End of Year 2014 I Molly and Matt Photo

Ready for 2015? We are!!! The planner and big picture person in me is ready to reflect on the year and analyze the details... When I started pulling my fav images for this blog post, it was a bit overwhelming. That's a good problem to have! There are so many beautiful moments from this past year.  Thankful for each and every client we have photographed! 
-Molly

The numbers... We had the delight of working with 40 Families, 20+ Children, 21 Newborns, 3 High School Seniors, 13 Expecting Moms, 5 Couples, and a few headshots mixed in along the way. We doubled the number of newborn sessions from 2013! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 

Accomplishments for the year... Molly updated the MMP website (love squarespace) and finally committed to a new logo (thanks The Paper Zoo) and branding for the business. We ordered flash drives with our logo that have received rave reviews from clients!!!  We continued to take classes through Creative Live and participated in weekly challenges through our favorite photography forums including Light Inspired, Life Defined Project, Love Photos Beautifully, I Heart Faces, and Rock the Shot.  Matt purchased a new camera, the FujiFilm X100s, and has been shooting in black and white for pleasure. Molly's editorial work was featured in the FGCU Pinnacle Magazine, Life in Naples, and local newspapers around town.  We continue to blog our photos as much as possible to highlight the story of each session and drive our fans back to our website. Molly also continues to grow a strong following on Instagram with daily photos of life with our sassy toddler, Lillian. Are you following her at mollyg?

The year brought several gifts, including the arrival of Molly's niece, Emma, in April and the weddings of Athena + Scott and Sarah + Rafael, and the birth of Kacey (daughter of Colorado cousins Gabe & Hayley) in August.  It means so much to us to capture the milestones and celebrations in our family and friend's lives. These are moments are why we pick up the camera... 

Wishing you all a happy and exciting year ahead! 

See you in 2015

Molly + Matt

Here are just a few of our favorites from this year...


Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Cards are still going out but wanted to share some of the images we used from our family photo shoot with our dear friend, Bona Kim, in downtown Fort Myers. So fun and so us... Looking forward to 2015 and thanks for being apart of the ride! 

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All things HAPPY with Tiny Prints...

It's that time of year again! We are busy taking portraits for clients who plan to send holiday cards in the next month or so. Whether your goal is to keep in touch with family and friends, network with contacts, announce a recent marriage or new baby, say thank you for a gift or favor you received this year, or just boast your beautiful family pictures from Molly and Matt Photo, we LOVE our clients to use Tiny Prints to order holiday cards.  
Sharing a sneak peek of a Tiny Prints card Molly designed with a recent photo taken of our family:

Tiny Prints is a leading retailer of premium personalized holiday cards and has been recognized for their high quality and unmatched customer service. Each card ordered is also hand reviewed before it’s printed to ensure quality and accuracy. 

ORDER YOUR HOLIDAY CARDS!!!

We are offering an exclusive 40% off promo code: PHDZZFC2C8 if you order through our Tiny Prints store.
CLICK HERE >>>>> http://www.tinyprints.com/storefront/mollyandmattphoto. 

P.S.

Send us your holiday card. We'd love to see your beautiful photos in print! Need a digital file to create your card? Feel free to email us at hellomollyandmatt@gmail.com.

Fine print: Code is for one time use only and expires on 12/10/2014

 

 

Twins: Blair & Patrick I Fort Myers Family Photography

Congrats to Ammi and Max on winning our "Pin It to Win It" promotion! Ammi pinned Summer inspiration items to a Pinterest board that was entered into a drawing for a free photo session.  How cool is that!!?!?!?!  We LOVE Pinterest! Ammi was soooo easy going and excited to have a family photography session to capture her growing twins.

We waited until Blair and Patrick turned 7 months and were sitting up.  Poor Blair had a bug during our shoot and ended up with a fever shortly following our session (you could never tell by the photos below).  They are the CUTEST babies!!!

Hard to believe it's already Fall! Thank you to everyone that participated in the the contest!!! Enjoy a sneak peek at highlights from our time with the gorgeous Meadows family...

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Guess what!?!?! We are nearly fully booked for 2014 and booking into the NEW YEAR! If you wouldlike to get on our calendar for a session, please email hellomollyandmatt@gmail.com. 

Hot Air Balloon One Year Session I Molly & Matt Photo

I must say I've been wanting to try to create a hot air balloon prop for a session for quite some time. It seemed simple enough and I already purchased an extra large red balloon on clearance at JC Penny around Christmas time.  I collected the rest of my supplies at JoAnn Fabrics which included a basket for the anchor piece, a small basket for the upper section to hold the balloon, 4 wooden dowels, and green chevron fabric. 

