Archive for the ‘Commercial’ Category

October has become known as “Domestic Violence Awareness Month”, and this year, Nicol Photography is working as a liaison to this cause. With our studio being based in a city that has seen two tragedies of domestic violence within the past three months, this is a month in which we believe our community could more than stand a little positive attention. With that realization, we chose to create a positive studio event where women could help other women and we could, in turn, do our part to raise awareness for something that countless individuals have been (and sadly, will continue to be) affected by.

 

Nicol Photography is sponsoring the Domestic Violence Awareness Event in our studio on October 30, 2011. The studio is located at 308 E. Main St., Alliance, Ohio. This event will be running from 1:00PM – 5:00PM,, and is open to any and all women who are interested in raising awareness for this cause. We will have a varied array of female-operated businesses, providing their products for raffle, as well as giving guests a chance to purchase, book parties, and learn more about the product lines.

 

Raffles will take place throughout the day. Our vendors will be providing raffles for products from their businesses, and there will we a large raffle basket, including items from each vendor as well as items from several outside vendors who have chosen to donate. The tickets can be easily earned, with the ladies who attend bringing in donations. For every five items that are donated, we will give out two tickets. These tickets can be used on individual items, as well as on the big prize..

 

At this time, vendors include: Mary Kay, Tastefully Simple, Miche Bags, Cookie Lee, Scentsy, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Thirty-One Gifts, Dove Chocolate Discoveries, Silk Flower Arrangements, Wine Shop at Home, Avon, and Pure Romance. We will have one representative from each business, who will present for 15-20 minutes. Some vendor companies have been known as advocates in the area of Domestic Violence for quite some time, and these ladies are doing the best that they can to assist in the fight against Domestic Violence.

We will also be holding a 50/50 drawing during this event. Tickets for the 50/50 will be $2.00 per ticket, or five (5) tickets for $8.00. The winner will receive half of the proceeds, with the other half being donated towards Domestic Violence.

 

Physical donations that can be taken are: lightly worn clothing, toiletries, beauty care items, reading materials, non-perishable food items, and small hobby items. All physical donations will be distributed between the Alliance Area and Canton Area Domestic Violence Centers. All monetary donations will be distributed to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Through doing this, we are able to assist on both a local and a national level, allowing us to assist even more women.

-For any additional questions you may have about this event, please contact Nicol Photography at 330-821-7714, or by email at photo@nicolphoto.com. We will be more than happy to assist you in any way that we can, and to do our best to help you make a difference.

We at Nicol Photography sincerely hope to see a large turnout, in support of those who have been affected by Domestic Violence. If there is anything that the community of Alliance understands, it’s that tragedy can sometimes come when you least expect it. We hope that in reaching out to neighboring areas, we can alter the devastating course of action that many women may face, and to raise awareness of what Domestic Violence is and what it does to people. Just because domestic violence happens doesn’t mean it’s okay.

 

Networking – Business After Hours

Three local businesses in Alliance had a Business After Hours last night. What is a Business After Hours? Its an event for the local business owners, and some of their employees, to get together.

The social networking was held at Uptown Auto, 330 Car Salon and Autozone.

Who attends these events? Politicians, small business owners, clergy people and employees of small businesses. Its a time to relax and socialize and network with businesses in town. Sharing tips and also exchanging business cards is but one way to help each other with business. And if another business can refer someone from their town – its much better then seeing the business go elsewhere.

Smile – Picture Time (simple business picture)

The people pictured in the image below are the owners of 330 Car Salon, Autozone manager, and co-owners of Uptown.

If you would like to host a business after hours, get a hold of us or Mark Locke at the Alliance Area Chamber of Commerce and we can help you organize one.

Thank you for inviting us – Great Business After Hours.

Small businesses keep more money in our towns.

Are you a business or offer professional services to families, children or events such as weddings? We have been working hard in our studio to come up with great ideas to help cross promote or network with other small businesses in our area.

Working together our small businesses can help our community thrive.

