March Madness has a whole different meaning for us here at Coonrod Photography!

It seems that whenever I see folks, they ask me, “How’s business?” 

So, since you asked…

February is always our slowest month. Valentine’s Day is in the middle, and we have our annual Soft Touch Valentine Special — but we try to do the actual Sessions in January, so that the finished portraits can be done and delivered before the 14th. Other than that, most people are huddled up at home trying to stay warm, not getting Portraits made.

Then comes March.

Dance Week with Vancil Performing Arts, Showcase of Excellence at Quincy High School, band pictures with the Parochial Music Organization, a wedding (congratulations Joel and Adina!), and pictures of Quincy Community Theatre’s production of Spamalot (can’t wait to see it!), are just a few of the little projects going on this month here at Coonrod Photography.

A couple of weeks ago, Jill was heard to say, “I’ll be glad when February is over and we have more to do… I like to keep busy.” 

Last night, (Thursday, March 12) as we finished the last of the dance pictures, she said, “Wow, I can’t believe how much work I’m going to have next week!”

In four days, we took 2532 exposures. Now to be fair, we won’t be delivering over 2500 pictures… normally, we take more than one exposure of each girl "just in case" — but it’s still a LOT of pictures.

Digital photography does not mean that we simply “print off” the camera’s memory card — all the images are downloaded to our server, archived against loss to DVDs, and then corrected for perfect color and exposure. Jill looks at every single image and picks the best one of each individual, then does any “touch-ups” that need to be made. As I am writing this, she is at her Photoshop workstation working on a young dancer who seems to have been involved in a Sharpie incident on her arms… (A lot of people assume that re-touching only involves fixing acne on teenagers and wrinkles on people my age… not so!) We also do a fair amount of digitally removing stray sequins and feathers that end up littering the floor by the end of the night. Sometimes, we even create the "perfect group photo" by combining two or three images into one, so that each and every individual is smiling at the camera, all at the same time.

Most of our dancers order “Memory Mates” — a combination image that has both the group, and an individual pose. We choose not to use the same template for all, but rather to customize each one to compliment the costumes in each dance, and of course, that also takes extra time and effort.

It’s probably not necessary to take as much care as we do on simple dance pictures, but we take the same pride (and offer the same guarantee) in all our work, not just the big weddings or large family wall portraits.

Tonight (Friday) we will be setting up lights in the High School library for tomorrow’s Showcase of Excellence. From 8AM, until early evening, we will photograph each Jazz Band and Show Choir for dozens of schools all across Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, Tuesday will be pictures at the Dress Rehearsal of Spamalot, and then a wonderful wedding next weekend!

The weather’s getting warm, Spring is nearly here, and it’s time to get really busy! Soon we’ll be heading back outside for all kinds of outdoor portraits of children and seniors and families. One of those portraits could be yours… all you have to do is give us a call!

Showcase and Spamalot pictures may be viewed and purchased online — watch for them HERE.

If you are a Vancil Performing Arts parent, your Dance pictures will be done in a few weeks. You will receive notification at dance practice when they are ready, and we will announce it on Facebook. If you “LIKE” and “FOLLOW” our page, you should get the notification on your timeline. Dance pictures are picked up here at our studio.