Working Poor Wedding Planning

With unemployment higher than ever and weddings becoming more extravagant with every celebrity under the sun looking to show off for the paparazzi, planning a wedding has become a dream many couples simply cannot afford.  Fresh out of college and struggling just to feed themselves on minimum wage, often a bride and groom can no longer fall back on parents either.  Wedding loans and DIY can go a long way in stretching a budget, but not everyone can handle the idea of an intimate gathering or elopement.

I decided recently that I am uncomfortable with how so many photographers turn down elopements or low budget events and flat ignore or insult the needs of a couple strapped for cash.  It is true that albums are expensive to order and my time is indeed valuable.  But weddings are often the one time where getting to be photographed is not faced with dread.  There is so much value already placed on the bride being beautiful, and this means those photos framed and displayed for guests will mean so much more to the couple.

Being on a budget does not mean a couple expects lower quality images.  The comments about "getting what you pay for" with photographers should not have to mean blurry or poorly white-balanced snapshots from a camera phone or point-and-shoot pocket camera.  Rather, a groom should look just as dapper in $600 photography as they would at $6000; and digital copy should be the norm, not the exception.

To fix the problem of prices, I have made a new rule for my business plan.  I will never quote any couple a package price exceeding $2000.  I begin all wedding packages at $500, hourly shooting at $75, and boudoir or engagement sessions at $125.  Digital copy is included with every booking and extra copies of CDs are $5 per copy.

As always, interested couples should contact me with their needs and I will work with them to see what best suits their budget.

Earth Day & Spring Blooms

The flowers starting to bloom in front of my door.

My "day job" has eaten up a ton of time this month.  I agreed to take on extra hours when a co-worker left unexpectedly and we needed to fill the gaps in the week.  The income certainly has not hurt, but it makes time to shoot harder to find.  With the grass growing and the snow all gone, flowers have started to appear on the little patch of green between my front door and parking space and this makes me want to shoot even more.  Spring has such wonderful light for catching the natural world. 

Taken to show the new dye and make-up purchased 
from my "other job" at LUSH: Handmade Cosmetics.

To go with the change of seasons, I changed my hair color again.  This time going darker and working with the shorter trim I have now.  My skin has the wonderful pink glow that means my fragile balance between too much sun (I'm a lovely Victorian alabaster most of the time) and not being able to resist going out into the garden has shifted to the sunny side.  I think over the next few days while I am home it will get worse.  I plan on spending much of my time outside starting the long task of preparing my garden and playing with the tiny monster boy.

All this and planning out a photo shoot for the little man's birthday.  I avoided Easter photos with him but I cannot escape that his second birthday is coming and as a photographer mommy I will have to think about what to do for this year.  Two years is a hard age to shoot as he wants to run, giggle, fidget, and generally be a crazy little boy.  His favorite object at the moment is his blue kickball, and I suspect that will appear in this year's photos as well as the "guitar" he so enjoys (my husband's old PS2 controller) and his favorite shoes ever (my gardening boots).

Check back soon for wedding shots and some great wildlife items from a trip to the rescue and rehab center for injured animals!  Tonight I leave you with a look at one o my favorite parts of spring... baby things!  These kittens are from our neighbor's most recent litter of fluffy toe nibblers.

Bedroom Eyes

I intended to post after work and the toddler's bedtime last night.  Instead I ended up watching horror movies through my eyelids (snoring too) on the couch with the toddler and my husband decided to let me sleep.  I suppose I needed it if I was out so much that he couldn't wake me up to drag me to bed when it was his bedtime. 

Alright, back to work now.  Time to discuss the photos I posted on my pause the other day as well as more thoughts on boudoir and the use of depth in shooting some poses.  We will start with one of my favorites, shown here in monochrome though the color is equally impressive.  I am going for pose so color would be distracting since the lingerie is a startlingly bright shade of unashamed PINK that we picked first for the distraction and ended up giving us great teaching shots.   Thanks so much to the lovely Brooklyn who was my model for this test shoot and did a great job.

This pose is all about eye contact and getting the right light on the hair and face.  What you want to think about in this shot style is how to capture the model's pose without distortion from too much fore-shortening.  This means showing enough of the whole body to keep everything in proper perspective, making sure it does not seem like they are just a floating head/torso.  The second major focus needs to be on getting the right amount of light, which I must say took testing, shooting, moving stands for lights, re-shooting, moving again, re-shooting, and so one... all with a very patient model hold pose through the whole process.  The final lighting was finished in post-production and only required some work to fix a smudge on the backdrop and a bit of editing to the skin.

The rest of the session was focused on legs and getting some great "shape" with lights.  I worked mostly on shooting "Parts" of the model rather than her whole figure so I could get the best grasp of how to turn or move into the right spot to accentuate a fantastic figure.  I expressed before that my love for shoes is a special one, and this let me play on that passion for shoes while shooting.

This shot was inspired with a clearly topless one I saw online and wanted to work from for future boudoir shooting.  I was thinking about trying to get the focus on the legs rather than the bust-line, and wanted to bring the focus through the "motion" of the leg lift.  I think it worked well over all.  The hint of a topless figure from the hanging bra is there to help with the story telling, though the model was actually still wearing the lingerie top.

In this last shot I was going for shadows and a vintage feeling by working on a darker coloration.  My goal here was to keep the face in semi-shadow so we could see that contrast.  I adore the expression here too... something like a request but not a blatant "follow me to the bed" either.  I'm still not completely sold on this shot's success, but I got some solid moments out of it and a chance to work with a lovely up-and-coming model that has a great sense of humor when her photographer is a total klutz.

Crisp Red Apples

Some of the lovely red apples we picked last year.

I cannot begin to explain how much it has bothered me that my eyes are being light sensitive and giving me headaches when outside in really bright daylight.  I wanted to get photos of the baby playing out in the grass and perhaps going apple picking with my husband in the next few weeks.  Last year I managed to get a sitter for him so we could pick, but this year I think seeing him grab apples from the trees would be adorable.

Apples make great natural light subjects and I was able to get a rare photo of the elusive "husband not making a stupid face" last year.  I would love to think I could do the same this year, but that remains to be seen.  Perhaps they can be convinced to sit long enough for me to take a family photo of my two boys and be able to put it up here at the house.  I want something colorful and glowing to hang on the walls.  

The elusive husband.  This one is about to flee
from our camera as they are shy creatures.

Slow going this week on the final steps with this red wedding.  I took part time job at a favorite local store to help support the ever increasing diaper costs and it has eaten into the time I normally spend on editing.  The books are ready to send to the printer though and I am happy to say the bride did her final review and approved them this morning. 

That means no more wedding related orders until the end of this month.  I will have to find time to select great fall poses and work with the bride at my next booking so we can really take advantage of her date.  Leaves will be in full color at that point and we'll be able to really make much of the colors.

You Look Smashing!

Earlier this week my son turned one.  I was agonizing over what approach to use for his cake-smash photos because I wanted to capture the entire event without going too artistic and loosing the quality of the moment for the sake of one or two images.  After having to fight my instincts as a mother, I went for a bold color choice in frosting and made an effort to really light the area at an insane level so I could ensure that every little detail was visible.

 

The boy was an amazing model yet again, really getting into the moment and giving me some wonderful expressions in his wild celebration.  The start was just a little timid, poking the frosting then looking at and licking his fingers.  For a moment I even thought he was going to go Godzilla on the poor cake and belly flop on it in some sort of mini pile-driver.  He got his feet, hands, even his bottom into the act when he sat on the cake at the very end.  

 

Thankfully it was followed by a bath since we have a full bath with tub at the studio, but I got stuck with the epic clean-up while my husband simply took bath duty.  The hardest part of the whole event was getting the little man to bed that night after the amazing sugar rush.  Thankfully he did nod off around one in the morning, but by then I was already to tired I was debating if he would ever have cake again.

Never Too Old

I am always surprised to hear clients tell me they were embarrassed to inquire about boudoir because it is "something for young women".  I am not really sure why we need to limit ourselves to having fun only when we are in our teens and twenties.  Most women wait until they are twenty-five or older to start a family or even get married.  

