News for Subscribers!

Subscribers! Thank you so much for following me on my blog. It’s been a really rewarding experience. I have some changes coming up and one involves a new blog address. You will no longer receive updates from this blog and it is being discontinued. Please check my new blog address and sign up for email updates via the new URL. I’m sorry for the inconvenience but I look forward to talking to you soon from the new address! Until then, Happy Shooting!

New blog url: http://memoriesofyourlifetime.wordpress.com/

Yeah I Like To Refer Clients To Friends, Why Wouldn’t You?

One thing that I always felt was a key to success in this business is professional collaboration. Whether that be collaboration with other photographers or other industry vendors, collaboration is key. When I first started I was lucky enough to hook up with another photographer and we shot weddings together, learning from each other as well as growing professionally together. Even though we both ran our own businesses we still collaborated on everything from pricing to sales pitches to advertising. Some people look at that and say why are you working with the competition? To that question I have a very simple answer, because in the long run you’re not going to get every customer so why not work together to grow your business as much as possible.

I tell all of my clients when I meet them that photography is very much a personal choice and that the style of photographer that you choose shouldn’t necessarily be because of their skills but rather their ability to accurately portray your personality. If the photographer only wants to photograph their way because they are an “artist” and cannot change or compliment their style for your personality then that may not be the right photographer for you. I tell my clients to shop around, check out other photographers. Find one that will work with them and reflects their personality. These are their photos, not the photographers and they need to ensure they pick the right one.  

So with that being said, that’s exactly why I collaborate with other photographers on business related issues. For one, I’m not going to book every client that walks through my door but at the same time, shouldn’t I be able to offer them valuable alternatives as well? If I can’t book them, there’s no reason that one of my other photographer friends couldn’t. We all have different styles and approaches to photography. We are not the same. That is a benefit to the client. Just because my style doesn’t suit their taste doesn’t mean my colleagues won’t and that’s all the more reason to collaborate and refer other photographers. The old “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” kind of mentality.

This holds true with your vendors as well. Find some reliable vendor partners to work with. People that you don’t mind attaching your reputation to and actively work to promote their business as well as yours. Let them know you are doing this and see if there is something that you can do together to promote each other.  The first year I started my business I happened to get hooked up with a caterer who had a great idea for the industry. They wanted to provide a one stop shop for all of your event needs from linens, to catering to photography to floral arrangements to event coordination but they didn’t want to run it as one company rather a collaboration of several businesses who all had the same attitude towards their industry and clientele and were willing to stick their reputations out for each other. It worked really really well. Not only did the vendors benefit from this arrangement but the clients ultimately were the real winners. They didn’t have to go with all of us or any of us but the option to go with a reputable vendor and not have to spend a lot of time looking for someone in such a saturated market was a real value. Collaboration like that helped all of us to grow. Collaborating with other vendor partners helps to gain your credibility as well as help establish your reputation with other industry professionals. Collaboration is key to success in this business.

So that’s my thoughts. Share and share often and I guarantee that it will come back to you in a positive way!

My Love, My Life, My Wife and the Reason I Fell In Love With Wedding Photography

My wife Gina and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary this September 29. It’s been a long, often uneasy road with lots of detours and roadblocks but all along the way she has been in the passenger seat of our car helping me navigate our lives through life. I thought I’d take the time in this post to give you a little insight as to why I do what I do and what my inspiration to be a wedding photographer has been. My inspiration to be a wedding photographer started the day I met my wife. The love that grew from our relationship helped me realize that I want to give that gift to my clients by capturing their love to be forever shared through their wedding photography.

I tell everyone I knew from the first date that I was going to marry Gina, it just took her a little longer to come to that realization. I was always the romantic. I enjoyed the feelings of being in a relationship and caring for someone. What amazed me was that I thought I had experienced love in my life up until that point. It sure felt like it with all the heartache and break that I had felt from past relationships. But I have to say, I had no idea what God had in store for me until the day I met Gina. That love was overwhelming in a very good way.

It all started with a song. Alison Krauss’ “When You Say Nothing At All”. That is our song and it has been from nearly the day we met. The lyrics are so simple and spoke right to our hearts. We were so young 11 years ago when we met and still very much kids at heart. We would listen to those lyrics for hours in the car like two young kids in love do, just holding hands and singing along, getting lost in each other’s eyes. Letting our hearts do the talking instead of our words. Dreaming of what life will be like when we get our chance to conquer the world. It was a very romantic time in our lives and very much about just us. The words just spoke to our heart:

“The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all.”

