Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts

That is the title to an amazing book that Rob and I are going through right now. With the divorce rates so high here in the US and throughout the world, it really shows just how difficult marriage can be, and more tragically, just how easy it is to fail at it.

A lot of couples, and rightly so, spend a ton of time planning for the marriage day. The problem doesn't like in the amount of time that is spent planning for a wedding, but more in the lack of time planning for a marriage. If we, as future brides and grooms, spend so much time planning for day one of our marriages, then how much more time should we spend planning for day two, day three hundred and day four thousand?

This book, Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts by husband and wife authors (with the same first name!) Dr. Les Parrott III & Dr. Leslie Parrott, is such a valuable tool for preparing for marriage. It anticipates small problems that can turn into bitter nagging or resentment such as who does what chores around the house or unspoken 'rules'. It also talks about more deep issues such as emotional baggage that both sides bring into the relationship as well as the all important skill of resolving conflict in a loving way that builds up the marriage instead of breaking it down.

Rob and I aren't done with the book yet, but we already can't recommend it enough to everyone that we know, even if they're already married. It's never too early or too late to have a great marriage!!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Asbury Park Press Engagement Announcement


Not sure if anyone grabbed the APP today, but Rob and I have our engagement announcement in there! =) Nice and big too because Craig's picture of us deserved to be bigger than a 1"x1"!!


Saturday, June 27, 2009

Jaime and Bobby




Yesterday I had such an amazing wedding at Fairleigh Dickenson with Jaime and Bobby! There's not much better than having a beautiful sunny ceremony followed by some fierce storm clouds for their pictures. What's even better is I was able to upload their slideshow to facebook and tag Jaime in it right there at the reception! That's one good thing about working in hotels, free WiFi!

I'm off to shoot Megan and Rod's wedding today so I've gotta run, but here are some favs from Andres and I! (View original post in facebook)

Pictures can be purchased at http://www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com/ and the DVD can be ordered through the slide show.

EnJOY!

~Vj


Thursday, June 25, 2009

One day left to vote!


One day left!


As you may already know, my fiancée Rob and I were both nominated for the My Fox Philly Best of the Shore HOT LIST for wedding video and photography!!!
It's all based on votes and no, you don't have to have had either of us shoot your wedding to vote. It takes about two minutes and is super easy to do.

Please please PLEASE vote for us!

Vote for Vanessa here:
http://myfoxphilly.cityvoter.com/vanessa-joy-photography/biz/302907

Vote for Rob here:
http://myfoxphilly.cityvoter.com/rob-adams-productions/biz/302635

If you've never seen our work (although I hope most of you have!) check out our websites below!

http://www.vanessajoy.com/

http://www.robadamsproductions.com/

What's even more fun is that the current standings have been taken away so we don't know who's in the lead or who is the winner until the contest is over. SUCH SUSPENSE!!!
Thanks a million!!!!!


~Vj

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I love seeing my work on other sites!

Hehe...here's one Toby put up on the Eatontown Lions site!

Thanks!

Vj

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Wedding Planning Book

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I did, in fact, buy a wedding planning book. Now, before you get all up in arms, know that I did buy the smallest one I could find and so far I've only used the first two pages of it just to double-check to see if I missed anything (which btw, I did not). :-)

But what was really interesting in this whole thing was flipping to the photography section and reading the questions that these authors tell their un-knowing brides to ask. Now, first of all, most of these questions haven't been revised since 1990, but on top of that, they all have the same irrelevant questions! Here are some of my favs:

1. What is the name of the photographer?

- I really hope this was established before the meeting!

2. What percentage of your business is dedicated to weddings?

- I think I understand where this is coming from, but it doesn't really hold any relevance to whether or not the photographer will be a good fit for you unless you're holding out to make sure that during the week your photographer doesn't photograph children or something.

3. What type of equipment do you use?

- Unless you are a photo hobbyist yourself, you're not going to know (or probably care about) the difference if I say Nikon d300 or Canon 5d. A better question would be "Are you still using the ancient art form known as film?" :-)

4. Do you visit the ceremony and reception sites prior to the wedding?

- A good question to ask before the internet was invented. It is good to ask if a photographer has been to your venue, however, if you have a good photographer who knows his/her stuff, you won't have to worry about your photographer having been to a certain location because he or she will know the best place to shoot the second they walk into a room.

