bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Just checked, we are now over 100 (101 to be precise) users of our section!

Here's an idea, how about we introduce ourselves to each other.

OK, I'll start.

My name is Bob, My grandpa's name was Bob, my dad was Bob, my grandson is Bob (have 2 daughters, and my wife wouldn't go for Roberta, so it skipped a generation)

Started in photography in high school, school paper, yearbook, basically anything to get out of classes, and work in the darkroom (they actually let us out of classes if we were " in the middle of developing film".... wonderful time. By my Sophmore year, I had my own darkroom, and was doing color as well as the B&W in school. Graduated, worked at a TV station, anything from camera operator, to sound, to directing...ended up in Master control. (hated Master Control, way too immature, still am, for that kind of responsibility) Also started working at a "1 hour photo lab." Within a year, I was working at a professional lab doing both enlarging and touching up (remember the super fine tip brushes?) During all this, I started interning for James Hodge (a great guy), both in the studio, and more importantly on wedding shoots. I ended up marrying his daughter. I won't say that me marrying his daughter killed him, but he did die about 27 years after the marriage. You do the math, he was alive and well before I married her.... just saying. I didn't mention, but he had a wicked sense of humor and would have loved that.

Well, I tried to do only photography for a living, but it didn't last long. The photo lab didn't "seem" like a career as much as a job, so I ended up being a life long "semi-pro" photographer. I've been doing it right (legally, paying taxes, etc.) for about 31 years on my own, or with a business partner. Prefer having a partner, but they ultimately end up becoming former partners. You know us artsy fartsy people.

I've loved photography most of my life, and continue to enjoy the heck out of it, with Weddings, still being my favorite subject. Even after all these years, I love both teaching, and learning, and having someone like Ed (in our section) Cliff, Bobby, and Russ in the Portrait section, and Searcher (I think his name is John) in the Post Processing section, act as online mentors means the world to me.

The reason I wanted this section was to be able to share, and learn. Do I feel qualified to be the administrator of this section? Nope, but if nobody else was going to do it, I figured I would. I've searched the internet to find a really good forum for wedding photographers, having never found one, I decided maybe we (as in all of us now) should make our own. And, well, that's me.

PS, if anyone agrees that I'm not suited to be an administrator, I'd be happy to pass the torch, or share the torch, or whatever. It certainly isn't an ego thing. I just really wanted to be a part of something.

The end.......or is it?
Thanks
Bob

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

Name: Jerry

Age: 59

Location: California

Occupations: Real Estate Broker - Professional Videographer - budding Professional Photographer

Video Experience: Last year we turned down 23 weddings because we were already booked. Raised our prices :)

Photo Experience: Played around a bunch 35 - 40 years ago, had my own darkroom, then nothing for 35 years. Decided we needed to offer photography in addition to videography. Was a good decision. I devoured KelbyOne wedding teaching videos for a year before shooting my first wedding. I'm confident I can get good, well focused, correctly exposed wedding photos but learning more about creativity/composition. Learning more is always a good thing.

greg vescuso Loc: Ozark,Mo.

My mane is Greg and I'm 50

I would like to start off by saying thank you to Bob for starting this section. I started in photography about Ten years ago when I was a over the road truck driver by buying a canon rebel to try and take some good pictures of all the beautiful places I would go in the country. So for the next couple of years most of the photography I was into was landscape and bird photography and even though I would take pictures of my kids when I was home the portrait side wasn't something I was ready to takle mostly because of my fear of using a flash. When my boy was in high school I used photography to follow him playing sports and this built a good bond for us, and somewhere along the way I had relatives asking me if I would take pictures for them so I had to overcome my fear of using a flash and the learning began. Now the last five years my wife and I have shot about 9 weddings for relatives mostly nieces. After the first one I realized how much is involved and actively started learning as much as I could. And somewhere along the way I realized that being part of a bride and grooms wedding is such a special honor to have. I enjoy every part of the wedding day and just want every one I shoot to be better than the last. At this point I don't know if I will ever want to photograph any weddings but relatives but I want my relatives wedding to be photographed as good as any professional they could have hired. I wish I had started this path earlier in life but I enjoy photographing weddings so much that I think this is the creative outlet I need in life. So I'm here to learn and if there is anything I can help with I gladly will. Greg

Beercat Loc: Central Coast of California

Greg ........... I'm 59 and will be 60 in 2 days ........I think I have another 5 - 10 years in me to snap weddings ;-)

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Pretty cool getting to kind of know more about some of the people we're "talking to" here.

Jerry, sounds like we went down opposite paths but ended up in about the same place.

I started with video very early on, but moved to stills for my journey. Sounds like you did stills for a while, but chose video for the bulk of your journey.

Greg, sounds like you do this for the same reason I do. Yes, I do like to make money, but I really LOVE the wedding stuff. Portraits are fun, but weddings just really let me express myself.

skidooman Loc: Minnesota

Steve here,

57 yrs young. A rookie at weddings as I've only been doing them for a couple years. A full frame Canon guy with an L lens arsenal. PS, LR, lot's of Topaz plugins, Noise Ninja and photomatix user. Started as a shoot and burn guy, quickly learned that is the best way to starve. Recently started using Preveal for in person sales which is making a difference with sales.

I would call myself a traditional guy, with a willingness to try just about anything (within reason).

Not the best photographer in the world but not the worst.

http://www.stevehussphotography.net

dgagnon Loc: Sumter, SC now in STL, MO

Dave here:

53 years young.........

I have been enjoying photography since 1980 when I got my first real camera (Minolta SRT-101). I recently about 5 years ago got into the DLSR arena. Got a Nikon D80, 18-55 VR & 70-300 VR lens, just got a Sigma 70-300 macro and a decent set of extension tubes. I use Adobe PS6 and LR4 at home for fun.

A friend is getting married and saw the pictures I took along-side the paid photographer at my niece's wedding and asked if I could take pictures at here wedding in August. So I am looking into getting all the information I can get my hands on to not let her down.

Getting ideas from looking at the gallery here and on photo.net. Am going to go through the courses on http://www.photographycourses.biz/index.html but need to know of any other sites for ideas and help.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I'll take a look at preveal. Not sure what it is. I'm still old school, and only use online proofing as a last resort (I use shootproof) if that's what preveal is.

I know I've mentioned a few times about actually interning and using interns a lot, but I fully appreciate the fact that it is NOT the ONLY way to get started. Glad you saw the light with the shoot and burn technique. I am currently trying to explain that to a woman (I keep wanting to say "young girl" but she's in her mid 30's) who is wanting to start working with my business partner and I, who keeps saying that she "just wants to shoot and give the clients a disk, because she doesn't want the "hassle" of sales."

Hmmm. the reason why she wants to work with us so bad is that people that work with/for us, actually make money. (not a lot), but certainly more than they do when they try to completely go it alone.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Just checked out Preveal, makes me want to get an iPad.

That's pretty awesome. Not sure I like the other version made for online sales, but wow, what a useful tool.

Looks like I may have just started my 2015 wish list.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Hey Dave.

Took a look at the tutorial sight. Didn't pay too much attention to the prices (which is pretty important in my book) I really enjoy watching youtube tutorials on wedding photography (free) and the paid creative live videos are usually outstanding. I normally watch the preview on youtube before I commit to paying. They usually post short previews/commercials.

Only my opinion here, but if you enjoy learning like I do. Time is rarely wasted by learning as much as you can, from as many sources as you can.

bk

LKincaid Loc: Tampa Bay, Florida

Name - Lynn
Age - 50 (yikes)
"Day job" - Training and Development Manager
My "thing" is nature and wildlife photography (Florida Natural Beauty). I have been to several co-workers/friends weddings in the last year and always bring my camera. I have a lot of respect for those of you that shoot weddings for a living! I like to learn new things and I figured...why not? I do not see me shooting weddings for a living but I like learning new things and everyone is really nice in here :)

fotodon Loc: Oberlin, OH

[quote=bkyser]Just checked, we are now over 100 (101 to be precise) users of our section!

