David Rich Photography

Sharing the Joy of your Wedding Day

2011-12-23T04:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas is upon us (you hadn't noticed?) and that means no weddings for me until January - I keep December for family, and the kids have started to arrive - with 6 adult kids and 8 grandchildren, plus all the spouses, girlfriends, mates and partners, who has time to take on more work? If I did my wife would accuse me of doing weddings to avoid real work!

Something to think about in this giving season: your wedding means the world to you, but it could be very meaningful for others, too - even people you have never met... last year, the portion of our fees that we set aside for charity contributed $2800 to the Salvation Army; sponsored two African and two Asian children, dug two wells and bought two goats for third world villagers, and helped support victims of the New Zealand earthquake and the Queensland floods. For five of the last 6 years we were also able to sponsor a national photography competition in support of Mental Health Month.

All this is made possible by the fees you pay for your wedding photography; we are grateful for the opportunities you give us to help others, and today, just two days before Christmas, I want to acknowledge what you have made possible and thank all our brides, grooms, parents and friends. Your special day has made other lives better, safer and healthier.

In 2012 the major recipient of your support will be the GROW Residential Rehabilitation program. This is GROW Residential's 30th year of caring mutual live-in community support for people struggling to overcome both mental illness AND drug dependency. That is special: many psychiatric services refuse to accept mentally ill people if they have a drug problem, while drug rehabs turn away people who have a mental illness.. yet the majority of people have both! So great praise for GROW.

We are hoping to contribute $2500 to the community over the next 12 months while still meeting our commitments to Child Sponsorship and relief programmes and the Salvos; with most of the first half of 2012 booked already, and wedding bookings coming in steadily for the June-November period, we have high hopes of meeting that goal

So, please accept the warmest wishes from David Rich Photography and Practicaps Weddings. May your Christmas be a time of joy, and may your upcoming wedding day be a life changing event for you and for somebody else, too..

Better than a wedding Album?

2011-05-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

I've recently updated my website - well, really, my packages and pricing structure. I discovered that the majority of my clients were moving away from the Black Label and Platinum packages and opting instead for the Coffee Table Package. Then they were adding features from the higher priced collections. The very personal package they finished with was usually a bit less expensive than the Platinum or Black Label, but not that much...

It is obvious that tastes have changed, and in restructuring my packages, I found ways to do just what my brides were doing - designing high-end wedding packages for less money. The average price drop is about $500 compared with last year. That's pretty cool - in a market where many wedding photographers are having to increase fees, to be able to offer a lower price without compromising quality or losing money is a real win-win.

But just what were my brides building their packages around? Albums and Photo-books!

"Wall art" (canvas prints and "splits", framed enlargements and so on) is still very popular, especially the wonderful prints embedded directly into metal surfaces. But individual postcard prints and unframed prints up to A4 are not valued as they once were. And iPads and digital photo frames with wedding photos loaded are just not attracting the same interest as they were. They may again, and I still have them to offer, but the Album is the thing.

Personally, I love the large format traditional album. Not the thing you stick pictures in with a pot of glue or some photo corners... A beautiful matted books with a carefully laid out set of photos in different sizes and formats is just so impressive with its embossed covers and thick, thick pages - you can feel the quality.

They can be expensive though - partly because of the materials needed to make such a heavy album last through years of handling, but also because they are all hand made and assembled. Every mask on every page has to be cut, the photos printed to fit (often at non-standard sizes) and the entire book then has to be assembled and sewn. We photographers don't make life easier for the album makers when we insist on designing highly individual albums for you.

Coffee Table books are somewhat less expensive. Since they are made on a printing press, with their images printed directly to the page in any format and layout that the designer desires, assembly is reduced to final binding and sewing. That cuts the price considerably, but the very best of these is still designed to last a lifetime, and the types of paper, the cover options and the quality of their spill and UV protection sets them apart from the many on-line and department store DIY copies. You would never mistake one of these for a $100 make-your-own-picture-book.

There are other options, too - Hybrid books that offer true, high gloss 1600 dpi printing on pages that lay flat when opened to display your wedding photos nearly a metre wide; "Duo" albums that mix press printed and matted photos in the same album, and metal or crystal or acrylic covers to complement the more traditional photo, linen and leather covers..

Is there anything better than a wedding album? I don't think so, and it seems our clients agree.

New Locations for Wedding Photography

2011-04-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

"Where should we go for our wedding photos?" Sounds like an easy question for a wedding photographer, and in some ways it is, but if you want to keep you pictures fresh, you really need to tailor your locations to your couples. You need to get to know them first. Thing is, it's often one of the first things they want to know, almost a test question from one of those "what to ask your wedding vendor" booklets.

I usually name a couple of possible locations, then ask if they have looked at any they like or seen any pictures they can see themselves in and try to refine (or expand) the choices from there -

Very often though, I need to go and see. What is in the local area, how do the travel times fit in with the venues for the ceremony and the reception, and are there any booking requirements or fees involved. It isn't unusual for me to have to do this while the client is still deciding between me and another photographer, which was the case this week. As I write this, I have traveled about 100 Km and made calls to four organisations (2 councils, a university and a private garden) to find out if their venues are available on the required date, and how much they charge.

I have passed the information on to the couple, although I don't know yet if I have the job - I may well be making life easier for the competition... but on the other hand, it builds my database and I have had a very enjoyable time photographing the best of those venues. It is an absolutely beautiful public park with ancient trees, memorial gardens, shaded walkways, a military section with canon, 25 pounders and mortar launchers (my potential groom is a part-time soldier). Great character and variety and with the right aspect re the sun for the time of the post-wedding shoot.

I never consider my unpaid time scouting for venues or negotiating with the people who manage venues wasted. I always learn something of value, often make good contacts, and come away a little better prepared for that inevitable question "Where should we go for our wedding photos".

Post Script - they went a competitor who also provides video. That's OK - I win about 70% of the jobs I quote for, and I know the photographer they chose - she will do a wonderful job for them. Now I wonder where they will go for the location photos?

Some more thoughts on Style in Wedding Photography

2011-04-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

I’m a Wedding Photographer because it is what I love to do. I have been taking photographs for a very long time - it effects the way I see things: weddings keep my vision fresh. The technical side of image making is second nature now, leaving me free to concentrate on the outcome I want to achieve instead of on the equipment or the techniques I need to achieve it. A photographer's style can flow naturally from this interaction between experience, vision, technique and equipment; more often it seems to come from a conscious effort to be different from other photographers...

So what is the Practicaps style of photography? I tend to be more interested in expressing your style than mine, and I school my students and assistants to stop thinking about their photography and concentrate on putting themselves into the mindset of their subjects. Why should the bride or groom be expected to passively accept the photographers’ vision?

This is about relationship, so as we get to know one another, the approach I take to a wedding is going to come closer and closer to who the bridal couple are, how they see themselves, and what their wedding day means to them.

My own web site includes five different galleries highlighting some popular photographic styles. Most Brides and Grooms opt for a mixture of photographs, with one style predominating, but there is always something that sets each wedding apart, and the "style" has to bend to the couple, not the other way around.

Photojournalistic Photography as represented in my Relaxed/Casual gallery has been strongly promoted in recent years. Some photojournalistic wedding photographers shy away from the Classical/Formal photos shown in the second gallery, insisting that only candid photos should be included in their work. We believe some “staged” or directed photography has a place in even the most relaxed weddings; for instance, the group photo with your parents that is for their wall or album rather than for your own.

Storybook Weddings are wonderfully romantic. They can evoke true emotion, and we love to photograph them. Yours might be a themed wedding, which this style is ideally suited to showcase.

Finally, the unconventional, even quirky weddings are great fun and very memorable - they need a photographer who is really in tune with the couple, one who can join in the fun without losing sight of the fact that what underlies the "quirkiness" is the true commitment of soul mates who understand each other deeply and share something quite special.

Whatever the style of photography you decide on, there are moments throughout the day where something extra can be brought to the day by the use of special photographic techniques and editing. Our fifth gallery is a small sampler of these special effects. Wide angle effects, black and white conversions, unexpected angles, motion effects, soft focus, spot colour... when they are right for the photo, a skilled photographer has the the knowhow and the equipment to make them work.

I'd enjoy your feedback of this blog and on the others in the Style series - please look in on the galleries and visit Vimeo where you will find a series of movies demonstrating the topics from these blogs.

Saving Your Wedding Photos After the Floods

2011-01-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

Australia is in flood. Much of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania are inundated, and while the cleanup has started in many towns, in others the waters continue to rise. And as ever, faced with the potental loss of all their possessions, people escape clutching their precious photographs and wedding albums.

CDs and DVDs do not do well in a flood. Layers separate, surfaces are pitted by contaminants in the water, and they are scratched too easily... The readable surface of DVDs have to be kept clean and scratch free, but the most vulnerable side of a disk is the label side.

That’s right - it's because the label side is closest to the reflective layer underlying the recording layer, critical to the functioning of the disk. Only a thin lacquer coating protects it. The read side, on the other hand, is protected by a thick coat of plastic designed to resist scratching and finger marks.

If you have managed to salvage you photo disks from the flood, you can clean the read (shiny) side by wiping from the center outwards with a mild soap and water solution, or a cleaning solution made for the purpose; a lint-free cloth will usually clean off any dirt. You have to wipe gently, and from the center outwards. Don't scrub and don't work in circles; go from the middle all the way out to the edge.

Unlike prints, you should not immerse the disks in water. There are special kits available that will repair some scratches, especially on the read side. They cost from $10 to $30 dollars at record stores, video game stores, and computer stores. They usually include cleaning solutions and a mild abrasive for polishing out scratches on the read side.

