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.

Locations - Hidden Gems in and around Cincinnati

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.

New Lightroom Beta Testing

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.

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.

Busy! BUSY! And more BUSY!!!!

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.

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.

Waiting!!

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.

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.

A Wet Wedding but a GREAT TIME

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..

Busy but Very fun Weekend

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.

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

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.