You all have met Ralph (and have grown to love him, I’m sure). Well meet the newest member of the Miller family slash future associate of S. Miller Photos: MILO! He’s a (almost) 3 month old Chihuahua mix breed. We haven’t the slightest clue what he’s mixed with but whatever it is makes for  a very cute puppy!  Milo came from a shelter that rescues puppies and kittens from large shelters where they are facing being euthanized or simply dying from shelter diseases like Parvo. Its a heartbreaking reality, but so comforting to know that there are people out there who make it their mission to save the lives of the small little creatures!  If you are interested in giving a sweet little baby a new home you can visit Pawz and Clawz Animal Rescue or Adoptapet.com!

Its hard to tell in these images, but this little GQ puppy has gorgeous green eyes! I’m thinking about getting him an agent.

Each year I assign myself a mantra. Something that applies to my goals and reminds me to aspire to be a better me. My mottos are typically overused cliches like everything happens for a reason and in due time. I think that one was circa 2004. Or  be the change you want to see in the world. Gandhi said it, I attempted to live it in 2008. Love looks for the best in every person was in 2010 and with that I sincerely began to see the world in a different light. The best part about my mantras is that they never go away. I spend a year focusing on an idea that will forever change the way I perceive things and live my life. In 2011 I’m working on taking risks and putting myself out there, something I’ve never been able to do. As a consequence, I realize I’ve missed so many opportunities. The motto of the year is EVERY OPPORTUNITY HAS A SHELF LIFE. Yes, that did come from a recent Christina Aguilera movie, but I love it. It means so much more than take risks or carpe diem. Its that kick in the pants that I know I’m going to need at some point in the next 362 days.  So with that I say BRING IT ON 2011!  I’m kicking the year off with some sisterly love…

As a small business owner I have a lot to me mindful of: finances, supplies, flow of business, customer satisfaction. But in my opinion, there is an entity that requires more attention than any other area. Relationships. In the short time I’ve been in business, I have discovered the relationships I am building will sustain this little company alone.

One of the first missions I set out on was to network with other professionals. People I felt would be good examples, occasional mentors and eventual friends. Fortunately that wasn’t much of a challenge. The photography world welcomed me with open arms and I’m still surprised and honored when someone remembers my name or answers and email right away. Which brings me to my first piece of advice: know the names of the people you are working with. That goes for colleagues, vendors and most importantly clients. This may sound remedial, but one slip up can potentially ruin a good thing. Personally I am terrible with names, so I make sure to do whatever it takes to prevent me from murmuring the wrong name. I stress this because I’ve been on the other side of the name calling. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been called Tiffany. Not too long ago I was working with another business owner who I had been communicating with primarily through emails. When we finally met in person she couldn’t remember my name for the life of her. She repeatedly called me the wrong names and just danced around the obvious truth that she didn’t know my name. After being corrected for the 45th time I think she just gave up, resulting in my new nick name Miss Thang. Really? Is Stephanie THAT hard to remember? In my head I just thought to myself so basically you don’t care enough about this relationship to even know my name. To make matters worse you start calling me names. Cool. And that was it. Relationship fail.

Do you need to know your associates sign and favorite color? No. Their name. Yes. And YES! What do you do if you can’t remember? Don’t fake it. In one of my very first jobs ever I learned an important lesson: its ok to say I don’t know. If you don’t know the answer to something ask… and then tattoo the answer to your brain so you NEVER forget.

Relationships are very powerful and worth putting a lot of effort into. In my relationships, my goal is to make sure both parties walk away remembering something about each other beyond our first names. More than likely we’ll even find something in common, keeping us connected.

On another note…

Today is the first day of December Daily!  December Daily was started by scrap bookers as a challenge to document each day leading up to Christmas. Well Tira J informed me (and the rest of twitter) that bloggers are getting in on the challenge too, so for the next 25 days we are challenging ourselves to digitally document the season. There’s no better way for me to kick off my Daily December contribution than with a milestone in my household: After celebrating our first wedding anniversary, my husband and I got our very first real Christmas tree! From here on out we plan to spend the day after our anniversary eating chinese food and decorating the tree by the fire with Christmas music playing in the background. And maybe next year the photographer wife cut off the star in the photo… go figure. Happy tree trimming!

Katie Keller and Jen Johnson are also taking on the challenge along with us. Check out their December Daily posts! If you have a blog and want to take on the challenge add your blog URL in the comments and I’ll follow your journey too!

Yesterday creativeLIVE introduced us to another fabulous workshop, with another fabulous instructor. This time around I am watching from home, but I still feel like I’m right there in the studio. Tamara Lackey is schooling us on the art of children’s photography and all its ups, downs, challenges and perks. As a former early childhood teacher who holds a master’s degree in education psychology and counseling in early childhood education, I know (and love) children. And now as a photographer I love making photos of children.  Yes, I said making. Bambi Cantrell joined the live broadcast to critique some images from the Tamara Lackey flicker pool and the chatroom was all a buzz about the way Bambi addressed photographers as “the maker” of the photo. Well, it makes since. Anyone can push a button and take a picture, but a true photographer makes a picture with the proper lighting, setup, composition, etc.  As usual the first day was long and exhausting, and informative and exciting, leaving me anxious for the next session thinking what else don’t I know? Well, for the next 2 days everything has been put on hold between 10am and 6pm, because I’m in creativeLIVE mode.

Here’s a quick recap of some pointers I gathered from the first day (with my interpretations of course)…

• Addressing fear: We all have some sort of fear when we enter this business, weather it be fear of success or fear of failure. Fear of growth or fear of being stuck. Whatever it may be, its so important to address the fear and strengthen yourself in that area.
• Nothing works 100% for 100% of people. Especially kids. Throw away the formula idea and GET REAL!
• Authentic capture: really seeing who is in front of you. Break the ice. Ask questions about your clients, let them know you want to know who they are, and keep the conversation going throughout the session.
• Allow for “pockets of time”- time for children to get comfortable in the environment, with new people, etc.
• Talk with the parents about taking the limits off the table. In my classrooms, I always explained to parents that school is the place to explore, experiment and test boundaries that are off limits at home (in the safest way, of course). In a portrait session with children its important to alleviate as many stressors as possible and make it a genuinely fun experience.

Tune in for the live broadcast of day two today between 10am and 6pm!

I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, but I do plan on living as much as possible. A few years back I watched the movie The Bucket List, which immensely inspired me to start living. There were so many things I thought about doing every day, but thats about as fas as I got with that. So just like in the movie, I decided to write down all the things I want to do in my life and do it. Which ended up being 8 things. Yes, at the time there were 8 things I wanted to do. But 8 really meaningful things…to me at least. Well… I actually forgot about the list until I came across it this past week and although there were only 8 things listed, I was re-inspired when I was able to cross a few things off my list.

To be honest, I didn’t even remember what I had on my list, but to know I am accomplishing things makes me feel successful.  So I decided to add a few more things to my list. Bigger challenges like getting published in a magazine. And I’ve also challenged myself to keep the list alive as a reminder to myself that I am living.

My favorite part of building my business is experimenting with the visual elements. My undergrad studies were in graphic design, so i have a little bit of experience in this area, but I’m having so much more fun designing for myself. I like to think I have an artistic gift. I think in design, color, and composition. In most cases, I immediately have an idea or inspiration of what I want something to look and feel like. My package design elements weren’t so immediate. I actually had so many different samples of ways to present my brand to clients, it didn’t look like I had any idea what I was doing. Maybe thats because I didn’t. When I was in Seattle, I was hoping to get a glimpse at Jasmine Star’s client package… you know for inspiration. Long story short, I didn’t see even a business card and I’m so glad I didn’t. I created a package that reflected me, and I love it. Jasmine Star asked us to think of three words to describe our brand, after realizing what I don’t want my brand to represent, I fell in love with the words: rich, raw and natural. Rich meaning color, texture, contrast, and emotion. Raw meaning unaltered, contrasting and in the moment. Natural meaning real, fresh, and simple.  I would use all those words to describe myself, and I can see those elements in my images as well as my brand. I also wanted to choose as many sustainable materials as possible. I think I nailed it. Check it out.

Petal envelope: local print and card shop

Custom rubber stamp: rubberstamps.net

White ink: rubberstamps.net

Mini cards: Michael’s

Ribbon: Offray.com (in lemongrass) can also be found at JoAnn Fabric and Craft stores

Thank you tags: darice.com

CD and Disk Storage labels: Avery

Thats it for this installment of…

Yesterday I read something that said “leave the world better than you found it.” I’m working on it, how about you?

