Anyway… Yesterday was awesome! I woke up super early to take Colby to the Metra and when I woke up he gave me my present which was a pot and pan set and a skillet! I’ve been wanting new pots and pans for awhile so I was happy he got them, but, they weren’t the ones I wanted. More on that later. So, I took him to the train, came back home and went to sleep and slept in until about 9:30. I headed out around 11:30 to go to my friend Steff’s house. She gave me a Yankee Candle for a present and OMG! I love Yankee Candles. It’s sweet pea which smells WAY better than the sweet pea and Bath & Body Works, though I love Bath & Body Works candles too! We had a DELISH lunch at Famous Daves! Then we headed out to the mall in Bolingbrook and did some shopping. I got a sweet spice rack from the Martha Stewart Collection! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I’ve been wanting that one for, like, 5 years! I don’t know why I never bought it before but when I saw it I was like, “It’s MY birthday so I’m getting it!” We also stopped by H&M and I got a couple of cute hair pieces and scarfs! I have an addiction to scarfs… Afterward we went to the mall in Orland Park and did some more shopping. We ended our awesome afternoon by going to Tattoo City so Steff could get her ear pierced but the piercing lady ended up not being there, so that’s being saved for Monday (can’t wait)!

After I left Steff’s I went home to let the dogs out and then left to pick Colby up from the train station. We went to the Joliet mall and did some shopping. After much searching (3 malls worth!) settled on a set of Cuisinart (pronounced queezinart, not cuisine art, ehem.. Colby) pots and pans. I kept the large skillet he got me but returned the other set he had bought from the mall. I love my new pots and pans! After we finished at the mall we went to Red Lobster for dinner where they are having Lobsterfest! You better believe I hit up the lobster entrees! Actually I had a birthday coupon to their restaurant so I got to use that, but I had an entree with rock lobster and main lobster and it was sooooo good! By then, I was really tired so we came home and watched P.S. I Love You (cute concept for a movie but waaaaaayyyy too long and dragged out). It was a super fun day and I couldn’t have asked for anything better!

So, yesterday I had my first “old” moment. While Steff and I were out shopping, we went to that store “Forever 21″ and she was looking for some clothes to buy. I felt a little out of place because I never go clothes shopping. I mean, come on internet, I work at home so all I ever wear are pajamas! Anyway, so while she was trying on some clothes, I was standing there and got a text from my friend Megan that said something like, “Happy birthday! We’re getting so old!” Then I started thinking. I’m in a store called “Forever 21.” That was soooooo 5 years ago people. haha! Then I started thinking… When I have kids that are teens I’m going to be looking at clothes here thinking they are cute and my kids are going to be like, “MOM! You can’t wear that at your age!” Ugh… So, I responded to Megan and told her that very thing. It was funny. So I’ve decided to take this whole aging thing with some grace and happiness. Here’s my new outlook. I’m 26. While a lot of older people would think, “I’d kill to be 26 again” you need to realize that everyone goes through a time during their 20’s where they realize all of the things they looked forward to in their 20’s are almost over. We are all taught to just look forward to being done with school. Your 20’s are great because you finish school and start your real life. But what happens in your 30’s? 40’s? 50’s, etc? You’re not taught to look forward to any of that when you’re in grade school. So again, I’ve hit my time where I realize all of the stuff you want to do after you’re done with school that happens in your 20’s are almost over. It’s my first old moment. So I don’t want to hear any of this, “Oh please! I wish I was 26!” Anyway, so, my outlook… I’m lucky and I think things get better as I get older. I love being an adult. I love making my own decisions, falling on my butt and having to pick myself back up, and having the freedom to do the things I want to do. Why would I want to go back to not having what I have? It only gets better with time and age. I’m beautiful regardless of age and I think I’ll only get better! There. That’s my new outlook!

Of course a birthday isn’t a birthday without taking some photos to remember what you looked like when you were a certain age. Well… I didn’t get a chance to do that yesterday so we did it today. These are hilarious for me to post. First off, I’m THE worst client a photographer could ever have. I want to see the back of the camera. I want to control what my husband is shooting, how he’s shooting it, where the light is, etc. So, naturally, he was irritated and annoyed with me and I with him… Well, luckily, I had downloaded the “Pants On The Ground” single which cracks me up EVERY time. So after my husband danced around rapping “Pants On The Ground” by General Larry Platt I couldn’t stop laughing so we loosened up. I decided to post the “proofs” or series of photos so you can see what kind of person my husband has to tolerate and then the finished product that YOU see. This is good!

This is what you see.

This is what leads up to the photo that you see.

This is what you see.

