Archive for Robert Hillis

Wedding Albums, Should You and Why

By Robert Hillis
Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Many of my prepackaged Wedding contracts today come with what is called a Wedding Album. The wedding album has come a long way in the last ten years or so. Gone are the days of the 50 4×6 albums in an ornate album much like the ones that your parents wedding photos are displayed in. No, today’s albums are truly works of art designed to do more than simply display the images from the couple’s great day. They are designed to tell a story, the fairytale if you will, of this couples love and how it blossomed into the marital bliss of the wedding day. Today’s albums are essential to your wedding package offerings.

Everyone has their own style and while we are photographers at heart and not necessarily Graphic Artists many times we can get by with just simple Photoshop skills to get things done. Many imaging companies today offer software to make this process easier. I have used several from several different printers for several different styles of books. I can say 1st hand that the software can range from very easy to use (beginner) to more of a moderate user level. They all offer their own version of free templates and most let you do some minor editing to those templates. Fortunately for those of us not graphically inclined there are plenty of Graphic Designers out there who have created custom templates for you to purchase to use for your photography album clients. Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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Wedding Prep Is A Lifesaver!

By Robert Hillis
Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Procrastination, we all do it. It’s easy to fall into a routine and become complacent. When it comes to your client’s event date though, the last thing you can do is fall into a routine; you need to be prepared for everything. Here are some of the things I do to prepare for an event to make sure everything goes smoothly for me.

Batteries, new batteries, charged batteries, just batteries. Besides your memory card these are the most important and most easily forgotten about part of your camera bag and it can bring your event to a screeching halt. I always prepare for an event by ensuring all of my flashes have new batteries, not barely used but new, and I always test them. One time I had the misfortune of buying new batteries an hour before the event only to find out the batteries I just bought at the store and hour earlier were completely dead and had I not kept my old ones I would have been in a lot of trouble. Test your equipment once you load the new ones and keep enough spares to run through however many cycles you think you’ll need. I keep enough in my bag for 3 battery changes just in case. I charge my camera batteries the night before and make sure everything is working before I leave. You don’t want any surprises when you get there.

Memory cards! On those tiny little wonders of technology can really put a cramp in your style if you turn on your camera right before your client’s event only to discover the photos from the event of the previous weekend are still on the card and you forgot to transfer them to your computer. You can’t erase them and you don’t have enough room for the photos for the current event. That will bring your event to a screeching halt and you want to avoid shooting an entire wedding in low resolution. Always check your cards at least the night before and make sure that any images on there have been transferred to your computer and make sure that you format your cards before your event. You will want to have a clean slate for your client’s event. Bring spares even if you think your 60GB card is enough. You never know when that little devil will suddenly decide to start giving you a card read error and then you not have a backup plan. Ever heard the joke about the film photographer running out of film during the wedding???? Well, it can happen to us digital photographers as well so remember the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared! Read More→

Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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The Importance Of Wedding Preparation Photography Part 2

By Robert Hillis
Thursday, March 1st, 2012

In my last post I dived into the items that I like to focus on during wedding prep and why they are so important to a couples wedding album. While in the scope of the entire wedding ceremony it is but a small part, in terms of the photography it plays a very large role. So large in fact that I was only able to dive into what I focus on during the bridal prep. In this post we get to talk about the guys.

Guys can be hard to photograph. Often times they are uncomfortable in front of the camera, uncomfortable with a stranger in their mist with a device that records their every move, and uncomfortable showing their feelings and emotions of their boy who’s about to “go the distance”. I have tried many different things over the years to try and get guys to lighten up around me. We all have our own methods but really when it comes down to it, just blend in.

Introduce yourself when you walk into the room. I always immediately seek out the groom and offer my congratulations and let him and the other gentlemen know why I am there. Introductions are made and I usually step over the side of the room to be out of the center of attention and to let the guys go back to doing what they were doing. Guys are different when it comes to their preparation. There is less “oohing” and “aaahing” and more high fives and whiskey glass cheers. Capturing these moments are what matters to the client.

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Categories : Make Better Photographs, Wedding Photography
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The Importance Of Wedding Preparation Photography Part 1

By Robert Hillis
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

So often in wedding photography we tend to overlook some of the smaller events of the day. Whether it be the grooms preparation because we only have one photographer or maybe the departing shots of the couple because of contract time limitations. All of the events of the day are important and for a bride and groom trying to remember specific moments of the day later in life can be difficult. There is so much emotion, so many family and friends to meet and talk to, so many places to be and schedules to follow that they tend to lose focus of the minor moments and they become erased from memory. I myself think back now and have a very vague recollection of preparing for my own wedding, what I was doing immediately before the wedding, and a lot of the reception is fuzzy and not because of any alcohol. There is just so much to focus on that you tend to just remember the big ticket items of the day.

This is where you as a wedding photographer get to play the superhero. It is your job to capture these fleeting moments in time so that you clients can relive these nearly forgotten memories in a way maybe they didn’t recall. Read More→

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Every Once In A While We Need A Reminder

By Robert Hillis
Thursday, January 19th, 2012

I was reminded recently why I became a wedding photographer. Not long ago I was visiting one of my wedding clients, dropping off an album from their wedding, when they invited me in to view a wall they had decorated in the house they recently bought just before their wedding. I walked in, turned the corner, and was amazed at what I saw. They had decorated the entire wall with photos from their wedding, engagement, and bridal sessions. All of the photos on the wall were photos that I had taken for them.

It touched me in a way I hadn’t realized before. Seeing how they placed the images I captured in such a prominent way in their home, it made me realize that wedding photography involves much more than just photographing the couples day. What we do lasts their lifetime. To know that the art I create is cherished so much by the people that hire me humbled me. The gift we have as photographers to create art or to “paint with our lens” (like I like to say) touches our client’s emotions. We capture their memories, their most precious moments, on film for them to cherish and enjoy for years to come. As wedding photographers we are able to touch people’s lives in a way that few others can and it is a great responsibility that we should not take lightly. Read More→

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