2008 Order Deadline!!!

Just a reminder that Friday, December 5th is the order deadline for Christmas delivery. All orders placed after that time will be processed in the order received, but will probably be delivered in mid-January. Thanks to everyone for making 2008 AMAZING for me! Your laughs, giggles and candid moments continue to inspire me.

Much love - jamie ;-)

December Frame Special!

Throughout the month of December, if you purchase any 'Artisan Series' image on photographic paper, you will be eligible for 25% off of any 4 inch frame molding! So anyone who was looking to put a beautiful 9-opening collage in your home with an amazing frame is set! Don't miss this fabulous special! H Gallery has picked up several lines of gorgeous frame mouldings and I just love to send a piece home framed and ready to be hung in your home!

Shopping this Saturday!

H Gallery will be at the home of Syndi Hart this Saturday displaying our work, selling gift certificates and booking for 2009. Looks like fantastic shopping! Hope to see you there!

4^th Annual Shopping Spree!!

Saturday, November 22^nd

3:00 to 7:00

6806 Michelle Dr.

Amarillo, TX

At the home of Syndi Hart (674-2614)

Enjoy shopping with these great home-based businesses…

Mia Bella Candles – Tami Isbell

Vintage Record Handbags – Jaime McNabb

Tastefully Simple – Kyla Hamilton

Double S Brand Jewelry – Syndi Hart

Creation’s by Christina – Christina Flowers

The Peppermint Elephant – Angel Christian

Crosses by Kylene – Kylene Reed

Lo Lo’s Purses Galore – Lori Gibbs

Heritage Maker – Lori Novak

Sweet Sofee Boutique – Malee Needham

Mary Kay – Sherma Flowers

H Gallery Photography Studio – Jamie Haynes

*Bring a Friend or two!! *Gift basket give away!!

Booked until 2009!!!

Well, it has happened! I'm totally booked (if not overbooked) for the rest of the year. What a blessing from GOD! I do want to apologize to all of my past clients who were thinking about booking a session for Christmas cards/gifts. H Gallery will be doing our 'Christmas in September' LIMITED EDITION (Christmas Card special) next September (2009) so be sure to look for that advertisement.

H Gallery is still selling gift certificates for Christmas gifts. This is the perfect gift for the grandma who wants to ensure she gets images of her new granbaby or for the mom who wants to get moving on Senior pictures or wants to ensure that she is sure to capture her 1 year old's first birthday in Jan/Feb/March. Its also time to think about booking a January session to give your loved ones that special gift for Valentines Day - a family image!

And The Winner Is....

Thanks for all who stopped by our booth during Christmas Roundup this year! It was so much fun and sooo tiring all at the same time. The winner of our drawing for a $200 gift certificate in portrait credit is 'LISA MINER'! Thanks for all who signed up.

H Gallery is participating in two more marketing events in '08. We will be at Awaken Day Spa on Wednesday, November 19th for their GNO and then at the home of Syndi Hart for her '4th Annual Shopping Spree' on Saturday, November 22nd (6806 Michelle Drive Ama, TX). More details to follow!

Christmas in September Session

Here are just a few images from one of the Christmas in September sessions.

Still time...

Thanks to all who made the show last night. The line is so dang cute - glad I have two boys! Lisa just emailed me and said the 'show' is still open until Saturday evening so feel free to email her at lrdoan@cox.net if you'd like something and didn't make it last night. Be sure to check the MJ block for the new holiday line items.

A Matilda Jane update.....

My MJ trunk keeper, Lisa, is headed this way as I type from Norman, OK. She called me before lunch and told me to check my email and that MJ's new holiday line was being released tomorrow and that a few of the pieces are on the MJ blog. She won't have any of the pieces tonight, but she is accepting orders and will have some pictures, etc. It looks really cute! I just hope they have my size!! See you tonight! 5:30 - 7:30p.m. at H Gallery.

