Archive for November, 2007

November 30th, 2007

Prelude!

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! :)

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November 29th, 2007

Thankful Photo Contest Finalists!

When I was little we went around the Thanksgiving table and shared what we were thankful for. My brothers and cousins are all older now, married, engaged, career building, and for Thanksgiving we decided to open a bottle of wine and go around the table again. As each family member took their turn sharing what they were thankful for, I noticed that in some way each person was thankful for another person in their life, a relationship that has changed them, an act of kindness that haunts their heart. I found this to be true in many of your contest photo submissions. What would we do without the people who inspire us? May these finalists inspire you today.

Finalist #1 by Amy

“This image is from the Little Rock National Cemetery on July 4th of this year. On a day when you would expect many to be paying their respects and gratitude for the sacrifices these men and women made, I only met one soul meandering through the lives laid to rest. I’m thankful for lives lost and lives serving across our world so we can celebrate with our families a day of thanksgiving.”

Finalist #2 by Sheetal

“I am attaching a picture of my friend and her the sweet little baby boy she recently adopted. I chose this picture because I am thankful that there are amazing people like my friend who put themselves out there and step up to help others, and I am also thankful that this sweet boy is going to have such a fantastic life with her!”

Finalist #3 by Liliana

“A manger. A baby. A King. For Him, we are thankful.

When we had a hard time conceiving our first baby and after a scary third pregnancy, I made a promise to God that my children would know about Him. Every year, before Christmas, we celebrate and re-enact the story of the nativity. This photograph reminds me of three beautiful reasons to be very thankful.”

Finalist #4 by Michelle

“I’m thankful for girlies, playing outside between raindrops, smiles, and always knowing your sisters have your back (literally and figuratively).”

Finalist #5 by Anne

“I am thankful for love that transcends 60 years of marriage. I am thankful for the choice and commitment made by two people to have that type of relationship. I am thankful for the 5 kids, 11 grandkids, and 2 great grandkids that came as a result of their commitment.”

***I wanted to thank you ALL for sending your beautiful images to us! I wish I could share all of them on the blog, but that would be one very long post. :) It was so hard to narrow these down to five finalists. First I narrowed down to 12, then to 8, then to six, it was so tough. Thank you for trusting us with your beautiful images and being willing to share them with Brian and I. Keep shooting! You are capturing wonderful things (and I know you feel it inside!). ***

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Vote and Win 2 Different Ways!!

Vote for your favorite finalist by posting your vote as a comment! The best part of your vote is when you tell us why you like the image so much. (You have no idea how much this encourages every finalists, whether they win or not.)

We’ll be taking votes until Sunday night at 5pm PST,.

You can only vote for one finalist, and you can only vote once. :) So call your family and friends and make sure they vote!

The winning finalist will receive their own copy of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box: Understanding Your Digital Camera. AND a random voter will be selected to win their own copy as a gift for themselves or a stocking stuffer for some lucky friend!

Here is Amanda! She won the Sony camera last month in the Pumpkin Photo Contest! Thanks for the pic Amanda! You are so great! And your photo was wonderful!

Her winning photo!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

To order our new DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese: Capture the Story and Beyond the Green Box: Understanding Your Digital SLR, click the titles!!

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops visit “2008 City Tour of Women’s Photography Workshops.”

To see our day job, visit our website. :)

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November 28th, 2007

Keys to Becoming a Great Portrait Photographer!

I go to do a photo shoot for a special family. We met this family when they put their house on the market almost three years ago. We fell in love with their house, bought it, and they moved into the beautiful house right behind us. Isn’t that fun!

Meet the two sweetest neighbors in the world: Henry and Will.

This is little Will. Can you believe those eyes! Isn’t he a little Gerber baby!

And this is big brother, Henry. This is one of my favorite “little boy” shots ever. I love the stone he’s sitting on, and the ground cover with little blue flowers and the dark background almost makes it seem surreal. It’s as if he’s sitting inside a magical world. His expression could mean a 101 things.

We grabbed one of their chairs from inside and put it in the backyard. Kind of fun!

And oh my goodness, look at how dynamic all three are in this shot. Dad is totally laughing, Henry is giggling so hard it’s making his tummy hurt, and Will is definitely giving me a command of some kind. :)

And here are two more to encourage all of you aspiring photographers. :)

We went live with our new site yesterday, www.refusetosaycheese.com. (And yeah, the pages are all working and looking good! :) )

One of the hot sellers for our first day was the much anticipated Portrait 101 Kit: The Essentials to Starting Your Own Side Business. If your new to the business of portrait photography, check it out. And remember, that every photographer wades through moments like this…

and this…

because they know this is around the corner, often minutes later.

