Dear friends and colleagues,

I’m very close to achieve my wedding photography workshops:

in Bulgaria – together with a colleague who is a professional photographer: Ivan Grigorov
(http://ivangrigorov.com)
in Conneticut, U.S.A. – together with a colleague also a professional photographer: Val Nanovsky
(http://valdorama.com)
in Malaysia – together with professional photographer Peter Tan
(http://petertanphotography.com)

These workshops involve two photographers in order to enrich your knowledge and experience by our different approaches and the way we see and feel the wedding photography.

The workshop will reveal secrets from our photo kitchen and from our experience, things that you can’t find in the books. You’ll be so overwhelmed of useful information that you’ll never go to a wedding as you have done before. But don’t worry, we’ll provide cool places and nice models in order to keep you relaxed. You’ll find new friends and of course have fun.

Did I mentioned that we’ll make nice photos together?

Here is a short overview of the daily schedule:

(I’ll start with the first location – Bulgaria – close to the city of Burgas. Some photos of the location will be added later.)

Day 1: Friday

• Arrival and accommodation until noon.
• 13:00 – Introduction.
• 13:30 – Topics of the day:
• Why we’re here and how will we turn our workshop money back?
• The educated client is our client – the educated client is a good referral.
• How much are the cucumbers? In other words, to compare apples to apples.
• Collection of your questions that will be answered on Day 3.

Day 2: Saturday

• 09:00 – Breakfast
• 09:30 – Topics until noon:
• What makes a good photo great photo?
• Canon vs. Nikon
• RAW vs. JPEG
• On camera flash vs. off camera flash
• Infrared vs. radio
• Pocket Wizard vs. Radio Popper
• Prime vs. zoom lens
• Do we know what to buy and how to use our gear?
• Is it so important?
• How to get rid of the “creative routine”?
• Moments, scenes, composition, light … that we have to look for and find on the wedding day.
• Our formula 80/20
• 13:00 – 14:30 – Lunch/Beach time
• 15:00 – Topics of the evening:
• Photo reportage in the modern wedding photography.
• Trash the Dress, Down the Gown or post wedding creative photography.
• Staging a real wedding day with post wedding scenarios and ideas. We’re going to shoot a couple explaining the composition, light and gear all of us has chosen to use and answer your questions that you’ll encounter.
• Using different sources of light.

Day 3: Sunday

• 09:00 – Breakfast
• 09:30 – Topics of the day:
• Prices, brands, destination weddings and the way to be successful on the local market. Speaker is the most successful wedding planner for the region (Bulgaria) – Adi Tsanova from Red Devil Catering.
• Review and critics on the photos taken the day before.
• Review and critics on some of Ivan’s and my photos.
• Post production short review
• 12:00 – Check out
• Answers and Questions

Officially the workshop ends at Sunday afternoon. Unoficially till Monday afternoon, so if anybody wants to extends his/hers stay you have to make it in advance.
Price: We wouldn’t charge you if we don’t think that it’s worth it. Our goal is to give you enough knowledge and inspiration which will increase your clientele.
You want to know the exact price? Check the page for updates.
Location: We’re looking for the most convenient and quiet place on Black Sea. Check the page for updates.
Date: September (the exact weekend depends of the place we’re going to hire. September is the end of the summer tourist season in Bulgaria as well as the wedding season that’s why we’ll try to pick the most comfortable date for everyone.)
Participants: Maximum number of participants – 17.
Requirements: Your own photo gear and a notebook.
We’re waiting for your emails with your Given Name and Family Name + tel. number here:

info@peterlanephoto.com

Peter Lane Photography - Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

Bridal fashion in Sofia,BG – or my favorite Trash the Stress (Trash the Dress).

Enjoy!

Peter Lane Photography - Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

If you plan your wedding in Moscow and you love extreme, here is the right place – the Ice Gallery. It works all year long and it’s for a wedding walk and Trash the Stress especially in the hot summer days.

Enjoy!

Peter Lane Photography - Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

Dear friends,

This year we have a special wedding day of 3 tens 10/10/10. 10 is a number of contentedness and fullness. Many people asked me … so, where the 4th ten come from or it’s a mistake?

Because of the hundreds of bookings for 09/09/09 and because of the lack of experienced wedding photographers for days like this, my team and me decided to devote this day to it’s uniqueness, glamour and beauty. We decided to prepare an exlusive package and give the best of the wedding photography to a 10/10/10 client – the best of wedding portraiture, the best of wedding fashion and glamour, the best of post process beauty retouching and photo-book creation … Isn’t it amazing?

Here comes the 4th ten – $10 000 is the price for you priceless emotions which will be captured on your SPECIAL day. Many people have already asked me and my inbox is full with hundreds of emails about 10/10/10 from people that has arranged all but the forth “10″. The date is still available and it waits for you – the most special VIP bride and groom for 2010.

Book the day until it’s still HOT!

Dear friends,

this note is not about photography but I would appreciate it if all of you find a minute and read it. As you know few days ago in Moscow (not far from the place I live) was a double blast in the subway killing more than 40 people. I was thinking a lot about it. I don’t want to discuss topics about terrorism … who is right and who is wrong … in the name of what “God”, vendetta, money, politics …
I saw the list of the victims. Mostly all of them are young people average 25 years old. Are they guilty, sinful, wrong … ? Of course not!

Once in the past Jesus was asked:
Luke 13:4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?”
And He answered: “I tell you, no …”

More than 40 young people didn’t turn back home that night to their boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, kids …

What’s the moral for me? I’ll answer with a citation from the Bible again:

Ephesians 4:26 “be angry, and yet don’t sin; DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOUR ANGER” So, dear friends … we don’t know when a drunk driver or a gangster can put a point on our life but what we can and what we have to do is “…not to let the sun go down on your anger”. Don’t be angry and mad of the people you love and you live with because one day you may wake up and want to say SORRY but there may be nobody to whom to say that and you’ll wear that burden all your life. My moral is to love each other and “do not let the sun go down on your anger”. Say often to the people you love how much you love them, respect them and care about them and don’t wait till the morning.

Best wishes and a happy Easter!
Peter

An Intimate Conversation with Two Wedding Photographers – Val Nanovsky and Peter Lane

Val Nanovsky is a green wedding photographer based in Vernon, Connecticut. His work incorporates timeless bridal beauty and breathtaking modern landscape photography.

Where do the names “Trash the Dress” and “Drown the Gown” come from?

Peter: There are a number of labels in today’s wedding photography created by photographers’ endless creative approaches in marketing their work. I’ve heard about “Rock the Frock”, “Fearless Bride” … and I can also come up with a couple of funny names – how about “Broom the Groom” or “Nail the Vail”… I have coined my own version of Trash the Dress called “Trash the Stress”. But in the end all those are just words … literature and poetry.

Val’s take

Why “Trash the Dress”?

Peter: “Why store the dress?” – I used to joke with my English-speaking clients offering them ” Sthrow the dress” photo-sessions. They would always ask me what that is… …“we’ve never heard about it”. “Well”, I would say,  “My fellow wedding photographers have never heard about it either ”

Basically, it is “Store the dress or throw it away”. If you store it it’s already forgotten. No memories anymore. In wedding photography “Trash the Dress” is on the opposite end – it is supercharged, it creates vivid memories, it is romantic, beautiful, glamorous …it is pure fine-art.

Val’s take

Talk a little bit more about Trashing the “STRESS”.

Peter: “Trash the Stress” came into existence in Moscow where most of my clients don’t speak English. When I tried to translate it for them, “Trash the dress” didn’t ring a bell and they totally rejected it. It is an old tradition in Eastern Europe to preserve the wedding dress after the wedding.

That’s why I changed the scary-sounding “Trash the Dress” into “Trash the Stress”, trying to offer post-wedding creative photo-sessions without ripping, biting, painting and mauling the dress. The accent falls on the bridal beauty, artistic creativity and taking fine-art images rather than trashing the dress and throwing it in the garbage. There is plenty of time for set-ups, different lighting scenarios, posing experiments, creativity and fun.

Val’s take

What is unique about you when you do this type of photography?

Peter: Every wedding photographer has a favorite style of shooting. I try not to stick to a certain style and love to play with them and mix them together. That’s what’s beautiful about wedding photography – it’s not attached to a certain genre. I prefer to shoot Trash the Dress sessions at more than one location and in more than one genre – if the location, time, budget and bride’s whites meet together. Morning or late afternoon on the beach with glamour lighting, after sunset on the roof of a high building or a bridge with fashion lighting and poses … The uniqueness is not really about me but about the bride. Every single one of them is different and beautiful in her own way.

Val’s take

How are you different from each other in what you do?

Peter: I see one major difference – in the way we use light. As a glamour photographer I incorporate more lighting in my wedding photography. In the studio I like to set everything up, and at a wedding I am a photojournalist. During the wedding day everything moves fast and my goal is to capture the story and the emotions.

Val is an incredible landscape photographer. I admire his talent. His vision goes way beyond the viewfinder and captures the bride as part of the nature around her, creating two images in one. The result is an out of this world landscape with a strong center of attention on the bride (and groom), surrounded by this gorgeous scenery.

…Two different approaches bringing together a lot of beauty. I am located in Moscow, and Val is in Vernon, CT – I can’t wait for the moment we’ll have a chance to shoot together.

Val’s take

Peter Lane Photography – Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

The bride and the groom have started the wedding preparation and they already know that finding a professional wedding photographer is not the easies task in the list. They don’t know what questions to ask and most of the time they don’t know what they need and what can they receive for their money. That’s why the wedding photographer should meet with them and educate them.

I always meet with my clients to get acquainted and find out what their expectations and ideas are if the wedding is in my area. As a destination wedding photographer I meet most of my clients few days before the wedding or on the wedding’s eve. Before that we have telephone, skype conversations or email exchange to coordinate our activities during the wedding day.

I separate my wedding photo education on two parts:

1/ Query – before the booking.

Here is the place of all questions:

Q How many different and good wedding photos we will receive? Did you notice, not how many proofs but how many DIFFERENT and good wedding photos. In other words how many photos I’m going to select from?

A – I answer this question with questions:
What is more important quality or quantity?
What is the final purpose, story telling fine-art photo album, family web gallery or just digital proofs.
I shoot 90% for fine-art printed storybooks and my clients receive different online photo albums depending of the package.

Q What style of wedding photography you can provide? We want to be posed traditionally or we don’t want to be posed at all …

A – I can be a quite photo journalist but I can be a traditional photographer too. To be a photo journalist and capture the real emotions and candid moments is a real pleasure for me. This way I can tell your story and I can capture your emotions without interrupting you.

The wedding day is time for beauty and glamor and I can mix styles depending on the situation.

In my wedding photography I try to tell the story with photo journalism and candid shots for the most of the wedding. I incorporate portraiture and fashion when it’s needed. I can direct you but don’t waste your wedding time for boring posing.

If you like glamor and fashion photos in you album it’s a little bit in confrontation with the photo journalistic “let it be natural” approach. Because natural is your everyday life when you don’t spend thousands of dollars for guests, clothes, music, special meals, photographers…
So, we can find the golden spot and don’t separate your wedding photos to only candid and only traditional. Your day is very special and I can help you to keep it in your memories for life.

Q What format do you like most? Portraits, head and shoulders, full size …

A – For story telling I use all formats.

Q We don’t have experience with posing. Can you direct us?

A – I’ll answer this question more in details later but for now I can say, yes – I can help you and direct you with the poses. I think most of the modern brides and grooms like perfect and posed photos that doesn’t look posed. We need a little education in that matter.

Q Do you manipulate and retouch the wedding photos?

A – Yes. I enhance all photos. Some look very good and need a little spice to look perfect, another I manipulate depends on your wishes and the style of your photo book. Black & White, vintage, modern, fashion … There is a different approach to all type of photo albums. I want your wedding album and your pictures to look extraordinary.

Q How much do you charge for your services?

A – How much money you are ready to spend for perfect pictures in order to be happy? That’s my answer when the clients come to me or call me with this question. Of course I have a price list but is that the most important question? It is very important but not the most important one because on the day after your wedding the excitement will fade away. The only thing that will keep your memory is your fine-art magazine style photo book with your beautiful photos.

2/ Posing – a few days before the wedding or on the engagement photo session.

Every bride wants to look beautiful, feminine and sexy. Whatever approach you may choose (photo journalistic, traditional, fashion or glamor) there are some beauty rules for you to learn before the wedding. I shall be glad to give you my directions and you will feel at ease on your wedding day. The earlier you start the better result will be achieved as you will have enough time to remember all the poses and practice in front of the mirror.

Peter Lane Photography – Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

Let’s forget about the village understanding about the wedding dress and talk about the real “Trash the dress”.

Why the brides are afraid of it and after the Trash the dress photo sessions they love it?

Since I cannot be a bride and will never feel what the girls are feeling, I can answer on the second part of the question only.
They love it because it’s different and unique. Locations are different with their own mood and charm. No stress to spill wine on the white dress or step on it.

