Just a Short blog this week

Been busy this week with Family pictures. Got all the picture orders in for the SAFE deadline for getting them back before Christmas.

I'm working on redesigning our website, looking to add the ablility to purchase ART prints as well as your wedding pictures and other portraits a little easier. I also like the new format a little better, It'll be hard to give up the site as it is now since I did design it from stratch.

The new format will probably be in place sometime in January 2009.. Something to look forward to.

I've also started work on some HOW TO articles for the hobby photographers out there. Be looking for articles on Nature Photography, Macro Photography, Steroscopic Photography, Panoramic Photography, Night Photography, and might even throw in some usefull hints on doing portraits of your loved ones. They will be geared towards the DSLR's of today, but also will have some hints for the person that just has a simple point and shoot camera.

Given the free time I'll also included some locations around Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky that are great to photograph.

I can't wait for warm weather again to get outdoors again with my camera

Burr.... The snow made for a fun wedding day... Cincinnati was covered in a fine dusting of snow, just enough to make the grass white. Everyone was in a good mood dispite the weather. The wedding went well, This was one of the rare ones where we were not allowed to use flash, and even more difficult due to the fact that we were limited to the very back of the church for the wedding it's self. Dispite this limitation, we had the equipment and training to get very good photographs of the wedding. I'm glad for Canon "L" glass... the reception was a blast, good food, fun, friendly people. It was a pleasure shooting this wedding, The pictures are posted online for the couple and their guests to view in under a week, which is our goal to have them done before the next event we have to do.

Cincinnati has somevery interesting people, and places to photograph.

Gearing up for Winter Weddings

With November behind us, we are preparing for a good winter. Several wedding are planned and it will be a busy winter. Hopefully the winter will be mild and all the guest from out of town can make it in for their weddings. Doing some Christmas photographs along the way for Christmas cards.

Also starting on work for a brand new web site that will fully intergrate ordering pictures and make it easier for customer to select their images for their packages as well as guest to order.

Also considering adding some add on things for weddings. Perhaps a Photo Area, where your guest can go to pose for a formal or silly formal portrait that will include a backdrop and professional lighting, so you can have a professionally lit picture of your guest. More on this later, I know the way I wrote that up had to be confusing.

I'm also debating on adding Steroscopic portraits (3d) to packages, just not sure how this one will go over, since most people require a viewer to view steroscopic pairs. They are neat, but might be really involved.

Look for these things and more in 2009...

Back to NORMAL...

Thing are back to normal now... Had a few glitches to clean up from last week.. But now back into the full swing of things.. If you need anything or have any issues please let me know.

George

Still Sore from Surgury

Still sore from surgury.. However, for those of you who got orders into me before I went in for it, I will be including a little something extra with your order and a very good discount on reorders. I appologize for the delay you have to go through.. I have emailed all of you already so just hang tight for another week, The Doctor has me released for work and DRIVING on Monday the 17th.

I took the month of November off from any shoots for this, so no shoots or weddings were in danger.

If you have emailed me I have tried to respond, If I've forgotten about you feel free to email or call me. I'll be back to shooting next week if anyone needs anything, my next wedding is on Dec. 6th, and I'm looking forward to that,.

Maternity Pictures

Okay, as long as we are doing something different.. Here is photograph of one of my brides and her husband, a little over a year after their wedding.. It's really cool to follow couples from their engagement throught maternity and then into doing their family pictures.

We try to stay in contact with our clients, at least a quick email from time to time. While we know that not everyone wants maternity shoots, family portraits, photo christmas cards, etc.

The next week or two is going to involve a little downtime for myself. I'm going in for a small surgury so don't fear if you don't get me right away.

Airshow and General update

Things have been busy over the last week. Just looking back through the summer time pictures that I got a chance to take for fun.. This one is from a weekend I took off from weddings in July. It was a hot day, and I was trying out my new Canon L series 100-400 IS lens. I love how sharp the lens is, but by the end of the day my arm was feeling the added weight. All the wedding pictures are processed and up for viewing for the clients and their families, so I thought I'd post something different this week.

