Logansport Photo Contest

The Logansport Art Association's annual photography contest will be kicking off very soon. Entry deadlines are next weekend and the showing will begin the next week. You can view all of the entries for approximately 30 days. I will be entering a few of my most recent still lifes this year. They can be viewed online of course, but if you want to see some of my non portraiture work in beautiful full color head over to the LAA on Water Street in Logansport.

On-line Proofing

Buck Portrait Studio is now pleased to offer on-line proofing to all of our clients. We recently switched webhosts and the new service provides ample storage for storing portrait sessions on-line. We will store your proofs on-line for 90 days or as space permits. There is no on-line ordering, but this new service allows you to view your proofs at any computer with an internet connection without the need for the CD. This also allows you to show family and friends your proofs in the convenience of their own homes. To view your proofs on-line simply visit http://buckportraitstudio.com/YOURLASTNAME.

Fall Portraits at CVS

It's been about a year since I've set up a portrait session at the CVS on 3rd St in Logansport, but the photo lab has asked me to set something up this month for fall. We'll have a nice outdoor fall scene with a forest backdrop and leaves. The date is September 30th and we'll be shooting from 9am to 5pm. I do not have details on the packages that will be available, but as always your prints will be ready for you before you leave the store. Hope to see you there.

Fall portrait tips

It won't be long before all of the trees start changing colors. Outdoor fall portraits have beautiful warmth making the subjects seem extremely full of life. The best bet for putting together a great fall portrait is to choose solid print clothing in warmer colors. Browns oranges and dark reds work great, some yellow can also be thrown in. Try to avoid vibrant colors that might attract too much attention. The goal is for your faces to pop right out of the frame, but if you are wearing a plain white shirt, most likely the shirt will be the main focal point.

Bad Weather

I know there are places getting it worse than Central Indiana, but we've had a seriously bad stretch of weather these last couple of weeks. If you're wanting to schedule an outdoor portrait session but don't know when the weather will let up, don't worry, give us a call and we'll set something up. We don't charge for rescheduling any appointment, so don't let the weather stop you from reserving a session.

Difficult Lighting

There is a very good reason we bring 6 cases of lighting equipment around with us to every wedding. That reason is churches are dark, dark places. They may not seem like it with the huge stained glass windows and spot lights on the ceiling, but the human eye is much more sensitive to light than any digital camera. You walk in and see beautiful colored light streaming in from all directions, but the camera just sees dark. The picture above was taken in a fairly dark church with a barely light curtain hanging about 20 feet behind the bride and groom. It took 2 lights on the bride and groom, 2 lights on the curtain and an additional light on the altar to keep everything nice and bright for the camera. It took a lot of adjusting to get the lights just right, but as you can see, the results were well worth it.

Updated Packages

We've spent the last few weeks redesigning our packages based on feedback from previous clients. We've added another high school graduate packaged to give parents even more value. The large package includes 24 units and extra locations for only $270.

We've also made some minor changes to the wedding packages. We've added more 8x10's to each package and added a DVD slideshow to the Platinum package. We also adjusted the prices to reflect the new Asuka brand coffee table books. The Platinum package went from $1000, to $1300, but that's basically buy 1 book, get 2 free with the package, and it still includes 6 hours of shooting on your wedding day and 36 units of enlargements.

Senior Portrait Locations

Most seniors have a good idea of where they want their portraits taken. While some prefer a simple studio portrait, most want an exciting outdoor location which could include beautiful gardens, crashing water falls, or rusted out doors.

Here are some of the more popular ides for outdoor portraits around Logansport. If you don't see something that appeals to you, don't worry, we have plenty of other locations just contact us at our studios to talk about other ideas.

France Park - Tons of places to shoot at the bottom of the falls, the top of the falls, and all along the creek including 2 wooden bridges, and a few smaller water falls. Easy access to cliffs and both lakes.

Little Turtle Waterway - Park has benches, stairs, and walls that are great for posing on. Easy access to the river. There is a gazebo across the street, as well as a small fountain, and a few alley ways with rustic doors and stone work.

Riverside Park - Lots of landscaping, plus play ground equipment, river access, and of course the Carousel. Across the river the walking path has access to the dam, a long wooden bridge and tons of greenery for nice backgrounds.

Downtown - Downtown features several rustic alleys as well as areas with newly renovated architecture. There are benches, wrought iron gates, and plenty of landscaping to make great outdoor portraits. There is also easy access to the new park near the police station.

Availability Update!

We currently only have about 6 weekends open for the entire year 2007. We limit the number of weddings we do to ensure the highest quality for each bride and groom. If you would like to schedule a meeting to look through some of our wedding portfolios please don't hesitate to contact us at our studios.

Senior Portraits

We have plenty of open slots for Senior Portraits in August. Call today and and book a session and get an additional 10% off the Senior Portrait Package. That's an additional $18 off our already value priced package. Check out the pricing page to find out what's included in this package. Reference this article when booking your session to get the extra 10% off.

Now offering Asuka Books!

Buck Portrait Studio is pleased to now be offering Asuka Books coffee table style wedding albums. We've been looking at albums for well over a year now comparing quality, manufacturing time, shipping costs, and much more to find the album that is the best value for our customers. Asuka Books offer four different book styles including both hard and soft bound books in sizes up to 80 pages long! Call our studios today to setup a time to view our sample albums.

New Graduate Package!

To help busy High School Seniors make the difficult choice of what to order once they've had their portraits taken we've created a Senior Portrait Package. This package will save parents some money and give everyone the pictures they want including TONS of wallets to hand out to friends. For $180 you get a single location shoot with unlimited shots, poses, and changes of clothing. This package includes 1 8x10, 4 5x7's, 6 4x6's, 160 die cut wallets, and 2 more full units of your choice. Call our studio today for more information.

Church Lighting

Many brides ask us about our lighting preferences for the church during the ceremony. They want to make sure it's bright enough to get really great images. The answer we give most often is "It doesn't really matter." If it's dark we'll use a tripod at the back of the church, if it's bright we'll probably leave the tripod in the car. The bottom line is, it's your day, design your wedding any way you want, and let us worry about the technical details of making great photos. If you want it dark, go for it.

Wedding Day Rush

Everyone's wedding day is a blur. The emotions and stress pile up making what should be one of the most memorable days of your life somewhat hard to remember. That's why wedding photography is so important, it captures every detail of your special day and preserves it for the rest of your life.

Many times when planning the schedule for the wedding day, brides plan only the bare minimum for photography. Leaving their album with one or two poses of each portrait. My advice to all brides to be is give yourself another 15 minutes more than you think you need before you join the reception. Take a walk with your photographer and new husband and get some shots around the church. There are often times old stair cases, neat chairs, or beautiful gardens that can make truly memorable wedding portraits, but you won't ever know if you rush straight from the church to the reception.

DVD Slideshows now available!

Buck Portrait Studio is now pleased to offer Slideshows of your entire wedding day. We will burn every image shot on your special day along with a classical music sound track to a DVD that can be watched on the TV in your living room. Each DVD will cost $25.

2007 Pricing Updated!

I know, I know 2006 is only halfway over, but we are generally booked up for weddings between 6 and 12 months ahead of time. We just wanted to get the new pricing out there as soon as possible for next years brides and grooms. We've eliminated the ala carte pricing scheme in favor of 3 very modest packages. The smallest is basically the same as last years pricing but it includes 12 units of your choice at a discount off of full retail. The rest of the packages include additional prints and digital albums all at a discount off of the ala carte price for units. Ala carte units are of course still available above and beyond your package.

Check out the pricing page for more details on all three packages.

2007 Pricing

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.