Sam's 2nd Year Photos

Thanks to yet another Groupon deal, we were able to get Sam's 2nd-year photos done on the cheaper side of awesome.  Granted, I feel like every year is a gamble when it comes to snatching up these deals.  Kiddie Kandids' was the first deal to pop up this time around, and uncertain about the availability of coupons for the other studios in the area (such as Portrait People and Portrait Simple) I grabbed this one as soon as I could.

The deal had two options - we paid $35 for the Deluxe Portrait Package (and $184.91 value) which included:

• A studio photo shoot, with session fee included
• A single-image portrait CD
• Six natural-color portrait sheets of up to six different poses, each of which is available as one 8"x10", two 5"x7"s, four 3.5"x5"s or eight wallet-size prints
• One enhanced 10"x13" print
• 50% off all regular-priced items, including additional prints, enhancements, collages, portrait CDs, and framed art created at time of session

We arrived at our appointment on time, and they took us right away.  You would think this would be commonplace, arriving on time, however not so much.  While we were there, there was a family who arrived over an hour late for their appointment and still expected to be squeezed in once they arrived.  The studio was down a camera and already running an hour behind as it was, so they had to turn them away - not that I blame them - but it just floors me the entitlement of some individuals.

The session was pretty straight-forward.  Sam was having a day and just coming off having a cold and napping horribly, but she did well enough for what it was.  Unfortunately, she had scratched her face so bad the day before that it created a scab which is clearly evident in her pictures.  There was a slight debate as to whether or not we should reschedule for a later time after it healed, but we decided against it 1) because the Groupon was expiring and I wanted to get the pictures done on or around her actual birthday, and 2) she's a toddler - these bumps and bruises and scratches happen, and if it wasn't this one in particular, it could very well be something else later on.  So we went with it.

The pictures came out well.  I had chosen two outfit for the occasion - one dress and then a more casual outfit afterwards.  I like variety, and we were able to get both in within our session's time constraint.  The dress I bought at Kohls (I tried finding it on the website, but their stock overturns so often of course it's not there now that I need it).  The casual outfit consisted of a tshirt and shorts I bought at Old Navy:

(Just like this without the long sleeves)

I gave the 10x13" to my mother because intially I thought she would want it more than we would.  Of course, once I got home my husband asked me about the "big" picture... sigh.  Luckily with each sessions, we were given an "online studio" and on our paid receipt there was a coupon code for... what?  A free 10x13"  Problem solved!

With the 6 sheets available to me thanks to the Groupon, I picked a variety of poses that I thought people would like the most for gifts, etc.  I ended up paying an additional $60 for a full version of the CD since it was half off, and I'd rather a disc containing ALL of the session's portraits rather than just the one that was included in the package.

But without further ado, I give you now a sampling of Samma's 2nd year photos! 

 

These were some of the more "touched-up" versions of the session.  The whole lot of them can be found here on my Facebook page.  Thanks for checking them out! :)