Tampa Dance Recital Pictures

I recently received an amusing request.


I recently took dance recital pictures for Karl & DiMarco Dance Studio. They are using two of my images for their fall advertising campaign. There was a group of four dancers in a Bob Fosse style costume at the last shoot and they are using two of them for their ads.

This week they asked me if they could get images of the other two dancers for ads as well. I have two daughters myself and I can almost guarantee that I know exactly what happened when the ads came out featuring two of the four girls. :)

Here's their website with the ads...

Tampa Bay wedding photographer gets published

I made it into the latest issue of Tampa Bay Weddings magazine.  Booray Perry Photography has an image featured on pages 16 & 18.

Here's a link to the online magazine.

I'm expecting to get a featured wedding into another magazine this month.  Wish me luck!

Clearwater Beach Wedding Planner

I've just made some changes to Perfect Florida Beach Weddings website.  My wife started the company a short while back to provide one-stop shopping for amyone looking for a wedding planner on Clearwater Beach or in St. Petersburg.

I'm happy with how the site looks, although it's been a while since I did any web design.  I added some larger pictures of my wedding photography that really make it pop!

No, you can't email me...

I'm a little annoyed today by some of my fellow photographers.  It's nothing serious, mind you, just a small thing that is annoying.

I've been sending emails out to a few photographers in other markets to pitch this idea that I have.  It's no big deal... no money or anything... but I think it's a good idea and I think it could become a great idea over time.

The problem is that I keep running into websites that won't allow me to email the owner.  What they will have is a "Contact Form" that has a few boxes for your name, email, etc but has no box for you to type in any extra information.  Also, I keep running across blogs with no email link.

That just seems crazy to me!  I have a contact form on my website (http://www.boorayperry.com/) and I have my email address on this blog.  I don't understand why a photographer would want to limit the information that a potential client can send.

It just seems odd...

Wedding at Shephard's, Clearwater Beach

I recently photographed a wedding at Shephard's in Clearwater and it was a blast!  I have since discovered that I am the only person in Tampa Bay who hasn't been to Shephard's at some point.  It's an institution in this town!

Michael and Christa were merging family from Boston and New York  From the minute I showed up I knew that it was going to be a fun day.  "Bahstun" and "New Yoik" accents everywhere and lots of energy and joking were the theme for the day!

Here's a few of my favorite shots:

Photographer Spotlight: Dallas Wedding Photographer William Porter

William Porter is a wedding photographer in Dallas, TX (my old stomping grounds..).  He's a great guy, very personable, who spent years in the academic world and it really shows on his website and blog.  I'm a big fan of information, I read constantly, and so I love a wedding photographer who writes a lot.  I also love a photographer who tests his equipment and writes about it, saving me the trouble! William's perspective is unique and I'm especially jealous of his recent trip to Yellowstone since my biggest wildlife experience of the last five years has been fishing in the golf course pond behind my house!

If you are planning a wedding in Dallas, you should give check out William's website...

Wedding photography and shoes

Planning a beach wedding in Clearwater?  Go to Perfect Florida Beach Wedding for all your needs...

What's the hardest picture to take at a wedding?  Is it the first kiss?  The formals?  The bouquet toss?

No.

It's the shoes.

That's right... the bride's shoes can sometimes be the most challenging shot I take all day.  You would think that it would be easy to take a picture of these little inanimate objects but it can be very challenging at times.  Things that don't move on their own require a lot of attention to posing (shoes, newborns, Kirstie Alley...)  It's easy to fall into a rut and shoot the shoes the same way at every wedding so I'm always looking for anything I can do that might be a little different from the norm.

Also, here in Tampa Bay I see a lot of flats and sandals at my weddings.  Taking a majestic picture of a pair of sandals is a challenge, believe me.

In an attempt to show you just how much work can go into what appears to be a quick and easy shot, here's a series of images from a recent wedding that show my thought process.  I'm sure that there are many photographers who will laugh at the time and energy I spend on these shots sometimes but that's me.

Wedding photography at the Sand Pearl, Clearwater Beach

I've been waiting a long time to post these images.

Chelsea and Ofir were married at the Sand Pearl Resort on Clearwater Beach over a month ago.  Immediately after the wedding they took off for a one month vacation in Europe and so I have been sitting on these pictures while I waited for them to return.  I don't post images to my blog before the client has come in and seen them in the viewing room on the big screen.  I don't like the idea of someone seeing their wedding images for the first time on an I-phone while sitting in traffic.

Chelsea and Ofir were a wonderful couple to work with.  Warm and funny, obviously in love, and determined to get good pictures on their wedding day.  The biggest thing you can do to help your wedding photographer get great pictures is to agree to see each other before the ceremony.  The extra time before the hectic day begins allows me to really set up some beautiful shots.

Click Read More.....

No man is an island..

My long national nightmare is almost over.

It all started when I decided it was time to replace my antiquated computer with something more capable of running the barrel of graphics programs that I require to be the world's greatest photographer.

I ordered a new computer with all the bells and whistles.  My previous computer was hand built by yours truly and I have a bit of a "thing" for fast rigs.  Yes, I'm a geek, I've never tried to deny it.

My new computer arrived and I inspected it only to discover that the hard drives had completely collapsed inside the hard drive enclosure.  They were now a stack of drives resembling a game of Jenga made from 1 terabyte drives.

So, I sent it back for repair.

Then, the same day, my old computer finally gave up the ghost.

So, for the last two weeks I have had only the small computer that I keep in the studio to keep me connected to the outside world.  I transferred my email to it and was able to conduct business but I didn't even attempt to install all the heavy-duty graphics programs that I use on a daily basis.

Finally, after two weeks of agony, my new computer returned.  I opened the case and discovered yet another game of hard drive Jenga.  So, I boxed it and sent it back for a refund.  Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice and I want my money back a-hole.

(Note: Hard Drive Jenga would be a great name for a band...)

Today I went to CompUSA and bought a new computer off the rack, something I haven't done in well over a decade.  I had to get up and running fast because, as luck would have it, I have a lot of orders.

I'm still one program short of being able to fully resume retouching (it's Noise Ninja which won't accept my key code because I now need the 64-bit version of the software).  I have a letter in to customer support and as soon as I get that fixed I will be designing wedding albums for the next two weeks.

I also have quite a bit of blogging to do.  I want to show off some weddings I have shot this summer and I also plan to do a step-by-step breakdown of a shoe shot.  I'm going to show each shot I took and what I was thinking that led me to the final image of a bride's shoes.  You'll be surprised to discover how much work this seemingly simple shot can take.

Watch this space.... more on the way I promise.

Booray is a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay