Senior Portraits Class of 2017 | Wisconsin Senior Portrait Photographer

Time sure does have a way of getting away from us, am I right?

Not only is it 2016 (what?…that’s like…the future and stuff)….but if you have kiddos you know how fast they go from diaper wearing germ factories to semi-sophisticated young adults in a matter on nano-seconds. It’s incredible.

No truer words have ever been sang: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

That’s probably WHY I have such an affinity for senior portraits. It’s such a milestone capture. These “kids” (I hesitate to call them kids….) are burgeoning adults….standing on the cusp of their entire lives….SO much potential…SO much excitement for what’s to come. I look at my own senior portraits (hello ripped jeans and Nirvana t-shirt….natch.) and think “Man, if I could only go back and TALK to that girl…the stories I would tell”.

It’s just a really neat time of our lives and I’ve dedicated a lot of study and effort into capturing this time in a unique, editorial, and fun way.

With than being said, I’m unleashing the TYPE A IMAGES MODEL SEARCH for the CLASS of 2017. 

This year I will be selecting 5 models (there are currently 4 spots remaining). Senior Models who are representing my brand should be outgoing, fun, funny, and comfortable in front of the camera.

Senior Models get all sorts of perks:

* Early Bird in-studio time

* Specially priced $75 session fee

* 25% off your initial a la carte or digital file purchase

* 40 big, glossy Rep Cards to share with friends (the days of tiny little wallet sharing are OVER!)

PLUS, a new referral system guaranteed that is truly the bee’s knees:

* Refer 1 Friend: Get a $20 Print Credit

* Refer 5 Friends: Get a $100 Print Credit

* Refer 10+ Friends: Get a $500 Print Credit

That’s, like, FREE STUFF just for talking….who else is going to give you free stuff just for talking?

If you or your Junior is interested in giving it a whirl, please email me at typeaimages@gmail.com. In Studio Portrait Sessions will be taking place at the downtown site (at the Tin Dog Records building) in MARCH.  On-Location sessions can happen at any time you wish.

Let’s make this year STELLAR! Game on!

The Way Things Change ~ Wisconsin Photographer

So, if you follow us (and by us I mean Type A or Tin Dog) on Facebook, you’ve probably heard by now that as of yesterday we have made the decision to close the record store.

This decision was not made lightly….and it was met by a pretty humbling outpouring of support from the community that really eased our minds and touched our hearts.

Anyone who knows me well knows I value a full day’s work. It’s the way I’m wired. I love to work….I love thinking about work….I love devising new ways to work. It’s the way I am and I’ve always been a proud “workaholic”, especially since owning Type A. It’s my baby and I love hanging out with it. Tin Dog was baby #2….and I added it with excitement and commitment.

But, we live in a culture that worships the concept of “busy”…..being “too busy” = “successful”.  You see it all over Facebook:

“OMG, so much to do and no time to do it!”
“I need coffee SO BAD because I got NO SLEEP because #omgsobusy”
“Apologies that I’m late…..tired……not on my game……I’m ridiculously busy”
“Haven’t seen my kids all day but I’m gettin’ work DONE!”
“Holy cow I have 1000 emails and I’m never going to finish getting through them”

We glorify busy. Busy is letting everyone know that we are in demand, popular, and….let’s face it….better than the person who is NOT #omgsobusy and wading through a pile of emails. You only got 1 email today? Pshaw!!! Loser.

You are 2 weeks late delivering that order? Well….brilliance takes time and well, you’re so so so BUSY that no one expects you to be on time with anything. Right?

There’s something inherently WRONG with this thought concept and the big flashing red “WRONG….YOU’RE WRONG” lights were staring us in the face.

As much as we loved our store and what we had created…….the WHY of what we were doing became less and less realizable. Our kids were spending 90% of their time with either teachers, daycare workers, or our parents. They were being shuffled to and fro and we only saw them in the early morning, as they headed off to their caretakers, or at night….where, let’s face it, we just wanted them to go to bed because we were EXHAUSTED and just needed some alone time to decompress.

It wasn’t working. We tried very hard to make all the puzzle pieces fit together. All the while adding more and more to our already overflowing plates. Because busy = success.

I decided, hell…why not go back to school?
Why not take my ONE day off (Monday) and squeeze as much as humanly possible into that one day?

I decided in order to try to make up for being largely absent for the last year and  a half, I’d add dance classes for Betty into the mix. But yeah…..someone has to TAKE her to those classes. I spent most of the classes checking email or, as of late, reading class assignments and flashing the occasional smile at my kid.

We were waking up every day and doing what we thought we needed to do, but this was no life.

The levee finally broke and, honestly, as much as I am grieving the loss of what we built with Tin Dog…..I feel a weight has absolutely been lifted from my shoulders. I know my husband feels the same way.

I cancelled daycare for the summer…..and after June 6th we see a sense of freedom we haven’t had in a VERY long time.

I’m going to miss the store. I woke up this morning feeling sad….almost like a long lost friend had passed away and I had simply read about it in the newspaper after the fact. I’m going to miss being downtown every day to be a part of it’s revitalization…..I’m going to miss some of our regulars who have honestly become friends. I hope they’ll stay that way, despite the store not being around.

But I’m not going to miss the constant tension of putting the store’s needs before our girls’. I’m not going to miss the deluge of responsibilities that come with owning a retail store on TOP of being a mom….on TOP of owning a service based business that definitely was sacrificed at the altar of Tin Dog in the last year. I now get to focus back on Type A 100%, I can focus on school 100%, and I can focus on my girls….and have an incredible summer WITH them.

Some will say we “failed”….that “I knew it wouldn’t last”. And you know what, they’re right. In the last year, we failed our girls. We tried….and it didn’t last. That is totally OK! That’s what life is all about. Someday we can tell our grandkids about that year grandpa ran a record store (how cool was grandpa?!).  It’s part of our story now.  If people feared the unknown results of ideas, nothing would ever get made….stores would never open. You have to TRY. You have to jump….and assemble your wings on the way down.

This morning I woke up…..remembering the announcement we made yesterday immediately…and I felt a bit sad. For a moment, I thought “did we make the right move?”

I went downstairs and asked Betty if, in a few weeks, she wanted to go to Old World Wisconsin again with me (my favorite place in the whole wide world). She beamed….and said “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Yes ! YES!”

We made the right move.

And I’m proud to say, maybe even with dramatic hashtags, that in a few weeks I’m not going to be #omgsobusy. I’m going to be hanging with my kiddos and doing not a whole lot of anything much.

 

And it’s going to be awesome.