Family Portraits

Spring is in full swing and that means its time to start thinking about getting those family portraits updated! Whether its out in the Texas Bluebonnets or in the front yard of your house getting everyone together, wearing matching or at least coordinated clothes and trying to get everyone to smile at the exact same time, family photos are everyone’s favorite experience!

Well, not really…

For most participants, the family portrait is a grueling experience. Usually only mom wants to be there. The kids are all hot and tired of being told to stand still and smile and dad often goes from complacent to a silent pipe-bomb of rage just waiting to explode. Add to that unpredictable weather, heat and or humidity, bugs, uncooperative animals, you’ve got a recipe for a photographic disaster!

But - there are a few ways you and your family avoid things becoming such a mess. Here are a few tips and tricks to make your family portrait experience something that is actually enjoyable!

Tips for Great Family Portraits

Choose a Photographer with Lots of Family Photo Experience

I’m a photographer and if someone contacts me and wants family photos, I’m going to take them! But I’m going to be honest - I’m not good at them. Sure, I can get you a great look photo in the end, but it takes a special and experienced photographer to be able to reign everyone in the family in and get them focused and smiling. I’ve worked with photographers in the past that are only family photographers and they almost seem to be able to hypnotize disruptive children, unhappy husbands, and critical mother-in-laws into an almost blissful catatonic trance where they smile and take amazing photos. When shopping for a family photographer, don’t only look at the end results, but take a look at their portfolio and their reviews. A photographer with lots of family photos under their belt and a lot of positive reviews definitely knows that they are doing! And if you’ve got someone that’s good at what they do in charge, it will make the entire process flow much more smoothly and more importantly, much faster!

Choose a Time that Works with Your Kids

This is the most important when your kids are under the age of 6 but it can also be a factor with kids of any age. For younger kids, bringing them when they are freshly rested can make all of the difference. Infants to preschool kids can become particularly difficult and cranky. Even older kids and teenaged children can be difficult and grumpy if they didn’t get much sleep the night before. Well rested kids make the best photographs!

So this means that you are going to have to schedule a time that works best for your kids rather than one that works best for your photographer or yourself. Make sure your younger kids are within an hour of waking up. Make sure you older kids haven’t been up all night at a friends house or playing video games. For everyone’s sake, pick a weekend that isn’t already packed full of things to do.

Choose a Place to Shoot that Makes it Easy

Almost no one is shooting family portraits in the studio any more. I have no idea why? When you opt to shoot outside, you are surrendering practically all control over the quality of your photos. It could be raining, it could be cold, or hot, cloudy or ridiculously sunny. Shooting outside can be extremely difficult. However it does give you the ability to get some more interesting backgrounds and work with larger props or even cars or buildings.

However, shooting in the studio is an amazing option and really really does simplify the process. The photographer can control the lighting, the environment (thank you AC and heat), and can even include customer backdrops and props. when you’re shooting outside, your photographer is battling the elements to get a decent shot while inside they can be in complete control and can produce more exact and beautiful images much faster than they ever could outside. It’s much faster to shoot in the studio also, meaning that you might be able to get everyone out of there before they expire and start screaming or grumping.

You’ve got to balance a lot of factors when it comes to selecting a place to shoot, but I would definitely recommend checking with your photographer to see what in-studio family portrait options they might have available.

Make it More than Just a Photo Shoot

Plan something fun to do afterwards! Ice cream, go to the movies, go out shopping, anything that will give your kids and your husband something to look forward to. This kind of reward motivation can really help people stay focused and gives everyone a reason to work hard to get the photos done and get out of there!

What to Wear to your Family Photo Shoot

A lot of families do themes or wear matching tops. You would be surprised how much drama this can cause. I’ve seen mom’s buy wrong sized shirts for their adult children, which is a disaster. I’ve seen some matching family shirts that are so embarrassingly lame that it almost physical hurt me to snap the shutter. I know many of you are going to approach family photos with this doctrine of ‘everyone much match’ or at least be coordinated, but I would suggest at least considering how resistant some of your family might be to this and how much drama it might cause. Because if its going to be a problem, its going to ruin the photos.

