Emdog333 Gets Bit by the Love Bug

Her email name is EMDOG333. Her real name is Emily. Emily lives in Barryville, VA and wanted to get married in Winchester, in a brand new wedding and banquet hall that specialized in steamship round of beef.

She had a secret plan, one that is very common in Asia and at Asian weddings. She was going to change dresses in the middle of the party. The plan worked and surprised everyone. She had a beautiful silk gown with a big train that was so heavy that two of the bridesmaids had to help her get it over her head. It worked for the ceremony, entrance, first dance "walking the walk"with her new hubby and dinner. Her "plan" was to wear a light weight gown for the "heavy dancing." When she casually came in wearing what can be described as a ball gown out of a movie set, heads tuned. It was a "stunner" as the Brits say.

Each gown was exquisite in it own way and both were perfect for EMDOG333.

P.S. The beef was really yummy!!!!

Where oh Where is The Road to Gramercy Mansion?

When Jordan’s dad, a long time associate, hired me to photograph his youngest daughter’s wedding, I knew the wedding would be in Maryland. BUT, I had no idea WHERE it would be. They said Baltimore. Well, Baltimore is where Baltimore always was, and that is 50 minutes from my house. Gramercy Mansion is a beautiful, restored, private home, circa 1902. It is a wonderful place for a wedding, as a matter of a fact, Jordan’s was the third of the day. The ceremony was in a secluded clearing in a forest, an unbelievable place to tie the knot. The reception’s dinner was in an indoor/outdoor room with an unusual charm.

Gramercy Mansion was built in 1902 by Alexander J. Cassatt, owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad and brother of the American Impressionist painter, Mary Cassatt. Dad presented the house and grounds to his daughter Eliza as a wedding gift and the estate is now a quiet bed and breakfast with eleven guest rooms.

All that said, Gramercy Mansion AINT in Baltimore, no matter what Google says. It is in the small town of Lutherville, so small it is not on Google’s map.

Being so far away did not detract from the fun family, friends, and guests had. The DJ was nonstop, spinning the platters and exhorting all to rise, get on the dance floor and PARTY, and they did! It took two hours to get home.

Plagiarism is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Photographers never know how a shoot will turn out until it is over. There are too many variables. When Donald Keith Photography photographed Jami and Jeff, , 7 years ago no one had any idea Jami would seek me out and ask me to photograph a renewal ceremony, 2 days shy of their 7 th anniversary.

They had a brush with poor health, were fortunate to have it in the past, and decided to renew their vows. The bride scanned the images from the original wedding and provided them to all the guests as a souvenir on a DVD. The photographer, minister, and maid of honor were the same. The colors were the similar, as were many of the guests. When I viewed the CD, I saw them and the wedding 7 years ago. The taste of her dad's back yard bar-b-que returned to my mouth. This time the ceremony was in West Virginia's beautiful Cacapon State Park. Fantastic location for a wedding.

Renewals for the same couple, generational events (Parents-children) for a family, and multiple family events (2 or more wedding of siblings) only come with years in the business and the gray hair that goes with it.

TIME to Kill

Brides view timelines planning differently. Here at Donald Keith Photography, we have seen both ends of the spectrum; from a completely scripted event with steps and turns for the ceremony to "let it happen.” Most brides find a middle ground, suiting their personality and one that mom or hubby to be, can live with. The pit fall is that Murphy is alive and well at loves to attack a wedding. This is the guy who wrinkles the brides dress, causing a panic attack looking for a steam iron and resulting in a $3,000 overtime bill at the church; Or the buss that breaks down on the American Legion Bridge in the middle of a torrential rain storm, causing several thousand of dollars in vendor overtime charges and winding up on TV and in court. Or the bride who arrives at the church from the hair dresser, takes her hair down and resets it, causing a 45 minute delay in the church ceremony. I could go on and on. My point is none of these real life examples could be prevented with a minute by minute plan of the day. My suggestion is to make a loose plan for the day, in blocks of time such 3-4 PM, Photographs-- not 3:00-310, groom photos, 3:11-3:30 bride photos. Time block allow wiggle room and lifts stress from the brides shoulders.

Plan realistically. It is almost impossible to make 50 photographs of family groups in 30 minutes, and assemble the groups to boot! Plan judiciously. Start with the bride, build on the groom, add on the best man and maid of honor, then finish with the whole wedding party.

Number the family groups and hand each person a 3 x 5 card with the group number he or she is in. Build these groups logically also. Aunt Betty and Uncles Joe, then add their kids, and then finish with the kids and grand kids. YOU get it !!!!

15 hours, 25 Minutes to Freedom

Where did the term Freedom Bird originate? For me it was Nam in 68, the flight back home, the end of which was a symbolic pass along the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, wings rocking and every man and woman screaming their lungs out. In 15 hours and 25 minutes I will board a UAL flight to Frankfurt and then on to Venice, for some gelato, coffee and pastries, and a week with my younger twin brother, bopping around and refusing to grow up. I have not packed a thing yet. I have two piles and some more in the bedroom. Mentally I am on vacation and making plans for the photography. I will play tourist for 3.5 days and then morph into the conference photographer. This is pure vacation for me, a little kid, plenty of expensive toys and plenty of photo ops. What more can a person do as they wait to grow up.

Predeparture E-mails

Two important last minute emails arrived in the last36 hours. One was from the Congress Co-chair. He asked me to be his official photographer, something I have done for him in the past. My immediate reply, it will be my pleasure.

The second was from our B and B. My radar alarm bells went off and my thinking was "Now what? and gingerly opened the email like you do a paper envelope when you don't want to read the contents. It was a shock!! A cordial welcome e-mail from the owner telling us we were in the Julia room and asking what time we would arrive. What a pleasant surprise.

My response was: "How nice to get a welcome email from our home away from home. My brother and I arrive separately in Venice at 0940 and 1015 AM. We have to process, get money, find the luggage, buy a Venizia pass etc. Then it is time for a gelato. After that we will water taxi, train, or bus to the island. Then it is time for coffee and pastry. We hope to arrive at your home ~ 1400-1500 hours. Is that good for you? By that time and after all that heavy lifting, we might need another gelato.

Getting Ready –Part 3

Today’s series of emails gave us a final program, a welcome, as well a list of inexpensive accommodations in Venice in Italian of course. So much for my 16-hour expeditionary march across the web searching for our B and B. The most important gem my friends Gian Carlo Di Renzo and Giovanni B. La Sala,the co-chairpersons, sent was a link to the Conference Center on San Servolo Island, in Venice. Click on it and you will see 6 photographs of a stunning island devoted to the learning process. Sometime it pays to be the son of a famous physician, (te he te he).

Getting Ready –Part 2

The pace picks up as you get ready to depart for an international destination. Emails fly through the ether and demand immediate reading since there is potential for changes in SOMETHING. In Part I of this post you read that I was the senior twin (twin A) of a twin set. Not any more. The organizing committee demoted me to the rank of my brother’s son. Given the fact he has no children, I will readily assume this position. In fact, my name tag will say Donald Keith, Louis Keith’s son. This will further confuse all who know me and still mistake me for Louis. They will say, “Louis, since when do you have a beard? My reply will be the standard twin response, “excuse me, who are you?” This piles good natured embarrasment onto bewilderment. Way cool to be a twin who refuses to grow up.

The B and B

I spent 16 hours on the net looking for a hotel in Venice before striking pay dirt. We are in a 6 room B and B, called the Residenza Rivera, located in Dorsoduro Est. It sounds charming and the reviews are very complimentary. The location, the location, the location, is great. Take a look at some of the photos from the internet. My twin brother, Louis (MD, PhD) will stay there with me for 4 nights and then we move to a venue on the island of San Clemente for two days where we will attend the First World Congress on Twin Pregnancy. We have not seen each other for several months and are really looking forward to the trip. Our plan is an activity followed by a gelato, from morning until night. Louis says the pistachio is to die for, my preference is the berry flavors.

Getting Ready

International travel is always fun for me. Years ago, my travels took me to Europe three to four times a year. Not any more. Now, it is one trip every who knows when, Well the when is next week when I go to Venice to help a buddy hang an exhibition on twins. It is at the San Clemente Palace Hotel and Resort in Venice.Since my photograph is one of these he will present, I have a stake in seeing the show hung properly. Nevertheless, I am changing the way I pack. A lot less clothes, a lot more camera and computer equipment. My twin brother (younger) says I carry too much, but I remind him how I used to take my toys as a kid; now the toys are more expensive and heavier. Therefore, I will carry fewer clothes to appease him. My big debate is one or two cameras. He says one; my gut says two. How can a photographer survive Venice with only one camera????

Be My Bride!!

Let me kiss you with everlasting life

Faces

Photo contests never excited me, however, some knowledgeable people say some of my images are winners. The question in my mind is, it worth all of the time and trouble of printing to EXACTING standards, wrapping and shipping the prints as if they were made of glass to prevent damage, and a zillion other rules?

yata, yata, yata. I have a business to run.

But hey, that was the analog world and now today’s language is digital. You can enter with 2-300 clicks on your computer. So I did.

The contest is “,Faces” with a celebrity category. To win any contest, you need an “eye catcher.” And it takes a great deal of luck to capture the image. Most Americans know one of my candidates very well. Her photograph is called a “A Woman in Love” and the other is known to the Brits, her name is “HRH Anne, the Princess Royal.”

Snatching Victory Out of the Jaws of Defeat Part 2

Check out more of my slideshows!



If you read part one, you could have guesed that the hitches in this couple getting hitched were still there and tying things up. The wedding was postponed a week and rescheduled for the following Saturday. On Thursday or Friday, a small voice, popped up onto the phone:

ahem, cough, pause, could we reschedule to Sunday? Since all was paid for, the answer was a standard, absolutely. And so it went, Sunday came around, the bride and groom, resplendent in pink, arrived for some outdoor park photographs, DONE.

Then the schlep to Waldorf MD, 50 miles from the studio for the wedding. The church was one-step below a MEGA CHURCH in size, HUGE! Remember, this is a two person wedding. The minister, several deacons, and two other women were present. My suggestion was, walk yourself down the aisle. That is what she did, the wedding went off without a hitch, and they are hitched. DONE!!!!!!!!!!

The bride, now wife, left the next morning for a week of business travel, hubby stayed home. Such is the life of a Washington bride. OBTW, there was a Robin Egg Blue bag for me. Monogrammed cufflinks; classy woman. 

July 12, another wedding, same couple, 120 guests. Not done.

3 Yankee Photgraphers

an entry by Associate Rachel Fus

Have you ever heard that phrase "a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square"? Well, when Don approached me a few weeks back about doing a different sort of project a similar thought went through my mind: 

An album is a book, but a book is not an album.

Don FTP'd me the takes of three different photographers (himself included) from a trip they took together to Charleston and Hilton Head. His guidelines were simple: a softcover, coffee table book, 5.5 x 5.5in, illustrating the different perspectives the photogs had on the same scenes. 

Through an extensive filing system using keywords in Bridge, I edited down the 900+ images to less than 50. There's a lot left to do (TEXT!) but here's the first draft.

Jacob #2

Yakov Gindin and Katie Palmer photographed this Bar Mitzvah.

Yakov and Katie photographed this Bar Mitzvah. It was in a hotel, and very different from the Synagogue’s morning’s service. The Havdalah service is the closing service for the Sabbath and the highlight is the lighting of the candle which signifies the close of the day of rest and the start if the first day of the week. Having two photographers at an event provides customers with a four eye perspective. We miss very little that way.

Jacob #2 used a beautiful, specially made prayer book for his Bar Mitzvah that excerpted the evening service and nothing else. This allowed the guests to take it home as a remembrance of the service and Jacob’s torah reading. It’s Hebrew and English prayers were annotated with the reader’s name, making it meaningful for the many people participating in the ritual.

When you look at all the photos of the party, you know the kids had a good time.

