Fall Family "Foto" Event

Fall is my favorite time of year. The crisp air and canvas of colorful leaves are very inspiring to me! This is a great time of year to get your family photographs done. You might even be thinking about (gasp) Holiday cards!

Last year motivated by fall inspiration and wanting to offer families a fun photography session I hosted a Fall Family Photography Event! It was so much fun I decided to make it an annual event! This year I am especially thankful and excited to be hosting this years photography sessions at Nesbitt's beautiful Nursery and Orchard located just south of the cities by Prescott, WI.

Every weekend Nesbitts hosts a Happ-E-Hill event at their Orchard. This event features a petting zoo, a pumpkin patch, rides through the orchard, a wonderful building were the apples are sorted and made into cider ......so many great activities for the family. Also, Nesbitt's offers local made food, locally roasted coffee and home made ice cream! Different yummy treats are featured....treats like baked honey (harvested from Nesbitt's Nursery hives) wheat bread served with homemade raspberry preserves!http://www.nesbittsnursery.com

Black Bird Photography will be scheduling this years Fall Family Foto Event on Sunday October 18. The session will be a 45 minutes to an hour long and will include some formal portraits and lots of fun natural photographs of either your whole family or just the kids enjoying their experience at Nesbitt's Nursery. Before the session we will have a mini-consultation over the phone so we can tailor the session specifically for your family!

Email or call the studio and book a time today to get on the list for some great outdoor family or children's photographs during this beautiful time of year! Colorful sweaters, hats, or even Halloween costumes are encouraged!!! Session includes your choice of either a custom designed collage, accordian book, print or 25 CUSTOM DESIGNED HOLIDAY CARDS!!!

Kristi@blackbirdphotography.net

218-879-6395

See Below for Details!! (Click on photographs or print to enlarge view).

The Winner of the Free Photography session is.......

Jaime Saburn!!! Congrats Jaime and thank you for everyone who entered the contest. I hope to do another contest before Christmas! Also, stay tuned for information to be posted next week on the Family and Children Fall Foto Fun Days we are doing at Nesbitt's Nursery (http://www.nesbittsnursery.com) during their HAPP-E-HILL event on Sunday October 18th. Please go to their website to see photographs of all the fun activities that go on at the nursery and apple orchard during this event! Some activities include a petting zoo, wagon rides to the pumpkin patch (pick your own pumpkin!), viewing the cider press and the popular barrel train! Tune in next week to find out more about the Fall Foto Event!

Thanks Everyone who entered!!

Jamie was chose from a list of entrants. If you would like to view the results they can be previewed at: http://www.random.org/draws/details/?draw=817

Katie and Greg Amundson's Wedding

What a great couple Katie and Greg make! This wedding was especially fun as Katie is the cousin of one of my favorite brides from last year, Meghann Whiting. The wedding ceremony started with lots of chuckles as Katie and Greg's son didn't quite get the rings all the way up the aisle. His sister however made a graceful entrance and looked truly like a princess as she made her way up to Katie and Greg. Katie was a gorgeous bride! Greg and Katie were great to photograph as they are not only very much in love, but also were letting the stress of planning a wedding go and truly enjoying their day with the family and friends who came to share it with them. You could tell by their wedding details that they had everyone in mind, even including a moonwalk tent for the kids! Thanks Katie an Greg!

Peter and Meghann Whiting with Greg and Katie!

Bling!!

Jumping monkeys!

Katie and Greg made a grand entrance in this beauty!

A fabulous first dance together!

Important Things To Consider When Choosing a Wedding Photographer

Experience Level - Has this person photographed other weddings? Does he/she do this full time or is it a new hobby? I have been photographing weddings professionally for over ten years, probably photographed more than 200 weddings at this point and I feel so blessed to do this full time so I can devote all my passion and energy to it!!
Also, every wedding package I have includes an experienced photographers assistant.

Equipment and Storage of Your Digital Files

Black Bird photography uses Canon Mark III digital cameras that incorporate fill flash to capture the mode and ambiance of the location you are married and natural light photography when possible that is unobtrusive to your event, seriously true to your location and flattering to the subject being photographed. This type of lighting is known for its contrast and colors of the natural lighting touching the portraits. We use the best Canon lenses available to capture your day and backup cameras so you can be sure we won't miss a minute of your day!

File Backup

I pride myself to have your digital files stored in multiple locations including an off site online back up service. At anytime a hard drive can fail! How is your photographer backing up your photographs and how long will they keep them stored for you. Don't be afraid to ask!!


Photographic Style - Are the images that you are shown, what you would like to see? There are "buzz" words flying about everywhere about photojournalism, lifestyle photography, formal, classic candid, and so on.

What is lifestyle photography?

Like a newspaper reporter covers an event to tell a story a photojournalist photographs tell the story. Photographers are passionate about their work and this spills over into the their style of photography. Over the last decade a new style of wedding photography has emerged that is a combination of both traditional portrait photography and photojournalism.

I love photojournalist photography and use it to tell the story of your day and document the important creative details that make your day your own. Thus seizing the monument, by capturing the mood, lighting and events of the day.

I also am trained to make the perfect portrait of you using lighting and movement that does that best! I love wedding photographs that are fun, creative and everyone looks fabulous!! I call them informal formals. No boring line up shots here!

The vision my bride and groom have for their photography is very important to me! I try to work with my clients to discover what that vision is and usually end up doing a mix of lifestyle and classic creatively made portraits.

Truth in Advertising - Is this the photographer that will be photographing your wedding or will they send in whomever is available. Don't be shocked, this happens more often than you can imagine. Be certain that you know which photographer is going to be there and that you see HIS/HER work and meet with that individually face to face.

Kristi will be the main photographer at your wedding.

All our fees for Black Bird Wedding Packages are stated upfront and are very clear. Our contract is also very clear and straight forward. We offer several different packages that should fit most couple budgets! Every wedding package includes a DVD with all images and complete image rights to your photographs. We also offer for your convenience an online gallery that features your event. You and your guests can also purchase prints and products from this gallery. All photographs are printed at a state of the art professional printer regarded for color consistency and quality using Kodak Endura professional papers in lustre, glossy, and metallic, Black Bird Photography offers photographic prints in a variety of sizes from wallets to 30x40 and larger.


References - A personal reference is always the best and people love to talk. Get a list of references from the photographer and check them out personally. A photographer who doesn't have references or is afraid to give them to you may not be the person that you need to hire.


Below are a few of the most recent personal references! I can also provide a list of clients that you may contact if you like!

Kristi,
We just got the engagement photos in the mail yesterday, and they are amazing! LOVE them! Thank you so much. We are looking forward to meeting with you to talk about the wedding. I am not sure how much time you usually set aside for photos before the wedding but I made my makeup appoint some time ago so i just guessed. I will be ready for photos at 4pm, and the wedding is going to be at 6:30pm...that will give us 2 1/2 hrs. I believe we have you for 7hrs, so I am thinking 230-930 or 2-9. We can discuss that more when we meet. Thanks again Kristi!
Sarah

Hey Kristi,
The pictures of mejken are GREAT!!! I was wondering if you do or if it is possible to do, one of the photos for over our mantle in your hand painted/fine art section of your website...could you explain what this is and if it is possible to do this with any of the photos you took of mejken. i have a couple in mind.

Another question, what ages in the 1st year should we be getting her photographed?
Talk to you soon, are you in the cities much other than the fall when tash said you were here?
Ursula~


Hi Kristi!
Thank you so much for sending these over~they are so priceless and special and we LOVE them!! They are better than I ever could have imagined and your blog was really special too! You are a wonderful photographer and a very dear friend and we appreciate everything that you have done for us as well!!

I want to be sure we can continue to have you photograph our family as we change and grow because I really don't feel like anyone else could compare now!! If you want to shoot me back an email and let me know what we owe I will get a check to you in the mail right away!

I was just thinking that it might be fun for us to have photos with you again sometime in the late fall/beginning of winter once the wedding season is over and we are in need of more family photos since Hope will grow so fast! We can keep in contact via email and we also can't wait to see you at my cousin Katie's wedding in July!

Thanks again for everything!!!

Sincerely,
Meghann

Free Photography Session Contest!!!!

Its contest time! In the next month I will be updating my website with many new photographs and portfolios, publishing a Black Bird Photography page on Facebook and updating my blog. I need help spreading the word. So I am going to offer a free on-location session or a 16x20 art print up for grabs. With your session you will receive a free DVD with 20 digital high resolution photos you can print anywhere you'd like. With the print you can choose from several photographs I will post on the blog next week.

All you have to do is help promote my site.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Sign up as a "follower" on my blog.

2. Leave a comment with your name and an email to contact you.

3. Tell me how long its been since you've had family photos or photos of your kids done.

4. Not a mandatory thing for entrance into the contest (just greatly appreciated), but if you know people that might be interested please mention the photo contest either on your blog, facebook, or twitter.

I will use random.org to chose the winner. The winner will be announced on September 1st.

Thanks for your support and good luck!

PS-Not only will the blog feature photo sessions from Black Bird Photography, but also will have photography tips: including useful lighting techniques, cool gadgets related to photography and maybe even some advice on photo software.

This blog post features Casey! We had a fabulous time driving around Duluth and getting some fun creative photos! We started at Graffitti Graveyard, went to the beach and than up to Enger park! In Duluth there are so many amazing places to choose from! Were is your favorite place? Thanks Casey!

Grad or Senior Portraits!

Wow! Summer is flying by! I have been working so much that the blog has got forgotten for a minute! However, I am back and plan on doing a series of blogs the next couple of weeks to get everyone caught up on all the amazing people I have been able to meet and photograph in the past few months! The blogs will include: weddings, engagements, families, pets and some great musicians featured in The Minnesota Zoo Music series. Today I wanted to first post information about my senior sessions followed by another post that features a High School Senior or Grad session I just had with a fabulous senior! We had a blast driving around Duluth and finding some great spots to get creative with photographs. Casey had a pretty good idea of what she wanted and I knew of some cool spots I thought would work with her ideas! Senior photo sessions are probably my favorite to photograph. I have lots of great ideas, but love it when seniors get involved with planning their shoot. If you have a pet, car, friend you want to be part of the session all the better!

My sessions start at $50.00 for an hour long session! I have listed all the session and print prices below. DVD's with all image rights are available, please call for price on the DVD's or to discuss your idea's for your senior photo session! Thanks! I look forward to talking to you!

Dan and Emily's Ft. Myers Florida Beach Wedding 2009

Dan and Emily are a fabulous couple with many warm and wonderful family and friends that came to celebrate their wedding
in beautiful Ft. Myers Florida. Emily is one of the most laid back and sweet brides I have had the pleasure to work with and what a great time I had photographing both her and Dan!

This year I am asking all my couples for an extra bit of time after the ceremony to photograph the bride and groom alone. This is my favorite portion of the wedding because it is typically the first time the couple has been alone since they have gotten married! This is a time to have fun, take a deep breathe and have a few moments alone as husband and wife before the big party!! The photographs from this time of the day have a magical quality to them that is just about the bride and groom!

Dan and Emily were very gracious in taking time after their ceremony for photographs of the two of them alone down the beach at the boardwalk. We captured some fun shots and in no time were back at the party!

In many of my photos I start out by posing and giving a few instructions. After this typically we mix it up and have some fun. The photograph of the groomsman and the lemur shows you just never know what can happen during wedding party photographs!! Being ready for those unexpected moments is the most important and in the end is the most rewarding part of every wedding I photograph!!!

Thank you Dan and Emily!!! What a perfect day!!!!