It's been a good year... Not much going on in the month of November wedding wise, so there will be time for updating our web page, paperwork, etc. Back to normal in December and January. Over the last year, we've spent a good deal investing in new cameras and other equipment. I haven't used it for a wedding yet but I added a steroscopic (3d) lens to the collection that is pretty cool, only issue is you need a viewer to view the images in 3d or be skilled in cross eyed viewing (which I am not).

I'm sure Cincinnati and the tri-state area in general will keep us busy in the upcoming year. We already have a lot of the high volume months booked or nearly booked. I just told a bride and her father when they asked how far in advance to actually book a date that they need to decide soon no matter who they are using. In the last year I've turned down couples that waited too long.

Do it your self photography?

New business is slow lately, seems people are cutting corner where they can. People are being hit with unexpected expenses and generally not as much income. What is a Bride to do? There are some places you can cut your expenses, Do you really need the Limo, or do you need that pasta bar, Your answer maybe be YES! and that is understandable, some couples are cutting back on their honeymoon, which you have to ask is that fair? When all is said and done photographs and memories are the one thing you really end up having left from your wedding.

I just had a bride inform me of some issues that came up that prevented her from having a photographer at her wedding. I'm sure what will happen is that her Uncle or some other family member will be the "PHOTOGRAPHER" which is all well I guess, it beats nothing.

Lets think about this logically, this family member or friend will have to miss a major part of the day because they are behind a camera taking picture. This is a good reason, but still you might be tempted. Next consider the equipment they might have, a point and shoot camera with a tiny flash? Maybe they have an Digital SLR camera, well thats a good start! Do they have an external Flash? A bracket to take it off the camera to avoid red-eye and shadows? Do they have Extra lighting for DARK that dark church, or large groups of family members? How many weddings have they shot as "THE PHOTOGRAPHER" and do they know what shots you want.

Wedding photography is a big responsability, there is no redo's of your big day. We carry with us backup equipment as well as having a BACKUP PHOTOGRAPHER to ensure we don't miss a thing. We have flash equipment to light up the large groups and doing professional portraits on the alter of the church, or outdoors. We also have years of experiance shooting weddings, so we know where to be and when to be there to catch all your events. We can also help you with any questions you might have abut what will look good, or generally help you with any wedding questions you might have, even those not releated to photography. It's your day, we will be glad to help you any way we can.

Besides the actual photography, we provide a web site for you guest to see your pictures and of course order if they desire. We go though your picture one by one and individually adjust them where needed, crop out unappealing items. we add effects like color accents, black and white, borders, etc.

If you think you can't afford good photography you are wrong, we have packages starting at $595.00 that includes 20-8x10 sheets of prints (or 40-5x7's) and going up, depending on how many pictures you need, and what you want. You can also upgrade your package at a later date too..

While we don't extend payments past your wedding date, we can work with you on a payment plan to make it a little easier.

Two Weddings - All was smooth...

We did two weddings this weekend, and both turned out GREAT.. Pretty Brides, Pretty Bridesmaids, and there were guys in the wedding too.. I guess the women would say handsome guys! It was a lot of work with two weddings, double the equipment checks, twice the stress. Rose and Jeni did a great job with their wedding as I knew they would as did Vicki and Myself.

Not too much new this week because of all the work involved with the wedding pictures from the weekend. I have them all ready to post online tomorrow.

Got prints back from the new lab and they do a great job as expected. I love how they package them to send to me. Just sent them a really big order.

Also a side note, my album company that I switched over to using is a great bunch of people, good customer service and friendly to boot.

Fall is upon us, I'm looking forward to some fall color shoots.. and perhaps just some landscape photos...