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about where photographers get inspiration. Most people give credit to magazines and pro blogs, which are undeniably inspirational. We can’t help but to be influenced by what we are exposed to, but I like to take it one step further. Last year during the Winter Olympics, I was watching skier Lindsey Vonn preparing to head down the slope. She was at the top of the incline with her eyes closed and her head bobbing around like Stevie Wonder. Now I’ve only been on the bunny slope once in my life, so naturally I turned to my tennis pro husband  and asked what she was doing (you know because all athletes understand each other). Well he’s not only handsome and talented, he’s smart too. He explained the technique of previsualization to me and my world was changed. Now I previsualize every shot. The night before a shoot, I think about angles and different poses, I actually try the poses in the mirror, and I think about what lens I’m going to use for each shot. Another thing I do is carry my camera with me everywhere. If I see something inspiring I shoot it. I love architecture and symmetry so I get easily inspired just walking down the street.

I spent last week at the La Quinta Resort with Jeff for the USPTA Conference and while walking around I came across some gorgeous locations. Here are my favorites…

When I saw this door I had poses flying through my brain, plus there a huge white wall behind me perfectly lighting the shot. Here are a few ideas for this type of shot: Couple kissing just in front of the door, couple sitting on the ground/girl leaning into guy, guy’s back against the wall/ girl’s head on this chest looking at the camera.  If any of that makes sense at all… Man, I wish I had models there!

I love this spot. I’m not giving away all my ideas, how would you use this space?

Both of these were shot with a 50mm 1.4. But if you don’t have your camera, I don’t know of a modern cell phone without a camera…

Taken from a golf cart on my Blackberry. And if all else fails, take a mental picture. It’ll be easier to access when you’re doing your previsualizations anyhow.

I’m a big philanthropy advocate and will always do what I can to support others in need, because I know I can and I want to make a difference. Some of you may have come across a giveaway I did on Facebook last week “in honor” of my birthday month. I am coming up on another birthday, which is not my favorite time of the year. I don’t like being the center of attention or the cake or the the awkwardness of opening gifts in front of people while trying to act totally surprised and excited over another bottle of lotion. I appreciate it all, but I don’t like that September 22 is supposed to be all about me. This year I asked myself how could I make this birthday different than the rest? Ultimately I decided to share my passion and give others a gift. I gave away 5 free shoots to people who I believed could benefit from a good deed and some good pictures. After the recipients of the giveaway were notified I was already thinking what’s next.  Well I came across a couple of organizations benefiting cancer patients and being that we just lost Jeff’s dad to lung cancer earlier this year, I felt compelled to share some worthy causes with you all.

Pablove Shutterbugs- in January 2011 Pablove will be launching a program at the Children’s Hospital LA teaching photography to children living with cancer. I can’t wait for this program to launch!! This is an opportunity for real people to connect and make a difference. To learn more about the Pablove Foundation read Pablo’s story.

Man-O-Gramz- A friend of mine from college recently launched a gift bucket company exclusively for men. This company offers the idea of a gift basket with a manlier appeal. Plus a percentage of proceeds go towards prostate cancer research! Holidays, anniversaries and birthdays are going to be so much easier.

I strongly encourage everyone to find a way to give back to something and someone in whatever ways you can.

For more information regarding ways to support cancer awareness and research visit the  American Cancer Society.

Well my friends, the last two weeks have been busy to say the least, but well worth the loss of sleep, missed meals and all the frequent flyer points. In the past 14 days, I’ve had the pleasure of attending the WPPI Road Trip in Irvine, the cretiveLIVE Jasmine Star wedding photography course in Seattle and after a quick 6 hour stop in LA, I headed to Maui for a long overdue romantic honeymoon with my honey. Here’s the Steph’s Notes version of my adventure.

WPPI Road Trip: I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I left my house at 6am that Monday morning, but when I headed home at 9pm that night, I was invigorated. I made some new friends, I was a more confident photographer and business owner, and most importantly, I felt like I had a plan.

