Author Archives: magical@mmpix.com

Lot’s of hard work

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I just completed the initial album design for Cara and Michael. This means my album design backlog is now less than a month. Currently, I have one initial design to complete and three album redesigns which were requested. Hopefully, I can knock these projects out in another couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I’ve got several office projects to complete. Including cleaning the office, completing my business plan for the upcoming year and writing some articles for the state professional photographer’s magazine.

Furthermore, I’m thinking about creating a special line of parent albums which will be orderable via my website. The parents will select a predefined number of photos and they will be placed one to a page. However, that means making some changes to my website’s on-line ordering system. The work never ends.

Finally, I also need to create a couple of new sample albums. I’ve been selected as a preferred vendor at Starved Rock and Pheasant Run resorts. I’d like to create sample albums specifically for those venues. In addition, my current samples are getting just a touch out of date. I really think that Cara and Michael’s album will make a nice sample with some minor adjustments. You can view their album
By Clicking Here

Anyway, here are two of my favorite spreads from their album

Wedding Photos from Cara and Mike's Wedding at Mission Hills Country Club

Wedding Photos from Cara and Mike's Wedding at Mission Hills Country Club

Our New Jersey Visitors

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Last Sunday, Sheryl’s cousin Mitch and his family arrived from New Jersey for a week long visit to the Chicago area. We started the visit by celebrating my father-in-law’s and Carolyn’s (Mitch’s daughter) birthdays by having a family get together. All of the in-laws from Milwaukee drove down (3 adults and 2 kids). Then there was Mitch, his wife Laura and their 3 kids, Carolyn, Tracy and Sara. In total we had 7 adults trying to control 7 children and 2 dogs.

Somehow a couple of the neighborhood children also joined the party. There was so much chaos that it took a couple of minutes before we realized we had party crashers! I grilled Brats, Dogs and Burgers for dinner. Then we had cake and ice cream. All too soon it was time for the Milwaukee folks to go home. Plans were made to join the Millers on Wednesday.

Today, Wednesday, Sheryl and I took Meghan and Mathew into the loop to see their New Jersey cousins. We were supposed to have taken the fire truck tour. The tour runs by appointment only and they never called Laura back to confirm an appointment. We decided to visit Water Tower Center for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Just before our meal arrived, Mathew realized the Thomas store was in sight. There was no getting him to eat after that.

When our late lunch was finished, we visited the Thomas store. Mathew was in heaven. They even had a Thomas train he could ride! Next we went back to the Doubletree hotel to swim. The kids had a great afternoon. Suddenly, it was 6:00 and time to change to go home. We were having so much fun, I really didn’t take too many photos.

Personal Photograph of the kids
Here are the 5 kids taking a 2 second break. From left to right, Carolyn, Tracy, Sara, Meghan and Mathew.

Personal Photograph of the kids
Another shot of the kids posing. After just a couple of hours they were the best of friends.

Photo of Tulips in Downtown Chicago near Michigan Avenue
Everywhere you look in the loop, there are blooming tulips. There are so many I almost thought I was in Holland.

Photograph of a Beautiful Tree in Downtown Chicago near Michigan Avenue
I just liked this tree with its lavender blossoms.

Kim and Mark’s Wedding

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Late last week, my friend Michael Fisher from Studio West called. He unexpectedly found himself short a photographer for his studio’s Saturday wedding schedule and wondered if I could help them out. After making sure my schedule was clear, I said “of coarse!” Even though other studios/photographers are competitors, I try to help them out when I can. I do it for the couple and I never know when I’ll need a favor returned.

Anyway, our bride and groom were Kim and Mark. They were a really nice couple. The wedding was held at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The reception was at the Eagle’s Club, also in Kenosha. What a beautiful day for a wedding. Not too hot, not too cold and just the right amount of sun. Kim and Mark were great to work with. With the permission of Michael at Studio West, here are 4 of my favorite photos I took at their wedding.

Kim and Mark's Wedding Photos taken at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Sometimes, I get lucky and I’m in the right place at the right time.

Kim and Mark's Wedding Photos taken at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin
We were by Lake Michigan which brought back memories of my own wedding.

Kim and Mark's Wedding Photos taken at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Notice Kim’s reflection in Mark’s sunglasses!

Kim and Mark's Wedding Photos taken at the Kemper Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Even the sunset cooperated with us. All in all an absolutly perfect day for a wedding!

Jenna and Chris’ Engagement Photo

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Jenna and Chris' engagement photo

Jenna e-mailed me and said:

Chris and I love all the engagment photos you took! We decided to pick number nine as our engagment picture.

Jenna and Chris had scheduled their engagement session in late March. Somehow, we managed to get one of the first really nice days of the year. We had a real fun session at a local Lombard area park. The photo they picked(and shown above) is actually one of the first ones I took and it was in Jenna’s back yard! Don’t these guys make a lovely couple? I can’t wait for their wedding June 3rd!

As a reminder to my current clients, if you have not yet scheduled your engagement session, the spring time with all of the blooming flowers is a great time of year for engagement photos. Please call to schedule your complimentary engagement session today.

Certified Professional Wedding Photographer

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It arrived! I’m now a certified professional wedding photographer. Just like accountants can become certified, so can professional photographers. In this day and age of fly by night wedding photographers and people who just decide to become a wedding photographer without any training, it is one way for the consumer to know they are hiring a properly trained professional.

Last year at the national Professional Photographers of America of convention, I took a certification test. This test is administered by the same folks who give the bar exam and the CPA exam, among others. For me, passing the test was the easy part. The tough part is submitting photos from 20 events over the last two years to be judged by a group of photography experts. After all of that, I became a Certified Professional Photographer.

The Wedding endorsement is like a doctor specializing in a specific branch of medicine such as heart surgery or internal medicine. To earn the Wedding endorsement, I needed to submit photos from another 10 events over the last year to be judged by the photography jury. I understand a higher standard is used. Finally, unlike a college degree that once it is earned you keep it forever, the Certified Professional Wedding Photographer must take continuing education classes each year to maintain the certification/endorsement status. Most importantly the Certification commission is an independent body where consumers can verify the status of the certified photographer.

Open Dates

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I just received word from one of my clients that unfortunately the wedding is off. I’d like to be the nice guy. So even though my agreement says “no refunds”, should I manage to rebook a wedding for that weekend for the same or more expensive package than had previously been booked, I’ll provide a refund minus the administrative costs. Therefore, if you or anybody you know is still looking for a wedding photographer for Memorial Day weekend (May 26-29), please contact me.

Other upcoming 2006 weekends which I still have available are:

May 12-14
June 9-11
June 16-18
July 21-23

As these dates are fast approaching, a special gift will be given to the people who book those dates.

Keeping Busy

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There’s never a dull moment when you run your own business. Today, I received a phone call from Steve, another photographer who lives in California. We have conversed many times on various forums but have never met let alone spoken on the phone. Imagine my surprise when I received a call from him. He was having some problems with some software and called for help. I try to make the time to help others. So after spending an hour on the phone with Steve, we got his problem fixed.

He also was helping me put off a task I’ve not only been dreading but putting off for months, inventory. Over the last couple of years, I’ve bought, sold and upgraded much of the equipement I use. My current inventory list, includes film cameras I sold 2 years ago. So it was time to bite the bullet and inventory everything. OK not everything but everything of significant value I wanted to make sure I had insured. Sheryl helped me with it and it took us just over an hour to finish the first part of the job. Now I have to enter it all into the computer and gather the rest of the information the insurance companies need(ie. purchase date, purchase price, replacement cost etc…).

Yesterday the creative juices were flowing! I not only started but finished Shelia dn Ricks album design. It was 52 pages with 170 images in a little over 5 hours. Here are two of my favorite 2 page spreads from the design:

Collage of wedding photos as seen in the album
wedding photos as seen in a wedding album

A current version of their wedding album can be seen at
Click here

Once the show title appears, click on it to start the show.

Tax Day

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Here it is Sunday, Tax Day 2006. Well actually because today is Sunday, most folks get another day to pay their taxes. Sheryl, Meghan and Mathew spent Thursday night through late Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee at Sheryl’s parent’s house. No, I didn’t have any wild parties. I spent the time trying to catch up on the backlog of work which needed to be done. It is amazing how much you can get done without the constant interuptions from the kids. I managed to complete some small repairs around the house, assemble a couple of traditional albums, update my web site and many other small tasks which piled up.

Today I had thought we would take the kids to the zoo. However, it the zoo trip was rained out. Instead, Meghan and I started our garden indoors. We planted some of the seeds in peat pellets which we’ll transplant in a couple of weeks. For some strange reason, Mathew thinks the peat pellets are cookies! If any turn up missing, he’s the first one I’ll suspect!

Mixed Emotions

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Delivering a wedding album to a client is full of mixed emotions for me. On one hand it is fun to see the look on the clients faces for the first time as they explore each page and relive their wedding day as they turn the pages. Meanwhile, I’m a little sad because, I grow close to my clients during the time we’re working together. Now with the delivery of the wedding album, my clients will be on their way. If I’m lucky, I get to see my past clients when I’ve been referred to photograph one of their friends or family member’s weddings. It is always nice to see previous clients.

Anyway, today I delivered albums to two clients. Deanna/Jim and Beth/Mike. Two sets of very different clients. Deanna and Jim both have children of their own who are about marrying age. Meanwhile Beth and Mike are just starting lives apart from their parents. However, I enjoyed seeing the looks of their faces as they saw their wedding albums for the first time. Beth practically cried all over again when she saw this page in her album:

Wedding album collage from Beth and Mike's album

So now it is time to archive all of the computer files from both weddings. Then the paper files get packed away. Time to look forward to this year’s clients and the new friends I’ll make.

Hump Day

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Well here it is Wednesday evening, hump day is over and I don’t know where the week is going. Monday and Tuesday, I spent working on catching up on somethings around the house and studio. I also managed to finish Jennifer and Stephen’s preliminary album design. Click here to see a slide show of the initial design. Click on the title panel once it appears to start the show. When the show is over, you can click your browser’s back button to return to this page.

Monday evening I had an initial consulation with Christie and Brian. They are planning a June ’07 wedding. The are a neat couple and the three of us hit it off really well. After some thought they realized they didn’t want to take a chance on loosing me to somebody else, so they booked me as their wedding photographer. It is a good thing they did because the next day, somebody else called and wanted to book me for the same day. They are going to have a great wedding and I’m honored they selected me as their photographer.

Today, I went to the monthly meeting of one of the local professional photography associations I belong to. This is a combination networking, tradeshow and most importantly, continuing education. The speaker, and I kid you not, was named Fuzzy Deunkle. He photographs high school seniors in West Bend Wi. Even though he doesn’t photograph weddings, there is always a new idea or perspective I get from seeing how other photographers work in other segments of the industry. Today’s speaker was no different. Now I can’t wait for my next wedding or engagement session!

Suddenly humpday is over and now we are already looking forward to another weekend.