Here’s how it works: We’ll take a beautiful studio portrait of your family and, after your session concludes, you’ll select your favorite photograph and your favorite card design. You then choose between a 5×7 standard card and a 5×7 ornate or scalloped card and decide how many packs of 20 you need. It’s that simple!

Any card design shown below can be used with either format. The cards will be printed on the front and back. You are welcome to customize your holiday message on the front of the card. If you request it, we will also incorporate white space on the back of your cards where you can write personal notes to your family and friends; otherwise, the back of the card design will be as shown.

Upgrading from a standard card to an ornate or scalloped card is $40 and additional images from your session can be added to any card for a one time charge of $40 per additional image. Additional cards can be purchased in packs of 20 for $40 a pack for standard 5×7 cards or $60 a pack for ornate or scalloped cards.

Payment of the Holiday Card Special Promotion price of $99 is required when your session is scheduled. We accept cash, check or VISA/Mastercard.

That’s all the info that you need to order a fabulous card this year. So, check out our 2011 card designs, give us a call at the studio (708-948-7042) or email us at sonya@sgilbertphoto.com to take advantage of our Holiday Card Special Promotion! Please remember, reservations for these promotional sessions are only offered through December 5th, 2011.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Standard 5X7 Card - Red with Damask Background

Standard 5X7 Card Back - Red with Damask Backgroun

Standard 5X7 Card - Gray with Snowflakes

Standard 5X7 Card Back - Gray with Snowflakes

Ornate 5X7 Card - Image Only with White Ribbon

Ornate 5X7 Card Back - Damask with White Ribbon

Standard 5X7 Card - Gray with Red Bubbles

Standard 5X7 Card Back - Gray with Red Bubbles

Ornate 5X7 Card - Image on Gray Vintage Background

Ornate 5X7 Card Back - Gray Vintage Background

Standard 5X7 Card - Brown with Red Bubbles

Standard 5X7 Card Back - Brown with Red Bubbles

Scalloped 5X7 Card - Red with HoHoHo

Scalloped 5X7 Card Back - Red with HoHoHo

Ornate 5X7 Card - Red with HoHoHo & Ribbons

Ornate 5X7 Card Back - Red with HoHoHo & Ribbons

Ornate 5X7 Card - Green with Vintage Green Snowflakes

Ornate 5X7 Card Back - Green with Vintage Green Snowflakes

With the holidays approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about family, especially those large family gatherings defined by delicious food, gift giving, games and singing. For years, my family had a ritual: we photographed these celebrations and took the film to the drug store to get prints made. Some of those photos made their way into photo albums, but most did not. They live, to this day, in boxes or envelopes.

When I visit my family in Tennessee, I love to pull out these photos and look at them and remember. Remember those Thanksgiving tables all set with china and the turkey as the center piece. Remember how we all used to look and the things that made us laugh. Remember our beloved family pets and the joy they brought to us growing up. Some of my fondest memories are pouring through old photos with my grandmother when she was in her later years. Those photographs helped her remember and enjoy so many people from the past. There’s just something comforting about the fact that those photographs exist and that I can look at them and remember, anytime that I choose. They have a physical presence.

Fast forward to today. It’s chilly outside, and I’m wrapped in one of my grandma’s Afghans in front of the fireplace on the sofa enjoying some photographs from last year. Sounds idyllic, right? Well, it is pretty cozy, but instead of snuggling up with a photo album, I’m balancing a computer on my lap and browsing through images on Facebook.

Photographic rituals have changed, to say the least. We take pictures with digital cameras and store images on hard drives or on websites such as Flickr and Facebook. Though some photos get printed, 80 percent remain as pixels on a screen, according to the Photographic Marketing Association. On the one hand, this saves paper and processing costs, but, on the other hand, it makes locating and organizing photos more challenging. In fact, unless we are careful and back up our computers and hard drives, we might lose these images forever. As technology races forward, everyone also faces the question of whether they will be able to open photo files in the future as software moves to the next version.

Digital photography isn’t going away, and I wouldn’t want it to. As a professional photographer, I am able to capture images and accomplish things in the digital darkroom that were near impossible, if not impossible, in the film days. Personally, I want the best of both worlds, so I take pictures with my digital camera, and in addition to storing the images digitally, I print them on my own photo printer. Gone are the days when printing at home meant sacrificing quality. The snapshots look terrific. Some of the latest photo printers are priced very economically and make the process so easy, it’s a no brainer! I can simply take my memory card from my camera, place it into the photo printer, press “print” and, voila! I have great snapshots that I can hold in my hand, place in an album or store in an archival container for safekeeping. And, I can find them and look at them and remember, anytime I choose! I invite you this holiday season to make a pact to actually print your snapshots, either at home or elsewhere, and start a fresh, new family album that you and your family can enjoy remembering, together, for a lifetime.

For an extra special gift to yourself or others, you might consider having a professional portrait made for the holidays. The whole process is a lot of fun, from the photo shoot to the delivery of the portrait itself. If you are interested, please check out my website to see some of my work. I am scheduling appointments right now.

I wish all of you a joyous holiday season!

Holiday Cards for 2010

Gilbert Creative Studios has a variety of brand new holiday card designs for this year’s holiday season!  Check out our card designs and ordering info below, pick your favorite and if you haven’t already had a session this year, give us a call (773-860-4316) to take advantage of our holiday portrait session 50% off promotion!  These special holiday sessions last up to two hours and include as many different poses as you would like.  If you were an early bird and already had a session this year, let us know your favorite image from that session and your card choice and we’ll process your card right away!

Card Formats and Design Info:

We are offering two card formats this year.  The card designs shown below can be used with both formats.

The first format is a 5X7 postcard.  The card designs shown below will be printed on both the front and back of the postcard you choose.  You can customize your holiday message on the front of the card and if you request it, we will incorporate a white space on the back of your postcards where you can write personal notes to your family and friends; otherwise, the back of the card design will be as shown below.

The second card format is a 5X7 folding card.  The card designs shown below are printed on the front of the card and the back of the card.  You can customize any message you would like to appear on the front of the card and on the inside of the card.  If you prefer, we can leave the inside of the card blank so that you can write your own personal notes to your family and friends.

Pricing (includes parchment envelopes):

5X7 postcard            $31.20/pack of 24 cards

5X7 folding card      $48.00/pack of 24 cards

That’s all the info that you need to order an awesome card this year.  Check out our 2010 card designs below.  Then, simply choose your favorite card design (card name appears under each card image), choose between a 5X7 postcard and a 5X7 folding card, decide how many packs of 24 that you need and give us a call at 773-860-4316 or email us at sonya@gilbertcs.com.

We look forward to hearing from you by November 10th!

Card Front - Red & Green Bubbles

Card Back - Red & Green Bubbles

Card Front - Gray with Snowflakes

Card Back - Gray with Snowflakes

Card Front - Green with Red Joy

Card Back - Green with Red Joy

Card Front - Gray with Red Bubbles

Card Back - Gray with Red Bubbles

Card Front - Blue with White Magic

Card Back - Blue with White Magic

Card Front - Brown with Love & Happiness

Card Back - Brown with Love & Happiness

Card Front - Red Stripe

Card Back - Red Stripe

Card Front - Gold with Brown Ribbon

Card Back - Gold with Brown Ribbon

Card Front - Green with Globes

Card Back - Green with Globes

Card Front - Old Fashioned with Stars

Card Back - Old Fashioned with Stars

Card Front - Retro Snowball Card

Card Back - Retro Snowball Card

Card Front - Retro Snowflake Card

Card Back - Retro Snowflake Card

Card Front - Red with Tree

Card Back - Red with Tree

El Love

So, how many of you photographers out there have submitted an image for competition?

Well, for the first time, I did last week. I’m a member of Professional Photographers of America Northern Illinois (PPANI) which is an affiliate of the national organization Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Four times a year, PPANI hosts a competition for its members. If your image does well at this competition, it has a very good chance of doing well at the national PPA competition held once a year in the winter.

