Chris and Katie Humphreys

Spend a Day with The Humphreys!

We’ve talked about it for about two years.
We’ve tossed around ideas, tossed them out, and started back from scratch.
And finally, we created a new vision.

That’s why we’re so excited to be announcing our first-ever workshop for photographers! 

Chris and I both absolutely love teaching and speaking, and we’ve wanted to develop a workshop for quite a while now.   One of the things we knew from the beginning was that we wanted to create a workshop that was a totally individualized experience where we could really focus on some of the seemingly small details that are involved in running a successful business.  Things that aren’t always talked about, but that really make a difference.

The vision for our workshop came from an excerpt we found in Michael Gerber’s book – The E-Myth Revisited – one of our favorite business books of all time.
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“Great business people know that a business doesn’t miss the mark by failing to achieve greatness in some lofty principled way, but in the stuff that goes on in every nook and cranny of the business.  And so the great ones I have known seem to possess an intuitive understanding that the only way to reach something higher is to focus their attention on the multitude of seemingly insignificant, unimportant, and boring things that make up every business.”

Because we know that the small details in execution matter, we wanted to create a one-on-workshop where we could really delve into an individual photographers’ business with them and at the end of the day, leave them with practical, actionable things that they could do.  Whether it’s working on your pricing, figuring out how to systematize your workflow so your clients all get a consistent experience, or working on particular shooting issues,, we want to address these weaker areas you’re struggling with.

You can check out our brand new workshop site here!

These last two months of 2009 are a great opportunity to get together with us to tighten up any areas of your business before the new year starts, so email us today about getting  your date set for these last two months of 2009!

For the complete info, please visit our new website for Spend a Day with The Humphreys!

Wedding Planning 101

As the busy season for shooting weddings is winding down for Chris and I, wedding planning season is starting to pick up in full force!  It has been such fun these last few weeks to be talking to so many brides who are starting to plan their 2010 weddings!  I've told some of our clients and friends in the past that before I became a wedding photographer with Chris, I used to have plans for being a wedding coordinator and though those plans obviously evolved into wedding photography, I still really love the whole wedding planning process.

In light of the fact that we've been in full swing booking new weddings for next year, I wanted to share some of our favorite wedding planning tips and resources for brides (and grooms) who are going into the thick of wedding planning!

Here's our top five wedding planning tips!

1. Hire a wedding coordinator.   I've always told people that besides deciding to marry Chris, hiring a wedding coordinator was one of the best decisions I made for our wedding.  Seriously, if you don't have a coordinator already, we can't recommend it more highly!  We always give our brides references for wedding coordinators who we love, but make sure to ask your wedding venue if they have any recommendations, or check out vendor resource directories (one of our favorite resources for finding local vendors is Style Me Pretty).  Your coordinator can help you along through the entire process, but especially as it comes time to think through your wedding day timeline and deal with last minute logistics, your wedding coordinator is extremely valuable.  While you may not know how much time to allot for different things at the reception or think about where all the power outlets in the venue are, a good wedding coordinator will think through all these details and save you from some potential disasters!

 

2. Decide what your three top priorities for your wedding are and build the rest of your wedding budget around those three areas.  Whether it's your dress, your photographer, your flowers, or your venue, decide what areas of your wedding are most important and make sure that you prioritize the other areas of your budget to allow for getting what you really want in those areas.  A lot of wedding planning resources often suggest percentages to allocate for these different areas and while those are helpful starting points, we recommend deciding what's most important to you and then from there, determine your budget for other areas.  If having your dream venue and dress means taking up a bigger portion of your budget than you planned, you may just need to find ways to compromise on other areas.

3. Hire wedding vendors who you genuinely like.  We can all tell pretty quickly when we meet a new person if our personalities click and if they're someone we'll get along with.  Particularly when it comes to your wedding, you need to be aware of this and make sure you hire people who you really get along with. Your wedding vendors (particularly your wedding coordinator and photographer) will be a major part of your planning process and wedding day and there's no reason to work with people who aren't easy and fun to interact with.  There are so many people in the wedding industry and it's absolutely worth it to take the extra time (or pay a little extra money) to make sure you have a team of people working together who you really love.

4. Get inspired and make your day uniquely you..  There are so many fabulous resources available to help brides plan a wedding that's unique and beautiful.  Your wedding coordinator can be a huge help in dreaming and planning something that's uniquely you, but don't be afraid to look online and get some inspiration that you can use to make your own.  Some of our favorite wedding blogs and resources:
Style Me Pretty
Grace Ormonde Wedding Style
Wedding Chicks
Elizabeth Anne Designs
Matthew Robbins Design (not a planning resource, but his galleries, etc have some amazing ideas!)

5. Remember your wedding day is more than the sum of your wedding details.  As important as flowers and your venue and dress and cake are, don't lose sight of the bigger picture.  You're going to put hours and hours into planning your day (and if you're like many of us, you've already spent years dreaming about it) but it's possible (and probable) that something on your day may go wrong.  There might be rain or your flower girl may decide she won't walk down the aisle, but your attitude will determine everything.  On the flip side, even if all the circumstances of your day are perfect and you're stressed out, you still won't enjoy your day!  Remember - photographs only remind you of how you felt when they were taken, and even if all the circumstances aren't perfect (and they probably won't be) your day will be perfect because it's the start of your new life.  Don't lose perspective in the midst of all the little details and forget about what your big day is really about.

Jen and Marco's Caramoor Wedding featured on Wedding Chicks!

Jen and Marco's wedding that we were lucky enough to be a part of back in June was absolutely incredible.  These two are such special people and everything from their amazing venue at Caramoor to their vendors (including some of our fav people from Lyndsey Hamilton Events) to everything in between was just perfect.  We're not surprised that Wedding Chicks loved all the details Jen and Marco incorporated into their day and we're thrilled to see their wedding featured on the Wedding Chicks website!  Enjoy!

Check out their featured wedding here!

iPhone busted. :(

My iPhone died.  :(

Well, to be more exact the screen cracked pretty severly.  Somehow the thing actually still works!!  The touchscreen is still totally responsive believe it or not, but obviously, the time has probably come to trade up to a new model. 

To be honest, I was a little bummed.  I kinda wanted to wait for the next version or least a higher capacity came out, but living with a cracked screen for the next few months doesn't sound worth it.  :) 

Of course ya'll want to know how this happened and honestly I wish I had a better story! 

I was playing tennis and practing my serves and I jumped up and when I jumped the phone literally flew out of my pocket and landed face down on the cemement.  Crazy huh?! 

What a place for an airport....

You're sunbathing at the beach, drinking a piña colada  listening to your iPod and enjoying the nice cool breeze when all the sudden....

The Last Week...

Sorry we've been so absent the last week or so on here!  We have been spending a lot of time in airports, and at the moment are between trips!  Last Thursday we headed out to NYC for a day of playing in Manhattan, and then we were off to shoot Betsy and Ken's wedding in Greenwich, CT.

We spent a day in the city had lunch with the wonderful Rebecca Crumley, the photo editor of the Knot and then spent a day just playing in the city.  First stop we visited was the Apple Store on 5th Ave.  If you're an Apple fan and haven't been to this store it's a sight to see for sure! 

We then totally played tourist and jumped on a boat cruises around Manhattan and saw cool views of the city, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge, etc etc.  The cruise was surprisingly good, and the guide had some fun little history bits to share, and I'm a totally history fan so that was cool.  :) 

Here's a few shots from the boat tour...

Statue of Liberty....

Coming under the Brooklyn Bridge...

That night we had dinner at PrimeHouse voted best steak in Manhattan and it totally lived up to it's promise.  By far the best steak we've ever had!  We were quite impressed.  If you're in the city, it's completely worth it. 

Friday night we headed out to Greenwich CT for Ken and Betsy's wedding which was absolutely beautiful.  (Pics to come soon!!)

Sunday after the wedding, we tried to head home and were completely delayed and ended up spending Sunday night in St. Louis and not getting back to Santa Barbara until pretty late Monday night.  By the time we got home, we were exhausted! (How is it that sitting around in airports and doing nothing is so tiring?!)

It's been an eventful last couple days since then to say the least!  We came home and found that my Mac Pro had a hard drive fail (clients don't worry, all important data was backed up!!) and so we've been without our main editing station the last week.  To make matters worse, we found out it has a bad logic board which caused the drive to go bad and so we have to replace that.  Katie's computer has also been having some issues which aren't nearly as critical, but have set us back a little bit in terms of our work for this week.  That's the main reason we've fallen a little behind on the blogging!  :)

Can't believe it, but tomorrow we head back out to the east coast for Leo and Jane's wedding in Boston on Sunday as well as another engagement session on Saturday.  It's going be a great wedding!  We're really excited and though we haven't met Leo and Jane in person, we've been e-mailing and chatting on the phone with them the last few months and couldn't be more excited to be a part of their day. 

When we get back, we should have our computer issues resolved and we'll catch up on some of the stuff we've been shooting!  Can't believe we leave in about 12 hours!  We've hardly been home 3 days!  Wish us luck!  :)

Expensive Day!

Before this week, we hadn't bought any major new photo grear for over a year.  We've just been putting off a bunch of purchases for a while, in an attempt to save money and as well as invest in other areas of our business.  Specifically, I haven't bought any lenses since mid 2006 when I picked up our beloved 85mm. 

We really decided though that we needed another long lens for Katie and we'd love another fast prime lens so we got the much talked about 135 f2.  I'm really excited about this lens and the opportunities that it'll open up for both Katie and I. 

We also really needed a new hard drive for backing up our images.  We literally have 10 Lacie Drives and have been using them for about the past 3 years and never had a problem. 

I also find myself shooting on my 5D more and more and we use 2 GB cards for our Mark II N and 4 GB cards on our 5D (since the 5D has larger file sizes, it works out to about the same number of images per card).  Anyways, decided to grab a couple 4 GB cards while I was there. 

This will probably be it for the year for camera purchases, we're planning on upgrading our cameras in 2009 so we'll save up till then. 

Anyone out there have a 135 f2 that they love?

After the Storm

It's always a strange feeling after it rains here in Santa Barbara.  I think that's because it hardly ever does!  In all of 2007, I can really only remember maybe 2 serious hard days of rain, but when it does rain it absolutely pours.  In actuality, the storm here in SB wasn't as bad as I think they were saying it was going to be, but it was pretty cool watching it come down all day. 

Because it never rains here, the few times it does, everything smells really different - a lot more fresh and clean I guess, and the look of the landscape wet is just plain weird, because it's never wet here! 

I took a few minutes to just run outside and take a few pictures from around our backyard just for fun.

Enjoy!

First Place in the AG WPJA!

Totally forgot to mention a few weeks ago when I found out....

We won first place in a recent AG WPJA (Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association) contest!

There's so many amazingly talented photographers from all over the world who submit into these contests so I was so honored to have one of my images win first place!

I was also so stoked they picked this image, because the groom (Geoff) in this picture is a total stud so it's only fitting they picked an image with him in it!  :) 

Maui!

We made it!  :)

Maui has been beautiful, and I'm constantly reminded so much of why I love it here.  It's a lot more mellower than Oahu.  Honolulu is like LA on an island.  Maui is like a giant beach town.  :) 

Katie and I went swimming today and it was absolutely incredible.  The water was SO warm, and the waves were just perfect.  When we got out there, there were only 15 or so people on the beach.  I tried to snorkel, but the current was pretty strong, so I only went out for a few minutes, but I did see TWO fish!!  :)  LOL!

This afternoon we did the drive up to Haleakala after being told by a few people that it was a must see.  I'll confirm the report.  :)  It's a pretty incredible drive, you literally drive through the clouds and within an hour or so you go from basically sea level to 10,000 feet.  We stayed for sunset.  Here's just a couple quick ones...

The volcano (quite dormant!) is one of the best places on earth to see the stars at night.  There's a huge observatory at the top. 

Just a few seconds after sunset....

A quick self portrait of the two of us.  :)

After the treck down the mountain we met up with our friend Mike and his wife from Mango Tree Photography and had dinner with them.  We actually, just met Mike last week at Pictage's PartnerCon, but we hit it off right away and we actually invited him to shoot with us tomorrow for the wedding.  We can't wait!  Mike's a local photographer here on Maui and even though he's only been in business for a few months, he's got a great eye.  Check out his stuff! 

It's so hard to believe all the places we've been lately.  Even though it was just two weeks since we were in Montana, it seriously feels like 2 months!  Even though, we're honestly a bit tired of the travel, we're constantly reminded of how blessed we are to be able to see such incredible places. 

We've got an early morning tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed.  We'll post some images from Dominick and Jessica's wedding as soon as I'm able!  :)