The PBK Experience

A:  Your wedding deserves the best and I don’t believe that limiting the number of hours of coverage serves that purpose. Photography by Keel is committed to telling the story of your entire wedding celebration and we won’t make you choose which hours of the day that story will happen on or ask you to rush it to fit our schedule.

A:  Neither Kevin nor I require additional assistance at your wedding. We do offer the optional services of a lighting technician however and that roll, versus that of an assistant, is significantly different. Please see our “Lighting Technician Samples” page to learn more about this service.

A:  One stipulation in your contract is that we are the only professional photographers allowed at your event. Beyond this, friends and family are free to shoot at any time with two exceptions.

First, for the formal group photos, we suggest that others not be allowed to take pictures. Those pictures are time consuming and challenging enough without the distraction of too many cameras vying for the attention of the subjects. For those images, I will leave it to the discretion of the bride and groom but ask you to acknowledge the possibility that if other cameras are present, the schedule might be at risk and the people in those pictures may not be looking directly into my camera.

The second exception is for the private moments that we set aside for portraits of the bride and groom alone. To me, this is the most critical photographic opportunity of your entire day and our goal during this time is to provide you with the privacy and peace that will allow you to interact with each other naturally. For this reason, I do not allow anyone else to come with us during that time.

A:  We capture dozens of candid images of your guests enjoying themselves during the reception but I’m sorry, we do not make a practice of doing “table shots” at the reception. This is an old tradition that does not really work out well. For one, it takes too much time away from the bride and groom. We believe you would be better off having a friend with a camera take these relatively easy shots. And two, the only time everyone is at their table is when food is being served and then it is really too disruptive. To get portraits of everyone without food in their mouth you have to interrupt them and the result is that they don’t often look very happy… which isn’t indicative of their attitude about being at your wedding but rather having their dinner interrupted.

A:  Prior to your wedding we will interview you for a list of your “photo requests”. This list may include friends and family who will not be in your formal group portraits but that you very much would like a picture with. Or it may include specific details of your wedding day that we would not normally be aware of. A perfect example of this is when one bride told us that she would be wearing her grandmother’s broach inside the hem of her wedding gown. Other than this, we do not use or offer a list of pictures that we will be taking. We hope that your decision to hire Kevin and I is based on an appreciation for our artistic skill and our ability to show you compelling and evocative imagery that tells the stories of our past clients. That being the case, we ask you to trust us to use that same skill in capturing your day through our creative energy and not restrict us with a specific list.

A:  On your wedding day, Kevin Christenson and I will be taking hundreds of pictures. The actual number will vary depending on the schedule and the number of opportunities we are given. We do not place any limit on how much we shoot but we do limit how many we show you. You may notice that in many situations, Kevin and I may be shooting multiple images of the same scene. The reason we do this is because our goal is to capture THE defining moment for everything that is happening that day. After your wedding, I spend up to 8 hours scrutinizing every image to determine which of those are the very best. In some cases we take 2000 or more images but may present a proof book with 400-500 of those. I consider it my responsibility to narrow down your selection to only those images that meet certain criteria: Those that are professional quality, are not blasé, that tell your story, and that make you look incredible. Hopefully one reason you hired me is because you believe that I am best qualified to make those decisions. Given this, we ask that you please not ask to see additional images that will not be presented in your proofs.

A:  We have, on rare occasions, visited a venue prior to the day of the wedding. In most of those cases we thought we knew where we would do portraits based on that visit but on the actual wedding day found that due to varying weather conditions, lighting, wind, etc we actually decided that there were better opportunities for different portrait locations. In photography, lighting is the most critical factor in your images and we prefer to react to and be motivated by the light that we see on your day. If you have a particular reason why you would still like us to visit your venue, please do not hesitate to call and discuss that with us. Our goal is for you to be 100% confident in us before the wedding day and we’ll do whatever that takes.

A:  We offer two different looks for your wedding based on the nature of your event. Our primary dress is black tuxedo with bow ties. A few people have wondered about this choice and questioned whether or not we are restricting our movement and flexibility. Our sample gallery demonstrates that this is not the case. It is true that this is not always the most comfortable choice of clothing but we believe strongly in the dignity and significance of your wedding and believe that to dress more casually is insulting to you and does your wedding a disservice. We have had countless comments from family and guests who appreciate the professionalism that this represents.

For outdoor or more casual events we may choose to wear dress casual black. This allows us to fit in with your guest who may also be more casual and offers a cooler alternative for us during the hot summer months. Before choosing this alternative we will discuss it with you.

A:  We require a retainer of $500 that holds your wedding date for you. At that time we tell other potential clients that the date is no longer available and because we have turned away that business, this retainer is non-refundable. The balance of your contract is due one week before the ceremony. You may make installment payments in any form you wish or one lump sum before the wedding. This is to avoid having to bother you with collecting money on your wedding day. We do take cash, check, Visa, or Mastercard.

A:  The balance of your contract is due prior to your wedding. We find that many brides wish to add additional content after their weddings however and we offer a number of ways to finance that. We also provide gift registry services for your friends and family to contribute to your overall photography investment. Please contact the studio for additional information.

A:  Once we have signed your contract you do have the option to add content to this at a later date. Our only caution to you is that our prices do change yearly and if you wish to add something after your wedding, there is a strong chance that the prices will have gone up. We encourage you to spend the time now thoughtfully considering what you may want, and to budget for that accordingly. After your wedding there will be many other demands for your financial resources and it is very unfortunate when a bride has not planned for an appropriate display of her wedding images. In those cases we do have financing options available. Content on contracts may not be reduced once signed, but there may be opportunities for exchanging similar items.

A:  A DVD of your original (basic retouched) images is included as part of our basic service. With this DVD we provide a limited use copyright release that allows you to print these for your own personal use or to display on your social networking website (ie. Facebook, mySpace, etc.). This does not authorize you to print these for third parties (friends, family, other vendors, etc.). Nor may you publish these in any newspaper or magazine or similar medium, electronic or otherwise. If you wish to do so we will certainly support that with fully retouched images that have been appropriately copy marked by Photography by Keel.

A:  Every wedding is different and although there are many similarities, we want to make sure that every bride has the perfect, individually unique day that she’s been dreaming of her entire life. From my perspective, the schedule of your day is perhaps the most important enabler to having that perfect experience and we ask that you work with us when creating your schedule. Having done this as long as I have, I’ve seen a lot of do’s and don’ts in action and would be happy to offer my insight to you on those. I also want to be certain that we have been given the opportunity to create stunning images for you to remember that perfect day for years to come. To help you in determining the “typical timeframe” required for photography, we have posted some sample schedules on our wedding education resource page. These should only be used as a starting point and I stress again the importance of letting me work with you to create your schedule. Please recognize that I will NEVER insist that you do anything according to my recommendations. I consider my job as a wedding professional however to advise you of your options and the pros and cons of those and allow you to then decide for yourself.

1. Lighting: Good Lighting is crucial to good photographs and the light at reception venues is typically quite poor (especially when the DJ turns them down to set the mood!) Also most of the great pictures that we take and have shown you take advantage of great natural light. When the sun sets we’re forced to use artificial lighting exclusively and the pictures just aren’t as good. Remember we want the best for you and that means using the best light! So we strongly encourage you to allow us to schedule all of your portraits BEFORE the sun sets.
2. Logistics: At the reception, people are hard to find, they are less cooperative, and the day’s events have left them looking less than picture perfect. On top of this, it is extremely disruptive to the reception and makes your DJ or Band work harder to make your party a success when we have to pull people out for pictures.

If you require that we take formal portraits after the reception has started, I can make no guarantees as to the quality of those images.

A:  Many reasons:

