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Happy Happy Joy Joy?

 

ARRRRGH....

(sounds of bridal party killing photographer during second set of formals in 90 degree weather at the local park....)

 

Actually, we count (sorry) and shoot between "two" and "three" and shoot two shots in groups of 3 or more (sometimes more if the group is REALLY big).

NEVER EVER give out your cuts (out takes). The bride has the photos promised per the contract. While I do not promise a specific number, I will give a verbal approximate number and deliver slightly more.

 

When you give your work to a customer, especially in this business, that customer will show the work to other people. You only want the best to be shown.

 

What to tell the bride? Tell her she has what the contract required and the out takes have been permanenetly discarded. Tell her you went through the photos and edited twice. Sorry.

 

An aside to that is if you are talking 200 images, be sure to take about 25% more than that and have only a 5% to 10% cull rate due to things like blinks and other ppl's camera flash etc. If you take 1000 images and edit to 200, there will be questions.

Great advice for the dress.. but the others are right about aging the bride. You got the edgey street thing going for sure, but it is a dangerous thing to make a client look older (and this is WORN older). For your personal safety, show her this image outside of, and away from, easily thrown sharp edged objects!

 

I am glad I never smoked... your sequence makes it sort of look like the aging happeneded during this drag on the cigarette. Imagine what another three or four will do? Phew!

 

and there are those who say it's the sun that makes you age... ;)

Any series I check the first one or two then just shoot. The check is for me to be sure of my settings which I check b4 I shoot anyway! with film I use the ASA setting of the film but I do swap this around and the white balance with digital, so the first shot gets a quick look to be sure I got the WB right and the ASA right etc.

 

With film I just keep checking my settings (which I do with digital as well).

 

If you spend your time looking at the LCD screen you miss stuff you ought to be shooting.

Take all the $$ you have received so far and put it in an envelope as cash.

 

Go to the wedding. If they do not have the rest of the cash for you, return their $$ and go home and enjoy your weekend. Or work for free. Up to you. Your customers sound like dead beats.

 

Of course, seeing a lawyer is a good idea, but you might be cut too short on time for that.

 

Learn from this and make sure it does not happen next time...

You should be asking a Doctor.

 

 

There are skin specialists.

 

They can give you something topical that really works.

 

OR

 

Get an assistant and let them sweat....

Zucker and Zeltsman give you the basics and a whole lot more.

 

If you learn what they teach, you will have a foundation for anything you want to do in the future. You look at the best wedding PJ work and you will see elements of Zucker and Zeltsman there.

 

From there go to Hurrel or to Bresson.. see elements of the first two.

Reggie, Buissink.. etc.. They ALL understand basic posing and good lighting and the basics ARE there. Look at their work then go back to Zeltsman. THINK and SEE.

 

If you build a good foundation your house will probably stand the tests of time. Same with photography.

It is OK to assist 3-4 times "for free" to get experience, but after that you got to get paid. Around here the going rate for assisting is anywhere from $150 - $300 depending on how much you contribute to the work.

Crop tighter. Use your DOF to blur the back ground. Controp where you take the pictures where possible. Use the background to your advantage when you can. You control the shooting. Ask ppl to move!

 

Shoot with flash and increase your shutter speed. If you shoot indoors and up the SS to 1/125 and shoot the flash at f8 and set your f stop at f 8, the backround will be dark and indiscernable, while your subject at 10 feet will be fine. Every flash shot is a dbl xposure. Use that to your advantage. Outside, if you dtrop the SS to 1/60 and shoot flash, the background will be tough to see as it will grossly over xpose. I don't like using the above flash and SS techniques, but they can work in a pinch.

 

Fix it in the camera when you take the shot, not on the 'puter, which just wastes your time and decreases your per hour fee.

 

It isn't always easy, but if it was, everyone would be doing this.

SHUT UP unless speaking is necessary (i.e., you scew up and need to tell the boss or HE/SHE screws up and you need to let them know (quietly).

 

Smile and act like you are having fun regardless of how much you want to kill the Photographer or the Client.

Bruce Rubenstein would be a good one to answer this one....

 

but it has been my experience that often the subtle emotions make the best photos.. the quiet looks, the introspective moments etc. Harder to spot. Harder to capture.

 

Sometimes a shoot is hard work. If it was EZ everyone would do it! :)

One time, at the wedding, we got in the car to drive to the reception and the Vehicle Anti Theft System (VATS) (thank you GM) decided it did not recognize the chip in EITHER key we had and, while the car would give me lights and radio, would NOT crank or start. This was at a National Park where the B&G had paid $$ to have their wedding in the gardens and the formals taken there. The car was parked (with permission) in the BACK on Park Property where a tow truck could possibly damage the road in!

 

One thing led to another.. I got a ride to the wedding reception to start the photographer while my partner got a ride with someone else to get a replacement car and AAA sent a tow truck to get my car.

 

It all worked out, but the show must go on and it did.

 

Meanwhile, it took two garages, a week of time, a car rental for big $$ and a pile of money to the mechanics to work around the VATS system so I could get the car back for work. Repairing the VATS system would have been even BIGGER $$.

Every automatic system ought to have a manual over ride or a back up system, be it a camera or a car!

The medium of capture should not be the client's concern. The results and the end product they desire should be. Since both mediums result in printed images and both mediums can be converted to CD and/or DVD format, and both mediums can give you negatives, what you use initially to get the images they will have for a lifetime is really of no concern.

 

Photographers argue about this a lot more than clients do (or should).

There is a HUGE expense that full time wedding photographers as sole breadwinners have that part timers do not have.

 

The first of those is HEALTH INSURANCE. If you want to risk not having health insurance, be my guest. However, I have seen a perfectly healthy appearing and acting individual (young too) find out all of a sudden that they have a serious long term illness.. and w/o health insurance it won't matter if you have a Rolls in the driveway. the bills are staggering.

 

The cost of health insurance, especially if you have a family, can likewise be pretty high.

 

I have a day job with health insurance. I used to own my own business and that was my sole income and (in 1994) my family health insurance was $8k a year and it was, for the most part, a major medical plan which simply meant that as long as I paid the premiums I would not lose my home!

 

I have lived on a lot less the the $$ quoted here but this was only possible because of employer paid benefits that included health insurance.

You already understand photography and posing, so I would suggest spending a few weddings (not 10 years) at the elbow of a pro to see what the business is about and what it is like.

 

A LOT of mediocre photographers are highly successful shooting weddings because they are good with ppl, work well under pressure, know how to get the job done and are good business ppl. A lot of exceptional photographers can never get a wedding business off the ground because they are not prioritizing ppl skills, business skills and producing solid work with few out takes.

 

Two bodies is a good idea. I won't give advice on Canon equipment as I do not have any. Currently I bring two film bodies and a digital body and shoot film and digital with a film body back up.

I use an external CF reader and then go to Windows Explorer and select the images and then copy them (right click after selecting all)and save them to a folder I have already created somewhere else on my HD.

 

I hate "pop up" windows and I prefer to do things manually so that is how I do it.

 

The Card gets reformatted in the camera.

Eighteen years of milking cows and one kick to the right knee by a horse... and two knee surgeries as a result..

 

Check it out sooner than later. With Arthroscopic knee surgery and medical advances it is not a real bad surgery with a pretty quick recovery (for most procedures).

Letting it go can result in terrible arthritis in your future and having seen what that can do you want to do all you can to prevent it.

 

See a Doc.

Prevention is 9/10ths of the cure.

 

And some shots do bother my knee.

After seeing gas go up 20 cents a gallon I am not suprised. Oil hit an all time high and everything we do or have is somehow tied to this.. from the lab making the film to the plane flying it here.. all of it is tied to oil.

 

As that goes up so will EVERYTHING else.

 

Also, the Foreign exchange rate may be in there too.

 

Bottom line is that if oil is up 50% over what it was a year ago, everything else will eventually follow.

Nothing the Federal Reserve can do to stem the tide of inflation based in the price of a product (oil) this pervasive in the US economy.

 

I would suggest that you best get used to the higher price and brace yourself for the future cost of doing business and cost of living.

A rule of thumb I have read is you go full time in a business when it starts to cost you money to go to your day job.

There is hope for me yet Al! Thank you!!!

 

I got the "old" part pegged and the 10 year old car and the middle class house...

Now if I could just get the "money" part nailed I would have it made.

 

Half way there... :)

My only comment on the grouping as a whole is that you need to watch your back ground more carefully. I see a lot of pictures where the bottom of the cross at the church or trees (outside) are coming out of ppl's heads.

 

I also saw a lot of shots where ppl are straight on to the camera where if they were at a 45 degree angle to the film plane they would be more flattered by the image (I am talking posed, not candid here, tho this rule does work for both).

 

These are things photographers know and see. It looks like you had a lot of fun syhooting these weddings and my comments are here to help you do even better than you already are. I am sure your customers are happy.

"People with money travel in a pack."

as do wolves and hyenas....

but Marc is right.

 

As to eyeliner, I think $14 or $4 for what appears to be, and acts like, a soft leaded colored pencil is simply too much to pay. In fact, if Elizabeth Arden et al had to rely on ppl like me for their $$ they would be doing weddings on the side to pay the bills!

 

Dressing up and make up are a complete waste of time. Everyone is always worried about how they look to other ppl when everyone is only really worried about their own looks.

 

Trust me.. the mirror is where ppl are looking so it won't matter if you wear $14 eyeliner or none at all.

I, personally, think this is not such a good photo because it has to be explained. If it had included the brides face it might not have needed an explaination. My opinion. I am not the customer and it is that opinion that counts.

 

Critique can be taken any number of ways. The best way is with an open mind. Look at the image being critiqued and then think that if you did not take it, and it was not your customer, does the critique have merit? Is the critique educational? If you did what the critic suggested, do you think the image would be better?

 

Very difficult to be objective about one's own work, but often this skill is necessary to acquire in order to advance.

Subtract the cost of the album (cost of gooods) from the price and charge that.

 

I charge for my time and albums are extra.

 

Most of your pricing structure should be based on your skill and time, so the finished product (be it CD or proof book etc.) is not of huge consequence.

Pre wedding we almost NEVER do extended family shots as we are often at the brides house/location and this excludes the grooms family since most will not have photos before the ceremony together. We do get the brides family and the girls etc. and it takes about 15-20 minutes. MOST of the shots are candid at this point and even if we use lights it is about 5-10 minutes to set up. We try to use ambient light where possible and avoid the lights and background etc.

 

Most formals are taken after the ceremony in two locations.. Alter Returns and a park or at the reception during the guests cocktail hour. These take 1/2 hour to an hour depending on driving and other fadctors such as the number of ppl.

 

Often at the reception we take a few formal extended family shots, but most of the work is candid at this point.

 

With two ppl shooting we get a lot of candid shots durning the formals.