A February Wedding

OK so I’m cheating! This wasn’t taken this February.
Or even last year or the year before.

These pictures were from 2006
I started doing weddings in 2005

Not too Shabby eh?

Now days I take pride in in a consistent level of pictures all throughout a several hundred picture output.
Back then… well I’m happy to share a pretty decent set. Perhaps not as copious, but still pretty good.

Perhaps this post goes to show that maybe what I have improved the most at is developing the pictures and doing edits.
There wasn’t Photoshop Lightroom back then.

This was also before I discovered (had enough money for) low light lenses, and therefore before low apertures and blurred backgrounds.
Just some posing, framing and my 18-70 kit lens.

But the experience was always the smiling Jarvie interaction and capturing who they were.
Did I do that Garrett?

Where they’re at

Garrett has since gone into the Film industry
Jill does a lot of photography herself.
They both do.
I’ve shared some tips in years past, but I’m not sure how far they’ve gone with it.

Garrett is one of the people I suggest to Brides looking for a videographer.
He traveled to California to shoot a wedding I took pictures at.

Garrett can be found on Twitter @garrett_film
His website is http://www.garrettgibbons.com/

They have a child that must actually be pretty big by now.
And they recently left Utah to live in Washington. Though filming can often get them out of state.

Re-Edits!

I took a few hours out of a late night to play around editing some old pictures… from the first camera the D70

So Gibbons family happy 4yr anniversary… enjoy the pictures.
They’re free for digital use wherever.
(Print them off of SmugMug if you want… here’s the Gallery of re-edits)

That goes for any of the old weddings for past couples, I’ll re-edit if there is a reason to.
Heck having 6 interns maybe I’ll take on any re-edits people have to throw our way.

Only 10 Months into Photography?

To those photographers and brides thinking wow all it takes is 6-12 months to be great… well, you didn’t see all the other pictures from the wedding day.
I think any photographer can take some good pictures with enough time and a decent amount of knowledge.

Where I’m at now is the ability to get things done on any schedule, any equipment, and facing any lighting.
And to do so with confident consistency.
And in the end to have a more numerous output of pictures at a higher standard.
The experience for the bride, groom, parents, and party is also much improved.

So yeah 10-20 good pictures from the first year of shooting is pretty cool, but I just want to keep it in prospective, so no one be too complacent with where they’re at.
I’ve certainly never been complacent to stick at the same level I’m at… Always Learning and trying to get better.

I’d love to take credit for it. But really what can I say?
It happened all on it’s own and I was simply there with the know-how to capture it in it’s fullness.

It’s funny because I went through my motions and I was outwardly calm but I knew what was happening was special and I was a giddy little school boy inside.

I posted a preview a few weeks ago of the pictures. Many of the brides friends wondered where we got the backdrop.

I had to play with the WB a little because there comes a point where the camera is fooled… it must believe that nothing can normally be that color and wants to soothen it.
But i told that camera, this is real baby, bring out all the color you can.

You know it was something special when the toast at the reception 3 weeks later they make analogies to the sunset.
If your life is anything like that sunset on your wedding day… well it’s gonna be something special

You can see here during the ceremony the sun was setting and it took some time for the color to really expload a few minutes later.

So what’s our lesson as photographers: be prepared to take advantage of amazing things.
It was a wonderful moment for me… one of the best. But had I been ill prepared it could have been amongst the worst experiences of my photography.

So what’s the lesson for the Photograph-ees: You can’t just expect things to happen, you need to be willing and creative enough to put yourself in positions where things can happen, if fate smiles down on you as well.
And if possible pick a photographer that can help play with that fate just a bit more and improve those odds.

This post is inspired by my friend the queen of detail shots.

(Above) – I really enjoyed taking picture of her necklace. She loved it and wanted pictures.
When someone really likes something during a wedding it behoves us to make sure there are good pictures.

And of course to add the ring to the mix.
Me testing out my new macro lens.

She loved the mirror and creatively asked for a few pictures like this.

The other stuff in the jewelry box.