I once had an adult child lose it over being forced to wear a matching shirt for a photo shoot. In the Office part of my studio, this 20-something guy began screaming and dropping ‘f’ bombs at full volume. It made for some very awkward photos a few minutes later. It can be helpful to get input from your family members so that they might be more apt to wear the outfits without complaining. Or you could always just not worry about anyone matching and just let them be yourselves. Whatever you choose, just make sure that its appropriate for the weather. I’ve seen people taking family photos in tropical attire in 30 degree weather and people dressed up like eskimos in the middle of 80 degree weather. Everyone was miserable and its hard to smile when your teeth are chattering or you can’t get the sweat out of your eyes.

Remember to Have Fun

Families are being pulled in so many different directions these days and with so many distractions its hard to actually have any memorable or meaningful moments together as a family. Instead of making family photos a stressful event, why not try to turn it into something fun? The biggest problem with taking family photos is that someone, if not everyone is miserable and it just shouldn’t be that way. Talk with your photographer about ways you can make the shoot fun. Think about some out of the box photo ideas, check out Pinterest and see what neat concepts you can come up with. But don’t let your family photo be a miserable experience!

Texas Bluebonnet Photos 2021

For many of us here in Texas, spring is just about one thing - waiting for the perfect time to go get those family bluebonnet photos! There are so many factors to consider - location, time of day, what to dress the kids in, etc. For us, we don’t actually take a lot of family styled photos of our kids, but bluebonnet photos are the one annual thing we do. And to be honest, I stress about it every year.

Getting the Perfect Bluebonnet Pictures

If you haven’t already, go check out my previous blog post, that gives a lot of tips and trick on how to get great bluebonnet pictures. Click Here to check out that post! There are a lot of great tips there that will help you get really fantastic photos. Here’s what I did this year to try to up my bluebonnet photo game!

My Camera

This year, for the first time in a few years I decided to go back to film for our family bluebonnet photos. Last year during the middle of Covid season, I just snapped them with my digital. The previous year, our kids were really little and so I knew there was no way I was going to get them all to sit still and behave so there would need to be a lot of editing and photoshopping. But this year, I thought I had a chance to get a decent shot of my three younger kids. I loaded up my Hasselblad 501cm with the 80mm lens attached and headed out! The 501cm is an amazing camera, its fully manual but its fast for a fully manual camera. Plus, I just really wanted to use this camera. I mainly keep it in the studio, but I felt a trip to the bluebonnet fields would a fitting exercise for my latest camera acquisition.

My Film

I’ve known for like 4 months what film I was going to use for this shoot. I’m not kidding when I say that we take these photos very seriously each year. I’ve literally been planing these photos since winter started. For this shoot, I decided to go with Kodak Portra 400. I’m using a medium format camera so I used the 120 version of the film but you can also get it in 35mm. Portra is great for skin tones and that’s what I really wanted to focus on this time around. I loaded up two rolls (24 exposures) and hoped I could at least get one decent photo out of 24…. But there was no way to be sure that would even happen.

One trick that I have learned from shooting with Kodak Portra 400 is to shoot it at ISO 200 instead of 400. This means, you are essentially overexposing the image, but the over exposure actually brings out some of the best qualities of Portra and it can be easily corrected in the scan/print process.

Lighting Bluebonnet Photos

We were traveling back from College Station after visiting our oldest at Texas A&M and we were adding this photoshoot on to the end of a very busy weekend. There are several amazing locations in Ennis, TX for bluebonnet photos, which was on our way back to that’s where we planned to stop. If you’re looking for a great location for bluebonnet pictures - Ennis is it for North/Northeast Texas! Unfortunately, the time we were going to be in Ennis was not going to give us the best lighting, so I had to improvise.

I positioned my family in a little patch with their right sides facing the mid-afternoon sun. The shadows were harsh. I metered for the bright sunlit side of their faces and then I pulled out my strobes to fill in the dark shadows on their faces. I metered the shadows first and discovered that they were 4 stops below the light side. Which is harsh for sure. If you are looking for a meter, I use the Sekonic L-478D-U. Its an incident meter but it works great and has been a very handy tool to have in my camera bag for years. I set up my lights to try to compensate for the shadows. I had brought with me my Profoto B2’s (these aren’t made any more sadly - the Profoto A1X is a good replacement) and a Profoto 2’ Octabox to help control the harshness of the flash. The octabox from Profoto has two diffusers inside so it really really softens the shadows a lot and fills very nicely. I positioned the flash about 5 feet from my subjects at a 45 degree angle to fill light from the left side.

Posing for Bluebonnet Pictures

While I had several great picture poses in my head, we had to just go with whatever my kids would do that day. As you can see form the photos below, it was kinda a mess. Make sure you get low and get lots of bluebonnets in the shot and in the background. We were positioned on a hill so being lower also meant I could cut out all of the people that were on the other side of the hill taking photos also.

Processing the Film

While I normally process my own film, I’ve been swamped lately with weddings and events so I sent my photos off to done at Richard Photo Lab. These guys are absolutely amazing! Their prices are reasonable and their customer service and attention to detail is unmatched! I went ahead an ordered prints as well and have been so very pleased with the results!

The hard part about film, especially when you send it off is waiting. Richard Photo Lab is very prompt and it doesn’t take very long to get your images back, but when you’re really excited to see if they turned out, it might was well take forever lol.

With out further delay, here are our Bluebonnet Photos for 2021!

Bluebonnet Pictures

Book Us for Your Bluebonnet Photos!

If you would like photos of yourself or your family in the beautiful Texas bluebonnets, we would be happy to shoot them for you! Our sessions are always flexible, affordable and fun! Click the button below to book your bluebonnet photo session today!

Why are Wedding Photographers So Expensive?

You’ve just spent $8,000 on the venue, $2000 on the cake, $2800 on the wedding dress, the flower cost is going up every minute, you’re thinking about serving chicken nuggets and kool-aid at the wedding reception to save money and then you start getting pricing information back from the photographers you reached out to…

Why are wedding photographers so expensive?

Just like the cake and the dress and the catering and the flowers, the wedding photos require skill, specialized equipment, time, and expertise to create. While most couples only see the photographer working the day of the wedding, the photographer actually spends significant time prepping their equipment, loading and unloading, photographing, paying assistants and second shooters, before the ceremony even starts. After the happy couple has departed, the photographer has to sort and cull images, edit and touch-up the keepers, create galleries, upload images, communicate constantly and keep the process moving. Outside of the wedding day, a photographer might spend 40 to 120 additional hours working on photos for each wedding.

Here are a few things to consider when asking yourself “why do wedding photographers charge so much?”

• A professional camera is usually around $4000

• Lenses run around $2000 to $3000 each

• Data cards to hold pictures often cost $100 to $150 each

• Flashes and transmitters can cost as much as $1000-$2000 each

• Batteries for all of this equipment isn’t cheap either - usually costing around $100 per battery

• Photographers need higher end computers to edit, as well as lots of storage space for photos

• There are several software services that photographers have to use to manage projects and communicate with clients. These often run anywhere from $20 to $100 per month

• The software the photographer uses costs between $20 to $50 per month

• 8 hours to shoot the wedding, 2 hours minimum prep, at least 40 hours to edit and sort. Photographers spend anywhere from 50 to 120 hours per wedding in labor.

• Assistants and second shooters cost hundreds of dollars per day to hire and are completely necessary for medium to large weddings.

This is not an exhaustive list of expenses, but it does give you an idea of the investment in equipment and time that each photographer makes when booking a wedding.

Let’s Approach Wedding Photography Sticker Shock Differently

As a photographer myself, I knew what to expect when it came to pricing for my wedding a few years ago. But I still found myself begrudging the photographer because we had already spent so much money on everything else. One more expense in the thousands of dollars range was the last thing I needed. But once I began to think of things a little differently.

Besides the Rings, the Wedding Photos are the Only Things That are Going to Last

The cake will be eaten, the flowers will die, you’ll never wear that wedding dress again, and once your scheduled time is up at the venue, you’ll never be allowed to have the run of the place again. But those photos are going to last forever! You’ll see them for the rest of your life and its worth investing more and being happy about knowing that the photography is going to bless you for years and years to come. Think about it, when you die, people will be looking at these wedding photos are your funeral! In 2173, your descendants will be posting on whatever social media exists at the time “look at my great great great grandparents on their wedding day!”. You shouldn’t question the necessity to spend some money on these photos!

Don’t Be Wowed by the Portfolio, Determine what Value Your Photographer is Bringing for Their Fees

I had a friend who booked a very popular wedding photographer and paid $10,000 for their services. The pictures were beautiful, but they only got a few prints and a small photo book for their investment. The very popular photographer then upsold them for another $3000 to get more prints and a few digital images. Most of what they paid went to the photographer rather than giving the newlyweds photo products they could actually enjoy.

Part of the value resides in the skill and craft of the photographer, but they should also provide a product. You as the client/customer have to evaluate if you are getting value that equals the photographer’s fees. We paid $3000 to our wedding photographer and we were given prints, a photobook, all of the digitals on a cute custom flash drive, and the images were beautiful. The value we received was definitely worth the price we paid.

How Much Should I Spend on My Wedding Photos?

It is really going to come down to a balancing act. There are a few factors that are going to have a direct effect on the price you are going to end up paying.

1. The Reputation of/Demand for the Photographer

2. The Time/Date of Your Wedding

3. The Size of Your Wedding

4. The Products You want to Receive (Prints, digitals, photo books, etc)

All photographers are taking these items into account when they determine pricing. Photographers cannot charge more than the market will bear, so often they decrease products if they are more in demand. Less popular/in demand photographers will often offer more products for a similar price. If you’re absolutely in love with a certain photographer, understand that you may not receive as many prints or copies of the digitals. Or that you might have to buy those after the fact. If you’re more interested in the quantity or products you receive, don’t try to compare a prestigious photographer’s pricing and products with someone who is trying to be in a similar price range by providing more value in their products they offer.

Wedding season gets crazy and the date and time of your wedding might come at a premium if you don’t book in advance. An intimate 10 person wedding is also not going to be as much work as a wedding with 250 guests. There is significantly more work involved in larger weddings, so don’t be surprised if you are having a large wedding and ask for a discount and don’t receive one.

It also helps to know what products you’re wanting once the photographer is done with their work. Most couples just take what the photographer is offering but it can be very helpful to have an idea of what kinds of prints you want, how many copies of the photo book you want. You can often negotiate those extras upfront and possibly get them cheaper than purchasing them after the fact. If you know what you want, communicate that to your photographer and negotiate the price at the beginning. It might save you quite a bit of money!

Photos are Forever

Don’t be a grump about the price you have to pay for your wedding photos! Take charge and know what style of photos you want, the products you want, and the coverage you’ll need and shop around just like you did for the cake and the dress and the catering and everything else. And once you decide, just remember that those images are going to be around for a long time. Probably longer than you will be so rather than begrudging the amount you have to pay for pictures, celebrate the fact you have secured a professional to document your beautiful day and that you will be left with beautiful images to last for generations to come!

Shameless Plug Time

If you’re in the Northeast Texas area and looking for a wedding photographer, check out our Wedding Photography Price List and contact us to see if we can help you with your big day!

Film Photography as a Hobby

There are millions of people who enjoy photography. From casual photos of friends and family to more serious and stylistic photos taken just to try to communicate something deep and meaningful and every photo in between, photography is a beloved hobby with several easy and affordable entry points from simple point-and-shoot digitals to Instax to Polaroid. But while digital photography is an easy and convenient hobby to pick-up, is film photography something a hobbyist could into without much cost or a steep learning curve?

Can I Shoot Film as a Hobby?

Absolutely! You do not need to be a professional to be a film photographer. 35mm film is still available in stores like Wal-Mart, Target, CVS, and Walgreens. Rolls of 35mm film come in color negative, black and white negative, and color positive or slide film. Film rolls also come in 24, 27, and 36 exposures (the count of photos you can take on a roll) as well as a variety of ISO’s for taking photos in different lighting. Prices range from $4.19 per roll to $23.95 for high end professional and specialty films. You can check prices on 35mm film at Amazon by going here!

Most individuals avoid film photography because they are inexperienced with the equipment, unfamiliar with how to process their film, and unsure of what film to buy. But a little bit of advice can help you get started and can having you shooting your first roll of film in no time!

What Kind of Film Camera Should I Buy?

This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many factors to consider. Availability, affordability, availability, automation, and ecosystem all need to be considered when it comes to purchasing a film camera. As you consider these factors, weigh them to see which factor is going to be the most limiting for you and you can start from there.

Availability,

There are very few film cameras in production today. Lomography.com still produces a few plastic ‘toy’ cameras. There are several ‘Simple’ use cameras out there as well. All of these are at the lowest end of the quality scale, but because they are new, might come with a higher price tag than some used models.

There are a lot of used cameras on the market out there. 35mm film cameras mostly just were put in the back of the closet and have been sitting. Locally, you can find them for sale on Facebook market place. In my experience, the selection is always limited, but its a great place to start! Ebay is also a great place to look. Ebay usually has a broader selection but you lose out on the ability to inspect the camera yourself before you buy.

Affordability

Let’s be honest, if you have money, you can spend it all on a camera. Setting a budget and sticking to that budget is important, after all, you don’t what spend all of your money on your camera and have nothing left over to buy and process your film! You can expect to spend anywhere from $20 to $200 for a good used 35mm film camera. If you’re just getting into film, get something cheaper. If you’re looking to make this something you do for a while, you may want to shoot for a middle of the road camera. Mainly, inspect the camera for functionality and features and consider what your budget is when buying.

Automation

Unlike modern cameras, a large number of film cameras a completely manual or only offer a few automatic features. You might find a shutter or aperture priority mode, but that may well be it. There are more automated 35mm cameras out there, but usually, their prices are higher because of the extra features. But, it doesn’t hurt to get a manual or almost completely manual camera. its a great way to experiment and learn. Combining the film with a manual camera will force you to think about every shot you take, which is a great discipline to develop while you are starting out. I have found that when I shoot with the more feature rich cameras I tend to think less about things like composition and letting and I get lower quality shots.

Ecosystem

Most cameras fall into an ecosystem of lenses and accessories. If you’re already a Canon shooter, then you should stick a canon SLR. If you’re already using Nikon, definitely stick to Nikon. If you don’t have anything, well then pick one and do a little research as to what other lenses are out there for the camera, does this camera have any cross compatibility with any other accessories or lenses, how durable are these cameras and how repairable are these cameras? Even as a hobbyist, when you buy a camera, you’re buying into an ecosystem.

What Kind of Film Should I Buy?

Kodak UltraMax 400 is a great beginner film!

To be honest with you, I’d go cheap at first. When I was first using film, sometimes I would forget how to do things and would accidentally expose an entire roll of film by opening the camera or forgetting to rewind. Once I forgot to release the film sprockets and I tried rewinding an entire roll with the sprocket lock still engaged. I shredded an entire roll of film. I really love the Kodak UltraMax 400 film for beginners. Its a great film, really inexpensive and produces good color results for a decent price. Its a great daylight film and works well in some shadows too. Inside photos with a flash also produce good results but expect a lot of light fall-off and darkness if objects or people are outside of the flashes power.

We’ve also got a great guide to the 3 Best Kodak Film for Beginners here - it has a lot of great information that could help you make a more informed decision!

Where can I get my Film Processed?

Processing is the hardest part, in my opinion. Locally, you can get your film processed at CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, but they will not give you your negatives back. You definitely WANT your negatives back! They will give you prints and scans (usually lower resolution ones) but the negatives get trashed. If you’re local to us (East Dallas/East Texas), we can process your film for you! We offer drop-off and mail-in. Just click here to get the process started!

If you have the patience, you can mail your film into a place. There are several labs out there and most of them are amazing. Richard Photo Lab is a great place and has some amazing prices! The Dark Room is another great lab I’ve used and love their results. There are lots of other options out there, just jump on Google and find a lab that works for you!

Of course, if you’re feeling adventurous, you can always develop your own film at home. This requires quite a bit of equipment and some patience, but it is an option if this is a hobby you plan on keeping up with for a while.

Almost all labs will get you scans and/or prints and many offer online galleries which are great because you can view your photos as soon as they are processed, download them and share them all over the place!

Film Photography is a Great Hobby to Start!

Unlike digital photography, there’s more of a deliberate action with each press of the shutter button when you’re taking film. I don’t know if its the limited exposures, the cost, the time, or what but it forces you to think more about what you are shooting and in my opinion, always produces much better results! With the availability of so many great film cameras at really low prices and the convenience of companies like Amazon and B&H Photography, you can get any film you want delivered in just a few days if not sooner! If you’ve been hesitant to get in to film photography, now’s a great time to start AND we would be happy to help you or answer any questions you might have! We love film photography and in the 35mm film format, we’ve had some of the most fun you can have with a camera! Contact Us if you have any questions and lets get you shooting film asap!

A Great Way to Add Value and Attract New Wedding Clients!

I’d only had my camera for about a month when a broke and desperate family member asked me to photograph their wedding. “Sure” I said, being eager for the experience. I took photos all day long, honestly most of them were terrible, but I loved every second of it. Weddings are amazing and magical events. Editing the photos is so much fun too, creating beautiful images for a couple at the start of their lives together. I decided that I LOVED WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY and that I should definitely try to do more of it.

But I was very soon to learn a hard lesson…

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IS A TIGHT MARKET!

Let’s be honest, wedding photography is a tough market to get into. It isn’t really the photography that difficult, its attracting the clients. I spend more time marketing and beating the bushes than I do actually taking photos and its exhausting!

But in the middle of the pandemic, I learned a pretty valuable lesson. If you give a little, you will get a lot!

I was so desperate to keep business coming in, at least for future dates that I was willing to try anything. I started throwing in free shoots, or discounts. Those didn’t work. Still wasn’t getting much interest. One of my friends showed me a new product he had see and just out of pure desperation, I decided to give one away as part of a promotion to book clients. Which got me several bookings, even in the middle of the pandemic. In fact, I ended up booking MORE WEDDINGS than I had before the pandemic and a little $100 item was to thank for my success!

What Was I Giving Away That Made Such a Difference?

Its honestly so trivial I didn’t really think about it, but the brides and their families loved it. It was a simple little video guest book that I found on Amazon. I loaded up images and occasionally some video that I had taken on their engagement photo shoot and just let it play as people signed in.

The brides and their families ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. It cost me around $100 but that’s a drop in the bucket when you’re booking a $2500 wedding and have the possibility of upscale later!

If you’re a wedding photographer - check out this link below or head out and find something similar that could possibly entice your almost-clients into booking with you!

Check out our wedding photography packages and get more info by clicking here!

There's One MAJOR ISSUE with Fuji Instax Mini Film!!!

As a photographer, I had a this brilliant idea for my wedding. Every wedding has this guest book that people wait in line forever to sign. And after the wedding, all you end up with is a book of signatures. Not very exciting at all. But, my idea was brilliant. People were already going to wait in line, why not make what they were doing fun! Instead of signing a book, I had a couple of instant cameras on hand and tons of instant film and we had our wedding guests snap a photo and sign the picture.

Everyone LOVED it. They would snap their photos, sign their pictures, snap a pic of their instant pic, and drop them in the box. Our guests just talked and talked about how much fun it was. We were happy it was a huge hit. But, there was a problem we hadn’t thought about when I came up with this brilliant idea…

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THESE PHOTOS?!?!?!?!?

After our wedding, we put them all in a box. The box was shuffled from place to place in our house, we moved a few times and each time would ask “what’s in this box?” before we would open it and say “oh yeah…”. Of course we didn't want to throw them away but we really didn’t know what to do with them.

In the mean time, we were still snapping instant photos like crazy and there were mountains of these pictures piling up and filling up boxes in our house. We loved them, but being in a box made it difficult to ever pull them out and look at them and enjoy them.

This is the problem almost everyone has with instant film - we love the film, we love taking pictures, but we don’t really have a good place to store all of them.

WE NEEDED A SOLUTION!!! In a digital world, having tons of physical images became all of the sudden inconvenient. So we turned to an old school solution - photo albums!

Photo albums are an absolutely perfect way to safely store and display your instant photos. We’ve purchased several instant photo albums now and are absolutely loving them! We can set the albums out in a place that’s accessible without worrying that they will be damaged. We can actually organize the photos by date or event so that they tell a really beautiful visual story of our lives. Instant Photo Albums literally saved our photos!!!

Here’s a few recommendations on albums from my own experience!

The Ablus 288 Pocket Mini Photo Album

The Albus 288 Pocket Mini Photo Album

This was the first album we bought, honestly because it has decent reviews and it was cheap. But its actually a really great little photo album and since it holds 288 photos, it put a HUGE dent in a mountain of instax photos we had piled up! Its easy to use and very durable. It does have kinda a cheap looking translucent plastic cover. But you can see through it to get an idea of what’s in the album.

If you’re looking for something affordable and practical - THIS IS THE ALBUM FOR YOU!

Click Here to Check it Out

The Albus 64 Pocket Mini Photo Album

Another fantastic little album. We really like this one because it holds less photos and allows us to sort of create our own little visual story books! The only issues is that the pictures are laid out horizontally instead of vertically. But the best thing about this one is our little kids can handle it, flip it around a lot and not mess up the images.

Click Here to Check it Out

The Rhypez Desktop Photo Album

So this little album is great because we can actually put it out for people to see. I have one on my desk and love the fact that I can flip through it, change the pages from day to day. Its just a lot of fun! It doesn’t store a lot of images, but its great to load images in here just so that you can easily share them with others.

You can Pick One Up for Yourself by Clicking Here!

There are of course a lot of other options out there. These are just the three that we have used and really like! Amazon literally has a huge variety of albums and ways to sort, organize and display your Fuji Instax Images. Just don’t let them sit in a pile, get destroyed by kids or pets, or shove them in a box to never be looked at again. These images are of some of the most precious and candid moments of your life! Hold on to them, protect them, and fix the one major issue everyone has with Fuji Instax Images!

Click here to check all of the options Amazon has for Instax album!

Also don’t forget to follow us on instagram - @shutterjunkies

Senior Year Essentials

Yes, we are still in the middle of a sweltering Texas summer, but the school year is right around the corner and for the Class of 2019, it’s going to begin and fly by.  You seniors will be graduating before you know it!  It’s just insane how quickly it passes.  And with that in mind, here’s a handy guide to help all you seniors and your families make sure you don’t forget any of the essentials that will make your senior year unforgettable!

 Senior Pictures

Of course I’m going to mention those first!  But I do so not only because I’m a photographer but because of years of experience of working with high school students and yearbooks.  Honestly the best time to get your Senior Portraits done is in the fall, between August and October.  So many things depend on and require these pictures, getting them done early takes care of a lot of potential problems up front!   Your senior year has a tendency to crazy as things move on.  Demands from family, friends, school activities pile up and every year we have a flood of students who put off getting their pictures made that end up trying to get them done at the last second, only to discover that all of the photographers in the area are booked up.  Make it easy on yourself and get your session booked and on the schedule while things are still manageable.

Homecoming

Your last homecoming as a student has to be special!  Mums and garters that reflect who you are and all that school spirit you have bottled up inside are the way to go!  And if your school hosts a homecoming dance afterwards, don't forget about planning what you are going to wear and who you will be going with! 

Cap and Gown

Pretty early on in the school year, your school’s slected vendor will come by and take orders for caps, gowns, and other items.  This is your one chance to order your graduation gear.  Most vendors (balfour, josten’s, etc) will allow you to place your order and pay in installments.  Just be aware that you cannot get your cap and gown until your order is paid in full and you cannot walk with your class unless you’re wearing a cap and gown.  Most of the time, you can expect to pay in the range of $80 for your graduation outfit.  

Yearbook

Even if you’ve never ordered a yearbook in your life, trust me, you do not want to miss out in getting a copy of your senior yearbook.  It is something that you will appreciate having in a few years.  If you can order your yearbook early, you can save a ton of money!  Most yearbooks sell at a 30% to 50% discount at the beginning of the school year.  It just makes sense to get your book ordered early and get it done!  Once yearbook orders close, there may or may not be any copies available after everyone picks up their orders.  So seriously don't delay.  I missed out on buying some of my high school yearbooks and I have regretted it a lot!

Prom

From picking out the perfect outfit to taking those awkward photos with your parents, prom is a special part of the year and can be a lot of fun.  Since proms usually involve more than just going to a school dance, you will want to be on top of planning for your event.  What are you going to drive?  Or maybe we should get a limo?  What about the dress or the tux?  Are we going somewhere before the prom to eat or hang out?  Its a lot to consider and plan and it happens to come up really fast, especially since several schools have moved their proms pretty far forward in the year.

Invitations

No, you aren't expecting everyone that you send an invitation to to come to your graduation.  Most schools limit the amount of guests that you can have attend anyways.  Fortunately there's a lot of flexibility here.  The idea of an invitation is fading pretty quickly and now most people prefer to create a graduation announcement or choose to invite everyone to a graduation party that is set at a convenient time for the graduate and their family rather than inviting everyone to the actually ceremony.  Regardless of what you call it, you're going to need to make sure people know you are graduating so that you can get some of those sweet graduation gifts!  There are a lot of great websites out there to order lower-cost but still really high quality announcements/invites.  Most of these will let you customize your announcement with custom photos and text and many provide you with a variety of templates to make your invite stand out from the crowd.  It is definitely best to get your senior photos done early so that you will have these in time to get your invitations ordered.  Generally, you would want to get these out at least six weeks ahead of your graduation date, so your rich family members can make sure and get you the perfect expensive gift to celebrate the big day.

baby pictures

Graduation is a perfect time for parents and grandparents to be sentimental and most schools oblige this by having a really cheesy slideshow featuring you and all of your classmates as goofy looking babies and super mature looking semi-adults.  You and your parents are going to have to sort through all 28,752 photos that they have of you and pick out the absolute cutest or most embarrassing photos or whatever photos of you.  It takes time so plan a day when you don't have a lot going on to bust out those old photo albums, or hard drive or whatever they're stored on and get to work finding the perfect photos for the occasion.

Senior ads for the Yearbook

Speaking of goofy baby pictures, if you're looking to buy up some real estate in your yearbook you're going to need those baby photos, some of your senior photos (they keep coming up, see how important they are!), and some sweet and sentimental words from your parents and/or other family members.  If you want to save your poor yearbook teacher/sponsor a lot of heartache and grief - go ahead and get all of your photos together, get your messages from your parents ready, and get everything converted to digital and put on a flash drive.  Scan your photos to a decent resolution and save them as a .jpg or JPEG.  Do not take a picture of the picture with your phone.  Do not scan your photos to a .pdf file.  Put all of the content for your senior pages on a flash drive and deliver it to your yearbook teacher well before the deadline.  It helps them to have your stuff early and it ensures that you get a decent spot in the book.  

One last fun even with your friends

Its crazy how quickly after graduation that everyone begins to go their own way.  Take time and plan a day with your friends to go do something fun.  It doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate, just a day together reflect and enjoy one another's company.  Take lots of pictures and make the day meaningful!  You will appreciate the day and the photos for years to come, I promise!

It will be over before you Know it

It really does go by so very fast.  So stop reading and make a to do list now!  Stay on top of everything you have to get done and it will make your year less stressful and much more enjoyable!  An easy way to start is to go ahead and get your senior photo session scheduled now.  Before the year gets too wild you can just get that major component checked off!  We love taking senior portraits and we would be happy to get you scheduled so just contact us and we will get you taken care of!

Good luck, Class of 2019!  The fun is just beginning!