At the moment, we currently have the amazing Karley Mase designing our logo and I am working on the back end of our content for the new website. So that is a bit of a rough cut of what is coming for you, mostly on the family photo side which will be most of our bread and butter. I’d love to hear what would help you the most in this area.

If you are one of these people, talk to me. Also, having a coffee table book for each family where I can design it and have it ready by Christmas seemed like a win for the busy mom that has every intention of making one themselves but unfortunately can’t get around to it, because you know, life. So, I’m going to offer it as a main side of the business so that when we are done you have a beautiful wall gallery of your photos displayed from last month. Coming up with a design for a gallery wall and picking out the images for them are one of my favorite things to do, and as I interview more people I am finding it can be super intimidating. I can easily help with that. You’ll still get a drive, but the main two products I will be focusing on are coffee table yearbooks, and gallery wall installations. Let’s be honest, that’s typically what happens and I am guilty too! I want families to have something to pass on to their kids. My main end goal for the family photography side of Staring Down the Sun is to have a tangible form of the pictures we take from each session produced, so no more of these beautiful images are left to die on a USB drive. My first thought was, Yay! Congrats! And then my second thought was, Oh Man! How can I help you make that happen sooner? We all started talking about products I can offer that they themselves would want, and they helped me refine and bounce my ideas as they came.

She is a busy full-time working mom of two, so we all know how hard it is to get anything done in the fringe hours. My friend mentioned that she was finally able to get a print up on the wall from a session we did two years ago that she’s loved and just finally got around to it. (Put me in Coach!) It started earlier this year when I was hanging out at my friends new home with three other girlfriends, all of which I have done photos for at some point. True? I think so.Īll that said, I have had this idea brewing for Staring Down the Sun Studios for a little while and I just want to jump on it with everything I have, and not let the idea find someone else. Yet no stealing happened, the idea just found someone who wouldn’t sit on it. She says “that ideas are alive, that ideas do seek the most available human collaborator, that ideas do have a conscious will, that ideas do move from soul to soul, that ideas will always try to seek the swiftest and most efficient conduit to the earth (just as lightning does).” Like I said, it sounds a little crazy, until you have an experience where you have had an idea sit with you too long, and then you saw someone else bring it to life, almost as if they stole the idea straight from your brain. I’ve been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book Big Magic lately and she mentioned an idea in there that I think has some truth in it, even though it sounds a little crazy. While the dream stage is fun, it’s kind of like being pregnant forever and this new direction that’s been brewing in me just needs to come to life and I am ready to go. Life has delivered us some serious blows these last few years, and I have to admit that there are times it feels easier to just lay low and keep dreaming.

It’s been exciting for us since we have announced our new business venture, and we can’t thank everyone enough for all of the support so far! THANK YOU! It means so much, really.

Staring at the sun photography