FAQs

Do you shoot all of your weddings?
Yes.  When you hire me to shoot your special event, you get me.  I am very much against the whole dishing out events to third party photographers based on clients package levels.

How many weddings do you book a year?
I limit myself to no more than 25 weddings each year.  I like to think of it like private banking.  I “shutter” at the idea of bringing in as many clients as possible, collecting their fees, shoot their wedding using a standard formula and then forget who they are a minute later.  I like getting to know my clients.  The most successful images will be the ones where the bride and groom are totally comfortable with their photographer.  To do this, each client needs to know that I am there for them to be attentive to their questions, their ideas and all the little details about them, their family and friends and their special day.

How far ahead should we book your services?
There is no magic number.  I have some client book 12 months out and I even have some clients who have booked 24 months out.  However, my calendar tends to be booked 8 to 12 months in advance.  My 2011 schedule was booked and closed by the end of April 2011 and I currently have 15 weddings booked for 2012.

What is the amount to retain your services?
My retainer is 40% of your base package pricing.  The retainer locks in your date and pricing until the date of the event.  Any product or services ordered after the date of the event will be based on the current pricing at that time.

What forms of payment do you accept?
I accept MasterCard, Visa, Discover Card, Debit Cards and checks.  No cash, cashier checks or money orders.

When is the final 60% due?
The final payment is due no later than 30 calendar days prior to the event.

Our venue asked if you carry proper liability insurance.  Do you?
Yes, I carry a 1 Million / 2 Million liability policy.  If your venue needs to be added as an additionally insured for the date of the event please have them forward their required name and address HERE.

How long have you been shooting?
I hand processed my first roll of T-Max 400 when I was 15 years old and have been addicted ever since.  Which means I am going on my 25th year spending 40+ hours a week shooting and post processing images.  One of my old college friends once joked that I have probably spent more hours of my life creating images than I have in the sunlight.

What do you like better, film or digital?
Ooh….. that’s a trick question.  I look at film and digital  the same way I looked at brown and white sugar.  They are both sweet and they are both wonderful.  But they both have their individual strengths and weaknesses.  However, in today’s environment, digital is better for using in a professional situation.  That does not mean film is not perfectly capable of meeting all professional standards because after all, it had been the standard for a hundred years.  But digital is more flexible, adaptable to change and more forgiving of mistakes.

When did you go full digital?
I shot both film and digital until about 6 years ago.  It was at that time that digital sensors and processors were able to match the capabilities of film.  Now, thanks to advancements in areas of low light imaging and dynamic range I feel that both 35mm and medium format digital imaging has surpassed the imaging abilities of 35mm and medium format films.

Do you retouch every image?
No.  All final images provided to you will have “Basic Image Correction” which involves color balance correction and contrast correction.  Only print order images and any images used in albums will have “Full Retouching” completed to them.

I feel this is something that clients need defining because I myself have seen many confused by photographers stating that they provide  their clients with “every image fully retouched”.  True “full retouching” is going into the image and color balancing the image, adjusting the contrast, removing any blemishes, removing stray hairs that are distracting, creating some pop in the eyes, removing distracting items from the background, etc.  A true full retouch can take between 30 to 45 minutes per image.  So to fully retouch one of my weddings would require between 175 to 262 retouching hours.  So “fully retouching” every final image is not realistic.

Do you do Destination Weddings?
Yes, yes, I do.  I will book up to four destination weddings a year (since starting a family I have calmed my jet-set life down a bit).  I have special packages for Destination Weddings with added coverage items.  Destination wedding pricing is based on Package plus Travel.  For Destination Packages & Pricing, please feel free to send me an email by clicking HERE

What is your Travel costs for Destination Weddings?
In the Continental US and Caribbean it is a flat $1500.00 and includes airfare, care rentals and hotel costs based on a two night stay.  All other locations will be based on cost of travel.

Do we receive a disc with all final images from our Engagement Session?
Yes and No.  If you have booked your Engagement Session as a part of a wedding package that includes an image disc then you will receive the image files on the same disc as the wedding images.  If you have not purchased a disc with your wedding package, or have not booked a wedding package at all, the image disc for an Engagement Session is $800.00 or include at no charge after any print order of $1,000.00 or more.

Do we pick the images that are used in the albums?
No.  The advantage of hiring a person who has spent almost two decades taking images documenting events is that they brings with them in-depth skills of story telling.  Even as I am shooting your wedding, I am seeing the layout of your album in my head.  Because of this I am capturing images that while they may not always make sense at the time I take them, they play a roll in telling the story of your special day.  Even though you would pick out lovely images that you love and adore, when put together they may not flow in a cohesive story.  The best way I can describe it is that choosing all the images you want in the album and then having me design it around them is like buying everything for your home and then hiring an interior designer and telling them that these are the items they have to work with.  You hired me for my creativity and skill at capturing images to tell the story of your day.  Trust in that decision and allow me to create an album that you will cherish for decades to come.

What is the advantage of ordering prints through you versus getting final image files from our disc printed?
All print order images are fully retouched and made print ready before being sent to my professional labs for printing.  All of our prints are made using true photographic printing paper and our lab uses only the top printing equipment which is calibrated for color accuracy multiple times each day.  Each image is also inspected for accuracy prior to shipping.  All B&W print orders will go through a custom black and white conversion and our labs print on true B&W printing paper using special B&W printers to reproduce a higher quality, true B&W image.

And Speaking of Retouching
I often meet with couples who, by the time they get to me, are very confused as to what retouching means.  They will see sites stating that every single one of the thousands of images they receive is retouched.  They are led to believe that they will receive every image retouched the way that the images on your websites, blogs and albums are.  I want to make sure they understand that this is not actually possible.  Full Retouching can take any where from 20 to 60 minutes per image.  So if you think about getting 1000 images (which is far too many…see below why) that would require between 300 and 1000 retouching hours…..so it would take 8 to 25 work weeks.  So what kind of retouching is there?  Well, I can not speak for any other photographers, however I provide two levels of retouching.  All final images will have what I call “Basic Retouching” which includes exposure correction, color correction and white balancing.  Images that will be used on the blog or album will have full retouching which includes Basic Retouching as well as removing hotspots from the forehead on hot humid days, blemishes, B&W conversions, artistic touches and removing minor distractions such as the pale tourist in the background watching the first kiss.  Below is an example of a Unretouched and a Retouched image.

Isn’t Converting to B&W Simply Clicking the B&W Button?
Oh no………never do that.  Just like in the old days when we shot B&W film and printed on B&W paper in a darkroom, there is no “one” B&W process.  We used different developers, filters, development times, toners and even papers to create images with the contrast levels, tonalities and warmth/cool feel to the image.  The B&W software I use is specifically designed for people like me that grew up professionally soaking our hands in developer all day printing images.  It allows us to apply toner temperature to the blacks, the digital paper, control the blacks and white in various areas of the image, grain factors, dodge, burn, you name it.  Here is example of a “auto-B&W conversion” and a “custom B&W conversion”: