Two Sticks Studios – Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photographers » Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photography, Senior Photography and Portrait Photography

I was watching CNBC the other day. I’m a closet market watcher, I guess. Anyway, they were talking to some CEO and he was blah, blah blahing about something I wasn’t terribly interested in. And then he said something that struck a chord. He was talking about innovation and it was a great quote. I think he probably stole it from someone because there was no way he just came up with. Either way, I can’t remember it, but I got the message.

The gist of it was, if you are going to be in business, you had better be innovating or you can count yourself out as a business and you will be thrown on the trash heap of history like other businesses that refused to change. It was scary stuff. It was scary until I realized that without ever really spending a lot of time talking about it, Bob and I are in total agreement. In photography, you need to stay at the forefront. We are always looking for ways to improve service or offer products that are a little better than what we offered previously.  I’ve heard Bob say it before. “It’s just the right thing to do.” Pretty astonishing concept, I know. We’ve done it with our prints. We’ve done it with our albums. God knows we have done it with our equipment. Now, it’s with our digital files. Two Sticks is now delivering its full-resolution wedding files on USB drives! OK, so I don’t hear the applause. In fact, I think I hear crickets.  I guarantee it’s because you haven’t seen them yet. No peeking. We’ll get there is a second.

It used to be that wedding photographers delivered digital files on CDs. Then it was DVDs. That was so 2010. Now it’s USB, but not just any USBs. These are customized, bad-ass USBs in leather cases from Custom USB, who do a fantastic job. Best of all, they secure your images. DVDs were OK, but USBs last longer and make it easier and quicker to put extra copies of your photos on your computer. And let’s face it DVDs are probably going away at some point. This is the future – for now. When the next big thing comes along I guarantee we’ll be there.

Here are some pics of our drives.

 

 

Filed in: Tips | Wedding
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One thing you can always count on in weddings is things being planned out – usually down to the last minute and last detail. The other thing you can usually count on is things getting off schedule. It just happens. No one wants it to happen but you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

Weddings have a way of getting into some weird vortex where time moves much more quickly than you can imagine. Next thing you know you’re late for the cake cutting and that screws up the time for the first dance. You get the idea.

Do how do you fight it?

Just let it flow and enjoy spending time with family and friends. It’s easy to get caught up in planning your fun. This past weekend Jen and Mo decided that the best way to handle the reception was to do away with convention and focus on family and friends. There was no cake cutting, garter toss, etc.

It was just a relaxed atmosphere with some serious dancing and a serious commitment to enjoying time with loved ones. Well done guys. It was a great reception.

Filed in: Wedding
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Let’s talk about Christmas lights for a second shall we. As photographers, we love them. We can’t get enough of them. My heart rate goes up a little when I show up at a job and I see Christmas lights. Now don’t go thinking they are just for the holidays either. A lot of times reception venues will string the classic white strands throughout a room to provide a little ambiance. It makes for a great background. As photographers when we shoot a couple of the dance floor with an open aperture – say 2.8 – the miracle of the twinkling light is obvious. The lights are out of focus, blurry and bigger. Voila, a beautiful background.

But Christmas gives us another option before we ever get to the reception. A well placed detail shot of say the wedding rings, some earrings, bracelet can have the same effect. Just use the family Christmas tree as your background and you immediately have a much more interesting ring shot. It’s always a challenge making ring shots and detail shots better. Twinkling Christmas lights might be the easiest way. Now if only we could convince people to keep Christmas trees up all year long we’d really be onto something.

Here are a couple shots we took this weekend.

Filed in: Wedding
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I can admit that I was totally lazy today. I had big plans to get all of my gear out and take great photos of Thanksgiving dinner. The whole family was here, which meant a bunch of kids running around. It was going to be great.

So instead, I tried a little experiment. A world famous wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis once shot a wedding with an iPhone. He actually just took some shots with an iPhone. Either way, they were really well done photos that I bet most people wouldn’t be able to tell were taken with a phone. Goes to prove it’s the carpenter and not the tool, if you know what I mean.

Anyway I took my food shots with my iPhone and used Instagram for the effects. It was a good time. I can tell you I had to act fast. Once the food hit the table it was every man for himself. I should have taken a photo of the aftermath but it was gone almost as quickly as it was put on the table. We move fast in our family.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It’s a great excuse to give your family a hug and tell them you love them.

 

Filed in: Personal
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It’s a good time of year to revisit some old friends. It’s a good time to reconnect. So it was fitting that a few weeks ago we got a call from a family that we did some photos for a few years ago.  It was one of our first senior photo sessions and it’s still one of my favorites – primarily because Kaylee was so easy to work with and I still love some of the shots from that session. In this case Kaylee’s mom, Kim, wanted to get some family portraits. Done! It gave us a chance to revisit with some friends and make some new ones. The whole family was terrific and a lot of fun to shoot. Thanks again to Kim for having us back.

 

Filed in: Portraits
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There’s a part of wedding days we don’t talk about too much. It’s the time before, when the guys are tossing on the tuxes and the girls are  gathered and getting hair and makeup done. It’s also a pretty unpredictable time.  You don’t really know what you are going to get. Some guys are nervous and others super laid back. Some brides and frenetic while other pass the time calming everyone else down. We go from cramped hotel rooms to beautiful homes.

At Maura and Jesse’s “pre-game,” it was all business – the business of having as much fun as possible. It’s a theme they carried over pretty much all day. Here are some shots we don’t usually get a chance to share.

 

Filed in: Wedding
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