I’m headed to Denver, CO next week to do a special photo shoot–TWIN PREEMIES!  I’m so excited and just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this family!!  I had the honor of shooting both sisters weddings, their first babies, and now preemie twins!!  I can hardly wait to hold these little miracles!

I’ve also got a special opportunity for five families or engaged couples!  Since I’m already being flown to Denver, CO, I thought I would stay an extra day and offer five Mini Photo Sessions.  This is something I don’t get to do as often b/c of all the travel we do for SONY, The Nate Berkus Show, and our CONFIDENCE Workshops.  But I’m super excited to make it happen in Denver next Saturday!

There are five Mini Photo Sessions for five sweet families/couples.

If a Photo Shoot is something that tickles your fancy with Mother’s Day around the corner, here are the details!

Pick one of the FIVE TIME SLOTS below.

Cost is $550.  Mini Photo Session MUST be prepaid to confirm your time.  You must be on time, preferably 10 minutes early, since sessions are booked back to back.

Location: Cheesman Park in Denver, CO.

I LOVE this location whether it’s sunny, raining or snowing!  So many beautiful shots to take in this setting!  CLICK HERE for Google Maps!  Come to the monument, and as soon as I’m done with the family before you, I’ll find you!

Features of Mini Photo Sessions;

1. 30 minute Photo Shoot of your family (Some of you may be thinking, THIRTY minutes?  What can you shoot in thirty minutes?  Answer: a whole heck of A LOT–see below)

2. 30 Final Images that are touched up, mix of Color and BW toning

3. High Res DVD of Your 30 Final Images (yep, you get to keep the images and print them wherever you’d like)

4. 16×20 Metal Print of Your Favorite Image (Moms have gone CRAZY over these Metal Prints since we spotlighted them on the Nate Berkus Show.  Nate LOVES these Metal prints–I LOVE these Metal Prints!  Watch the episode by clicking “Turn Your Portraits into Art.”

I have these metals all around our house, and I even have them hanging on my outside deck because they can handle rain and snow and add this wonderful design and color to our backyard.  Once you get yours, you’ll join the fan club of Metal Prints! 

The BIG question…What can I shoot in 30 minutes? Well, this is what I shot in 10 minutes at a recent CONFIDENCE Workshop in Seattle.

Mom had these amazing, long legs, so I walked the group through my thought process on how to set up a shot that tells this story along with the story of two generations.

Love all that JOY!!

(Within this 10 minutes, 20 plus women were watching me as I walked them through my camera settings and creative process–while trying to keep the kids entertained–mind you.  )

When we do your family shoot, we won’t have an audience.    And, I’m going to pull out the individual personalities of your kids so that you feel like the story of “who they are” is found in your photos.

When I’m doing a live shoot on The Nate Berkus Show, I get less than 7 minutes and ONE click for each photo–one shot, and it has to work because 2 million viewers see it.

Bottom line, a thirty minute Mini Session with your family feels like total LUXURY on my end!!  We can do ENDLESS things in thirty minutes!  Pick your time slot below!

FIVE TIME SLOTS to CHOOSE FROM:

1. Friday, March 11th, 4pm-4:30pm

2. Saturday, March  12th, 9am-9:30am

3. Saturday, March 12th, 9:40am-10:10am

4. Saturday, March 12th, 10:20am-10:50am

5. Saturday, March 12th, 11am-11:30am SOLD!

CLICK HERE to pick your time slot and pre-pay!  Once you are signed up, Genie (my right hand woman) will email you with details, like what to wear, what to bring, how to prepare, etc.  Questions?  Don’t hesitate to email us at info@merakoh.com.

Engagement Shoot

If you are engaged but don’t think you can afford to hire us for your wedding photography, the Mini Shoot is an option that clients love.  You are more than welcome to grab one of these time slots for an engagement shoot!  I don’t book engagement shoots unless we are shooting your wedding.  But the Mini Photo shoot is an alternative option.  In fact, this is one of my favorite engagement photos that was taken at Cheesman Park on a cold, winter day.

Want more than 30 minutes?

My Portrait Packages start at $3K.  I come to your home and spend up to two hours with your family, documenting the many expressions of your family being in the place you love.  I may be able to squeeze one of these Portrait Packages in on Sunday morning before I fly back to Seattle.  If you are interested, email info@merakoh.com.

I can’t wait to meet five beautiful Denver, CO families!  See you next Saturday!

Much love!

m

p.s.  Please keep in mind that you MUST be on time for your Mini Session.  If you are late, your time and payment will be forfeited.  Thanks for understanding and arriving early!

p.s.s.  Since we spend a lot of time in NY for The Nate Berkus Show and SONY Speaking Engagements, I’m thinking of maybe adding a day that is dedicated to Mini Photo Sessions the next time we are in Manhattan.  Let me know in the comments if that’s something you’d like!  Central Park in the Spring…perfect photo shoot setting!

Happy Monday!

