George Starr Wedding Photographer

Prices..

2011-05-31T12:10:00.000-07:00

Due to the complexity of each wedding we shoot, and the time that we like to dedicated to these weddings our pricing structure is changing to a much simpler design. The web site does not reflect this option yet.
Our package Package is $1995.00 - It comes complete with two photographers, an engagement shoot, and prewedding photography. All edited images are delievered on a set of High Resolutions disks, included with these edited images are a select number of hand tinted, and other images created to enhance your collection.

Our only other package is $3200.00 - It contains all of the above, a day before or after wedding session, This package will include A Bridal Album, and two matching parents albums.

Other prints maybe be ordered as needed, and as always Guest Viewing and ordering is included with your package.

The changing market dictates that we either lower our standards and do cheaper wedding or we concertrate on giving the customer the best images we can, we would rather to quality over the number of printed pictures you get. I also hate haggling over prices... Yes your uncle can do your pictures.. and you will get some pictured from him, I'm happy for you if that is what you will settle for.

Our web site will change soon to reflect these prices. If you have a wedding scheduled with up rest assured we will handle your pacakges as you are contracted for.

New Phone Number

2011-03-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

We have a new Phone number for our clients.

859-957-9997

Hope this does not cause any issues with out clients, but it was beyond our control.

Thank you,
George

Big Changes are coming along

2011-01-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

We've love photography, and that shows in our work. The wedding market has really changed, and we are looking to change with it. People are not spending what they used to for wedding pictures and albums and a lot of people are opting for a digital only solutions. I'm not sure where this will lead, we are not doing away with prints and albums, those items will probably go to being an ala-cart item and not included in or package(s).

What I probably see happening for our customers is a lower cost for their photography, with prints/albums and other things being an additional cost. We will probably have 3 packages where the price varies depeding on the time involved at the wedding. At no point it time will we do less than our best to photography your wedding, event, or portraits. Also who knows, this might all never happen, it all depends on what input I get from people.

Wow!!

2010-09-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

What a busy summer we have had.. Weddings, parties, maternity, boudoir, engagement, family and social events! Not to mention our own family events. Needless to say it's all been fun, but a lot of work too. As time permits I'll be back to updating the blog.

I've let the blog go to keep everything flowing, albums had ot go out, and shoots hat to be shot! The couple above are getting married this weekend (September 18th) The ones below are from weddings over the summer.

Time flying

2010-06-09T08:32:00.001-07:00

Time has been flying over the last few weeks. Lots of things have been going on, family functions, weddings, parties, and school functions. I thought I would change this weeks posting to something fun.. A trip to the zoo is the subject above.. Just a few pictures, more are on http://flickr.com/georgestarrphotography along with lots of others be sure to check out Split Rock Nature Conservatory too...

Flowers are always a good subject, they always seem to smile :) And with this one I got a bug to boot.

Dragon Flies are a bit tougher of a subject because they seem to never rest.

Birds are easier, but also very quick... This guy showed up and decided to eat one of my other subjects.. Well not directly the one I was focusing on, but one close to it.

Elk Creek Winery

2010-05-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Had a great time Saturday at the Elk Creek Winery located West of Dry Ridge, Kentucky. The weather was great, maybe a little too sunny but we all survived, slightly red around the edges but that beats a wash out!! Actually it was pretty nice, had a breeze blowing, and the AC inside felt great!

We had the chance to do an engagement shoot with this couple, it was really great, if you have read our past blogs you probably have seen their picture. At the end of reception our last picture was a pose that we did in the engagement shoot that was a fun moment. We are like our couples, we like to have fun too, and these "fun" shots are always great for that. We got a lot of great pictures for the couple and hope to have them all posted up for their viewing very soon.

On a personal note, our son graduated Kindergarten Friday morning, it was really cute to see all the kids in his class perform their show for us parents. Sunday we went to the Zoo with our son and our nephew's family and had a great time with just a few sprinkles, we got to see Curious George at the zoo, the kids just loved it as did most of the adults!! (yours truely included)

We are looking forward to some upcomming photo shoots, weddings and parties coming up this summer. We do have a few dates open for your parties or special events, so give us a call or email for our rates on what you need. We also can still schedule family, children, maternity and Boudoir sessions over the next few weeks. Give us a call, let us know what you want and we will go from there.

Name the couple and get 100$ off deposit.

There are times

2010-05-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

I talk to a lot of photographers, it seems those that enjoy weddings are a rare breed. Most consider them something they have to do. We don't see wedding this way, we enjoy being with the wonderful people we meet, seeing them get married. We enjoy meeting their parents, their friends and family, and sharing their stories with them.

Of course like with anything there are times I question if this is something I want to continue, There is a lot of work not releated directly to photography involved with our part of the weddings. All the paperwork involved and then keeping up with orders and the like during our busy seasons. There is a lot involved with weddings too, I spend about 3 hours doing equipment checks, verifying everything is loaded in the car. The wedding itself is the fun part where we do what we really enjoy. After the wedding it takes time to get all the pictures ready for presentation, in most cases about as long as the wedding and reception it's self. I do this because I refuse to simply give our clients RAW work. If there is an album involved it can take even more work and time, depending on the number of changes they require.

Sure this is the reason most photographys don't want to do weddings, but for me, I can't wait to get home and in front of my computer to see the images we captured, and when and album comes together the feeling is great. Next is my favorite part, delievering the prints to the customer and getting their feedback. It makes all the other work we do totally worth while.

In 10+ years it's all been good, I've had one issue with one bride that took a long time to get her album approved, and with some changes made to it that went wrong where I sent the lab my original copy of the album to print and had to get it back from the customer to have repaired which took a while. She loved her Prints, and got the Digital Images very early on so I guess she wasn't in a big hurry to review the album and then got impatient. I guess with all the bad news about fly by night photographers assumed she had been taken and wasn't getting her album or something.

Anyway one complaint in 10 years from someone that loved her pictures and is taken care of. I guess 1 out of all the wedding over the last 10 years that we have done isn't bad.

Even with all that is involved, we both still love shooting weddings, and always have a good time with them, and capture lots of nice images. The image above is just one of many cake portraits we do, we cover weddings totally and gets several different views of most shots, we never know what will look best to a clients in their album until everything comes together.

I try to add something personal to my blogs from time to time, not just all business and my rantings about different things. Here is my son, as he was standing on 1st base saturday at his first T-Ball game of the season. If you have met with me before and seen some of my portfolio work you will now that his pictures is the last page in one of them that I love to show people. I keep his picture there to remind me why I do this, besides the point that we like it, it does help pay for the extras in his life.

Family is important and we believe this and we really do like being part of your family for a day.

Thank you to the brides I've delievered work to over the last month, it's your kind words that keep us motivated to keep doing this!

Weekend in the Country

2010-05-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Had a refreshing wedding Saturday out in the country on a beautiful little lake, with a gazebo and a small group of the couples families and friends. It was a really nice time, the couple made us feel at home. The reception was held at a winery. The couple was kind enough to feed us and the food was great and although I didn't taste the wine I did take a sniff of the Raspberry wine and it smelled really good.

On Sunday we went to breakfast and followed it up with another day in the country, this time at a family birthday party for one of our three year old great nieces.

Two for one

2010-04-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

We had a busy weekend but it all turned out well. We had a great time with both weddings, everyone showed up on time and everyone was in a good mood and the pictures turned out great. They are both posted up for the couple and their guests to preview within a week of their wedding!! We always shoot for a week, althought we quote two.

Looking at one of the couples pictures they posted up on facebook made me think that while it is good to have a pro take your pictures because of the quality of the images it is good to have family and friends take some too. While as professionals we try to get everything we can your friends know the people better and sometimes get a shot that we might not get. However, don't depend on them to get all the shots you want, or in the quality that you might want to hang on your walls or in an album. While small digital cameras have improved over the years, they don't replace having profesional cameras and professionals taking your photographs.

It's is always fun for us to see the pictures your friends and family take, so feel free to include us as your friend on facebook or myspace or just shoot us an email with a link if they use something else to share them.

If we are doing an album for you and they have one that you just love we would be happy to include them with our images.

We have one wedding this weekend coming up and I'm looking forward to it and hopefully the weather will hold out.

A new Season Starts

2010-04-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Our first Wedding of the season (not of the year thought) is this coming weekend. Actually our first two is this weekend with weddings being scheduled on both Saturday and Sunday. We have kept busy over the winter months with other types of shoots. We enjoy both, but our real love is weddings and we are glad to be starting out new season out with a bang.. Granted, we will be busy though June, but we love it!

We've been sharpening our skills with some new training materials and classes too. And look forward to putting our new skills into practice.

We are going have a few price changes, basically the prices are remaining how they are, just a little less confusing for our customers and us too. Maybe a few more options but easier to decide what you desire. We are not really adding any new products this season.

Locations - Hidden Gems in and around Cincinnati

2010-03-02T07:04:00.001-08:00

Over the years, we've shot in lots of different churches, and halls, and neat locations. Above is a picture taken in the Packard Museum located in Dayton, Ohio. It's a very neat location for the car lovers amongst us.

We've shot at the Phoenix, The Madison, and a lot of the Standard places, and some of the not so "Standard" places. I put that in quotes because even though you might not think of a location for a wedding it doesn't mean that it would not make a neat location. There are a lot of hidden gems around our fine city for locations. You can also travel to a scenic spot for your pictures if you leave time either before your wedding ceremony or between it and your reception. Devou Park and other locations along the river are wonderful for that. Sharon Woods, Ault park, Mt Airy, and a lot of other parks make a great spot for pictures and/or your wedding. The Lodge at Sharon Woods is a wonderful place for an wedding/reception.

Other locations we have shot at and were surprisingly beautiful are, The Benchmark in Covington, The Carnigie Center in Newport, Mill Race Banquet center in Winton woods (pictured below). Todays blog is not a listing of locations we have shot, or even the only ones that we think are hidden gems. If you have others you like let me know and I'll add another blog post.

We also like simple... Like the small church pictured below. There are lots of other locations around for weddings, Take you time and find the one that is perfect for you. Remember to book early for all your wedding vendors and locations. Photographers book quickly, but the location you want might book up even quicker.

We've even shot in a church so small that we didn't have room to sit up any additional lighting equipment. But the picture turned out great anyway!! We carry with us a lot of optional equipment that helps us with difficult jobs. We have loaned out our backdrops to one bride to give her privacy while changing in a room with big windows and no curtains. Rest assured that no matter what your locations is we will get you good pictures.

One of the most challenging weddings we have had was an outdoor wedding in the rain, It's hard to protect cameras, stay dry, and get good pictures at the same time, but we managed.

Snow on the Ground again this morning!

2010-02-25T06:38:00.000-08:00

Woke up today with snow on the ground again. Icey roads ont the way in, and generally cold. Looking for an image to post I thought I would post the one above, from a rather warm spring Day last year. As a lot of you know I do mostly Weddings, but I also do photography for the love of it too. I've been in the mood to hike a little and do some nature photography and can't wait for warm weather to return.

The economy must be turning around because dates are filling up quickly this season, and already booking into next year. It's exciting to see all the new faces and can't wait for wedding season to start.

Through the wintner months we have done a lot of Boudoir and Maternity sessions, and expect that area to continue. Remember we have specials for members of the Armed services and public servants. We also offer a 10% discount for our weddings for members of the Military.

Spring is also a popular time for Senior portraits, We do offer them at your location and very flexible times.

Gearing up

2010-02-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Wedding have been slow this January but a lot has been going on. We have had lots of shoots and social events. We have also been busy meeting with our new brides. It looks like 2010 & 11 will be pretty busy, so book your Wedding, events and parties early.

Personally I've slacked a little on blogging, I have had albums and other order processing to keep me busy and blogging is something I always did after processing wedding pictures because it was fresh on my mind. More time behind the camera and not infront of a computer is good. I know a lot of you have been following my blogs looking for news on what we are up to and I hope you continue to do so and I'll try to keep up with my blogging a little better.

Thank you for all your referrals and kind emails, it's through word of mouth that our business started up and now continues to grow.

Congratulations are in order!

2010-01-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

To All of the newly ENGAGED couples. We've got great news that a lot of you have got engaged, and we are very happy for you. Finding that special person you desire to spend the rest of your life with is something very special.

We've got the news by your requests for our services, and dates are booking up fast, so be sure to book you wedding as soon as you can. I hate turning people down that have been refferred to us, but it happens every year.

I've added a build you own package to or price list, Starting at $695.00 you can add onto it just what you need. Do you need more proofs, more time, a High-Res Cd set with a release so you can print your own picture, or perhaps you want an album and don't need all the extras that are in our packages. Our packages are still the best deal, but in these times we know people also want a lower price and still get quality service.

We are still booking sessions for Mothers-to-Be show off their bulge aka: Maternity Photographs. Also we are extending our Boudoir Session Special for a limited time, Free Sitting fee and a free 8x10 to all Militay, Police or Fire service personal or their spouses.

Christmas and the New Year

2010-01-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas is a time for family and we were busy with other peoples families this year, however, we took time out for ours too.. Here is my son proudly smiling after beating Myself, and his Aunt and Cousin at Wii Resort Bowling over Christmas Break.

I hope everyone had a Great Christmas and a will have a good year in 2010, A Few changes are in the works to help us meet your needs a little better. With the way the economy is these days I find people trying to cut cost on services and it gets confusing to me to do custom packages based off of my other packaes. I just had 2 parents albums made last month for a couple that only ordered a Bridal album.. Ooops!! The loved their Bridal album and I guess I will love the other 2 albums over time!

We were busy with a lot of Maternity portraits over the last two months and I can't wait to photography all the babies. While we mostly do weddings we are available for other sessions too.

Tis the season

2009-12-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

Tis' the season... To heat things up.. Nothing is more fun than giving a gift of yourself. Boudoir photography is an excelent gift for your husband who might be overseas, or away on a business trip this christmas, or even just opening presents with you on Christmas Eve/Day. A Boudoir, Glamour, Pinup session is a great personal gift to give. I don't know of any husband (self included) that would not love to get a litle black book filled with pictures of his lovely wife. Even those that have been married for years might find this brings back old emotions, and years from now, looking at them is sure to remind them why they fell in love with you.

Not all Boudoir images need to be revealing.. This one is from a recent shoot, this one is sure to bring a smile to his face as he looks at it and see the woman he loves, how he would actually see her if he as at home. One over the summer that I loved was wearing a long bathrobe, tied at the waist, just revealing a hint of cleavage.

Also there must be a lot of Christmas babies coming up, I've done several maternity shoots in the last month, and have some scheduled before Christmas. This is such a special time for Mom's to be, and a special moment to capture. The shoots are done in a classy fashion and we respect your desires and limits. We've had brides the totally keep their stomach covered. We also encourage your partner to join you for some of the photographs.

Parties

2009-11-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

This is the season for family get togethers and Christmas Parties and like anyone else we have our own families and friends. We are not available the weekend of Thanksgiving nor the weekend of Christmas. We have had a lot of request for those times, however, we place our families first. We have some dates open the week after Christmas for those family portraits.

Babies... We are getting a lot of babies... and women ready to have them.. This is great and we love it.

Family Weddings

2009-11-10T08:11:00.001-08:00

We had another family wedding this weekend, I enjoy shooting family weddings but I will admit they are more work than weddings where we don't know anyone. We had a great time though with this one, the hall where everything took place was great, and I had plenty of help.

We got some great pictures, The little ring bearer set a new world record for not only the speed in which he got down the isle, but also in the number of trips he made during the wedding. I love kids in wedding they are always fun and add lots of life.

Below is a picture of my #1 assistant and myself, he took his job very seriously. Although he did get distracted by a pretty little girl later in the evening, she came up to me and ask if she could marry him. I'm not quite ready to let him go yet, but I can see where he would be a good catch.

Wonderful weather - Red Tail hawk

2009-11-04T08:45:00.001-08:00

It's been nice out during the week, this hawk was captured trying to have lunch while I was on my lunch. His prey, a little gray squirel, managed to tease him badly. This guy went after him 3 times before giving up the chase around and around the tree trunk. It was funny to watch, hopefully he found lunch somewhere else. You could just see the fustration in his eyes.

We have a family wedding this coming weekend, I'm actaully shooting it, something I normally tell people not to do, but it will be fun. We are handling it like anyother wedding, with a few exceptions, We will acutally have three photographers plus my son shooting (okay, so he may just be doing grab shots, but for a 5 year old thats a lot). My only hope is that he don't show us professionals up and get better pictures.

To by couples with upcomming weddings, Don't worry you won't have a 5 year old showing up at your wedding to take pictures, unless he is on your guest list.

We have a party this Thursday night as mentioned before, a Pure Romance, Mary Kay, and Glamour/boudoir portraits. This is a first for us and we are looking forward to having a good time and getting some great pictures. If you are attending see you there, if you are interested in perhaps doing one of your own let me know.

New Lightroom Beta Testing

2009-10-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

Things Just get better and better.. I just god the new Lightroom 3.0 beta, it has a few nice features I like, their adjustment brush has some improvements, as seen above inside light room I was able to adjust the color of the leaves from a pale yellow to the red/oranges you see above with just a couple clicks. All this improvements in technology helps us to provide you with the best pictures that we can. I love the ability to easily improve a small thing in a picture without the overhead of running photoshop on each image, the time savings are amazing.

We are having a blast with the weather we have been having lately. Makes for some great photography. You can follow us on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgestarrphotography as well as here on our blog. The Flickr page will have more not wedding stuff than the rest of our pages. Last week we got a few really nice pictures of ducks and fall colors. This week a lot of the leaves have already dropped and the sun has not been out as much.

Other things are changing with us, for the best I hope. I've got a new photographer in training right now and I'm excited about that. We are expanding a few services we are offering and things are growning quickly and we were in need of someone else to help out. We are also adding a few new products for our portrait customers, i.e. Christmas cards, mouse pads, puzzles, etc.

With Christmas coming up its a great time for fall portraits, and family portraits for your Christmas cards. We also offer Gallery Wraps and other large prints to hang above your mantle.

Out Shooting while the weather held out

2009-10-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

I was out doing an engagement shoot this week on thursday, and wondered across some duck playing on the lake up at sharon woods. I wanted to just post something besides people so here are a couple pictures of a duck that I got a couple quicksnap shotd of. The color you see in the water was from the reflection of the leaves.

I was using my Canon 100-400 IS "L" lens which is a great lens for weddings and wildlife. It's a little long for most weddings, but does great on those ringshots for the pews..

We have our first Pure Romance - Mary Kay and photo shoot coming up on the 5th of November, should be a blast, I'm told it will be a full house. Hopefully there will be more of these to come. I do ask if you are coming for pictures that you also consider the fine products offered by Mary Kay and Pure Romance. Our host is being kind enough to provide a private room for individual sessions so there is complete privacy. Glamour to Boudoir setting, Albums and Print packages available.

If you are interested in setting up a Party of you own let us know. I don't control the other vendors but I'm sure they will work with you too.

Loving the Colors

2009-10-20T08:02:00.001-07:00

Another beautiful Weekend, I love this time of year. The fall colors are great this year. Sharon Woods in Sharonville Ohio (Northern Cincinnati area)is beautiful up by the lake, This weekend should be even better. It makes a great setting for Family Christmas portraits. Be sure to book your session early, be sure to also order your cards soon to avoid the rush that always happens right around Thanksgiving.

The last couple years it’s been a busy wedding season to boot, and this year is no different. We are getting request already for Next October, so booking quickly will ensure you get the date you desire.

We’ve added some new albums to our galleries over the last couple weeks, take a look and let us know what you think. http://starrphotos.net/galleries.htm

Okay, a little business, The Photoreflect web site we use for previewing pictures has been undergoing some upgrades and changes. As a reminder, when you submit your order directly to me, I need the image name and number, not just the order number from the web site, and I can not order for you from your favorite’s or albums. Proof prints are not selectable by you, these are to show you the images we think you are most likely to want for an album or to order for enlargements. We do a pretty good job of selecting them for you. Due to the large number that is included we can not let you select them. You are more than free to order 4x6’s as part of your package prints though, each 8x10 print is the same as four 4x6’s. In addition all your proofs are available for online viewing. This helps keep the price of our packages down, as hand selecting 200-300 proofs would add hours onto your order and I have no way of automating this process.

If you need a larger number of regular prints(proof prints excluded), we can meet and you can select them using our laptop or if you give me a list I can work from. Discounts are available for large orders.

Friendly Photographers

2009-10-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

I heard on the radio today that the Recession is officially OVER! Hopefully everyone is in agreement on this and it really is and I’ve had the last person that wanted a full blown wedding package with Albums, Engagement sessions and a ton of prints to display call to inform me that they have decided to let their Uncle Fred (or a friend) take their pictures.

I’ve got more of those this year than I ever have, and I feel for these couples and Uncle Fred. He has a lot to live up to, first off, he might need to go buy equipment, chance are he doesn’t have a camera and lenses of the grade needed to shoot a wedding properly. Then there are lighting issues, does he have off camera flash, does he have extra lights for the formal portraits (you know those big light with the umbrellas). Well chances are some might, some might even have a second set of everything, but chances are not good that he does unless he does wedding photography. We also use a second photographer, not only backup equipment, but a backup photographer.

How well trained is Uncle Fred, We are constantly training and following advances in the field of photography. We like to take photographs, not just pictures, and for us weddings is something we love to do, not something we are just willing to do.

Lastly, while everyone is having a good time, enjoying the wedding, and dancing, poor Uncle Fred is having to be on alert for getting every memory on film (or digital media).

Another thing people don’t think of with using family and friends, is how do we get our pictures? On CD? From the grocery store mini-lab? Maybe a wholesale club because they are cheap? Well with a Professional photographer who makes his money on pleasing you, you will get Photographs that are printed at a professional lab on high quality paper. And that 39$ software for making a wedding album or scrapbook? Is that going to give you what you want your grand children looking at in 30 or 40 years?

If by chance you are forced into having someone that is not a professional take your wedding pictures have them read this first, then go online and look at some photography training tutorials. Even my blog that you can access from my site has some good tips for a beginner. There are a lot of resources out there to help someone. I still say hire someone, even the $300.00 starter photographer will be a better person to hate that your best friend or Uncle Fred when the pictures don’t turn out the way you dreamed.

Over the years if you paid $3495.00 for wedding photography needs, and you are married for 50 years, you have spent just 69.90 a year for your wedding photography, albums and prints and your Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren will have something nice to look back on.

Unpacked

2009-10-07T06:19:00.001-07:00

I finally got my office totally unpacked at home so we should be back up to full speed. Fall is coming on soon.. Leaves are already falling in our new back yard for me to rake. This weekend was uneventful and the only pictures taken were a couple family portrait sessions. (Christmas card portrait season you know!)

I'm looking forward to our wedding this weekend. While we do have fun doing portraits our true calling is with weddings.

We are still offering a free 8x10 and portrait session to members of the armed forces, see our web site for other specials. We have also started offering training for photographers or beginners, we've got a lot of request from people wanting to know more and even for photography jobs. I'm pretty well covered for people to work we me and we don't let people shadow our weddings, even if you are willing to work for free, which I get a lot of offers.

Busy! BUSY! And more BUSY!!!!

2009-09-29T07:56:00.001-07:00

This was a very busy weekend, it started out with a shoot Friday, a Wedding on Saturday, and moving on Sunday. The wedding Saturday was a small wedding, but it was a nice time for the guest, the DJ was great and played exactly the music the party requested, a lot of Pearl Jam. The reception was held at the Mill Race Banquet Center, a really nice place for a small reception or party, the food they served looked really good, the lighting was good for the candid’s and we did formals outside. All in all it was a pretty good day and location for a wedding.

I’d like to mention a few services we offer that people don’t always know that we offer. We offer Family, Christmas, Maternity, Glamour, Maternity, and Boudoir (pin-up) photography in addition to or Wedding Photography services. We also are available for Senior Portraits and parties.

I’m going to keep it short this week, I’ve got a lot of other stuff to get done this week. Getting ready for a couple Halloween Parties and themed portraits sessions.

Size and Effects

2009-09-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

It was a little wet Sunday, but Saturday was a great day for a wedding. Over the weekend I heard an interesting collection of wedding songs. The one that I heard that I had to laugh at was “The Big Bopper’s Wedding” You have to be a little older to really know who I’m talking about, and remember “Chantilly Lace” but if you get the chance check out the song. Before you ask, it was not played at a wedding, but I could see it being played at one with a real sense of humor. I’ll have to blog sometime on a few other funny songs, and serious ones that we’ve heard. Being in the wedding party (sort in it at least) we hear things, and one of the father/daughter dances we heard this season the father composed the song for, which we thought was really neat.

We just took a large order for prints and got asked the old age question. How Big is an 8x10, now before you laugh, you would be surprised how may times I get asked that question. To set the record straight, one side of the print is eight (8) inches long and the other is ten (10) inches long. Another thing I get asked is about cropping, All the images we take are in format you are used to seeing that dates from the 35 mm film days, you can call it 2:3 ratio or a 4x6 size for this example. An 8x10 no matter how you will not perfectly fit into this ratio, the math would mean you would have to go to a 8x12 size print to have a full frame print. This is where cropping comes into play. You have to lose 2 inches to fit onto an 8x10 sheet. If you look at a lot of our proofs you will notice that there is extra room at the top and bottom, this is why. Same goes for 11x14’s and 5x7’s, the math just does not equal up. Every now and then a picture will just not crop to a different ratio and fit the way someone would like onto the page.

Okay now for another fun thing which we like to do is meet with you to show you your pictures before you order, now we can’t always do this, and the web is a good thing for that. But what we can do in person is actually show you how the pictures will crop, and some of the effect we can offer. If you look through our galleries you can get an idea of this. If you can’t meet up again that is fine, we will do the best we can to select the best cropping for your images. One thing people ask, do we charge extra for effects, the answer is no, however we ask that you do accept the fact that we only do those effect on 5x7 or larger images only because they don’t show up as well. Collages are only available on 8x10’s or larger and limited to 3 images on one sheet for this same reason.

I love it that people are reading my blog, I would like to take this chance to ask you to make a comment or two about what you read so I can get a little input about what you like.

The above images is an album page taken from a wedding where the young daughter or the bride was given a ring along with a set of vows pledging to be a good father and to cherish her like she was his own. A very touching scene to witness, she was so excited!!

To DVD or NOT to DVD

2009-09-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Had a busy weekend with a shoot Saturday evening, and spent Sunday preparing for a move, I wasn’t going to do a blog entry this week but I got a few minutes between jobs and thought why not.

During one of my relaxing moments this weekend I was going through some older photography magazines from the PPA (professional Photographers of America) they had an article on brides that get just a CD or DVD of their wedding shoots. Well the short of the article was that if you get just the DVD you never wind up getting any prints. This is one of the reasons but not the real reason that all of our packages included prints. I want my couples to have a professionally done product, it might not be all their pictures, or an album but I want them to have something to hold and to show to others. I also don’t want the only photographs they get to be printed at a grocery store or super-department store.

On our packages that include albums and a lot of proof prints we INCLUDE a DVD copy of the entire wedding. I don’t think this distracts from the prints, and I would hope it is really just used as an archive or to email the images to friends and family and not their finished prints.

I take pride in the images we make for our clients, and would hope that they see the value in professionally printed prints. The debate has been brought to me before not to offer a DVD set of images in my packages, which I feel is not the best solution for us. What I did do, which some people have had issues with is remove the ability to get the DVD on my lower end packages. Simply upgrading to the next package up will get you the ability to get a DVD set of images plus the upgrade gets you a lot more to boot, for instance 100 proofs and an engagement/boudoir session plus extra time at the wedding. Also our price for prints is very fair if you choose not to get one.

Labor Day - Festivals and All

2009-09-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

This is a great time of the year with Labor Day, Festivals, Halloween, and Fall Leaves.. Of course we plan on getting in our share of these between the fall weddings and events we are scheduled to shoot. I love the fall colors for weddings, I'm not sure what I like better, the new life of Spring or the wonderful fall colors.

I have to admit I also love the fun of the summer time, and the bright holiday light of winter. Maybe it's just LIFE that leaves me with the urge to take more and more pictures.

I've added some galleries to our web site today, be sure to check them out.

Waiting!!

2009-08-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

It was a busy weekend with an early afternoon wedding on Saturday. A great time was had by all. We had a lovely couple and attendants to photograph, The chocolate fountain was GREAT, and the food was good. Above is a picture we captured of our lovely bride being nervous right before her walk down the isle. She hid her shakey knees well!

Last week I devoted some time on another blog for brides to be, more so than a what this blog is this new one is meant to give tips to brides/grooms to be. Although I still suggest reading through this one a little just to see what we have been up to. There might be a Photography TIP blog in the future if there is any interest in it. What spawned the wedding tip blog is a few of our brides requesting more and more information about what other couples are doing and what other vendors offer.

I am working on a Book or booklet to hand out to couples that are looking for photographers and other vendors, in order to get the most out of their pictures. It's not going to be a sales pitch for us, but more a resource for brides looking for vendors and photographers. I know not everyone that gets it will even be able to consider us for their photographer and that is fine, it will be packed with what to look for and ask your photographer, your DJ, your minister, and so on. Plus it till have a section for suggestions for different and unique twists to your wedding and reception. If you are in a hurry and can't wait I could use a few proofreaders, and test readers. It's getting enough info that it could be a book to publish someday.

I got some good response from last weeks picture on my blog for Maternity portraits and looking forward to meeting a couple mothers to be.

Exciting stuff in the works!

2009-08-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend we did some networking and formed a little bit of a partnership with a Mary Kay Reprehensive. It really isn’t a partnership as you would think of it, just a more help for each other’s clients. She is offering some very nice gifts along with training you how to put on your makeup for you and your girls/mothers and friends.

Being a photographer we see a lot of need for a few tips, especially in the area we covered in out last week’s photo tip section. Learning how to stay dry, and keeping reflections down is something everyone really needs to know. Don’t ask me any questions about make up, you can contact her directly at (859) 866-6514 or her web site at www.marykay.com/cbleier her name is Catherine Bleir If you call her tell her I sent you. If you book a party with her and are one of our wedding clients I’ll give you a 50$ credit towards prints.

This is a selfish thing for me to do, I want to see your pictures turn out their best.

I would love to find a wedding planner or two that would like to trade referrals, working with a planner can help a bride maintain sanity on her wedding day, and help a lot with getting people where they need to be.

The image above is an image from the past. A fun image from one of our past brides.. Funny thing with weddings is the fact that we get these shoots a year or better down the road, and then we get to photography the babies. I love watching our wedding families grow. This one was taken in their home where they were comfortable, using our backdrops and lights for the Studio look and feel.

We have clients that start their photography with us with and Engagement session, some do a Boudoir session, then their wedding, maternity, baby portraits and family portraits with us. It's great to become a small part of their family in this way and watch them grow.

A blur of a weekend - Parties and more...

2009-08-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

We had an interesting weekend, Started out with a Birthday party Friday Night, and then it was Monday morning 10 minutes later. We had a some good shooting all weekend and got some great pictures I’m sure our clients will appreciate. The above images in from a shoot about 2 weeks ago at Ault Park, I posted one ohter image from it, This images was taken in under a shade arc in the garden, I used a little fill flash to take out the shadows and make the couple stand out. I could see cropping in a little more although I like this image as is.

I got a chance to play around myself with some lighting Saturday morning. Tried out some new wireless flash triggers that worked great. My model for the morning still had breakfast on is face, but it wasn’t worth the fight to wash his face, and I was very lucky that he fit me into his very tight schedule during a commercial break of Phines and Pherb (I probably slaughtered the spelling) but this is what you expect with a 5 year old on a Saturday morning the weekend before school starts up.

Okay as promised I’m taking a little time to go over a little of the lighting techniques that we find useful. One of the toughest areas of lighting that we encounter are mirrors and shiny alters. Like anyone that has shot any pictures around these, you know that you are very likely to get a BRIGHT ball of light reflected back at you from a shiny surface, it could be polished wood, brass, a mirror or even a sweaty forehead. Well the forehead you can wipe off, and even apply a little make up to make it NOT SHINE. But what do you do for a mirrored surface?

A couple things come to mind, short of not using a flash there are still things you can do. If you think of the light striking your subject and the reflective surface, your on camera flash is a really small spot of light, and being small, it tends to reflect brightly off of surfaces. If the light was as big as your subject it would be a very even light, completely flooding the entire scene. One thing we do is try to make the light source bigger. This doesn’t mean getting a huge light, sometimes it is a simple as an umbrella in front of our flash. Other times we reflect the light off of something. Maybe we will use a reflector, but more commonly a ceiling or wall. If we prevent the flash from directly hitting the reflective surface it won’t be as bright of a reflection. Now simply aiming our flash a the ceiling works wonders, but will cause some issues in it’s self. The eye sockets are the most noticeable, they will be dark, so when aiming at the ceiling we use a little reflector mounted on our flash. On the Canon 580IIex there is a built in little card for this. This will not fix the whole issue and might cause a reflection from your subject.

This is going to take some experimentation on your part to get it working the way you expect it. Something we do, is not just bouncing off a ceiling. Think about direction the light is traveling. If you bounce off a wall to light the subject and there is a mirror behind them, your flash will not hit the reflective surface but will light up your subject. Also think about the wall behind you.

I know this is not a lot of help to our point and shoot fans as you can’t do a lot to control the direction of your flash. Although there are things you can try, you can put a piece of tissue over the flash part of the camera (thin) and experiment with that effect to defuse the light some and make it softer.

Also besides bouncing flash to move it, you can take your flash off camera to change the direction of lighting, but that is beyond what a short tip can do for you.

Gearing up for a fun weekend

2009-08-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

Birtday parties, a couple shoots lined up, and just relaxing for a few minutes before the weekend starts and I was in a blogging mood. I got all the images done from last weekend, posted up and waiting on the couple to choose what they want.

The image above is a fun image from the reception, this little girl was trying so hard to ride on his neck. This almost looks like she is floating. I like the effect. Most of the lighting was bounce off the ceiling with a little fill flash added.

Next week I want to touch on some tips on lighting.

Wonderfull weekend

2009-08-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful time at a wedding out in Goshen this Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Sure it was a little on the warm side, but that is to be expected this time of the year. When we got to the wedding location I was worried a little, it was in bright sunlight which any photographer will tell you can be really harsh for pictures. Well by the time the actual cermony came around the sun moved just enough to shade the area and provide a wonderful light.

We've shot a lot of wedding cermonies and very few warm the heart the way this one did, There was a little bridesmaid (daughter of the bride) and right after the cermony she was given her own ring by the groom and the hug she gave him could melt anyones heart.

I'm working on a new project for the new brides (and grooms) out there, it will be a small book on selecting a photographer and then getting the most from your pictures. No, I don't mean the most pictures, I mean the best quality, and the images you really want. It started out to be a flyer for out customers but I determined that brides to be would like it also, It will be made available to out customers as well as to new brides. It should be ready in a few weeks. It is my first attempt at writing something this complex, so be kind.

It's been a busy week, and I had a nice long tip typed up and then the internet ate it. Next week look for a really good tip on lighting when there are mirrors and shiney surfaces around.

On a really sad note... Next week our son starts Kindergarten... He is growing up way too fast. I think his first wedding to shoot will be this fall if he has his way. Actually, I'd perfer him to be at least in the first grade before he shoot a wedding with me.

Back in the swing of things

2009-08-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well we are back in the swing of things again.. This weekend had an engagement shoot early Saturday morning that. The couple was fun to work with and open to ideas.. This shot wasn't what I intended but I like it a lot. It will be interesting to see what the couple chooses, they have several to choose from so their work is cut out.

The evening events went well as well although no pictures to post from them this time..

Okay.. I'll admit I'm still in a summer mood.. and this picture of my son just screams summer time..

Our Summer special upgrade is gone.. It'll be missed but don't dispare.

Back to school special for Senior Portraits (No sitting fee plus if you spend 300$ or more you get a free portfolio) and a little gift for weddings booked in the month of August, Book a Wedding totaling over 1000$ in August and receive a free Pressbook style album, Book a package over 2500$ and receive a free 16x20 Canvas print.

Photo Tip: Revisited: I have talked about this before and I preach it to everyone, but I've seen pictures from some people taken at the beach and they are just DARK!! the sky behing them is bright and the beach is bright but you see dark people. I don't mean tanned dark, I mean featureless dark. Simply learning how to turn your flash onto fill mode or just flash always on some cameras will make your picture look a lot better. Try it, you will be impressed if you are not already doing it.

Back in town

2009-07-28T08:30:00.001-07:00

Back from out time off.. We had a blast. Above is an infrared image taken from the beach front room we stayed in.

We had a lot of request for our special Upgrade package, so we have extended the upgrade until the end of July.. It does have to end though and when it is gone it is gone for good. This deal is as good as it gets. You must book your wedding before the end of the month and pay your deposit in order to receive this deal.

We are ready getting ready for our August weddings and looking forward to them very much.

This week our blog entry is going to be short and sweet, I might chime in later in the week again though.

Shooting Tips, Time off, and shout out's

2009-07-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

The weekend was another great time, a little wet but nothing too bad.

This week I’m going to talk a little business. Our special of getting a free upgrade with any package booked has been a success, but it’ll be over come Thursday and won’t be back for a long time. Our regular price are a great deal, with this special some of our brides got a super great deal.

Its been a great summer so far. We are taking a little time off over the next couple weeks. All the orders we have received so far are completed, any new orders will be delayed by about a week, but shouldn’t be a real issue since those brides have all asked for more time to select their pictures. If you order from the web site your orders will be processed automatically.

Photo Tip: Since a little over a week ago when we were forced indoors at a wedding and not really a lot of time to set up the lights and all, I thought I would mention what we did to compensate for it. For some of the portraits we did we bounced our on camera (actually on a bracket that it and the camera are mounted to) off the ceiling and walls. Yes walls, one of my favorite photographs was taken with the flash pointed behind me, and bouncing off a white wall and ceiling. Using the wall like that was like using a huge soft box to provide a really soft flattering light to our bride. For some of the photographs where we bounced off the wall we also used the small white reflector that is standard on our Canon 580II flash. This little reflector also helped a lot while shooting under the tents where we were bouncing off the top of the tent. We were even forced to shoot straight on for a lot of the pictures but they turned out good. Something else I insist on for my photographers (self included) is shooting in RAW mode, that way I can use Abobe Lightroom and set a custom white balance with ease. Shooting in JPG mode does not even come close in giving me the latitude of changes we can do to the images that RAW mode does.

I’d like to take the time to compliment my team of second photographers.

Rose my wife who is a big help and someone I depend on for a lot of help at weddings and had become a great photographer know exactly what shots we need as well as a great assistant knowing what shots we need to get and making sure we don’t forget any shots. I wouldn’t call her an assistant photographer but a CO-Lead photographer.

Jeni and Terri who some of you may have meet at your wedding or may meet. They are great photographers, hard working women who both go beyond what can be expected of a photographer.

Good team members are hard to find, and harder to keep because they are good. I wouldn’t be able to provide the quality of service that we do without them. Also I’d probably be embarrassed a little going into the bridal party’s changing room.

A Wet Wedding but a GREAT TIME

2009-07-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

The wedding this weekend was RAINED on but not rained out. It was a great time, there was great food, great music, and dancing in the rain. The couple had a great time, we had a great time, granted it was a lot of extra work keeping the equipmennt dry with three tents but it was fun. Photography wise it was a challange, granted there was no harsh sunlight to deal with, but the rain affected things to some degree. I just finished the editing on the pictures, and they turned out great, I'm sure the couple will love them. Of course not all the pictures were taken outdoors, the one above is of the bride looking out watching guests arrive.

Dancing in the rain and having a blast at a July 4th Wedding..

Going into the Weekend - NEW WEB SITE IS UP

2009-07-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

We just installed out new web site.. I think it is a little bit easier to use, I would love to hear your comments on it.

Thanks,
George

Attending a wedding

2009-06-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

Had a blast attending a wedding.. as a guest this time.. It was hard not getting all the shots I normally would get.. I did give in and take a camera (minus my brackets and other toys), took way too many pictures at the reception. Not as many at the wedding, It was really hard not to be able to move around any. Especially when their photographer got right in front of me blocking my view of the first kiss. I know we have had to do it to someone before, but still.. I had to remind myself it wasn't my wedding and he HAD to get the shot. I also missed doing the formals, I assume they did great, they shot Canon cameras like we do, and really looked like they knew what they were doing.

Wedding are something we do because we enjoy them and it was enjoyable no to have the stress of getting all the pictures and enjoy the party.. I have seen something already I don't ever see in our wedding pictures, A picture of my wife and I on the dance floor! All in all we had a great time being guest that brought our cameras along.. We didn't try to compete with the photographers and stayed out of thier way and all had a blast.

We have a forth of july wedding that we are looking forward to, it should be a blast. Looking forward to shooting an outdoor wedding, and SPARKLERS and FIRE WORKS are in the works!!

Images - Albums

2009-06-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Talk about HOT... This weekend was HOT. Got some albums designs done.. Which made me think about some questions we get. How do we choose our album is a big one. Well We have done lots of albums in the past and we generally get pretty close to what you would like. Normally we have 2 or 3 pictures you might not like in your album, and we change those. We always allow you to preview your album before you place your final order.

People are amazed sometime the images we capture from their weddings to use for the albums, Stained glass, the outdoor view of the church, the Unity Candle, etc.. We try to, as we are photographing your wedding, capture as many detail images as we can. You might even see a few "Blurry" images in your previews, that while they are not good pictures they make great backgrounds when edited (changing contrast, brightness, etc). Images that are blurry are not accidents all the time, We call them SOFT FOCUS.. and they are a useful part of wedding albums. We even do some that have intentional streaks in them at receptions. We are not sure how your album will be designed until we see the images.. We have a pretty good idea, but always leave the creativity options open.

We also will accept a few images from you to put in your album, We do reserve the right not to use any of your images though if they do not meet our standards.

This coming weekend we are doing something rare.. We are atending a WEDDING as a GUEST.. It happens, and it is nice to leave the camera's home and enjoy the party. It would be unfair to the couple and us to shoot their wedding. I will be honest from the weddings we have attended as guests, it is hard to not to be involved with the pictures, suggesting poses, etc.. But they have professionals and they can handle their job. My job is to find a nice location to sit, close to the food and bar (okay I don't drink anything harder than Diet Pepsi but still nice to be close) with a good view of the dance floor, and just relax and enjoy our friends and family.

Playing Around a Little

2009-06-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

As part of my on going training I'm always learning something new, This picture was from a couple weeks ago and was just handy.. The effect is called "stepping out of the frame" I'm a little rough with it yet so be kind.

I missed the car show this weekend, but that happens. It's been really busy lately and Just needed the day to relax.. Our son got up at 8am and climbed in bed with us and we slept until 10, got up and I made breakfest and the three of us just enjoyed the day.

Got an interesting question today about weddings, that does come up from time to time. What if we have to move the date? Generally we will work with you to move your date, provided we have your alternate date open. If you let us know as soon as you can then chances are good we can work with you. We have a backup team for weddings in case something happens and we can use them if all else fails. Also Sunday's are better for alternate dates. If you think it might change, for a small fee we can hold the second date for a while.

I'm going to start a section for Tips for Brides where I can share some questions I've got over the years. How to select a Photographer, or DJ or floist, etc.. one of the best ways I can say on any of these is look at the work of the PERSON you are hiring, not just the company. When you hire us, you get GEORGE STARR, not a photographer that just happens to be around and able to go to your wedding. You see my work here, some of my Second Photographer's work might appear in the albums, but in general you see the work I produce personally. If you see flower designs ask the florist, did YOU do these, or of a DJ ask him, are you the one that is going to be at my reception.

Now I will say there is the posibilty for a substitute lead photographer if something would happen with me. Generally it would be my wife or another well qualified Lead photographer. This has NEVER happened, but I am human so I won't say that it never will.

Next Time around I'll post up a little something on thing to remember.. You will be suprised what people forget.

Okay this Blog is titled Playing around a little, Here we see a Groomsmen doing what a Groomsmen does best on the day of a wedding.. KILL time..

On a kinda sad note: With rising prices everything goes up, and the same is with Wedding photography. Our price have been and always will be very reasonable, but there had been a slight increase in our package rates. Nothing earth shaking, and some of the packages have been updated to add more features. We have added Press Printed books, and guest books, even Canvas Gallery Wraps into some of our packages. We have also added Social Media Sized files of some of your favorite images so you can share your images on all the Social Networks out there like Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace. If we quoted you already don't worry we will honor our quoted prices for a few months. The new prices are on our web site http://starrphotos.net/weddingrates.htm It not all bad... some nice things have been added.

Great Weekend - Ault Park Car Show

2009-06-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend, Saturday morning my son and I went to Ault Park and had a generally great time. We ran into a preview of a Car Show... If you get a chance please show up next Sunday for a great car show, I was told there will be more than 250 cars there, in support of Juvenile Arthritis. A great group of people were previewing for the show, and even offered us Ice Cream, and one kind gentleman even let him sit in the rumble seat of his Packard.

Donovan Took a lot of pictures, If you want to see some check out our myspace page at
http://www.myspace.com/georgestarrphotography He's got a few sections of his photos on there... Guess it is time to make him is own web site.. He took the picture below, which I posted just to show the date and time. I'm not ready for him to assist me at a wedding yet, maybe when he turned 5 in a few months.. Just kidding.

Stormy Weekend

2009-06-01T13:14:00.002-07:00

It was a stormy weekend but we stayed dry *MOSTLY* Our wedding on Saturday went well, when we were doing pictures outside we got ran back in when it started pouring rain. We got all but the wedding party formals whre they the bridemaids and Groomsmen were together outdoors, and we finished those up in front of the alter of the church. They all turned out great and are already posted for the couple and their guests.

It was really a busy month in May and we kept up pretty good. All the wedding photographs were up for display withing 3-4 days of the weddings which is well before our contract goal or 2 weeks!! We had a lot of great weddings last month and like always people are having a rough time narrowing down the pictures they want.

It's nice to finally have some warm weather for a change too...

Photo Tip: When you take a picture, any picture, divide the frame up into 4 sections and check the four sections to see what is in them, v/s your main subject. Look for things like Trash cans, bottles, trash, outlets, or other unsightly things. This simple step will become second nature after you've taken 20 or 30 thousand pictures... (okay, you might catch on before that)

Busy but Very fun Weekend

2009-05-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Two weddings over this holiday weekend, Both were very fun, and we got a lot of good pictures. Plus my don had his graduation from preschool last Friday. I've been busy working on the pictures from the weddings, trying to get both done before this coming weekend when we have another wedding. Got some great pictures from a country club, even more from a church wedding! Above is one taken from the Beckett Ridge Country club. The weather both days were just fantastic for weddings. We were pretty uneventful this weekend compared to last weekend, no flat tires or any other events to hold things up.

One note: We were asked about something that I really don't get asked much, Another photographer did a wedding for one of our brides sisters, and they didn't get their album and the pictures were so-so, I was asked if we could help with the pictures and to create an album. The answere is Of course we can.. We don't market to that field, but when it is needed by one of our clients we are glad to help out.

Pre-School graduation was cute.. My son did wonderful, with their performances.. Some of the kids you just wanted to go hug.. one little boy sit in the front row in his cap and gown with the cap pulled down over his eyes.. I guess it was "If I can't see you then you can't see me". Now on to kindergarten in the fall.

Of course we had some rain on Monday, that cause a party to have to be moved, but the rain quit and the grilling and games worked out great.

We've added a few options for prints, We've added Canvas Gallery Wraps, and Press Printed books. More info to come.

Something to Remember

2009-05-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Had a great time this weekend, a tad stressfull wedding Saturday night, but it all turned out okay. The Bride and Groom came out of the church after their wedding to find their car had a flat tire. One of the groomsmen went and got a can of fix-a-flat as I was preparing to change the tire, I wound up helping out getting the tire inflated so they could make it to the reception, a little late, but not that bad. The reception went pretty good for them. The food was hot and very good. The Dj's did a great job, although they had a slight issue with the power (not their fault). All in all a good time was had by all..

PHOTO TIP: Bring Wet-One's with you when shooting, you never know when you will be changing a tire! It's all part of the service you might not be expected to provide, but do it anyway.

2009-05-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

It’s been a busy week, meeting with new brides, delivering albums, ordering prints, and getting images ready for people to view. I got an 11x14 print of the Tiger on last weeks blog printed for myself; It looks sharp and will find a place on my walls. It’s not listed in or images for sale yet, but like most prints it is available to purchase.

I had a great Mother Day with my wife and son and a good weekend in general. I took the weekend off from any weddings or appointments and we just had a good time.

I’ve started some work on a website redesign. Redesigning the site is hard because I really like what I have now and replacing it will be like saying goodbye to a good friend.

We have 3 wedding in the next week so you might not see a blog next week, although, I wouldn’t bet on that. The blog is a fun part of the business for me and I love getting comments on it.

With the website redesign there will be some package changes coming along, We’ll be eliminating our low end package (no one ever buys it anyway) off the web site. Adding another tier of offerings. For examples, a Photo Guest book, Press Printed proof books, and Multiple Volume albums. Before you laugh about multiple albums think about the idea of having a separate album for family formals, the reception, Bride and groom, engagement photos, etc.) From my research it’s a growing trend, as is giving your mate a small album (little black book style) of Boudoir photographs.

PHOTO TIP:
This one isn’t really for everyone, more for the person doing a portrait. You’ve noticed portraits where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred. This is a nice effect and highlights the subject and not where they are. After all a portrait is a picture of a person, not the room or their surroundings. The best way of obtaining this is to have a decent lens in the telephoto or slightly telephoto ranges (80mm + lens), you will need to step back from your subject so you can get a good composition, zooming in, you will notice that the background blurs out. This is caused the Depth of Field, which I won’t go into too much here, but basically it defines the area of a picture that is in focus. If you have any control over your shutter speed and aperture, use the largest aperture you can and set the shutter accordingly, (or use AV mode and let the camera do it). Main thing is to play with it, find out what works, what doesn’t.. the same principle applies in Macro Photography, just on another scale.

Family Time

2009-05-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

Okay - Here's the deal... Weekends are family time.. Weddings are on the weekends.. Well When I'm out doing a wedding, or other shoots I always make time to do something my Son wants on the weekend days I have off. Well this Saturday morning (Wedding in the evening) We went to tothe Zoo for about 2-3 hours (at 4 and a half thats about all he wants of the zoo) We both normally take a camera this time around we shared one. After riding the Merry-go-round, and the train and a short detour to the play area in the childrens zoo where he met a cute little girl and they ran and played together for a while. Well we made it around to where the Tigers was and he didn't want to go there, he wanted to go see the elephants, so we compromised and after taking a few shots like this one it was off to see the elephants, and of course the garaffes.

We both really love the zoo and as far as number of pictures we took it was rather lacking.. but this one shot made it worth carrying the camera around for a little while. Now you might say, whats the big deal, well remember, I'm a photographer and BIG lenses are a standard thing to carry around, The lens I really love for this is my canon 100-400L with IS, the only drawback is it alone weighs three pounds, add to that a camera body and a monopod and the weight adds up quickly.

Anyway, got some great pictures that evening(wedding) and everything went well for the rest of the weekend.. Sunday he enjoyed riding his bike for a while, playing with the computer, and he helped me cook breakfest and later grill out.

PHOTO TIP - People ask me what I do to process my images to get the great prints that I do. Well you would be suprised, the first step comes to getting the image right in the camera. I use Adobe lightroom for a little cropping and some adjustments if needed. I shoot only in RAW mode because the photographs just simply turn out better.

BUSY- and having a blast!

2009-04-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve been having fun lately with photography projects, getting new prints, putting together albums (yes I said fun). I enjoy photography, and doing a nice album, nice prints, etc makes me feel good. I get to see the results as soon as I open up an order to check it for a customer. No matter how much I see on the screen, the prints are so much nicer. 11x14 size prints are a great way of showing off your photographs.

I’ve been getting a lot of people wanting to book wedding that are less than 2-3 months away, Some I have been able to help some I have referred to another wedding photographer, however, we’ve had to turn people down that might not have had to be if they booked early. People are booking right now into May of next year for us. We have a some dates open for the summer and fall, esp for Friday or Sunday weddings, feel free to ask us if your date is close, we might not have it open but can suggest someone to you.

Our preferred vendors list is growing, We added the DJ I mentioned last week to it, Young’s DJ Service – you can call Mike at 859-635-7716 Just tell him I sent you.

Also feel free to join us on www.Linkedin.com and network with us. And check out some of our work on Flicker at http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgestarrphotography On our regular website you can view a recent wedding album in our gallery section.

You can view our profile on the Professional Photographers of America web site at http://www.ppa.com/findaphotographer/9300/George-Starr.php

Fun Weekend... Lakes and Weddings

2009-04-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a cancelation we had Friday off, so took the day off and went to Kincade lake and had a great time with my wife and son. The weather was great, and I took a camera a long with me and go several Birds of Prey (halks, etc). and just enjoyed sitting beside the lake for a while with the family.

Saturday we had a fun time out in California Kentucky with a really fun couple and their families. Tractors, shot guns, and a lake along with good food proved to be a good combo for a great time by all in attendance. We even had a DJ that we had worked with before who did a great job, I love the DJ's that work with the photographers and make sure we are ready for all the events of the evening. I'll post a link with his info on my web site later in the week because we'd love to work with him again.

The image above is a candid of the bride's mother taking a quick snapshot, and I just couldn't resist..

SPRING!!! Gotta love it!

2009-04-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

Had a great weekend wedding down in Georgetown Kentucky, got the pictures all processed in record time. It was a great day for the weather, a little cool but not cold, but when you are working that’s always a good thing. We are geared up to handle an very busy spring wedding season, and the Senior Portraits and Boudoir sessions that are lining up.

Since we posted about the Boudoir sessions last week we’ve actually gotten a lot of interest in them from brides and others.

I’ve added a preferred vendor section onto the site also for local vendors that brides and others might find useful and there still is room for a few more to be added.

Business Notes:

This week due to a demand, we added a Store to our site where you can purchase some artistic prints. Right now it only has a few on it, but we’ll add more. Check it out at http://starrphotos.net/store Let us know what you think!!

Due to one person we have had a policy change in regards to personal checks, While we’ve always had a returned check policy we got our first bad check for a wedding since we’ve been doing weddings. It was for a deposit on a wedding date that was within 3 weeks of the booking on a Friday night. Looking at what other photographers are doing we have rethought our policy on personal checks, we are not going to penalize everyone for this one person, however, we would prefer a bank cashiers check or money order for the final balance but understand that does not work for everyone and we will continue to accept personal checks. For a wedding the is within a month (very rare) we will require the deposit to have cleared our bank. Just a side note, we do prosecute for bad checks plus fees. If you have issues let us know and we can work something out.

QUICK TIP:

This week I’m going to include a QUICK tip for taking photos in low light levels, We do this at weddings or even out and about when the light is not as bright as we would like. It’s great for shooting birds with a big zoom or flowers in the shade without a tri-pod. What you do if your camera allows it for it is to set for a burst, rapid fire or continuous shooting mode, and fire off several shots, the idea is that during one of the exposures you hopefully have held the camera still enough for one shot to turn out! Does it work? For me it works pretty good and some of the blurs are even useful for backgrounds, etc. You can also change your ISO to 400 to even 1600 and beyond depending on the camera you have, you get a little more grain but sometimes the trade off is worth it.

Gearing up and Adding Boudoir

2009-04-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

Gearing up for a busy season, April and May are always busy months with weddings and we are looking forward to shooting in a lot of nice Churches and locations in the upcoming weeks. This weekend we are going down around Georgetown Kentucky, for a much anticipated wedding. Two weddings are scheduled for the next weeknd and several in May.

We’ve started offering Boudoir Sessions a while back but really never promoted them before now. If you read our web site you will find a link for http://starrphotos.net/boudoirphotography.htm On the page it list some questions you might have about Boudoir Photography, what to expect, costs, and a limited time offer for a select few people that want to Model for some samples that will appear on the website. We do have samples available upon request from previous models that requested not to be placed on a web site that is open to the public but are fine with them upon request. We do have releases for the pictures we display and your pictures will never be shown to anyone that you don’t show them to.

Boudoir photography makes a great gift for that special person. Over the years these images have become a popular to be given as a wedding or anniversary gift. Our limits are your limits as long as it is legal and not pornographic. We are open to Individuals, Girls Night Parties, and Couples. If there is something special you need we can probably help you. We do Mini-BLACK book albums and custom prints.

Another Great Week

2009-04-02T05:56:00.000-07:00

Another GREAT Week - Had a shoot Saturday, in between raindrops at a local park, It turned out really well. The couple is getting married in a couple weeks and wanted a nice engagement fun picture for a signature matt. This isn't what they chose, but I liked this one, it shows why We do weddings, They are in love and it showed through he whole shoot and made me feel good for the rest of the day.

Wedding season is really starting up!! -Be sure to check our Links pages for Vendors that we recommend.

Time for another phototip - We've done, Exposure for shooting in the snow (hope we don't need this one again for a while), Shooting outdoors with Fill Flash. This week Lets go into a little of

Shooting at night
we are talking doing Cityscapes, building that are lit up, etc.

First off using a TRIPOD - This is really needed, although you can get by with using something like a wall, or a fence post, or even a trash can or top of your car. The important thing is not to move the camera during the extended exposure you need.

It helps to have a remote release too, or you can use the camera's self timer. If your camera has an option for Mirror Lockup that can help with vibration also.

Okay you have found something you want to take a picture of, set you tripod up mount your camera on it. You can try letting the camera take the picture, but I recommend playing with the settings to get the look you desire. Depending on the scene you can start at f11 at 1/2 second and go up and down from there. If you camera don't have manual settings you can still take the picture using your auto settings, Try flash on, flash off, this helps even though your flash can not reach or light the scene, most cameras will set the shutter to 1/60 of a second when using a flash. Sometime you can set a EV setting of +1 or +2 or -1 or -2 Try these and keep notes so you learn what works for your scene. I've shot scenes at f5.6 and 4 seconds and got great results, it all depends on what you are shooting. Next time around I'll write a little bit on using Flash at night for shooting people and other things close up, and even a WEDDING TIP will be included for those with SLR Cameras.

I shoot Canon SLR Cameras, and will do some Tips on settings for these cameras specifically too.

New and Exciting stuff

2009-03-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

Just had a meeting this week with a Social Network Consultant, Kind informative, and something we have done in the past. I.e. This blog, Myspace, Facebook and they recommended a couple others that I hadn't heard of "Twitter" and "Linkedin"

"Linkedin" looks really cool so far, join me on there at http://linkedin.com/ look for me via my email George@starrphotos.net

Great Weekend

2009-03-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

The opening image is an Infra-Red Image of the Supension Bridge and Downtown Cincinnati.

I got spoilt over the weekend, the weather was great.. The days started out a little cool but turned out nice. My son and I went down along the Ohio River heading to the Newport Aquarium and got distracted by a Helicopter hovering above one of the skyscrapers. Being four and a half years old this was something for him so we stopped under the suspension bridge. We got out pictures of the helicopter and took some of the cityscape and bridge, took a walk and took some more. It was a very relaxing morning for the both of us. It does make me wonder how good he will be in a few years, he was using one of the extra cameras we have a Canon Rebel XTI which is about his size camera.

The image below is one of his favorite's and I love the angle he took it from, it's like really seeing it from his view.

Time for another Photo Tip

2009-03-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

This week I'm going to go with a Photography Tip, The weather outside is really nice so lets take our cameras outside.

I'm a wedding/portrait photographer and I shoot people outdoors a lot. One of the biggest helps I have for shooting outdoors in the sunlight is my FLASH, yes a flash. What most peopel do is forget their flash when they go outdoors. Most of your point and shoot cameras have an option to turn on the flash even outside (flash always) or (Fill Flash) It really does work more than you think to light up faces and take away shadows caused by leaves, and other items.

I always try to find some shade to shoot in outdoors, it helps people not to squint, reduces hotspots on peoples skin and foreheads.

Granted shooting in direct sunlight is to be avoided when you can, but try using your flash. Even in the shade I use the flash to bring detail out for the main subject. I'd rather blow out the background (over expose it) than have the people so underexposed that you can't see their faces.

With an SLR camera you can set the flash power, I normally end up going to a setting that is +2 over what the meter thinks it needs. (see your manual on how to do this, EV+2)

Using your display on a digital camera outdoors is next to useless, shoot a few and and go inside and check your images until you have learned how to get the results you want outdoors.

One other note, for those of you with a Digital SLR, shoot in raw mode, it really helps if you are not right on your exposure, you get about 2 stops of extra exposure (forgiveness for a lot of photography sins)

Good luck and happy shooting!

George

(The Above picture is of My son - just having fun - no fancy equipment or anything)

Rough Times for all

2009-03-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

I just saw a segment on the news this morning about Wedding and people spending less or downgrading their wedding expenses. This makes me feel for the young couples that I meet with and I hate seeing ones that walk away and not able to afford us, I just hope they have been able to find a photographer to meet their needs. I'm not sure they can find one that carries the amount of equipment that we do to any given wedding or that has the experience that we do as a team. We are not in the estimated 8,000.00 price range for photography that they listed, but I think that is very high for our area.

I've priced other photographers in the area and for what we offer there is very little competition in our price range. Sure you can find a “Photographer” cheaper, but do they have backup cameras, lighting, and most important, we have a second photographer, which is something that is normally not offered in our price range. I hope these couples don’t sell themselves short and go with someone that is not a true professional.

We do custom packages if your needs to not fall inside our standard packages, and we can work out monthly payments if that is easier for you. We don’t meet the prices of others, but if you look closely I bet you will find we beat most of them. If not let us know and we will look to see what is really different.

Okay - Fun Stuff

2009-02-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

I just got done RE-SENDING my web site to the server! Some hacker, hacked into it and deleted some files that were needed to make it work. It's bad when people do this, makes me wonder why. Anyway, it's back up, by provider is researching what happened and I'm taking steps to prevent it from happening again.

If you tried to view our web site in the past and it wasn't up shoot me an email. I was wondering why things were slow from the internet and I guess with a site not working it could happen. Rest assured we are not going anywhere and if you ever do find our site not up and running please shoot me an email. I'll be watching it a lot closer. I found out due to wanting to add a link to our links page for a friend that sells Holy Clothing - you'll have to visit the site to find out more on this unique line of clothing http://kjsalittlebitofeverything.com/ tell her I sent you if you like.

Been a while - Sorry

2009-02-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

WOW, trying to keep this update has been a test at times. Anway, The month of January was a busy month for us. Weddings and a couple other events kept us busy, which is a good thing but didn't leave a lot of time for blogging.

We are excited to be starting a new season, trying some new ideas, new shots, new poses, and new equipment. We have a couple of exciting ideas that will be tested over the next couple months and then offered to other couples.

On a SAD note, With the cost of everything from battries to shipping to insurance going up we are going to see a slight increase in our packages, which will still be very competitive in our market area. I'm trying to work it out so this will be a small impact on new customers. If you booked for a lower amout, your prices will NOT go up. Ala-Cart rates may go up very slightly.

WOW - Busy Winter

2009-01-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long, it's been a busy winter this year, The mild winters in the last couple years have led to more winter weddings, which is great. The churchs are so decorated with all the Christmas flowers, etc.. Easter is another great time for this and it's great! Anway, we had a great time at a the weddings, got some great pictures as normal. I'm very thankful for having Canon L lenses with Image stablizaton built in, during the last couple wedding we were not allowed to use flash during the cermony. The pictures turned out great regardless.

One of the recent weddings had a really entertaining DJ team that really kept the party moving, They actually did something I've never seen before with a picture frame. The Bride and Groom went around the Room as "Freeze Frame" was played, and posed inside the picture frame for a quick picture. At the time I didn't think much about it, but the pictures were FUN to look at and I'm sure the couple will enjoy them.

Okay, I've promised to start some tutorials and tips so I'll keep good on that.

Our Photo Tips:

When shooting a picture outdoors in this snow, set your camera to overexpose the picture by 1 stop. This will make the camera expose the snow as WHITE instead of a dingy blue/white or gray. If you are shooting people with it, you might want to turn on your flash to brighten up their faces in the picture too. This Fill-Flash is a great thing.

For some good locations for shooting in the snow try our local Cincinnati Parks like Sharon woods, Ault Park, Mt. Airy, Eden Parks Mirror lake, Devou Park overlook, etc.. You will probably run into some deer and other wildlife in your adventures. Esp, in Mt. Airy, there seems to be deer and racoon's there every time I'm in the park. You might try some of the smaller Cities like Covington, Fort Mitchell, and Newport for some very scenic urban snowscapes. The trees were really nice driving through town this morning.

Keep in mind your camera is a lot like you, It don't like a lot of the cold weather, and bringing it in and out of the cold is not the best thing in the world for it.you might try placing your camera in a plastic bag when you bring it back indoors from being outside to help avoid condensation on it a little. Also Battery life is shorter in the cold, keep a spare battery with you in an inside coat or shirt pocket.

If your Camera offers it, shoot in RAW or Camera RAW format, I use Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop to convert these into jpg files after any correction that needs to be done. Of course you might not have these programs, Adobe elements works pretty good also and most cameras included that program with them these days.

If you don't want to shoot in raw because it is too much work consider what you give up by shooting in jpg mode. a JPG file is a compressed file, where the color set is compressed down, the color depth is lower and even the dynamic range of the picture is lower. Generally a picture that might be over/underexposed by 2 stops can be saved simply by having a RAW file. I have shot side by side raw/jpg (our cameras will do both at the same time) and the JPG file loses detail in both the highlights and shadows, where the raw brings out much more detail to work with. The RAW file also does allows you more room in sitting white balance (A whole topic in it's self).

The most I can say is Try it for a while and see how you like it. Worst you have done is taken some pictures and had to put in a little extra time learning to use your camera and computer. Hopefully you have learned that RAW is better for a lot of things, I won't say all, because it does add some post processing time, but for important pictures like your wedding pictures it is all we use.

Just a Short blog this week

2008-12-18T06:04:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-29T11:23:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-10-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-09T13:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-09-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

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..