Thanks for stopping by!

I look for interesting details of the wedding market and report on them here. I have traveled the country this year speaking with many photographers about everything from workflow to marketing... Everyone I met was willing to participate in a meaningful way to the discussion of market trends. That showed me that you are all very passionate about the business of wedding photography! I will continue to report on trends here as I see them come up in the industry. Please bookmark my blog, pass it around to friends and of course comment on what you find here! Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate your time! Putting together a new blog over at http://jbrides.wordpress.com/ so will be slowly transitioning to that!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

How Come All Wedding Couples Aren't This Fun??

Today I stumbled across this on Stacy Cross's blog and thought I would share...it's pretty funny!

Monday, May 21, 2007

161 Billion Dollar Industry


Today I came across a radio interview done on NPR with Rebecca Mead about the wedding industry that was quite insightful and certainly worth the time to take a listen. From brides hiring personal trainers to new wedding traditions--monogrammed aisle runners??

Find the interview HERE.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Hijack! Second Shooters

I found this post on one of the blogs I frequent...Luke Walker's. I have had this conversation with a ton of people in the past and thought it was relevant. I enjoy having a 2nd shooter with me and I certainly enjoy 2nd shooting! I always learn something by shooting an event with a fellow photographer, sometimes it is a lighting technique and other times it may be just the way they communicate with the wedding participants. Second shooting can be beneficial to both photographers!


April 30, 2007
the value of a second shooter

I used to get asked the same question a lot when people were interested in my services.... "do you come with a second shooter?" It's now written into all my packages so people know upfront that they will without a doubt get a second shooter, but it still to this day surprises me that some photographers actually shoot weddings without another shooter. I don't want to seem like I'm putting that down, because everyone works differently, but I think a second shooter is extremely important to me. I used to explain to people that as much as they love my work, I can only be in one position at a time. I can only get one angle at a time. I'm still only one person, and because I am human I have to do things like go to the bathroom, eat eventually, talk to people at the wedding who have questions or want to see the cool cameras or who want cards, and sit down for a quick breather a couple times a day (even if it is only for 15 seconds). It's valuable to me knowing that someone has my back during these instances.

One of the responses I used to get from potential clients would be "yea I'm glad to hear that, because so and so says they don't use a shooter because no one else can see a wedding like him or her." My response would be that I agree, no one probably sees a wedding exactly like me either, but that's a very good thing :) I like having that other perspective, that different eye shooting with me. I've always liked it, and always placed importance on it, but even more so now that Alisha and I shoot together so much. We did a wedding together recently and pulled the couple outside for a couple cool night portraits. Alisha set up a few shots first, and then I set up the shot below. The shot on the left is my shot and the image on the right is Alisha's version. Both of these shots were taken at the same time. While I set it up for the final version on the left, Alisha saw something totally different and nailed a smokin image... an image that I never envisioned. When I saw it on the back of her camera later in the evening I was blown away, and it was just another one of the many times that we've shot the same couple, in the same light, in the same pose, and come out with images that look 110% different... but equally beautiful and unique.

There have been numerous occasions where I have wanted to blog about this, but once it happened the other night I finally told myself I'd do it. Another prime example of the same exact moment captured with 2 totally different views.

02:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Blog Delay

OK...OK, sorry about the blog delay!

I have been traveling a ton and recently had a great time at the Pictage PartnerCon in Chicago. Everyone there was really receptive to what we had to say and were quite interested in the demos of liveBooks editSuite.

More to come soon!

Little Poker Information:

Hello Wedding Poker Stars,

Tomorrow nights game is all set up! So under Tournament tab, then Private, the ID is 18076959 and password jsandifer. The past two weeks laguanaalbums has taken the 1st prize...about time to have a new winner(sorry Tony). I will be doing my best to take him out and look forward to seeing everyone at the table!

Here is how how the series stands:
photoinla 20pts
laguanaalbums 20pts
term76 19pts
usadrill 7pts
cmphoto 7pts
Niiice 5pts
shadowrock 5pts

Please feel free to let anyone else know about the series. I spoke to a few people this week that will be joining us!

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, email me at info@weddingpokerstars.com

See you at the table!

Shuffle up and deal...

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

David Jay Stokes us out with some Photography Textures!



Found this today and thought it would be great to share. DJ is always coming up with great tools for the photography community!

Thanks DJ! See you in Chicago...