First posting
This is for wedding professionals. DJ, Photographer, Videographer, Hair & Make-up, Florist, Venue, Justice of the peace (any one performing a sevice at the wedding). Don’t steal the thunder from the newly married couple. Let them have first posting in regards to the beautiful photos i’ve just done. I explain myself better in the blog vs. this little summary.
Imagine if it was your wedding and the photographer, dj or make-up artist got to announce to all your friends and family (that night or the day after) that you got married and share the most iconic photos (the professional ones) with everyone before you got to announce it?
One of my favorite things to do with my photos is to share them. That means with bride & groom, venue, dj, florists, hair & make up. But i’ve found that I have to provide a little context of how and when to share these photos. I’m making this post because I have had vendors take the initiative and post anywhere from a single photo to dozens of my professional photos of the bridal couple before the bride and groom have had a chance to arrive home and unpack from the wedding day.
Give the bride & groom (groom & groom, bride & bride) first posting (explaining further). That doesn’t mean you can’t post photos of the wedding day or night. This just means that you don’t tag them the first few days or so. You want to give the bridal couple a chance to announce to the world (friends, family) that something big went down (their wedding). When I make my initial posting about the wedding day i’ll usually post one or two of my favorites and tag the venue, quick little excerpt from the day and that’s about it to start. Once I see the bride and groom are posting days later or a week later thats when I allow myself to tag them on social. Remember that due to some social media privacy settings if you do tag them then all of their friends and family will see it in their newsfeed before they’ve made it public.
The night of the wedding they will expect their friends and family to post photos of where they are, tagging the lovely couple and including selfies and shots of the two at the alter. The following day they’ll still receive photos from friends and family on their social media, they’re riding high with all these posts. The two might make a post thanking everyone (sometimes vendors, I love it when this happens), this is when a formal photo is uploaded of their choosing or dozens of photos put up. The two have spent months, a year or two planning this big day and now they get to revel in all the likes, praises, congratulatory talk that one expects and accepts for just a tremendous day; don’t ruin it for them by taking away any of that thunder.
So now that the official photos are up and the bride and groom (groom & groom, bride & bride) have made it clear the they’re married, now you should tag them. I usually like to wait until after I see posts on their end dying down. I like to give them their due fifteen minutes of fame. I know that it won’t get lost amongst a sea of cell phone photos during the week of the wedding. This is a post i’ve wanted to make for awhile. It’s hard to explain to someone in person about when they should post and why. I’ll summarize it briefly below in simpler terms for ease of use.
If I’ve given you the link to the teaser photos for the wedding, it’s because I want you to have them, I want you to use them. You don’t even have to tag me in them (although I do love it when you do. You don’t even have to ask permission beyond this point).
Wedding day: Thank the bridal couple, tag your business, maybe a selfie with them or a cell phone photo
Following day: Thank the bride couple, tag your business, maybe a selfie with them or a cell phone photo. A professional photo without tagging them, tag your business, venue, other vendors
After you see the newly married couple posting the professional photos: You’re golden, post whatever you would like at this point and tag them.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this post and will take it into consideration when you make posts in the future. I only put this together because it’s really hard to explain to someone who might be in the same room as the bridal couple about how they can use my photos (I give everyone the link to the teaser photos, I want everyone to win)
This is not a post dictating what to do with my “art” (shudder). I don’t have enough time to police all of my photos and patrol Facebook for infractions. This is just me saying “let the bridal couple enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame”.
Drove 17 hours for 2.38 minutes
So when an eclipse happens you don't simply stay home, you go and meet it where it's at it's best. I drove way too long to see something way too short and it was very worth it. Did I mention the waffle house?
It was worth it.
Worcester, Massachusetts to Madisonville, Tennessee takes roughly seventeen hours of travel time give or take. Was it worth the hype or at least the many stops to Waffle House that I had envisioned?
A few years ago a friend said that we should go see the eclipse and that it was crossing the United States. I said sure, why not; it was so far in the future where any decision should always be a unwavering yes. Time went by, I forgot about the eclipse and then I started seeing all the news stories about the eclipse, hmmm.. maybe this is something I should check out.
My friend Pat called me up and asked if I still wanted to go down south. I checked my calendar to which I am married to one way or another and for whatever reason the stars had aligned to allow this venture. I called another friend Chris and invited him, perhaps against protocol but this is an eclipse and protocol is more so a grey area.
We took two cars loaded to to the brim with gear, well mostly loaded; we had to make room for gas station treats like gatorades and many other processed affections. Driving down eighty one south was fast, slow, hectic and mundane. Most cars went with the flow while others would cross perilously through cracks in the traffic pattern to what they assume is saving them around an hour of time. The best part of these fast and furious drivers was finding them only five cars away as we hopped off a highway.
Quick mention of our juvenile behavior. While we were traveling south we noticed many race car enthusiast around. We up north don't particularly focus on those types of sports and most often drive the flow of traffic as close to the speed limit as possible... give or take. We ran into a very entertaining way to pass the time during these long stretches of driveway. I'll mention a particular encounter which gave us great joy. A blue Toyota Prius had rocket fuel in it's tank and was pushing through traffic very aggressively, Chris and myself happened to be talking on the phone, albeit coordinating as most might do while caravanning. We simply created large gaps that looked enticing for those who might want to overtake our cars as well as the ability to stay together by slowing down or speeding up on marks to push our car back into a spot we needed to be. But for some reason every time our friend the blue Prius throttled up to those gaps we had created they would mysteriously disappear, when I say gap I really mean two or three car lengths or less. It was as simple as myself letting off the gas and Chris pulling up to meet me. We continued this for many many many many exits. When we finally freed the Prius from our speed limit fearing ways I allowed the driver to see me aloof drinking a little bit of my leftover Starbucks as I pretended not to look. I've also found that letting my arm hang out the side of my vehicle with my hand surfing the air alongside makes many who tailgate very happy.
Honorable mention to the Riverview Inn hotel where we stayed the night before the eclipse. It was a first floor room which was nice. The cigarette burns in the comforter was a nice tough as well as hair on the shower walls. Pulled back the bedsheets to find the same long hair that was adorned on the shower walls in the bed. When we headed out for dinner we found that the backdoor did not lock, there was a latch at the top which would allow the door to be opened several inches. We barricaded the door for a little piece of mind, the desk chair and an ironing board kept the room slightly more secure. Some of the ceiling tiles had been painted in the room along with the trim but only half finished and the room smelled like smoke. Postive note, the AC worked and the blowup mattress that we brought along worked wonderfully.
Arriving early in the AM hours to Kefauver park we found parking easily after being directed to the back of a field which didn't seem quite reflective of the moment we were about to experience. We made our way to a smaller parking lot adjacent to the main street and a few dozen steps away from the bathrooms. The park had a lake which primarily housed algae and it has been suggested.. fish. Some of the parks and rec had managed to get vendors in for this event to sell t-shirts, viewing glasses, drinks and bbq.
