How to choose a photographer

 

 

Price

Without knowing one’s budget,  we will go lightly in this section – However the old caveat is true – you do get what you pay for.

 

Style 

WEA Photography Portrait session

What type of session are you wanting to shoot?  Headshots, Family, Newborn, Senior, couples, boudoir, fashion, editorial, food, beauty – the list can go on.  Once you determine the concept that you want,  then you can begin your search via referral, google, social media for the photographer who specializes in that particular genre.  Just as you shouldn’t expect to eat great barbecue from a Pizza/Wing shop or prime rib at 24 hour breakfast spot,  don’t expect the best images for your new born if you select a food photographer.  Select those who specialize in what your looking for.

 

 

Visual

  Once you narrow down the style that you want to shoot & the photographers who fit it.  The next step is to review their portfolio|collection.  Do you prefer natural light outdoor shoots?  Do you prefer indoor studio lighting w/ backdrops? Or combination of both?  Do you prefer all color photographs or do you enjoy the classic black & white look? Do you like your photographs heavily edited, skin finely smoothed & extra photoshop?  Are you a fan of bright photographs or shadowy moody types? Those are some of the questions that you should ask yourself as you are reviewing a perspective photographers work.  Does their finished photographs appeal to you?  If your preference is all color heavily edited photographs shot with studio light and backdrops brightly lit, then paying for a session with a photographer who’s images do not fit that look is a waste of your time & money.

 

 

Legitimate business – website  

With the evolution of social media in particular Instagram,  the encouragement to photograph different things is high.  With an easy entry level via Best Buy  & Instagram,  one could find a photographer on every corner in Atlanta or most cities across the United States.  In my opinion, look closely at those photographers who seek to differentiate themselves from the masses.  Photographer’s who strive to increase their integrity via business structure (Corporation|LLC) or licensing,  those who can offer studio space (rent, share, lease or home) in addition to outside on location settings & a website presence.  All of those items listed require an additional financial investment for the photographer & should be considered a factor in your decision to hire.  To me, it’s one of the dividing lines between those who do photography as a hobby and those who operate with a business focus.   Having a free page on facebook, Instagram, Flickr is easy,  it requires no investment to start a page on those platforms and brand yourself a photographer – select wisely.

 

 

Service|Experience 

Besides just taking your photo & giving you some digital’s on dropbox, what other services does your photographer choice offer?  Prepping for your photo shoot can be hectic, there’s outfits to choose, hair  nails and face appointments etc it can be stressful.  To lesson your pre and post shoot burden,  seek a photographer who can offer a full array of services – I.E. “Full Service”.   WEA Photography offers pre shoot wardrobe consultation to help select your outfit choices by coming up with a “mood board” of what outfits are appealing to your goal, then we narrow it down from there.   We have offer in house hair styling/make up services via our staff so that you don’t have to run all over town trying to get these things done before the shoot.  After the shoot, we don’t just send you a gallery link and say choose! – we view your gallery together in person within the same day & you’re selections are made the same day in most cases.  Let’s get back to the digital’s & dropbox, can your photographer choice offer you anything outside of digital’s?  Can they offer you fine art prints, luxury albums, large wall art collections, edited session films, an app to quickly access your images via phone or tablet in addition to just digital’s?  If you’re seeking more than just a “shoot & burn” photography experience – seek those photographers who can offer you a high level of service and experience.

