Plus, there are only so many weekends to be had in a year (52, to be exact), which tend to fill up pretty quickly (especially late Summer until Thanksgiving). I want to make great photography MORE available, not more exclusive. I want to provide MORE opportunities for clients with more options and variety.

So Weekday Simple Sessions were born.

And they are BRAND SPANKING NEW for this year starting January 1st and I am really excited. It’s like having the opportunity to get a round of Mini Sessions in twice a week. Hip, honest, fun, affordable sessions with a focus on lifestyle family photography on Weekdays- Monday through Thursday. Plus you get two options on Sessions which include a sweet bundle of goodies.

Can I keep telling you why I love Simple Sessions?

The nature of my job is simple. The love of a family is simple and miraculous. So much of our life we can make so complicated. In photographing families I get to witness them in a very real and intimate way. The longer I do this, the more I realize it doesn’t take a lot of time, or styling, or props, or gimmicks, or themes, or whatever, to capture the incredible stories of the relationships that make up each family. The goal is to capture the people and the love and the connection to one another that you’ll really want to remember.

Simple, right?

- Everyday MONDAY – THURSDAY

- Slots available at 9:00 AM & 3:00 PM

- 30 minute, 2-roll Sessions

- Online Gallery

- A set of Proof Prints

the Natural option for $450 additionally includes 5 High-Res Digital Files, Three 5×7 Gift Prints, and a 16×20 Fine Art wall print

the Classic option for $250 additionally includes an 11×14 Fine Art print

PLUS, you may add-on a special set of Two 4×4 leather Mini Books to either package for $200

DOWNLOAD the full Simple Session information PDF with all the details RIGHT HERE

*** The first 6 Bookings for Simple Sessions will receive a very special bonus set of Three 5×7 Gift Prints AND an extra 2 Digital Files!! So email me fast!!! info [at] nataliegphotography [dot] com

Happy to announce that I have some special travel sessions coming up. I will be in the San Francisco/Bay Area next Saturday, October 29th for a round of Mini Sessions. I’m super excited to come down & meet some new Cali families. Special thanks to the lovely ladies of Chalk+Dot for hosting these sessions in the city by the bay.

What is it: Two very special priced 30 minute, 2 roll mini sessions, including print goodies & digital files. Also, you will get 15% off any additional print & product orders from your gallery. $250 gets you the session, online sharing galleries, a full set of proof prints & 5 high-res digital files perfect for holiday cards. Bump it up to also include ALL the high-res digital files from our session plus a gorgeous 16×20 Fine Art Print for $400. You can add-on a super sweet customized 4×4 mini book for $80.

What to expect: Tons of playing, snuggles, belly laughing, all your love, craziness, silliness and happiness, and family memory making- all captured on Film. Let’s get out and play in this beautiful Fall weather! What types of session is this for? All! Families, Kids, Bridals, Engagements, Maternity, Babies, Teens… heck, even bring your dog!

I would love to meet you and your fab family in San Francisco! Please contact me at, info @ nataliegphotography.com, for additional information and to reserve your Mini Session Slot. Sessions must be booked by Friday 10/28, and the sitting must be taken on the 29th. I would also take on a few full Portrait Sessions & Packages while I am in CA Thursday – Saturday, so if you are interested to upgrade to my full photographic services options, please email me for a full pricing guide.

All Portrait Sessions are for the San Francisco Mini Sessions. Location will be somewhere very San Francisco-y, I haven’t quite decided yet and am open to suggestions
Session prices are for families 6 and under. Additional fees apply for extended families and families 7 and greater.

Last night I was looking through the top 25 images that changed our world that day on some internet news site. The photographs that so vividly capture the unfolding events that gripped the world that day. My 6 year-old daughter came in and asked, ‘Mommy, what is that?’ She will never remember September 11th with the experience I do, and she will have to over time, learn the significance of this date. While it may not be live, those images have impacted her and helped her to understand a story she has no first hand knowledge of, but can still be as moved, stricken, confused and seeking understanding to the visual tales I am showing her. Seeing these images for the first time in her life, right away she understood the scale and seriousness of what happened, I needed no words, no explanation. Even 10 years later, I struggled to find words adequate to dictate to her not just what happened, but why. Her solemn voice, asking questions. ‘Mommy, how many people died that day?’ She knew just how sad and tragic this attack was. I didn’t need to tell her. Didn’t need to try to emphasize how that day shook us not just individually, but our world was changed. Her world was changed, but she will have no recollection of pre-9/11 and post, she will just know from the power of these images the tragedy of that morning. And she can comprehend & feel much of the same feelings that impacted me when I first saw them. The power of imagery. I will never forget. Together we are able to remember and share with future generations in an unprecedented way, to honor those who on that day had been caught up in the events and gave the ultimate sacrifice. We remember. We will never forget.

The Holiday Mini Session fee is needed to secure your time slot. There are a limited number of 30 minute slots available on each of the Saturdays and are first come first serve. The past few years I have offered these, the day was booked so get ‘em while they’re hot! Please let me know if you have any questions! You can email me at natalie@nataliegphotography to reserve a session.

