So after a number of comments from females in my life that the new site does not reflect weddings enough, I have reverted to having a separate (in design at least) website for my wedding photography.
It actually only took me 5 hours to get this website from thought to live site. I decided at 12:50 AM to get a new look for weddings, and it is 6:04 now as I make this post. So please check out the new look at stephenkiersweddings.com
I hope that brides find this new site easier to use.
So in the excitement and haste of getting my new website up and running I made a few beginner mistakes.
First of al, I forgot to change my advertising to stephenkiersweddings.com so many of the people clicking on my links went nowhere.
Then I added a passcode to my contact form to keep out robots crawling my site for spam. Problem is I didn't debug it perfect, and many of my would be customers got error pages.
My point? Sorry everyone who was messd up by the new site, I hope that things go smoothly from here on out.
Also, I am curious what people think of the new site, so please put your 2-cents worth in here!
So I don't know how many of you out there were up this morning to watch Adobe's online release of CS4, but it was an exciting moment. The smart resizing, enhancement of blending modes and non-destructive edits is awesome. My one gripe however is the lack of 64-bit support for mac. Now I know this won't affect most users, but I personally am sad. I bought my computer for power-housing, and was looking forward to Photoshop being able to access all 9 GB of ram in my computer. Alas though, it will still be limited, at least until CS5. Adobe does say that the 64-bit version in windows isn't that much faster, but it still leaves me pouting. Overall though, I am excited for the new features.
"The Millionaire claims he is self made, but when he is arrested for crimes he blames it on his parents."
I am no millionaire, and I don't really any other 'major' accomplishments in my life at this time worth bragging about. Still I want to take a second and give props to my mom, the person I most respect. My mother is the reason I am who I am today. I would like to say every good part of me is thanks to her. These are a few reasons why.
As a single mother raising me and my little sister, she pushed through and completed both High School and University to become a RN. I remember growing up with her writing papers on her typewriter while we watched TV. I remember spilling kool-aid on her 50 page paper she had been typing the last couple days, completely ruining it (now it is a sorta funny story actually). I also remember playing with little toy machine guns, with those orange rubber darts, in the living room. We would flip the couches over and make a war zone. I don't know how she always hit me in between the eyes, but I won't play paintball with her now! I remember playing Super Mario Bros 1 & 3 all the way through with her and how ever though she accomplished lots in life, she always had time for me. Now she is an accomplished RN with Edmonton Home Care, and the only one of her siblings with a University Degree. Now my mom is not a 'religious' person, but I have also learned a lot about God through her. Her standing up for right and wrong has been inspirational for me, her advise to be a friend in order to make friends was dead on, and through her I learned prayers do get answered. In the hard times I know that her prayers are what brought us all through.
I have seen how the church can hurt people through her, and how she has reacted. She been stung by criticism of 'those welfare bums' in the church lobby, had pastors casting satan out of my sister for crying in a service and I have seen how superficial people can be. So wrapped up in their own great lives that they never notice a hurt sheep among them. Through this all though my mom has stood strong. Sometimes for no other reason than to keep God in us children's lives. And through this abuse, I have learned what a Christian, and a church, should be. A perfection I strive towards in life, and in my own ministry.
She has also showed me that family is number one. My mother put me, and eventually my sister, first in her life. I grew up in poverty, but didn't really know it. My mom provided for us before she would think of providing for herself, she was the worlds greatest soccer mom, cheering me on for over 12 years, and even in her professional successes she never sacrificed family for success. Now with two more children and a grandchild, I see that the pattern is continueing, and I am able to watch her parent as a relative outsider. I see the same love and sacrifice put into their lives. And I am excited as my simblings are growing up themselves.
It is the things in life as simple as teaching my, somewhat shy, youngest sister that she needs to be a friend to make friends ; that she needs to take a chance and get to know people at church before she gives up on them. She now has friends!
That is who my mom is, and I owe much more than my existence to her.I owe my life. And although I am not a millionaire, yet, I still want to make sure that everyone, and especially my mom knows, "I Love You and Thank You".
So the stephenkiers.com website is in the process of being updated. Major changes are
Client Login Area with online store
The Blog you are now reading
Prices are Online
The Wedding website has final been merged with the main website
For the last year I have maintained a separate wedding website, because it was already made and targets brides so great. Now however I find that I wanted to streamline my online identity, and therefore have merged it into one site.The only downside is that I have to wait a month or more to be able to accept credit card and debit on the website. Anyway, hope everyone likes the changes.
Well this season has been quite alot busier than years past. With over 20 weddings I have has little time to myself, and no weekends at all. It has been a fun and stressful ride. I am finally getting ahead of the game a little though, and get this weekend off. Instead of shooting a wedding I am attending one. I have also had some time to update the site, adding this blog and almost completing the customer login area over the last week and a half. By mid-September I hope to have Visa, Mastercard and Debit Online available for you and your families to purchase prints online. Check back then for more information.
Just wanted everyone to check out this awesome video about the business of photography and working as a commercial photographer. I wish I was as great as this gentleman here is. Chase Jarvis is a exceptional commercial photographer, and he is very transparent about how he got there. (plus a boatload of talent and creativity)
Stephen Kiers is a professional photographer and graphic designer based out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Stephen is available for work internationally.
