Wrapping up our triple header of engagement sessions, we have Lauren & Mark.  This was a kind of rare morning session, so the fog had not lifted over the Presidio yet (which means great light!) It was also chilly chilly chilly.  To top it off, I think Mark was kind of ambushed by the session (he claims to have been misinformed about the days tasks).  Despite all of that, L&G were fabulous and we got a bunch of amazing shots.  We shot for a couple of hours then reconvened for our site walk through at the super lovely Beaulieu Garden.  After the walk through, we knocked out a few more shots for the e-session in the warm Napa sun. Yay! I love my job!

Happy Thursday, lovelies  Here’s a little taste of Lisa & Tom’s E-Session, shot by our Lisa (for the three Lisa trifecta, the wedding coordination will be by Lisa Z of Bellissima Vita).Great job on Make-up by the Make-Up Dolls

Today, lovlies, we bring you photos from Siobhan & Luca’s E-session. 

We, Lisa and I, can hardly wait for their upcoming wedding at Vine Hill House!  We’ll have the pleasure of working with Lisa of Bellissima Vita

Time to wrap up our Ten Questions to Ask Your Photographer series.  Click HERE to see the previous posts:

7 Do they offer both photo albums and proof books?  Why yes we do!  All of our packages include a hard bound proof book with six images printed on a letter sized page.  The proof book is a great companion to your disc of images and is (in my estimation anyway) a nicer way to go through your images than by looking at them all online.  As far as albums go, we do offer a variety of awesome albums and about 90% of our clients get an album included in their package.  That leaves about 10% of our clients with what are known as ‘Shoot and Burn’ packages.  Click here to learn more about ‘Shoot & Burn’.

8 Are high-resolution images (also known as “digital negatives” included in the contracted coverage?  For several years now all of our clients have received a disc of high resolution image files. These are the exact same files we would use to produce your albums, canvases, prints, etc…  They are all color corrected and contrast adjusted, some are black and white, some have even been lightly retouched in photoshop.  The images are delivered as JPEGS.

9 What are their travel fees, if applicable?  Travel fees will apply to any wedding outside of wine country, the SF Bay Area or along the penninsula.  When travel fees are required, they are added as a separate line to your package.  The travel fees will include airfare, hotel, car rental, etc… as a lump sum and no other fees will be required unless your needs change (change dates, need another day of coverage, change venues…  Our travel fees are generally quite modest and we don’t mark them up.  So if you like what we do but are not in the San Francisco area, you may still want to inquire about our services.  The cost of a couple plane tickets and nights in a hotel are pretty insignificant compared to the cost of your whole wedding.

10 What is the cost for exceeding the contracted time period?  Generally, overtime is billed at $400 an hour and can be billed in half hour increments.

Wow!  I don’t think I’ve ever done such wordy posts before.

I hope this series helps educate anyone who is getting started planning their wedding.  Feel free to ask any questions I didn’t answer by leaving a coomment

After the last couple of super duper wordy posts, I think it’s time for more photos.  Connie and Dan were just married at our lovely San Francisco City Hall.  Before their wedding we hit a couple of spots in Golden Gate Park, and after the ceremony it was off to Roy’s for a reception lunch with their family.

Okay, time for a second installment in my Ten Questions to Ask Your Photographer Just to recap, in case you haven’t seen the previous post, I’m answering a list of questions for your wedding photographer as found in Inside Weddings Summer 2010 edition.

3 What is the backup plan in case they fall ill or can’t do the work for any other reason? This would be a really hard situation to encounter.  Chances are slim that both of your photographers would be injured or ill to the point where neither could be at your wedding, so the more likely situation is that one of us is sick.  In that case, we would get on the phone and call all of our associate photographers first, then reach out to friends, then to friends of friends.  Somewhere in that chain of calls we would most certainly find someone to fill the shoes of the injured or sick photographer.  If both of us must be replaced, the situation is similar, we are quite well networked in our industry and we just start calling people of similar caliber to us to find someone who can shoot the wedding.  Our clients have the option to refuse any substitution and have any money they’ve paid us returned.

Fortunately we have never had to deal with this situation, but I have had to fill in for an injured photographer.  That was less than ideal, but it worked out ok.  I got  a call from a colleague who injured himself mountain biking on a Thursday before a wedding.  He needed me to fill in on Saturday! So, I put on my wedding appropriate attire, packed up my gear and went to meet a bride I’d never met before at her wedding.  Weird :-/

4 What happens to your deposit in the unlikely event you need to postpone or cancel your wedding? When you sign a contract with us, a non-refundable deposit is required to lock in your wedding date.  If you postpone or cancel, that deposit is not returned   The only exception to this would be if we were able to book another wedding in your place, then we would refund the deposit.  I can recall only two times that we have had an outright cancellation and another two times we’ve had postponements.  The big problem here as far as we are concerned, is that most weddings book 7-10 months out, so if a wedding date is cancelled 3 months before the date chances are very slim we will be able to re-book that day. Your deposit can be transferred to another date if you reschedule, provided we are available for that date.

5 Will the photographer contact you before the wedding to go over details like last-minute changes to the schedule (i.e. rain plan for doing your formal portraits indoors)? Yep, we will touch base with you a few weeks before your wedding to nail down time line details, locations, family shot lists, etc…  Often, we even do this in person at your wedding site so we can have a little ‘face time’.  For a rain plan, we would figure out our options or maybe accept that we would have to do your bride and groom portraits on another non-rainy day.  Knock on aluminum and plastic (my keyboard), we’ve never had a significant change of plans caused by rain or other bad weather.

Stay tuned for part 3 in this series…