Hello friends,

It seems like not that long ago that I was sharing the exciting news that MDP was moving from Indiana to Florida. Once again, MDP is hitting the road and moving a bit further south in Florida to Clermont, FL! We are so excited about all of the prospects that this move brings….including being 12 miles from the Happiest Place on Earth (which also means we are hoping to shoot around Disney as well!)

I’m going to be sharing more details in the coming week! We will still be making trips up here to Panama City Beach throughout the year for some sessions and baby planners and will share dates when sessions are available here.

Thank you for your continued support for MDP!

Melissa

Happy Friday! I’m so excited for this week’s installment of Foto Friday.

I thought for this week I’d share a bit about the relationship between my kids (or rather, I got some shots that really spoke to me about their relationship so it made choosing for Foto Friday pretty easy!)

There is a 9 year age gap between Stella and Tyler. There are lots of reasons for that but primarily it’s due to the fact that it took us 5 years to have Stella. In fact, we learned that we were expecting her right around the time that we had all but lost hope that she would ever arrive. During my pregnancy, I thought a lot about what her relationship with Tyler would be because of the large age difference. My youngest sister and I are also 9 years apart and we were always at vastly different stages in our lives that it was hard to forge a strong sibling bond.

I always knew that Tyler would be a great big brother but he did express concern that he would be forgotten once she arrived. It was tough to think that he could possibly resent her for feeling like she took over some of his spotlight. In fairness, he had all of the attention for his whole life. He only knew our family as a family of 3. So this was a big adjustment for him.

We tried to involve him as much as we could. He attended ultrasounds, helped picked out baby equipment, got a special present for her and in return, she got him one too. And when the day came for us to welcome Stella to the world, I knew it would work out. And it has.

He was very gentle with her when she was a baby. He wanted to hold her, feed her, change her, bathe her…pretty much the best big brother she could ever have. And as she’s gotten older, she absolutely loves him. She holds his hand when she won’t hold ours, she shouts “Tyler” when she wakes up from her nap and he’s home from school, she lays with him to watch movies and read books.

And he lovingly dotes on her too. He is at her beck and call, he always wants to help with her (sometimes too much), he’d carry her around just about every minute of every waking moment of his day, he plays with her, reads to her, dances with her, pretty much rocks his big brother role.

Last month while we were at Disney World to celebrate Stella’s 2nd birthday, we had breakfast at Akershus Banquet with the Princesses. There is a special parade that they invite the children to walk in around the restaurant and Tyler didn’t hesitate to walk with Stella (even though I know he didn’t think it was “cool.”) The woman at the table behind us came up to me after the parade and said “he is a great big brother.” Even a stranger could see that they have a great bond.

Although I know that Tyler is getting close to the age where his little sister will become less cool to him, but I think that have a bond that will withstand the growing pains. I couldn’t have guessed or hoped for a stronger sibling love between them.

I hope you have a good weekend (and if you have a sibling, maybe ring them up and let them know how much you love them!)
Melissa

Another Friday is upon as, and with it comes another installment of Foto Friday.

This week I’m sharing 2 pictures of Stella from this week. On Saturday morning we decided to take the kids over to the park next to our neighborhood. Tyler wanted to play basketball and I grabbed Stella’s big ball to chase around the field. It was pretty windy and after the wind carried Stella’s ball the the other side of the field, I decided the ball wasn’t going to work out so we headed to the playground. When she saw her dad and brother on the basketball court, she hauled over there as fast as she could and the wind seemed to give her that little push she needed to do an olympic-style face plant on the cement.

The result- a bloody busted lip. It wasn’t pretty and she wasn’t happy about it! Luckily she’s a tough cookie and so she got over it fairly quickly.

To add an extra element of fun to this story, we ended up having to make a middle-of-the-night trip to the ER with Stella on Saturday for what ended up being an ear infection and if you show up at 1am with a screaming toddler that has a busted lip, don’t be surprised if the nurse requests to check your child over for “other bruises.”

Hopefully your weekend (and ours!) is a little less exciting than this!

Melissa

Happy March 1st- that means Spring is right around the corner! Truthfully though, winters in Florida are nothing like winters in the north so it already feels like Spring here.

In honor of Spring being so close, I wanted to share some photos from a walk a few days ago. When Stella starts to get a little stir crazy, we go for a walk around the block. The distance is perfect- she can walk the whole way without stopping and wanting to be carried. Sometimes she likes to help hold the dog leashes, other times she like to push her babies in a stroller/wagon/any-container-on-wheels.

