Maternity
Babies
Children
Families
Furbabies
Boutique
Children
We have a winner…
Posted on September 16, 2011
Part of my continued commitment to improving my skills as a photographer is entering print competitions. So with fall beginning and Aggie football resuming, I just had to enter one of my favorite newborn Aggie portraits.
And I won first place in our local Brazos Valley PPA guild for 12th Man Dreams this month! I consider this a wonderful honor especially competing with fellow professionals who are fabulous artists in their own right. I plan to enter this print at the next level of competition as well.
Leave a Comment
Before you hire a photographer for any reason, please do this!!
Posted on August 15, 2011
I want to ask all of you as my friends to do me a favor before you hire a photographer. I may not be your photographer of choice for a variety of reasons but before you PAY any photographer anything or hire them to photograph for you, you should do 2 things! One of them in my opinion falls in the optional at your own risk category. The other is my soapbox for today and should NOT be optional! If your photographer does not charge you Texas state sales tax on your session, digital files or prints and you live in the state of Texas and they are based in the state of Texas, then that photographer is operating ILLEGALLY in the state. They can be shut down, face fees and major repercussions for not having a Texas state sales tax permit. Any legally operating photography business in the state of Texas should have one if you charge clients for your services and provide photographs in any format, digital or print. Ask them to provide their permit number. The permit is supposed to be on display or available at all times. Or you can search for their name or business name at https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/staxpayersearch/SlsTxpyrSearch.jsp and see for yourself if they are paying their quarterly taxes. The search does require correct spelling and punctuation so if you are uncertain ask for their permit number. This is a MAJOR problem in the industry of so called professional photographers who want to be paid to take pretty pictures but don’t want to run a business according to the rules. You don’t have to have this permit to make a website, to get photographs printed, to have pretty business cards or to advertise in magazines, but it is ILLEGAL not to have it the first time you charge a photography client for images!
If you think it’s okay to avoid paying sales tax by working with those businesses, then you are foremost disregarding God’s laws. Secondly you are doing Texas, your local community and schools a disservice as well by denying them the money they make from sales tax. These photographers are operating under unfair business practices which put those of us who follow the rules at a disadvantage! And yet, I routinely look up photographers I see here in College Station who are operating without collecting or paying sales tax to Texas or did for their first few years of business. Unfortunately for our industry, to be a professional photographer, all you really have to do is call yourself one.
The second thing I ask is more of the “in my personal opinion category”, but if your photographer is not a member of PPA (Professional Photographers of America) or some other organization that provides liability insurance for the photographer while they are photographing you, your kids, or your event, you are taking an unneccessary risk! Not only do these organizations educate their member routinely on important issues, but they provide this insurance coverage which in the event of a memory card failure with all of your wedding photos or last family photos of grandma are destroyed, they will compensate you. These organizations make sure members know how to keep your babies safe…for example, many of the cute baby poses shown in magazines these days are photoshop composites and to position a live baby like that is actually dangerous for the baby.
I operate Rosalee’s Custom Photography and have had a TX sales tax license since day 1 of my business. I’m also a member of PPA, TPPA and the local Brazos Valley PPA guild. If you have questions about any of this, please feel free to ask! This is not intended as business advice for any businesses other than photographers…rules for other businesses vary.
Leave a Comment
Hugs for Soldiers
Posted on January 21, 2011
When I was younger, we used to make Valentines for Vets every year in Camp Fire. It was always one of my favorite activities even though I really don’t think I could have fully realized how special those cards were to hospitalized veterans. I was reminded of that this week when I saw on facebook that Florabella had posted free Valentine card and bookmark templates with the request that you send an extra one or two to a program called Hugs for Soldiers which would mail them to our military serving overseas.
As I designed Valentines for my little girl with the intention of sending extras to the program, I had a light bulb moment. Why not change the back of the design slightly so that it was appropriate for our soldiers? So I did. And I’m sending a batch of them to Hugs for Soldiers, P.O. Box 2887, Duluth, GA 30096 so they can be sent overseas.
Why don’t you send them something too? They must be received no later than January 28th. Or if you can’t do that, deliver some valentines to your local VA hospital or center for Valentines for Vets! After all, John 15:13 says “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” And isn’t that what our soldiers are willing to do for us every day?
Leave a Comment
New Year’s Resolutions
Posted on January 12, 2011
I, like many of you, make personal New Year’s resolutions. You know the ones…. like exercise daily, stop drinking colas, and all the others you’ve probably already broken at least once by now. But mostly I resolve to improve in certain areas from the previous year mainly because it’s easier not to have all your resolutions blow up in your face before the 15th of January!
I also make New Year’s resolutions regarding my photography business in the same way. This year I resolved to try and improve communications with my clients by actually trying to use my blog…yep, I’ve had the blog since March and this is my 2nd post. Obviously, improving will only take posting 2 times this year but I plan to conquer my fear of WordPress by just jumping in. (If anyone wants to give me WordPress lessons, I’ll gladly accept.)
I also resolved to improve myself through continuing education such as seminars, my involvement in our local Brazos Valley Professional Photographer’s Association (BVPPA), and attendance at conferences such as Imaging USA in San Antonio next week.
One of my other professional resolutions was to enter print competition. Print competition against other professional photographers is a tad bit intimidating because merit worthy prints are and have to be exceptionally executed both technically and emotionally. A beautiful portrait that would sell to any parent is not necessarily a merit worthy print in competition. SO I entered a print last night at our local BVPPA print competition. I titled it Big League Dreams. You can see it above as it was sent to the lab.
It won 2nd place behind first place by 1 point. And yes, there were more than 2 entries. Last night, I think I counted 10 entries but I could be off by 1 or 2. The guest speaker judged it as one point below merit worthy. I was very excited because the judge thought it would be merit worthy in official print competitions with a few minor changes. What did he think needed to change? The baseball was too bright white as was the towel in the basket. The baby should be the brightest point in his opinion. He also would like to see more of the red background. *disclaimer here – On my computer screen, the red was brighter than what actually showed up in the print itself that I took to the print competition so I have to be very careful with monitor calibration…* All of those changes are minor post processing changes I can easily make.
SO, I do plan to make those changes and enter it again in print competition where I can get PPA merit points if it merits. It’s a learning process and I am thankful for constructive criticism. Through these competitions, I will become a better photographer for you!
Leave a Comment
I love a good makeover…
Posted on February 2, 2010
Personally I think it’s incredibly fun to experience or witness a good makeover! It’s fun and fresh and if done well, an improvement all the way around. This new website is a makeover. It is technically called a blogsite which means it integrates blog function and website function into the site which offers some exciting opportunities! I’ll be able to share new images much easier than before. I can add new information as needed without running out of pages and needing to pay some provider for more pages. I loved my old website but it was time for this makeover for many reasons. If you have any suggestions for changes and improvement, I’d welcome those as well since I haven’t had much time to tweak this before taking it live! So hopefully you’ll like what I’ve done here and you’ll subscribe to the feed to get the latest and greatest specials, news and events as I post them. Welcome to Rosalee’s Custom Photography website…the new and improved version!
College Station Texas Photographers | Holiday Photography College Station Texas | College Station Texas Children Photographers | College Station Children Photography|Link Resources
Internet Marketing Company – Mainstreethost
Leave a Comment