I put up the drone a few times to get the full view of the park as we waited around six hours for the eclipse to begin. We got to know our neighbors a bit better as we sat underneath a pop-up canopy we had purchased the day before. Early afternoon the eclipse finally began, everyone remarking, cheering and discerning stares upwards didn't push us any quicker to shoot a sliver taken out of the sun.
The eclipse happened slowly, very slowly, three hours slowly. It was hot out too, didn't mention that yet; low nineties. We had set up all of our gear now, drone was out, tripod and cameras positioned. The sun was positioned high in the sky, we laid on our backs and arched our necks while tilting our gaze through the viewfinder to focus each time on each subtle movement.
The week leading up to this event was laden with how-to youtube videos, articles and other periodicals on how to view the eclipse which I will sum up here. Don't look at the sun, just look at it through the glasses, don't bother taking photos, use a solar filter if you do take pictures, don't look at the sun, ND filters won't work and what equipment will and won't work. Here's what we did with that info... pretty much nothing. We knew about solar filters, we brought some big lenses, big tripods and plenty of snack food. When you're photographing a T-Rex or a trans-dimensional being doing a backflip then it doesn't matter much which camera or lens your using. The same goes for the eclipse, you have a big enough lens and something to put in-between there to darken it then chances are you're going to get a pretty damn good photo.
So I had never really taken photos of the sun before, never attempted or enough had the thought cross my mind. The most interesting thing I found was being able to see the sunspots across the sun. You knew you had the right exposure when you had a yellow center and orange rind protecting that. We took photos of this smaller and smaller crescent as we neared the main attraction, full totality.
The eclipse started to near totality, the shadows grew sharper, the light stranger; almost desaturating and dulling everything. These details couldn't really be captured with a simple Iphone because of the ISO compensation that is employed through Iphone magic. The light dimmed further and my car's headlights and taillights turned on, we got our signal to focus more. I started shooting by just pressing the buttons as quick as possible, sliding my thumb across the back wheel of my camera adjusting the aperture and snapping photos as I did so. Alternating with shutter speed the same way as I fired off photos. We only had two minutes and thirty eight seconds in our location to get these once in a lifetime photos. The best photos would be taken at the beginning and end of totality showing the beads and the diamond ring of the eclipse. The totality ended and each minute or two we had to slightly adjust our settings to recalibrate the exposure. Once I was back to getting the golden orange of the sun once again I relaxed on my duty of photos.
We slowly packed up, picked up, parted ways and shipped out. The rest of the story is packed highways, slow meanders down backroads and a much better hotel room. Thanks for reading my story.
I accidentally went on vacation.
I went to Hawaii for work and I accidentally went on vacation. It's a slippery slope to relaxing when you're out here. Wanted to write a little bit about my journey even though I still have a tad bit of jet lag. Feel free to leave comments.
Black Sand beach via my magical flying powers
Okay, this isn't my best writing. I just got home yesterday but wanted to take this time to get back to work and that's meetings and writing and working on my website as well as blogs. This is all fresh in my mind and I wanted to get it out. I'm a little bit jet lagged and tired and malnourished (my version of malnourished is not enough salt, chocolate and fatty foods). Anyways here's a little bit about my latest exploits.
So I recently went to Hawaii for work. It wasn't a wedding, it wasn't a model and macadamia farms didn't hire me. I was actually working for the government, the Army in fact. I was there with Shawn Pacheco shooting a military ball with nearly a thousand people in attendance. So all I knew going into this was I was going to be shooting couples, the formal photos portion as Shawn made his rounds taking video of the event and ceremonies. The event was huge, I hoped I had brought enough equipment when I arrived there. I brought some Yongnuo flash guns and some compact Manfrotto nano stands in addition to some umbrella mounts and some Neweer modifiers for the lights. I had no idea if my luggage would get lost so in preparation for a few thousand lost in gear I opted for the cheaper gear. I purchased a nice grey and white backdrop from B&H which arrived just in time. To get everything out there cost a bit as well. I actually did a little research after talking for a friend and was able to create a media pass for my gear which dropped the price of the luggage to fifty dollars instead of a hundred dollars. Anyways the logistics of planning and implementing all this equipment to land alongside me in Hawaii was a little daunting.
So i'll jump ahead a few days into my trip when I'm actually doing work which is the real reason I was out there in Honolulu. We arrived at the Warrior's brigade ball at the Honolulu Convention Center and had the pick of where we would set up. Luckily the sun wasn't out and there was plenty of overcast which allowed me to get an amazing spot. I set up my backdrop stand and lights while couples approached me with the inquiry to be first for photos. I didn't have time to even do test shots on my friend Shawn to get everything tuned in. I immediately started doing photos as soon as everything was up, a line forming to my left. Each time I looked back I would see more and more couples until I realized I couldn't see the end of the line. I was sweating and not because of the pressure of performing at these high stakes, it happened to be eighty or so out which was giving me that sweat. Each couple got their own treatment and time with me. As long as the line was I was able to say hello to the couples and pose them a little bit, a little different each time. I shot for around two hours straight before the ceremonies began which offered me some down time. Each time I would turn someone away because the ceremonies would start I would reconsider, mostly because each person that came through looked like they outranked the last. I was later explained most of the ranks by Captain David Fowler.
Towards the end of the event I was beat and we packed up and headed out. Driving back to our host's home at Ewa (Pronounced Eva if I remember correctly) I already was receiving e-mails asking about the photos. The best part of doing these photos was giving some of the couples the chance to sneak in an engagement session or maternity photos or just to show off how good they looked that night. I did have to do some minimal corrections, a few of them had obviously worked hard a few days prior and had scratches on their faces. I got to meet a lot of nice men and women at this ball. Here's a few sample photos from the event, i've also provided a link below to check out all of the photos.
The video above is Shawn Pacheo's cinematography from the ball.
So here's where the story begins now that I prefaced it with work. Work work work, that's what i'm always doing, I don't mind it. In fact it's my natural state most of the time and it's pretty normal to me. I actually feel anxious or weird if i'm not working. Part of working for yourself means that if you're not working then you're not making money which is essential to surviving. So I was pulled apart from my documents, my computer most of the time and also put in places which I was not always taking photos so I actually was removed from most of the components that usually curtail me into productivity. So here's what I did instead of work, I relaxed. I hiked, swam, snorkeled, ate, flew my drone, ran, explored, saw lava.