Capturing her can be a little tricky, she fluctuates her speed on these walks. Sometimes I’m running (literally running) and other times I’m having to coax her along.

Happy weekend friends,

Melissa

Happy Friday evening to you!

It’s been several weeks since my last Foto Friday installment but the hubby is at a Styx concert, the baby is sleeping and I’ve got some goodies to share!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I took Stella over to take some Valentine’s themed pictures. I made some hearts to hang in the background, dressed her in the cutest red ensemble I could pull out of her closet, and off we went. We shot these in about the last 25 minutes of daylight and and my goal was to have some yummy backlight images.

She brought Woody with her and was insistent that he be in the pictures, which worked out nicely!

I hope your Valentine’s holiday was wonderful!

TGIF!

Melissa

PS- sometimes I get asked why I don’t post many photos of Tyler. Well, he’s 11 and having his mom take and subsequently post his picture apparently could hamper his “coolness”. I do take photos of him but I don’t post many since that is what he prefers.

I’m so excited to share this blog post- it’s my favorites from this past year. I have been incredibly blessed with all of the great families I got to meet and photograph this year and now we can take a walk down memory lane from the year:

My year stared with Miss Addyson’s 1st birthday- how cute is she?

And I got to see darling Hadley for her 3 month session- one of the most smiley 3 months old I’ve ever seen!

Before I knew it, it was time for Stella’s 1 year pictures- which was so surreal!

I also got to meet handsome Hudson and his incredibly fun sister Keagan- so sweet!

And there was Renee, one of the most absolutely most gorgeous young ladies I’ve had the opportunity to meet. She totally rocked it.

I also spent the morning running around with The K Family- we had so much fun that I actually tore my shirt on the fence!!

I also got to see Addyson and her mom and dad so that we could get some fun outside photographs! We lucked out this day and barely missed the rain.

And I also got to photograph my newest nieces!!! First Annie:

And then Ruby:

I got to run around with one of my dear friends from South Bend and her family again in 2012- they were so much fun!

I also met Emma and her mom on what turned out to be a truly gorgeous day!

And I saw Hadley again for her 6 month session! And believe it or not, she was even more smiley!

I think I might have laughed the most during this next session, with a group of 4 sons and their parents. What a handsome group of guys- definitely full of heartbreakers!

One of the most stunning seniors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting was Sarah- she had a lot of similar interests to me when I was in high school and we had lots to talk about.

I also got to catch up with an old friend from high school and meet her family. We met up bright and early on Saturday morning and her girls were troopers!

Remember my niece Annie, we also shot her 3 month photos at Alys Beach:

And I met this super cute family for some pictures on the beach!

And I had my first baby plan graduate- little Hadley!

That pretty well covers my favorites from 2012!!! Wishing you a very Happy New Year’s and a very prosperous 2013!

Melissa

I can’t believe we are only 5 days away from Christmas- wow this month has flown by!

The annual Christmas card- a source of pain and anxiety each year for me. It seems that despite my best intentions, our Christmas card always arrives at the Post Office just days before the holiday- I should probably aim to send out New Years cards instead so at least they would be delivered before the actual holiday!

This year I took the kids down to Alys Beach to capture some photos for our card- I decided just to put the kids on the card because let’s face it, no one really cares about the gray hairs we’ve grown in the last year but instead they want to see how our kids have grown. And just to add a little extra excitement, I took the kids by myself because what’s more fun that trying to corral 2 kids while simultaneously pressing the shutter button. We headed over at about 4:15 which gave us about 20 minutes of good light before the sun went to bed. There were a lot of photos I liked that didn’t make it on our card, so I thought I’d share them in this installment of Foto Friday.

Funny story with this picture, I had Tyler sit where I wanted him and then we just tried to get Stella to go over and sit with him. She was running around and having a ball and then she just plopped down next to me, turned her head and smiled. I wasn’t expecting it and despite cutting off her feet in this picture (I’m the queen of limb chops sometimes!), I adore her smile!

Um, palm trees wrapped in Christmas lights- I don’t think we’re in Indiana anymore Toto!

I hope you all had as much fun capturing your holiday card photos! Wishing you a very happy holiday season!

Melissa

It’s a little bittersweet to say that I’ve had my first Baby Plan graduate- Miss Hadley. You probably remember seeing her pop up over the last year and in October (a little shy of her birthday), she and her family traveled down to FL so we could finish with her 12 month session.

In case you don’t remember this little sweetie, here’s a reminder:

In the weeks leading up to her 12 month session, her mom and I were kicking around lots of ideas on where to shoot her 12 month session. I sent her pictures from my favorite locations and finally we settled on Rosemary Beach, which is along 30a. Rosemary Beach is a stunning location so I was thrilled that she chose it.

On the day of the shoot, the weather was just gorgeous- not too overwhelmingly hot but comfortable. We wasted no time and got right down to business and the end results are amongst my favorite of all time!

And so you can see how big Hadley got over these last 12 months:

It’s been such an honor to capture Hadley at each of these milestones and watch her grow! She’s a beautiful little girl!

Melissa

As 2012 comes to a close, I’m grateful for all of the wonderful families I had the privilege to photograph and am very excited for all the families that I will get to meet in 2013. As I reflect on the year, I’ve identifed some opportunities to streamline some processes and make changes that ultimately benefit everyone. I’m excited to share those changes with you now!

No More Session Fees. There are a couple of reasons I’m adopting this model. For starters, it just confuses people. What does a session fee cover, what’s it’s purpose, does it include prints or images? These are questions that I get asked all the time and I knew that I wanted to change this. But also, if someone comes to me for services, I want them to be able to spend their entire budget on images and prints from their session- I want my clients to have large wall prints of albums and as such, I want to maximize budgets by eliminating the session fee.

You might be wondering then how that fits into the larger picture in terms of how a session is booked and takes place. Let’s go through what that will look like in 2013:

1. You decide that you would like to hire Melissa Dobereiner Photography to photograph your family, your newborn, your senior, etc and so you contact us to schedule a date and time. Once a date and time are chosen, a deposit of $150 will be due. That can be paid via cash, check or credit card. The deposit is nonrefundable however after your session occurs, that deposit turns into a credit for you to select digital images, prints and other products.

2. Your session date has arrived- all you need to do is arrive and smile and we will handle the rest!

3. Your images will be hand edited within 2 weeks of your session and we will contact you when they are ready for viewing. We will schedule a time to meet and go through your final gallery and place your order, keeping in mind you are starting with a $150 credit. *For out of town clients, I will post your gallery in a private online gallery for your viewing.

4. You will receive your completed order within 10 business days* of placing your order. Please note that orders will not be submitted until payment has been made in full with cash, check or credit card.

Easy peasy, right! In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that this is the best model for both all of my clients, and for my goals as a photographer. Of course, if you have any questions at all, you can call or email me anytime!

*Does not apply to custom albums 

Referral Program. I can’t express to you how honored I am when I receive a referral and so for some time I’ve been putting together a referral program to thank you all for recommending myself and my services. Here’s how it works:

When you receive your order after your session with Melissa Dobereiner Photography, you are going to have a little package with (8) referral cards. These cards have images from your session on them and are printed with the words Referral Card. You can hand these cards out to whomever you like- maybe someone who really liked the images from your session, maybe someone who you know is needing photography services. If anyone that you handed a card to books a session, you will receive a $50 print credit* for your next session**. Not only that, the person who books the session will also receive a $50 print credit*!!

Easy peasy, right!

*$50 print credit can not be applied towards deposit
**Print credit must be applied towards a future session.

Digital Images. You love digital images, I love digital images and we want to continue offering them in 2013. Currently when you choose the digital images option, you receive the images on a disk with 4×5 reference prints of each image. This will continue in 2013 except that rather than receiving a disk, I’m going to switch to USB drives instead. I have had a handful on instances where clients have had issues with the disk and it has been recommended by many photographer colleagues that USB drives have far fewer issues and are much easier (and compatible) to use. I’m very excited to start using these little guys and I think this is a great enhancement to the offerings from Melissa Dobereiner Photography.

Senior Reps. Melissa Dobereiner Photography is and will be actively pursing Senior Reps for the 2013-2014 school year. I am looking for 2 reps from each of the local area high schools and will be posting further information about this in the coming months. If you, or someone you know, is interested, stay tuned! I’m thrilled with the rep program we’ve put together!

Weddings. I’m particularly excited about this for 2013- Melissa Dobereiner Photography will be taking a limited number of weddings in 2013. I love photographing weddings, but as you can imagine, it’s a lengthy process not only at the event, but afterwards with the editing and in the past, I’ve not been able to take on many of them due to time constraints. I’m also really excited to announce that my husband, Allen, will be partnering with me to 2nd shoot these weddings. Because we are accepting a limited number of weddings, if you or someone you know is interested in getting more information, please contact us and we will get you our digitial information packet for that. 

We are so excited for all that 2013 will bring and to all of the families we will meet. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you have.

Melissa

Happy Friday- only 2 more Fridays before Christmas…are you ready??

I’ve noticed that I’ve become a bit of an unofficial Disney World guru and I have some folks ask me lately on tips related to vacationing there. So I thought it might be fun to dedicate a Foto Friday post on some tips I’ve picked up related to photographing our trips to see the Big Cheese (and maybe I’ll throw in some extra tips as well!)

It’s no secret that we love Disney World…a lot. We were averaging about one trip per year to Orlando when we lived in Indiana, and now that we live in Panama City Beach, Florida and we are a mere 5 hours away we are getting down there far more frequently! Let’s just say that we got goooooood use out of our FL Resident Annual Passes this year!

Before each trip, I always think to myself “you have lots of pictures, you don’t need to haul your camera” but let’s face it, there is no way I would step foot at Disney World without my camera, that’s just crazy! So, each trip I’ve slung my trusty Canon along and I’ve never regretted it! Without further adieu, here are Melissa’s Tips for Capturing Your Disney World Vacation!

Tip 1. Always have your camera handy.

There will be times when you have your camera ready to, like when you stand in line to meet Mickey Mouse. You’ve planned it, you’re prepared and you’re ready. But there are times, lots of them, when you may not expect a magical moment to happen so always, ALWAYS, have your camera handy. This is the most magical place in the world after all, and we’ve experienced a lot of unexpected magic over our trips. So of them I haven’t been able to capture because my camera was in my bag. If you are using a DSLR, find a comfy strap so that you can just wear your camera and it’s always within arm reach. If you are using a point and shoot, have it in your pocket or in a front pouch of your bag so you can quickly get to it.

Here are some magical moments from this year:

During a trip in August for Tyler’s birthday, we ate at Tuskar House at Animal Kingdom on the day we were heading home. When you eat at Tuskar House for breakfast, you get to meet Donald Duck before you are seated. Disney takes a family/group photo for you that you can purchase and in the past, I’ve been guilty of not taking any photos during this time because I knew Disney had it covered. This time, thankfully, I was wearing my camera and Stella happened to be carrying one of her Donald Duck fluffys that day, which the real life Donald Duck thought was awesome! He played with her and her fluffy and I captured it because my camera was handy. If I would have relied on the Disney photographer, we would have missed it:

Then during a trip in October, we stopped at the Magic Kingdom for breakfast and a little fun before heading home. Stella loves the carousel so we got in line and guess who else rode with us?? The Stepmother from Cinderella! She was riding behind Stella, who also happened to be riding Cinderella’s horse! Allen had ran to grab a gift for Tyler so it was just Stella and I at the moment and I was so thankful that I had my camera and hadn’t handed it to him to carry instead!

Lastly, on the last day of a trip this Fall, Stella and I were doing some last minute shopping when she found an entire wall of Mickey and Minnie fluffys. She wanted to kiss each and every last one and this remains one of my all-time favorite pictures from Disney World!

Tip 2. Don’t miss the details.

This tip is two-fold really. First, Disney is known for the details and if you look closely, you will see it. They have hidden mickeys everywhere (and for older children, this is a great activity you can do with them), and finishing touches that really can make your vacation memorable. Don’t forget to photograph those details. In 1 year, 3 years, 10 years, these photographs will really help you remember the memories you created during your vacation.

One of my most favorites views at Disney World is when Cinderella’s Castle is dripping in holiday lights so when we were there a few weeks ago, I made sure to capture that magic with my camera.

If you are able to attend any special events, like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, there are special parades that have lots of great details that are great to capture.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party- Boo To You Parade

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party- Boo To You Parade

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party- Once Upon a Christmastime Parade

During a trip we made and the end of September/beginning of October, Tyler had saved his money with the intention of building his own driod at Tatooine Traders at Hollywood Studios. For anyone who knows Tyler knows that money tends to burn a hole in his pocket quickly but he really stuck it out so that he could purchase a custom driod during our trip. The Build-Your-Own Driod station at Tatooine Traders is really cool and packed full of details. Tyler hemmed and hawed for a long time choosing the different components for his custom driods and these photos will always help us remember that experience!

