It’s called “Kids of the Hunter 2011″, it will raise a bunch of funds for the Hunter Medical Research Institute, and we need your help to make it happen

Here’s a quick summary of what’s happening:

• For a limited time, we’re offering discounted family portrait sessions, and donating 100% of every session fee to HMRI.
• Each family we photograph will be invited to feature in the book, which will be sold as a further fundraiser for HMRI.
• You won’t be pressured to buy prints for yourself, but we’re hoping you’ll love your photos enough to spend a bit of money on them!

Want to know more? Click here for all of the details.

Thanks for your support!

I’m not sure I believe them … it seems to me that 2011 is disappearing a lot more quickly than it was supposed to

Anyway, to help you out with your gift-giving on Sunday, we’re offering a limited edition gift card. Only 15 are available, and at $50 for a beautifully embossed $400 gift card, we think they’re a pretty awesome deal! (That’s enough to cover a portrait session and an 8×12″ gift print, with plenty of credit to spare.)

Order by midday Thursday for guaranteed delivery by Friday. Click here for more information and to order online.

And to pretty up the post, here’s a photo my own mother may never forgive me for.

So, here are two final gift ideas for you. One is from us, one is not. Both can be purchased at the last minute, without leaving your house/office/internet cafe.

Please read to the end. There’s a killer twist.

Portrait gift certificate: pay $110, get $350

It’s pretty simple, really. Give us $110 (the price of a portrait session) and we’ll give you a very pretty gift certificate (embossed and everything) for $350. Your recipient will be able to book a portrait session anytime in the first half of 2011, and have their first $240 of prints covered!

Order by 10.00am tomorrow (Thursday) to have your gift certificate posted out in time for Christmas (free Express Post shipping), or call us to arrange a pick up until midday Friday.

Click here for details or to place your order.

RSPCA Guardian Angelship

We love animals. If you do too, please consider gifting a fellow pet-lover with RSPCA Guardian Angel status this Christmas. Here’s the spiel:

Sadly, Christmas is a time of particular need for the RSPCA. Every year, thousands of animals turn to the RSPCA for help and hundreds still remain in desperate need of financial support so they can find new homes.

You can make a real difference. In making a one off donation or a gift donation for a friend, you will join others in becoming a Guardian Angel to one lucky animal this New Year. Help us through this crisis and donate now to become a Guardian Angel.

Click here to donate.

The twist

Here’s the twist: if you spend $100 or more on an RSPCA Guardian Angelship AND buy a portrait gift certificate from us, we’ll add a further $240 to your gift certificate. Just forward your receipt from the RSPCA to us at info@ofdphoto.com, and we’ll turn your $350 gift certificate into a $590 gift certificate. That’s how much we want you to donate to the RSPCA

And because a post about the RSPCA wouldn’t be complete without a pet photo, meet Hippie Dog:

Me too, and I haven’t even started shopping yet.

Here’s one for the coffee lover in your life, courtesy of Coffee on Crown, the coffee shop we share a building with (unfortunately for my waistline ).

They’re offering two gift packs for Christmas. The first one ($25) contains 250g fresh roasted coffee beans, 100g chocolate coated coffee beans, a gingerbread man, and a free coffee token.

The second pack ($15) is for the chocolate lover! It contains 100g chocolate powder, 100g white chocolate powder, 100g fresh roasted coffee beans, and a free coffee token.

Both packs come in a Christmas stocking handmade from recycled burlap coffee sacks. How cool do they look?

For information on how to find Coffee on Crown, check out their website. They’re open Monday to Saturday until 3pm

(Incidentally, Coffee on Crown’s coffee is quite possibly the best in Newcastle. It’s so good I don’t need sugar in it. For reals.)

Not every instalment will be about things we sell, but this first one is.

You probably already know that I teach a photography course. If you didn’t, there’s a heap of information about it over here.