The star of my session was one year old Garrett. Adorable as can be! The creation was not baby proof and I will need to do some maintenance if I plan on using it again. It did hold up long enough to capture these cute shots. Maybe I'll do newborn next time!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Love,

Molly

Year in Review-Twenty Thirteen

Looking back on this year, we have so much to be proud of and thankful for...

We upgraded lenses/camera equipment in the last part of 2012 and have throughly enjoyed the investment in our business this past year. We see the rewards session after session!!

The numbers... We had the delight of working with 31 Families, 25+ Children, 7 Newborns, 3 High School Seniors, 9 Expecting Moms, 6 Couples, and a few headshots mixed in along the way. 

We continued to take classes through Kelby Training and Creative Live and would love to travel in 2014 to a photography related education conference.

Our photography took us on two vacations in 2013 to capture weddings in Mexico in January and to New Jersey/New York in October. Both working full-time at our other jobs, we managed to fit in 5 weddings this year. I say "fit in" because the real work really begins after the wedding. Countless hours of post processing while juggling our other portrait sessions, full-time jobs, and family. Matt and I have decided to cut out weddings in 2014 and focus on portrait photography. 

Social media... Molly has created a Pinterest profile for the business and has populated boards for traveling to SWFL (many of our clients are from outside of the area), Meet Molly and Matt, as well as inspiration for clothing and posing. We continue to blog our photos as much as possible to highlight the story of each session and drive our fans back to our website (SEO). We have also been active on Google+ and Instagram in 2013. We also did a Project 52 posting one photo a week to our Facebook page with the theme of "This is Our Life". 

In early 2013, Molly set out to contact several of her community friends to market Molly and Matt Photo, LLC and grow our client base. The referrals continue to come in and we can not thank our clients enough for sharing our passion for photography. 

We joined PPA (Professional Photographers of America) and were highlighted on several photography blogs for weekly challenges, including our recent portait of the LeSage family that won second place through Rock the Shot! 

Work/Life balance seemed a little better in 2013 but if you ask Matt he may have another answer. During the holiday busy months, we scheduled family time this year and it really kept things manageable. It was hard turning so many clients away but it meant so much more to be with our little one. 

Goals for 2014 include working on branding and continuing to offer a creative, fun, and modern approach to photography in Southwest Florida.

Happy New Year from Molly and Matt Photo! 

Q & A with Molly and Matt Photo

What types of sessions do you offer?

Families, children, maternity, and couples. At this time we are doing a limited number of newborn lifestyle sessions and weddings.

When should I book my session with you?

We are typically booked 2 to 3 months in advance and primarily only offer weekend sessions. October through December spots fill up quickly.

What are your fees?

Our portrait session is $150-$200 and includes our travel, shooting time (1 to 2 hours) at the location of your choice, and custom editing of images.   Desk/Wall Art & products are available to order through our SmugMug site  as well as card ordering through our Tiny Prints store front. Upon our initial consultation, you will be sent an investment guide that goes over our pricing in detail.

What makes you unique?

We are a husband and wife team so you often get two photographers for your session, especially for family and engagement shoots. We are lifestyle portrait photographers specialiazing in natural light photography that brings out the fresh, fun, and colorful side of life. Our modern and candid style mixed with our signiture bold and colorful imagery, have set us apart from other photographers.

Do you offer digital files?

Yes, we offer the option to purchase a USB of your images from the session. They are not included in the session fee.

Do you offer mini sessions?

We have in the past and likely will be doing it again in the future. We know these sessions allow us to work with several clients at one time but also see the disadvantages of clients feeling rushed and the creative process not being fully reached is such a short time period.

 

 

Choose a Quality Print Lab...

We are members of Flickr and have been storing our photos on the site since 2005.  The only downside to Flickr is the print lab connected to it- Snapfish (similar to the like of Shutterfly). I recently ordered a bunch of prints from a gallery of Lillian and was very upset with the quality of printing in comparison to the print lab (Bay Photo) we use for clients through our smugmug site. What a difference it makes!  The Snapfish photo (on the bottom) was grainy and almost looked dirty to me. If our clients do purchase digital copies of their session and decide to print their own photos, I suggest using Mpix for the best quality.  I've heard Costco is even a good choice! Stay away from Walgreens, CVS, and other big box stores and sites like Snapfish and Shutterfly. If you don't believe me, try this experiment yourself! 

