The tips that never fail

There are days when I ask Dinah to blog for me. Today I hinted to her to blog about tips for second shooters and she said, oh “look pretty, hold the camera, and smile.” And that’s exactly my sister, short to the point, never too wordy, just the perfect thing to say at the perfect time, and the smile part, she’s really good at. And that’s exactly how I get into the mood of weddings, I try to look my best, hold the camera to be ready for any moment and to smile hard!!!! I’m going out of town tonight for a rehearsal dinner tonight and a full day wedding tomorrow, and as always I’m nervous and excited at the same time, but if all fails I’ll remember my sisters awesome tips and it’ll be all right! Happy Friday world!

A Comeback: Showcasing who you are

Early on in my business I learned the importance of trust and of clients liking their photographer. In today’s video I will share a real life story, which taught me these two things. The same concepts I’ve learned from Jasmine Star, and if you follow these, it will take you a long way. I might of repeated myself a little in the video, but I’m still learning, especially to do this without edits and repeats . My room was incredibly dark with cloudy weather outside, so I relocated to my sister’s amazing room with this cool hand-drawn wall (I sure hope Dinah doesn’t mind). Have a wonderful rainy Wednesday!

Engagement Shoot Tips

I love reflecting after engagement shoots to see what worked, and where I can improve. Weddings go so fast and there’s really not that much time that I’m actually doing formal portraits, so engagements sessions tend to be more practical. This will be a reminder for me for future shoots and if it helps one or two of you great!

So here are some tips for an engagement session:

1. Don’t stress out too much about locations, some of my favorite shots happen to be at a place we happened to find between locations.

2. Focus on finding good light verses beautiful background. “Everyone looks good in beautiful light”- Tanja Lippert.

3. Set expectations at the beginning of the shoot. I learned this from Jasmine* I usually tell the couple that the shoot will be very easy, and I will direct them most of the time. I ask them about their wedding, or anything else to get their mind off my camera and then start the shoot.

4. Focus on getting one good shot verses twenty different ones. My sister often calls me after a shoot and asks if I got the one million dollar shot. In other words, put your efforts towards one shot that you’d be proud of and that your clients will treasure forever.

5. Take detail shots. Jewelry, shoes, hair peace, engagement ring, props, scenery. Those can help you get your shoot published at a wedding blog, and they are perfect times off during the shoot for the couple to relax. It’s often during these moments that the couple puts their guard down and starts laughing, and I recompose the shot to include the faces as well.

6. Try something new. I learned this from Jessica Claire. Stick to the lighting and set up you’re familiar with and also try something new like putting the couple in the direct light. It will challenge you and grow you as a photographer.

7. Be honest. I owe this big time to Emma Case. I used to be afraid of asking the couple to redo something, or to move to a new location which had better light. When working with difficult light you might get a shot out of focus, in this case, tell the couple they look so good, let’s try this one more time. They usually don’t mind.

8. Relax and have fun. This will show in your photos.

How it all started: Part III

Hello Internet World aka my invisible friends! If you haven’t, please catch up on the first two parts below, otherwise welcome to part III.

Almost a year after my first wedding shoot a cousin called me and asked me to take his engagement pictures. I couldn’t say no. He then asked me to take his wedding photos. I flew out to LA shortly after for his wedding. His brother asked me to do his wedding as well. I took up another wedding, all while working a full time job. Although I loved writing for my job, on breaks I would use up all the time to look through wedding photos and to read blogs. A year and a half later my contract was over and I, believe it or not, was upset. Here I had the golden opportunity to do photography, but I was scared. Photography put me in debt, was more discouraging then not, was more business than I could imagine, and I had no idea if I would ever make it. And this is when I prayed for God to pave the way if this is something he wants me to do.

Then one thing after another happened. I attended an amazing photography workshop literally the next week after my job was over. At the same time my roommate Gracie emailed me to shoot her wedding in Israel, and although I decided not to do it, it meant the world to me. Shortly after, a friend in church asked me to shoot her wedding, and I found a client looking for a photographer on craigslist. This was an answer to my prayer. I had three weddings lined up and so I jumped into doing photography full time.

I did two things that benefited me greatly, started calling myself a wedding photographer and called my hobby a business. I’ve never looked back. I’m beginning my third wedding season now. And of course I wish I could go back and change things. Correct the thousands of mistakes I’ve made, but it’s a journey. I’m still praying that God would allow me to continue to do photography and am taking bigger risks. I would love to shoot more weddings, travel abroad, help others on their photography journey, but even without those things, I’m happy, and am soooo thankful for who I became as part of this process and for what’s in store. I would say the end, but I’m really just starting.