Here's an idea, how about we introduce ourselves to each other.

Hi, my name is Don. My partner/significant other, not married is Terri. We are both 65 years young. We both got interested in photography pre-high school. I guess you could say that I went pro while in HS when I got my first job as an intern in a large local photo studio. LOL I worked/studied under the owner and mostly under the portrait photographer who was also the darkroom master. He was an old German guy and we rubbed each other the wrong way often. It was years later that I realized that he was a master at his trade and I learned so much from him.

Terri is a natural artist and became an accomplished photographer while living in the desert in Arizona. Upon returning to Cleveland in the mid 70s she started working for what some would say was and still is the number one wedding photographer in the area. Within a few years she found herself owning her own business full time and has continued ever since.

After HS and while in the service (Coast Guard) I was prodded by a friend to apply to Brooks Institute. After a long 1.5 year application process I was accepted and put on a 2 year waiting list. During that time my life changed, got married, and decided that I was good enough to open my own studio with out going to Brooks. That was my biggest mistake in life and the only one that I truly regret.

The studio failed in six months and I was left with one cheap camera to my name. I had to get a "real" job to support my family but was able to get sub-contracting wedding jobs from several studios. That was back in the days when wedding photography was the most boring part of the business. When the early stages of the digital darkroom started (Corel) I found a cure for my darkroom withdrawal. By the time I got my first digital camera, a Kodak 3mp P&S and Photoshop was into the CS series I was in 7th heaven.

I met Terri 10 years ago did second shooter for her. Actually we met on Match.com. She was still shooting MF film and was convinced that digital would never replace film. The only way I could change her mind was to buy a Canon 20D and start shooting with it at weddings. Actually, she changed her mind when she started shooting her fine art stuff with mine. She had already mastered the digital darkroom end and one day when she shot 200+ images of a three pear still life, popped the files into Photoshop and ended up with an award winning color select image ready to send to the printer within hours and not spending a penny, the light bulb went off.

So...for the past 10 years we have been shooting weddings and any other job we can get together. She is the artist, I am the technician. (left brain, right brain)(Venus, Mars) Whatever. Everyone tells us that we make a great pair when shooting weddings. We have different shooting styles and skills. All I can tell you is that it is a wonderful thing to be doing what you love with someone that you love.

We will not do shoot and burn and firmly believe that a photograph is nothing until it is properly transformed in something that you can look at without the use of another electronic device. We also believe that customer relations go way beyond a contract, payment and a product. Wedding photography is not for everyone but for those that continue to do it for years it is the most gratifying of experiences.

To change the subject...I am wondering...every time I want to see what is being posted in the Wedding Photography section I have to go to the UHH home page and then click on Wedding Photography and then scroll thru all the posts. I believe that I am fully subscribed but is there a way to get email notices of all new posts?

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Very happy to have you here. Hopefully, even if you aren't a pro, you will feel comfortable to share things that you've discovered while shooting weddings. Trust me, even after all my years of getting paid, I learn something new with each wedding.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

[quote=fotodon]

Hey Don, great to have you aboard.

As for your question, that's why I'm begging for people to actually subscribe. I asked Admin how we can get added to the daily digest, and Admin said that we had to have "a couple hundred users, and a lot of posts."

It is a double edge sword, we don't get much traffic, because we don't get included in the daily digest, but we can't get in the daily digest until we get more traffic.

Anything you can do or think of to promote us, will help boost us. I do think that once we start getting listed in the daily digest, that our friendly little section will grow much quicker.

By the way, I'm originally from Painesville, Ohio. Now live in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Haven't been back to Cleveland area in probably 10 years (for a football game)

Stay warm.

bk

elwynn Loc: Near Atlanta, GA

Well, I'm E. Keyser originally from Maryland. One of us is spelling it wrong. I'm to be 87 yrs old in three weeks and have been playing with photography over 72 years now and never tire of it.