newfoundlandphotographer.ca

This is our 14lb little baby. He’s two years old, and expanding rapidly. We’ve put him on a diet since his growth seems to show no signs of slowing down.

I was lucky I got these pictures - he’s quite annoyed with the camera and took a few swipes at me while I was shooting. He’s cute, but I still consider this to be among my first (and last) forays into pet photography.

The Adrienne Shoot is now online.

A few shots from another shoot that we did on Sunday, this time with Adrienne.

Also, the entire Valerie shoot is now online.

That one will be online in the next few days.

I’m finally getting around to doing some fun shoots that I’ve been promising (myself and others that) I’d do for while now.

This first round was on Sunday with two girls that I’ve shot before. Pictured below is Valerie, a former co-worker that I shot the first time in-studio. I wasn’t entirely happy with some of the technical aspects of my work from our first shoot, but she did a great job. I guess it’s natural to always be looking for something to improve upon, but sometimes I think I’m just too damn picky.

Once again, Valerie did an outstanding job - she’s easygoing and fun to work with. I really like the pictures from this one - not typical happy pretty stuff - sorry Mom!

I’m editing that one and another session now, so I’ll have more online in a few days.

A few shots of Aimee Power, Miss Newfoundland and Labrador from Sunday. Click on a pic for the whole session.

Last weekend, in the span of one hour, we had two particular inquiries for wedding photography that gave us some insight into the flip side of weddings - how things are from the customer perspective.

The first message was for a Saturday in August 2007 - the client wanted to know if we’d travel to such-and-such-a-place and what the charge would be. The second was from a client that wanted to book ASAP for a Saturday in August 2008 and was hoping that this "first choice" date was still available. The August 07 inquiry was assuming that the date was available, and it was just a matter of picking a photographer. The August 08 inquiry was thinking the date could already be gone and was prepared to switch their wedding to a Friday to get us.

I feel bad for the client that contacts me now - often frantic - looking for a date in July or August of this year. All of that stuff was booked and confirmed a year ago. So I just apologize and send them on to a few other people who’s work I like, often knowing that they’re most likely booked too. It’s particularly bad when the client sends a very thoughtful message and comments on a particular picture saying why they like the work and that they really want us. Sometimes they’ll ask to be put on a waiting list - which is a lost cause I’m afraid.

These two inquiries made it abundantly clear that people don’t always know what they’re getting into when planning a wedding. The problem is that it’s not something you do every day, and hopefully something that you’ll do only once, so how could you possibly know when the planning should start. Seriously, who in their right mind would think of planning a party two years in advance?

So - long story short - we decided to stick this Booking Percentage Counter on the top of the News page at the wedding site. How does it work? We ask the computer for the number of confirmed bookings that we currently have between the start of May till the end of October and divide that by the number of events we’re willing to cover. Hopefully this will help those planning a wedding to put things in perspective a bit.

So between trying to get some work done on our reno, I’m hoping to get out to test some new gear soon. I’m starting to rotate what was the primary stuff to be backup equipment, so I’ve got these shiny new toys to play with. It all works great in the studio of course, but I’m itching to do some real world testing (wind, cold, snow, rapidly moving clouds that produces lighting that will change quicker than you can say “now look back this way”).

Enter Amiee Power - Miss Newfoundland and Labrador. Her (or the title holder’s) web site is in the works and she’s looking for some shots that will perhaps be a bit out of the norm. We’ve tossed around some ideas and have decided on a winter shoot. We’re hoping that the snow (and this is something that I will never say again) will last for a few days till we get things arranged. I wonder how long the motorcycle battery that we use for the studio lights will last at -10C….

Here’s a few from a quick little fun thing we did a few days back with the new gear - right out of the box.

So I’ve been getting a bit of feedback and statistical information from our web minion on the new (well, four month old) design for the Newfoundland Wedding site as well as some suggested changes to the main Kim Goodyear site.

It’s surprising what careful analysis of the server logs can tell us - not personal info mind you - just general usage info. I’m told that it’s sorta like analysing traffic flow on a highway - we can see what’s working properly and were the problems are, but we can’t tell who’s driving each car.

After looking at the stats, the minion has suggested that one thing in particular that I could post here may be of more service to the visitors than all other things I could do combined. So here goes…

This way to the Krista Tibbo / Brad Gushue wedding pictures.

A special offer has just been announced on the Newfoundland Wedding site - we’ve bundled the new Presentation Book with Digital Negatives / Copyright!

When these options are purchased at the same time, Digital Negatives are discounted by over 80%.

A few notes:

• This is available for new bookings and past clients.
• We’ve not yet decided for how long this pricing will be available.
• Both options are still available separately.

Details are on the Fine Art Presentation Book page.

After considering many options, I’ve finally settled on a Coffee Table Book offering for our wedding clients. The quality and packaging are beautiful, and we’re able to offer it at an excellent price.

Link: Fine Art Presentation Book.

The new book has been announced on the wedding site along with a change to our pricing (more like a policy change really, all the pricing actually remains the same). We’ve given the client the option of buying exactly the items they want after the wedding - we’ve called it a Purchase Credit. I won’t rehash the whole thing here… take a look at the News page of the Newfoundland Wedding site for all the details.