shaun_carter

Yes, this was my first attempt at a storybook style album. Even with Jeff Hawkins CD's on album design it seemed like I would get stuck at times. But when I reminded myself to keep it simple progess picked back up again. These albums are actually fun to design and I hope to sell more of them than the traditional kind. We'll see...

I designed this for an 8x8 20 page album. Please comment on your thoughts

after viewing. Thanks!

 

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventthumbs?event=0GXZ002B

I have two weddings booked in July. My wife's due date is towards the end of July. Both of my weddings are before her due date. If she's goes into labor while I'm at a wedding we have family near by who could rush her to the hospital. They already know that they are on standby. Now, my wife and I agreed that I wouldn't book any weddings the month of August, which is after the baby, because that's when she'll really need my help. We have a 6 and 3 year old now. All she needs me to do is keep those two busy for a month or so...

I agree with Dave. I do not prefer the first meeting to be at anyone's home, usually a public place somewhere in between. Most of the time I end up at their home or one of their relative's home for a first meeting though. I usually start off by congratulating them on their engagement. Then ask have they considered any other photographers, why things didn't work out, and this usually leads into a conversation on what they are looking for in a photographer. I'm usually with them for about an hour.

great ideas everyone. thanks! dave, i take my son to a toddler tumbling class from 9-10, other than that i'm free. shoot me an email or give me a call with the details! thanks!

i thought that this question was important because obviously the more people

visit your website, the likely you are to sell more pictures. lately i've just

been handing out cards as i do table shots at the reception. my business cards

have my website on it and i tell them that all the pictures will be up and

available for viewing and ordering in a week. there are always tables that i

don't make it to which means there are people i miss. i am wondering does

anyone lay cards at every seat on every table regardless of whether or not they

do table shots there? or do you have another strategy for maximizing hits to

your website so everyone will know where to view and order pictures after the

wedding day. thanks...

both my 20D and the recently added digital rebel xt backup has a

custom white balance feature that i never use. i am wondering if

anyone uses this feature at weddings and does it get the white

balance dead on, thus less white balance post processing corrections

required? thanks...

if you take five or six shots of the same pose (say for instance the

entire wedding party), and they all come out good (no blinkers, etc)

do you post them all or still try and narrow it down to just 1 or

2?

I'm not sure if a 5x7 album with that much capacity exists, but you can give Michel Company in Chicago a call at 800-621-6649. They'll work with you to find something that fits your need.

Topflight has a Maxi Super Saver Proof Album that I've sold to clients in 100 and 200 print 4x6 capacity. I'm sure this style comes in higher capacities. It has the three rings, slip-in plastic pockets, and a 4x4 or cameo window on the front. It's a proof album so it comes with the order forms but I just toss those out. Really nice for those clients on a super tight budget. Visit www.michelcompany.com

I currenlty only have 4.5 gigs worth of CF cards, so for the sake of space I shoot raw for "formals" and other moments where I feel the getting the correct exposure may be a challenge. The rest (which is the majority) is shot in jpeg mode.

after i delete the bad shots i currently i go through each of the

keepers one by one and apply whatever corrections are needed

(sharpen, contrast, color balance, levels, etc.) before delivering

the proofs. this takes tons of time, and i am wondering if anyone

uses the unsharp mask, auto leveling, auto contrast, or auto color

features of adobe photoshop cs to batch correct all the images?

maybe batch correct, then go back and view them all and see which

ones the auto correcting failed at and correct those manually?

don't know...what do you do? thanx!

is there a minimum number of poses that anyone targets for their

proofs of the bride alone, groom alone, and bride and groom

together? if you don't target a certain number how do you know when

you've taken a sufficient variety??? thanx!

autofocus...except in situations where autofocus struggles such as low light. then it's manual.

Preceremony: I was free to float and shoot whatever caught my eye. Those were the instructions given to me. So the approach I took was to take shots that I would normally get at one of my own wedding, plus pushed myself to be a little more creative. If I saw Dave taking a certain shot, or if he told me he took a certain shot I would not repeat it.

 

The Ceremony: This is where we had our "game plan". Dave was positioned in the front and covered the front to mid rows. I was near the back and covered the back to mid row. It was sorta like zone defense in football. Any action in my zone that faced me, "I nailed it". Any action in Dave's zone that faced him, "he nailed it". We would routinely make eye contact. My eye contact was for assurance that he was ok with where I was shooting from and that I wasn't being a disturbance to the wedding. There was also a few instances where I was in a better position than him to get certain shots and I would signal to him "don't worry I got it". I think it worked out great.

