Hey it's 4:27am now. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is playing on my LCD behind me as I burn the midnight oil today. I had a pretty long day today. I had a few weddings, a few wedding inquiries to return. I didn't get to my email just yet folks, but I will first thing in the morning. So hang tight peeps...I'll get back to you.

So I had a great wedding today at Ko'olina. I don't have their pictures yet since I didn't pick them up from the lab just yet. But the really interesting thing is that right after the photoshoot, a very nice woman approached me. She was from a competing wedding company and she asked for a businesscard of mine. Well, I really don't carry businesscards. But she told me that her company was always looking for photographers and that she could push a lot of work towards me. Since my couple and I were waiting for the sunset, I had a few minutes to talk to her.

I tried to explain to her about my photography style, and that I still shot on film. Her first reaction when I told her I shot on film was a rather big surprise. She asked, how do you expect to get the quality of digital? I gave her one of those humble smiles to hint that "she knew more about photography than me" even though I knew she didn't know a cent about the art. I then tried to explain my photography philosophy because I thought she would want to know about it since she expressed an interest in my hiring me. But no, she didn't want to hear any of it. She asked me more about how many photos I snapped, and how much was I willing to charge. Well, the conversation ended wtih me giving her a fake phone number to contact me at, so I won't be hearing from her. Very nice lady though.

What did this experience tell me? That she was only interested in quantity, not quality. And I knew that if I would have shot any photos for her, she would have used my photos on her website to publicize her company, and pass off as her companies. This has happened a handful of times actually. I have my photos on a handful of my comptetitors sights because I helped cover a few weddings for them. Couples book their company thinking that they'll get the my style of photography, and when they get their photos, of course...they are dissapointed.

I do know that many companies are now telling their photograhers to copy my style of photography. Some of them come close, but most of them are far away. I know before myself, many photographers chose to do nothing buy extreme close-up shots. I was one of the few who would always shoot landscape photos instead of portraits... Then I was the one who implied the use of a "dutch" shot, or slight angle shot to imply motion. And then again, I was the one who started using negative space as a tool to include more scenery into the shot. These were all movie techniques, more so, story telling techniques. But the photographers who do copy my style miss their marks because they fail to know WHY these shots are made. And consequently, they don't know WHEN to apply them. For example, sometimes, they angle their shots too much, and thus this implies "sickness" rather than "motion."

So all I have to say brides is that to watch out. I know many of these coordinators, not personally, but professionally. And they all seem very nice, very well mannered. But I can tell you that most of them are just concerned about their bottom line, rather than the quality of vendor they partner with.

Interesting blog wasn't it... :) Well, that's my update for now...I'm headed to bed :)