That said, for 2012 we are going to slow down a bit. As a team we did 264 events in 2011. The DJs can handle that work load no problem, but I admit I over-booked our photography and videography teams. To be honest, we got dangerously close to being late on delivery a few times. I know I’m being paranoid. I could probably just lengthen our delivery time, but I really don’t want to do that. Its important to me to get people their finished product in a reasonable time frame (45-days guaranteed or your money back!). Working 16 hour days to get wedding photos, albums, and videos delivered on time just isn’t much fun for the editing team. The classic question: Live to work, or work to live? I’ve spent the last decade living to work. But now its time to try it the other way. So, I’m limiting my own personal bookings for the year, and slowing the photo and video team down to a more manageable workload. I’m looking forward to having time for more travel, lots of reading, long distance biking, and perhaps even a few more tango lessons…..
A couple highlights from 2011:
February
Bree and Andy’s vintage inspired winter wedding. We loved Bree’s handmade bouquet, and all the thought they put into the details. And I love the old camera Bree’s mom gave me. I have it on my fireplace now so I’ll never forget photographing Bree and Andy’s wedding.
April
The launch of DIY Uplighting. It really started as an experiment. More on this later.
May
My van getting stuck in a ditch at Melvin and Katie's wedding. Okay, this wasn't really a "highlight", more of an extremely embarrassing moment that will provide years of material for jokes about what a crappy driver I am. But. Making it a highlight for me personally was the fact that I wasn't worried at all about Melvin and Katie's photos because I knew my team was so strong that they would be well taken care of. As soon as I realized I was stuck, my first thought was "no problem, Evis is already at the reception, he can do the reception photos, and Eric can handle the video by himself until somebody shows up to tow me out of this ditch". This is the power of having a strong crew. Melvin's dad just happened to have a handy tractor laying around and I made it to the reception on time, so all ended well. :)
Meeting Rob and learning off-camera flash at Tom and Amy's wedding. There's what I call old school photographers, and there's new school photographers. In my opinion, new school photographers have the "cooler" style, but old school photographers have mad skill. Lighting skills, posing skills....these guys have been shooting professionally since before digital existed. They had to get it right in camera in a reasonable number of tries so they didn't waste film. My goal is to have old school skill, with a new school style. There is very few photographers with this ability. I'm still working on it. Meeting Rob and bringing him along to photograph Tom and Amy's wedding really gave me a jump on reception off-camera lighting though. I spent the rest of the year working on that.
June
Evis and Nertila's wedding! Always an honor to work the wedding of a fellow photographer, teammate, and friend. Evis and Nertila really are made for each other, and documenting their wedding was a pleasure.
After his own wedding, Evis and his beautiful new wife jetted off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where they enjoyed a relaxing week together. On week two, I showed up to crash the party so we could work Karen and Christina's wedding. How awesome is it to shoot a wedding in Mexico? Awesome. Sooooo awesome. Somebody hire me so I can go back please?
August
Keisha and Larry's video marks the start of a new, more cinematic direction in our wedding video recap clips. This is all thanks to the artistic vision of Eric. Also known as "Cutmaster E". I used to make everyone edit at my house. I've found this to be the most efficient way of getting work done. Eric convinced me that he could do a better job from home. I've been blown away by the creativity and improvement in his work ever since.
Another favorite example from August: Chris and Sarah's wedding video.
September
Labor day weekend was the moment I realized I was doing way too much and I needed to slow Platinum Mix down a tad. This might have had to do with photographing a wedding Friday, another Saturday and then leaving the wedding Saturday night and driving 4 hours north to Bellaire, Michigan to be able to arrive in time to shoot Jenny and Jeff's wedding Sunday. I was actually downloading and backing up photo and video footage from Saturday's wedding while driving up north. I would pull over every 15 minutes to change the memory card and hit the copy button. It was totally worth it, Jenny and Jeffs wedding was amazing and I got some shots I'm proud of. I really love this one of Jenny while she was getting dressed:
October
DJing Homecomings kept us busy starting the end of September and throughout October. I'm also thrilled with the work we did for Ronnie and Meryl at their downtown Chicago wedding. http://vimeo.com/31668629
Also, congrats to Andrew (videographer) who had a baby boy! Isn't he a cutie?
November
We shot Candice and Ahmad's Love Story video in November. Our first attempt at creating a love story. Candice is a good friend, I've known her since the 9th grade. I remember when Ahmad started coming around when were about 18/19, and I am thrilled they are getting married. I'm pretty happy with the way the video came out: Love Story Video
Eric also headed out to LA to shoot a music video. Can't wait to show it off, he got some amazing shots!
December
I'm proud of the photography I did for Brittany and Nick's wedding, because all the work I did practicing with off-camera lighting is now starting to pay off. I shot their church formals at f/11 which was my goal. For the non-camera geeks, that makes all the faces in a big group of family members come out nice and sharp. Next thing to focus on is lighting the background just as nice as the foreground. Also, their video is awesome.
After Brittany and Nicks wedding, I took off to San Francisco. The launch of Platinum Mix SF is coming soon!
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