We made it! This the last day of the blog war. I want to thank everyone who has been keeping up with me this month and I hope you will continue to check the blog for the latest new and exciting news at Bliss. In honor of today I would like to give you guys one more chance to enter for the grand prize drawing. I know I have only "missed" a couple times this month so it seems only fair to still give you an extra chance to enter. So you have until midnight today to email me info@blissstudio.net. BLOG WAR in the subject line and I will get you in the drawing. Dont forget photographers must let me know you are a photographer as you are in a separate drawing for software. If you are just tuning in please see my May 1st Blog Post for details...Titled BLOG WAR!

I will announce winners Monday....Tomorrow I will be busy with my big news that I will be sharing very soon! Also I have had enough entries that I am going to be giving away a few more prizes! Hope to see some more entries today! Good Luck!

Whitney

I cant believe I have hit 10,000 visitors in the last couple years (since April 1, 2006 to be exact). That is a lot of BLOG LOVE! I think that deserves a little celebration! Well...How about a bit of a competition/contest...whatever you want to call it. I will give away a $25.00 gift card to either Starbucks or itunes (your choice if you win). I want Photos! Send me a photo representing 10,000! You can be as creative as you like...In fact the more creative the better. No set rules...Needs to just scream 10,000! Lets see what you got...Contest open to anyone who wants to play! email me your photos info@blissstudio.net

Thanks to EVERY one of my Blog Stalkers! I am glad you guys are enjoying my little online journal. I hope to continue to keep you interested after the Blog War (see May 1st post if you are just tuning in) has ended.

Happy 10,000 Day!

Whitney

Yummy! These images were all taken by my husband Dan as he is the commercial shooter for Bliss. The owner's of this restaurant are Jody & Debbie McCord. Jody has recently launched his new website for the restaurant www.thegreatimpastaonline.com Be sure to take a peak. The fun part of that is he has launched a BLU site :) Congrats Jody! Thanks to my hubby for letting me "borrow" his images for this blog post (he will love that I threw that in for him).

I just realized its been a while since I did this so I am going to give away two $5.00 starbucks gift cards. The winners are Jessica and Genny! Thanks to the both of you for keeping taps on me and leaving lots of comments...Your the best!

Here is a couple shots from Myles 1st bday. It was Fire Truck themed....he LOVES trucks! It was great watching the opening of gifts which lasted all of about 5 minutes. Big Sister Keeley helped :) Myles opened the first gift that was a truck and he was content. Next we headed to cake...Which was even better. He didnt so much as eat the cake as he did smack it and make a big mess. He thought it was funny. Thanks one final time to the McCord Family! It was an honor to be there to celebrate with you guys!

I am sure some of you are beginning to recognize both Keeley and Myles. I have spent quite a bit of time with these two over the last year. We are working on a storybook album of Myles' first year. He has finally hit a year old! I shouldnt say finally as really I was stunned that a year had past already...Where does the time go? We drove to Washington for this session and shot near the McCord's home. Immediately following the session we stayed to celebrate Myles first bday! I will post a couple birthday party shots tomorrow. I have to note the shot with Keeley and the too big shoes! I had kicked off my flip flops as I was chasing after the kids and she managed to find them and decided to try them on. Little Keeley is a big fan of shoes and thought it was funny. I of course had to take a photo! Thanks again to the McCord family for the opportunity to take photos of your family. Cute kids make my job a blast!

I know I said I would post some more of the McCord family today but here it is almost 11 pm and Dan and I have been working on business stuff all day. So instead I am going to post them tomorrow....

I have BIG NEWS to share with everyone that I was waiting until everything was final to share....But to give you a "hint" we are doing a little re-branding. I cant tell you why yet but stay tuned. The photo you see is part of your "hint"! If you already know the NEWS please dont spoil it for everyone....I will share the News June 1 (or 2nd)....Keep checking back it will be announced on this blog first :)

Can you stand it???

Whitney

These were shot in Washington right near the McCord's home. I love how these turned out. I designed the little collage series of these as I feel the images need to be displayed together. I will post more of a sneak peak from this shoot hopefully tomorrow but this will give you an idea of what is coming....

We have been shooting the Jamieson's for the last 3 or 4 years now. Every year we take the staircase shot. Its a bit of a tradition. Its fun to see how much the kids have grown up. I also LOVE this fun colored wall in their home. This year we went to Coburg to take the family photos. The bridge was the first stop which was awesome and then we headed into Coburg to see if we could find something interesting. We found this old abandoned house that I was excited about. The texture of the worn home and the beautiful trees made a great setting. Here are my favorites...

This is little Myles room (brother of Keeley...see her room below). The collage above his crib is Bliss Art. This was a maternity session we shot before little Myles joined us. Debbie wanted Myles to have the collage show all of their faces. There is a shot of Dad, Mom & Keeley in the collage. Thanks again to the McCord's for letting me take these room shots! Love the ideas and to see my work displayed :)

Sorry everyone...There has been a power outage at my web company and my website/email is all down. I know it was down most of the night...not sure when it began. But if you have emailed me...hang in there as "fingers crossed" emails should all come through once the server is up and running. If anything has bounced back to you please try and resend a little later today. I hope to be back online soon. Keep an eye out.

Thanks for your patience....

Whitney


****UPDATE*****

I think we should be back up. Sorry for the delay. I am starting to get emails but if you sent me an email and dont hear back from me by tomorrow (sat) please resend. Also because of the outage many of you may not have been able to access my blog so you would not have known that I missed the 22nd. I will extend the entry time. I will give everyone until midnight on Sat May 24 to email me your entry. I hope that helps :)

I know I said I would post twice so here is my second post. This is from the McCord family's home. These are not my photos on the wall but I loved the concept and the room is super CUTE! I have one more I will post in the AM from the McCords so check back...

I have had the opportunity recently to visit a couple of my clients homes and see how they have displayed their Bliss Art. I of course insisted on taking a quick photo to share on the blog. Its always great for me when I do visit clients homes and see my work in their home. Its a sense of accomplishment and I like to call it "whitney's shrine". I am a goof I know. But really I do love to see the finished pieces where they belong...On WALLS! This is Lori Monstein's bedroom wall. She is little Mia's mom (you can see them in a post below). These images are from Mia's one year session. I think the images look perfect in the diamonds on the wall. I was really excited to see the complete look on this as I knew ahead of time Lori's plan. She also added the ribbon to the canvas photos and used glass door knobs to hang them. It was a great finishing touch. Thanks Lori for letting me share your room! It was great seeing you again! If anyone else has ideas they want to share...Or photos that they have taken of Bliss Art hanging in their home email me info@blissstudio.net. I would love to post a few more.

So here it is 11:40pm and I still have not posted...Shame on me. It has been a really long day and I am finally winding down and trying to catch up on some emails. I drove to Eugene today and am staying at my friend Jamie's home to visit with her and of course her new arrival Avery. (and Dave and Kylee....) Every time I come to Eugene I try to conquer the world by seeing as many people as I can...Family, Friends and even clients. Today was no exception....However I started my day with a lovely dentist appointment (ICK!). Luckily it ended with holding and snuggling little miss Avery. Since I dont have any photos with me to post and I waited to the last minute...sneaky.... I would like to go ahead and give everyone a freebie on the "missed blog" contest for May (to see about the BLOG WAR view May 1st post) So ANYONE who emails me info@blissstudio.net by Midnight on May21 I will enter you in for the grand prize drawing. If you are a photographer be sure to let me know as you are entered in a separate drawing for focalpoint. I will also try to make up to you all by posting twice tomorrow...so stay tuned!

Night...

Whitney

As promised I wanted to post a proper post of Mia's photo session. You may have already seen the series I posted a few days back. I posted them again here so you could see them a little larger as I LOVE them. I probably posted a few too many images here (wait is that really possible?) But I could not pick just a few favorites. I love little Mia and it was too hard to narrow down. The brick ones are definitely my favorites which is why there is so many here. I like to shoot more Urban downtown rather than a park setting....spices things up a bit. Especially with little kids. The shot with the guy here is my hubby Dan. I am sure he will be thrilled that I posted this.....But Dan is not usually the "favorite" if he assists with me on a kid shoot. He claims kids are afraid of him. Mia is the exception...She LOVES Dan and I find it super cute. We have photographed Mia in the past and she was just as happy to see dan then as she was now. I made sure Dan assisted on the session since I knew she would do anything Dan wanted....ha ha. Thanks to Lori for coming to see us again...its always a pleasure seeing you and Mia. I hope we were able to make your Mother's Day a little more special. Enjoy...

