Camera Ready

It is official--I have a dress. Yesterday's shopping experience at the bridal shop was great. The store is a really nice spot. They have dressers that help you with the dresses and the manager and owner are there to go over the finer points of how the gown will hang and bustle and all that good stuff. Originally, the owner picked out about four dresses for me so that we could determine my style and taste. From day one, I have had my favorite. Our second visit a couple of months ago confirmed my favorite was still "the dress." So this time, it was all about the paperwork and the money. Mom of course, wanted to be sure and asked the manager to go through the dresses again to be sure there wasn't anything else I might like. Although I had only worked with her one time during my second visit, she remembered me immediately and assured my mother that the dress I picked out was perfect for me. She humored Mom by showing her some of the new things that had come in, and they clearly were not for me. So I tried on my dress one more time and we took all the needed measurements--including the "hollow to hem" which I'll need to make sure all the bead work and the shape of the dress is proportional to my little frame. Mom put down the needed deposit--which I am EXTREMELY grateful for--and my order is off to the designer!!! I should expect the dress to arrive probably mid to late summer.

So today is photography day! I have been looking forward to this more than anything--probably even more than the dress. I didn't imagine I would be doing this without Dr. J though--that is the roughest part of today. I wish he was here. So I'm holding down the fort and Mom was able to go with me for the first appointment.

Potential Photographer #1: Lois and Clark
The first meeting today was with a husband and wife team. They are sweet people--she is clearly the socialite and he's definitely the behind the camera type--both were very friendly and I instantly felt comfortable around them. We met in their home studio, although they are in the process of moving to a retail space (which I take is a reason for their recent price shift in the upward direction). The studio space at home was small, but very nice--they had beautiful prints on the walls--mostly canvas portraits of brides. There were two brides displayed on easels in the room as well--one who was getting married that day and the other who was recently married and was coming by to pick up her prints from her bridal sessions. One was done in studio, the other was outside, but the quality of both was outstanding. Lois met with us and showed us an album while we waited for Clark, and we just chatted for a bit. Clark joined us, got some information about our wedding and more importantly, about John and I. He showed us a slideshow on his widescreen iMac monitor (had to be 24" or more--gorgeous piece of hardware indeed) which was positioned against the wall across from our very comfortable leather couch.

As I communicated to them, of the websites and samples I've seen, I've been impressed from the beginning by the quality of their images. They have a wonderful tonal range in the colors of their pictures (esp. the B&W) and all of their color images pop. I learned that they shoot entirely digital and I learned a bit more about that process and what makes their images so distinct--exposure and processing. Even though I don't know as much about digital as I do film, I loved feeling like they were comfortable educating me on their craft, and they said that I asked a lot of good questions they don't normally hear (figure that--an academic that asks good questions).

Pros: Very friendly. Professional. Great references. Great equipment. Great ideas. Beautiful albums and products (Mom is in love with a guestbook they have that incorporates your engagement photos--I told her she was welcome to buy us that as a gift if she REALLY loved it). Provide all images on CD or DVD for your own reproduction. And of course, two photographers--Lois would follow me around during preparations, while Clark would shadow Dr. J. And ideally, when I thought about this process, that is what I wanted--two professional cameras. Then we would have both of their perspectives during the ceremony and reception. To me, the biggest thing was that they impressed my mother who is a frugal shopper. When we left, the first thing she said was--"they are good."

Con: The only con of course is price. They are over what we had in our tentative budget; however, we budgeted based on the prices I saw when we were engaged over 6 months ago. Since then of course, a lot of the vendors have gone up on their prices for 2007. So since they are the first appointment, I'm not completely sure yet how much they are above the average. They are not in the unreasonable range. We'll have to talk more with Planner about the current market rate for what we want. The other small con is that I didn't see any brides of color and although we talked about it, I didn't see examples. Given their prices and location (they are based in the most vanilla part of Hometown), I can understand why.

Potential Photographer #2: Dean and Martin
This team is two young guys who just started a business together in Hometown. I knew them previously as separate photographers and I've seen many examples of their work around town. Last night, I spoke to Dean, who wanted to talk before we met to make sure this was really a good fit. I liked that. We talked for about 20 minutes last night and I really enjoyed our conversation. While I knew Dean and Martin were in business together, I did not know they actually shoot every event together--engagement, bridal, anything you want they do together. I also did not know they shoot everything manually which I have a certain affection for. I know now that their prices are comparable to Lois and Clark although I have a feeling their albums and other products may be more expensive. I have my meeting with them shortly, and I am very much looking forward to it!