Category

Personal

My WHY am I a photographer

By | Behind the Scenes, For Photographers, Personal, weddings | No Comments

There’s a lot of things you don’t know about “old photographers” – I don’t just mean the retired ones or the ones who did photos before photos were digital. I mean the ones who have been doing it for more than a decade maybe a few decades. That’s “old” in a a creative industry where thousands of new “photographers” get their first camera for christmas every year and lots of “professional photographers” burn out and change jobs like a comet flashing across the universe into darkness. For those of us who have been at this so many years it’s not just what we do anymore, it’s who we are – sometimes we get to do one of those jobs where we call up our photog friends like I did and say “I got to shoot one of those jobs today, the ones that remind you why you started all this…

Read More
reasons to print pictures

The power of pictures

By | Personal, What to do with your images | No Comments

Every client I meet whether it’s for a wedding, a family portrait session, or even senior pictures, I always talk about the reasons why we are shooting the photos, the end result.  I want to actively discuss the purpose of why we are investing the time and money into making these photos together.  I pull out my leather albums, describe BIG images, and talk about framing services, and outfits.  But we don’t talk about the REAL reasons, and I think it’s time we did. When I urge you to print your photos, it’s not a sales pitch, it’s a crusade.  Like a lot of things in life, the power of pictures is not something we often appreciate until it’s gone. Right now, in the age of instagram, snap chat, and smart phones – we are snapping selfies and photographing more of life than ever, but if the power went out…

Read More

Our 2017 Shoot & Share Contest Results!

By | Behind the Scenes, Personal | No Comments

In parts of the world where the weather gets brutal, photographers have a lot of downtime in the winter months.  One of the things we do to keep ourselves in the zone and gear up for the following year is to enter some of our favorite images into contests like Shoot & Share.  What is the Shoot & Share Contest?  It’s a completely anonymous photo competition hosted online that anyone can enter, and anyone can vote on.  That way no one knows whose photos belong to who when they’re voting and the playing field is level from celebrity photographers to local small business owners.  Submissions opened in January and when voting opened it went on for a month with photos receiving the least votes being eliminated and the ones with the most moving on to the next round!  Throughout the duration of the contest, (12 rounds in all!) over 49…

Read More

Imaging USA 2017 – San Antonio!

By | Behind the Scenes, Personal | No Comments

Every year I run away for a week to a photography convention called Imaging USA. It’s hosted by an organization of which I am a proud (though not loud) member; the Professional Photographer’s of America. It’s hosted in a different city each year that’s easy to get to in the off-season winter months. Recently, we’ve been to Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, and this year San Antonio. What happens at a photography convention? Think of it kind of like Comic Con for people who love making images. We all get together nerd out over new camera gear, new ideas, rehash old problems, make new friends, etc. This year was no exception. The count was estimated to be ten thousand photographers in attendance. That’s a lot of selfies. When we show up and take over a city, it seems like there’s a pop up photo shoot on every corner complete with lighting assistants…

Read More

Behind the scenes in 2015

By | Personal | 3 Comments

New Year’s Eve is here and I thought it would be fun to do a look back behind the scenes in 2015!  We did a post earlier this year about the rough life of a photo assistant and what they have to do in order to get the awesome images we show on our website.  The rest of 2015 was no different!  Every day is a reminder that what we do is always always a TEAM effort.   We did a fun engagement session all over Pittsburgh’s north side and Point State Park this summer.  It was a gorgeous night to be at the fountain and we witnessed a live proposal just a few feet away!  Ashley and I grabbed a few test shots while our client couple was changing outfits.  Instead of moving the car and looking for a parking space in the middle of the regatta, we decided…

Read More
christmas tree field

Christmas traditions

By | Personal | One Comment

Since we were kids, our family always had one special Christmas tradition.  We never had an artificial tree.  A live tree was one of the most special parts of Christmas.  It was like bringing a piece of the woods into the house.  The way the needles smelled when you walked into the living room in the morning, or came home through the front door after school meant that we had entered that time of year when there was something nice to look forward to.  Going to find the perfect tree always started with one of us standing up on top of my mom’s hope chest (this was where the tree always went because our living room was very small) to see how big of a tree we needed to find.  They would use my height that year as a measurement (I was the tallest for many years) and when I…

Read More

Behind the scenes | it’s never boring

By | Behind the Scenes, Personal, Uncategorized | No Comments

I know I’ve said this a hundred times, but I love my job.  When people ask me what it’s like to be a photographer, I always say the same thing.  “It’s never boring.”  In the past ten years we’ve shot all across the country in every kind of environment and weather imaginable.  Time constraints, obstacles, crisis – photographers have to learn to eat that stuff for breakfast, because Murphy’s law of photography – you’re going to throw the plan out the window.  Anything that can fall apart, be late, or go wrong – will do just that – and it’s our job to capture the day no matter what.  You have to keep your energy up, keep smiling, be resourceful and get the job done.  If Martha Stewart and MacGyver had a love child – that’s a wedding photographer. In the field, you’re only as good as your team.  Photo…

Read More

It’s here! A bright new look!

By | Personal | One Comment

It’s been four years in the making, and now it’s here! We are rolling out a bright new look for photosbyaw.com! The new website features updated galleries, product examples, a fresh pricing structure with tiered options for every budget, and at last – the return of my blog! I’ve really missed writing over the past few years. They have been a journey to say the least. I got married, we bought a house and moved away from our families for the first time (though not too far!), and I brought my sister, Ashley, into the business! We’ve done a lot of traveling and photography has opened doors to many new adventures. I’m looking forward to catching you all up on what’s been going on through future blog posts recapping some of the past.   For now, have fun exploring the new website! We’ve organized the galleries into three sections: weddings,…

Read More