suzanne carey

<p>The people on this forum never cease to amaze me! I have to say your interest in my little website and my pricing, and me as an individual is amazing. Thank you all for your feedback! I TRULY appreciate it.</p>

<p>John Crowe, thanks for pointing out my error and for the compliment. You know since I updated my website and my pricing, I have already lost a job to someone else whose wedding packages start at 600.00. I now know what it feels like to loose a job because of another photographer low balling their pricing. Yes it stings a bit. :)</p>

<p>John Souleles, thank you for the compliments. I am based out MS and my adjusted pricing is about in line with others in the area. They may still be a tad bit lower, but MUCH better than before. You should have seen the "before" pricing. As far as the flash goes...I am using a very basic service called "Photobiz". They pretty much do everything. I just upload the photos and the content. I like a bit of flash, but I do not like overkill. I think this template has a good balance.</p>

<p>GK, because I am using Photobiz I do not have much control over the colors. :( I did my own website before and could do whatever I wanted to do, but it did not look as professional. In choosing Photobiz, I sort of lost a lot of my controls. I basically chose a template then chose a color palette. I really like green so I chose this palette. I really wish I had more control so I could make the changes you are referring to. It took me so long to update my website before but Photobiz does make it VERY easy to update it and I can change the look at a touch of a button. Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Again, thanks to all!<br>

Suzanne</p>

<p>Hi guys!<br />Well based on all the feedback I got (thank you, thank you, thank you) I have made some adjustments to my site. I shortened a lot of the Services and About sections and fixed some grammatical errors. (Those were embarrassing!) I also adjusted my pricing. It is a bit scary, but it more in line with other professionals in this area. I also got rid of the music!<br />If you want to give it one more go, here it is as a reminder <a href="http://www.suzannecarey.com">www.suzannecarey.com</a>.<br />I am ready to launch it to the world!<br />Thanks!<br />Suzanne<br />**I also forgot to mention that I am going to add more pictures too. I like the suggestion about having two portrait pictures side by side to make use of the horizontal format. Also, there is one pictures in the home gallery that I have as Landscape because that is how I took it. (It is of my 4 year old Elise). Should I make it Portrait even though I took it Landscape. Several mistook it as sideways. Thanks!</p>

<p>Again, thanks to all of your wonderful critiques. Especially the "grammer police!" My mother will be very happy you corrected me. I would hate having something out there with bad grammer, so thank you! Things have been a little crazy here so I have not completed the updates but will do that soon.<br>

About pricing, how do you go about your pricing? Is there a calculation you use to determine your pricing? Do you base it off of other photographers?<br>

As you can see, this has always been a struggle for me to be fair to my clients but to myself as well.<br>

Do any of you do packages? The only reason I did this was because many times I would get 40.00 (my old location fee) for the session but then they would only order 1 8x10 or something like that. So, I thought if I had packages they had to purchase first to get to the single print orders, that would ensure me some compensation. Does that make sense?<br>

Your thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated!<br>

Sincerely,<br>

Suzanne</p>

<p>THANK YOU for all of your wonderful feedback. I truly appreciate your suggestions. I am going to make several changes based on the feedback I have gotten here.<br>

About my pricing....this has been a sore spot with me for some time. I do not argue at all with everything you have said. Especially Glenn, that one really hit home. I guess I have always tried to be "fair" in my pricing, but at times this HAS cost me personally. It is a scary step to put myself in another bracket.<br>

I have some soul searching to do and the courage to step myself up. :)<br>

Sincerely,<br>

Suzanne</p>

<p>I also use Photbiz. I found them doing a Google Search for website templates. They are great. Fantastic customer service. Tons of templates to choose from, which is great if you want to quickly change the look of your site without timely edits. VERY affordable, especially compared to Bluedomain. They also offer photo ordering, NON flash sites, etc. Also, the upfront fee you pay is also for the HOSTING. I used GoDaddy.com for my previous website so with Photobiz I could elminate that cost.The only Con I have is it is not nearly as flexible as doing your own site. You cannot add just anything you want to the site. You have to fit it within the guides and templates they provide. I am using the very basic package which is up to 200 pictures, plenty for me. Check mine out, I just did it within the last month. <a href="http://www.suzannecarey.com">www.suzannecarey.com</a>. Thanks!</p>

