Holiday Deadlines

Yes it's time to think about your Holiday photos. If your thinking of booking a portrait session or ordering from a past session so that you can give prints, products and cards this holiday season here is a time line to keep in mind. October is filling up quickly with November having many openings. Don't wait too long or you'll be stuck settling for something less creative, unique and definitely not as fun. Just kidding, ok no I'm not. I hope to see some new and returning faces soon.
CA

November 21:
Deadline to have your session and guarantee proofs are ready by Dec 5.
Deadline to order speciality items for delivery by Dec. 23

December 5:
Deadline to order prints and guarantee delivery by Dec. 23

No deliveries will be made after Dec. 23 until the New Year.

For those of you gift givers, I offer gift certificates in any increment. And do offer a Gift Session Special that is a $75 and includes a session and an 8x10 print.

Z 9.25.05

Yesterday I did my second session with Z and his family. Last year I did their family portrait. It was amazing to see how much Z has grown. And what a loving considerate young man he is. He wanted to lead me all over the play ground and to play in the water just like he was. We had fun and it was great to see them all. Here are a couple of images. I love looking for the suttle things like the connection with the hands.

Thank you for having me back, I'm looking forward to your family session in Dec.

Melanie 9.23.05

I think pregnant women are fabulous and Melanie was no exception. Can you believe that this will be here fourth child? I can't hardly believe it. If you want to see her other children a couple of them are in the tuli most from August. The one in the lovely blue shirt and the one jumping. Her youngest Trinity isn't posted there, but I'm sure I'll have another of her before to long to show you.

Anyway back to this one. Melanie was great and patient and looked fabulous. And those eyes, wow. I know where her children get it from. I will being doing a second shoot on location with Melanie and the girls. I'm excited about this one too. So check back to see those.

Carmen & Bruce 9.21.05

Fun, fun, fun. That's what I had. I like these two and can't wait till their wedding next month. I should be a blast!

Shot one, good ol alley, with a bit of cross processing. I don't use this treatment that often, but for some reason tried it on this one and liked it. It made it edgy. Shot two, love the back lighting, filled with a bit of flash of the building.

Thank you for being good sports!

Kaylla

Some of you have met my new trusty assistant and some of you haven't. So now you get too.

This is Kaylla and she has assisted me on a few weddings and portrait shoots now and will be with me for most of my October weddings. She is a student at Roosevelt High School and I met her while coaching the goalkeepers for Dakota Gold. She is a great athlete and a pleasure to work with on the field so I thought I'd ask her to join me while shooting. She must be a little nutty because she liked it and has stuck around for more.

I'm excited to have her and hope to keep her around for a while. Thank you for all your great work!

PS she doesn't like getting her picture taken, so I had to work to catch this one or I would have told you all about her sooner.

Vickie & Rob 9.17.05

I love outdoor weddings. Especially when it clears up beautifully just in time for the guests to arrive and the ceremony to take place and when their minister is Dennis Thum. Maybe I'm a little biased since our wedding was also outdoors and Dennis was also our minister.

Vickie and Rob had a lovely ceremony in McKennen Park, Sioux Falls in the Sunken Garden. They had a wonderful group of family and friends who joined them at the park and then for the reception at the Sheraton. The wedding was made unique and them by the little things like... The groom and groomsmen wearing authentic Filipino barongs instead of tuxes,and the entire wedding party not just the bride being dressed in white. Also both of Vickies parents walked her down and Rob was accompanied down by his lovely daugher Kaylie who was also a junior bridesmaid.

The Sheriton served a wonderful meal of chicken or pork. Kaylla, my assistant, and I ate the chicken and loved it while seated near some nice guests. We felt special too as we even had name cards, of course I took a picture. And to make the reception a bit unique they had cupcakes in lieu of cake. They were yummy too.

The day looked dreary at first, but we moved the pictures into the Cleveland Center on the campus of the Univerisy of Sioux Falls and it cleared up just in time for a wonderful ceremony and celebration.

A few from the day. You know the bride always seems to get the love on the blog, so I'm posting one I like of Rob to go along with the ceremony shot, Vickie after the ceremony (what a beautiful bride) and of them sneaking a kiss on the way out of the ceremony.

Congratulations you two and thank you for allowing us to be a part of your day.

Merissa (take two) 9.14.05

Merissa had the second part of her senior shoot. This time we were in Arlington and here are some of the fun pictures we got. You know what do you do when you have crazy girls like this to capture? Get up on the trampoline and join them.... they had fun laughing at me jumping "like a frog" while trying to get this second shot.

The Invite

Some of my couples didn't have their engagement images on the blog, beacuse I wasn't blogging back then. So since I got this awesome invite from a really cool couple I thought I'd post an engagement picture as well as the invite picture.

Sarah and Mark did their engaegment session in downtown Sioux Falls and we had a good time. Then I had a pre-wedding consultation with them a couple of weeks ago when they gave me their beautiful handmade invitations. It is so nice I had to post a picture of it. They had to hand punch each of the corners in order to slide the other pieces of paper in. Mark said it was painful. Anyone who has scrapbook and used a punch will understand. So you see someone does appreciate all your hard work and attention to detail.

Brian 9.11.05

Just got back from shooting Brians senior portraits. Brian is creative and so I got a chance to be creative. He did not want something like everyone else and I think that we accomplished that. Art, music and skateboards were the theme. Brian brought the music and skateboards and I supplied the art ala Brian.

Fun time.

Emily 9.10.05

I just got back from the studio after a great shoot with Emily from Flandreau. The heat died down for us, but we did have to battle the wind when we stepped outside the studio. I'm sure Emily thinks I'm a little nuts. I had her sitting in the middle of the road, I climbed up on a roof, and I took out this crazy looking lens. Just a warning if you are considering booking your senior session with me... if you want boring and normal, don't.

