You can find us at: eapstudios.blogspot.com

Woot!

Here’s a picture of Jonothan (from Blue Castle Photography ) with the lovely 70-200.

Look at me getting down and dirty – I came up with the weirdest positions to get the shots I wanted.

Here’s a picture of us all doing that thing you do…. ::sings::

You pay for one hotel for 3 nights and airfare for 2 people to wherever it is you are headed and you’ll get:

1. 8 hours of coverage the day of your wedding by Andy and I;

2. A DVD with the high resolution images;

3. A day-before-the-wedding (or day after) shoot in which we either do an engagement session, bridal session, trash-the-dress session, or 2 hour photographic coverage of your rehearsal;

4. A DVD of the final images from whichever session you choose; and

5. Online viewing and print ordering of your final images.

This is a pretty sweet deal! While it is not completely charitable on our part (we want to go travel!), it is a great opportunity for anyone planning a destination wedding.

So, email us with the details and then we’re off – weddings@eapstudios.com

\

Andy will post his shots from the shoot later.

Elisha

As I was thinking about it, I realized that most people who are not in the wedding industry probably hold those views as well. In light of that, I think it is only fair to let brides know where their money is going and why wedding services are “so expensive.”

First, say you are going to spend $20,000 on a wedding and approximately $2,500 on photography. Let’s analyze where your $2,500 is going.

Let’s start by stating that weddings are seasonal. We do most of our business between the months of May – September. This means that we need to earn enough during these months to support us during the year. An average photographer books between 15-40 weddings per year. If each of these photographers charged $2,500, and out of that, put aside money for taxes leaving them with $2,000, photographers would be getting around $30,000 – $80,000 off the top. Then subtract health insurance because photographers usually pay for that themselves which is approximately $3,600 per year. Then subtract equipment insurance and liability insurance which ranges around $3,000 per year. After that, there are general equipment maintenance costs and upgrades which total about $10,000 per year. Photographers then spend approximately 10-25% of each wedding towards advertising. On average, photographers spend around $3,000-$15,000 per year on advertising alone. Not to mention, many photographers invest money into continued education. After all these costs, photographers are then left with an amount between $9,000 and $45,000.

This amount does not include the cost of leasing or owning a studio which runs anywhere from $12,000 to $30,000 per year. It also does not include initial start up costs of camera gear, software, computer gear, and other miscellaneous costs which run around $30,000-$50,000.

Honestly, most photographers don’t make enough to support themselves on the photography income alone. Usually, in cases where the couple is married and shooting together, at least one person maintains a day job; often times, both. They spend their days working, their evenings editing photos and desiging albums, and their weekends shooting weddings.

So this isn’t supposed to be a pity party for the poor photographer. We do it because we love it! It is what we’re passionate about and what we want to do all the time. How many people can say that about their jobs? Not many, and that’s what makes it amazing. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m lucky that I get paid to do what I love. I walk away from every wedding and feel so grateful to have been a part of the couple’s day and to have captured their love in a way they cherish forever. Now that makes me feel good!

This is to help you not feel guilty about spending your hard earned money on your wedding. Remember, your feeding starving artists! Your wedding combines the talent and beauty of wedding industry related vendors together. It is for the beauty of your location, the talent of your photographer to create beautiful images, the talent to design floral arrangements, the ability to coordinate a wedding, the cost for stunning centerpieces and aisle decor, the impressive ability to get people on the dance floor, and every little beautiful detail of your wedding.

When I look back at planning my wedding, I was loathe to spend so much for one day. When I look back at my wedding day, I don’t regret spending a single dime. It was, in fairytale words, happily ever after.

So here’s why not to do an engagement shoot – 1) Your mom will want to plaster your faces all over her walls and kitchen and every nook and cranny of her house, and you can’t stand looking at yourself that much; 2) Your friends will “ooooo and ahhhh” and you don’t like that much attention; and 3) you have an intense fear that looking into a camera lens will steal your soul.

Here’s why you should do an engagement shoot – 1) It will give you an opportunity to practice posing in front of a camera before your wedding; 2) It will give us a chance to get to know how you photograph, so we can have tricks up our sleeves for your wedding; 3) You’ll have amazing photos to show your kids how great you looked before they were born; 4) You’ll have fantastic photos to use for a guest book at your wedding or to use in your invitations; 5) You get to hang out with us! 6) We get to hang out with you! And finally – 7) When you’re 90, you’ll be able to look back at the way you looked at each other when you were engaged and be amazed that after all these years, you still look at each other with that love in your eyes.

So – now that the whole world wants to do engagement shoots, you must be asking “What do we actually do while we’re on them?”

First we pick a location. Some couples want gardens and flowers, other couples want an urban feel to their photos, some want the beach, some want the snow, some want all of the above. So, once we’ve picked a location, we head out and run around taking pictures of you two in love. We have a fashion-y photojournalistic style, so we want to capture your relationship in a visually stunning way. We encourage our couples to have fun and laugh and to just enjoy being in love. Then we capture your love in pictures. Then we’re done!

Here’s some photos from our ringed sessions last year:

Thanks to all our 2007 couples who were so much fun to photograph! We love you guys!

Okay, so it wasn’t amazing. But I’d argue that it’s pretty neat for 2 hours worth of work and $15. I’m starting to become semi-confident on a rail!  Here’s some of the fun:

Chantel makes her first descent:

Goin’ for the rail:

Mad Trix:

I hit the rail:

The jump:

Chantel gets on the rail: