For all the Moms out there...

Analisa & Stephen (part 2)

So I just wanted to share a couple more pics from the wedding we did a couple of weeks ago.


Love the dress...





Loving Analisa in the dress!





What a cute couple!









And I will leave you on one final note... Shouldn't shoes be the centerpiece of every mantel? (hehe)






Congrats to Analisa & Stephen! Remember to keep smiling!

Dogwoods and Dandelions and Mother's Day

I woke up this morning thinking about the pink dogwood that blooms outside my bedroom window. It is so pretty right now and I knew I wanted to take a photograph of it, more to play with ISO's and settings and all that 'stuff' (yeah, I know, I'm real technical!) So I got George (and you know that's my D3, right?) and a few lenses and went outside.

What a day!! Wow! I started shooting and as I looked around, I saw that there were so many perfectly gorgeous flowers and shrubs in bloom, well it was amazing! And it got me thinking about Mother's Day...

I see all the ads on TV to buy this and that for mom, like you can't show your love without spending a fortune. (Yes, those diamond studs ARE dazzling!) And all the arrangements and dozens of roses from the store are beautiful and thoughtful... but I really think the best gift you'll ever receive will be the bouquet that your little one picked by themselves in the backyard.

So for all the moms out there... I wish you all the joy and love in the world! Happy Mother's Day! :)

And let's not forget the all time favorite!

~ Valeen

Rants and Raves

A couple of things really bothered me this week and I had to write a little about them.

One was the closing of yet another bridal shop. Apparently the shop was in business 10 years and closed without warning leaving 18 brides without their dresses. Now, even taking into consideration that the news is sometimes not 100% accurate, even ONE bride left without her dress just days or weeks before the wedding is one too many. I think the worst part of this is that it happens so often. I've worked at a few different bridal shops in the past and even though they are now closed, not once was a bride's order not filled and delivered. Not Once. There is no excuse for this, not ever.

And the other rant... finding out just how badly couples have been treated by their wedding photographer. OMG! I am truly stunned at some of the tactics that are used and the complete lack of integrity. Worst part of hearing all this? Is that I've heard the identical stories from DIFFERENT couples and even from some venue staffers and DJ's I know. It's depressing and makes it difficult for all the wonderful, talented and awesome photographers out there.

Today was just Rants... so many Raves too and I'll post more, just needed to get that out there.

More editing

Playing with that dance shot...

Sneak Peek... Analisa and Stephen got married.

Once again our poor little blog has been somewhat neglected and I know I keep promising to write more often, but it's been crazy busy, especially since I thought this is was the 'off season'!

So here's a quick sneak peek of the wedding Kasey and I shot on Sunday. Of course we always have fun getting together and this was no exception. We have the best times and the best job ever!

I experimented a little with texture overlays on the first one and the second is right out of the camera, the first dance, one of my favorite shots of the day. :)

Valeen

Internet Issues

Just a quick note to let you know that if you sent an email/etc to me and I have not gotten back to you, please resend. We just had a new dedicated cable line put in and an upgraded modem so hopefully there will be no more problems and outages, like yesterday when the internet was out more than 20 times!!! AGH!!!

More posts to come... my visit to Lake of Isles, a little pre-summer pool fun and getting ready for a wedding tomorrow too! We are going to rock it out!

Sometimes a picture says it all.

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

by Shawn Ritcher

Shawn is a photographer in CA and has written this article, with his permission I'm posting it here. If you have any comments or questions, let us know, ok? :) ~ Valeen

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter
Caught on Film Photography

Kasey's First Blog Post!

What do we crazy photographers do when we aren't shooting weddings???

We take pictures of everything else silly! Once you have the photography bug, you can't make it go away. (Why would you want it to anyway? lol) So the last couple of weeks I have been able to get some great shots just around our house. Who would have imagined it? I first got excited when I started to get out of work and it was still light out. Sunset shots!

Then when little purple flowers began to sprout up, I thought to myself, Spring is finally here!!

Who cares if the flowers are growing right in the middle of our front lawn...It makes for good pics! Besides, it gives the neighbors something to talk about when they see me all crouched down in the front yard with my camera!

Now I really started to get excited when Jeremy (my hubby) spotted a bunny in the backyard. So I quickly grabbed the camera so I could try to get a shot of the bunny just in time for Easter! I quietly opened the door and tiptoed onto the deck. I snapped a couple of photos and the bunny stayed still. I then decided to take a couple of steps closer and sit on the stairs and I got yet another couple of pictures. The bunny didn't move.

So this is when I started to look stupid to the neighbors....I got down in the grass and was doing an army style crawl (you know when you are flat on your stomach and using your arms and elbows to slither across the grass) to get closer to this brave little bunny. I would crawl forward one foot, take a pic, crawl another foot, take a pic, crawl one more foot and bam! The bunny just took off!! My opportunity was over. Don't worry though, I would get another shot to photograph nature...

It was Saturday morning and Jeremy and I were on our way out to run some errands and I spotted this little bird in our front bushes but I was in a rush so there was no time to grab the camera. We got back about an hour or so later and the bird was still there. How exciting! So guess what I did, I had Jeremy stand guard and I went in for my camera. I came outside and started to get a couple of pics and the bird didn't fly away!

So I decided to get a little closer, and closer, and closer. I thought, "wow, this bird must like me because it's not moving!" Jeremy began to get curious and grabbed a stick and poked the bird. It didn't move. What a fun killer! The bird was indeed dead! It didn't stop me from taking pics though...who would know it was dead when they looked at the pics? LOL!

Val - Thanks for having me on the team! Always remember to keep smiling!

-Kasey :)