Posted by evoke on Jul 11, 2008
Yes, you all know that there is change in the air. First, I move into my new abode on August 1st off of Durant Road & Falls of the Neuse, where I will have the place designed for an in-home meeting area for my clients & an office for me and my production manager.
Then, the new website will come alive hopefully by the end of August.. buckle your seat belts for that. Culture Pilot has been an awesome company to work with so far, and super patient with me!! ... and with the new website comes change in all branding, marketing materials, new ads, new new new and more new things. You just don't even know.
And of course there are new things in my camera bag... did I mention new?! Evoke as you know it now will be no longer!! Evoke will be bigger, better, and wedding photography may just be the side job to taking over the world..
Just out of curiosity, how do these colors make you feel?? 
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Posted by evoke on Jul 05, 2008
For the 4th of July, I stayed behind my computer all day from morning until 1am. You could say I began having a mini breakdown... I miss my husband and my 2 boys. Any one may wonder "Why In the World is Wedding Photography so expensive?!". First of all, you can find photographers out there for $500-$2,000 but things are(n't) happening as they may be happening in my process. Wedding Photography is WAY more than showing up for your wedding & taking a bunch of pictures. So to give you just a mild glimpse into what goes into ONE wedding for a photographer, I am going to quote my friend Anne Ruthman and my process is almost identical to hers here (other than the Pictage part):
" 1. Wedding Day - capture images in RAW format, with professional Canon cameras, lenses, and flashes and with a really good knowledge of light and composition
2. Backup - Download all images to backup hard drive and to main hard drive
3. Favorites - Select and give extra special developing to my absolute favorite images, turning them into the works of art that I originally felt and perceived when I first captured them, start to feel like maybe I don't suck too badly
4. Slideshow & Blog - Export images in different sizes, select music for slideshow, stitch music together if needed, add watermark and extra sharpiness to blog images, upload blog images to flickr, upload slideshow images to personal sever, write blog post
5. Edit - realize that even with great cameras, lenses, and lighting, pictures only look "OK" and that some are just downright awful and should never be seen in public. Delete the downright awful pictures and keep everything that could be mildly career destroying, but might be interesting for a grandkid to find in 80 years.
6. Develop - Take the mildly career destroying images and clean them up with color and exposure corrections, maybe a slight crop or straightening in the event that I happened to be walking at a tilt on the wedding day (note: images cannot be printed from undeveloped RAW files, these are "digital negatives")
7. Upload & Archive - When the stars have aligned, I can upload all of the images from the wedding in 1-2 days. Usually the stars are scattered all over the place and it either takes forever to upload, with constant babysitting, or I just mail off the final images. All of the final images are archived on servers in California, and then finally placed on the online proofing website- Pictage. Pictage then has to verify all of the files to make sure none of them are corrupted before releasing them to you. If there are any corrupt files, I have to go back and fix them.
8. Print & Burn CD/DVD - Double check to make sure DVD image numbers match Pictage image numbers in order to prevent future headaches and ordering confusion, burn a copy to send and a copy to keep, print with personalized image
9. Album Design - Assemble favorite images into an initial draft design for an album using geometric equations of golden mean mathematics (j/k!!)
10. Album Customization - Get feedback from client about album design preferences and create changes
11. Album Printing & Binding - Album is hand-printed and hand-bound in the united states, sent to me for final approval, and then sent to client for happy enjoyment!
12. NEXT!"
I have been doing all of this all by myself... until now. Steps 1-12 are hours and hours and hours of time... I have been working at times up to 80 hours a week. My friends - wait.. what friends?? Are they still waiting around for me?? My family, my children, all of my relationships that are not business related have been waiting on the sidelines.
So, changes are in motion and I almost glad my 4th of July was miserable because I will NEVER have another 4th of July like it. I love photographing weddings more than you can possibly imagine, and now things are changing so I can continue loving it rather than dreading the post production. HURRAYYY!!! Good.. NO - GREAT things are on the horizon!!
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Posted by evoke on Jun 27, 2008
So, this is me today!! Thank you everyone for your concern, but I am happy 'ol me again!! I was feeling better just reading all the sweet comments, but I've gotten even more encouragement since my angry post!! hahaha!! I felt everyone needed to see me happy again... You even get to see up my nostrils which has to make you feel good too.
And while I'm sharing personal stuff.. I am really CRAZY excited because I have some amazing Evoke things in the works right now. Just buckle up because it is definitely going to be an experience!! I'm so excited for you to be sharing this with me!!
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Posted by evoke on Jun 25, 2008
So this is me today. This is not normally me. The picture at the top of me would best describe me on most any given day. But today this is me. Ladies.. do you ever have a day like this?? I drove for a total of 4.5 hours today to a shoot that canceled last minute/hour. I am frustrated. And also broke because I had to fill my tank up. I have a load of work sitting on my desk. And I can't take a self portrait to save my life.
But you know what.. I read your comments, I've been reading emails that you ladies have been sending me, and I just have some amazing people in my life.. maybe I just needed 4.5 hours in the car. Because now my spirits are lifted & I do not take any of your kind words for granted at all. My friends, clients that are becoming friends, and really friendly complete strangers have put a bad afternoon into perspective. So maybe today isn't so bad... insert sheepish *thanks* here
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Posted by evoke on May 30, 2008
My hubbie forwarded this funny to me.. Honestly, it's not a bad idea!! I'm becoming a hermit because I can't afford to leave the house!
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