What a Great Year: a brief look at how far we've come in our first year

So Gronde Photography is coming up on its one year anniversary of being an official business.  I'm almost done with my degree in Photography and Brandy has completed her associates and continues on to her bachellors degree in Entreprenural Business Administration with a minor in Marketing.  Am I ready to take on this job full time and quit my IT job?  No, not yet.  Having a day job doesn't make us less photographers like some might think.  What it DOES allow is for us to take risks, try things we wouldn't normally try and be inovative in our photography because our photography isn't what is paying our bills.  We aren't double booking weddings because it's the off season and we need the business.  We do this because we LOVE doing this!  It also allows us to keep our prices low and allow people who can't afford the average $3,000-$5,000 for wedding photos for this area to still have beautiful wedding photos.  We don't have to charge an arm and a leg because all our bills are paid by our day jobs; all of the procedes from our photography business pretty much gets turned around back into the business to buy new and better gear and other things we need to make our service to our custmers that much better.  When you're in school and you are trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, people always ask, "If you had all the money in the world and didn't have to work every again, what would you do?"  The answer is simple... I would be a photographer!  But if I had all the money in the world I would just go around giving great photos to brides who couldn't afford it.  And other pro-bono work for cancer foundations, senior photos for kids whose parents can't afford it, and so many other organizations!  Everybody deserves great photos! 

Lets look at what's going on now.  We do have over twice the shoots booked for this year that we shot last year already.  I can't wait to start shooting weddings again this season.  Courtney is one of our first ones up and we had such a great time with them in their engagement shoot last summer and she is our first bride to book a bridal session/"trash the dress".  Did I mention she's a firefighter, a local hero, and we will hopefully have free reign to the fire house for photos?!  Keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook Page to see those pictures!  The Cherry Blossom Festival is also here in DC and it's such an incredible backdrop for beautiful pictures and we hope in the short time that they're in peak season we'll have some clients who choose to take advantage of it cuz either way I'm gonna be out there shooting.

Also, for school I've been working on a documentary photography project on the DC Metro escalators.  For those of you not from this area, there are 588 escalators on the Metro line leading to and from the stations.  On any given day 15%-20% of those are broken or undergoing maintenance.  Several have had failures causing injury to patrons.  I've been going around and documenting these repairs as best I can without getting arrested by Metro and TSA that now roam the stations.  You can watch my flickr account to keep up with the status of that particular project.  Another project for my Adobe Lightroom class has been a series of portrait sessions I've called, "The Alter Ego".  Two of these photos my professor has encouraged me (who by the way NEVER likes my photos and has been known to tell me my shots are "too comercial" for her taste) to enter them into a jurried gallery show where they have a chance to be hung in the campus art gallery and even win a cash prize.  I'll keep you posted on the status of THAT!  I have a few more weeks left and if anyone would like to help me by modeling for my "alter ego" project please email us or comment below! 

Finally I'd like to show two sets photos. 

They are all of my second favorite model to shoot (Brandy will always be #1) and a dear friend of mine since we were 15, Victoria (Torri) Barth.  The first photos are from the first shoot I did as a professional with the help of my lovely wife Brandy not only modeling but also assisting with wardrobe, styling, and art direction.  The second are from my most recent shoot, one of the "Alter Ego" shoots, of the same model.  Changes in style composition, posing, editing workflow, and lighting are quite apparent and the reactions to this photo from the last are exciting.  I'm so happy all of our clients have enjoyed their pictures thus far, and Brandy and I are both SO excited for the shoots we having coming up and continuing to grow and share and capture all of their special memories on film!

Make sure you subscribe to our blog, fan us on facebook, and follow us on twitter so you won't miss any contests, deals, or news that may come out on our 1 year Anniversary on April 21st!

Chris and Brandy

Gronde Photography

http://www.grondephotography.com/

www.facebook.com/grondephotography

www.twitter.com/grondephoto

Providing Northern VA, DC, and MD with all your portrait needs!  From family photos to Wedding photography.  From Senior photos to newborns and maternity!  We capture your special memories on film!

Not Making it In: A lesson in dealing with Rejection

Ahem! *cough cough*  Excuse me while I take a sip of my "Hater-Ade"


*sip* ahhhhh....  Would you like some?  Oh please...by all means.


Ok let's begin!

