This year was truly a great year both personally and professionally. I feel like I was able to really hit strides with my work/life balance. I made a point to provide top notch service to my clients and to my own family at home. I did this by cutting back on weddings and weekend shooting and working more closely with and providing additional services to the clients that I have.
I love and adore every single client and I’m honored that each client choose me to capture this time in their lives. I know you have lots of choices when it comes to photography in Indianapolis. So thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to be your Indianapolis photographer!!
Here are a 15 highlights from the year. They are in no particular order.
1. Styling Service Now Included with Every Session
I started offering a new styling service. This service can be used for all sessions… everything from in-studio milestone sessions to newborn sessions to maternity sessions. I think the service is most beneficial for family sessions or maternity sessions. This online tool takes the stress out of picking outfits for you and your family!! My clients who have used the service have had nothing but rave reviews about it so far and I’m loving the looks that people are coming up with! You can read more about the service here.
2. Thirty Six Messy Cake Smash Sessions
I love a good mess… especially when cake is involved! I take great pride in giving each little one that comes into the studio a completely custom cake smash set-up. Being an Indianapolis cake smash photographer is a blast. Some kids love cake, some kids love to play with cake, and some just don’t love it. Whatever happens, it’s sure to make some great pictures and memories. All 36 of these cake smash sessions were so much fun!
3. More Minis
My clients love mini sessions. I offered more variety of mini sessions this year and they all filled up pretty quickly – which I see as a sign of success! This year the mini sessions included Spring Minis, Summer Creek Side Minis, Urban Minis, Fall Minis, Christmas Tree Farm Minis, In-Home Holiday Minis and In-Studio New Year Mini Sessions. Just looking at that list is a little overwhelming! I also always offer the weekday in-studio mini milestone sessions. These mini sessions are a great way to update your family pictures without a large investment. Many families chose to do multiple mini sessions so they could capture their families a few times in one year. I do plan to offer more minis sessions in 2019. Be sure to subscribe to my email list to be the first to hear about these. Also, you will see the dates and times update here if they have already been announced via my email list.
4. Featured in Indianapolis Monthly Magazine
This feature was a big surprise to me! It wasn’t something I applied for or anything. But what a fun and amazing surprise and honor!! Indianapolis Monthly Magazine featured KristeenMarie Photography as the best Cake Smash Photographer in Indianapolis! There was a half page spread on my services and they featured a lovely image I took. So fun!!
5. My First Surrogate Birth
Being an Indianapolis birth photographer is one of the biggest joys of the job. Shooting births is one of my favorite things!! I shot a number of births this year, but by far my favorite birth was the surrogate birth that I photographed. This was something new to me and it was so cool to witness!
Thank you to all my clients who allowed me into their personal birth space to allow me to capture this very intimate time in their lives. I will forever be honored to have been able to capture the birth of your children.
6. Two Indianapolis Proposals
Not every guy hires a professional photographer when he proposes, but if you really want to knock your proposal out of the park then you hire one! While I only did two Indianapolis proposal photography sessions this year they were both killer proposals!! Take note guys, these two knew that they were doing!!
7. Back-end Changes
If you are a long time client you may or may not have noticed a few back-end changes. My hope is that these changes were seamless and you didn’t really notice. If you did notice I hope that you were pleasantly surprised! Here are the two changes that were made:
We switched our CRM from ShootQ to Dubsado. This tool is what we use to collect payments and have clients sign contracts. Dubsado is much more user friendly then ShootQ and if you noticed a change I hope you love it as much as we do!!
We also switched our client gallery hosting. We switched from Smugmug to Cloudspot. The new galleries are SO much nicer then the old ones and easier to use too. I hope you love these too!!
8. Fifty-Nine Indianapolis Families Photographed
Some of these families have been with me for YEARS. One of my favorite things about my job is being able to watch kids/families grow over the years and building relationships with my clients. It means the world to me to be able to capture these families year after year! I’m excited to start getting my 2019 calendar filled for family sessions. If you are looking for an Indianapolis family photographer this year. please let me know so we can get something on the books!
9. Continued Learning
Even though I’ve been in business for over 10 years now there is always still more to learn! This year I attended the Reset photography conference. I had the awesome opportunity to watch some pretty amazing photographers work including Sarah-Beth Photography, Twig + Olive Photography, The Herrintons, and Spanki Mill. You can read more about my takeaways from this photography conference here.
10. Seven Fresh 48 Sessions Capture in Indianapolis Hospitals
Is there anything better then a fresh new baby?! I think not! I’m actually kind of surprised I didn’t do more of these because I ADORE Fresh 48 sessions. If you are even considering doing a Indianapolis Fresh 48 photography session in 2019 let me know! I would love to capture your little one in those early hours of his or her life! Seriously, contact me if you are even considering this. I want to see all of those brand new baby toes.
11. Nine Beautiful Baby Bumps
Look at all those beautiful baby bumps!! All those glowing mamas and mamas-to-be were just stunning. I can’t wait to do more Indianapolis maternity photography in 2019!
12. Fifty Two In-Studio Milestone Session
Wow – that’s a big number! That’s an average of one per week throughout the year. Most of these milestone clients were first newborn clients in the studio. And we all know that I adore watching my clients grow so that makes my heart so happy!!
13. Five Beautiful Brides
Yes – I still shoot weddings. No – I don’t shoot a lot of them. I used to shoot 30+ weddings a year. However, I’m not at a point in my life where I can sustain that. Plus, it’s not where my heart is. I love shooting weddings but more then 5 in a year, and I don’t love it anymore. I give everything I’ve got to my wedding clients and I hope that they see that on the day of their wedding and in the final photo product. Next year I expect to shoot about 5 weddings too. If you are looking for an Indianapolis wedding photographer feel free to reach out! Let’s see if I’m a perfect match for your big day.
14. Eighty One Newborns in the Studio
If I had to pick only one thing to photograph for the rest of my life it would hands down be newborns. Good news is I don’t have to pick just one thing. But it’s no surprise that I did more newborn sessions then any other type of session. These are just the Indianapolis newborn photography sessions that were done in the studio too. I also had some in-home lifestyle newborn sessions and some clients added on outdoor newborn sessions to their packages in the summer months. So many beautiful brand new babies and their families.
15. New Promo Video
This video was actually shot in 2017 but wasn’t complete until 2018 so I think it still counts! If you haven’t seen it yet you should really check it out below. The video shows me in my element working as an Indianapolis newborn photographer in my studio. The lovely Erin Werner from Little Nuggets Photography produced this awesome video for me and I just love it!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I LOVE my joy. And I love each and every one of my clients. I couldn’t do what I do without the trust that each and everyone of you give to me to capture this special time in the lives of your families. Thank you 100 times over for allowing me to be your Indianapolis photographer!! I hope to see you again in 2019!!
