Michigan Wedding Photographer

First of all, how does it go from 80 degrees to 40 in a day, well, I guess it is Michigan, and I love it.  The fall season is probably my favorite time of the year.  This is why I live in the Midwest and along the Great Lakes.  Everyday I do outside and smell the fresh breeze and enjoy the color of the season.  I guess that you just have to have grown up here to know exactly what I mean.  I have traveled to every state in our naton and lived in California, Florida, Washington DC, Wisconsin, and Michigan…and the winner is…….Michigan.

This week was spent in my office again working on albums and getting my summer busyness in order.  I am having a tougher time doing it by myself but I set the standard really high.  I get it done no matter what it takes.  Lately it has been long days and late nights and tired eyes from scanning my computer screens.

Here are a few of the updated albums that I editted for clients this week:
https://www.paulretherford.com/leahvictor
https://www.paulretherford.com/corrierick
https://www.paulretherford.com/rebeccakristen

Danae and Matt, if you are reading, your album came in today and I will have it in the mail probably tomorrow.

So, I have been debating on whether to upgrade my cameras.  Currently I use all Canon 20D with L lenses.  I look at my images and what my clients say about my work and I wonder how a Mark III or a 5D or even a 40D would improve my work.  I know that the lens is crucial for images because a great camera does nothing with a poor lens.  When I jumped into digital four years ago, I was using the top of the line Canon film cameras.  They were nice and did what I asked them to do.  The camera I have now does everything the Canon 1n did and even more.  I can compare prints from both cameras and not be able to tell the difference.  I really believe in the nice glass in front of the camera and I know that my clients do too.  That is why all of your 20D shooters can list your cameras on Ebay and watch me buy them up, at least for the time being.  Don’t sell out to Canon’s marketing scheme if you are not going to use it.  For example, when in your life will you shoot 10 frames per second at a wedding???  If you do congratulations on the series of blinking shots that you get.  So, the bottom line is, Canon 20D two years ago equalled $1600, now maybe $800 new and even cheaper used.  Why keep throwing your money out the window when the images are not getting any better with the new camera?  Love Canon, don’t love giving them all of my money.  That was my two cents.

Lately I have been thinking about my advertising.  I used to go with the flow and advertise on The Knot like everyone and their brother.  Now I am doing my own advertising by speaking with my images.  Sure I don’t get the thousand requests for weddings anymore but I do get the couples that are interested in my work.  I enjoy doing photography and not having to spend ridicuous amounts of money advertising to do this.  Just to let everyone now about the Walmart of Wedding Advertsing, The Knot, it costs photographers $250/month to be a premier advertiser.  Multiply that by 12 and you get a lot of dough.  Is is worth it, I never thought so because most of my couples come from people who know me and my work.  If I employed a host of other photographers to work for me than it probably would make sense.  But for me, myself, and I it makes no sense.

On that subject, I have never been one to shy away from competition.  I am the first person to tell my client that I would love to work for them but I want them to be 100% interested in my work and my eye.  This day is about my wedding client and not about me.  I think that is where a lot of photographers get caught up in their ego.

What is the deal with Photography seminars and workshops these days.  I think everyone and their brother is doing workshops and seminars.  There must be good money in it.  I get like one brochure a week for a seminar or workshop.  Some of these people are doing like 40+ year.  Do they work anymore?  I guess that it is all based on demand.

My birthday is next week.  I am the big 33.  I still feel like I am 25.  My 10 year college reunion is this month.  What!? 

Meg and I are heading to ludington, michigan for a getaway.  Hopefully the colors are awesome!

I am trying to take advantage of the energy star tax deductions before they end at the end of this year.  I am going to blow in insulation in my attic this sunday.  I did my basement to energy star standards.  I am changing all of my bulbs to compact fluorescent.  I found some nice bulbs at Costco that look like bulbs and not the “snake” bulbs.  My wife hates snakes and does not like the “snake” compact fluorescent bulbs, if you know which ones I mean.  Costco has a nice four pack that is reasonable.  We picked some up last weekend at Ikea too but they were a bit more expensive.  Yes Ikea was a bit more expensive, I know you are not used to hearing that.

So, I read this article about Bella Photography in the Rangefinder Magazine.  Bella is the Walmart of Wedding Photography.  They are based in San Francisco but they have contract photographers all over the nation.  They basically pay their photographer zero to shoot a wedding and then the photographers give up their rights to the images and Bella makes the profit.  Sounds like a bum deal to me.  I really wondered why rangefinder put an article about them but I guess it is good to see both sides.  I do not agree with their methods.  Another thing that I do not agree with is having a business named after a person and then having multiple photographers under that name.  Not sure why photographers do this.  If you are one of them, I am sorry, but I do not understand of agree with people who use their name and have someone else do the work.

Hey, how about some funny shots of my dogs to round it off.  Here are the kids.   They love each other…

    

http://www.paulshotmywedding.com
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https://www.paulretherford.com