Lutz Wedding Photography

Last weekend I photographed a small wedding in Lutz. One of the challenges of a small wedding is that they are typically held in small venues. Rarely will you be in a big, stain-glassed cathedral. That's okay though because there are lots of places you can take interesting pictures, you just have to look around.

The boys got dressed upstairs in the back of the church. There was a tight staircase leading up to the room they were in which was perfect for the group shot.

I love a good "fish-out-of-water" picture and the church had a big kitchen. I love this picture because it's foreshadowing of things to come.... domestic bliss, etc..

Another shot in the kitchen. I love the red floor.

Windows can be your best friend when you don't have much available for background. Here, the bride is having glitter applied to her eyes.

Studio portrait? No, I just turned out the lights in the room and lowered my shutter speed so that the room went completely black. Then I posed her in front of a window.

As always, you can see a lot more photography from Tampa weddings on my website: www.boorayperry.com

Portrait Session in Ybor City

Last week I headed down to Ybor City in Tampa to photograph Ashley. Ashley is a singer and musician so we decided to incorporate her guitar into some of the shots. From the very beginning I knew that it was going to be a great session because she is very easy-going, fun and inventive with her posing. I don't think I gave her detailed direction the entire time.... I just took pictures while she did whatever she wanted.

This picture was taken just as the sun was starting to set which gave me the great glow off the railroad tracks. I used off-camera lighting for the entire shoot so that I could have more control over the shadows. If I had to pick just one image from the day to keep it would probably be this one. Notice how the tracks curve down and lead to Ashley? This is a great trick to use when framing people for portraits.

Still at the railroad tracks. I cropped the tracks out of the shot because they were just too distracting to the final image.

I'm usually not a big fan of "selective color" in my photographs. I feel that it's been overused by photographers (especially wedding photographers.) Just because you can make something in the picture be in color while everything else is black and white doesn't mean you should. For this picture against a graffiti covered wall, I think it works. Usually, the thing that's in color stands out and becomes the focus of the picture. The difference is that in this picture, the color tends to make the black and white stand out because it is behind her.

My original intention was to have a sunset shoot but Ashley was running late and it got dark on us. So, I quickly started looking for ways we could turn the night to our advantage. In Tampa Bay there isn't a much better place for night photography than Ybor City with the lights and old Tampa feel (I love cobblestones). So, I put Ashley in the middle of the street, pulled out a second flash (lucky for me I tend to over-pack for photo shoots) and started taking pictures. As you can imagine, a picture like this takes a little more work than the others from the session. I have one flash to my left shooting through an umbrella and another on the ground under a car behind Ashley (see the bright flash on the right side?). Ideally I would have preferred to not have that back flash show so bright but I was hampered by space and the lack of a second tripod (wasn't planning for night shoot, remember?). Still, it works because it could just be light from a car. It makes a big difference in the picture because it puts a rim light on her legs.

Ashley changed outfits again (by the way, can I just say that the restrooms in the 15th street parking garage are cleaner than my house? Nice surprise...) and we moved to the curb. Careful observers might notice something missing from the guitar in this shot. It was distracting to me so I took it out with Photoshop.

It was getting late and we were ready to wrap but Ashley still had some stamina so we walked down to the main drag for a few more quick shots. I like this one because I was only using one flash but the car behind Ashley on the street acted like a rim light (see the nice halo of light around her head?).

Sweaty and tired, we called it a night. It was a fantastic shoot and a lot of fun! As always, you can see more wedding photography and portrait photography on my website.

How to make your photographer happy

This post should really be called, "How to make ME happy," since I can't presume to speak for all photographers.

Yesterday I had two client meetings. One was with a bride who has already booked me for her wedding and the other was with a potential client for dance recital pictures. Both of these meetings made me happy because in both cases I was talking to someone who "gets it."

My bride said, "I told my fiancee' that he could pick out everything he wanted for the wedding as long as I could pick out two things: The Dress and The Photographer." I can't tell you how great it is when I am working with someone who has a passion about the pictures that matchs my own. I'm fortunate that I still get excited with every job but when I'm working with someone who is equally excited and involved in the process I'm practically giddy.

The meeting with the potential client went well (I hope!). One of the things that no one mentions about being a photographer is that it's almost like going on job interviews every week. Unlike a business where you just deliver a quote and wait and see, photography is more personal and subjective. You never know what will be the deciding factor when someone is picking their photographer. Your images play a big role but so does your pricing, personality, client relations, customer service, etc. Yesterday's meeting made me happy not because I think I'll get the job (I have no idea) but because of something that the client said about my blog. She said that she saw my pictures and decided to contact me after reading my post about wedding albums. "I liked your philosophy," she said.

I never know if anyone is reading what I write and I have no idea if the like what they read so it was great to hear that someone had read that post and got from it a sense of what I am "about." One of the reasons I write this blog is so that people can get a sense of who I am. It made me happy to see that at least one person did.

