What makes us different?

Looking beyond nice images on a website, and a good vibe.

So, you cruise around from one wedding photography website to another, and you notice that there isn't a lot of information.  Ten years ago when wedding photography websites started they were primarily one page, with four photos, an e-mail address and phone numbers.  Now most wedding photography websites have galleries, a bio page, and a blog.  Though it's a step in the right direction, it still doesn't answer a lot of questions you may have.  One big one that you probably haven't thought about is something we've been noticing a lot of the past couple years at weddings.  We've seen a lot of guests showing up to weddings we cover with some serious camera gear, a bit more than a casual guest would bring.  Though they are indeed invited guests, who are these people, and why are they acting like wedding photographers?  It's our belief that these are people who may go to a few weddings over a summer, and string together enough pictures to make a wedding photography website.  Though they don't have the skills, experience, and equipment necessary to photography your wedding, they will never let onto this.  Many brides go on a vibe and feel when booking a wedding photographer.  Nice people who seem confident, competent and caring are getting themselves in way over their heads more so than ever before, and the results very sad on so many different levels.  Worst of all, wedding photography is a completely unregulated industry.  You will have little recourse if things go wrong.  You can try your luck at small claims court, but what kind of value can you put on missed or poor images?   How can you even put a monetary value on it?   The problem with wedding photography it takes a lot of skill, talent, and experience to do it well.  It's a lot more involved than having a nice camera and a passion for photography.  So, looking beyond vibes and good feelings is the first step to booking the right wedding photographer for you.

Here's what we offer

Experience

After 11 years and eight hundred weddings we have learned a thing or two about wedding photography.   The most important thing is learning to anticipate moments before they happen and to be there, with the right gear ready to capture it as it happens.  Another things that is really important that really isn't talked about much by wedding photographers is the difference between capturing perfect moments and arranging perfect moments.  We don't walk up to the father of the bride during the father/daughter dance with an eye dropper to make fake tears rolling down his cheek.  This moment either happens or it doesn't.  Yet, we have so much experience of knowing how to take the elements given to us, and making a few suggestions to take what would be at most an okay picture and make it a great picture.  Sometimes it's as easy as moving closer to a window, or changing a stance.  Other times it takes extra equipment  which we not only have but know how to use.

When we ask you for your time to take photos at your wedding we realize your time is valuable. We realize that you would rather be spending your time with family and guest instead of taking pictures.  So when we ask you for some of your valuable time here's what you can expect from us.    

1. We understand you aren't used to being photographed.  You may have little to no experience in front of the camera, and you want to look as good if not better than you felt you look on your wedding day.  We have ideas in mind of how to make you look wonderful, and we can clearly explain these ideas.

2. We will be efficient with your time- We won't beat you up with long, exhausting photo sessions.  We won't keep you away from guests for extended periods of time. When we ask something of you we will let you know what we have in mind before we do it, and give you the right to refuse it or modify it with your ideas.

3. We will be sensitive to your needs-  Your wedding day is about you, it's not about us.  We aren't at your wedding to promote our agenda, or our needs.  We are there to do what you expect from us to  the best of our ability.  We know how to read people and situations very well.

4. We do things that have worked well for us in the past.   It's one of the benefits of experience is having a repertoire of ideas and abilities that are built over time.  It's having the ability to have multiple ideas and utilize them at a moments notice.  It's having the ability for a bridal couple to think of an idea an execute the idea on the spot.   It's not cookie cutter ideas, every wedding we photograph is very different looking.  It's really about summing up a situation, pulling from a portfolio of ideas and making magic happen.

To sum it up, we talk a lot about experience because this one of the most important things a wedding photographer can offer a bridal couple.   To photograph a wedding well it takes an advanced knowledge of reading people and situations, and of course photographic skills.  It takes a huge repertoire of ideas, excellent communication skills, passion for the craft,  a love for people, and an enormous amount of patience.  Others may lead you to believe that passion, a good camera, and some good Photoshop skills are all you need.   We don't believe this to be true.

Fun and creative photography, with a broad range of style

When we started off in 1997, the expectations of wedding photography were much lower.  It was all film, and large bulky medium format cameras back then.  We only used a certain amount of film back then for each wedding and thus each photo had to be compelling.  Worse yet, we wouldn't see the resulting image for three weeks after the wedding!   The goal was to really photograph good, clean, consistent weddings.  After a couple of years we figured out how to do this, but unfortunately become very bored with the process.  We hated having film budgets, and no matter how how creative we got, these old fashioned traditional albums ended up with the same predictable series of images.  Artistic images often don't work well in traditional albums.  It satisfied the mother of the bride, and the brides were happy enough, which is how we kept getting referrals for new clients.