Much love,
jamie

P.S. It is ok to bring your kiddos to the studio. They might need to try something on. ;-) You might bring a toy for them because all I have is about 5 or 6 little trains. I need to get some more toys for little ones. Hmmmmmm........

Matilda Jane Trunk Show

This Thursday, October 16th, H Gallery is hosting a Matilda Jane trunk show. Lisa Doan from Norman, OK will be here helping me with the event. If you haven't heard of Matilda Jane, they have amazing clothes for girls and women. Most of the line is centered around children's clothing, but they do always have a couple of women's pieces. In the spring line, there were a few boy items which I bought for my little ones. I just loved the softness of the material and they washed really well. The boy stuff is cute, but the girls clothes are just precious. I always said if I had a girl I would be in deep, deep trouble! We will have cold softdrinks, water, juice boxes and (my FAVORITE - thx Charlotte!) rasberry, green, sweet tea from Water Still. (Yes, I'm addicted!) I've also bought chocolate chip cookie dough and some grapes so if I don't burn all of the cookies up, there will be limited munchies as well. Hope you can make it!

Side note - just wanted to thank all the generous souls who brought food and drink items to the Art Leather Open House last week. We had a good turnout and the networking was awesome! Thanks Pam, Ashley, & Kym!

Natural light

I love shooting with natural light. Here are a couple of shots I did in the studio right before Labor Day. We just raised my overhead door and let the light flood in. We didn't even use a background. I just shot really close with my 50m, f1.4 and had Claire sit on an old wood bench I have. You can't beat natural light.

Those eyes & Art Leather Open House

Here is one shot from a shoot I did Labor Day weekend. This little girl is just precious and has the most gorgeous eyes! I love the two teeth on the bottom. LeCretia told me they wanted some family pictures and it would be a large group. I was thinking 10 maybe 12 people. I think there were 30+ family members - wow!! They were such a fun group.

I want to invite all panhandle area professional photographers to H Gallery on Tuesday, October 7th from 5:30-7:30p.m. for an open house hosted by Art Leather. They make gorgeous albums with quality materials/leathers. Its not often Amarillo photographers get vendors coming to us. We usually have to go to them via web, email, phone or see them at a trade show/conference so this is a treat for us. I'd love to have a great turnout so that they would consider doing this again in the future. Plus, from what I understand, they'll have some of their products at discounted prices for this evening only. Brian Bohr is our area rep, but I believe Art Leather would appreciate all attendees RSVPing with Jessica at jessicaa@artleather.com .

Change...

This week was my first week doing photography full time. I turned in my two weeks at Anderson Merchandisers and said goodbye to a lot friends. My week got off to a very slow start when my son's school called and said he had 101 degree temp!

Tomorrow is H Gallery's 'Christmas in September' which is our Christmas card special. I know, I know.... who is thinking about Christmas yet. But I'll have discounted cards that you won't want to miss and you'll have that marked off your to do list so you're not panicking around December 10th trying to figure out what you're going to do this year. ;-) I love making cards so I'm really looking forward to this event!

test video

my first animoto test

Dog Days Images '08

Here are just a few of the 'Dog Days of Summer' images.

Wow - where has the summer gone?

Oh, how time flies. I can NOT believe that it is already the end of July - WOW! H Gallery just wrapped up 'Dog Days of Summer' and it was sooo much fun. I have to say it is an adrenaline rush for me to have a new subject to shoot every 15 minutes and try to think of a new creative way to setup the background/props. Some of the animals were way more challenging to shoot than some 2 years olds. They were bouncing all over the place.

I'd like to thank Berkley Harris for helping me out with the shoot. She was in our church's youth group some time ago and I've know her and her family for a long time. She did an awesome job and didn't laugh at me (well, not that much) when I was making all sorts of animal sounds. Hah! I don't think she nor I knew what we were in for!

I'll post some images from the event tomorrow. Even better news is the fact that we have a whole mound full of dog food for the Amarillo Humane Society.

Thanks to all that participated! I am truly looking forward to 'Dog (and Cat) Days of Summer 2009'!

