MelissaArlena Photography Blog bio picture

Welcome To My Blog

Hi, I'm Melissa and I'm a photographer in the DC area. I've spent the last couple years shooting B&W film and spent many hours in the darkroom. I'm making the switch to digital and color so I hope you enjoy my images as I play around. I just got married so you'll probably see some funny pics of my new husband David in here also!

So I shoot with a Nikon FM10 film SLR and a Canon 5D digital. I currently use a 50mm 1.4 lens for my digital, I prefer the fixed focal length at the moment. It just reminds me of when I first started shooting film with my old Ricoh. I've gotten so many awesome tips from other photographer's blogs I hope I can one day add my own. For now I'll share whatever I learn along the way. Thanks for stopping by I hope you keep checking back to see my new stuff!

Jen and Madison

Right before Halloween I had some Autumn fun photographing Jen and Madison at her parents farm.  I’m late with the blog because I’m implementing a new process for picking the pictures to edit.  I took over 300 pictures of Jen and Madison, after one pass-review I knocked out over half but there were still 130 left to pick 25 from!  Since I can’t seem to just pick 25 I let Jen pick the 25 she wanted edited.  This worked great because she was able to pick the ones she liked most and I don’t have to worry about my husband leaving me because I spend too much time on the computer editing!  (j/k on the husband leaving part, I’ve tied him to the radiator, he isn’t going anywhere ;) 

So back to Jen and Madison, it was great, they are both beautiful so I knew I would get some great shots.  Madison was adorable and decided two minutes after I got there that she was good, she didn’t need anymore photos :)  She just trusted that I captured her beautiful face in one shot and didn’t need anymore, lol!  But with hard work on Jen’s part and many distractions, plus the promise from me of it is almost over she cooperated and let us get some really great photographs of the two of them.  They really are both beautiful and I loved capturing those mother daughter moments.  Thanks so much Jen for letting me photograph you guys! 

Long Awaited Post

I’m so sorry I completely slacked off in posting the information I promised two weeks ago.  Things have been crazy with shoots and school.  I’ve got midterms this week and we are remodeling our kitchen.  So things have been crazy, I need more hours in the day to accomplish everything.  I finally added a subscription service at the bottom of my blog so you can get an email when I post a new entry, this makes it so much easier to keep up with everything I’ve got going on.  Also if I’ve taken photos you are waiting on you don’t have to keep stalking my blog :)  Although I won’t complain about any extra hits you want to throw my way!

So without further ado here is the information on my Holiday Specials and my new Referral Program!

Holiday Specials!!!  Now is the time to book!  I’m booking for 20 min sessions for Holiday cards.  I will waive the session fee if you spend $125 on Holiday cards.  So book your session now and you will get to choose from 5-10 photos to create your Holiday card.  I have tons of great Holiday card options that I will continue to post on my website.  I’ll also post some examples here as I create them.

Referral Program!!!  I will choose a photo from each session to print on 8-10 business cards for you to hand out to friends and family.  Not only will they get to keep a great photo of you but there is a $25 print credit offer on the back!  On top of that for every person you refer with one of those cards I will give you a $25 print credit also for your next session.  The business cards will usually be sent out 4-6 weeks after a session when I place my next order.  If you refer someone before then I will honor the Referral Program and give you both $25 print credits.  So get started handing out those great pictures and start banking your print credits!

Here is a quick pic of the business cards I’m sending out to clients.

Specials

Hey guys just wanted to let you know to check my blog tonight or tomorrow for the Holiday card special I will be running and finally for information on my referral program. I had some issues with my printer but now I have my referral cards in hand and want to tell you about this great program! So keep checking my blog and soon I’ll have a subscribe button where you can get emails whenever I post a new blog entry. Thanks!

The Hull Family

This past weekend I photographed the Hull Family!  Crystal and I met about 8 years ago through volleyball and have played together off and on over the years.  The off years as you see below are due to starting her beautiful family :)  I actually went to her baby shower for her twin girls, Avery and Reagan, but this was the first weekend I got to meet them, man time flies.  I feel like I know them already though from the pictures Crystal sends out, they are adorable and I knew they were hams for the camera!  They welcomed their new baby brother this summer, Robby so it was definitely time to photograph this newly expanded family.  We are going to schedule another shoot soon of just the girls and have some fun with them.  They were so sweet I can’t wait to photograph them again!