WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards 2014

I have always said i had the best clients in the world and Sarah can attest to me always bragging about my clients in the most random times of the day. I was always so bad about asking for reviews but in 2013 i tried my best to ask as many of my couples to write something about us and i’m so proud and honored to be a couples choice for 2014! We are such a small footprint on the talent that is out there today in the wedding business but it’s reviews like Esther + Jeff’s that make all the hard work worth it in the end.

Esther + Jeff – “Andy is the BEST combination of talent and work ethic; his artistry is incredible but witnessing how hard he works was what really put us at complete ease. Over the 6 months between the engagement and wedding, we grew to appreciate Andy even more–not only for his professionalism but for his friendship. At the end of the day, we felt like we were being photographed by a friend who we trust and respect. A vendor relationship can’t get any better than that!

Andy responded to every single one of my e-mail inquiries (and there were MANY of those) promptly. His responses were always transparent and thorough and he was able to inject humor into these exchanges–a huge plus! It was clear that Andy approached these e-mails as a way to build a relationship by taking time to hear out and understand his client.

We took our engagement photos in Chicago and this is where Andy truly set himself apart as someone who goes above and beyond for his clients. He was incredibly gracious with his time and resources–we can’t thank him enough! We started shooting shortly after lunch and stopped at around midnight!! We don’t know how Andy did it, but he was able to lead the shoot effectively while making sure that we were at ease and having fun! We even scored a late-night shot at the bean after Millennium Park was closed. It was just us and the bean at night with the skyline behind us. Magical!

Before our wedding day, Andy made sure that he was up to speed on our day-of timeline. And as promised he and his second shooter, Ginger, arrived at the venue promptly at 6 AM for our 10:30 AM ceremony to take the detail shots. Andy kept things moving efficiently and he was able to capture all the tender, goofy, memorable moments of our wedding. We were absolutely thrilled with our pictures when we saw that SincereLi had really captured all the warmth and beauty of our wedding day.

Thank you for everything, SincereLi! We love you!”

Chloe's First Snow.

This year has definitely been the toughest one for us. I knew i had to make the decision to take on fewer clients and pretty much just work fewer weddings. From the beginning of when we started this business i wanted to help and photograph as many couples as i could even if it meant taking away time from my personal life. That’s how important photographing couples’ weddings was for me. I knew right from the start that being asked to photograph someone’s wedding was a complete blessing and honor and i treated every client and wedding that way and still do. However, when Sarah was pregnant with Chloe i knew that i didn’t want Chloe growing up remembering her daddy always working on the weekends and as hard of decision it has been i decided to take on only a little over 1/2 of the clients that you typically did so that i could have more time with my family. Even though that decision was the toughest one i had to make since i have been photographing weddings, when i see how happy Chloe is to play in the snow with her mommy + daddy i know i made the right decision. Being able to photograph her and being there for all her firsts makes everything worth it.

Fujifilm X-Pro 1 Field Test.

This weekend was the first opportunity i had to take out and field test the Fujifilm X-Pro 1 i got not too long ago with hopes in transitioning to this camera as my family and travel camera so i didn’t have to carry my 5D with me everywhere. Since Chloe had never been to the National Gallery of Art and we always wanted to see how she would react to the light bridge and the artwork in the museum we decided to go there for the field test. When i shoot with my 5D i’m always using full manual mode and i have been shooting like that for years. It definitely require more thought but the control is what i like about using full manual mode. The X-Pro 1 wasn’t intended to be shot in full manual mode so that was the first thing i had to get use to. I guess it’s nice to only have to think about composition and nothing else. The OVF, although great to have because it gives that immediate visual of what you are shooting, i still found myself switching to the EVF before actually releasing the shutter because i wanted to make sure the focus was set on the correct subject and that i was getting exactly the composition that i wanted. I found the low light performance pretty good for a compact camera but because the 5D performs so well in low light i’m a little spoiled when it comes to that standard. I think the Fujifilm RAW files generally have a little more grain then the Canon RAW files which is not a bad thing in my opinion and just gives that final exposure that extra bit of character. However, i found that when the ISO got up to 3200 or higher the grain level was a little too much for my tastes. Generally, the biggest complaint i keep reading about this camera is the slowness of the AF but i think the most recent firmware did a good job fixing that issue and i didn’t find it difficult to get proper focus. This was only the first time i got a chance to shoot with it but i’m actually enjoying using the camera and pretty pleased with the image quality so far.