Friday, November 27, 2009
Capesius Family Session
The Capesius Family stopped by to get some photos taken of their newborn baby girl, Briella Marie, and to have a few family portraits taken. I'm working on getting them into final form now so they can get their brag cards and greeting cards ASAP!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Competitive Edge - Be Nice
We had meetings with two couples this weekend and both of them told us horror stories about other photographers. One couple told us that the photographer didn't say hardly anything at their first meeting and just sat across the table watching them while they looked at the price list...how creepy! And a common story we're hearing is that photographers are dictating terms when it comes to the wedding day! The most common issue is that many photographers won't photograph a wedding if the bride and groom don't want to see each other until the ceremony. Really? We even heard a story about a photographer kicking the parents of the bride out of the first pew, proclaiming, "no you can't sit there, that's my pew." That same photographer had an assistant who wore low-rise jeans to the (very formal) wedding and had butt crack issues. She even asked a bride's maid to pull up her jeans for her...eww.
Michelle and I found these stories very troubling and have vowed never to make those mistakes with our clients. First and foremost, photography is about customer service. Believe it or not, providing good customer service isn't that hard.
Rule number one: You're hiring us, we're not hiring you. In other words, the bride and groom (and family) get to decide what their wedding day will be like, not us. We're happy to provide tips and advice for the best photography results, but we never issue demands. Also, we're friendly, easy to talk to, and we take some time to get to know you while we're talking business. We want to understand your personalities so that it shows through in your wedding pictures. We also want you to be comfortable with us so that you're relaxed and having fun in your photographs.
Rule number two: Offer products that our clients want. The most asked about product that we offer is a Master DVD with copyright release. I know this is a controversial issue in the photography world and offering such a product may cut into a studio's bottom line. However, if you're like me, my personal photo library has 16,000+ images from nearly every period of my life (I've converted a lot of old family negatives, thanks Mom). To have a big gaping hole in my digital library on my wedding day just wouldn't have worked for me. Nearly all of our packages come with a Master DVD with copyright release. All of our packages are 100% flexible. Need another hour of coverage? Add it on! Want a different size album? No problem! Did you see a product that another photographer offered? Let us know, we can probably get it for you.
Rule number three: Be professional on the wedding day (and every other time we interact with clients). We dress appropriately, we're flexible, and we realize that we are some of the very few people that will be with you for nearly every part of your wedding day. That's a pretty important thing to remember since a bossy, demanding photographer can ruin the entire day. We love weddings and have genuinely had a lot of fun at every wedding we've photographed. We're photographers because we love the job, and it shows.
I'm sure there are some things I forgot, but these three rules are very important to us.
With each couple we meet with, I'm realizing more and more that our attitude and our demeanor with our clients is our single most valuable asset, and it gives us a big competitive edge. So, if the characteristics I described above are what you're looking for in a photographer, come see us!
Michelle and I found these stories very troubling and have vowed never to make those mistakes with our clients. First and foremost, photography is about customer service. Believe it or not, providing good customer service isn't that hard.
Rule number one: You're hiring us, we're not hiring you. In other words, the bride and groom (and family) get to decide what their wedding day will be like, not us. We're happy to provide tips and advice for the best photography results, but we never issue demands. Also, we're friendly, easy to talk to, and we take some time to get to know you while we're talking business. We want to understand your personalities so that it shows through in your wedding pictures. We also want you to be comfortable with us so that you're relaxed and having fun in your photographs.
Rule number two: Offer products that our clients want. The most asked about product that we offer is a Master DVD with copyright release. I know this is a controversial issue in the photography world and offering such a product may cut into a studio's bottom line. However, if you're like me, my personal photo library has 16,000+ images from nearly every period of my life (I've converted a lot of old family negatives, thanks Mom). To have a big gaping hole in my digital library on my wedding day just wouldn't have worked for me. Nearly all of our packages come with a Master DVD with copyright release. All of our packages are 100% flexible. Need another hour of coverage? Add it on! Want a different size album? No problem! Did you see a product that another photographer offered? Let us know, we can probably get it for you.
Rule number three: Be professional on the wedding day (and every other time we interact with clients). We dress appropriately, we're flexible, and we realize that we are some of the very few people that will be with you for nearly every part of your wedding day. That's a pretty important thing to remember since a bossy, demanding photographer can ruin the entire day. We love weddings and have genuinely had a lot of fun at every wedding we've photographed. We're photographers because we love the job, and it shows.