Jacob #1

When you have two Bar Mitzvahs the same day with the young men having the same name you have to be creative in your filing system...and blogging. So for the ease of all, Jacob #1 is the morning affair and Jacob #2 for the evening event.

Peter photographed Jacob #1. He did his usual masterful technical job, perfect exposures, great lighting, and an emphasis on the emotions and relationships in the family and at the party afterward. He communicated with the DJ and made sure all was ready for the Hora, where the celebrant and his family are jerked into the air on a chair by 4 husky males and are waltzed around the room rising and falling to the whims of the carriers. What is fun to see is the look of shock and wide-open mouth as the chair jerks into the air and the stomach stays where it was, on the floor. A man made air pocket, same unexpected feeling.

Writing Blogs

Many people have a hard time writing their blog. This is not one of my issues, for me it is time to write and reflect. 

Back in my sophomore year of SSHS, I sent a column in to the now defunct Chicago Daily Calumet, one of the country’s oldest daily neighborhood papers. The story was about the school’s rifle team. They sent me a check $for $1.00 and asked for more. More what? That buck got me very creative, motivating me to cover the entire range of athletic events in the school, INCLUDING women’s sports before most paid any attention to them. 

Reporting on girls’ volleyball, swimming, and square dancing as competitive sports increased my opportunities to earn that buck. If our school competed with other schools, it merited a story. The editors loved it. Students loved it, seeing their name in print the first time. Parents loved it, buying papers to send to grandparents, and at a buck a column, my camera, toys and darkroom loved it.

Bring on the blogs.

34 ACTIONS TO GO

Did you know there are  approximately 17 actions a professional photographer has to go thru in his “workflow” after the photographs are captured and before they are ready to leave the studio to go to the processing plant or be delivered to the customer?

 OBTW, none of these chores are “glamorous” by any stretch of the imagination. 

First there is downloading and making the back-ups. At Keith and Associates, Fine Photography, we make 3 duplicates of all images, one for our hard drive and two on DVD, which we place in the archive. A simple chore is combining all of the photographs in a time sequence from both photographers cameras (this usually means 4 compact flash cards but it could be 6 or 7) but if camera clocks do not match before the event, it becomes a nightmare. 

Then comes editing, re-numbering, and placing into user-friendly buckets for upload to IMAGEQUIX. Burning client DVDs is next. 

Whew. We try to have all actions completed in 3 days. No matter how fast we do it, someone wants it faster.

SNATCHING VICTORY OUT OF THE JAWS OF DEFEAT

My cell rang at 7:20 PM Friday night. Sheepishly a little voice, "we have been, cough, talking, cough cough, ahem, throat clearing, COULD YOU PHOTOGRAPHY MY WEDDING TOMORROW?” Yikes!! Unfortunately, the day was full, so it was an east-west head nod. Sorry. Thank you. Good-bye. 

Ring ring. Me again. Can you take some photographs of us in our hotel late in the afternoon, in Herndon, the next town over? ABSOLUTELY! Price and time agreed.

Fast forward to Saturday 11 AM. 

Change in plans, can we just come to your studio and take some photographs? ABSOLUTELY, 1 PM agreed. 

1 PM 

Ring ring.  Just leaving house, no groom, no photos, money for shoot next weekend. Okaaaaaaaaaay???????

Slow forward to 2 PM. 

Knock knock. Wedding # 1: paid in full. Wedding # 2 (in July): deposit placed, contract in works.

Keith and Associates, Fine Photography treats all customers with dignity and respect. It really pays off.

PS: The deposits came in a beautiful, hand written thank you note. SWEET, classy lady.

Published in Modern Bride

Vinita and Lewis came to me with an unusual request. Could I ph0t0graph both of their weddings, a Naval Academy church wedding on Saturday, back to back with a traditional Hindu ceremony Sunday?

Of course! OBTW, we need two albums. Moreover, our budget is XYZ. I gulped and said yes.

The result was a great primer for four other Hindu weddings I photographed. 5 of Vinita and Lewis's imaged were even published in Modern Bride.

You never know what the day will bring. My lessons in ethnic wedding protocall was nothing; the groom had to go to dancing school.