New Month - IR for something new Fujifilm IS-1

Infrared Photography that is - This combines 2 of my favorite subjects, Panoramic photography and Infrared Photography. Click on the image to see the full image and at a larger size. This is made from stitching 4 images taken with a Fujifilm IS-1 Camera with a 89 filter. It's a new toy of mine, an expensive toy, and it does a nice job with hand hold ability when shooting IR plus it has an electronic viewfinder so you see what you are shooting. Haven't done much people pictures with this yet, and plan on doing some IR false-color work in the future.. More samples will be posted on our web page at http://starrphotos.net/

The Weekend

Rain was in the forecast all week for the Saturday wedding, however someone forgot to tell mother nature. It was a beautiful day. Not too Hot, the sun was bright, but a 5:30-6pm wedding it was just on the otherside of the treeline. The bride and her maid of honor were very stunning, the groom and his best man looked good too... (okay... you brides know they are just there.. It's your day).

This Wedding was the kind of wedding we love to shoot.. The people were friendly, The DJ played great music, The cake was fantastic to photography, and to eat a piece was a delight(Cheesecake).

Looking over the pictures they all turned out great, we took a little over a thousand pictures between the two of us.

The Weekend is here

All the pictures are ordered from the week... Prints are packaged to mail.. And it's time to relax.. for the weekend wedding.. Even order duplicates of the prints for an album I did that I really like.

It's looking like rain for an outdoor wedding.. Hopefully it will hold off.

I added a link on Starrphotos.net to this blog so people can actually read it if they care to..


I got most of my training guides done for "Wedding Photographer Assistant Photographer" Added samples shots to the end of it along with poses. Of course unless you are one of our assistants you will never see this document.

Revised our contract and policies a little bit.. Preparing for a price increase for next year, we should see our low tier package disappear, and our middle packages prices go up, and number of paper proofs go down in the higher packages. (It takes so long to select 400 proofs to submit to the lab is the real reason for this.)

Gearing up for more weddings - Sept-October are always busy months.

Had the last weekend off!! At least from weddings... Met a couple new couples which is always a fun thing to do.. I'll follow up later today with them to see what their needs are. Also Meeting another couple tonight!!

Anway.. Starting the process to get ready for the weekend... Charging batteries, buying AA's again for the off camera flash's we use. Formatting cards, cleaning the camera, lenses, etc.. Have alread called the bride to confirm the place and times I have on their contract is still good.

Oct 4th is our first wedding where we are double booked, meaning Rose and I both have our own wedding. All will go good.. Rose has done weddings as a lead photographer and done great..

Got pictures back for a wedding album for one of my brides... now to get the album put together.. The couple will love them.. The pages came out really great and looks good on the Metallic paper they ordered, I'll order one of these for myself!!

Got to reorder a few prints on another order that just didn't turn out how I wanted them to. I hate that, but it is life. Sending out another print order today for yet another bride, the pictures look great..

Other Photography: Went the the Zoo over the weekend and took some Infrared photographs around the lake, etc.. Will process them later and post a few soon. Got some neat photos of our son on his bike too...

My First Blog - Introduction

Okay.. Trying something new.. I've been photographing weddings for a while now and have had a blast doing it. We have met a lot of interesting people along the way, made some friends, and generally have had a blast. Sure it's been a lot of work, but worth it.

If you get into shooting weddings you will find out that there is a lot more to it than just taking pictures. First off you have to have equipment and have it ready. I spend at least 2-3 hours the night before a wedding just checking my camera gear, making sure batteries are charged, etc..

The morning of the wedding, I take it easy, Watch TV with my 4 Year old son, etc...

Weddings normally last 5-6 hours... I'll write more on this later..

We go home, go to sleep.. the next day to next week, each picture is loaded onto a computer, copied to an external hard drive and stored elsewhere. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP... This comes from my computer IT background.

Next using Adobe Lightroom all the RAW pictures (we shoot only camera RAW mode) are loaded in and cropped, and color balanced, with some editing, then converted to Jpg files and uploaded to a website for the couple and their guests to review and hopefully purchase some.

We pass out cards at the wedding with the web site address on them, and it's really a good source of leads as well as some additional income. The ordering for the guests is all done online and we never have to be part of the loop. We provide more personal service for the couple and anyone else that requests it.

The converting of the images takes longer than the wedding..