Yesterday we sheepishly shared our first foray into film photography. And by foray, I really mean that we simply picked up a camera with film in it and clicked the button. Even though we make a living surrounding ourselves with beautiful photography, we actually don’t know the first thing about it from a technical perspective. So to use a fancy shmancy camera ourselves was scary and exciting and somewhat laughable as we kind of felt like total posers.

I should probably take you back a bit to explain why we wanted to try out a film camera in the first place. When we were out in Mexico, speaking at Jose’s photography conference, we chatted up all of the photogs there about the types of cameras they use, why they love their chosen lenses, what they use to photograph their kids, etc. Mainly, we wanted to use the conference as an opportunity to learn about the way that photographers work and why they choose the tools that they do. To make SMP a better place for photographers AND to selfishly steal a few nuggets of wisdom to which we could use on our kiddos. Most attendees were shooting digital though were experimenting with film, oftentimes with beautiful results.

Two weeks later, feeling totally inspired but back to the daily grind, we found a package on our front steps. Inside was a camera, a lens and a few rolls of fuji film. Sent by the coolest of cools, Brian Greenberg from Richard Photo Lab. Another speaker at Jose’s conference. He had graciously sent us one of his own cameras to try  (which, oh crap…I still actually have…brian, I am putting in the mail TODAY) before we took the leap. Most of these photos are from Brian’s camera. A Canon EOS Elan 7. With a few from the Canon 1Vs sprinkled in.

This first series literally makes my heart melt. I shot it in our mudroom which oddly enough has the best light in the house. W was just doing a little exploring, particularly with the camera itself, and I just snapped away. Most of the pics from this moment were great because of A. the adorable subject and B. the great lighting and camera I scored.

Who knew that snow made the perfect backdrop for pretty pictures. I’m sure all of you photogs did but I certainly didn’t. The white just danced around and the little kids literally sparkled. Especially my sweet princess, Auddles and bottles of beer (otherwise known as Audrey).

The shots of W are using Brian’s camera. Shots of the yard are with the new canon 1V. At 5 in the morning when the sun was just barely coming up. I thought the yard looked so so pretty, so I ran out and snapped a few. It was very photographer of me.

More of the same. This time with T behind the lens. And me in front.

Although a great black and white portrait kind of trumps all in my book, I am partial to color photography for day to day inspiration. I love seeing the kids as they are, the tears, the crystal blue eyes, the pink little lips that I just want to smooch. And I have to say that Brians camera did an incredible job. I have no clue if it was the camera or the film or the lighting or a combination of everything. I’m sure we’ll figure it out over time.

So there you have it. The first time we ever picked up a fancy film camera. Thank you so much to Jose and Joel and Brian for inspiring us to buy one of these babies. I think it’s officially the best gift I’ve ever given Tait. Who has become quite the photographer by the way and who I constantly have to remind to put. the. camera. down. and. help. me. with. the. damn. kids.

Okay, so this isn’t a lesson in film photography. Not even close. But is definitely a celebration of it. Namely, of our new Canon EOS-1V with it’s very own 50mm f/1.2L lens. A gift that I lovingly and nervously bought for Tait for his 35th birthday a few weeks back.

Let me preface by saying that we are the greenest of green photographers and simply wanted a camera that would take beautiful images of our beautiful children. But we needed the camera itself to do the heavy lifting because we admittedly know nothing about using a film camera and honestly don’t have the time right now to learn. So I turned to the experts to guide the way. Our sweet friends, Jose Villa and Joel Serrato. Jose wrote a little blurb about the camera and the lens in his gorgeous book, but knowing that we were so very new at this, he and Joel also made us our very own how-to-use-the-camera video that I also gifted Tait. Beyond, I know.

Okay, now to the images themselves. We’re starting with the black and whites today and will explore the color photos manana. All images were processed to perfection by Richard Photo Lab. Reminder: this is the first time that we have EVER picked up a film camera (aside from those little ones we used in 7th grade), the first time we’ve ever personally created that great little sound when you click the button, the first time we’ve ever used the manual setting to photograph anything.

William. He’s our loving and unknowing subject who gets a huge kick out of the camera itself which we think makes for some pretty cute pictures. He’s a smiling ball of funny and since the girl literally runs away from the camera, he is also the proud recipient of our camera obsession. That’s my sweet mom in the middle, giving her boy lots and lots of lovin.

Chloe, the dog. The other child that gets a lot of camera love. And generally hides her face because being a star is hard work and frankly, she’s over it.

My sweet girl with the crazy hair. This is straight out of the sack so forgive the Einstein-esque do. Normally, it’s curly and more comparable to Shirley Temple. She kind of hates the camera. She hides, pouts and doesn’t even make an attempt to cover her annoyance. But, and this is a big but, she’s coming around. When she saw that the first batch of pics was mostly William…that lit a little photogenic fire under her you know what and we’re hoping that more photos of the girl are just around the corner.