This railroad shot is with the crazy lens. At first I hated the look of this thing, but well it's grown on me and I'm having fun playing with it. Just something a little different.

Merissa 9.9.05

Yesterday evening Merissa, with Ashton in tow came in for phase one of her senior portraits. She's a rather fun girl and had me cracking up for most of the session. We had a good time.

The black and white background is courtesy of a large fan that Merissa brought with her, so props can look good. Well I'm off to edit again.
Enjoy.
CA

Purchase Images to help Katrina Victims

Ok one more way for you to give and you get a beautiful print out of it also.

This wonderful photog in Arkansas is selling his prints of desert scapes and off the beaten path NY city images for the benefit of Katrina Victims.

All of the money collected will go to purchasing supplies which he will deliver and again no fees and no employees will be taking a salary.

If your interested click on the link on the right and type in newyorkcity as your guest password to view and order the images.

Again I will vouch for this guy. Jason Hudson is a class act, who by the way is an amazing photographer. I'd do this myself, but I just haven't traveled well enough to accumulate all these wonderful images.

Thank you,
CA

Helping the victims of Katrina

Well I'm sure everyone has seen the devistation on the TV and some of you may have some loved ones down there. Hopefully everyone you know is safe and well with their family in tact.

Sometimes it is hard to know what and where to give in times of crisis like this. I am leery to give in situations like this unless I KNOW where the money is going. So for this particular crisis I decided to give to an organization called PHOTO, Photographic Industry Helping Others to Overcome. It was set up in record time by some wonderful people in the photography industry to help other photographers affected by Katrina. No CEO or Pres or anyone will be taking a salary off the top like the Red Cross and other organizations. 100% of all money collected will go to the victims to help them rebuild.

You see these photographers have worked hard to grow their business and support their families. And while they may have their lives in tact and may even have thier homes or thier equipement, they are loosing all of their business and won't be able to surive much longer. Their income has been cut out. All sessions cancelled. All weddings cancelled, the venues are shut down and they now have no way to make a living and provide for their families.

This organization is ran and backed by very reputable people who will distrubute the money to those affected and who need it most.

If you would like to donate you can use the links on the right. One if for use with your Paypal account. Use the user name none and print your receipt. This is for a non-profit and is tax deductible. The DWF which is collecting this for PHOTO will be covering all processing fees on their end so that ALL of the money will go to the victims.

Thank you to anyone who contributes. Any small amount will help.
Cory Ann

New Shopping Cart

Announcing a new and improved on-line proofing and ordering process.

All galleries have been transferred over and removed from the old site. And 5 new sessions have been posted since yesterday. This is a first for this area. No other photographer in South Dakota has this ordering system. While I may be the first, I'm sure I will be copied soon and will not be the last, so shhh this is our little secret.

This new shopping cart will allow for many new features to include: viewing and ordering in color, black & white or sepia tones, with previews of each. As well as border options. For those ordering albums or books, you may now put all your favorite images into a separate folder that I can access to get your images to assemble your product.

Payments can be made via credit card or by mailing in your payment. And you may leave comments to apply your print and album credits before your card is charged.

This is so fun and exciting! I am hoping this is just one more thing to add to your wonderful experience with AC Ellis Photography. Please contact me if you have any questions regarding this new system.

Enjoy.
Cory Ann

Kelly 9.4.05

This evening I had the pleasure to photography Kelly an Arlington High School senior. We had some fun in and out of the studio accompanied by her twin sister Courtney rocking out to a little bit of Sublime along the way. Kelly did her homework and practiced her posing, I only needed to make minor adjustments and change angles to get tons of great stuff. She's a natural in front of the camera.

A peak at a couple of the pics and one fun one of the girls jumping on the setee that we carried downstairs to take pictures in the street on.

Nate & Lindsey 9.3.05

You might remember Nate and Lindsey from a wedding post a couple of weeks ago. Well last night we did their fashion bridal shoot in downtown Sioux Falls. We did this after the wedding so we could have more fun in a relaxed atmosphere to get some different images with out blocking out time on the big day. Because their wedding and engagement images where in a more natural environement we chose urban for the thier bridals.

We had some fun and tried some different things I did my usual climbing on things and laying on the ground, always looking for another angle, something different than the last and I think we accomplished that. And I had to get a couple of "normal" images too, but you don't get to see one of those. Looking through the images to post I couldn't help but laugh. These two are fun people who love to laugh and enjoy each other. It was a good time.

Joe & Linde 9.2.05

Linde and Joe got married yesterday at St. Thomas More during an evening ceremony. They were my first couple this year who waited to see each other until the ceremony. This was a nice touch as it added to the excitement of the day and the ceremony. Everything ran very smoothly, until I thought I somehow missed the kiss. I was worried that I had missed, didn't know how I could have missed it, I wasn't distracted during the whole ceremony no camera malfunction, nothing. But there we were leaving all finished and bustling the gown. Fortunately I didn't miss it, they didn't kiss, until later of course, of which I got.

The reception was held at The Old Fire Hall. One of my favorite buildings in town and was catered by The Ram. The food was good and the atmosphere wonderful as people flowed around the building mingling with each other.

It was a lovely day and I can't wait to shoot their fun bridal shoot in a few weeks when they get back from their honeymoon and Joe from annual triaining for the military.

Here are a few I liked. The dress image was taken when the low sun came shining in through the window as Kris bustled Linde's gown. And the last was during their first dance with a spot light on them.

Congratulations.... It was a beautiful celebration!