Photographing Your Own Kids

Without a doubt, the hardest assignment for a professional photographer is when he has to photograph his own kids.  My children don't behave for me the way that other people's children behave.  They don't pay attention, they act crazy, they throw fits.... add to that the fact that Daddy's patience tends to be shorter with his own kids than Booray's patience with someone else's kids and you can see how a little family photo shoot can go sour fast.  Next thing you know you are yelling at your kids the same way that you are always telling clients not to yell during your photo shoots.

I think the best thing to remember when photographing your own children is that many times the best pictures are not the ones you expect.  This applies to all photography, really.  Sometimes we spend so much time focusing on the perfect portrait that we lose sight of the emotion and fun that can make a great portrait too.  I like to try and get both during a session if possible.

Let me be clear that I'm not saying that any old snapshot is great as long as everyone is having fun.  This is a trend that is popular with new photographers who are weened on facebook and think that  lighting, composition, etc. are all secondary.  They are still just as important.  The trick is to get both, personality and good photography at the same time.  Be it artificial light or natural light, getting it right makes a big difference.

Just remember that some days you can work all day to get a perfect, posed picture of your family and when it's all said and done it's the one where your kids were goofing off that really captures who they are.  If you can get this:

... and also get this:

...you're having a good day.


Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida who tries not to yell at his kids when taking their picture.
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Winners in the Monthly TAPPA Print Competition

I was shut out of first place last month at the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association print competition but I managed to squeek in a 2nd and 3rd place finish for two of my images:

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.Getting married on the beach?  Here's how to have the perfect florida beach wedding!

Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth.  Tampa's Best Photobooth!

Tampa Photography in Ybor

This week I was in Ybor City for a session with some old friends.

Jesse and Jen were married a couple of years ago and I was their wedding photographer.  They cam back to me this year because they wanted to update their pictures and get some wall art for their home.  I just love being able to catch up with past clients.  I don't think that people realize how invested you can become with clients when you are their wedding photographer.  You spend a lot of time with them before the wedding and then you are right there on this very special day, documenting everything.  It's always great to be able to keep in touch as the years pass.  Facebook is great for that but nothing beats the chance to photograph a couple years later.

Here are a few of my favorites from the session.  Click on any one to launch the slideshow:

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.Getting married on the beach?  Here's how to have the perfect florida beach wedding!
Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth.  Tampa's Best Photobooth!

Don't settle for a bad headshot on your website or social media pages.  Get the best professional headshot in Tampa Bay..

Why Do Digital Files Cost So Much?

I just got off the phone with a client who wanted a photo shoot at the beach and all the images on disc, full-size and hi-rez, with a release of copyright so she could print them or post them online.

She was surprised at the cost.

So, I thought this might be a good time to explain how digital files are priced.  Let the questions begin!

Why are digital images so expensive?
Actually, they're not.  They just seem expensive because you are buying so many of them.  First, let's talk about how photographers make their money;

Most photographers charge very little for a photo session.  Their goal is to take such amazing pictures of you and your family that you will want to buy a lot of prints, wall art, or digital files.  It's a gamble every time.  We don't know how much money we will make from a client until they come see their images.

We like to offer a lot of different product so that we can make our clients happy (and make more money, of course). But here's the problem;  Most of these products can now be purchased online or at a local store.  So, when a client buys a digital image, it's very rare that they will buy anything else.  For example, we used to sell a ton of wallets but now most people don't send them to family anymore.  They just put the picture on Facebook.

What are digital images so expensive?  Because you are buying the whole cow.  I had a client who wanted to buy her digital images so she could make a guest book.  Well, I sell guest books.  So you can bet that I'm going to charge you at least as much as I would for a guest book, especially when you consider that you can use the images for so much more (prints, slide show, post online, "Thank You" cards, etc.)

Imagine going to McDonalds and asking for all the ingredients to make 30 cheeseburgers, already cooked, because you wanted to put the cheeseburgers together yourself.  Would you expect to pay less than the normal cheeseburger price?  Now, imagine they gave you the ingredients to make 30 cheeseburgers as well as hundreds of other types of burgers.  Less than the cost of 30 cheeseburgers, or more?

I started by saying that digital images aren't actually that expensive for what you get so let me put that into perspective.  If you were to buy 35 4x6 prints from me it would cost more than buying 35 digital images.  With the digital images you can do anything you want.  That's a great deal.

But I know a guy who will shoot a portrait session and give me a disc of images for X amount.  Why don't you do that?
The real question is:  Why don't you use that guy for your portraits?  I think we both know the answer.

You can buy a Kia or a Ford or a Lexus or a Mercedes.  Only you can decide which is right for you but don't expect the Mercedes to cost the same as the Kia.  (By the way, I'm not the Mercedes.  I know photographers who charge a lot more than me for their digital images and some who refuse to sell them at all.)


Well, I hope that I have shed a little light on why digital images cost what they do.  Just remember:  When you get everything on disc you are getting everything.  It's going to cost more than a few prints.

 

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.Getting married on the beach? Here's how to have the perfect florida beach wedding!
Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth. Tampa's Best Photobooth!

Don't settle for a bad headshot on your website or social media pages. Get the best professional headshot in Tampa bay..

Wedding Pictures and Retouching

One of the things that can be confusing when you start searching for a wedding photographer here in Tampa Bay is the level of "retouching" that will be done to your images.

The problem is that "retouching" can mean different things to different people.  It's hard to know exactly what a person means when they say that they "retouch" your images.  It's a little like someone saying that they are going to paint a room.  Are they going to paint it all one color with a spray can?  Are they going to faux-paint with sponges and special applicators?  Will they being doing something in between those two extremes?

I can't speak for every photographer in town but I can tell you what I do and what I call it... so that you will at least understand what to expect from me.

But first, some technical mumbo-jumbo that will help you understand the process:

Professional photographers shoot in a format called RAW.  Your pocket sized, point-and-shoot camera shoots in a format called .JPG. So does your phone.

What's the difference?

Tampa Photo Booth

Our unique take on the  Tampa photo booth called "The Vogue Booth" continues to grow and evolve.  We have always offered professional lighting and photography with beautiful 4x6 prints delivered in less than 30 seconds but now we are offering something new.

Mr. Mustache.

What's Mr. Mustache?  Well, I'm glad you asked!

We took our normal photo booth setup and streamlined it even further.  With the addition of a fashion photographer's light we can now remove the bigger portrait lights and take up less room at the event.  The whole thing fits into a space abot 5x7 feet but still has much more room to pose than a traditional booth.  The fashion light gives us those cool, Vogue shots with no shadow.  We can use this setup for any of the Vogue Booth setups (Mardi Gras, Portrait, Mr. Mustache..) but we designed it with Mr. Mustache in mind.

It was Bobbi's idea and it's a great one.  Everyone who has a photobooth does boa's and sunglasses so we want to offer something different.  The mustaches make for great pictures!  (Of course, we have the boa's and sunglasses too..)

We recently had a beach wedding with a really fun couple so we brought along the mustaches for fun!

As is the case with all our photo booths, we can custom design a border for the prints that is perfect for your event.

Booray Perry is an award-winning wedding photographer in Tampa Florida.Getting married on the beach?  Here's how to have the perfect Florida beach wedding!
Nothing makes a party more fun than The Vogue Booth.  Tampa's Best Photobooth!
Don't settle for a bad headshot on your website or social media pages.  Get the best professional headshot in Tampa Bay..

Photoshop CS5 HDR Wedding Image

I started taking HDR (High Dynamic Range) images about a year ago.  At first it was just because I thought it looked cool but then it became more of a tool for taking pictures that otherwise would be impossible.  There are times when you just can't get the look you want with flash or natural light (and times when you're not allowed to use flash) and having HDR at your disposal can really make the difference.  Here in Tampa Bay we are so often faced with incredibly bright sunlight that having HDR can really save an image.

I made the switch to Photoshop CS5 a couple of months ago and I've been impressed overall.  One of the things they did was to make the HDR a little better, although I'm comparing it to CS3 so it may be the same as it was before for you CS4 users.

Dance pictures at Karl & DiMarco

It's been a little busy the last few weeks at Casa de Booray to say the least.  Two weekends of dance recital pictures for Karl & DiMarco along with back-to-back weddings have left little time for folly.  And I'm a big fan of folly.


This is my second here shooting at Carlin DiMarco.  Last year I shot the North studio, this year I'm shooting North and South.

Taking pictures of dancers is different than taking pictures of "ordinary" people.  There's not much difference with small children but there's a huge difference with the dancers that are 11 and 12 years old.  These are girls who have been in dance for six or seven years and it shows.  When they are told to hit a pose they do it perfect just about every time.  It's fun to watch and a real joy to photograph.

Working with what you have

One of the things that I've come to realize about my particular style of photography is that I tend to be more of an "improvisational" photographer than a "carefully planned" photographer.  Some photographers like to plan a shoot down to the letter in advance so that they know exactly what poses they will shoot and how they will set up their lighting.  They'll work out all the details ahead of time in the studio before setting out to do the shoot.

I tend to fly by the seat of my pants.