Refraining from using the phrase "small world"

As you probably already know, my wife owns a beach wedding business called Perfect Florida Beach Wedding.  She stages small beach weddings in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Peterburg.

Today she got a call from a woman who is looking for some work.  She is a minister and wedding officiant.

"I'm thinking of moving to St. Petersburg," she said, "and I don't know that I want to start my business up all over again.  It might be better to just work for someone else for a while."

Bobbi chatted with her for a bit and as she was talking, she went to her website online.  The woman looked familiar.

"You live in St. Thomas" Bobbi asked?

"Yes"

"You marry people at Meghan's Bay?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well, you won't have to audition if you work for us," Bobbi said.

"Why not," she asked?

"Because you married us" Bobbi answered.

Does this mean I can call myself "Award Winning"

I'm a member of the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association.  I joined last year, mainly because I felt that I didn't know enough of my fellow photographers in Tampa.  It's been a great experience so far, everyone is very nice and welcoming.

One of the things that they take very seriously in The Professional Photographers of America is competition.  It's called a "Salon" and it's very cool to watch.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  There are three judges and your score is the average of their three scores.  The judges are free to challenge any score and argue with the other judges.  It was fascinating to watch the whole process.

I should point out that the biggest reason that I enjoyed it so much is that there seems to be great care taken to reach a fair decision.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am argumentative by nature.  If there's a contest, I'm the first person to point out any potential flaw in the judging, etc.  The PPA system of judging is very impressive.  (I won't go into it here, I'm sure it's online somewhere.)

Fastest Photo Booth in Tampa Bay?

So, I was all set for the Father/Daughter Dance at McKitrick Elementary.  I was going to set up a portrait station with professional lighting (just like last year), only this year we would be printing every picture on site so that everyone would have a keepsake to take home to Mom.

The week before the dance I get an email from the school.  The demand for tickets was a little more than expected (oops!) and they were expecting over 500 people for the two-and-a-half hour dance.

Well, I like to think that I can work fast but I can't work THAT fast!

So, we converted to The Vogue Booth.  There are several key differences between a portrait station and The Vogue Booth.  With a portrait station you bring posing stools and big lights.  With The Vogue Booth there are no chairs and I use a ring flash.  Vogue Booth prints look more like a photo booth print (but better because of the ring flash).  No posing stool means we can shoot faster.

It's "Mr. Mean" to you pal...

Today, Bobbi walked into the living room and said, "Someone is using one of our pictures on their website."

Bobbi is designing a new arbor for Perfect Florida Beach Wedding and was looking for inspiration.  She came across a website that rents arbors in another state and was quite surprised to discover a picture from http://www.perfectfloridabeachwedding.com/ .

It's a picture of a rose petal heart in the sand.  Bobbi built it, I photographed it.  It has her company logo stamped in the bottom right-hand corner.

The one that was on the other website was enlarged and had the logo photoshopped out.  They kept the nice custom black border and drop shadow that I created, however.

Needless to say, Bobbi was shocked.  "What should I do?" she asked.

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..

Wedding Photographer comment spam

Okay, here's the thing:  we all do it.  This insane system that Google has devised for deciding who gets to be on the front page for a particular search term has made everyone into "link" thieves.  We are constantly looking for someplace to put a link back to our website so that we mught improve our search ranking.

One of the most popular ways to get links is to comment on other photographer's blogs.  It's easy: you find a blog that talks about wedding photography and you leave a comment on one of the posts.  How can you tell when it's another photographer who is trying to ride your content for a link?  Easy... everyone else signs their name "Booray Perry"..... the link farmer signs his name "Wedding Photographer Tampa."  You see, blogger let's you sign whatever you want as your name and they let you make it a link!  So, "Wedding Photographer Tampa" becomes a link to the photographer's website, which helps with Google.

Everyone does it.  I get it.  I've done it too and I always feel a little dirty afterward.  But here's the difference between me and everyone else who does it to my blog:  I leave a real comment.  I read the post, I think of something creative to say or a question to ask.  I know that the other photographer will know what I am doing but if the comment is nice enough (or engaging enough) he might let it stay.

No one does this when the spam my blog.

Do you really think that you can post a comment that contains "Detroit Wedding Photographer" as a name and "Wedding Photographer" in the body three times and I won't delete it?  REALLY?!

Here's the other thing that gets me:  The photographers who comment spam me don't have blogs themselves.  Before I delete an obvious spammer, I check to see if they have a blog.  If they do, I might consider leaving their obvious link-building comment on my blog in return for putting one of my own on theirs.  They never have a blog!  Quid Pro Quo my brother!

So, if you are reading this and thinking of commenting, know that I will delete you if you leave an obvious link spam,  If you leave a comment that looks like you actually read the post, and you have a blog of your own that I can link from, that's a different story.

Good luck!

Two people, one light

I recently had the privilege of photographing Michael and Danielle's engagement session in Safety Harbor.  They booked me in 2010 for their wedding in 2012... this is a couple who is prepared!

I always encourage my clients to be creative at their engagement photo session.  Bring a change of clothes, props, anything that you think might be fun.  I tend to adhere to the, "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" philosophy.  My sessions are about 50% planned and about 50% on-the-spot inspiration.

Michael and Danielle did not disappoint.  They told me that one of the funny things about their relationship was that they had a bit of "role-reversal" compared to typical couples.  Michael does most of the cooking and cleaning, Danielle fixes things.

They came prepared to illustrate their respective roles with cookware and tools.  The question was: How do I photograph them in a creative way?

Superheroes.