The holidays are just a few short months away. Nothing says happy holidays better than a card featuring your family portrait. I have a variety of styles to choose from at very reasonable prices. The cards are 4″ x 8″, printed on photo paper at a professional photo lab. Prices are $39 for 25 cards, $65 for 50 and $115 for 100 greeting cards. Mention this blog post and your studio session fee will only be $25! Call 252-726-5799 to book your session today!
A few shots of the new studio:
To launch my new studio space located at 226 Chatham Street, Newport North Carolina, I’m making a special offer. Call to set an appointment by August 30, 2008 and receive your session with no setting fees. Additionally I’ll give you a $35 credit to use on your print order plus a 15% discount on your print orders. As always with these kinds of offers there are a few restrictions: You must call by August 30, 2008 to schedule your session; The $35 print credit may only be applied to images from this session; The 15% discount is only available for orders made during the session’s viewing/order session. Phone 252-726-5799 today to schedule your portrait session!
We’re moving into a new studio location. Look for us at 226 Chatham Street in Newport, NC. It’s going to take a bit of scrubing, sprucing and decorating before we’re up to full speed, but there’s no reason we can’t work in a few sessions along the way. The operation will be by appointment only. You can phone 252-726-5799 to schedule a session. I’ll get some photos up of the new studio in the near future.
I spent Thrusday evening at the Very Alt-F workshop in Atlanta, Georgia. Hosted by Zack Arias at the Used Film studios, the workshop was presented by John Michael Cooper and his wife Dalisa. John and Dalisa’s altf studios is known for making inovative, artistic wedding images and anti-bridal portraits. In 2007 American Photographer magazine named John one of the “World’s Top Ten Wedding Photographers.” John shared a great deal of information on where he finds inspiration for his unique images, his approach to the business of wedding photography and how he works the images after they’ve been captured digitally. I know I came away with some useful information that I’ll apply to my work.
I’ve always been fascinated by near-infrared digital photography. It can produce some very gorgeous wedding images and landscapes. I recently acquired a Canon Powershot G2 camera that has been converted to IR only capture. It’s going to take some time and practice to get using it down, but I like the possibilities. Here’s a little landscape example… taken behind the North Carolina Visitors Center on Hwy. 17, near the Virginia border… Big Dismal Swamp Canal:
Wedfog.com is dedicated to providing answers and clearing the “fog” about selection of a photographer for your wedding. In addition to FAQ’s and a very good photographer data base, they publish articles of interest to brides. An article I prepared about planning a wedding along North Carolina’s Crystal Coast was published on the site today. If you’d like to read it you can find it here.
I had the honor of having an article on the business of wedding photography published on the world wide web recently. The wedding-photographers-directory, a site dedicated to helping brides find answers about hiring photographers, publised my article on professionalism in wedding photography. If you’d like to give it a read check it out here!
I’d love to have brides past, present and future as fans on my R. D. Decker Photography facebook page, as friends on Myspace and as contacts on Flickr. Look me up and become a friend and/or fan if you’d like!
This is always a slow time of year for portrait and wedding photographers. This is a time for playing catch-up and for planning ahead. One of the things I always do is decide what areas of the business/craft I need to work on and plan which seminars and workshops to attend. Some of the things I want to work on this year include: Lighting – I love creative lighting, both artificial and natural. I can never learn enough about lighting. Posing – If you’ve been one of my clients you know I’m not a real hands-on… look here… chin-up kind of photographer. I like to gently lead/coax folks in to natural situtaions rather than direct. But knowing more about posing certainly cannot hurt. Post Processing – My goal is always to create and image that can stand alone, straight out of the camera. But I also realize that a good solid photo can sometimes be something much more with the correct post processcing techniques. Plus all photographers get requests to change reality a bit via Photoshop. So growing my knowledge and skills in post processing is a high priority for this year. As a rule, I prefer the hands-on nature of workshops over seminars, but both can be useful in the quest to improve. So far for 2008 I’ve decided to attend the following:
Tricoast Photography 3-Day Workshop
Tricoast Photography, headed by Mike Fulton, is quickly gaining recognition as one of the top wedding photography studios in the country. Their artistic use of light and digital post processing techniques is winning them awards and peer recognition throughout the industry. They are currently offering a limited number of 3-day, hands on workshops, each limited to 20 participants. Day one will include some classroom work on their approach to location lighting for wedding and bridal shoots, followed by several hours of practical application via actual shooting. The following two days will focus on post processing, workflow, marketing and all the other little things that have helped them build a successful photography business. I’ll be attending the workshop at Columbia, SC, April 21-23. More details can be found at their website, http://www.tricoastworkshops.com/. You can enjoy some of Tricoast’s amazing photos by visiting their main website, http://www.tricoastphoto.com/.
Captivated by the Light with Ed Pierce.
This seminar will be held May 6 th in Raleigh, NC. The live portion (Ed Pierce) will cover lighting as it pertains to digital photography. All attendees receive a set of DVDs with additional speakers making presentations on workflow, business and other interesting topics. Details can be found at the seminar website, http://www.edpierceseminars.com/learn.php.
Very AltF Workshop
John Michael Cooper is frequently referred to as “the Grandfather of Trash the Dress.” JMC has been called “one of the world’s ten best wedding photographers”, and is known for his edgey, less than traditional approach to wedding photography. I’ll be attending the Atlanta, GA workshop in July. The workshop will focus on their untraditional posing methods along with their use of natural and “very unnatural” lighting methods. There will also be some time spent on post processing/Photoshop techniques. You can learn more about the Very AltF workshop at the workshop’s website, http://veryaltf.com/. To view their images and learn more about the AltF studio check out http://www.altf.com/ (just be sure to tell your mother to close her eyes!).