I myself was twenty-five when my husband proposed, and he was about to turn thirty that year.  We are by no means "old", but we did wait a longer time than many traditionalists would like women to think is normal.  I only point this out because I still have a long list of things to do in my life, and not one of them is something I have to complete while I am "young".

I am writing this today because I think beautiful women will always be beautiful when they are proud of themselves.  Success in life is something to be proud of; a good relationship, changes in habits to loose significant weight, or any other reason you can think of can be a fantastic reason to have photography of any kind.  I may do mostly boudoir, but I always suggest even a simple portrait to show off that happy glow.

So the next time you want to say "oh, I'm too old"... remember that experience can be far more sexy than innocence in the right circumstances.  And feel free to laugh at anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Uphold the Image

Today is yet another blog about editing. You can see I'm on a bit of a kick with this for the next few days. I'll have some mini posts here with more visuals to make up for the heavy things from last week. Right now I want to talk about how we identify unique things about our clients and what can be done to keep true to those features while we edit.


On Saturday I had a lovely sitting with a new model. It was our first time working together and we both had fun. She is a beautiful girl, and has a wonderful complexion with a face full of freckles to complement her red hair – that' right, “a ginger”. The lovely light tones under those cute freckles work perfectly for this lesson, so I'll warn you all right now that nasty comments about ginger kids are not tolerated on this blog.


Her eyes are a lovely light blue, so they catch the flash very well on their own already, meaning there is a chance for red-eye when using flash. In this case, I suggest a brighter setting on a fixed light source to limit blinking and reflection. I have managed to get plenty of practice with blue-eyed models because most babies have blue eyes at the beginning; and they are very prone to blinking under large flash blubs.


I love that she was willing to go very natural, nearly bare faced, for this shoot. Subjects should be proud of their unique characteristics, and freckles are something many women cover up with foundation that ends up looking splotchy or uneven under the bright and unforgiving light of a good flash. Freckles are difficult to keep natural in editing, often looking fake when a fix is applied to hide other flaws. This is where subjects should be coached by the photographer that a limited amount of editing may be the best compromise. Removing some of the larger trouble spots and leaving the integrity of the skin's natural pattern.

To emphasize this fact, I want to share both the original shot, and the finished product. This first image is exactly as it was uploaded from my camera after the shoot. I had the model stand by and go through an initial review of the images to get an idea of what she and I both liked best. We picked a few images that were not worth keeping due to blinking, blurring, and general poor composition. We also found the winners, and in general felt that this was a successful effort.


I picked this head shot as an example because I want the extent of her freckles to be most obvious. Because her make-up was still fresh and this pose allowed her hair to fall naturally, there are only three minor corrections to be made here. Some basic blemish control is used first, I avoid the healing tool in cases like this, rather getting a sample color and using the airbrushing tool on a low opacity level to control blending the areas under the eyes and on the two small marks that are most visible. Next I corrected a small flaw in the backdrop itself where a crease was visible and my perfectionist self cannot stand unwelcome seams. Finally, I brighten the eyes and teeth just a touch and sharpened the edges there while softening the rest of the face to give most attraction to the eyes. This is not a vital edit, but part of my personal style of accentuating natural beauty in place of creating a faux-finish to make a mannequin out of a model.

What I want to point out is not how exactly to do the corrections – my personal method is actually not the most popular, or the fastest. The point here is about selecting the fewest points to edit for the maximum benefit. We want to use our time well as photographers. Shooting is more fun than editing, but we all know which one can take longer. If that can be reduced by using a pattern like the one explained above, why not go for a nearly natural look that can be the best of both worlds? After all, if I can do things like this in five minutes, imagine what can be done with the 30minutes some editors can spend on a single correcting action.

Color Theory

Going to aim for a few small updates this week since I am a little scattered between having just held a birthday party for my husband, looking into renting a better studio space, and some family issues here at home. I'll be treating you to a few nice images in these updates, and be promoting another photographer with one of them.

