Hey all – it was just announced that I’ll be teaching at the Awaken Wedding and Portrait Photography workshop in Toronto this March 20th and 21st (2010) alongside of some of the top photographers in the Southern Ontario area.

From the moment this workshop was first conceptualized, the main purpose has been to create an environment for photographers to come together and open their hearts and minds to explore new realms of creativity.

We support photographers wanting to create fresh, heartfelt, meaningful images. We will do our very best to open new areas of consciousness and invite you to break out of established paradigms.

Each of the speakers have been carefully selected based on not only their extreme proficiency in creating outstanding images, but also their ability to communicate their passion, philosophies and beliefs with enthusiasm.

Check out the site! And I hope to see you there. I’ll be speaking on the Saturday.

http://www.awakenworkshops.com/

Before the ceremony we headed out to a beautiful water location along Lake Huron. It felt like a Caribbean location – nothing close to Ontario. After a few minutes with them, we headed to the girls place. The salon / makeup was all done on a full size RV that has been converted into a salon.

From there..we headed back to the lake with the girls….
They said they wanted to go to a place called Lonely Man Island…little did we know that they had to walk there through 2.5 feet of water to get there. The dresses came up, and without warning, they headed into the water. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m so happy they chose me to photograph their wedding.

After that, it was off to the ceremony in some classic cars. The rain clouds rolled in for an afternoon sun shower, and it poured until Justine started to walk down the aisle. Such perfect timing.

At some point during our walk, we came across a trampoline, and Justine did a few backflips in her wedding dress.

We had free reign of the city for photos, and eventually headed to The Oliphant Pavilion for the reception. It’s an old dance hall, that had been restored to its original look after years and years.

Here are some photos from the amazing day:

Here’s a few photos from the day:

Happy to say that UW leaves their lecture halls open all the time. So we took advantage.

Alright. So on Monday I’m off to Las Vegas, for a few photos at Showest (cinema industry tradeshow), and a drive from Vegas, to L.A. to Malibu and back. I should bring back lots of photos. Looks like next Sunday, I’ll also be heading to New York City to photograph Grand Central Stations BMW exhibit. And April 21st, it’s back to Vegas for NAB (Broadcasting, media, entertainment and communications tradeshow) Should be a fun month.

After checking my webstats today, I discovered that I have a ton of blog visitors from out in the L.A/O.C. area in California.
Well good news! Pchan and I are doing a little bit of traveling in November. We’ll be hitting Las Vegas for a wedding, and an engagement shoot, and then heading over to L.A.

If you live in Las Vegas, and happen to be getting married in November – or just want to throw on the dress (or tux if you have a Y chromosome) again for a photo session, send me an email! taylorjackson@gmail.com

We’ll be in L.A. for a short time, and I would love to get something started up either in Hollywood or Santa Monica.

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Anyways, I’m off to photograph Tania and Ali’s wedding in a few hours. It’s a beautiful day for an October wedding. This week had me a bit worried.

Tomorrow I’m doing a few fashion shoots with Carrie over at http://www.beautymarked.ca/. We have a ton of great locations picked out, including a local furniture store!

Also, I’m getting really excited for Jenny’s wedding next week in Toronto. It’s an elopement, with 3 guests, at City Hall in Toronto. There are SO many good locations within about 30 seconds of there.

That’s all for now, I’ll check in soon with some photos from Chris’ wedding 2 weeks ago, and a few from this week.

Taylor

First things first:
What exactly are you looking for from your wedding photographer?
- Do you want someone artistic, someone with talent?
- or Do you want someone just to press buttons?
- Do you just want a print it yourself package, where the photographer gives you a dvd?
- or Do you want an amazing album that family and friends will drool over?

There’s about 1000 questions, and somewhere in the process of meeting with all of these photographers, you might lose sight of what you were originally looking for.

My advice: start shopping early. A lot of the better photographers in the world are booking up 10 – 18 months in advance. Currently I’m sitting at around 20 bookings for 2009, and it’s only just out of September ’08.

You might have to do some digging to find your photographer. There’s a lot of good ones lurking in the shadows, you just have to enter the right search terms into Google. Don’t always settle on the photographers that your venue, caterer, or planner suggest.

Watch out for kickbacks!

A kickback is kind of like a commission for a coordinator, or venue, or anyone who profits out referring a photographer.
Ever go into an electronics store, and the sales person is really pushing one product on you? You’ve done your research at home, and you know there are better options…so why is this guy so adamant on selling you what he wants? Well, products that don’t sell, or need a little bit of a sales boost can offer the best commissions. So it’s in that sales mans best interest to sell you what’s going to make him money. Sadly, the same goes in the wedding world.

So now you’ve found a few photographers you like, and they’re available for your date.
Oh, side note: if everyone seems to be booked, ask the photographer who they suggest in the area. Photographers know other photographers, and know who does a good job. I’m aware of most of what’s going on in the wedding photography market around Southern Ontario – other good photographers will too.

Alright, back to business – you’ve found a few photographers you’re going to meet with. What do you talk to them about? You could bring a huge list of questions from that bridal book you picked up at the wedding show…but some of them look a little bit embarrassing to ask…so lets get straight to the important ones.

- Is it you who is going to be shooting my wedding?
This ones only really important if you’ve gone to a ‘studio’ where they have many photographers working under one banner. If you’re coming to a single photographer…say Taylor Jackson Photography..it’s probably a pretty safe bet that they will be the one shooting your wedding.
- Can I see a full wedding you’ve photographed?
- Do you have backup gear?
- and Can you control the weather?

I haven’t met any photographers that can control the weather. So, if they say they can, it’s probably safe to assume they’re a liar.

If you get along well with them, they’re within your budget (yes, couples meet with me knowing they can’t afford me), and you like their work, you’re probably in good shape.

From here you’ll likely have to sign a contract, and give some sort of down payment to secure your date with the photographer. If you got an engagement session, great! It’s time to book some time together. Hopefully after you see the photos from the engagement session, you know you picked the right photographer.

Hopefully my scattered thoughts here helped someone.  I’ve met with a lot of couples, and spent a lot of time analyzing every part of wedding photography. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email, and I’ll do my best to help — even if you’re not booking with me.

Taylor
Kitchener Waterloo Wedding Photographer

The past week was probably the busiest week of my life. From engagement sessions in Chatham, to stacking multiple band press photo sessions into one day, to a corporate photo session that we thought was physically(well…optically) impossible.
Everyone is happy!
All of the photos have found their way into the hands of the new owners, and I’m finally enjoying my first day off in…well…this month?

In more amazing news, on Friday, I received my brand new 2009 album. It’s without a doubt the prettiest thing I have ever made, everyone thinks it’s absolutely beautiful. I’ll be including it with my mid-high packages (I had no idea how expensive the perfect album is…but now I know..and it’s not cheap)
This album will make your friends jealous.

Kitchener Wedding Photographer

I’ll post some more as soon as I can. I plan to spend about 20 hours over the next week getting all of the images as perfect as they can be.

Kitchener Wedding Photographer

I haven’t had a chance to go through all the photos, but here’s 3 for now.

It was rainy and a little bit misty

One of my favorite photos of the day taken by Kate

Om nom nom.

I’ll post a few more as I have a chance to sort through them.