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Doing business right

Will — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:08:00 +0000

My wife’s friend brought her computer to me to get fixed, it’s among one of the things I like to do along with photography and web design. While I was in the Air Force I picked up this talent and once I got out I did freelance computer repair. Well my wife’s friend told me she took her computer to a computer repair store a year ago and at $100 an hour, she asked them to check it out in an hour, not to go over the $100 mark and to let her know how much to fix it. They called her and said your computer is fixed and ready to be picked up, and your bill is $800. Well that is just wrong, after some conversations with the owner/manager they knocked it down to $132. She said fine and she’ll come by and pick it up. The one technician offered to bring it to her on his lunch break. He arrived and she handed him a check for $132 and he said it was going to be an additional $95 for delivery. You can imagine how upset she was.

My point of the whole story is, that is wrong. You shouldn’t do business like that. It’s not how I do business and it goes against everything I believe in. My belief is to treat others as you would like to be treated, to be fair and honest with each other. And that’s how I do business with my photography clients, I’m not going to force a sale on you, or talk you into something you don’t want or need. I’m here to provide a service that you want, and I like to provide that service to you the way you want.

On a side note, my wife’s friend is also the mother of the little boy I photographed a year ago. It was a treat to see him again.

To "See" or "not to See", that is the question….

Will — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:25:00 +0000

I recently went to a wedding expo to pick up some new fresh skills in wedding photography. There were three big photographers there teaching some thirty seven of us. And one of the things they were teaching us was to try, try, and try to get the as much of the photos done before the wedding as you can. One of the crazy problems we run into in our line of work as wedding photographers is when the couples say the “I Dos”, kiss and walk down the aisle, everything quickly descends into madness. People start to swarm all over the couple, if we start working on photos, and say for example we want to take the photo of the bride’s mom and dad with the bride, it never fails we are missing someone, Either dad’s at the car, or mom maybe in the restroom. If you have a large bridal party and its time from the bridal party shoot, we are always missing either a bridesmaid or groomsman after the ceremony.

Why not get these photos done, before the wedding? I ask this question, and 90% of the time I get the same response, “no we’d like to stick to tradition”. I ask myself what are the pros and cons to getting your photos taken before hand, and on the pro’s side we have:
* It helps ease the bride and groom before the wedding, much like a little preview of events to come or a mini rehearsal of the wedding.
* Everyone is pretty much standing around waiting anyway, it gives everyone something to do while they are waiting for the main event.
* After the ceremony you are free to move along to your reception party a lot sooner and meet up with your guests.
* It’s much easier to take shoots of the couple leaving and walking through bubbles, flower pedals, or other cool leaving ideas. It would be weird to walk through everyone throwing rose pedals at you and you get to the car, and then have to turn around to go back in the church for pictures.
* If we missed any shots before the wedding it would be easier to take those quick few we might have missed instead of taking them all right then after the wedding.
Now on the con’s side of the argument:
Tradition. That s it!
Time and time again, the only thing, one point that all brides and groom try and make with me is “we’d like to stick with tradition” now, I’m all for giving the bride and groom what they want. It’s their wedding, why shouldn’t they have everything they want. But If I’m giving them something that makes their wedding run smoother and better, why not take it?
At least weigh the pros and cons for yourself and give it some serious thought. I mean really think about it, you have a bride and groom here, what they were a few days ago? More than likely you had an in love couple, probably living together still and planning their wedding. Chances are they lived together and seen each other all the way up to the day of their ceremony. Tradition not too long ago would be for the couple not to live together, not to even really hang out like we do these days, and certainly no pre marital sex before marriage. That was way back in the day, and times do change. Why not start changing this ago old tradition? Well something to think about.
~ Nuff Said.

My Space for Hitched Photography

Will — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:11:00 +0000

“http://www.myspace.com/hitchedphotography“
Find me on MySpace and be my friend

Are all DJs created equal?

