jenacolson

Hi Sharon,

 

I'm not in SoCal yet, but will be next August permanently in San Diego and will probably need a second shooter from time to time. You can view my website at www.WeddingsByVantage.com. Let me know if you're interested.

 

Jena

Hi Grant,

 

I'm in Madison, WI, but I'm very willing to travel for that date. We've done weddings in Galena before, which isn't too far from there. I would only charge minimal travel costs (driving and a hotel).

 

You can check out my website at www.WeddingsByVantage.com.

 

Thanks! And good luck to your friend!

 

Best,

Jena Olson

One thing that we've found helps our sales is to up our prices but then offer a "photo credit" as a part of the package. The credit limit increases with the larger packages. The client essentially gets $250 (or whatever the package dictates) to spend on photos from their wedding. More often than not, they'll end up spending quite a bit more than the credit since it adds up fast. Also, this increases the chances that they'll buy prints in addition to the album--would they not have had the credit, they wouldn't have bought prints...and then they buy more than their credit. This way, they feel that they're getting a deal, we increase our chances of selling more prints, everyone goes away happy.

Hi Simon,

 

My answer is three fold. First, I make sure to give clients a chance to tell me the important shots that they want *before* the wedding when we give them a questionnaire about their day. That way, if they don't list the shot, we can't be held accountable. Second, we make it clear and write directly in our contract that we can't guarantee any images given that it's an uncontrolled day. Third, if a couple expresses disappointment after getting their photos, I ask them them which specific shots they wanted to see. If I have some shots that are similar to what they're looking for (close up of mom, for example) but I am not thrilled with it, I'll still send it to them. This happened with one of our most recent clients and they ended up buying several prints of a shot that I had initially left out. Just goes to show that you can't account for someone's preference. Often emotional impact is more important to a client than technical perfection.

 

Jena

Hi everyone,

 

I have an e-session coming up at the end of October and I'm looking for a nice

outdoor location somewhere between Madison and Milwaukee (they live in

Milwaukee, I'm in Madison, we're meeting half-way). I know lots of places near

Madison and lots of places near Milwaukee, but not much in-between (like near

Johnson Creek). Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance,

Jena

Albums Inc. is Renaissance's largest distributer. However, I believe you need a tax ID to buy their albums...

 

Jena

Jon, I think this really depends on your location. We're in Madison, Wisconsin and we pay second shooters $15-20 an hour depending on their experience plus their time for travel at half that rate. This is pretty standard around here...but it's probably different in NYC. It also depends how experienced they are. You might want to ask other photogs in your area what they are paying their second shooters to see if you are on par with them.

Bill, yes, just sign up to see pricing. It's easiest that way. The time it takes from upload of an album to the time it's on your doorstep is about 4 weeks. You can do a rush order to get it in less than 3 weeks for an additional $40.

 

Jena

We had this happen at our session between the ceremony and the reception when the couple wanted to go into town to take pictures in an urban area. We were shooting on a side street out of the eye of the public and some guy walked up and started shooting alongside me and the videographer with his pro equipment. Just shooting our poses like it was no big deal! We just made sure that we were getting the shots we needed, didn't step out of the way for him, and worked quickly. At the time, it didn't seem worth getting "into it" with him in front of the couple since we were only there for about 3 minutes. But it sure was weird...

 

In retrospect, I would have kindly asked him to respect the privacy of the couple and respect our contract by leaving us alone.

I have a client that wants me to create a 16x20 print from her daughter's

wedding. She doesn't want to display it behind glass--rather she wants to frame

it "as is" to match another framed print that she has of her other daughter. I

am planning to have it printed on Gatorboard but am wondering if I should also

have the lab do some sort of finishing spray to protect the print from dust, UV

rays, etc. Do any of you have any experience with finishing sprays? Any archival

issues I should know about? Any horror stories? I can also post this in another

forum, but this forum is my "hang out" so wanted to check here first. :) Thanks!

 

-Jena

Rose, I think your name is only "cute" if your branding is cute. That is, pay attention to your logo (if you have one), your website design, etc. If there's nothing "cute" about your branding, your name won't make people think twice. That's why yahoo and google can do so well--it's not so much about their name as it's about their brand. I'm with Anne--you're pretty darn lucky to have that name! :)

 

-Jena

YAY!!!! Just wanted to share with everyone my big news: I just got accepted to

WPJA today! Hip hip hooray! :)

Rich, something that we've found helps tremendously is doing a "what to expect on the day of the wedding" outline and questionnaire before the actual day. As a part of that, we list the typical group shots we get and how long they can expect these to take. We then ask in the questionnaire which of the typical group shots they want and if they want others we didn't mention. In the "typical" shots outline, we don't include the bride and groom with each of their attendants.

 

We also mention that if there are certain people they want shots of, they need to assign someone to point out those people to us or they need to distinguish them from the crowd with a corsage or something similar.

 

Doing this has prevented any after-the-fact complaints and I imagine that if we ever got any, we could (kindly) point out that we had asked them ahead of time what shots they would like.

 

In your case, if you didn't do that, maybe you could offer to do some free portraits of the bride/groom and any of the friends they didn't get shots of? If you're reliant on referrals, doing an extra hour or two of portraits to keep a bride happy with you is probably worth it.

Whoops! Forgot the photo! :)<div></div>

One more...

Two of my favorites, both from the last wedding we shot...<div></div>

We highlight all the images, flag them all, and then as we decide on ones that we don't want to include, we unflag them, leaving only the flagged images ("show picks only" option). It's a process of elimination this way. I love using Lightroom for culling--it's lighting fast at the options we now have to do quick comparisons is wonderful.

 

Jena

We're contracted for 6-8 hours or full day coverage. So if B&G want us to start at 2pm, we're out at 8pm, 10pm or until they leave, depending on contract. We always give them a heads up that we're getting ready to leave and ask if they want us to stay longer for overtime or get any particular shots before we go. And they usually say no. :)

Good point, Anne! I think it really depends on what the budget is in the first place. If they have a high general budget, they'll probably actually spend less of a percentage on photography than if their budget is lower--but they still want good photos. Maybe that's a no brainer but... For our wedding, as wedding photographers, we're spending about 17% of our budget on our photographer. My guess is that's pretty high compared to a lot of other couples in our price range, simply because it means so much to us.

Amanda, what about offering to put together an album of some of her favorite images of him? Or yes, creating a coffee table album (small) of any pics you have of him from the wedding. She might not take you up on it, but it's the thought that counts.

Hi Zach, I agree with Debbie that the photos are very over-photoshopped. Photoshop isn't bad in some photos, but when it's every photo for the formals, it really detracts from the images instead of enhancing them. I think your pics at the reflection pool and the couple standing in the little archway of the church have potential, but they could have been stronger by using the rule of thirds: instead of placing the couple in the center of the frame, get farther back and put them in the bottom corner of the frame to really emphasize the location.

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Andre, do you have anything in your standard contract (or, specifically, the one you signed with the clients that used this hotel for their wedding) about commercial and advertising use? Our contract states that we can use the images for our own portfolio and advertising, but we can't sell the images or usage rights to anyone else. I'd be sure that you're not inadvertantly breaching any contract before doing anything... In this case, if you paid for everything yourself (printing and framing), you'd bascially be adverstising and therefore not in breach of contract (if it is, in fact, in your contract).

Will, one of the things I like to do to add motion is to drag the shutter a bit to let in ambient light and then, as the on camera flash pops, move the camera a bit to the right or left. It freezes your main subject and creates a fun blur around the subject.<div></div>

Nita, it'd be really helpful if you could show some examples. I think I know what you're talking about, but my answer would be a longer one so I want to make sure before doing all that typing! :)

That's good feedback for our web designer, Ian. I'll have him look into it on what might be going on for you. And yes, Shiraz, the lack of directions for scrolling through images is one of the drawbacks of using lightbox to display our images--it's just the way that they do it--but it was a slight drawback that didn't overshadow the rest of the program features we like.