I'm sure there are some things I forgot, but these three rules are very important to us.
With each couple we meet with, I'm realizing more and more that our attitude and our demeanor with our clients is our single most valuable asset, and it gives us a big competitive edge. So, if the characteristics I described above are what you're looking for in a photographer, come see us!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Photoshop Fun!
Well friends, we have had a busy week. Tuesday in at Kids, Inc was a blast! We will have a sneak peek at those pictures soon, but I wanted to share with you my latest creation in Photoshop. This is from Matt and Maria's engagement session a couple weeks ago.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Back to School
Hey all! Michelle here writing a quick note this morning to let you all know what we've been up to lately. We are finished with Matt and Maria's engagement pictures and they are now online!
This morning we are getting ready for pictures at Kids, Inc in Cedar Rapids. We got everything set up last night and had a great model in Dora the doll. :) Randy and I are really excited to take these school pictures. We have been scouring the internet for pose ideas and have some really great ones picked out!
Stay tuned for pictures and more news!
This morning we are getting ready for pictures at Kids, Inc in Cedar Rapids. We got everything set up last night and had a great model in Dora the doll. :) Randy and I are really excited to take these school pictures. We have been scouring the internet for pose ideas and have some really great ones picked out!
Stay tuned for pictures and more news!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Weddings Done!
Whew! Tonight we wrapped up Jenny and Troy's wedding photos and got them posted online. What a relief it is to have that out of the way. Brides, thank you for your patience, we spent a lot of time on your photos and hope that it was worth the 3-week wait.
Next up: hand-develop and do some creative edits of Matt and Maria's engagement session and get them posted next week. After that, we have a day in Cedar Rapids to do school portraits for Kids, Inc. Then we'll have some down time for a few months to focus on our advertising and pricing strategies.
Next up: hand-develop and do some creative edits of Matt and Maria's engagement session and get them posted next week. After that, we have a day in Cedar Rapids to do school portraits for Kids, Inc. Then we'll have some down time for a few months to focus on our advertising and pricing strategies.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Congratulations Matt and Maria!
Today we got lucky and the weather cooperated with us for Matt and Maria's engagement session. What a fun couple to work with! They were both really comfortable with each other and we hardly needed to give any direction for poses. We got a lot of great shots, so the hard part will be figuring out which 300 pictures to toss.
Gadget Geek Section
This was our first time out with our new "nifty fifty" Canon 50mm 1.4. This lens is very sharp and offers up a nice, dreamy look for portraits. Its one of the most popular lenses among portrait photographers for good reasons...its small, light, well-built, remarkably sharp, and with a maximum aperature of 1.4, it has the capability to throw backgrounds out of focus like few other lenses can.
Now, back to Jenny and Troy's wedding photos. We're almost done with them and want to have them online by tomorrow night.
Here's a preview from today's shoot.
Gadget Geek Section
This was our first time out with our new "nifty fifty" Canon 50mm 1.4. This lens is very sharp and offers up a nice, dreamy look for portraits. Its one of the most popular lenses among portrait photographers for good reasons...its small, light, well-built, remarkably sharp, and with a maximum aperature of 1.4, it has the capability to throw backgrounds out of focus like few other lenses can.
Now, back to Jenny and Troy's wedding photos. We're almost done with them and want to have them online by tomorrow night.
Here's a preview from today's shoot.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
One Year Anniversary
Tomorrow is our one year anniversary already! We've got reservations at Champagne restaurant tonight. We haven't been there before, but it looks really nice.
Kellie and Joe's pictures have all been post-processed. All that needs to be done with them now is some creative editing, further narrowing of the final set, upload the set to Instaproofs, select the set for the website slideshow gallery, create and upload the website slideshow gallery, assemble/burn/and print the DVD, and deliver the DVD to Kellie and Joe.
While Michelle is working on the creative editing of some of Kellie and Joe's pictures, I've started the editing process for Jenny and Troy's wedding. Here's another preview:
Kellie and Joe's pictures have all been post-processed. All that needs to be done with them now is some creative editing, further narrowing of the final set, upload the set to Instaproofs, select the set for the website slideshow gallery, create and upload the website slideshow gallery, assemble/burn/and print the DVD, and deliver the DVD to Kellie and Joe.
While Michelle is working on the creative editing of some of Kellie and Joe's pictures, I've started the editing process for Jenny and Troy's wedding. Here's another preview:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)