Day One

Day one was much more akin to what Americans are used to, but not without a heavy infusion of cultural creativity. There was no ‘ceremony’ so to speak. Rather, Hagir and Medhat walked into the reception hall and took their seats on a stage in front of their guests and were welcomed and congratulated by them. All of this was followed by lively dancing and even a professional belly-dancer!

Day Two

The second day was far more traditional than the first. During the second day’s ceremony, Hagir changed into a number of different outfits and performed a special dance for the guests and her new husband.

Due to the personal nature of the second day, Hagir asked that I be very selective with which images I shared here. These images are some that she reviewed and approved. They give a good sense of the event.

After quite a lot of research and review, I’m proud to introduce wedding albums for 2010! These albums are hand assembled and custom designed to last a very, very long time. Albums are currently available in premium black leather and standard black leather. But best of all, every package comes with one of these babies!

Premium Leather Albums

Premium leather albums are durable and heavy, with thick pages. These are perfect for your main wedding album. Each page is custom designed with the images you choose, and the book is constructed so that the pages lay flat, making it easy to look at with friends and family. Premium leather albums are available in the The Works, Extended and Basic packages and come in 8×10” and 10×15” sizes, depending on which package you choose.

Basic Leather Albums

Basic leather albums are constructed with the same care and precision as the Premium leather album, but are lighter weight making them a beautiful, yet economic option. Each page is designed to display one or two photographs that you choose. Basic leather albums can also be ordered as page-for-page duplicates of a Premium leather album—perfect for parents! Basic leather albums are offered in all packages as either the main album, or albums for parents. They are offered in 6×9” and 4×6” sizes.

Have a question about the new wedding albums? Don’t hesitate to make contact today!

It seems like it took no time at all for my iPhone to become my best friend in the photography business. With about a gazillion productivity, lifestyle and travel applications, it seems like its usefulness is just about never-ending.

Considering today what a boon the iPhone is to a professional photographer, I thought I would take the time to share the applications that help keep Petruzzo Photography running smooth.

Appearing in no particular order, iPhone apps for photography business.

Handi 5D
Everyone is bound to forget some little function of their camera at some time. The Handi series of apps are simple reference guides for different camera models. It’s more convenient than a paperback guide since it can stay in your pocket all the time.

CheapGas
Takes your current location and finds the cheapest gas around. When we’re close to home, we usually know where to go to find the best price. But when we’re out in the field, CheapGas can help save the pocket change for more important things.

WifiTrak
When you’re out in the field and need to hop online for on reason or another, WifiTrak can help. WifiTrak extends the range of the wifi scanner in the iPhone to find open networks on the fly. Of course, it’s always preferable to drop into a Panera, but in a pinch, WifiTrak has the answer.

ProCamera
No one is shooting weddings with an iPhone. At least, I hope not. But when I’m out in the field, I love to keep Facebook fans and friends updated with pictures and text about what’s going on. The ProCamera app adds some much needed features to the iPhone, such as anti-shake and built-in level, so that it can be used even in low-light.

Things
Things is a task management app that runs in conjunction with the Mac desktop application by the same name. Things syncs over Wifi and keeps track of everything that needs to be done. With the iPhone app, all your daily tasks stay in your pocket and can be updated as needed. Things comes complete with tagging features, searching, project management and more.

PhotoCalc
Helps calculate various things such as flash compensation, depth of field, and when exactly the sun will be setting or rising. Clean and simple—you may not use it often, but when you do you’ll be glad you had it!

Helios
Helios uses your location, or a location you choose, and calculates where the sun will be in the sky at a given time. This is excellent for deciphering where precisely shadows will fall during a shoot that’s still a month out. It removes much of the guesswork out of sunlight.

Credit Card Terminal
Does exactly what the name suggests. With the help of Authorize.net, the iPhone becomes a credit card terminal running with the best of them. Using the iPhone’s touch screen, customers can sign their name directly on the terminal. And, receipts can be automatically emailed.

When her brother came home from school they finally had a small window in which to get some family portraits done. So they called and set it up for the only date they had available to do them. And it was raining!

Notice how as the photographs progress, everyone gets more and more wet—and cold! But we made the most of it, and had lots of fun in the process! It just goes to show that perfect weather doesn’t make great pictures—great families do!

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home "photo printers," we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let’s look at the actual work involved:

• Travel to the session
• Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
• Shoot the photos
• Travel from the session
• Load images onto a computer
• Back up the files on an external drive
• 2 – 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
• 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
• Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The expertise and cost of doing business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The chain store photo studio

Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The real deal

Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs, created by a Personal Photographer are so expensive.

These were taken on a small patch of rural land in Bowie, MD.

The formal photographs were taken at the historic Bel Air Stables also in Bowie.

We are proud to announce that Petruzzo Photography now accepts VISA and MasterCard payments through Authorize.net on all photographic services. This includes wedding deposits and final payments, as well as portrait session fees. Payments may be made on location, or over the phone. Receipts will be emailed directly to you as soon as the transaction is processed.

We hope this will help make your experience even easier and more convenient.