Yours truly, Yuliya

How it all started: Part II

Hello World! Welcome to Part II of how I got into wedding photography.  If you still haven’t, you might want to read part one before going on with this one.  I ended the last post with me in Jerusalem browsing through a photographer’s blog and dying for an opportunity to take photos of people for the first time ever.  

 

On my return to the States in 2007, I signed up for a photography class and borrowed my brother-in-law’s DSLR camera.  It wouldn’t be life if it had no mistakes in it. This class was definitely one.  I grew disappointed and discouraged.  What it did do is make me go out on shoots, gave me a photography friend, and a confidence to pursue what I love.  

 

Somewhere in between watching photographers’ blogs and attending class with wedding photographers I fell in love with wedding photography.  If I could shoot a wedding for free, I would do it, just to try.  And it happened.  My sister’s friend was getting married and asked me to take her photos.  I thought I was on top of the world.  I bought my own Canon 40D, an 85mm 1.8 lens (suggested by a friend), took my first engagement pictures, and even started a photography blog.  I couldn’t be more happier, except I didn’t like my work.  In fact, after the wedding I got discouraged, hid my camera and decided not to shoot once again.  I had a long way to go.    

 

Half a year later I got a job I couldn’t have dreamt up.  It was beyond all my expectations, and the pay? Ahhmazing.  I looked at pictures of Israel every single day, did research on ancient sites all over Mediterranean world, worked from home, had Skype chats with world’s famous archaeologist, and wrote till my eyes hurt.  But I couldn’t leave out my camera and secretly hoped to shoot again.  I started taking up my friends’ offers to do photo shoots for them, took my sisters out for pictures, and couldn’t stop looking at all those photographers’ blogs I’ve discovered along the way.  This slowed down my real work, and “the whole forty hours a week” and not having time for anything else in life, just crushed me. One day the job would end, but at this point I realized once again that working for someone else day in and out is not something I’m meant to do.  

 

“But the only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability.” Guess which movie?

 

If I haven’t bored you yet, see you tomorrow for Part III

No, I don’t have a picture of myself sitting behind a computer writing, I’m sure you can imagine that, but how about a video showcasing my labor of love, the product I so tirelessly worked on?

How it all started: Part I

If there was one thing our lives are filled in, it’s gotta be forgetfulness. Even though I started my photography journey not that long ago, I often forget the difficulties I faced, the things I learned along the way, and the seamless thread of events that has brought me to where I am today. On that note, I want to do a series of posts on how it all started. Me blogging. Me writing stories. Taking pictures. If someone would have told me a few years ago that I would be a wedding photographer, I would have never believed them. I didn’t even own a camera. I thought wedding photographers were all male. I spent most of my time in the library, and I went to college which had zero art classes. My friends from college could all see me getting a PhD, but a wedding photographer was nowhere on the horizon. Are you ready for a journey? Welcome to post number 1!

Did you ever dream of something impossible and it happened? My dreams were always quite realistic. As a kid I dreamed about eating bananas, my family was poor and bananas were a treat only once a month. As a teen-owning a pair of rollerblades. In college-about studying abroad. After college-about paying off my loans. I didn’t know how it was to dream big; I didn’t have many expectations for myself, neither did I know how to break a mold and be something you want to be. But when I met photography, I suddenly wanted to chase a dream that looked impossible. Although I always loved drawing and admired artists, I poured myself into studying, into books about foreign languages and nations, past civilizations and more languages. Even the college of my choice offered zero classes in art, but what it did have was a study abroad program in the Middle East. I enrolled for the first semester of my sophomore year and bought a ticket to Israel. The only thing I bought for this trip was a camera and I absolutely loved it.

For my final semester of college I boarded the plane again. I was strolling along the streets of Jerusalem as if I never left. This time around I was resolved to take more purposeful pictures, shot through my viewfinder only, and looked for new angles on familiar streets. Once I was even late to the bus, because my friend and I used an hour of spare time running on the rooftops of Jerusalem and taking photos as if we’ve never been to the city before. I started to love my camera even more. We saw the world together, from colossal mosques of Istanbul to the pink-stone monuments of Petra to the frozen in time Pyramids. One hot summer afternoon a friend from States sent me a link to a photographer in California. It really is true, my life has never been the same. I don’t know when I saw my first picture, but I do remember when I first saw a picture I liked. It was nothing like anything I’ve seen before, same ordinary people in his photos, but from a whole new perspective. All the sudden I wanted to take picture of people, I wanted to try to do what this guys does, because to me his pictures were unreal.

Seeing amazing photographs changed everything for me and my photography journey officially began.

And here is a photo of me (with super short hair) from the Mount of Olives looking toward Jerusalem.

Come back tomorrow for some more