Words words words words. They just don’t come. It seems far too cliche to just gush on and on about how amazing this workshop is, and even I would want to call complete BS to hear myself rave about how life changing it is. But that is the only stuff coming to mind. And not that it’s not true, because it is. But there are hundreds of such reviews out there about any and all workshops are so great using the words ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’, ‘life-changing’, ‘transformative’, ‘epic’. Bleh. Phooey. None of that would really come close to doing workshop justice. I’ve had a month to mull over and process the three days of FIND, yet it is still hard to describe and explain it’s amazing amazingness. I think I have to come to terms with the fact there are no real adjectives that could possibly touch upon the full effects of FIND. Simply stated, it is something you have to experience, not just hear about. Photog and Non-photog friends alike ask me how that workshop thingie went. Good. No, more than good. Great! Amazing! Wonderful! Epic! I ate SPAM Musabi! We Karaoked. TWICE! ….and I just get blank stares.

I can’t remember exactly how I first found Jon & his Workshop. My husband and I debate over this. He remembers seeing something about it in College when we were a few of the remaining die-hard analog lovers. Back when the Canon 10D was the hot new toy. For me, I think the term ‘Jonathan Canlas’ was an inspirational name I kept stumbling upon on other blogs for quite some time, then became more into the forefront of my awareness when I got so fed up with trying to shoot digitally and started researching other professional photographers who were still using film. Jon, among a few others, were one of the nails in the coffin for me to ditch all my Digital Photography after 2 years of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole an make the tough decision to actually start back at square one as an all-Film shooter. I remember the month I bought my Contax & sold off all my digital gear, I vowed I would one day take a Film is not Dead workshop. Fast forward to last summer & Jon announces on Twitter he is coming to Seattle in 2011. To my town. On a whim I email him. He (in person) responds back within a minute, all exuberant and excited. Then I proceeded to drag my feet for about another month, until he emails me again letting me know there is only one, maybe two spots left. Thankfully his persistence paid off, and I think I very likely did snag the very last seat in Seattle 1.0.

Jon’s work resonates with me not just because he can pop out some sweet eye-candy or has honed the technical and artistic sides of photography into an amazing craftsmanship - because the guy absolutely is a master at his art. Jon is one of the few in the vast sea of Wedding/Portrait photographers who actually evokes so much more meaning and humanity in how he makes portraits. In all of his work- be it wedding, families, travel, personal- that is what is so strongly communicated through his photographs. His artistic vision and visual communication is about the people and relationships he shoots. Pure, honest and real, without fluff or pretense. Of course, that is compiled with an amazing amount of dedication, practice, business sense, passion, experience, consistency and respect for his medium. I wanted to learn from Jon not just for the ‘how to’ of Film photography, but the ‘why’ and the ‘who for’ that makes him as a photographer tick and continually strive for betterment. Anyone can take a picture. Any of us can simply be camera operators. Anybody given a bit of know how can even expose film properly. It’s not rocket science here, people. Jon says he’s an open book, and that is absolutely true. There is no holding back, nothing off-limits or proprietary or secret. His goal for the workshop is to help his attendees FIND their own vision. He is accessible, honest, genuine, humble and completely transparent in everything about the what, how and why he does things.

In sitting down to write this, I realize more and more this workshop isn’t so much about Film. Or Jonathan Canlas. Or Photography, for that matter. It was about people. Sure, this workshop provides every resource & opportunity you need to successfully shoot film. But no, it’s the friendships that I walked away from this workshop that I will forever treasure and value my time with them more than any other aspect of those 3 days. Maybe it is just Jon & the honesty, down to earth-y-ness and the check-your-egos-at-the-door mantra he exudes in both talk & action that attracts a culture of people interested in their own personal refinement as artists. From Canada to Mexico, West Coast to East Coast, the amazing photographers of every genre, skill level, experience, personality– it was all a level playing field. We were there and given a very rare opportunity to learn together, help one another, learn from one another. No one, even Jon, is above anyone. I NEVER expected to walk into that workshop and feel the amount of camaraderie, trust and genuine care from these dozen or so other photographers. I walked away with amazing friends, colleagues, fellow photographers who continue to build friendships, care for and genuinely desire to help and support one another. And there are some amazing big-name, crazy talented people that my introverted self would normally be too intimidated to interact much with. But within a few hours, this group was so open and comfortable. Likely the epic Karaoke sessions the first & last nights helped. Now even more than a month later I MISS EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE GUYS & GALS.

At the very core of this group is Jon. And he has built more than just an group of attendees who went to a workshop, because there are a hundred of those. This is special. Jon has built not just an educational course, he has poured himself into building a movement. The heart and soul of this movement is FINDing your voice. YOUR voice. Not someone else’s; Not what you think you should/could/might/possibly do; Not what the latest trendy idiom happens to be; Not what anyone tells you it should be. YOUR VOICE. A voice you can only discern the more you practice your craft and the more you stop listening to all the junk that vies for your attention. Within a week of the workshop, I had completely re-worked my website (this one) from scratch after being on the fence about what the heck I should do for almost a year, solidified the direction I was taking my business after wrestling through much uncertainty about what I should do, and mapped out a much more solid plan for getting there after getting so tired treading water not knowing what I should be doing. Sometimes you need a swift kick in the pants, someone to give you a huge doobs hug, a totally new perspective, and a heap of encouragement poured on you all at once. FIND lit that fire under me. And I needed that.

I will put together a series of other super image intensive posts to accompany this one of all the images I shot at the workshop. Stay tuned.