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One of my favorite pastimes is to look at photographs. I especially love photos from th early to mid twentieth century. Which by coincidence happens to span at least the early years of my life. While looking at some old … Continue reading
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It may sound a bit strange coming from a guy who has had a few different careers and who spent nearly a decade living and working in Europe, but I really do enjoy living a simple life. In fact, one … Continue reading
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All artists will tell you that the best light in your studio is from north facing windows. That’s exactly what we have. Although we have great windows in our studio and we love using natural light, sometimes the sun doesn’t … Continue reading
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Sometimes you need more than just a great photograph to give you the WOW image. One of the fun things we do at BlueMoon Studios is to paint some of our images. Naturally, we use software to help us paint, … Continue reading
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Our new studio in Bluff Park – Artists on the Bluff – is coming along really well. After hanging a new chandelier today, I walked around to visit with some of the other artists and spent a little while with … Continue reading
A trend I am seeing in the wedding photography business is for photographers to photograph the wedding and simply give the bride and groom all the images on CD. This is called “shoot and burn”. And I think this is one of the greatest disservices a photographer can do for a couple.
The way I see it my job is to record your very special day in a way that is creative and artistic, then give you something tangible that is destined to be a treasured heirloom for not just you, but for your children and grandchildren.
So, what about the CD? Not a bad idea, unless that’s all you get. Naturally they say that all the images are high-resolution and edited. High-resolution maybe, but edited, I doubt it. Usually this means that the images have been tweaked a little. With the quantity of images modern digital photographers make at an all-day wedding it would be a monumental task to actually edit every image to its full potential. In our studio editing means, color correcting (we shoot everything in a format called RAW, which allows for a great deal more correction that JPEG does). Editing also means that we crop, dodge and burn the image so that it looks as close to perfect as possible. We remove dark shadows under the eyes and shine from the face. It often means we have to tone down the highlights in the wedding dress so the detail the bride took so much pride in is still visible.
So what do you do with the CD? Most people have good intentions and say they can print the images themselves and create their own album. The sad fact is most people never get around to making the prints nor the album. The CD is put away in some drawer where it may either get scratched or simply become unreadable over the years.
Then what’s the better way? Every wedding deserves a high-quality album. That’s where the best of the best images are archived in an artful way to tell the story of the most important day of a couple’s life –the chronicle of the formation of their family. It’s more than a box of pictures or a scrapbook a bunch of 4×6 prints taped to a page. A wedding album is a beautiful book that goes on the coffee table for the first year or so, then on the bookshelf for the rest of your life. It will be taken out on special anniversaries and laughed at by your teenage children. And, some day, it will become a treasure to your descendants.
A wedding album should be designed by someone with an eye for art. This is also where the fine editing comes in. In our studio we do tweak all the images we show our couples but the ones chosen for the album are given special treatment – these need to be perfect. Then the album should be printed and assembled by a professional company to ensure that it will last a lifetime. Most high-end album manufactures only sell to professional photographers.
Shoot and burn? It is the cheap way out, but is that what you deserve?
Photographers are a strange lot. Most of us came to our profession because we love making beautiful pictures. As for me I love everything about photography, even the sound an SLR makes when you push the button. I love making photos, I love looking at them and even love reading about the great ones. Once in a while I meet a photographer who only seems get his camera out when it has to do with his work. I just don’t get these guys. There lots of easier ways to make lots 
more money than taking pictures for other people. If you follow my Facebook page you probably know that not only do I love to make pictures for my clients, I really enjoy producing “art” photos. Our walls at home are decorated with images I’ve produced. But, it’s often difficult to make a decision on which photos to print and hang because we has such precious little wall space.
So, recently an opportunity was dropped in my lap that I just had to jump at. A group, Artists on the Bluff, are working with the city of Hoover and the Hoover School system to turn the old Bluff Park elementary school, the oldest building in Hoover, into a place where artists can work, teach and show their art. Each artists has the use of one of the old classrooms, an area of about 600 square feet, to use as his or her studio. Plus the common areas of the old building are being turned into galleries where we will be able to show and sell our work. This is just the sort of place I’ve always wanted to be – surrounded by creative people.
Our space is coming together nicely. We have set up shop there and are already photographing clients in our studio as well as at the old log cabin the historical society has located near the rear of the building. Did I mention that the Hoover Historical Society is also in the same building?
Another thing you know if you know me is that I will talk cameras and photography all day long with whoever will join in. I love sharing what I know and teaching the basics of photography and Photoshop. At Artists on the Bluff we are encouraged to offer classes about our crafts. Since it is a former school house the building is tailor-made just for that. A few rooms are being set aside as classrooms for our use. You will be hearing from me soon about classes and if you have any suggestions about what you think I can teach, let me know.
Can you tell I’m excited about this?
Adam and I have been friends for a while. Actually, we’ve been friends with the whole family for a while. I met Adam, an awesome musician, singer, performer and song writer, when came as worship leader of our church. We immediately hit if off, kindred spirits of a sort. I need to keep mentioning that it’s not just Adam, but his family that Joy and I fell in love with. In fact, Damyan, their oldest, worked with me as a photo assistant for about year before they moved to Nashville.
Adam is great subject for photos. He is an interesting guy who looks great, but so does Amanda. And I’ve jumped at every opportunity I’ve had to make his photos. (See the blog post of him at WDJC radio) A while back we went to a field under a big old tree and made some great photos. I am so proud that his record company has chosen to use one of these photos for the banner of his website and as the cover shot for his soon-to-be-released CD.
You need to check out Adam and his music and buy this new CD. You are going to be blown away. Visit his website!
The Sterling Castle is an interesting venue located in the very small town of Shelby, Alabama. You really should visit their website and their Facebook page and read all about them. Just last week they hosted an open house and bridal show. I knew I wanted to take a camera and get some photos of the grounds, but it happened that a friend, Stephanie Roulier, of Second Elegance was there with several wedding gowns. She was accompanied by another friend whom I’ve photographed several times, Heather Haynie.
What a great opportunity for a photographer, a cool venue, beautiful dresses and a cute and willing model.
There’s a really unique limousine service here in Birmingham – Coats Classic Cars. James Coats is, well, a bit eccentric, but a really interesting guy. He own several very nice vintage cars and is in love with each of them. Each car has a name base on that car’s personality and quirks. I get to work with James or one of his associates often and enjoy just being around those guys.
Recently we were at a bridal show at The Sterling Castle and the other James at the company, James Meredith, brought Conrad out for the show. Conrad is described on the Ride Back In Time website as: “Conrad is one of only approximately 25 of his kind in the United States, and one of only two ever built in the beautiful Columbia Blue — with a cream roof and matching cream leather interior. Conrad features fully-removable side windows for an open, “airy” look, and is air-conditioned for Alabama summer days!”
Here are few rainy-day photos of Conrad at The Castle.