I told you. The boy takes center stage and it has nothing to do with his kissable lips and his absolutely precious expressions. We love both children equally, I swear. It’s only because he thinks the camera is another one of his many toys and he’s more than happy to play with it.

My father-in-law. He’s handsome isn’t he? And when you put my sweet baby boy on his lap…well, he’s a total lady killer. Both of them are. And the sweetest little girl in the world, William’s cousin Leah. They are the best of friends.

Okay, so here’s what we love about our new camera. We have these amazing, archival images that we’re proud to display. We love that with the click of a button, we can capture the kids in a way that we feel them every day. The grainy, kind of tactile quality of the images is so beautiful to us. So timeless, so lovely. Oh and waiting for the images to be developed, kind of forgetting about it, then getting an email from the awesome peeps at Richard Photo Lab to let us know that they are ready…is like a grown-up’s version of Christmas.

Here’s what we don’t love. We kind of suck at photography. Which means that for every 24 or 36 photos, we have a ton of bad apples. Which is makes us sad.  And although we knew this before as we’ve always bowed our heads to the greats, it’s a well orchestrated circus trying to get everything in line all at once…the lighting, the composition, the fact that the subject is a thinking, moving thing that runs away and blinks and makes weird faces. It’s not nearly as easy as it looks. Something that we suspected but have unequivocally proven.

Bottom line, though…we luuuuuuurve our new camera. And the amazingness that has since come from it and will soon find itself framed and hanging pretty on our walls. We do really need some serious photo tutorials. And practice. But I think that all in all, we’re super duper happy and can’t wait to keep exploring our fun new toy. We’ll show you some of the color pics tomorrow!

Welcome to the New Internet

Does the web look a little different today? Perhaps you noticed that Google, Wikipedia, reddit, and several other sites are all trying to get you to put down your mouse, pick up your phone and call your congressmen and express your opposition to some strange bill called SOPA. So what is SOPA? Normally I’d provide you with a Wikipedia link to a well written article describing exactly what SOPA is, but if you’re reading this on 01/18/2012 that link wouldn’t work. Wikipedia is blacked out right now in an attempt to get your attention and show you what very well might happen to them if this bill passes.

What am I talking about? Mashable explains the most far reaching aspect of SOPA:

Any site that allows users to post content is “primarily designed for the purpose of offering services in a manner that enables copyright violation.” The site doesn’t have to be clearly designed for the purpose of copyright violation; it only has to provide functionality that can be used to enable copyright violation.

Mashable goes on to explain what happens to sites accused of violating SOPA. Discussing  section 103(b) Mashable states:

Payment providers (section (b)(1)) and ad networks ((b)(2)) are required, upon receiving a claim against a site by a copyright holder (section (4)(A)(i)), to cut off all services to the accused site within five days, unless they receive a counter-notification from the operator of the accused site. Note that there is no requirement that the accused be notified of said accusation, and thus, they would have no opportunity to provide a counter-notice.

In other words, if a copyright holder files a claim alleging Wikipedia, one of the world’s largest collections of user generated content, somewhere… on one of it’s millions of pages… is infringing on their copyright — any payment providers or ad networks that work with Wikipedia will no longer be allowed to serve it.  No notice or due process need be provided to Wikipedia.

SOPA and the Wedding Industry

SOPA’s impact and support in the wedding industry always intrigued me because I felt that it had a chance to divide two large vendor groups:  photographers and cinematographers. Photographers might be tempted to support SOPA. After all, it’s going to give them more power to defend their copyrighted works. Cinematographers might be a little more leery about supporting  a bill whose  main sponsor, the RIAA, might be empowered to sue them for damages if they use unauthorized  copyrighted songs in the wedding videos they produce and post online.

I’ve always figured that photographers simply capturing still images of a couple’s big day were immune to copyright infringement claims but I can’t say that I know for sure. I do know that SMP has received more than one very threatening letter from attorney’s of stationers telling us that we’d better pull a photograph from our web site b/c the DIY’d invitation featured in the photograph looks just like the copyrighted work of their client. Whether these letters are straight posturing or legit legal threats I have no idea. If they are the former , then photographers who chose to post their work on their website have plenty to worry about too.

Of course Style Me Pretty would never knowingly feature a DIY replica of a stationer’s work. A simple email gets this type of content removed from SMP faster than you can reload your web browser. While cease and desist letters are overkill and make me – and other SMPers – very stressed out, I’m happy to live in a world where notification must precede any punishment brought against us. SOPA, would change all that. No warning. No due process. For SMP and other sites that make our livings online this is one of the scariest part of this legislation.

If you have a few minutes today, read up on the proposed legislation called SOPA. There are lots of great online articles out there weighing the pros and the cons. But on January 18, you’ll have to resort to someone other than Wikipedia as a reference. They are taking a stand against SOPA.  For if SOPA passes, Wikipedia and much of the internet as we know it, will look a whole lot different.

What are your thoughts on SOPA?  We’d love to hear from you.

Wow, I can’t believe how long it’s been since we wrote on backstage.  I’m a little embarrassed for us.

The Eiffel Tower at dawn.  Photography by Tristan Nitot

There’s an interesting discussion happening recently on the web.  It’s especially relevant given the recent developments with SOPA and PROTECT-IP.  Take a look at the following articles.

• This Photograph Is Not Free – hackernews discussion
• This Photograph Is Free – hackernews discsussion

I thought this little debate was relevant to our industry.  Wedding Photographers grant SMP and other blogs use of their photographs in hopes that the exposure they get will bring them new clients.  Even today, almost 5 years after the launch of Style Me Pretty, I still sense a little uneasiness about this practice by photographers.

If there are any photographers or photo copyright holders out there we’d love to hear from you.  Has sharing your photographs on blogs helped your business?  Have you had any experiences where another person has taken your photograph and tried to pass it off as their own? Do you feel that letting the world enjoy your art for free is fair?  Leave a comment below and let us know.

Happy Monday! Tait and I have a saying in our house…TGIM! Thank goodness it’s Monday. Total cheese, I know…but we love our Mondays. Why? Well, for one, our jobs kick some serious butt, so we get excited every Monday morning when we get back to the computer and start the fun. But two, Monday is the day that we get to drink full, hot cups of coffee, grab a quick lunch out without car seats or strollers, kick back and indulge in total grown-up time. Which we also love.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. So, I have a new obsession that I thought you guys would love to know about. Beware though, it’s totally and completely addicting. It’s a little site called chartbeat that documents your site stats in almost real time. And it’s awesome. Here’s a look at our chartbeat site this past Friday.

See that little red line? Well, that shows how much our traffic is up from last Friday. The number on the left shows how many people are visiting the site at any given moment and the Top Pages section shows which pages are being trafficked right then and there. They turn green when people come and red when people leave.

The next section shows Traffic Sources (where your incoming links are coming from) and your geographic breakdown. The geography section changes wildly when other countries are in their peak workday hours which is kind of cool to see.

Anyway, just thought I would gift you with one more little something to totally distract you from doing real work. I hope this week brings lots of fun and excitement to you and that you have as much fun as I do checking out just how well your site does!

I’m always interested in new and different ways that wedding vendors use technology to market themselves.   That’s why I was very excited to see that Nancy Liu Chin released the first iPhone app by a wedding vendor.  You can download her app for free at the following URL:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nancy-liu-chin-designs/id376955540?mt=8

If you are a wedding vendor wondering how to “mobilize” your content, take a look at Nancy’s iPhone app for inspiration.  In creating this application Nancy found a great way to translate the content she already has online to the mobile world. You can read the most recent 10 blog posts via her iPhone App.  You can also read several of her most recent Tweets.  Her “Resources” section contains contains great advice for brides like cost saving tips, etc.  Perhaps my favorite feature of Nancy’s application are the photo galleries of her work.  Whether or not a bride-to-be decides to work with Nancy they’ll be able to peruse photos of her work and hone their floral tastes anywhere they have a wireless signal.  This was a really smart way for Nancy to establish a reputation as an expert while broadening the reach of her iPhone app.

Earlier this year Style Me Pretty  created a mobile version of our site accessible from all phones via a web browser.  Given our experiences with a mobile site that performs fine but not great on all web enabled phones, I appreciate what Nancy did here.  She made it extremely easy and fast for iPhone customers to keep up with what she’s doing.   Navigation from one section of her app to the next is super easy.  The images in her galleries load very quickly. Next to her application, SMP’s site on your iPhone looks slow.  By building an app for the iPhone she won’t reach potential customers using other cell phones.  On the flip side, she gains more functionality, better performance and a cleaner design by building for one platform.

There was a nice write up on ReadWriteWeb discussing Google’s realtime index earlier this month. Apparently Google is going to allow publishers the ability to immediately add new articles to Google’s index via pubsubhubbub.  As the article points out, this represents a departure from how Google normally does business. Currently the GoogleBot spiders the web following links and looking for content to add to Google’s index.

What would this mean for blogs?  The implications for relatively large wedding blogs like Style Me Pretty are somewhat small. GoogleBot crawls our site quite frequently. However, smaller blogs who publish less frequent (and therefore get crawled less frequently) would have their newly published content propagated to Google immediately.

WordPress just added pubsubhubbub support as well.   If you host your WordPress blog somewhere else you can download a plugin that installs pubsubhubbub support.  Is this new WordPress plugin going to immediately change the way people consume your blog’s content?  Doubtful.  Splogs might pick up your content a bit more frequently.  However, in the coming months, as pubsubhubbub adoption proliferates, keep your eyes peeled for interesting web applications that take advantage of the real time nature of pubsubhubub.