This has been quite a month... And to add to the good news, the environmental fashion shoot Victor Affaro and I shot some months ago was finally published in a high-end Brazilian Fashion/Architectural publication (sort of the Wallpaper of Brazil)!
I have to say that the team we had was pretty amazing! Celia Howlson-Hall -Art Direction Lindsey Hornyak -Stylist Georgi Sahdev -Makeup Anthony Campbell -Hair
and special thanks to Punam Bean for assisting us!
Everytime I see a room planned and decorated by Michelle Rago I am impressed (she is one of New York's top event planners after all) ... but last week when I went in to Cipriani 42nd street to shoot the details for her event I was floored.
I've been on assignment for a Brazilian magazine this whole week, and yesterday I shot this really beautiful panoramic at the Brooklyn Promenade...
I've been in NY for about 10 years now... I get nostalgic. I can't get used to the city skyline without the towers. Today I thought about them. Two souls. One needing the other. Like life.
Thanks to my friend Victor I've been dying to shoot with a medium format camera for a while now... After last weekend nothing seems the same anymore. Life seems more real. Or more like photography seems more real now.
Click on the picture to see all 31mp at 100%(just zoom in)!!!!
-(when you click on the link it will take a few seconds to load but you can zoom in to see all the detail of the file at 100% view (look for the cars in the bridge)... or in other words 31 megapixels -pixel-per-pixel!)-
Some of you have contacted me about adding me to your google reader subscription feed... If you are wondering why you can't subscribe it's because when you type my blog as cavaweddings.com/blog you are being re-directed to the following address:
http://www.carlosandresvarela.blogspot.com
Type this one in instead and you should be able to subscribe!
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Unfortunately I can't really post/blog right now. I've been too busy trying to clone myself... With no luck.
Here's a recent picture in case you are interested in helping me out:
As some of you know I will be headed to Las Vegas in less than a week and many know as well how much I love the American Southwest. I guess it was befitting that out of sheer coincidence I watched Into the Wild tonight. Here's something from the script that made me even more anxious to go:
-I’ll miss you too, Ron. But you’re wrong if you think the joy of life comes principally from human relationships. God’s placed it all around us. It’s in everything. In anything we can experience. People just have to change the way they think about those things. You ought to put a little camper on the back of your pick-up and go take a look at some of the great work here in the American west.--
But what struck me the most was this qoute:
-The core of man's spirit comes with new experiences. (!)
And some final words from the movie:
-Happiness is only real when shared.
Some food for thought...
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Speaking of happiness, I want to share some great news! My friend Ben Chrisman just won the WPJA's photojournalistic photographer of the year award!!! Congratulations Ben! Your work inspires us all!
It is always fun to find out how much someone likes/respects your work; sometimes, some of these stories really take you by surprise...
Two years ago I was at one of my first bridal shows when, I apparently made a lasting impression on an unsespecting future bride; because here I was, face to face, -two years later- at a coffee shop talking about me photographing her wedding! Two years after giving her my card... And she still had it! And to add a little sugar to the story: Two years ago she worked at The Knot... and guess what? She still works there! I am honored and humbled.
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Later on I met with a second bride to be and at the meeting I actually got to recommend to her my favorite caterers, event spaces, cake makers etc... I am slowly turning into an event planner! ;) However I got stumped when she asked to recommend a place where the party can go till 5 or 6 in the morning (she's marrying a European...). New York is an amazing place and for the first time I have to ask myself this question: Is this even possible in NYC????? Good question no?
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Now to the state of the business as you tube sees it:
Has something like this ever happened to any of you? Is this the state of the business in general? Is there something we can do to fix this? Leave some comments! (Maybe when you come to us photographers you should say you need us to photograph an event... a small one! -joking ;)
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Here is a response posted on the Digital Wedding Forum on an explanation of why we (professional photographers) charge what we charge:
Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?
(This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is now referred to by many Photography websites across the country)
In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?
Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.
For a two hour portrait session:
- one hour of travel to and from the session - two hours of shooting - 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc. - 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data) - 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive - 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs - 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex. - For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.
You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.
For an eight hour wedding:
- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.
Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.
And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.
Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.
What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.
The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.
Conclusion
We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store. -----------------------------------------
A shout out to Mel Barlow again for inviting me to shoot the above wedding with her (check out her new blog!). I will post some more pics in the next few days.
The top pic I added to my site last week... I can't decide on which of the last two is the "best"... Which ones do you guys like more, the saturated or unsaturated one?
I will soon be working on adding many new pics to my site and will be posting them here as well.
From The Pmarca Guide to Career Planning: career planning = career limiting.
You can't plan your career because you have no idea what's going to happen in the future. And if you think you have an idea of what's going to happen, then watch "Next" with Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel.
Instead of trying to plan your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities--opportunities are key.
Pmarca's quote from Nassim Nicholas Taleb in The Black Swan sums it up pretty well:
"Seize any opportunity or anything that looks like opportunity. They are rare, much rarer than you think..."
"Many people do not realize they are getting a lucky break in life when they get it. If a big publisher (or a big art dealer or a movie executive or a hotshot banker or a big thinker) suggests an appointment, cancel anything you have planned: you may not see such a window open up again."
So if you're pressed for a career "plan" make it this: "[be] continuously alert to opportunities that present themselves to you spontaneously, when you happen to be in the right place at the right time."
Victor and I organized an editorial project (with an environmentatly friendly theme) along with Bandwagon Productions for submission to different magazines (sponsored by Creativa Magazine)...
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On another note... if you, like me, can remember the beginnings of hip hop you might remember Tone Loc... Well, they just released a remix of his old classic "Wild Thing" for free! You can download it here: Wild Thing -Tone Loc+Peaches Remix Enjoy!
I read this on Craigslist today and couldn't stop laughing:
Looking to trade my soul for a Wii: My soul is in good shape and has served me well for 28 years. The reason I'm getting rid of it is.... I'm a politician in the making and a good soul could hinder my career advancement.
This is a picture I took in Maine a while ago with my infrared-only converted D70. Everything is becoming a possibility with digital.
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DxO Optics Pro has asked me many times for a profile photo, so earlier this year while visiting the Joshua Tree National Forest in California I asked my friend Mel to take some pics for me. Which one do you all prefer?
-(2)Canon 5d camera body -(2)Canon 580 Speedlights -Canon 24mm L f1.4 Lens -Canon 45mm L f2.8 Tilt Shift lens -Canon 85mm L f1.2 Lens -Canon 16-35mm L f2.8 Lens -Canon 24-70mm L f2.8 Lens -Canon 70-200mm L Is f2.8 Lens -Canon 100mm macro 2.8 Lens -Set of 3 Kenko extension tubes -Nikon D70 converted to Infrared only (5)-monolights including a ringflash (2)-Calumet Softboxes -Many Umbrellas -Wolverine 120GB storage device -Hyperdrive Space 120GB storage device
-Apple G5 dual 2.0 tower with 4gb of RAM -Apple Mac Pro 8 core 2.8 with 14GB of Ram and 4TB of HDD space -Apple Macbook dual 2.0 with 2gb of RAM -Apple macbook pro Dual 2.4 with 4GB RAM
-50 GB of Sandisk Extreme Compact Flash cards
-Software:
-Photoshop -Photoshop Lightroom -DxO Optics Pro -Photomechanic
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