We also had an eventful night at the Wiley Girl's Home!  Two twin girls that have opposite sleeping patterns lol.  So we were so lucky - we actually got a few of them asleep at the same time.  They are so cute!!!

This is my favorite:

And this one is just too sweet!

We will post more soon!!

Angel and Steven Canary

Newborn and Senior Photography Greenfield Indiana

These are some of my favorite album spreads to date.

Here is their Cover Page.

Joni and Greg had a Snow Flake Blue and Silver Winter Wedding.  Oh, I forgot to mention Joni said she loves Pigs, so her friends bought her a Pig Garter. 

I LOVE everything about this Album Spread.

This is our style - the photo on the far right, Joni was sitting on the floor in the girl's room before the ceremony just hanging around, and I caught her in her natural state of beauty.  Gorgeous!!

Did I mention that Greg HATES having his photo taken?  No really, he Hates it lol.  I think Steven did a GREAT job with the Guys.  And Greg, you look so Handsome!

And the girls of course.

The photo on the right is one of my absolute favorites.

We'll skip through some of the ceremony and formals....too many to post.

This is Steven's Favorite!

My Favorite

Joni and Greg - I am so glad that you love your wedding album.  Thank you for everything!

Angel and Steven Canary

Greenfield and Indianapolis Wedding Photographer

www.angelcanary.com

www.angelstudiosphotography.com

So here is what is NEW!

Each gallery will be assigned a User Name and Password for our clients.  This will take them directly to their gallery site. 

All of the photos can be in one gallery!  Yeah!!  This means that all of the engagement photos, wedding photos and trash the dress photos can all be in the same place, they are just in separate folders!

 Music!!!  This is exciting!  Not only do we have music, but YOU can choose what kind you want to hear as you look at your photos.

Webshow - this is like a slide show!

Facebook, Twitter, Blog, you name it, they have links you can access to link your photos to.  How cool is that?

There are many, many more features, but most importantly, the best feature is that now a bride and groom, or anyone who visits, can create a new folder, lets say "CD picks" for example, and simply click the + button and add that photo to the folder.  I will automatically see all of the photos chosen from the folder.  The same would be for albums, etc.  This is going to save my clients a lot of time and effort!

These wedding galleries can be shared with friends and family across the world, and prints and products can be ordered and shipped directly to them - without having to go through the bride and groom (this gets overwhelming for them - having family contact them for one or two photos.)

We look forward to starting out 2009 with Collages.net for our online proofing!

For the Photographers

 I think that the best feature for the photographer is having the ability to manually fulfill the product orders.  For example, the client would pay Collages.net - Collages.net takes the 15% commission fee, then direct deposits the monies into my account and emails me the order.  I can then upload to the lab I usually use.  I love this freedom!!

 I would highly recommend Collages.net for wedding or event photographers.  If you don't want to spend the extra $70 a month for your convenience, at least do it for your customers - it's worth it!  If you decide to go with their services, you can always say I referred you, stevencanary@angelcanary.com, since, well you read this blog. =) 

Angel Canary

Angel Studios Photography LLC

Indianapolis Wedding Photographer

Greenifeld Indiana Wedding Photographer

 Enjoy!  This is an 8x10 Finao, Garbo in Platinum Blonde Album.

How cute are they?!?

I love it!

I love the Plum color Kristin!

That's all for now!  Thanks Kristin and Joe!

Angel and Steven Canary - www.angelcanary.com  Greenfield, Indiana and Indianapolis Wedding Photographers

 You were a little fussy and kicking...but that just makes you cuter!!

Little Feet and Toes

 Awww - I think I made him cry!

Then I made him smile!

How Sweet!!!

I loved his Room!!

Mom and Dad are so Loving!

Thank all of you for allowing us to work with your fun little guy Baby Kyler!  We hope to see him in Greenfield again soon!  For more photos, just go to his gallery on our site.

It is absolutely free!  We have  some new equipment and software we would like to practice with before we get swinging this season (which is so soon!!)  You will have to plan on a 1 to 2 hour session in Downtown Indy (we'll convo with the dates and locations) and you will receive 25 of the photos on a disc to keep with a release to print.  Plan to have a BLAST!  Ladies, you will need your wedding dress and veil and guys you will either need a tux or a nice suit and tie.  If you are interested just email us with your photo, and tell us a little bit about what your style and personality is and we'll go from there!  This will be between the last week of April and second week of May - so you need to email us soon as this will go very very fast!

This will be a perfect opportunity for any brides and grooms that didn't get a chance to get fabulous wedding photographs from their wedding day, or maybe didn't get any art styled wedding photos on their wedding day. 

angelcanary@angelstudiosphotography.com

 Thanks!  Angel and Steven Canary - Wedding Photographer for Greenfield Indiana and Surrounding Areas.  www.angelcanary.com  317-467-4963

 The best ways to get great photos from your wedding day:
1. Relax!  Don't sweat the small stuff.  Remember, this is your wedding day - the happiest day of your life.  If you are worrying about every single thing that goes wrong - you are not going to enjoy your day.  So take a deep breath, exhale and relax!

2. Have Fun!  Just laugh and play around and have fun!  Be yourself!  It's that inner beauty wedding photographers want to capture - so let it glow!!

3. Don't worry about your pose - really!
If the photographer asks you to pose a certain way, and you just don't understand or can't do it - don't worry about it!  Just laugh it off and just do a silly pose.  Of course, if you are trying too hard, it will show and you won't like that photograph anyways - so why stress out over it, right? 

4. The most common mistake you can make - NOT touching!
Make sure you can't keep your hands off each other, huh humm, you know what I mean.  There is nothing that shows the love and emotion in a photo better than that soft touch of the groom's hand to the bride's chin as he leans in to kiss her, or the bride's hand on his shoulder, etc.  We find people are so focused on a pose, they forget to touch with their hands and they just leave them flopped down and hanging.  That's not showing the love - so just grab your bride or groom by the hand and start showing the love. That's how you get those photos that make people say, "aww!"

5. Talk to each other and look into each other's eyes!
But don't talk too much - make sure you have a lot of pauses so that your mouth isn't open in all of the photos.  We tell our clients to stand in front of each other or sit beside each other - put their hands on each other lovingly, and just talk.  They always end up laughing at some point and that is how you get a natural, but loving wedding photo.

6. Again, just act natural!
Don't watch the photographer all day, or all of your photos will be of you looking in the camera.  Just focus on your love for each other, and the moment that is happening, and have fun.  The photographer will get your attention and let you know if they need you to move or pose.

1.Believe it or not, the first question you should ask is if your wedding date is available. 

This will save you a lot of time!  Imagine calling 5 wedding photographers, and giving them the run down on what you are looking for, listening to their rates and what they have to offer for at least 15 minutes, then to be asked what your wedding date is only to find out they are already booked.  If all of them were already booked for your date, you wasted an hour of your precious wedding planning time.  When we receive calls and emails from prospective clients, that is the first question we ask them.

2. Ask the wedding photographers what their style is.

This is important.  If you are looking for very traditional old school style wedding photos for your wedding, and that photographer only performs photo journalistic style photography, it won't be a reflection of who you are and what you want your wedding to be reflected as.  There are photographers, like myself, that are versatile with their photography and can do both traditional and modern, eclectic, and contemporary style wedding photography.  This comes in handy for us when we have the parents of the bride and groom that want traditional wedding photographs and the bride and groom want one of a kind, artistic and unposed photographs.  We simply take both throughout the day, and everyone is happy.

This is a Modern Posed Style Wedding Photograph:

3. Are you my Photographer?

Sounds silly I know, but many companies contract out other photographers.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Simply ask if you can meet with the actual photographer that they are contracting for you, get it in writing, and ask to see that photographer's work.  If you don't like their work, simply ask to see another contracted photographer's work, and so on.  If you are still willing to book with a company that contracts other photographers, make sure that you have a signed contract by both parties.  I say this because a contracted photographer is not technically an employee of the company - the company sends them a 1099 and they simply have a contract with each other.  If all of this is too confusing, the easiest way to avoid it is to just book a company that has its own employees or they are the photographer.

4. Do you have a Business Insurance Policy?

This is not to be confused with a home owner's policy, etc.  A lot of photographers are DBA's and are not actually licensed businesses.  There is nothing wrong with this, as long as they have insurance.  This is important because, God forbid, if anything goes wrong, they are covered.  A lot of people are not aware that if they do not have a business policy and their equipment for their business is in their home, that it will not be covered on their home owner's policy.  We have a business policy that covers our equipment and a liability of up to two million dollars - hopefully we will never need to use it.  We are also a member of the PPA which also covers their members with insurance and benefits. 