<p>Hi there!<br>

My husband was recently laid off from his job and has decided to go back to school so I feel I need to "get out there" again to drum up some business. The year I got pregnant with my 3rd child (2008) I all but ceased doing photography as it was a really crazy time. Due to our current financial woes, I could use any extra coming in. It has been a while since I took pictures on a regular basis and I feel like I am starting over to build up my clients again. All of my previous work was mainly word of mouth. Anyway, enough of my sob story, I really want to get my new website out there but would like those with experience to give me some feedback. Points I am interested in:</p>

<ul>

<li>Is the music annoying?</li>

<li>How is the choice of pictures I chose to include on website?</li>

<li>Services section, too wordy?</li>

<li>About section, too much? Too "silly?"</li>

<li>Pricing. This is the first time I am using packages, what is your opinion on packages? Am I off the mark on my pricing? (I changed it just a bit from my previous pricing)</li>

</ul>

<p>Thanks in advance for your time!<br>

Website: <a href="http://www.suzannecarey.com">www.suzannecarey.com</a><br>

Sincerely,<br>

Suzanne</p>

You know, I thought about that. In fact, I have done that before for brides and their engagement picture for the paper.

 

Thanks!

Hi guys! Quick question. If you took baby portraits for someone and then they wanted to use one of your pictures to

be used on a birth announcement, how much would you charge?

 

I am not doing any of the printing. I would be handing over the hig res image to the company they are using to print

the

announcements.

 

She is a great client and I don't want to nickle and dime her to death but I feel I need to charge something but not

sure how much.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzanne

Thanks guys! I appreciate the tips. I will give each one a try. Again, thank you very much.

Hi guys.

 

My wedding packages offer 4x6 prints in a basic "proof album" as I call them.

They are very basic and help me keep the cost down for the price range of

brides I cater to.

 

The bride and groom love their pictures so much that they are ready to move

them into a more substantial album. They are looking for an "heirloom" quality

album (that is what they called it) where you insert the pictures. Within this

album are precut slots for different picture sizes...5x7, 4x6, etc. as well as

orientation some vertical, some horizontal.

 

Has anyone ever seen or heard of an album such as this. They do not like

the "coffee table" type of wedding album but prefer an old school look and feel.

 

If you can point me in the right direction I would most appreciate it.

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzanne Carey

Hey guys. Again, wonderful information. I am in Southeast Mississippi. Thanks Steve for some numbers I can go by. I am not saying my model is the best, in fact I need to rethink it, so I appreciate the new ideas and better ways to serve not only myself but my customers.

As usual this forum never fails to amaze me at the support and responses I get from fellow photographers. You have given me some excellent ideas and suggestions. I think I agree with several of you that hey if I sold the negatives then I don't have to worry about them! I just bought a 500 gig external hard drive and I am sure I will fill it up in due time as long as my computer hard drives and DVDs. So yes, that would be nice now having to worry about it.

 

As far as getting sick, I am not sure how to resolve her concerns at this point because I have no current relationships with other photographers. I am not even sure how to foster that. But I will do the best I can to relieve her concern on that matter as well.

 

Thanks again for wonderful feedback. Please keep it coming!

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzanne

Hi everyone! I met with a bride and her mom the other night as they are looking

at me as their possible photographer. They met with another photographer the

next morning and ended up choosing me. I was very happy of course but the bride

has presented some questions to me I am not sure how to answer.

 

One concern she had was how long do I store the files and how are they backed

up. I assured her I had a back up system in place and I keep them indefinently.

(I am curious to know how long others keep the negatives). She said she would

like the negatives. I do not include the negatives in the pricing of my

weddings. I offer VERY competative prices. I am very generous with the packages

in that the bride gets 200 prints in an album. Because my packages are so low I

do tend to rely on some print orders to make more money. This may not be the

best business model but this is how it is at this time. I don't have a strong

opinion on the matter as far as selling the negatives but I have no idea how to

price them out to her. Can anyone give me an idea of what they charge if

someone wants to buy the negatives?

 

Okay her other concern is with having a back up plan. Her concern is what if I

get sick and cannot do the wedding. I can understand this concern but so far

this has never been an issue. In fact, at one wedding I was pregnant and threw

up all morning before the wedding. I ate crackers like crazy all morning and

ended up being okay. I was going on with the show no matter what. Now what was

interesting about this concern is she brought up my children. She specifically

said she was concerned that my children may bring something home that would get

me sick. Yes kids have germs...:)...but I don't think I am MORE at chance of

getting sick than anyone else. I work at home and do not get out in the work

place. I wonder if someone who works in an office everyday has more of a chance

of getting sick than me? Anyway, that is not the point really. So my question

is, what do YOU do as a back up plan? I have no fellow photograhers in the area

that I have a system worked out with. Besides none of the photographers are in

my price range, I am under, so I don't think any of them would do it for the

price she is paying me. I don't want to blow her off by saying, well this has

never happened to me before so I don't think it will be an issue, but then

again I am not sure how to resolve her concern either. I know to her this is a

very real issue. I do not have an assistant either.

