I’m back!

I have my English sun tan (aka sun burn) and I’m happy to bring you Tiffany and Sean’s stupendously beautiful sneak peek from their destination beach wedding at the JW Marriott in Cancun, Mexico!

How ridiculous is this…

More pretty pics to come.

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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No, I am not on vacation.  I am flying to Cancun to shoot a wedding!  Out of the 4 days that I am there, I am shooting for 3 of them, so not too much relaxing time for me.  Needless to say that my email response time from Thursday a.m. until Monday p.m. will be sporadic at best.  All emails will be replied to on  Tuesday 15th at the latest!

I have never been to Mexico before but for any of you looking to visit check out http://www.visitmexico.com/en-us/.

And don’t forgot to wish Tiffany & Sean all the luck in the world for their wedding this Saturday!  And here are just a couple shots from their Great Falls engagement session last November.

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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This wedding rocked!  I love Alexandra & Patrick so much!  I’m not usually one of those gushing wedding photographers who talks like this but Ali & Pat are just incredible!

Usually my wedding sneak peeks are just a shot of the couple.  I choose one of my best frames and release it to the world.  But these guys had too many great things.  Like this photobooth.  They made their own little set!  So, as another little peek; here is me, hamming it up!

And finally; SUPERMOON!!!

Keep checking back, their full post will be epic!

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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Here’s what I’ve been up to (when I remember to take a picture) in April!

1. Testing out a new camera for a Wizards game.
2. The remnants of a crab feast with my May 5th couple.
3. Window light.
4. Chestertown, MD Historic district – such a cute little town!
5. Wooden table.
6. Latte art.
7. I love me some Northside Social.
8. My new crumpler backpack for my overseas weddings.
9. Working on Tida & Michael’s wedding.

1. Making a sign for my photo-booth.
2. Taking a breather on a beautiful day.
3. Did you know I cook?  I made a blueberry nut-loaf…
4. …and it tasted delicious!
5. …and on the sixth day God created MANchester.
6. Making sure I have my wedding images saved on multiple drives.
7. My Square card reader.
8. A good pint on a sunny day.
9. Before shooting a Wizards game I needed to shoot some John Wall bobble-heads.

 1. A quiet Verizon Center pre-game at the Wizards
2. Mustache sign in Old Town Alexandria
3. Trapped at the National Harbor in MS
4. Some products I take with me to wedding consults
5. Coffee sign at Northside Social
6. Wizards shoot around
7. COCONUT WATER TASTES AWFUL!
8. Yet another edition in my coffee obsession
9. I love me some dark roast

1. – 4. Scouting Rock Creek Park ‘first-look’ locations for a May wedding
5. Hart Senate building floor reflection during a corporate shooting assignment
6. Hanging out waiting for a Senator from Georgie
7. Congressional building rotunda
8. Fancy golden chairs
9. My new Pilates ball desk chair

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Come find me on Instagram! Just search for goslingphoto!

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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***DISCLAIMER***
The first thing I want to say is that I am under no allusion that people read my blog, let alone other photographers. I in no way think that the way I do things is the correct way and I am not writing these posts to tell people how to shoot or how to run their businesses. I am however going to be writing about my experiences; my failures, my successes, etc. If these posts help anyone, great! If not; no big deal.
***DISCLAIMER***

As photographers, we of course would like to shoot all over the world.  We would all love to be the ‘go-to’ destination photographer who flies to exotic destinations for our clients.  However, for most of us, this is just not going to happen.  I myself am lucky enough to have a couple of overseas weddings this year, but to be honest about it; I booked them both completely by chance.  One was a referral from a good friend, and the other was from a bride whom I shot engagement photos for and when I learnt that she was was getting married overseas I pestered her until she agreed to bring me along.  I’m not telling you this to boast, I’m telling you this to prove a point.  I need to shoot somewhere in 15-25 weddings a year range.  This year I have 2 that are ‘destination’ weddings.  So, if I was just a ‘destination’ wedding photographer, my business would clearly not be sustainable.  So, I am course, primarily, a local photographer.  My clients are from or are hiring me to work in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia areas. And because of this when you go to my website the title tag says;  Washington DC Wedding Photographer, Northern Virginia Wedding Photographer.  And when you go to my blog the title tag says; Washington DC & Northern Virginia Wedding Photographer.  And also when you go to my about me sections of both my website and my blog it says that I live and work in the Washington, DC area.  I keyword my website images and my blog posts so that when people search on Google for local wedding photographers, wedding venues, etc… I pop up.

I swear have a point and I am getting to it…

When I moved to this country I needed to get a cell phone.  My wife is from Ohio and naturally I added myself to her phone plan and therefore had to go with an Ohio number (area code 740).  I don’t want this to confuse my local clients thinking that I am not living/working in this area.  And I also don’t really want my 740 number popping up on their phones when I give them a call and have them thinking “740 – what the hell?”.

So I decided to look into changing my phone number to either a DC area code (202) or a Northern Virginia code (703).  Doing this with my cellular network provider seemed to be a pain in the arse so I shelved the idea and just figured that it wouldn’t bother people; me having an out of town number.  And honestly, I don’t think it does bother people; but it bothered me.  So a few years back when I heard about Google Voice I was intrigued.  Firstly because everything seems to be free and secondly because I could choose a local phone number.

Google Voice has a plethora of things that it can do but the main thing that I am using it for is as a call forwarding service.  People call the 202 number I chose to have and it gets sent to my phone.

Easy.

All I did was sign up for the service, select a local number and that was it.

When you log in to your Google Voice account online in is kind of like an email account.  It has your incoming and outgoing calls saved in folders.  You can delete, archive or highlight calls.  You can even receive text messages with the number, they forward text messages just like they forward calls.

If you don’t answer the call the caller can leave a message.  You just have to call your own Google Voice number, type in your pin and receive your voicemail.  Super simple.

One thing that is kind of cool is that you can have a text message sent to your phone with a transcription of the voicemail that the caller has left you.  The transcription isn’t always perfect but I have found it to be pretty accurate.  This way I can screen the voicemails to decide whether I need to return them fast, slow or not at all.

After all that waffle I suppose all I wanted to say is that I think having a local phone number is a great asset.  And if you don’t currently have one; look into Google Voice.

Take care now.

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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Credit cards.  I’ve been thinking on this for a little while now.  I’ve been wanting a way to take credit card payments from couples without the hassle of huge fees, clunky credit card machines etc, etc…  It just seemed like such a hassle that it became one of the those things that I just sort of put on the back burner and thought I would get to it one day, never really paying to much attention to it.

But the day has come my friends.

My May 5th Groom Patrick is somewhat of a techie and after a quick chat about my feelings on the subject he suggested I look into Square.

Square is hassle free and a cost effective way to take credit card payments (and it looks sorta stylish too).  One of the founders of Twitter is also a founder of Square so I knew it was going to be pretty awesome, seen as my love for twitter has no bounds.

It is as simple as downloading the FREE ap from the apple application center.  Then you sign up for FREE at their website (www.squareup.com), and they send you a small Square card reader in the mail for FREE!  You link the ap with your bank account and payments go directly there.  And the only cost to me is a minimal (in the region of 3% processing fee).  Bing, bang, bong…  As simple as that.

So…  I am happy to say…

I KNOW TAKE CREDIT CARDS!

I accept, Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover.

And here is the little thing that makes it all possible…

Here’s the ap on my iphone.

And here is a handy tutorial on how simple it all is!

If you wish to pay with your credit card there is a 3% convenience fee.  A small price to pay for not having to write a check, wouldn’t you say

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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I have been looking for a vehicle to publish Sarah & Tyler’s wedding from last September for a while now, because I knew the details they put in to their day needed to be seen.  And A Lowcountry Wedding agreed!

