Wedding books are popular these days instead of getting the traditional album. I love these wedding books because I use them more as a storybook and letting a story of your special day be told through pictures. My wife and I had one made from our wedding and it is the only wedding book I have made so far. I am hoping this summer more couples will choose to have me create one for them. I personally design each page and I use a simple/clean approach that will let your album look timeless.

These books are very durable and made with 100% genuine leather covers. They come flush mounted which mean you can fit a whole picture across 2 pages without a huge gap in between!

Take a look at these pictures of our album, check out the quality and the look and fall in love with these books like we did. If you are interested in purchasing a book just contact me and let me know!

While you are waiting for me to post some of my latest work I wanted to update everyone on the progress with my logo. My friend who was working on it got real busy with school so I had to turn to a professional graphic designer to continue the work he had done. Her name is Kristen Massey and she has been a friend of mine for a few years now. She is awesome and if you ever need some graphic design work you should give her a shout. This is what she has came up with for my logo and business card:

I am working on branding my business right now with the help of my friend
John Custer who is a talented graphic designer. He spent time designing a logo
that communicated my personality and my business. I didn’t want a logo the
screamed “photographer”. I wanted something subtle. Here is what
we have come up with:

If anyone checks this blog anymore, let me know what you think. A general
rule in graphic design is to first start out your logo in black and white.
If it doesn’t look good in black and white it ain’t gonna look that great in
color! Color is going to be added next week. I am very excited to see what
John has planned!

The first thing I decided to do when starting this business was to get a small business loan for $6,000 through my credit union. I was able to put my car up for collateral and got a low interest rate. Now I know that isn’t much especially for photography equipment but I didn’t want to go over board and figured this would get me started and anything else I needed I could rent for now. Besides I am not planning on doing this full time yet so I won’t be able to pay back my loan as quick as I would like.

Here is what $6,000 got me:
- Canon 30d
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.4
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 II L
- 2 Canon Batteries
- 2 Canon Equivalent Batteries
- 2 Battery Chargers
- Canon BG E2 Battery Extension Grip
- Canon Speedlite 580 EXII
- Gary Fong Whale Tail Flash Diffuser
- 2 Lexar 8GB Compact Flash Cards
- Lowepro Nova 5 Camera Bag
- Bogen 3021BN Tripod/Manfrotto 488RC Midi Ball Head

Now I know the smart thing when starting a business is not overspending and buying used when possible to save money. But I could not bare the idea of buying used camera lenses, I didn’t want to risk buying something that would break on me the next day, I have heard stories. So I just searched around for the best deals on the lenses I wanted and made sure I could get some warranties on them. Was that the best move? I don’t know some would argue both ways, but this is what I felt most comfortable doing.

I think I am off to a good start with what I bought, and I am very happy with everything. I know there is still so much stuff I need, like back up equipment and more compact flash cards. But all in due time my friends. I hope anyone else reading would agree. I will have to post a picture of all my goodies soon!

There are so many great sites and blogs I run across almost everyday, it is so hard to even keep track of them and what is going on. I can’t believe how much wealth of information professional photographers give out for FREE to regular guys like me who have a dream! One site I started reading recently is Photo EDU it is nothing fancy as far as aesthetics go but it does offer great advice to starting photographers.

The one that interested me was having a business plan. I thought that was fair enough and that I should consider this if I am going to be serious about starting my business. Here is the quote from the site:

First and foremost you have to write a proper business plan – especially if you are new to business. In this you need to evaluate who you want to attract; how you will market to them; the competition; your pricing structure; identify your strengths and weaknesses; and make financial projections.

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