Now, because I can't resist posting pictures, here are a few family pictures from a recent shoot. Enjoy!

Please visit www.boorayperry.com to see some of the best wedding photography in Tampa.

Why you want a wedding album

One of the trends that I have noticed with the digital age is that people are starting to forgo the album in favor of the Hi-res DVD of images. It's only natural to assume that a generation raised with computers is content to view all their wedding pictures on a screen.

I think this is a mistake for several reasons.

But, before I tell you why you should be buying a wedding album, first let me come clean about the price. Wedding albums are the most expensive product that I sell. They are the most expensive to produce, the most time consuming to create and the lowest profit margin of anything I sell... and yet I really want you to buy one. Why? Why do I care what you buy? Shouldn't I want you to purchase the items that bring me more profit for less work?

No. I want you to buy a custom album and here's why:

1. It's an event.
An event? What does that mean? Well, it means that when you have an album you pull it out whenever you are talking about your wedding with friends and relatives. You turn the pages... point at pictures... tell stories about the day. It's a shared experience. Compare that to clicking through pictures on your computer screen. An album is tangible, you hold it in your hand and connect to it.

2. It's just long enough.
I may give you 10 pictures of the Father/Daughter dance but it only takes one to convey the moment. Less really is more when it comes to wedding photography. Sure, it's nice to have 700 images on a disk but it's too many for browsing or telling a story. An album collects only the very best images from the day and uses them to tell the story of your wedding. One red rose is simple, elegant and beautiful. Five-hundred red roses is just a mass of flowers.

3. It's an heirloom.
100 years from now your album will be sitting on your granddaughter's bookshelf. When she plans her wedding she will pull it out and show her fiance'. It will connect her to you in a way that a disk of images never will. She will one day give it to her daughter...

4. It's the best showcase for my work.
A flush-mount, leather clad, custom designed album is the absolute best way to present my images of your wedding. The pages are photographic paper and the prints are hand re-touched by me to perfection. I'm proud of what I do. I work very hard at it. I like to think that people who see my work will see it in the way it's intended to be seen. I know... seems a little selfish... but it's impossible to be a great photographer without having a passion for the art and that passion doesn't stop the day after your wedding.

Whenever I think of a client showing her wedding pictures to someone on a computer monitor that hasn't been hardware calibrated I cringe. You see, no two monitors are calibrated the same so what you see on your monitor is almost definitely not what the picture really looks like. Wanna test it? Print a picture and hold it up next to the same picture on your screen and see if the colors match. Trust me, they won't. This is the reason that professional photographers have an expensive little gadget that they attach to the front of their computer monitor every month. This gadget runs a test and then calibrates their monitor to true color. That's how I know that what I see on my screen is exactly what the print will look like.

I can't tell you how many times I have been at someones home or office and been amazed that they ever hired me since they viewed my website on a computer that turned everything green. Go into Best Buy and look at the TV wall. Look at the three most expensive televisions in the place and I'll bet the picture doesn't look the same on all three.

The only way to truly see a picture the way it was intended to be seen is to print it. And it needs to be printed by a professional lab, not the ink jet printer on your desk and not the 1-hour printer at the drugstore. I have a giant, professional, $1000+ photographic printer and I still don't use it for client prints (I use it for promotional material and test prints).

It's your wedding! You spent all that money and all that time in preparation... it deserves to be preserved in a way that is beautiful and tangible. When you take out a leather 12x12 album of your wedding day you are presenting the day in the finest way possible. It's a once in a lifetime moment and deserves an appropriate showcase.

This is why I offer payment plans on my albums when needed. If I have a couple who wants an album but can't afford it right now, I'll work out a payment plan because I want them to have an album. I don't care that it's hours and hours of work. It's worth it to know that all the hard-work and time I put into capturing the emotion of the day will be forever preserved in the most fitting way possible. I guarantee you that on your 50th anniversary, at the big party with your children and grandchildren, when everyone is gathered around your album laughing and telling you how beautiful you looked, you won't be thinking, "Gee, that was a waste of money."

Get an album. You'll thank me later. :)

Booray Perry Photography produces stunning wedding albums in Tampa

Save the Date cards - Cheryl and Matt - Tampa

Cheryl and Matt are getting married in November and I'll be their wedding photographer. I love all my brides but I do have a special place in my heart for the ones who obviously have put a lot of thought into the kind of photography they want for their wedding. I have a passion for what I do and I have much more fun when my wedding couple is as excited about the creative process as I am. That's Cheryl.

We finally were able to take engagement photo's last weekend after four unsuccesful attempts (it's been raining all week inTampa). I've been designing a "Save the Date" card for them and below are my two favorites...

Booray Perry is a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay

Are you a thief in disguise?

One of the consequences of the digital age is that people who would never think of stealing are becoming thieves. They don't mean to do it, they usually don't even know that they're doing it.... but they are. I see it all the time.