These are two of my favorite pics of the day

Small wedding party lit sparklers and toasted there at the park.

There’s certainly many more detail pictures on the full gallery.

The following are mostly details from the eclectic house they stayed at in Del Mar, Ca.

Things like Shoe Gardens and random pieces of art all throughout the house and in the yard.

Don’t ask me about half this stuff… it’s totally random.

I love this detail because it shows off the amazing sunset that day.

Do not adjust your monitor… what you’re seeing is real.
So real in fact, I haven’t even gotten to editing this one.

This is really what it looked like for a few minutes.

These are straight out of the camera (well with a loop through Lightroom to convert from DNG to JPG for the blog)

Can you believe this was the backdrop for their actual ceremony? This was a minute or two after they said their I Do’s

This one was taken with a warmer white balance on the camera.

jan 2 – Las Vegas

Jan 16 – SLC

Jan 30 – Denver

Feb 14 – SLC

March 7 – Ogden

March 28 – Idaho Falls

April 2 – SLC

April 18 – Elko NV

Apr 22 – Utah County

April 23 – Bountiful

April 25 – Portland

May 1 – Bountiful

May 2 – SLC

May 7 – Logan Utah

May 15-16 – Alaska

May 22 – SLC

May 22 – SLC

May 22 – SLC

May 26 – Arizona

May 30 – NYC

June 5 – Bountiful

June 20 – Sacrament0 CA

June 23 – Utah County

June 26 – Draper UT

Jun 27 – Los Angeles

July 11 – Alaska

Jul 23 – SLC

July 25 – SLC

Aug 4 – SLC

Aug 7 – Utah County – Midway

Aug 8 – Utah County

Aug 13 – SLC

Aug 14 – SLC

Aug 15 – Utah County

Aug 18 – SLC

Aug 20 – Los Angeles

Aug 22 – SLC

Sep 9 – Norther Utah

Sep 15 – Draper UT

Sep 19 – West Valley UT

Sep 25 – Draper UT

Oct 1 – SLC

Oct 10 – Utah County

Nov 28 – Hawaii

Dec 21 – SLC/Bountiful

NOT PICTURED >>> YET

Dec 29 – Idaho Falls

There’s overcast and then there’s White Overcast… where the sky is pure white with no definition to it and it provides no unique or warm glow like some types of cloudy days. So to say it was challenging is correct.

As you can tell I’ve really been loving twilight these days.
I searched around for the area with the most frost on the trees in bountiful.
Some random country road.

We pulled up to the location and it just kinda occurred to me that the car had lots of light power… why not use it.
I know it’s nothing terribly ground breaking but it was the first time for me.

I used the car lights on all the twilight/night pictures.

Stay tuned for the reception and luncheon pictures… I tried a new lighting style that I’ve never done before and they turned awesome.

My Last Wedding > Is the new standard

I view my most recent wedding as a standard for things to come.
Let me explain why and how.

What I did to make this possible

A couple months back I was so busy that I opted to raise my prices in a deliberate attempt to have more time.
More time for my photo projects.
More time to have a real life.
More time to focus on each photo shoot.
More time to UP my standards.

And so far it’s worked.
It’s been weird to not book as many photo-shoots, I’ve learned to deal with it.
I’m learning how to fill in all that available time.

New Pricing – Thoughts About

I didn’t want to simply raise costs just because, but I wanted to raise them at the same time raise the quality of the product.

Over the years I’ve raised my prices many times… back in 2005 with the first few weddings I shot for as low as $250 for a wedding.

I didn’t just raise costs because I wanted more money, but because I felt the product was worth that, because I had worked hard at improving with talent, time and equipment.

Now I finally have pretty much every tool I’ve wanted for a long long time.

Weddings I’m searching for

This Hawaii wedding is also an example of the types of weddings I want to focus on working on.
Nicely organized weddings, with people who are very interested in a higher level of photography.
I want to be dealing with brides who don’t simply want A photographer but are in search of A great quality photographer.

I understand for some photography isn’t their #1 concern.
And I also understand there are many who really want great pictures but can’t usually afford them.

I want to still be in an affordable range… as a bargain for an educated shopper who can understand what I’m giving when they compare it to other options.

I want to deal with people that stretch to reach the cost (even if i have to help them with the cost) so that they’re appreciative of the product.
But I also want to deal with people that understand the bargain.
I am in Utah where the wedding photography costs are way down in comparison to many other parts of the country.
I suppose this is why I travel a lot.

Give more

If you compare straight up prices it can be deceptive.
But when someone sees I don’t charge by the hour and they could have me for 10hrs + on a wedding day.
And when they see how many pictures I typically give to a client.
When they recognize things like how I review and edit Every picture I give to them.
Many of the intangibles such as the experience which will help me deal with any possible situation that might come up for a wedding.
Or the demeanor and attitude that helps me deal with weddings perfectly. Not too formal, not too informal.
Not just the quality of the picture… but the feel of the picture.
The speed with which the sessions go… not rushed and not dragging along.

Consistency

I’ve always prided myself on the consistency of my weddings.
I felt confident telling clients that they were assured of great wedding pictures.
It wasn’t hit and miss. It was hit after hit.
And sometimes of course there were some big hits.

New Standards

Yes I think Hawaii is one of the best weddings I’ve done, but I think of it as a leveling up.
I view of the quality of what I plan on doing from here on out.

The Hawaii wedding was an example of a good balance of nice portrait artistic shots that still speak of the in-the-moment interaction of the subjects along with a bunch of photojournalistic views of the candid moments throughout the day.

The Hawaii wedding is an example of how to work fast and yet in a way how I’m slowing down to work on more dynamic pictures with more dynamic lighting.
Not just more pictures… but more memorable pictures.

If one reads the previous post about the wedding you’ll see all they did to make their wedding pictures a success and not all the time I’ll be put in a situation like that, but the hope is I’ll attract brides who are willing to work with me to create wonderful pictures for their wedding.

I work with a lot of students and they aren’t often known for their connections, experience or creativity… but I know there are plenty of exceptions to the rule and I hope and I’ll see what I can do to I attract that audience.

Having good equipment and more people willing to assist me will help me to extend my shooting to later in the evening and work with that dynamic light and also create more dynamic lighting situations at all times of the day.

Tips for brides – in search of a photographer

I’m a firm believer in NOT just raising prices because you CAN but because you’re upping your Quality and you SHOULD

If you’re a bride be aware that some photographers spend a lot of time (more than learning photography) on business practices and sometimes those practices are deceptive. They spend more time learning how to earn more while giving less.

I’m not stating that it’s the standard… I’m just saying it’s out there.

Take a good look at what they do.
There are many intangibles and sometimes the person referring you is only doing so because that’s the only person they know.

Some things to consider are their experience in dealing with things that might happen.
Sometimes if you want a less expensive photographer you’ll find some amazing gems for less and they will be perfect for you… but they might not be able to handle every situation, if the wedding is standard with no suprises it’ll work out like a charm.
Sometimes that’s the difference for the price, the probability of success…

Photographer and the Baseball Player – an analogy

Excuse me a moment for a sports analogy. A professional baseball player isn’t signed onto a team because he can hit a baseball further than another player or because the way they catch or pitch the ball is more visually appealing than another player. They’re hired because they can do these things with more CONSISTENCY than the other play. They can hit homeruns more often than the other person, they make fewer mistakes, they strike out more people and they hit with more consistency when it counts.
They can’t just perform in batting practice they have to perform in a game… they need to get hits when other runners are in scoring position.

Just like a wedding… it’s one thing to take great planned and set up shots for the portfolio but it’s different when there’s a very difficult time limit. When something doesn’t go according to plan, the photographer needs to think fast on their feet and come up with the best scenario for that situation.

Spending a bit more time – Editing

I’m known for my editing.
Not that I’m the best photo editor around.

I’m known for the efficiency with how I edit.
My style is to give insane amounts of pictures AND to give them all edited to the client.
And to do it quickly spending sometimes mere seconds on a picture (it’s efficient to get it done well in camera)

There are other photographer styles where they do fewer pictures and spend a ton of time on each picture.
Or where they let the client choose which pictures to edit.

I’ve chosen the choose a little of Everything… then I don’t have to worry about forgetting to take a picture or give them a picture.
It’s a very hard style for most to choose because it takes so much time…
But I’ve worked on so many pictures and improved my efficiency that I’ve been able to get done with them fast and get the pictures back to the client comparatively fast.

Now I’ll be going at the same fast pace (with yet more experience and technique) but I can now go back through some of the pictures and think again if I made it the best it can be.

Also working with good interns/assistants I’ll be able to focus my energies towards what I’m best at and let them fill in other areas that I’ve trained them to do well.

Learn More

Sometimes photographers can get stuck in a rut… doing the same thing over and over.
You can see that this can happen in any job in any field.

Taking time to learn from others or experiment more can help to keep refreshing what you’re doing.

One of my big projects is working on the All The Photographers Blog – doing so seems to be giving me tons of new and exciting ideas from hundreds of different photographers around the world.

Focus via Fewer

Doing fewer weddings also seems to mean that I get to refresh myself before each wedding.
Let my creativity out in more power packed bunches instead in a constant slew of non-stop shoots.

Don’t get me wrong I have progressed tons when I have done tons of weddings right in a row.
It pushed me in it’s own way to come up with unique stuff.
This is just another method
And I’m sure there will still be months where I do lots of weddings like in the past couple of years.

One thing I did earlier this year was to split my attention… I rate the pictures and spend More time on the better pictures.
I didn’t cut out the other “filler” pictures but I put them in at the end still.
If I had to edit in depth everyone of the 850 Hawaii pictures i gave to the bride I would be so worn out none of them would probably be as dynamic.
The cost would also be too much for most brides.
But in the end I still do spend time editing each picture… just that some get more time than others.

Rest assured

Rest assured… but don’t rest too much… if you want great pictures you’re part of the equation as well, after all you’re the subject of the pictures.
It needs to happen on both sides of the lens.
I’ll do my part and by “rest assured” I mean to be confident in the consistency.

I have every intention of making things great and I know i can do it every time.

Some new examples from the last wedding

A couple weeks back I did a recap from Hawaii – I didn’t go through all the pictures from that day 2000+
But now I have and I’ve finished editing them… and I’ll share a few I don’t think I shared in the recap

See the FULL GALLERY – over 800 pictures… but don’t worry I but the highlights first so you don’t have to look through all of them to see what the wedding was all about. Unless of course you’re the bride or were part of the wedding.

This is my recap of the wedding pictures.

There were many many pictures taken that day, but I was able to skim through them and pick out some of my favorites so I could do a recap here.

It’s gonna be a long post because I have lots of pictures to share.
And also a few words about how to make every wedding this great.

Perfectly planned

I really had a great time doing this wedding.
Being in Hawaii certainly didn’t hurt.
They were also a great looking couple, had a great family, picked a wonderful place for the wedding and reception.
They had everything planned out very well and that makes my job so much easier and makes for better pictures.

So if a future bride is reading this.

Please note that it just doesn’t naturally happen with no effort.

What to do?
This bride seemed to almost plan the day around wonderful picture opportunities.
From the fans and the parisols the brides mades used to flying her stylist over from her island.

She seemed to pick the location based on her own estimation and advice from the hotels as to which one had the best photography spots.
And she picked well.

So therefore… pick a great place to get married or time to travel to a spot on that day.

She even organized the banquet/reception to end in time to have her be able to do photography at sunset.
Most people seem unwilling to do that sometimes planning a reception during sunset.
Perhaps it helped since she had a captive audience since 70 people flew from another island.

I can’t and won’t just pull you away from whatever you’re doing to get sunset pictures.
But I will be willing to do them if that desire comes from you.

I’ll do my best to take amazing pictures. But if you aren’t willing to go the extra mile with a smile… well… you understand.

She got tons of pictures during the reception that she will be using for several projects that would have not been possible unless she had 2 people helping organize those shots. I could have done them but not effeciently in the time that it needed to, because we had the help of others to cut down drastically on the time and have me simply doing the shots, what I do best.
Besides she planned a banquet/formal reception which allow for better pictures than a “lined” reception.
The program allowed for great pictures as well as the nice decorations.

Finally they were troopers.
I pride myself in making the shoots fun and creative.
But they were more than willing to make the pictures happen.

Those who are more interested in and excited about pictures will more often get the better pictures.
We photographers feed off of that energy.

They didn’t just wait for instructions (slowing the process down) but they put emotion into their pictures.
And they acted quickly to help utilize effectively the short time we had.
I’m not saying they were the best actors or characters I’ve photographed. In fact I did most of the ideas, but it just happened that I was on a roll. but I think their attitude played a big part and the way we interacted.

Never once did I hear… “But I’m not photogenic”, or “I don’t look good in pictures”
It’s our job to make good pictures and I’d like to think I do a good job and everyone is always pleased, so if you just trust us and just relax and have fun.
Remember we thrive with the emotion of the moment.

Having tons of time to shoot isn’t the key, it’s a team effort to act effectively with the time given.

(Above) Two poses they made happen entirely on their own. The prep dancing they didn’t even know about.

The photographer and those being photographed should both be creative together working to make things happen.
The emotion and feeling of the picture needs to flow from them.
I tend to put them in the poses that match the mood coming from them and from the light of the day.

Even though I scouted out the location in advance to see what could work, we still were open to any possibility that night.
We had to roll with the time and situation given to us.

Just exactly how the light would be hitting at the moment we passed by the location we were walking around.

And it all went down perfectly. And part of that perfection comes from moving fast and taking advantage of every picture we had time for. But not limiting ourselves to expectations of pictures and then not having time to make them happen.
Having wants and desires is great but we need to be able to roll with the flow and settle for the best pictures possible.
If she had wanted a picture that took 20 minutes to travel to or create then we would have missed out on soo much.

There was trust that I would do my job but it wasn’t a blind relience that it only depended on me and that the subject didn’t have to do anything nor did they even have to care.

Hawaii sure didn’t hurt, nor did their good looks of the bride and groom, nor Dustin assisting me that evening with lighting and bags.
And creating and inviting to more opportunities is very helpful.

But the moral of the story is…
It’s partnership of creativity, we all work together to make great pictures.

More pictures after the jump
or more pictures on smugmug

Hey look!!
I used a lensbaby on an actual photo-shoot.

These are wedding detail shots from two weddings.
Both were pictures of rings.

That’s not to say I probably couldn’t use it even more and get some really fun results.
But I just haven’t… many times the situation wasn’t right or I didn’t have enough time.

Focusing takes a lot longer so the situation had to be right.

Taking pictures of rings are cool… because they don’t move.
I did these without a tripod and it took a while.
I was using the macro filter adapters, and focusing and the depth of field was so narrow it was really hard to nail down.

I ogirinally bought the Lensbaby because I was trying to purchase the Nikon 105 macro and pictureline was out of stock that day.
Therefore I used the lensbaby to get Macros.

Next wedding I’m taking the G11 and testing it out to get some macros (details)

May I add I had a second generation lensbaby years ago… tried it on one wedding and never used it since.
The LensBaby composer is much more user friendly in my opinion.

To learn more about LensBaby go here

This is probably the most iconic LensBaby look… with the blurred edges.

First wedding that I used it on was the following

Let’s start with the ending. Those are always lots of fun

They got married at the Draper temple.

The reception was at Thanksgiving Point

When we all figured out after like 20 minutes of shooting that they didn’t want to be told what to do, like it seems everyone else expects of me.
We started to really have fun and just do some crazy and fun stuff and I was just there to document it and tell them when something wasn’t working.

For instance on the last two they just posed differently after every shot. Believe it or not they had no idea of what the other was doing.