Unfortunately, none of these help with the label side, and may make matters worse if used on the label, which is where most of the flood damage is likely to have occured.

Apart from the proximity to the read layer, any damage to the label side makes the disk unstable, unreadable and may damage your drive if you try to use it.

If you have cleaned your disks and still can’t see your pictures, contact a specialist, because some images may be salvageable. It isn't a DIY job, but professional file retreival can sometimes get back some of the files that represent your photos.

If you have prints you are in a much more secure position, especially if you have them in a traditional photo album. No matter how much photo albums appear to be damaged by mud and water, don't throw away your memories... photos can be saved!

There are slightly different steps you need to take, depending on how your photos were stored:

Method 1 for individual prints loose in a drawer or in the traditional shoe box:

Fill the bath or sink and put them in fresh water; keep wet until you can rinse them off one by one. Change the water frequently to dilute any chemicals in the water. Don’t be tempted to use hot water, or even warm water - it can soften the emulsion or separate the photo from its backing paper.

As soon as you can, rinse each photo separately, taking care not to rub - you can easily remove the softened image, or at least, scratch it badly - use a sponge and clean them under the water.

Lay the prints out to dry as you go, face up on sheets of kitchen towel or butcher’s paper and allow to air dry. If you can’t do this indoors, make rure you keep them out of the sun and preferably where the wind won’t get at them: you don’t need more dirt blowing onto the drying prints and you certainly don’t want them to blow away.

Method 2 for Matted and Dry-Mount Albums:

Fill a large container like a bath with fresh water - the more space your albums and prints have to swim, the better. Put the saturated albums or bundles of waterlogged photos into water as soon as possible. Don't let them dry out or they will stick together, which makes life harder for you.

Your pages and individual photos will gradually separate in the water over the next few hours. Don't rush it. Be patient and let the mud and rubbish float out. Try to resist the urge to force them apart.

Even if you have to leave them overnight the soaking won't harm pictures printed on photographc paper, and although ink jet prints may be a bit more vulnerable, digital photo papers can also withstand prolonged soaking. Remeber that "real" photos are soaked for hours in chemical baths and washed in water as part of the devopment process - all you are doing is givng them an extra bath to remove impurities added by the flood waters.

Once the photos have separated and look clean, gently wipe them with a sponge to remove any remaining grit. Do it without removing them from the water, and do it gently.

As you remove each photo from its bath, wash it again in a separate bowl of clean water. Rinse off then place on folded clean paper towels or butcher’s paper (face up) and leave them to dry in a shady spot, not in direct sunlight.

In an hour or two your photos should have dried out. They will soon be ready to remount into new albums or photo frames.

Method 3 for Slip-in Albums, “Magnetic” albums and Photo Frames:

While these albums and glass fronted frames may seem to offer more protection, the photos in them cannot dry out adequately and they will soon sucumb to rot and mould; they will then be almost impossible to save.

Open frames and remove the prints. If the frame includes a mat (the cardboard inner frame) it will probably have prevented the print from sticking to the glass - it is supposed to be attached to the print by one edge only, and should be very easy to remove; if not, leave it attached - in fact, if anything is adhereing to the photo, especially the glass, place it in a bath of water along with the photo as in Method 2.

Plastic sleeves and magnetic albums (where the photo sticks to the paper and is covered by a sheet of plastic) are the most difficult to deal with.
For the sleeves, you will need a razor blade to carefully cut away the edges of the plastic pocket. If you can’t slip the photo from the sleeve, try to remove the plastic from the back of the picture so that the clean water can penetrate and eventually loosen it from the front of the sleeve.

A magnetic album has strips of repositional adhesive on the page, but over time it tends to become permanent, and the plastic cover bonds with the print. It may be possible to partially lift the plastic to let the water begin to soak into the paper, but be careful not to damage the photos when you do this. If the page is thick enough, a very fine kniife can be used to split the page at least part way to facilitate clean water getting into the paper.

General

While it is fine to let prints soak in clean water, the longer it takes to start the process, the less chance there is to save your photos. Placing them in large paper bags in a refrigerator can help to slow down the growth of moulds and preserve the photos until you can get to work on saving them.

Never blow dry wedding or other precious phots, and don’t be tempted to put them in the microwave!

There are a number of generous photo labs who are offering to repair wedding, anniversary and other precious photos damaged in the Australian floods free of cost. If you need to contact one, send me an e-mail.

Giving Away the Farm

2011-01-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

If you don't like moaners, don't read today's post, because I am going to have a whinge!

Many wedding photographers provide their clients DVDs with the image files from their wedding day - many do not, and some will supply them for a fee.

Photographers who never offer files on a disk, or who charge for the files, tend to be highly respected professionals. Men and women with really impressive reputations, amazing talent and great skill. They know something that you may not have realised - they know that you do not really care much about their skill, talent or experience - you just want some photos! But still, their Names - and ultimately, your satisfaction - depends on you receiving photographs prepared, printed and presented with the individual care that their reputation is built on.

They also know that it doesn't matter how hard they worked for you or good their photography is, the photos people see on Facebook or in a packet of prints that you hand around to your friends is their best advertisement. They don't want a stack of 20cent prints in a department store photo album to be the measure of their skill and efforts!

A photographer whose only commitment is to provide a set of files on a disk has a different mind set. How the pictures turn out is not their concern. It is your responsibility and and they don't much care where you get them done. They work cheap, and count on low price and ignorance to keep them in business.

Of course, they will do their best to ensure you have good pictures... the trouble is, good pictures are pictures taken with an understanding of how the photos will eventually be used. The file burnt to a disk may print well for a small book, but be useless as an enlargement - good for Internet viewing but poor in a flushmount album, acceptable in a digital album, but not work in a traditional album and so on.

Specifying "high Resolution" files doesn't actually mean anything - or rather, it means different things to different people, and I'll talk about that a bit later.

When I know that I will be managing prints, albums and so on, I have a vested interest in ensuring that the files are not only of the highest quality, but that they are in an appropriate format for the various uses to which they are going to be put.

What is more, knowing in advance how they will be used, I can photograph each wedding with those uses in mind; I need to be sure that, in addition to the "standard" photos that make up most wedding collections, there will be images in the portfolio that will be ideal for each planned use.

Why isn't it enough to just be sure that all the images are high resolution (HiRes)? Can't HIRes files be enlarged for any anticipated use... unfortunately not: HiRes is not a meaningful term. When you ask most burn-and-shoot photographers what they mean by HiRes, they tend to talk about how many megapixels their camera captures- but the little toy cameras in cell phones have more megapixels than some professional SLR cameras. You would never think of them as HiRes! These photographers are mixing up pixel counts with resolution and digital capture with output. It is the output resolution that counts! Without going into technical detail, it is all about the final image, not the file it came from.

Printing presses (used for digital photo books) and inkjet printers used for most quality prints and albums, have different requirement, but basically you need a file that can provide 300 dots of ink(dpi) for every linear inch (25mm). of your print. If your photographer has supplied you with typical jpeg files direct from the camera to the disk, they will not manage this. If he shot in RAW, and then used default settings from most conversion software, it will still not be set up for enlargements - but pictures up to A4 will be fine - usually - and other uses will be "good enough, but a long way short of what they should be.

I was interested to read an ad from a "professional photographer" which offered hi-resolution files for purchased on disk: up to 250 files, edited and able to be printed as large as 5"x7". To me, that does not suggest a high resolution; a 300 dpi file could be produced easily from a 2 megapixel camera; I suspect those files have been intentionally reduced to prevent enlarging, but they are still High Resolution.

The standard printer used for pro quality albums prints at 600 dpi. I work with a company that has a one-of-a-kind 3600 dpi printer; try uploading your typical shoot-and-burn files to that and then tell me about hi-res files.

You get what you pay for - so if you pay for a disk, that is what you get; the photos on it are often just an excuse to collect a fee for the disk. . So you say "I want hi-res images on a disk and the right to print them later" and that's what you will get, too. But since you have taken on the responsibility of preparing the files for printing you really have no comeback when the results are second class.

I'm sorry this has turned into such a diatribe, but I was just shown a set of files on a CD and asked if I could print an album from them. Of the 350 or so files, about 150 are suitable. Isn't 150 enough for an album? A small one, anyway? Maybe, but all the "good" slides are from the garden part of the wedding ceremony, and most of these are so similar that you couldn't use more than half of them - 19 shots of the first kiss is all very well, but it doesn't tell very much of the story of the wedding day. Add 10 quite acceptable photos of the family groups, one of the bride walking up the aisle and that's about the sum of it. Very few of the indoor shots are any better than the guests took. I could make some nice Canvas prints and some reasonable enlargements... and they will look good on Facebook, but for an album...

I will try to restore enough of the preparation photos and the reception shots to make an album, but it won't be quick and it won't be easy. I can't help thinking that, if the photographer had known she was going to make the album, she would have made a very different set of pictures!

Things Every Bride Should Know

2011-01-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

There has been a discussion running on Linkedin over several months that I'd like to share, in outline at least. HR Manager Chastity asked the Wedding Industry Professionals group members to share the one piece of advice they give a bride that no one tells them about their wedding day.

Some of the answers were trite, some were humorous (usually intentionally) and some answers were longer than I intend this whole blog to be. But there was a lot of common sense and even wisdom in the answers, which I have tried to distill into a list that you might find useful, especially if your own Planners, DJs, Celebrants, Caterers, Photographers and others don't offer you similar little gems.

If I haven't given anyone credit for a particular piece of advice, it is because it is mine; or it is my distillation of several contributions without quite being what any one person said....

