Alt Photography Workshop + POOL PARTY (Sponsored by Feather Love)

Feather Love (aka Noa), one of my fave photographers and hands-down the biggest rabble-rouser ever to write a guest post for esb, is doing a workshop in San Diego on June 28-29.

I'll let her tell you more:

Technical photography workshops are awesome, necessary, and extremely productive – but this is not one of them. Here are six reasons why my workshops are different:

1) I’M NOT A ROCKSTAR

I am not a “rockstar photographer.” I’m just a person who is sometimes totally full of shit, but I also spend a lot of time working on myself as an artist and I really really care about my work. My focus is on the quality of work we put out there, and most importantly our personal relationship to that work & what it can teach us. I am honest and revealing and have no intention of pretending to be someone I am not. I am not going to tell you how to skip the hard part & become a successful photographer overnight – QUITE THE CONTRARY.

(Photo of Feather Love in her studio by her husband Stuart)

2) FOCUS ON THE ARTIST

One of the main subjects I cover in the workshops, is how critical I believe it is to connect with our work & put ourselves into our art. Often times, photographers will focus on finding more expensive equipment, or spending hours looking at the work of other photographers in their industry for inspiration. As artists, we need to put ourselves & our experience into the work we are producing in order to create something that stands out & resonates with us. A majority of people who attend my workshops are photographers, but because I focus on The Artist, I often have other creative business people in attendance too – like bloggers, calligraphers, magazine editors, writers etc.

(Some of Feather Love's images from past workshops)

3) BREAKING THE RULES

My work is certainly not for everyone. I focus more on what intuitively clicks inside me while I’m shooting than I do on perfection in composition, lighting etc. In fact, I often do what would be considered “technically wrong” in order to get the results I want. I have seen a million pretty photos, but it’s often the blurry, strangely-cropped, under/over-exposed images that stand out for me the most. Why? Because I can personally relate to them. Because they reveal something deeper, more beautiful, more honest, more human. Let’s just say that if I had to choose between Ansel Adams and Diane Arbus, I’m going with Arbus.

4) ROUNDING IT OUT

Besides my more philosophical lectures, I also cover real-world examples from my experience, discuss experimentation, how to get the clients you want, self-branding and many other practical subjects. I leave ample time for Q & A to structure each workshop around the attendees. I invite incredible guest lecturers to focus on subjects that are vital in running your own creative business. For example: Anne Sage on the important role of social media in self-branding (Bay Area + San Diego Workshops), Chloe Aftel giving a hands-on Polaroid class that will blow your mind (Bay Area + San Diego Workshops), Emma Case on not compromising (London Workshop) etc. These are artists & creative people whom I admire and respect and have learned so much from.

(Images from previous workshops: first and last image by Feather Love, all others by Woodnote Photography)

5) THE AFTER PARTY

Yes, we spend a few good hours discussing all sorts of deep, intense and important topics – I pose vital questions that we need to ask ourselves… blah blah, BUT I also believe in not taking stuff too seriously. If we’re going to work hard, we’re going to relax and/or play hard too. Some of my workshop after parties have included:

glamping sleepover in a giant beach house overlooking the ocean with musical guests Tim & Nicki Bluhm (video by Bay Area workshop attendee Sara Wilbur Photography)

dirty-hip-hop dance parties (London & Italy video by Son Of Shark Pig)

… and sometimes celebrity guests! The beautiful Sarah Carter will be our model for the San Diego workshop.

Wine & friends, plus clean & tasty gourmet food is of utmost importance! (Nicole of Gjleina is catering!) … And we will also be taking some hard-core pool breaks.

6) CONNECTION

I love how people keep in touch after my workshops – they become friends, ask for help reviewing an edit, travel across the country to hang out together, do awesome photo projects together, or even start a Facebook group specifically for all the people in the workshop they attended, including me. It’s RAD.

I am so extremely super-excited about my upcoming 2-day workshop on June 28th & 29th at my house and studio in San Diego! You can learn all about it HERE. Find out more about my workshops, content I discuss, videos & interviews with me, attendee testimonials and more HERE.

