For Photographers
This past year we were loaded with more Fusion weddings than we could have even hoped for. I’m still in the editing process when it comes to my own clients videos! Recently I spoke at the Inspire Boston conference on video editing and the whole process. It reignited a flame I lit almost a year ago. I wanted that flame to be a bonfire. I had big ideas and a grand plan. I also had no time for it. But now with the editing I’ve been doing and the speaking and workshops I’m giving, that little flame started to burn pretty good. After talking to many photographers I realized there may be a need for an editing service. I mean, how many photographers do you know have Emmy Awards for video editing?
So with the big convention coming up in Vegas I figured I had to do something. So instead of sleep, I’ve been working on simplifying and rebuilding the Click4Fusion site I started a year ago. But this time from scratch. I have one more section to finish, otherwise it’s up and running. And oddly enough, even before the current redo, the Click4Fusion website was getting a lot of hits and visitors. It was actually one of the top 3 referrers to my own website!
So here’s to making it better and growing a new seed in this wonderful world of photography.
Wow. I’m still coming down off a conference high. Usually I leave a conference or workshop feeling a little overwhelmed, unsatisfied, or just feeling overdone with it. Not this time. I left Inspire Boston feeling energized. Ready to go and ready to improve what I do. This was such an intimate conference, not just networking with area photographers, but with the speakers themselves. I was one of the speakers and I didn’t want to just speak this time. I wanted to make myself available to all the attendees even if they didn’t attend my class. This was what Inspire Boston was about. Photographers meeting and helping photographers. It was the best conference I’ve ever attended and/or spoke at. I already can’t wait for next year.
The organizers, Matt and Enna Grazier, ask me to do a little fusion video for the wrap party. I didn’t know if I could pull it off! With the help of Tony Yu and James Federico, I did. With the skills I taught in my Fusion course, I opened iMovie and put this together in 3 hours. It was ready for the 6pm wrap party.
My wife keeps saying that I have perfect tonal color ability. I can just see colors and tell if they match perfectly. I’ve even gone as far as purchasing furniture, then buying paint to match by only remembering what the colors looked like when I purchased them (no swatches, no paint samples) and ending up with a perfect match. I recently found out about an online tonal color test so I decided to see just how good I am.
Here’s the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test from x-rite that you can take online.
And my results? A perfect score. I got everyone one right. I guess my wife was right!
One again, no, this has nothing to do with the adorable little dogs known as Pugs. This is the Pictage User Group. Tonight I’m headed up to the Boston Pug for sort of a round table discussion that I will be a part of. Tonight meeting is about a couple, Beth and Alastair, who went looking for their wedding photographer. They met with (if I remember correctly) 9 photographers! They are going to tell us about the good and the bad of what they saw, and what could have been done by photographers to make their experiences better. This should be a great topic of discussion!
I got a little surprise (even though I knew it was coming) in my e-mail inbox today. Triple Scoop Music featured me in their newsletter that goes out to tens of thousands of photographers! I use Triple Scoop Music for licensing all the songs we use on our website, slideshows, hybrid videos, and more. I do not use copyrighted music that I cannot get the rights to use. That’s just stealing. Just like if a musician used one of my photos for their album cover without my permission. Triple Scoop Music is the best solution for photographers.
PS Thanks to the photographers across the US that already called about my upcoming talk in Boston! I may just try and get something online that everyone can see, or maybe I’ll come to a city near you!
The Inspire Boston website is up and running! If you haven’t registered already, January 14th is the last day to use the discount code “bpgfriend” and get $50 off the registraion to make it a killer $189. After tomorrow registration is still only $239!!! This includes 2 full days of classes and your meals!
I will be one of the speakers on Tuesday morning. My class will be how we do fusion weddings, from shooting to editing.
This retreat-format conference is hosted by the Boston Photographers Guild and Lens Pro to Go. Sessions will inspire and provide working knowledge that participants may put to immediate use in order to make their businesses more efficient and successful.
This conference is open to all who are interested in professional photography, but is most appropriate for those who are currently working as professional photographers or who are in the midst of establishing their business. We have recruited some of the most successful photographers in the northeast to lead workshop seminars, give lectures, and lead discussions.
This is an amazing opportunity for professional photographers to learn from peers, mingle with mentors, network with friends, and get inspired! The conference is limited to 150 participants, and registration includes all meals so we are all able to fully enjoy the networking opportunities.
I was honored this year to be asked to speak at the first Boston Wedding Photographers Guild Inspire conference, February 23rd and 24th. The concept of this conference is just amazing! It’s like a mini retreat with mentors talking about topics that really help you get inspired to shoot and grow the most important part of your business, you. Click the image to go to the site.
The speakers are all from the New England area: The Graziers, StudioFoto, James Federico, Anne Ruthmann, Eric Laurits, and Mark Higgins just to name a few. I will be talking about how I do Fusion (aka Hybrid) weddings from shooting to editing. Click the image below to view the PDF.
