While back in California last week I stopped by to shoot with Randi, expecting next month!

While in Las Vegas, I had the great pleasure of photographing Ronan and Caitlin at UNLV. It was quite funny, watching Ronan run around and all the students on campus trying to figure out what was going on.

this was my favorite shot of the day:

Ever since I started photographing weddings, I’ve heard clients say this. And it’s always been true; everyone has a wedding budget, no matter how big or small. Whether your wedding budget is $10K or $100K, you still prioritize certain elements of your wedding over others.

Lately, though, I think a budget might mean something different. With the media constantly hammering about the bad economy, it’s only natural to look at a wedding budget differently.

As a photographer, I do of course love hearing that your wedding photography is a high priority, but I understand that saving for your future might be a higher priority right now.

Most clients come to me looking for a full wedding package that includes coverage, an album, engagement session, and other miscellaneous choices. The easiest way to save money now is to look at the most important part of wedding photography, which is the photos themselves. Everything else can be purchased later, but the photographs created during the coverage time must be there to create other products.

I’ve had this option available for a while, but never blogged about it before. On the same website you’ll later view your wedding photos, I can set up a bridal registry so that your guests can put money toward your wedding album or other products rather than buying you a china place setting.

On a budget describes most people these days. We’re trying to meet you halfway.

(An oldie but goodie)

So, prepare for this monster blog post. I had such a great time at Tyler and Jill’s wedding in Prinsburg and Willmar, Minnesota. First, I kind of grew up with Tyler and he second shot weddings with me for about a year, so of course this wedding was more personal for me. Jill’s family is so incredibly warm and welcomed everyone in immediately. The result? Such a lovely weekend!

I was slightly nervous about the wedding, oddly terrified I’d end up shooting in a blizzard. As it turned out, it was a beautiful, sunlit day in the high teens. There actually was very little snow around, so I went scouting for a good shooting location since Jill really wanted some snowy photos. I’m happy I succeeded there!

Photographer note: I challenged Dave Cheung of Quikeys to a little dare during the WPPI tradeshow, and about half of these images were processed by him at the Quikeys booth. I’ve been using the Quikeys system since October and love it!
On to the photos… all 31 of them!

I absolutely love this image of Jill!

Tyler and Jill having a moment and seeing each other for the first time before the ceremony

then on to some portraits

I found this copse of trees a few minutes down the road from the church, and so glad I did!

I like this rearview mirror grab for some reason that I can’t quite pinpoint

then straight into the ceremony in Prinsburg

Tyler and Jill’s friends Jarvis and Abasa provided the music for the processional

and the reception

Just a little sneak peek for now since I’ll be traveling for another week. Congrats you two!

I leave tomorrow for an extended trip! I’ll be shooting a wedding in Minnesota and then heading to Las Vegas for WPPI, then to California for a few portrait sessions.

If you are a California client interested in meeting with me regarding your wedding or a client interested in booking a portrait session for a reduced session fee of $100, I am available from February 19-21.

If you are a photographer and would like to talk about your album design needs, I’ll be in Vegas from February 15-18.

just a few Valentine’s Day photos

and one with Daddy

From last week. It’s all gone now, of course.

I got two 10th place images in the ISPWP contest this quarter! I forgot to enter the last time, so this was my first contest with them. I’m happy about the results, and love both images that placed.

For the Bridal Party category:

and the Creative Use of Wide Angle category:

Modern Photographers recently had a contest where all the members submitted their three favorite engagement photos, and one of mine placed as the best of 2008. Initially members rated photos, and the finalists were sent to wedding planners at I-wed.org for voting. Thanks to everyone that loves this image of Caryn and Warren as much as I do!

Chris and Hillary’s Marvimon wedding has just been featured on the ISPWP website! I’m pretty happy to be a member of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, because all the members take wedding photography seriously. I can’t wait to see the results of the latest contest to see if anything I entered placed!

This was supposed to be the shortest day, only 5 hours of driving. Actually, it’s really great it was a short day because we didn’t get started until well after noon due to my check engine light coming on. I forgot to document any of this part of the trip, of course. About an hour before reaching Winchester on Friday night, my check engine light came on. We checked for the closest dealership, and luckily enough it was in Winchester! We tried to call, but their service department was already closed.

The next morning, we arrived at the dealership just after it opened, and they were so incredibly nice to us. They worked us in even though it was a Saturday morning, and provided us with lots of free hot chocolate. As it turns out, it is a good thing we stopped instead of making headway to NY, because they replaced the coil in cylinder #4. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds bad. Sadly, it was still around 10 or 11 degrees F, and they weren’t able to thaw my windshield wiper motor out enough to use it, so we still had to make a couple pit stops to clean the windshield.

Another quick note: our hotel in Winchester was awesome. And with priceline I got this 3.5 star hotel for an incredible $55 deal! Most of the hotels we stayed at along the way were purchased in the late afternoon with free wifi at a Starbucks, and they were all nice. But the George Washington Historic Hotel just finished a $25 million renovation and was adorable. The bellboy gave us a tour of the old ballroom, vault, and original mail box. Of course, I forgot to take photos of that, too — except for these of the window in the morning.

then on to west virginia!

maryland!

and pennsylvania!

somewhere in one those states I accumulated a massive dust spot on the 5D sensor. not that you’ll see it, but it’s quite annoying

yep, starting to get closer to the eastern seaboard…

but still in farm country for a bit

first time I’ve seen this in a while!

saw lots of these “live your dreams” billboards

and we also started seeing lots of these. I call them christmas village towns, because they look like my mom’s christmas village that we put out every year

getting close to the next state. any guesses?

no, really! last chance, any guesses?

hee hee
new jersey!

more ice

yep, definitely new jersey

rant: I’m really pissed at new york. every state had a nice if not pretty welcome sign, but apparently new york can’t see fit to put one up when crossing from new jersey to staten island on the gothels bridge. in fact, i almost missed the stupid staten island sign because I was looking for a welcome to new york sign.

so, just for that, I think I’m going to keep my CA driver’s license. so there!

a landfill

verrazano bridge

view of nyc from the bridge. we skirted around it to avoid traffic

yeah, still not going to give up my CA driver’s license. it’s probably the only DMV photo I’ll ever look good in, and I won’t give that up.