One of the things that I love most about Vancouver is the amazing network of women who own and run some of the best shops, spas, and services that our city has to offer. It is on this note that I was so incredibly honoured to be invited into the first edition of the CRAVE Vancouver book as a featured business owner!

The CRAVE book - editions available in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, and soon to be Portland - is a girl’s shopping guide to the city with a neighbourhood by neighbourhood focus on over 200 boutiques, spas, and service businesses. In their words - “CRAVE Vancouver is a celebration of women entrepreneurs that showcases some of the most creative, interesting, and gutsy proprietors throughout 10 of Vancouver’s favourite neighbourhoods.”

In addition to the photo rich neighbourhood guides complete with maps and store contact info, women have been chosen in each neighbourhood to share some of the secrets of their success, which is where my piece appears.

Miranda Lievers - Blue Olive Photography

“Know when to delegate! Invest your energy in what is most important for you and your business in order to not burn yourself out… and, of course, Network! Other business people can be one of your most important resources. They’ve done it before and are often willing to share what they did to get where they are – tap into that to move your business forward quicker.”

Inspiration/Motivation for starting my business:
I know what my parents wedding photographs look like and I know what my grandparents do as well. It’s cheesy, but those moments are gone in a heartbeat. It is powerful to be able to capture them and record that time in history. The first time that I brought a grown man to tears with the images I had produced of his daughter I realized how important good photography is and began to build the business plan for our studio.

How much money did it take to start?
A lot more than you’d think! Photographers just need a camera, right? With all the equipment, the backups, the computers, and the software needed behind the scenes to do it right it cost around $25 000 originally with more being invested all the time.

What I like most about owning my business:
I get to do all the jobs! I never get bored. I can be the marketing girl one day, the strategist the next, and even the photographer when that suits my fancy.

What I like least about owning my business:
The paperwork

Personal time off indulgence:
Watching Next Top Model. I pretend it’s market research.

People would be surprised that:
I have hardly any photos of myself. I’m always on the other side of the camera, and our vacation photos consist of beautiful landscapes but very few images with either of us.

Favourite guilty pleasure shopping place:
Bodacious on Main

You can find the website for the book here. The book has just been released and will be available at businesses around town, in bookstores, and on Amazon.com.

Gotta love technology issues! We’ve had lots of problems this year with our webhost and in the last couple weeks we’ve started having major problems with our email. We’re in the process of moving everything over to a new host, but in the meantime if you get a bounced message or if you emailed us and haven’t heard from us, you can get a hold of us at blueolivephoto@gmail.com - that’s sure to be more reliable until things are back to normal!

We’ll be blogging our recent weddings in the coming days and I can’t wait to share them with you! The highlight of late was a literal romp in the ocean in Tofino with our eager bride and groom and Reilly and I with our thankfully weatherproof equipment ;) - can’t wait to share those!

Cheers!

Well, the move is almost complete! That said, our phone is ringing out of service while it’s transferred over. I hope it will be working sometime today, but in the meantime email is the best way to get a hold of us.

**update** everything is up and running now. Photos to come once everything is organized!

Tks!

We just got back into town after a whirlwind 4 day East Indian wedding in Alberta. I can’t wait to sort some of the pictures and show you what we got. The wedding was wonderful and the outfits as usual were to die for. Pictures soon!

In other news, I am so excited to share with you that we’re moving! As of September 1st our studio will be located in an amazing commercial loft in a historic building in the heart of Gastown. This move will give us a lot more space for displaying and sharing our work with everyone, for our client meetings, and for all the production work we do to put the final touches on each individual image. With tasty hardwood floors, wood beams, an original brick exterior wall, and views of the ocean and mountains, it will be a much nicer place for our clients to visit, too. Plans are also already in the works to bring people in for our first Blue Olive appreciation party at the end of the year! Stay tuned for details and we’ll look forward to welcoming you into our new studio starting in September.

On that note, we anticipate no major interruptions in our availability over the next few weeks and will continue meeting with clients through the transition to our new space. Of course, we’ll have to ask that you excuse any boxes during the move!

I just received an email from Lynn, one of our brides from April 2005 (you can see a shot from Lynn’s wedding in the Raves section of the website). I wanted to share it with you as it’s the kind of feedback I love to get!

Thanks for the note, Lynn!

*****
Hey Miranda

I have been meaning to drop you a note for a couple of weeks to tell you a quick story.

A couple of weeks ago I had breakfast with a coworker. I decided to bring my wedding album since I’d never had the chance to show her.

She is looking through the album, and she starts crying, and her comment was that the pictures were just so beautiful! It made her feel like she was right there with us, and she also said we look totally in love in them!

That to me is even more validation of the great work you guys do!

Just thought I would let you know…

Lynn

Blue Olive Photography has been officially invited to participate in Aisle Walk for 2007!

Aisle Walk is the swankiest new wedding magazine around, showcasing hand picked vendors “especially selected for their distinctive style, a reputation for excellence, and a passion for what they do.” Participation is by invitation only to industry leaders within the Vancouver & Whistler wedding market.

Needless to say, we’re honoured to have been chosen and thrilled to participate! One of our lucky couples will have their photos featured in next year’s magazine, and I just love to see our brides in print.

Be sure to hit the website to request your electronic copy of the current magazine, or find it at vendors around town. Once the new edition is out at the end of the year we’ll be sure to share our piece.

I can’t believe it’s almost time!

Reilly and I spend a lot of time networking with other photographers and keeping on top of what is new and going on in the photography world so that we know we are offering as much as we can to our clients. I love learning from what everyone else is up to, and being inspired by all the amazing photographers out there! For us, it’s all about keeping things new and fresh and pushing ourselves to deliver above and beyond for each and every one of our amazing couples.

On that note, I’ve been signed up for the 2006 Foundation Workshop since last spring, and it’s almost here! Just 3 short weeks and I’m off to Texas to spend an intense week shooting and learning with a group of people whom I consider to be among the best documentary style wedding photographers in the world. I can’t wait!

I’ll be sure to post updates from my trip when I have them, and with a wedding booked the weekend after I get back I won’t waste any time putting some of that inspiration into action.