Back in town

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.