 

If any of you can offer an advice I would truly appreciate it. I am meeting

with her again tomorrow and hope to have a game plan ready.

 

Thanks again!

Hi everyone. I cannot thank you enough for all of your support and suggestions. It ends up I found a very helpful fellow on another forum who has a lot of experience in this matter.

 

He spent a lot of time with me and we were able to save 15 images out of about 100.

 

Apparently the card was totally fried. I have no idea how it could have happened. I mailed the card to him and he is going to see if he can do anymore in person.

 

Thanks again for all of your help. I love photo.net!

 

Sincerely,

 

Suzanne

Hi there. Well, I cannot seem to get PC Inspector to work. It will not even read the card. When I click on the right drive for the memory card, the "Start" button fades out so I can't even start it. I have also tried the other, PhotoRescue PC without any luck.

 

Any other suggestions? I am wide open! How should I approach my bride? Will she really believe it was a freak error with my card? She really does not care about that and I would not blame her. Should I tell her now of the problem or wait until I know 100% sure that I cannot recover the images?

 

I am willing do anything for her, bridal session, "newlywed" session, etc. but nothing can take up for this day. I was the only photog and EVERY image I took is on that card. It was a quick day which was only an hour. I will be loosing sleep over this.

 

Sadly yours,

 

Suzanne

Guys, thank you so much! I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the input. First of all, this card is going in the trash when I recover the files. (See I am being positive that I am going to recover them)

 

I have NOT reformatted the card.

 

I called Lexar and they told me to take the card to Walmart. I questioned the technician for 5 minutes on how in the world Walmart would be able to help but he assured me to take my card to Walmart and have them try to recover the files. I have two young children which makes a trip to Walmart painful so I called first to talk to the manager of the photo lab. She told me they do not have any special software that would help recover the images but we would try to pull them up using the machine.

 

So Lexar said if that did not work to contact them again and we would see about what steps we would take next. They did not say what that was they just told me to call back.

 

If I received a CD with the card I do not remember nor do I know where to find it at this point.

 

Right now I am trying the suggestion made by Mark. It is free software. It has been running for about an hour and has about 47% of it done. My concern is it has not found any files yet. :(

 

I think I will try the Photo Rescue next. $30.00 is NOTHING any way bu if it can rescue these files, it will be priceless to me.

 

Also, I had heard some "negative" things about Lexar but so far so good with me. How do I prevent this from happening again? Is there a way? Should I ditch all my Lexar cards and start over with another brand? What do you use David?

 

Thanks again so much. I knew I could count on my photo.net friends to help me out. You were my FIRST contact before I did anything else. :)

 

Thanks again!

 

Suzanne

Hi guys. I really need your help with this. I took some pictures for a friend's

wedding this past Friday evening. We only took an hour's worth of pictures,

probably about 90 to 100. They were all shot in RAW using my Canon 20D. I was

using a LEXAR Professional CompactFlash 40x card. I have been taking pictures

for going on 3 years now and this has NEVER happened to me. I looked at the

pictures several times to make sure my exposure looked right so I know it was

working. In fact the last pictures I took were them cutting the cake and they

were there! So Saturday I sit down at my computer to download them with my card

reader. I got an error which basically said it could not find the source. I

assumed it was my card reader for it is old and falling apart. I bought a new

one and the same thing happend. I ran to my camera and now when I put the card

in the camera the camera sort of "stalls" for a moment before I can do

anything. When I click on the botton to view the images it says "No Image". So

now I am freaking out and I try it in my 10D...same thing.

 

Because this has never happened to me before I have no idea what to do or where

to start. I really hope you guys can point me in the right direction.

 

Thank you!

 

Suzanne

Julie, thank you for asking this question! I have been thinking about this myself. For the most part, I will hand over "straight forward" images without any effects added. I like the ideas I have gotten from the other posters about taking a handful of images an "play" around with them to give the client more options.

