Carole & Darcy, September 26, 2009

Here are a some photos from my recent shoot of Carole & Darcy's wedding. It was an overcast day, but the bride still shone!!! (Cheesy, I know!). They celebrated their reception at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Vicki & Paul

Here are a few photos from Vicki & Paul's rained out wedding! We managed to find some dry spots in the Museum of Civilization.

Chantal & Marc's Love Portrait

Here is a great shoot with a very happy couple, Chantal & Marc, who are getting married at Manderley on the Green Golf Course in October. Chantal is still trying to figure out who Marc love the most, her, or the Mustang!

Hiring a Photogrpher

I found this on another photographers blog and just thought these sentiments were perfect:

#1: Shop for an artist, not an appliance.
Understanding the price points of dishwashers is relatively easy because all dishwashers wash dishes the same way. Differences in pricing are a matter of special features, brand names, warranties and the like. It’s easy to compare, assess, and choose based on your needs and budget.

It’s tempting to shop for a photographer the same way and compare package pricing. The problem is that no two photographers take pictures the same way or have the same point of view. Complicating matters further, no two studios offer the same kind of albums or extras and there are no baseline standards on pricing. So how do you know what you are really paying for?

It helps to think of photography as a creative service rather than a product. You’re not hiring a photographer but commissioning an artist. People buy art because its something they love and want to live with everyday. They pay no attention to the cost of the canvas, paints, or other materials that went into its physical making. Art pieces have intrinsic value based on the owner’s relationship to the piece and your wedding photography should

be the same way. For example, an album that comes in a package is useless unless you love the photos that will go in it.

Look at your budget for photography and eliminate options outside of it (for now). Interview the contenders whose style and work you love. Let go of the “stuff.” Albums, etc. can always come later. In short, start with the art and come back to the price tag.

So what constitutes style? Look carefully at the work you are shown on a photographer’s website or in your first meeting. Do you like one picture, a handful of pictures, or all of what you see? If you love all of what you see (or pretty close to it), it’s likely that you really like that photographer’s style. Do you see yourself in their photos? Would you love to have photos like these of yourself adorning the walls of your home like art? If a particular photo stands out for you, ask the photographer to talk about it…why did he/she take it? You can learn a lot about a photographer’s point of view through conversations like this.

OK, by now you have interviewed a few select photographers whose style you love. While you may never be able to compare apples to apples, the value of each contender’s pricing should become more apparent after interviewing. Remember that a photographer is only worth the extra cost if you can identify what it is that sets them apart from their competition.

#2 You don’t have to be BFFs but you should like the guy/gal
Another relevant thought is that a dishwasher isn’t going to interact with you whereas a photographer will. Ask yourself, are you comfortable around this person? Would you enjoy having him/her/them around on such an important day? Do you know anyone who has worked with this photographer and were they happy with the job he/she/they did? Do you have any concerns that this person will do or say something inappropriate on your wedding day? Are you confident you would have a good experience working with this photographer?

Sometimes I hear a couple say that their friends got better pictures of them than their professional photographer did. When I ask whether or not they liked their photographer as a person, they shrug or say no. This just makes me sad because that photographer didn’t stand a chance: I know from experience how hard it is to get a good picture of someone who isn’t comfortable around you or doesn’t trust you completely. Of course their friends got better pictures!

#3: Don’t ask for the pictures you want, find the guy/gal who already takes them
Here’s a pitfall we have fallen into before. As photographers, we want to please our clients and fulfill special requests. But when asked to work outside of our regular style (i.e. take more close ups or fish eye shots, use a particular effect, recreate another photographer’s picture) our attempt to please may do more harm than good.

For example, a couple described a particular perspective of their ceremony that they saw another in another photographer’s studio and emphasized how important this shot was to them. I spent so much time during the ceremony making it happen despite lighting and physical limitations that I missed the shots I normally get… the ones I am really good at getting. I was trying to wear another photographer’s shoes and, in the process, stepped out of my own.

Love your photographer’s vision and trust it. If you don’t see what you want in the portfolio you are shown, keep looking until you find it.

Giving back to the community with Free the Children Foundation

On May 31st, I'll be donating my services to help to publicize the important volunteer work of some of Ottawa's own young teens Maddie Wright, Hannah Wiens, Marieke Bergman and Cara Schacter. Theses Girls are making a difference in the world along with Cara's inspirational older sister Alyse, donating their time and efforts toward FTC (Free the Children. Here is the article from the Glebe Report, Volume 39 No.4.:
Three teens, $20,000 dollars and two schools
Last summer, three friends were discussing how to mark their 16th birthdays.
Glebites Cara Schacter, Hannah Wiens and Maddie Wright spend most
of their time together and it only seemed natural that their sweet sixteen be
equally joint. Inspired by Cara’s older sister, Alyse, who had raised money for
the Make A Wish Foundation for her 16th birthday party, they decided to celebrate
16 years of good fortune by raising money for Free the Children (FTC).
FTC is a remarkable Canadian charity that has built 500 schools now serving
50,000 children. The girls knew that it would take $8,500 to build a school, but
they were undaunted.
By fall, the girls had contacted Marc Kielburger, chief executive director
of FTC and told him they were going to raise the $8,500 required to build a
school in the third world. After much discussion, the girls decided to build
their school in Sri Lanka. They also got in touch with a New York-based company
(owned by Cara’s great aunt) called Love Quotes, which supports children’s
charities, and pitched the idea to the CEO. She is a strong believer in
the Hebrew concept of “Tikkun Alam,” which means repair of the world, so to
encourage the girls she told them that Love Quotes would match their efforts
dollar for dollar up to $10,000.
School had started and so had the baking. The girls first event was a bake
sale, held at the Glebe Community Centre in November. It took three kitchens,
two months of baking, three freezers and three days of selling, but after the
dishes were finally washed up, the girls had raised their first $1,500. They were
delighted with the results and undertook their next fundraising project with
much enthusiasm.
December and January were spent talking to sponsors. After a generous offer
from Flat Rock Winery, the girls had event number two. Dozens of donation
requests later, the girls had invited 100 people to their “Wine Tasting Fundraising
Event.” It was going to be an elegant, adult evening. Having never been to
a wine tasting, the three fifteen years olds had no idea what to expect – but they
were confident as donations kept flying in, both metaphorically and literally:
Mike White, a Calgary-based wine vendor flew in to run the tasting. And Phyllis
Wiener, their corporate sponsor, flew in from the Big Apple. As it turned
out, it was, as one attendee remarked, “a neighbourhood soirée in the true Ottawa
tradition: the names on the bid forms and the faces in the crowd included
a member of Parliament, a Senator (the legislative kind, not a hockey player),
and the long-ago founder of a local rock music station.”
The food, all donated by local caterers, was superb. Some of the featured
foods were served courtesy of Thyme and Again, Pelican Fishery and Grill, Il
Negozio Nicastro and Gourmet to Go. Essence Catering went all out donating
$2,000 worth of hot and cold appetizers and displaying them on individual
serving platters like an art installation.
The event was complete with a 50 piece silent auction, a true testament to
the girls perseverance and this city’s generous vendors. The auction included
original art by Christopher Griffin, photographs by Lux et Veritas, jewelry by
PIKA , Keens from Glebe Trotters and restaurant certificates from some of
the city’s finest dinning establishments – locals like the New Nupur, Infusion
Bistro, the Urban Pear, Taj Mahal and La Strada generously donated gift certificates
along with Luxe Bistro, The Wellington Gastro Pub and Junipers, to
name a few.
Another highlight was the talk by Marieke Bergman, Free The Children’s
international youth coordinator. She told the story of Craig Kielburger, who
co-founded the organization in 1995, at the age of 12, after running across a
news story on child labour. He was looking for the comic section in his local
paper when he read that Iqbal Masih, a 12-year-old from Pakistan, had been
shot to death for leading protests against child slavery in the carpet trade, from
which he had escaped at age 10.
Their evening gathering raised over $9,000! The three teen philanthropists
are heading into the home stretch of this project with over $20,000 raised. They
will be hosting their joint Sweet-Sixteen party in May for 400 of their closest
friends and following in Alyse’s footsteps, instead of presents, each guest will
be asked to contribute money and extend a hand to repair the world.
“Despite all the differences between us and children in Sri Lanka, going to
school is something we relate to,” – Hannah, Maddie and Cara.

Cecilia & John, March 2009 Wedding

Wedding Palace Bridal Fair

Thanks to all the great people who came to the Wedding Palace Bridal Fair this weekend, & to great comments you made about our photos and new albums. It was a great success!

Wedding Palace Bridal Show

We are happy to be out at the big show again this year! Come see us at the Wedding Palace Bridal Show at the Westin Hotel, Ottawa, on January 3rd & 4th. We will be meeting a lot of potential brides & groom's from 11:00 AM ~ 5:00 PM. You can ask all you want to know, see our work and meet our team of great photographers. We will be at booth # 279, right next to our friends at Stanley's Olde Maple Lane Farms. Come say hello!

Carole & Darcy

I normally don't like to brag, so here is what was recently emailed to me following a Love Portrait Sitting in the woods on Petrie Island.

"We love love looooooove the photos! No wonder you call it the loooove portrait! :) I've been smiling since I've seen them! You did a fantastic job! They ALL turned out so great! I'm looking forward to our wedding pictures now! One more year to go!!
Anyways, thanks again :)"

Carole & Darcy,
Wedding date:
September 26th, 2009

Trash the Dress

I just discovered the BEST idea on Facebook that I am psyched to do! It is called Trash the Dress. Their description is:
Go ahead, you know you want to. Trash it. Get it dirty. Get it wet. Roll around in the mud. Drench it in the ocean. Totally trash it. Why? … Why not? You’ve made a commitment to your husband. He’s your one and only true love, right? Then you’ll never need the dress again. And no, your daughter won’t wear it in 20-30 years. So you have two choices: 1) Suffocate it in plastic and throw it in a closet 2) Show your husband how commited you are by trashing the dress, and get some great fun pictures while you do it! Then after you do it- send the pictures to us to publish for all the world to see. What are you waiting on? Call one of the trusted photographers on this page or find one you trust and go trash the dress!
So I am calling on all of my former brides, or any former bride, for that matter to help me to create photos that you will not forget!! I'm thinking, if there is anything you are into....from volleyball to swimming to, um... farming, do it in your dress without having to worry about getting it dirty. Just the opposite! The point IS to get it as dirty as we can!! I promise it will be the time of your life!

Andrea & Adam's Wedding in Montreal

Great wedding in Montreal, I got to shoot, enjoy as a guest & my daughter was a flower girl. Triple fun!!

Things I like

Just a short list of things I like, so you can get to know me a little bit bettter!

TV - specifically: LOST, Coffee, Chocolate!, MAC,Camping, Being GREEN!

New Website!!

I am soo excited to announce that I finally have my new website up & live, with help from bludomain. Check it out here and let me know what you think!!

Things I Learned About Photography List

So, as you can see so far, I’m not as creative in writing as I am behind the lens, so I’d like to borrow some words of inspiration that I found on another blog written by a former groom whose wedding I photographed, turned photographer. I have added a lot of my own to the list. This list is a list of things that really touch me personally. It has been selectively edited to include the things I believe. Please feel free to use it as a guide list for yourself. So here goes, the (my) list of things I learned and feel about photography:

-Get the basics, then go crazy!
- LOVE what you are shooting.
-Get inspiration from everything you see!
- Share what you know, there’s no such thing as competition in photography, nobody else sees the way you see
-Don’t scout locations the day before, get inspired when you are ready to shoot
-there is no such thing as a bad location to shoot
-people hate to be bossed around, but love to be guided
- Prepare well for your shooting, realizing that your battery isn’t charged when you’re setting up for that shoot is too late!
-Always have backup equipment, because once the moment is gone, it is lost if your equipment fails.
- Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions while you are shooting
- Watch the people and places you want to shoot first with your heart then with the camera
- Always stay calm and have fun
- Keep your equipment clean and working well
- Never compare yourself to others in a better or worse context, photography is SUBJECTIVE!
- Find your own style of photography, and grow with it
- Try to compose more and to hit the shutter less
- Get inspiration from the work of other photographers
- Criticize honestly but respectfully
- Get feedback from your lady
- Don’t copy other photographer’s style
- Be bold
- Take selfportraits
- Read books about photography
- Every shooting situation is different than you expect
- Pay attention to s-curves and lines
-Get closer
- Be prepared to brave the elements
- The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it (Ansel Adams)
- Look up
- Look down
- Look behind you
- Walk around before setting up
- Wear comfortable shoes
- Pay attention to what your eyes see and what your heart feels, then shoot
- Don't be afraid to get dirty
- Don't go cheap on a lenses
- Always keep your gear clean
- Composition is everything
- If you're going to break the rules, break them with intention
- Much of what you might do in Photoshop isn't much different than what you might do in a darkroom
-NEVER rely on photoshop to fix mistakes!, just to improve!
- Bad weather makes good photos
- Constructive criticism can be hard to take, but is more useful than all the "ooh's" and "aah's" and "wow's!"
- Find a way to shoot popular subjects differently than others already have
- Practice on seemingly ordinary things
- Respect your subjects to get the most out of them
- Read the manuals that come with your gear...with your gear in hand.
- Creativity is a habit
- Pay attention to the interactions between lines, patterns, textures, and colours
- Carry extra batteries and memory cards
- Check all of your settings before you start shooting
- Turn the camera around on yourself once in a while
- Find beauty in ordinary things
- There's a part of you in every one of your photographs
- Keep and archive your unaltered negatives (digital and otherwise)
- Know your camera
- Try to be unobtrusive
- Autofocus can be your friend and your enemy
- Love f/2.8 lenses!
- Be aware of your surroundings
- Master the fundamentals
- Mind your backgrounds
- Photoshop will not save a fundamentally bad shot
- Get it right in the camera
- Don't be afraid to crop
- You don't always have to look in the viewfinder - try shooting off the hip or laying on your back
- Tell a story
- You are always improving
-respect that some things shouldn't be shot
- Don't always try to get the whole thing. Shoot parts that suggest the whole
- You are not always the best judge of your work
- Nikon vs. Canon (vs. Pentax vs. Sony vs. etc.) is irrelevant
- Your camera is just a tool
- Pay attention to how things are lit even when you don't have your camera
-'Creatively correct' is more important than 'technically correct', but strive for both!
- Shoot children at their eye level
- People will look at you funny while you're shooting - let them
- Use the zoom function on your LCD screen
- Focus on the eyes
- If all you've ever shoot is digital, learn by shooting film
- Use your lens hood all the time- even indoors
- Read photography blogs
-look at all your entire frame all the time
-compose in camera, not in photoshop or by cropping after
- Indulge your curiosity
- Never do photography to become a rock-star
-absolutely love what you are doing
- Write and read an inspirational list

P.S. Thanks Mike

Summer Beach Shoot

Welcome summer!!! I always love to shoot at the beach at Petrie Island. It looks as if it could be anywhere in the world! Thanks to Rose & Stéphane for allowing me the freedom of telling them what to do, and that couple who lent us the guitars!!

I know, I'm backtracking a little bit, but I had to post this wedding video capture from some photos I took of Brigitte & Lee this winter, now that all the white stuff is gone!!

Hell's Angels' Wedding??

No, this photo was not taken from a Hells Angels wedding, but it does look like the bride wants to run off with them!! We were shooting the families from the wedding last Saturday at the Garden of the Provinces and Territories Park on Wellington when we heard a loud rumbling in the distance. That's when my second photographer, Lee, sprung into action and captured the bride trying to get away!! She did actually stay and go ahead with the ceremony!!

Wedding Show!!

Come see us at the Wedding Palace Bridal Show www.weddingpalace.ca . We will be there Saturday & Sunday, January 12th & 13th, from 11:00~5:00. You can meet with us and ask any questions you have about weddings, photography, or just to chat! You can also meet our great photographer, Lee!
See you there!

Glebe Parents' Day Care

This week we did a very fun fundraiser for Glebe Parents Day Care.
The parents who made a donation had the hounour of having a family photo shoot at the day care after hours by yours truly. The fundraiser was a hit! Thanks to all the parents who made donations and to Athena, Tracie, Jessica & Andrea for organizing the ordeal & making sure it ran smoothly (as usual)!

Welcome to the new blog for RZ Photo! I'm very excited about this. (I'm still a little wet behind the ears about this blog thing, welcome to the 20th century, Ron!)

I want to thank Stacey Price of Marry Me Productions, , for a great "Appreciation" party at Foundation last evening. It gave me the opportunity to speak to a lot of other vendors that I/we work with on a more social level & helped to inspire this blog (thanks Byron).

I now present to you the new first photo of the week:
This little guy, 6 months old, will likely become very familiar with my cameras. I've photographed his big brother, Mom & Dad's wedding, Aunt & Uncle's wedding, and their kids as well. They are a great, fun & happy (and growing) family.
Thanks to you all!