Always an important question! What does it cost?

Each wedding is unique so a custom quote is almost always the best way to know. However, to get you started, my current base price is $3500.00.

This would typically include: Eight hours of photography by the principal photographer & assistant photographer. No limit on the number of pictures taken. Several days of editing & touch-up.  300 to 500 photographs of your day, presented initially in several on-line galleries for viewing. Also, it includes one large, stunning, art style coffee-table photo "proofbook" of your favorite shots, two smaller "parent books" with identical layout and photos.

There are lots of options however so a phone or in person conversation is the best way to sort it out. 

client comments

engagement sessions

Engagement sessions should be fun.  

Like all portraiture, I prefer to shoot them 'on location'.  That is, somewhere that's comfortable, interesting and complementary to you. This creates a 'context' for the photograph that is more  natural, which enhance the sense of who you are. 

available light

Available light?  Well sometimes it’s yes and sometimes it’s YES!  Often it’s not where you’d think it is.  Like in a bright field of flowers, which, while pretty, causes squinting and dark shadows.   I shudder every time someone fires off a flash when there is great light all around them.  For example, Courtney’s hotel room window – such sweet soft light as she was getting ready.  Or light reflecting off the door of her white limo?  It adds a wonderful glow.

I had never been to Courtney & Nick’s reception venue, even though it’s only a couple miles away…The Pearl on – yes – Pearl Street in Portsmouth, NH.   It’s a very traditional New England hall and that day it owned the setting sun.  Somebody very perceptive put the cake right where the sun would catch it, or maybe that was just luck.  And when Courtney & Nick did their ‘first dance’ it was just perfect. No flash, no telling anyone where to stand, just waiting a moment for it to happen.  Twenty minutes later, we got a repeat of the same great light in the father-daughter dance.  Available light?  No, fabulous light, you just have to see it.

about black & white

 

So why is it that so many of us adore black and white photographs. Color photographs carry much more information, they are way more popular, they are a newer technology (really, it took many years to go from black & white  to color) and digital cameras, if you didn’t know, actually shoot pure color. It gets worse . . .

new new york studio

f

full disclosure - this is my daughter . . . :8)   cool huh?

So, how many pictures will you take?

How many pictures do I take?  How many do you want?  I know that I’m not supposed to answer a question with a question but it’s a question I get asked all the time. That’s probably because it can be measured, like my fee or how many hours I stay at a wedding.  Easy questions.  Trouble is, it’s tough to answer. So before I answer it, let’s think about the question:

How about ten pictures?  Not enough?  How about 3,000?  Ever look at 3,000 pictures?  If you wanted to look at 3000 photographs at say, 30 seconds a picture, that’s about twenty five hours of viewing. 

Probably too many, huh?

understanding photography styles

(full disclosure – this was an article of mine that was originally published in WeddingPhotoUSA but it seemed to fit here, too)

Finding your photographer is like going through a visual/verbal maze. There are more labels than you can shake a stick at, as my dad used to say. One problem is that there is a belief that photographers’ styles fall crisply into neat groupings, like traditional, photojournalistic, fashion, etc. Deb Carpenito of WeddingPhotoUSA has several nice articles two of the most ubiquitous, traditional and photojournalistic. I’ve added two more recently minted ones – Fine Art and Fashion – to put together a bit of a vocabulary lesson to help you through the maze.

WeddingPhoto USA

WeddingPhotoUSA just put a link to me on their "Contributing authors" page along with some pretty darn good photographers...thinking Gary Fong among others.  Wow. Click the badge at left to go there.  It lists a couple articles, too. Thank you  WPUSA! (P.S. I've written a bunch more but you have to search for them there.)

how I work

Group Shots - Up and away.

 I don't ordinarily spend a lot of time planning group shots. Usually I use the environment and the group's personality guide me on how we'll proceed.  However, from the moment Brittney and Chris said "I do", I knew it was going to be something different.

watching for the light

Why do you like certain photographs? Subject, emotional content, memories that are evoked…lots of things I suppose. It’s interesting to think why any picture interests you.

Back story.

I shot a wedding a couple years ago, sent the pictures to the parents then waited and waited and waited.  Nothing.  No phone calls, no emails, no nothing.   I was heart broken.  These were friends of mine.  It was their youngest’s wedding and I had been sort of a second shooter (there were three other photographers there).  I thought my shots were really good. 

I couldn’t stand it, I called them.  The father, Skip, got on the phone and said:  Yes they’d gotten the pictures.  Yes they were going to call me.  But, he said, every time he picked up one of the pictures and started to call, Skip started crying.