I have to add, that if some of these thoughts seem a little eccentric or even foolish, remember where they come from: people who attend maybe 50 weddings every year, year after year. Great as your mum is at planning, as organised and assured as you are about the way things will be, and as experienced as your dad, fiance and matron of honour are, even their combined experience is unlikely to come close to what any one of these people see every day: they know what mistakes to avoid, where the pitfalls are and how to avoid them. So here goes (in no particular order):

Take a few moments between the ceremony and reception for JUST YOU TWO. Perhaps get a few pics then, but be alone for 5-10 minutes as newlyweds! (Rev. Carleen Burns)
Practice walking wearing your dress. I have seen many brides almost fall over when stepping onto their dress (Bernd Kestler)
It won't be perfect, but the imperfections are what makes your wedding memorable (Stephanie Thompson)
Take a pair of comfortable shoes to the reception! (Me)
Don't go cheap, don't be last minute. Don't have huge expectations and you will have a great day. Remember it's going to go by pretty fast...enjoy it while it lasts (Jeff Donovan)
After the wedding, couples have bills to pay, lives to lead, and often little expendable income for wedding pictures, so photos are really not something that can easily come "after" the wedding. Also, if you've cut corners on things like time, then you may not have professional photos of some key moments because you've sent your photographers home (Dana Gieringer)
Prioritize what you really want out of the wedding- and that includes allocating your budget. I am often faced with brides who hired me to photograph their wedding, but then afterwards could not afford the album they really wanted - after spending an equal amount (if not more) on chair covers and napkins! (David Briggs)
Plan the wedding for you and not for what everyone else thinks you should have! (Rob Stratford)
If you go cheap, you'll probably get cheap, and maybe even cheated (Dana Gieringer)
Stop and live the moment - many times we are all caught up in what is next or what else wiIl have to get done. Each time you find yourself in all caught up in a moment, take a deep breath and as you let out that air smile and enjoy the moment (liza atwood)
Decide what's most important to you and be realistic about what that is going to cost. And for goodness sake, get a contract that spells out what you get for your money (Dana Gieringer)
Take 5 minutes to yourselves...even if it means locking yourselves away in a toilet between the day and the evening! (Kirsty Chesterman)
Be sure to hire a car that will fit you AND your dress and, if possible, practice getting in and out of the car with your wedding dress (or similar) on so that you can achieve it without an embarrassing moment! Hoops are worst and most likely to put you on display in a way you never intended (Simon Ross)
Be yourself. Don't feel like a stranger at your own wedding (Lillian Lyon).

This isn't the sum of all wisdom, not even the sum of the ideas in the discussion; but every bit of advice in this blog is something I wish I had said to at least one bride this year -
because I have seen the results of brides "going cheap" and being let down (or worse, stood up);
brides and grooms who couldn't fit into their vintage sports hire-cars;
people who didn't have a written agreement and needed one; young couples starting married life in debt to pay for wedding extravagances that they said afterwards didn't add anything to their day but cost;
lots of falls and trips on the dress - brides and bridesmaids both.

And most of all, couple's who put so much effort into making the day meet somebody's standard of "perfection" that they never got to savor and enjoy what should have been their day.

Have a Happy New Year, a Happy Wedding Day and a wonderful marriage!

A Christmas Present

2010-12-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve in Sydney - a pleasant 19 degrees Celsius as I write this note; the weatherman is promising a sunny 29 degrees for Christmas day - that's 84 for the little bit of the world still operating in Fahrenheit.

Four weddings in 5 weeks leading into Christmas has meant too little attention to this blog: my apologies to everyone for that. To make up for the quiet weeks I want to offer a few images from those busy days. That's a "thank you" to my lovely brides and a gift of beauty to all my readers.

Two of these recent weddings were part of the "Second Time Around" series - we think people who choose to remarry, especially a little later in life - are a very special group, and we think very carefully about their photography and how it should be managed. The more mature bride has a different kind of beauty and qualities that set her apart from the more typical twenty-something bride, and she deserves to have those qualities displayed and recognised.

Couples in this situation also have different attitudes and expectations to those entering into marriage for the first time, but they come to a "new" marriage from many different places in life - from divorce, from widowhood; with wonderful past relationships and from social and personal tragedy. Often there are adult children from both sides whose feelings have to be considered very carefully. That also affects how we approach our role in recording their wedding day: it is a special responsibility to the families as well as to the couple.

Of the remaining three weddings, there is one I am sad to say I cannot share with you. Like many Asian brides I have photographed, Amisha and her family value their privacy so much that they are uncomfortable to have any photos online. That's a shame from my point of view, because despite her reservations about how she looks in photos, she was one of the most beautiful girls I have had the honour of photographing.

The other two have caused me a bit of grief in the wedding fraternity--

Unlike some of my colleagues, I will not include photographs of professional models in my portfolio. There isn't anything wrong with the practice, but all the photos that appear in this blog and in other sites I contribute to are from real weddings. The trouble is that I have been having trouble convincing some people that Chantelle and Michelle are not professional models hired for a "wedding shoot". They are not - but I have to admit it is very easy to why I have been "accused".

So here they are - new brides, second-time brides, some traditional and some unconventional and all very special.

They and so many other have made 2010 a wonderful year to be a wedding photographer. I am taking a break now - no more bookings until mid January.
Plenty of time for family and friends and the busy-ness of Christmas and the New Year holidays. The kids will be coming home (all 6 of them) with their husbands, wives, girl-and-boy friends, and all the grandkids, too. Michael has already moved back in, Jeanelle arrives this afternoon and by Boxing Day we will be pretty well crowded out. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Work was never so tiring as holidaying, still I'd not miss it for the world.

To my readers, followers and friends, I wish you a joyous Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

David

Sharing your Photos

2010-10-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

The bride at the head of this column is Nichole: she and hubby Stevce just ordered a new album this week and it should be ready to deliver in a couple of days.

Today I posted them a link to the preview page and I thought I might share the link with you, to help you visualise what our most popular Coffee Table albums look like. Theirs is an A3 book (the most popular is the smaller A4) and it is also available as a square book. There are various cover options, including hard covers with photos front and back, Linen and leathers in various covers, with or without embossed lettering.

Unlike other online books, these are hand finished (even the stitching) with very heavyweight papers; they have UV protected pages - various end-papers are available and they don't have the typical 30 page limitations of most albums (Stevce and Nichole's book runs to 100 pages).

The company makes versions of their books available to the general public, but reserves premium features for professional photographers and designers. Still, if you are having a "shoot and burn" photographer at your wedding, this is an excellent company to make your album.

If you want the professional inclusions, and professional design, I would be happy to consider designing and uploading the album for you - if the photos are of sufficient quality and resolution to complete a quality album it can be done quite economically.

Click here to go to the preview

For more information about albums and photobooks, send me an email or phone number.

Photography Style and your Wedding - Storybook and Fairytale

2010-10-16T04:54:00.000-07:00

When I started this series about a month ago, I stated, quite boldly, "In general, we can agree that there are probably five reasonably distinct styles of wedding photography: Traditional (sometimes called Formal); Photojournalistic (also called "Candid" or "Reportage"); Contemporary ("Avant Garde" or "Moderne" - with or without the "e"); Storybook (AKA "Fairytale"); and Artistic". I shouldn't have been so bold!

The further I have gone in exploring the Traditional, Photojournalistic and Contemporary styles, the more obvious it has become that these styles are not really so distinct after all - not in their application, at least - and that "agreement" about the boundaries of these styles is not universal - nothing like it. But what about Storybook/Fairytale style and Artistic Style (see examples here)?

Well, I have changed my mind - I have decided to say hardly anything about "Artistic" as a Style of photography... Because it is a meaningless adjective, a weasel word that belongs only in the lexicon of the advertising trade. Style never defines artistry - truly artistic photographers operate in many styles, and are rarely limited to any one style, or by any one style. If someone describes their style as "Artistic" treat it as a filler-word and make your own judgment on their style. Look back over these posts if you are not sure.

When you are offered Storybook and Fairytale Wedding Photography many of my comments about Artistic style still apply - the description is more an emotion grabber than a useful description. But the idea can have some substance: "Artistic" is really a photographers' claim about the quality of their work, Storybook does suggest that they will take a particular approach to your photography...

Fairytales are about happily ever-aftering; and story books are romances... In both cases what we are talking about is a focus on the magical and romantic aspects of the day. On presenting the story of a perfect wedding - whether it turns out that way or not!

Like a reportage or contemporary photography, the Storybook photographer is interested in the passage of the whole day - less interested in individual photos except as they relate to the whole story. Unlike his colleagues, he is not so concerned with making an accurate record as he is in telling a fantasy tale in which the bride and groom are the leading characters - the Prince Charming and his Cinderella. Imarry.org describes the fairytale wedding in this way:

"Fairytale wedding creates the atmosphere of royalty and romance. Let your imagination be your guide as you plan a fairytale wedding. There is absolutely no limit to the creative ideas you can incorporate in every aspect of the wedding...Planning a fantasy wedding is an awesome experience. There are so many fairytales to choose from and it can sometimes be an overwhelming task. The plan is to create an atmosphere of fantasy and enchantment. Imagine how the whole illusion of a princess bride will look in your wedding photography. It will be a wonderful wedding experience not only for you and your husband but all your guests as well."

Of course, when you have planned the whole wedding around a theme, all the photographer is doing is capturing the mood, decor, costumes and so on. But even within a themed day, there is a certain approach that highlights and reinforces the fantasy, and it can be applied to weddings which are not so elaborate.

