Be careful everyone

I just wanted to post up some emails I've been getting from a guy named Kelvin Jones. He contacted me about a wedding job for this summer here in Logansport, but he claimed to be living in the UK. I found that very suspicous, but I replied back trying to be as open minded as I could.

Hello,

Hope you're having a nice time! I am getting in touch with you
concerning our wedding taking place this year in Indiana . My name is
kelvin Jones from Ireland (currently working and living in London,
United Kingdom). I am coming over with my fiance Daffy Morris who's
Trinidad & Tobago by nature but has actually naturalized in London.

We'll be starting a new beginning together 'cause my Wife to be just
got a job in Indiana .We will be getting married on the 21th of July,
2009 and we have decided to get married in The States since we're
moving down and pretty know our new home would be wonderful and a
good location to raise kids.
more so,am making arrangement for transportation for getting you
down from any where you are in the state..so you shouldn't bother
about the location....all will be put in place by me....
We will be needing a good Photographer to take care of the picture
aspect of our wedding occasion both ceremony and reception for our
guests' convenience because we require the best for memories photo's
for our children and as a matter of fact we have made a good budget
for an outstanding event. Please let us know if you can help plan a
wonderful occasion.

Regards
kelvin Jones

I told him I would be happy to help him out and I asked him some basic questions about what he was looking for in his wedding photography. He replied back with this:

Hello Ryan Buck.....
It's such a great thing to hear from you so soon, hope you are
having a wonderful day 21 st the day we choose ,i hope you dont have
any problem with that and really can't wait for the D day..

We will be arriving Austin. on the 6th of July,2009.The ceremony and
reception will be taking place at a venue and the venue will be
secured the same week we arrived. we want it to be the last thing to
do here ,The wedding ceremony will be at 4pm while the reception will
followed immediately,we would like to rush things up here because we
still have our various job/business (s) intact and would like to spend
more time with our family and loved ones before coming because we
might not have enough time to do so in the nearest future which is why
we can only be available for a face to face consultation on our
arrival if it will be okay by you.

We want the best picture for the memory of our children and families.
I went through your site before decided to contact you and we like to
secure the photography aspect before the next vendor,we will need you
for about 6 hours for that day .

I will like to inform you that the payment for your services charge
will be done via certified cashier check.so you get back to me with
your details.....
full name;
address;
mobile no;
I will be looking forward to your prompt response asap . I will be
waiting for your swift response to my email asap. Do have a great day.

Regards.
kelvin Jones

At this point I was 99% sure this was a scam. I replied back one more time asking for some more information and before I knew it he said he had mailed the payment to me at my studio. We hadn't even discussed the package he was interested in. So I ended up receiving 7 $500 American Express Traveller's Checks. This was far far too much money so I knew that he was going to be asking me to send a portion of this money through Western Union to another person and that's when I got this final email:

hello,
how are you doing.....i just want to inform you that the check was sent to you from my company via Ups with tracking number...A371 242 7996 and it will be delivered today.
The company sent you the whole amount of funds that i am expecting from them ( $3500 ) they wanted to issue out for the wedding to you, so you pls kindly deduct your service deposit payment as soon as you get it cashed in your bank and you send down the remaining balance via western union to the wedding planner,this money is meant for the part payment of my wife wedding gown and my suit,videographer,venue and also for other miscellaneous expenses for my wedding.i know you know how important this mean to me,so you will have to help me get the money sent to him as soon as you get yours.
i will be waiting to hear back from you as soon as you get the check so that i can send you the details of my wedding planner and you can help me to send the money to him asap.....
THANK YOU
Kelvin Jones

So after this I emailed all of these messages to Yahoo and they banned his email account. I just wanted to warn people that these sorts of scams are still happening, please be careful and remember if it sounds too good to be true, it most definitely 100% is not true. I actually get one of these about once a year, photographers make great targets because we deal mostly in services, we don't always meet our clients ahead of time, and our costs can be quite high. You would never send $3500 to a plumber in another state, but this is not out of the question for a photographer. So to everyone, especially other photographers, be vigilant, don't become a victim yourself.

Little Baby Sam

Why is it when you plan on doing a nice, easy, sleeping baby portrait session, the baby never sleeps, but when the parents want to have shots of their baby awake, alert, looking at the camera, and maybe even smiling, the baby can't be awoken for anything short of nuclear war? We got pretty lucky, Sam was not asleep in this shot, he just closed his eyes very briefly and I snapped. It worked out perfectly, but this is the shot that almost never was. Not to mention he's a bit too big for our crocheted baby sack. I really like how this turned out though, so all of the extra work was well worth it.

Tessa's Senior Portraits

I told you I was booked up with seniors and here is the proof another senior to blog about. This is Tessa she's been a long time customer of mine. I think she was the second person to ever be photographed in my studio. All of those practice sessions really payed off. She did great posing and we got some really great shots. I love this one looking off this old railroad bridge. The sun backlighting the trees is especially wonderful.

Congrats to Cody and Eric

I just wanted to say congratulations to Cody and Eric. I had a lot of fun in Delphi with these guys this weekend. It was a super easy day, the entire group from Bridesmaids to Grandparents were old pros at posing. They locked the poses in, smiled, and saved the blinking for off camera. I swear there wasn't a single blink for the entire day. We got all of the formal portraits done in record time and every one got some extra time to relax which is always nice. The reception was nice as well, you could tell everyone was really behind this couple, it was a privilege to be a part of their special day. Congrats again you guys!

Jessica's Senior Portraits

This is a great example of using the same location for different subjects and getting completely different looks. I think I used this spot 4 times last year and I didn't get any of these shots until I photographed Jessica. We got some really unique poses plus I never noticed how nice the train tracks here curved with trees behind it. So after using the tracks for a couple of shots we got some really nice portraits down by the river including this one which turned out just beautiful.

I guess I should take this opportunity to say that Senior Season has started in earnest for me. I've got seniors schedule every other evening for the next 3 weeks, and every time I turn around I'm talking to a new parent about scheduling. I would guess that after this week is over I'll have booked another 2 or 3, so I would say if you're interested in getting your portraits done before school starts up, call soon and schedule your appointment.

Fair Wrap Up

Great weather, great food, great customers. What an awesome time I had at the fair this week. I talked to a ton of great people and I think I generated a lot of good buzz with my sample portraits. I will say this, I talked to about 30 2010 grads and parents and if I book as many as I did last year this is going to be a super busy senior season for me. If you're wanting Buck Portrait Studio for your portraits I would play it safe and book now, otherwise you might lose out. I've never had to turn away customers before, but with limited time before graduation I'm worried this might be the year it happens. Don't take the risk book your session as soon as you can.

Cass County 4H Fair

Well it's fair season. I've got my booth in the exact same location as last year and I've got a huge batch of brand new samples. I've got a couple of brand new coffee table books from last year's weddings. I've also got some really wonderful 16x20 prints showing off some of my all time favorite portraits. So if you are planning on coming to the fair this week please stop by my booth and see what I've been up to the last year or so.