This is what leads up to the photo you see.

This is what you see.

This is what leads up to the photo you see.

This is what you see.

This is the photo that lead up to the one you see. You can see the “come one!” look in my face! haha!

Of course I saved the best for last. This is what you see.

These shots were taken in between  the shots below… Of course after I busted out laughing so hard I was crying the shoot was just done. Over. There was no recovering. I am still laughing looking at these!

Jen Shannon Photography, St. Augustine Wedding Photographer

]]> http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/03/06/happy-birthday-to-me-2-6-holla-heres-to-my-first-old-moment/feed/ 1 http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/03/01/i-love-you/ http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/03/01/i-love-you/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:03:54 +0000 Jen Shannon http://jenshannonblog.com/?p=2007 Today, my grandma would have been 73. “I love you” were the last word she said to me. I had left a message for my grandpa about three weeks ago to wish him a happy birthday and my grandma had called me back and left me a message to let me know that she relayed the message to him and that she loved me.

The last time I saw her was in August. You can see my blog post about their visit here. About a week and a half ago I received the call that my grandma was going to die. I thought, “What???” My dad explained that she had had a heart attack and was without oxygen for 15 minutes. She was on life support and had no brain activity. She always said she never wanted to live on a machine. My grandpa honored her wishes Thursday, February 18th and let her go home to be with God. It must have been the toughest decision he’s ever had to make.

We made the trip to Florida and spent time consoling my grandpa and each other. It was all so surreal because I’ve never had someone I’m close to die. My mother’s mom died 5 years ago but I wasn’t close to her. It hurt me to see my mom in so much pain but it didn’t effect me as much. The one thing I will say about funerals is that it brings family together. So much of my dad’s side of the family is completely unknown to me. Relatives I haven’t seen in years I’ve finally gotten to see again.

All of this got me thinking so much about how much we want to live in Florida. There are so many things I’ve taken for granted. Had we been living there we could have spent more time with my grandparents. I could have been there at the hospital with her to say goodbye but I know God has had us up here for a reason. We had planned to be there a few days to help my grandpa with the things he needed help with but it turned out other family members were helping so we decided to stay a few extra days and look at houses in Florida. It was also strange to be back because I haven’t been back in 2 years and for the first time, I didn’t recognize many of the things from my parents’ house. I lived there for almost 20 years and after only 2 I couldn’t remember what it all looked like. It was serene. Who wouldn’t want to live here? There’s peaceful wild life everywhere. I was so thankful to be home. It really is where I belong. Colby can’t get enough of it. He just LOVES my parents’ house. It really made me realize that I want so badly (more-so than I thought) to be by my family and friends. Here are some photos of it.

These gorgeous flowers were sent to my family from my cousin, Marlea, and her husband, John.

Pure Florida oranges straight from my dad’s orange tree. Nothing is better.

How could I have possibly forgotten the beautiful sunrises at my parents’ house? I mean look at the beauty? The awesome thing was that I woke up at 6:30 in the morning in hopes to see the sunrise. I could tell it was going to be an overcast/rainy day because the sky was full of clouds but I just kept hearing God say, “Grab your camera or I won’t make it happen.” I kept wanting to wait to see it before I went outside but He just kept telling me to grab it and go. I prayed he would make a beautiful sunrise for me to capture and sure enough He did. This beautiful, firey sunrise only lasted a few minutes before it went behind the clouds and it began to rain but look at the beautiful stillness of the glassy water? It was sort of an intimate time between me and God and his reminder that He loves me and that this is where I belong.

I just love the silhouette of everything. You can see some of the muscovy ducks up early to see if I had food for them (and I did-bread).

You can see it starting to go away and fall behind the clouds. You can also see a mallard swimming up to the shoreline to see if I had food for him too.

I saw the texture of the picnic table that I used to spend time at. I remember days of fishing with my dad and little brother. We’d put our tackle boxes on the table and get to fishing. It was so fun. You can see the table is old and rotting but I won’t ever forget those times.

The birds and ducks were so peaceful. I haven’t heard a bird sing in months! My mom has a couple of bird feeders right outside her bathroom window that she watches in the mornings. Notice this looks like the Twitter bird.

My mom has the muscovies trained. She gives them bread every day and they’ll eat it right out of your hand. This is Colby feeding the duck.

As if you couldn’t tell by reading already, there are tons of ducks down there. The lake they live on is home to muscovies, mallards, egrets, and geese. I remember growing up we raised 3 mallards. Only one is still alive (dang they live a long time!) but I remember when the babies used to hatch and you’d see some random ducks with their babies following them around the lake. They are SOOOOOO adorably cute when they’re small!

Jen Shannon Photograph, Chicago Wedding Photographer

For future reference…. One of the things about the e-learning sessions that make it harder to blog is that a lot of the questions are similar to ones I’ve posted to my blog before. So I may not post 3 questions from each session a week.

1. How do you handle pricing for family, friends, or people that you know? Do you give them a discount?

I’m going to answer this question from a blogging standpoint instead of just saying what I said to her, because I think there is more to it that the outside world may not understand is implied if I only type what I said to Lindsay.

For family, friends, and people I know pricing… I DO NOT DISCOUNT MY SERVICES! Here’s why. I have found that they will not take you seriously or respect you as a professional photographer if you’re always discounting yourself. So instead I will do one of three things. If I am very close to someone and feel compelled I will gift my photography services. I never gift wedding photography services because no one else (except maybe the parents of the bride or groom) is giving a gift worth as much as my wedding packages so why should I? If you are someone I know but I am not close to I will negotiate a deal so I am getting just as much out of it as the other person. For example: A friend of mine has a boyfriend who needs head shots done. Instead of charging her my portrait rate of $250 I negotiated a deal with her so I get something out of the deal that is close to my portrait rate. This is not something I do for everyone I know. Lastly if it is someone I know, if I feel compelled I might add a value added service to their package but I will not discount my prices. For example: I might add an extra hour of coverage or throw in a trash the dress session, but I do not discount my prices.

One thing I’ve said over and over again (feel free to use this) is I AM NOT WORTH ANY LESS JUST BECAUSE I KNOW YOU! If someone I know asks me for a discount or expects it I will not do any work for them. That’s a classic sign of someone that doesn’t respect what you do. Ultimately I will not do any work for people I know unless I am gifting it or getting something that has just as much value as my charges out of it. It’s not right or fair to expect someone who has built something from the ground up to work for free or cheap just because they know you. There is so much work that goes into each session/wedding. It’s not just a “show up at this location and shoot for an hour then send me a disc with the images” kind of thing. I went into detail about this in an earlier blog post that you can read about here.

2. It’s sad that so many photographers charge so little and include the disc of images with it.

While this wasn’t a question, I thought it was a statement worth talking about. So we spoke about it. Any regular consumer has access to a digital camera, a cd burner, and a printer. Because of this they think a disc of images shouldn’t cost them anything. Here’s the problem. We spend hours upon hours and days upon days editing your photos and creating artwork. If you bought a canvas and some paint and created a painting that took hours/days to create would you turn around and sell it for the cost of the canvas and paint? No. Photography isn’t any different. Photography is an art form. Even though we are taking pictures of your family, we are still creating art so you are purchasing the art from us, not just point and shoot pictures printed on your quick printing HP printer at home. You’re paying for skill, quality, experience, and artwork. This is a very hot debate in the photography industry among photographers and the photographers who give the discs or images away are hurting the industry.

3. Do you shoot in RAW or JPEG? Why?

I shoot RAW. RAW files are more forgiving on over and under exposed images (even professionals have a few of those). It also makes color balancing easy. I’m not the type of photographer that likes to worry about white balance issues on the front end. If something ends up not being color balanced properly I can take care of that very quickly on the back end and apply it to all of the images affected. It’s easier for me to worry about controlling the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed on the front end and color correct on the back end.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Movie 7 from Jen Shannon on Vimeo.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

To be eligible, the wedding must take place within 20 miles of Joliet, IL (zip 60433). The ceremony and reception must take place on the same day. The wedding day must take place between April 1, 2010 and May 30th, 2010. If you would like additional hours, prints, a second photographer, albums, or special items you will be financially responsible for adding those to the basic package. You must agree to sign a wedding photography contract. All rights and copyright is maintained by Jen Shannon Photography.

Here’s how to enter. Send an email to contests@jen-shannon.com. Attach a photo of you and your spouse. Tell us both of your names, how you met, how he/she proposed, and why you deserve to win. Do you do charity work? Do you benefit the community? Are you and/or your future spouse in the military? Do you make a difference in people’s lives? Tell us! If you’ve already planned part of your wedding, let us know where you’re getting married, how many people will be there, what your colors are, etc.

The winner will be selected on March 14th and announced on he blog! Tell you friends! Good luck!

It all started on Friday. Since Valentine’s day was on a weekend, we sorta celebrated throughout the weekend, but primarily on Sunday. Friday night we had a sweet date at Red Robin. I love Red Robin and we haven’t gone in awhile because it’s far away but we finally made the trek out there and it was good! Saturday we didn’t do much but we did have our hot date to Hamada of Japan and ohhhh emmmm geeee internet, it was so good! Hamada of Japan is one of those places where you only go on special occasions because when you go, just for two people, you know it’s going to cost at least $70. So we made reservations for 6pm and had some amazing sushi and we shared a hibachi grill plate of chicken and shrimp. I should also say before dinner we had quite the fiasco with the dogs. I had just finished getting ready and Colby says, “Honey, are the dogs up there with you?” I said, “No, why?” He said, “Because I can’t find them. They’re not out back.” Then I screamed, “OHHHH NOOOOOO!!! I forgot to tell you that I left the garage door and the door in the garage that leads to the backyard open to air out the water from the snow that melted off of the car!” We quickly went searching. Bentley, luckily, was already inside because he freezes so fast so it was just a matter of finding Riley and Jayda. Luckily we only go walking in one direction when we go for walks and that is the opposite direction of the main road. Colby got in the truck and went looking for them and I grabbed the leashes and a bag of suckers that I got Colby for Valentine’s day and I went looking on foot. Of course they were down by our neighbors house, the neighbors that dog sit for us. They were going wild! They loved being free! I yelled out their names and shook the bag of suckers and they both came running. Colby had the hatch open to the truck and when they came running to see me I grabbed their collars and put them in the back. This is only the second time that that has ever happened, but if it’s one thing I’ve learned, when you’re dog is off leash and you want them to come, don’t yell and freak out, just call their names in an excited voice. Don’t let them think you’re mad (especially because this time it wasn’t their fault). Anyway…. After dinner we came home and rented “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” from iTunes. It was such a cute movie, but it led us to one conclusion. We totally need to buy a small flat screen tv for our bedroom with a built in DVD player and mount it above our dresser. Movies are just more comfortable to watch when you have a place to prop up your feet (the coffee table just doesn’t cut it anymore).

This is the part where I pause to tell you about what happened Saturday night before I go into Sunday. For Valentine’s day, my husband drugged me. That’s right internet. My husband said, “Let’s take some NyQuil tonight to sleep really good.” I thought, “Well, ok, I could use a good night’s sleep.” He handed me a dose of NyQuil and then went into the bathroom where I thought he took some too. Liar! He’s so sneaky. He drank a full bottle of water because he knew it would wake him up in the middle of the night without waking me up so he could go to Walmart and get some stuff for Valentine’s day. Right before I fell asleep I said, “I bet you just wanted me to take NyQuil because you’re going to sneak out in the middle of the night to do something sweet.” Well internet, I was right. So even though my husband tricked and drugged me, I still slept well and woke up to a few nice surprises in the morning. I forgave him. hahaha!

Sunday I woke up and there were roses in the kitchen for me (pictured below). He had also bought the fixin’s for chocolate chip pancakes (a rare, yet delectable treat) and made me breakfast. Then we lounged for a little while, watched some TiVo’d episodes of Friends, then took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. I love taking walks with the dogs. Then Colby had a lunch surprise of roast beef croissants that were delicious! Then we lounged around to some TV and then got dressed up to go take photos.

Here’s another part to pause to talk about the photos… It was cold. Really cold. Colby and I don’t have anyone that can take pictures like we do around us so usually you see just him or just me in a professional photo, but not both. So we decided to dress up, go outside, take a few new head shots for each other, and use a tripod and my remote to take engagement style portraits of us. Well… When it’s 24 degrees outside, the wind is blowing, the sun is going down, and you’re not wearing anything warm, you get numb FAST. So after multiple attempts we gave up. Monica, we’re flying you out here at some point. The photos below were all we were able to get.

After that we came back and I edited some photos. Colby finished cleaning the kitchen from earlier so I could make him a delish dinner! I made ribeye steaks with quinoa risotto. I need to find a better recipe for quinoa because I didn’t like the beef broth and quinoa flavor combined. Maybe chicken broth would have been better to cook it in. You got that one wrong Cuisine at Home… Anyway, but the steaks were fabulous! I’m not afraid to cook steaks anymore! I seasoned them with salt, cracked pepper, and garlic salt on each side, then seared them each for 4 minutes on each side and finished cooking them in the oven at 425 for 10 minutes. They came out medium well, juicy, tender, and YUMMY! My honey was happy and of course loves that I know my way around a kitchen (thanks to Cuisine at Home and Rachael Ray).

The last surprise of the night was fabulous! Colby made me chocolate covered strawberries, oranges, and bananas! He used both regular milk chocolate and white chocolate. He had snuck out around 2am, got the groceries, made the goodies, and came back to bed at 5:30am. That shows how much he loves me! hahaha! As for the rest of the night… Well… That’s none of your business! lol! Enjoy the photos!

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

]]> http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/02/15/valentines-day-part-2/feed/ 0 http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/02/14/happy-valentines-day/ http://jenshannonblog.com/2010/02/14/happy-valentines-day/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:05:22 +0000 Jen Shannon http://jenshannonblog.com/?p=1924

I can’t remember the last time I had a Valentine’s Day without Colby. It’s been so long, but I do remember our first Valentine’s day while we were still friends. We were in high school. Colby had a crush on me but I didn’t like him like that… yet… For Valentine’s day he got me a single stemmed rose to “embarrass” me at school because he knew I wasn’t into that kind of thing. By then I knew he liked me so I knew he was using it as an excuse to show he cared for me, which of course was ok! hahaha! Turn the clock forward 8 years later (we didn’t know each other as well for our first Valentine’s day when we were just friends). Here we are, 2010. This is our 4th Valentine’s day together as a married couple and I have to say, in the famous words of Christina Aguilera, it keeps getting better. The romance is not lost, it’s more alive than before. The love is stronger than ever. Our appreciation for each other has grown even when we didn’t think it could, etc. We have God to thank for ALLLL of this.

To me, Valentine’s day is not just a “lovers” holiday. To me Valentine’s day is about celebrating the love you have for everyone that you care about. Your family, your friends, your husband, wife, children, etc, are all part of the celebration of love and while it is definitely more geared towards your significant other, I still see it as a day to celebrate my love for the people I care about. I remember in elementary school we’d always make these heard shaped construction paper envelopes that we’d hang off the end of our desks and we would go around and put a Valentine in everyone’s envelopes. I never got one from anyone that I “liked” like that that was any different than what everyone else got from the boy I “liked.” It made me jealous to not ever get one from a boy I liked. My mom, though, would always have a nice Valentine’s day surprise waiting for me when I’d get home. I know when you’re young you don’t see that type of thing as sweet and it doesn’t make you feel much better but when you get older you really see the love that goes into the sweet things that parents do for their kids. So if you don’t have a significant other be thankful and celebrate the love you have for your family. Think of it as thanksgiving for the people you love and who love you back.

Moving on to the spouse side of Valentine’s day… I’m so thankful that God brought Colby and I together. You can read here about the Valentine’s day post I should have waited until today to post but decided not to. There’s so many times I’ve taken “us” for granted and then had to step back and realize that even though things are hard sometimes, life always goes on. Things always move on. Tempers fade and what’s left is the love that sustains us. I sit back and am so thankful for the good times, the bad times, the sweet times, the ugly times, etc. I love our history. I love telling our story. Most of all, I love him. He loves me for who I am. He looks passed my flaws, he holds me when I cry, he comforts me when I’m upset, he supports me in my dreams, he encourages me when I fall, he loves me more than anyone in the world, he is romantic, he’s loving, he’s slow to anger and quick to love, he’s forgiving, he’s quick to say he is sorry, he’s warm and cuddly, he celebrates my successes and encourages me in my failures, and he loves me. What more could I ask for? I can wait for what I’m about to say but at the same time I can’t wait to see us 50 years from now, celebrating our 54th Valentine’s day together and loving each other even more than what I’m typing today.

To Colby: I love you. I love you sooooo much that I can’t think of words that describe how lucky I am; lucky that we found each other and we are so blessed with what we have. Like any relationship, even through the hard times, I love you, even though I might not show it.  Even when my pride or stubbornness gets in the way of showing it, I still love you. I can’t imagine my life without you and I dread the day I ever have to be without you. Even though there are things in my life I wish I could go back and change, you are the one thing I would never change. I’m lucky to be loved by you and I love being in love with you. I love you. You’re my sweetheart. You’re my love. You’re my everything. So I leave you with the lyrics from that song you’ve been listening to a lot lately.

Lucky

by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair

Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

1) Do you use Lightroom or Photoshop?

I use both. For bulk editing I use Lightroom because I can apply my presets to all of the photos. Then I select my favorites and do some further editing in Photoshop and post those to my blog.

2) I’m new to using Lightroom. How do you create a preset?

To create a Lightroom preset, edit the photo the way you want it to look. I suggest NOT playing with the brightness or exposure because that will vary from shot to shot. You want to apply the preset first then adjust the exposure. To create a preset in Lightroom, once you’ve edited the photo to the effect you’re trying to achieve, go to “Develop” and then “New Preset.” A new window will appear. I suggest creating a folder for all of the presets your create. For example I have one labeled “Jen’s Presets” and another labeled “Jen’s Mix.” Once you’ve created the new folder, name your preset, choose your folder from the drop down menu and save. A helpful hint for those who don’t know, to apply the same effect to multiple photos, select the photo you already have the preset applied to then hold the shift key and select the last photo you want to apply the preset to and under the “develop” mode, select “sync” and press ok.

3) What is your lighting set up for receptions?

I use one of my backdrop stands and attach a flash to it and use Pocket Wizards to trigger them. I also use another flash for my camera to get more even directional lighting. Because equipment is really expensive and I don’t believe in going into debt for more equipment when you have what you need to start with I rent extra flashes for the events. Until I have the extra money to spend on really expensive equipment I’ll continue to rent.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

With all that being said I’m going to try something new. Tomorrow I’m going to pick up one of those Nike+ sensors which is supposed to work seamlessly with my iPhone and the C25K and GW28K apps which will show all sorts of great info. Anyway, I can’t wait to try it out and see what it says.

I have been very open about my weight struggles and exercising because I want to inspire someone else. I hope that someday when I make it to my goal I can say, “I did it and so can you!!!”  Now I leave you with a photo of my running shoes on what I’ve nicknamed “t-mill” or “dreadmill.”

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Because cameras are accessible to everyone people have the misconception that they can be professional photographers. Sometimes I just want to say, “Here, you take my camera and let’s see what my end result it compared to yours. I guarantee it’s going to be better.” Why? Why would it be better? I’ve been doing photography for 6 years. I’ve been in business for two years. I have an education in graphic design and photography as well as various certifications and a degree in business. Not only do I have the technical education to run a business and understand photography but I’ve studied under two amazing photographers and have learned to develop into my own photographer. Not only that but I’ve developed the “eye” for it. Sure, anyone can take a photo, but it takes skill behind the camera to make an amazing photo. It’s not how good the camera is, it’s the skill behind the camera that makes a good photographer.

Ok, now that my little rant is over I want to post something that many many many people came across yesterday that has become a bit of a viral thing in the photography community. I’ll share my thoughts below. You can read it directly on the link by clicking here. I might add she must not value photography very much. If you look at her site, she rants about the below yet her and her fiance’s photo is out of focus…

I feel like my second post SHOULD be on something still more broad-scale about my wedding – our venue or color combos or something – but there’s a topic I need to discuss first: photographers. Because I have a lot to say!

For background: I was at a bridal fair this weekend – the Davenport Jaycees Bridal Expo, which I believe is the largest annual bridal show in the QC area – and it was really great, overall. My mom and sister went with me and we gorged ourselves on cake samples and cream puffs dipped in the chocolate fountain and even a mini wine tasting so obviously it was fun! I got to wear a sticker that proudly proclaimed me as “The Bride!” and 100 vendor booths later, I left weighed down with a large bag of pamphlets, price lists, DVD samples, and even a candy ring (score!). Now that I have a date and venue secured, I found it very helpful to ask some of my specific questions about that site to some potential vendors (like “Hey, DJ, would you also be able to hook me up with sound for the ceremony if it’s taking place in that courtyard area at Black Hawk State Park?”) Good stuff, invaluable really.

So I came home and started sorting through all my newly acquired information, dutifully separating everything into its appropriate category in the wedding planning binder that my cousin Susan very thoughtfully made for me. But the binder wasn’t shutting well and I realized the biggest culprit was the bulging photography section. I realized I’d received many more photography brochures than any other type of vendor so I decided I should sort through them briefly and weed out the ones that were obviously not going to be a good fit for Mike and I.

And I learned this: I should have become a photographer.

Wedding packages that START at $2,500 – and go up to $7,500 or more? Are you serious? Now, let my be clear: I’m not trying to undervalue the skills that a very good photographer must have and the extreme importance of having a very good photographer (as, after all, there are no ‘do-overs’ on the moments they are capturing!). I also understand that their equipment is expensive, they are sacrificing their Saturday night, and it is a job that requires a high level of mental focus and intensity. So I could understand paying them a couple hundred dollars an hour for this job.

But something like $500 an hour, or more? Hey guys, my job requires a lot of mental work and precision and sometimes I work on Saturday nights too. So I’m just saying.

On the other hand, I don’t really blame them for their high costs because, clearly, they wouldn’t have those prices if brides weren’t paying them. And with the average cost of a wedding at something like $22,000, I guess it actually totally makes sense since all my wedding planning guides suggest putting between 10-15% of your wedding budget toward your photographer. But I think every part of that is just entirely insane.

Anyway, once I’d weeded out the insanely expensive photographers (about half), then I started actually looking at what packages the rest offered. And sweet Jesus, here’s the second point of insanity with photographers: I don’t need your fancy leather bound books and $300 print credit and three 8 x 10s and eight wallets. No thank you. Photographers, listen: I want you to come to my wedding, take a lot of really good pictures, and then give them to me on a CD with a personal use copyright release. It’s that simple. Hell, I don’t even care that much if you color correct them and crop them and fancy them up for me – I’m a 21st century girl who is pretty computer-savvy, so I know my way around editing a photo. And I know of about 700 places where I can get them printed on my own, almost always with the aid of an online coupon code. Yes, it would be nice if you offer an online gallery so my family and future in-laws can check them out and order the ones that they would like to have prints of. And I’ll order some from you, too, in all likelihood – like the big ones that I want to frame for my future house. But I definitely don’t want your coffee table leather-bound book that costs $400. I want to print my own 4×6s and go to town with my scissors and my stickers and my massive collection of scrapbooking materials. Many aspects of my wedding will be Do-It-Yourself projects, which I like, so why would I not have a DIY picture album? I like scrapbooking and I like personalization and I want a hand-made book of love to be what’s on my coffee table, even if it’s not quite as fancy-looking as the one you’d “give” me as part of my $7 million photography package.

In conclusion: Now that I’ve weeded out the Wedding-Packages-For-Billionaires and the Wedding-Packages-For-Uncreative-People (no offense intended to billionaires or uncreative people!), I am left with about three potential options that all seem pretty solid. So I’m actually very happy with that process of elimination! I feel less overwhelmed and now am able to more deeply investigate what these three can offer me and what would fit best. And, as a bonus, my planning binder now closes as it’s supposed to and my trash can is instead a bit more bulging

Next up: Caterers. I’m putting it off because it’s so overwhelmingly beyond me… but I gotta suck it up soon and take care of it. I’ll keep you posted, Engagement Diary!

This is a common thought and frustration among brides. They don’t understand what goes into doing their wedding photography. Let me give you a little glimpse of end-to-end processes that justify why we charge so much.

1. First we get the phone call or email of interest which of course takes time to responsd to (this is more of a minute detail but is important).

2. We drive really far to meet with the bride and groom (or whoever she brings) on the chance that they might book us. There’s the gas cost of a gas guzzling SUV that get’s 14mpg city and 17 mpg highway.

3. At this meeting we lug all of our studio samples to them. These studio samples are not free. Sample albums still run several hundred dollars. Folio samples also run several hundred dollars. Gallery wraps run several hundred dollars. We usually buy our clients coffee which is only a few dollars but that is still an expense we incur on the chance they might book us. We also have print samples that can run us around $50, business cards that cost several hundred dollars (I like quality cards, you can get them cheaper but in my opinion a cheap quality card is an indicator of someone who doesn’t pay attention to detail or care to show quality in their business).

4. After the meeting the bride books you. Yay! That’s fabulous. To book we drive way out yonder to meet our clients again (more gas), we print off two copies of the contracts (paper costs), we print off our pricing sheets for their references (more paper costs), and we give them a nice shiny black folder to keep all of the info they need in (we keep the other signed contract but again, cost of the envelopes). Then I come home, scan everything, and back it up to an external hard drive and an online server. Then I enter the info into Quickbooks (a software expense and time).

5. Then we correspond back and forth with the bride on anything she has questions about. We also reach out to her other vendors to introduce ourselves and understand the order of events for the day (that way we don’t have to stress out the bride with these kind of questions). That involves a lot of time. Let me make a statement here. Time is money. Heaven forbid we should get paid for our time. Well, we need to get paid for our time just like everyone else who works any other job gets paid for their time. Moving on… We also scout out the location (which involves more gas for driving) and do research on great shooting locations.

6. Then there is the complementary engagement session. It’s free for the bride and groom and the package doesn’t cost less if they don’t want it because it’s complementary for them but for me it’s another cost that I eat out of pocket. I do this because I like to get to know my couples before their wedding and it builds my engagement portfolio. I drive out to where they want to do their engagement photos (again, more gas) and spend an hour or two taking engagement photos of the couple. I drive back (more time and gas) and I spend hours on the back end culling the best photos and editing them. That takes about 4 hours of work. Then I spend another hour posting them to my blog, facebook, an online gallery (which is paid for monthly), etc and then send an email to the bride and groom letting them know the photos are ready to be viewed. Then we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to).

7. The week before the wedding we finalize all of the details of the wedding with the bride. Again, time is money and it can take quite a bit of time to finish all of the last minute details.

