Scott + Shawna: Married ~ Coyote Hills Country Club

Venue ~ Coyote Hills Country Club
Flowers ~ Jenny B Designs

We started the day out at Shawna's house where the gals were getting ready. Then we shot over to Coyote Hills Country Club for the ceremony. If you are in the process of looking for a venue this one is a must to check out. With their newly built outdoor ceremony site, the lighting is beautiful. 

The Coco Palm, Pomona, Ca.

Venue / Catering ~ The Coco Palm Pomona Ca.
Dj ~ Five Star DJ - Alan Mead
Flowers ~ Casa Blanca Flowers
Cake ~ Sweet Art Cakes
Bride's Dress ~ Morilee
Bride's Shoes ~ Stuart Weitzman

Boy did I have fun at this wedding!  Some of you may remember Lola & CJ from the Rodeo Drive Engagement shoot a while back. Well, lets put it this way, Efren & I  had a blast at this wedding. The music was jammin'  the food was delicious and best of all,  the bride and groom were completely and totally in love with each other! Which totally made our Job super easy! Lola was smokin' hot wearing her  Morilee Dress as she came down the isle.  So was CJ sportin' his chocolate Tux.  When I say hot I mean HAUT!   It felt like it was 110 degrees when they came down the Isle but I really think It was just them two coming together as one. Congrats Lola & CJ.

You Gotta Love this one!

Photography Pricing

Well, I was checking out some fellow photographer blogs and i ran into a very cool blog by caught on film photography. Pamela and shawn wrote an article on why Photography is so expensive. I wanted to post it here on my blog for all of our viewers to check out and comment on. So here it is.

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?


(This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is now referred to by countless Photography websites, blogs and forums (such as LDPT, ILP and DWF)around the world).

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?
Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.
For a two hour portrait session:
- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs 
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.
You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.
For an eight hour wedding:
- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.
Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.
And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.
Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.
What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.
The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.
Conclusion
We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter
 Caught on Film Photography

Gil + Gaby = Married @ The LA River Center and Gardens

Venue ~ Los Angeles River Center and Gardens
Dj ~ The Mobile DJ .com
Catering ~
Flowers ~
Ceremony Music ~ Ken Belcher & Paul Dateh
Yesterday I had the pleasure of second shooting for a friend of mine Efren Beltran We started out the Amarano Hotel In Burbank. From there we head over to the LA River Center and gardens. All I could say is Wow! What a gorgeous Facility! With Showers in the forecast we were lucky enough to only get light sprinkles during the ceremony. Here are several images from the day from my second shooter point of view. Congratulations Gaby and Gil Collins!!!!!!!

Here's Gil bustin' out his Karate Moves!

Robert + Michelle = Engaged

Twas the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. Robert woke up super early to lay a trail of flowers from the room to the Christmas tree leading to the gifts that were to be exchanged later that morning. When Michelle woke up on Christmas day, she was greeted by the sweet smelling rose pedals that led her to the living room. As they both sat down to open their gifts Robert handed her a box then as michelle got closer to the real gift robert went down on one knee and asked Michelle to marry him.
Sunday I had the opportunity to hang out with Robert and Michelle. We walked around the Fullerton area for a few hours to photographed their engagement session Their wedding is set for April 26, 2008 at Coyote Hills Golf Course I can't wait to shoot your wedding you guys!