Pbdstudios's Blog

My little angel Buster

Dorothy McCuskey — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:49:44 +0000

This is Buster the 4 legged love of my life,

Buster - Photo taken by Dorothy McCuskey

He has been a devoted companion and has seen me through a lot of very difficult and glorious changes in the time we’ve been together. His snuggles have really comforted me.

From the very beginning, Buster was my constant companion, following me everywhere and snuggling beside me on the couch whenever I sat down. But I gotta admit he was a pretty bad puppy, I got him when he was about 2 months old weighed 2.5 lbs.. the 2.5 lb lil ball of fur was so sweet so it wasnt until about 6 months old oh my gosh, he had to be under constant watch always getting into trouble.
when he was about 2 yrs old he started to settle down and I could honestly call him house trained.
He is a very good dog now still a little needy lol but its nice to be needed most the time.

He is a traveler he goes with me on my out of town for work when its available.

It’s hard to believe, but its been 6 yrs since I adopted Buster from probably a puppy mill in MS. Since I have gotten him I have learned of Puppy Mills and DO NOT SUPPORT OR APPROVE OF THEM! I am so thankful to have him and has no reflection on him at all but I will never go through a service such as Puppy Mills –

There are thousands of animals who have so much to share with a loving family. If you’re considering adding a furry-friend to your family in the new year, please think about adopting a rescue. Even if you have a specific breed in mind, try searching Google for a breed-specific rescue in your region. You’ll be surprised how many dogs (both purebreds and mixes) are desperately in need of good homes. If adopting a dog or cat isn’t an option, please consider donating to a rescue or the ASPCA in your area. It takes a lot of resources to care for these animals while they are waiting for new homes; you can donate money, food, blankets, cleaning supplies, or even just some of your time.

I can promise you from first hand experience: letting a furry, four-legged friend into your heart will be one of the best things you ever do.

What is a Retainer?

Dorothy McCuskey — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:56:25 +0000

Photo by Dorothy McCuskey PBD = Photography By Dorothy

Sometimes also referred to as a “Deposit” or “Booking Fee”, the correct term is actually retainer fee, and it refers to an agreed sum of money paid to secure the services of a professional for an agreed upon time-frame.

Retainer Fees are Standard in Wedding Photography

A retainer fee may be a new concept when you’ve just started looking into hiring a professional wedding photographer, but the practice is standard in the wedding photography industry.

Other Professions that use Retainers

You are probably already familiar with the retainer fee, as it often conjures up the image of a lawyer, the result of cultural training arising from movies or TV shows with lawyers as the major characters. Of course, with lawyers, even retainer fees can get really complicated with flavors like “security”, “advanced fee” and “evergreen” retainer fees. However, for the sake of argument, I would like to point out that a number of other professions retainer fees. Here’s a short list:

Doctors – certain doctors who practice “Boutique Medicine” use retainers
Bankers – their retainers are upfront fees charged to clients, even if “the deal” eventually doesn’t go through
Freelancers – software engineers, web designers, copywriters, consultants and such all use retainers of some sort, allowing them to pay the bills while working on and waiting on assignments
What Does it Mean when someone is Retained?

Once you’ve retained a service professional (by paying the fee, and signing a contract), you are officially BOOKED, and that professional would take him or herself “off the market”, so to speak, meaning they would not make it known that they are seeking work in a particular time-frame.

Why Non-Refundable?

Consider this: if the retainer fee was refundable, and for some reason the client decides “at the last minute” to request the money back — perhaps the wedding was canceled for some reason — then the professional photographer would have no income for the previously agreed upon date.

If this were to happen several times, you can be sure the professional photographer would soon no longer be in business.

To Summarize

By Paying the Retainer Fee:

you are paying for my promise to come shoot your wedding on the day of your wedding (plus any pre-wedding engagement session or post-wedding after-session).
-Dorothy McCuskey
www.pbdstudios.net
901.359.8575
pbdstudios@me.com

Courtney and Aaron Engagement Shoot

Dorothy McCuskey — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:01:14 +0000

Ok this is fun, I can’t wait to share’em with you!

This was fun LOL Aaron, Courtney and Me were out there chalking out our outline as quick as we could cause light was becoming a issue quickley. I am thinking here we are pretty darn good artiest…

these guys are an exact fit they are so cute together and really open to ideas and fun to work with looking forward to the big day in April which is going to sneak up on us here pretty quickly.

Here is some goodness another photographer had out there at the square this beautiful RED chair. I dont know who he was but he was done using it and took his couple into another location at the square and told us we could use it .. did not get a name (SUPER SHAME ON ME) but whoever you are THANK YOU.. I love this shot.

Family photos with the Brooks

Dorothy McCuskey — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:16:18 +0000

oh what a chilly day!!! BUrrrrrrr and Victoria, Tez and Tornika’s daughter was such a trooper.. She was so brave and did so good! She really Inspired us adults lol

I have known Tornika and Tez forever! I met them before Victoria was born when they still lived in MS and did the preggy photos. Then by chance they moved right into our neighborhood. With this fun continued relationship Tornika calls me once a year for family photos. Its really been fun to preserve these yearly events with them. NOW LOOKING FORWARD TO Next Year!

TIPS ON INVITATIONS

Dorothy McCuskey — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:05:34 +0000

Dixon’s Printing
TIP OF THE DAY. (901) 309-1639

Photo taken by Dorothy McCuskey PBD Studios

Your invitations should go out six to eight weeks before the wedding — that gives guests plenty of time to clear their schedules for the day and make travel arrangements if they are out-of-towners. It also allows ample time for you to get a final head count and start making a seating chart. You should start getting responses back two weeks before the big day.
-Cheryl.

What a Year!

Dorothy McCuskey — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:29:01 +0000

Finishing strong and wishing you well!

Hi everyone!
What a beautiful year, meeting so many wonderful people and making friends. Starting out I want to THANK ALL YOU WONDERFUL FOLKS. Its just been so fun and very exciting!

So now It’s that time of the year when we get to wave goodbye to a familiar friend, or a familiar foe, the year that we are so familiar with. We have written the numbers 2011 countless times. In a few days, we get to welcome in a new year and with it, new hopes and new opportunities. I encourage you to press the internal reset button and really make 2012 your year! This is the year to get fit, get in touch with a long lost friend, start a new hobby, or take your wedding to the next level. Whatever you choose to do, our best wishes are with you, and we here at the PBD Studios are always here to help you with your wedding goals and aspirations.

We aren’t leaving you empty handed either. We have a ton of goodies jammed right up to the end of the year. So for starters check out the Bridal show at Carahills II January 1st 2012.
Www.carahills.com

We also will be announcing dates for the WEAM workshops so stay tunned.

Enjoy the New Year stay safe

-Dorothy McCuskey PBD = photography by Dorothy

Jennifer and Daniel 11-11-11

Dorothy McCuskey — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:52:17 +0000

Jennifer and Daniel celebrated at the beautiful Carahills 1 in Eads TN 11-11-11 at 11AM! Jennifer was absolutley stunning the day was perfect. It was so much fun working with them, made it easy for Elizabeth and I to shoot a lot of GOODIES. You could really feel the excitement with these guy. There are so many reasons we love photographing weddings, but the one that trumps them all is that couples allow and trust us to witness and document some of the most beautiful and intimate moments in their lives. Doing a first look is not only great for stress relief, it’s often a wonderfully intimate, emotion-filled moment for couples who choose to go this route. That is exactly what Jennifer and Daniel decided to do and it LEFT us so many options and fun time for photographs AND for them enjoy the reception more with Family and Friends other than them and immediate family had no idea that when she walked down the aisle had they already done all their photos.
Its really something to think about.

As you can see here Jennifer is just radiant.

The sun was a little bright as you can see we just had fun with it, incorporating the sunshades

CHRISTMAS 2011 FAMILY

Dorothy McCuskey — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:46:12 +0000

A New Year is upon us…. Goodbye to 2011 – a year of happiness and joy for my family! Welcome 2012 – new roads to travel – I shall embrace this year, family and friends with all of it’s hope, faith and confidence and most of all LOVE.
Just recently loosing a very very close and good friend Byron Moore, we really realize how fragile we are.
And I Thank God every day for the wonderful people in my life.

This year has been great in businiess with alot of Thanks to Elizabeth. I really appreciate her dedication, sweet loving personality.
We were smart this year got out at the end of OCT 2011 and traded services to each other and took our photos for Christmas BAM we are are good!! Got it done and cards out on time!
I am a photographer and I am the last one that gets a photo of us and cards out.

ok so MOVING on to Christmas with family and friends.
We went to Louisiana celebrated the birth of our Saviour a day early. My poor dad was in the hospital with pnemonia but in good spirits we were back and forth from the house to the hosiptal.. and good news he is out now.

Christmas Eve morning started off with us exchanging our gifts – me a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores TJ Max, beautiful candel holder from the kids, and this rockin necklace from my parents that says “I shoot people” with a lil camera on it.. love it, I really got some wonderful stuff, Robert got some nice fluffy jammer bottoms with some underware lol. We had already gotten our main Christmas presents a set of nice nice pots and pans and we were both very happy. Around 2pm everybody set down to eat. Then in a couple hours we went to the hospital to sneak dad some turkey and fun food from dinner.

David (my son) and his wife Ashley made it by that was a awesome treat

Then when they are leaving we had to take photos of our babies Buster and Riggs heehehehe love fur babies

Brian Linton my brother in law was nice to enough to go out side and be our photographer

My man doing his thing

Mom getting some den den together

Cutie pie Ashley

Then we left the next day and headed home to TN to the SARRATTS MORE GOOD FOOD— ps can we say gym gym gym gym i need alot of it to stay in these jeans

aaaaaah now BRUCIE AND HIS SELF PORTRAIT lol

After that long eventful day, we went to bed exhausted and feeling blessed. What a great time! Even with Dad in the hospital things really worked out.
Love you all!

Kelly and Jonathan

Dorothy McCuskey — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:55:35 +0000

Wedding date November 5th 2011 at the Beautiful Le Pavion Memphis TN. Cake by Sweet Tooth Creations, Music by Ty Hawkins, and Catering by Me and My Tea Room, Coordinationg by Dianne Trammel from BrideSavers and my fantastic second shooter Elizabeth Schaulk.
This was not our first time working with the beautifully vibrant Kelly Burcl, she is BFF’s with Angela Snyder another one of my fav brides. Kelly was in Angela’s wedding and Angela was in Kelly’s wedding.
We really had a great time, the girls are wonderful I so enjoyed being around the friends and family again. Now in March Emma gets married which is Angela’s sister LOL and Groomsman from their wedding Jay Armstrong and Michelle are getting married in 2012 so we get see everyone again! Love these folks.

This is really COOL! Steve Madden actually signed her shoes.

The special moment that was set up to see each other for the first time. Kinda just gives ya goosebumps

Nicole and Steven Engagment session

Dorothy McCuskey — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:20:39 +0000

Ok guys as I may have mentioned in a early post I am running alittle behind. So this is Nicole and Steven we did this in the fall beautiful beautiful weather, with the leaves still with all those amazing warm colors. Steven and Nicole are an exact fit. He is a police officer and she is a nurse hehehe that just sounds so romantic. I am so excited for the wedding date which is not to far way and to get some more goodness with these two.