The unplanned nude

I received a call in 2006 for a gentleman to have head shots taken as he wished to become a model for a local University’s art department. We agreed upon a price and a date.

At this time my studio was located in an apartment over the garage on our property and I did most of my shooting during school hours and therefore was alone much of the time. So, in many ways this is a cautionary tale, as this particular situation did not pose a threat but in many ways was a dangerous situation. My client arrived that day as all my other clients do, he was an older man in his fifties and normal looking. I had set up that day for headshots; however, when my client arrived he also indicated he would like some full length shots. My wider lens was over at the house, and he stated that he would change while I went to get it. When I got back to the studio, I had a gentleman without attire waiting patiently for me to return. Nothing….not a stitch.

I (calling on every ounce of professionalism I could muster), kept a straight face and asked him if there was a mistake? Because… he hadn’t mentioned wanting to do a nude session and those are…well (whats 5 times….), yes… more money …. He agreed to pay the difference. I pulled myself together, focused on lights, and posing – keeping to the classical lighting techniques taught by Clay Blackmore, full face, 2/3^rd’s, profile, ect. All the time keeping a straight face and doing a good job.

After he left, I slowing sat down on the floor, wiping the tears from my eyes, laughed myself silly. And for years after this I have often been asked how I could ignore the ‘elephant in the room’, I reply…. “it was NO elephant.”

Lesson Learned – We developed a portrait session contract much like our wedding contract to be certain we have covered all bases with our clients as far as the session expectations. This has helped so much!

From The Wedding Report dot com

The average cost of a wedding drops another 14% in Q2/2009

The average cost of a wedding drops another 14% from $19,212 in Q1/2009 to $16,546 in Q2/2009. Results are based on 909 survey samples of both couples and wedding vendors across the US, a 3.25% margin of error. Average cost based on weighted average demand.

Here are what other vendors are saying about the market;

“I've been in biz 32 years (own a bridal salon) and I've never seen sales plummet like they have in the last year. Biz is down 75% and it’s the same for friends who own shops across the country. It’s so scary! I don't know if I'll last through the winter because of competition.”

“Brides are spending down in ways we have never seen before. They are waiting more to the last minute to buy. They are allowing family and friends to sway their buying decisions.”

Despite the additional slide in spending, there appears to be a leveling off. Samples from July 09 surveys already show a leveling in spending of bigger ticket items, an increase in the number of guests, and an increase in demand for destination weddings. It is too early to tell, but we could be seeing a bottom.

Items that saw the largest increase in spending; transportation rentals and decorations, with increases as much as 68%. Items that saw the largest decrease in spending; jewelry, reception and ceremony accessories, with decreases as much as 52%.

Items that saw the largest increase in demand; Combined services (ceremony and reception) including music and services related to the reception, with increases as much as 180%.

Items that saw the largest decrease in demand; items related to the honeymoon and day-of-coordination, with decreases as much as 54%.

Senior Ambassador Program

Senior Ambassador Program

• Be someone special in your school! Become a Hope Haven Photography Ambassador!
  
• Look to your friends and family to help you earn a photography session of a lifetime!
  
• A Referral* is a paid booking for a Family, Child, Senior, Maternity, Engagement, Wedding, Modeling or even Corporate Headshot session.
  

  For each referral*, Ambassadors earn:
  • $100 off their discounted Autograph Portfolio, up to the full price of the album
  • 5% off their photo order, up to 35%
  

All Ambassadors qualify for extraordinary, Ambassador-Only discounts

It is all about getting you and your friends the best possible professional photography for their senior portraits. Every Ambassador qualifies for very special discounts and extra products. Each Ambassador is automatically registered to win a Laptop, Video iPod, iPod nano and even $250 cash! Ambassadors can earn a free "Autograph Portfolio" with your 10 best portraits and room for all of your friends to sign. (Regularly an $800 value!)

All Ambassadors need to have their pictures taken between January 1st, 2009 and May 1st, 2009. As an Ambassador all you need to do is show off your photos from your free session with Hope Haven Photography. All Ambassadors should be representing only Hope Haven Photography during this time, and their Senior year. Remember….you don't have to be a model to be an ambassador, all you have to be is outgoing and spread the word.

BENEFITS OF BEING AN AMBASSADOR

• You get two photos sessions for FREE

• You get to SAVE HUGE on your photos

• You can get free products and/or free gift cards

• Parents can save some serious cash off senior photos

• There is NO cap to the amount of rewards you can receive via referrals

Hope Haven offering 16 Senior Portrait Scholarships this year.

Last year we offered senior portrait scholarships and we were very pleased with reception of the idea at the high school. This year we are very happy to announce we will be offering 16 such scholarships at 8 different area high schools. We have also increased the scholarship amount from $500 to $1500 each.

2009-2010 Hope Haven Mentor Series Scholarship

High Schools Invited

Stanwood High School
Arlington High School
Marysville High School
Mount Vernon High
La Conner High School
Bellingham High School

Each school will receive 2 senior portrait scholarships, valued at almost $1500.00

Hope Haven Photography will provide, completely without any fee, the following:
Session Fee – 3 Hour Session in Studio or location off-site - Value $500
Print Package (all prints are unframed unless otherwise specified)
Proof Portfolio – Value $150
1 – 11x14 – Touched up Image and Framed – Value $400
4 – 8x10’s – Value $100
8 – 5x7’s – Value $145
DVD Slideshow of Images - $100
DVD of low res images for web and email (with permissions for facebook and myspace) – Value $50


Deadline for application – March 15, 2009
Announcement of Recipients – March 31, 2009
Deadline for Portrait Session Completion – May 17, 2009

New Generations Portrait

We have taken 4 generations from my family and 'accidentally' created a phenomenon and are now offering this to the public.

We will digitally enhance up to 8 photographs and create a uniform work of art. Each portrait will be carefully integrated with the other to create a lasting and loving piece that will last generations.

We did all this and created this for our family.

Wedding Officiants

I am trying to get back to the idea of posting some (hopefully) helpful information for brides and grooms for their weddings.

This topic is about wedding officiants. While there are so many types, the church-based minister, the brother who is 'on-line ordained', the professional officiant who does this as a living, and the justice of the peace, we have actually shot them all....well not literally, just with a canon. :-)

I don't think there is a best type. I can say that your officiant will make or break your ceremony and as such is an important decision. I have stood (yes, the photographers are almost always standing) through 95+ degree weather and heard the longest and most boring stories from some officiants to the most poignant and tearfully ceremonies that make it hard for me to hold my camera still.

So for my best input - here are some things that will help you determine which type of officiant is best for you and somethings to definently ask for.

1) In trying to determine which type of officiant, ask yourself, do you have anyone currently in your life you want to share such a sigificant moment with? This could be your current pastor, minister, priest, family member, doctor, lawyer, ect. If you do not, then you will want to consider a justice of the peace or a professional officiant. The justice of the peace will perform a ceremony only at the courthouse, so if that is not your venue of choice, a professional officiant will be the best way to go.

2) Choosing your officiant can only be done in person. In my opinion, email and even phone calls can show you only a small amount of information about a person. When you meet in person, you will see how they are dressed, how they present themselves, their manners, the care for which they speak. After all, you are hiring them to speak. If your officiant is cracking rude jokes the entire time you are meeting with them, reshuffle, redeal and move on.

So here, in my humble photographers opinion, is what is helpful in an officiant:

1. Ready to take over if needed, but willing to allow you to fully customize the ceremony to your specifications. There are so many neat 'meaning filled' things to do during a ceremony, that will have to be it's own separate blog entry.

2. Great communicator, both before being booked and after. A must-do is a planning meeting, held closer to the wedding to go over all the timing and the details. Some of this can be done over email and phone calls, but there is nothing that can replace that great face-to-face chat.

3. Attending the rehearsal, I cannot believe I have to type this. But yes, we have been to one wedding where the bride and groom didn't want to pay the officiant extra to attend the rehearsal. This is not requested, this should be mandatory. BTW - we as photographers attend rehearsals as well.

4. Make sure your officiant is working from something written down. You don't want your officiant trying to remember the vows (like a Chief Justice we all know) and messing them up on you very important day.

5. Finally make certain that your officiant has a plan for signing the wedding license. This can be a beautiful photo op and if done right can even make beautiful shots for your officiants album as well.

So that's it, the best information I can think of to help you find your best officiant. I can say this, I have two very close officiants, one is my sister and one is a very very good friend.

Maternity Photography

The Optimal time for maternity photography is between 30 and 36 weeks. If you miss this stage it’s gone forever. Before the magic becomes a memory.

A popular question is ‘Do we use natural light?’ Professional studio lighting is used a great deal in my work. However; we will use natural light to our best advantage. When we set up in the comfort and privacy of your home, studio lighting not only removes the unpredictable nature of the weather & natural light, it affords me the opportunity to spend more time with my clients, helping each woman accentuate her natural movements and expressions, imparting her own unique personality and emotion on each photograph. From a visual standpoint, I expertly controls the shadows and highlights within each maternity photographs to create visually stunning silhouettes of unmatched tonal range and beauty, elevating the unique lines of each pregnant woman’s body into an intimately timeless work of photographic art.

After your shoot, I will choose a selection of the best images from each session to go through a detailed editing process. Chosen from many hundreds of raw photographs, the selected pictures will be custom cropped to enhance composition, expertly adjusted for tonal range and completely edited to ensure flawless presentation. This time intensive (and far too often neglected) process, is just part of what separates Hope Haven Photography’s maternity photographs from other photographers work and enables our prints to be rightfully called, Fine Art.

Many of the most famous, renowned and accomplished photographers in the world today have enthusiastically embraced digital photography for its exceptional image quality, archival characteristics and nearly limitless creative flexibility. Professional level equipment and state of the art editing techniques enable a new breed of maternity photographer to stand on the shoulders of yesterday’s finest film photographers to create unique photographs that quite simply could only have be imagined just a few short years ago.

Custom printed on the finest quality cotton fiber papers from White House Custom Colour. Our Fine Art Maternity Prints exhibit a tonal depth and sheer beauty that must be seen in person to fully appreciate. Archival quality pigment inks are used exclusively to ensure you’re photos will last for generations. In fact, when properly displayed or stored, these amazing prints will last for well over 150 years!

Always live life to it's fullest

Don’t let go of hope.
Hope gives you the strength to keep going
When you feel like giving up.
Don’t ever quit believing in yourself.
As long as you believe you can,

you will have a reason for trying.
Don’t let anyone hold your happiness in their hands;
hold it in yours, so it will always be within your reach.
Don’t measure success or failure by material wealth,
but by how you feel;

our feelings determine the richness of our lives.
Don’t let

bad

moments overcome you;
be patient, and they will pass.
Don’t hesitate to reach out for help;
we all need it from time to time.
Don’t run away from love but towards love,
because it is our deepest joy.
Don’t wait for what you want to come to you.
Go after it with all that you are,
knowing that life will meet you halfway.
Don’t feel like you’ve lost
when plans and dreams fall short of your hopes.
Anytime you learn something new
about yourself or about life,
you have progressed.
Don’t do anything that takes away
from your self-respect.
Feeling good about yourself
is essential to feeling good about life.
Don’t ever forget how to laugh
or be too proud to cry.
It is by doing both that we live life to it’s fullest.
- Author Unknown

Author Unknown

The story about the tiny frogs....

Life's lesson No. 1

Their once was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.
A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants...The race began...

Honestly:
No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.
You heard statements such as: "Oh, WAY too difficult!!"
They will NEVER make it to the top." or: "Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"
The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one...
...Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher...The crowd continued to yell "It is too difficult!!!
No one will make it!" More tiny frogs got tired and gave up...

...But ONE continued higher and higher and higher...
This one wouldn't give up! At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who after a big effort was the only one who reached the top!

THEN
All of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?
A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?
It turned out...
That the winner was DEAF!!!!
The wisdom of this story is:
Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic... ...cause they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you. The ones you have in your heart!
Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions! Therefore: ALWAYS be... POSITIVE!
And above all: Be DEAF when people tell YOU that YOU can not fulfill YOUR dreams!
Always think:
I can do this!

A very nice note from Stan and Lydia

"We just want to thank you again for being amazing to work with on our special day! The pictures are simply amazing!"

-Stan and Lydia

Family Christmas Card Shoot

We had an absolutely fantastic kickoff for our Christmas Card Portrait Season. How do you ever choose which one for the card????

Wedding Packages and Prices

Just click on the image for a full size listing of our packages as well as a special discount offer.

NEW - We now accept monthly payments !!!

Why no one else can photograph during the formal sessions?

I have a rule, or a very strong request during the photography of the formal poses. No one can shoot, except me.

Very often at weddings while I am making formal portrait photographs of groups of people, their friends or family want to stand next to me to try and get the same photo I am taking. This is not allowed for several reasons.

First, I am usually on a tight schedule as these photos are often taken just before the wedding ceremony is scheduled to begin and it is hard to stop and explain why I do not want them around with their cameras.

Some people have told me they think it is because I am afraid of losing revenue from print sales or that I am feeling jealous. It is not that. However, I did study with masters to be able to pose the groups in a certain way and achieve a brandable look for our company. It would be considered stealing to photograph someone elses work of art and that is what I consider our formals to be.

We often also use studio lights for formals, other flashes will interfere with these lights.

However the number 1 reason is I want everyone in my photo to be looking in the same direction. I illustrate this below.

Latest Wedding

I have fallen woefully behind in my blogging. All I can say in my defense is that I am not falling behind in my photo production for all our weddings. We are on time in all our deliveries and cranking right along as promised!



Here are a few of my favorite shots from the last few weddings. One is from Ray's Boathouse in Seattle, and the other is from the Lakeside in Seattle. Both made for beautiful weddings. But, nothing beats the staff at Lakeside! Enjoy!

Wedding Albums

Some of you might know that we use Graphistudio exclusively for our coffee table type Albums. What you might not know is that they are from Italy.

After sampling so many albums in the US, we turned to an international supplier to offer us the quality and cost effectiveness that we were looking for.

To see all the options that graphistudio has to offer please check out this link: http://www.graphistudio.com/usa/products/Book/index.html

With our extra's packages you get:
And 8x10 coffee table ablum, with 20 pages
Plus 2 parents albums
The Perfect Package and Lifetime Package add additional pocket book copies.

You might notice that we only increase our prices marginally to add these wonderful books, when other photographers charge a lot for albums. We feel that these albums are an important part of a wedding package. It is my hope that more and more brides and grooms will opt for the album package with the knowledge that these books will last a lifetime.

ENJOY!

PS - Book delivery is a big deal for us here, with wine and cheese and lots of fun!

Having Fun

I am human, I have a tendendancy to forget that I fell in love with photography as a young teen. I forget that not all shots are for making other people's memories last forever. One of my goals this summer is to shoot more photography for me, things that make make smile. So here is a sample of the types of shots that make me fall in love with photography all over again.