I'm a bit late catching this thread. In fact, I haven't been 'forum-ing' in quite a while. Too much pressure from my Poser project. Anyway, after the 5th Photoshop crash tonight, I decided to take a break. First, excellent shot, michelle. You can't 'pose' kids. You can only let them be kids and shoot around whatever they're doing. The important thing is not to hassle them and not to let them get bored. When I was an assistant I worked with a lot photoraphers shooting kids for ads, editorial, etc. The trick is to get them doing something fun in the right spot (ie. where the lights are) and just bang off film. (Give them an ice-cream at the end - they're really cute when they make a mess of themselves. LOL. Weddings, on the other hand..... Hmmmm... Well, I HATE doing weddings. When I was working in a camera store, I did a lot of weddings on the side. I've done catholic, protestant, sikh, and registry office ones. And since I became a professional photographer, I only do them for friends (under pressure). I've been flown to New York and to Greece (from italy), to do friends' weddings. Because it seems that some people (the ones I know anyway), don't want formal wedding pictures. Every wedding I've done in the last 10 years or so, they've all asked for 'reportage', as opposed to 'formal' shots. So, hey.... that suits me just fine. But what I usually end up doing is a CMA job (cover my ass - rule #1 of professional photography), and do it both ways. Anyway, maybe there's a market for more informal weddings. mac PS $1000 a day ain't so much when you get down to it. Professional fees always sound a lot, until you're the one who's working for the fee. F'rinstance, if you only do 1 wedding a week, that breaks down to $200 per working day - less expenses. Oh, and the landlord wants the rent for the studio... and the lease payment on your Hassleblad is due... and the payments on the BMW you bought because you couldn't turn up at weddings in your old Ford truck..... LOL.