Tampa Dance Pictures at Karl and DiMarco Dance

I have two daughters and they are both dancers.  It started four years ago when they were just babies and now it's to the point that we spend most of our lives at the studio, at competitions, at recital... or at the store buying tights, shoes, etc.  :)

The first year that we joined dance, Sandy Karl, the owner, asked me if I would take over as photographer for the school.  There are photographers who market to the dance schools but I'm not really one of them.  However, I was happy to say yes because it would be a welcome break from my usual busy wedding and event schedule.

It's been four years now and I'm so glad I decided to take it on.  Every year I see a new crop of tots coming into dance for the first time with their little costumes.  Every year I see the older girls getting older and growing up before my eyes.

The Senior Company girls all know me by name as I have been photographing them since they were pre-teens.  Every year I try to remember to jump into a picture with the girls so I have a great momento of my time at the studio.  The girls are great about posing for me and giving there all for the camera!


I couldn't ask for a nicer group of girls.  It's always a pleasure to photograph them!

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!

How to be a Great "Uncle Bob" at a Wedding.

Last weekend I had a great "Uncle Bob" experience.

If you don't already know, "Uncle Bob" is an industry term we photographers use for the person at the wedding who thinks they are a professional wedding photographer.  Not to be confused with the guests who bring cameras and snap photographs all day... Uncle Bob has an expensive DSLR and is determined to photograph the wedding like a pro.  What he ends up doing, is getting in the way of the actual hired photographer, spoiling shots and annoying people.

But not always.

Last weekend, my Uncle Bob was the sister of the groom.  She has a Nikon Camera, she loves to take a photograph, so don't take her Kodachrome away (Paul Simon FTW!)  But she was cooool.  In fact, she was the perfect example of how you should act if you bring your big camera to a wedding.

We photographers notice things.  We notice when you are about to take a bad picture, when you are about to take a good one and when you are about to take a good one and you know you are about to take a good one.  So, when I noticed a guest taking a picture of the flower girls before the ceremony, in a crouch with one foot holding open a door behind her to let in natural light... my ears perked up.  "Uncle Bob," I thought.  But I also thought, "Uncle Bob has some skills."

During the ceremony she never left her seat.  During the formals she never took a picture (that I noticed).  However, she did point out several details to her family members when they were posing.  Little things like a stray hair or a hand out of place.  Good things to notice.

She introduced herself to me, told me she was a serious hobbyist and said, "Please let me know if I get in your way at all."  Thank you!

She didn't bring a flash, just a 50mm f1.8 lens.  She stayed back and worked on low-light candid shots.

She never got in my way and was a complete joy.

We wedding photographers can get a bad rap sometimes.  Many of us have been accused of being grumpy and rude and there are some of us who are sometimes.  But most aren't... we are just under a lot of pressure and we don't always have time to explain why you shouldn't be on the dance floor during the couples first dance because you want to practice.  You are in our way and worse, you are in the shot. So when we come across someone who is passionate about photography and also conscious of the job we are doing and respectful of the boundaries, we love them.  :)

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!

T.A.P.P.A. Picture Competition

This month's T.A.P.P.A. meeting was a good one.  We had a photographer come speak about his work with pets and he did a live demonstration.  Michael J. brought studio equipment and borrowed a dog from a member to photograph.

It's always great when a speaker does a "hands on" demonstration.  I felt bad for Michael because the dog, a little collie, just refused to look at him.  Michael was growling, barking, throwing towels and waving treats around and the collie just looked around like a bored Diva.  It's not his fault, of course, you don't usually have 40 people standing around when working with pets.  :)

Despite the challenges, Michael got some great shots.

I entered two images in the print competition this month.  I won third place in "Weddings and Events" for this images:

... and first place with this image:

I also entered an album (which I rarely do...) because they needed one to fill out the category.  Most photographers don't have a lot of albums sitting around so we go months without having anyone enter an album in the monthly salon.  Last night, one of the members posted on Facebook that he was bringing some albums so I brought one too.  I won second place. :)

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!

A recent bride posted this on Facebook.  really made my day. :)

You know that you couldn't have made a better choice than Booray Perry Photography for your wedding, when you upload pics and the next morning you see that '31 friends made your photo their profile picture' :))


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 Wedding Pictures Competition

Last night was the monthly meeting of The Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association and I entered two images in the "Weddings and Events" category.

The first was from a wedding on the beach that I photographed for Perfect Florida Beach Wedding.  We use a lot of props when we shoot on the beach because we like to have a lot of different images.  This image won 2nd place:

The second photograph was from a wedding last year at Mixon Farms.  Mixon is an orchard that has a space for weddings and it has some great locations for photography.  This image won 1st place

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!

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!