Christmas is a BIG deal around here. Cory and I are huge Christmas people here… it is everything we can do to NOT put our tree up in October. I know…. I know… but we really LOVE it! The Christmas rush is winding down and even though we have 3 weddings this month and still more sessions for the year, we are trying to take things a little slower and enjoy the last few days of the season.

So as our gift to YOU we are announcing a HUGE limited time only sale. So here it is… I love a deal!

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Portrait Session fees!!

Yep, you heard it right… with any session fee purchased you receive a free certificate to give to a friend, your family, your favorite person in the world, anyone. This is the gift that keeps on giving, right? You buy yourself a session for the spring…. super fun, timeless portraits AND you also get to be the HERO and give the same thing to someone else. We will even package it pretty for you…We do the work and you get the credit. Easy, right?

Here are the rules…. READ THEM.

1. A portrait session fee is $100 and includes a $25 print credit if ordering within 2 weeks of your gallery being online. Your gift session will also receive a $25 print credit!!! (You do the math… :))

2. Portrait Session must be completed by June 1, 2010. No exceptions.

3. Sale will last until Friday (12/18) at 9 pm. Any emails or phone calls received after the 9 pm cut on on Friday WILL NOT qualify. So act fast… I mean fast… someone is going to LOVE you for this!

4. Payment must be made online by credit or debit card, but we will walk you through all of that.

5. All certificates will be mailed out Saturday (12/19) to insure delivery by Christmas.

So…. shoot me an email sam@hishandsphotographs.com or give me a call 205-862-3374.

I thought I would share our Christmas card with you…. I love my babies. Christmas is so much fun with them! I love that they are both getting a little older, it makes everything more fun!

We have talked about it for a long time and now it is time to announce our big contest to celebrate our children’s birthdays. Our kids have birthdays 5 days apart and we want you to get a gift! We want to celebrate relationships because we pray our children grow to be very close. I really think that is what our photography business is all about, capturing relationships of families, couples, siblings, etc. At 3 and 1, our children are just starting to really play together. The other day I was in the other room and I heard Sarah laughing harder than I had ever heard her while playing with her brother. At 1 year old, she was taking his blocks every time he stacked them up. I love that I am starting to see such a beautiful relationship!

So, that was my inspiration for the contest! First let’s talk about what we are giving away…

1 session fee to the winner ($100 value)

1 session fee for a family or person the winner chooses ($100 value)

Digital Disk with ALL portraits from both sessions ($800 value), AND

1 11×14 wall portrait for each family ($150 value)!!!!!!!!

Why are we giving away two sessions??? I want you to tell me who you would love to have a session with! Tell me about your sister and how awesome she is and how you want to thank her with this session. Tell me about your best friend that has stuck beside you for YEARS. Tell me about your co-worker that is always there to lend an ear. Tell me about your mom… you get the idea! This is two full sessions but I want to schedule the session where the two families have a few shots taken together. I want to celebrate your favorite relationship!

Now, here is how you win:

1. You must leave a comment here on the blog or here on our fan page wall on Facebook. Tell me about why you want to win and who you would give the other session and 11×14 to as a gift. The contest isn’t about someone in need. Remember, I am interested in the relationship!

2. If you enter on Facebook, tell your friends about the contest on our fan page. You can have it say whatever you like this time, but include a link to our fanpage. The last contest went so well with so many entries that I felt very generous and gave away MORE stuff to other winners! I seriously have a hard time not giving everyone something that enters!

3. Session must take place in the greater Birmingham area (some exceptions made on the case by case basis).

4. The person you choose to give the session away to must agree to the session and both families must schedule the session on the same day. This will allow the portraits of everyone together.

5. The sessions is for up to 10 people total.

6. Session must be booked and completed by December 31st, 2009.

And to celebrate some my kids’ relationship, let me show you the picture from 4th of July. I have to admit, it is hard to get picture of my own kids at this age. They are not interested in my camera (Sarah is lately… maybe there is hope!) and we all know how our own kids don’t listen like they should…lol. So when I try to sit them down for a posed picture, it is often comical. Cory is in the background making funny noises (ask him about “Moose”) and I am desperately trying to get both of my toddlers looking my way…lol. But, I love to see both of them in the same print, it makes my heart smile.

