Summer Sun Tips!

It's that time of year when everyone wants to get a nice dark tan. It pays to be careful in the sun for more than just health reasons. If you have a portrait coming up don't get too dark and don't burn. Use a high SPF sunblock if you're going to be in the sun for at least two weeks before your portrait if not every time you're out. If you want to appear darker in your portrait without risking burning just plan on wearing light colored clothing. Nothing will make your skin seem darker than a nice white or off-white shirt.

If you do get burned and have a portrait scheduled some redness can be airbrushed out, but peeling and flaking probably won't be easy to remove. Your best bet is to reschedule and stay out of the sun for about two weeks. This will allow your burn to dissipate some and even out for a more natural look.

Also keep tan lines in mind when choosing your portrait outfits. Don't wear a strapless shirt if you've been tanning all summer long in a tank top.

Digital Albums!

The current trend in photography is printed digital albums. These deluxe albums, often called Coffee Table Albums, can contain hundreds of photos in very exciting layouts all bound together in an attractive cover.

Our digital albums feature a four color printing process on heavy duty glossy paper. When designing a new digital album we ask for your input for which images you want included. We do not charge by the image, so choose as many images as you want. We will design an album and submit a plain paper proof to you for your review. You can add and remove images, move them around and put everything in exactly the order you want. We start with 20 pages, which includes 9 two page layouts, and 2 one page layouts at the beginning and end. Additional 2 page layouts can be purchased for a minimal cost. Once we've finalized a design, it takes about a week for your book to be printed.

Check our webpage for current pricing.

Photo Proofs now available!

We've never offered photo proofs before, but recently our lab has made some changes that allow us to offer proofs of your shoot for $1.00 each. These proofs will be more of a final product though than a method for choosing enlargements. I will still provide either a plain paper proof book or low resolution CD at no charge, but if you want to buy a 4x6 of each shot you can now do that very economically.

Availability Update:

We currently are booked solid through the end of July. We have some spots available in August for Senior Portraits.

Wedding Tips!

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 Portrait Tips

Here are some tips for ensuring your high school graduation portraits turn out amazing!

1. Bring examples of things you'd like to try in your portraits. Magazine clippings, year books, catalogues or anything else with examples of poses, styles, or effects. We can combine these ideas with our own and create a truly unique portrait that captures your personal style.

2. Give your hair time to grown in after a cut. Don't get a fresh cut the day before your portrait session, a minimum of 5 days is needed for the cut to look natural.

3. Makeup should be applied normally. Use a mirror as a guide, if it looks good in the mirror it will look fine on film.

4. Ask your optometrist to remove the lenses from your glasses if possible. Reflections are very common on glasses and can be very time consuming to remove. Avoiding this problem is the best way to ensure a great portrait.

5. Simple, solid outfits work best, especially in the studio. More formal attire is also very common in the studio. Outdoor poses work well with jeans or khakis and simple solid shirts, especially muted colors. Blue, green, tan, and many more work better than glaringly bright colors such as white, yellow or red.

Follow these tips and make sure to get a good night's rest and your graduation portraits will be something you'll be proud of for years to come.

Wedding Day Photo Schedules

For everyone whos wedding is coming up later in the year, here are some basic guidelines for the kind of time we'll need for each group of wedding participants. This should help brides schedule hair appointments and give grooms a time to stroll into the church. Each block of time can be done before or after the ceremony but most people are ready to relax after the ceremony so squeezing the entire portrait session in here tends to rush things and this can result in missed shots either intentionally or unintentionally. Either way, realizing a month later you didn't get an important shot to you is very disappointing.

Bride and her party: 30-45 minutes
Groom and his party: 15-20 minutes
Entire wedding party: 20-30 minutes
Bride and Groom alone: 15 minutes

These are the major areas I focus on at each wedding. The reception shots are not much of an issue as I just float around and capture things as they happen, trying to schedule things here would ruin all of the fun.

Equipment setup takes about 15 minutes, so once we set a time, I'll back it off a bit and have everything ready to go when the participants show up.

Wedding Season off to a great start!

The first two weddings of the year went down without a hitch. We had some scheduling issues pushing our shoot times back a bit, but it didn't cause us to miss any shots, so you can't complain about that. Check out the gallery at http://www.ryanbuck.com/photo to see the newest shots.

We invsted a lot of money since last year in portable lighting. Our new lights have increased power allowing much more realistic skin tones. Churches are notoriously dark and in most cases yellow, so the more bright white light you can throw at the bride and groom the better the portraits will be.

Availability Update:

We are currently fully booked on weddings for the rest of the year. We have several slots still open for 2007 however, so if you have a wedding next year please give us a call or drop us an email.

We are still accepting all other portrait assignments especially Senior Portraits. It's late in the year, but if you haven't had your gradutation portaits taken, we would love to sit down and talk with you about your ideas.