Anyway, if you know someone who would love to learn more about photography (perhaps someone who is getting a digital SLR for Christmas?), we’re running a special on early registrations for our February course: $110 off if you book in by midnight on Monday 21 December. We’ll even post out a pretty gift certificate so you have something to hand over on Christmas Day.

If our February course books out fast, we’ll consider adding another.

Here’s what previous students have said about the course (let’s hope they don’t mind me quoting them):

The course is fantastic and I don’t think I ever told you how life-changing it has been for me. I really was not a very happy person before I did the course, because my work took up all of my time and I had no life. The course gave me a hobby and it’s been fantastic to be able to throw myself into it. I just wanted to thank you!!!

I liked learning the exposure and light concepts FINALLY! Also the treasure hunt on the field trip allowed me to think outside the square. Also, the forums are excellent for feedback and comparing work with others.

I liked the informal, relaxed way the material was presented. Although the information was all quite technical, Luke managed to present it clearly in a way everyone could understand and relate to. I have learnt so much and been inspired.

The field trips were great. They really emphasised how ordinary objects can be interesting subject matter for photographs. Really great exercise seeing how other people interpreted the same subject matter once photos were posted on the forum.

Luke was happy to answer any questions I asked and has a wealth of knowledge. I’m very happy and would recommend the course to friends/family interested in improving their photography.

Interested? Click here for all the details, or click here to register.

While ALL of your submissions warmed our hearts and were a delight to read, there were two families whose stories melted us and we couldn’t help but give them both a free portrait session for Christmas.

Here’s the story of the first family to win, as told by Danielle:

Although I would REALLY like to win this awesome prize myself… I would LOVE to win for my much deserving sister-in-law and really brighten Christmas for her and her beautiful kids.

She is a very strong person and devoted mother, the kind of person who would drop everything to be there for her friends and family.

Unfortunately, she has had a really tough past couple of months, having had to come to terms with the break-up of a 13 year relationship with the father of her four children. As well as recovering from a recent traumatic home invasion/personal attack which has led to having to move the entire family 2 weeks before Christmas.

This is something that I know they would all love and treasure for years to come and a luxury that they could never afford to spend on themselves. I am hoping that these photos could be the first pages in a new and happy chapter of their lives.

We share that hope, Danielle

And now to share a brief excerpt of the second family’s story, as told by Robyn:

You know the kind of family that just seem to have lots and lots of things go wrong? Well this is that family. Originally the health problems were with the dad (I believe that is ongoing) but more recently the mom’s health has been very problematic. She’s been in and out of hospital, and they’ve had financially difficulties as well. They finally got a house recently which was a boost but they are such a sweet Christian family and I know they’d love one of your portrait sessions but wouldn’t be able to afford it.

I copied and pasted the following from a group on Facebook called “Pray for Shazz” which has more info:

Time Line
2006 – Thyroid Cancer
2006 – Thyroid Cancer second operation
2006 – radiation treament
2007 – diagnoised with Lupus
2008 – Huge Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) with permanent damage to her left leg. It will always be 30% bigger than the other leg.
2008 – Mass removed from uterus (found not to be cancer)
2009 – diagnoised with Melanoma (on leg with DVT)
2009 – Melanoma site is infected and not healing. May need a skin graft.
2009 – living in temporary accommodation… looking for a house

There have been other difficulites that are not mentioned including her husband’s health and the death of her mom from pancreatic cancer, followed by her dad moving overseas. So essentially they were grieving the loss of both parents.

There’s just so much pain and struggle and triumph in this family’s ongoing story that we couldn’t ignore it. Sharron, there’s a free portrait session waiting for your family too.

Thanks so much to everyone who told us about their families, or about other families they love! It was a pleasure to read through your emails. I’m sorry we can’t have more winners!

Happy Christmas Eve, everybody

You’ve probably already heard about the special deal type things we’re running until Christmas.

If not, this post is for you.

