This article is exactly what I have been saying and the reason I tell my prospective clients that when meeting with other photographers ask the photographer to show you all the images from a wedding not just a few of his sample images. Great article Kevin.
http://kevinweinstein.com/blog/article/on_photography/
Bella Pictures has been sold to the company that operates Wal-Mart (PictureMe) and Sears Photo Studios. For details and discussion visit the DWF.
The following comments are repostings from a local professional blog these are some comments that I have found to be funny. Just passing these along for the fun of it.
The views on this blog are not necessarily the views of me or my studio.
“Wal*Mart should open a wedding chapel between Automotive and Sporting Goods. OR — even more efficient!!! — install a ceremony gazebo at the center of the garden department. Then the reception can be held at the McDonalds next to Guest Services. Who needs wedding cake when you can have a McFlurry!?!?”
“I’ve always thought of them as the Walmart of Wedding Photography. Now they actually are.”
“YAY!! I already knew that Bella’s service was crap, but now, by associating themselves with the Wal*Mart brand, they have just let the mass public know that as well.
As a studio that targets higher-end brides, this definitely helps us out, in the off-chance that anyone was debating on hiring Bella over us.
Bwaaa-Haa-Haa!!!
“Paging Denis Reggie… Cleanup on aisle seven!”
I spent many years in the darkroom printing black and white prints before color became popular so I guess that is why I really don’t include a lot of black and white images in my wedding coverage. Also it is so easy today to convert an image from color to black and white in almost any photo editing softwere or on line photo lab service that I really see no need to put them on line in black and white to start with. If my clients want the images in black and white it is as easy as a click of the mouse to change the color image to black and white. But today I was editing some Images of Lea and there were a couple of images that I thought would look great as black and white prints. So I started looking for a black and white effect that I liked and I found one. Let me know what you think of this effect.
Yes, less than $17 and a visit to Home Depot. I purchased the materials that helped me create the lighting used in this portrait. I wanted to create a light modifier that would allow me to create the proper lighting in Lea’s eyes even with her having a hat on. One of the problems when photographing someone with a hat is usually the brim of the hat will cause the eyes to be deeply shadowed. I wanted to show off Lea’s beautiful eyes not hide them in a shadow. Now you might think that oh, just lower your main light to shoot in under the brim of the hat. Well that doesn’t work as well as you might think. Bringing the main light source that low can create more of a horror movie effect and that I didn’t want either. The light modifier that I made from the materials I purchased at Home Depot worked great to get the light under the brim of her hat and also created the beautiful highlights in Lea’s eyes.
The other day we were shooting a wedding. One of the important events of the evening came up and as I moved into position to get my shot, brought the camera to level and fired only to see that I got a shot of the back of let’s call him uncle Bob’s head. uncle Bob jumped directly in front of me to get the shot. That wasn’t the worst of it. As I looked around I started counting people with good quality near professional cameras and flash taking the same shot and there were no less than 10.
Today I was reading a post by a professional photographer on a local message board and he said this. “I went to a marketing seminar yesterday on how to book more brides.
There were 92 attendees there.
Here is the breakdown:
1. 6 DJs
2. 1 Florist
3. 1 Cake baker
4. 84 photographers!
I’ve been shooting weddings in this market for 25 years and I knew TWO of the photographers.
Wow!!!!”
Another post by a local photographer said something very much the same about a local event featuring a a high profile photographer Dennis Reggie. At this event there were more than 100 photgraphers. Only a couple of the photographers had been in business more than a couple of years
I have had a great 35 year run as a photographer but am glad that soon I will retire and be able to do photography for fun and not have to depend on photography for my living.
I was going through some modeling photos that I had shot back around 1996 maybe even earlier than that and found some shots that I thought looked very much like some shots I had just recently seen on line done by a celebrity photographer of the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt. I grabbed the shots off the Internet of Jennifer Love Hewitt just to compare to my shots done back around 1996 check them out. The shot on the left side is by an unknown photographer of the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt and the shot on the right side was done by me back in 1996 of a local model that I shot with several times. Looks like things haven’t really changed as much as I had thought. The images I shot were done in my studio with studio lighting and shot on film not digital.
Let me know your thoughts.
If you are looking for a professional photographer to shoot photos for your wedding, I have a few words of advice.
Since the digital camera’s came out and offer very good quality images many aspiring photographers have gone out and bought a digital camera, set up a web site that they put a few images on and now they are calling themselves professional photographers. These so called professional photographers may even have some stunning photos on display on there web site. Let me tell you so you are not so easily fooled. Many of these so called professional photographers attended a photography seminar to learn about posing or lighting or more about the style of the photography of the photographer hosting the seminar. At this seminar the host photographer hired some professional models to look beautiful, pose exactly right and the host photographer chose the perfect great location for the seminar shoot. The seminar host photographer set up the lighting or told the aspiring photographers attending the seminar just how to shoot that particular shot.
Now that shot from the seminar is on the front page of the aspiring photographers web page making him or her look like a great professional photographer.
My advice to you is this. Ask that aspiring photographer to show you all the shots from a wedding and reception that they have photographed. Take the time to carfully look at all the shots from a wedding, not the photographers best shot from several weddings but one wedding all the photos shot by the aspiring photographer. This will tell you pretty quickly weather or not to use this photographer for your wedding and reception.
I have recently had a really bad experience with a client and it has left me thinking about weather I should stop offering the digital files from a portrait session or wedding. This is what happened. I had done a casual engagement session with a great couple and we had a great time doing the photos. The session with the client included the CD of the full size digital files and a copyright release. As soon as I had processed all the images I sent the client the CD with the images and the copyright release. What happened next is what really has me upset. When we arrived at the reception I noticed 2 very large 24×30 prints of the bride and groom on stands right outside the reception doors. These prints were from the casual engagement session I had shot with the bride and groom several weeks before the wedding. Well the prints were TERRIBLE the colors were so far off that the bride and groom faces literally looked orange. Obviously these photos were not printed by a professional photo lab. As I looked at the photos in horror I realized guests were looking at the photos as they were entering the reception and the comments the guests were making about the photos was not flattering at all. I wanted to shout in horror I didn’t do those photos but I knew it was too late. I was already associated with the photos on display and just wanted to be sick at the thought people were associating those orange faced terrible photos with me.
Then I began to think about all the other photos from all the other weddings and portrait sessions that are floating around out there with my name associated with them printed by non professional drug store or discount department stores with terrible color and I cringed.
OMG people will think that I am responsible for these terrible photos. I take the utmost care when shooting the photos and when processing the images on my computer to make sure the monitor is calibrated correctly. Any print I have ever done for a client I have used a pro lab to print the images and they always came out beautiful.
Now this is my problem, what do I do? should I continue to offer my clients the digital files and have them ruin my reputation as a professional by putting cheep terrible department store prints out there for everyone to see? Or do I force my clients to use a professional lab for the printing of the images to protect my rep as a professional photographer?
Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.
Melissa Mandella Lemacks is one of the associate photographers that shoot weddings and other events for this studio (The Image Makers) Melissa has been working with us for a little over four years and does an exceptional job.