 All entries must be received by August 25th, 2009. Winner will be annouced on August 26th.

So, tomorrow is my (Sam) 30th birthday and Monday is Cory’s 33rd. We love July around here and we thought the best way to celebrate our birthday is to give someone a prize… and since it is such a significant birthday for me, we are giving away the farm! One person is going to walk away with a huge prize. Between 7/10 and 7/13 we are giving you a chance to with a FREE session fee ($100), a FREE DVD of all the session with a release to print ($400) AND a handcrafted (By Cory himself!) fine art album, 20 pages, 5×7 size ($450)… yep.. you read that right… we are giving it all away to one person!

How do you win? You have to be on Facebook. Did you know you are missing all the fun? I upload more pictures on Facebook. I post contests on Facebook. I ask for your opinions on pricing, packages, contests… all kinds of stuff. And, we are talking about pictures over there too! So, to win this contest you must be a fan: HERE. You must be my friend; HERE. (This sounds a little like grade school where you passed notes around that says “Will you be my friend? Circle YES or NO). And…. You must change your status to:

I am a fan of His Hands Photographs and I want to tell you about a contest I am trying to win. I want to win a session fee, a DVD with all my pictures, and a fine art album! Check it out, you could win too! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Birmingham-AL/His-Hands-Photographs/34442204574?ref=ts

And then head onto our fan page to tell us you changed your status, why you want to win, AND where would be your favorite pick for a location. (You can leave the last part out, but I really want to hear about where YOU want to have your dream portrait session!).

And so you can see an example of our fine art albums and what you can win. Here is an example of a wedding album. Isn’t it beautiful!? Every time we put one of these albums together I want to keep it for myself! It is something that will last for years to come. Imagine flipping through this when your kids are teenagers and telling them about their first family session, the three year old portraits, or your wedding. There is no better way to preserve your portrait session or wedding then in a fine art album… seriously! These are not your typical photo albums, they are art. It is YOUR family in art.

Now for the rules:

Only one entry per person.

Session must be booked within 30 days and session must take place before October 31st, 2009.

Must be in the Birmingham area or be willing to travel to the greater Birmingham area.

Winner will be chosen at random on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009.

Are you enjoying the warmer weather? Have you started to think about your Spring portraits? It seems as soon as the weather warms up, my phone starts ringing and my calendar fills up fast. So, to make booking your Spring session a little more exciting we are having our biggest giveaway yet!

Book your spring session between today and 2/28/09 and you are entered in to win a FREE CD with all of the portraits from your session. This is a CD for your to print to your heart’s content (make Grandma 12 copies of her favorite of junior, make your scrapbook the talk of the town with the best portraits of your family, Mother’s day and Father’s day gifts are done, you get the point!). The retail value is $900. Yes, we are giving it away to one person who books and pays a session fee in the next two weeks. So don’t delay! Prime session times are already filling up. If you want blooming flowers and perfectly cool spring weather; ya gotta call or email me now!

Are you getting married? Stay tuned tomorrow to hear our newest contest for our brides…

P.S. Our blog comment contest ends on the 28th too. Will you win the free session????

And because I can’t post without a picture… here is another from this weekend. We decided to try the back deck for a few pictures. This picture is so funny to me because the dogs in the back just wanted to join in. Of course, this little guy was having a great time playing with the dogs too! I love how they have thier heads stuck through the fence! Too cute!

I started compiling a year in review for a slideshow to share with everyone a month ago. A month later and I still haven’t added all the families and brides from the year! What an amazing year it has been! I look at all these families and I can’t help but tear up thinking of all the wonderful people I have met this year. If I missed you in the slideshow please forgive me! If I keep working on this slideshow, I will never get it up on the blog.

Every single picture on here means something to me and that is why I want to share it with you. I am once again humbled that this is our job and we are a part of all of the lives here even if for a short time. Thank you for allowing us to live our dream…..I can’t even imagine what exciting things 2009 will bring. I trust that God has big plans and I just let Him drive. And now….. sit back and press play!

PS. We also updated all of our galleries on both the portrait and wedding website. There are so many pictures on the site that I never blogged! Stay tuned for some exciting news to be released this week!!