One of the funnest weddings from the summer. Taking care and providing photography for some of my closest friends, is always a real treat. This was also a wedding where I had my high school photography teacher there, Ms. Fagan as I called her in high school, was the one who got me into photography so many years ago.
This is a link to the website about the wedding.
http://www.marionwedding.com/
and here is the link to the Wedding Gallery itself.
http://hitchedphoto.smugmug.com/Weddings/Melissa-and-Harry-Wedding/9842265_dXxvt#675521508_cprzc
My only regret is not having more time with the bride and groom, creating those romantic shots they will love for a lifetime.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Not all smartphones are as smart as others
Not all smartphones are as smart as others apparently. I was working and operating a Motorola Q for about a year, and as I thought about upgrading to the Iphone I realized I really don’t like Mac products. I don’t like the QuickTime or ITunes, the ipod is ok but I just have to deal with that one. Well then I was introduced to the HTC Pure, which runs off the Windows Mobile 6.5. All in all it’s a pretty awesome phone and I was also educated on the fact that At&t says you have to have a data plan if you have a smartphone. I wasn’t using all that it can do because of the cost involved but I want to say more mobile with my clients and stay in better contact with all the photography information.
I like that the HTC Pure has apps like the Iphone, even though it does not have some 85,000 apps that the Iphone has, it has a lot of apps to be fun. My current favorite is the facebook app that allows me to snap a photo and instant upload to my profile. I also like the weather bug app that keeps me posted on the weather in both Rehoboth and Ocean City, you never know when you need to have your back up plans ready in case of rain.
I like that the HTC Pure has apps like the Iphone, even though it does not have some 85,000 apps that the Iphone has, it has a lot of apps to be fun. My current favorite is the facebook app that allows me to snap a photo and instant upload to my profile. I also like the weather bug app that keeps me posted on the weather in both Rehoboth and Ocean City, you never know when you need to have your back up plans ready in case of rain.
I do not like the camera that is on the phone. It has a 5mp camera built into the phone but if it takes blurry or grainy pictures it’s not that good. At least the Motorola Q has a built in flash that was nice, but only worked in short distances. I can deal with the not so good camera with all the other cool features it has.
I like that it has a dongle that lets you plug in headphones as well as a headset for easy, hands free communication. On my house phone I use a standard, 3.5 mm jack headset, and when I get a call on the cell I can now just unplug from my one phone to the HTC.
The internet on this phone is worth its weight in gold. You are never disconnected from the net with this little guy and when you need to check your bank account for example it’s just a couple clicks away. The internet and other applications are pretty fast however sometimes it does lock up. From there I just turn it off and turn it back on.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
More benefits of the professional photographer
More benefits of the professional photographer – NON Professionals beware!
As I think more and more on the subject, I become more aware of what sets me apart from the Aunts, Uncles, and friends out there running around with a camera, thinking “I can do that”.
Some of the key factors are Equipment, experience, knowledge, and attitude.
With equipment this item is often over looked from people know don’t know what they are looking at. Allow me to explain.
When you walk into Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target, I’m sure you’ve seen the cameras on display and think “damn $700 is a lot of money for a camera” it might be a Canon Rebel or a Nikon D40, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not a lot of money.
My main camera cost me $3000 easy and that’s not including the lens, flashes, batteries, and other equipment. And that’s just my main camera, I also carry a back up camera worth $1500 and an extra camera worth about $1200. You may think, “What! Why!” I’m serious about my job and my passion, and I’m serious about taking the very best photo I can, and whether it’s for your wedding day or a family beach portrait, I want to make it the best I can.
I carry around backups, because equipment fails. Batteries fail, lenses malfunction, flashes break, on the that one special magical wedding day, you can’t announce to the crowd, “Hold on, I’ll be right back, I have to buy something”. And you can’t just leave either, you will miss everything you were hired to capture.
I like to bring along multiple lenses because different lenses do different things, which also ties into Education. I like my standard low light lens, F2.8, to capture as much as I can in low light situations. Its considered a mid range so I can’t be too far and I can’t be too close either. Another Lens that is fun to use is my 85mm prime lens, it’s really cool and artsy, to take a photo of the cake all in focus and have the couple in the background all blurred out. Or what if I want to take a really detailed close up image of the rings in the flowers, then I have my macro lens for that. Rather than switch lens on to camera body and back and forth, which means you might have dust enter the camera or you might miss a shot because you are messing with your camera or lens, I have several lenses on multiple camera bodies.
Does your amateur photographer do all that?
Experience
What does shooting hundreds of weddings and thousands of portraits give you?
Ding Ding Ding DING!
You guessed it, Mad Experience.
Well you come to rely on that experience at various weddings, events, portrait sessions, whatever has happened to you and you learned something from you, makes you a better photographer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a church photographing a wedding and I see the bubbles ready for the bride and groom to walk out through, and time and time again, based on experience I know a lot of times it doesn’t work without the proper planning. So with me, I know from the past to help organize the people, get more people on one side or the other based on how strong the wind is blowing. Helping those family members and friends with cameras, to come down by me so they can get the better shot.
Experience wins out more often than not and that’s why I go to events, even when I’m not the photographer, sometimes I’ll help out a DJ friend, or maybe video tape a minister friend, every event I can go to brings me more and more experience.
And you don’t want an Inexperience amateur photographer at your wedding do you?
Knowledge
Where experience will only get you so far, it’s the knowledge that will carry you further. Its why I got to professional photographer classes, why I read books, subscribe to photographer magazines, attend big photographer conventions, and why I never stop learning. I often consider myself a “White Belt” (To use some martial arts terms) in photography but my definition might different as we all know a black belt is way higher than a white, I think of myself as constantly learning. I don’t want to enter into a conversation or class and think of myself as more knowledgeable then the rest, I’d rather go there with an open mind and clean slate to learn with. Because even though you may have years of photography knowledge, you may miss something the new beginner might have picked up. And then you can add that to your knowledge base.
A lot of classes and seminars I attend cost a couple of hundred dollars a pop, but its paid for itself time and time again from what I learned. And you’d be surprised with all the free education online that you can learn, and the biggest difference is that I take the time to learn it. Some people might say “I don’t have the time”. I’ll let you in on a trick that will help. MAKE THE TIME! It’s that easy. But that’s for a whole other article.
Does your photographer friend find the time to learn more about their hobby?
Attitude
If you thought Experience and Knowledge will take you places, I’m here to tell you, Attitude will take you places you never thought possible. And not any attitude will do, it has to be a positive one. When I show up to an event, be it wedding, senior shoot, or beach portrait, I bring on the Fun and I bring on the FUNK. I think of myself as the eternal optimist and it pays to do so. One of my classic, I know, cheezy sayings “where there is a WILL (me) there IS A WAY”. I don’t like to take “it’s impossible” or “I can’t do it” to heart, I think all the time when I encounter opposition or a difficulty, there has got to be a way around this. So many a times I’ll show up on location with the attitude “this is going to be fun” “and nothing is going to stop this from being great”.
I’ve interacted with people not in the very best of moods, but I’ve been able to turn it around by being positive and fun. I am all the time reading people, their tones, body language, and their attitude, and when I need to, I’ll kick my attitude up a bit to make it an Awesome event.
It’s no fun having a silent, burnt out photographer showing up to your wedding, there to capture smiles and all they do is bring the place down.
Check to make sure your guy is at least a little fun or has a pulse.
And well that’s all I have to say on the subject.
Nuff said.
As I think more and more on the subject, I become more aware of what sets me apart from the Aunts, Uncles, and friends out there running around with a camera, thinking “I can do that”.
Some of the key factors are Equipment, experience, knowledge, and attitude.
With equipment this item is often over looked from people know don’t know what they are looking at. Allow me to explain.
When you walk into Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Target, I’m sure you’ve seen the cameras on display and think “damn $700 is a lot of money for a camera” it might be a Canon Rebel or a Nikon D40, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not a lot of money.
My main camera cost me $3000 easy and that’s not including the lens, flashes, batteries, and other equipment. And that’s just my main camera, I also carry a back up camera worth $1500 and an extra camera worth about $1200. You may think, “What! Why!” I’m serious about my job and my passion, and I’m serious about taking the very best photo I can, and whether it’s for your wedding day or a family beach portrait, I want to make it the best I can.
I carry around backups, because equipment fails. Batteries fail, lenses malfunction, flashes break, on the that one special magical wedding day, you can’t announce to the crowd, “Hold on, I’ll be right back, I have to buy something”. And you can’t just leave either, you will miss everything you were hired to capture.
I like to bring along multiple lenses because different lenses do different things, which also ties into Education. I like my standard low light lens, F2.8, to capture as much as I can in low light situations. Its considered a mid range so I can’t be too far and I can’t be too close either. Another Lens that is fun to use is my 85mm prime lens, it’s really cool and artsy, to take a photo of the cake all in focus and have the couple in the background all blurred out. Or what if I want to take a really detailed close up image of the rings in the flowers, then I have my macro lens for that. Rather than switch lens on to camera body and back and forth, which means you might have dust enter the camera or you might miss a shot because you are messing with your camera or lens, I have several lenses on multiple camera bodies.
Does your amateur photographer do all that?
Experience
What does shooting hundreds of weddings and thousands of portraits give you?
Ding Ding Ding DING!
You guessed it, Mad Experience.
Well you come to rely on that experience at various weddings, events, portrait sessions, whatever has happened to you and you learned something from you, makes you a better photographer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a church photographing a wedding and I see the bubbles ready for the bride and groom to walk out through, and time and time again, based on experience I know a lot of times it doesn’t work without the proper planning. So with me, I know from the past to help organize the people, get more people on one side or the other based on how strong the wind is blowing. Helping those family members and friends with cameras, to come down by me so they can get the better shot.
Experience wins out more often than not and that’s why I go to events, even when I’m not the photographer, sometimes I’ll help out a DJ friend, or maybe video tape a minister friend, every event I can go to brings me more and more experience.
And you don’t want an Inexperience amateur photographer at your wedding do you?
Knowledge
Where experience will only get you so far, it’s the knowledge that will carry you further. Its why I got to professional photographer classes, why I read books, subscribe to photographer magazines, attend big photographer conventions, and why I never stop learning. I often consider myself a “White Belt” (To use some martial arts terms) in photography but my definition might different as we all know a black belt is way higher than a white, I think of myself as constantly learning. I don’t want to enter into a conversation or class and think of myself as more knowledgeable then the rest, I’d rather go there with an open mind and clean slate to learn with. Because even though you may have years of photography knowledge, you may miss something the new beginner might have picked up. And then you can add that to your knowledge base.
A lot of classes and seminars I attend cost a couple of hundred dollars a pop, but its paid for itself time and time again from what I learned. And you’d be surprised with all the free education online that you can learn, and the biggest difference is that I take the time to learn it. Some people might say “I don’t have the time”. I’ll let you in on a trick that will help. MAKE THE TIME! It’s that easy. But that’s for a whole other article.
Does your photographer friend find the time to learn more about their hobby?
Attitude
If you thought Experience and Knowledge will take you places, I’m here to tell you, Attitude will take you places you never thought possible. And not any attitude will do, it has to be a positive one. When I show up to an event, be it wedding, senior shoot, or beach portrait, I bring on the Fun and I bring on the FUNK. I think of myself as the eternal optimist and it pays to do so. One of my classic, I know, cheezy sayings “where there is a WILL (me) there IS A WAY”. I don’t like to take “it’s impossible” or “I can’t do it” to heart, I think all the time when I encounter opposition or a difficulty, there has got to be a way around this. So many a times I’ll show up on location with the attitude “this is going to be fun” “and nothing is going to stop this from being great”.
I’ve interacted with people not in the very best of moods, but I’ve been able to turn it around by being positive and fun. I am all the time reading people, their tones, body language, and their attitude, and when I need to, I’ll kick my attitude up a bit to make it an Awesome event.
It’s no fun having a silent, burnt out photographer showing up to your wedding, there to capture smiles and all they do is bring the place down.
Check to make sure your guy is at least a little fun or has a pulse.
And well that’s all I have to say on the subject.
Nuff said.
Friday, October 16, 2009
“Thinking about having my friend photograph my wedding.”
“Thinking about having my friend photograph my wedding.”