Besides the sessions? Continental breakfast, lunch, and dinner on both Tuesday and Wednesday are included in the registration fee of $239. Yeah, that’s it! But if you want to feel super special, I’ll get you in for $189! Just use this link or the discount code “bpgfriend” and $50 will be taken off your registration.
Photographers, I hope to see you there!
WOW. This really made me want to speak out. I know it’s an old article, but it seems to just keep coming around. I saw this a while ago and tried to keep my cool, but I just read it again: Wedding Photographers are apparently the most overpaid people in America! And ANYONE can do it!!!! According to MarketWatch. Anyone can be a high paying wedding photographer. Wow.
So let’s talk briefly about what it costs to be a professional wedding photographer. My second shooter here is looking to buy his own equipment. Just to start off with the basics he was up to $8,000. Imagine the cost of what I carry. Oh, and I have to insure all of it. Then there’s vehicle expenses, commissions for running credit cards, equipment repairs, I spent $1200 on postage this year (postage!!!), continuing education, computer and software upgrades, hard drives, hard drives, hard drives, it costs to make albums, paying staff… I really could go on. Oh wait! providing for my family? Putting food on our table and the discount outlet clothes on our back? I did 25 weddings this year and my expenses were double the average 2 person family income in Connecticut (according to census.gov)! Overpaid? My prices go up next year because I was underpaid this year.
For the other side of the story, the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers did an awesome survey of photographers recently. I know when I started my business, everyone I knew thought I just worked weekends. I was often asked “What do you do during the week?” Alot more!
Here’s the perception
Here’s reality: 70 hours a week through our 6-7 month season and 40 hours a week off season. There is no mention in here regarding time with family.
It’s plain and simple. If I didn’t have the expenses that I have, or spend that much time getting everything done, I’d be out of business.
I’ve been waiting to put this image together since getting back from Aruba. It is a 360 degree photo taken at the Alta Vista Chapel in Aruba. It took 14 images to make the panorama. Then a few photoshop tricks later, a little planet.
I’ve been experimenting with some new software and some new equipment lately. It’s something a little different than what I normally do, but that’s just it. I have a need to explore and experiment. So I photographed Petrina and Dan yesterday and brought along some extra equipment I don’t normally take to an engagement session.
First, I pulled off another 2 panoramas. I’ll give you an idea of how large this 200 degree image is:
My camera takes a 5,616 x 3,744 pixel image, which is 21.1 mega pixel.
This image size is 26,107 x 4,738 pixels, which is equivalent to 123.7 mega pixel. It is a perfect print quality 7 foot x 15.75 inch image.
I wanted to really test out the software on something hard to mend together. So we went on the walking bridge in Milford to take a 180 degree image.
This one came out to be 14,162 x 4,712, about 66.7 mega pixel.
It didn’t come out right the first time. But after some tweaking it nearly nailed it.
If any photographer would like to see the full size images, e-mail me and I’ll send you the link to download them.
At this point we were just waiting for the sunset, but it never really showed up. I took out my new strobe (flash) setup with some updated and now seemingly working equipment. I came up with these two shots. Dan works in this boat yard.
I wasn’t sure if this was going to work. It was done with 1 flash, placed on the ground behind them, pointed at the white hull of the boat in front of them. So not only did the flash light up behind them for the rim lighting, but bounced off the boat to light the front of them. That nearly blew me away when it worked.
I have a lot more ideas in my head that I can’t wait to interpret with my camera!
2.25.2010
LOL Richard this is great!! Very nice!
2.25.2010
Thanks Richard! A great way to cap off the conference
2.26.2010
Love it!!!!
2.26.2010
c’monnnnnn….. that was AMAZING!!!!! SUCH a great job, Richard.
Richard For President, I say.
good on ya. and thank you. times a million.
love.
tara (and ben)
hitched studios
2.26.2010
I love that you kept JAG in at the end and added Enna! Great!!!
2.26.2010
Fantastic! Love the energy! You did a wonderful job Rich and can’t wait to do it all again next year.
2.26.2010
LOVE LOVE LOVE this RE! Thank you so much for putting the video together, for being you, and for being inspiring!
2.26.2010
Love it! Just made my husband watch it again with me. You’re the bees’ knees.
Thanks again for your help!
2.26.2010
Richard,
Great job on this piece man. So many great thoughts and faces. It helps that it was a great event, but there’s no question but that you did a great thing in capturing it and putting it together in a way that tells the story.
Thanks for taking the time to do it right … Great job again.
JC
2.26.2010
Thank you so much for this RE! You and all of the other photographers are such an inspiration to me and I’m grateful to be a part of such a loving and nurturing community of professionals.
2.27.2010
Love it!!! You the man!!! Thank you so much for everything you did RE!
2.27.2010
Great video Richard, It was nice to see the good times had at Inspire Boston 2010
2.27.2010
Aw I totally wish I could have made it! Really awesome video!!
2.28.2010
Fabulous! Thanks so much Richard!!