It was lovely not working, our hosts David & Beth provided us with daily rituals of Mai Tais and healthy food. Shawn who brought me on this "vacation" was also into the healthy food and exercise, which I swayed him from by the end of the week. We spent a lot of time visiting waterfalls, exotic locations and checking out some pretty awesome spots for food. I highly suggest Monkey Pod, awesome food and desserts as well as a very modern atmosphere. We had our own room at their housing which happened to be a two minute walk from the beach. Our beach was actually on the backside of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. One of the awesome benefits to our hosts and our housing was the inclusion of having a big dog named Girl. Girl was a pit bull that won me over. She loved treats, being lazy and was very attentive in exchange for some petting.
hiking to Manoa waterfalls
One day of our days we took a plane over to the Big Island where we visited where Captain Cook was murdered (turns out the locals who thought he was a god weren't convinced he was a god after giving the local ladies STDs). Our journey down to this location involved a two and a half mile hike down a mountain side to a small lagoon. We snorkeled there for awhile and fed many mongoose (I want to say mongeese). The waters where we swam contained lots of sea urchin within the coral and rocks which meant flippers were a necessity. The hike up the mountain was pretty tough, dry, arid weather in addition to loose gravelly trails. So David and Beth are both in the Army. Beth in the reserves and David full-time. Shawn is into MMA and has owned his own school and still trains people weekly. Myself, I like visiting places to get donuts, sandwiches or various meat dishes. The hike was tough for me but I couldn't really tap out so I had to take my time. Later that day we visited black sands beach, I can't recall the exact name of this beach. There are actually a few black sand beaches in Hawaii. These beaches have this soft black sand derived from the lava rocks being pulverized in the Hawaiian surf. The views at this beach were amazing and even more so from my drone. So currently we are at about five miles give or take for the day plus some swimming and snorkeling. We are heading south towards active lava fields. We start a five mile hike down a paved road and then a gravel road and finally onwards through a cooled lava field. Okay, the five miles actually ended before we hit the lava fields but because of a recent collapse of the cliffside and lava fields we had to trek around the active lava which was about a mile and a half. Oh yea, it's dark out too; in case I didn't mention that. We didn't know how long our walk across the lava fields would be, for all we knew it was a half hour. Each person we passed told us various distances and estimates as we conversed this sharp, treacherous path alongside a thick singular rope which stretched into the darkness. When we arrived at the final location it was raining and crowds dispersing. Our view wasn't as spectacular as previously observed by our hosts. Despite our current view we had an additional option of seeing a better view of the flow. On our trip back we stopped and set up the drone and managed to fly it within shouting distance of the red and orange stuff. We all had our iPhones out lighting our way back and I did take a nasty spill on the rocks but we made it back to the gravel road. We took this endless trip back to the car, each of us carrying out own burden of tiredness. We made it back to our hotel a few hours later and slept, only to wake up before any actual rest had occurred to fly back to Oahu. We did around eighteen miles that day and I will never ever forget it, because I'm out of shape and it's bragging rights for me ;).
This is David and Beth
So the rest of the trip we visited beaches, snorkeled, had close calls in the water between waves, water and snorkeling mishaps. My friend Shawn at one point swallowed a good deal of water a few hundred feet out and was towed in by the lifeguard. I was held down at one point around sixteen seconds in the surf of a big wave, go ahead and hold your breath for sixteen seconds now add getting rolled around while that's happening. We had an awesome time doing it all regardless of the danger. After a few days of this "vacation" I actually realized I was vacationing. I wasn't taking calls non stop and answering e-mails in a timely manner. I did however manage to book five meetings for when I returned home. Future Mike will appreciate past Mike's initiative.
We had many other days that are worth mentioning but sometimes it's nice to not share every little bit of my day. If I didn't do wedding photography or photography and didn't rely on attention then I would absolutely love being a bit more private. But honestly it's nice to share my travels with everyone too. I had an awesome vacation and it was nice to have the opportunity to shut down and enjoy the moments. I accidentally went on vacation and I liked it.
I do want to take a second to write about my experience with United airlines. I booked with them before their recent choices to overbook and literally drag a paying passenger over their plane. I was hoping that they would be over the top trying to win everyone over with service and maybe a little bit extra. It was a plain experience on this plane, cramped seats, no complimentary meal on our six hour flight from Honolulu to Denver. I only found out about paying for food as they went through the plane at that exact moment they were taking orders. There was also no display units on the back of the seats which meant all I had was my phone to watch movies after connecting to their wifi. I had enough battery to last me a movie and then I had to reserve my battery so I could call my ride when I reached my destination. I typically fly Delta because of their upgraded economy class and meals included. I won't be flying United again because of their treatment of this passenger and also it's nothing that stands out as far as service goes. I did however get a lot of suggestions of social media to try out JetBlue, so that's in the mix soon.
P.S the naked guy in the waterfall is me. Check that off my bucket list.
Business cards and why mine is the best.
So I posted the design of my new business card and everyone had great feedback on it. I wanted to write about my design choices a bit more and explain myself and not have it get lost within the thread. So here's some of my marketing choices and design choices wrapped up together. This blog has cost me two Venti Cafe Mochas from Starbucks btw.
Here's a few business cards i've put together. You can see the evolution of my design.
Brace yourself for a long winded rant about my business cards. You kinda asked for it... those were a lot of Facebook comments.
So Zazzle who I typically use for my business card had a little bit of a trimming mishap when producing my cards. They upgraded some of their behind the scenes editing software and it ended up pushing some of my text outside the cut lines. So this mishap meant they took care of me with credit and that allowed me to go back and readjust the cards. Additionally the thickness or weight of the card was so thick that during the cutting process the sheets shifted slightly. I had text very close to the edge and it showed any slight deviation. I only noticed it while dropping off a set of business cards.
I do want to preface this all with Zazzle is awesome. I've used other companies and I really have had good experiences with this company. The customer service is always top shelf. There has been times where I've made a mistake and other times where they've made a mistake. They have humans who work there and it turns out humans can make an occasional mistake, totally okay with that. I've had soo many people message with me various other companies that they use and I have to decline the help because I really do love this company and the fact that I have everything all ready and designed for print here. So with this current mishap Zazzle took care of me and just recently sent me an additional box of cards which was done unpressured and just a show of appreciation. So I ended up with double the amount of cards. I've been using Zazzle since I started my photography business and it's nice to have a steady supplier like them.
So I've put this out to my friends on Facebook, the designing of my card. I was mostly looking for feedback on my red hat that I want to include. I've spent a lot of time designing my card to stand apart from everyone else. Typically everyone does the same exact thing. Name, Phone, E-mail, logo and maybe a slogan. Think about how many business cards look exactly the same.
The design of my business card has been the same with minor adjustments over the past five years. One side is always a large image of my logo, large enough to read if it's on the ground or a table. I've chosen the chubby size cards instead of the standard for two reasons, it stands out and doesn't fit behind other cards nicely. The second reason is it's different, it's usually been a tear-proof material which is always an interesting challenge to my clients to tear it up.