1. More Pictures!: Allowing this time when the light is better, provides us every opportunity to set up a greater variety of awesome shots for you. Think about how much fun it would be to take full advantage of your time with us and explore the city or a scenic park.
2. Better Pictures: Taking your portraits earlier in the day allows us to capture you when your hair and make-up are at their best. Also, having your pictures done before hand reduces anxiety and we usually get bigger, more excited and genuine smiles.
3. Better Lighting: If you want portraits like the ones you have seen from us, we require good natural lighting. If the sun is going to set early (especially in winter months) your portraits together will be compromised by waiting until after the ceremony.
4. Take advantage of your entire reception: Seeing each other before the ceremony and taking your portraits together then provides more flexibility in scheduling activities without impacting the reception start time. This is especially true when there is little time allowed between the wedding and reception.
5. The tradition is flawed: Most brides dream of seeing the look of rapture on the grooms face as she walks down the aisle. The reality is that the vast majority of pictures I take of grooms waiting for their brides don’t capture that awe. Instead he is nervous and anxious about the ceremony and that special moment is never realized. Our “first look” portraits allow us to set up your first meeting and capture it from multiple perspectives. Whether as a private moment or with loved one’s watching, this will be a moment you WILL remember for the rest of your lives. Trust me as one who has personally experienced this.
6. Party Trivia: Did you know that this tradition started in the middle ages when marriages were arranged and the purpose of not seeing the bride before the ceremony was to prevent the groom from running away. Kinda makes this seem less romantic doesn’t it!

A:  The most important pictures from your wedding day will be of the bride and groom together. In order to provide you with images like those I have shown from our samples you we will need 1) time and 2) light. My first recommendation is to see each other before the wedding. If that is not possible we will need adequate time after the ceremony. To accommodate your guests you may follow any of these recommendations:

• Have a family member provide a fun scenic tour for out of town guests
• Leave enough time for them to return to their home/hotel to freshen up
• Provide a cocktail party
• Break tradition and allow them to start eating without you. Your guests will thank you and you’ll have less to worry about.

A:  Our contract indicates that you have the availability of our services for an unlimited time on your wedding day and that is true without exception. Experience has shown however that at a certain point in the night we encounter what can be described as the law of diminishing returns. That is, the effort to stay longer yields fewer noteworthy images. You should expect that at some point in the evening we will approach you to advise that we have taken all of the images that we feel are necessary to tell your story. We will ask if there are any remaining images that you would like us to capture and, if not, are you “OK” with us leaving. You absolutely have the right to ask us to stay but if you do-so please have a specific objective in mind of what you would like us to do with that time.

A:  There are certain things you can do to improve your own wedding photographs. Here are our suggestions:

1. Cooperation! I will never dictate your day to you but I do have suggestions based on my experience. These suggestions are offered because I want to give you my very best work. Please consider those but make your decisions based on what’s most important to you.
2. Be willing to do fun poses. Our creative energy is based largely on spontaneity and being inspired by our surroundings. If we see something cool we’re going to approach you with it. Your willingness to try something new will get you more creative shots, provide you with greater variety, and allow you to have fun with the process. It’s all about attitude!
3. Talk to your wedding party and warn them that your photography is important to you. Also, we probably work differently than any wedding photography team they have seen before and the more they work with us, the more fun everyone will have. You’ve invested in us… now take advantage of us!
4. Have your hair and make-up done professionally. Hair is usually a given but many brides underestimate the benefit of having makeup applied professionally. A good make-up artist will likely apply make-up more heavily than you are accustomed to but this will create greater facial structure for your portraits.
5. Make sure your hair and make-up artists are aware of your schedule. In my experience many of these artists work very slowly and are notorious for delaying the start time of your coverage.
6. Please get some nice lingerie for pictures of you getting ready. You’re not maximizing your investment if I’m locked out of the dressing room and the bridesmaids are snapping these pictures. Even if you do not intend to wear it later, these images are a great way to start your wedding album and if we have time to set up some particularly pretty shots, these may make a nice gift for your new husband.
7. Create a list of formal group shots you wish to have done after the wedding ceremony. This will help to make sure that no one is forgotten at the last moment and will also enable us to cover these more quickly and efficiently. Please use the Wedding Education resource page for a template to use when creating this list.
8. As you look through magazine’s and web sites for wedding ideas, capture a few examples of photography images that especially catch your eye and send those to me. I don’t want a lot of these but a few key images that rise above the crowd will help me to know what appeals most to you and I can work to emulate that in your images.
9. Feed me and my staff. Consider that we are typically with you for 10 or more hours that day and working almost non-stop without opportunity to eat. We will need a hot meal to keep the energy flowing. We will not assume that you have provided dinner with your guests so please let us know what your expectations are. If we are to sit with your guests, it will save us some uncertainty if a place card is made up to notify us where you would like us to sit. We prefer a table with a good view of your head table and close to a wall where we can set our cameras out of the way of traffic.

A:  The images in the Artists Favorites slide show are a small selection of my favorite images from your celebration. They are those that appeal to my artistic sense and those that I feel evoke a strong feeling for the sentiment of your day. In order to get these to you as quickly as possible I do not take your input into their selection.

In the past, we asked clients to choose their own album images and the results were not always positive. For the most part their albums took much longer to complete because they labored over decisions to narrow down the list of images. Then we found that their selections often failed to appreciate the complexity and nuances of designing an album that provided a unified and comprehensive story. The end result was that we put them through an arduous experience that often resulted in a sub-par album.

Our process now is that the first draft of your wedding album will be solely based on our own artistic design and image selections. We create your album based on our interpretation of your day and then we offer you multiple opportunities to revise that design to suit your own preferences. We trust that your decision to hire Kevin and I was based on an appreciation for our artistic skill and the design of your wedding album is part of the overall artistic process.

A:  We have found that the decisions about the format of an album are best made after the wedding. Because your album must reflect the individuality of your day, it’s difficult to determine exactly how best to tell your story until that day actually unfolds. Your album allowance then allows us the flexibility to choose images and design a layout to tell your story in the most artistic and inspired way possible. The cover color and materials, the graphical elements, the size and orientation of images will all be determined based on our artistic interpretation of your individual celebration. For example, a wedding that takes place amid majestic landscapes may cry-out for a 15” wide format to display those images. Another album that takes place over many days may require more pages to tell that story so 10” pages are more appropriate.

It is possible that our initial design will exceed your initial allowance so you then have the freedom to pay that difference or scale back on the design. Because your wedding deserves the best, this album design process allows for your first impression of your album to be the very best we can offer.

A:  Today there are many special effects that are at our disposal through the use of digital manipulation. Spot coloring (sometimes called colorization) where the image is black and white except of a splash of color is just one such special effect that we may propose in your album design. Any such effect will be used sparingly and judiciously and should add to the overall artistic value of the album and not compete with that. These decisions are based on your personal style and the composition of the images themselves. Personally, I use black and white mostly on candid images as it adds to the spontaneous feel of those. Spot coloring and other extreme effects can potentially cause your album to become “dated” or out of style very quickly and we work to insure that these effects are only used when they truly add value. As with any aspect of the album design, your opinion is what really matters and you will have the final say in the creation of your album.

A:  Your album design and layout may make extensive use of these digital techniques or very little depending your tastes and style. Regardless, these will not be billed individually and are essentially unlimited.

A:  The first opportunity to see your pictures will be the “Artists favorites” slide show that will be shown at your reception and available for download from our website within 48 hours of your wedding.

The next time you see your images will be in a private in-home screening of your album design that will take place approximately 6 weeks after your celebration (Times may vary depending on the season and our schedules). We believe that to see your images in their final intended use is the ultimate way to appreciate these versus trying to visualize the potential in each individual image which is what is required when you see them in a proof book. At that in-home screening we will provide you with a first-look album that contains your “proofs” as well as a DVD slide show of your album design.

A:  Once you have your first look album and wedding album design, we ask that you study these together and provide your feedback to that album design within 4 weeks. We will make any necessary adjustments based on that and offer those back to you for further evaluation. Typically this is all that is required before a final album design is agreed to but we will not limit your right to continue to alter that design to your liking.

The actual album may take approximately 16 weeks to produce. This is the time that is required for final retouching as well as printing and binding by most manufacturers. Because every album is unique, we may use another manufacturer or cover materials that may add additional time to this process. So if everything goes smoothly from the beginning, you may have your completely customized wedding album in your hands within 6 months of your wedding.

A:  Your first look images as well as the slide show of your wedding album will be posted on-line after your private in-home screening. The purpose of that gallery is to allow your friends and family to view and purchase copies of your images. We post these for 45 days but this may be extended if you make that request before they expire.

A:  We commit to keeping your images available for reorder for one year after your celebration. We often keep them longer but make no commitment to do so. After one year, if you images are still available to us, a “restocking” fee will be added to any individual image order.