(At top: Photos by workshop attendees Shutter Sam & Brosnan Photographic, plus Feather Love's images of A B & The Sea in her pool & Anne Sage in her studio)

This Is Not Vintage Wedding Photography

Noa got a lil bee in her bonnet about.... Well, you'll see. And she asked me if I'd let her write a post.

I said FUCK YES. Obv.

I have been shooting "vintage"-inspired photography since I was at least 14 or so. As one of the first photographers in the alternative wedding industry to be labeled a "Vintage Photographer," I was proud and happy to see that people were categorizing my work this way and that they were clearly able to see my influences. 

But in the past few years, the Alternative or Vintage Wedding thing has grown into its own mainstream. And once something is mainstream it doesn't need a name anymore, except for maybe "mainstream." It's kind of like what happened with the alternative music scene back in the 90's: eventually every band started sounding "alternative" and everyone started listening to that type of music, which made the whole thing NOT alternative anymore.

The way the word "vintage" is used lacks accuracy most of the time, and can actually suppress creativity, as opposed to how it helped open a new route for creative expression back when I started....  If anything is slightly inspired by a bygone era, we slap the word "vintage" on it. 

If you score a beautiful wedding dress from the 1930's on Etsy, it's a vintage dress. Awesome. If you use mason jars for your centerpieces, it's not vintage, it's Martha Stewart. There is nothing vintage about the balloons in your engagement photos. Air plants aren't vintage. If you process your digital images to look like film, well so does everyone else these days, so let's not call it vintage. And if you shoot actual film, that's not vintage, it's film. If you found some fabric from the 1960's to use as a backdrop, that fabric is vintage. If you have a tattoo, that's not vintage, it's a tattoo. If you throw a swing-dance-party-themed-wedding, right on, but it's Retro, not vintage. If the vibe is Old Hollywood Glam, then call it Old Hollywood Glam. If you and all your hippie friends run around naked in the forest and eat shrooms after your ceremony -- your wedding is a Hippie Wedding (and you NEED to hire me to shoot that!). If you have a photography site and you are influenced by old photos, we should be able to tell that by looking at your work -- you don't have to tell us it's vintage. Please reduce the use of the V-word. 

And, I would like to present the following idea to all creatives in the industry: what if you remove the word "vintage" from your info/description page on your web site (unless of course, you rent actual vintage items out or something) -- would you still feel fully confident that your work speaks for itself? 

Since "vintage"-influenced wedding design/style/photography is now fully mainstream for us, isn't it redundant? If we don't use it to describe our own work, we can have more freedom to be influenced by anything, and therefore we can have more space to allow our creativity to go wherever it wants to... Which is how this whole current movement began. I propose we use "Progressive Wedding Industry" instead. I like that, and it's accurate.

Vintage used to be a word that signified imagination. It meant that interesting and artistic people could actually express their own taste, personality and ideas in their non-traditional & non-generic weddings. This "new" (ironically, the exact opposite of the word vintage) wedding movement was an alternative to the boring, traditional weddings that were leftover from the 90's and all the cheesy things that went along with them. Nowadays, we're all creative and everyone is influenced by old stuff, so it's embedded into what we do. Therefore making the V-word superfluous.

If you are using the word "vintage" to describe anything but an item that is actually old, you are probably overusing the word. If you frequently use the term "vintage-inspired," you are probably, no definitely, overusing it.

(All photos by Noa Azoulay-Sclater of Feather Love)

Margot + Matt's Blissful Catskills Blast

A fabulous dress. A laid-back chic bride. A terrific dance party, COME HELL OR HIGH WATER.

When Noa sent these photos my way, I knew instantaneously this was my kinda wedding. (Bonus Points: Margot is a reader. I mean, OBVIO.)

Here's what she had to say about her blissful celebration-in-the-midst-of-a-hurricane:

I had never been the kind of girl who imagined fantasy weddings in her head, but during the 16 months that my now husband and I spent planning our August Catskills wedding, I succumbed to the romantic impulse. It would be intimately casual, gloriously colorful, righteously soundtracked, botanically lush, wildly celebratory, and sundrenched with that golden end-of-summer light.