Avoiding hackneyed images is the hard part, but a photographic style that utilizes soft focus techniques, dreamy images, flowing motion effects, ethereal images, floating veils and soft, dewy eyes, counterposed against strong "masculine" and protective images of the groom, can be fairly characterized as Fairytale/Storybook Style.

My research for this piece included a Google search for Fairytale and Storybook wedding photographers - there are half a million of them! I trawled through the pictures for a while: saw a few castles, lots of couples walking hand-in-hand through fields, but apart from that, nothing that really stood out.

My suggestion is that, if you are going to have a themed wedding, with the glass slippers, the horse-drawn carriage and the ice sculptures, any quality photographer will do it justice. If not, then on the evidence of the photographs posted in their galleries, a "fairytale" wedding photographer is not likely to add a lot to the day that all good photographers will not provide. - which is not to say that self-proclaimed Fairytale photographers are not good photographers; just that most do not seem to take photos which any different from non-fairytale photographers.

As usual, you will find a slide show of Fairytale and storybook style images to illustrate this article on Vimeo. Click here to see them, then come back and leave me a message in the Comment Box. If you like what you have read, please share it with your Facebook and YouTube friends.

Photographic Style and Your Wedding - Contemporary

2010-10-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

This is the third in a series on Style in Wedding Photography illustrated by slide shows on Vimeo.com. The link for today's files is Contemporary Style Video and the link is repeated the bottom of this page.

The articles on Classic / Traditional and Photojournalistic / Reportage styles of photography were pretty straight forward: there are associations for photo-journalist in the wedding community with clear definitions of what is (and is not) Photojournalistic photography; and Traditional Photography is very well established. Not everyone who says they are a photojournalist or a Classical wedding photographer sticks rigidly to the style - but at least you know what they mean by the terms, and there are standards that their work can be judged against

When we come to Contemporary Wedding Photography, things are more complicated: there are no real definitions and no way to know what to expect - except not to anticipate anything very traditional - and even that may be too much to expect. Put simply, when you see the word Contemporary against a wedding photographer’s name, it might mean no more than "I like to do clever, non-traditional effects like you see in the wedding magazines that stop me getting into the Wedding Photojournalist Association”.

I suspect few of these photographers could define “contemporary photography” much beyond saying it is more modern than that old fashioned traditional stuff.

Is that so bad? Probably not - unless your photographer is strongly committed to Contemporary Style or Avant Garde photography; then you risk getting a wedding album full of trendy pictures that are going to date very quickly as the next big thing in photography comes along. We wedding photographers are just as prone to get caught up in fads as anyone else, and today's new idea can soon become tomorrow's cliche. Thing is, we can leave our faddish mistakes behind - you’re the one who will have to live with them!

There is such a thing as good Contemporary Wedding Photography, but it has to be more than just trendy shooting.

Even good photographers who know what they are talking about mean different things by "Contemporary", and for many, the emphasis is similar to reportage/journalism: to treat your wedding as an unfolding story. They will capture events, feelings and experiences on the day, and present them in ways that enrich your memory and evoke emotion. These images allow people who could not be with you at the time to have an authentic sense of what it was to be part of your wedding day.

If that is going to happen, contemporary wedding photography has to be more than just a series of informal photographs; it involves creativity, effective composition, skillful use of light, and exquisite timing to capture strong visual and emotional moments. It also requires the photographer to have clear ideas about how the photos are to be viewed and to shoot with that in mind, otherwise their vision is very unlikely to be realized: "no prints, just files on a CD" is never going to do it - any more than a handful of random photos passed around the coffee table or stuffed in a shoe box.

What differentiates Contemporary from Photojournalistic photography? Scope and inclusiveness. The way to understand Contemporary Wedding Photography is to think about Contemporary Art (of which photography is an aspect) more generally.

Contemporary art is the art of today, and "today" is a movable feast. Writing as I am in 2010, it is the art of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. I suggested that Contemporary wedding photography was defined by its scope and inclusiveness; consider: since World War II, we have embraced Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Post-modernism, Minimalism and Feminist art. They have little enough in common, except perhaps a rejection of the "Modern Art" movement from which they evolved.

Improvisation, commonplace imagery placed in new aesthetic contexts, abstract colour-field painting, conceptual art, hard-edged photorealism and other elements may inform the Contemporary wedding photographer - but I am sceptical: I see little in most self-proclaimed Contemporary wedding photographers that sets them apart from their photojournalistic or traditional colleagues, except a tendency to add candid photographs to their traditional set pieces, or portraits and group photos to their candid coverage. What I do not see is the vast range and complexity of styles reflected in contemporary art or even in contemporary photographic art.

Of course, when the photographer either adds or substitutes the phrase Avant Garde for Contemporary, or worse, Moderne (with that pretentious “e”) we should certainly expect to see something special. What we do see (generally) are ordinary photos with the camera held at an odd angle; images pointlessly distorted by the use of very wide-angle lenses; brides and grooms in places they would never go, in poses they would not normally adopt; odd colour shifts that turn skin green and the wedding dress anything but the gorgeous ivory or white the bride chose; and pictures “photo-shopped” to within an inch of their lives!

You will also see some truly beautiful images, quite breathtaking in their conception and execution: such images win prizes in professional competitions and find their way into Wedding Magazines, and while they have a place in the wedding album, they are more a reflection of the photographer’s personality, artistic vision or individual style than of the couple’s.

Wonderful as they may be, and flattering as it might seem to say to people, “Oh yes, I was photographed by J. C. Supertog”, if those are the only photos you take home from your wedding, you may later regret not having a more honest, personal or complete record - after all, your wedding day should be about you, not about the photographer!

There is another aspect to Contemporary wedding photography, which has little to with art and much to do with fashion. Neither Traditional nor Photojournalistic wedding photography encompasses the kind of location photographs loved by the Contemporary school. A photo session in a forest, swamp or by the harbour or maybe in a gritty, dirty factory, fallen down tenement or graffitied lane- provided it is incorporated into the record of the day (not substituted for more traditional photos) it can add a unique flavour to the day’s photography.

The plethora of ads in Vogue-type magazines, the TV and Movie ads featuring location shoots, creative, high energy music videos - these all add something to the style, and they are so pervasive that many modern couples step into the role of high-fashion model or rock star for an hour or so with great joy: will these catwalk inspired images carry the same sort of memories and lasting emotions as the traditional wedding pictures?

Perhaps not, but if the couple "owns" and embraces the experience as an integral part of the wedding day - if it is not just contrived for the photographer, the location shoot may come to mark their transition from single to married life in a less formal manner than the Ceremony or Reception - this is often the first time that the couple can really relax and let go after the stress (positive though it may have been!) of the their wedding day, and be their first adventure together as Man and Wife.

Contemporary Images from some Practicaps weddings have been posted as a slide show on Vimeo. See Contemporary Wedding Photography.Your feedback on the images (and on this post) are welcomed, as ever.

Photographic Style and Your Wedding - Photojournalism

2010-10-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is the second in a set of articles that looks at different styles of wedding photography. The previous post focussed on Traditional wedding photography, and a video illustrating that style can be viewed on Vimeo. A separate set of slides has been written to accompany this post, also on Vimeo (Photojournalism files)

One of the most popular approaches to wedding photography is variously referred to as Photojournalism, Candid and Reportage. Where Traditional wedding photography is an extension of portraiture, Photojournalistic wedding photography is like editorial reporting. It is candid; images are unposed and the photographer tries to avoid imposing any control on the day. In this sense it is the opposite of Traditional Wedding Photography, where the intent is to control light, posing and the environment..

The role of the photojournalist is to capture images that report the wedding, images that, viewed as individual photographs or as a collection, evoke the the emotions of the day. In trying to achieve authenticity, the photographer tries to avoid imposing their ideas or interpretations on the parties and to this end aims to be unobtrusive, virtually invisible. This places restrictions on the kind of equipment that is suitable and where the photographer can place themselves - no artificial lighting, no reflectors, no capacity to remove unsightly beckgrounds, and very limited use of Photoshop after because that would undermine the "integrity" of the imagery, and photojournalists are committed to "Truth" in photography.

In a sense, this is a style that has really only become possible with the advent of high-end digital equipment capable of operating in very low light levels. Until very recently, the best 35mm cameras shooting high speed film were the only cameras with low light level capabilities anything like those of current pro level digital SLRs - cameras with very fast lenses loaded with the fastest black and white films could approximate digital ISO levels with special processing; colour films never achieved similar speeds.

An odd consequence of this is that what was a form of photography possible only for highly skilled professionals with very expensive cameras and top skills in the darkroom is now attracts the least experienced shooters of all.

Never having learned to handle lighting, posing and the rudiments of quality photography, they call themselves “photojournalistic photographers” and by blazing away with high-end Nikons and Canons they manage to come up with enough acceptable photos burnt straight to disk with minimal retouching because to “tamper” with the picture would undermine the integrity of the image!

Do not take that as a criticism of the style, nor of the many very skilled photographers who truly ARE photojournalists - It’s just that I have met too many of the other kind lately - or rather, have been brought too much of their work in the hope that I could salvage something from it.

Because the photographer has so little control over the conditions in this style of work, it often requires extra time editing and correcting for exposure, saturation colour temperature, flare... but editing only elements which are not central to the story - that is important, because photojournalists are at heart, storytellers.

The first of these storytellers is generally thought to be Denis Reggie whose photograph of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Bissett Kennedy after their marriage is a foundation image in the genre. He coined the phrase wedding photojournalism back in 1980 to describe a way of covering the wedding "in real time”, with respect for the natural ebb and flow of the day. The Traditional photographic approach, with its need to set up photos, pose people, alter the setting, light the environment like a stage and prompt subjects as to how they should stand or when they should smile, is obvious contrary to this approach.

Photojournalistic Wedding Photographers work as unobtrusively as possible to capture the “reality” of the event without becoming involved in it. Rather than setting up portraits, they seek out events that happen spontaneously to tell the story. A few are so committed to this philosophy that they will not shoot posed photos at all - but most wedding photojournalists provide at least the basic group photos that your Dad and Grandma want to see on their walls. Even here, though, they will often aim for a relaxed and fluid style, rather than more traditional set pieces.

Photographic Style and Your Wedding - Traditional

2010-10-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

There is plenty of advice around telling you how to go about finding the "right" wedding photographer. Most can be summarized in two sentences: make sure you like their photographic style; and make sure you can get on with them. I want to talk about the idea of photographic style - a question I have touched on before, but from a different point of view.

As you begin your search for a wedding photographer, you will soon find people claiming to be a Photojournalistic wedding photographer, or a Contemporary wedding photographer (the most common buzz words at the moment) or they might identify with one or another style... Unfortunately, what one photographer calls Reportage another might refer to as Journalistic while other photographers might say it's "just" Candid photography.

Comparing different photographers' work, you might not see much difference, no matter what the photographer tells you! On the other hand, a particular photographer's style might be different to what you expect from their claimed style - especially if they describe themselves as "artistic". So this is the first in a series of articles to try to sort it all out. Each post will be supported by a slideshow of sample images on Vimeo.com

In general, we can agree that there are probably five reasonably distinct styles of wedding photography: Traditional (sometimes called Formal); Photojournalistic (also called "Candid" or "Reportage"); Contemporary ("Avant Garde" or "Moderne" - with or without the "e"); Storybook (AKA "Fairytale"); and Artistic.

There are not many purists in the wedding photography field (thank goodness), so you will not find many Candid photographers for instance, who refuse to shoot formal groups...but there are some, so be careful.

I am going to deal with each of these styles in separate posts, starting today with the Traditional Style and you can see examples of photos from my collection at Vimeo Video stream.

Traditional Wedding Photography requires a time commitment from the Bride and Groom, and photography can come to dominate the flow of the wedding to accommodate the need to set up shots and pose subjects. The photographer’s aim in the classic style is to create posed photographs to be displayed in a portrait album. It is built around a “shot list” , a step-by-step checklist, to make sure every “standard” photo is taken (e.g. the exchange of rings, first kiss, signing the marriage register, walking down the aisle as husband and wife, family groups, cutting of the cake, bridal waltz etc.) together with specific pictures the bride and groom requests.

The photographer's role is to obtain beautiful, traditional poses capable of high print quality and to ensure this, they need to control lighting, positioning, expression, body alignment, the background, the way the dress flows, the relationship (physical as well as family) of different people in the various group shots. It is the photographer’s job to set up the shots and then direct, encourage, position, relax and animate their subjects to ensure they are seen at their very best. This takes time but the results are often timeless portraits ~ or portraits that are a reflection of our time and the photographer’s art.

Many weddings are formal occasions which is why this type of wedding photography has stood the test of time. With careful lighting and expert posing, traditional wedding photographers can create a lasting family heirloom of your precious memories.

We call it traditional, but it is a traditional that goes back only a little way in time. Until the late 19th century, people didn’t pose for photos on the wedding day at all. The well-to-do might pose for a portrait in their best clothes before the wedding. By the end of the century they might stop by the studio in their wedding clothes afterwards, instead.

At the close of the century, a photographer might be hired to bring his view camera on its heavy wooden tripod to the church - but you needed to be pretty wealthy to afford that, sort of like turning up in a helicopter instead of a limousine! Really, with equipment so bulky and lighting quite primitive, wedding photography was a studio practice - when it was done at all. Couples who did have a wedding photo typically posed for just one portrait. We didn’t really see wedding albums until the 1880s, which is also when wedding presents, neatly “posed” on a table, and the wedding party, started to appear in the photos.

It was only after the Second World War that photographers started treating the wedding as an "event". Freelance photographers, with their roll film cameras and the new “flash bulbs” started turning up (usually uninvited) at weddings; they sold their photos to the bride and groom and to the guests the same way as street photographers were doing - pay your money, take a ticket; the photos will be ready to pick up next week. In a sense they were the “shoot and burn” brigade of the day, exploiting lost-cost and immediacy of the new technology and (despite the low quality photographs that often resulted), putting pressure on professional photographers to start working on location.

Photographers who responded by bringing a lot of bulky equipment to the venue found they still couldn’t compete - they couldn’t capture the wedding as an event. They either exchanged their half-plate cameras and even their single plate Speed-Graffics for (comparatively) light, multi-shot roll film Rollei and Hasselblad cameras or dropped out of wedding photography. By the 1970s, 35mm was king, accelerating the evolution of wedding photography into the styles we see today, including the popular documentary and photojournalistic styles of photography.

A Green Wedding

2010-09-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

What I am sharing today is based on a note sent to me by Lucy Thomason who posts articles for the event planning careers blog. This is her personal hobby blog, focused on tips to help people organize a green event, use less energy and reduce their carbon footprint.

Lucy assures me that this wedding actually took place in August 2010, between Engel and Dyer, near the Huron River in Ann Arbor.

A lot of people would like their wedding to be eco-friendly, and over recent times it has become increasingly practical and affordable. Still, it can be a challenge.... this is what Engel and Dyer did -

Accepting that they wouldn't be able to keep everything totally green, Engel and Dyer decided they would try their best anyway, and to make the day fun as well as instructive for their guests.

They held their wedding at a science and nature center, where guests were offered tours in the hour before they walked down the aisle. The tours featured water and energy conservation methods used at the center, like solar-panel arrays for electricity, solar-powered heating and water heater systems, and no-flush compost toilets.

Engel and Dyer say they focused on "little details" that make a big difference:

• Dyer's dress was an heirloom - a vintage green dress that had been her great-grandmother's in the 1930s
• Her ring was made with recycled gold and had a beryl instead of a diamond
• Her makeup was certified organic
• Instead of rice, guests were given local lavender buds to throw in celebration.
• At the reception, the tables were covered with local wildflowers and the foods were locally sourced
• Leftovers and unused food were recycled (by sending to local farms) or reused.
• They found a solar powered generator to run the lights and the audio system for the band.

Despite their commitment, not every choices they made was the most eco-friendly option. For instance, when they couldn't find a local red wine they liked, they used a burgundy from elsewhere in the USA - but still a domestic wine. They did serve (local) Michigan white wines sparkling cider, however.

They could have used paperless Internet or txt invitations, but Dyer felt paper invitations were important - but on recycled paper, of course.

Can you do something to 'green up' your wedding day? Does all this inspire you? If it does (and I hope it does) I wouldn't want to give the impression that it is simple - but Engel and Dyer managed it, and if you are prepared to make as few compromises as possible, you can do something for the environment, too.

The best way to scale back on an event's carbon footprint is to cut back on the number of guests. Fewer guests mean fewer meals, fewer needs for centerpieces and other decor and fewer miles travelled to reach the marriage. That doesn't mean people have to be excluded - consider the option of broadcasting parts of the wedding over the Internet!

Once you have the guest list parred back, The best way to reduce the impact of any event is to look at the life cycle of the different elements you use: where is that food coming from, how much energy is expended to produce it, how does it get to your plate and where do the leftovers go?

While meat might take more energy to produce than fruit and vegetables, considering how far some fruit and veggies need to travel might give them a larger carbon footprint.

Finally, consider the wedding professionals you engage - do they need to travel far to participate or can you engage local photographers, musicians, celebrants and reception houses? Does your florist grow their blooms locally? Can you have your photoshoot at a local venue rather than travelling a long way to a special location, then back to the Reception Venue? How many cars do you actually need, and do they have to be petrol guzzlers? How many of those meetings really need to be face to face?

There is a great deal that can be done towards having a greener wedding; it need not be more expensive, and it certainly does not have to be a second best affair. Quite the opposite.

What is a Reasonable Price for Wedding Photography?

2010-09-11T05:06:00.001-07:00

This a question I have touched on before in these ramblings, but having just revised my own package costs and added an "a la carte" option, I thought it might be time to come back to the How Much question.

Unlike some photographers, I am quite open about my fees (the curious can click here - I find a lot of "the curious" turn out to be other photographers!) - I prefer to be up-front about fees for a couple of reasons: it cuts down the number of inquiries that are never going to result in business, it gives people a basis for comparison, and it lets potential clients concentrate on my photography, rather than on whether or not they can afford my services.

You would be surprised how often customers walk away from shops or merchants who are not prepared to put the price on their products. My wife, Jean is really hot on this - she simply won't ask "how much?" and while I am prepared to ask, I generally won't if there is someone else who is forthcoming about their prices.

Why? Well, you can't help being a bit suspicious about hidden prices (I can't, anyway) and the nagging feeling that if you have to ask, it is going to be expensive. Then there's that sort of anticipatory embarrassment that says, if I ask and then say it's too much, I am going to sound cheap, or poor, or maybe I'll offend the merchant, or be challenged to defend my opinion, or perhaps feel humiliated.

All foolish, perhaps, but not a position I ever want put a client into.

So, what dollar value should you anticipate for your wedding photographs? There are plenty of places where someone will offer a simple answer to that question. Wedding Magazines, Catalogues and Directories always plump for a percentage of the total cost of your wedding, typically 20%, although I see 10% cited now and then. On that basis if your budget is $20,000 then photography would cost between $2000 and $4000. That may be helpful if you actually have a clear idea of your budget far enough in advance. Really organised people will, but how can you budget until you have some figures to work with?

Very often the process is well advanced with a great deal of money outlayed before a realistic budget emerges - "we have spent $xxx - how much do we have left?" - and photographers are not often the first person on the bride's list; we are often paid for out of what is left after the "essentials" have been committed - the Church, Reception Hall, Catering....the Dress!

It's another problem if the couple have different fiscal priorities to the people footing the bill. It may be increasingly common for families to share wedding expenses, and for the groom and bride to bear part of the expense - even guests contribute in some circumstances (which is why I offer gift certificates), but photography is a very personal decision and it can be hard if your heart is set on a particular photographer and the bill-payer wants you to ask Uncle Phil or that fellow who advertises "Great wedding photography for $33 per hour"

Ten percent might be reasonable if your base is $20 or $30K, but what if your spend is $8000? A photographer's fixed costs are - well, fixed. $800per wedding is not going to cover insurance, samples, lighting, cameras, computers, other equipment, maintenance, depreciation, travel, rental, assistants etc. let alone their time on the wedding day and after, which means that, for $800 or less you are going to hire either an amateur trying to make some pocket money, a student, someone with no experience trying to build a portfolio or someone who took some nice pictures on holidays and thinks this is an easy way to make a living.

No, that doesn't guarantee a bad job - everything might work out fine, but these (so called) photographers don't carry the back-up camera bodies,additional fast lenses, dedicated lighting gear and other fail safes to be able to deal with dear old Murphy's Law. And if ever the rule applies, it is on a one-time only event like a wedding. So part of what you are paying for is experience and resilience to deal competently - invisibly -with what might otherwise be a disaster in the hands of a week-end warrior. Should something go wrong you do not want to be left on your own - like the lass who phoned me last Friday looking for someone to replace the wedding photographer who let her down one day before her wedding. When something goes wrong, a professional has the resources and the contacts to rescue the situation (and yes, I was able to find her a competent photographer.... but I wish she hadn't hired on the basis of cheap and cheerful in the first place).

Another simple (simplistic?) approach to working out how much you should pay is to look for an hourly rate. While you will commonly see $50 or even $30 per hour quoted, the appropriate rate is currently $150 per hour. Be careful, though. Do not be tempted to say "I have $600 left, so I will hire the photographer for 4 hours." Which 4 hours? The ceremony is an obvious place for the photographer (that is about 90 minutes from when the groom arrives until the time the greetings, congratulations and group photos are done. Travel directly to the reception venue, spend 15 of 20 minutes prior to the formal entrance and you have roughly 2 hours left of the photographer's time. Unless you have your speeches, first dance, etc all clumped together at the very start, your photographer will have finished before the cake is cut or the bouquet thrown! No bridal party photos, no preparations, and a lot of the time shooting very little.

The other problem with working out what to pay on an hourly rate is that much of the photographer's work happens after the wedding day, and if you pay a bargain basement price, you offer no incentive to the photographer to invest the many hours necessary to complete the work. In fact, a pert-time photographer with a "real" job will not have the time to finish your photos properly - for every hour spent shooting, there is another three required to get you files to a professional, print-ready standard.

You need to be sure that the photographer will make a real investment in this post-production aspect of the work. It is where most of the "magic" happens - really, the photos taken on the day are only the raw material that a photographer uses to produce your wedding memories: $150 per hour over a typical 10 hour wedding day is really just short of $40 per hour over the entire period spent working on your behalf. A $50 per hour photographer finishes as soon as he gets home and burns your photos to a disk.

There has to be a better way of working out what you should expect to spend for the only aspect of the whole wedding day that lasts as long as your rings. Coming from the other side of the equation, this is how I figure it out what I think you should pay ...but do I know what you can afford? Well actually, I do in a way....

We have been living through a period when people have been very careful about their finances. This should be reflected in careful decisions about just what my clients decide they really want in their wedding packages. I think that should give an insight into what is not just available, but both desirable and affordable.

So I reviewed all the weddings I have photographed over the last two years of the Global Financial Crisis, and listed the most sought-after products - the most popular combinations and types of albums, multimedia productions, enlargements and so on. I looked at the average spend, and the typical spend, which turned out to be quite similar. I was really interested to see what brides and grooms actually wanted.... what were their most valued products based on where they allocated their dollars. Since all of my packages are flexible (you can add or remove anything you want), that gave me a pretty clear picture of what people wanted and made sure they could afford. I also took the time to compare my experience with those of my colleagues. I discovered some items that I considered as "special orders" were actually becoming something of a trend...Hybrid albums, for instance.

And then I took this information and translated it into new packages, returned to my suppliers, looking at what they and their competitors were able to offer that people really wanted.

Thankfully, I found that my main suppliers were already the best at what they did and great value, but I had to add a few new suppliers to my vendor list and one has, sadly, been dropped - I have had to set up a new review system, too, to make sure I don't lose touch with the trends, the standards or the prices.

So, what should you be paying? I can offer my current package list as a good starting point for working out what you should expect to pay and what you should expect to receive. Not too many working photographers will have lower overheads, so cheaper is not likely to be better, and a lot of very reputable wedding photographers, especially those with high-cost studios to maintain and staff to pay, will naturally need to charge more - but not a lot more, I hope.

I am NOT saying that people who charge more than I do are overcharging, just that my fees may offer useful guidelines. And I am certainly not suggesting anyone should drop their present photographer and come to me instead - I can handle only so many weddings or portrait sessions in a year; and besides, wedding photography should never be just about money It's about reputation, style, personality and your relationship with your wedding photographer. Those qualities are worth a very great deal...something I have not been able to cost!

New Packages, New Pricing

2010-09-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Toward the start of the notorious Financial Melt Down, a lot of wedding photographers were anxiously wondering why their businesses still doing well. As the years dragged forward, many noticed that their clients were leaving it later to book and ordering a little less in prints and albums, but it was not a real problem for well established and respected photographers.

For more marginal photographers things were different. They started to lower their prices as business started to fall away, and we saw the rise of the "shoot and burn" brigade... it sounds like a bargain to clients not "in the know" because it is so cheap. Which is also why it is easy for inexperienced and even second rate camera people to get into the market. Take the picture, burn the CD, go on to the next job - all care, but no responsibility taken.

Those of you who follow these rantings will know that I am not a fan - not because the service is automatically going to mean bad photos or even poor photography, but because the photographer has no commitment to the final output - there is no quality guarantee and there is a lot that should make a bride or groom very nervous about just what is going to be on those CDs.

You will also know that I include Hi-Res files in my packages, which sounds like I am having a bit of a two way bet. Not so, as a glance here will demonstrate (Designer Pack).

From now on, as a way to encourage people to print their photos, were including $200 worth of prints in selected packages. In fact, all of our offerings have been revised. At the budget end, the price has dropped and free prints have been added, but the number of files provided on disk has been limited to 500 hi-res files.

All our packages have been radically revised and new products have been added - there's even an A la Carte Menu with clear descriptions and prices to help you build your own.

All the changes have been driven by what our clients have been asking for over the last couple of years. Our most popular collection of files, prints and album has now become a package in its own right. I don't think it will still be the most popular this time next year - the newer products are really beautiful, and compared with other vendors, relatively economical, and while the recession of the last 3 years might not have pulled business back, I suspect that growing confidence and good economic performances are likely to help brides and grooms decide they are gong to have the very best! After all, this is once and forever.

Bride of the Moment - Bride of the Month

2010-09-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

Love and Pride - Jenny on her Dad's Arm

It was a pleasant surprise, when, last April, weddingsnsw.com asked for permission to publish my photos of Ben and Jenny's wedding in their Bride of the Month section. Nice for Ben and Jenny, encouraging for me - apart from this blog and a little Facebook promotion, I don't advertise much. I have space on a few wedding directories, but most of my referrals come direct or by word of mouth. So an unsolicited approach like this is very welcome, and the exposure it generates for my photography can't hurt, now can it.

So...I am very pleased to share that the same honour has just been extended to Sam and Angela (well, Angela, I suppose: Sam is hardly a bride!) Congratulations Angela, you are to be the NSW Bride of the Month - I haven't been told for which month yet (is is never in the month the couple weds - it obviously happens after the photos have been published). As soon as I am notified I will post a link here.

I wonder what it is that makes someone say "there is our bride of the month". It could be outstanding photography, or the great settings that we use for our pictures, or the efforts we make to avoid clichéd pictures and ensure each couple's unique day doesn't come out looking like every other couple's wedding.

Sam and Angela Go to Town

The truth is, it is probably something about the bride herself. What does the photographer contribute to that joyful, serene, anxious, elated, proud, worried, carefree vibe that is a bride's persona on her day?

For us, it is about capturing those emotions without getting in the way, following the day without interfering with it's natural evolution, being carried along by its flow, directing without altering, highlighting it without changing who the bride IS and what she is experiencing.

Forget style and technique - what do they mean if you don't notice; and noticing is not worth much if you don't understand; understanding is useless if your don't have the temperament and the knowledge to interpret and present the essence of what you see, without trying to impose your photographic style on the couple's reality. Only then does technique comes into play, along with experience and the right equipment; but first things first: our Brides' images are special because we do notice, not just how wonderful they are, but just how they are wonderful.

Thank you Angela: enjoy your preview.

Sam and Angela at the QVB

Second Time Around

2010-08-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

There is something special about a second or subsequent wedding. It has a very different emotional texture to the typical Veils and Vows new bride wedding day. Not second best, by any measure, but ...different.

