devoted

You'll get out of it what you put into it; the same holds for any community. For myself, the investment has paid for itself every year I have been a member, and that's without Wedfog. The networking alone has been absolutely priceless.

I've had some fantastic luck with Photovalue.com. their iNobilli range is incredible, very well

made, and I have never had any complaints with their service. They offer exactly the kind of

album that you're looking for.

 

They are in Ireland, but the shipping to London was not terrible.

i went in dublin last year. Very enlightening....DO take notes! no camera necessary, though.

I don't worry about it. That being said, there is a clause in my contract stating I am not responsible for photos ruined by other people's photography (flash, orange focusing beams, jumping in the way, making the party look in six different directions while i'm trying to get the shot) - once I go over that clause and why it's there, I don't worry.

 

at the last wedding, one of the groomsmen is an aspiring wedding photographer and I invited him to take some shots if he wanted. no big deal.

Jon's answer, while concise, really does sum it up. You can do a lot in post-processing, but it will only go so far.

This guy (and his wife) are the ones to watch in terms of the up-and-coming. They have a fantastic use of light that I can only dream of being capable of seeing!

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<a href="http://edpingol.blogspot.com/">Ed Pingol</a>

Well, to be fair, learning on-the-job is pretty disastrous when you're photographing a once-in-a-lifetime event.

I'm using - and very much liking - EOS template for the proofing/ordering system. I liked that it was a flat fee, that I can send them to my lab of choice, and that it integrated right into my web design.

I don't like to provide everything I shoot. Part of my job is to decide what does and does not contribute to the story of the day during the editing out process, and to make sure what's left flows into a coherent story when I'm done. Typically this winds up being something near 200 or 300 images per wedding, though I have done those with more and those with less.

 

I don't provide anything other than finished jpegs if the client has purchased files; editing the RAW file is my job - if I hand that over, then the finished image isn't truly "mine".

I'm on a 2Mb broadband connection; they load quite slowly.

50mm F1.4

I got tired of waiting for pictures to show up, so I moved on. You have only a few second to

hook your clients in - if they don't see things that are interesting in those few seconds, they'll

move on too.

I have the clocks on both cameras synchronized, then in Bridge I sort by time created. That

puts everything in sequential order and I rename everything from there.

"Thank you, but I've already got one."

 

I would, however, possibly point them in the direction of a professional association with a mentoring programme.

Less than the ambient would UNDERexpose without the flash. Two stops less than 1/125th is 1/500th - letting less light in, not more.

"I am not a wedding photographer." is not a sentence that you need to be afraid of, Debbie!

 

If childrens' photography is your goal and your direction, then pursue that - don't dilute yourself by trying to be all things to all people. It doesn't work, and all it will do is burn you out. As a childrens' photographer-turned-wedding photographer, I went in the opposite direction; the best advice I can offer you is to find a direction and stick with it lest you wind up hating the sight of your camera. Join a local professional association, find a mentor, take some courses...but don't let "Oh, Debbie's a photographer, she can do it!" become your tag-line!

 

As a former employee and then manager of a Very Similar Chain Of Portrait Studios, while the poses and backgrounds of GoPhoto, CPI, etc. may be repetitive and "boring", Yes, you *can* walk in off the street and be a "photographer" in a week as an employee, but if you sit through the training and courses and actually *learn* from them, you learn why the things that are done a certain way are done that way. I'd rather look at hours of Generic Portrait Studio portraits that have been done well than some person's happy snaps of their kid. The lighting and composition of the well done studio portrait are based on the exact same principles being taught in the studio photography classes I was taking at the time. Learning those basic principles is necessary to building on them.

 

Bottom line is, you can break the rules as long as you break them in such a way that flouts your knowledge of those rules rather than your ignorance of them.

My 07/07/07 just cancelled due to budget problems...yes, it does seem like the price of normally expensive weddings has gone up just because of the date!

Unfortunately if people are paying you, a certain level of skill is going to be expected. It raises expectations - the gulf in expectations between someone doing the wedding for free and someone charging any amount is massive. If you can deliver pictures that will meet those expectations, charge.

I do, but I'm not local to you - I'm in London!

 

I hand print on Ilford papers, either RC or fibre-based prints.

Why not join a professional association with a mentoring programme? Here in the UK, we have the MPA, the SWPP, the BIPP - all of these organisations have a mentoring programme in place for those interested in participating.

Paul,

 

Sounds like my first wedding. Love getting treated like "the help".

-Eat! There's no time to do this earlier in the day, usually.

<br>-Upload pics to computer & burn to backup DVD.

<br>-Review pics

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That's what I generally do.

Ad.: this was developed using T-Max developer, and there is no photoshop used at all.

I have always used the T-Max. I find it more forgiving in developing, but that may not matter if you're not developing it yourself.

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This was shot on 3200, the only light source being a candle. Please forgive the awful scan which robs a great deal of the dynamics of this shot!

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<img src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b319/notbridezilla/morphia.jpg">

Would love to know what kind of software Mac users are trying. I don't like iDVD so much, and Proshow doesn't have a Mac version as that I'm aware of.