Wedding at Mahaffey Progress Energy Center

Here's the album pages for a wedding I shot at Mahaffey Progress Energy Center.  It's a great location made even better when they let me take pictures inside the actual theater.

Click on any image to bring up the images larger!

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 Photo Booth

Tampa's Fastest Photo Booth Strikes Again!

I'll be honest, we're pretty proud of "The Vogue Booth" photo booth at Booray Perry Photography.  We set out to create a fun photo booth that could still deliver quality prints and images so that the guests get a great print and the host gets great digital images for their album, etc.

We didn't anticipate that the photo booth would become so popular that we would start booking events where there was no "official photographer."  We created the booth to be something we could offer our weddings and Bar Mitzvah's.... but now we book it to parties and events all the time and the big test every year is the Father/Daughter Dance at McKitrick Elementary.
Last year we set a new record for the most prints delivered in the shortest time and this year we beat that record.  The dance lasts two-and-a-half hours and in that time we photographed over 1000 people and printed 457 prints!  (We would have done more but we had to change paper and ink at some point and that took about 5 minutes..)

As is usually the case, we get some Dad's who don't want to be silly for their picture, and that's fine with us.  We're happy to take your picture however you like.  But, it's the ones that get goofy that are the most fun.  :)

After everyone has gotten their picture we start to see the girls coming back with friends for more fun.  This year there were just as many Dad's coming back for more as there were Daughters!  Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

At the end of the night, the teenage girls who help run the dance always stop by for a picture too:

It's our third year at the dance and we hope there are many more!

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!

Salon competition at T.A.P.P.A.

Last night I participated in my first "Salon" as a member of the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association.

First, let me tell you a little about the group.  T.A.P.P.A. is the largest affiliate guild in Florida of the Professional Photographers Association with over 100 members.  The P.P.A. is a great organization that publishes "Professional Photographer" magazine, provides insurance to guild members and sponsors schools and workshops around the country.  The people I have met since joining the guild have been great and it's really nice to have a network of fellow professionals who I can reach out to for support (and offer support in return)

Competition is a big deal in the PPA.  It starts with the "Salon" at our monthly meeting.  Then there's the yearly Salon for each guild chapter (that's what we did last night).  Next is regional and then national.  The ultimate goal is to receive a "merit" for your image.  A merit is awarded for a score of 80 or above in a regional competition.  Previous posts about monthly salon are here, here and here.

The idea is that the monthly salon, which is voted on by the members, is a way to see what images you have that might be worth moving up to the yearly salon (which is judged by three qualified judges.)  How you do in the yearly salon will help you decide if it's worth moving on to regional.  If you score 80 or above in the yearly salon, you receive a "Chapter Merit." 

Photographic Artistry The Hard Way

Whenever I talk to someone about the importance of hiring a good photographer, it seems that they always say, "You need someone who has the right artistic vision." While I tend to stress, "Someone who understands the technical side of photography."

I think that a person who is very artistic can still take lousy photographs because they lack the skill to realize their vision. But someone who has the technical skill can be lead to the artistic images simply by understanding posing, lighting, composure, etc.

I rarely envision a photograph before I arrive on location. Rather, I arrive at the location and then "see" the pictures as I look around. My artistry comes from a grounding in technical skill. The ability to look at a space and see elements that will make a good photograph and then compose and shoot that photograph is an artistry all to itself. Since, in my mind, it's mostly "technical" in nature... I tend to shy away from calling myself an "artist."

Captured by God Photography

I just received an email from someone informing me that one of my images is on someone else's website and facebook page.

The studio is called Captured by God Photography. Here's the links to my image on their pages:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=329396263741963&set=a.329395963741993.95992.232021380146119&type=3&theater

http://capturedbygodphotography.zenfolio.com/p602613442/h325b52f8#h325b52f8

Lytro camera just a gimmick?

Great article from PCMag about the new Lytro camera. Wedding photographers have been watching the development of this camera with great interest as it allows any consumer to focus after-the-fact. Some see it as a camera that will hurt the professional, others as a new weapon for our bag.

The article points out several glaring shortcomings with the camera, the most obvious being the poor resolution which makes images impossible to print. Take a look and see what you think...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401039,00.asp

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!