Today I want to discuss how to work with colors. Not in terms of how to pair things in an image, but how to shoot for an emotional impact by using the colors inherent in a setting. This will be a very visually in depth process, so I will only touch on a few emotions and the best way to communicate them in color. This will be a post of strictly my own work, though the concept is not at all something I lay claim to as an original concept; many books, blogs, and other works exist based on this topic.

If you follow traditional thinking, water is an emotional element because it is so closely related to all life. We emerge from water through the process of birth, we require water to survive must faster than food, indeed we even loos what when we feel the strongest of emotions (both joy and sorrow). So it should be no surprise that water is often an essential element of using color to transmit emotion; water is naturally blue. Using blue and purple shades are an obvious progression and can make a basic shot even more commercially presentable.

This photo was a lucky catch while on a vacation with my parents and an ex-boyfriend of mine about four years ago. I point out that there was a UV filter placed on the camera for this, so it did tint the shot slightly, but only enough to prove my point. Below is the shot taken just prior; this time without using a filter and the default settings and basic white-balance. Just looking at the two quickly, it is simple to tell how there is a dramatic feel to the filtered image.

The lesson I want you to take from this is simple, editing is not always required, but can enhance an image to the perfect level to make a sale. In this case, I am discussing non-portrait images, but the same rule applies there too. If you can frame, light, and pose well, the image will simply need to be uploaded or printed. And for now, I leave you with a few more shots where a slight addition or filtering of color has an obvious effect on the outcome.

Bright Lights

This week you get a double dose of information... Lucky You!

In this lesson we will be looking at how to use alternative styles of lighting to sculpt and complement the curves of the female body. No offense to the male models out there, but this is focused on making a big show of that big belly or those lovely curves. This can be very difficult because it requires just enough illumination on the subject to make them visible with the camera without loosing the shadows and highlights into a monotone pallet. For most poses and situations, windows are ideal light sources; but, this is not always the case.

Lets admit right now that nothing compares to the sun. I know we can blow all the money we want on strobes and such, but nothing compares to the huge fiery ball in the sky. And I didn't even mention the best part... IT'S FREE! While that should be all the sales pitch anyone ever needs, that is simply not the case, so I will continue.

Windows are fabulous backdrops, they harness the glorious free solar lighting goodness, while giving us the option of making a beautifully draped set for some fantastic silhouettes. Add a strong angle or a soft pose and you can achieve perfect shots without having to put in the hours of retouching that harsh studio lights can require. A lovely lady in some killer shoes can stand in a strong pose with her back to the camera and look over her shoulder with a fierce expression. You want there to be just a hint of curve from the chest while there can be plenty of long legs if your model is comfortable. Also remember that it can be enough to allude to sensuality through great eyes, there is never a need for the model to be nude for them to be irresistible.

“A woman is closest to being naked when she is well dressed”.
-- Coco Chanel.

The other beautiful element you should consider is perfect for maternity images, a profile pose with light from the side and slightly behind. This casts a lovely eclipse around the curve of the belly. Place the hands carefully, the arm facing the camera should be at the model's side, and the other should rest lightly on the top of the belly. If she has long hair, it can be left loose so long as the face receives enough illumination to show the profile. Work with the subject to make sure she is looking down lightly but you don't want to cause the double chin that can form with women in pregnancy from the water weight they gain.

From the base with the pose above, you can even incorporate her partner either kneeling to kiss the belly, or standing behind and placing hands on the belly as well. This must be done with attention to detail so that enough light hits the subjects to illuminate the figure partially. It may help to think of this in terms of watching an eclipse or even the cresting images taken in space as shuttles returned from the “dark side of the moon”.

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”
-- E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

This is a short entry, I know. Only two alternative light styles are covered and I only described one complete pose. I do this because you should always strive think beyond what I am giving you as a starting point. Look in sports magazines and you will see some great alternate lighting styles as well. I may have over six years in a studio, but even that is just a blink of the eye when it comes to experience with all forms of lighting. Perhaps someday I will share more, but for now this is what I feel I could best explain. Enjoy.