What is one of the keys to a becoming a great Portrait Photographer?

Confidence.

Confidence that is gentle and strong when the parents are nervous that the session was a waste of time. Confidence that is quiet and kind when there is a temporary meltdown because you know kids go through these, and you also know the meltdown will pass. Confidence in your artistic eye. You really do see the moments of life and connection, it’s okay if you have to take a little longer to capture the shot–try to go easy on yourself if the waiting starts to feel to long. You’re okay, and your images will give more life than you could ever imagine.

How do you gain this type of confidence?

Build trust with yourself through experience. Shoot and shoot some more. You will learn to trust your creative spirit, and that’s when you realize your flying.

Thanks Henry and Will for letting me share my time with you.

Love, Me Ra

p.s. Brian is sleeping in this morning. Thanks for making him smile so wide all day yesterday! We celebrated the new site at took the kids to pizza last night. :) I couldn’t believe Brian was still awake, but he made it. Love YOU Brian!

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November 27th, 2007

He’s Been Awake All Night! Brian is the Hero of Our New Website!

How many bugs can one encounter when launching a new website? :) We must admit that this type of site is not like a photography portfolio type website. It’s so intense on how the site processes orders, verifies credit card info, does product comparisons, customer reviews, gives downloads of each 101 kit, and gift certificate options. Oprah, we’re ready!! :)

But at 2am this morning, I had to stop working on the bugs and head to bed. When I woke up this morning, Brian wasn’t next to me. He WAS STILL GOING!! Even now, he is STILL GOING! Can you believe this man! He never went to sleep last night! He’s AMAZING!!

Because of Brian, and only Brian, www.refusetosaycheese.com is live!!

We’re super excited about 4 of our 101 Kits being ready! And the great thing is they are all downloads! Again, Brian blows me away and how he took what I wrote and configured them!

And to top it all off, he was working out bugs the night before until 5:15am! This means he has slept only 2 hours in the last 48 hours. Unreal! The kids can’t stop talking about how amazing dad is, even now we are writing ballads and singing his praise!

The Refuse to Say Cheese website went live this morning, but we were still having shipping errors and credit card processing issues. Even now, the Workshop page is working but not looking “just right”. So me being a total coward…couldn’t bear to check my email and the blog. I turned on Nora Jones instead and tried take a few deep breaths while Brian kept going. “Sunrise, Sunrise…” :)

Brian sighed with a smile, and it looks like we’re running okay! YEAH!! Orders are coming in without problems. But definitely email us (brian@merakoh.com) if you are having a problem. You’re the first to see this which means your the first to see it AND the lucky first ones who get to encounter any bugs we missed. :)

So all this to say, I jumped on the blog and was blown away by all your wonderful posts. I totally started to cry. Thank you so very much for all your feedback! I can’t tell you how much it means! We’ve been working on the look and feel for months, and your feedback and excitement brings me to tears.

You all rock!

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November 26th, 2007

We Are So Close! It’s Driving Me Crazy!

We are so close to going live with this new site! It’s driving me crazy! I’m so excited I can’t go to sleep, and it’s 1:20am in the morning! Yikes! :) BTW, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Our 27 lb. turkey turned out great! The kitchen sink decided to overflow at one point, but the food was great. :)

Okay, this is a little glimpse of how beautiful the new site for parents and aspiring photographers, www.refusetosaycheese.com, is turning out! There are 101 Kits, DVD 2, or the Set, Workshop Registration, a Giving Back page, Gift Certificates that are pretty, yikes! I can hardly stand this waiting!

Our bank wants to do a couple test runs on the Merchant Account process, and then we are live and running. Yep, that’s right, we’re going live with the site sometime TODAY! Ask me how many times I’ll be refreshing the screen for www.refusetosaycheese.com? :)

And if anyone at the bank is reading this, I’m seriously going to cry if we don’t go live today (but will it be over disappointment or staying up so late? or both! ;) ).

Besides this new site, www.refusetosaycheese.com, going live, we also had TONS of WONDERFUL images submitted for the thankful contest! We’ll post the finalists this week, and let you start voting! Wait till you see this. Kleenex may be required.

We’re also almost done with confirming details for the San Diego workshop, so registration will open soon! Thanks for your patience on this! I just want to make sure we know where the location will be before we go live with registration. But I can tell some of you don’t care. I think I’ve received a dozen emails from San Diego moms ready to sign up. You ladies are fantastic, and Brian and I can’t wait to meet you all!

And thank you, thank you, thank you, for the wonderful comments on Thanksgiving Day’s post! We too are so thankful for you, and I’m overwhelmed with how many of you are emailing and posting about DVD 2! We are thrilled that you are loving Beyond the Green Box!!! Words just don’t do it justice! Oh, I almost forgot, be sure to use your promo codes from the booklet in DVD 2 for great discounts on the new site!

Better head to bed, but I’ll see you all later when the new site goes live! :) If you see it before I see it, post a comment and let me know!

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November 22nd, 2007

Thankful Photo Contest Finalists!

When I was little we went around the Thanksgiving table and shared what we were thankful for. My brothers and cousins are all older now, married, engaged, career building, and for Thanksgiving we decided to open a bottle of wine and go around the table again. As each family member took their turn sharing what they were thankful for, I noticed that in some way each person was thankful for another person in their life, a relationship that has changed them, an act of kindness that haunts their heart. I found this to be true in many of your contest photo submissions. What would we do without the people who inspire us? May these finalists inspire you today.

Finalist #1 by Amy

“This image is from the Little Rock National Cemetery on July 4th of this year. On a day when you would expect many to be paying their respects and gratitude for the sacrifices these men and women made, I only met one soul meandering through the lives laid to rest. I’m thankful for lives lost and lives serving across our world so we can celebrate with our families a day of thanksgiving.”

Finalist #2 by Sheetal

“I am attaching a picture of my friend and her the sweet little baby boy she recently adopted. I chose this picture because I am thankful that there are amazing people like my friend who put themselves out there and step up to help others, and I am also thankful that this sweet boy is going to have such a fantastic life with her!”

Finalist #3 by Liliana

“A manger. A baby. A King. For Him, we are thankful.

When we had a hard time conceiving our first baby and after a scary third pregnancy, I made a promise to God that my children would know about Him. Every year, before Christmas, we celebrate and re-enact the story of the nativity. This photograph reminds me of three beautiful reasons to be very thankful.”

Finalist #4 by Michelle

“I’m thankful for girlies, playing outside between raindrops, smiles, and always knowing your sisters have your back (literally and figuratively).”

Finalist #5 by Anne

“I am thankful for love that transcends 60 years of marriage. I am thankful for the choice and commitment made by two people to have that type of relationship. I am thankful for the 5 kids, 11 grandkids, and 2 great grandkids that came as a result of their commitment.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Vote and Win 2 Different Ways!!

Vote for your favorite finalist by posting your vote as a comment! The best part of your vote is when you tell us why you like the image so much. (You have no idea how much this encourages every finalists, whether they win or not.)

We’ll be taking votes until Sunday night at 5pm PST,.

You can only vote for one finalist, and you can only vote once. :) So call your family and friends and make sure they vote!

The winning finalist will receive their own copy of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box: Understanding Your Digital Camera. AND a random voter will be selected to win their own copy as a gift for themselves or a stocking stuffer for some lucky friend!

Here is Amanda! She won the Sony camera last month in the Pumpkin Photo Contest! Thanks for the pic Amanda! You are so great! And your photo was wonderful!

Her winning photo!

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

To order our new DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese: Capture the Story and Beyond the Green Box: Understanding Your Digital SLR, click the titles!!

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops visit “2008 City Tour of Women’s Photography Workshops.”

To see our day job, visit our website. :)

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November 22nd, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

Eat, laugh, cry, remember, nap, take a walk at twilight, put the kids to bed early (isn’t it dark by 5pm? just kidding :) ), build a fire and snuggle up to your hubby for a good movie, make some tea, eat pumpkin pie twice (c’mon, it’s Thanksgiving!) and be merry!

Love you all! Me Ra and Brian

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November 21st, 2007

Purses and Photos on Martha Stewart’s Show this Friday!

Meet one of the sweetest people in the universe, Jamie Irene!

Jamie has been one of my closest friends since that first week of our Freshmen year of college. We were roommates for several years, and through all the storms in our lives, we have remained kindred spirits. Jamie is truly one of the kindest, most giving people I have ever known. She knows me through and through. That’s why it almost makes me cry when I say that one of Martha Stewart’s producers just happened to find her website of original, design purses and invited her to be on the show with Martha! No one deserves it more than Jamie!

