We now have two photo booths available and they are going out every weekend.

Last weekend we was at Okibogi and at the Sponsor tent at Saturday in the Park. Lacy and I had a great time at Saturday in the Park and I think the other Sponsors did to. Here are some samples from the Booth...

We do a lot of weddings and they are wonderful. We also get called to do a photo shoot for a magazine, business or website often. Here is two photos that bookend a week! Crazy man, crazy!

Just a quick howdy as we are off to another wedding but wanted to share with you all the cutest photo of two flower girls! Enjoy...

Each day we shoot a camera, Eric and I know we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to not only do what we love to do, but to take care of our clients in a way that is meaningful and real. We appreciate all who walk through our door. Today, we had the privilege of giving back to our community in a way that makes us feel great!

United Way of Siouxland held its annual Women’s Power Lunch, with a special guest speaker today. This luncheon, partnered with the Waitt Family Foundation, financially assists single moms, and now dads, with higher education and empowers the recipient to change the circumstances of their lives.

Speaking this year was Mary Lou Retton, 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist in gymnastics, winner of three American Cups and many other achievements, spoke to a crowded Convention Center about challenges, courage and opportunity. The youngest of five, Mary Lou told us she loved to “bounce” around as a child and at seven she found that there was a sporting event that actually encouraged it and it had a name, gymnastics. She took lessons, worked hard and persevered. Through dedication and determination, she excelled. One day, while at a gymnastics meet, Bela Karolyi, former coach of famed Nadia Comăneci , spotted her and asked her to train with him. She was 14. She also knew it was an opportunity she could not pass up even though it meant great challenge and sacrifice. Her path to the Olympics was not a straight shot or easy but it was an adventure that made her the champion of a generation. Mary Lou Retton is the only American to date to ever when the All Around Gold Medal in woman’s gymnastics.

Before giving her speech, Mary Lou visited with VIP ticket holders. We have had the remarkable experience of participating in this event by taking group portraits of the ladies attending with the celebrity guest. Mary Lou Retton was charming and delightful. The attendees, committee members and staff of the United Way Siouxland were awesome as always, making our experience relaxed and enjoyable.

Volunteering for this event truly gives us an opportunity to help in a very small way. After taking the portrait, each participant receives a 5x7 enlargement with our compliments. We, on the other hand, not only meet celebrities, and the many awesome women in our community, we get to help give back to our Siouxland community that has embraced us so well.

This is an image of Mary Lou having fun with some of the participants. Women know how to party and it starts with wearing a kickin' set of heel but the real fun starts when you take them off!

Well, what do you think of our new web site and pricing?

Many people who are interested in our photo booth ask the dementions. Here they are: Because the booth disassembles, the largest door must accommodate a 29”x40”x73” box. The entire footprint is 4’x8’x6’1”. Hope that helps!

Last Sunday volunteer fire departments and rescue from Dakota County were burning an old home in the middle of Jackson, NE., so the volunteers get some hands on training for fires and emergencies. It was a cold, February day but you could really feel the heat!

Dedicated volunteers get called to put out fires and assist people in dangerous situations and without any other reason than to help someone in need. As they don their protective gear and head out into the night, day, heat or cold, their only mission is to help. Training such as the one that happened last Sunday is invaluable to volunteer rescue and fire personnel. The fire was impressive and the crew was cautious, professional and observant.

Early this morning, we awoke to sirens and lights. Our neighbor’s home had caught on fire. The Sioux City fire department, police and ambulance responded with the same characteristics as the volunteers we had just photographed. This, however, wasn't a training session. As the temperature hovered around zero, the firemen and rescue did their best to save the people inside and stop the fire from spreading to the neighboring homes but smoke inhalation killed our neighbor, his friend and his dog long before anyone had called 911. All three perished before the fire had shown itself through the walls.

I sign my emails with this quote, "What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it." by T. Simmons but I don’t run into burning buildings. Most of us don’t. Still, you only get one life. Make it count.

We have had the same look to our web site for a few years now. Every year I would update some of the photos and make some minor changes but it was still basically the same. When you have a good thing, why change it? Many people have complimented us on our oldpresent web site. It is a vital part of our business and it has worked very well for us, as well as our clients. Because the internet is always changing, I have to change with it. With the advent of Web 2.0, XHTML, and CSS, the internet standards have changed so it was time to create a new, improved model.

In a couple of weeks I will be publishing our new design. I've been working on it for a while now and it is coming together quickly. Please let us know of this new look. All suggestions, comments or questions are appreciated.

New things to look for: New images! We are going to have downloadable windows backgrounds and screen savers for your computer, FREE! Our social network has grown to include Facebook and MySpace so be sure to look us up and become a part of our world and we can sneak a peek at yours!

Everyone at iZZon photography is trying to stay in high spirits as we round the last lap of winter. That grumpy groundhog says we have six more weeks of the cold stuff and I'm trying hard to wrap my head around it! Six weeks seems like a long time but really, in our world, six weeks is a blink of an eye. We have another wedding coming up, we just finished another bridal fair, we have been shooting a lot of our engaged couples and getting to know them, brides and grooms are looking for a photographer for their 2010 weddings (some still hopeful for 2009-we do have a few openings in July, one in June and one in August), a few families, a retirement party and some children's portraits. Now that Valentine's is just around the corner, we are getting requests for boudoir sessions! These sessions are tastefully done, artistic portraits of men or women in an alluring way and it is sure to heat up an evening!

Still, with all the work and fun we have had and continue to have, I am looking forward to spring and getting my hands dirty in the garden. Six more weeks of scooping snow! Actually, I'm going to use this time to get ready for our spring season and take a little time to enjoy my granddaughters!

I think this little girl is hoping for spring, too!

Here it is, time for a new year. This year we welcomed another granddaughter into our lives and she is wonderful as is her big sister. We had some setbacks and diffuculty, some goals met, new goals made but through it all, we continue to create great relationships with our clients as they become our friends and a part of our iZZon family. We feel we give our clients something more than just great photos; we give them memories that they will have for many, many years. We also give them more than that, we give our clients a piece of us, authentically crazy, fun, goofy, professional, lovable us! And boy, do we get that back in return! People come into our studio rather intimidated, a little nervous and walk out laughing and saying what a great time they had and how they loved their photos. Most say they have never had such a relaxing photo session. Weddings, seniors and families are always a blast! Puppies, we have the best luck with puppies and cats, too! We recently did an engagement couple with two puppies who are going to be in the wedding! I do boudoir photography, too, and recently did a setting for a gal whose fiancé is overseas. (Eric stays away for boudoir settings, too girlie for him.) That is tearing up the studio for about 2 hours of complete craziness but what a blast! It's dressing up and having fun!

We've had lots of clients, old and new this year come into the studio and we just wanted to say thank you for choosing iZZon photography! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of your lives, sharing the most wonderful times of your life and allowing us to capture those memories for you. We are honored.

Eric and Denise

As the Thanksgiving dinners end and the work begins, we are reminded how lucky we are to be doing what we love and that people not only like our work but appreciate what we do and how we do it. We have received some wonderful gifts from our family and clients in the past and they all are so appreciated. This year, we were sent some flowers and would like to share their beauty with you in this time of year when we are sometimes saddened by loss of someone, some past time in our lives or some regret. Flowers always speak of hope and new tomorrows for even by their passing, seeds of a new generation of blooms will bring renewed joy. Life is like that, too, so here is a photo of our gift and we hope looking at it brings a smile, a hope and a joy to you as well. Happy Thanksgiving!

Marketing is a funny thing. Here at iZZon we haven’t done a lot of advertising in the past. We have used the “Word of Mouth” advertising and it has worked very well for us. We love our clients with ‘big mouths’! And our clients love us, too.

Last year I built a photo booth, another cool thing iZZon can offer and now we have to let everyone know it ‘s available so we decided to take our photo booth to a couple of bridal fairs this year so that people can see it and play with it. We are going to be at two bridal fairs: one with KG95 and Goingtogetwed.com on November 30 and the Powell Broadcasting’s Bridal Fair on January 11. If you listen to KG95, you probably hear the Bridal Fair ads, and you might have heard our name mentioned at the end of some of these ads. We also are chatting live on Saturday night with Kevin Wolff. Now these ads are a lot of fun because we get to go into the studio and talk about what ever we want, unscripted. If I can get a recording I will try and post them here.

We also have some ads in the Journal and they seem to be working. This is something that I wanted to do sense we opened iZZon back in 1999. We had our ad printed upside down. We have gotten several calls from people letting us know our ad is upside down. I need to create two more ads like these. If anyone would like to be a model, and hang upside down in the Sunday paper, send us an email or call us.

Maternity portraiture can be very artisitc and exciting, perhaps because babies bring us such joy and hope for the future. This young lady had her baby and both are very healthy. We will be doing her baby's photos very soon! Congratulations!

The other day we did a setting of a family. The little girl is about one and a half and she had just awoke from a nap in a great mood but I'm sure she was a little confused about where she was and what was going on. We decided to take some shots outside because the light was getting low in the sky and it would give her an opportunity to stretch her legs and become used to us taking her photo.

While we try not to do too much posing with little ones, you try get your subjects to look in the general direction of the photographer. In this case, we had a little help from the neighbors’ cat. He (we call him Bob because he is a bob tailed cat) happened to wonder into the yard and capture her attention for quite some time. We were able to capture this image with Bob's help. It's a great image because it captures her sense of wide eyed innocence. She looks curious. Bob is hiding behind my back as I capture the image.

This is Bob. Oblivious to how he helped us keep this little one's attention, we appreciate his help, nonetheless. The toddler did a wonderful job getting her portrait taken, with or without Bob, but she sure was interested in that cat!

Here come the holidays! As we ride the roller coaster of family events this next couple of months, I just wanted to remind you that we still have time to take your portraits for gifts for your family. If you are having a hard time in coming up with gift ideas, nothing says you care more than portraits. When you can't think of what to get your parents, who have been married for 30 years and have everything they need and buy everything they want, give them a gift they would love-a portrait of their children or grandchildren. If you have a friend or family member who is getting married and again, you don't want to buy a gift that is going to be returned, a gift certificate from iZZon photography is something that is surely going to be received with smiles and happiness. Because iZZon photography has been in Siouxland since 1999, we have a reputation as being a customer service driven, quality photography studio that LOVES what we do! If you have a passion for great portraiture, for any occasion, call us! While we do not sell "packages" we do have a discount purchase incentive. Imagine your family here.

I just had my carpets cleaned by a new company in town, a husband and wife team called Affordable Carpet Cleaning and Restoration. They did a great job on my carpets and as I am ashamed to show this next image, I think you will appreciate the fact that these two did a great job for a great price! This is my carpet in the living room. The top part has been steamed cleaned and the lower half, well, let's just say the shampooer I rented didn't do a very good job at ALL! Their number is 560-4506 and they have a coupon in the Sioux City Journal.