 

Another question along these same lines, if Julie does not mind me piggy backing on her thread, is images on your website. Again most of the images on my site are very straight forward without much PS work. I see other websites where it looks like a lot of PS is done on every image. Does that mean that is how they present their images to their clients? My concern for me is this, if I put "artsy" photos that I really like, I am afriad that is what the clients will expect for all of their pictures. Do you do a mix of both on your website?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Suzanne

Call me crazy but the longest I stay at a wedding is 4 hours. When I first started doing weddings, I was breastfeeding so that was about as long as I could stay away! I am no longer dealing with a breastfeeding infant but I have not extended my time. Honestly, I have never not had enough time to get all that the bride and groom want me to get. Before the wedding day the bride and I will coordinate exactly what time she wants me to get there and then she knows exactly how long I will stay. If I need to stay longer it is 50.00 per half hour but I have never had to stay longer.

 

I let them know when it is about time for me to wrap up and we will get those "last minute" shots before I go. Sometimes I am still there when they leave but most of the time I am not.

 

Let me tell you , after 4 hours I am exhausted. I have NO IDEA how you guys do it for up to 10 hours. OMG. My hats off to you.

 

I may eventually extend my time to cover longer but so far so good! :)

One thing I learned after doing my first wedding get a battery pack! That was like a night and day difference for me when using my external flash. If you don't have one and cannot get one by the wedding, use lots of fresh batteries, especially if the wedding is in a dark, poorly lit church.

 

As it was mentioned before, look for good lighting and capture the details. Have a good time with your bride and groom and their families. Eat a good meal that can sustain you for hours. Bring granola bars! :)

 

Relax and have fun!

Hi Timothy,

 

I did my first Christening recently at a Catholic church. I am not Catholic so I asked the mom several questions about the ceremony, where I should sit, etc. I sat with the family so I was able to jump up and be right there when it was time to start. I also spoke with the Priest before the ceremony to make sure flash was permitted, which it was. I would contact the one performing the service to make sure flash is permitted. I also relied on the parents to "cue" me when it was time. Their Christening was during a regular Mass but it was very relaxed and casual. I took pictures throughout with no problems. I thought it was a lot of fun so good luck and have fun!

 

Suzanne

Hi Neil. (That is my hubby's name spelled the "right" way as he would say) When I first started using my 20D I had the same issue, I posted the same question and even posted pictures as examples. My close up images, tack sharp, but groups were "out of focus", fuzzy, etc. I have an "L" lens as well that I use with my 20D. Now this is MY experience with MY 20D and I have gotten my husband's help as I tested different scenarios. With group shots or shots taken farther away I get more "fuzzy" looking pictures if I use the single point focus. This is my experience with my camera and I have found if I do not use the single point feature the images are much clearer.

 

I am not an expert but this is what I have experienced. I agree with other posters that the 20D is tricky when it comes to focusing.

 

I hope this helps in some way.

 

Thanks!

 

Suzanne

Well it seems you guys feel the same way I do. The funny thing is they attach the proof to the envelope the prints came in so its very easy to hold one print up to the other and see the difference.

 

My concern with "rocking" the boat is the dance instructor spoke very highly of this company and said she had been using him for years. My daughter is in her class, yada yada yada....

 

I would agree the coloring and exposure of the proof was very nice. I am just surprised they would print the final product on their own printer. I think we all know the cost of printing them at a professional is not that much, compared to the quality.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

I know this sounds like a strange question but just recently my daughter had

her ballet pictures taken. They were taken at the dance studio by a

professional photographer. The proofs looked pretty good. I know they were

printed at Walmart because I saw the envelope. About a week after approving my

proof, I got the pictures. Well the pictures that were delivered to me were

totally different than the proof. The image is over-exposed and the color is

off. Looking at the back of the picture I can see it is printed on Epson paper

so I assume they printed them on an Epson printer.

 

I was a little upset about this but my husband said they are okay to him. As a

photographer myself, I was a little upset that they would deliver prints that

looked different than the proof. Also, the edges of the prints that they cut

are real ragged. Meaning it looks like they used a dull blade to cut them.

 

As a professional, I would have never delivered prints like this. I will keep

my mouth shut but how do you handle situations like this?

 

Thanks!

 

Suzanne

I also find this a very interesting question. I live and work in the deep South. Most of the pictures I take are formals. It may not be my favorite but it is what my Bride's expect and their families.

 

We always take all formals before the wedding and save maybe 15 minutes at the end to capture the last few formals we have to get after the bride and groom are married.

 

I personally feel like I get so caught up in the Formals that I miss opportunites to be creative. We usually set up in the sanctuary where the wedding will be held. The Bride usually likes to have pictures of the flowers, candles, etc. that have been set up for the wedding.

 

I have not found a way to get away from so many formals because that is what is expected here. I often wonder if its a regional thing?

 

What do you do to break out of the formal mode to take some creative pictures?

 

Suzane