 

 

Contract/Agreement/model release

Photo shoots are fun no doubt, however there should always be some policies in place to protect both photographer and client in case of “variables” that can arise.  Copyrights, social media credits, altering or editing, cancellations, reschedules, photo usage, payment arrangements, deposits, product delivery & how many should be addressed within these agreements.    Nothing dampens the experience for a photographer than to see their edited photos altered, filtered, cropped in any form other than how they were delivered to the client & to have to inform them that it violates the contract that they both signed.  Nothing dampens the experience for a client than to not receive everything that they paid for stipulated in the agreement.  To avoid those missteps, ask your selected photographer if they have such an agreement for you to read over and you both sign.  That way everyone has a piece of mind and can fully enjoy the session experience

 

Classic Car Portrait Session Atlanta

WEA Photography Portrait session

Back story – My wife and I like to catch the classic car cruise in held at  Elmyriachi Cantina over in the Kirkwood section of Atlanta on 1st Sunday’s.   On one particular summer Sunday,  I met Jorge @_jc65_  who was rocking a 65 lowrider Caddi.  We exchanged numbers and from there, I began to come up with a shoot concept for it. 

A couple weeks later,  I made acquaintances with Michelle @michelle_cherie_kitten and her husband Jay.  They had mentioned an interest in classical pin up type concept – which fit perfectly with the classic car.  So shortly after, we arranged a date and made it happen.    

The session went great as you can tell.  It was awarded a cover feature with 6 pages published in Smokin Ink Magazine issue 12

 

 

Press Release WEA Photography Atlanta Portrait Boudoir Studio

Award-winning Atlanta Portrait and Boudoir Photographer continues to dominate the headline

Popular Atlanta boudoir photography expert, W.E.A Photography, continues to garner reviews from different quarters

W.E.A Photography is a rare collaboration of a husband|wife team that has taken the photography industry by storm. The company runs a boutique full-service photography studio located in Inman Park. The Atlanta portrait expert specializes in boudoir, intimate portraits, editorial photography for individuals and businesses. Over the years, the popularity of the couple’s boudoir photography in Atlanta has grown – with WEA Photography becoming one of the most sought-after solutions providers in the field.

Photography is described as an art that is used to express different perceptions of life. Photos are often used to help people capture beautiful memories such as travel adventures, the first few steps taken by a toddler, and weddings. Over the years, different creative minds and other stakeholders in the industry have emerged to provide clients with the best possible experience. One couple that is seemingly rewriting the history books in the photography industry is William and Rhonda Allen, founders of W.E.A. Photography. The company’s fast dominance in the industry is largely attributed to the creativity and ingenuity in their works.

The company’s 1000 sf private studio is one of the distinguishing assets of the company due to its location in Inman Park – steps from the picturesque Eastside beltline, offering clients the best possible photography experience in Atlanta. With proven expertise in The Boudoir Experience, Portraits, and Editorials, the couple and their team at W.E.A. Photography have worked with tons of individual and commercial clients in Atlanta Georgia and across the United States of America.

The unique combination of affordability and quality by W.E.A. Photography has helped it to receive accolades from different quarters, featuring in top outlets such as The Fox Magazine, Shuba Mag, and Ellements.  Testimonial’s include – “Shooting with Will is an experience I’ll never forget. Will surely knows how to work the camera and make you feel so confident and comfortable. The boudoir photoshoot made me feel so beautiful and really begin to love every part of my body. He highlights and captures such intimate moments. I’m so honored and consider myself lucky to work with him.”

For more information about W.E.A. Photography and their amazing photography solutions, please visit – https://virginaperture.com/.

-MORE-

 

About W.E.A. Photography

W.E.A. Photography is a photography company that specializes in intimate portraits, editorial, and boudoir. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company was founded by award-winning photography experts – William and Rhonda Allen.

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Atlanta Proposal Photo Session

An awesome client of ours referred our services to Arik, who reached out to me via instagram.  We set up a time to discuss the session & I learned that he wanted to surprise propose to his lovely girlfriend Candace at High Falls Park – the place of one of their first couple of dates.   

Normally engagement shoots are pretty routine,  however because he wanted this was a surprise, he had to camouflage his intentions by inviting 2 other couples to come & telling her that his friend had set up a couples shoot & that he wanted them to go and get some shots as well!  Candace would later reveal that she had no idea & was completely caught off guard – Mission accomplished Arik!

