Got a big decision ahead of you? Don’t put it off without good reason. Make the call. Most of the time, when people can’t decide on something, they stall and stall. Choices are painful, so people try to find out more information to know that the decision is going to be right. But, instead what happens is that they just put it off until they’re forced to make the decision later, and they still go with what their gut tells them to do. There’s no way to know any decision is going to be right ahead of time. Try it. Find out. But if you decide now what you can decide three months down the road, you’ll be that much … Read more...
Differentiating Yourself with Lenses and Film
Just a thought for the day. If you can buy your way to a better look, it’s not really going to do much to differentiate you. I love low aperture lenses (who doesn’t?), and I think film looks beautiful. I know it’s been all the rage lately, and I even encourage everyone to spend some time with it, but lenses and film are still just tools. If your look relies more on the properties of the equipment, think about what you can do to expand your range. Magnum photographer Alex Majoli created world class war photography that uniquely expressed his vision with a point and shoot and minimal processing. Develop a way of seeing the world that others don’t. Then … Read more...
Where the Hot Girls Are
I remember my first year in college I was at a dance for an association I belonged to. It was mostly guys. I’m hanging out with two others friends of mine, Steve and Mike. Mike says to me “Hey, where are the girls? I heard your club had all the girls!”
“Us?” I replied. “I heard Steve’s group had all the girls!”
“Not us,” said Steve. “I heard Spencer’s club had all the girls!”
So it is in business. You’ll hear about this, you’ll hear about that. Everyone has their ideas, everyone is doing their thing, and some are working, some aren’t. But here are a few truths about the wedding world. To the outside world, every photographer has some … Read more...
What I Learned From Our Broken Heating Unit
Sometimes, you forget what excellence is all about. You get so wrapped up in your day to day affairs, that keeping your head above water is about all you can think of. I’m having some problems with our heating system at the moment, so I recently had a repairman come out to give an estimate. I was blown away. He was thorough, meticulous, and professional. He not only spent several hours digging around to figure out what was going on, but he took the time to carefully explain what was going on. I was shocked by how much he really cared about getting the unit fixed properly.
Then he said something that made me want to cry. He told me … Read more...
Posing Basics: Face-to-Face
When I first started doing wedding photography six years back, posing terrified me. I would do anything to get through them as quickly as possible. And my least favorite poses were face-to-face ones. They seemed so mundane – like prom pictures. If the girl stood in front of the guy with her back on his chest, it automatically became more dramatic. If the couple walked side by side, it conveyed a sense of looseness and movement. But facing each other? What’s there to do with that?
As time passed by, I came to enjoy posing more, and I saw the value of face-to-face poses. After all, when you think about it, there are only so many ways to make a … Read more...