J. Family • Maternity Shoot

It finally happened!! I took my first shoot in the new studio!!!!

It wasn't entirely finished, still had a good part of the floor to finish, but the shooting area was complete and that's all we really needed for right then. We had other dates set as possibilities as baby J. wasn't due until the 24th, however it is really good we did them when we did, as baby Analena made her appearance less than 48 hours later!

The family, Amber, Adam & Evan J. are good friends of ours having been on our bowling league for the last three years, and Adam & my DH going way back to elementary school.

I had a blast with them, Amber had some really great ideas! I could tell with all the pink props she brought she was excited to not be the only girl in the house finally :-)

The rain held off so we took a walk to the top of the Auburn River Walk up by Great Falls for some outdoor pictures before heading back to the studio for some shots indoors.

This one was Adam's idea, too much fun!

I really had a great time with them and am happy to call them the studio's first customers! I can't wait until they come back for Analena's newborn shoot!! I'm also thinking about adding something to my maternity marketing about shoots with me lead to baby's in less than 48 hours. Whaddya think??

Miss Alexa • Easter Shoot

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing little Miss Alexa. I had met her grandmother about a month prior while getting my nails done. She had previously gone to Sears and was upset that there wasn't anywhere to go for portraits anymore. I told her that I actually used to work for the Sears Studios for about 6 years before they closed, and actually trained the one photographer she liked to go to. Needless to say, she took one of my cards & booked a shoot! A little networking goes a long way :-)

I took my gear and some fun new backgrounds to her great grandmothers home in Auburn where we had the shoot, and I had so much fun with it! Alexa was super friendly and I was able to get natural smiles easily. I think the fact that we are both blue-eyed-red-heads means that we connected on some other plane :-p

I'm glad I found this fabric at Joann's -- I think it makes a really fun backdrop!

I had so much fun with Miss Alexa and cannot wait for her next shoot! She had a mind of her own and made the portraits fun, for instance her grandmother & great grandmother REALLY wanted a portrait of her in her Easter hat, well Alexa had other ideas. We were able to get a few cute ones, like the one below, she is just too silly, look at all that mischief in her eyes. 

Alexa's shoot was also my first shoot (since I worked at SPS) where I did an in-person sales presentation. It was a learning experience and I look forward to the next time I do one! 

Maine Source Homes & Realty -- Corporate Photography

I was first introduced to Maine Source Homes at last year's area Home Show. Kevin & I were there with our wheels turning and we ran into Jon, one of our bowling buddies. With talking to him more we learned that Maine Source not only does real estate for homes but also builds homes! Kind of the perfect place to start when you don't know if you want to buy or build, which was the discussion on the table between Kev & I at the time.

Fast forward a few months and Kevin & I are still pondering the buy or build question. While we were still undecided I searched for commercial real estate in the area, found the listing for this cute little building which would be perfect for a studio, in a great location with an apartment for additional income! Back into the picture comes Jon -- he worked with us the whole way through to get us through all sorts of ups and downs with a great deal of knowledge and a great network of people to help out from home inspections, to banks & insurance agencies. Since we have signed on the building and it is now ours, he hasn't stopped helping when I have questions about renters, credit checks, and leases!

Jon contacted me a few weeks ago because some of the team at Maine Source needed updated head shots, I was able to work with their schedules (and they mine) and get a nice selection for them.

Weather selling, buying, or building, Maine Source is your one stop shop -- I know we will be back once we do decide if we want to buy or build!

Had Our First "OH SH*T!!!!"

We had our first "OH SH*T!!!!!" moment at the building last night....
Two days ago while I was cleaning I found that the downstairs bathtub (the one in the studio) had no water to it. So last night when both Kevin & I were there he recalled shutting something off in the basement so he went down to turn it back on while I stayed upstairs to test it.