It’s pretty simple, really. We want to help you give those you love a lasting gift: really good, non-cheesy photos that will look great on their wall for a really long time.

So, we’re offering portrait sessions for a whopping 37.5% off. And we’re including extra print credit, which makes the discount more like 58.333%! The only catch is that we’re booked out until 2010, so all we can give you for Christmas Day is a portrait certificate. You’ll have 12 months from Christmas Day to book in your session

You need to order by midnight Monday 21 December to get your portrait certificate delivered in time for Christmas, so get crackin’!

Click here for more details, including how to order.

We’re also offering a free portrait session to one deserving family, anywhere in Australia. Follow the link above for information on how to submit your family – or someone else’s – for consideration. The further from Newcastle, the better

Details on how to put your family in the running are back in the original post (under “deal #2″), but we’d like to suggest something a little different: share the story of someone else’s family with us. Perhaps you know a family who are having a hard time and could never afford to have professional portraits taken. Perhaps they don’t even think they need great family photos to hang up in their home. Tell us about them! And who knows, maybe your selflessness will be rewarded

Finally, here are a few recent photos to give you an idea of what your family portrait might look like. Click to see the whole shoot

PS: With a big post production backlog, and lots of people wanting their photos in time for Christmas, blogging is going a bit slow at the moment. It won’t always be this way. I’ve finally accepted that I need to employ someone to look after post production for me, and it looks like I’ll have someone starting in a couple of weeks. So, it won’t be too long and there will be no more backlog … ever! Can’t wait

It’s almost Christmas, and we’re offering not one, but TWO special deal type things.

Deal #1: $75 off family portrait sessions, with $100 extra print credit

Normally, our portrait sessions are $200, with a $100 print credit. Until midnight, Sunday 20 December, we’re offering portrait certificates for $125, with a $200 print credit.

The best part (aside from the fact that it’s a special deal type thing) is you’ve got 12 months to book in your session. We’ll send you a gift certificate in time for Christmas Day, and you can take your time figuring out a time and place to have your photos done.

Interested? Click here for more details, or to place your order.

Deal #2: one free portrait session, anywhere in Australia, with a $500 print credit

This one is just for our Facebook fans. (You can become one if you’re on Facebook. Here’s our page: facebook.com/ofdphoto)

A while back, we promised free stuff to our Facebook fans if they’d help us reach 500 fans. As of today, we have 559 fans. Woo! So here is our first instalment of free stuff.

We’re offering a free family portrait session, with $500 worth of prints or canvasses, to one special family, who can live anywhere in Australia. If there’s any travel involved, we’ll cover it.

If you’d like to be that family, here’s what you need to do:

• Make sure you’re one of our fans on Facebook.
• Set your Facebook status to “all I want for Christmas is an OFD portrait session: http://bit.ly/7Q8R2H”
• Tell us what you love about your family and why you’d like to be considered for this special offer. Just send us an email at: mystory@ofdphoto.com. Please let us know if you don’t want us to share your email on our blog. Tell us where you’re from, too.

Michelle and I will assess the entries based on who we think will benefit most from having us visit with our cameras, and will announce the winner on Christmas Eve. You have until midnight, 23 December to get your entry in. And if you win after buying a portrait certificate, we’ll either refund your purchase, or give you extra print credit. So you can’t lose, really

Deal #3

There is no deal #3. See deal #1 or deal #2.

Enjoy

So, if you live in Newcastle and aren’t otherwise occupied on Sunday, feel free to drop in on our stall anytime between 10am and 4pm! There will be more than a dozen businesses there, all selling different goodies that would make great gifts for Christmas, and by supporting them, you’ll be supporting the Girl Guides

Here are the details:

Date: Sunday 25 October 2009
Time: 10am to 4pm
Place: Girl Guides Hall, Lamington Drive, Warners Bay

Oh, and just so you know, we’ll be running a special on portrait sessions, and there might also be something nice from us in the raffle