As it turned out, we pulled off all of those things--except for the last one, the one category that we could not control. And, I’m not just talking about an overcast sky or one of those passing showers. That’s right, folks, we had an uninvited guest that we never once could have anticipated and her name was Irene. Needless to say, in the days leading up to the wedding, as I maniacally checked Weather.com and Google News, I was devastated.

On the morning of the wedding, the sky was blue. We watched the clouds drift in and out all day. Passing showers came and went. We were hopeful that that bitch wouldn’t end up paying us a visit, after all. And then right before our bus of guests was scheduled to arrive, an apocalyptic downpour hit and she was here.

Yet, the show went on and our friends and families --all of whom made great sacrifices to be there for us, despite knowing that Mama Nature would likely be throwing a wrench in their travel plans and schedules--showered us with love as infinite and strong as the rain and wind swirling around the pavillon that contained us. Later in the night, we all danced like there was no tomorrow. (For many, that tomorrow involved early morning hotel evacuations and/or maroonings.) In hindsight, I credit Irene with uniting us all, giving us a reason to revel with that much more excitement for the reason we were all there together.

So, it wasn’t perfect. But it was still perfectly us. And we still got married and we still had a blissful blast, hurricane be damned. Plus, how many brides can truly say that it was a wedding no one will ever forget?

♥

Photos by Feather Love Photography. (There are tons more gee-orgeous photos from Margot + Matt's wedding up on her blog this morning.)

p.s. Margot, we all need to know. Is that the Thakoon Addition dress? But with better sleeves?? What's the story?

Is it cool to haggle with wedding vendors?

Hello esb,

Perhaps I shouldn't care about this, but I don't want to be an ass. How do I politely tell vendors that I got quotes from that they are way off base on price?

I feel like if I didn't want to pay that, perhaps I shouldn't gone these vendors. Like perhaps I should have started with the reception hall next to the guns and ammo store instead of venue with a wild flower garden overlooking the river with filet mingon and lobster on the menu. But I didn't. And now I am suffering from sticker shock. And quite frankly, I really don't want to have my reception next door to a hunting store.

Is there really room for negotiation like stupid bride magazines and blogs suggests there is? Or will I look like and ass and cheap skate if I tell these vendors I don't want to pay that much?

Thanks!

*****

I don't feel qualified to answer this one, so I forwarded your question to Noa of Feather Love Photography because I knew she'd give us an honest answer.

(I didn't know she'd give us such a loooong answer, but it's so good I couldn't bring myself to cut anything.)

Anyhoo. Here's Noa:

Thanks for asking me to answer this question ESB, because I have lots to say about lots of things, and I shoot weddings for a living. (To start I would like to say that I can’t stand the word “vendors” but for lack of a better one, I will use it way too much in this post- can we come up with a better word please?)

Everyone is surprised when they start researching the costs of having a wedding: It’s pricey. Firstly: there are low, medium, and high-priced vendors in the wedding industry. Stick to what you can afford. I was a bride too a few years ago and my photography budget was $500. I worked in partial-trade for some vendors, saved money, and with the help of our parents, did whatever else I could innovatively think of in order to afford the wedding that I wanted. Which in this industry’s standards was a “low-budget” wedding, totaling at around $14,000 for 130 people.

Some vendors will offer small discounts if your wedding is off-season, or on a Sunday/Friday, or if you choose enough items off their list of services. But in general, it doesn’t make sense to go to a medium-range-priced vendor and ask them to lower their prices to match a low-end-priced vendor. Think of it like you have Valentino taste, but can only afford the thrift store.

There are ways to see if there is any room to move the price around. Let the vendor know right off the bat what your budget is and ask what is possible within that budget. That is the polite, respectful way to approach it. And this will also give you a clear and quick answer and save you & the vendor the time of going back and forth. They understand people have budgets, and they also always have a limit of what they can & cannot do.

However, the least favorable way to approach it is the following (this is a real email btw):

Bride: How much would it cost for 8-9 hours of photography and the negatives? Is there a discount for Friday weddings?

Me: Please see my price list attached. Rates start at $5,500 for 5 hours of coverage. Additional hours can be added per hourly rate. The limit is 7 hours. Otherwise the additional 8th hour after that is charged at 1.5 times the regular hourly rate. Depending on which package or items you choose, I might be able to offer a Friday discount, so please let me know what you are interested in from the price list, which also includes my Associate Photographer’s rates starting at $3,800 for 5 hours of coverage.

Bride: We would really like to stay around 2000-2400 for 8 hours of photography and the edited digital files. Can we possibly make something work?”

Yea. No. We can’t. The hourly limit was clearly stated & the price list was sent. She seemed to ignore all that information and still ask for my rate to be cut by more than half, then work some crazy over-time, and then she totally blew off the option of selecting the more affordable Associate Photographer choice.

That email kind of surprised me since I haven’t gotten any hagglers for a long time. In fact, I found that 5 years ago, when I was priced low, I got tons of hagglers who always mentioned how they could get more from another photographer for a lower price in order to try and get me to reduce my rate. Hey I’ve done that too as a bride so, I get it. As soon as I was priced medium-high, I stopped getting hagglers… Interesting… (Except for that rare email response above which ironically arrived in my inbox 5 minutes after ESB’s email asking me to guest post on this subject.)

Something I would strongly recommend would be to try and find talented newbie vendors who want to build their portfolio. People say that a lot, I know, and it’s more work to find them, but that IS one option.

Then of course there’s using your resources. Ask family and friends who have specific talents to help out, as a wedding gift to you. This cuts the costs down & and also gives you a more personalized, intimate DIY feel for your wedding. I once shot a wedding which was one of the most beautiful & fun weddings I have ever been to- almost everything was done by the couple and their family and friends. It was on a friend's property; beer was brewed by the groom; bbq was grilled by friends for dinner; the bride’s brother was the officiant; mom, grandma & aunties made the cakes; friends & bride made all the decorations & invites; the groom created the ipod playlist for all the music that day…

All images by Feather Love Photography. You can view all the pretty details from Emily & Royal’s DIY wedding here…. also featured on ESB! :)

Put down those bridal magazines, and utilize the plethora of fresh, innovative wedding blogs out there more (it’s free!) to come up with unique locations and ideas. My personal favorite: backyard weddings… do your parents or friends or parents-of-friends have a cool backyard? Can you drive 30 minutes out of town to some quiet areas and see if there is a Bed & Breakfast or a restaurant with a pretty view? Have you been somewhere that you really love that might work as a good location? Emilia of Sweet Emilia Jane had one of my favorite backyard weddings: her own. We were guests at their wedding which took place at her parents’ home in Massachusetts. All DIY, budget-conscious, and absolutely beautiful.

All images by Davina & Daniel Photography. You can see the entire gallery on Style Me Pretty.

And one of my biggest recommendations is: cut down your guest list. Nobody likes to do that but I can promise you that 5 years after my wedding I can look back and cut my guest list of 130 down by at least half, easily. And if anything, I would much prefer to have a 20-guest wedding if I could do it all over again today, for a million different reasons. And btw, most brides say that, and I really wish I would have listened back then.

I shot a wedding in Carmel where instead of having a sit-down reception, they had really tasty food stations that went on all evening where guests could balance out their blood-alcohol levels by having something to munch on consistently throughout the night. It felt more like a party or a really long cocktail reception where people went from dancing, to eating and chatting, to dancing, to drinking, to eating, and it moved smoothly & was super fun. No rush. No millions-of-things-to-get-done-before-the-cake-cutting. The bride & groom got to hang out with everyone and have a good time. More importantly, the catering cost a LOT less than a sit down reception, and it tasted better. The whole thing was less… stiff. [Editor's note: YAY HEATHER!]

There are so many ways to cut costs and stay innovative but it’s hard to come up with ideas like that if you are reading traditional bridal magazines who tell you what a wedding SHOULD be comprised of, instead of coming up with what an ultimately fun party would look like if you could decide on it all by yourself. Imagine there was never a wedding before yours, start from there, and come up with ideas that would make you and your fiancé happy. Personalize it. Those are the best weddings I have ever been to or shot, and they are by far the most fun for everyone.

Here is one idea for example, depending on what your personality is like: Consider having a ‘picnic wedding.’ It’s easier to gather up & borrow 20 colorful blankets, rugs, & a bunch of floor pillows than it is to pay to rent 100 chairs & 15 tables. Have it catered by your local middle-eastern deli, buffet-style (I’ve always wanted to do that! In fact it was my initial idea and it would have been a lot better than the catering we had) at $10-$15 per head. Borrow all tableware & serveware from friends and family, mismatched looks great! Decorate by throwing decoration parties where your girlfriends come over & drink wine with you whilst watching Project Runway or Jersey Shore or whatever is entertaining that you can talk over, & make cool stuff that you can hang everywhere at your wedding. Hire a pro photographer for just two hours to cover the main event, and then provide all your guests with those cheapo table film cameras to capture the rest of the day with. Personally, the table camera shots from my wedding are my favorites. 

When you prioritize what is most important and what is least important to you, you can spend more money on your higher-priorities like location, food, photography, alcohol, dress etc. Also browse for more “contests” on blogs to get some potential freebies that will free up your budget for other priorities. Broke-Ass Bride is great with posting contests & stuff like that and she has tons of other great ideas too.

To summarize, I would focus on creative ways to make your wedding fit your budget more, and focus less on the vendor-haggle: Have an off-season, Friday/Sunday/weekday wedding. Let vendors know your budget & ask what can be done with it. Use the lovely, fresh ideas & resources available on blogs to inspire you. Find a cool backyard. Have an ongoing cocktail reception with food stations instead of dinner. Cut that guest list down- way down. Get your friends and family to help make decorations & invites etc. Get grandma, mom and the aunts to make the cakes/desserts. Look on etsy or ebay for a pretty, vintage, non-traditional, non-wedding dress for under $200. Find talented new vendors that are just starting out and get their rates… You will end up with a more affordable, personalized, intimate wedding plan that will look rad, feel rad, taste rad, and might spark the interest of some creative vendors enough for them to offer you some discounts, because they love being able to show off their unique work in the blog world. 

Or alternatively, apply for a new credit card to pay for everything you really want. But please don’t haggle.

(Top photo of Noa herself by Chloe Aftel. See the whole amazeballs shoot here. Almost makes me want to do my own photo shot before I get... you know. Old.)

Heather gets married in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Remember "Heather"?

First she couldn't decide whether to get married in NYC or California. And then she wrote in because people kept giving her unsolicited advice about the wedding night.

Whelp, she did it. She got married in Carmel-by-the-Sea. (With the fabulous Feather Love snapping photos.)

Heather's name is actually Angela. And she just got back to us with this report:

i am VERY glad i got married in california. i mean, carmel-by-the-sea is the epitome of california with its forests and ocean views. having a wedding in nyc would have been so ridick.

wedding night went fine. no sexy times since we were so damn tired, but we had that awesome house for a week, so there were definitely sexy times then. :p absolutely no regrets of fam being there. they all left the monday morning after the wedding anyway.

(Check out Feather Love and Spun Sugar Suite for more photos)

what to wear to a boudoir shoot

Hi ESB,

I have a question for you. I won a boudoir shoot with a local photographer and I'm excited to really own it for myself, step into character a bit, and come out with some great photos. However, I don't really want the standard be-sexy-for-him poses I often see. I want to be sexy-for-me (which of course translates into sexy for everyone, but whatever).  So, I'm looking for non-trite boudoir style "clothes" and accessories that won't kill the bank.  I loved Feather Love's shoot here, but I'm looking for even more ideas too. If you have local LA store, hair, and makeup recommendations, that would be super, though I won't complain about good online resources too. 

Thanks!

-B

*****

You know what I think is sexy? The naked body.

You know what isn't? A "boudoir shoot." Ick.

Image by She Hit Pause via Art Threat

terrarium centerpieces PLUS vintage owls??

I put these photos up as fast as Feather Love sent me the link.

Hellooooo. Somebody is gonna freak out.