Dog Days of Summer

Just wanted to share a marketing piece we did to promote our studios next event. We are doing something called 'Dog Days of Summer'. You bring in your dog or cat and receive a free 15 minute session and a free 5x7 of your pet. In return, you bring us a bag of dog or cat food (Science Diet brands preferred) and we donate it to the Amarillo Humane Society. We have a limited number of sessions available on Thursday, July 17th between 1:00 and 7:00 p.m. so call now to reserve your session time!

A lot of friends and family have been asking me if I want to be a pet photographer. Let me clear that up right away - NO! But for one day I think it would be sooo much fun and it benefits a great organization. Now let me just say that I love the idea of families or children bringing in their pet for portraits, but this will be the one time a year that I photograph pets by themselves. I'm going to hire an army of help so that we can wrangle all the animals and kind of have traffic control so that Dog A doesn't meet up with Cat B and we have a throw down. We will have different exits for each animal and try to make the environment as peaceful and uneventful as possible!!! It ought to be a blast! I've already got some 'goodies' donated for the animals so they should feel very pampered during their session time!

(Please do remember to bring your animal into the studio with a leash.)

GNO was AWESOME!!

Wow, 'Girls Night Out' was an awesome success! I don't even know where to begin on my thank you list. All of the vendors were fabulous and made the event so fun! There were so many great friends, new and old, who really came together and made it possible for J.T. and I to pull this off. I'm going to list just a few below (in no particular order) who went above and beyond. Thank you all so much!!

Gretta and Nathan Mikeworth/Worth Remodeling (584-5315)
Julee Thompson
Brook Holstein/Texas Trio
Brandi Richards
Elizabeth Hester
Sam and Jeanne Thompson
Berkley Harris
Roclyn Tolliver
J.T. Haynes
Thacker and Sharon Haynes
Parie Villyard/The Secret Garden
Phillip Wells
My mom and her prayer group
Mike Fuller
The entire vendor group - you guys are so fun!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

How Blessed!

I just want to thank all of my friends and family who have been helping to make this event happen and have been surrounding me with prayers and love. How overwhelming to have you come into my studio and pray over me and for me and all the while using all of your gifts and talents to help make this event happen. The acts of kindness (flowers) and just general support is so awesome! How blessed - nothing else to say - just blessed.

Gotta get some sleep! See you tomorrow!

Matilda Jane Clothing - GNO Vendor

Matilda Jane Clothing is doing a trunk show at our G.N.O event this Thursday. They have the cutest childrens clothing. They do have a few pieces for women, too. They have shirts that say 'I'm with the band' for mom and daughter - so fun! I have to have one. Check out their website at www.matildajaneclothing.com .

Fantastic Vendor List

I'm soooo excited about our first annual GNO event this Thursday. I've still got a million things to do, but its all coming together. We have a fabulous vendor list. Check them out.

Awaken Medical Day Spa
Lady Bug Gifts
Silpada Jewelry
Matilda Jane Clothing
Arbonne
The English Rose
Stampin Up
Ollie's Accessories
Double S Brand Jewelry
The Peppermint Elephant
Curves for Women
Cowboy Soy Candles
Scrappily Ever After
Texas Trio
The Busy Little B

Getting ready...

H Gallery's grand opening and the date of our first event, Girl's Night Out, is right around the corner. I've been busy trying to organize vendors, market the event and preparing the studio. We've got a great list of vendors lined up. I'll post the final list next week. I'm thrilled with the response. If it wasn't for space limitations, we would have more. Mike Fuller will be our live music the night of the event. I've heard him play several times, but most recently at Lincoln's. I'm looking forward to him adding 'something extra' to the event! Mark your calendar now to swing by the studio after work on Thursday, June 12th.

Heading to Brady this weekend - looking forward to spending time with family and friends.

In the beginning...

I always knew that what I was doing to make a living was not my passion.......I just didn't know what I was truly passionate about........until I discovered photography. This blog will detail my journey. Thank you, J.T., for loving me and encouraging me to take the jump!