The other part of this tip makes you kind of step out of box a little, and that is to capture the emotions. Happiness, joy, awe- these are all emotions that you and your family will likely feel during your trip and these are amongst my most favorite photos I have. The look on your child’s face when they see their favorite character is priceless. Stella loves the fluffy characters and even though she’s met some of the characters at Disney World countless times, she still gets as excited as the first time! This is a favorite picture from this Fall when she ran into Jake’s arms.

Or how about this, where Tyler said something to Minnie that made her day! I couldn’t hear what he said but whatever it was, she couldn’t resist his charm!

Tip 3. Don’t forget to experience the magic

It’s so very easy to spend the duration of your vacation behind your camera but don’t- there is so much to experience and while you want to capture all of the memories you can, don’t forget to be a part of the memories too. You don’t need 25 different pictures of Cinderella’s Castle or of your kiddos meeting Mickey Mouse. Get your photo and then get in the action! And don’t worry about getting the perfect picture every time- sometimes they won’t be but they will still remind you of the memory.

Wishes at Magic Kingdom

Disney offers a really cool service called Disney PhotoPass. They have photographers located throughout their parks and with characters and they will take photos for you for no charge!!! Then you can either order copies of specific photos you like or you can even purchase a disk containing all of the photographs for your trip. Not only that, but they have really fun borders you can add to enhance these photos. What I love about this service is that I get to be in pictures too (without having to hand my camera over to a stranger!) You can get some awesome deals if you pre-order the disk before your vacation so definitely check that out.

4. Go easy on the equipment.

OK, I get it- you’ve paid a nice amount of money to take your family on vacation to Disney World and by goodness you want to get the pictures you can. But you can do that without hauling every piece of photographic equipment you have. I normally bring just 1 body and 1 lens- and that’s it. Crazy I know but I have yet to find a situation that I can make work with that little bit of equipment. I have been taking my Canon 5DMarkii and Canon 50mm f/1.4 and that’s worked beautifully for me. The body handles low light well and 50mm is a focal length that is a happy medium for me. You will want something with some versatility because sometimes you won’t have a lot of room to get a shot and sometimes you will  have more room than you’d like. You will find yourself in low light situations fairly frequently so keep that in mind as well- that’s a big reason I choose a solid prime lens for our trips. All of the photographs I’ve shared are using natural or ambient light. It can be done! And don’t forget a lens hood because your camera will get knocked around- protect your glass!

Watching Hallowishes at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party

Random Disney World Tips:

• Look past the normal attractions- there are a ton of different things at Disney World to see and experience! These activities can really break up the day and give you and your crew a break when you need it most (and avoid standing in lines!) Tyler’s very favorite non-ride actitivty is the Sorceres of Magic Kingdom game. The premise of the game is that villians have taken over the Magic Kingdom and you are sent to different portals to battle them to get rid of them. The game is played with a set of cards and you can pick up packs each time you are in the park for no charge (just present your park admission ticket to either the Fire Station at the front of the park or at the special desk back near Liberty Tree Tavern.) Tyler has gotten to the gold level and as you advance, the game becomes more difficult and you have to be more strategic. He loves it! He even has a Mickey Mouse shirt that boosts the power of his cards that he wears- you’ll never catch this kid wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt in real life!
  

  Playing Sorcerers or the Magic Kingdom

They successfully defeated a villain! – Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

• Soak it all in- even the crowds. There is definitely some interesting people watching to be had at Disney World. But there is something magical just being there. Chances are you won’t get to see and do everything in a single trip because the list is so long so don’t stress yourself out with trying too.
• If you are staying on Disney grounds, take advantage of their Extra Magic Hours. What is this? These are special park times only for Disney guests and they are either before the park opens to the general public or closes to the general public. There is usually one park that has magic hours each days, but sometimes during busier times there could be more than 1 park with magic hours in a given day. The great part of magic hours is that is really allows you to be in the park with a far fewer guests in our experience. We particularly like morning hours and I’m usually able to snap some photos without tons of other guests in my frame during these times.

I hope these tips have been helpful! I’m glad to share what I’ve learned (and some of my favorite photos) with you all.

Melissa