"Thank heaven. . .

“for little girls.” 

Maurice Chevalier, the actor, singer, vaudeville performer and dangerously charming Frenchman made that song famous. (Probably before your parents were born.) Or at least it was his version from the movie “Gigi” that I’ll always remember.  He was talking about love at the time but we photographers think more in terms of perfect subjects.


Let me introduce you to Andrianna, flower girl, future supermodel and/or rocket scientist, she hasn’t decided yet.

Thank heaven . . .

A walk in the woods . . .

I was giving my son a hard time the other day about not taking enough pictures.  He’s an aspiring photographer with a degree in film (as in movies) and got a really nice camera for his graduation.  He’s gifted but new to still camera work…and busy with life as a 20-something will be. He said something about going somewhere to shoot. Remembering the saying “shoot what’s around you”, I was about to insert the quote – with substanial pith – into the conversational when I realized I hadn’t been doing that myself.

Just kiddin' . . .

So why is it that when you shoot a wedding, the kids in attendance always get more than their fair share of attention?  Well, besides the “cute” factor – an overwhelming advantage they have – there’s the “genuine” factor.  Very little artifice – all real.

Must have photographs?

Just about everyone who writes to brides has a recommendation for the “must have” pictures.  Except me . . . and Claire Lewis.   Neither she nor I believe you will cherish the “must have” pictures on your list (or anyone else’s).

I want it RAW.

Recently, I’ve heard of couples asking for their photographer’s RAW files as part of wedding packages.  If you know all about the RAW files 7 JPG files & TIFF files, etc. . . . then now is a good time to tune out.

If not, read on.

Re-Touch

I recently got a great question from a bride-to-be.  She asked what touch up, or retouching or something of that nature meant. Why didn’t I think of that?  Anyway, here’s my answer:

Touch up can be a variety of things but, for me, it is the practice of making good photos a bit better.

Again the Light

A neighbor asked me to photograph her two daughters with their new babies (two in one season!). We did with great results but the light in their back yard was so wonderful, I cajoled the whole crowd into getting in the act.

Cute? You want cute?♦

How about these . . . tiny cards with pictures on the back.  These are some business cards I made for myself, on a whim.  Each card has a different picture on the back.  In my case, hundreds of different pictures . . . but wait!  I know you don’t see what that has to do with you. Well, how about making them your ‘save the date’ card?  Or better yet, what about your “our wedding pictures will be at www.yourname.com” card?  Yep, I do that.  Before the wedding so everyone can go see them (you get to go first, of course).  Just a thought.  Want to know how to get the cards?  Just ask.  Where do you get so many pictures?  Just ask!

Feed Me!

I don’t usually take pictures of people eating at a wedding.  Most people don’t want a camera pointed at them when they are enjoying the food and the pictures are…well, often not flattering.  On the other hand, brides work hard to provide something nice.  So generally I still feel compelled to do something with food.

Seacoast Denim & Diamonds Wedding Expo

So this was my first expo.  It was fun, hectic and very informal. We were at the Stage Neck Inn in York, Me – great views, nice folks, relaxed atmosphere.  Thanks for all who stopped by our table.

Weather Report

The massive snow storms we’ve had recently got me to thinking about the challenges for wedding planning . . . particularly the weather. Outdoor  weddings are a favorite with everyone but here on the East coast the weather can change in minutes.  The question “What if?” preys heavily on many a couple’s minds.  What if rain, what if wind, what if snow . . . you fill in the blank.

There’s nothing wrong with thinking through what you might do (tents, move indoors, etc.) but on the other hand, interesting weather can make for interesting memories.  As a wedding photographer, I’m in the memories business so it’s something I pay attention to the weather.  What’s cuter than a bevy of umbrellas?  Whole families running to catch a blowing hat?  A veil flying to the moon.  Some of my couples’ favorite photographs were born from weather adversity.

A few examples but first, a caution about perfect weather. Perfect weather, sunny and bright, can be a photograph’s worst enemy.  People squint, shadows are dark and brutal, the light colors become featureless.    That’s why you’ll see photographers pulling out their flashes, moving their subjects into shade and doing all sorts of contortions to over come a brilliant, sunny day.  Who would have thought?

On the other hand, here’s adversity providing opportunity, here’s Meredith and her father:

Meredith and Ryan were married in the gorgeous Charleston, SC downtown .  The weather there is always up for an air freshening cloud burst.  Part of the enchantment of their day was watching Meredith and her dad trying to hide from Ryan and the rain.  Remember my comment about umbrellas?  Love them!