Last August I photographed the Cut the Ribbon, Cut the Cake event that opened up the Tybee Island Wedding Chapel to the public. David Tutera, premier celebrity event planner and host of WE-TV’s My Fair Wedding, will be the star host of Cut the Ribbon, Cut the Cake! I was there for two very hot, muggy and sugar induced days to photograph the event. During those two days there were TV interviews, meet and greets, local celebrities and youtube sensation Matt And Ginny all taking it in. This was produced by the amazing Toren Anderson AKA Town crier of excellence. I listed all the vendors that contributed that you need to know.

Vendors that you need to know!

David Tutera, Toren Anderson, Fandango Productions South, Sebrell Smith Designer Events, South Magazine, First City Events, Ashley Rhodes Events, Andy Beach, Leoci’s Trattorla, Straton Hall, Amazing Event Rentals, Royal Restrooms, Sugarplum Visions, Ocean Front Cottage Rentals, North Beach Bar & Grill, Publix, Old Savannah Tours, Atlantic Beacon Gallery, Christorpher Hornaday photography, Lowcountry Photo Booth, Savannah Floral Designs & Cloth Connection

Wide Angle Lens Can Give A Great Perspective At The Georgian Terrace

Creating leading lines in your photographs is a great way to create depth and action. This photograph was taken in the lobby of  The Georgian Terrace in Atlanta. This was the last shot of Janna and Will’s 2 location engagement shoot and I wasn’t going to have them go up and down elevators just so that I could “experiment” or “let’s see what happens.” This is a horrible was to photograph clients. It’s only okay to experiment when you’re not getting paid.

I wanted to take advantage of the architecture Will and Janna went to the first floor and stood face to face. The first thing you notice are the lines. They are leading you up and down the wall. Since our eyes are drawn to the brightest part of a photograph we typically look at the top and move our way down till we see Janna and Will.

Remember that wide angle lines accentuate distance, that is, what’s close looks really close and what’s far looks really far.  With that in mind it was important that Janna and Will not stand straight up but lean over the rail. If I didn’t ask them to do so you wouldn’t be able to see their heads very well and you certainly wouldn’t know they were kissing.

I tilted the camera up to accentuated the height of the space and with a little framing I made the click. It is important to know the nature of your lenses. This shot was the last one of the day and asking them to go up and down elevators just so that I could, “see what happens” is a little unacceptable.

Remember you don’t need an expensive camera to do this. A digital point and shoot camera will do the same. Experiment with your photos and see what leading lines you can create.

Who doesn’t love some tasty wedding cakes?

GetMarried.com is an awesome resource for brides to be so be sure to stop by.

What a great place and we will be going back. For more information and to find your local Buca di Beppo click here

William Fogler is one of the top wedding planners here in Atlanta and he showed his creativity and talent on CBS Atlanta’s Better Mornings. For more information on William visit www.wmevents.com

CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED “NEEDED INTERN”

Yup I am in need of an intern that loves social media, can write press releases, and wants to help breast cancer survivors share their stories. Here is all the info below.

FIRM: Project Storyboard (BREAST CANCER AWARENESS photo project)

LOCATION: Atlanta GA

POSITION: Social Media and PR Intern

DURATION: ASAP till Oct 10, 2010

QUALIFICATIONS:  Looking for a creative intern who is independent and original to serve as an integral part of all Marketing/Public Relations aspects of the Breast Cancer Photo Project.  Must be highly personable, organized, motivated, goal-oriented, and possess strong, witty writing skills. Must be proficient with Facebook and Twitter. Weekly communication on Project updates required.

DESCRIPTION: Project Storyboard is organizing the “To Have & To Hold” 2010 Breast Cancer Photo project. This project will include men and women breast cancer survivors and each of their stories will be told with photos and in their own words.  There will be 12 different photo shoots throughout the Atlanta area and the Intern will be required to be present at 9 of them. This project will also publish 3 books. Social media will be used during the photo shoots. Intern will write 2-3 press releases weekly and write a newsletter of updates from press releases and reminders. A Soiree will be held in October that will celebrate the release of the books and photo gallery. Team communication will be done primarily via phone and email. Will meet once a week to verify accomplished goals and determine upcoming goals. Will work with myself (the photographer) and spokeswoman for the project.

SALARY: The knowledge that you help preserve the stories of men and women with breast cancer for future generations. No financial compensation is attached to this position.

HOURS: 8-20hrs per week.

INTERESTED: Tweet #intern at @storyboardlife or Facebook message me at facebook.com/peterdoyle with subject INTERN. Or post your interest in the comment section.

