Autumn Hull Photography

Congratulations to our PhotoBooth winners!

It was a good race, and many of the PhotoBooth shots gave each other a run for their money, but the winner by a landslide is this little cutie:

It just goes to show you... you can get as creative, silly, and spontaneous as you want, but there is nothing more powerful on this earth as a little girl in a tutu. 

Congratulations to the Nott family, who won a free Portrait Session and a 16x20 custom canvas print. 

Also, one lucky voter was scientifically chosen at random (by asking my daughter to pick a number, then counting down the emails until I got to that number) to receive a $50 gift card good toward a Portrait Sitting, prints or products, or workshop fees.  And the winner is....  Ryan & Brenda Metro

So congratulations to our winners, and thanks everyone who posed in the PhotoBooth and sent in all those votes.  I hope to see you all back in the studio very soon!

PhotoBooth Contest Ends Tonight!

Don't forget, today is the last day to vote for your favorite PhotoBooth entry.   No votes will be accepted after 8pm.   I'll announce the winner of the free portrait sitting and 16x20 canvas print and the winner of the $50 savings card sometime after that this evening.

Good luck!

Limited Edition Sessions: Celebrating Motherhood

Now that the studio is officially open, and now we can get started with our brand new feature:  The Limited Edition Session.  Those of you who have been clients of mine over the years might wonder:  "How is a Limited Edition Session different than your Mini Sessions?"  Well, I'll tell you!

A Mini Session was available almost anytime, and it was 1/2 the time, 1/2 the price, and 1/2 the proofs as a standard session.  I am no longer offering Mini Sessions.

A Limited Edition Session is so much cooler.  Once a month, we will host a themed Limited Edition Session Day.  The themes will be different every month and will include a wide variety of topics, like "Santa Sessions", "Little Valentines", "My Grandparents & Me", and "Best Friends", and our old favorite: "Tutu Cuties".

The best difference is that Limited Edition Sessions are less than a Mini Session.  They are only $60 for a 15 minute session, AND include a special offer on a product related to the theme.  For instance, "Santa Sessions" will include a special price on Christmas Cards, and "Just The Purse, Ma'am" will include special low prices on Custom Photo Handbags ordered from that session.

Here's the downside:  each Limited Edition Session lasts for one day only, and when it's booked, that's it until we offer it again next year.

Our first Limited Edition Day is all about the Mommies! This LE Session is called "Celebrating Motherhood" and is perfect to showcase that special bond between a woman and her children. 

It is only available this Saturday, June 28th, from 9am to 5pm in our brand new studio located at 25020 Avenue Stanford, Suite 100, Valencia, CA  91354.

All images will be shot in black and white, on a black background, and retouching is included.

The cost of this quick, 15 minute session is $60, whether you have one baby or six babies, and even if your babies aren't babies at all anymore!  The special offer with this session is a matted and framed 8x10 print, available for only $165.   If you upgrade to include the special offer, this brings your cost to $225, and since the cost on an 8x10 framed print alone is normally $275, you can't possibly pass it up!

Just think, all you have to do is show up for 15 minutes with your children (or grown children!), pose for a few quick shots, pick out a frame and a mat while you're there, pick out your favorite shot online a couple of weeks later, and in a few short weeks, you'll have a beautiful portrait of you and your children, ready to hang on the wall.   

Don't worry all you Daddies out there, you'll have a turn pretty soon!

If you would like to reserve a spot for the Celebrating Motherhood Limited Edition Session, you can email autumn@autumnhullphoto.com or call 661-297-6951.

Watch your inboxes and mailboxes for the next month's theme!

The PhotoBooth Contest

During our Grand Opening weekend, we held a PhotoBooth contest for our visitors. In order to enter, they had to step into our studio with one of the Associate Photographers and give us their best shot.  Each participants got 3-5 shots in rapid succession, and then were able to draw a savings card out of the jar.  The cards were all winners, ranging from $25 off a session all the way up to a completely free session.  For the grand prize, a free portrait session and a 16x20 canvas print, they have to win all of YOU over. 

I've chosen my favorite shots of the weekend, now it's up to you to pick the very best image.  You can pick the cutest, the funniest, the silliest, or just the strangest image, it's your choice!  To vote, send an email with the number of the image you like best.  One vote per email please, but if you are one of the hopeful PhotoBooth models, you can feel free to tell your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to stuff the ballot box in your favor!

autumn@autumnhullphoto.com

(Please don't vote by leaving a comment, the email votes are the only ones that will count.)

And voters... there's something in it for you, too!  I will pick one voter at random to receive a $50 savings card good toward portrait sittings, print or product orders, or even workshops.

I'll leave the voting open for five days, and announce the winner on Friday night.  Good luck!

The studio is now official!

The Grand Opening Open House was a great success, and we are now officially open for business!  Thank you to everyone who came by to see the place and meet the new Associate Photographers. 

I am going through the PhotoBooth images as we speak and will be posting my favorites here later today.  Then it will be up to all of you blog readers to pick the winner, who will receive a free portrait sitting and 16x20 canvas print, a $750 value!

Stay tuned everyone!!

The Big Day

I breathe a sigh of relief as it all comes together today.  This shot is about three hours before the Ribbon Cutting, and all I'm waiting for at this point is the flower delivery and the food and ice.  I've been so busy getting everything ready, I forgot to look around me and see what we've accomplished.  I am so proud of this studio, it's even better than what I imagined in my head.

