Today is Friday. The last day of our first week to have the new site live: Refuse to Say Cheese. Despite all the glitches and funny design coding that people encountered, we still had an amazing first week of visits! The response, feedback, excitement in your posts and emails was way beyond my expectation, especially the popularity of the 101 Kit series. I poured over the 101 Kits, but to hear your feedback…I’m speechless.

We also started booking our new Associate Company Photography, Yuriy Manchik!

Every week, we receive a few emails from all over the world with photographer’s resumes to be considered for an Associate position with Me Ra Koh Photography. We decided to ask Yuriy to join us because not only is his work phenomenal, but he is a great guy in countless ways. Our clients are loving him, and his calendar for 2008 is booking away. Yuriy will be shooting weddings in Seattle area, as well as flying out of state for wedding coverage. Check out his website to see his work, and you’ll know why we asked this guy to join our team! www.yuriymanchik.com Again, I’m speechless.

The feedback from the DVD series is coming in this week with so many of you receiving DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box. Your emails make me want to cry. I’m so thankful we’ve touched something in you.

And yet, as I write this, I feel like all this is only a beginning. A prelude to much bigger things. I must be careful to not limit the impossible happening because I can’t dream big enough. I also know this isn’t true just for me. It’s true for many of you right now. You’re on a similar path to the impossible happening with your photography business budding and your confidence rising.

Let’s journey together!

Have a wonderful weekend, and don’t forget to check out the 5 finalists for the thankful contest. You can vote and become the winner of DVD 2. Voting ends on Sunday night.

Any ideas for the theme of December’s photo contest? All ears!

And if you’re looking for a different website to inspire you in a new way, check out Jesh De Rox. His site is one of my favorites. I guarantee it will make an impression on you.

Next week, let’s talk more about the rest of the cities for the 2008 City Tour. Is there really 40 plus people in Georgia who want a workshop!

When was the last time you had a great family photo for your Christmas cards and gifts? If it’s been to long, check out this special Gina Sook, our Associate Portrait Photographer, is offering starting tonight!

So here’s the details!!!

Gina is going to offer two days of “Minis”. We got this fantastic idea for Minis from Carey in San Diego!! Her clients love Minis, want more, and can’t get enough Minis!

What’s a Mini?

1. Four 30 minutes sessions for Four Families.

2. Location: Tacoma UW Campus.

3. You and your family pick the right time, sign up and prepay (must prepay to have your space held).

4. The session focuses on family shots of you all together (and of course other shots on top of those! :))

5. Gina turns the photos around at light speed (2 weeks)

6. You get the CD with all the images at a high res (best part of this special!), AND

7. 25 beautiful Fine Art holiday cards with your favorite photo from the session!

8. Price is $250, and that’s a mini!

Gina’s opening up two Saturdays and would like to ask you to keep Sunday open in case the rain chases the sessions into Sunday. If rain happens during your session, she is freeing up her calendar to make up those sessions during the week or evenings so all of you get your family photos back with enough ordering/card making time for the holidays!

Sessions Available!

First Saturday of Minis!

This Saturday, October 20th 2007

Session 1 at10:30am

Session 2 at 11am

Session 3 at 11:30am

Session 4 at 12 noon

Second Saturday of Minis

Saturday, November 3rd 2007

Session 1 at 10:30am

Session 2 at 11am

Session 3 at 11:30am

Session 4 at 12 noon

To sign up, email Gina direct at gina@merakoh.com. She is taking payment via credit cards. Let her know what session you’d like and the date.

Please be sure to show up 5-10 minutes early. Coming late will forfeit your session and payment.

To see more of Gina’s beautiful work, visit www.merakoh.com.

Or you can click here to see a recent slideshow she did!!!

May the best families book! xoxo, Me Ra

(all images on this post taken by Gina Sook)

On May 29th 2007 at 1:38am in the morning, Ginger and Bleu had their second baby. A boy! Meet Grady William Braaten!

Ginger is doing great! She has been such a trooper. Her due date came and went days ago! But the best is Brogan’s reaction when she heard she has a REAL baby brother!

Don’t you love that! I can’t stop laughing!

Bleu and Ginger Braaten are dear friends and our Associate Wedding team. They shoot a lot of our WA weddings. Bleu also shoots for Nordstrom’s corporate studio by day. You can see their work on our website at www.merakoh.com.

Send them a big congrats if you get a chance! Either post it here or email, bleu@merakoh.com.

I don’t spend enough time showing off our associates work. They are simply amazing, capturing beautiful images in every shoot! This winter, I’m going to be putting up a handful of posts so you can see some of the great work they are shooting. You’ve got to see why Brian and I feel so lucky to have them on our team.

Gina Sook is our Lifestyle/Family/Senior Portrait photographer. She has this amazing eye and captures the most creative shots and angles. If you haven’t seen her Senior Portrait gallery, you’ve got to check it out on Me Ra Koh Photography.

But Gina’s not only great at working with high school seniors, she’s also great at capturing the innocence in little ones. Check out these images Gina shot on a recent photo shoot.

If you’ve ever tried to shoot an 18 month old, you know how hard it is to capture them when they aren’t moving a million miles a second! I love the images Gina captured of this little busy body. Congrats to the Hempstead family! Your daughter is beautiful! And Gina, you’re eye for photos is amazing!

For the last several weeks I’ve been meaning to get on here and do some bragging about our wedding associate team, Bleu and Ginger Braaten. They have blown us and their clients away with their awesome images and fun personalities!

Bleu and Ginger joined us a little over a year ago. They’ve done the most amazing job this season with their weddings. In fact, the referral calls are already coming in for next summer. They are booked for May, June and part of July in 2007! Brian and I are super excited! Here’s one of many comments recently emailed to me;

“You two did such a great job. We had so much fun while you were shooting them and just as much fun while we looked at them. I even cried a little. Everyone who has seen them has the same comment..”Gorgeous”!!! Oh and the “Abbey Road” shot is awesome! Also, we love the toning actions you used… They look great! Really, we can’t say enough about the pictures and how much we love them. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, K & J”

You can’t ask for better feedback than this. Brian and I feel so blessed to have them on our team of photographers. They’re so great in countless ways. It’s a total God thing to have found them.

To give you a little peak into their wild lives; in the last eleven days they’ve shot two weddings (one in Bellevue and one on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands), and they’ve flown to Santa Barbara to do a photo shoot for a dance studio. Check out their portfolio and bio at the Me Ra Koh Photography website.