When she told Brian and I the news, we of course had to come up and do a shoot for her! We couldn’t let her send snapshots to Martha!

What an amazing time of being in her Seattle studio and seeing the place where all her magic takes place. I LOVED it!

Don’t you love the fabrics above? You have to check out her website and see ALL the purses she makes for women. They are just to die for! Talk about a wish list for Christmas! And yes, she is the beautiful designer behind our signature gift to each of our brides.

Talk about inspiring! This little lady taught herself to knit a few years ago and fell so in love with it that she started creating her own patterns.

On Friday, she and Martha are going to make one of her signature children backpacks!

The backpack is a little owl! The sweetest creation ever! Seriously, I don’t know how she comes up with this stuff! You should see the bunny rabbit backpack!

Jamie has always given her cars names. Betsy, Gertrude, so it only makes sense that she would name her knitting equipment. This is Harriet.

If you read my book, Beauty Restored, you may remember a character named Taylor. This character was Jamie and the friendship she gave me in my darker hours. I could go on for days about all the sacrifices she has made over the years so that I might know life is worth living. I wouldn’t be here without Jamie, and she knows it. This Thanksgiving, I’m so very thankful for Jamie Irene.

So set your TV’s to record Martha Stewart’s show if you’re going to be shopping on Friday. (plug your zip code in on this page to find out what time the show airs in your area)

You won’t want to miss her and Martha! And it’s just like Jamie to share the show with Martha’s other guest, Patrick Dempsey aka McDreamy from Gray’s Anatomy. Whatever Jamie! :)

Congrats sweetie! No one else is more deserving.

I love you, Me Ra

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November 20th, 2007

Away They Go with a Special Surprise!

DVD 2 is off in the mail today!!!

The pearl is in the river! :)

I think I’m more excited about our stickers than anything else! But the stickers are not the special surprise.

The “Special Surprise” is that within the Booklet of DVD 2 is a list of discounts for all of you! Yep, that’s right! Everyone who purchases DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box, will find a bunch of discounts for other products like our 101 Kits, DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese, and our upcoming Top Ten Photo Effects! The coolest discount of all is 10% off our workshops–look out San Diego and Seattle attendees!

When we go live this week with our new website, you can take advantage of the discounts and order your own copy of Beyond the Green Box if you didn’t pre-order.

So question: we may be able to go live with the website on Friday, but should we wait until Monday since lots of people go shopping on Friday? Or should we say to heck with it, and get this website for parents up and running?

What do you think?

p.s. The ‘thankful’ photo contest entries are just amazing! What a wonderful theme you guys picked!

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November 19th, 2007

November Photo Contest Starts!!

The Monday before Thanksgiving has come, and if you’re like me, your list of holiday “to do” things is growing and growing! I think I grocery shopped for almost three hours yesterday with the kids, bringing home a 27 lb. turkey for Thursday! Any cooking tips? :) I’m going to try the whole brining thing–we’ll see what happens!

In the midst of your “to do” list, why not take a break, a deep breath, and find a photo that conveys a message of thankfulness.

The November Photo Contest theme is any photo that conveys Thankfulness.

It rains so much in the Northwest this time of year that being able to play in the fall leaves often ends up not happening. This year, the kids and I are thankful for cold, autumn days of sunshine.

1. Deadline for contest submission is Sunday, November 25th at 8pm PT.

2. Email your submissions to contest@merakoh.com.

3. Include a couple sentences (if you’d like) on why you picked the image you did.

3. Prizes!!! :) We’ll post the top five finalists, and then let all of you vote! The winner and 1 random voter will win a copy of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box!

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More stuff coming!

I’m on the edge of my seat as we finish up the final pieces for our new website for parents! I can’t WAIT for you to see it! We also start shipping DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box, this week to all our pre-order customers, and we open up for new orders too!

The Seattle Workshop is now open for registration, and we’ll be posting all the details as well as opening registration for the San Diego workshop in the next few days!

Our long awaited 101 Kits will also go live and be for sale on our new website. Thanks so much for your patience on these. We’re so excited to share them with you! I’ll post a description of each kit later today or tomorrow!

And we may have a couple shots on Martha Stewart TV this Friday. More on that later!

Big week, big turkey…yeah!!

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