Couples shoots are always fun, I tend shoot them a non-traditionally as far as posing & vibe.  So I shot all 3 couples in different ways, while Rhonda ran the behind the scenes filming.   Arik’s cue to us was once we got down by the falls, he was going to pull her aside & say “I have something to ask you” – once he said that, his sister was near to hand him the ring.  He said that he had a speech prepared but he had forgot all of it in the heat of the moment ha ha! No worries though as my wife and I was in the perfect position to capture all of the spontaneous moments from a session such as this.  

A week later at their reveal session, the tears of joy flowed reliving all the memories from that day.   To us, that’s really what its all about – creating memories like these & creating clients for life.  God Bless

2 published Atlanta boudoir photo shoots

Recently had two boudoir photo shoots that we did for our client’s published in November’s fashion/beauty editorial magazine Ellements

The 1st was shot on location at our old location in  West Midtown,

2nd location was in the Oakland Park Cemetery  

Our staff MUA Mackenzie Lee Kuns  was awarded with her first feature in a publication – for the work she did with our client Lexa Stahl

 

WEA Photography – An Atlanta full service portrait studio.

Inman Park Photographer

With the upcoming studio move to our new space in Inman Park – just steps away from Atlanta’s eastside beltline,  we wanted to take an opportunity re introduce ourselves.

His name is William, hers is Rhonda.  We are a husband|wife team & studio owners.  William is the chief photographer , while Rhonda handles all the other details that ensure that your experience is the best that it can be.

We strive to give a phenomenal experience & stellar service to all of our clients.  Starting with the initial consultation then on to the photo session and lastly the reveal/ordering session.

We are a Full Service Photography Studio.  What exactly does that mean to you the potential client?  First lets take a look at what we are not.

Shoot & burn photography – S&B photography can be simply described as,  We do a photo shoot,  I send you a link to a gallery for you to pick your favorite digital copies to edit, I edit the digital copies and send them back to you – DONE – That’s it.  You may post a couple pics on social media & the rest get stored on a phone that will most likely be upgraded and forgotten.   

The photos that you put time into planning outfits for, traveling to location or studio for, will end up forgotten as you add cell phone photos and other items to your phone. 

The memories from this mode of operations do not last long. It’s impersonal & it leaves the burden on the client to get print’s, wall art and albums on their own time – which as busy as people are nowadays, it will most likely be on the back burner for a long time.  We are NOT a shoot & burn photography business.

We are a one stop shop full service photography studio.  What that means is when you book with us, all you have to do is show up w/a bag of outfits.  You don’t have to go to the mall to get your make up done (as we have a staff of hair\make up artists that can get you photo shoot ready)

  Once the shoot is over, we won’t just send you a link and let you fend for yourself.   We typically meet with our clients about a week later or in some cases the same day to reveal all the awesome goodness that we created together.  During this time together,  you will also be able to see & touch the heirloom products that we offer. 

This will absolutely  make your photo session a long lasting memory. instead of just a pic on your phone|social media

Shelly Paulson who is one of top Equesterion|Horse photographers in the nation put out an awesome blog post on this subject,  read it here

Here’s how she sums it up – (taken from her blog post mentioned above)

Full Service Studio 

Creates beautiful images for you

Personally reviews images with you at  an in-person selection session

Gives you the opportunity to touch and feel products in person, and discusses sizes and options for prints and display art

Reviews your selected images and discusses retouching

Guides you through the ordering process, answering any questions you might have

Custom designs your products

Packages and delivers your order, including digital files

Shoot and Burn Photographer

Creates beautiful images for you

Mails you a flash drive or emails a download link with digital files

Summer session w/ Devyn Atlanta

 

Devyn Hicks

@devyn.hicks

 
The goal of most all photographers is to set their camera’s  during a shoot, so that the image is close to immaculate straight out of the camera (SOOC).  Reason being is so that less time spent during the editing process.
This was one of those shoots were everything came together, muse, lighting, colors and vibe.    Enjoy.       For additional images from this shoot & more,  visit our fans page.