Building relationships that last!

Over to course of time photographing weddings and other events I have found that I gain so much by the people I meet and the lives I’m able to touch. What tends to happen when I’m hired to photograph a wedding here at the beach or if I’m called upon to take seniors pictures or even pregnancy shots, I will often times develop a friendship with that client that continues on. Here is an example of some of my former clients who are now my friends.

Justin and Dody – at one point in time before I was photographing full time, I was doing computer repair and I had met Justin and fixed his laptop. At that time he was single, and it was a year or so later that I got booked to photograph a wedding and I knew the bride’s name was Dody and the Groom’s name was Justin but I would never have guessed that it was the Justin I knew from fixing his laptop and who owned Dewey Parasail. So to my surprise when I arrived on location on their wedding day, it was a super cool time being able to photograph their wedding. Justin did not know I was into photographing these days and just thought I fixed computers still. Now a year and a half later, he calls me up to take professional photos of his business and boats, he takes my wife and I out for some parasailing whenever we want, and we have a good time. We both have each other on speed dial and I’m looking forward to taking their family beach portrait when their new baby is born. Shelly and Dan – I got a call about a wedding and when I went to the client’s house we got to talking and I found out that Dan’s sister runs / owns Pohanka of Salisbury. And so after some fun conversation, I offered the suggestion if he could hook us up with a good price on a car, I’d hook him up on the photography. At that time we only had one car between the wife and I, and we were in the market for a new one for Olga. A couple of days later, he suggested we come in and he’d take care of us, and sure enough my wife found a car she really liked and without hesitation he gave us a pretty sweet deal. They got married and at their wedding we have a couple of photographers out there, got some amazing shots and he got the hook up as well. Now a day’s Dan and I are still friends, we both have each other in our phones and we keep in contact on facebook.


In other cases, I’ve met people in this industry like ministers, wedding planners, disc jockeys, and many others, through our constant running into with each other we often become friends. That is really the case in this next story.

Jason and Stacy – I meet Jason through a mutual friend and he was DJing at weddings. It wasn’t long before just about every wedding I was going to he was DJing and rocking the house every time. I found myself hanging out at these receptions longer then I was paid to be out there for and still taking photos and having a good time with Jason. It might have been a year later that he asked me to photograph his wedding to Stacy and without a doubt I was really honored. I met up with them to discuss their wedding day and their photography needs and we often had dinner chatting about it all. On the day of their wedding I had myself, my wife, Olga as second shooter, and my father to capture some video, and we had a great time partying. Stacy and Jason insisted we put down our cameras and have a drink and have some fun, and we did. They fed us good and by the end of the night it was not a job but a good time. And to this day, Jason is one of my closest friends and Stacy is really dear to me. They are both great people.
There are many more to mention but that might just turn into a book and not an article.
So if you are ever thinking of hiring a photographer, watch out because you might be making a new friend.

Something Rare – Something Cool!

A lot of times I photograph weddings and events with an assistant or second shooter, someone I’m training or a newer photographer wanting some tips. Well my buddy, Matt just happens to be one of my “Padawan learners” and the poor guy had his camera stolen from the beach in Lewes. It just so happened that we were photographing a wedding a week prior and I needed his camera card with the images on it. I did not want to leave him without a card, just in case he wanted to so some shooting on his own, and so I gave him one of my compact flash cards.

Anyway, his camera was found by a guy and his son at a skate park not to far away, and because my camera cards are all labeled with my name and number they were able to contact me and let me know they had found it.

What is rare about this is that most people would have kept a $700 camera and not thought twice, but this gentleman was super cool and called wanting to return it. He mentioned that he would not have been able to do so if my camera card wasn’t labeled with my name and number. I had picked up that little tip from the Digital Story Show, and with his podcast “Inside Pro Tips”

Thank you “good Samaritan”
And thank you Derrick Story!

Lots of Weddings - Its Wedding Season !

Well it’s been a busy couple of weeks, with this being wedding season and all, it’s difficult to find the time to write or even email sometimes. We’ve had quite a few weddings to photograph, a few beach portraits, a lot of one hour weddings on the beach, and even got to photograph some of the Ocean City Air Show.

Some of the more memorable shoots I had were Kate and Neil over at Seacrets in Ocean City. They had DJ Rupe in the house playing it up and it made for a good time. The bride and bridesmaids rode on in on the taxi boat which was kinda cool, and we even had a guest appearance by a Paris Hilton (look a like?).

One of my favorite weddings so far this summer was Holly and Mark at Fager’s Island in Ocean City. What made this one so meaningful to me was how the bride and groom invited me in and embraced me like family. Checking to see if I’m eating and having a good time, they had a section of the beach all to themselves and it felt like we were in some tropical paradise.

About one of the worst weddings I had was at the Fountainhead in Ocean City, there was nothing wrong with the bride, groom or Ceremony but with the staff at the Fountainhead. We chatted with the manager and the security informing them we were there to photograph a wedding and they threaten to call the cops on us, as well as have our vehicles towed. It wasn’t until the couple talked with the manager and security that we allowed to park or get near around the building but by then we were parked a crossed coastal highway which made it difficult to carry our equipment from our cars to the wedding location on the beach.
A little tip for you brides out there, make sure you let your wedding venue, managers, security people know you are getting married there, or they might cause you unforeseen difficulties and avoid the Fountainhead at all costs. They are super unpleasant.

Mini video clips

We here at Hitched are all the time trying at new ways of doing things better and finding ways to be different from our competitors. One of the things we found to add a little fun to our shooting is to grab some video from weddings and splice them together for an enjoyable mini recap of the wedding day. With Olga’s new camera, we are able to capture high resolution video footage of the event, when not in shooting mode. For example when we are at a wedding, I’ll be ready to shoot that garter toss or bouquet toss and she’ll be standing by to capture the event in a mini video. Or you might be dancing your first dance with your new spouse and while I’m snapping away catching the stills, she is able to capture it on video. That way after the wedding, as you are looking through your online gallery, you come across the video, and it’s a pleasant little recap of your day. After you watch it you are able to send the link to the video to family and friends. Keep in mind that it can’t replace the videographer and it doesn’t have the elegant editing that a good video editor can do, but it’s just something fun and extra for you to enjoy!

Bride: “This is my first wedding”

Bride: “This is my first wedding” – what you might need to know!
Bubbles
Disposable cameras
Alternative to Disposable
Wedding planners
Meet and Greet and Testimonials vs. References

Bubbles
I know I’ve touched on this subject before, about bubbles and your wedding, however given it some more thought, and came up with some ideas. That if you are going to have those little bubble containers at your wedding what are you going to do with them? People can blow bubbles when you leave the church, when you leave the beach, or maybe when you get into the limo. These are all great ideas but you might not have considered, during the first dance, or during the parents dances. So long as you don’t have a slippery surface it would make for a more enchanting wedding moment, then without them. It definitely makes for better photos, when you are dancing with your new husband and the music is just right, and then bubbles start to cascade down around you. Talk about memorable. Another point to be aware of is that those bubble containers don’t often come full, they can have some evaporation or some could have leaked out. So when people are blowing they are often spitting near or on you. One idea is to get a bubble machine from Walmart, I picked up one for my photo shoots, and it was only like $20 or so.

Disposable cameras
I seriously don’t think they are worth the time, money or energy that brides think. They are good in theory but here are some things to consider. You might spend anywhere from $5 - $15 on each camera, sometimes forcing you to buy 10 at a time. Before you know it you just added $100 to your budget in cameras. Then you have to processing, you’ll have to take them to a developer, and wait a week or If you pay the money for the 1 hour processing you are looking at another $10 a camera to process, all with the hopes you’ll get some good fun shots. One major drawback with those camera is the flash, as you will often be using them at your reception, maybe around the night time, the flash doesn’t provide all that much light and when you have mom, grandpa, or guest, trying to take photos of you on the dance floor some 15 – 20 feet away, those images might just turn out black. Or what about little “Jimmy or Suzy” running around with it, she might get a fun one, but who knows if it is being used right and you might develop a who camera with some blurry, dark pictures. That is why having a professional photographer stay an extra hour or two might be more worth it to you. They have that more powerful flash that reaches some 15 – 30 feet and they can change their settings to allow for more light in the camera, a feature disposables don’t have.

Alternative to Disposable cameras
Something I have not seen a single bride try to do as of yet. You will know who is coming to your reception mainly because you invited them. Find out what kind of digital camera they have, and buy a memory card for you. Chances are most digital cameras I’ve seen at weddings and receptions are point and shoot cameras that take SD cards. You can run to Staples, Wal-Mart, even find them on line and buy these cares for $7 each. And these memory cards do not need to be that big, maybe 256 megabite would be the minimum to buy, but now a days you can get those 1 gig cards for $7 at staples. What you do is have a designated person, hand out the cards to the guests with the cameras, ask them to take pictures with your memory cards, then when they leave; they drop the card with you before they leave. You have to do this because the biggest problem people have is taking 100 photos, putting it on the computer and forgetting about it. You’ll end up looking like the bad guy, constantly asking “Uncle Bob” or “Best friend Kim” to send you a disk in the mail of your images. This way, you have some 10 memory cards at the end of the night, you pick up a $20 card reader and you take the images with you on your honeymoon.

Important note:
Now I might have talked myself out of a job here, but keep in mind, that point and shoot cameras are still no match to the skill and knowledge a professional photographer will have at your wedding.

The Wedding Planners
If you can factor this money into your budget a wedding planner is the way to go. As this is your first wedding, you could gain a lot of insight and benefit from a wedding planner’s knowledge on weddings. Much like I have years of experience photographing weddings, and I give tips to brides all the time, my knowledge can’t compare to what a planner would know.

Like making sure the cake is situated just right. I’ve seen it happen before when the cake shows up half melted, leaning and looks bad, but a planner would have the foresight to call the venue and make sure they have a place in their freezer to accommodate it and to pull it out at a certain time and keep it cool during the ceremony. That’s a whole thing on to itself that you as a bride don’t want to deal with on your day. I’m sure you’d much rather be thinking about your new husband, having fun, enjoying the friends and family. If you try and do it all yourself, you are going to be worrying about the flowers, making sure the dresses are there on time, making sure everyone gets paid for their services, the whole wedding day time table. The wedding planner is there to be your brain for the day, to think about all the things you don’t want to think about and certainly a whole while investment.

“Meet and Greet” your wedding professionals
Even if you are planning a bit of a destination wedding or something local you should consider meeting with your service providers, Cake makers, wedding planners, photographer, videographer, DJ, Minister, etc. I’m sure that all goes without saying, but some don’t meet with them till the day of the wedding and I often feel it can put a strain on the day if you aren’t careful. Like if you meet with the DJ beforehand you get to chat about the evening’s events and the time line. What if you only email that information over and something got lost in translation, you might anticipate your reception happening one way and the DJ does another. Or not meeting with a wedding officiant, I’ve seen it where the minister called the bride by another name because they had another name on the paper and I’ve seen it mispronounced. You don’t want that on your wedding day.

And to tie into that same topic, ask for references, if they professional say’s to you, “here are my testimonials” that doesn’t tell you anything. Yes they could be true and accurate, but to know for sure, the references are what is going to let you know. A reference will be someone that wedding professional has worked for and can tell you firsthand how they performed. You will find out early if your decision to hire them was a bad move or will put your mind totally at ease as you then found out this person was “Heaven Sent”. Those testimonials could have been embellished or made up or they could be right on the money. You just don’t know.

So these are just my thoughts to you as a bride.
I hope they help.
- Will Vickers

To DJ or not to DJ at your wedding

With all the wedding professionals out there, each one has a purpose and each one is uniquely important. The wedding planner, often the brains of the wedding, taking the pressure off the bride and making it all come together. The cake maker, bring you that taste treat that is a beautiful ending to a fun evening. And to have that fun evening you’ll need that DJ, which is the heart of any good wedding.

I bring up the DJ because as a photographer I’m often relying on the DJ for information on how the evening will go. I know with a good DJ, the dance floor will be hoping, and keeping the evening events moving in a forward motion. Many of my friends are DJ’s and I wanted to say a few words on their behalf to thank them for making my job easier and bringing me to fun photos and videos I have to for the brides and grooms out there.

The Disc Jockey:
What I have come to realize is a commanding person. They are often confident in their abilities and will control the rhythm of the party to suit the needs of the wedding couple. Without a good DJ, events often spiral out of control and before long, its 11pm and you haven’t even cut your cake yet. The DJ often is fun and entertaining, as they will often be the focus of attention when on the microphone, and bringing the spotlight onto the newly wedded couple. As the lights are dimmed and the music is playing the new husband and wife will enjoy that special song that they will remember forever as “their Song”. More often than not, the DJ will bring tears to your eyes as you are on the dance floor dancing to that special song and you glide along with your parents, the daughter with her father, or the son with his mother. I have seen the father get choked up with tears dancing with this daughter or the mother’s face buried in her son’s chest, probably thinking back to when their kids where just babies. It’s the DJ that helps bring those feelings to the surface and lets it all show on this one special day.

“Hey Mr. DJ keep playing that Song”, it’s those songs that bring out the craziest dancers out on dance floor and allows me to get the coolest dance pictures. And with the right DJ you’ll even have the groom out there on the dance floor cutting a rug, as they say. There are a lot times when I need to steal the bride and groom away for pictures and it will be the DJ watching my back keeping the dance floor going and the rest of the party entertained while I’m out taking the photos.

Without a doubt a DJ for a wedding is your wedding reception life blood and to have things go smoothly you’ll need said DJ. When looking for a DJ keep some of the following things in mind:
1. Ask for references, names and numbers of people who they have done weddings for. Testimonials are ok, but they could be fabricated.
2. Meet with the DJ before you wedding, you want to meet the person who will be at your wedding and see if personalities click. And make sure who you are speaking with is the person who will actually be the one showing up.
3. Inquire about the DJ Equipment: Do they have backups? Any kind of lighting? Are they using Discs (they can skip in players) or laptops (who library of MP3s)?
4. Do they travel to your venue? If the DJ is not local find out if there is a travel fee, sometimes that gets sneaked in and you don’t want an unexpected bill.
5. Also check to see how much it costs for an extra hour or two, I’ve been to a lot of weddings where the party just isn’t done yet, people are still having a good time and they don’t want the DJ to leave.

If you are in and around the Eastern Shore area, like Ocean City, Maryland or Rehoboth Beach, Delaware I have a few suggestions of DJ’s that I have worked with on several occasions and found their performance to be outstanding. The following DJs are in order based on their names and not listed by who is better than whom.
Justin Darling – 443-527-1778 - thatdjguy@comcast.net
Justin Mac – 410-726-7936 - keep.livin@gmail.com
Sean Rox – 410-289-7699 – sean@roxenterprises.com
Leo Weigand – 800-439-6600 – leosometimes@gmail.com
Jason Williams – 410-845-9425 - jawzhouse@yahoo.com

Jason and Stacy Wedding in Ocean City

My good buddy Jason and Stacy recently got married, and they asked us to photograph it as well as video the event. This is a sample video by my video editor Zack, who continously does an awesome fast job and great work.

Doreen and Dan Wedding

I had a great time on Saturday with Dan and Doreen and their wedding in Rehoboth at the Atlantic Sands. This was a small wedding only really and hour but we had a lot of fun with the photos. One of the coolest things I found when I was there was a runner that ran from the boardwalk to the wedding arch and it was made in such a way that the bride could walk on it easily in heels. And any thing that makes the bride’s life easier is always a good thing.

The wedding minister was my good buddy Leo Weigand, and he did an awesome job making sure the couple got what they wanted. After words I had beautiful weather, a lovely sky and a fun group of people to photograph. This particular wedding with it only being an hour and with my living only a mile from the wedding location, I was back home and done editing the images by the end of the night. It took all night to upload them all but after everything it was nice to have the photos captured, edited and up online all in the same day.