Hi there! I'm Mindy and I'm so glad you decided to stop by today! As a natural light photographer I consider myself incredibly blessed to be able to use my love of photography to capture moments in time for my fantastic clients.

As a mama to two young children, my family comes first and as such, I am only scheduling a limited number of sessions each month so please book early to make sure you get on my calendar! If you have any questions or would like to book a session please email me at info@mindynewtonphotography.com or give me a call 209-304-7025.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

43/52 - Project 52 {A Swinging Birthday Bash!}│Sacramento Family Photographer

Today is Daddy's birthday and the kids joined me in taking homemade cupcakes to his class.  It's such a joy to be able to be home with the kids and able to have these memories celebrating together.



My daughter adores the swings, simply adores them!  I love watching her as she throws her head back, closes her eyes and swings with such a contented and peaceful smile on her face, as if there is nothing in the world better than swinging in the sunshine.

Monday, October 25, 2010

An Editing Share│Sacramento Portrait Photographer

I just recently started playing around with textures in some of my edits.  It's a creative way to change the mood or tone of an image or add a little extra interest or focus on a particular part.  I don't know that I'll be using textures frequently for my edits, but I thought I would share with you a little before and after so you can see the effect using a texture can have on an image.  So which do YOU prefer?

I Heart Faces - Breast Cancer Awareness {Pink}

The theme this week at I Heart Faces is "Breast Cancer Awareness - Pink" and I thought what better to post then a picture of my friend Jill, a cancer survivor, with her pink shirt and strong and encouraging spirit at our church's annual baptism in the river. 





Sunday, October 24, 2010

First Fall Mini-Session│Sacramento Couples Photographer

In this modern age of technology I'm forging an increasing number of friendships with people I've never seen before or only met once or twice.  It may seem strange to some, but through Facebook chatting, blog following or just plain old email, there are people out there in the world I feel I'm great friends with even though our friendship is expressed through the typing of keys alone.

I used to be a consultant for The Pampered Chef and met Jennie at my very first party almost 3 years ago!  We ended up keeping in touch through Facebook and following one another's blogs and figured out she even knew my husband as they both teach in the same school district.  Jennie is an extremely talented scrapbooker and card maker, an all around artist I would say, so I was very honored when she contacted me and booked my first mini-session.

She and Brian are one of the nicest couples and I had a fantastic time getting to know them both throughout our mini-session.  I hope they'll enjoy their photos and look forward to getting to know them even better!


They hadn't had any pictures taken (formally) since their wedding six years ago so I wanted to capture some of their love for one another that was so inspiring and sweet!


 
 A truly adorable couple - beautiful inside and out!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

42/52 - Project 52 {Fall}│Sacramento Family Photographer

We are enjoying such a lovely Fall this year!  With trips to the Pumpkin Patch and Apple Hill and lots of family time, here are a couple of my favorite pictures from this week. 


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Four Things Your Photographer IS and Four Things They're NOT

While browsing my favorite photography forum, Clickin' Moms (click on the link at the bottom of the blog to check it out), I saw this post by Alana Hawker of Rare Photography and thought I would share it here (with her permission of course)!

Four Things Your Photographer IS and Four Things They’re NOT

After spending countless hours, days, weeks and months perusing photographer forums I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 4 things your average family photographer IS and 4 things they are NOT.

4 Things Your Photographer IS…

1. A Parent

Every single family photographer I know is a parent. This means we are used to the hissy fits, the tragic meltdowns and the oil-to-water like aversion your toddler has to the camera. Every time I get an uncooperative toddler the parents apologize profusely for their behavior. Don’t sweat it! It makes me feel better that my kids aren’t the only ones that think standing still for 3 seconds is akin to getting your limbs ripped off. One simple apology will do just fine.

2. Patient

Sometimes it takes 10 minutes of running around, dancing like a fool, making silly noises, and talking about crazy monkeys just to get ONE good shot. Don’t bother demanding your child to sit and smile because as I’m sure every parent knows, the harder you push a toddler, the harder they push back. And an irritated toddler doesn’t give good smiles!

3. Busy

Taking pictures isn’t the only part of our job. Sometimes it’s not our only job at all! Please please please (yes, I’m on my knees begging!) be on time to your shoot. If you aren’t going to be on time, at least give us a call and give us your ETA. We may have clients lined up right after you, we may only have a babysitter for a certain amount of time. Whatever the case may be, it’s just plain good manners to let us know if you’re going to be late. Barring a true, provable emergency, if you don’t bother showing up, don’t expect your deposit back. Just because we didn’t shoot pictures doesn’t mean we didn’t spend time preparing for your shoot by gathering props, creating a pose list tailored to your shoot, checking the weather and lighting, etc.

4. An Artist

Photography is an art, just like painting. Each photographer has their own style. If you don’t like what you see on their website, that photographer is not a good fit for you. People who like Picasso like his style. He is unique. Every photographer has their own unique style as well. You should hire your own Picasso. Don’t hire any old photographer and request they change their style to what you want. Most photographers have spent years perfecting their style. Asking them to change it is not only insulting but also doesn’t give them the necessary years of practice and will likely result in images not nearly as pleasing as you expect. Also, our status of being artists entitles us to be a little kooky and eccentric. It’s the fun part of our job description.

4 Things Your Photographer is NOT…

1. Walmart

As much as we’d LOVE (I think love isn’t quite strong enough a word) to be grossing $405.6 billion per year, we aren’t. Heck, I’d love to gross $405.6 thousand per year! But alas, we are all small businesses. We don’t have the sales necessary to offer $5 portrait sheets. We also don’t utilize cheap ink or poor quality paper just to keep costs down. We charge what we need to to not only keep our business afloat, but also food on our table. If that’s outside of your budget, that’s perfectly fine. Most photographers fall into the “starving artist” category and can’t afford to book themselves, so it’s not going to offend us if you can’t afford us. It WILL offend us however, if you request us to price match someone else. Our price point is unique because our business is unique. Nobody but nobody is going to have the EXACT SAME costs as anyone else. Please understand that 99% of us aren’t priced to be making $100,000 per year, we’re priced to afford preschool for our kids, shoes for our feet and food for our bellies. If you want Walmart prices, go to Walmart! Just don’t expect personal photographer quality for Walmart prices, and visa versa.
As a subnote to this, we’re also not able to give things away for free no matter who you are. Asking us as your friend to “take a few shots of the party/event since you’re here” would be like asking your dentist friend to “examine the teeth of all the guests for free since you’re here”. It’s not okay to ask that. If we want to take a few pictures, we will. If we want to send you the pix we take, we will. Unless you’re willing to pay our regular rate, please don’t ask us to take “just a few pictures”. You may get lucky and have a friend with a special friends and family rate, but remember, you wouldn’t do your job for free, please don’t expect us to do ours for free.

2.  A Plastic Surgeon

Photoshop is an AMAZING tool! Unfortunately, it doesn’t substitute for a scalpel. We can easily hide zits, conceal under-eye bags and sometimes even shave off a few pounds here and there. We cannot turn a new-mommy-body into Gisele Bundchen’s body with a few key strokes. (And if we could, we’d be in Hollywood making the aforementioned billions!) Moms are expected to have normal size 14-ish bodies, complete with a little pooch belly, and sometime, yes, even the feared double chin. If you can’t love yourself the way you are, perhaps getting giant paper printouts of what you look like in all your natural glory isn’t the right thing for you right now.

3.  A Magician

We can, in some ways, be thought of as magicians. We can take your memories, your precious children and photograph them in such a way that you will treasure their portraits, the captured moment, forever. But we cannot wave a magic wand and make your sugar-buzzing 3 year old sit still, brush their hair and smile like a Gerber baby. You are paying us for our time and our artistic talent. If someone (who may or may not even be of toddler age *cough* DAD, I’m talking to you!) doesn’t want to cooperate, we can only try so hard. You (in most cases) are not obligated to buy prints if you don’t like them, but please don’t expect to be refunded for the session fee if pictures didn’t turn out to your liking through no fault of our own. Please remember, we were out there, trying as hard as possible to get great pictures for you. We deserve to be compensated for our time. Depending on the situation you may even be offered a free or discounted re-shoot, but don’t expect anything. Sometimes the child is a lost cause and will refuse to be photographed no matter what the situation. That doesn’t say anything to your parenting or how good your child is, that just says your toddler is normal. Toddlers are miniature control freaks and if they don’t want something to happen, it wont be happening no matter the bribe!
We also aren’t mind readers. If there’s a certain something you do or don’t want, please tell us! Nicely.

4. A Robot

We are human. We feel overjoyed when we have a great shoot and we feel devastated when we have a terrible one. There is no need to treat us like anything other than living, breathing humans. We make mistakes sometimes. We don’t deserve to be berated or ridiculed because we didn’t get the shots you hoped for. When we get a shot you love, tell us! Share your joy! And for the love of pete, BE POLITE! Please and thank you go a loooooong way. I know several photographers that give free gifts and prints to clients that treat them like human friends instead of contracted camera slaves. Besides, it’s just good manners.
Despite all of the fun little intricacies people rarely consider, I still see my job as one of the funnest there is, and I know most of the photographers that inspired me to write this do to. I don’t think any of us would trade it for the world. I think our goal is just to remind people that though our job is fun, it’s still a job.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The {R} Family │Sacramento Family Photographer

What do you get when you have 9 adults, 6 kids and 3 playful dogs?  A really fun time!


 




The dogs were just fabulous!  I'd love to do more pet photography - especially dogs as they hold a very special place in my heart!




Then there was this sweet little gal...

 ...loved her crocheted dress!


Thank you for a fun evening {R} family - I hope you enjoy your images!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Last Opportunity for a Mini-Session this Year!│Sacramento Family Photographer

In an effort to keep my holiday schedule somewhat sane, my last opportunity for mini-sessions will be offered Saturday, November 13th.  I only have a couple more full sessions left for 2010 so if you are hoping for pictures for those Christmas cards or gifts, please contact me ASAP to reserve your spot with either a full session or mini-session!


Blessings,
Mindy

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Beautiful Belly│Sacramento Maternity Photographer

As a mom I've been busy with my children and family, as a photographer I've been busy editing and photographing, but as a blogger I've been slightly negligent.  It seems all I've been able to post lately is my Project 52 and even that has been coming in a bit late. 

I apologize for neglecting my blog and hope that this beautiful belly will make up, in some small way, for my neglect: