Engagement portrait part two Sedona, AZ

I really like Crescent Moon State Park for all the different looks and backgrounds you can get in a pretty short walking distance, Here's Tom and Jenn who just got engaged earlier in the afternoon before the shoot! Tom' sister bought the portrait shoot at a fundraiser from the Junior League of Phoenix. It was fun to be a part of their day....

Engagement Portrait Sedona, AZ

Mysti and Jason are getting married in August here in Sedona. We just photographed their engagement, or as I like to call it, their pre-wedding practice session. This works great. We get to know each other better, get some practice time in so the wedding day portraits are that much better and we get some images to use for a display at the wedding reception and an image for the cards to let people who attend the wedding know where they can see images online. We had a wonderful time capturing images at Crescent Moon State Park. The two on the bottom are from an overlook. Can't wait to hear from them about their photos.

Conventions and education...

Haven't been posting lots of images because for the first quarter of this year I've been attending conventions to get more education, writing a monthly newsletter on business and marketing for photographers, working with a software developer to create products to help photographers in their business and am helping to market a wonderful new service for photographers called Your Images Forever which I'll be using in my business. It's offsite storage for images that are stored on geographicly redunant servers. Why is this important to you? Once your images are in the YIF vault they will be protected on my end in case of fire, or flood or equipment failure here at the studio. And from your end in case of anything happening to your wall art or albums you know that copies will be available to recreate your memories, just in case....

Here are the web addresses if you want to see what I've been up to.

http://www.yourimagesforever.com
http://www.successful-photographer.com
http://www.thestudioassistant.com

Getting back to shooting more. Wedding and portrait session inquiries are starting to pour in. (must be spring!) If you need to book a wedding date or family portrait session you should call for to schedule your date before it fills up. 928-284-0200 or Toll Free 877-746-8646

Houston Wedding Album Updates

Been working on producing wedding albums.... They can take a bit of time especially when they have a lot of images in them. If you remember the Houston wedding of Lori and Andreas (see posts below) Lori's mom Joan ordered her own album with 180 plus images. It's in full production now. I'll show you some page spreads later on. Here's some of an email I just received from Lori,

"Currently, I have about 730 photos (out of your 1250) that I would like in
the album and/or in my scrapbook. I am still reviewing the DVD every so
often and each time I get rid of a few more. Obviously,it is quite a lot,
but ...it is your fault since y'all took a lot of wonderful pictures ; ) So
I'll keep working on decreasing the number.

Mom told me last week that she and Dad will be buying Andreas and I an 80
side album with the 8x12 pages. We are very excited about that since I was
afraid it might be fewer pages. Yippee!!!

As soon as Lori gets her selections in we'll start the design of her album too.

Gerrie & Michael after wedding

On Saturday Gerrie & Michael had an intimate wedding at a freinds house in Sedona. Sunday they came by for a portrait session to use for their wedding announcement cards. Gerrie wanted highkey images on the white background which led nicely to the reverse vingetteing.



This is the one they chose.... They look great together don't you think??



We also had some fun with Gerrie's wedding dress spruced up with her cowboy hat!!

AZPPA Print Competition

Arizona Professional Photographers Association (AZPPA) had their annual Convention and print competition this past weekend (16-18 Feb) and it was well attended. We had the most print cases submitted in a few years... I got named AZPPA Master Commercial Photographer of the Year for a print that I photographed for one of our favorite restaurants in the Village of Oak Creek at the Outlet Mall called the Marketplace Cafe. They do a great job and I consider them my "local." Michelle and Jeff have done a great job and I'm so glad to be able to help them promote their restaurant with award winning imagery. My other prints did well also so I was also named AZPPA Top Ten Photographer for the 7th time in 8 years. Here are the scoring prints from the case....



This is the MPC Image. It won Commercial Master Photographer of the Year and is in the AZPPA Traveling Loan Collection



This image was put together from a calendar project I did for the Sedona Arts Center. It was a blast to shoot. Based on the Calendar Girls movie and all the subjets posed (tastefully) nude. It made me realize that I can make people extremely comfortable in front of the camera which I feel is 3/4 of my job. It was called Expose Yourself to the Arts. It received second place in the commercial division and is in the AZPPA Traveling Loan Collection.



I love the Texture and Form of this one. It's also in the Traveling Loan Collection.



This one is from a personal project trying to capture moments of dance... It's called Tango and received a merit. Any dancers who would like to be photographed? Drop me an email and let see what we can do.

Jim & Lisa romantic image

I love images that capture the emotion of the moment at the wedding. There were probably prettier images captured at this wedding at the Creekside Inn in Sedona, but this is the one that really grabbed me. I can see the love and tenderness and after realizing that it moved me I thought I'd share it with you. I think making the image sepia tone adds to the timeless feel. Color can sometimes distract us from the content and Black and white can be a little cold for people images. Let me know what you think....

Featured Photographer of the Month

In the Wedding and Portrait Photographer's Photography Monthly Newsletter I was featured as member of the month. This is put out in association of WPPI's Rangefinder Magazine. Very cool! If you would like to see the article you can check it out here. It's titled The Special Non-specialist and was written by Linda May. http://www.wppionline.com/newsletter/Jan08/member-month.tml


This is a screen capture of the beginning of the article.

Creekside Inn Wedding Sedona, Arizona

Just photographed an intimate two person Sedona wedding at Creekside Inn on Saturday. Lisa and Jim were wonderful. You can tell when the couple really enjoy each other!! We captured images of the wedding at Creekside and then went to the bottom of Schnebly Hill to get some red rock shots. It was a beautiful February day so the red rock color popped and the sky was that really deep blue. I stiched together 7 photos to put together this panoramic. Can't wait to hear what they think of it.

Mentoring Fellow Photographers- benefits Thirst Relief

OK the auction is on for 90 minutes of me mentoring a photographer. And the auction closes Febuary 12th unless there is a bidding war. You can bid at the following web address...
http://www.fotoverite.org/auction2/auction_details.php?name=Bob-Coates&auction_id=184
The initial bid is $50 and with the extras that I am throwing in the value of the session, books and CDs is $733 See the post below for more details.

Mentoring Fellow Photographers

If you happen to be a photographer (or know of one) I am going to be in an auction and you can bid on 90 minutes of my time plus some other goodies. This is to raise money for Thirst Relief International http://www.thirstrelief.org/ Last year this same auction was held and they raised $25,000. I'm really excited to be a part of this event.

Here's the details....Mentoring sessions will go up for bid on an auction at http://www.fotoverite.com/joomla/index.php . The auction site will have mentoring sessions posted with details about the session and a link to the auction. Bidders will need to register in order to place a bid on the mentoring session. The auction that's being set up has an end time. However, when the auction time is supposed to close, if there is a bidding war happening over a mentoring session then the auction will stay open until the bidding war ends. This is very important feature of the auction.

Last year, the huge success of the WPPI Thirst Relief Benefit came because each mentor posted on their blog and in their newsletters about their mentoring session. Mentors put links to their auction on their blog. Important that bidders know the auction will not close if there is a bidding war over a mentoring session.

The auction will take place for three days from February 9-February 12th. Auctions will end on the 12th (unless a mentoring session is having a bidding war…in which case the auction will end when people stop bidding). Once the auction closes, the bidder who won a mentoring session will need to go to www.thirstrelief.org and make a donation for the amount that they won the session with. When they are making their donation they will need to enter the mentors name in the "on behalf of" space so that it shows up as a contribution made for the WPPI Thirst Relief Benefit.

When it's time for the auction to go live I'll post a link to my auction.

Visit with Dad

My dad's a dancer and everyone knows him.... especially the ladies. He dances 4-5 times a week. Goes to an exercise class. Plays in a pool tournament. Ping Pong, and more. You get the idea! Oh and at 86 years old he delivers Meals on Wheels to "the older people"Here's a capture I caught of my dad that I keep around and know that I will treasure this type of protrait.



And here's one of my dad in dancing action!

January was busy

Sedona Wedding photographer Bob Coates (Hey that's me!) was out and about for the month of January sharing my photography knowledge with photographers in North Carolina where I did a seminar on Marketing and Photoshop. On the way there I stopped in to see my dad who's in a really cool adult living complex that's more like living on a cruise ship there are so many ammenities!! My dad's a dancer and everyone knows him.... especially the ladies. He dances 4-5 times a week. Goes to an exercise class. Plays in a pool tournament. Ping Pong, and more. You get the idea! Oh and at 86 years old he delivers Meals on Wheels to "the older people" He's a great inspiration and I'm glad I got so many of his genes. Most good, some bad. I got his love of people, his patience, work ethic and love of life. On the bad side I also got his bad knees and bad back. I think I came out way ahead with the balance of good and bad.... Hope I got the longevity thing too!

After seeing my dad and doing my program it was off to sin city, Las Vegas where I attended a 3 day photography seminar. Learned a bunch there! Then last Tuesday night got even more infomation at our local Arizona Professional Photographers Association meeting from a great local destinantion wedding photographer named Jefferson Todd. I can't wait to implement these new ideas!! Which is good for you if you are looking for a wedding photographer who's ready to go work for you, wherever in the world you want to tie the knot. JT gave me the great idea that the pre wedding shoot could happen anywhere in the world. Want to go to the place you met? Have a vacation spot you want to see? Let's all go together!! Also we can spend a day photographing you at your honeymoon destination. Way cool to capture all the memories. I'll close on this post but will be shaing some images I'm working on from my dad, a wedding album and some travels.....

Wedding albums posted

Just as there hasn't been time in the past year to post to the blog it's even worse trying to keep the wedding web site updated. Haven't done the major ovehaul that I would like to do. But, I finally did get more recent wedding albums posted. Take a look when you get a chance..... http://www.bcweddingphoto.com/viewalbums.html I think you'll like what you see. If it's not to your taste - I also have more traditional wedding albums availible. Whatever you are looking for in the way of showing your images from the wedding I have access to creating it for you! Framed wall art, traditional albums, contemporary albums or lets really get out there and create a totally one-of-a-kind art book together. I look forward to your comments on the newly posted albums! Best, Bob

Matt and Mindy follow-up family portrait

Here are some of the less formal images which I think capture Matt and Mindy's family. MOst of these were captured while the subjects were unaware..... Thanks again Mindy for the knid words. (see post below)

Thanks for clients like these

I've got to tell you - sometimes my clients make me cry too! I try to get them crying tears of emotion and joy all the time but sometimes it happens the other way. I did this family portrait in Houston and received a beautiful note which I'll share here with you. Here's their formal image but I think the "non-camera aware" ones I captured were the ones that got Mindy so excited. I'll tryr to share some of those after I do some work on them for printing..... Anyway let's hear from Mindy -
Good Morning Bob,
 First I will start out saying you did it again, made me cry. The family portraits were breath taking, I saw my little family in a whole new light. it was beautiful to actually get to see how much love I have for my children and my husband. Sometimes we are just so busy in our little world we don't take enough time to stop and enjoy that. And you sir helped me see that all in just a few photos. What a joy it must be for you to capture the beauty in life itself. ( we love you ) oh and you know you are part of the family now right?? Thank you very much!
 Love,
Mindy Reynolds
There's nothing else for me to say.....

The Baguley's Family Portrait

I've been Lisa's family portrait photographer for many years. I photographed her wedding to Sean a few years ago. We were out photographing another family portrait in the red rocks of Sedona and Lisa paid me a wonderful compliment. We had just come back from the wedding in Houston (see below) (They are friends of the family) and Lisa said, "I just want you to know that when my girls get married you WILL be photographing them! Even if you are retired you'll be coming out of retirement to capture their wedding memories." Will do Lisa. I look forward to photographing Jessica and Marisa's weddings too!

Cirque du Soleil "0"

This was an absolutely amazing experience! I saw the "0" show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas twice and was enthralled both times and decided I wanted to try and capture all the excitement of the show. It would be an incredible challange because it moves very fast ans there is such a huge ratio of light to dark I knew that special techniques would be needed to record the various scenes. And boy was there ever. They have a photographer that does a lot of coverage for their shows so that wasn't a way to get to photograph it. I managed to get a magazine assignment (coming out in January). My thought was to represent the entire show in one image. The image you see here is as far as I could get without getting too crowded and I had to put together 2 other montages because there is so much going on throughout the show. There are probably 25 different moments blended together in this shot. If you ever get the chance to see this "0" do it! It is incredible. When the story gets published I'll show you the rest of the images.

Successful Photographer Business and Marketing newsletter

If you are a photographer or are interested in the photography business you can check out my new web site devoted to helping photographers become better at their business and marketing skills. Most photographers get into the business because people have told them they make great images. (I was one of them) The difference was, I came to photography as a business later in life. (didn't start until I was 28 and then practiced and played with it for 13 years before turning pro) I managed other people's businesses and had a solid marketing background because of my work in radio as an announcer which let me understand what it takes to run a business. Check it out - http://www.successful-photographer.com Along with the web site I'm editing the monthly newsletter Successful Photographer. Even had inquiries from non-photographers about subscribing. I thought that was odd until I thought more about it....Marketing is marketing is marketing - no matter what job you might be applying it to.

Marty, Leslie and Jadyn

This is one of those stories that are bittersweet. My associate photographers Dave and Neal photographed Marty and Leslie's wedding in 2005. We were getting ready to produce the album and they had a beautiful baby Jadyn. Unfortunately, Jadyn was born missing a peice of her 16th chromosome. This is so rare that doctors have no idea what to expect. Jayden can't sit up by herself or chew food so everything has to be prepared special for her. Needless to say with doctor visits and the extra work to take care of Jayden the wedding album got put on the back burner. Enter an Angel who called and said, "Marty and Leslie need something extra to smile about and I know they would really like to get their wedding album and please may I help make that happen while remaining annonymous?" Inspired by the Angel's gift and knowing how much it would mean to Marty and Leslie I got to work and the album is in production in Italy as I type this message to you. Here are a couple of pages from their wedding album. I started the album off with some images from the pre-wedding shoot. There also is a picture of Jadyn sent to me from Marty. We haven't been able to schedule a portrait session for her yet but I look forward to doing that in the future...

Houston destination wedding Part 3

There's a tendency to gloss over the groom in some of the wedding coverage but they are a very important part of the wedding. (It does take two to tango after all) I really liked Andreas and wish I got to get to know him a little better but you can't be in two places at one time. That's why I always work with a second photographer. Dave Weingarten was with me at this wedding and while I was with the bride before the wedding Dave was capturing the groom and groomsmen. They were keeping up with the football (soccer to us in america) match. Here's a note from Lori toplease update the info....
" If you get a chance, will you make a tiny edit to your blog. Apparently, a few of the gentlemen have commented that it wasn't a soccer game that they were watching. It was the Rugby World Cup semi-finals. The South African Springboks were playing Argentina and won that day! The next week, they won the whole Rugby World Cup! yeah Springboks ; )" Consider it updated Lori!