5. Are you skilled in diffused lighting & soft focus?

- Oh, this is my absolute FAVORITE question of all time. Someone please tell me the importance of this to the average bride.

6. Can you retouch negatives?

- Totally out-dated. A good question would be "Do you retouch the pictures that go into the wedding album(s)?"

7. Can negatives be purchased? If so, what is the cost?

- Again, totally out-dated. A good question would be "Do you offer the high resolution images without a watermark?"

8. Do you develop your own film?

- Out-dated again. The up-to-date question would be something like "Do you edit your own work/design your own albums, etc?" A lot of photographers send out their 'extra' work. Some people see this as a negative, meaning that the photographer isn't doing everything himself by hand. Some see this as a positive, meaning the photographer has a whole team of companies that are experts at what they do doing his work more quickly than if he were doing it himself. Take your pick. :-)

But not all questions were bad; here are some that are important:

1. How many years of experience do you have as a photographer/Approximately how many weddings have you photographed?

- Very important, you don't want someone who has only shot their friend's weddings.

2. Who will be the person shooting my wedding?

- This is very important. Many larger companies book a ton of weddings and, quite literally, hand out jobs on a piece of paper the week before the event to a list of photographers that they have available that weekend. I recently had this happen with a bride of mine who came to me 3 weeks before her wedding after canceling with her other photography company because they hadn't assigned her a photographer yet and they weren't returning her phone calls. So scary!!!

3. What is your payment policy? What is your cancellation policy? Do you offer a money-back guarantee?

- All very important things to know, most of them not deal-breaking, but you want to make sure you're aware of how things go with the photographer that you're choosing because everyone has a different policy.

4. How intrusive will lighting, tripods, other equipment or assistants be?

- This is SO important! Do you want to remember your day by how annoying your photographer was? Naturally, you're with your photographer the entire day...but the idea is that you don't really notice it most of the time. This goes particularly for the reception and applies for videographers too.

5. What’s your primary style? Posed and formal, relaxed, photojournalistic, creative, artistic, candid, traditional?

- This is a really great thing to talk to your photographer about because it directly affects what your pictures will look like in the end. You can, of course, really tell this by just looking at their pictures, but it's a great idea to actually discuss it and get a feel for the creative flow of your photographer.

6. How did you get started?

- This doesn't seem much more than just small talk, but the truth is it will let you into the kind of person your photographer is and their level of passion for what they do. If your photographer answers and it's a run-of-the-mill, dry, unenthusiastic response...then you can pretty much expect the same attitude from them the day of your wedding. You want someone (and btw, this applies to every vendor you hire) who is passionate and excited about what they do. Someone who'll light up when they get to talk about their photographic journey to the place where they are today. Haha, I have to stop now or I'll ramble on and on about it...
~
There are a few more basic questions that are on there dealing with pricing and details, but what I was most disappointed about was the complete absence of any advice talking about evaluating your photographer as a person. I did find it very well said in a blog I found online: "Your photographer is going to be glued to your side almost the entire day of your wedding, and if your personalities clash, it could ruin your wedding day." And it's so true! I'm there from the second you put on your dress until you cut your cake (and sometimes way earlier and later than both of those things), and since a bad personality can make anyone cringe, you really need to find a photographer that makes you feel great. Someone that'll make your wedding exciting and your "photo session" feel like fun rather than work. So get a little personal, ask them what makes them tick, just sit down and hang out, grab coffee or whatever with your potential photographer; see if they're the kind of person that you want around you on the most important day of your life. In a nutshell, and to quote myself: "Find a photographer that you love, who just happens to take photographer that you love too."

My take on wedding books is that you have to take what they tell you and make it apply to you and what you want on your wedding. After all, you are what it's all about, (not the hokey pokey...that's why it should be banned from being played at weddings), right?
~Vj

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Lucy and Jon

It's always fun re-uniting with old friends...but it's even more fun when you find that they've become wedding photographers themselves! Erin and I go way back to the crazy Christmas rushes of a children's portrait studio called Kiddie Kandids where we first learned what fast-paced photography actually means. We recently shot a wedding together for Lucy and Jon and had a beautiful time! I have tons of favs so they're in the slide show, but I couldn't help pulling out a few of my super-favs too!



Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rain rain go away!!!!

So I took a look at the forecast, feeling hopeful that maybe, just maybe the rain that's been here for the past month or so straight, would go away. And this is what I found:



It looks like tomorrow is my only day in the next 10 days to "partly" see the sun through the "mostly cloudy" skies.

:-(

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Phil Wellington Memorial Tournament

A while ago Toby Stark, President of the Lions Club, asked me to photograph this upcoming tournament and I was more than happy to do it. This event was to help raise money to benefit the Fisher House™ Foundation (http://www.fisherhouse.org/). The Fisher House™ program is a unique private-public partnership that supports America's military in their time of need. The program recognizes the special sacrifices of our men and women in uniform and the hardships of military service by meeting a humanitarian need beyond that normally provided by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

It also benefitted the Captain James M. Gurbisz Foundation whose mission is to work with at risk children in the Eatontown area. This foundation hits home a little bit more as the foundation was founded after the death of Captain James Gurbisz in Iraq. Jimmy Gurbisz graduated from Monmouth Regional High School only a few years before me and his death affected not only myself, but deeply hurt my close friends who knew him personally for years.

It was an honor to be a part of this event, and it was great seeing some old friends from high school as well. Check out the slide show below (as always facebook-ers, view original post!).
Thanks so much to Ed Carnes for taking this picture! Haha, it's always fun to be asked to stand on the other side of the camera!!


~Vj

Pictures can be ordered at www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Kyleigh's Prom Pictures!

You may remember Kyleigh as being one of my amazing models for Heather's photo shoot two or so posts down. Well, needless to say when I heard about her prom coming up, I HADDDDDD to be there! Purely selfish reasons of course, try out my new 50mm 1.2 on a person, take a look at the dress that her mom, Peggy, made. Yes, that's right, Peggy made a dress using a photo of a $7800 dress as inspiration and WOW did it come out amazing. I'm currently working on ways to bribe Kyleigh to let me wear it for my rehearsal dinner. But really, with all the smaller reasons that I wanted to go, I really just wanted to be a part of Kyleigh's night and I knew that I could give her something priceless in my photography.

It really was so much fun taking detail pictures and then some really fun pictures with all of her friends. I was also asked to take pictures of some people's sons and daughters and I felt so privledged to be able to help out. It really was a great time.

Thanks so much to Megan and Rod for giving me this song idea!!

EnJOY!

Pictures can be ordered at http://www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com/.

Ali's Sweet 16

Normally, my company doesn't do Sweet 16s, but when I heard about Denise planning her daughter's Sweet 16, I knew I wanted to be involved. One of my favorite photographers, Erin, shot this Sweet 16 for me and I couldn't be happier with the results! I had such a fun time editing the pictures and putting the slideshow together; it reminded me of my own Sweet 16 (oh so long ago...haha).

Happy Sweet 16 Ali and kudos to Denise for putting together an amazing party!!!

Pictures can be ordered at www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com.




Pictures can be ordered at http://www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com/.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Compliments We Don't Hear...


...At least without brides like Sarah! You may remember Sarah from her sweet engagement session with future hubby Stephen. Sarah is a wiz with online communities for weddings and really just loves photography overall. So when I put her slideshow up on my blog and on facebook, she received a ton of compliments that I would've never seen if she hadn't e-mailed me them. How great is that? We all need a little pick-me-up now and then, so what's better than someone sending you a list of people complimenting your work along with discovering your work on other people's blogs and websites? Like Sarah's Wedding Planner, Deniesha Joseph of Couture Events by D. Check the blog out here and my e-mail from Sarah to the left (click to enlarge)!




=) Thanks Sarah! You made my day!
~Vj

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Heather Hair + Moss Makeup = Phabulous Photos


Being the known photographer in my group of friends has some great advantages, especially when my circle of friends include hair and makeup artists extraordinaire. Heather, who is not only doing my hair for my wedding, but is so good at what she does she travels around the country teaching people what she does, asked me to take pictures for a competition she's entering in Italy. Well, combine that with the efforts of makeup artist Yvonne Moss and the beauty of Kyleigh and Taylor and, um, WOW!!!!!

I've been waiting to share these with you until the contest deadline, and it's been hard to do so! It was equally as hard to narrow them down, and then when I finally did that, it was even harder to decide what "feel" I wanted to give each image. This is hands down my favorite non-wedding venture I've done in a long time!

There are some great behind-the-scenes things here also like the diamond cut scissors (and I thought my equipment was expensive!), Yvonne sewing Taylor into her dress and me directing Taylor's posing.

EnJOY!


~Vj