Wanamaker Photography Blog

Behind The Scenes Of A Photography Studio

I have to take a moment to give a nice big shout-out (and some link love) to TubeTape.Com. Based in El Dorado Hills California, they are a great resource for video and photo backgrounds, software and equipment. Here is why I need to show them some love …

Now, I know that I am posting this a little late … but I’ve been extremely busy with things around the office … so I haven’t had much time to blog. Earlier in the evening, we had been contacted to do a (last minute) photo session that required a green screen. Not wanting to pass up a great opportunity, we accepted. That’s when I realized that we didn’t have a green screen to shoot against. I began searching the net and came across Tube Tape.

When I clicked into their website and began browsing around, I found that they had some of the best prices I had seen. With that, I decided to give them a call … even though it was 5:15 PST. I was expecting an answering machine … but was immediately greeted by one of their representatives. I had a bunch of questions that he helped me out with and not once did he sound like he just wanted to be over and done with the call. After bombarding him for a bit, I decided that I would continue looking around …

The next day, after not having much luck, I contacted Tube Tape and ordered our green screen. I explained our situation and that I needed it as soon as possible. I was told that they would get it into my hands ASAP! So I pulled out the credit card, paid and went on with my day.

Monday morning rolls around and guess what?! My green screen setup has arrived! ASAP was an understatement! I really don’t think that the service could have gotten any better than that!

So … Thank you very much Tube Tape! Excellent service and incredible employees will keep me a customer and will definitely generate referrals!

Last Friday, I visited my friend Bri at her shop in Milford, PA called Just Add Sugar Cafe.  The store has a boutique feel with many different gifts like aprons, coffee mugs, cupcake salt and pepper shakers and so much more! The most enjoyable gifts would have to be the delicious cupcakes, cookies and coffee. Bri has a variety of custom decorated cookies as well as the traditional favorites. She keeps the coffee exciting by offering a new flavor each month.

Bri asked us to photograph her creations for her new website. I spent a couple of hours there with her photographing different types of custom cookies for christenings, cinco de mayo, thanksgiving and birthdays. The best part about these cookies is that they look fantastic at any event.

When I arrived, Bri was working on a special order for a customer who’s son was having a birthday party that weekend. Her son, Zack, loves golf and by the photo below, you can tell how much he will love the arrangement. Each of his friends got to take a “cookie pop” (as I call them) home with them.

Her custom cookies are very good looking but nothing beats a traditional one. She has many different flavors to choose from including chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, walnut chocolate chunk, and oatmeal raisin. My favorite would have to be the Amaretto Joy!

As you can see, Just Add Sugar Cafe’s delicious cupcakes and cookies are the perfect solution when you have a craving for sweets but don’t have time to do it yourself. This peanut butter cup cupcake looks so good you may feel like eating your computer! Enjoy!

A couple days ago, my sister stopped by and brought me a Lily plant for Easter since we weren’t going to see each other. It was still closed up until the other night when it decided to open up in a matter of a couple hours.

I took a few shots of it last night, getting creative with my light … but wasn’t 100% satisfied with what I had captured. This morning we had a beautiful bright sun coming in through our front windows, so I sat this in front of the window and snapped a couple of shots.

I setup the 20D with an 18-55mm lens zoomed to about 25mm. I set the aperture to F4 so I could really just focus on the inner parts of the flower, set my shutter to 1/2500 and ISO to 100. Thankfully the sun was bright enough to kill out the background completely as our one cat wanted to be in every shot I took!

Kali became one of the latest teenagers to experience our custom Senior Portrait Session!

Kali’s mom originally contacted us as she was not happy with the quality of the images that were produced by the school photographer for Minisink Valley High School. Her original intention was to purchase a bunch of wallets to include in Kali’s graduation invitations and she wasn’t about to use what was produced by the school.

During my initial phone consultation with Kali’s mom, we discussed what exactly she needed and what she could expect with the Senior Portrait Session. We booked Kali’s session a few weeks out as they wanted to wait until she had her braces off.

The day of the shoot finally arrived and Jenny and I headed up to Kali’s house to setup everything. As we brought everything into the house, I secretly scouted their decor as I hadn’t had a chance to have an actual sit-down consultation with them prior. I took notes and knew that I could surprise them with something I knew would fit right in.

We started out with the traditional drape shots …

… and then moved on to some more traditional shots … but in non-traditional locations …

Once we captured enough shots indoors, we bundled up and headed outside for some “fun” shots around her house. We posed Kali in one area and photographed away. Jenny and I would often switch off and hold the reflector while Kali’s mom grabbed one of our cameras for some “behind the scenes” shots (which are extremely top secret )

Once Kali’s session was over, she told us that she felt like a “superstar” and couldn’t wait to see the images. Jenny and I packed up and headed out. Now the real work began!

We touched up a couple photos with different overlays and embellishments to give them a unique look that Kali would love.

In the mean time, we had a custom DVD Slideshow, assembled to music, created for our upcoming Sales-Order Session with everyone. I also worked on creating a custom 5×30 poster with a bunch of our favorite images of Kali. My notes finally came in handy as well as I talked to our custom framer and had something created that would fit the style their house perfectly.

When the night of the Sales-Order Session came, we showed everyone the DVD on their big screen and I uncovered the 5×30 framed composite poster of Kali. Her mom loved it so much that she purchased it from us. However, the best part of the night was when her mom told us that the composite poster frame was “her frame” and that she felt like it was specially made just for her. Paying attention to those details always pays off!

Carly came to us for one of our Senior Portrait Sessions. Actually, she is one of our Ambassadors for the Eldred High School in New York. With that title comes a free photo session and images to take with her to show off to her classmates. In return, Carly will provide us with the information of other interested Seniors so we can setup their Portrait Sessions as well!

During Carly’s Senior Portrait Session, we took some standard and unique photos indoors and then headed outside while the sun was still strong. I wanted to experiment a little with a prom gown she owned … so we decided to incorporate some images of her trashing her prom dress.

However, before we totally ruined the dress, I took her back to a wooded area that had a couple large boulders … one of which I sat her on. I shot a couple frames before this one and then she just tilted her head and looked right into the lens with her amazing blue eyes … so I snapped this shot and absolutely loved it! (We’ve got more images of Carly coming really soon!)

I shot this with our Canon 20D with the 70-200mm lens at F4 at 1/160 with the ISO all the way down at 100.