I have shot a few last minute seniors for '08 recently. I always seem to do a few late in the year which I love as it gets me rearing to go for the next years seniors. Plus spring is always a great time to shoot as long as this wonderful Oregon weather decides to cooperate. Alex did awesome for his session. We shot these images in downtown Eugene. I also took some family images of the Jamieson's right before Alex's senior session. I will post a sneak peak on those soon. Thanks to Alex for letting me torture you with photos! Here are my favorites...

It was a bright and early day (really) for Dan and I today. We had the opportunity to be on Photo Talk Radio. The only catch was we had to be on air from 8am-9am. Those of you who know me KNOW this is torture. I like to sleep in! And the fact that it was a Saturday made it ten times worse. To make it more pleasant my wonderful husband made me a huge pot of coffee....although I am not sure if that was to make it pleasant for me? Or for him? ha ha. Despite the morning hours the radio show was a lot of fun. We talked quite a bit about the studio and Dan was able to talk a bit about FocalPoint. If you want to hear what we had to say visit Photo Talk Radio's Website and you can listen to the show. Thanks to the boys over at Photo Talk Radio for having us on the show!

I know I have posted a little about FocalPoint as this is one of the prizes for catching me "miss" a post. This is for photographers so if you are a client bear with me here :) I had a chance to play a bit with it and am loving it. Here is two before and afters that I did in just a couple of minutes. The results are awesome! With a lens babie (which I admit I am not able to use very well) it would have took me many times to get the focus point perfect and I still would not have got the affects I have here. FocalPoint also allows for you to vignette your image which I really like. I am going to spend some more time playing but I encourage you guys to download a demo from onOne's website and see what you think. If you have any before/afters send them my way info@blissstudio.net. If I get any I LOVE I will post them on my blog and you will receive a $5.00 starbucks or $5.00 itunes gift card for your efforts! Take a bit to do this! Its worth it.

The last time I took Mia's photos she was just turning one. Even though only a year has passed....she has grown up so much. She was as cute as ever as we shot a more urban downtown session. I will have a proper sneak peak soon so check back...But here is a quick series that I fell in love with!

Another senior from Central Catholic High. We had a great time shooting around SE portland this past Saturday. Katie was very excited about her session which made her photos a lot of fun. Here are a couple of my favorites....

I spent most of yesterday in the hospital visiting with little Avery and her mom and dad. I was at the hospital at 7 am which is a bit early for me...But I crawled out of bed and arrived on time in my P.J.'s. Yes...P.J.'s (I am in the shot with the Hat in case you cant tell...thanks Tammy for taking the photo) Those who know me know I am NOT a morning person. But getting up that early was worth it....Avery was beautiful. She is the little sister to Kylee who is one of my best friends daughters (Jamie). So now I have two little "nieces". I love all the details and being there when a baby is born. I got to see her get her footprints and have her first bath. I was also there while her daddy got his initiation by having to change the first official dirty diaper. Jamie is doing great. She was a little sleepy after surgery (she had a c-section) but recovering well. Thanks to both Jamie and Dave for letting me be there to share in your exciting day...It meant a lot to me. And many hugs and kisses to my new niece Avery!

Congrats to Thomas for making it through your senior year! You are in the homestretch. These are the announcements we designed for him to send out. Something a little different. I know there is still the traditional ones people can use but isnt it fun to see something different? This is also a fun way for people to see some of your senior photos. These are similar to the baby announcements we offer. They are press-printed, front and back and come with envelopes. Enjoy.....

I didnt want to miss a post AGAIN (those of you who emailed and "caught me" are entered in the drawing for the grand prize)....so I had to write a quick little something. I am sorry I dont have any photos quite ready to post....I will try to post twice tomorrow to make up for it. I have been in Eugene yesterday and today....I had 3 photo sessions and then this morning I was at the hospital welcoming miss Avery Grace to the world. I will post some of her photos tomorrow. I realize its getting close to midnight but I just got home from a double header....volleyball game. So that being said its been a really LONG couple of days and I am exhausted. So better posts tomorrow...

