Glass half full

Fridays and Mondays are probably my favorite days of the week. Both days are so critical for getting stuff done the rest of the week. While other people take off early on Friday, I'm able to become immersed in photography projects. I actually had a lot of fun today.

I spent a lot of time this evening goofing off on the internet. When I couldn't find anything more to read, I remembered that I had a lot of photos in Arizona and New Mexico from my trip in January. These personal photos were taken with the best effort a 2-3 hour excursion would allow.

While traveling through the plains of northeastern New Mexico with my good friend Chris I said, "How can anyone be depressed about the American economy when we have such a fantastic expanse of land and beauty?"

The American media doesn't have a very optimistic view, but sitting in a New York or Atlanta office just can't be the best vantage point.

Travel advisory

To my customers... Please note that I will be traveling to Phoenix, AZ, for the national Professional Photographers of America convention from Jan. 9-16.

This convetion brings together thousands of the best portrait and wedding photographers for three days. The trade show is huge and especially important for photographers seeking new vendors and products to offer customers. I'm excited about the trip as I'll be traveling with two other professional photographer friends, Chris Urias and John LaBarge. Chris runs a photography studio Guymon, Okla., and John runs a studio in Manhattan, Kan.

I will not be sending orders to lab until I return at the conclusion of the week. This shouldn't cause any major disruption as the lab is very quick to turn around the orders.

Memorymates instructions

Memorymates are a 2-for-1 deal. If you order an individual photo as a memorymate, it includes the team photo. Ordering the individual photo just tells me whose photo changes in the bottom photo.

Customers do not need to order the team photo as a memorymate.

Some students did not to have an individual photo taken. In that case, parents should order a team photo since your student chose not to pose for an individual photo. Encourage your student to have an individual photo taken next year so you'll have that option.

If your son or daughter plays on the freshmen, jv or varsity team please indicate that in the instructions. Also, remember to enter your student's name in instructions so I can put that on the memorymate with the two photos.

*Please see the blog post about the length limit on instructions.

Order instructions note

Please note that the e-commerce order instructions only allow for 85 characters. If your message is longer than that, please email me after your order processes.

Basketball memorymate notes

If you are ordering a memorymate for high school basketball, please indicate in your instructions whether your son or daughter is on the freshmen, jv or varsity squad. This helps me determine which team photo to use.

Travel plans

Please note that I will be traveling to cover the NCAA Div II National Championship game in Florence, Ala. for the university.

I intend to take the files with me to Florence so I can prepare orders for the winter sports, which will be taken Wednesday.

The absolute latest customers can order photos for Christmas is Saturday evening. I will be driving all day on Sunday. I'll be unable to send any order placed on the 15th with the lab for Christmas delivery.

Orders which require retouching such as families or senior photos need to be submitted by Dec. 10 in order to make the deadline.

At this time of year both the postal and photo labs are swamped.

Update: When will I receive my order?

Order before Dec. 10 to receive your photos before Christmas.

I apologize for those of you who read the post from several months ago about when orders are shipped to the lab. I have removed that post as it's no longer accurate.

Weekly lab orders are now semi-weekly and are largely influenced by how many customer orders have accumulated.

Most orders are being fulfilled in two weeks time, which is faster than the previous team photography company according to the people I have consulted. It is still my goal to get customers their photo order shipped back to them no later than two weeks after it was received.

The biggest obstacle to getting orders back from the lab is the Christmas mail flow, which is slowing deliveries. Orders that took 2-3 days are now taking as much as five days.

If you have an order that is time sensitive, please email me after you place your order. I'll try to find ways to help meet your deadlines.

tiny Obama volunteer

tiny Obama volunteer, originally uploaded by azalea_.

My wife has been volunteering the past few days and took this photo of our daughter at the local campaign office. No matter what your political leanings are, try to get out and vote. And that's all I'm going to say about that.