So I appreciate everyones input for the cards. Some of the advice I totally understand. Use a beautiful image you've shot, use this font, why is the phone number so big. This is not a card which I've put together quickly. It's been made to stand out from the pack. A thousand cards will probably last me most of the year. Brides and grooms who typically end up with my card end up with it because they are in my office. Most people are finding me on Google, Facebook, Instagram or a random phone call. If these were being used for a wedding expo I would probably have something a bit different.
One of the biggest things with photographer is everyone happens to use a camera aperture for a logo (myself included, guilty). So I changed my logo a year or two back to something a littler bit more reflective of who and what. It now includes the words wedding which is my focus. I also have the dot come in the logo as well so now I don't have to do any additional dot come references elsewhere in the card. The main goal of my card is for it to stand apart from everyones no matter what business's card it's next to. My business name was believe it or not an AIM handle back in 1996 which was unity1818. Unity is an Operation Ivy song, not a Queen Latifah jam. It ended up as a placeholder for my website because I eventually needed one. Unity happens to work as a name for a business name but unity photography is actually taken by another photographer named Ken who I've actually met in real life. Anyways the reason I mention this is logos are hard and also very much essential to pull together a website, business card and any branding you may want to do. I didn't get to do anything cute like Two cranes photography or jumping cat photo. I based mine off a teenage Aol Instant Messenger name.
The giant phone number is something that takes people a second to grasp sometimes. I've had lots of people pick it up and say what is this and then it clicks. Then I have a few different sentences fit above, in-between and below the giant phone number. So whoever has already picked up my card because they don't understand the giant numbers at first and now they're reading all these sentences i've put on my card which is done is a very small font. So they've spent anywhere from fifteen seconds to twenty seconds reading this side of my business card. I just times myself doing it from picking it up and skimming through everything.
TEXT LISTED CURRENTLY ON MY BUSINESS CARD
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook. Visit my website to find all my social media links.
Wow, this is a very impressive business card. Thank you, I agree. If you find this impressive then wait until you see my photos.
The number on this card is my phone number. Please visit my website to send me a more formal message.
Don't lose this card. Int has your future wedding photographer's contact info on it.
There is a rhyme to my reason.... is that even a saying?
So think about how long it takes for you to usually comprehend information on anyones business card. You look at a logo, an address maybe, hours possibly, phone and e-mail. I've already gotten almost twenty seconds of someones time. I've told them where they can find my social media links. I've directed them to my website to send me a message. I personally don't like a random e-mail from someone with a simple sentence "HOW MUCH" "WHAT ARE YOUR PACKAGES". So I love to direct people to my website where I have a proper contact form and more importantly all the information. I've also included a little bit of my humor by saying how impressive the business card is. If you didn't get what the numbers were or skipped over the numbers in favor for a full sentence then it's explained here with the above text. I've also told them how important the card is and not to lose it, it has your future wedding photographers info on it. Okay, that last sentence is a little cocky but it's cool, I know I rock.
So if you found this card and and saw all this information you would be able to get a quick snippet of who I am, personality wise possibly. As a wedding photographer i'm the person you'll have the most contact with during a wedding day. I'm literally with a bride all day long give or take some distance. The big thing I try to convey when I meet a bride and groom is the attitude of easy going. I'm very easy going, in fact most of my meetings i'm wearing that red hat and a hoodie. More meetings happen in the winter time. I'm also friending all of my brides and grooms on Facebook at some point. Since i'm spending the entire day with someone it totally benefits me to keep them in a good, relaxed and happy mood. Some of that comes from the informality of most of my approaches. I have brides contact me at eleven at night with a simple question or on Facebook on a Sunday afternoon. I'm very accessible and I make sure the bridal couple knows this. My goal is to have it feel like a friend is shooting your wedding.
With my current design i've chosen to remove some of the text to focus more on branding myself with my favorite object, a red hat. Affectionally worn for the past six years solid or so. I'm regularly recognized everywhere for this hat. Currently it's a red winter hat from American Eagle but i've also had many other variations of this red hat. I can't really wear baseball caps when I shoot outdoors and fedoras or these winter caps have always hung around me. I've actually gotten to meet a lot of my Facebook friends in public because they spot me somewhere in Worcester, Boston, NYC. It's a very bold color and my attire doesn't really have to match the hat. What i'm doing by including the red hat with my business cards are training anyone who ends up with this card to eventually be able to spot that exact red hat. Think about it. You have this random card with a red hat, phone, name, wedding photographer and you see a random photographer with the same exact hat. Chances are you are going to come up and say hi and tell me about how you ended up with the card.
I'm going to meander a bit, follow along.
So beyond wedding photography I actually do a number of things. One of those things being web design. When I meet someone who asks for photos or video the first thing I ask is what it's being used for. They tell me they want to put it on their website or Facebook. The next question I ask is to see their website and from there I see their website is angelfire or geocities hosted (antiquated reference, totally worth googling). So from there I talk to them about web design in addition to photos. So I can put togethers someone website pretty easily with a few photos and rearranging information. Here's the other thing I do, consulting work.
What is consulting work as it applies to you? Okay, thats a question being asked to me if that didn't make sense there. What I do is interview a business owner and pull out content to add to their website. Often times while explaining things it leads to other questions which inadvenrtuly conclude with a change in their own business's infrastructure. One of the best questions you can ask someone is "What would this look like if it were easy". It's a question you can ask any business owner. It helps them identify a problem area and provide the easiest solution and then we can work on the actual route to getting there. I also will call out an weak areas in their dealings and suggestions I may have to changing routine.
So I deal with many different businesses and these owners all happen to be around Worcester and Boston and every once and awhile I get recognized in a Starbucks or while on the job shooting somewhere. I'm training everyone as well as brides, grooms to recognize and associate the red hat with Michael Hendrickson, wedding photographer.
I have time.
So hopefully everyone will understand my reasoning a little bit better now. It's not simply a harsh design choice. I've slowly evolved it from the very simple to the more complex. My goal with my cards are to stand apart from everyone and I fear being similar to everyone else will make me blend a little too much. I've spent a few minutes to design some of what everyone's asked for in a business card just to appease some.
I've made a few quick mock-ups of what some think would make a good business card. I've also reverted the size back to a standard business card size. This is not a dig on anyone. This is suggestions i've gotten on the initial thread on Facebook as well as in private messages.
Okay. So here's my final design. I did put some thought into this. If you've read this entire blog then hopefully you've fell on my side of the wall.
What a photographer's day is like.
So I thought this may be interesting to some of you out there. Being a photographer is awesome but most of it is the hustle. You have to work your butt off and throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. On top of that is communicating with anyone who you may come across on social media, phone, e-mail, text message or smoke signals. It's being proactive and taking risks at times and other times playing it safe and doing things by the book and also knowing the difference of when to do which. A typical day in most full time photographers lives means being flexible and nimble. Here's what a typical day looks like for me, give or take a few details.
Wow, you take photos for a living, that's soo cool. It must be awesome traveling and making your own schedule. Did you get to eat that after you took the photos! Wow did they pay you to fly there and take photos of that? That's an awesome camera, it must have cost a lot. You have that many lenses.
