Government Center closing for 2 years
Government center is closed now (March 22nd, 2014), this is a final trip for me before the reopening in 2 years. Visited this MBTA location a day before it's closing with Michael Stepien, Stacy Bouley, Tom Haran. We had a run in with a MBTA employee who was not versed in the MBTA photography policy, I helped him out a bit using their own website.
You'll be able to see all the construction rearing to take place, little by little over the past few weeks and months they've been getting ready. Can't wait to see the finished product.
So on March 21st I believe we visited Government Center to get some final photos. My friends Michael Stepien, Stacey Hellzaboppin, Tommy Haran came with me on this trip. We shot all around the city and one of our final stops being here. We found ceiling tiles missing, spray paint marking the walls and floors where construction was to take place.
While we were taking photos we had a MBTA worker stop us and ask us for our photo permit and why we were taking photos and what it was for. We informed him that it's a public space and that we are allowed to take photos. The MBTA worker said "not since 9/11 you can't take photos". The MBTA worker then asked for our permit again and said that he could get someone down here to help verify our information. We were also told that we were in restricted areas (we had one foot on the yellow tred area), keep in mind that around 8 people had their foot on the yellow safety tred at this time. While he got more forceful and louder and started arguing with my friends I calmly looked up the MBTA photography policy via the MBTA Website. I then proceeded to aim the phone towards him and read aloud their own policy, after that he left,
We moved to a different area and documented a bit more. Win for photography.
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.
Word of mouth marketing
How do you advertise? I stick to word of mouth and Facebook. Do I make $200k a year, no. But am I shooting weddings and loving what I do. I'll always have people brag to me about how much money they spent on their marketing campaigns, online and print. I don't worry about that right now, for now word of mouth is amazing.
So powerful is word of mouth marketing. Now, that's not to say that I wouldn't love to have billboards and TV ad's and radio marketing. It's just that it can be an unknown when investing in different types of advertising. I could spend $2000 on advertisements in a wedding magazine or put my ad on a placemat in a local restaurant. The problem is I don't know if thats the route for me yet.
Right now I spend a few hours setting up automated posts for my Facebook and some paid ads on Facebook. The total cost is usually $10 a month at most. In the past 3 weeks i've successfully booked 6 weddings! All of this has been from referrals and friends of friends seeing this in their news feeds. I've gotten this many weddings at roughly no cost to myself but my time. Most of my weddings also come from friends, family and people I meet along the way.
I do have my friends who pay to have advertisements and marketing campaigns and kudos to them. I just can't swing a few thousand dollars on a hunch or some data. For now I will stick with the tried to true of word of mouth and Facebook.
There's no better advertisement than a friend or someone you know saying to someone else "you gotta talk to my friend Mike, he's an amazing photographer"
B.T's smokehouse
One of my favorite spots for brisket and pulled pork. It's worth the 25 minute trip from Worcester down the Mass Pike for this treat. I usually visit when I can bring a new comer so that I have an excuse to pig out (no pun intended). Make sure to get an order of fries and onion rings if you go, the carrot slaw is out of this world. B.T's will put your BBQ place to shame :).
Had another wonderful meal at B.T's SmokeHouse.
If you've never been then go and google it and get directions and get there.
Here's the MENU
Took a few pictures, nothing that glamorous. I just felt like sharing a few.
Went with my friend Nick Hovan. We had a cup of Brisket, Pulled Pork, Carrot Slaw, Potato Salad, Onion rings, French Fries, Cheesy Balls of Love, Half rack of pork ribs.
Project and the lack of.
I'm looking for new projects to do, maybe a 365 project or maybe just a 30 day project. It's hard to pick something and stick with it while theres so much out there to do. This is my kick in the butt to do something, I want to show you something interesting.
So i'm trying to figure out something meaningful for me. I love photography, I love capturing weddings and families and providing a real attachment to those memories. But on the flip side I haven't done anything for myself lately in the artistic side of things. I want to put together something just for me.
So hopefully sometime soon, in the next few months i'll be posting about my new project. I'm just writing this now in the hopes that I guilt myself and pressure myself into some artistic sort of project. :)
It's very tempting to do a 365 day project but what of. I'm trying to make more time for my photography, sometimes my day job gets in the way. Recently I have been making more time though for it and getting out to shoot.
(Update from 1 month later, still no word on an awesome project haha)
What camera should I buy?