Night,

Whitney

One of the grand prize giveaways for catching me "missing" a post (photographer giveaway) is FocalPoint. So I thought some of you might like to have a little info on what it is all about. FocalPoint is a photoshop plugin from onOne Software. They have other plugins you may have heard of....Genuine Fractals, PhotoTools, PhotoFrame and MaskPro. FocalPoint is their newest venture that JUST released. I will post some before and afters later in the week. My husband, Dan, is the product manager of onOne Software and I have asked him to give us little more detail about FocalPoint.....(thanks honey!)

FocalPoint is like having a tilt-shift or selective focus lens inside of Photoshop. You can selectively blur the edges of your image as well as add vignettes in just a few seconds. It uses a new controller called the FocusBug that makes it fast and intuitive to use. You can use the round FocusBug for an even out-of-focus look like a selective focus lens or filter, or the planar FocusBug to simulate depth of field effects and tilt-shift lenses. You can even tilt the plane of focus in three dimensions.

If you want to download a trial of FocalPoint visit onOne Software's website!

More soon...

As promised...Here is a couple pages of the sample album I made. Its an 8x8 album but you are seeing a 16x8 spread (so both sides). Enjoy....

I am actually going to give away TWO $5.00 starbucks gift cards today. Tricia Sullivan had won 2nd prize on the favorite quote contest and wanted to pass her win on. I had submitted a couple photos to the newspaper for her daughter Erin (see post below) and she wanted to pass on the "kindness" I had her select a random post to win....She selected Andy Bondurant since he liked her quote! I am also going to give away one so I select Christel! Congrats to both of you. Please email me info@blissstudio.net with your address so I can mail your gift! More to come!

I had so much fun with Adria & Darris. Can you say HOT! Oh wait maybe that is not appropriate? Adria was absolutely gorgeous and just glowed in so many ways. I didnt want to stop shooting. I was so excited after the session that I stayed up till 2am creating a sample album! This is exciting for me. I have been saying I wanted to have a sample maternity album for a long time. This shoot was just what I was looking for to make this happen. I will post a couple sample layouts hopefully tomorrow for you guys to see. In the meantime I will throw out this sneak peak of the couple's session. I want to say Thanks to Adria and Darris for coming to see me. It was great working with you both....Enjoy....

1st Prize goes to:

Mckemy

"The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or touched - they must be felt with the heart." -Hellen Keller (posted by Mckemy)

Second Prize goes to :

T. Sullivan

"Live simply; love extravagantly." Anonymous (posted by T. Sullivan)

If you both could email me with your mailing address I will get you some Starbucks in the mail. Congrats!


Thanks to everyone who helped vote! And Thanks to everyone who entered their quotes. More contests to come. If you are just joining....Be sure to check out my BLOG WAR post on May 1st.

I think I need a little help :) I had so many good entries for the favorite quote contest that I want a little help choosing the winners. I have narrowed it down to the top six. I will of course have the "final" say on the winner and the runner up but I want to see what you guys think? Post a comment below with your favorite number? Thanks for helping me out and voting for the winners! I will post the two winners on the 7th.....Want to give some people a chance to vote.



1. You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. ~Franklin P. Jones (posted by Jenny)

2. HANDLE EVERY STRESSFUL SITUATION LIKE A DOG, IF U CAN'T EAT IT OR PLAY WITH IT, P ON IT AND WALK AWAY... (posted by Teri)

3. "Live simply; love extravagantly." Anonymous (posted by T. Sullivan)

4. "The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or touched - they must be felt with the heart." -Hellen Keller (posted by Mckemy)

5. "Remind her that the most sacred thing between a father and a daughter is trust." -Harry H. Harrison, Jr. (posted by Haas)

6."When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another." - Helen Keller (posted by Christel)

As promised here are a few more images from the Ridders wedding. I was having a hard time selecting my favorites (as always). The weather was a bit unpredictable on the day of the wedding but as you can see from the photos we were able to pull off some great shots. The shot with the runaway veil makes me laugh....It was a bit windy at times and the boys (Dan and Jerrod) had to calm the veil down. I think the wind blowing made some great shots with Sabrina's long veil. I want to say thanks again to Sabrina and Jerrod for being such good sports about the weather :) I also want to thank the bridal party (especially the girls) who FROZE why we took the photos. The girls are all barefoot and VERY brave! Enjoy.....