I was talking about this issue just today when a good friend (and client) of mine said, "If I scan a picture of my daughter that I bought from a photographer, that's not stealing."
"Yes, it is."
"But I'm not making prints, I'm just putting the picture on Facebook."
"That's stealing and it's illegal."
"But it's my daughter in the picture and I paid for it!"

I hear this sort of argument all the time. Most people think that when they buy a print, they can do whatever they want with it. In fact, buying a print is no different than buying a music CD or a novel. We've all seen the record companies struggle to keep people from uploading their music to file-sharing sites and you can bet that Stephen King's lawyer would have a problem if you uploaded the entire contents of his latest book to Facebook. But tell someone that they can't upload a picture of their child that they bought and they look at you like you're crazy.

The thing you have to understand is that when you buy a photograph, you are not buying the right to reproduce it. Reproduction doesn't just mean making prints.... if you scan it or even take a photograph of it you are reproducing it. In the case of something like Facebook, you are making hundreds, maybe thousands of copies... one for each person who visits your page. This is illegal. It's just as if you owned a television station and broadcast movies that you bought at Wal-mart. Buying a movie at Wal-mart doesn't give you the right to broadcast it and buying a picture from a photographer doesn't give you the right to post it on the web (or send it to someone via email either). It doesn't matter what the subject of the picture is, what matters is who took it. The photographer has rights just as the musician and the writer do. (Did you know that radio stations and nightclubs have to pay a fee in order to play music?)

That's not to say that you can't purchase the rights to put your pictures on the web. You can. When I photograph a wedding I offer all the pictures on hi-res DVD with a limited release of copyright. The release gives you the right to print the pictures or put them online as long as it's for personal use. With portrait sessions I offer digital prints with the same rights and DVD slideshows that can be shared as well. I often post pictures on Facebook from sessions and weddings and my clients use them for their profile picture (I have my web address on them so I get some advertising and they get to share their picture for free. Everyone wins!)

I'll admit that some people are taken aback when they learn that a digital print costs $150. It may seem like a lot but consider the alternative. When you buy a full-size, hi-res image and post it online or email it you have, in effect, given a 20x30 professional portrait to every person you know. Hundreds of people. All of them now have a copy of your portrait. Imagine what it would cost to buy that many prints and mail them out. Plus, there's the added bonus of being able to re-print the image as much as you want forever.

Let's do the math: Sally has 240 friends on Facebook. A sheet of wallets(8) from her child's school pictures costs $20. It would cost $600 to buy a wallet-sized picture for every friend she has on Facebook. However, for $150 she can buy a digital print which she shares with everyone on Facebook and since she has a release of copyright, she can go down to the drugstore and they will make prints for her or holiday cards or a picture-pillow or anything else that they do with pictures nowadays. $150 is a bargain.

I guess part of the problem is that everyone uses digital camera's now and they all share their pictures on the Internet so it seems wrong that they would get a picture taken and not be able to share it that way. But we photographer's have to eat too and we can't support our families if people buy one picture and email it to everyone in the family instead of buying a couple of sheets of wallets (or a digital print). There's little we can do to stop it short of threatening to sue people all the time and no one wants to do that. I always make sure I educate my clients on the benefits of having their pictures retouched and printed by me. There can be no doubt that a print from me with a full retouch is head-and-shoulders above the same picture printed at a drugstore. Still, some people will pay good money for a professional photographer and print the pictures themselves (which is a little like buying a new BMW and painting it with a can of RustOleum.)

If you feel you must be able to post your pictures online, ask your photographer what he can do to help you. We want our customers to be happy.... we just don't want them to steal from us.

Booray Perry is a wedding and portrait photographer in Tampa FL.

Tampa Dance Photography at Karl DiMarco

I spent the last three days shooting dance pictures at Karl DiMarco Dance Studio and it was a great experience. The costumes for the upcoming recital were really fantastic. I was blown away by how great everyone looked. This was made even better by the fact that all my subjects were dancers... THEY KNOW HOW TO POSE! Everyone was attentive and eager to get good pictures.

The very last costumes that we shot were the hobo's. Unlike the other costumes, each of these was unique and made by the girls themselves.

It's very common to use Photoshop when shooting group pictures because it's impossible to carry a 20-ft wide backdrop with you to every photo shoot. So, you position your group in the middle and use Photoshop later to fill in where the backdrop is missing. However, in this particular case I actually like the picture in it's original form. By leaving the extra background clutter intact you change the feel of the picture. Now, the picture takes on a more casual observer feel.... it's not a "formal portrait" anymore, it's now a snapshot of a formal portrait session. (Does that make sense?) Magazine's will sometimes photograph celebrities this way to give the picture a sense of casualness while still getting the benefit of excellent lighting. This picture is the only one that I offered to the parents un-retouched. I'm curious to see if anyone chooses this one over the "perfect" one. I'm guessing that I'm the only one who like it better this way. :)

You can see more of my photography on my website.