Santa Barbara Wedding Photographer

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April 28th customer from Piru wedding wrote me a positive client testimonial.
They called me a “Photo Ninja” because I took pictures without being obtrusive.
They also talked about how we were losing Sunlight very fast.

I have received total 4 testimonials in May 2006.  I want everyone to know that it’s not easy to have 4 clients volunteering to write something good about you. I am extremely proud of positive reviews I get.  My goal is to collect 100 positive reviews.

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Today’s Wedding Schedule
Wedding Location - San Fernando United Methodist Church
1:00PM - Photography before wedding ceremony.
3:00PM - Wedding Ceremony
4:30PM - Reception
7:00PM - End

I arrived at the Church on 1pm and located nice shades under the trees.
But, there was a change of plan. Photography before the ceremony didn’t take place.

Wedding is a fluid event.  It’s perfectly understandable (and expected) that things will change as the day progresses. I always go with the flow. 

Instead of 1:00PM formal photography, we did 4:00PM formal photo-shoot.
So, the shades below the trees were now gone.
Instead, we had a strong Sunlight coming from the side.
I had to move people a step at a time as the Sun moved to the West.
There were patches of think cloud blocking the Sun.
Those helped me a lot.

I used the tripod during the ceremony, because I was told “minimal use of flash”. I popped the flash several times during the appropriate moments.

All an all, I have a good feeling about this wedding.

** Added June 12, 2006 - Pictures came out. They look good. I have posted 2 images up here.

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Today’s Wedding Schedule
Wedding Ceremony 4:00pm
Photography 4:30pm
Dinner: 5:00pm
End: 7:00pm

Yes, it was a Monday wedding.
I took the day off from my job for this event.
We had a quarter inch of rain throughout the morning hours.
It was dark and rainy for the entire morning hours.

Wedding was scheduled for 4pm at Cliff House Inn at Mussel Shoals.
Around 1pm, the rain stopped and the Sun started to come out.
By 4pm, we had the best weather for the beach wedding.
This couple is blessed from the very start.

Once again, just like April 22nd wedding at Piru, people should hire me for good luck I have with rain.

Cliff House Inn - wedding picture from 2005

The Cliff House Inn
Mussel Shoals is located between Ventura County and Santa Barbara County.
6602 W. Pacific Coast Hwy. Mussel Shoals, California 93001

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I only use professional equipment, including film.
I test all my film, and I store them in refrigerator.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, anything can happen.
Both film and digital photography have their own elements that can go wrong.
One thing I worry about is quality of film.

I buy films in boxes, each box contains 20 rolls of film.
From that box of 20 rolls, I sacrifice 1 roll.
I do a test shoot. I want to make sure if the films are good.
If the test is bad, I would discard the entire box it came from.

Today, I tested 4 rolls of film.
They all seem pretty good.

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4 rolls of film & processing $32.00
Time spent = 2.5 hours.

Film in refrigerator

Actual Test Image from Film - Negative Scanned, full frame

Cropped image from above

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A wedding client from last year emailed.
She’s going to have a baby in July~!!

October 20th wedding is booked (deposit received).

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I met 2 clients after work, 6pm and 8 pm, to deliver albums.
Both of them liked the pictures.

October 15th wedding was booked (deposit received today).

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This morning, my April 8th wedding customer left me a good customer testimonial at my website.
Thank You 

Both April 28th wedding and May 6th Bar Mitzvah jobs are now ready for delivery.
Clients were contacted.  Schedules were set to deliver them in person.

I sent an email to May 22nd wedding client to check on wedding information.

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I have about 50 albums on hand.
But they are all wedding albums.
So, I went to Ross to find some albums for Bar Mitzvah.

I found 2 cool ones (good for both parents and 13 years old boy).

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Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.
Sunday is always busy, so we’ve decided to have a dinner today (Saturday).
On my way to the Valley, I dropped by at Simi Valley Photo Labs and picked up Bar Mitzvah pictures from May 6.

Pictures came out good.
I was worried about the reflections, but it turned out OK.
All the slow shutter pictures came out sharp.

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My name is John Park.
It’s not Parks.  There is no ”S” at the end.

But:
A lot of people call me Parks. Even my photography clients and some coworkers call me John Parks.  I even receive junk mail sent to “John Parks”

Every month people come to my website by searching “John Parks Photographer” or “Ventura Photo John Parks”

I don’t know if this is something I should worry about.

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I had “back to back” meetings on May 8th & May 9th.
Both meetings consisted of three people; bride, groom, and mother of the bride.
Both meetings were held at 7pm sharp. It was ironic.

I think I had total 5 meetings in 2 weeks.
I am getting behind on keeping record on inquiries & sales data.

I am very tired. I seriously need some rest.
I guess this is what they call a “Happy complain”

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I enjoyed the day off. (not vacation, just a weekend)
I went to Simi Valley Costco.
There, I found bonded leather albums at real good price.
I bought 30 of them.
They are the best wedding album I will be offering so far.
I am thinking about going back and buying 30 more albums.

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Today’s Schedule
Arrive at Woodland Hills - 9AM
No photography during the ceremony 10:00 - 11:15AM.
Reception (party) starts at Braemar Country Club. - 11:30PM
End - 3:30PM

I arrived at the temple at Woodland Hills at 9AM. Bar Mitzvah starts out as a humble and holy event. Photography is not allowed.  I had to stay outside during the ceremony.  The rabbi was a kind gentleman.  Before the worship, the rabbi staged the ceremony for me so I have good pictures. 

After the ceremony, the kids would have a lot of fun at the exclusive clubhouse in Tarzana. They started the party with 2 Laker girls. They had a lot of activities and a lot of vendors (magic, psychic, tattoo, caricature, DJ…). Today’s Bar Mitzvah was a heaven for youngsters, and a good party for gown ups as well.

I exchanged cards with the DJ and the make-up artist.
After Bar Mitzvah, I drove by to the photo lab.
I picked up last week’s wedding and dropped off today’s film (6 rolls).

I had a busy week (a few weeks straight).
I can use the day off tomorrow…  mm I would rather be busy

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Braemar Country Club
P.O. Box 570217, 4001 Reseda Blvd.,  Tarzana,  CA  91357
Phone:  (818) 345-6520
http://www.braemarclub.com/

Tatlyns
Temporary Airbursh Tattoos & Suntanning, Makeup & Hair Art
17061 Ventura Blvd Encino, CA 91316
818-981.4322
http://www.tatlyns.com/

DJ Eddie Entertainment
818-518-8887
http://www.djeddieentertainment.com/

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FYI: I have a full-time day job.

We attended Oxnard Business Expo. (We had a booth there)
I am a computer/photo guy, so I don’t do much talking.
I let my coworker (sales) do the talking with the visitors.

I took some pictures for possible use on our newsletter (and/or press release). Today, we had good Mexican food and $2.00 margaritas.

One of the chamber members had a brand new Nikon DSLR camera.
I don’t know how, but my boss ended up telling her “Ask John, he knows everything (about photography)”.
This started 30 minute conversation with her.
I took that opportunity to promote my own wedding photography business.

I came home and got ready for tomorrow’s Bar Mitzvah.
I am tired.

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A client of a recent wedding emailed.
She just learned from my web site that I sell digital scan of all the images for $100.00.
She was wondering if I can get her images scanned.
I had to tell her the bad news - that my price will be $200+ AFTER wedding.

Things are a lot cheaper when extra prints or scans are ordered at the initial printing process.  Because the photo lab can set the machine to do all that in one step.  If I order extra prints AFTER the wedding, they must repeat the process one more time.  But this time, with 60 strips of cut off negatives.  So it will take them even longer time.

I try not to be pushy with my clients. So, I don’t talk about my optional packages such as Double Prints ($100), Digital Scans ($100). and thank you cards.

Today, I’ve realized that I better talk about my optional packages as a favor to my clients. I need to figure out how I can approach this.  I don’t want to make my clients feel pressured.

I would hate to see another customer saying “I wish I would have known about your options earlier”. 

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I had a lot of activities today (many emails).

I found 2 new wedding prospects. (August & September weddings).
I also had an email communication with the existing wedding prospect. (October wedding)

August wedding will be in Riverside, and it will be bi-lingual.
I speak three languages. I would love to take that gig.
I don’t mind driving 200+ miles.
I had to charge her $25.00 for traveling.

At the end, I booked 2 meetings. (for September & October weddings).
It was a productive day.
Today isn’t over yet.

April 22nd wedding client wrote a positive customer review about me on my website

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After work, I drove to Santa Paula to return April 22nd wedding albums.
They loved the pictures.