Still alive and well

Trying to keep up with the blog is probably not going to happen this time of year. We've had at least one wedding each weekend and shooting senior photos and families in addition to the weddings the blog just doesn't take very high priority. I am in the process of trying to make some major changes to our website as well. Eventually it will open with this page http://savethemoments.smugmug.com/ instead of how it opens now. I have to make all the changes then switch the existing domain so it will be just savethemoments.com without the smugmug. There is a nice slide show on the soon to be opening page.

Noah has begun his high school campaign and is adjusting to being at the bottom of the food chain. He's the third of three boys and the teachers look at us and say "I thought we were rid of you". I respond with 4 more years-4 more years. There is more on the family in previous blogs.

We are having fun with all the weddings but are especially looking forward to the end of the season. Not that there really is a season for us because we turn down many, many requests to shoot winter weddings and only take about 3. Wrestling you know.
We are looking forward to the season end because Alicia is finally scheduled for back surgery in October. If you don't know, she had an accident almost 2 years ago. Rear ended at a stop light (probable cause was driving/texting) at about 60 mph. 2 herniated disks and a lot of pain. She will be doing a lot of re-hab up to Christmas.
That's all for now but will try to blog up again soon.

New web page

I've added a new web page to our website. An old friend of mine asked if I had a website and I realized I hadn't been posting new photos as often as I should.
By the way, Jack if you ever read this the following 2 words are what I will be feeling in January. "Bite me" Living the hard life through the rugged weather in San Diego.

So I have a webpage now with recent photos and DVD slideshows.
Here is a link - http://www.savethemoments.com/recentpics.html

I knew this would take awhile

to get used to. I haven't been blogging as much as I would like.
We really do love serving our clients on the very special days in their lives.
We have had some great weddings to shoot over the last 3 weeks. 5 in all.
Traverse City, Hawk Hollow in the Lansing area and last Saturday was Canton (near Detroit) then Mystic Creek for the reception. Mystic Creek was very pretty. Nice big windows with a scenic golf course which make it nice for reception pics. On the way to the reception we led the bridal party to U of M campus lawyers quad in Ann Arbor. U of M is not a favorite place for anyone in the BP (bridal party) or of Alicia and I but they all agreed the law quad is a beautiful place for pictures. (pic on the left) Most of the BP were CMU and MSU alumni/fans. Besides, if you have ever been to Ann Arbor it's extremely difficult to find your way around. Lucky for me my days driving a truck included a lot of time in Ann Arbor.
We have been busy with some senior photos as well and this week we shoot the sports program for Mason High School. It's where we live and have been quite active with photographing the sports teams. Especially the ones our son's are involved in.
We have one left to get through High School. Noah begins his Freshman year at MHS. He's playing tennis in the fall. It will help his footwork as he prepares for the wrestling season.
We are all looking forward to the wrestling season. Noah has been working hard all summer and is stepping up his weight lifting as well as starting to cut weight to get to his desired level. Myles has been working with him to get him in shape. He's not tip top yet but he is doing great. When he looks at himself he is proud of what he has accomplished and so are we all. He weighed 147 pounds in January when 8th grade wrestling began and he got down down to a lean 125 by seasons end and has maintained that area all summer. We know where he's going to be for wrestling season but we're keeping a lid on it until it's actually achieved.
For those who don't know about Mason wrestling it's something of a religion here. They have multiple state titles and runner up state titles over the last 7-10 years. 9 consecutive district titles. It's an individual sport with a team menatlity. A pretty tight group.
Myles is doing his Marine prep until he leaves for basic training in January. Once a week and every third Saturday he's expected to show up to events. He's looking forward to it and we are in complete support of his decision. He will make a great Marine.
Ian has been attending school in Lansing and is also looking for extra work right now. Not easy to find here in Michigan if you're looking for high pay with a future but he's looking for a weekly paycheck so he shouldn't have as much trouble. He's at home with us so his expenses are low.
Next weekend we have Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. should be great.
See ya,
Jeff

HI Folks,

It's been a busy week.
I have an update on our last wedding and some info about services we are adding to our business.

We had a great time photographing a wedding in Ann Arbor at the Kensington.
We photographed Katharine & Brian and have included a few pics. We had photographed Katharine's sister Margaret's wedding a couple of years ago. She now has a beautiful baby girl.
We had a great time with the entire klan. Katharine looked absolutely stunning.

Katharine had a coordinator. Her name is Kaeli Garcia and I would have to say she really stays on top of things. She seemed like a very nice person who knows what she is doing.
It was our first experience with The Kensington and it was very nice. There are some nice spots inside the hotel for photo-ops and the courtyard where the ceremony was held was very nice also. Food was better than most of the venues we have been at in the Ann Arbor - Detroit area and we have photographed over 150 weddings in Metro Detroit alone so we have been to a few places.
We were looking forward to pictures at the law quad but the art-fest was taking place so instead we went to gallup park and which is a great place for photos. Kind of funny in a way. When we photographed her sister Margaret's wedding at MSU in 2007 the art-fest was taking place on MSU campus. Katharine and Brian saw each other for photos before the wedding and I think they were glad they made the decision to do so. Brian made the statement that a lot of the anxiety seemed to be lifted by seeing each other early.

We arranged for them to have a nice private meeting in the courtyard for their first meeting before doing all the bridal party and family photos.

An awesome time was had by all.

We are adding a couple new services.

We can now offer a projector at your reception with a DVD we have designed for our clients.

If you haven't seen the DVD slideshows we are designing you need to check out what we do. It is awesome if I do say so myself. Everyone loves the creativity of the photo changes.

Nobody is doing this that I know of.

We will also be offering photobooths for the receptions in 2010. The cost for existing clients will be $500 and will include 2 strips of photos. One for the Bride and Grooms book and one for the guests.
That's all the time I have for now.

Enjoy,

Jeff

Save the Moments Photography

Well I've finally done it.

I've started a blog to share what we are doing in our business.

We've been having a great time with our wedding photography this year and I would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to all of our brides and grooms. We've added some new equipment with some new ideas and bringing back some old ideas.

When Alicia and I started this business I don't know if we ever dreamed about the kinds of changes we would make. As the years have gone by many people have requested more of the posed shots. We began by offering just a few poses with a candid session of the bride and groom alone. Lately we have seen ourselves going back to that approach.

The desires clients have for their wedding day photos seem to go in cycles and lately the candid approach is something the clients have been requesting. If you're not familiar with this it's nothing more than giving the bride and groom a 15 to 30 minute period where they get to spend time alone. They're just walking and talking, hugging or whatever they feel comfortable doing while we take photos of them without their knowledge of when we snap the shutter on the camera.

Some of my favorite photos have come from this kind of session. But it's not for everyone. I should say the long sessions are not for everyone because some couples feel more comfortable being posed than trying to walk slowly and just enjoy each other for awhile before hitting the reception. Other people are not concerned that there is a reception waiting for them and find it easier to just have fun goofing around while we take pictures instead of being posed. They trust us to get them finished on time and have been very good at doing that.

I'll try to post a few more photos of the candid sessions on my blog and on the website.

We have some new and exciting things that we will be doing with our business that I will be sharing more about in the near future.

One is that Alicia is now doing boudior sessions. She is having some great success and a lot of fun with it.

One of the big changes we made are the new DVD slideshow/videos we offer. These are beautiful and we can find nobody that can offer the creativity we are offering.
To see one of these check our website and click on the DVD link.
That's all for now.
See Ya.