So you've decided on buying a camera and now you're trying to figure out which one.
Theres a lot of questions to ask before you decide on this big purchase. Used or new, DSLR or Mirrorless, professional or amateur, money maker or hobby. In the end you're still taking a step in the right direction. Hope my ramblings help you out a bit more.
A few times a year I get this question posed to me. What should I buy?
What are you using the camera for, do you plan to make money with it? Are you willing to learn how to shoot manual? Do you need something thats water resistant. A million other questions you can ask yourself as well.
If you plan on making money with the camera (weddings, portraits, ext) then you have to consider quality of camera and durability and a number of other factors. Should you choose Canon or Nikon, it doesn't matter. You do what to choose Canon or Nikon though because we know that they will be around in 5-10-20 years, also lots and lots of accessories. You're going to spend between $1000-$3000 on a good DSLR. Anything under that price range you start to risk image quality and sensitivity of the sensor. There is a million youtube videos out there on choosing your first DSLR, i'm not going to copy that info or post any different. I agree with most of the info out there on choosing your first dslr.
If you just want a camera to take photos of your cat, dog, kid; you are limitless in your choices. Depending on the quality you can pay anywhere from $40-$600 for a basic camera or DSLR. Nikon & Canon offer very affordable entry level DSLRs that will get you started on the right foot.
Before you buy anything though you should do lots of research. SnapSort.com offers a great comparison between different cameras and usually will tell you which is better at the beginning of the page.
Paying it forward.
Pay it forward with your photography.
So most everyone should know this phrase. The phrase is actually the title of a book which later became a movie and Kevin Spacey is bad ass.
Basically doing good for the sake of doing good and an inventible chain reaction of niceness ensues. So this also happens with photographers as well, we pay it forward. Most of us (photographers) don't just pick up a camera and learn everything by ourselves. There are teachers for every one of us. When I say teacher, it could be someone who's uploaded some of their own photos online, made a book of techniques, wrote a blog on some aspect of photography or showed someone how to fix their camera settings.
Most of my friends who are photographers have taken time out of their lives to meet up with someone, go on adventures and generally teach someone a few new things. I of course do the same. Sometime's it's helping someone build a photography website, fix photos, fix setting and general advice on different aspects of photography.
So if you're out there, if you're a photographer; pay it forward. Teaching someone about photography is opening a door to so much more in life. (Okay, you can make fun of me for that last sentence)
A little photo of myself.
Why wedding photography.
So wedding photography is the bane of photography, according to some of my photographer friends. No so, it's an olympic challenge of sorts. You have one day to get everything captured and to put on a wonderful show. You are the bride and groom's cheerleader for the day whether you know it or not. You're going to be the one telling them how awesome they look or how good the food was as well as how to cut the cake or pinning a boutonniere.
I will also mention that you get to spend the day with two people having one of the best, most memorable days they will ever have. I can't remember a wedding that i've shot where I haven't laughed or gotten a tear from someones speech. There's also the kids that you get to know and hang with at the wedding, they're the best. By the end of the wedding sometimes i'm getting hugs from them which always surprises me. Kids hug if they like you and you forget that if you're not around them normally.
There's also the whole thing of being a technical mastermind and artist for an entire day, two families depending on you for documenting everything. You're going to run into lighting issues and logistical problems but at the end of the day if you kept your head on a swivel and had lots of memory cards and batteries then you probably did pretty damn good. All my past English teachers are rolling over in their grave at that run on sentence. :)
Belly Dancer
Here's my latest. I shot with Linda who is also known on Facebook and elsewhere as Mahsati Dancer. So here's some of the best from our shoot. Minimal editing done on photos.
So my website is only so big. I can only have so many separate pages for models and things that i'm up to. So more posting on the blog section.
Here's my latest. I shot with Linda who is also known on Facebook and elsewhere as Mahsati Dancer. So here's some of the best from our shoot. Minimal editing done on photos.
Who you spend the day with.
Most of your wedding day will be spent with the photographer, make sure you both click before you sign.
So when you choose your wedding vendors you're pretty excited. You have an awesome hair and make-up team coming, the flowers look amazing and the dj's going to be amazing because he was at another wedding you went to. Now think of how long you spend with each of these people on your wedding day. Oh yea, I forgot about the wedding photographer; think about how long you'll be spending with them.