It was only the second time I’ve been to a hair styling appointment.
As you might guess I was using the Lensbaby in this shot

I actually primarily communicated with the mother on this wedding. She called, she booked and told me when and where to be.
She herself did the engagement pictures which were most excelent.
And so I’m proud to say that she was very happy with the pictures which put a big smile on her face.

Thanks Sheila!

The hand in the air just makes me laugh… lots of other good faces too.

This type of shot has become my “Thing” for each leaving shot.

I do this temple perspective shot a lot but I don’t’ do the door knob thing much… partly because I don’t get it.
Maybe i’m just not as big a door knob fan as other people.

Hungry Yet?

I realized I don’t post a lot of my detail shots.

I love my 14-24 on a full frame. I just put my hand up and clicked.

I shoot kids!

Oh… BTW… he’s not even the groom. haha

This is an old wedding phoot back from June.

I’m working a lot of getting the August weddings edited, so I thought I’d throw in an old shoot that has already been done.

Enjoy

To view the full gallery go to http://jarviedigital.smugmug.com/gallery/8936121_reGjq

Here’s another photo shoot I did about a month ago and they’ve since gotten married
It was in a week or two span that every bridals i did she had the groom come along as well.

It’s a break from tradition but it seems that they specially enjoy it if they’re not big fans of getting pictures taken by themselves, or if they want pictures up at their reception.

To view the full gallery go to http://jarviedigital.smugmug.com/gallery/8942191_9W2ay

We came back later in the day… Thus no one around.
I think i’ve seen every schedule possible for a wedding day… but I must admit this was the first time I took group pictures and then left for the luncheon and then came back for the couple pictures.
I liked it… a bit less rush.

For those that didn’t hear it last time… Sacramento LDS temple is probably one of my favorite temples to shoot at!

My philosophy on group pictures is: Let them decide, I’ll just make it look good.
I don’t want to put groups into situations they think are gonna be terribly cheesy.
But if they think of it themselves they’re probably good with it.

This way I get new ones each time and if they’re a more traditional group I’m not putting them into some elaborate set up they won’t even appreciate when a straight line is probably all they want.

Sometimes the good ol’ fashion jump is amongst the best… and this is amongst the most entertaining of them… as far as faces go.

To view the entire album go to http://jarviedigital.smugmug.com/gallery/8840079_qymoP

Isn’t this a cool location to take group pictures?

Thought it would be nice to put the two of these together with the engagements I just posted of them

Are they technically called “Formals” since the groom was there too? I’m not sure

But since I wasn’t going to be around for the wedding (conflict of weddings) while i was there I did these.

Yes I know… It looks somewhat fake eh?

We did shoot middle of the day because I went 4-wheeling later that day.
So I was happy for the chance to get into some shade.

I do like that she had these flowers… they look real don’t they?!

They really liked these types of plants… I thought they were awesome.
I put the f stop up high to catch a bit more of the sun and of course flash to light up the foreground (them)

To view the full gallery, go to http://jarviedigital.smugmug.com/gallery/8945147_58bsd

View the rest of the post for more tips etc

I swear this is a real scene… no backdrop or nothing.
Thanks to Carleen for helping with the flash… It was a bit hard for my flash to reach her flash 20+ft away to trigger it.
I’m waiting for pocketwizard flex to make it to Nikon.
But until then the CLS on Nikon rocks

Again I remind you… middle of the day.
Alaska has lots of flying bugs like flies and mosquitos during the summer. FYI

I just made sure their faces were in such a direction they wouldn’t get bad shadows… and they didn’t have to look in this picture so no squinting etc.

She liked her parisol and her fan and her glovey thingies.

The 14-24 of a full frame makes it look like that one picture i took while up on a bench… but not so… just hold above the head and it just makes things look like you’re way up high like 10ft

Though the tempature wasn’t super high the sun was strong and so we through them into a little bit of shade we found near the river (or right)

Seriously, had you not know… would you have guessed Alaska?

The place is called Hatcher Pass