Go take another look at their wedding on A Lowcountry Wedding – http://alowcountrywed.com/sarah-tyler-virginia-wedding/.

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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It took me a little over a year to find RedTree Albums.  I had tried a couple of other companies and while their work was good I just wasn’t completely satisfied.  Then one day whilst I was looking at another photographers website I noticed that he was using RedTree and the albums looked incredible.  I designed a sample album that day and sent it off to be printed.  The results were amazing!  The cover options are incredibly numerous, as well as being flawless.  The binding is silky smooth and the image quality is beyond reproach (that sounded fancy…).

As of right now they are the only album company I use and I couldn’t be happier.

A few days ago they updated their website and shot me an email to see if they could use a couple of my album sample pictures to use on their site; HELL YES!

So here’s their new site;

One of my sample albums in leather.

Some of my fabric album samples.

This shows the awesome embossing that is available.

And here you can see the crisp image quality on their spreads.

Like I said before; I couldn’t be happier with the quality of these albums.  And you’ll love them too!

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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Thankfully I have been fortunate enough to have a number of different blogs feature my work.  It gives me hope that I’m not the only person who likes my work!

When it came to submitting Alex & Jim’s engagement shoot to a blog I pretty much knew exactly where it had to go; Capitol Romance.  Capitol Romance is a local wedding blog run by Bree.  Bree likes the alternative, non-standard weddings and has great vision when it comes to selecting her posts.  There is nothing specifically alternative about Alex & Jim’s e-shoot but seen as Alex and Bree grew up with each other back in New Jersey I just knew Bree would want it!  And she did!!!

So go check it out!

http://www.capitolromance.com/2012/04/12/capitol-romance-alex-jims-alexandria-engagement-session/

And here’s just a quick screen grab; I love the updated logo for the blog.  Best use of pink ever!

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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I have noticed on a couple of different blogs now that some people are showing off their instagram photos.  I too, like the huddled masses, am a huge fan of the application.  I however do not use it as much as I should.  I am still in the mind of; my phone is a phone, and it takes me a little while to remember that it is actually a camera too!  To remedy that I am going to try and take more photos with instagram and hopefully post some updates here on the blog every month or so.

To get us started.  Here is a selection of most of my instagrams to date (with a little narrative too)…

My wife and I taking our Toms out for a walk
A pretty tasty looking wedding cake at a wedding I shot with MK
Waiting for a coffee whilst people check out their phones

My view from the end of a Wizards game
Editing portraits of John Wall from the Wizards Media day 2012
A shot of mine from a shoot I did with JaVale McGee that was in the Metro paper one morning

Mavourneen laughing it up on the way from the church to DC for wedding pics
My trusty little camera bag; a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home
Me (I like to wear hats)

I liked the light hitting the New York Times on this news stand
A shot from the back of my camera at a Wizards game
Sitting outside the Newseum waiting for a consult

My Bronica medium format camera; she is broken
A save the date from one of my couples
Editing April & Brendan’s wedding pics

April & Brendan’s wedding cake from the back of my camera
A package from Canon!
A pic from a location scouting trip for a portrait shoot

Some paper backgrounds I have for portrait shoots
My lighting gear in its spot next to the dining table
My lighting equipment setup for a portrait shoot

A vanilla latte for me – WITH MY NAME SPELLED WRONG!!!
Rain on my car window and the sun coming out
Some wedding albums

The mess that is my work desk
An awesome seal on the back on a wedding invite from one of my May 2012 couples
SUGAR!

My morning coffee in my favourite coffee mug (I bought it on my honeymoon)
One of many ‘to do’ lists I write
Another awesome save the date

Some gifts form Canon Professional Services
One of MANY camera t-shits I own
Some camera film for my broken camera

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Contact Stephen about your wedding – stephen@goslingphotography.com
View Stephen’s Wedding Portfolio – www.goslingphotography.com

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