5. What type of Equipment do you use for Weddings?

This is very important.  There are different type of lenses and cameras.  With the right skills, it's possible that the wedding photographs would turn out just fine with lower grade cameras, but the print quality would show.  The more expensive lenses are heavier glass and can capture more light so that your wedding photos aren't as dark.  You need to ask the wedding photographer if they have and use back ups of all of their equipment.  Because most people don't know a lot about camera equipment, I will try to simplify this.  The most popular and common camera wedding photographers use are Canon 5D's and the most popular lenses are a zoom and prime lens with apertures of 2.8 and 1.2, 1.4, 1.8 and so on, most of which are L series (professional grade for Canon.)  This of course is why photographer's fees are high - to have reliable equipment.  Also, ask to make sure they are using digital.  There are still some photographers that use film.  There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not the same as digital, and it takes a lot of skill to use film - so if they use film, make sure they have experience in wedding photography of at least 5 years.

6. How long have you been photographing weddings?

Notice, it states weddings, not photography.  Wedding photography is a type of photography like no other.  The locations and lighting and distance are changing, constantly.  The photographer has to have experience with wedding events, church rules, working with planners and coordinators, wedding schedules, etc.  These are very important.  You don't want a photographer that has no idea what the generation dance is or that is taking photos during the wedding ceremony behind the preacher and over his shoulder (that's a sure fire way to never land a job in a church again for all of you photographers out there.)  I would say to ask how many weddings that have photographed, but like myself, most lose count and some weddings are for ceremony only.  The bottom line is that it takes a special person to handle the stress and chaos of a wedding day, and with all of the photography skill in the world, if a photographer can't handle the pressure of a bride freaking out, mother yelling, etc. (which happens a lot when flowers don't show up, etc.) and schedules changing every minute, it won't matter.

7. If your Vendor or Planner recommends a Photographer, ask the Photographer if they Advertise with them or Pay any Money to Them or Donate Photos to them.

We so often get sales persons that give us the option to advertise with them.  With the ad, we get placed under "Top Recommended" or we will receive referrals for exchange of photos of their venues.  The only thing that I do not like about this practice is that it is for enterprise purposes, only.  The planners and vendors are not basing the recommendations based on the photographer's work, but rather how they conduct business with them.  There are many vendors and wedding planners that absolutely do not practice this.  The best way to know, is to simply ask.

8. Do I have to pay anything extra for Artwork, Airbrushing for my Photographs, Travel Fees or Anything at all?  If so  -  What, how much, and what are the guidelines?

Units and wedding pricing packages can be very confusing.  The bottom line, ask if they charge for art work, air brushing, color correcting, resizing, etc.  If they do, get the details, and get it in writing.  Our artwork is complimentary with all of our photos, but we explain that it is at our discretion, limiting the number to say 50 photos verses 1500 photos.  Some wedding photographers charge extra fees to travel to various locations, even if your contract states all day coverage.  So just ask, for example, if there would be any extra charges for stopping at a park to take formals in between the ceremony and reception, etc.  If they tell you that there are extra charges, get it in writing.

9. Will you be Photographing Alone or will you have an Assistant or Another Photographer?

This is a simple question.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with a photographer that shoots a wedding on his or her own.  It is a peace of mind to know that there are two photographers with two different views and angles to offer.  It also helps the photographers to have an assistant to unload and set up their equipment and basically be in two places at one time.  This gives you more time for photos, and not so much on time lost from the photographer loading and unloading and setting up equipment and lighting.  Call me spoiled, but I won't photograph a wedding without an assistant or other photographer.  The bride and groom and their family and friends love seeing the different view and angles and the photos of different events taken at the same time - they love the variety it offers.  

10. Will I Receive the Photos on a Disc and if so What is Involved?

This is our most popular question we are asked.  For example, our packages that offer the photos on the disc include all of the digital negatives (that means the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful) of all of the photos we took on the wedding day.  We also include any and all we did any art work to or touch ups.  We print out a contract that is a self explained copyright release for the happy couple to have with the guidelines.  They can then take that disc and release and have the photos printed by any lab of their choice (not Walmart, PLEASE!)  We recommend Roberts Imaging for affordable and quality photographs for consumers.  You can easily pop your disc in your computer, and upload the files online and have the prints delivered to you.  Simple as Pie.  Make sure that if your photographer puts your images on a DVD, that it is not a "slide show only" and the photos are separate.  A lot of people I have spoken with have been burned by this.  They thought they were receiving the DVD with all of the photos on it, but they had a slide show of all of them and they were not printable. 

Of course there are more:

What will you be wearing? 
Do you help with our photo schedule and plans?
How will our family and friends get prints from you?
How will we view our proofs?
How long do we have to pick our selections?
When do we have to pay our final payment?
What if we want to save our money for an album in a year from now?
How long do you store our photos for us?
How do you back up our photos?
 
I hope this helps you select your wedding photographer!  This of course, is just from the view of a wedding photographer.