This year, I’m exclusively offering these 5″ round holiday ornament cards. If you prefer, they can be made as square cards too. They’re available with ribbon or without, so you can use your own ribbon if you like. The White Rabbit has gorgeous ribbons for sale. I also have an arrangement with an online cardmaker that has loads of modern card designs.

So what’s the special?

Book your September or October session before August 15th, and get a set of 24 holiday cards free! (A /$100 value.) Refer a friend who also books by August 15th, and you both get a $100 print credit toward the purchase of your portraits.

Here are samples of the beautiful cards:

The Good Pie. I heard there was a place in St. Louis that had pizza similar to that served at the best pizzeria in the whole country. You won’t guess where. New York? No. Phoenix! Yes, Phoenix has the best pizza in the entire United States, and I’ve eaten at this place, and I can see why it won the title. It’s a place called Pizzeria Bianco, and thanks to Oprah, you have to wait a long time to get in. But don’t worry, you don’t have to fly to the desert or wait hours to get a table, because the rumor I heard was right… The Good Pie on Olive Street near SLU, is just as good. Not only am I in love with their Naples-style thin, bubbly, chewy-yet-crispy pizza crust…which, I might add, I’ve been craving for years (see the photo on the link to Pizzeria Bianco and you’ll get the picture)…but the toppings are unique and utterly gourmet.  My favorite there is the Mast’nicola, with a mouth-watering combination of pancetta, pecorino, and sage. I know…sage on pizza? YES. Trust me. The Good Pie is good pie.

Pi. Funny, whenever I mention the first place, people always say, “you mean Pi?” No, but I like their pizza too. Completely different, but variety is what makes eating so good. And their name…perfect for a place selling circular food. They have 3 locations, in University City, Kirkwood and the Central West End, and will be opening one way out there in Chesterfield too. They boast that they’re “provel-free” …thank goodness! No liquid cheese for me. You can get both deep dish or thin pizzas there, but my favorite is the deep dish Mission, which has pork sausage, red onion, anchovies, and hot red pepper flakes. Don’t like anchovies? Check out their menu and find your favorite.

Dewey’s. Well, it’s not locally-owned, but they opened one in Webster Groves, so even if I’m not supporting a local independent, at least I’m supporting the tax base in my own town…which I can’t say when I eat at those other two.  There might be one in your neighborhood. I also love their pizza! They have lots of fantastic combinations on their menu, but my favorite isn’t even on the menu. It’s one I made up. (They let you do that there!) I start with a white pizza (olive oil glaze) and then I add prosciutto, pine nuts, whole roasted garlic, pesto, kalamata olives, and roasted red peppers. It’s delicious, and I got compliments from the manager for my “recipe.” :)

Yes, you can get pizza delivered any ol’ day, but for a fun summer night out with the family, check out one of these places and teach your kids’ taste buds some new tricks. It’s part of their education…to prevent them from becoming finicky grown-ups. If you absolutely can’t deal with that, save this for a date night.

Now that you’ve found something for the kids to do this summer, you regain a little time for yourself. Like getting back to your workouts. That gap between school ending and camps starting might have made you itching to get back to it, or itching to try something new. Or if you’re like me, you’ve realized you’re dreading putting on the summer clothes that are mandatory in this kind of heat. Maybe you’re one of my recent maternity/newborn clients and you’re looking to get back to your pre-baby shape. I don’t know about you, but I get bored easily, and need to change up the workouts so I don’t get burned out. I’ve gathered together a list of workouts I’ll be trying this summer.

I usually hate workout videos. HATE them. They’re not motivating, they usually require more space than I have in my living room, and I can never follow along with the footwork the first, second, or even third time through, so I quit. If I can’t follow all the movements, and I have to keep grabbing the remote and rewinding, I’m not getting a workout. But I LOVE the 30-Day Shred! It’s an intense workout that gets your heart rate up from the very beginning and keeps it up by combining strength moves and cardio at the same time. This one is by Jillian Michaels, of The Biggest Loser, so be ready for her no-excuses attitude. But she’s good. She knows right when you’re feeling like quitting, and she makes you keep going. It’s only 30 minutes, and really, it’s over in no time. Toward the end, you feel stronger and while doing the last cardio bit, you feel lighter because she worked your muscles so hard that these last moves feel like a vacation. I don’t really get sore from this workout, but I can feel my muscles all day. I’m thinking that means I’m burning more calories the rest of the day than I would have otherwise. I could be wrong, but thats’s how it feels. I also feel like doing the workout again later in the day because it’s amazing how strong and pumped (physically and emotionally) I feel after doing it in the morning. I’m only on workout 1. There are two more workouts on this DVD, and I honestly can’t wait to advance! And best of all, if you have room for jumping jacks, you have enough room to do this workout.

As much as I need the cardio/strength training, I also need to work on my core strength. Pilates is great for this. At Marbles Yoga in Lafayette Square, the Pilates classes by Kasia are wonderful. A physical therapist by training, Kasia knows how to explain the proper form to prevent injury, and can help you modify moves if you have physical issues preventing you from doing the traditional moves. The studio is a beautiful room with old wood floors, art adorns the walls (they have gallery openings too), and Marbles also offers yoga…of course! They even have yoga for runners!

