Summer and the End of the Wedding Season

The End of the Summer Wedding Season

"Tis the end of September and a gorgeous Fall day it is. My wedding season for 2009 is pretty much over, I'll have a few weddings left to finish the Fall and Winter with. Still trying to catch up with the volume of work that has been shot just this month alone. Currently I just posted weddings from the weekend of September 5th and am working on my wedding that I shot in Cleveland on September 12th.




Why does it take so long to post - prepare a wedding? I ask my brides for 3 weeks about average to have their weddings ready for them to review. I shoot with 3 cameras and if I have another person assisting me it could add another camera or two. All the work has to be edited, color corrected, adjusted for exposure and then "spliced together" very much like editing a movie. And then the images are all given a master number sequence - it drives me nuts to see photographers asking people to select file # DSC 009765. That's just laziness on the photographers part - people don't think in terms of the file number from a particular card.





After that is done I select 40-60 images to be reinterpreted for a slide show on the web site. It's the images from the slide show that I post as albums on my Profile. In both cases I can use those as examples; say if someone is having their reception at the Cavalier I can refer them to Danielle's event. It's just a lot of time involved.



Many photographers have switched over to having a "service" do this for them. That makes sense if you're doing this as a hobby just to make money and don't have time to do the work because you already are working 40 hours a week at your regular job. And if you really don't care about what you are giving to your client. I would never do that -why would I let some clerk at a foto-lab edit and present my work? It might be less time om my part but isn't that why someone hired me - for my art?

Here are some memorable outtakes:

Indian Summer - Already?

Hard to believe it, we're still covering 2 weddings a weekend and I'm just now finishing up proofing and doing the Feature Galleries for weddings from September 5th, but it's Fall! One of the nice things about living and working as a photographer in the Hampton Roads market is that we have gorgeous Indian Summers. Warm days, cool nights and for most of October it can still look like summer but when the leaves start to change colors it only gets better. From October 1st to December 5th I'll be having an Indian Summer Special. Most of your Session is applied to your purchase and you'll get 30% discounts on your print orders. Photographs, especially Wall Portraits, make wonderful Christmas gifts and a well made Portrait becomes a Family Heirloom that will passed down for Generations.

Sessions are available in a studio setting or on your location. Contact me now to secure your date. While this seems like a long period of time I can only do one session on location a day - remember we're chasing the beautiful light and each day there is less and less of it.

Yes, I'll do - or at least try to - a session with or of your pets.

If the weather outside is frightful we can always work in a studio environment.

A session in early October can look almost like a summer portrait.

Kimberly & James

Kimberly and James - August 22, 2009

This was my wedding from August 22,2 009. A "country church" wedding with some really nice people. We weren't able to do any images of the couple on the beach so we've scheduled a make up session for them. I know many photographers would simply say that we can't control the weather so that's a real shame but I've never been able to do that. I know how important those images can be so I'm willing to do something extra for my clients. When we shoot that session I'll post some images from it.

How can you do a bad bridal portrait of such a stunning bride? My job is so easy sometimes.


The "bad teeth" thing was a joke that kept popping up all day long.

Rain?!? No rain will keep us from walking down that aisle.

The photo in front of the church is a family tradition with Kim - even if it's pouring rain.

Keep an eye on the kids eyeing the cake

Tiffany and Gregory - August 22, 2009

I really am convinced that photographers who are constantly blogging about themselves simply have more time than business. During the wedding season how can anyone Blog!?! These are some excerpts from a wedding my associate photographer Michael Hiser shot for me on August 22. (and yes today is September 17 so that's how far behind I am and how much work I have to complete)

Michael has a very keen sense of style.

This was a very large room and took some skill to light properly.

Gorgeous mixture of flash to illuminate the subjects and natural light.