I like the name “Trash the Stress” because the dress may stay alive but stress is gone and the girl is ready to give 100% to look perfect. It’s totally different when on the wedding day everybody is in a hurry and the photographs are more photo journalistic. On the next day or even next year the bride is not so stressed, she already has some ideas about her Trash the dress photo session. She knows good locations and knowing the style of the photographer and his potential she knows what to expect.

Trash the dress photo session may be fashion around bridges, on roofs, curvy architectures. It may be erotic in old buildings or ancient castles, nature … boudoir in the brides own house or some fancy old style mansion. The choices and ideas are endless!

The beauty is guarantied by me!

Peter Lane Photography – Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

Trash the dress is my favorite part of the wedding photography, the funniest and most creative. As I spend lots of time in Moscow and Eastern Europe I have a special vision to it that’s why I renamed it Trash the Stress.

It’s a tradition in Eastern Europe for the brides to keep their wedding dress in a box and take a good care of them as a treasure. Sometimes we just accept and transmit traditions without to know their origin and here I’ll share a secret with you. Eastern Europe has always been a region with poor economy and brides have kept their dress for their younger sisters and sometimes even daughters.

So, my dear EE ex brides, to whom do you keep your dress? If you haven’t seen them from your wedding day and don’t know where they are, aren’t they already trashed? Off course they are. With no value!

Why do I write this post?

I had an interesting experience in my hometown in Bulgaria. I went there to shoot erotic and found amazing places for it. But the girls there were with very narrow understanding about erotic photography and their boyfriends even narrower and my perfect ideas blew away.

I decided to use the beautiful nature and ancient roman places with something more fashion, like Trash the dress but without the wedding. I offered to many married young girls to pull on their wedding dress and create some beautiful portraits. Guess how many of them agreed? Same understanding as with the erotic photography.

I grabbed my sisters wedding dress and pulled it on her girlfriend who came to visit her together with her little baby. We shot a rapid and improvised photo session.

She was so excited to put on again a wedding dress, maybe felt some forgotten feelings together with the feeling to be a photo model. She saw the photos and came with her own wedding dress. My sister and brother in law liked the results and came with us to assist us with more lights and photo equipment. It was fun for everybody!

The next day I had many calls for “Trash the Stress” sessions but I had two weddings in Moscow booked and I had to leave.

With this experience of mine I want to say something to the ex brides. If you feel uncomfortable to trash your dress, just trash your stress! Find your old and already trashed white treasures and let’s have some fun and beautiful fashion, portrait, boudoir … photos. Make a value from your trashed wedding dress.

Peter Lane Photography – Destination Wedding Photography all around the world

I was working in a photo studio which served only budget clients. There wasn’t budget for assistants, the place was very small and full of interior stuff. Clients used to pay for an hour glamor photography!?! Only the moving of the interior stuff in order to prepare a nice set up used to take about 15 minutes. I was running as Forest Gump to fix and change lights, to help with posing … I was more assistant than photographer.

How do you think? About which “B” do I write here? Were the clients satisfied from the photographer and the studio?

Nothing changed and I quit. I was invited to shoot for another studio with 4-6 times bigger budget. The clients had few hours more, for relax, make up, styling etc. Everybody in the studio were watching for the work of the photographer, helping with lights, gobos, reflectors, interior, fixing model’s clothes, hair and make up. There wasn’t unsatisfied clients in this studio.

We were creating Beauty.

Let me give you my simple advice. When you buy everyday stuff it’s normal to look for cheaper products and discounts – the first “B”, but if you pay for a product or a service which you order once a year or once in a life time it’s better to choose quality and reliability – the second “B”. When we speak in general this “B” is equal to Quality but in our case we buy and sell photo services and products and “B” stands for Beauty.

Few words about the wedding budgets. Now everybody can afford a photo camera. For me it’s the same to ask your colleague or neighbor to shoot your wedding than to pay funny budget for similar quality.

I was shooting on a budget and I didn’t have recommendations because I couldn’t produce the photo effects I wanted. My clients were getting average photos. I couldn’t spend much time on client’s photos cause I had to run for another budget client and another and another because the bills have to be payed. I couldn’t say “sorry I don’t have time for you”. I was stealing from my free time, another client’s time, my family time and sleep in order to prepare my client’s photos on a decent level.

Now I have different prices which include different gear and human resource. I can spend a whole day with a client or a week or even a month for a fancy wedding.
Now my clients receive what they want and what every client deserve – Beauty.

Peter Lane Photography – Destination Wedding Photography all around the world