 

The reception: It was important for me to help Dave gather missing members of the family and the wedding party for formal pictures after the ceremony. I expected to do grunt type work because if I had an assistant/second shooter this is what I would expect of them (I could have sure used one last Saturday moving three tables and 30 chairs around for pictures at the reception hall!). Anyone who has tried to do this on thier own knows how exausting this can be. I also took some candids during the formals, but mostly paid attention and asked questions because this was where I was looking to learn the most. Dave took tons of backdrop pictures because everyone wanted them, and I every now and then I would drift around and take dance floor shots and miscellaneous others.

 

One of the guest told us this: "I wasn't sure if you two guys working together or not at first until I saw that neither of you were going after the same shots. After that I knew you were a team".

Mary, you can actually put Chicago IL for me. All of my work has been in Chicago so far, it's the closest big city (2 minutes away!), and most people are familiar with it versus my small suburb...

Delanza Carter - Homewood, IL.

Thanks for the replies. This helps!

 

Delanza/Chicago, IL.

Lots of good feedback here. Thanks everyone. I'll experiment with my wife and kids this week before my wedding this Saturday.

 

Delanza/Chicago,IL

mark, good point. dust and dirt can be abrasive. i assume there's some protective coating on the lenses and wiping before blowing off the dust and dirt could scratch off the coating and make the lens suscptible to all types of damage.

in the past my 20d has been in "al focus" mode (today i switched

to "one shot") which is suppose to detect if your subject is moving

or not and function in the appropriate mode ("al servo" or "one

shot"). i sometimes get shots where my subject is not as sharp as

the background and I know i focused on my subject. however, i might

have focused and recomposed and also realized after going through my

manual again that "focus and recompose" only works in "one shot"

mode. so, my question is does anyone prefer "al focus" or "al servo"

mode and use it at weddings? for possibly the procession and

recession where people are moving towards you? thanks.

dan, i have the 20d, and the L lens is 24-70. i dont remember seeing a rubber gasket on the 24-70. iskandar, the squeeze air blower sounds practical...

This question is really for lenses in general, but now that I've

purchased my first cadillac lens (Canon L Series), I'm paying more

attention to protection and care. I have a few questions

regarding "protection" and "care": 1)do you keep a filter such as

the UV on there at all times to protect the lens from scratches and

dust?, and 2) do you keep a can of compressed air in your camera bad

to blow off dust versus wiping your lens with a lens cloth? Thanks!

It was awesome working with Dave as an assistant/second shooter. Thanks Dave! Dave pretty much let me shoot whatever I wanted to before and after the ceremony. During the ceremony we established his angle of coverage and mine. Boy, was there a level of comfort with that. Normally with my weddings I would be all over the place trying to get shots from different angles, or get stuck with a bad angle and have to settle for whatever. I know this happens to everyone when you shoot a wedding alone. It was good to know that Dave had a level of comfort knowing that whenever he was stuck at a bad angle, I had a good one, and when I was at a bad angle Dave was at a good one. I would routinely show him my pictures on my 20D whenever we had a moment to see if he thought I was getting good shots and he did (thank goodness). I think the important thing is to establish a good game plan ahead of time as Dave and I did. And for those times where we both were just floating around I would be sure not to get the same shots I saw him getting to add more depth of coverage to the day. It may be a shot of the same thing, but from a different angle. I never took that shot above with the hands reaching out to the cake before either. But I assumed that Dave was getting the shots that he would normally get, and this was my chance to look for something different than what my view of the traditional cake shots were. Our cameras were flashing at the same time, but capturing different views because we were at different angles. Dave also taught me a lot. He�s great at dealing with people, especially during the formals. Within seconds he has the group molded into the perfect pose, and then transforms the pose into something dynamic and fun looking. Studio lighting was something that always intimidated me and Dave showed me how simple working with studio lighting really is. After working with Dave I have a lot more confidence now going forward with the clients I have booked for this year. I�m definitely an advocate of newbies seeking out mentors, and mentees seeking out a serious newbies who is looking to learn, and to also to add value to your day.

thanks for the response as always nadine. gary's reference card recommends when shooting indoors to use 1/30 to 1/60 of a second, with iso's of 400 to 800. that's why i asked if you shoot at faster shutter speeds will you have to bump up the iso. but like you say, these are guide lines and you have to play around with it. i assume you need the high iso's because you're only using a fraction of the light available from the flash with it pointing straight up and if the ceiling is high. does the omnibouce produce an effect similar to the lightsphere if you point it straight up? nadine, have you ever done this experiment?