, corporate events guide, testimonial and a referral that follows through then thats FOUR entries. And for number 4 you can enter as many times as you can!

IMPORTANT STUFF! INSTRUCTIONS...
* Complete you entry (as above)
* Go to my facebook page Stacey Milich Photography Facebook Page
* Click on the "EVENTS" tab and find the "MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011" event
* Click "I AM ATTENDING" and leave a comment with your entry details (you can put your name and 1, 2, 3 or 4 - which ever one you do)
* Once I have checked your entry is valid (eg you did leave a positive testimonial! etc) then I will put your name in the hat!

EASY???
If you have any questions please ask.
Leave a comment on here or email me at stacey@staceymilichphotography.com

GOOD LUCK!
xox

TWENTY TEN!!!

Yesterday I was looking at my 2010 wall planner and was amazed at how many photography jobs I actually did. And then I looked my my goals for 2010 that I wrote in 2009.

Here are my goals and what I actually achieved!

GOAL: 10 weddings
ACTUAL: 6 weddings


60% SUCCESS


GOAL: 15 Family/Portrait sittings/bookings
ACTUAL: 13 Family sittings

86% SUCCESS


GOAL: 5 School photos
ACTUAL: 3 School photos


60% SUCCESS


Plus 4 Freelance jobs

A GRAND TOTAL OF 26!!!

Now initially I thought that is not enough, but then I thought about it.

* On average thats one job a fortnight, realistically any more then that last year with 3 kids at home would have been a struggle (Remember thought I would have defiantly done it if I did happen to have more!)

* When I was setting my goals for 2010 at first I was putting lower numbers in my goals, I think 6 was my goal I first put for weddings, now you may be thinking that if I put 6 then I would have achieved 100% of my goal?? maybe, but what if I still only achieved 60%?? Then I would have only have done 3 weddings!!
(goes back to an earlier blog on goals where I said to aim higher then you actually want to achieve)

* 3 out of my 6 weddings were couples that are from NZ but now live in Australia. Now that is fantastic as 3 samples of MY wedding photography have travelled across the ditch! WOW now think about it...I can start offering travel photography packages!!! Fly to oz for the weekend to photograph a wedding! all expenses paid!

* ALL of the wedding bookings were WORD OF MOUTH

* ONE of the family bookings was from newspaper advertising

* FOUR of the family bookings were from FACEBOOK!

* TWO of  the school bookings were from me getting out there and making myself known and ONE was following on from 2009

* THREE of the freelance jobs were on my own initiative - not the best idea I had! however I have records of those particular events and the photos may be more valuable in time.

SO!!! With all that in mind, WHAT A YEAR!!!

I set up my facebook page a year ago as well and now I am up to 300 friends!
And my email data base, that I send updates every now and then is around 100.

Learning what works for me and what does not has been very exciting (and a little expensive in some cases!)

And another exciting thing is LIFE is falling into place, a vision that I have had for a coupe of years now.

AND 2010 HAS BEEN A 200% IMPROVEMENT ON 2009!!! WOW!!!

So on that note I will end todays blog there. Watch this space for 2011 goals!!! they will be bigger and better!!!

xox

green fingers and photography

Hmmmm it can be challenging finding things to get the kids into! especially since the school holidays are sooooooo long!!

All this talk about a vege garden! It is finally in...yay.
Hopefully it will encourage the kids to eat more veges! Well Cameron anyway! Cody does good already and Dallas is so so.
Photos taken with Cameron's point and shoot!

Task two for the kids! I gave them an assignment with their new cameras they got from Digger Nana for christmas! It was raining outside so they had to make the letters of their name using objects inside and something different every time. It was great to see them working together and also helping one another out, Cameron obviously took longer so Cody helped her make up/find her other letters! I photoshopped their letters onto one to spell their names!

Very clever I think! 

xox

My little army man!

I got a little surprise in the mail today! One more christmas present...there are four of us girls, who are best friends from the Army. There is Luanne, Kathryn, Susan and Me! Every christmas we do the $5 gifts for each other, its kind of a competition but we do not follow through with a winner.
Anyways Suzy's present arrived today! And in it was these army men with a parachute and some cammo paint! (not sure what she did with the change from the $5!! lol)

Look what we did!...

This was the pose I got when I said "show me your Army man pose!" Hmmm not sure how scary this is!

He thought it was neat putting "make up" on!!!

How cute!

xox

30 fingers and 30 toes!

I finally got to meet Kat and Scotty's babies! (For those of you that do not know, Kat is one of my best friends, we met when we were both in the Army - that is a whole other story!)
How exciting. I must admit that in a household with 5 kids under the age of 5 I expected chaos! And I thought adding my 3 to the mix would top it off but surprisingly it was quite a peaceful 3 days we spent there.
The babies turned 4 months when we were there and they are soooo lovely and soooo good. Kat you are truly a super mummy I myself could not imagine have one baby let alone 3 with a 2 year old and a 4 year old as well! AND they are sleeping through the night already!
I guess it is not all fun and games all of the time, as I think back to when Cameron and Cody were babies but you just somehow do it! you have to there is no on else too, and you take the love and support you get from anyone. But my 2 on their own were nothing compared to 5 under 5!

Its funny we wanted to get some photos but there just seamed to be no time! (ya think!) so these were taken on my last night there at 11pm (after their last Kai at 10pm)! My flash batteries were nearly flat so I had alot of mis-fires! But here is some of what we got...

Hope I got the names right Kat! I remembered you always put them in birth order so I looked at the card you sent after they were born!.

Meet Amelia...she was more interested in watching TV. We were hoping they would all go to sleep.

Arama...TV as well and he did not like his hat.

And Anahera...Little angel doing as she was told.

Well I am really looking forward to taking family photos for this family again soon...we will have to think of something creative and different!

Thanks Kat

xox

Holidays!

Well hellooooo friends! Yes we are back from our tiki tour around the coast! With NO internet access and NO cell phone coverage! YES I did manage to survive!
I did not take too many photos, but the kids got digital cameras for christmas! So I left them to it....interesting photography from a kids perspective!

So We travelled to Auckland on New Years eve with a whole heap of photos to edit! 3 family portrait sittings and 1 wedding from the week...so had to get them done on my holiday!
Then New Years day we were on the road again to Te Kaha...What a LONG day on the road. Finally got there safe and sound...

We spent a week there and it pretty much rained the whole time! Had two days of sunshine! Where the kids got down to the beach for a swim...

Dallas was not sure at first so I had to hop in the boat with him! apparently its safe for up to 55kgs?? Lucky I am only little! lol. Kylie's Mum snapped this shot!

So after a week of catching up with Nana Ali and Family we were on the road again, Kylie and I in opposite directions! Kylie had to go back to work while I wanted to enjoy the freedom of school holidays and carried off down the line! The kids and I followed Kylie's Sister (Fiona) and his Dad (Syd) back to Gisborne, we spent the weekend there...then on to Wairoa to visit Nana Margaret (YES ANOTHER NANA!) then to My friend Kat's place in Havelock North! Finally got to meet her little babies! - TRIPLETS! More about them on another blog ;-) Here are a few pic's from at Kats

BEAUTIFUL! 

So after Kat's we carried on to Napier to visit the kids Auntie Lil....only was expecting to stay and hour but the kids were having such a ball catching up with their cuzzies Leah and Belle and me being so tired at Kat kept me up late 3 nights in a row! I asked if we could stay....as soon as Lil said yes I had a quick nana nap on the couch! lol...

The next day on to Auckland for a quick catch up with Lu then home again home again jiggity jig!!!

One more trip North next week then home back into routine! be a bit more consistency then!

Stacey

xox