2007 Wedding Sampler

Here are some of my favorite shots from the 2007 wedding season. It was a really great season, I got to see some really beautiful weddings and I got to try a lot of really exciting new things and I think you'll agree there are some really unique portraits here. I'm looking forward to small break before the 2008 wedding seasons starts, my first wedding is a very short 3 months away.

Congratulations to Leigh and Jeremy!

I think any time a couple plans a wedding in December they're hoping for a nice layer of snow covering everything. Leigh and Jeremy got their wish, the only problem was it was snowing all day the day of their wedding! The forecasters predicted 12 to 18 inches! Luckily it turned out to be half that and I don't think many people were unable to attend their lovely ceremony due to the weather. I had a lot of fun at this wedding, the groomsmen were hilarious! Here's wishing you guys the best and a very merry first Christmas together.

Abby and Luke Engagements

We had a lot of fun two nights ago doing these studio engagement shots. We tried a lot of fun romantic poses and got some really great portraits. This was the unanimous favorite by everyone involved. It looks so natural and they both look so at ease. This turned out so great I ordered a 16x20 for display at the studio.

Natalie and Brad

We had a lot of fun in the studio last night doing what felt like engagement portraits but they've been married for over 6 months! I guess the honeymoon is still going on at the Sparks' household. We did some really fun poses one even involving elf ears! This one is my favorite, this is such a cute pose I had to post it.

Holiday Delays!

I love this time of year, but unfortunately it's a notoriously bad time for pretty much every aspect of photography. I just want to post the delays that I'm seeing so no one is blindsided.

My photo lab is doing great, but I would say if your prints aren't ordered this week, there is a chance they'll show up on Christmas, so if you're ordering cards they won't be ready to mail in time.

My album supplier was shut down last month to new orders, but they're open. Things seem to be crawling getting the order authorized and checked, I would say any orders placed now, will be in January.

Also on custom design work I'm chugging through a very steady stream of work, I've got several albums in progress as well as lots of holiday portrait creations. New requests will probably take me a week to get to and unfortunately that puts us extremely close to Christmas.

And finally we are unable to do any portraits the last two weeks of the year. We have several prior commitments and of course lots of personal holiday goings on. This shouldn't be much of an issue since all of you have holiday goings on as well, and that late there is no point even trying to get things in by Christmas.

If you have any questions about these delays please send me an email at info {at} buckportraitstudio.com and I'll provide more detailed information.

CVS Christmas Portraits

It's that time of year again, we'll be at CVS on 3rd St. all day Saturday with a Santa and Mrs. Claus for portraits. The pictures will be printed while you wait. There is usually a small package available for purchase for around $5. We'll be there from 9am until 6pm. We'll see you there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up on my price increases for 2008. My units will be going from $10 to $12 and all of my package prices will be increasing about 20%. This is due to the rent and other expenses I now have for my studio. It was great being able to offer rock bottom prices, but the quality and flexibility I can now offer over my home studio is really worth the price increase. I am implementing some volume discounts to help offset these increases, the more you spend, the more you save. The good news is there is still a month and a half until 2008 so call today and book a session to take advantage of my current low prices!

Better hurry!

The leaves all around Cass County are at the peak of color right now. Everywhere you look it's golden delicious, if you're wanting a portrait I suggest calling as soon as possible. We've got plenty of room on the calendar for family portraits so if this is something you've been thinking about doing now is the perfect time to do it.

Free Corporate Head Shots

Just a reminder that our free offer for corporate headshots for Logansport Cass County Chamber of Commerce members is still going on. We've done about thirty head shots for 5 different business, and have a couple more sessions planned for later this week. It's been a great chance to meet other local business owners and I've loved hearing other people's opinions on the photography market here in Logansport. If you need head shots for any reason and are a member of the chamber give us a call today at 722-3333 and we'll schedule you as soon as we can, the sessions have been taking about 10 minutes per person to take a couple of shots and choose the best one.

Family Portraits

We've got a great offer coming up in November for anyone interested in getting a head start on their holiday seasons. For $60 you can have a beautiful studio portrait created of your family or children. You get an 8x10 print, 4 5x7's, 16 wallets, and 25 photo holiday cards. They'll arrive in about a week and you can have them ready to send out before you even eat your Thanksgiving turkey! We'll also come to your location for an extra $15. Our studio sessions are going to go fast next month, in fact every Saturday in November is already booked, so call now to reserve your weekday evening.

Senior Portraits

I love it when a plan comes together. Alana brought her lovely purple prom dress in and I just happened to have a gorgeous purple backdrop. She also just happened to have a pair of funky Vans so 1 and 1 and 1 makes one heck of a cool portrait. Nothing like a funky princess portrait.

Congratulations to Renee and Damon!

What a beautiful wedding in Lafayette Indiana. The Duncan Community House was just stunning and every last detail of the day was just gorgeous. I hope they bride and groom were able to enjoy the single venue wedding as much as I was. I never realized how much more difficult it is to have to load up all of my stuff and get it to the reception hall after the formals. Just being able to load in once and out once made my day so much more enjoyable, I hope it had the same effect for everyone else. From what I saw on the dance floor I think we all had a good time. The kids especially were having a blast, I wish I still had that kind of energy. Congratulations Renee and Damon!

Family Portrait Month

To make sure everyone gets their Christmas portraits taken with plenty of time to spare before the holidays, Buck Portrait Studio is pleased to be offering a special holiday portrait package. It includes the sitting for either your entire family or just children (or pets!) and you'll receive an 8x10, 4 5x7's, 16 wallets, and 25 photo cards with envelopes. This offer is good for the entire month of November. If you're interested in this promotion please call now, we're probably going to be very busy next month.

2007 LAA Photography Show Winners

Here are the winners of the 2007 Photography Show held by the Logansport Art Association. For more information about this event please visit the LAA's website. Make sure you take time to head down to the gallery and see this amazing collection of photography, it will be up through the end of the month.

Best of Show, #50, "Curves and Shadows", Ann Weigand
Virgina Anne Lewis Award, #93, "Jenna", Alex Bohs
Judge's Award, #79, "Birds of a Feather", Arlene Puralewski
High Honorable Mention, #92, "Ravage of Time", Arlene Puralewski
Theme Award, #66, "Wheel in Motion", John Troxler
High Honorable Mention, #34, "Mr. Frog", Vickie Mechling

Youth Best of Show, #78, "Manitou Mountain", Alex Bohs
Youth Judge's Award, #81, Sunset Pond", Arielle Zawadsky-Weist
High Honorable Mention, #93, "Jenna", Alex Bohs

Professional:

1st, #4, "Painter’s Point", Tom Morris
2nd, #5, "Reflection", Tom Morris

Non-Professional Color:

Animals
1st, #79, "Birds of a Feather", Arlene Puralewski
2nd, #16, "Sentinel of the Wabash", David Bowles
3rd, #43, "Mom & Baby", Diane Welsh
HM, #64, "Cardinal", John Troxler

People
1st, #28, "Rain Rain Go Away", Sharon Nelson
2nd, #20, "Carrie", Ryan Buck
3rd, #11, "Handyman", Jerry St. Clair
HM, #12, "Farmer’s Market", Jerry St. Clair

Nature
1st, #49, "Fall Colors", Jack Burger
2nd, #26, "Lily of the Valley", Ruth Reese
3rd, #27, "Iced!", Ruth Reese
HM, #89, "Tranquility on Lake Bruce", Arlene Puralewski

B/W Arch-Land
1st, #50, "Curves and Shadows", Ann Weigand
2nd, #59, "The Sentinel", Ann Weigand
3rd, #66, "Wheel in Motion", John Troxler
HM, #56, "Morning at the Mill", Ann Weigand

Architecture
1st, #45, "Foggy Morning", Jack Burger
2nd, #10, "Reflection", Jerry St. Clair
3rd, #14, "Port of Seattle", David Bowles

Landscape
1st, #92, "Ravage of Time", Arlene Puralewski
2nd, #53, "Fall Palette", Rosanne J. Garver
3rd, #34, "The Barn", Vickie Mechling
HM, #63, "Arizona Sunset", Karen Nacke

Creative Digital
1st, #7, "Foggy Foster Sunrise", Donald W. Weikle, Jr
2nd, #30, "The Boy Becomes a Fireman", Lyla Larimore

Open
1st, #57, "Afternoon at Antoines", Ann Weigand
2nd, #67, "Georgetown Windmill", John Troxler
3rd, #23, "Three Peppers", Ryan Buck
HM, #100, "Broken Wheel", Hayley Bickle

Youth B/W
1st, #86, "Eruption of Light", Sean Henderson
2nd, #85, "Sands of Time", Sean Henderson
3rd, #94, "The Unlucky Shadow", Alyssa Huff
HM, #95, "Sleeping Beauty", Heather Bisher

Youth Color
1st, #81, "Sunset Pond", Arielle Zawadsky-Weist
2nd, #13, "Asian Lilies", John Schafer
3rd, #68, "Duck Duck", Shannon Burns
HM, #72, "Apple Puncture", Jacob Son

Youth Creative
1st, #78, "Manitou Mountain", Alex Bohs
2nd, #93, "Jenna", Alex Bohs
3rd, #71, "The Amusement Park", Alex Bohs
HM, #99, "250 Main Street", Chris Stewart

2007 LAA Photo Contest

The submissions are all in at the 2007 Logansport Art Association Photography Contest. The gallery opens Friday, October 12th. You can view the art Wednesday throught Saturday for the rest of October. Be sure to check it out, it looked like there was a lot of amazing art this year, and make sure to vote for your favorite for the People's Choice award! For more info check out the LAA's website at http://personal.myvine.com/~loganart/

Creative Lighting!

We had a blast with Carrie's senior portraits this weekend. We had a chance to get some great shots of her "on stage." We used our smoke machine, put lights in the image, and just had a great time getting creative. We got some awesome unique shots that really capture her personality and her love of singing. There's a great selection of the different shots we did in our gallery, check them out.

Fall Portrait Scene

We put together a cute little fall scene in the studio for our daughter's 2 and a half year portrait. It turned out so nice we left it up and if anyone would like to use it it's available any time. It's a small bridge so it probably only works for children 5 and under. We're still featuring no sitting fees for the rest of 2007 so if you're needing a children's portrait now is the best time there is. Give us a call today to schedule your appointment.

2008 Wedding Season

We are almost fully booked for May, June, July, and August for the 2008 wedding season. If you are getting married during these months next year and you're interested in hiring us you probably should talk to us before the end of the year. We've never been so fully booked so far in advance before, I hate to say it but next year we're probably going to have to turn down a lot of weddings. I hate the thought of not being able to be apart of everyone's wedding that would like to hire us, but we just can't do every wedding. Please call today before every weekend is booked! We've got 2 brand new albums from the 2007 season to show as samples so give us a call and we'll set up a meeting at our studio.

New studio portraits!

The new studio is working out great. The extra room is making all sorts of shots possible that we were never able to do before. The depth between the subject and background means we can use all sorts of props and furniture that we just never had room for. This in addition to the ability to use 10 foot wide backdrops really gives us a lot of great options for portraits. If you're interested in seeing our studio and seeing how we can use it for your next portrait need please give us a call or email us.

Congratulations Samara and Matthew!

I had such a fun time photographing Samara and Matthew's wedding! From the gorgeous 200 year old church to the monument in the center of the city all the way back to the Chrildren's Museum it was just an absolute blast. We had so many places to get great shots the day flew by trying to cram them all in. I think by the end of the day they were both getting sick of smiling, I hope they've got some smiles left for their honeymoon pictures or it's going to look like they're not having any fun. Congratulations you guys, hope your life is everything you dream it will be.

Senior Season Is Over

We had a lot of fun with the last senior of the season. Matt wanted lots of outdoor shots and we were able to find some really neat places to go including a great spot down the Wabash River. The tree roots and river were great. We went out a bit too early so a lot of the shots had way too much sun, but down by the river it was perfectly shaded.

If you still haven't gotten your senior portraits taken give us a call. Just because the senior season is over doesn't mean you can't get them done, it just means I won't be doing 3 or more every week. If you're holding out for fall portraits give us a call now to set up an appointment, the fall colors always make for great portraits.