I tend to hear that from time to time and when I do hear it, it always makes me laugh a little inside and worry at the same time. I think to myself that some brides may not want beautiful images of their wedding or they may not care too much about it, because if they did they wouldn't trust their friend who, chances are, they are not a professional photographer. More than likely they bought a $600 camera and took a few photos of their trip to where ever and they have never photographed a wedding.
There is a lot that goes into being a photographer at a person's wedding, there is experience you need to keep you ahead of the game and makes you ready for the awesome shot. There are skills that you acquire from continuous shooting and classes that you attend to keep that skill up. A pro wouldn't have a camera you'd buy in Wal-Mart or Best buy, they would have spent a couple of thousand I'm sure.
Even though I consider myself mechanically inclined, when I have car issues, I take it straight to the dealer or a qualified mechanic. Same thing applies if I wanted the roof on my house repaired, I would contact a licensed carpenter so I can have to job done right the first time. With the wedding supposed to be once in a lifetime event for you, magical and memorable, how will you look back on the memories, by looking at your photos. To me that seems important, not something I would just trust anyone with. Another good way of thinking about it, If your friend watches a lot of Discovery Health on TV and owns "some" surgical tools, would you let that person operate on you?
Oh god I hope not, I'd go find me a doctor with education and years of experience.
Having been to one too many weddings, I can see that a wedding is like an orchestra. Every professional is there to do their part and without each one, your wedding could be out of sync.
To have a reception you should have a Disc Jockey, you can't really have a good party without one. I've seen weddings without them and I've seen those receptions suffer.
You can't get married without a wedding minister or officiant, they are pretty important and hard to get married without one.
Wedding planners, personally I would go with one of these all the time. They help run the show so you don't have to. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the bride or groom running around trying to put out fires or do things they shouldn't be doing because they don't have anyone else to do it for them. It's the couples celebration and they should be relaxing and having fun.
Photographers and Videographers, these are your record keepers. These are the people the capture all the memories of this most important day. As I have touch on photographers, Videographers are just as equally important that get over looked. Can you imagine going to a movie to see, Spider Man for example. What if you sit down in your seat with your popcorn and you look up at the screen and you see images of spider-man. For an entire hour, you see cool image, after cool photo of spider man and all the cool things he is doing. After an hour or so, it's over, and you leave, but all you saw were images and photos, not a movie. Video brings you into the story in a way that photos can't. You can look at a photo and you can get a flash of a memory that is brought on by that image, but when you watch a movie it allows you to relive that memory and you began to see things you might have missed or might have forgotten.
I could go on listing various wedding professionals and their key roles they play, but I'm sure you will have gotten the point by now.
Allow the professionals to do what they do best so that you don't have to worry and enjoy that celebration of love.
I tend to hear that from time to time and when I do hear it, it always makes me laugh a little inside and worry at the same time. I think to myself that some brides may not want beautiful images of their wedding or they may not care too much about it, because if they did they wouldn't trust their friend who, chances are, they are not a professional photographer. More than likely they bought a $600 camera and took a few photos of their trip to where ever and they have never photographed a wedding.
There is a lot that goes into being a photographer at a person's wedding, there is experience you need to keep you ahead of the game and makes you ready for the awesome shot. There are skills that you acquire from continuous shooting and classes that you attend to keep that skill up. A pro wouldn't have a camera you'd buy in Wal-Mart or Best buy, they would have spent a couple of thousand I'm sure.
Even though I consider myself mechanically inclined, when I have car issues, I take it straight to the dealer or a qualified mechanic. Same thing applies if I wanted the roof on my house repaired, I would contact a licensed carpenter so I can have to job done right the first time. With the wedding supposed to be once in a lifetime event for you, magical and memorable, how will you look back on the memories, by looking at your photos. To me that seems important, not something I would just trust anyone with. Another good way of thinking about it, If your friend watches a lot of Discovery Health on TV and owns "some" surgical tools, would you let that person operate on you?
Oh god I hope not, I'd go find me a doctor with education and years of experience.
Having been to one too many weddings, I can see that a wedding is like an orchestra. Every professional is there to do their part and without each one, your wedding could be out of sync.
To have a reception you should have a Disc Jockey, you can't really have a good party without one. I've seen weddings without them and I've seen those receptions suffer.
You can't get married without a wedding minister or officiant, they are pretty important and hard to get married without one.
Wedding planners, personally I would go with one of these all the time. They help run the show so you don't have to. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the bride or groom running around trying to put out fires or do things they shouldn't be doing because they don't have anyone else to do it for them. It's the couples celebration and they should be relaxing and having fun.
Photographers and Videographers, these are your record keepers. These are the people the capture all the memories of this most important day. As I have touch on photographers, Videographers are just as equally important that get over looked. Can you imagine going to a movie to see, Spider Man for example. What if you sit down in your seat with your popcorn and you look up at the screen and you see images of spider-man. For an entire hour, you see cool image, after cool photo of spider man and all the cool things he is doing. After an hour or so, it's over, and you leave, but all you saw were images and photos, not a movie. Video brings you into the story in a way that photos can't. You can look at a photo and you can get a flash of a memory that is brought on by that image, but when you watch a movie it allows you to relive that memory and you began to see things you might have missed or might have forgotten.
I could go on listing various wedding professionals and their key roles they play, but I'm sure you will have gotten the point by now.
Allow the professionals to do what they do best so that you don't have to worry and enjoy that celebration of love.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Center Stage Photographer
I have found there are two types of wedding photographers out there:
The good ones, who are seldom seen, doing their job well, un obtrusive, and moves with the flow of the wedding.
And The bad ones, those who are right up in your face the entire wedding, and what ends up happening is your guests end up seeing the back of this photographer more than they get to see you, the couple.
I'm currently editing some video I have taken at a wedding for a friend and its bringing back a flood of bad memories of that day. And I'm not one for photographer bashing, but it really irks me that it happened like this at all. With any luck this experience could help others when choosing their photographer for an upcoming event.
Now I classify myself as an unseen photographer, I watch the flow of the event from the side lines, I end up trying to blend in with the wall as much as possible. I will spring into action when something is going down that might need to be captured by my camera. I like to wear darker colors to that i might blend in to the shadows if at all possible. To me there are certain boundaries you shouldn’t cross while at a wedding and some photographers know this, and others don’t care.
I have noticed at various events when I’m not the photographer but maybe a spectator, that some photographers are very possessive of all the photography going on all around the wedding couple. I’ve seen photographers blocking other people deliberately who are trying to snap a shot or asking the guest to “not take the photo” with their personal point and shoot camera.
Now me on the other hand, I like to treat others as I would like to be treated. So as soon as i grab my shot, I step back and allow others to grab the shot as well. There have been times when I’d take the camera from the guest and say “get in there” as I can see they were a group and I would snap the photo with their own personal camera. I’ve enjoyed helping out grandmothers working their camera as they are trying to capture an image of their precious loved ones.
If nothing else is taken away from this little rant, when you meet with your photographer, see what kind of person he or she is, and maybe bring up the question: “How will you handle our wedding day?”.
With any luck you will have a photographer that will become your friend and will be a joy to be around on your special day.
The good ones, who are seldom seen, doing their job well, un obtrusive, and moves with the flow of the wedding.
And The bad ones, those who are right up in your face the entire wedding, and what ends up happening is your guests end up seeing the back of this photographer more than they get to see you, the couple.
I'm currently editing some video I have taken at a wedding for a friend and its bringing back a flood of bad memories of that day. And I'm not one for photographer bashing, but it really irks me that it happened like this at all. With any luck this experience could help others when choosing their photographer for an upcoming event.
Now I classify myself as an unseen photographer, I watch the flow of the event from the side lines, I end up trying to blend in with the wall as much as possible. I will spring into action when something is going down that might need to be captured by my camera. I like to wear darker colors to that i might blend in to the shadows if at all possible. To me there are certain boundaries you shouldn’t cross while at a wedding and some photographers know this, and others don’t care.
I have noticed at various events when I’m not the photographer but maybe a spectator, that some photographers are very possessive of all the photography going on all around the wedding couple. I’ve seen photographers blocking other people deliberately who are trying to snap a shot or asking the guest to “not take the photo” with their personal point and shoot camera.
