Tales of a Super Hero Pro Wedding Photographer
Black and White Photo Edition $19.99
Copyright Bill Collins 2014
:
Published by Bill Collins on CreateSpace
ISBN#: 0990487407
Prologue
Take a peek into my world!
My wife says that I always took on a totally different persona when I slipped on
my suit to go photograph a wedding. It seems that when the suit got put on and
it was time for me to leave for the wedding, I sort of became... Mr. Professional
Wedding Photographer Man...super hero: calm, cool and confident, capable and
unflappable...always able to get the job done, make brides happy and calm
anyone in my presence, able to leap tall buildings...no, wait, that's Super Man!
Regarding the super hero status that I claimed (jokingly) in the title to this book,
I did actually catch a bride as she fell from the elevated altar once, keeping her
from possibly being injured. She lost her footing and came tumbling right
towards me. I was standing at the bottom of the three or four steps that lead up
to the altar, photographing her and was able to catch her with my free arm
around her waist as she tumbled down the stairs towards me. By catching her, I
was able to keep her from falling all the way to the floor, while continuing to
hold my camera rig in the other hand. See, super hero, after all. Ha! Ha!
During the final years of a forty-five year career span, I was privileged to get to
share in and capture their most important day with hundreds and hundreds of
brides throughout the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio areas.
I always thought of myself as just a "meat and potatoes" type of wedding
photographer. I was not one of those Champaign and caviar type
photographers, who are nearly world famous in their reputations and who have
all the famous and wealthy people in the country clamoring to have them
photograph their weddings.
I was just like a thousand other hard working professional wedding
photographers in the nation, who ply their trade weekend after weekend, just
doing their jobs efficiently and well, satisfying their nearby working class clients.
That meat and potatoes view of myself was one that I never felt I could share
with potential clients, because that kind of self-view didn't help me get hired.
.
After really struggling just to make a full time living for about fifteen years in my
local market as an all services studio photographer, I really amazed myself when
I tried to move up to servicing all of Indiana, the western half of Ohio and the
Northern part of Kentucky as a full time weddings-only photographer...and
succeeded at it.
Everyone has memories of their wedding day, after all, it is the supposed to be
the most important and happiest day of their lives. As a wedding photographer,
I got to have and enjoy tons of memories from all of those weddings I got to
photograph and, for that, I am thankful.
Most people don't have a clue what goes on in the life of a full time professional
wedding photographer. Believe me, there's plenty and I believe you are going to
really enjoy learning what all I encountered, though I don't claim that every
wedding photographer's experiences are going to be anywhere near the same as
mine were. There are many humorous encounters I write about in this book
that I hope will make it a joy for the casual non-photographer reader.
Oh, the people I've met along the way and had to deal with! Some of them are
almost unbelievable and some I'd just as soon forget. Thankfully, over 99% of
them were simply wonderful.
You'll read tales about the cemetery wedding and a different cemetery reception,
the "best dog", the cat (two different cats equals two different tales actually), the
snake, the horses (again, two tales) and the rabbit. You'll simply have to find the
rabbit, he may be half hidden, but he is definitely there. Can you find him?
The rabbit is actually my hidden EASTER EGG. Find him and email me at
proweddingphotos at yahoo.com, tell me where you found him and I'll put your
name on my Wall of Fame on the next page of this book in a future update of
this book as your reward. Then everyone who buys it after that update will see
your name on my Wall of Fame. There's your 15 minutes of fame, having your
name published in a book!
An Easter Egg, for anyone who doesn't already know, is usually a hidden reward
type tidbit or animation that computer game programmers hide within their
computer game to make the gamers have to work a bit to discover it. Finding
the Easter Egg is it's own reward.
If I were to give this book a movie-like rating, I'd probably rate it a PG, as there
are a couple of fist fights mentioned and even a tiny hint of sex.
For people who are getting started in wedding photography, here is your chance
to cash in on my experiences and knowledge. That's pretty good, gaining 45
years experience in one read.
I don't know of any other wedding photographer, famous or just from the
trenches like me, that has been so willing to so openly share all of their career's
story, warts, embarrassing mistakes and all. That is what makes this book
unique and a real learning opportunity for you, as I discovered two of life's real
lessons along the way. You'll discover them, too.
My hope is that it might keep you from making some of the mistakes I did. If
you can just avoid one mistake by reading this book, it probably will save you a
hundred times the price of the book just in aggravation alone.
In Chapter Seven, I try to teach you exactly what I was taught by Master
Photographers about how to pose and build groups for photos. I paid better
than $1,000 more than twenty years ago to attend Master Photographer's
workshops where I learned all this information. I'm passing it on to you for the
taking. Enjoy, learn and use it to bring your photography up to the truly
professional level.
All the images I used in the book were pulled from Archive.org's Way Back
Machine snapshots of my now defunct website. There is no way I could have
individually located all of them within my digital image files.
Are we having fun, yet?
Bill Collins, Retired Pro Weddings-Only Photographer
Black and White Photo Edition $19.99
Copyright Bill Collins 2014
:
Published by Bill Collins on CreateSpace
ISBN#: 0990487407
Prologue
Take a peek into my world!
My wife says that I always took on a totally different persona when I slipped on
my suit to go photograph a wedding. It seems that when the suit got put on and
it was time for me to leave for the wedding, I sort of became... Mr. Professional
Wedding Photographer Man...super hero: calm, cool and confident, capable and
unflappable...always able to get the job done, make brides happy and calm
anyone in my presence, able to leap tall buildings...no, wait, that's Super Man!
Regarding the super hero status that I claimed (jokingly) in the title to this book,
I did actually catch a bride as she fell from the elevated altar once, keeping her
from possibly being injured. She lost her footing and came tumbling right
towards me. I was standing at the bottom of the three or four steps that lead up
to the altar, photographing her and was able to catch her with my free arm
around her waist as she tumbled down the stairs towards me. By catching her, I
was able to keep her from falling all the way to the floor, while continuing to
hold my camera rig in the other hand. See, super hero, after all. Ha! Ha!
During the final years of a forty-five year career span, I was privileged to get to
share in and capture their most important day with hundreds and hundreds of
brides throughout the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio areas.
I always thought of myself as just a "meat and potatoes" type of wedding
photographer. I was not one of those Champaign and caviar type
photographers, who are nearly world famous in their reputations and who have
all the famous and wealthy people in the country clamoring to have them
photograph their weddings.
I was just like a thousand other hard working professional wedding
photographers in the nation, who ply their trade weekend after weekend, just
doing their jobs efficiently and well, satisfying their nearby working class clients.
That meat and potatoes view of myself was one that I never felt I could share
with potential clients, because that kind of self-view didn't help me get hired.
.
After really struggling just to make a full time living for about fifteen years in my
local market as an all services studio photographer, I really amazed myself when
I tried to move up to servicing all of Indiana, the western half of Ohio and the
Northern part of Kentucky as a full time weddings-only photographer...and
succeeded at it.
Everyone has memories of their wedding day, after all, it is the supposed to be
the most important and happiest day of their lives. As a wedding photographer,
I got to have and enjoy tons of memories from all of those weddings I got to
photograph and, for that, I am thankful.
Most people don't have a clue what goes on in the life of a full time professional
wedding photographer. Believe me, there's plenty and I believe you are going to
really enjoy learning what all I encountered, though I don't claim that every
wedding photographer's experiences are going to be anywhere near the same as
mine were. There are many humorous encounters I write about in this book
that I hope will make it a joy for the casual non-photographer reader.
Oh, the people I've met along the way and had to deal with! Some of them are
almost unbelievable and some I'd just as soon forget. Thankfully, over 99% of
them were simply wonderful.
You'll read tales about the cemetery wedding and a different cemetery reception,
the "best dog", the cat (two different cats equals two different tales actually), the
snake, the horses (again, two tales) and the rabbit. You'll simply have to find the
rabbit, he may be half hidden, but he is definitely there. Can you find him?
The rabbit is actually my hidden EASTER EGG. Find him and email me at
proweddingphotos at yahoo.com, tell me where you found him and I'll put your
name on my Wall of Fame on the next page of this book in a future update of
this book as your reward. Then everyone who buys it after that update will see
your name on my Wall of Fame. There's your 15 minutes of fame, having your
name published in a book!
An Easter Egg, for anyone who doesn't already know, is usually a hidden reward
type tidbit or animation that computer game programmers hide within their
computer game to make the gamers have to work a bit to discover it. Finding
the Easter Egg is it's own reward.
If I were to give this book a movie-like rating, I'd probably rate it a PG, as there
are a couple of fist fights mentioned and even a tiny hint of sex.
For people who are getting started in wedding photography, here is your chance
to cash in on my experiences and knowledge. That's pretty good, gaining 45
years experience in one read.
I don't know of any other wedding photographer, famous or just from the
trenches like me, that has been so willing to so openly share all of their career's
story, warts, embarrassing mistakes and all. That is what makes this book
unique and a real learning opportunity for you, as I discovered two of life's real
lessons along the way. You'll discover them, too.
My hope is that it might keep you from making some of the mistakes I did. If
you can just avoid one mistake by reading this book, it probably will save you a
hundred times the price of the book just in aggravation alone.
In Chapter Seven, I try to teach you exactly what I was taught by Master
Photographers about how to pose and build groups for photos. I paid better
than $1,000 more than twenty years ago to attend Master Photographer's
workshops where I learned all this information. I'm passing it on to you for the
taking. Enjoy, learn and use it to bring your photography up to the truly
professional level.
All the images I used in the book were pulled from Archive.org's Way Back
Machine snapshots of my now defunct website. There is no way I could have
individually located all of them within my digital image files.
Are we having fun, yet?
Bill Collins, Retired Pro Weddings-Only Photographer