Concert went well, about 1.5 hours. Only took about 150 frames. Might have an idea for velcroing strobes to their carpet walls for tomorrow, need to see about finding where my velcro went. Tape doesn’t work.

Some of the interesting images from shoots that are in the editing phase right now:

Above: Portrait of a Soldier: Actually from a Thanksgiving portrait session, his expression just caught me.

Above: Taking Brazil by Storm: A chef setting out to make a name for himself and his pastry in Brazil.

Above: Almost time: Due today, shot last week. An absolutely wonderful mother and family.

There will be some more images added to the portfolio and also some new galleries from each of those shoots to wander through in the coming week.

I spent the evening with a wonderful family, 27 plates were served up of excellent food and then about 2 hours of group and individual portraits followed.

Images from the event will be online in a little under 2 weeks.

The second week of December is even still in time to get prints made to give as gifts. Remember that if you’ve just started a family your parents are going to want to have a framed 8×10 somewhere in their house!

As part of this partnership we will also be doing occasional photo shoots at the Sheep’s Clothing location to showcase customer creations created using their products.

Several new partnerships will be announced in the following months. If you are the owner or manager of a local small business and would be interested in partnering with Hyak Photography on either a one-time or ongoing basis please feel free to contact me. Some of the many options include photographic coverage of events, mobile portrait studio setups (including on-site printing), joint advertising campaigns, or discounted photography services in exchange for promotion.

Hiring a Wedding Photographer | Mydeejay.com

Included topics are photographer style (primarily photojournalistic vs. traditional), personality matching with the couple, film vs. digital, budgets, engagement sessions, etc. The article then ends with a list of questions you should ask a wedding photographer. I’m going to put a post break here and answer that list for myself after it.

Questions to Ask a Wedding Photographer

- May I see one or two entire weddings that you’ve photographed?

My first two weddings are in my gallery on this site, so absolutely.

- How many images do you shoot at a typical wedding?

I average about 100 images per hour, so roughly 400-600 for an average wedding.

- How many images do you typically deliver to your clients?

Once upon a time I said I would try to make best cuts and deliver no more than 200 images. Reality is that 300-400 will make the cut and be delivered.

- When can I expect to see my photographs?

I have become more photojournalistic as time has passed, especially since my own wedding. There are still some poses I certainly want to get, and I would seriously hesitate if asked to remove the family portrait time completely, but I lean more toward interaction on rehearsal day so that I know where, when, and how, and possibly had some input on those.

- Do I get the high resolution files?  Is there an additional cost, and may I make prints from those files?

I find myself torn on this issue. An 8×10 or larger from me is simply going to look better than an 8×10 from a 1 hour photo. I really prefer to have people see my work printed at the highest possible (within reason) quality available. On the other hand, a 4×6 is only going to be slightly better from me. The end result is that I will provide some medium resolution files suitable for 4×6s and I have deep discounts on multiple prints at larger sizes. If you are coming to me for your photography part of that is for the quality of my final prints, which will be how your wedding (or portraits) is represented to the world.

- What is your backup plan should you become ill?

I work closely with another photographer in the area. Her website isn’t ready to go yet, but you can see her work as she shot my wedding, which is in the gallery section of this site.

- Do you have back up equipment?

Yes. I am always saddened that some people don’t, a wedding is an event where a reshoot will never fully capture the emotion of the day. I have a backup camera, and a second backup camera that can work in a pinch. I have backup lenses covering nearly every focal distance I use at least twice. I have multiple strobes and backup wireless triggers. I even have backup light stands because once I had an entire light kit run over and completely destroyed, so it really is something that another set can be needed.

- Do I need to provide you with a meal?

It’s always appreciated. It does need to be something I can eat with one hand, though as I won’t get a chance to attend a sit down dinner as a participant.

- Do you bring an assistant?

I always prefer to, but for some simpler weddings this may be optional if cost is an issue.

- Can you photograph our ceremony without flash?

This is an area where it really does matter what kind of equipment your photographer has. Generally speaking equipment that can work in lower light is more expensive. While a friend with a point and shoot camera, which are starting to become really, really good, can produce similar image quality of portraits on a cloudy afternoon professional gear is needed to work without flash in both harsh midday sun and in the low light of an interior. It also then takes a steady hand and good eye to keep people in sharp focus as the wider a lens has to open up the smaller the area of focus.

Right now: Most likely. While I am predominantly a user of a number of wireless strobes I also do have a number of very low-light lenses.

Spring 2010: Cameras have taken epic leaps in low light capabilities this year. My current upgrade path includes switching to a Canon 1D Mark IV over the winter. In my print testing using the sample prints Canon and some of the pre-production reviewers have provided I can get similar quality down to 1/16th the light required by my current camera. This has be very excited for a number of reasons.

- What is included and what is extra?  Is there anything you recommend we add?  Why?

I don’t have any prebuilt packages. I will build a package on request, but I feel that the best, most cost effective way to order from me is to use the discounts and credits to build your own package. Fully one-half of the hourly charge can be applied to print costs and if you order multiples of your favorite shot there is up to a fifty-percent discount.

I do suggest getting a wall feature, but the specifics are dictated by space available in your home. If you have a large space the standout sets are fabulous. A canvas print is a very traditional, but also usually large option. I, personally, like the size and shape of 11×14s in a medium size frame, which is also conveniently fairly inexpensive.

Also, after my own wedding I have come to regard photo books as an indispensible item. I love albums, and the quality is fabulous in them, but they just are too expensive to leave out for anyone and everyone to handle. Photobooks (also often referred to as coffee table books) are printed using much lower cost methods. The initial cost tends to be half that of an album due to the amount of time involved in producing it, but the fantastic part is that the multiple discount is fairly extreme as it does not have to be redesigned to be reprinted. My wife is a 4th grade teacher and ours have spent much of their life at school, and are just about due for a replacement, something we’d never consider with a $1,500 album.

- May I see a price list for any of the products that I might want to purchase after the wedding?

A partial price list is available on this website that covers basic prints. A full (multi-page) listing is availble in person or via e-mail.

- Are other people allowed to take pictures while the photographer is?

Of course. I am even looking into the possibility of bringing a self-contained photo printer so that guests can leave their digital prints for the couple.

- Do you do pro-bono and charity work?  What causes are important to you?

I volunteer primarily in a non-photographic capacity for a number of causes. The IRS does not currently allow tax write-offs for artistic donations beyond the cost of materials, so I do not donate prints. I have done photographic charity work for a few non-profits, though, most recently David vs. Goliath.

7 minute photo shoot here. Heather is a friend of my wife and can be seen as the “senior flower girl” in our wedding. This was a combined fun shoot with possible advertising potential.

LCS 4th Grade Insect Project 2009-2010 – Images by John MacDonald

peace unto you

We ended up ordering 50, and included photos from our wedding and the honeymoon in Australia, can’t go wrong with kangaroos!

If you and your family are looking to send out photo christmas cards you’ll need to call schedule your photo session with enough time to spare to send the cards out. I try to process images as fast as I can, but it may take up to 2 weeks after the photo session for the cards to arrive without placing a rush order. If you are sending out in time for Christmas, the first week of December would be the absolute latest time to schedule your session.

You can pick out your template ahead of time at pickyourholidaycard.com or view my printed samples of some of the most popular 4×8 and 5×7 flat card sizes before or after your photo session. Cards with envelopes start as low as $1 each.

Stop by the Tri-Cities Women’s Expo, the Bzen Solutions booth has a raffle to win a free portrait session including a free 11×14 print. They also have some discount cards to hand out that are worth picking up.

The in-home aspect of what I offer is now my new focus. My studio has always primarily consisted of lightweight gear, most of which goes in bags that sling over my back. I’ve paid a hideous premium for my Bogen ultra compact (19″ collapsed!) lightstands. Half of my umbrellas are double-folds. My entire backdrop support system is one of the bags that sling across my back. A lot of my best children’s work has been in people’s homes already.

Moving completely to this has a lot of upsides, both for my and for my clients. For me there’s no studio rental overhead. For clients I don’t have to pass studio rental overhead on. (I still have the option to use a local studio, if clients so desire). But, really, that’s not the biggest thing. Children are more comfortable at home. My wife likes to tell the story of pair that raided their play chest and came out in dozens of costumes, wanting photos in each and every one.

The foremost of the new site features is the “What’s New” section, which doesn’t actually use that title anywhere. It’s the three columns at the bottom of the new front page. The leftmost is blog entries (ie this), the center is recent portrait sessions, and the rightmost is recent events, including the school sports that I cover. This replaces the “recent galleries” section that was automatically updated whenever I changed anything in a gallery, so often wasn’t actually recent. It also includes a link to see all, which I hope will make it easier for people to find their photos. I may also try out a <yourname>.domain system, probably with my confidentphoto.com domain so I could also do a splah page to help people find them.

From a technical perspective the site is now basically running on WordPress, which was a blogging engine that has emerged as a decent content management system. It’s a pretty flexible framework that I’ve made a lot of changes to to get the look and feel right. This is going to be an ongoing process. The galleries, and the portfolio slideshow, are done by PhotoShelter. PhotoShelter provides infrastructure to manage the many thousands of images I have online, provide online sales, etc.

LCS Varsity Football vs. Asotin 2009-2010 – Images by John MacDonald

I’ve been down for quite a bit with H1N1 (aka swine flu, which is really mostly an avian flu, and named after the human component just in time to confuse people because this year’s seasonal flu is _also_ an H1N1). Which apparently has a penchant for spurring secondary bacterial infections. Which I’ve had.

Past two weeks were going to be basically dedicated to working on my promotional materials and advertising both in a general sense and in the run up to the Women’s Expo today. My thanks go out to Ben for basically single-handedly designing the new promo cards with almost no input from me and to ProDPI my photo lab, who also do press work, for same-day turnaround on everything being handed out. They also do the photo christmas cards for me and their work is fantastic if anyone is looking to send out photo cards this year.

I have a couple of pages to finish on the site before it is “good enough” for this afternoon and a few new events that I shot before getting sick to post. If anyone’s going to the Women’s Expo today, be sure to stop by the Bzen booth and enter their raffle for a chance to win a free in-home portrait session including an 11×14 print and also to pick up the new promo cards that have a 25% discount.

Once upon a time, I read an article about putting the two together. I decided to put it on the to do list, but promptly lost the article. When I finally had enough time to start working on the blog, I went ahead and just did it as I couldn’t seem to find the article anywhere. But, now that I’m almost finished I’ve found it… and the similarities are shocking.

So, props to David Moore who did the same thing before me, and chose the same PhotoShelter theme to do it to. As I’m actually in the process of making WordPress into my main page I’m going to borrow a couple of his ideas, but I, personally, prefer the more common right sidebar that I used, though I’ve tried the left sidebar on a few sites.

Alpha Phi Alpha – Canyon Lakes Golf Tournament – 2009 – Images by John MacDonald

Friday night was the second game of the season, and I drove down to Athena, OR. Lighting levels were below what I would have liked (1/320s f1.4 ISO1600), but with some creativity and fast primes I got a fair number of shots that I hope yearbooks and parents on both sides are happy with.

Weston-McEwen TigerScots Entrance

Patriots Slideshow – LCS at Weston-McEwen – Images by John MacDonald

Weston-McEwen TigerScots Slideshow – Images by John MacDonald

I’m covering a lot of events over the next few months and wanted to find a place where I could write some bits about what I was doing, provide a bit of the what happened, and generally announce that something new was up in a format a bit less cold than simply having a new gallery on the “Recently Updated” list.

If someone stumbles across this and has any questions, I’ll try to address those, too.