Now me on the other hand, I like to treat others as I would like to be treated. So as soon as i grab my shot, I step back and allow others to grab the shot as well. There have been times when I’d take the camera from the guest and say “get in there” as I can see they were a group and I would snap the photo with their own personal camera. I’ve enjoyed helping out grandmothers working their camera as they are trying to capture an image of their precious loved ones.
If nothing else is taken away from this little rant, when you meet with your photographer, see what kind of person he or she is, and maybe bring up the question: “How will you handle our wedding day?”.
With any luck you will have a photographer that will become your friend and will be a joy to be around on your special day.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
After the wedding – Your photos and You
So you’ve kissed and said “I do”, now you are entered into that blissful state of married life. On to the photos that were taken of your wonderful day that might have seemed like a blur.
IMAGE PROCESSING
About 7 – 10 days after your wedding, your images should be going up into your own online gallery. If its summer time, we’ll need that time to process your wedding images and if you are wondering why it might be taking so long, is because we like to go through all the images one at a time and make them look beautiful. Adding on our own artistic ideas and creative effects, as well as enhancing the images by adding clarity, vibrance, and saturation where it is needed. Taking the ordinary captured image like this:
ORDERING FROM YOUR GALLERY
In your online gallery you can order any and all prints you may want from 4x6 prints, to 20x30 canvas wraps, to coffee mugs, and T-Shirts, with your images on them. We have even made our artistic creations available for digital download purchase. As some may want to purchase the photo negatives, some may only want to purchase single images. All can be done from your gallery, in the comfort of your home or office, and shipped directly to you.
Here is a little image walkthrough I made up to show how easy it is to order whatever you want.
This here is your image reference number, in case would like to order an album, send me an email about an image, or whatever, it would be this number that I would need and it is located beneath the image and will have a 3 letter prefix and a 4 digital number following.
Once you are on the image you would like to purchase all you have to do is click “BUY” located at the top right of the screen.
Once you have clicked on the Buy button it will take you to a screen where you can order whatever you might like. You can order prints ranging in sizes from 4x6s and wallets all the way as large as 20x30 prints. You can also order canvas wraps and various merchandise items like magnets, t-shirts, etc.
Please Note: if you are ordering a large print like a 20x30 or large 20x30 canvas wrap, I’d recommend calling so that I can make sure the image is totally flawless. The larger the image, the more detail you are able to see.
When ordering you have the option of 4 different paper types, as you might be used to seeing glossy or matte in Wal-Mart, Sams Club, or CVS, you might consider getting your images in LUSTRE or METALLIC paper. The Metallic paper really pops and looks really cool; it is by far my favorite.
By clicking on the Merchandise tab it will take you to the section, where you can order your image on many different items. It’s nice to order things like Coffee mugs as wedding gifts, Playing cards for your bridal party members as gifts, Refrigerator magnets for your home, Mouse pads for your spouse at work, or whatever else you might think of.
Now maybe you found this one image that you just really, really love and rather than buying the entire negatives disc, or stealing copyrighted images from your photographer, you can easily download that image straight to your computer, through the purchase. This way you have the image you want and it is now yours to do with as you please.
You have ordered just about all the items you can think of from your gallery, all you have to do to complete your purchase is click “CHECK OUT”. After you have clicked check out you will be taken to a screen where you can put in your address and ordering information. After you place the order, sit back, relax and wait for it to come in the mail.
If you need any assistance ordering from your gallery you can always call or email me and I can help.
IMAGE PROCESSING
About 7 – 10 days after your wedding, your images should be going up into your own online gallery. If its summer time, we’ll need that time to process your wedding images and if you are wondering why it might be taking so long, is because we like to go through all the images one at a time and make them look beautiful. Adding on our own artistic ideas and creative effects, as well as enhancing the images by adding clarity, vibrance, and saturation where it is needed. Taking the ordinary captured image like this:
Into an awesome version of what should be.
Side Note: We photograph all events in Nikon’s RAW file called an NEF. When shooting in RAW as professionals call it, it records everything that was on the imaging chip in the camera, much like film in old cameras. As we shoot digital instead of developing the images in a dark room, we use Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom. If your photographer isn’t shooting in RAW, you are losing out.