He flipped the lever and we heard water running. The initial, "Oh fhew, it works." wore off very quickly when we not only heard water running, but rushing, and worse yet, DRIPPING! Why such a bad thing, well because I hadn't yet turned on the faucet in the tub to test it, so where was this water coming from?????

I rushed from the bathroom to the head of the stairs to tell Kevin that wasn't it, when to my horror I saw water pouring down one of the walls in the back room! "Shut it off!!!!"

Once turned off, Kevin emerged from the basement and saw what I saw. "Oh, Sh*t!" -- my thoughts exactly.

Fortunately we found where the water was coming from, upstairs in the apartment they had done all new plumbing before we moved in. However they didn't quite "finish" the old plumbing, as they had one copper pipe in particular that they just sawed off and left open. This is where the water comes rushing out when that little yellow lever is turned.

Needless to say, I will be putting a "DO NOT TOUCH" tag on that pesky little lever, and when we switch out the water heater in a few years we will be taking that whole pipe out!

As for a status update -- all the carpet is out from the studio. We have purchased the floating (laminate) flooring, underlayment & tile that is to go into the main space down there, waiting on the tile & underlayment to come in before we start getting the floor in. Wednesday I spend about 4 hours scrubbing the sub-flooring with bleach and water then hand drying it with a towel so that the water doesn't soak into it and get it all wobbly. Got my workout that day for sure. It paid off though as the studio doesn't smell musty anymore! Now it just smells slightly like a pool :-p

Until the rest of the flooring supplies come in our next project is the shower in the apartment. Currently there is only a tub, but the faucets has the fixtures to add a shower, so guess what we are doing.... adding in a shower, and in the process making a half wall with shelving on the other side. Will update with photos once we get going!

We Have a Home!

Signed, Sealed & Delivered, the building at 154 Court Street is ours!!!

Now the work begins! We started by tearing up all the carpet in the studio space as well as took some major ice buildup off the meters.

I will be heading in today to shovel the back entrance as the kitchen appliances come on Monday (thanks mom!). Have shown the apartment once already and have a few other inquiries that have come in as well. Hopefully we will have her rented soon! Below are some pictures of the apartment.

Thinking of putting in some top cabinets in the kitchen, time to go look into that project!

The Future Home of KaitLavin Photography at Court Street Studios!

So I see that I am WAY behind on my 29th year posts -- and I apologize to the maybe one person who was actually following those. I am not going to promise that others will get posted soon, or ever, but I will promise I will try.

What I do want to do today instead is document my process of becoming a building owner and starting up my studio! I wish I could say that today was my first full day in my new building, but I can't. We were supposed to close yesterday--which means I would actually be tearing up carpet right now instead of writing this post--however that didn't happen due to what was found when a Title Search was done. I am not going to go into it because it is just frustrating and I don't need that right now.

I will however show you all (or just you, my one person who actually follows my blog....) some pictures of the building. (Please keep your comments on the quality of the photography to yourself, I can just hear it now "You call yourself a photographer and all we get are pictures taken with your cell phone???") I hate to admit it but yes, these were taken with my cell phone, and no I do not carry my camera with me at all times, was I not worried about the safety of leaving it in my car I would, but my day job is not in the best part of town.... Fortunately the Studio will be in a better part of town!

Front of the building and my little zoom-zoom in front

Looking up Court Street

Backroom for prop storage & kitchenette -- not actually this yellow

Other end of the backroom & basement entrance -- door on right is to a larger, non-insulated closet which may or may not be removed when we re-do the apartment entrance

Left side of the space & door to bathroom & backroom. Where I am standing will be the kid's play area, the wall there will be the back part of the reception area

Looking from the "studio" out -- where Kevin is standing will be reception, area near right window will be kids play area, area near left window will be viewing/waiting area

The "Studio" area, where all the shoots will take place!

As you can see not much work needs to be done to get it ready -- all freshly painted and pretty clean inside. I will be pulling up the carpet however and getting some floating laminent and carpet floor put in.