Surprise Wedding? F*ck Yes!

Meegan & Jean-Loius invited 150 people to an "engagement party" at her parents' house in Costa Mesa, and then she sauntered out in a white dress.

Looks like a terrif party, no? Tons more photos by the fabulous Noa on the Feather Love blog.

Emily & Royal's Amelie-meets-Fiddler-on-the-Roof wedding

Finally! Noa's photos and all the sweet details from the long-anticipated (by me, anyway) feather love wedding.

Here's what Emily had to say:

Where to begin? Our wedding planning was a journey… and it was well worth all the time and effort! We wanted every detail of our wedding to reflect who we are and what we love. We chose Friday evening because we wanted our guests to be able to relax and have a good time with the weekend still ahead of them. The location was at Michael and Laura’s beautiful creek side property. The property was really the perfect palate for all the sweet details. We wanted the ceremony to be very intimate, and that’s how it turned out! I’ve always loved the wedding in “Fiddler on the Roof” and it inspired us to have our guests stand around us during the ceremony. My mom walked me down the flower petal path to our friend on the piano playing Yann Tiersen “Comptine D’un Autre Ete” (from the movie Amelie). We stood under a Chuppah draped with lace tablecloths that belonged to my great grandmother.





The Chuppah was made from wood found on the property the night before the wedding- not procrastinating at all… Our family spoke for the ceremony and my brother officiated the ceremony, so this made it all the more emotional and personal to us.


For the reception we rented picnic tables and Royal hung wire from the trees surrounding the area to hang the old fashioned lights over the tables. The lights looked like they were suspended in mid air, and the area had such a romantic feel about it. The feast turned out amazing! Royal and I have always had a soft spot for Mediterranean food because that was the meal of our first date, and the night we got engaged. Our friends Zach & Amy made the whole meal from scratch (they are now getting many suggestions to start a catering business)! The meal was family style so all the food was ready to go on the picnic tables when the guests sat down. We wanted the meal to have a communal feast feel, so everyone was able to sit and immediately serve themselves up some good food, without waiting in a line. Zach grilled the lamb on site the day of the wedding, and on the tables we had humus, tabouleh salad, and pita bread. My sister made the best sangria ever, and Royal and Michael brewed three kinds of beer on the property.





My mom and aunt made the three cakes, and we had my grandparents’ wedding cake topper. There is a French patisserie in Portland that Royal and I absolutely love, with our two favorite desserts, the Royale, and the Amelie (our French names!), so we had them make us large versions of the desserts. Somehow the two desserts imploded on the car ride over and could not be saved, so we had the small versions instead… I didn’t notice until we were cutting the cake that they looked unusually “mini,” but I was too happy to be bothered.


Almost all the decorations were hand made. It seemed like for days we were making tissue paper puffs… We made doily garlands, and ribbons with flowers hung from the trees. Royal’s mom sewed the runners on the tables. My friend Natalie is becoming quite the florist and helped me choose the flowers that she arranged in glasses, bowls, and jars that we had thrifted. The property felt magical and we really wanted our friends and family to explore all the areas, so my sister sketched and printed maps for all our guests that illustrated the different areas to walk to and hang out.



We hung paper lanterns down a tunnel of a path that led to the creek where we had a secluded spot for a couple to sit at a bistro table and chairs. Instead of doing a picture slideshow we hung photos of us from a wire line with clothespins. There was a vintage tent on a wood platform beside the creek with chairs for people to relax at. We had a bonfire area where kids could make s’mores that went late into the night.



I caught myself many times throughout the night standing and looking at the beautiful scene of our friends and family all having a good time together in such a magical place, and many times it would take my breath away. Overall the celebration turned out perfect. Royal and I both felt like it was our “coming out” as a couple. We are so happy with our wedding!


PS- many people wonder if Royal is Jewish, and although I always wanted to marry a Jewish boy, he is not- we just like their wedding traditions. (Editor's note: Jewish or not, please observe how well Royal wears his suit. Whether it is two-button or three-button, the bottom button of a suit jacket should always be left undone.)

p.p.s. There are a kajillion more photos on the feather love blog.