We are actively pursuing opportunities to network with other Alliance, Canton and Stark County businesses and professionals. If you are a small business owner or a professional in the Alliance/Canton area or know one, we would love to hear from you.

Some businesses or professionals we would love to connect with are:

Hair stylists/Salons

Makeup Artists

Image Consultants/Personal Assistants

Dentist/Orthodontist

Bakery

Interior Design

Toy Store

Banquet Hall/Catering

Family Restaurant

Jewelry Store

Clothing Boutique

Real Estate Agents

Dance Studio/Sports Team directors

Day Care/Preschools

Car Dealerships

 

The list is endless. If we work together as small businesses, we can keep more money in our community to help it grow.

If you are interested in working together as small businesses, contact us by calling 330-821-7714 or click here to send an email.

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s house hunters are turning to the Internet more and more when looking for a home. What does this mean? First impression is something that you need and its only a quick click and they move on to the next house listing on any Real Estate Website. How easy is it to take a picture of the interior of a home? Grab a point and shoot camera and start taking pictures. The one thing that you want to ask yourself is – am I doing right by my clients in showing images of their home that were taken in a hurry and that does not properly show off their home to attract the most number of clients possible?

Recently I was able to help out a local Real Estate Agent, Patti Oney (from Whipple Realty), to photograph the interior of a home that she is showing in the Alliance area. The images below are an example of what I captured using a point and shoot camera, and using a professional grade camera with the skill that a professional photographer can offer.

Living Room

As you enter the house you see the living room first.

From a point and shoot camera

Dinning Room

Dining room – professional image

From a point and shoot camera

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom – professional image

From a point and shoot camera

Bathroom

Bathroom – does it look like the tub is filled with water?

From a point and shoot camera – impossible to capture everything that was captured
on the image above this one. Is this a half bath or a full bath? It’s difficult to tell
from this image, but not from the one above.

If you are interested in finding out how we can help make your listing “POP” compared to other Real Estate Agents, and get an advantage over your competition – contact us and we will be glad to help you in selling that home for your clients.

What is a wedding without a great cake? That would be like having a wedding without a GREAT photographer (I know one or two – drop me a line and I can help you).

We met the owners of A Catered Affair, LLC at a bridal show a few years ago. We were blown away with their cake designs and the taste of their cakes. Please visit their site to see more examples of the cakes.

They were approached by a Wedding Cake Magazine, to have an original cake photographed and placed in the magazine. There were some rules that must be followed to have the images of the cake be included in the upcoming edition. It could not have been displayed at a bridal show and/or photographed for magazine, website or any other form of publication. So the cake that you see pictured in this post is not the one that they are sending to the magazine, but they had with them as I photographed the cake that they recently built. I should have permission to place the images of their new cake on my site soon – I don’t want them to have spent all of their time coming up with a concept, designing, making the cake and transporting it to our studio for nothing.

Let me tell you – these sample cakes looked SO good that I could have taken a bit out of them. Interesting fact that I was told about the sample cakes – you can smell the sweetness of the fondant for up to 2 years after it has been made. My studio smelled like a bakery for a couple of hours after they left.

Our local chamber of commerce had their annual golf outing. In attendance were some of the top businessmen from Alliance and some surrounding areas, plus the president of the local college was out to have some golf time as well.

This year the winners were the Mount Union College team.

Nicole and I were there to capture the groups that played as well as some action shots so that they could be used in the chamber’s newsletter.

After one of the final pictures that we took, Nicole took off with the Golf Car and I tried to catch up. I understand why golf cars are used, it’s a little bit of a walk from the back of the course to the club house.

Trying to catch up to my ride.

These put themselves in harm way to save our houses, come to our help during car wrecks and most other emergencies in their small community.

They wanted to get a group picture – why have them line up like it was a class picture? Most of these guys have been out of school for a few years. Having their equipment that they depend on to do their work, placed behind them would show them as they are – guys who are guys.

Thank you for being there and protecting us. My hat goes off to all of the volunteer firefighters around the USA and around the world.