Back to Work

Winter break is over, and it's back to work for me!

I met up with Angie and her bridesmaids at her mother's home for hair and makeup, while across town my second shooter Jeff was with the guys at a barber shop.

We all met up at Cascade in Hamden for the rest of the festivities, starting with an adorable not-quite-first-look.

The ceremony had to be moved indoors due to the cold and windy weather, but the space was beautiful, and the ceremony was incredible, written by the bride herself.

The reception was a blast, with a great DJ/singer Michael Nigretti. Great food, great music, and everyone having a great time kicking back and celebrating.

All in all, a great start to the 2017 season. And some exciting news:

The next wedding I go to will be my own. :)

Perfect Strangers

During my slow season, I like to try to fit in a few projects that are fun and let me try something new. A few weeks ago I drove down to NYC to visit my friend Sarah Smallwood Parsons and her comedic partner Brittany McDonald, who run Perfect Strangers: A Character Show. I thought it'd be interesting to photograph some of their characters, and they did not disappoint.

It was such a good time and hilarious watching these two hop in and out of characters.

Only two things I would do differently next time. First, use my crumpled grey backdrop rather than the bare wall we used. I think the added texture would be good and it would look better under the colored background light.

The other is the background colors themselves. I had intended to do a variety of colors, but on the day of the shoot I wasn't liking how the colors looked in camera. I decided to stick to green/blue, probably the least appealing colors to me, figuring I could alter them in post processing.

Well... When I got home and dug into the photos, the color looked fine, but altering it in post did not work half as well as I'd expected. 

Kind of a shame. But then, that's exactly why I like doing these experiments once in a while. If I do a similar shoot again, I'll know how to use the background lights to get exactly the color I'm looking for.

In the meantime, I still love these photos, just on the strength of the subjects. They crack me up! If you're in NYC, visit their Facebook page and find a show you can go to.  Or you can meet Mickey Nutello, one of Sarah's characters and the one who inspired this project, in this video. (Audio is a little NSFW.)

Throwback - Carin and Joe

Carin and Joe were one of the first couples I worked with back in 2012, and it's still one of my favorite weddings, one of those days where the stars aligned and everything looks perfect through the viewfinder.

The ceremony was held at Stanley Park in Westfield, MA. It's a gorgeous venue that I wish I got to work at more often.

The reception was at the Westwood Pub, a great little place with awesome food.

It's not an exaggeration to say that the success of this wedding is one of the reasons I kept doing weddings. It was probably the first time I really felt that I had found my footing.

Out For A Hike

I am deeply, incredibly sick of snow. So here's a write-up of an engagement shoot from back in the beautiful, green, warm days of August.

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Russ and Diana are a great couple - laid back and fun to hang out with. We met at Valley Falls, a park just around the corner from me, for their engagement photos. 

After getting rained out on our first day, the second morning was beautiful, warm, and bright.

It was a great time that involved a fair amount of scrambling over rocks and trying not to fall into streams. Always can tell it was a good shoot if I come home with muddy khakis. 

I'm looking forward to their wedding next year!

'Round the Reservoir

Last week, I finally caught up on the last of my 2016 editing. The next day, I had my first shoot of 2017.

I met up with Laura and James at the West Hartford Reservoir, near the spot where he proposed to her. We had hoped for snow, but Connecticut is not cooperative. We got all the cold without any of the fluffy whiteness.

No trouble, though. We toughed out the cold weather and had the place nearly to ourselves, with beautiful soft light from the overcast sky.

It was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the new year. I can't wait to photograph their wedding later this year!

29

It's my birthday. Twenty-nine times I've been around the sun, and the last five of those I've been making a living as a photographer. 

Pictured: Me using a camera I didn't own and never used professionally.

I can't put into words how lucky I am. Not many people get to follow their passion. Fewer do by thirty. Even fewer do without first driving themselves batty working someplace they can't stand.

Pictured: Also me not working.

It's been a crazy ride. I've had to learn to be my own accountant, advertiser, web designer, and salesperson. It's been hard work, but I also know I couldn't have done it alone.

Pictured: Me working in a silly hat.

I owe my success to so many people: my family, who's support was essential to getting Zack Wussow Media off the ground; my fiance, who's been my council, my proofreader, and lately my second shooter. But most of all, I owe my success to my customers, who have been my best promoters and without whom I couldn't have done any of this.

Pictured: Me pretending to work during a break from working.

So thank you all, and here's to all the exciting things ahead this year!

Under the Wire

The morning of New Year's Eve, I visited the Shuttle Meadow Country Club for Danielle and Lee's wedding. 

It was a great brunch event, simple and intimate. 

There is something about older couples that always really touches me. Possibly the awesomeness of their children getting to attend their wedding, something I got to do with my own dad. Pretty good way to wrap up an exciting and busy year.

Congratulations Danielle and Lee!

State of the Business - 2016 in Review

It's time again. Every December, I like to take a moment and look back at the year gone by. People seem to like seeing the number, as well. So, here we go:

BIGGER AND BIGGER STILL

2016 was Zack Wussow Media's best and busiest year so far. You might notice I said the same thing last year - had I been blogging in late 2014 I could have said the same thing then too. All of which is to say the business keeps growing by basically any measure. Makes me happy.

STRONG START

2016 began from a much better place than 2015. I was still some mix of anxious and excited to get through the slow winter months, but I spent less time eyeing my bank account. Next year is likewise shaping up to be comfortable, if anything a bit better than 2016.

HUSTLE

Fall is always a busy time, but this year was especially bad. Good? I guess it depended on how much work separated me and a bed when you asked.

As with the past three years, I spent my weeks September-November (er... early December) taking yearbook photos all over New England, and many of my weekends at weddings, editing weddings, and booking more weddings. It's not so much that I shot more weddings this year, just that they clustered more tightly into my fall yearbook season, which itself was more busy than previous years.

(As an aside - I put together a spreadsheet showing how the wedding season, or at least my wedding season, is shifting later and later every year. The trend is there but not in an exciting enough way to pretty it up for this post.)

And since I am already bringing up numbers...

THE NUMBERS

WEDDINGS: 19 (SAME AS 2015/2014)

Once again, it feels like it was way more than that... I'm actually quite surprised that this number has stayed so constant over time. I believe this year saw the smallest proportion of "hourly" weddings, though, which probably accounts for feeling like this year was busier. Or my memory isn't that great. Either way.

My career total comes now to 90 weddings. (I also second shot 1 wedding.)

ENGAGEMENTS: 8 (UP 4 FROM 2015)

This is my biggest change from 2015. Mostly it's due to engagements now being standard with my biggest package, but it's also partly because I'm slowly moving to a higher price bracket, and people want to work with me on a small scale before committing to the big contract. Which is great - I welcome the on-the-job interview and chance to work with clients before the big day.

OTHER PORTRAITS: 5 (NO CHANGE FROM 2015)

This includes headshots, maternity photos, and family photos. Headshots are up 1, family photos down 1, and maternity unchanged. 

I'd really love this to be a bigger part of my business (so if you are interested, drop a line!). Working on that is one of my big goals for the early part of 2017 - expect to see some more involved and creative portrait shoots written up here.

What does make me feel good, though: all but one of these was a return customer. That tells me I'm doing a good job - the problem is with reaching new people..

CORPORATE GIGS: 8 (NO CHANGE FROM 2015)

This includes product photography and events. The "no change" actually hides an important shift. In 2015 those two camps were split evenly 4/4, this year it's 2/6 respectively. That's a great change for me going forward.

Product photography is a totally different business to weddings, and a field I'm lukewarm about. All the work I've ever done in this category has come through family friends. In short, it's nice to have, but not a real focus of my business.

Corporate events, meanwhile, tend to be like shorter, less-convoluted weddings, and distribute themselves more evenly throughout the year. (In fact, since a lot of them are with UConn, they tend to be during my slow winter/spring season.)

So not a big change overall, but within this category the trends are good.

COMING OF AGE/MISC. EVENTS: 5 (UP 3 FROM 2015)

There are aspects to this I am not happy about - I only did one Bar Mitzvah this year, for example, compared to 2 last year - but in general I am very excited to see people thinking of me for things outside the wedding/engagement box. As far as I recall, all of these came from referrals through friends and past customers.

TOTAL: 45 (UP 7 FROM 2015)

Well, that explains why I felt busier! As with all the above: it's a trend I like and hope to see continue, especially if more of the uptick is from small, non-seasonal stuff like engagements, events, and portraits.

OTHER STUFF

I drove almost exactly 10,000 miles for work this year, split 50/50 between my yearbook season and everything else. I'm deeply sick of the inside of my car.

Also, my fiance was my second shooter for seven weddings this year! (Including the above.) Heather has really hit a groove, and it's kind of awesome how much her photos look like my own. Plus, you know, it is nice spending time with her and all.

Coming Up

Next year's already filling out nicely for weddings - I've booked around twelve, at last check. And a fair number of engagements and events.

This winter should see a couple snowy engagement shoots and I have a handful of just-for-fun portrait projects lined up. 

I'm also getting married in April. So, you know, work to be done getting ready for that!

Happy Holidays!

With this the blog is on Christmas break while I catch up on the last of this year's editing and spend time with friends and family. We'll be back for New Years Eve, when I shoot my last wedding of the year, and try to come up with some goals for 2017.