half of SuMii moved to South Africa!

I haven't posted on this blog for a while, because half of SuMii, this is me Mireille moved to South Africa and it will probably take a while when I start with my business again. First I have to decorate my house, the 40 + 20 foot container is on its way and we probably have to wait another 1-2-3 weeks till it arrives. Then I have to unpack about 500+ boxes, put everything in its place. Get the kids settled into school...so you can see LOTS of work to do the coming weeks and months.

I am hoping to start serious working again maybe the beginning of the new year. Planning to add some more knowledge and following some courses first. Since if you have to stay ahead in the business, you have to keep up with modern technology, so that is my first goal. Do some professional courses and then design my studio here in my house. YEAH! I actually have a designated area in our house for a small studio, I am so delighted!! Can't wait to put all the lights up (which I still have to buy, because I did an attempt in the US before I left, but things went awfully wrong....and now I have to research again, and buy it for real. Last time I thought I had bought it...waited for ever...nothing happened. Called company many times, but seems to be a calling centre in India and couldn't really communicated with these people, so called off the order. Bummer, since I hoped to buy it all in the US before my move to SA. Well, sometimes things don't go how you want it.

Life is good anyway here in South Africa, and I am sure I will take some amazing pics. But I am hoping that I can insert the pictures...since my sites both seem to have changed and I can't insert any pics anymore...I need some help on this before I blog more. Since blogging without pictures.....kinda boring :-(

By by now!
Mireille

Happy Mother's Day!

Another 11 days and it is Mother's Day!
Do you have your pictures done already? You like to surprise your mother, mother-in-law or grandmother with a professional portrait, give us a ring. We have a few spaces left open and we'll guarantee they will be done and delivered before May 11th.

Give us a call or email, see details in the ad.
(this will be printed in the Ridgefield Press this Thursday)

Shy little girl...

She looks a little shy here, but the purpose of the picture was not to smile, since her lips were painted like a heart shape. Great eye contact!

Suzy captured the light great here, taken a bit from above, which is her favorite position. And I must say a lot of pictures like this come out great!

What do you think of the picture? Give us your comments, we appreciate it :-)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Wiggly toes ~

Little cuddly baby

After doing some maternity pictures with a friend of us we knew that the result of that big tummy is coming out soon. That gives us the opportunity to take some other lovely shots of that small little pea, that was before in the pod. Well, here he is, a cute lovely little baby boy! He is so adorable and just happy as can be. A mellow baby who lets us take some shots while he just snoozes away. We put him in positions, turn and toss, but he doesn't mind. He is a relaxed little fellow who is just too adorable for words! Congrats M with your little baby boy S, we hope he has a wonderful future ahead of him, full of nice surprises and wonderful opportunities in life! Grows up being proud of his mama and a little big brother to M ;-)

New advertisement in Ridgefield Press

So we have a new Easter advertisement in the Ridgefield Press this week. Our 1st annual Easter shoot in Ballard Park. Hopefully the weather gods are with us, so we will have a great day at shooting these lovely children of Ridgefield and surroundings in their new spring outfits. Come and see us!

Wordless Wednesday

Pea in the pod

You don't need to see their faces in these pregnancy pictures to know how incredible they feel. Maternity pictures are so intimate, private and very sensuous. Bringing a newborn baby home is one of the most exciting, surreal experiences. You like to document that feeling with a photograph, we can do that for you. SuMii makes capturing this amazing time in your baby’s life easy and fun. The relaxed sessions usually last about two hours. During the shot, the parents/mothers primary “job” is simple...love your baby and leave the rest to us!


We specialize in artistic fine art maternity, baby and child photography.

Brochures, flyers, marketing.