Will — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:44:00 +0000

This Saturday’s wedding came with a powerful point that I’ve been trying to hit home with couples for years. We got hired out to photograph a wedding and we had to interact with a DJ we’ve never worked with before. And I would have to say the DJ is either new to the business or totally burnt out, as he exerted NO professional courteous to anyone else in the wedding business, namely the photographer (I’m not sure about anyone else). When it came time for the cutting cake, that’s like an important part for a photographer to shoot, we plan for that, we ask the DJ or wedding planner to let us know when that’s happening. And what did this DJ do you might ask, well as the bride and groom were eating we stopped for a few minutes to eat as well, and with no extra place settings, dinner was eaten out in the hallway. The food was only partially eaten when we checked on the bride and groom to find they had cut the cake in our absence. The DJ could have waited; the DJ should have had the respect to let us know, come on. We checked with him as soon as we came in the door, so there was no misunderstanding on our part, he knew we needed to know.
Now when a Bride or Groom calls me wanting to book photography services, my second question I ask them is, “Do you need any other wedding services, a DJ, wedding Minister, Videographer, or limousine?” Because if they say “yes we need…..” right away I’m saving the new couple money by combining services, I’m also saving them any kind of complications as I’m recommending Great professionals that I’ve worked with in the past and have had wonderful experiences with. Take for example, DJ Jawz also known as Jason. Great guy and Awesome DJ, there have been times when I’m off photographing say the parents outside, or grabbing bite, or even using the restroom, and I know for a fact that Jason has got my back in that wedding. He’ll give me heads up on everything that might happen, along with keeping that dance floor hopping.
I got booked at one wedding and there was a DJ Casey, and I can tell you right now, not the best choice, shy on the microphone and not all that in tune with the crowd. Just keep all this in mind, if you are looking for multiple wedding services, please let me know so I can let you know what works well to make your day a great one.

Why a phone call can save you money.

Will — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:16:00 +0000

I often wonder why I get as many emails as I do, but not as many phone calls. With my phone number all over my websites and on my business cards, why not call instead of writing an email. Not unless someone is price shopping and sending out the exact same emails out to different photographers but still they aren’t getting the best deal I’m sure. Here’s an example of how a phone call saved me money and why I encourage people to do the same. My wife and I were going on vacation down to Busch Gardens with her mother and I called up the number on the brochure we had to ask the question, “is it cheaper to buy tickets online or at the gate?” The woman on the other line mentioned a special discount just started at McDonalds, where you get $12 off each ticket. She then asked if I was military by chance and I said yes, Air Force. Apparently military get in for free there and I didn’t know it because the last time I was there was when I was in high school. So because I called and the woman gave me that good information I brought my ID card and the coupon to the front gate. Not only did I get in for free but also my wife, and in the end we saved over $100 just from phone call.
If I were to get an email, all I might know is their date and they are looking for photography. I would then suggest my lowest package for $1000 for 3 hours of photography with various items in the package.
Now what if it were a couple getting married and the only people present to this event would be the children. Why charge them $1000 when I could offer then say a beach portrait price package of $300 and it includes prints and an hour of photography. So a phone call would have saved them $700.
Just something to think about next time you are shopping around. Even if its not with me, call around, you never know the other person on the phone might be a helpful person.

Kim and Matt Wedding

Will — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:02:00 +0000

An Air Force wedding, I’d like to get more of these weddings as they have a different feel to them then beach or regular weddings. And by different I mean, the man in uniform were laid back kind of people but while in uniform they have that military baring that keeps them standing in certain positions and holding themselves in that military way. And I know that wearing the uniform gets awfully hot, so I wanted to be quick about the photographs I take. It’s always good to catch our men and women in uniform on camera so that they may look upon these images with fond memories of their time in service.
I really liked the church Kim and Matt choose for their wedding day, the layout was fun and easy to shoot in. The pastor was a super cool guy, with a church as fancy as that one was, I thought for sure he wouldn’t let me use my flash, but he was totally ok with it. And after the ceremony the pastor and I were talking and he gave me some new ideas for photographing the bride and groom. One of the obstacles I had to overcome was the height difference between the bride and groom. Positioning them in certain ways was the key to making the photos look right. I brought along a new assistant photographer, Damon for some training. I photographed him before for his own portfolio and for his music album cover and I really liked his creative ideas he had for posing and locations. I know he will make a great photographer. I am starting to get rather busy and so I know that I’ll need to support of my crew to continue providing the best service I can to the clients and friends.