I decided to start this coming week with my first Random Act of Kindness giveaway. I am going to be giving random $5.00 Starbucks gift cards to people who comment on my blog this month. If you are new to my blog check out the contests for May posted on May 1 (see below). The first Random commenter was picked by my husband. I had him chose a number (lucky number 12). So the 12th person to post a comment on my May 1 Post was......Nancy P.! Thanks to everyone for leaving comments! Please continue to leave me lots more....I will reward you for your efforts!

I am so proud! One of my seniors....Miss Erin Sullivan has the earned the honor of Valedictorian at Central Catholic High School. What a way to end your senior year! I wanted to post a BIG Congrats to Erin! Way to go! My the rest of your senior year be the best!

A little embarrassing I know....But these photos were taken by a wonderful photographer Brianna Graham and I wanted to give her a HUGE thanks. They were taken at my annual photo convention (WPPI) I attended in March. Brianna shot the photos for Blu Domain's website. For those of you who dont already know I am a concierge for Blu Domain in my "free time". ha ha! I get the opportunity to help out some of my fellow photographers build their websites. Blu Domain designs web templates that are awesome and easy to use! All of my sites are Blu templates. If you are looking for a new website you should check them out! You can leave me comments but be nice! I am already embarrassed to be posting images of myself :) I am a Photographer for a REASON!

Whitney

Just a quick note..... I will be giving away a 1st prize and a 2nd prize to my favorite quotes. The quotes must be posted in the comment section under the Favorite Quote post (was posted on April 29th...scroll down to see). The deadline to enter is midnight on May 5th. I will post the winners on the 6th of May. Your probably wondering what the heck the prizes are? I will give away a 1st prize of a $10.00 gift card to your choice of itunes or starbucks. 2nd place will receive a $5.00 gfit card to Starbucks. Keep the quotes coming! I am really excited with what is there so far!

Whitney

This is another example of where I use all these wonderful quotes!

The quote in the album layout....

“Marriage is a door which looks out upon a beautiful view. As that door is opened and the horizon unfolds before you, know that nothing is sweeter than the warmth of one hand within another.”

-Collin McCarty

These two have grown so much since the last time I photographed them! They were quite a challenge to chase around the studio. They are not quite walking yet but that does not slow them down. I made sure to put mom and dad to work wrangling them. It can be quite the workout! Olivia and Madison are just over a year and as adorable as ever! Thanks to Josh and Rachel for driving up to Portland to see me! Here are a couple of my favorites...

Meet my good friend Lisa....who is Now My rival! Lisa and I have challenged each other to a blog war! This means a month of FUN for everyone....Lisa and I have a few prizes of our own on the line but I also want to give EVERYONE a chance to win some awesome prizes this month. This is for all my clients and any potential clients as well as any of my fellow photographers (and blog stalkers).

Contest Rules:

For the entire month of May I am to post EVERYDAY! If I miss a day you have to email me and I will enter you in a drawing for a Grand Prize to be chosen on June 1st. You must email me (info@blissstudio.net) by midnight the day after I miss a post. You are allowed one entry per miss so keep a close eye on me as the month goes on. IF you are a photographer please let me know when you email me as your entry goes in a separate drawing. Be sure to put BLOG WAR in the subject line when you email.

Now on to the good stuff....

PRIZES:

Clients:

I will be giving away at least one $250.00 gift certificate and depending on the number of entries I get I may give away more!


Photographers:

I will be giving away at least one copy of onOne Software's new Focal Point. Focal point is a brand new plugin for photoshop being released that is awesome! I will post more on that later in the month. Value $160.00.


ANYONE:
Random acts of kindess.....During the month I will select random winners for Starbucks gift cards. To participate all you need to do is leave comments...Yes comments on my blog :) Very easy. This is part of my war with Lisa..hint hint...so help me out! I will reward you for your efforts. Be sure to sign your name with your comment so I know who you are. All winners will be announced on the blog.



That is it! The War has begun.....Thanks to everyone who participates!



*A quick THANK YOU to Brianna Graham for taking the photos of Lisa and I!