Marketing Molly & Matt

I woke up this week and got into major marketing mode for some reason. I posted a question on Facebook to our fans yesterday and asked for feedback from our clients wanting to know what makes us unique ( I will share the comments soon!). I also got up the courage to actually try a Facebook ad to see if it would drum up some business.  Interesting how it all works.  Daiana from Deniminanco Boutique gave me some tips on how to use the ads. We'll see if we actually get any new clients down the road. Today I composed a marketing letter (see below) I will be sending community friends and contacts letting them know about what we've been up to and to encourage them to check out our work AND of course send us referrals of people that they know of looking for photography services.

To be successful and grow, I feel I need to spend just as much time maketing as I do behind the camera.  I am blessed to have so many community contacts, now I just need to let them know about Molly & Matt Photo.

 

 

Discover The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, Florida

Visiting Southwest Florida?

Check out the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau's Pinterest boards for ideas on how to enjoy the beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, Florida! We often have clients visiting our area that hire us to take photos of their family while they are on vacation. This is a great visual resource for tourists looking for places to eat, play, and relax while they are in SWFL.

Click here- http://pinterest.com/ftmyerssanibel/

 

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year from Molly & Matt Photo.  This year has rocked! We did close to 40 sessions capturing new friends & old.  Excited to see what 2013 holds.  We are looking forward to photographing 4 weddings (2 destination!!!!) and all the colorful families and playful tots & babies in between.  Thank to all of our fans, so HAPPY we get to do what we LOVE with such amazing people!


Heading into 2013, we are equipped with a full frame camera and a gorgeous new lense we picked up this past year. Most sessions (families & couples) get Matt and I both behind the camera. We are grateful for these date nights together and the help of our parents to watch Lil while we are busy photographing clients.


After the session concludes, most of my work begins. I do have to give credit to Matt for always organizing the camera bag and making sure we have the best equipment to do what we love. He also has patience for my prop closet that is busting at the seams!  I do all the post processing of the images and get the galleries ready for clients. This past year, I've learned the importance of not spending all my free time sitting at the computer. It has been a challange working full time at my "real job" M-F while fulfilling my thirst for creativity as a weekend warrior with my camera. House projects left incomplete, laundry not folded, and books sometimes not read to my daughter. My resolution for 2013 is to streamline a few things with Molly & Matt Photo so I can be sure to ALWAYS be there to read to Lil. She is the reason I got behind the camera in the first place and I must always remember that.

Watch for updates and exciting images in the coming year! Sharing my instagram collage from earlier this morning titled "Best of Lillian Paige {2012}... 

-Molly

 

CYBER MONDAY DEALS!

Tiny Prints Cyber Monday

It's time to buy your holiday cards, invitations, and more.

Just in time for the season, Tiny Prints is offering 30% off everything on their site. Custom holiday cards, Christmas cards, Hanukkah cards, holiday party invitations, custom photo gifts...you name it, it's on sale for two days, today, Monday November 26 and tomorrow, Tuesday November 27.

Just use the promo code CB12 when you checkout to get this great deal.

If you have used Tiny Prints before, you know how incredibly awesome they are. If you have not, you are missing out on the best custom cards, invitations, and gifts. Their site is super easy to use and you can customize everything. You write your own text, upload pictures, and make everything uniquely you!

There will never be a better time to buy from Tiny Prints and this sale ends tomorrow at midnight Pacific Time, so check them out today.

Post Election Tiny Prints Deal!

10 Free Holiday Cards from Tiny Prints is AWESOME!


Beginning right now through next Tuesday 11/13 at 11:59pm PT, anyone, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, even Yankees fans, can get 10 Free Holiday cards from Tiny Prints. Below are all the details.

Offer: 10 Free Holiday Cards (A $24.00 value!)

End Date: Tuesday, November 13 at 11:59pm PT

Promo Code: HOLIDAYCHEER

To redeem visit: http://www.tinyprints.com/storefront/mollyandmattphoto



Molly & Matt Photo now offering Tinyprints...

We have partnered with Tiny Prints this year to help with the ordering and printing of your Holiday cards. Tiny Prints is a leading retailer of premium personalizes holiday cards and has been recognized for their high quality and unmatched customer service. Each card ordered is also hand reviewed before it’s printed to ensure quality and accuracy. To start your order through Tiny Prints, please click the link below which will lead you to our co-branded Tiny Prints Storefront. From here, you can shop for any product on the Tiny Prints site or review our favorite choices.