Jen and Mike Wedding

Will — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:17:00 +0000

Well over 1000 images were taken this Saturday and the transferring of over 12 gigs of data took a good bit of time on Sunday. The wedding that Justin, Justin and I attended was in Baltimore at the Sheraton Hotel. Justin, That DJ Guy, was our driver and the reason we all came together on that fine afternoon. He knew Jen from back in the school days and when she needed a DJ for her wedding she turn to her childhood friend, Justin. Justin and I have known each other for close to 2 years now and I was the one who photographed his wedding a year ago. So when Jen said she needed a photographer too, Justin suggested me. Lucky me!
For this event which was big, I brought along my photographer friend and business partner in Miniloc Marketing, Justin Michalski. You can’t image how the 2-3 hour journey from Salisbury to Baltimore flew by with the three of us in the minivan, joking, telling stories and having a good old time. Definitely was a great ride. However getting back into Salisbury at 1am was not pretty. And it took me till 2:30 am to get myself home after dropping Justin off at his place along the way to Rehoboth.
The wedding went great with only a few bumps along the way. Jen allowed me ample time to get some fun creative photos before the ceremony, and with 6 bridesmaids and 2 junior bridesmaids and a flower girl. We were supposed to take photos outside the Sheraton entrance where they had these cute waterfalls, however the construction did not allow for that. Bump 1. After the ceremony the bridal party all wanted to enjoy the cocktail hour rather than grab the after ceremony formals and that caused a ripple that was felt later when it was so hard to get the bridal party out for one quick shot after the cake cutting. So what is normally a 20 – 50 photo shooting experience turned into 3 pictures of the whole group and that was it. Bump 2. We had a 4 year old flower girl that was as darling as could be, but after the first photo was taken, she wasn’t into it much anymore. After a while she warmed up but when you need instant smiles to grab the shots in a few minutes, we don’t always have hours for the one person to come around to smiling.
The dance floor was “HOPPING” with a capital Hop, as I knew it would with Justin, That DJ Guy. His charismatic personality without a doubt a powerful force in helping people have a good time. He was joking with the crowd, played all the right songs, and even stuck around 20 plus minutes after his time had ended just to please the people. Having worked with him before I knew I was in for a good time. But Bump 4 showed up unexpectedly, there was this Drunk guy that was shouting, “worst DJ ever” and it took every ounce of self control not to walk him out the room. Justin was going by the long list of songs that Jen and Mike requested. The song in question was that “we are family” song. What can the poor guy do, but play the songs he was hired to play. Granted he mixed it up a bit, throwing in some good dancing songs he knew would please the crowd. It’s just, he nowhere near a bad DJ, the guy was Drunk and I just had to keep telling myself that.
All in all it was fun to do this wedding and with my crew with me, it was more fun than work.

Kung Fu Panda

Will — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:53:00 +0000

It’s not photo related, but hey it’s my blog and I’d like to pass on the good news. For those of you who are looking for a fun, I mean FUN movie, this was it. The last movie I saw before this one was Iron Man and it was really, Really good (saw it twice good) but with Kung Fu Panda, I was laughing so hard, and then crying the next. The action sequences were so amazing I was on the edge of my seat. The color and graphics had me going “ohhh, Ahhh” left and right. Without a doubt I’m wanting to own this movie. I was a big fan of Toy Story when it came out, and this is right up there with it. Now I know it’s a cartoon, and I’m not a kid, but it was pretty Awesome. “Will Recommended” Enjoy!

New with Pictage

Will — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:28:00 +0000

I’m happy to announce I’ll be using Pictage for all my photo hosting. After reading several reviews, talking with other photographers, watching testimonial videos, I’ve decided to go with this company over Smugmug, which is what I was using.

Some of the benefits to clients:
~ a lot of times I’ll get bogged down with projects, meeting with clients, and working on everyday life stuff, I’ll get pulled in so many directions. I wanted to provide the client with great pictures after an event, and with Pictage they have a team of people that color correct the images, help with the photo ordering, and even album design and framing. So it’s like having an assistant, without having to direct them all the time.
~ prices will remain the same on prints and albums.
~ with Pictage they’ll offer 2 for 1 deals, discounts, and other savings I might not have offered before.

Well I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I will, and if you don’t please let me know so I can correct any issues.

New Hitched Website

Will — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:57:00 +0000

I finally finished up the new Hitched Photography website. Its not totally completed yet, as i would like to add various pages detailing some of the photography services. But as of right now I like it a whole lot better then it was.
check it out.
www.hitchedphotography.com