Through those words we connected. We realized how much our hearts really did speak to each other even when words never escaped our lips. We fell in love with that song and through the meaning of those words we fell in love with each other. To this day whenever we hear it, no matter where we are or who we are with, we will both find each other’s eyes from across the room and share silently what our hearts say best to one another.

I think it is that romanticism, that connection that we felt when we discovered our song, that really drew me to wedding photography. Believe me, I didn’t start out wanting to do weddings. They scared me to death. The awesome responsibility of capturing this once in a lifetime moment was overwhelming. My first wedding made me a nervous wreck so much so that I swore off weddings for nearly 2 years before meeting my friend Raul and deciding to give it a chance again. He helped nurture my photographic skills and gave me the opportunity to practice photographing weddings without the pressure of being the sole or primary shooter. This gave me the comfort zone I needed to get comfortable with the process and along the way, I feel in love with wedding photography.

I named my company Memories Of Your Lifetime because of that feeling I have for wedding photography. What I do is much more than take a picture. I capture the memories that a couple is making for generations of their family to enjoy for years to come. A wedding is the joining of two people in love that found each other through their own story and their own songs and those things that spoke to them and helped their hearts to connect and fall in love with one another so much so that they made a very public promise to each other and everyone they know that what they feel is real and will forever be there till death do them part. I want to be there for that moment.

I love connecting with and getting to know my clients. I like making it personal. If I don’t then there is no feeling in my photography, it is simply a photo. I like enjoying their day with them and capturing those moments that they will remember for the rest of their lives. They may not remember who I was in 20 years but I can guarantee that through my photographs the memories that they have of one another on that day will forever be preserved for them to reflect on and share any time they want. I preserve the memories of their lifetime. Like how I did that?

So to my wife, I say thank you for blessing me with 10 years of undying, unwavering devotion, love, support, encouragement, blessings and inspiration! I only wish I was to you what you are to me. You set the bar every day very high and every day I work to reach it. I love you. I love the beautiful family that you have blessed me with and I thank God everyday that you let me be me and supported me on this beautiful journey of photography that I needed to take in my life. I love you, I love you, I love you. As we used to tell each other, “Somehow, Someday, Someway”. Well baby, we made that a reality and we are living it. Happy Anniversary love and here’s to 10 more beautiful years! You will always and forever Say it best when you say nothing at all!

 

The Texas Collection

I have been wanting to do this for awhile but I never seem to get around to it. I have been wanting to start a photography collection of images using the Texas flag, shape of Texas, or the word Texas. I am a cradle Texan. Born and bred, I bleed Tex. The mystique of what makes a Texan a Texan to me is just as intriguing as the state itself. So many times you see bumper stickers that pay homage to the Lone Star State with words of wisdom like “Don’t Mess With Texas” or “I wasn’t born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could.” Texas has always stirred imaginations, it’s bigger than life, bigger than anything you can think. Everything is bigger in Texas. So why not pay homage to my homegrown state by starting a photography collection devoted to all things Texas. We’ve all seen this patronage to our state displayed in many different ways, from the Lone Star Beer Can, to the Texas belt buckle, to the swimsuit in the color of our flag. We love our state and we make it proud.

I hope you enjoy my little tribute to the Lone Star state and I am always keeping my eyes peeled for all things Texas so by all means, if you know of something or somewhere or someone that is honoring our great state send me an email. I’ll be updating this site with little tidbits about the state and useless factoid information so keep coming back because just like the weather in Texas, this page could be changing from one minute to the next.

Our Visit To the National Museum of the Pacific War

What a way to start a great 3 day Labor Day weekend. My family and I decided to take a little photography/history trip today to a little town about an hour and a half north of us called Fredericksburg, TX. There in Fredericksburg is the National Museum of the Pacific War. We got there a little late as we had started off late this morning. My wife is training for the Rock and Roll half marathon in November and had just returned from her first 8 mile run earlier that morning and was needing a foot rub before we left. I am very proud of her. Coming from a man that has never run a mile, 8 miles is unbelievable! I am so proud of her.
After we got on the road we stopped in another little town along the way, Bandera, Texas the cowboy capital of the world. Only in Bandera will you see a stagecoach, horse and cowboy riding along Main Street any day of the week. As you can see from my photos, the west is still very much alive in Bandera and they like it that way. We visited the craft show that was going on there in front of the courthouse where my mom had her booth and we took in some of the sites. It was an enjoyable event after which we were off to our destination of Fredericksburg.
My wife was a little worried that our children (9 and 7 yrs) wouldn’t find the museum interesting. I, having visited a few times before, knew how far from the truth she was and I was right. Once there my son lit up like a Christmas tree. He didn’t read as much as my daughter, wife, and I but he had so much fun running from exhibit to exhibit. I think one of his favorite parts was the actual Japanese mini submarine that they had there. He was glued to the interactive display. It was amazing to see his little mind soak in this knowledge.
It was both a fun and somber day. I had to explain to my children why there were such graphic photos on the wall and why that great big huge yellow A-Bomb wasn’t as cool as my son thought but rather a reminder that we lost so, so, so many good men and boys in this battle to fight evil. I tried to instill in them a respect for the lives that were lost so that we may have the freedom to visit this place and have the ideas and opinions that we do and have the opportunity to express them freely without worry of repercussion or oppression. My son got it. After a small heart to heart after he laughed inappropriately at a photo of a man that lost his life he got it. He understood that war was not a game but that real people lost their dads, brothers, cousins, friends, and sons. He understood that we were here to learn and remember and never repeat and for that I am grateful. He was amazed at the remembrance garden that displayed so many plaques of our fallen heroes. He was solemn and silent and for that I grew a new appreciation for my sons understanding of things bigger than him. He made me very proud today.
Enjoy the photos that I have shared but please try to remember that it was because of these sons of America that we are able to have this conversation today and that we should never forget or disrespect their memory. If you have never been to the museum I highly recommend it. It’s truly one of a kind and a great learning experience of a time that many of us didn’t have the privilege of experiencing 1st hand. To our greatest generation I say thank you and God Bless You for all you did for all of us.

The Great Texas Drought Of 2011

Well, the great drought of Texas is upon us. It finally hit 110 degrees at my house the other day, something I don’t think it has ever done.  I haven’t had a good rain at my house in probably 2 years. I live in the country and have about 3 acres I’ve been trying to clear by hand for the last 8 years. I’ve got about 3 piles of brush on my property that I haven’t been able to burn in at least that amount of time. It’s just too dry.

I live next to Medina Lake and while the lake was lower just over a year or so ago it’s back to being a near trickle. The lake is now a river at the north end where my neighborhood. You can see from the photos below that we are in an emergency situation. Everywhere where you see nice beautiful green grass there should be nice beautiful lake water. The cows from the ranch across the lake have taken to grazing the lush landscape but the fish I am sure wish they had more of a place to swim. Keep us in your thoughts and pray for rain. We can sure use it down here.

A Day At The Missions

Today I was fortunate enough to be able to go on a debut shoot with my friend John Garcia of JG Photography and my daughter, Clarissa, got to tag along. Clarissa is a budding new photographer. I may have mentioned before that I passed down my first digital camera to her, my Kodak DX6490. Well the Kodak has sense bit the big one and Clarissa is now using a cheap little Vivitar that I picked up with my Citibank ThankYou Rewards points (thank you Citi!).

To be honest, Clarissa’s skills are more than that little Vivitar’s can handle but I had to follow through on a parenting lesson which is to help her understand that you have to take care of what you have because if you don’t, you may not be able to replace that. After having to use the Vivitar for a few months I think she has more than learned her lesson and I’d rather her photography education move forward rather than backwards so she will start using my Canon Elph PowerShot very soon. So, onto our adventure at the missions.

After we got done with our quince (in Texas we call debut’s quince’s which is short for quinceannera) shoot today we decided to head out for a little photography field trip. Recent renovations on Mission San Jose have been completed so I decided we should check this place out as I knew my daughter would enjoy a day of history. We get there and as I am explaining why there is this several hundred year old rock wall surrounding the place my daughter steps through the gate, sees the mission and exclaims, “Oh my gosh, it’s beautiful Daddy!” and I had to agree. It’s been a few years since I visited this place. As a matter of fact I would have to say more than 5 years so to come back was a real treat. Clarissa is old enough now to enjoy trips like this and both of us having our cameras was just too much fun. I enjoyed explaining the history of the place and showing her several great angles and she enjoyed being with her Dad and getting undivided pro-photographer advice.

I am including some pics from our little excursion and I encourage you to do what we did. Photography to me was always about my art and a way to bring happiness into my life. I’m sure that photography is the same to you and I encourage you to take some time and reconnect with the reason you enjoy your craft, the simple act of creating art. Taking time for yourself that isn’t devoted to a client can be reenergizing and can help you refocus so for your next client you are a better photographer. Take the day, take the weekend, enjoy your craft and share your stories. I’d love to hear them.

