Calling all Ballerinas & Superheroes!!

I just love ending a photo shoot with kids playing dress up. How cute!

A new catalog called Chasing Fireflies has adorable clothes and costumes for kids girls and boys. They also have great T-shirts with numbers on them for different ages and I've also photographed a family before with the "big/little sister/brother" T-shirts that they sell. A few other GREAT resources that I love are Posh Tots and Koo Koo Bear Kids.

Check them out, then call me to set up a shoot! :0)

Gifts Galore!!!

Do you know that you have the greatest gifts for others right in front of you?? Yup! Those images from this past summer are a goldmine and your loved ones will cherish the gifts that you create out of them. Talk about bringing an instant smile to someone's face! :0)

Here are a bunch of different ways you can use and preserve your photos and create wonderful gifts at the same time!

PHOTOBOOKS!
MyPublisher is a great resource for producing your own beautiful photobooks. To receive a coupon for a free copy of your book when you publish a MyPublisher book at the regular price, send an email to studio@nikkiincandela.com with the words MyPublisher in the subject line.

COOKBOOKS!
How about creating a family cookbook using family photos and favorite family recipes? You can do that at LuLu.

CALENDARS!
CafePress allows you to create your own calendars with a different image for each month. They also have notebooks, kids shirts, ornaments and many more items that are begging for you to use your precious photographs.

STAMPS!
Did you know that you can print legal postage stamps with your own images? How about creating stamps for grandma with your childrens' pictures or send holiday cards with custom holiday stamps. You can create them online at Stamps.com or at Zazzle.

PHOTO CARDS!
Once those stamps are created, you need the cards to go with them. Exposures is just the place.

OTHER FUN STUFF!
*With Zazzle you can create a ton of great gifts coffee mugs to skateboards.
*Custom Makeup Bags (that are great to use for your camera when traveling!)
*Custom Photo Cakes for special occasions (check locally for this type of item)
*Custom gorgeous Coasters (I did this with my wedding photos as some gifts!)
*Photo Cuff Links are great gifts for him!
*Silver Locket Keychains let you take your special photos everywhere you go.
*Custom Playing Cards, Mouse Pads, Cute Baby Books, and more here.
*Sign the mat of a custom framed photo for any event (big or small).

(Really, the list goes on and on for the different items you can buy/create using your images and resources to find them at. Some of the better known ones being Shutterfly, Snapfish & Kodak.)

Charleston, SC 2008

This is Parker with his big friend Pistachio!  :0)

Thanks Danielle, Christian & Parker!! I had a blast with you all!!

Preserving Memories Article

*Easy process to follow to make sure that those memories are safe!*

1-DOWNLOAD! Get those images off of your camera. Schedule 2 hours every month to download your images (if it's on the calendar, you'll be sure to block time to do it!).

2-ORGANIZE! Create 2 folders after downloading that month's images. Within a MASTER folder named after that month (or event), create 1-Favorites and 2-Rejects. Learn to be a good editor and only put your absolute favorites into that folder. File everything else into the Rejects and delete the bad ones. (If you can't bear to delete ones that aren't great, having the rejects folder creates a safety net that they're not completely gone and will help you keep only the top photos in your Favorites).

3-SAVE! I recommend backing your photos up in 2 ways for safe keeping. First - burn a disc of that months MASTER folder. As a second backup, save your Favorites folder into a '2008' folder on an external hard drive. You can even buy a small portable hard drive that won't take up much space.

4-SHARE! Upload the images from your Favorites folder to an online site to share them with friends and family. There are a lot of options these days: Kodakgallery.com, Mpix.com, Snapfish.com, you can even create a free website on Shutterfly.com to showcase your photos! If you're more of a photo enthusiast, there's also flickr.com, photobucket.com and picasa.com.

Moving to California!

I put the last photo 1st b/c it's so spectacular!

This is me finally sitting for a bit to enjoy the gorgeous sunset from our pool in the house we're renting.

Here we are in our empty NYC apartment just as we're heading out to the airport. 

(We were pretty tired!)

Here are a few pictures of the house we're renting for the year!

I smile every single time I enter the Master Bedroom because of the light, space, and view!

So, I'm a woman & this new closet of mine REALLY excites me!!

The pool area & the view!

Fall means FOOTBALL!!

One thing that I love about Fall is that football starts!  Although I'm a big Michigan fan & prefer college football, I have to pay tribute to my husbands favorite team....... NY Giants!  Here's Eric with some of our friends celebrating the Super Bowl win last year!

Here's out friends son in his jersey ready for the game!

Joy's Maternity Shoot

This is one of my favorites! Foxie fell asleep at night on Joy's tummy just like this. Too cute!!

I only do panty shots when asked and wanted to share this amazing photo!