New Proofing Site

We recently began making the transition over to a new online proofing host. The new site is much easier to navigate, much easier to see the pictures, and overall nicer to use. There is a small cost per image for the new service so we will probably be culling images down a lot more in the future, instead of getting most of your 200 images from a session you will most likely only be able to see half or so online. If you want to see your entire shoot a viewing appointment can be set up at our studio. Fur customers that have already seen their proofs on the old system we've transitioned everyone over, you should have no trouble finding your proofs. All passwords are the same in both systems. If your proofs have already expired from the old system they were not moved to the new one, if you would like additional time please send an email to info @ buckportraitstudio.com to request more time.

Cass County Chamber Pancake Breakfast

Don't forget to come out to the Pancake Breakfast at the fairgrounds Saturday from 7-11am. We'll have a small booth there displaying some of our newest portraits and wedding albums. We'll also be selling gift certificates which paired with our no sitting fees for 2007 makes a great gift.

Studio Sale!

To welcome everyone to Buck Portrait Studio we are offering studio portrait sessions for the rest of the year for absolutely free! Our studio sitting fee will be $15 starting January 1st, but if you schedule your appointment now you can waive that fee and buy just the units you want. We have no minimum orders, and no huge packages forcing you to buy more than you need. We are also slashing our current unit price of $12 per unit to the very low price of only $10 each! Act now to save big!

Now Open!

Buck Portrait Studio is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of our new studio in downtown Logansport. We've got 1600 square feet of studio space perfect for backdrop and prop storage and of course moving around and getting comfortable during photo shoots. We had a nice big shoot with a trio of cousins on Monday. We got several hundred great shots and I think everyone had a really great time. If you'd like to schedule a portrait session please give us a call and leave a message on our machine. We'll call you back as quickly as we can. The Senior Portrait season is finally starting to wind down so it's a prime time to get into the studio for a brand new family portrait.

First Session at the New Studio

We had our first portrait session at the new studio. It went great, the extra room made everything so much more comfortable. We were able to really stretch out and we ended up spending a lot more time in the studio than we planned and didn't have near as much sunlight for outdoor portraits as we had hoped. We were only using the studio temporarily, we're still not 100% done so we haven't moved the majority of our gear down there yet. The major stuff is done, we're mostly just finishing up a few odds and ends and waxing the floors. We are shooting for September 4th as our first official day, so if you want to get a portrait and help us break in our wonderful new space give us a call now.

Portraits the Hard Way!

I've seen portraits taken in what appears to be the local high school locker room several times and they've always looked really great. I recently got my first opportunity to photograph a high school senior in his locker room and it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. The metal of the lockers were quite reflective and the open portions where equipment hangs had terrible shadows inside, not to mention every little thing sitting around the room cast shadows a mile long. I got plenty of great shots, but the whole shoot was much more challenging than I ever would have imagined. I got home and did some research and realized a lot of the shots I've seen were done with lockers that looked nothing like the ones in the locker room! I'm so naive, but these shots were faked! The lockers were never used, they're just props for portraits. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, when you're in your studio, you get to control the light and everything that goes in front of the camera. You can spray anti-reflective coating on the lockers if you want, but I think doing it in an actual locker room is great, the shots have that ring of truth, that every senior wants for their portraits.

Availability Update

I don't think we'll be able to schedule any more senior portrait sessions this month. The response for the coupon has been great and we're pretty much booked up for the rest of August. If you call now and schedule your session in August we can honor the 25% off. Even if you have your session in December, just make sure to schedule this month. September is pretty late for senior portraits, but if you haven't had yours take yet, it's as good a month as any, and so far it's wide open. Give us a call to schedule your session.

New Senior Portrait Location

I found a really neat area to take some great outdoor portraits. Along South River Road, the State Hospital has a back entrance. The entrance is flanked with two large curved walls and two tower kind of things with arched openings. There are almost limitless posing opportunities here, and on either side of these large walls are amazing low rock heap walls. We planned on stopping here for a senior portrait recently, but the area was so great we almost used up all of the sun posing on and around the walls.

Congratulations Jack and Jackie

I didn't even know the Madam Carrol did weddings! Shows what I know, it was a really amazing day. Hot of course, but the lower deck was air conditioned and both sides are top to bottom windows so the view was just wonderful. I can't remember the last time I had such an enjoyable time at a wedding. It was a blast and I'm so happy I was able to be a part of it.

Studio Opening

I believe we are going to be open for business at our new studio on September 3rd. We have made a lot of progress the last few weeks and the construction crew is done with all of the heavy lifting. They just need to install some floor tiles and bathroom fixtures and I just need to paint one more wall and do some serious cleaning. Now that moving day is so close I'm starting to realize the hard part wasn't renovating a 1500 square foot building, it's going to be very painful to move all of the photo props and backdrops I have across town. You can only load so many bar stools into a pickup truck in one trip.

Availability Update: We've booked about 6 senior portrait sessions this month due to our advertisement in the Pharos Tribune. We can probably handle about 6 more, so if you're still shopping for senior portraits give us a call at our studio or email us at info @ buckportraitstudio.com and we'll see how we can help you.

Congratulations to Nicole and Davin!

It was a pleasure to be a part of Nicole and Davin's special day. It was a really beautiful ceremony, and I can't recall a more elegant reception. I really had a lot of fun and that's considering I had almost no voice at all. All I can say is it's a good thing I was able to find an assistant on short notice to help with the posing because I was almost worthless the whole day. That is if you consider the guy pressing the shutter release worthless. I guess that's up for debate. Congratulations you guys, here's to a lifetime of happiness.

The sign is up!

The sign is now hanging on the side of my new studio at 719 Spear St, but I'm sorry to say we're not open yet. We've still got a lot of construction going on inside and since we're doing all of the work ourselves to keep costs down it's creeping along at a snails pace. I know there are lots of people ready to book studio appointments, I'm really sorry to be unable to help you, but I would love to book a location shoot for anyone that wants one. We can go to France Park or the dam at Riverside Park and do pretty much anything you want. The studio is coming along though, it shouldn't be more than another couple of months and we'll be fully open ready to take care of all of your photographic needs. Stay tuned for more news.

Senior Portraits

We're really pleased to be offering our first ever coupon for photography services. Starting August 1st, there will be a coupon for 25% any senior portrait package. We've got plenty of evening slots open between now and the end of summer so if you're still not sure what you're looking for in your senior portraits give us a call and we'll see what kinds of locations we can come up with.

Low Low Low

Could the river get any lower? I don't see how, but as bad as I feel for the fishes it's pretty cool going out on the river bed and taking portraits. There's a huge area at Little Turtle with lots of great places to pose. Then of course the area around the dam at Riverside has lots of limestone to walk around on. The closer you can get to the damn the cooler the shot. If you can stand the heat of a scorching summer sun and want to take some fun portraits in the river give us a call at our studio today to book a senior session.

Laura and Daniel

Congratulations to Laura and Daniel Kasamis. They had a beautiful wedding at the Indianapolis Art Center. The art all around and gorgeous gardens set a very artistic theme for the day and their portraits all turned out wonderfully. We all had a blast wandering around the campus looking at sculptures and taking pictures. It was a little scary on the Monon Trail, the cyclists come through there pretty darn fast and it's easy to become distracted with a camera in my hands, glad no one in the wedding party got run over by a 10-speed. Congratulations to Laura and Daniel, it was a pleasure photographing your wedding.

Wedding Season is here!

We're right in the middle of the summer wedding season, things are crazy. We're jumping back and forth from wedding to wedding taking pictures and designing albums. We've got plenty of time during the week for senior sessions though, if you're graduating next year give us a call to set up your portrait session.

We're still months away from being ready at our studio, lots and lots of painting to do and it's hard to find time to paint when you're doing some much shooting. It's a good problem to have of course, but if you're holding out for a session at the studio you're probably better off just scheduling something on location now.

Congratulations Jasmine and Jeremy!

Jasmine and Jeremy Binkerd had a very lovely ceremony at River of Life Christian Church in Logansport. It was a very early wedding and the reception started around lunch time, but it's been a long time since I've been to such a fun reception. After 2 solid hours of dancing I was exhausted from just watching those guys.

New Phone Number!

In preparation for opening our studio downtown we have set up our telephone at that location. You can contact us there at 574.722.3333. The address of the studio is 719 Spencer Street, it's the old Logansport Lumber building just behind Shepler Construction on Eerie Avenue.

New Album Format

We're very pleased to be able to offer a new size and shape of coffee table book to display your wedding images in. We can now design and print 10" x 10" albums. This changes the feel of the album as this format is shorter and wider so each 2 page spread is almost panoramic. The best part is we can duplicate your entire book into a miniature 5" x 5" version as well. So if you want to give one to each member of your wedding party or your grandparents you can do this without spending a small fortune. Give us a call to check out our new 10x10 and 5x5 samples.

Availability Update!

We are currently fully booked for the 2007 wedding season. We limit the number of weddings we do to ensure quality. If you have a nonstandard wedding date later in the year or are getting married on a nonstandard day, Friday or Sunday, send us an email to check the availability and we'll see what we can do. At this time we only have a couple of 2008 weddings and they are very early in the year, but the summer wedding dates generally are spoken for by the end of January so reserve your date now!

We have lots of evening slots during the week available for senior portraits. I know summer hasn't even arrived yet, but wouldn't it be great to get it over with and have your entire summer to enjoy the fun and sun? Give us a call today to schedule your senior portraits.

Studio Location

Buck Portrait Studio has found a permanent studio location near downtown Logansport. It's a very good location with a ton of floor space. There will be much much more room in the shooting area to try lots of new things that were never possible in my home studio. Stay tuned for more information especially when we will be opening at that location.

Congratulations Kelli and Anthony

Kelli and Anthony had a beautiful ceremony in Wabash, Indiana. It was really great to share their special day with them. They also put together one of the most organized and focused wedding parties I've ever seen. We had about 45 minutes extra at the end of the day that we ended up using to take some extra outdoor shots of Kelli and Anthony. That's really a great thing, but I probably won't get that opportunity again any time soon. All in all it was a great day to be a photographer, and from what I could see it was pretty good for the newlyweds as well! Congratulations you two!

Online Proofing

I'm very pleased to be able to offer a brand new online proofing service to all of my clients. I've always offered online proofing, but there has never been any way to place the order through the web. The days of writing your order down on a scratch pad and emailing me a list of pictures are over. You can now view your images, choose the sizes of enlargements you want to buy, place the order, and pay by credit card! This is pretty much an all in one package for all of my clients. If you would like to see a recent shoot of yours in the new system give me a call and I can set it up. I've uploaded every shoot for April and May already, just visit http://buckportraitstudio.com/preview to see yours.

Formal Wedding Portraits

Very few brides can fully appreciate the stress they'll be under when their big day arrives. The emotions present run the gamut from elation to fear. A great way to make the bride and groom feel at ease while posing for portraits is to make sure the sanctuary is cleared out. Only those people who will be appearing in portraits should be present. This allows the subjects to relax and not feel like their putting on a show for family and friends. This also keeps interaction between the subjects and their guests. A bride being talked to by someone in the first row tends to be looking at the first row instead of the camera. If possible ask the ushers to not allow guests back into the sanctuary during the after ceremony portrait session.

We generally shoot larger groups first, so we get your entire family first, allowing them to head to the reception when their shots are finished. Then we shoot the entire wedding party releasing first the ushers, then groomsmen and bridesmaids, then finally the best man and matron of honor. By the time we're ready to shoot just the bride and groom, few people are left to distract the bride and groom from looking great in their portraits.

Senior Portraits

We had a blast out at Crooked Creek Trails with Ashlie and her horse Diamond this week. We took a walk into the woods to a great spot where a creek turns almost 300 degrees around, there were tons of great spots to pose and we got some unique shots for her senior portraits. I have to say I was very surprised out just how much horses blink, his eyes were closed in quite a few of the shots. He wouldn't smile either, I tried "Say cheese!," and when that didn't work I tried to get him to say "Hay," but that didn't work either!

Party Portraits

We were recently hired to provide formal portraits to the guests at couple of parties and I have to say I was very pleased with how the whole process went. Being able to get lots of combinations, mother and father with kids, mother and father with grand kids, grandpa with son, grandma with nieces, 4 generation portraits, and on and on and on. I never really considered how rare it is to get these types of shots for a family and I really enjoyed it. We proofed the shots on a laptop and there seemed to be a lot of people buying other people's poses. It was all one huge extended family so being able to see sibling's family shots was really great for everyone. I have to tell you this is one area of photography I probably never would have thought about, but the opportunity to take some truly once in a lifetime portraits is just too much to ignore. If you have a family reunion coming up please give us a call, we charge a flat fee of $90 to cover an event and we have some really great package deals in addition to our super low price of $10 per unit.

Approach to Weddings

My typical approach to photographing a wedding involves arriving several hours before the ceremony starts. The trend towards true photojournalistic coverage of a wedding may be catching on, but I still love to do formal portraits of the bride and groom. It's classic portraiture and the few times a bride has said they don't want it, they've always regretted it. The groom and his party usually go first, about 2 hours before the ceremony, we do several poses, including a few of just the groom and best man, then we do a large number of groom only poses. We usually can finish 100 to 200 exposures in about 30 minutes.

After that, the groom goes and hides and the bride arrives about an hour and a half before the ceremony. We spent 30 minutes or so on fun bridesmaid poses, and get a few of the maid of honor and the bride. Then we spend 30 minutes getting lots of shots of the bride, her hair, her train, her flowers, and any other detail that needs to be captured. We do about 200-300 exposures in about an hour leaving 30 minutes before the ceremony starts.

The ceremony is captured unobtrusively, I don't use flash, I don't go to the front of the church. I may walk down the middle aisle a few steps, but most shots will be from the balcony and from the back row of the church. Since flash is not used, slow shutter speeds will be required and that means a tripod. There is no good way to move a large tripod around a church during a wedding, so I don't do it.

After the ceremony, formals for both sides are taken. We start with the largest parties first. Poses with grandparents are done, then siblings, then parents, then just the wedding party. This allows us to release people to the reception fast instead of making them sit around watching portraits being taken. Finally it's just the bride and groom, we spend 15-20 minutes getting semi-posed portraits of the bride and groom interacting as husband and wife for the first time.

When we arrive at the reception it's back to photojournalism. I capture the events of the evening as they unfold. I keep my eyes open looking for interesting exchanges between guests and the wedding party, and I document the details of the room.

After all of this I generally deliver between 800 and 1000 images to the bride and groom.

Congratulations Natalie and Brad!

Natalie and Brad Spark's wedding was beautiful. The weather was simply superb and everything was so eloquent, it was real joy to be a part of their day. This is exactly the kind of wedding that is perfect to start the season off with. I'm looking forward to all of the rest of my weddings this year, each one has it's own unique flavor and I can't wait to capture the beauty of each one. Congratulations again to Natalie and Brad Sparks.

Next best thing...

I had planned an outdoor portrait for a toddler this weekend. We were going to try a few different poses around my garden, it's nice and green, and a few flowers have bloomed so there would be some color, but about an hour before they arrived, we found ourselves in the middle of a blizzard. I couldn't see the road from my window, and by the time they arrived there was an inch of snow on the ground. Cold and drizzly is one thing, but white out conditions in April? That's hard to accept. Of course we moved this shoot into the studio, and we used a beach chair to remind us how warm it should be right now. This crazy Indiana weather...

What happened?

Where did spring go? Sorry to everyone that has been wanting outdoor portraits the last couple of weeks. This whole season sort of blew up in our faces didn't it? Let's just hope this passes FAST because my first outdoor wedding is next weekend!

Carousel Portraits

There have been quite a few requests about getting portraits taken on the Denzel Carousel at Riverside park. I did some investigating and found out everything I could.

First and foremost the carousel cannot be running for portraits unless the facility has been rented which costs $60 an hour. In this situation the subject would have to be belted to the horse and the photographer would have to be sitting on a bench on the carousel or standing outside the rail.