Many of you know that last year I tauted the virtues of the Sony a900 and carl zeiss lenses because, thanks to Sony’s support, I was able to use them for my “To Have & To Hold” breast cancer photo shoot project. The camera and lenses are outstanding and I would certainly recommend their products. I like Sony’s marketing plan and how they are bringing a lot of quality equipment to an affordable level for the common consumer. Most consumers aren’t interested in being a pro photographer. They just want cameras that will do a great job in a variety of situations. Nobody wants to carry around a “professional” camera in their purse or pocket. In fact, it would be impossible to do and impractical to try. What’s actually happening is that SONY is going what Apple has done. They are taking cool things to the consumer. In short, they are creating a community and an experience that once you enter is hard to get out of. And honestly, once you’re in there won’t be any complaining about it.

Well, this morning I got the email saying that the a900 and carl zeiss lenses are on their way! In fact they will be here on thursday. So the count down has begun for mission “reunition” (yeah I made that word up). To read more about the breast cancer photo shoot project click here

SAD DAY

Disclaimer: I have not been paid or given anything to write this review.

A few weeks ago I closed my macbook pro for the night after editing a recent wedding. Unbeknownst to me I left my Sandisk CF Cardon the keyboard and pretty much cut the screen. It left a rather large black dot on the screen and pixels coming out all over the place . As you can image my heart sunk. Here I had a 17in screen that has now become a 15.5in screen! UG! Well, I took it over to Apple and their charge to fix it was $800.00! Now I’m not going to get into branding but Apple can charge high $$$$$ for an intact Macbook Pro experience but when it comes to parts….THERE IS NO EXPERIENCE TO UP THE COST! So I searched the net and found CRACKEDMACSCREEN.COM!

It has a great website and it’s extremely easy to navigate to find exactly what you are looking for. I first clicked on pricing. For my 17in Macbook Pro it was 499.00 and if I was not in their local area I would be sent an overnight box to pack the mac and then ship it. This was certainly reasonable considering that Apple was going to charge me 800.00 to have it fixed within 5 or so days.  I don’t think that I’m codependent but I didn’t think I could spend that long without it, I do have a business to run you know. Cracked Mac Screen’s home base is in PA so obviously I wasn’t local. So I called the number on the screen and to my surprise someone answered. Not just any someone but the guy who runs the business. You might think, “Some business if the owner is the one who is answering the phone.” My answer, “When you call my business and want ME to photograph your wedding then I’d rather be the one answering the phone.” Trevor is his name and he is very thorough in his communication with me and very very prompt. Here’s the time line:

Static Free Bag

Sunday: spoke on the phone about the process and his business. He sent me an email requesting my address so that a FREE FED EX box could be sent to pick up my Mac.

Monday: called Trevor and gave my contact info and address so that he could send the FED EX box over night to me

Snug As A Bug In A Rug

Tuesday: The box arrived about 9:30am.  Inside the box was two repair forms (one for me and on to be left in the box), a static fee bag for the MAC, and the free shipping slip for the overnight trip. Did everything I was required to which took all of 2 mins to complete and I was out the door.

Wednesday: Trevor called to let me know that the MAC was repaired and that all I had to do was pay via PayPal. NEXT TIME I WILL JUST SEND A CHECK IN THE BOX SINCE PAYPAL SEEMS A LITTLE SHADY TO ME. The payment was made and I was told that the MAC was on it’s way back. Trevor called later on in the day to let me know that the Mac was dropped off at FED EX and it should be in my hands around 10:30am on Thursday.

IT"S BACK!!!

Thursday: Got up early, showered and headed out the door. By 10:31 the MAC was back in my hands and the display looked like it did the first time I opened it up after it’s purchase.

I’m extremely happy with the service and couldn’t really ask for anymore than that which was given. In fact, take a read of the warranty:

The warranty is the same for ship-ins and local repairs. A standard 120-day manufacturer’s warranty, plus if you break your computer again within 6 months, we’ll fix it for $100. Three-way overnight shipping is free if you break it again.

As I write there are two things that I can list on the CONs side:

My mail is sent to the UPS store. Although they receive FED EX they do not ship with FED EX. Luckily there was a Kinkos FED EX near by so I headed over there and dropped it off. It seems like it would be extra trouble if there wasn’t a FED EX shipper around or the FED EX hub was a little far to drive to. It might be good to look into using UPS as well. That way all bases are covered.

It would be awesome if there was a place to just pay with a credit card online or if I could just give my credit card info over the phone. That way I don’t have to go through Sir PayPal the shady.

With that said, anything that is added to the cost of doing business is defrayed by the customer via higher prices  So although I had to jump a small hoop I was more than happy to do so for the low cost of getting it fixed. In short, crackedmacscreen.com is certainly the best place I know of to get your mac laptop screen fixed.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are the layouts from the “To Have And To Hold” photo album. This one was created by Azura albums.

I have found that most photographers have the iphone. It’s probably because of the link to the mac but as time goes on the original awesome functionality of the it will pass as does everything else. However, oceansobservations came up with some cool additions that apple could add to the iphone without creating new applications. Hence….expose and cover flow…hopefully Apple either is already working on this or just give this guy a job.