Whatever brings a formerly married couple to the point where they are free to marry again, their history has a significant influence on their wedding plans, their ideas about what marriage means and how to live as a couple. It is a very different set of expectations to those of someone who has never had the experience of being a husband or wife.

Many of our clients are already living together, often with a young family, when they ask us to share their wedding day, but they are coming to place a successful union on a different level. That is quite different to the experience of the Second-Time-Arounders.

It doesn't matter what combination of events were involved, the end of a marriage is always touched by grief, loss and often, by a sense of failure or inadequacy. That is a lot to overcome, and committing to marriage again shows resilience, real strength, a willingness to trust and the ability to invest yourself in another person.

It isn't just the couple's attitude towards marriage that is different, but their attitude to the ceremony is different, too. Not all couples, but most, seem to want to simplify the day - to limit it to the essentials: the ceremony, perhaps a small reception, a few close friends. That could seem very limiting if you are a photographer.... No bridal preparation, no location or studio session, no engagement party photos, not albums or slideshows... in fact, some people don't think it's worth hiring a photographer at all.

In a way, I agree: a "Capital W" Wedding Photographer who is going to approach this as they would their typical bride and groom, or shoehorn their day into the 'tog's mold for a wedding shoot is not going to have much to offer. But this is still a really important event in the couple's life. Of course it should be recorded and it deserves the attention of a skillful photographer, but it has to be appropriate photography, too.

The budget is going to be different as well, and if the photographer is going to really honour the newly re-weds view, he is going to have to tailor his services and products to what really counts and what the day means to his clients.

Earlier this year, I started tailoring a special package for people about to enter marriage for the second time. So far we have been able to work with people who had been widowed, others who have been through a divorce, and the idea of "the package" has had to be interpreted pretty loosely; there are just so many individual differences. But there are a few things that are consistent for our Second Time Around Weddings.

First, we charge a little less, mainly because we spend less of the day with our couples.

Although we strongly promote albums, they tend to run to about 30 pages - much smaller than the typical 150 page albums that we do for other couples; and we always include a free enlargement and at least one framed print., which is what many clients want.

Is it good business to offer a service that will never make the same profit as our standard offerings? Maybe not, but then who ever said "good business" the only reason people become wedding photographers?

Your Wedding: Photography and Style

2010-08-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to write about Style for a while. It is a confusing subject, and I suspect I will have to come back to it more than once, so if this post seems a bit tenuous and incomplete, please be patient.

A confusing subject? Sure. Ask a painter or a photographer about style, then repeat the question to a hairdresser; take it up with an architect and a landscape artist. All the conversations will have somethings in common, but lock your painter, architect, hairdresser and the rest in one room, throw in a violinist, a sculptor and a composer - chaos!

I get quite a bit of feedback from wedding professionals, so I know they read this blog, and I bet as soon as they saw the heading, every one of them "knew" what it was going to be about. Whether they were right or wrong, I bet it wasn't what our brides would be expecting to read about Style and their wedding day.

Before I get in too deep: Style is endlessly discussed in Art Schools and Art Circles and it is generally about one of two things: either, the personal imprint of a photographer or other visual artist that makes their work immediately identifiable to those in the know; or, the technical skills and ability required to emulate a particular artist's work, either as a learning tool or as evidence that a person under scrutiny has less merit as an artist, because he has not evolved a true Style of his own.

Most work is derivative: we admire a photographer's work, and either consciously or otherwise, we start to produce work that is like their's. We think our photograph is good when it is like one our favourites, though we may not realise that... then, as our body of work grows, and we become more confident, we lose sight of the connection between our work and its creative origins: our style is derivative just as much as our works.

Is this a bad thing? Not really. There are just so many "originals" in the world, and it would be a great pity if the style for which they were famed died with them.

Well this may be interesting, but it is getting a bit "arty".

If you are a bride-to-be planning that most wonderful wedding, do you care if your photographer's work is original or derivative, whether she is admired by the atrs community for her (capital S) Style? I doubt it. Some of my brides are photographers: they don't really care about the niceties of Style, either. What is foremost in most bride's mind is how they will look in their pictures, and if they can find a photographer whose gallery or portfolo excites or inspires them - wonderful. But you know what - I think the photographer's photographic style is a lot less important than their personality - another kind of style; the way they respond to you as their personal client.

If you choose a photographer because the work they display to represent them appeals, then find you can't stand to be in the same room with them.... OK, that's unlikely, but I have heard plenty of complaints about the attitude of different wedding photographers during the wedding day. I wonder how they ever get new referrals!

That aside, it seems to me that for a majority of people, great technical skill, a real understanding of you as a couple, and a willingness to build a set of wedding photographs that represents you - your style - is a good deal more important than promoting their style through your wedding.

Of course, there is a more general style question...do you see your photos as a formal, record of the event, as a traditional wedding record, or do you want a journalistic approach? Maybe you want the photos to have a Romantic feeling to them, or perhaps quirky and fun? Well, you could look for someone whose work fits that concept, but as I said before, a skilled photographer will be able to do that, if he takes the time to listen and get to know you. But if they assume you came to them to replicate at your wedding what they did at another, someone is either lazy or vain; and somebody is going to be disappointed. Don't let it be you!

Publish Post

Beautiful Brides - in the lens of the beholder

2010-03-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Jean and I had lunch on the Nepean Belle. Lovely afternoon for a cruise, and a wonderful venue for a wedding reception.

I know just how good it is because I have had the pleasure of photographing a Reception on board recently. The principal reason for lunch was to celebrate Jean's birthday, but we were also delivering a couple of large format photographs that we had been invited to hang on board.

Apart from being very complimentary about the photos, our Host, Helen, remarked that she was glad that we had brought pictures of a "beautiful" bride: apparently some photographers have wanted to hang pictures of brides that were less than ... attractive.

Now that surprised me, on several fronts: first that the bride's physical appearance should be an issue; secondly that any photographer, who is after all promoting their work, should present any image that shows his bridal subject in anything but the most favourable light. But most of all, because I have never met a bride who was not absolutely gorgeous!

Seriously. In all the time I have been photographing marriage ceremonies, I have never seen any girl or woman who was not truly beautiful on their wedding day. Not one!

Maybe I have a poor appreciation of beauty; maybe I am just a romantic; maybe only really lovely ladies come to me to be photographed.... I don't know. What I do know is that, wedding after wedding I am just knocked out by each bride's beauty. It might be expressed in her femininity, or her inner glow, or in womanly strength, or in her grace, or perhaps her charm... but every woman has within her the essence of beauty which finds its expression in the wedding celebration. I do not imagine it - it is there to see in the wedding photographs.

This is not my creation. It is a quality in the bride. Every guests sees it; the groom is often left quite speechless by it, and my camera records it. It is not an illusion - it is a reality that I have the simple privilege to capture and preserve.

A bride who is NOT beautiful - there is no such thing!

Love the Dress - What are you going to do with it now?

2010-02-27T00:28:00.000-08:00

I can't say that "trashing the Dress" is particularly popular out my way, although plenty of photographers offer this so-called service, and I make sure to offer it to my clients... I have not had anyone take it up yet.

The guys aren't interested one way or the other; unless it is a hired garment and they might have to pay for the damage!

Some of the girls are worried about the dress itself... what if it gets dirty, torn, stained and they can't get it clean? Or about the tradition: it was Grandma's/I want my daughter to be able to wear it/ mum would kill me.

Mostly though, the idea of risking a very expensive garment is the issue, even if it is just to preserve its resale value. So I was very interested to bump into Lynne and Peter last week.

Lynne and Peter Smith are dry cleaners. More than that.... they have a unique Wedding Gown repair and preservation process which involves specialized cleaning and hand repair of the dress. One clean, it is placed in a sealed box to prevent mold, mildew, or insect damage.

Not just a clean dress in a box. This airtight container has had the oxygen replaced by an inert gas so that no yellowing or discoloration from oxidation can possibly harm the gown. The box - maybe I should call it a "vault" - has a clear window in it so you can see your dress, which has been carefully, lovingly folded and padded using acid-free tissue to enhance its form and show off any detail work.

That's not all: the box is then placed in an outer container that has extra features to control humidity, pH, and oxygen levels, so preventing sunlight & UV damage during long-term storage, while still letting you have a peek when the urge takes you.

Everything is acid-free - the storage chest, box and packing tissue. Which means each gown is properly stored in materials that will not yellow or “bleed” into the fabric over the years.

What a great fit for a Trash the Dress promotion, though I - I could do the shoot, and send the dress to Lynne and Peter who would clean the gown. The bride would be reassured and the groom would have no need to worry, knowing the dress was going to be properly repaired and cared for. Bad Idea, David!

Lynne must have seen something in my eyes: "You don't do Trash the Dress, do you?" - It wasn't so much a question as an accusation! I was really thankful to be able promise I never had, and then just sit quietly (innocently!) and listen to her horror stories:

- the mother-of-the-Bride, devastated by what had been done to her wedding gift (The Gown);

- the $8000 Designer Dress that would never be free of seaweed stains;

- what it means to get sand or soil or mud into the fine seams of a hand sewn gown (did you ever try to unpick and then resew a one-of-a-kind, or match hand made buttons that cannot be bought in any store?)

I won't trouble you with the details, but the conclusion was very simple: Lynne will not touch a dress that has been abused just for the sake of a passing photographic fad! As for entering into some arrangement with Practicaps Weddings to promote such vandalism..... I never actually asked!

What I did ask was the cost of her Heirloom Preservation service...can't tell you, exactly, it depends on the individual job; but for an off the rack gown that hasn't suffered too much on the Big Day, think of about $680 as a starting point. For a Couture Gown - POA!