It’s funny all the things that go through your mind when your print is announced and the judging panel, most of whom are master photographers and many are national PPA judges, start to scrutinize your artwork. I start to fidget, and start telling the photographer next to me all the things that I should have done differently with the image, blah, blah, blah…

Then the score is announced–an 81! I’m ecstatic. My image has won a “merit”. Merits are great, merits give you points toward degrees, merits mean that your artwork has been “approved” by a body of judges whose work I strive to compete with. It’s an awesome feeling. But, it lasted for only an instant…

The score was “challenged” by one of the judges. I froze. Oh no, please don’t take my merit away.

A challenge happens when the score of the image has been announced and one of the judges feels that the score should have been much higher or much lower. The challenge judge started speaking… and then it became clear. She wasn’t trying to lower my score, she was challenging the other judges to raise theirs!

During a challenge, all the judges have to respond to the challenging judge on what they voted and why, and if they feel inclined, based on the challenge judge’s comments, to go higher (or lower) with their score. Each judge spoke, and with the exception of one, spoke very positively about the image, told what they voted and what they thought about placing a higher score.

In the end, the print was scored at an 85, making it into the “Excellent” category!

The print was one of the top three scoring prints in the competition, so it competed in the vote for “Best Portrait”…and WON!

I could never have imagined how well this print would score. I realize that I won’t always have such a happy experience competing, but having felt the exhilaration of winning makes me want to “win” again, more than ever before.

This image that won (shown above titled “El Love” was from an engagement session shot in downtown Chicago last fall. The session was a lot of fun because we shot in a lot of different locations on Michigan Avenue–a sidewalk cafe, an alley, the el platform and Millennium Park. The weather was brisk, but I was sweating lugging around all the location gear. The couple did a great job and had chapped lips afterward from all the kissing they did that day! This engagement session was extra special because it was my sister-in-law and her fiance’!

If anyone has comments or questions about competing or about PPANI, please email me through the website.

Girl with Guitar

Spring weather is here, at least for a few days, which means it’s time to start planning for our high school senior pictures for the class of 2011.  So many of our high schools use contract photographers for senior pictures, which in some cases makes sense.  However, for those high school seniors who want to have a truly unique and individual experience during their senior photo session, the high volume, contract photography studio is not the way to go.  Many high school seniors would like the opportunity to have senior pictures taken that will truly reflect who they are at this stage in their life–and you only get to be at that stage one time.  It takes time and a willing, creative photographer to work with each senior to find out the story that senior would like to tell through his/her senior pictures.  If you’re a senior or if you’re the parent of a 2011 high school senior, call us to talk about what makes us different and why you should choose Gilbert Creative Studios for your senior pictures.

And one more thing…We are running an awesome promotion to kick off this year’s high school senior program:

If you are a 2010 or 2011 high school senior and you are passionate about something, anything, like sports, dancing, music, etc., we are shooting special complimentary mini-sessions to the first 5 juniors/seniors who contact us and mention this special.  These sessions last one hour and are shot in studio.  Images from these sessions may be used in future marketing campaigns to high school seniors.  In addition to the complimentary mini-session, each student will receive a complimentary 8X10 print of an image from the session and 3 Facebook images.  If you fit this criteria, call us to schedule your complimentary mini-session now.  Our contact information can be found here:  http://www.gilbertcs.com/contact-us/.

What? You don’t know what that means? Well, let me tell you. In order to become a “CPP” – Certified Professional Photographer you must pass a comprehensive written examination measuring your technical expertise as a photographer and you must submit a sampling of your client work to a panel of judges for review and approval. So as of this week, I passed both.  Whoohoo!

While this has been a somewhat intense journey, I’m so pleased that it has been successfully completed. Well, maybe not totally completed. To keep the CPP designation, each photographer must meet continuing education requirements ensuring that they maintain an unmatched level of expertise and development. Surprisingly, less than 3% of all photographers hold this mark of excellence.

Thanks to all our great clients that allowed us the privilege of photographing them.  It’s been a pleasure!

Speaking of that new softbox, here are a couple of images putting it to good use…

Boy with a Guitar

Boy with an Acoustic Guitar