I’m so excited for Karen Buckley of Wisdom Connection to bring you our second SOAR! Business Coaching Exercise!  Today’s assignment invites you to dive deep and uncover the confidence within.  We may not have confidence for our current dreams and visions, and yet we do have confidence already within us to draw from.  So how do we access it and bring it to use with our photography dreams?  Keep reading!

xoxo,

m

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Greetings!  This is Karen Buckley, one of the SOAR! Business Coaches from The Wisdom Connection! Since this week will evolve into the first week of March, we are going to start today off with our second Business Coaching exercise!  And what better way to start the exercise than asking you provocative questions?!  I love provocative questions!

Here’s a mini-assessment for you today:

On a scale of 1-5 (with 1 being low) how much do you:

Think of yourself as a businesswoman?

Question your “right” to be even more successful?

Dismiss your best ideas before you even get started on them?

Consider your self the “author” of your own life?

If you are 5’s all the way – you go! If, like most of us, you range from 1’s to 5’s, its time for some inside-out business development skills. This month we are excited to share with you three of our favorite tips and tricks for feeling more confident and ready for success every day.

#1 – Find out where you feel confident in your life and apply it to other areas.

One of our coaching clients felt stuck. An invitation to speak at a professional meeting terrified her.  We discovered that she felt really sure of her self in the kitchen. No qualms, no self-questioning, no judgments. Preparing a meal she took risks, concocted creative combos of smells and tastes and served with a flourish.

We developed an exercise to start her workday: Sit for 1 minute, close your eyes, and remember how confident you feel in the kitchen. Feel how you move when you cook. Feel this in your arms, your legs, your trunk, and especially your throat.

Every day she set a timer for 1 full minute of this meditation. Before she went up on stage, she put on her apron in her mind and sashayed up the stairs to give a fantastic talk – it felt easy!

How about you? Where do you feel confident and how can you grow that good feeling every day until it blossoms.

#2 – Give your self an assignment the night before. We all get shaky some times! Think of one thing you can do in the morning that will give you a boost.

No kidding, when I started my coaching business (way too long ago to count) I sat in our little apartment completely miserable trying to figure out how to do get clients. The kitchen sure was clean though!

Rick and I were just married. When he came home in the evenings I’d act like everything was ok. Finally, I broke down in sobs, “I feel so inept!” He asked me, “When do you feel confident?” In shame, I cried, “sharpening my pencils.” (I was really low!)

He gave me an assignment – to sharpen 3 pencils every morning for 7 days. He’s so sweet he even brought me home a whole new box the next day. First thing, when I sat down at my “desk” (a table at the end of the kitchen) I sharpened 3 pencils. It made me laugh out loud! After 7 days I rocked making phone calls and reading books in my field to learn more. If I wobbled…I went back to pencil sharpening!

#3 – Spend more time recounting your successes than your wobbles. You are your own best cheerleader and wise loving guide. I’ve never told anyone this – but I look in the mirror and say “well done” a couple of times a day. (don’t tell! J) Some days it makes all the difference.

Let’s do it! There are a lot of business skills to learn – how to market, develop a brand, shoot in low light or hot sun, new computer programs. It’s maddening when these skills are in place but you still feel like you are limping along.

It’s an inside job.  Confidence and self-trust are built, not given. You are worth it!  Give yourself some confidence building homework and let me know how it goes on the SOARORITY Forum!  What works for you?  Share your tips too!!

Follow the SOAR! Blog this week to hear what results Rachel, Charisse and Ali find!  And a BIG thank you for all the wonderful comments that you’ve been leaving on the SOAR! Blog Posts!!!  Every comment you leave empowers our recipients to keep working and fighting for their dreams to SOAR!

C’mon out!

Karen

p.s.  Here are a couple of ideas to jump start your Business Coaching and Development!

Business Boost 101:  from Start-up to Real Momentum. Personal Coaching and solid business building. 5 Thursdays from 4:00-5:30 PT starting March 3rd. Re-find your momentum or get a boost! Powerful results guaranteed plus a lot of fun and confidence building.

The Wisdom Connection Personal Coaching – a free 20-minute coaching session with Karen or Fay! Send us an email today to info@thewisdomconnection.com. Let’s get scheduled! Get a small group together and we’ll do a series just for you!

This is Kari from MamaBloo chiming in today for Me Ra!

A few days ago a friend and neighbor posted something on Facebook that got my attention. He had been out raking the yard and also listening to Carrie Newcomber’s song where the question is posed:  Do leaves fall or do they just let go?  Since I am caught in that crazy space of only listening to the Backyardigans soundtrack or Taylor Swift, I am pretty much out of any music that might appeal to an adult.  So, admittedly I hadn’t heard this song before.  But the notion of the question of whether or not leaves fall or let go has  stuck with me.

I am viscerally drawn to this idea that the leaves might actually have some control over their own fate.  Not the practical aspect of it, of course.  I mean they are going to wind up on the ground.  That is inevitable, right?  But the control comes in how they perceive their journey.  If they FALL, then well, the changing season takes its toll on the leaf — sending it on its way, making it depart from tree.  It speaks more of what the leaf has lost.  Plus, falling is just plain scary!  When we are kids “Falling Down” is cause for skinned knees, and band-aids, and running to mom while holding back the tears until we are safely wrapped in her arms.

But “letting go” is fun.  Letting go is about holding onto the monkey bars and letting go to feel the wind in our hair, to breathe deeply, to feel our hearts beat a bit faster, to reach out and grab the next bar and, if we miss, to revel in how our bodies absorb the shock of the landing with more ease than we predicted.  I love the idea that the leaves are letting go. That although they “know” they are destined for the ground, that their journey to the soil is supposed to happen, that it MUST happen for life to go on…that even though they know this, they take part in the journey.  They release their hold on what has always sustained them and float to the ground in a swirl of yellow, red, and brown.  Then the leaf waits for the kindergartner that will come by and pick it up, running to his mom, exclaiming, “This is the coolest leaf in the world!”

May we feel freedom to release our holds,

Kari

For more stories from MamaBloo, click here.

“It is just an hour away…but I can’t seem to convince hubby to pony up the money…he is the greatest husband, father, and provider for our family and I understand his concern, it’s big bucks-especially when you don’t have a photography business in place to theoretically “recoup” the costs-but I feel like it is too big of an opportunity to pass up. I mean…hello, Me Ra and Brian, in our neck of the woods?! Heck yeah! Does anyone have any tips for convincing a reluctant (Husband) to take the plunge??? (Or rather, to let his wife take the plunge)”

Soon after a number of other women chimed in with the same request-”Tell us how to convince our hubbies!”

Never fear ladies, Brian and Jeramy are HERE!

Here are the TOP 12 Reasons for a Husband to send his wife to a Me Ra Koh CONFIDENCE Workshop. Yes, I’m taking this seriously ladies. I recruited the big gun, our famous male token blog commenter, Jeramy. Let me say his reasons are all authentic, drawing from his own experience of sending his wife TWICE! Feel free to print and share with your hubbies.

1. When your wife gets home from the weekend, it will be tough for her to be angry about the “honey do’s” that you still HAVEN’T done yet. (Jeramy)
2. Pizza rolls and cool-aid are finally appropriate food choices for the kids for once in their life. Whatever is easiest. Just as long as your kids know YOU ARE the MAN! (oh, and did I mention, Movie Night, Every Night?) (Brian and Jeramy)
3. When your wife gets home, she can explain what ‘f-stop’ means. (Jeramy)
4. Divorce attorney’s cost WAY more than the workshop does. (Jeramy)
5. As a husband, you’ll get entry to “Brian’s secret pub crawl” before the meet and greet. (Jeramy)
6. Your wife will sing your praises for the next 6 months minimum. (If you’re really creative about how you surprise her, it could be praises for over a year! Being creative with the whole surprise part is KEY. Just as Wendy Z. from Sonoma’s wkshp!) (Brian)
7. You get to find out if Brian Koh really DOES know how to use a camera (Jeramy)
8. If your wife has talked to you about her five love languages, and you can only seem to express one…never fear, the workshop is guaranteed to express all five for YOU. (Man, we make you look good!) (Brian)
9. After your wife attends the workshop, it won’t seem so weird that you comment on MeRa’s blog every day. (this was obviously Jeramy’s)
10. Your wife will use 9,987 of her 10,000 words per day AT the CONFIDENCE workshop. (Jeramy)
11. If she cries that weekend, dude, it won’t be YOUR fault for once. (Brian)

AND NUMBER 12! The VERY BEST REASON FOR SENDING YOUR WIFE TO THE CONFIDENCE WORKSHOP!

12. You will have a winning answer for her TRICK question “Honey, what do you think about my photography?” Instead of being the deer in the headlights (because there is no right answer) You can say with CONFIDENCE “Uhh? Well? Uh? What do those 19 other women from your workshop say? I think you’re AWESOME!” (Brian)

Today’s Contest!

If you’re a husband, and you have a reason why your wife should attend Me Ra’s CONFIDENCE Workshop, Jeramy and I are asking for you to post your reason in the comments below.

The funniest TWO will get a $20 gift certificate to iTunes or Starbucks, your choice. Jeramy and Brian will be the honorable judges. Make sure you include an email or someway to send you the prize. Winners will be announced this week!
(Women with ideas for their husbands are also elligible.)

So please, help us make our list complete.

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The Early Bird Registration for the SEATTLE CONFIDENCE Workshop begins TOMORROW! Check back tomorrow for details!

We still have a few spots left in the Minneapolis CONFIDENCE Workshop! To grab one of the last spots, CLICK HERE!

Want to learn more about Framing, Composition, Blurry Backgrounds and Lighting? Check out our Award Winning DVDs, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box (They are BACK IN STOCK!! Yeah!!), or discover our popular 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the titles of your choice!