Just a CD of Images, Please.

2010-02-23T23:21:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to save money on a Wedding, some better than others. One popular approach is to organize a photographer for your wedding day, but plan to do the printing yourself. This might save money upfront, but there are some pitfalls.

The advantages are obvious: you have the files in your possession and can either print your photos at home or at a local photo outlet, which are often much cheaper than the prices you might expect to pay if your photographer supplies the prints. Likewise, you can make a slideshow on your home computer at no cost beyond a blank DVD and a label - in fact, you can skip the label and just write on the disk with a felt pen.

Department stores and online outlets have many products that sound just like the ones your photographer offers, and if you go direct, there is no middleman: so you can get Canvas Prints, Albums or Coffee-Table books quite cheaply.

Your family and friends will be able to come to you for souvenirs of your wedding, saving them the cost and inconvenience of dealing with the photo studio.

Reinforcing the idea of a disk-only wedding package is the sense that there is no real need for "hard copy"; people expect to share photos on Facebook or e-mail them to family and friends.

This idea appeals to some photographers, too. Most of the work of a wedding photographer is done after the wedding. Quality printing is an art and demands high-end printers, archival papers and inks. Pros do not use $100, 2 cartridge printers or $20 packs of glossy photo paper. Getting good results is expensive and time consuming. Many of us prefer the alternative of a pro-photo lab and pay them to produce true high quality, colour corrected prints.

A part-timer earning a bit of money from their hobby still has to turn up to their real job on Monday. The essential work of editing and preparing the prints and slideshows has to be done after work - a week of staying up till midnight staring at a screen. If the client is going to take that responsibility off the photographers' shoulders, why wouldn't they be willing to let them (and they don't have to take responsibility for the standard of the final results, either). Which is why you should not use a photographer who promises the files by the next day: they have done no work on them and you will be disappointed.

But, back to the subject:

In reality, when people order a "disk only" service, the photos taken at your wedding by the Professional Wedding Photographer, or by guests, seldom see the light of day. Very few are circulated, hardly any get printed, slide shows never eventuate and the DVDs do not even get downloaded to your computer because the files take hours to transfer and fill up the hard drive very quickly. But of course, if you don't download them, you can't edit them...

Are these the only reasons disk-only weddings are rarely viewed? There are many reasons; another is the time demanded to deal with the files on the DVD. They are quite different to the sort of photos that amateur photographers are used to dealing with. A typical wedding will generate 2000 or more files. Each 24bit file is 8 to 12 megabytes in size. Being confronted with so many, often similar images, can seem overwhelming; you can't just dump them onto your iPhone or upload them to MySpace or email them around the country!

And if you have the technology and knowledge to compress and send them, how long will you invest in reviewing and choosing which files to send to different people? Let's say you spend just 3 minutes with each photo - 6000 minutes; let's see...that's 4 days and nights without a break!

A 20 minute slide show averaging 5 seconds per photo will use about 300 slides and take an experienced designer about 6 hours to produce, including music tracks, captions, custom transitions and burning, once the most appropriate slides have been decided on and the music obtained. That's assuming you have the software to make a slideshow that is more than just a progression of pictures.

You can certainly get cheap post-card prints made - as little as 30c to 50c each. Not on quality, heavy weight paper; not with a choice of finishes; not converted to sepia or B&W; not using archival inks and papers that will still be fresh and bright in 80 years time.... but they are cheap!

Of course, you can't just hand over the DVDs and expect the photo store to know which ones to print, and you can't put the DVD in one of those do-it-yourself machines and go through 2000 images, picking out which ones you want as you go. But on the other hand, even at .50cents each, you do not want 2000 odd prints made for $1000!

If you want enlargements made on quality stock, properly framed, the cheap alternative is going to cost about the same as a quality product; if you look for canvas or coffee-table photobooks, the professional equivalent will not only last longer, be better finished and truer in colour to the original, it may also be less expensive (check out my own canvas print prices, as an example). Remember, the enticingly inexpensive ads you see are for minimum sizes - you can get a magazine style album for $30, but it will only be 25cm square and hold about 20 photos. Look for an A4 with a hard cover and enough room for your essential shots and you will get no change from $250 even on-line; an A3 will probably hit $500: but you won't know that till you get to the check-out, by which time you will have spent a week or more trying to get their propriety software and templates to design the book to look as you want it, instead of the way the company wants to print it....

The highest quality prints and albums are not available to the general public: some are only available from international suppliers, for others you have to be registered as a Professional Photographer or Designer in order to access them, while others are only advertised to the professions, so the general public does not even know about them; but that's a side issue...

Obviously, I have a vested interest. As a photographer, I want to be paid for my art and my time, and I want to control the final outputs from my work. I do not want you to show someone a department store enlargement or coffee-table book and say "That is David Rich's work"; they don't know that the inks, paper or stretchers are responsible for the picture looking a bit ordinary; they don't know how different a hand-sewn, UV protected, full bleed album is from the one on your table; they cannot imagine how that First Kiss would come to life it had been printed on gold or silver tinted aluminium instead of paper - but that's my reputation sitting there, and I can do nothing about it.

Photo Shows of the Wedding Day

2010-02-17T19:28:00.001-08:00

I have been corresponding with colleagues about photo slide shows, and some that I have posted elsewhere seem to have been taken down. I'll look into that later, but for those interested, there is a 30 second example posted on my Kiss the Bride page and I have added a longer one to this blog.

Feedback is great - positive or otherwise!The short video was created online with the free version of Animoto: the longer one is a ProShowGold production. Proshow is my usual editor.

How much is this like the slide shows I design for my clients? It is a simplified version, without dtp graphics and captions I usually include, and it doesn't place the photos into context like a "real" show would. What I mean by that is that, although the pictures are in chronological order, they don't link together to tell the story of the day as a full set of photos would.

Endless Variety

2010-02-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

I know you've heard it before, but i do love weddings. They are like a major theatre production, full of bustle, colour, excitement... there is drama and comedy, High Art counterpoised with low farce, solemn moments offset by the bawdy; emotion overflowing, the Sacred and the profane - and binding it all together there is deep Love and the promise of lifelong commitment.

All this is mine. Mine to capture, interpret, and commit to eternity - or at least, for as long as pixels last and people still gaze at the images. Bright images of their parents and grandparents in the flush of youth and joyful love; memories of times that were once and will never be again, except in the pages of a treasured album or perhaps its electronic equivalent.

The complexity of human belief and hope is reflected in the wedding ceremony. Faith and Culture provide the template, and people - brides, grooms, their parents, families and friends - make it their own. I have been privileged to attend Protestant, Catholic, and Civil Services. To photograph Vietnamese, military, non-religious and religious weddings in many traditions: a Filipino Street Wedding in Manila; a Salvation Army marriage "Under the Flag"; solemn Catholic and High Church of England masses, rollicking, noisy evangelicals, and outdoor weddings that were more like a party than a ceremony. Traditional, arranged marriages, and services where the children gave their parents away, first-time brides and grooms and "third-time lucky" seniors.

It doesn't matter how many years or how much experience you have had: you still need to research and prepare, because it is too easy to believe you know what to expect and so miss the novel and unanticipated details that make each wedding unique. No danger of that for one upcoming event: In a few weeks, I am going to photograph my first Macedonian Orthodox Wedding.

When I mentioned that to a colleague, he assured me I wouldn't want to do it too often. Having done a number of orthodox weddings a few years ago, he now just says "no thanks" - it is too much work!

I understand what he means. A typical wedding lasts 3 days, and the dozens of traditions that are observed all need to be faithfully recorded.

In addition to my general research, I have had lots of input and support from the father of the bride, Bill, who has even sent me videos of a couple of weddings to make sure my team and I are well prepared and know what to expect. Just watching them is exhausting! But you know what? I think I am looking forward to this more than Nicole and Steve (the bride and groom). Matter of fact, I think the only person more excited is Bill!

A Camera Full of Memories

2010-02-14T03:08:00.000-08:00

I was helping my friend Lynne move house today. Cleaning out the garage I came across a camera in a leather case. A 620 Roll Film device with a fixed lens and inbuilt filters operated by slides on the body of the camera. If that sounds like a rather sophisticated Medium Format device let me disabuse you. I used to own one of these cameras, and if you are over 40 years of age, you probably did, too. There was one in your family, anyway.

The Kodak Box Brownie, in various guises, was with us for nearly 100 years, the first cardboard bodied camera hitting the market in 1900. Mine was a Brownie Flash II, an Australian model with a built-in close-up filter, fixed aperture of f/14 and flash contacts (hence the name). I was never able to afford the flash gun, but the possibility was there.

It was my ninth birthday, and the camera was a gift from my dad and mum. I don't think they had any idea how much it was going to cost them to keep me in film! On the other hand, as they shifted the burden of film and processing to me, they may have wished they had gone on bearing the financial burden, because, of course, I decided to develop my own photos. But to be fair, they never once complained about the chemical smells that permeated the house, the loss of the bathroom for hours at a time (it was the only room with running water that could be blacked out), or having to fight their way through coils of drying negatives to get to the loo.

I learned a great deal from that simple box camera. I leaned to process and enlarge film; I learned to compose in the classic rectangular format; I learned what features I wanted in a camera, and how to take the photographs I wanted even though the Brownie had none of them.

I have owned many cameras since, every one of them far, far better. But only the Kodak Box Brownie set me on a path that I have followed now for more than half a century.

Lynne offered me her old camera: I accepted it with a gratitude she will never quite understand..