ORDERING FROM YOUR GALLERY
In your online gallery you can order any and all prints you may want from 4x6 prints, to 20x30 canvas wraps, to coffee mugs, and T-Shirts, with your images on them. We have even made our artistic creations available for digital download purchase. As some may want to purchase the photo negatives, some may only want to purchase single images. All can be done from your gallery, in the comfort of your home or office, and shipped directly to you.
Here is a little image walkthrough I made up to show how easy it is to order whatever you want.
This here is your image reference number, in case would like to order an album, send me an email about an image, or whatever, it would be this number that I would need and it is located beneath the image and will have a 3 letter prefix and a 4 digital number following.
Once you are on the image you would like to purchase all you have to do is click “BUY” located at the top right of the screen.
Once you have clicked on the Buy button it will take you to a screen where you can order whatever you might like. You can order prints ranging in sizes from 4x6s and wallets all the way as large as 20x30 prints. You can also order canvas wraps and various merchandise items like magnets, t-shirts, etc.
Please Note: if you are ordering a large print like a 20x30 or large 20x30 canvas wrap, I’d recommend calling so that I can make sure the image is totally flawless. The larger the image, the more detail you are able to see.
When ordering you have the option of 4 different paper types, as you might be used to seeing glossy or matte in Wal-Mart, Sams Club, or CVS, you might consider getting your images in LUSTRE or METALLIC paper. The Metallic paper really pops and looks really cool; it is by far my favorite.
By clicking on the Merchandise tab it will take you to the section, where you can order your image on many different items. It’s nice to order things like Coffee mugs as wedding gifts, Playing cards for your bridal party members as gifts, Refrigerator magnets for your home, Mouse pads for your spouse at work, or whatever else you might think of.
Now maybe you found this one image that you just really, really love and rather than buying the entire negatives disc, or stealing copyrighted images from your photographer, you can easily download that image straight to your computer, through the purchase. This way you have the image you want and it is now yours to do with as you please.
You have ordered just about all the items you can think of from your gallery, all you have to do to complete your purchase is click “CHECK OUT”. After you have clicked check out you will be taken to a screen where you can put in your address and ordering information. After you place the order, sit back, relax and wait for it to come in the mail.
If you need any assistance ordering from your gallery you can always call or email me and I can help.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
The beauty of Senior Shooting
As a photographer I’m always growing, always learning and I like to thank my seniors for allowing me to do that. When it comes to wedding photography I’m often allotted just a little bit of time to photograph the bride and groom which doesn’t give me much time to play around with new ideas. But with High School Seniors, they are all about trying new things and experimenting. And so when I’m not on a wedding photographing, I’m looking forward to photographing seniors. I end up picking up new skills and trying out new ideas, under different lighting conditions that I would not otherwise get to play with. And so the new ideas that pay off looking cool or the experiments that yield a fascinating result I’m able to apply them to the wedding photography and other photography shoots. So I wanted to say thank you for the fun, Seniors! You end up being great models, amazing people to photograph, and you get to reap the rewards of all the time shooting and trying new crazy things.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Me and the Mobile Uploads
Now that I’m into facebook more then I was back back in the day, I also see all the possibilities that it allows for keeping friends and family in the loop about what’s going on in our lives. For some, they like to log in to FB once in a while and just check and see what’s new. For me its more of a daily thing. And with the advent of technology I have the ability to take photos and videos on the spot and have them delivered right away to my profile page.
When I’m out on a shoot with a family or Senior, it’s nice for them to end the day of shooting and go home and relax. As they may log on and check on their family and friends, they are also able to catch a brief recap of the day. If they have family and friends who know they are out on a shoot with me, they could easily log on and catch some images that I have taken. Granted my phone camera isn’t as good as my Nikon D700 but it is pretty decent for what’s available in technology. I run around with a Motorola Q from At&t, with a 2 megapixel camera. I choose this phone for the Windows like operating system that I’m used to and familiar with. My wife, Olga has an “I”phone, which goes well with her macbook and even though her camera phone takes slightly better pictures, I’m pretty happy with all my phone delivers.
So if you see me on a shoot and I whip out my phone, chances are you can log on later and see some of what I shot. Or if you are at home, you can pop on my profile and see where I am and what I’m doing at any given time. Isn’t technology great!
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