Where has the time gone? Somehow it's halfway through June, we're in the middle of Senior Season and never bored!

For the first time, we started this Senior Season by selling out of sessions for the month of June before photographing our first senior of the year! We ran a special where anyone who called and booked their senior session before May 31st would be entered to win a $500 portrait credit! We also were offering 50% off session fees in the month of June (we are still offering 30% off in July and 20% off in August) and a lot of people wanted to get their portraits taken care of before their summer schedules got too chaotic. The phones were ringing nonstop and before we knew it we were booking appointments in July!

On May 31st we went live on Facebook to announce our contest winner, Julia, a North Haven High senior! We will be posting some BTS from her session on Snapchat (ImpresstionsSt)/Instagram (@impressionsstudio) stories so make sure you're following us!

We are still accepting appointment bookings through the summer! Keep in mind that most schools, including SHA and NHHS, have yearbook deadlines of August 31st so make sure you get your appointment in ASAP!

The beginning of the summer was spent at Sacred Heart Academy covering a variety of events and milestones for the class of 2017. Often with some of our schools, we only see students for picture day and a few other days throughout the year. It really was a pleasure watching SHA accomplish so much over these last 10 months. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors and hope to see them at events in the coming years!

Before the summer really picked up momentum, we updated the layout of our website and have heard some great feedback! We wanted a cleaner and more user-friendly look to help all of our clients find what they are looking for. Throughout the school year, we posted candid event and sports images from North Haven High School and Sacred Heart and now people interested in purchasing those photos can now access them much easier. Also, we photograph more than high school seniors, which many people don't realize. Professional headshots, families, newborns and furry friends is a large part of what we document here at Impressions and we love it! We are so happy to have our entire body of work in one place for all to see now. Click the image below to view the new layout yourself!

The summer is just beginning and lots of fun lies ahead! We can't wait to photograph your session, Class of 2018! See you soon!

Today's "Social Media" world is a lot different than the way things were even just 10 years ago. As a small business owner there are so many ways to connect with your current and prospective clients and sometimes it's hard to keep up with what is the best approach. One tactic that has never failed me through the years though, is "word of mouth" and testimonials from past clients. Knowing your friends (or your child's friends/their parents!) had a positive experience with something helps to reassure you that you're making a good choice. 

This year was the first that we chose to actually print some of the testimonials in our Senior Catalog. We had trouble choosing which ones to print but wanted to make sure we shared even the ones we didn't print with you.

Let's not forget about Mom's thoughts! Thank you for your thoughts Barbara and Arlene!

We hope these testimonials help when thinking about who to choose for your Senior Portrait Photographer! Thank you for reading this week's blog.

Here at Impressions Studio we are proud to offer a variety of sessions and our most popular continue to be the Art, Fashion and Top Model sessions. The thing these three have in common is the option to go on location. In studio sessions are great, don't get me wrong, but going on location adds a whole layer of uniqueness and comfortability to it all. Often people feel out of place or awkward in front of a camera but when you remove the four walls of a building they're not very familiar with and add in a natural background or location that is special to them, their whole demeanor changes. 

As we said, the three sessions that allow choosing a location are the Art, Fashion and Top Model. The Art Session offers the option to go out on the studio's property. We have an "outdoor studio" area, a front porch and plenty of photogenic nooks and crannies. This is a great choice for anyone who has a slightly restrictive schedule but wants to add some variety to their overall session. 

Both the Fashion (one location) and Top Model (two locations) offer the opportunity to choose an offsite location. Seniors will often ask where to go of this portion of their session. The most popular locations are definitely Gouveia Vineyards and the beach. Gouveia is absolutely gorgeous any time of the year. Between the pond, the never-ending views on the property or the grape vines themselves, there is always a new angle to photograph from. 

You can never go wrong when it comes to choosing the beach. Choosing outfits is a lot simpler because you have the option to go with neutrals or something a little brighter and more fun that will still look great. We've photographed at a ton of beach locations over the years because here at Impressions, we have the luxury of being close by! The two beach locations we photograph at most are Light House Point Park and Hammonasset Beach. Sometimes we've even been invited to family beach houses to capture these seniors in an environment they really grew up with.

When it comes to picking a location we are never discriminatory! We've been to horse farms, apple orchards, theaters and many other places. Downtown Wallingford has some real "gem spots" that you may have never noticed that we love to shoot in. Over the years, we've had some students choose a location we've never been to before but was important to them. One that stood out last year was when we photographed at The Barns at Wesleyan Hills. The story behind why they chose the location was so sweet but also the venue property was more beautiful than we had even realized. Not only is it nice to see these locations and learn why they are special but it's also fun to explore and photograph in new areas. 

Now we know this is a lot of information to take in but we hope it was helpful! We're always (especially Tuesday-Friday 9:30-5:30) here to help talk you through choosing the best location for you or coordinating how you and your best friend can go to the same location and still have completely personalized sessions. The possibilities of ways we can help or list of locations we can offer to choose from is endless! We can't wait for your Senior Session!