So if you have an awesome wedding photographer who is going to shadow you the entire day and get everything from start to finish then you have to think about how well they mesh with you. It doesn't matter if they take amazing work or they shoot 30 weddings a year, if you can't stand them after the first hour or so then it's too late already.
So when you pick out your wedding photographer make sure that it's someone who you'll enjoy for the day as well as their ability to take amazing photos. Typically I don't do the 3-4 hour wedding photography, I do the 8-10 hour wedding photography. It's always worth it to hang for an extra couple hours to make sure you capture everything possible. I do the same when I meet with brides and grooms, I have a short amount of time to figure out if we're both going to click (yes, a pun). If i have a bride that is grumpy before we've even taken a photo then I know what i'm in store for come her wedding day.
Cirque Du Noir (My favorites)
So Cirque Du Noir is a wonderful charity event started by Michelle May. The event raises money for the Worcester Food Bank and is also a really fun time. From food, drinks to art and great company; Cirque Du Noir has it all. Make sure to check it out next year.
Giant kid gets feedback.
One of the major perks of being a photographer is that you get better because of feedback from friends, family, clients and your facebook fans or elsewhere. In some way you're like a giant little kid asking how do you like my photo how do you like my photo. That's one of the perks of being a photographer, getting that attention regularly and getting to work with beautiful people.
The one bad thing about having friends and family check out your photos are positive feedback, they're not going to give it to you straight. Don't believe me, put an average picture up and see what responses you get.As a photographer when i post an okay picture i usually get a few likes or maybe a single comment. When i post an amazing picture it gets shared and gets dozens of likes and an average of 6 to 8 comments. When i want real commentary i will ask other photographers to give me real feedback and then when they do i ask them to give me real feedback and usually i get it.
That's how you're going to get better, but getting real feedback and adjusting your style, composition and technique. Again, stop being so terrible and get better.
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.
Man Shoots Wedding, my first podcast.
I interview Matt Johnson a local photographer and we talk about gear.
I've wanted to get into podcasting for awhile. I finally went out and purchased a USB mic and sat down and recorded a podcast. It may have taken a bit to figure out the software and the settings and that you shouldn't play with car keys in the middle of recording. So this first episode is me sitting down with Matt Johnson and talking about gear. I want to keep things nice and relaxed and interesting. Hope you enjoy.
Introduction
If I was a well versed writer or of great wit I could ensure that you would enjoy what follows, that's not going to happen. I apologize for my run on sentences and often poorly written descriptions.
I've always documented my existence through pictures and a well maintained collection of cheap leather photo albums. Now as an adult I have turned a hobby into a profession and turned many of my clients photos into cherished memories.This blog is to help me grow as a photographer and person, and in that order as well. I'm consistently learning new things about photography and every day figuring out myself a little more. I hope to share some valuable insights and thoughts with everyone and or entertain you with mishaps or fortunes.
So now that I'm reading this back to myself all I hear is a crummy foreword by a lesser known person of interest. This is the beginning of my blog, hopefully the content will outweigh grammar and vocabulary.
Behind the scenes at Button Tree Kids shoot
So my sister is a photographer as well and I helped her out with some lighting advice and posing kids at one of her shoots. Here's some behind the scenes photos.
The best job.
So as far as i'm concerned one of the best jobs out there is being a photographer. The harder you work, the more money you make. The more efficient you are, the more money you make. The more creative you are and better at social media you are, the more money you make. I get to go out there ad do creative things, a dozen times a year or so I get to spend people's happiest day of their lives with them. I will say that having tons of new electronics and toys is a big plus too.
Right now i'm sick, I have a bad cold and i'm sitting at a Starbucks. I pick Starbucks over a photo studio or my house because i'm essentially paying to be here. I have to make my time count here, I have to do the work. So i'm trying to finish up some edits on my website and engagement photos and wedding photos as well as a few posts on Facebook. I shot an Arabic wedding last weekend and then six hours later woke up and did a two hour engagement session and then worked my day job for twelve hours or so. It's all very worth it.
During my course of edits on my website I realized that I didn't have a blog on my website, well thats not completely correct. I had a blog on my website but it was all very old and I didn't want to share it. I want to keep things fresh on my website, I want new clients and old clients to see only new content on here. So here it is, unpolished and real, expect bad grammar and punctuation.