Once the flowers arrived and all the final touches were placed around the studio, I was ready for the Ribbon Cutting!  All that was left was the quick phone-in interview to the local radio station that I had set up to promote the Grand Opening.  I'll post the audio clip of it later.

Here is me "cutting" the ribbon with my family, friends, Associate Photographers, and the Miss, Little Miss, and Mrs. Santa Clarita. It was such a great ceremony.  There were presentations made by representatives from the Mayor, Assemblyman, and our Senators, and a plaque from the city.  We had a short reception afterwards to celebrate.

Now I get one day of rest, then it's the really big event... the Open House all day on Saturday to introduce the new studio, the Associate Photographers, and my new price list with some great new products, baby plans, and a lifetime membership program.

Be sure to check the blog next week to participate in the PhotoBooth contest.  We have a photobooth set up in the studio, and guests will be posing for 3-5 fun, silly photos.  I'll pick the 20 or so best images and post them here for all of you to vote on.  Whoever has the winning photo will receive a free portrait session and a custom 16x20 canvas print.

I hope to see some of you this Saturday!

The Day Before

OK, it's officially crunch time.  The display cases finally made it, and I LOVE them!  Now all I have to do is finish framing and hanging the rest of the prints, put everything away on the bookcases, print out all of the flyers and signs, and dress everything for the Grand Opening.  Hey, there is still ONE WHOLE DAY left, it's no problem!  I'll just let all of these shots speak for themselves...






Here's Diana cutting, taping, assembling, etc.  And the photos above are of Scott, Evelyn, and her friend who all hung in there until the middle of the night to help me get the studio ready.  Diana (who has FIVE kids, by the way) came back at 10 oclock at night in her pjs.  Now that's a friend!


It finally started to come together around 11 or so.  We got the Baby Plan display table almost finished, and the pictures are all hung.  The goodies are ready to give out (cd case calendars and custom colored m&M treat bags for the kids), and most of the flyers are printed and placed around the studio.

Two Days To Go...

OK, so all the prints, frames, and marketing materials arrived today and the studio is officially a chaotic mess.  Thank God for all the help, or I don't know what I'd do.  One of the new Associate Photographers-In-Training, Laura, has been incredible.  She's shown up every day for a week and helped me hang things, sort things, put things in and on things, and generally just make me feel like this is all going to come together.  Thanks Laura!!  I've also had some great help from Scott, Evelyn, Nina, and Marisa, more Associate Photographers.  They've shown up to pitch in and helped to keep things moving forward.  Thanks guys!  Then there's my best friend in the world, Diana. She's not a photographer, just an amazing friend who never fails to pull through for me.  Thank you so much.
On top of getting the studio operational, I also have to get it ready for an Open House, so I brought in extra tables and tablecloths. 
Just looking at these pictures stresses me out!  Those tutus turned out to be a wrinkled, scrunched up mess from being stuffed in a trunk for so long, so they need to be steamed with my little hand-steamer one at a time, which is taking forever.  Laura pitched in with that hand-cramping job.

By the end of the day, we got most of the trash out of the studio to make room for the furniture delivery the next morning.  Less than 48 hours to go until the Chamber of Commerce comes to the Ribbon Cutting.  Um.... yeah.

Three, Count 'Em, THREE Days Until Opening

I finally got everything put away nice and neatly in the cabinets, and started to put some pictures up.  I'm still freaked out, and my right eye keeps twitching, but at least in this room some progress is being made.  I also found an absolutely BEAUTIFUL solid wood, hand-crafted buffet cabinet at the furniture store right behind the studio.  They sold me the floor sample for only $400!  What a steal.  This is where I'll eventually have my kitchen area, with a coffee maker, microwave, snacks, etc.  You can see it just to the right of the cabinets.  I'll post a better photo of it later.

The main room is still woefully naked, so that's a little scary.  The last of the furniture won't be delivered until the 18th, the day before the grand opening.  All of the prints and frames won't arrive until tomorrow.  It's going to be a big push right at the end, but luckily I have some great people helping me, so it should all come together fine.

Here is the bathroom, finally finished with the new cabinet sink.  It took two tries on this project, as the first cabinet I purchased was too deep, so the door wouldn't close.  We had to take it back, but the contractor couldn't come back for two days, so THAT was nerve-wracking.  It all came together fine in the end, and I LOVE the new one.  I finished it off with some cool beachy things I found around town and a cute sign from Ballard Designs.

I finally finished hanging the dozens of frame and mat corners, so now I just need to find a way to finish the area off somehow.  I'm not sure what yet, but I'll figure it out.

Six Days To Go...

Here is the studio a couple of days after my last post.  This is the camera room, with the new cabinets that were just installed, and all the junk that needs to go into it.  I ended up with one cabinet for all the props, one for the backdrops, and one for all the miscellaneous studio stuff like cords, cleaning supplies, papers, etc.

This is the beginning of the tutu wall just opposite the cabinets.  I didn't have enough hangers, because as it turned out I completely underestimated the number of tutus I've collected over the years! 

This is how the front room looks, with only SIX days until opening day.  Yikes!  At this point, the staircase gallery is the only completed part of the studio and I am beginning to panic just a tiny bit. 

I started on "the frame corner", where all the frame and mat corners will hang.  THAT was a job and a half, let me tell you.  Here's a shot of it as a work in progress. 

Check back soon for updates!