Okay, I have not tried this yet. My goal is to start this one by August, after I shed a few pounds. But I have friends who have done this workout and swear by it. It’s supposed to get you really ripped in 90 days, by using what they call Muscle Confusion™.  Can’t wait to try it! Kathleen Miller is in the middle of this program and is kind enough to share her story:

“My name is Kathleen and I am married with two children. I am a stay at home mom also. I have struggled with my weight since I got married. I have always worked out but sometimes it was off and on but I knew how to do it, it was just putting it in motion. For quite some time, probably the last couple of years I kept seeing this P90X infomercial at night. I would watch it over and over. Well this year I lost 25lbs. I didn’t think I had 25lbs, but in the end thats what the final number was. I got in shape and did boot camp and kick boxing and was ready for the final phase of my health and fitness. Getting ripped P90X style. I was ready. I started 11 weeks ago and have committed to this for 90 days. Somedays I add extra cardio because I love working out with friends. This brought me to where I am now, which you can see at www.teambeachbody.com/coachkathleen.  I believed in their products so I became a coach. Please check out my website and see my progress. At the 90 day mark I will post again. If their is anything I can do for you let me know. My hope is that I have inspired someone to take the next step in their lives.”

She has certainly inspired me! I wonder if I can get abs like that!

I’ve only tried this once so far. It’s fun, like they say it is, and an hour goes by so quickly! It truly does not feel like a workout. I’m not the most coordinated person in the world, but I don’t think it’ll take too long to catch on. If you’re bored with your workouts, then try Zumba. Martha at Fitness Connection for Women in Webster Groves teaches a beginner class. Try it!

I’m looking for some of you to share your stories….whether it’s sharing about a camp your child has participated in, an outing you took them on,  or some other summer experience, like a vacation or activities right in your own home. Or if you have recipes to share, want to talk about some great restaurant you love, any other great finds… whatever kind of article you think other moms will be interested in, please submit them to lauribakerphoto@gmail.com using “Monday Moms” in the subject line. Photos* are welcomed and encouraged. All  entries will receive a $75 coupon good toward a print purchase from a summer or fall 2010 session. The first article I choose to publish will receive an 8×11 signed,  numbered, matted print of my most-loved dogwood image, “Love Undimished by Adversity”. (A $75 value.) Prizes for publishing of subsequent articles will be announced later.

*by submitting photos and articles, you certify that you are the owner of the copyright, and grant Lauri Baker Photography the right to publish the submissions, and  acknowledge that there may be slight editing made to optimize them for publishing.

What to do this summer

Enjoy!

It starts this next Monday!

But let’s take a look at this. Before we talk about the money, let’s look at the liability instantly incurred from this promotion. This photographer now has 400 one-hour sessions he has to provide. If he does 8 a day (and that would be grueling and only possible if he did them all at the same location) then it would take 50 days for him to finish fulfilling this obligation he’s now legally bound to. This particular photographer offered these at the client’s location of choice, so he’s not going to do 8 a day. He’s going to be tied to this unprofitable work for a long time.

Unprofitable? The woman I spoke with didn’t get it. I tried to explain costs, and she said, “oh he’s been in business for a long time. His camera was paid off years ago.” Really. He’s still using a camera he bought years ago? Hmm. I know mine have to be replaced every year or so.

So let’s look at the money numbers. Ignore that big $20,000 for a moment. It’s deceiving. Instead, look at the numbers for each session. $50 for each job becomes approximately $25 after Groupon takes their cut. For every session, the photographer also incurs mileage cost (average 30 mile trip at the federal rate of $.50/mile is $15.00) He incurs the cost of an archival-quality disk (bought in bulk, they are $3.50 each plus shipping) and the cost of packaging for that disk and shipping to the client…about $5.

So just taking into account the immediate costs of each session, that $25 has now been reduced to $1.50. You might think he made $1.50 per hour, but no…it’s worse than that, because every one-hour photo session requires much more than one hour of work.

For every hour I shoot, I spend at least 10 hours in post-production. Most do less, admittedly. I don’t batch my images, that’s why. I work on each one individually. But okay, let’s go with a more normal 5 hours of processing time. Add to that about 30 minutes getting each session booked, contracts delivered, signed, and  received. Add 1-2 hours driving time to and from the session, then another 30 minutes just to upload the images to the computer before post production begins, 30 minutes backing up images before working on them, another 30 minutes to burn a disk of all these very large files, and time packaging and shipping the disk. That’s 9-10 hours of work for every 1-hour session.  $1.50 divided by 9 hours = 16¢/hour. Wow! He made a KILLING! …if that’s what you call it when you make WAAAYY below minimum wage!

At $1.50 a session, so far that $20,000 has been knocked down to $600….for 400 sessions. Actually he hasn’t even made that. He’s lost money, because there are other costs that have to be applied to every session…a portion of all the other costs of just simply being in business. So he hasn’t made a killing; he’s taken a loss on this deal.

Plus add to that the opportunity costs of giving away files instead of selling them or selling prints, and spending time on 400 sessions at a loss that could be better spent on actual paying clients.

I can think of a few ways to turn this Groupon loss into a profit. Not much of one, but maybe slightly in the black:  shorter sessions, one location, no editing whatsoever…just shoot and burn. I know some people are using unpaid interns, but it can actually be illegal to have unpaid interns doing revenue-producing work. It’s not only unethical exploitation, but it also gets into the realm of unfair competition laws and labor code violations.

We all love bargains, and I can’t begrudge someone for taking advantage of one. I do! I also can’t begrudge a business for offering a Groupon deal. I may do so in the future. I can’t say Groupon isn’t worthwhile…as advertising. But no, photographers do not make a killing on Groupons.

Anyway, here are a few from a recent session: