JOSH AND JAMIE PART 1

Josh and Jamie are brothers with an Australian mom and an English dad. Which means they were pretty much football hooligans from the get-go. Josh has been helping out with some recent photo assignments and after getting our work done for the day at Living Social we shot some more stuff just for fun.

AN EDUCATIONAL MOMENT

I had been planning to write a post on why wedding photography seems so crazy expensive. Last night someone wrote pretty much exactly what I would have wrote, here:

WHY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS PRICES ARE "WACK"

My wedding business is slightly different from hers but not by much. My cost of living is a bit higher being based out of Washington, DC, the wedding season lasts a bit longer, and I have a few other segments of business. The fact remains: it is expensive and time consuming to run a professional photography business. Professional is the key word here. That means you have experience, continuing education, professional grade equipment, back up plans, insurance, you are reliable and prepared, and you don't cut corners on your products or services. And it means you are working within the law and paying your taxes. There are plenty of non-professionals out there willing to photograph a wedding on the cheap but brides must be willing to sacrifice one or several of the factors that differentiate a professional.

This is not a complaint. I consider myself super blessed to have art as part of my work. And unlike this blogger, I am not insulted by people with relatively low budgets. I am writing this because some people have a misunderstanding of the business side of photography and perhaps have never been educated on it. There is an assumption that all one needs is a high quality camera (which are very affordable these days) and one day of work to take home $2500. Clearly, there is much more involved in order to run a legitimate business, to stay in business and to maintain satisfied clients.

On an unrelated note... I was back in Southern California last week. It's still pretty there.

I BUILT A DESK

When I first struck out on my own I was working on a desk in my bedroom. Then, a few years ago, I moved into a place with an extra room that I turned into an office. It's always been a little more of a workshop than an office, with camera equipment and backdrops and building materials scattered about. My desk was made out of a door that I sawed in half.

As my business matures, I think so should my office. It's time to grow up! So I'm remodeling, renovating, or whatever you call it when you make a room better than it was before. I wanted another work station for the occasions when people come to help me, a sitting area for clients and to keep a little room to set up lights for headshots or small product shots when I need to. I decided that designing my own desk would be the best way to accomplish this.

It's all 2x3s, 1x4s and a few metal brackets. I slathered on the white paint so it would fit in with the rest of my 1940s house, layered with paint from multiple decades. And then I topped it with tempered glass. It's exactly what I wanted. And I really enjoyed building it.

2011 FAVORITES

The past few years I have posted a "best of" for the previous year. I realize that this is a few days late, but nevertheless, here it is: my favorite photos from 2011. I first thought this would be a good chance to showcase some of my best photos but as I looked through them I started picking out ones that are more meaningful to me than ones that are technically outstanding. The above represents some of my favorite people in 2011 and some of the most fun times I had all year. And it is a great reminder of the power of a photograph. It's more than something pretty to look at. It's a memory of a special time in life—being young and in love, being old and in love, the moment you committed to spend your life with another person or the moment your hard work and talent was recognized on a magazine cover. The moments don't always last long but the photos help us savor the feeling. Looking back over the year, I feel like the luckiest guy in the world spending my time with these amazing people and sharing some of the best of times.