So I get a lot of the same things repeated to me time and time over. People remark at how amazing and fun it must be to do what I do. But the fact is, it is. But... taking the photos is really only ten percent of what I do. Marketing, post processing, phone calls, e-mails, spending money on things that are and aren't tangible as well as hoping clients make their way to you if you're doing everything the correct way. I'm going to run through some of the basics of what I do and dive into some of it and gloss over the other parts.
I do get to make my own schedule. I wake up whenever I want, in fact I don't even set an alarm anymore. I just happen to wake up as soon as the sun comes up and my brain automatically activates and goes back to whatever I should be working on or left off on. When I wake up it's a shower, slide on my stylish clothes and Apple Watch and off to Starbucks to have a Venti Cafe Mocha. I wear the same red hat everywhere I go so that i'm easy to find, recognize and meet. I also wear a unitymike.com t-shirt on the off chance that someone wants to talk to me about hiring me. On my way down to Starbucks i'll call my photographer friends and we bitch to each other about the business. We all run into the same problems, clients who don't want to pay, clients that we're still waiting for them to pay and the clients that say they can pay less somewhere else. This topic is rehashed every few weeks or months as time dictates. This photographer friend and I will talk sometimes several times a day. We run numbers by each other and situations to get another perspective. We also share a lot of information such as negotiation tactics and we talk a lot of gear.
Once at Starbucks I sit down and play on Facebook. I have my noise canceling headphones on which are absolutely necessary to focus on tasks. So, when I say play on Facebook I really mean sort through my business page's messages or posts and find people who have tried to contact me. Clients contact me through, text message, phone calls, Instagram, Google+, my personal Facebook page, a Facebook thread or my Facebook business page. While on Facebook I'll also post a link to my website which I really need people to visit. I'm also taking a nice selfie photo or photo of my drink. I need likes, I need people to follow me and be remembered when they or their friends get engaged. Some of my marketing strategy is to go exciting places, eat amazing food, have fun experiences and share these. Facebook's algorithm will note if someone hovers over a photo a bit or clicks on something you posted and adjust it so you show more often in their newsfeed. This means when I post things people are seeing it. I write out a blog or two to put on my website because it actually boosts me up in Google, makes my SEO a little bit better. I also schedule a post or two for my Facebook's business page. I sort through my photos on my computer and pull out a few photos and send them to my phone so that I can post on Instagram a little bit later. The Instagram photos will have to include a nice description, location and some relevant hashtags.
I send a few e-mails, responding back to anyone who has asked me anything. I'm very prompt with this. If I have an e-mail from a potential bride and I don't answer with in short few hours they will move on to the photographer who does answer. My futuristic tech that I wear around my wrist is not so much to show off a toy as it is used to get e-mail notifications and text messages. I hate staring at my phone for any length of time.
I have to swing by my office to drop off some flyers that came in. I straighten out my office which comes at a nice discount. Other people have been in my office to use my giant tv. I clean up desk, arrange everything for new clients coming in. My forms are getting a little low in stock and I have to sit down and revise and reprint a new stack. I keep adding more to my forms to help me. While at my office I also have to visit with my landlord of sorts to go over his projects and what he needs done. I help out where I can.
I have to take a drive to a clients house now because they need a family portrait. Everything is loaded into my car, lights, camera, action. I head to the clients house where I set up, pose, photograph and repeat half a dozen time with various locations on their property. We have a good time, i'm paid and now everything needs to be packed up and brought back home and deconstructed back into it's case. On my way back home i'm calling a client of mine who I help out at their office. I do everything from ordering supplies to photo and video and web design and consulting work. I check and see if they need anything or if theres anything upcoming that I need to get ready for. Nothing to do there, so no problem.
I'm having clients in my car later in the week which means that my car which is also used to transport gear from Maine to Florida is nice and clean. Also, earlier I got a good deal of dirt in my car because the clients driveway was muddy. So wiping the seats down, vacuuming, sorting the contents of my trunk space as well as topping off fluids are on my to do list either today or another.
During lunch I may eat at my dream place, Coney Island Hot Dogs or go down to The Fix. I'm going to pig out and enjoy it. I've earned it. I've been up since seven working on things. During lunch i'm browsing on Amazon looking for little things that I've been putting off ordering and finally plunge into my wallet to accommodate myself. I also take any phone calls during my lunch time throughout the week. My phone rings about a dozen times a day with clients and also telemarketers. I can't tell the difference between a safe number and unsafe number because local numbers have been bought up to get a better hit rate. The reason I mention this is I get to go to my favorite places to eat but a majority of the time my food gets cold. I don't let calls go to voicemail when possible because no one wants to wait and I also depend on clients coming in regularly. I still manage to take photos of my food which more often than not leads to my food losing it's ideal temperature.
After lunch I'm beat, worn out and ready to quit. I usually take a nice two hour nap or more. This is interrupted by the occasional phone call and I also wake up at some point and roll over and check my phone for reciprocated e-mails from clients. If I get a call from a bride or e-mail from a bride my goal is to set up a meeting asap, that means later in the day or early the next day or whenever they want. Once I'm awake I recharge again with coffee and a snack. I'm editing photos now for a gig I shot the night prior. I've spent a little part of the day making sure I have everything backed up, previews loaded and basic adjustments made across the board. I get a phone call from a print shop saying the custom frames I ordered are in, i'm still waiting to be paid for them by the client. I have to head over and pick them up and then notify my client they are in and softly nudge them to be ready to have their wallet ready. In case of any questions I have to go back to my computer and dig up the original invoice I sent them. I have several invoices out in fact totaling enough to pay my incoming bills, rent, subscriptions, insurance.
I'm also waiting on my insurance agent to find me a more affordable insurance for my gear which I pay almost two hundred dollars a month for. I pace around my apartment, straightening things out, organizing my equipment and staring at my giant three by four foot white board. I regularly fill this board up with upcoming tasks, notes, reminders and dates. Anything that i've taken a note for has to be put into my phone and computer for redundancy, thats on my to-do list. I put on my nice Bose noise canceling headphones and pace around my apartment conquering small and mundane tasks to the bigger ones. I have a phone call to make and I spend thirty minutes circling my couch talking to a bride and narrowing down a meeting time. I have to cross check my calendar with a list of weddings to make sure I have time to meet later this week and have her wedding date free. She can meet today in fact which is wonderful. This was a good phone call. About seven or eight times a year I get a phone call from a bride who loves my photos and she's very excited to meet with me and then tells me her wedding date. I cross check her wedding date and i'm already booked. I have a couple go-to photographers which I send brides that I cannot take. I'm careful who I send brides to because it will fall back on me if anything goes wrong. I send most of my brides to a photographer friend out in Boston.
I head to my office for the second time today, I'm early. I turn on my tv, my apple tv, bluetooth speaker, set Spotify to modern wedding playlist, set up my Macbook to connect with the TV and get the form out and write out all the information I have at the moment. She should be here any minute, okay ten minutes ago, thirty minutes ago, text, phone call, nothing. I get a text message letting me know she'll be late. I've now been here for an hour and it's dark out by now. She arrives, we hit it off and I go through my entire pitch, I feel good about it. I head home and after dinner I sit and write up a contract and send a follow up e-mail regarding our meeting and everything we talked about. I don't know if she's going to go with me or not. I don't typically do follow up messages because it can easily put someone in that awkward position of saying they're going with someone else but thanks for... you get the idea.
I'm now uploading photos from the gig I shot the day prior. There's a lot of photos going up so It throttles by data which means Netflix and Hulu won't work on my TV. So shower and head back to my TV to be reminded of this. I end up sitting at my computer browsing through Facebook's newsfeed and get lost in Instant Karma videos on Youtube. I'm also kicking myself to be productive still at eleven at night. I'm making a circuit between my workstation where my Macbook and main computer are to my white board looking for more tasks to finish. I write a few more things on my board that need to get finished. There's a lot of things that just require sitting and writing or following up with people about projects. The rest of my time is spent sitting on my couch with my cats swiping through Bumble to meet someone. It's hard to meet someone when you're schedule is composed of the entire day and night. Basically this app leads into a huge time suck of non productivity which re-guilts me into a productive whirlwind.
Sleep either can be wonderful because i've accomplished so much or terrible because I still have so much to accomplish. I've disallowed any news on Trump before bed because that makes my sleep even worse. The best part of my day though is having my cats follow me onto my bed and lay next to me. They have no idea what I've done today or the day prior no matter how many times i've tried to explain it to them. That's a very calming thing, two little cats who's day tomorrow is packed with sleeping and eating. Maybe i'm in the wrong profession.
So this is exactly how any day goes for the most part. The details may change, some days are less and some days are more. The tasks are different but each day I get thrown a puzzle and have to put it together. If I ever clear my white board of things that I should be doing that I feel uneasy and anxious because there is something I can be doing and I have to figure that out asap. There is no rest. But the best part of any of this is whenever I want I can take the day off. I can shut down and do nothing. But most every single day goes from seven in the morning to past midnight. It means I can take a vacation wherever I want on a moments notice but I also better keep a watch on social media and e-mail during that.
A thousand images!
What's an apprioate amount of wedding photos to receive? I talk about the upside and downside of what the client receives when the wedding is over. All wedding photographers and future brides and grooms should read this.
So this just popped into my head, this idea of a thousand images or more for wedding photos. This is something I support, I've always support this from day one. I am writing this for brides, grooms and fellow photographers.
There will always be criticism about the amount of wedding photos you share with clients or on the other end of the spectrum receive from a photographer because more often than not you wouldn't mind a few dozen or hundred more to look at or a bunch more to share.
So originally I would give upwards of fifteen hundred images because I felt like I was holding images captive. If I had fifteen hundred images but only gave them five hundred, why? I prided myself in giving this extra value to my brides, grooms, clients, friends and family. Everyone was very happy after all at all the extra photos.
So the images that are completely cut from a wedding that are not used are the following, peoples backs, unflattering faces (not to be confused with a funny face or two which the bridal couple will enjoy), bad micro-expression, unflattering light, blurry photo, obscene, unflattering photo of bridal couple, duplicates of same pose unless there was a significant change in facial expression or posture possibly, bad hand placement during group photos. This is only a small multitude of examples of reasons.
The remainder of the photos are variations of moments, different angles, views and composition. These are the usable photos, the ones that can be saved, shared and looked back on. Some of the photos are a series of an event happening and not just the pinnacle of the moment.
So i'm going to start with the downside of sharing this amount of photos. We as wedding photographers typically take more photos than we need. We do this because we don't know who's going to blink or if someone will suddenly have a horrible twitch in their face or move their hand to look like a t-rex's arm. Lots of photos, lots of options, lower risk of fucking up, better chance of getting something damn near close to magical. With all these photos you have to go through and perform triage, saying yes or no to which photos live and which ones die; a very important responsibility. More photos to look through can mean longer wait times for clients and also longer processing time for photographers.
Now when you give someone fifteen hundred photos that means they have lots of options, maybe too many options. The first dance photos maybe two dozen instead of a select six. When you have two dozen photos verses six that means that the most outstanding, perfect photo will take a bit longer to catch your eye or stand out. It also creates the perception that you quickly edited the photos and are giving them everything without selecting the bad ones to get rid of. You are also putting your photos up against your friends photos or other bride's photos where they have gotten the top fifteen percent of the wedding photos that were taken that day.
Let's use a box of donuts as comparison. I'm going to present you with a dozen donuts, some are chocolate frosted, a few chocolate frosted with sprinkles and maybe a chocolate glazed as well as the jelly, a french (You actually only capitalize french if it is a product of said country) cruller, and an additional complement of donuts. Now lets take that nice looking dozen and put it up against six good looking donuts, jelly, chocolate frosted, french cruller, blueberry, glazed, old fashioned. So you have a perfect assortment but maybe not a bunch of variations on donuts.
So here's the upside of sharing as many photos as is reasonable. The most important reason first, you don't know who is important to the bride or groom. We don't know if they've seen their uncle or aunt in the past twenty years. We don't know if they don't get along with their parents and have reconciled for the sake of family and wedding. We don't know if their parents are divorced and this si the first time they've been in a room together in ten years. Their parents may live on the other side of the country, their sister may be in the army and home for the first time in two years.
So when you make the choice to not include a photo of Uncle John giving a hug or crying at the wedding then you forsaking a once in a lifetime moment. You are the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to the selection of photos given. Why not lessen the risk of incorporating beautiful moments that you might not realize are happening right in front of your lens.
I once had a wedding where I was going through the routine of getting all the moments, all the guests and performing top notch wedding photography. I spent around a month editing the photos and ordering the flash drive and finally presenting the photos. I found out that the bride's aunt had died shortly after from cancer and she was only in maybe three or four photos. She asked if I had more. Apparently the aunt had raised her since she was a preteen, she had meant more to get than her own mother in some sense. I had no idea and this killed me that I couldn't do more for this bride. I'm only sharing this because I want to really impress upon you that we don't know who is special to the bride or groom and we have no idea the great history in everyone's relationships. The wedding guests are chosen very carefully and they're there to witness a huge landmark in a person's life.
So when you give variation, option, choices you are allowing them to choose the best version of themselves in photos. You are giving permission for them to remember moments that they will most likely have missed on their wedding day. It's a little bit extra work to edit a few extra hundred photos, but you get better and faster at it. Is it all worth it, sharing this many photos? Damn right it's worth it and I don't regret it for one second. Those extra photos usually mean that everyone who attended that wedding can find a flattering, fun and amazing photo of themselves or someone they love. This means they share, they brag and hopefully they say who took their photo.
I always argue about this with fellow photographers, I think I always will. I started giving out these extra photos as an added value to my product but through the years i've learned that this added value isn't quantity, it's beautiful moments that I didn't know were happening.
How to be a successful photographer.
Want to be a successful photographer? The key to success is pretty simple, this is the speech I give everyone who asks me how to make money as a photographer or how to become a professional photographer.
So I just spent the past hour writing this blog out and decided that It dragged on too long. It didn't have a point or it touched on too many. I'm going to make this clear, simple and short. I have given this speech to multiple people who ask me how to get into photography. I get asked quite regularly to take people on as an assistant or to bring them to a wedding i'm shooting or show them how to make money with photography. This is what I tell them.
If I was a painter, a mason or made money doing carpentry I would pour all of my efforts into it. I would have the best brushes, watch videos on painting, try out different canvases, learn to make my own canvases. I would make sure everyone knew I was a painter, I might even have my own studio space just to paint. I have all the coolest painters clothes, aprons, gloves, hats to keep my hair out of my face. I have a cool logo that lets people know i'm a painter with my name in it and website. I would also write about my paintings, enter them into shows. I would make sure I was on all social medias and I would pay someone to scan or get copies of my paintings online to share with everyone. I would make shirts and broadcast what I do. Everyone would want to come to me to have a painting done because they know i'm a painter because that's all I talk about. You could find all the books on my shelf have a common theme, painting. My instagram would feature my own paintings and a link to my website which has my work and also ways to purchase my paintings. I also would love to go to Meetup.com gatherings to meet other painters. My good friend is also a painter from Boston and we talk a few days a week on the phone and he does some things similar to me and some different things from me but we both love painting regardless. We regularly talk about how to price our work and what people will pay for it and what's fair and how to treat people who don't pay. I would also be doing some work for charity with my paintings, maybe a themed project to help support a group, cause or person. When I do charity work, that gets shared on social media and talked about and every once and awhile my name will get thrown out to a commissioned painting or a series that someone will auction on. I love to go see famous painters speak as well and I always check in to whatever place i'm at to brag about my painting related activities.
If you truly love what you do and want more of it then show the world. Focus all of your efforts on it, leap without looking, live without the money and success and know that it's coming and it will. I'm where I am right now because i've made sacrifices with my time, money and relationships. I have had multiple people over the years tell me that it won't work and that you can't make money being a photographer. When I hear this all I can think of is how sweet it will be when i'm sleeping in or in a foreign city while they are scheduled to be sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer for the foreseeable future.
I love what I do and wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't have the friends I have, the life I have without buying that first camera, without shooting that first wedding, I regularly take all of my profits and roll them back to equipment costs and take work off and go on a "vacation" where i'm just taking photos so I have interesting stuff to share on social media. I also give up time with friends and family to spend with strangers taking their photos.
In the end i'm doing something important, i'm capturing memories that someone will have forever.
Food photography
So i'm a wedding photographer but I love food. So combining that into food photography is pretty damn easy. Here's a few things i've learned while doing food photography. BTW most times i'm shooting photos of food i'm using my iPhone.
Lately i've been doing a lot of food photography. I really should say I've been going places and eating and taking lots of photos of my food. I've been supplementing my Instagram feed with new exciting places i've found to eat.
That's how I feel about my photography, my work; it doesn't feel like work. I love doing what I do, taking photos and living my life the way I want. So lately it's been taking photos of burgers, pastries or whatever else is beckoning to me. So I wanted to share a little bit more about food photography. I know it's been written about it a more glorious fashion in books, online articles or magazines but I wanted to share my little view of it.
So i'll be perfectly honest, a few months ago I really knew nothing about food photography. I knew the basics, some lighting and what not and adjusting colors after so everything looks great. I didn't realize how much went into it. Often times the location is not well lit and whoever has prepared the food doesn't know about food photography and you're given a little less than perfect presentation of the food. So when you show up and get the food to work with you either get something thats pretty damn good looking or you gotta fix it up a bit.
So the first thing I want to try and get is a clean plate. I bring my own, a few different sizes and colors because sometimes whoever is giving me the food might have a god awful ugly plate that ruins the presentation. I have a huge variety of plates that I collect from Target, Wal-Mart, Savers and any other place that I go. I also am consistently on the lookout for unique glassware and bowls. So the plate is the base, it's where the beautiful food will sit and pose for me. Now the next thing is making sure the plate remains clean throughout, I would rather not do photoshop after the fact to fix it.
The next thing is the food, it's gotta look amazing. I will usually work with the chef and make sure that they understand what i'm looking for. I want a picture perfect piece of food, no flaws and all ingredients showing. Sometimes this may mean adding extra ingredients or putting less of something else on something. I typically only need one side of whatever i'm working with, so it can be built up on one side.
So the next is location. I don't want to take the photo in the back of the kitchen or on a steel table. I don't want a white background that looks like it belongs on Amazon either. So I usually scout around the area where i'm going to take the photo and select a few locations. Depending on the location I will use a flash or strobe. But the best thing that I usually use is a simple reflector.
So someone asked me which is harder, taking pictures of people or food. It's definitely food because it's all on me to get the photo right. I can't blame anyone else on the photo not coming out. The food is just sitting there, looking sexy and I have my camera and tools to get it done. When i'm shooting a person, they could have a bad hair day, a bad attitude or simply just be wearing something horrible. So again, food is hard.
So back to food photography. We left off at starting to take photos of the food. So there's a few different ways you can take photos of food. You can take really close ups of it, if it's a sandwich you might get meat hanging out of it or the crumbs falling off the bread. The next is maybe one of the more recent popular ways, straight down; birds eye view. You take a photo looking down on the plate, highlighting the shape, portions, colors and textures of the meal. The next is simply at an angle, showing where the food is and maybe a few accessories (fork, knife, drink, napkins, table cloth, ketchup bottle, other table wear). The other way I like to get photos is straight on from the side. I think this is one of the best and unique views of the food. So whichever way you decide to shoot you have to make sure everything looks picture perfect before you start. So if you have to lift up a steak and clean the plate or ask for a new vegetable because the one you have looks kinda dumpy then do it. Don't be scared to squeeze, stretch, adjust and move things around so they look perfect.
So the rest is up to you, theres no wrong way to do food photography. It's whatever you make it. My food photography is always developing. I'm always learning more tricks and techniques to get my shots looking better and better. Sometimes i'll shoot wide open, sometimes i'm shooting at f8. It's whatever you do to get the shot and then properly post processing that image. One little thing that I don't always share is I use my Iphone to do some of my food photography sometimes. I usually use a reflector and pose the plate right by a window. I'm still doing a little post processing with apps on my phone.
I do have a little bit of an advantage though, I love eating food and I also work part time at a Mexican Restaurant which is part of a restaurant group in Worcester with ten different restaurants in two different states. So i'm usually around food quite often.
You can see some of my food photography on Gerardo's Italian Bakery's website. I've provided all their photography and it's been a real learning experience.
The infamous Best Man's speech.
Sure, you're going to roast your best friend, he deserves it after all. Thats the best part of a friend's wedding is the chance to throw him under the bus, to give payback for all those years of your friendship. Here's a few pointers on how to make your best man's wedding speech shine a bit. You want to make your speech a mix of comedy, heart and entertainment.
Enjoy and feel free to comment, what was the best speech you've ever heard at a wedding?
One of my favorite things about a wedding would be the best man speech. It's always the shining moment to throw your friend under the bus in front of all his friends and family.
I didn't realize this till this past year how much fun it was to watch the best man get up and roast his best friend. Often I would get to watch the groom sink in his chair, the bride bury her face in her hands and the parents give awkward smiles. One of the big things that I never realize is how much emotion is poured into these speeches (the bridesmaids speech is equally potent). I will say that the majority of the times I am glad I have a camera in front of my face, I often get teary eyed at weddings, either the vows or the speeches.
So a few words of advice for the best man during his 3 minutes of fame.
1. Whatever you say can't be unheard. While it might be funny to throw your friend under the bus, don't screw him over royally. No mentioning of ex's, drug usage or how much porn he has on his computer. While you are trying to embarrass him a bit you don't want to make his family cringe. You also don't know if he's told his wife about the time he.... (you get the drift).
2. Keep it short. If you have a mind blowing story that takes 4 minutes, sure. If you're just talking to hear your self talk, don't. Think SNL monologue, they get out the information that needs to be heard; they usually avoid rambling. Try to keep it around 2-3 minutes and try to keep it funny or heartfelt.
3. Bonus points. A good speech at a wedding is usually because it's heartfelt, something we didn't know about the person and maybe incredibly insightful. It's also great when you get some serious laughter out of that wedding crowd. Make sure to thank the ramies for coming and also do some name dropping of people in the crowd. (Seinfeld is funny because he involves us in his stories, things and people we can relate to) If your story just involves random people that no ones met from college or his work then it might seem a bit boring to everyone.
4. Format is everything. Don't ramble, whatever you do don't ramble. So i'm going to list a simple writing format for your speech. (Excuse the words) The crap sandwich, okay very simple format this way.
You start off with the bread (something easy).
Congrats to Mr. ******. I never thought I would see the day.. ect
(keep it at a minute or so). Now you can roast him a bit. (the crap)
So not a lot of people know about this but ******* once thought that... (story begins).
(keep that 1 to 2 minutes)
But you know, I couldn't believe that ******** met someone so perfect for him.
(The last piece of bread, now you pepper the
conclusion with lots of compliments about the bride and groom).
So here's another way to do it. Start off with the roast right away, throw the friend off the bridge, destroy! But then at the end you say twice the amount of nice things or at least try to.
A big smile and long pause at the beginning of your speech while looking at the groom goes a long way. I know I have a few good friends who's secrets I'm holding onto for such a day. You want to make that groom sweat.
5. Talking points. The main things to concentrate on would be the story, your speech. If you've never heard of this, it's simple. When you see David Letterman interviewing someone and he looks at cards every once and awhile, those are his talking points. While i'm sure he would love to have a mini wikipedia page printed out for every single guest that would be a little tiresome. Talking points are a few words or a sentence to help jog your memory.
Your talking points for best and speech would look something like this.
a. Congratulations
b. How we became friends
c. Getting in trouble together
d. When you met your future bride
e. How happy he's been since meeting the wifey
f. When he got in trouble with the wifey
g. Thank the families for raising two lovely people
h. What a beautiful wedding.. so far, we still haven't seen ****** and ****** dance
i. You've never seen two people so happy
(BTW, totally getting teary eyed even writing this. I've sat through a lot of speeches the past couple years and they've all been pretty awesome.)
6. Silver linings. The silver lining would be for the groom, no matter how bad you've embarrassed him or tormented him in the past few minutes you have to remember one thing. He's going to get you back someday. He will have the same opportunity at his wedding or april foods or a random Tuesday,
Give him hell but also don't forget to make him shine, this is his day after all.
My favorite place to work.
It's hard working from home sometimes, instead I choose Starbucks. While i'm there I pay for the coffee, wifi usage and I have a time limit to work before I'm that creepy guy on his Facebook in the corner. I always tell my friends, peers, clients about my chosen work place.
So being a wedding photographer means I don't usually have a studio. Most of my work is done on site or at a church. So my office is my home, my apartment, sometimes sitting on my bed. So while being home for so much time working on things I am presented with many distractions. There is the awesome Tostino's frozen pizzas that I love to cook, hot showers to be taken, my cat that needs to be played with and cleaning to be done.
So most of the time when there is work to be done, I choose to go elsewhere. My choice is usually Barnes & Noble or Starbucks. I like these places because It feels like I have a time limit of sorts, i'm paying to be here. it works like this, I pay around $5 an hour to sit and work on my computer. That price of course comes from the delicious fancy coffee drinks that I love to consume.
In fact, right now.. I'm sitting in a Starbucks in a very comfy brown leather chair writing several blogs. So if Starbucks reads this, I am open to endorsement deals.
So you just bought a DSLR
Going to keep this one short and sweet. At various street festivals around Worcester MA I always see lots of people with DSLR's. I always, always want to go and correct every one of them in some manner or other.
So here's some basic things you should know. Don't change your lens with your body facing out into the air, treat it like an open wound while in-between lenses. Change your lenses as quickly as possible to minimize dust and debris floating in. Dust on your sensor will show up in every single picture you take.Don't put the camera around your neck, loop it under your arm. Having it under your arm and at your side allows you to protect it a bit better. No longer will your camera swing into random things everytime you turn your body. Black Rapid makes an excellent camera strap called the R Strap and it allows you to leave your camera hanging down at your side at all times.
Pop up flash, don't do it! Shooting someone with flash straight on ruins the picture, think about a deer in headlights; no ones happy. Pop up flash is okay for crime scene photos or documenting a grizzly murder but when it comes to your photos you don't want anything to do with it. Consider hopping on amazon or ebay and finding a flash gun for your DSLR. Basically a flash that slides into your hot shot on your camera and allows you to bounce the flash off a ceiling or wall or other to create something far more pleasing. There are also many adapters for your flash gun such as reflectors or Gary Fond light sphere or a mini softbox. You can also use a cord or pocket wizard to bring the flash away from the camera long enough to get the right shot.
Take off the lens cap. You can scrap the front element all you want and it won't effect your pictures, just don't mess with the rear element. If you make one little scratch in your real element, kiss good pictures goodbye. Lens caps should only be used for storage. Don't be lame.