If the facility has not be rented they simply ask for a small donation and portraits can be taken any time between 8am and 3pm during the week. The carousel is closed to the public at these times and we can use each animal for posing without worrying about interfering with other people's enjoyment.

So for anyone wondering if the carousel allows portraits to be taken, the answer is yes, I'm excited to try it out, the animals are so colorful it almost guarantees an amazing portrait. Give us a call at our studio if you'd like to get your portrait taken on the carousel.

Portrait No Man's Land

Well, we're in sort of a bad time of the year. It's so beautiful everyone wants to get an outdoor portrait taken, but around here outdoors just doesn't look that great. The trees are barren, the ground is muddy, the grass is pale, and pretty much every body of water is swirling mud. The worst part is there is nothing anyone can do about it! Don't worry everyone, I'm seeing lots of buds coming up all over the place, the parks should all be full of gorgeous spring flowers in a few weeks. If you are interested in scheduling an outdoor portrait give us a call at our studio.

Senior Portrait Locations

Here are a few more locations around Cass County that make great spots for outdoor portraits.

Wabash River Railroad Bridge
Nothing says senior portrait better than a huge rusty train bridge. It's got a great rustic look plus a great river view. There are endless posing possibilities here.

Berry Patch
Not the most exciting place, but it has a very large wooden bridge and plenty of benches throughout. It's part of Logansport High School so a portrait here captures a little part of the experience of LHS. There is also easy access to the baseball diamonds and tennis courts for students who played these sports.

Downtown Logan
Tons of alleys with brick walls, bars on windows, fire escapes, and even some graffiti. It's easy to spend hours on end wandering the alleys looking for cool photo ops.

And of course there are hundred more locations just give us a call and we can give you some more ideas and listen to ideas you have for your own portraits.

CVS Bunny Shoot!

Thanks to everyone who came down to CVS for our live bunny photo shoot. We had a wonderful time and every seemed to be very happy with their portraits. We ended up taking just over 800 images, so I would guess we probably had around 400 kids come through. 400 kids in 14 hours worth of shooting is a pretty fast pace, I'm glad it's over, the bunnies get to take some well deserved time off. We don't have anything specific planned yet, but we will probably be doing a one day photo shoot around Independence Day. I'll post more details as soon as things are finalized.

Availability Update

We have 3 more weekends available for weddings for the 2007 season. Give us a call if you are interested in seeing some of our sample albums.

We also have plenty of openings during the week for senior portraits. Schedule a session in spring to take full advantage of the colors and the cool temperatures!

CVS Live Bunny Shoot

We'll be taking children's portraits at CVS on 3rd Street on March 17th and 18th. These portraits always turn out really cute so come on down between the hours of 9am and 5pm on Saturday, and 12pm and 5pm on Sunday. We'll have a small package you can get printed while you wait, package details are available by contacting CVS at 574.739.1162, just ask for the photo department.

Brrrr!

We had a fun time doing outdoor winter portraits last weekend. Kelli and Anthony will be getting married this spring and wanted a winter portrait taken. We planned this a month ago and didn't know if we'd have snow or not. There did end up being snow, and icicles and even the lake was frozen over which made a wonderful backdrop. It was cold, there were a few shots where Kelli looked like her teeth were chattering a little bit, but the rest of the shots turned out great, and we had a blast taking them.

Exciting New Year!

Well the new year is off to a fast start. We've booked a lot of weddings for the rest of the year, but we've also got quite a few new projects coming up in early spring including an live Easter bunny shoot at CVS. I'll post more information about that as the date grows closer. I'm looking forward to a very exciting wedding season and can't wait to get back into the swing of designing albums.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time this Holiday season. We had a great time visiting with family and friends which was the perfect end to a great year. We had a ton of fun photographing each and every one of our clients, and we look forward to serving you all again in the upcoming year.

For anyone interested in booking us for a wedding this year please be aware we generally are fully booked for the entire year by the end of January. As of right now, we have already booked about half of the season. We have a few weekends in June, July, and August left, but they will go fast so call us today. There are are still plenty of openings for off season dates, April, October, November, etc.