So if you've been reading this blog (which I hope someone other than my mother does), you know that although my wife and I run a photography business and consider ourselves to be professionals that I am also formalizing my skills and training at Northern Virginia Community College.  Once completed with my associates I'll probably advance to a more legitimate college institution and complete my four year degree.  I'm doing this 1. to set myself apart from all the other "professional" photographers out there by having an actual degree in photography and 2. to practice other forms of photography, from fine art to documentary and find ways of putting those skills in the mix and coming out with our own unique style.  BUT I DIGRESS!

Once a year NOVA puts on a juried, student gallery show.  This means each photography student can enter up to four photos and somebody who is in the photo community but in no way associated with the school selects which of these will make it into the gallery and then award a few of them actual prize money.  I was considering it, but then one of my professors strongly encouraged me to enter two of my photos that I did recently. She even convinced me to print them 24x36in for the show.  I've been excited for this for weeks and yesterday the gallery was opened for the students to see who made it in.  I got to class early, ran into the gallery aaaaaannd... neither photo made it in! :-( 

So I decided to look around at who DID make it into the gallery.  Maybe I'll be inspired by the work of the other students.  I was NOT impressed.  This is nothing against the students, really, because they each submitted what they thought were their best photos and each photographer is going to be at different levels and I can't hold that against them.  The person who I AM upset with is the "secret" juror, whose I identity is still unknown to us.  A lot of the photos were not what I would consider to be "gallery ready" prints.  They either weren't great photos or some of  them were decent photos but the print quality was bad.  Having taken a darkroom film class already, I know what makes a good print and what mistakes are made (cuz I've made them all).  One of the photos that jumped out at me was one that actually had the photographers water mark in the corner.  A WATERMARK?!  In an ART GALLERY?!  Don't get me wrong I water mark our business' photographs before posting them online, but not when I submit to a gallery and what curator or gallerist actually SELECTS that?  Another photo was taken of what appears to be a sunset and some trees.  It was taken probably an hour after the time of sunset commonly referred to by photographers as the "golden hour".  You can also see the headlights from their car in the corner of the picture which were very orange and distracting.  Plus, it was horribly grainy.  Probably was very underexposed and then tried to make it brighter in lightroom or photoshop.  I later found out from another student was taken with a point an shoot camera.  I could go on and on.  There were only about four photos that I looked at for more than a few seconds and actually liked and to those photographers I say CONGRATS!  You really deserved it and I hope you win the cash prizes.

I spoke with my professor about the show and she stated that with this show, it depends on the juror and even SHE wasn't too impressed with the jurors choices.  She also told me sometimes people will win a cash prize one year and then the next year not even make it into the show at all!  She has encouraged me to enter actual art galleries around town instead.  I ended up tweeting about my disappointment to Lori Esque a fellow photographer at our studio and dear friend and supporter of our business.  She immediately tweeted back this picture:

It's a letter to famous artist Andy Warhol from the Museum of Modern Art in New York telling him thank you for his submission, but turned down his offer and told him to come pick up his art.  What a slap in the face!  He obviously over came that and I'm sure the person who turned him down kicked themselves in the butt for quite some time.  When we make it big I'll look back at this moment and laugh I'm sure!

So what have learned today blogees?  (did anyone else just have a veggie tales moment?)

1. ART IS SUBJECTIVE!!!!!

2. When you have no idea who the juror is or what their profession is (i.e. fine art, commerical, documentary photographer) it's hard to say what their taste level is and it's kind of a gamble/crapshoot on what you should enter. 

3. Being rejected doesn't mean your work is bad.  It's just the wrong audience sometimes.

4. I'll probalby take millions of photographs over my lifetime.  Some of the ones I like the most, nobody will like except me and thats ok.  I'll keep them in my private collection and move on to the next photo that will hang in the National Portrait Gallery in DC...ok maybe not but who knows! 

5. When it all boils down to it I do what I do for my clients.  Would it have been nice to be in the gallery...yeah...but the model in the picture LOVES the picture and that means more to me than a silly gallery show at a community college. 

6. WINNING!

Thanks for reading!

Come check us out!

http://www.grondephotography.com/

www.facebook.com/grondephotography

www.twitter.com/grondephoto


Providing Northern VA, DC, and MD with all your portrait needs!  From family photos to Wedding photography.  From Senior photos to newborns and maternity!  We capture your special memories on film!