Brian Zinchuk Publishing

This month I will be attending the premier wedding photography convention in the world – Wedding Professional Photographers International in Las Vegas! It’s a week-long convention with presentations from the best in the business. I hope to come back with a mountain of ideas and concepts.  Several of my friends are also attending, and they will be helping me out as assistants for some future weddings. When it comes to professional development as a photographer, this is one of the best opportunities out there. Watch here for further postings on WPPI.

And just a note: if you’re considering other photographers, you might want to ask them when was the last time they spent a week on professional development workshops? 🙂

Here’s the link to WPPI: http://www.wppionline.com/storage/2011/home.html

The next three wedding bookings will have all travel expenses waived! Normally mileage beyond 100 km from Estevan will be charged $0.45 per km each way, or about $90 for a Regina event.

 This is a one time offer, and is on top of the $100 discount if booked by Feb. 14, 2011. It won’t last long, so don’t hestitate! Call now! 306-461-5599

It’s here! It’s here! My first layflat album is here!

I had hoped to have this in time for the Regina Wedding Expo, however, it takes a while to make these beautiful layflat albums. This is a 40 side (page) layflat album – the maximum size I can make. A 20 side (page) album is standard with all my weddings with my current packages. Adding the additional pages will be an option.

This wedding was themed in a 1930s gangster era, and was shot at the Chapel Gallery and Western Development Museum in North Battleford.

You may notice a bit of a bright shimmer on some of the pages, depending on the lighting. That’s because it appears to be a form of metallic print. Very nice.

This album is produced by the professional lab that I am associated with – Technicare. (www.technicare.ca)

The album will be available for viewing at my friend Trina’s floral shop in Estevan – A Loving Touch. Her Facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=519483180&ref=ts

I am loading a few shots on here now, but for a gallery of the whole ablum, go to my main website here:

Wedding Album sample

I can’t wait to do more of these. I plan on doing one for my Harley Davidson photography and perhaps another with my family photography in the coming months.

Over the years, I’ve found that the photographer sometimes becomes a bit of “the wedding planner,” the person who is expected to have all the answers. More than once, I’ve had people ask me, “Hey, what do we do here? You’re at weddings all the time…”

I soon started carrying a kit of basic supplies. This is just a partial kit. In it you would find the following:

1. Tide Pen – a must to remove stains. I used to carry Shout Wipes, but haven’t seen them in years.
2. Numerous safety pins. Note the large ones – those are just in case the bride’s dress has a wardrobe malfunction. I’ve actually had to use one or two of those.
3. Clothing measuring tape – think neck sizes.
4. Sewing kit you get at hotels. I collect one every time I stay at a hotel for this very reason.
5. Leatherman Wave multitool. I STRONGLY recommend each side of the bridal party have one of these. They are very useful in bending over the end of pins for flowers on collars, cutting threads, fixing nearly anything. I always have mine with me for that reason.

Items that are missing from the picture but will be in there when the time comes:

1. Granola bars – not just for me. Brides who refuse to eat anything are not happy campers. Make sure you eat something.
2. Halls – in case someone is coughing a lot in the church
3. Rolaids – someone may be having heartburn
4. Advil – in my camera bag, just because
5. Frozen, bottled water – lots of it. Dehyradration does not make for good pictures. It gets hot in July. Drink lots, and not just the wobbly pops!

I also tie ties.

Wow, the last two weeks have been busy! I spent a lot of time leading up to the Regina Wedding Expo getting everything  right, then had to slam into my production week for my newspaper. I am finally getting a chance to breath (for an evening) before going to Steinbach, Manitoba, to shoot a two-rink ringette tournament.

It was great to see all the people at the Regina Wedding Expo. We were certainly busy, barely having a minute to sit down. I’m not sure who won our framed print of an elevator and train tracks at sunset, but I hope they enjoyed it.

I probably spoke to at least 30 brides, and even a few grooms, and my associate, Jon, spoke to quite a few as well. I hope to hear from those people soon.

In several cases, there were two or three people asking about the same date. I take bookings on a first come-first serve basis, so don’t hesitate!

A lot of people seemed to really like the idea of having my special event printer there at the reception. It’s a new idea, and I hope it works out well.

I have a commercial-grade dye-sublimation printer that can whip out lab quality, dry prints in 17 seconds. During the reception, either I or my assistant will choose 20 shots from the ceremony and portrait sessions, do a quick edit, and load them onto the printer. Anyone who would like a print can get one, right then and there, for $10 each, and take it home that night. It should be great for Granny or Aunt Beth who may not have got the shot they were hoping for.

Over the coming weeks I will be posting more galleries on this blog, as well as a few tips I’ve picked up over the years.

Oh, don’t forget to check out my facebook page. Be sure to click “Like.” I’m thinking of offering some promotions in the future, and that’s most likely where they will be.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Zinchuk-Publishing/143779398994122

Brian

Robin was a friend of mine who I would often photograph while he’s a work. That’s because he was a professional firefighter for the city, and I photographed many fires he attended while working for the local paper. As a bonus, I included a whole bunch of firefighting pictures on the disk.

The ceremony was near the beach at Jackfish Lake.

I like to take a break between the banquet and the dance and go out with the bride and groom to get sunset photos. In this case, the sun was setting nicely over the water. Sunset photos are always the keepers.

Here’s the link:

Kandice & Robin

Karen and Rene had a cowboy themed wedding. It was held in a old church in a small town west of Battleford. The church was so old, it didn’t have any plumbing for washrooms!

Portraits were shot on a farm nearby with bales of straw.

Rene used his lariat to lasso one of his groomsmen, around the neck, no less.  He also lassoed the girl of his dreams.

Here’s the link:

Karen & Rene

I knew Greg’s dad, Wayne, from my work as the city hall reporter in North Battleford. He sat on several committees for the city. Wayne used to be a counter-intelligence RCMP officer and got a degree while doing surveillance on a C

hinese spy who was a professor.

This wedding was done in the georgeous United Church, which had a large pipe organ. It also has nice lighting in the sanctuary.

For fun, I had the bridal party give scores out of 10 for how well the bridal couple kissed, kind of like the judges in figure skating.

The Battlefords bridge and the road near it is one of my favourite spots to shoot. This wedding shows a bit of why.

At the very end of the gallery, you’ll see us at the ambulance base. Joanne was a paramedic, so she got to patch up her new hubby after driving over him with the ambulance!

Here’s the link:

Joanne & Greg