Christmas nearly here

Thank god, all prints posted out or hand delivered, wedding albums arranged to be collected. No more wedding photogaphy for a whole month! Bliss!

The Usual Christmas Wedding Album Rush...

Every year, without a fail the same thing happens, about two thirds of my wedding clients from throughout the year sit on their album orders until late Oct or early Nov and then put all of their orders in at once, expecting a christmas delivery.

Albums take time to produce, particularly the digital style book albums so popular these days. I do try to please everybody, all of the time, but I can't please everybody AT the same time! On the very deadline last year I received orders for 8 wedding albums and around 1500 prints. Thanks guys!

Last year I was forced to shut up the portrait studio over christmas which is commercial madness in order to service this last minute rush. I was up until 3 and 4am most mornings for about three weeks. It wouldn't be so bad but I did write to everybody and ask them to get their orders in ASAP.

This year I've taken a very different approach, I've not stated a deadline, but a guideline that if the album order arrives in late Oct or early November, it's unlikely to be received in time for christmas, and wrote to my clients advising them of this.

There was the usual expected late flurry, but this year I'm taking on the portrait work and those who have ordered their albums late are simply just not going to get them in time. It's a shame, but I simply can't fit two thirds of my annual production into two weeks between the end of October and November!

Wedding Season nearly over

It' s been such a busy season I haven't really thought much about blogging or updating my website, it's just been a case of trying to hang on!

The wedding season is finally into it's death throes now and I'm looking forward to catching up with my admin and just taking some time out for life. Just one more wedding to go in December and I'm done for a couple of months, bliss!

I'm exhausted!

I've just completed 8 weddings in 3.5 weeks and I'm absolutely exhausted! Very nice to be so busy but it's been a gruelling time, so glad I don't have another until the weekend after next. Although I do love a good wedding, I'm all wedding'd out!

Fairy Week at Fleet commencing 28th July

Myself and another photographer will be in Hart shopping centre in Fleet next week with a fairy stand and also displaying some of our work. I'll also have a small stock of fairy dresses to buy on the day too.

The fairy dresses had a great success today, I gave one fairy outfit to my little girl and she won the 'best dressed fairy' competition at the Wellington Park annual fairy day. That bodes well for the fairy week starting tomorrow then!

Charity Work

The charity work for my local art and craft club went well. I still don't have the official total of money raised but by my rough estimations of the prints sold it was enough to buy the new piece of equipment they were trying to raise money for.

Very rewarding being able to do this kind of thing in the community.

Charity Work and Supporting the Community

So busy I haven't posted for ages!

Despite an absolute manic summer I approached one of my local childrens activity organisations (art and craft) as I learnt they were desperately trying to raise funds to replace some equipment.

This is a great club for little ones teaching them all about art, they run on a budget of virtually nothing and charge a mere £2.50 per session which has to cover food, drinks and art materials. I don't know how they survive!

Anyway, I pledged my services and am doing a childrens shoot at their next session with 100% of the profit going to them in order to help them raise enough money in order to buy the equipment they need.

Sometimes it's just nice to put something back into the community.

My poor sick bride

My poor bride today had a terrible virus and really struggled through her wedding today. Her mother was also ill and fainted just before the service.

Fortunately there were a lot of army doctors within the friends and family at the wedding and the bride and mum were given injections just before the service to keep them on their feet!

Of all the days to be sick, poor girl. She was a real trooper though, she wanted to do all the groups and have her photographs taken, even if she could only stand for a minute before having to sit down again!

Cyprus

Had an amazing time on Nissi beach in Cyprus and produced some really nice wedding photographs. I was a little surprised though after seeing them one of my wedding photographer friends had a crisis of confidence and started doubting his ability because he thought they were great.

Was feeling elated, but a bit down in the mouth as that I'd made him doubt himself. Fortunately he decided to rise to the challenge and did some personal work with another couple he is friends with so he could experiment and play and produced some fantastic shots. He really upped his game and so I'm chuffed to bits I inspired him a little. He's a great guy and a good photographer, it's a little humbling to have him rate my work so much!

Cyprus Wedding Tomorrow

Well the time has come at last, I'm off tomorrow to shoot a wedding in Sunny Cyprus for a couple I met in the UK earlier this wear, does that make me an international wedding photographer?!

Anyway, it's a very early start so I'm going to keep this post short in order to get to bed and get some sleep.

I've been looking forward to this job for so long and now it's come around I'm so nervous it's untrue! I've shot umpteen weddings before, I think it's just the whole thing of going to another country to do it thats making me nervous.

Ho Hum....I'll update once I'm back.

What is it with August?

Over the last few months I've had a lot of enquiries for August, this week a lot have come back and I've ended up with 7 weddings booked in August, 7! I've still got a couple of couples who have to get back to me too.

The seasonal nature of the work is the biggest problem with being a wedding photographer. In Jan, Feb and March when the weather is awful your usually sat twiddling your thumbs and when it gets all sunny and nice and you want to get out your working like mad!

Flight details for Cyprus Wedding

My flight details arrived today for the wedding I'm photographing in cyprus. Getting so near now!

Remember the Haggler?

Well, he's been back to me 4 times now, which seems an awful lot of effort for something he tells me doesn't actually like.

Now he told me bought a package at another studio that was just unbelievable, and I mean I don't believe it. He told me he bought 200 prints, 8 canvasses and 15 frames. Who even takes 200 shots during a portrait session?

Bearing in mind the package he's just bought (yeah right) he only wants to view my images on a pc screen, not print them he's willing to pay about a third of the price, oh and can you confirm the resolution of the images on CD?

So why do you need to know the resolution of the images on CD if your just going to display them on the screen?

Why do people exist like this. I've basically just had to tell him I think he's haggling, if he wants the images he's going to have to pay for them. I've removed the images from my website. Move on.

Passport arrived

My new passport has arrived, getting very excited about the wedding I am photographing in Cyprus now next month!

Equipment Failure at a wedding!

Bit of a nightmare at my last wedding on Saturday, not only did one of my cameras fail, but later on a lens went too, two pieces of equipment on one night!

It's time's like that I'm always glad I take 3 camera's and 5 lenses and 3 flashguns, it may seem overkill, it pays to be prepared! Every wedding photographer should carry backups, I'm glad I do!

Arrogant Wedding Photographers

What is it with arrogant wedding photographers? I quite often get comments at weddings that I'm not like 'other' wedding photographers. When I ask them to explain what I mean the comments are always similar, most wedding photographers shout a lot, are often rude or arrogant while I'm......easy, nice, fun, amicable.

I must admit on the forums I do come across some of those sorts of personalities. Maybe as an industry it does attract that sort of person.

Hagglers

Just had a guy from a portrait session tell me he was very disapointed with the images in the preview, so please could I make a reasonable offer for all images on CD so he could 'salvage' something from the shoot.

Now being a photographer always being doubtful and being your own worst critic I took this a bit to heart but looking at the images, they are actually a good strong set of images so I asked my wife and she agreed. So I posted them up for a load of other photographers to view and they all agreed to, the pictures are fine.

Then I started thinking, why does he want the images if he's disapointed with them? Answer, he's not, he's just trying to beat me down on price. The guy actually IS a professional haggler, that's his job, he runs an import company, but it's a bit soul destroying when he's trying it on with me. Still, I quoted him full price, if he wants them he'll pay for them, if he doens't want to pay full price, he won't get them.

International Wedding Photographer?

I've just been booked to cover a wedding in Cyprus, a lovely sun soaked island in the med, I guess that makes me an international wedding photographer now!

Really looking forward to it, lovely bride, wedding on the beach....ah lifes good!

Brides - Give your Wedding Photographer the right details!

It always amazes me how many brides give me incorrect details regarding their weddings.

Over the last few months I've been given the wrong postcode for the wedding service, the wrong address of the venue and the wrong name of the wedding venue.

An amazing number simply state. 'st Mary's church, name of town'. I even had one state the venue as 'the manor house' on her booking form! These are easy enough to spot, but wrong names, addresses and postcodes are not.

On Saturday it was the incorrect address of the wedding reception, which was a golf club, to confuse matters there was a golf course visible from the road given (a different one) but no entrance! Lots of time wasted trying to figure out what was going on and where I needed to be.

Paint it Black...

No, this is not Daniel Lee from Joseph, this was last weekends wedding venue! Take a large room, with no windows, double height ceiling, clad the walls with wood and then paint it Black, the result, an almost perfect 'anti photography' room!

To be fair I was able to light the people fine using a powerful hotshoe flashgun but detail to record in the background was virtually impossible, even at 1/30th at F2.0 at ISO800. Everything had to be done handheld as they wanted the more informal shots so i couldn't go for the long exposure and drag the shutter as I normally would in dark situations like that.

Anyway, I think we are OK, but I do wish couples would consider stuff like that when booking wedding venues!

The state of the wedding photography industry

It looks a little like at the moment there are almost more 'wedding photographers' than weddings. I've been approached 5 times over the last couple of weeks for work experience, sadly there just isn't the work around this time of year.

Recently I think photography has become one of those 'cool' jobs to have. The reality is while it can be fun, for every day shooting there is 4 post processing and another in marketing and admin. The reality, sadly, isn't that glam!

The dancing photographer!

Years ago my wife and I used to compete in latin american dancing, we got pretty good, representing Wales and practiced an awful lot. Anway to cut a long story short my wife is a teacher and knowing her background, the local education authority asked her to teach a group of newly qualified physical education teachers latin dancing.

As the partner I was roped in, we hadn't danced together for about 5 years and was really surprised it was still there. We did about 20 minutes practice and threw a routine together for a demonstration and lesson plan. So much fun! The old dance bug is returning.

The amusing bit is that the lesson was being held at a hotel I sometimes cover as a wedding photographer and the staff were a bit like....isn't that the photographer? Fun days!

Google confuses me!

Google really confuses me, one day my website is up in the rankings, the next it's down, way down, and I haven't made any changes!

Take Wedding photographer hampshire and wedding photographers hampshire for example, I was at number 7 for both for ages, all of a sudden I'm out 11 for wedding photographer hampshire and 5 for wedding photographers hampshire, huh?

No Shows

Why do people do it? They book an appointment with you for a portrait session or talk to you about their wedding, you make a space in your day for them, make sure any jobs your in the middle of are put away so the studio looks nice and tidy, in this case the lights are also all setup ready to go and then....they just bother to turn up!

Why? A simple phonecall of 'I can't make it now', 'We've changed our mind' or even 'We have decided to hire somebody else' is fine, but to leave somebody there waiting is just plain rude!

Tonight they wanted to see me at 7pm, which means I missed giving my little daugher her bath and then putting her to bed, the highlight of my day as we always have so much fun splashing in the water and reading stories together.

Now if decided to not arrive at somebodies wedding or for a job?

Wedding Fair and shopping Centre Exhibition

Today I'm very pleased as I'm already starting to get feedback from yesterdays wedding fair a couple ringing up and asking to book. Good stuff!

All this week I have an exhibition on at Princess Mead shopping centre which resulted in a few unexpected wedding enquiries, many portrait enquiries and one confirmed booking.

It's interesting watching walk past my display to see how they react, certain pictures really seemed to catch their eye and so with that info in mind I know how to tailor my display next time!

Wedding Fair, Hampshire Centre Court Hotel

The wedding fair at the Hampshire Centre Court Hotel was a great success, despite the lack of a fashion show this year and one of my exhibition lights deciding to give up the ghost! As usual I met some great couples and have a very positive feeling about potential wedding bookings from the fair.

My new box frames with images created using Nik filters Colour FX were unveiled today and recieved many positive comments which is encouraging. I'll update my website www.brianparkes.com with these when I get some free time.

Mark and Suzy my local competition whom I would consider good friends was there and we all agreed it was a very busy and successful day with good numbers of couple coming through to talk about their weddings.

I don't understand photographers at wedding fairs who are hostile and treat competition as a threat, Mark and I have both swopped links on our websites and if I'm busy I'd have no problem recommending him and visa versa. It's nice to know there is always somebody there you can call to swop ideas with and help out cover a job if your very ill and can't make it!

Wedding - Farnham House Hotel

Tired and exhausted but satisfied, it's relatively quiet this time of year for wedding photography and so it was good to blow out some of the cobwebs building up since new year and shoot the wedding of a really lovely couple.

The weather, while very overcast, remained fairly mild for this time of year and most importantly, remained dry!

The couple had a great day and it was lovely to see a couple so obviously in love, I wish all my clients were so affectionate towards each other!

More Postal Problems with wedding albums

Never a dull moment with the post. This time one of my wedding clients moved home and set up a redirect on their post. Rather than send to their new address in Australia, they asked me to post to their old one so it would be redirected......you guessed, it came back today return to sender!

A wedding photographers work is never done!

So here I am, it's February and the wedding season is definitely over you would think that by now I'm firmly installed on the sofa with my Xbox 360 repelling the lastest alien horde to invade the planet earth but no, a wedding photographers work is never done!

After routine checking it appears two of my websites are currently down, I've spent most of the day preparing a wedding order that's finally come in, a trip down to post office to post somebodies wedding album and in general there are all sorts of updates, communications and 'things' that just have to be done while there isn't a lot of weddings on.

I'm really going to try and take Friday off before my next wedding on Saturday and wedding fair on Sunday.

Wedding Album Woes

Don't you just hate inconsiderate courier companies? I recieved a wedding album today for one of my wedding clients, it was pretty obvious from the external packaging that this particular album had gone through the wars, but I didnt' realise how much until I opened it.

On one corner the damage had gone through the external packaging box, the internal packaging box and finally impacted upon the album itself, folding one corner and rendering it unfit to go to my client. I've now had to inform the couple their album will be delayed and have it reprinted...grrrr!

A wedding photographer from Hampshires first blog

Well here it is ta-da! It seemed like such a good idea when I opened the blog account but now I find myself with very little to say!

So where to begin? I guess a little about me and the purpose of the blog.

I'm Brian Parkes, a wedding photographer based in Farnborough, Hampshire. I say wedding photographer as that is the bulk of my work, I also do baby, portrait and commercial photography too. Basically if it involves people and photography, I do it, I don't really push other types of work because I like working with people and I push weddings in particular because, quite frankly, It's a great environment in which to work, everybody just wants a good time!

If your interested in my work you can view it here: www.brianparkes.com or www.prandcorporate.co.uk.

So the purpose of this blog? Well really I intend it to be a sort of public diary, plus I'll use it keep clients informed of what I'm currently up to.