Until next time, Happy Shooting!

I Can’t Stress Enough, Get To Know Your Camera

I am a happy photographer. Over the weekend I purchased a new camera. My first new one since 2006. I know, I know. How can that be? Well, I’ve been shooting solely with my Canon 30D since ’06 and to be honest, it just works. With different lenses and learning the in’s and out’s of the camera it worked well for me. It slowly but surely became an extension of my brain. It did what I wanted when I wanted in the way I wanted. I loved that camera. It was my first DSLR and I shot my second wedding with that camera. I started my photography business with that camera. It’s a great camera but a photographer should always have a backup and should always be shooting on the best that they can afford. To be honest 8.2mp just wasn’t cutting it anymore. So, enter stage left, my Canon 60D.

I compared the 60D to the 7D and did a lot of late night pondering as to which I should invest in. I’m not at the point that I need a 5D yet and the 7D while great for what I do, didn’t have some of the feature that I wanted that the 60D. I went with the 60 for a few reasons not least of which is the swivel mounted LCD screen. That little option will come in handy more times than not and so I made my purchase. It doesn’t hurt that the 2011 is as good if not better than the specs on the 2006 5D when I first bought my camera. Everything gets better with age.

Now, 5 years is a good bit of time to go between upgrades and as I said before, my 30D literally became an extension of my brain. I know that camera’s functions backwards and forwards. I can literally make setting adjustments with my eyes closed. I grabbed my new 60D and was hoping that it wouldn’t be that much different from my old friend but boy was I wrong. Canon gave the 60D a much larger LCD screen and thus had to move and consolidate some of the buttons. Some of the buttons that I use on a steady basis were now nowhere to be found and not easily identifiable. Most of the functions are now set in the LCD screen menu which is a big difference from before. Thus the relearning begins.

I went on a debut photo session with my photographer friend to get used to my camera. I cannot stress this enough folks, you have to learn your cameras functions and the only way to do that is practice. I was lost today. I’m glad that it wasn’t one of my paying clients because in Texas’s 107 degree heat it would have been torture being out there while I was trying to figure this thing out. It won’t take long to get the functions down but it is going to take time. I plan to take this little baby out quite a few times before I actually have to do an event. Having the camera be a natural extension of your thought process is a necessity for your business to thrive. You need to be able to make adjustments and calculations on the fly and you can’t do that if you don’t know your camera. You client will get annoyed with you for having to wait. These are not seasoned models used to being at the discretion of the photographer. These are normal everyday people that expect professionalism and a quick shoot. You need to be able to deliver that and to do that you need to get to know your camera. Read your manuals, check out B&N or whatever bookstore you like and check out books that are specific to your model. The internet has loads of free information on your product line all it takes is you putting in the effort to find the information, learn the information, and then apply it to your shoots.

Feel free to share your experiences with me. I’d be glad to know I’m not the only one in this boat!

Till next time, Happy Shooting!

Training Your Eye To Find The Art

I know it’s been awhile folks and I aim to change that soon starting with this post. I’ve devoted this blog to posting information about how to shoot great photos with a point and shoot camera and I will continue to do that but I will be broadening the scope a little more to include photography tips in general and how you can improve your overall photography experience no matter what type of camera you shoot.

Recently I took a trip to Port Aransas on the Texas coast, truly a place like no other. You can find every type of environment in Texas from sprawling mountain-scapes of Big Bend to the beautiful National Forests near Houston to the desert area in the west and the snowy ridges of the plains in the panhandle all the way down to the beautiful sandy beaches of Padre close to Mexico. If you are a photographer, Texas offers you a canvas like no other allowing you the creative freedom to paint with your lens almost any type of landscape your heart desires and with any type of camera happens to be in your hands.

I rarely bust out my DSLR at the beach just because I don’t want to go through the hassle of cleaning it afterwards but on this trip I did and I was glad I did. I got some beautiful sunrise pictures along the Texas coast. I also brought along my smaller yet perfectly capable Canon SD1300 to snap a few photos of the fam frolicking in the warm Gulf waters. As you can see from the gallery below you can always get great photos no matter what is in your hand because as my friend Raul would say “It’s the monkey behind the lens that matters.”  A little editing and attention to backgrounds and you have yourself a nice little memory for you and your family to enjoy for years to come.

Your eye is being trained or has been trained to see the art in a situation. Your eye tells your mind where it’s at and your mind sends the signals to your hands to command the camera to capture the moment. Great photography is not always about great cameras. A great camera in the hands of someone who does not have a great eye is simply a machine. An adequate camera in the hands of someone who has an eye for photography is used to transform light into perfection.

Next time you are out in your yard or your neighborhood, take along the camera and start to look for the art in your surroundings. It’s everywhere.  Change angles and positions, go to places you wouldn’t think of going and see the perspective from that angle to start to train your eye on how to look for art everywhere you go. You’ll be surprised at how you start to see art no matter where or what you are doing and you will see how your training is paying off in your photos.

Until next time, happy shooting!

 

There’s no one way to do things.

By not using a flash you are able to capture natural light giving your image life and realism.

Its been awhile and I hope you all enjoyed your holidays, I know my family and I did. I’m sure many of you out there probably got some really awesome gifts and I’m sure some of those were probably cameras. Well now is the time to learn about that expensive toy that you just got and there’s no better time like the present. It’s not going to be easy but I assure you, once you start to get an understanding you will become addicted and you will love taking photos.

Learning how to adjust your camera allows you to shoot in a variety of conditions such as in a cave with very little to no light available.

I was talking to a new photographer the other day and we were discussing the challenges of learning photography. As we all know, photography is not simple. There is no magic button and getting things right in the camera can be very challenging. New photographers are very lucky to be growing up in the digital age. Film was so very different. There could be a great length of time between the time you took the photo and the chance you got to see the result on paper to determine if your training was paying off or not. Digital photographers have the ability to learn so much more quickly because they can instantly see the result of their photo. This makes understanding and learning so much easier.

What a new photographer needs to remember is that you have to learn each aspect of a cameras functions and understand how, when combined with all of the other aspects, they work together to make a great photo. You cant just

Experiment with different settings to see how they adjust the image result. The only way to learn is to try.

learn Aperture and not learn ISO or Shutter Speed. At the same token just learning ISO will not bring you great photos, you have to learn what works with ISO to make a great photo. And still you have to realize that no two photos will have the same settings. As I have mentioned before, a camera is not an image capturing device it is a light capturing device plain and simple. Everything it does, everything it was created to do was to capture light and how the eye sees light. There is no magic Aperture setting that will work for most photos or one magic Shutter Speed. They will change from minute to minute, setting to setting, and light change to light change. You have to experiment to find what works.

To help you understand what settings to use, I suggest shooting with your information display on to help you learn these settings. Your camera is a sophisticated piece of technological and engineering art. Its pretty dang smart but it’s not perfect. Much like your high school algebra teacher. They can teach you how to use the tool but they themselves wont be solving any of the worlds most advanced algorithmic anomalies. When you shoot in any of the automatic settings the camera will then adjust certain settings for you based upon its interpretation of the light in the photo. By reviewing your settings on the display after a shot you can begin to see why the camera chose an ISO of 400 and a Shutter speed of 2500 when you had the Aperture set to 2.8 on a really sunny day on the soccer field. You can begin to understand how they all work together and how by changing one it affects the other like changing your Aperture to 11 and seeing your Shutter Speed then drop to 850. A camera is much like a performance car. The fuel injection, ignition, piston size, camshaft size, timing, and transmission all

If I had used flash it would have made the image appear flat and unflattering. By shooting without a flash you add drama to your image.

work together to gain the most performance possible. You cannot adjust one and expect to get great results. They all have to work in concert to achieve the desired output.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to learn how these functions all work. Read, and read a lot. We all learn different ways but trust me, picking up a book at the locale B&N or Borders and studying what knowledge other photographers are willing to share will help you go a long way in your quest to take the perfect photo. There are many, many, many, online resources and YouTube videos out there that will teach you how to use the settings on your camera. Before you go spending a ton of money on a photography class check these out. They are quick, easy to understand and most of all FREE! What a bonus right?! Find one that works for you and you’ll be glad you did.

I don’t usually do plugs but this book really helped me understand my camera and I suggest it to everyone. It’s the Digital Photography Field Guide by Harold Davis. You can find it on Amazon for a good price. They also make books designed specifically for your camera model if you happen to have a DSLR with one of the major brands (Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc) so check it out and buy the book. It will be money well spent. An investment in your photography eduction if you will.

Feel free to share your own findings. We all learn better when we share.

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