The two biggest changes that lit our fire was digital cameras and magazine albums (flush mount albums).  Suddenly,  our artistic images had a well suited home for being displayed.   Having designed many of these albums we quickly learned that we needed to photograph weddings differently to take advantage of these albums layouts.   One thing that was most noteworthy is that we started offering albums that had page spreads range in size from small to up to 16x24 inches.  Suddenly, brides were evaluating our work with a lot more close up scrutiny than ever before.   Some say that with a good digital camera, photographic skills aren't as important as they used to be. We find it to be just the opposite.  Today with images being displayed at five times the sizes they used to be displayed, and with the very unforgiving nature of digital capture, photographic skills are far more important than ever before!

Our photographic style goes the range of exceptional portraiture to fun, captured moments.  We bring a lot of fun, positive energy to our weddings.   We are about working with the couple, having fun with them, and making the entire process as enjoyable as possible.   We interview our couple and take great notes about what it is that they are looking for from their wedding photography.  Our goal is to not only live up to their expectations, but exceed them!

A full range of choices

One of the things we've heard from our bridal couples that they have found annoying is that many photographers offer too few choices with their packages.  We offer five different lines of albums including:

Artisan Magazine Albums- These are our most popular albums, made in California with a lifetime warranty.  These albums are designed in house and beautifully display your wedding day images.  The sizes range from 10x10, 12x12.  They also can be ordered in smaller  replica album sizes for the parents.

The Fusion Package-Featuring the Artisan AI Magazine Albums.   Amazing quality at an amazing price!

Artisan Fine Art Series- Hand made albums from Italy.  These excellent albums range in sizes, page capacity and things such as paper choices and cover choices.  Simply amazing!

Traditional Albums- For the bride who is looking for a traditional layout album we offer albums from Renaissance and Leather Craftsmen.

Photographer Options

Do you need one or two photographers?  Do you need extended coverage?  Do you want a woman or a man as your primary photographer?   What type of style are you look for on your wedding day.  You don't have to feel limited in your choice for wedding photographers to only one guy with one style.  We have a small staff of very talented photographers of different abilities, both men and women.

Payment Options.

We accept Visa and MasterCard, checks,PayPal,  money orders, blue chip stamps, monopoly money, treasury notes and to some extent, PayPal.    It's $500 to hold your date, and the package has to be at least half paid off one month prior to your wedding date.

Website Viewing

One option we offer is to host your images on our website where your friends and family can view your images at their own speed. The website has a slide show feature plus an easy e-mailing feature where you can send exact links of images you think others would like to see directly to your friends and family.  If they place an order, it gets placed directly with us and we mail it directly to them,  and thus you are out of the loop!  Yeah! 

Day of coverage only

Album or no album, that is the question?  Let's face it, wedding photography is expensive, and maybe at this moment you don't have the funds to buy the album package you want.  What if you only want your images on a DVD for right now, and then, in the future when you have a different financial situation, order your dream album?  Would that work for you?  That works for us.  We have day of coverage only packages.

A serious, fulltime wedding photography business.

Picture this, you work out the plans of your wedding day with your photographer, and between the ceremony and reception you stop off at an Orange County Regional Park to take photographs.  You aren't five minutes into shooting when the ranger pulls up.  He asks to see your permit.   Your photographer of course doesn't have one.  Someone explains that it's your wedding day and kindly asks to let it go.  He says no and makes  you leave.    In order to get a permit your photographer needs a business license, and insurance which has Orange County clearly stated in such a way on the primary insurance document, has to pay the $150 permit fee,

The park rangers tell me that they do this over and over again all weekend.  Same thing at the beaches.   It's a learning experience for the photographer, and it sucks for you because your beautiful images you have envisioned just went out the window as you are forced to use some city park you quickly find with children running through the background. 

More and more, parks, beaches and even reception sites are demanding that your photographer is insured.   Many places demand proof of insurance before you can shoot on their facility.  If someone trips on photographic equipment, and the photographer gets sued, often times you will be named in the lawsuit as well.  After all it was your event, and your family has deeper pockets than the uninsured photographer.  Insurance is also important because there is often errors and omissions insurance as part of the coverage.  If you get a lousy photographer and decide to drag them to court, and win a judgment you may be shocked to learn that they won't pay because they have no money.  In the end you are spinning your wheels. 

Aside from insurance, it's great to call someone and have them answer the phone during the daytime.   We do this fulltime, and thus we aren't trying to put your orders together on nights and weekends.  It may not be that important now, but it is majorly important later on.

Going the extra mile!

There are so many areas where we can cut corners, but we don't.  We feel it's our responsibility to do the best job we possibly can for our clients.  Your wedding is important to us.  The thing we hear time and time again from our clients is how much they appreciate how hard we work for them.   Guests frequently come up and ask for our cards because they see how hard we work and want this same type of effort for their family or friends wedding.  We take our time to color adjust every image, and make sure exposures are perfect.  Every image in your album is worked on to make sure that it looks fantastic!  When you visit other studios, take not of all the shiny people you see in their albums.  You won't see those in our albums.   We want you to have an outstanding album that shows people at their very best!