A lot comes with having a small business. You can't just do the things you are good at, you have to do a lot of work on the side. Which is probably not your biggest strenght, but it has to be done. Marketing is one of them. I feel we don't have a big store on 5th avenue, but a small business in a side alley. So how do people find you? How do they know you excist? Marketing is a tool, but Suzy and I didn't go to school to become marketing experts, and we don't have the budget to spend a lot of money on it. So we try to make our own flyers and brochures, started a blog and website to attract people to our small shop in that side alley, somewhere in a suburbian town in New England. Not easy!
Luckily for us, these days it is a lot easier than it used to be, but then again, the competition is also bigger, better and fierce!
So I made these flyers, business cards and try to get them out there as much as possible in the hopes that people think about us when they need some great candid, spontaneous photographs from their family or children.
Let us know how we do, we appreciate your comments or tips!
Ciao, Mireille

Warholized

These days so much is possible to create fun artsy images, one of these fun things is to Warholize your pictures. As you can see we did it here. SuMii creates great photographs but we can also create some funky canvasses with Photoshop or other programs. We create invitations, cards, canvas, frames or anything you have in mind.
Drop us a line, if you see something you want to have created, we can help you with it!

Valentine's Day portaits

After the Geisha shoot, Suzy and me decided to start working together. We wanted to put an advertisement in the local newspaper and I came up with this idea for Valentine's Day Portraits. So this shoot is our first together as SuMii. We of course use Jasmine & Juliet again as our models, since it is easy and they are so used to it by now, that we don't need much prepping anymore. We shoot some inside and let the girls play with balloons, they blew them up and let the air blow in their faces. Well, that was a BIG hit, they had so much fun! And it shows in the pictures. Natural giggles and laughs.....really out loud laughing.


Then we went outside and let them run with the balloons, they climed into a tree, jumped on the trampoline and we just followed them and took shots. We had so much fun and excellent frames to choose from. It was a great day, the lighting outside was just georgous.
Hard work, over 200 frames, but great results! This is how we like to shoot children, having fun doing their thing and then shoot away. I hope you like it as well, and think of us if you need a next photo shoot of your children. We will be here, with some great ideas!

Geisha Girls

The next big session we had together was before an exhibition Suzy had in a local bank. She wanted some more portraits of children and I had this idea of dressing the girls in kimono's and making them look like little Geisha's. We painted the faces white and their lips looked like little hearts. We had fun with it, it was a short shoot, everything was done in about 1 hour, make-up and photo shoot. Some amazing shots came out of this. Some Suzy put on canvas to show at her exhibition.
We told the girls to not laugh otherwise the heartshape of the mouth would not show, and they totally did their best. Can you imagine they are only 5 years old, but already such a pros as taking pictures! We did the whole shoot in Black/White, however even the colored ones look great, since the kimono is black and white, we only had a splash of red with an umbrella and their lips.

Tutu girls

So the next shoot we did together, still not working as SuMii, we did a Xmas shoot again with my girls, Jasmine & Juliet. This time I decided I keep it a bit less nude and with tutu's. Very clean look I wanted, kind of an angelic feeling to the pictures. Very neutral and whites in the background. The shoot came out just wonderful, exactly how I wanted it. This was the second time Suzy and I worked together and the feeling I wanted in the shot was precisely how she did it. I have these ideas, sometimes I get inspired by magazines or seeing other pictures, but to get exactly that what you want on paper as you have it in your mind is not always as easy as it seems. So I was very content about the end result!
The twins are 4 now, and they are still very easy to shoot, not too stiff and still very flexible and natural in their movements and not too aware of the camera yet. However old enough to listen to directions. What do you think of the end result, give us your opinions!

Collaborating

OK, first let me tell you a little bit about us. We, Mireille and Suzy are 2 friends, both from the Netherlands, but lived all over the world. Found each other here in Ridgefield, CT. Living on the same street, became friends and now started a small business together. Joining our first 2 letters of our names: SuMii and added an extra i to let it pop out. Since the Wii became popular, SuMii is easy to read.
Suzy is a photographer, me I am a stylist/photographer. However, my level is not the same as Suzy...I need to practice a bit more to get there. But I have the eye ;-) And I love to do the styling, make-up, backgrounds, themes..etc. So a nice combination and that's how SuMii was born.
Our first photo shoot together was back in 2005. I wanted some Xmas cards from our girls and had this idea of red fur. The girls naked only in red (fake) fur. Shoot looks amazing, however some people thought it was a bit piquant...to say the least! But common, the girls were 3 years old! Well I guess, that is the difference between liberal Europeans and conservative Americans from the North East. We thought it was a great shoot, nothing too revealing and very unique.
Please, share your thoughts.