The Perfect Gift

How many times a year do you spend hours online and in stores searching aimlessly for that perfect gift for a loved one or friend?

This time don't think so hard. We have the perfect solution that glows with thoughtfulness and personalization. A gift that will result in a cherished keepsake that will be remembered and admired for decades and even generations to come.

A Gift Certificate for a Personalized & fun Portrait Session with Grace Lightner Photography
You will be comforted in knowing that we offer personalized, fun and relaxed sessions where our clients (your family & friends) are treated like OUR family & friends. We offer unique, high quality services & products that are innovative, beautiful, and that will be admired for a lifetime and beyond.

When your gift recipient receives their final portraits and hang them on their walls to admire, you will know that they will have YOU to thank for it day after day, year after year.

We sell Gift Certificates in amounts of $20 or more that you can purchase for that special person which is perfect for ANY gift giving occasion. They can be used towards sessions, services or products.

And for those that create Baby, Bridal or Wedding Registries, don't forget to add our Gift Certificates to your list!

You never know, you may end up going in expecting to get a few wallets and a few 8x10s and end up leaving with an additional gorgeous Painted Portrait Canvas Gallery Wrap or a Luxurious Photo Album with all of your favorite Portraits!

And as a bonus we will ship them to you for free! Your beautiful Gift Certificate is printed on heavy weight glossy paper with directions on how your gift recipient can set up their personalized portrait session.

For more information or to order your Gift Certificates just call or e-mail us. 717-834-5479 or gracelightnerphotography@gmail.com

Habitat for Humanity Quilt

The Habitat for Humanity of Perry County, PA is sponsoring a dinner & quilt auction to raise funds to build homes for carefully selected and qualified lower income families who otherwise might not have been able to realize this important "American Dream"

The dinner & quilts will be auctioned off to raise funds. Saturday October 25 at the Highland Presbyterian Church in Newport. Additional information can be found at the following link http://www.habitatperrycopa.org/quilt_auction.html

The above photographs are of some of the numerous ladies of the "Perry County Piece Makers" Quilting Guild that volunteered their time to expertly hand quilt this beautifully crafted quilt. Each square is a different home to respresent the wonderful charity. A couple of these images will also be published in the soon available (in November of 2008) "Perry County In Focus" Photography Book that I mention in the previous post.

So if you are an admirer and collector of authentic hand made quilts, come out and bid for this gorgeous one of a kind quilt as well as other beautiful quilts, all for a great cause.

~ Grace

Perry County In Focus Photography Book

I have had the privledge and honor to have a few of my photogaphs included in a Photography Book that has been put together by the Perry County Council of the Arts and the Perry County Camera Club. This book is filled with photographs sumitted by numerous local photographers that capture and celebrate the people and beautiful places of Perry County.

"Perry County In Focus is a 100+ page, hard-bound book of photographs highlighting the people of Perry County going about their everyday lives: working, playing, relaxing, and socializing. The photographs were taken during the month of June 2008 by members of the Perry County Camera Club, who disbursed to every township and borough throughout the county. Reserve your copy of Perry County In Focus during the month of September and receive it in time for holiday gift-giving."

If you are interested in purchasing one for yourself or as a gift, information on reserving your copy can be found at http://www.perrycountyarts.org/photographybook.htm.

~ Grace

Christmas in July

Okay so it is August not July... anyways the emphasis is on Christmas and the Holiday Season. Too early to think about I know... (sorry for bringing it up!) but if you are planning on getting portraits taken of yourself, the kids, your family, the pets, ect... and sending out Holiday Photo cards, or giving them as gifts for the Holidays then I urge you to take a few minutes and set up an appointment now.

Each studio & photographer has their own turn around time when it comes to delivering the final prints. So if you don't know the turn around time of your favorite photographer/studio, be sure to call them and ask.

Waiting until the last minute and often the last month will most likely leave you will little to no options come Holiday time. Trust me, I know because it happened to me (Long story but interesting, I'd be glad to share it if you ask me in person). And that is a large part to how my studio and career in Portrait Photography has come about.

For our studio we recommend that if you want Portraits for the Holiday Season that you schedule your photo shoot no later than:

• December 1 if you plan on getting prints (Add a week or so if you need to ship gifts out to people.)
• November 17 if you plan on sending Photo Greeting Cards
• October 31 if you plan on having us create Portrait Paintings, Dream Books, Gallery Wraps or other specialty services & products. (Add a week or so if you need to ship gifts out to people.)

These dates are really important for our studio because it takes approximately a week after a session to prepare online proofs, and then you need to give yourself a few days to choose (add a couple of weeks to the above timeline if you tend to be on the indecisive side). Then about 1.5 weeks for us to process & place the order with our lab, receive, review and ship them to your doorstep.

This post has less to do with us wanting to fill our appointment books and more to do with helping others realize what they can expect and to minimize Holiday stress for others (and for ourselves too). And should you wish to book your Holiday Portrait Session with our studio, please book early! October & September are filling up quickly! 717-834-5479

Yours Truly,

Grace

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday 3/19/08 was officially our 1 year anniversary and it was only by chance that I realized it. So YAY!!! Happy Anniversary!!!

This past year has been an amazing journey for this business, the studio, myself and my work. I have learned so much as far as figuring out how to run a business, perfecting lighting and photography techniques, discovering a personal style, researching products, taking classes and what feels like a million other things along the way.

I never imagined things would have come as far along as they have this past year. I simply love what I do more than ever and I look forward to what the next year will bring not only for myself but for my clients.

I have to thank all of the past and current clients who have helped develop this passion of art into what it is now. I get an immense amount of joy and inspiration from bringing complete satisfaction to my clients and delivering them images that move them, delight them and bring them happiness. I want them to be proud to display my work in their home and their work.

Thank you to my wonderful clients who have been some of the most amazing people I have had the honor of working with. Here is to another awesome year!

Love,
Grace Lightner

We're back...

Yes that is right I am back & blogging! Last year as it was getting busy my husband convinced me that blogging would just take too much time so I took it down. But after noticing that after several months of the blog being taken down it still gets the most hits out of all our pages (even after the link was removed!), it was apparent that it needed to be brought back.

So this is where we will freely discuss the latest happenings on new services, products and highlights from recent shoots as well as personal more candid little quips from your's truly.

So subscribe to our feed, add our blog as a favorite site, or make it your homepage! I will try and keep it interesting.

Sincerely,

Grace Lightner

(Yes this is me, so so serious! I am not that serious really. This was a self portrait I took for a class and the only one I didn't look like a goofball in.)

Our Brand New Blog

Presenting our very new blog authored by yours truly Grace Lightner. Thanks for checking it out.

The purpose of this blog will be to keep current and potential clients and friends updated on all the changes and new things going on with our studio and business. This will include:

• Updates on new sets and props
• Annoucement of special promotions and sales
• New products and services
• Changes and improvements beneficial to our clients
• Casting calls for test models

In addition to our studio and business updates, clients will want to visit often as we will include short blurbs about recent shoots. We will also include samples of favorite images from recent shoots featuring our stars, you!

Thanks for visiting, please bookmark our blog & our website and visit soon for regularly updated content.

Sincerely,

Grace Lightner

http://www.gracelightnerphotography.com/