Elk Creek Winery

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

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!

Two for one

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

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.

Gearing up

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!

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.

Parties

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.

Out Shooting while the weather held out

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

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

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.

Size and Effects

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

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.

Gearing up for a fun weekend

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

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

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.

Playing Around a Little

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.

Stormy Weekend

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)

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.

New and Exciting stuff

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

Time for another Photo Tip

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)