8. The night before the wedding we spend an hour or so cleaning all of our gear, charging our batteries, and getting all of our equipment ready to be loaded into the car.

9. The day of the wedding we wake up super early, pack up the car and head out to the location I need to be dropped off at to catch the girls getting ready. That’s more in gas. Then my husband, who second shoots for me, drives to where the guys are getting ready and starts getting photos of them. Again, more gas. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that I have a second shooter that typically comes with all of my packages that I have to pay for his time. Just because he’s my husband doesn’t mean he doesn’t get paid for his work. Not to mention the gas we use going all over the place to get pictures.

10. We spend all day at the wedding working hard to get the great shots our brides expect of us. Whether that’s 8 hours or 10 hours they still get the day. We get a 30 minute break to sit and eat and that’s it. Yes, we need to be fed. We can’t spend 12+ hours prepping for your wedding, traveling, shooting, and traveling back home without getting fed. We also use this time to create a small slideshow of a few of the best images from the day to play on a screen at the reception, so we are still working despite it being a break.

11. After the wedding we pack up all of our gear and head home to relax after a long day. That’s only the half of it though. Every other vendor (except videographers) get to render their services at your wedding and that’s that for them. After the wedding, for us, begins the other half of the work we do for your wedding. First, we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to). This takes a day or so. Then we cull all of the best images from your wedding. This can take a few days in an of itself to do because we take thousands of photos (literally 3-4k) at the wedding between the two of us. We cull them down to under 500 which is challenging and takes a long time. Then we find the ones we like the most, edit them and post them on the blog which can take a half a day or so. Then we go through and edit every single photo to reflect our style of photography which can take a week or two. After that we export the full set of color images into a folder, then reload them into a new Lightroom folder and turn them all to black and white, again this takes about a half a day. Then we export those and burn them to discs. Again cost of time, discs, programs, etc. Then we upload them to an online gallery (which we pay for monthly) for you to view the images. If your package includes a disc of images we then order the DVD folio (the DVD folio itself costs quite a bit because they are hand made) and burn your images to a disc. Then we print the image on the top of the disc. We also include a set of watermarked images for online use. Then we mail it to you. That’s a cost for shipping materials and shipping costs.

12. If your package includes an album then we start the album design. Because I have a background in graphic design I custom design all of my own albums so you’re getting a unique album. Not only does the album cost us hundreds of dollars but the time to design an album takes about a week. So right now you’re looking at around 3-4 weeks of work already, averaging 40 hours per week. You might ask why we say the photos will be ready in 8 weeks. You have to remember your wedding isn’t the only wedding we’re doing all of this for so it may take some time to get to yours.

13. Here are some things I’d also like to mention that are a cost to us but a benefit to you. We must carry liability and equipment insurance. This costs around $350 per year. We also must maintain a proper business license. This costs about $100 every year. We must have good equipment. Just for the basics with an “alright” camera costs $5,000 and some equipment only lasts a couple of years. We also maintain several professional memberships such as Pictage, the [b] school, etc for continuing education in order to provide you with the best products, experience, and photos you can get. We also have monthly fees for our websites so you can see our portfolio and read about us so you can get a good feel of what you’re getting before you even meet with us. We also have to pay to advertise which is thousands of dollars a year. We also pay entrance fees at bridal shows. That doesn’t even include our overhead costs for office supplies such as batteries, ink, paper, folders, staples, etc.

Many times we don’t get to spend time with our families because we are busy editing photos and processing images. We spend more time in front of a computer than an average 40 hour a week IT support person, we spend less time behind the camera than we thought we would, etc. But these are all things we do because we love what we do and we want to succeed. Oh! Don’t forget taxes! Those are a killer!

And please feel free to leave a comment if I missed something here! You can also read a similar article from another photographer, Kathryn Lymburner, here called, “You want me to pay you how much?”

Basically what I’m trying to say is even though many of these costs are smaller costs, they still add up. Sure there are people who will eat these costs to build their portfolio and there is always someone out there who will do it for less but just like any profession, you should get paid what you’re worth. When all is said and done we profit very little. If it were enough for us to live off of I would have quit my day job a long time ago, but I’m not at that point just yet.

Going to what the bride said, she’s right. I understand not every bride has the money to spend a couple of thousand to $7,000 on a wedding photographer, but before you go telling us we are crazy for charging what we charge, I think you should have a little more insight to how things have to be done and what our costs are in order to run a successful photography business. Not everyone can do it. Most people who think it’s easy and jump into it right away are out of business in a year. In photography you get what you pay for.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer