We've Moved

If by some miracle you've kept up with this blog...We've moved here
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One Wedding in the Books...Site is Coming Along

We shot our first wedding last weekend and I was really happy with how everything turned out. We got some great shots and the bride was really psyched. We didn't have a lot of time to shoot prior to the wedding but we managed to squeeze off about 400 photos before the show got started. I wasn't real happy with the reception shots so I'll try and get some inspiration for next time.

I've really got to get out and shoot more and stop stressing about when the next gig will come along. We met up with some new friends last week also w/ Grayphotograph.com. They were really helpful volunteering info and giving us some stuff to think about.

We've also got the site "Up"! Well we bought a domain and threw some pictures. I've thought about just building a simple site myself, but it looks more and more like I might have someone build it for me. I've just sorta' looked at the guys who buit the Chase Jarvis site and they were surprisingly affordable. We hope to get some branding done this week so we can get some business cards printed out.


That's all for now.

Way Too Long

Alright, It's been way too long for me to post. We've been super busy shooting and haven't had a lot of time to post. About a month ago we sent out an email to basically everyone we know. It has seriously paid off. We've got tons of referals from those folks and we are now in a postion to actually charge.

Also, I bought a domain which is currently under construction. I'm just going to throw some stuff up there until I can have someone create a real site for me. I've put some maternity pictures of my sister up just to have something on the site.

I also downloaded the lightroom 2.0 beta and I'm loving it. I feel like I can get the skin tones really nice thanks to the clarity slider. Looks like I'll have to buy it... There goes a little more money.

Long Time, No Blog

I haven't posted anything in a while, but I thought I'd add something here. We've done two shoots since I last posted and picked up another job. I've also been trying to get better with my off camera lighting by playing with strobes in my bonus room.

One thing I learned is that I need to carry the shoot through umbrella more. I had several pictures with dark eyes and needed a lot of fill. A reflector may have helped also. But, that's why I'm not charging anyone...yet.

Another thing I've learned is that I need to have a good idea for the shoot before it goes down. The first thing my last two guinea pigs asked is, "What do you have in mind." It sure would be easier if they knew what they wanted. Next time I'll have a game plan for the shoot.

Kids!

The Calendar is full! Well not really, but we have several jobs lined up. The majority of these jobs are for child photography. We had one shoot this weekend and the weather barely cooperated, but we got some pretty good shots. I really have to watch my metering and fill flash. some of the pics were pretty under exposed and the eyes were pretty dark. Lesson learned...

Laurie was a big help with carrying gear and holding the light. I really wish I had popped out the umbrella but I was trying to travel light and keep things dry. The omni bounce did a servicable job. We have another shoot on Wednesday, and we're traveling to East Tennessee on Saturday to take pictures for one of our friends.

I'll post some pics when we get back.

Here is something scary I've learned since shooting with the 40D. When converting the CR2 RAW files to TIFF, in DPP, each file is 50+ MBs. So the 214 shots we took on Sunday used up 11 Gigs of hard drive space. It also took forever to convert.

It'll be nice when I get Lightroom :)

That's all for now.

A Quick Hello

So Laurie got me this book last week about word of mouth marketing. I would give it a 2.5 out 5 stars, but it did get me moving into action on getting the word out. The big thing this week was to let everyone know what I'm doing and basically offered to take pictures of anyone and everyone for free just to build a portfolio. I sent an email out to everybody in my address book which was a handful of people. As expected, got lots of offers for baby pictures and couples. What I didn't expect, was how many people replied. A lot of which were people I didn't email. I received several response from people that had been forwarded my introductory email. I'll have tons of practice over the coming months.


My little self assignment tonight is to fill two of my 2 Gig cards with the boys from Savannah Jack. They are playing tonight at the Blue Bird Cafe. It doesn't start until 9:00 pm so tomorrow morning will be rough. I'll post some picks after the show.

Pretty Similar Setup ;)

Here is a video from Chase Jarvis's website. I would love to have those Pelican and Lowe Pro cases. Too bad the rest of his stuff is Nikon.