Advice from Becker: “Meet people and reflect with people.” Lunch was served buffet style in the trade show room. The tables were empty and people were standing around with their food waiting for who knows what.  Not me, I sat down a table by myself (near the food of course), and what do you know people came to sit with me. Like, almost instantaneously. It was silent for a few moments and I really can’t stand the awkward silence, so I blurted out the old “so where is everyone from” line. Never fails. Its as if everyone was waiting for permission to speak. When the event ended, we ended up hanging out in the hotel lounge for a few more hours comparing notes, exchanging tips and ideas, and even discussing opportunities to collaborate. There may be a boudior marathon in our future…

What Jules Bianchi is great at: Building community. I was so excited to hear what Jules and Joy had to say about how they reach out to their community through social media AND real life exchanges. My favorite is the two worlds together in what they call the “Let’s be Friends” Party. Real people, real fun and professional Facebook profile pictures. So stinkin’ clever!! And if you don’t know about Mutt Mugshots, go check it out!

Rick Miller from Adobe: Lightroom editing 300x faster than I ever known was possible! I think I may send this man an Edible Arrangement for the shortcuts he demonstrated for us.

Joe Buissink: The total experience guru. About 10 minutes into Joe’s presentation I was ready to book a shoot with him. Not because I was wowed by his images (even though I was), but because the meaning behind his images. Each image displayed through the uncalibrated projector had its own story and its own emotions. Joe’s passion for his art reminded me of my own insatiable urge to capture real life moments.

Last but not least, the Boudior Divas schooled us on the return of boudior portraits. To be honest, I never considered boudior photography until these ladies shed some light on the subject. Who doesn’t want to capture portraits that will remind a woman of how beautiful she is for the rest of her life? What I found more interesting is how the Divas found an untapped niche in industry. Who would imagine a studio that only shoots boudior would do so well? You can find me looking for my niche…

CreativeLIVE and Jasmine Star: 5 days in Seattle: Jasmine enlightened us on so many aspects of business building, marketing and photography itself, but the most powerful message I gathered from the 5 days we spent together was BE YOURSELF. As I mentioned on the last day of filming, its not always easy to “be yourself” in LA. In a city full of pretenders actors, its hard to tell who is who, and what is real versus what is fake. Real talk. Go down to Hollywood Blvd and then try to disagree with me. As a part of being yourself you need to repel and attract. I want to attract people like myself. People who are laid back, and enjoy the finer things in life (but don’t mind going to several stores to make sure we get the best deal). People who have faith and goals. People who understand the power of a smile and sincerity.  And I want to repel anyone who has something negative to say about that. That means the person dressed up as Chucky standing in Marylin Monroe’s footprints outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre trying to scare people and the man in the Target parking lot who screamed obscenities at a woman who was trying to park her car yesterday have officially been repelled.

I know my Fab 5 buddies posted their photos from Laura and Billy’s wedding earlier this week, but you will just have to wait one more day for mine. I had every intention of blogging from Maui, but when I actually got there, it just wasn’t happening. I mean, would you sit in your room editing images if this was happening outside? 

I rest my case. Check back for the images of the bride getting ready and the ceremony from MY point of view.

I’m constantly coming up with these one-liners in my head. The latest? Blog about it. Its sort of a play on talk about it, cry about it, tell me about it, all rolled into in one cozy spot on my blog. Basically, I plan to use it as my personal space to rant and rave. On the agenda today: my use of -ness at the end of words, my current obsession with the Kelly Moore bags and the new Blackberry Torch.

• For those who are unaware, -ness can be added to just about any adjective. Adding -ness to any word makes that word sound more exciting, profound and poetic. You’ll see it all over the blog. Don’t hate.
• Today I have been on Kelly Moore’s site about 3,675 times admiring the mustard hobo. I even added a link on the blog (look to your right). Yellows and golds are my favorite colors and I pretty much want anything that comes in those colors. Well it just so happens that I’m in need of a new purse that doubles as a camera bag and I have a birthday coming up next month… I’ll tell ya’ll all about it when it arrives.
• I used the B word on my blog and I’ll do it again… BLACKBERRY, BLACKBERRY,  BLACKBERRY!!! I currently have an iphone, not the 4, not the s, just an OG iphone 3G and I can’t wait to get rid of it!! Me and Blackberrys go way back, back to the Pearl. I reluctantly jumped on the iphone bandwagon and it was fun for a while, but I don’t know how professional it looks when my emails have misspelled and irrelevant words. Not to mention somehow I ALWAYS hit send before I’m done writing a message. Grrrr. It frustrates me just to talk about it. For years I have been waiting for Blackberry to come out with a touch screen phone with a real QWERTY keypad. Well, my friends tomorrow my wish will come true.

Until next time…

I may need to make a t-shirt out of this one!