Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A quick recap....

So, since our last posting of photos, we've had something like 13 weddings, 6 engagements, and 8 bridal portraits. Then on top of that, we spent a day volunteering and shooting portraits at Camp Courage (Greenville Hospital Children's Cancer Camp) and we conducted a workshop for area photographers. So when I say we've been swamped.... I really mean, "WE HAVE BEEN SWAMPED!!!"... but we have loved every minute of it!
We have been pulling select photos from each of those shoots and plan to start uploading those for you to see towards the end of the week. We are putting the finishing touches on some albums that need to be sent off to print, first. It is our goal to be completely caught up by Friday because our Fall wedding season begins on Saturday and we won't have another break until Christmas. We recently attended a workshop in Charlotte with David Jay (www.davidjay.com) and came away with some great workflow ideas. So from now on, we have developed a workflow that allows us to not get backlogged like we did this past summer. That combined with Lindsey soon devoting herself full time to Sposa Bella and we are so excited for things to come.
We'll tell you about each of the weddings as we post them, but we want to share some of our other adventures with you until then. We got to spend the day at Camp Courage, a camp for children with cancer and blood disorders from Greenville Hospital System. The last one we attended was for teens, but this one was for the younger kids. The youngest was probably about 5 years old and the oldest would have been early 20's. I can't even begin to express what it's like to spend a day with these amazing kids. They have been through so much at their young age, yet you'd never know it. They are the happiest, sweetest, kindest kids, that I think I have ever been around. I so wish that I could show you their beautiful faces, but because of privacy, we won't post their photos. They are absolute sweethearts, though! We will be conducting a fundraiser for them in November... we are taking family portraits and donating all proceeds back to the program. If any of you want to help out with a donation or find some other way to volunteer, please let us know and we'll put you in touch with the right people. It is so worth your time and effort!!
Way back on August 1st (seems years ago right now!) we conducted a workshop for local photographers. We limited the class to 25 people and were at full capacity. We spent the morning demonstrating our workflow and photoshop techniques, had a live studio and on-location shoot with one of our amazing couples (Thanks Jessica & Greaton!!), and then spent the latter part of the afternoon discussing marketing and business techniques. We received good feedback from the attendees and met some awesome area photographers. Every time we hold a workshop, we get so much out of it ourselves. Not only does it make us critique how we do things as we are preparing our presentation, but every time the photographers who attend, bring up some great idea or different way to do something that we can then incorporate ourselves. No matter what line of work you are in, we highly recommend studying with the best people in your field (we do this every chance we get, by attending workshops and conferences) and then becoming friends with other people in your area who are in your field. We love hanging out with other wedding photographers and learning from each other! Tonight, I'm conducting another workshop, but it's much different... this one is small with the Clemson University Women's Club. Instead of professional photographers, these are all ladies just wanting to take better photos of their kids and grandkids!! Should be fun, though!
I'll end today by telling you all about our weekend. We are season ticket holders for Clemson football and usually enjoy going to the games. The last few years, we haven't been able to attend a lot of games because it is our philosophy that if someone selects us to photograph their wedding, it is much more important than a football game. This year, we actually are free to attend 3 games (Citadel, NC State, & USC). We went to the first home game against the Citadel and were miserably hot. Then we were free last Saturday and had made plans to go to the NC State game. Once they announced that it was at noon and was going to once again be miserably hot (we found out later temperatures in the stadium reached over 100 degrees!!!), we decided that we'd TiVo the game and spend the day relaxing together instead. This was our last Saturday free for several months and we knew we'd have a better time elsewhere. So we jumped in our car and headed to the mountains. We have a little convertible that we only take out on pretty days and Saturday was the perfect day for it. We drove around for a couple of hours and ended up stopping in Highlands NC. Highlands is one of our favorite mountain cities. Great food, great shopping, and great spas (last time we were there, we spent way too much money at the Old Edwards Inn Spa, but it was amazing!!). This time, we skipped going to the spa and instead opted for a glass of wine and great meal at Wolfgangs on Main (www.wolfgangs.net). I can't say enough about their service, atmosphere, and food. It's superb! If you're ever in the area, be sure to stop in and try it. For those of you that haven't chosen a place for your wedding yet, they also do weddings! Anyway, as we were driving along the curvy mountain roads, Lindsey decided to see what kind of photos her iPhone could take. The results are below. Take care and we'll write more soon!
-Craig





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