Okay guys, I know I really owe you all a post. I’ve sat down and tried to write one with accompanying pictures, but I just keep getting further and further behind 
I could promise to post all about my weddings for the last two months, but it may be a few more weeks still. Although I am running behind, you’re all welcome to check out my recent weddings in my online store. Suffice to say I am very busy, I’ve seen some gorgeous weddings, and I’ve worked with some wonderful people this summer.
Camera geekery:
One item of note is that I didn’t get the 5d after all. The sale fell through on ebay, and after getting a refund I decided to go with the 50d instead. It’s the newer model of the 30d that I’ve been using for the last two years. So far, I like it. It has a few features that are new to me, but overall the two cameras are very similar, so the learning curve hasn’t been too steep. I also puchased a new lens that has become my main lens (a Sigma 18-50 2.8 for you camera geeks). I’m not getting rid of my Canon 24-70 2.8, but I like the lightness of the Sigma lens (especially when I’ve got the grip on and the Lightsphere on the flash) and the few more degrees of view that it affords.
Computer geekery:
I also had to buy a new computer. In fact, this was a major factor in the decision to stick with a 50d over a 5d. I am really hard on computers; I’ve laid four to rest in the last seven years. I don’t what it is that I do to them, but they never seem to be able to keep up with me and my work. So, Mark and I took a ride down to Fry’s today and had help from one of their employees in assembling what promises to be a dream machine. (Thanks Josh at the northside Indy Fry’s!) I don’t know a lot about computers, but I can read the packages, and this one has 12G of ram and a 1.5TB hard drive. The processor is an Intel i7 quad-core. I don’t know, but when Mark asked Josh how fast it was, all Josh could say was that it was really fast. Really. Fasssst. We chose a HAF Cooler Master for the case. Two other customers in Fry’s expressed their approval when they saw us go by with that box in our cart. Again, I don’t know. All I know is that it’s really big and has a lot of fans and a window in the side. And a red light when it’s on, which will match my new monitor, an AOC 22″ LED widescreen. Mark is downstairs assembling this behemoth right now. What I still lasck for this machine is a four-slot CF card reader, if such a thing exists. Surely it does?
Well, all, this post will have to do for now. A background app I had running has finished up, so it’s back to work for me!
One thing I really like about digital photography is the power of Photoshop. I can often fix closed eyes, easily touch up a blemish. Sometimes I take a good face from one picture and lay it on top of a goofy face from another. Something I’m very proud of from last summer is this family picture, which never actually happened. We took a picture of Penny and their daughter, and we took a picture of Rico and their daughter, but neither Penny, Rico, or I remembered to get the three of them together. Penny called once she saw her proofs and mentioned that she wished there were an image of their family, and I told her I’d see what I could do. I think it turned out great!
Well, the new website’s online, and now it’s time for some feedback! If you’re surfing through it and see any bugs or anything you think could be improved or done away with, please let me know. I’d also like to have a “gallery” of raves from clients, so if you’ve got something you’d like to say about the work I’ve done for you, I’d love to hear it.
Mark found someplace online that had screenshots of previous incarnations of the Bow Tie website. We’d never saved them, so he snagged them for me and I wanted to post them here. We’ve made some definite progress over the last five years. Honestly, I look at those early ones and think, “Who on earth would have hired me based on that?!?”
We’ve hit a small hitch in our forward progress. The gallery that we had chosen is a Flash gallery, but it turns out that it’s not customizable without the Flash program. So, boo. Mark’s spent two days looking for a replacement that I feel is as good as what we’d originally purchased. He thinks he may have something; now it’s just a matter of me resizing some images so that we can test it out.
Have you seen the new website design? This is something we’ve been cooking for about a year… We originally planned to do this in February, but then my morning sickness was bad with Abby and Mark was busy with work, then with other things and then, well, time just got away from us. The good news is that the additional time gave us ample opportunity to really solidify what I wanted the new site to look like . “Let’s keep it clean and simple,” I said to Mark. He had all kinds of ideas for bells and whistles at first, but in the end he’s come to see the wisdom of what I’ve been saying. And now he’s very focused on all the little details, from miniscule spacing changes to font sizes.
If you like the new website, let me know so that I can pass along the comments. I think Mark deserves huge kudos for his work. This is not what he majored in by a long shot, but he’s done a terrific job. He’s built this website to take the business through the next several years (the last incarnation has been around about four years and *really* needed an upgrade!)
Improvements include:
– A streamlined, pared-down look. The new website focuses on my three favorite kinds of photography. While I’ll still be doing printing (business cards, postcards, posters) and other kinds of photography, the highlight is now on weddings, portraits, and senior pictures.
- A different flowchart, so to speak. To simplify the website, we’ve rearranged what links go on which pages. We’ll also be adding informational pages that weren’t there before so that there’s someplace to turn when you have a question at midnight and you think it *might* be too late to call me
– New, larger galleries. The old website had a nice gallery design, but the images were a little smaller and the galleries themselves had a smaller selection of pictures to look through. The new galleries have an easy-to-use flash interface and more and larger images.
– This new blog! I’ve been tossing the idea of a blog around now for quite some time. I didn’t want to create a blog simply because it’s currently the trendy thing to do. I recently realized, though, that it’s a great way for clients to get to “meet” me before we even get together. Very seldom do I ever meet my portrait clients before the day of their photo shoot, and I often have wedding couples that I’ve never met until I arrive at the church! This will be a good way for potential clients to get a feel for what I’m about. Plus it’ll be an ideal place to highlight some of my favorite images from different shoots. Like when I meet a stellar senior and I have to share how beautifully the images came out. Or like when I come home from a wedding all hyped up on cake and need someplace to rave about the day
That’s it, in a nutshell… Let me know if you have any feedback. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve, even if we don’t get to implement our ideas right away!
