As I was driving home last night, I saw the spectacular moon rise begin. I raced inside to grab my camera and off to my favorite abandoned railroad bridge.
So I guess I kinda missed Christmas in July… but that’s okay since I still haven’t figured out what it was all about anyway! However, it is time for me to start making Christmas announcements, and the first is that I will be away for the holidays and all orders must be finished and out by December 20.
Deadlines:
-all albums must be APPROVED by November 1st
-all framing orders must be received by November 15th
-all greeting card and postcard orders must be approved by November 20th
-all enlargement orders must be received by December 1st
Please book all sessions to fall within these deadlines if you plan on ordering any products for Christmas, and check out the special offer at the bottom of this post if you’re interested in postcards!
Last year my lab ran out of some standout sizes at sporadic times, so it’s advisable to order early with specialty products.
Next, the big Christmas card announcement is that I’m only offering 5×7 greeting card sizes in linen or pearl finish, and only offering postcards in 4×5.5, also linen or pearl finish. Custom designs will incur a $25 fee and are subject to one round of changes only (just like albums) or an additional fee will be necessary. Greeting cards are $3/each in sets of 25. Postcards are $2/each in sets of 25. I don’t plan on offering slimline photos as a standard product anymore.
These are the ready designs for greeting cards this year:
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3
4
5
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7
A few notes about card designs: some of them can be for either a horizontal or vertical image (like 4 and 3), but others are absolutely fixed, so please images accordingly.
Special Offer:
All family and child photo sessions scheduled for weekdays in September and October will receive a complimentary standard design set of postcards!
Just a few photos I took in my yard during those few magical minutes before the sun disappears… and while my computer was on time out this evening…
I have been a member of the ACPCG. for quite some time, but until now have never been called upon to shoot. However, this week, I received a call about little Olivia. She was born a couple weeks ago at 1 lb 3 oz, and has so far managed to exceed all expectations, including breathing on her own. Her parents call her their miracle baby!
Good luck, Olivia, Erika and Antonio!
Valerie is my cousin– and the newest installment on Grammy’s staircase! After every wedding, Grammy asks the newest bride to come for a photo on her staircase, and we finally managed to take Val’s!
According the Wall Street Journal, weddings may not be quite as expensive as the Knot thinks. The writer of the following article gets into the numbers:
This is a far more happy announcement than last time– my dad is home! Yes, already! His hip replacement has certainly been the most successful surgery he’s had in a while. He came home right on schedule and is now getting back to everyday life. He can’t yet put full weight on his bad leg, but was walking up the hallway at Cedars with his walker. He would then come in and sit in his chair, which is when I took the following photo with my crappy cell phone camera.
Meanwhile, at the hospital my mom and I had to pass the time somehow. We walked downstairs for tea several times a day–sometimes at the cafeteria and sometimes at the Starbucks they were so kind to locate right in the hospital. But the rest of the day we either read or played Scrabble. And since I had they worst hand ever, I took a photo of it. I tried to dump the letters back in for a pass, but since we were at the end of the game I could only dump three back in… and two of those were also “I”s. However, if you look towards the right and back of the board, you’ll see my 59-point word. Too bad in the next game Mom had a 7-letter word and killed me…
Amanda and Adam’s album will be a 10×10 flush leather album with a black ostrich cover– which perfectly imitates the swiss dot pattern on Amanda’s gorgeous dress!
Molly chose a matted album, which I’ll admit I rarely have the opportunity to design as most clients prefer flush designs. I chose a cream mat with a black liner for her day.
Honest Answers About Wedding Photography
Since there always seems to be many misconceptions about wedding photography, I thought I’d do a little public service announcement. I certainly don’t agree with every word written on this website, but for the most part this site will help you understand why photographers have certain policies.
For example, I recently had someone question why their high-resolution files were not available until after all their other products were fulfilled. Well, the short answer is that it is an incentive to make their final choices quickly… but if you really want to understand, this site will help!
Also there are a couple clauses in my contract that I feel I need to further explain, or that perhaps clients don’t always pay attention to them. The first is the “exclusive photographer” clause. While the clause itself is rather firm, it’s mainly there for if someone gets in my way. If any other person at the wedding (sometimes even the DJ or videographer) is taking photographs in an aggressive manner, it will limit the amount of coverage opportunities I have. People stepping in front of me happens more often than I’d like, and most of the time they are unaware of what they are doing. If a guest gets out of control with a camera, I do reserve the right to let them know I’m the primary shooter and they have been in the way several times. Also, there are times that many people are taking photos– this usually happens during the recessional or cake cutting– and a guest’s flash can ruin my photo. While I won’t prevent your guests from taking photos at these great moments, there is an understanding that this may happen.
Another clause I’d like to mention involves my meal. I know how much some venues will charge you for a meal, so I do not require food at all! However, if you are not going to feed me the same meal you and your guests will have, you absolutely have to notify me in writing at the time you pay the balance (two weeks prior to the big day). This honestly isn’t a big deal, until I recently shot a wedding at a very high end hotel and after already shooting for 8.5 hours, finally finished photographing the toasts and went outside to were they had just delivered my “dinner.” I was very dismayed to see a turkey lunch-meat sandwich and potato salad, both heavily slathered with mayonnaise and who knows what else, an apple, and calorie-ridden potato chips. To put it simply, I didn’t eat more than half an apple. With coverage having started at noon, and not getting home until after 11pm that evening, it was ridiculous. Had this client let me know before the wedding they would not be giving me a warm meal, I could have prepared for this. I could have ordered a pizza or at least brought a bag of veggies to eat. Please understand, I take better photos with a warm and satisfying meal in my stomach. To top it off, I’m willing to bet this client was charged $70-80 for this picnic type dinner, when I seriously would have been better off ordering a pizza.
Next! Copyright, as in what are you allowed to do with your photos? I retain the copyright for every image I produce. I don’t even have to put the little © symbol there, as the law automatically gives me all copyright. However, all my coverage options come with hi-res files, and you can use these files for personal use. This is because I grant you personal-use rights. You can print them all you like, hang them in your use, send one to Aunt Muriel, etc. You cannot sell them, as that would be commercial use. You also cannot send them in for publishing without my permission– although I’m likely to grant that so more people can see my style!
To view more of the contract, it’s conveniently located on my website.
If you have any more questions, please let me know! I’d be happy to discuss them!
This is a rather bummer of an announcement, and I was really hoping not to make it. Since it may affect some clients, I need to post it. The surgery my dad had at the end of June failed, and he’s been in a lot of pain. We found out a couple weeks ago that it failed and he would need a new surgery, but we weren’t sure what kind. As it turns out, there is not enough bone left to try another reconstruction, so he is having a hip replacement this week on either Wednesday or Friday. We should know sometime tomorrow which day it will be, as it depends on how fast we can get insurance approval.
Tomorrow I’ll be driving up to Cedar Sinai in LA to give blood for my dad, as he’ll be needing plenty. He’s A+, so if anyone out there wants to donate blood on his behalf… or just to be a good citizen, we’d appreciate it!
ETA: okay, just found out it will be Friday… and ix-nay on my drive to donate blood since they need 7 days to process it. I’ll probably donate to replace it while I’m up there visiting one day.
I’ve had my new portrait site for a while and I don’t quite love it yet… so I keep making changes. I changed the way the portfolio is situated, and added a fun new announcement.
