What’s even more interesting is that the bride is the sister of a groom in 2008 that we placed #1 in reception category in the same contest     And both of these top 5 finishes are from the same wedding.

Here they are – first one is #4 for Bouquet/Garter (Action) category:

Here is one of my favorite images of the year – #5 in Emotions:

Pretty cool that both images are from the same wedding – Nathalie and Alex’s Wedding Day in Houston, Texas.

Her brother’s wedding, Katie and Nathan, which won #1 in reception (along with 1st place for that quarter in 2008) can be seen here which coincidentally was my very first blog post – didn’t blog at all until 2008.

Even better – she and Alex wrote a testimonial for us and listed this image as one of their favorites – you can read it at:  Houston Yacht Club Wedding – Alex and Nathalie’s Testimonial.

Hazel spent a year doing full-time work as a volunteer for the American Red Cross in Austin before she was accepted to the University of Texas’ MBA program.  I have volunteered as their photographer for the various fundraising functions – such as a fashion show (and coincidently included a bridal show), golf tournaments, and other events as well.   Actually our path to wedding photography came partly because of the time we have spent at the Red Cross.

Since Hazel has a full time job now after graduating from UT in 2008 and Tony is full time at (mostly) wedding photography, we really couldn’t volunteer our time but we can definitely still help out.

So after a day of watching the news, and tonight as I sit here in a Dallas hotel room for the wedding tomorrow – we have decided to help out the American Red Cross (and other organizations – obviously we’re partial to them) in this effort.

From now until end of March – we will donate or match your donation to the American Red Cross or any other “reputable” agencies for up to 10% of your wedding package for photography.

If you donated $500 and wanted a $5000 package, for example, we will discount that package to $4500 so that you can freely donate without having to worry about your wedding budget.

Consequently, if you book the package with us without a donation receipt, we will simply make a donation of 10% from the package of your choice.    We prefer that you make the donation yourself so that you get the benefit not only from tax deduction but also from your own heart and just email us the receipt for the credit.

We’d love to do more but as a small business, a 10% donation in sales is actually quite significant as several of the packages have albums which are discounted already from the retail price – we estimate we’ll have to put up about a 20-25% (or even 30% in some cases) of net profit toward this effort – it’s equivalent to getting a 25% pay cut for a period of time.  We have talked about this 2-3 years ago and didn’t really have the financial base from the business point of view until recently.

The donation can be made to American Red Cross or any “reputable” agencies – it doesn’t have to be about the earthquake.

We truly believe that individuals like yourselves make the biggest impact in helping people out.  It can be made toward your local American Red Cross, shelters, etc.   We will simply match up to 10% of your wedding photography package.   You’ll spend exactly the same amount of money in photography but at least someone else in serious need is also benefiting from your amazing wedding!

It’s a win-win.   We will do this until the end of March, 2011 for any weddings booked between now and 2012.  You’ll need to send us your donation receipt to get the discount. The donation will have to be made this month – you can also bring your donation receipts from your fiance and your family members to get to the 10% point.  If you donate say 5%, we’ll discount your price by 5% but will also write a check/credit card for the additional 5% ourselves.  Contact us today if you’re interested.

We have just been accepted and is now a full member of the Junebug Weddings photographers group.

Junebug Weddings was started by three full time photographers in 2006 focusing on wedding planning and has grown into a vibrant community of the world’s top wedding photographers.  In 2010 they decided to expand the photographer listing to around the world.   We actually received an invitation (after looking back through the emails) back in April of 2010 and didn’t act on it, silly us!   Anyway, we came to our senses and started the process of reapplying and joining them today.

You can check out our brochure at:

Ku Photography on Junebug Weddings

We are currently listed in Houston Texas since there isn’t a region for Austin, yet.   That may soon change.

Unlike other wedding blogs out there, while they do focus on helping brides on planning the wedding day, the blog is focused on showing good photography as evident in any section of their website, instead of just detail images or a certain “style” of wedding photos.  Some of the best wedding photographers in the world are featured on their list and their blog.   In Texas there are only 9 wedding photography companies before we joined, so I guess that makes us the lucky 10th!

Be sure to check them out when you have the chance.

Here is her letter:

Dear Tony and Hazel,

My husband and I just had the best Thanksgiving ever!   We had the pleasure of watching your slide show with Matt and Amira.  It was so amazing and beautiful.  And the music was great with it, too.

We really appreciate all you did and can never thank you enough.  We knew your pictures would be totally awesome.

If a picture tells a thousand words, you have just told a never ending story of the marriage of Matt and Amira.  And what a beautiful love story you have shown!

They are so pleased and so are we.  I will probably watch the slide show each day for a very long time!

I hope you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for you and the incredible work you do!  We feel lucky that both of you came to Houston on Oct. 23rd.  It was so kind of you to share your talent with us on such a special day.

Thanks again for making my day!

Sincerely,

Debbie – the mother of the bride

Here is one of my favorite photos from the wedding (and quite frankly one of my favorites for the year) – it’s simply a moment between Amira and father during their dance:

This moment, like many others, is a combination of just waiting for the expression and little bit of luck.  There was a nice light in the reception, a spot light almost from the ceiling which was much brighter than any other ambient light sources – it was quite blinding and would be a bit difficult to match with flash.  So I had asked them if if they can turn it off – they couldn’t as luck would have it.  Rather than trying to fight the light, I simply kept an eye on that bright spot and waited for a moment to occur.  While I am sure I could have photographed this moment without the light, it simply wouldn’t be as dramatic.  The cool part is – Amira went to Rice U for theatre education, and this photograph and the light reminds me a lot of the type of lighting you’d see on a stage during a play.

I’ll post he wedding in a few days!

It appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of D Weddings and I have finally gotten a copy in Dallas last week.

Their original wedding blog entry can be seen here:  Monica and David 2009 – Ku Photography LLC D Weddings also featured their wedding online at: Monica and David – D Weddings

Hello friends,

We’re pleased to announce a new web site design for our portfolio website at:

http://www.kuphotography.com

The site is currently a work in progress – we’re almost there converting our images from the old website to a newer and larger format.

It allows for 1400 pixel images (best viewed in 24″ monitors or bigger).  Our web site, and even the blog, will be somewhat weird in Google search in the next few weeks due to the change.  The old site is still viewable at:

http://www.austinweddingphotographer.net

We’re still contemplating on a new design on the blog  That might also happen in the next few weeks as well.

Best wishes,

Tony Ku

The Premiere Albums allow for silk, leather and aluminum coverings which is really neat.  Different colors and styles are available.

The images are printed on metallic paper, sprayed with a texture to minimize finger prints and to protect the pages from sticking to each other.  Each Premiere album is 12×12″ in size when closed (24″x12″ when opened), and 25 spreads/50 pages per book.

The best way to see these albums is to set up an appointment to meet with us on your wedding photography coverage needs.

In a few more days we’ll present a slideshow of our favorite images from 2009, most likely by Wednesday.

For now, we’re writing this post about wedding planning in general and how it relates to photography – our experience in the last five years gave us a unique perspective on what our clients went through the entire process and hopefully, this will give you a better “guide” to wedding planning than what other wedding magazines will show.

There are three things that are the most important after your engagement as far as wedding planning goes:  the date, the budget, and the location.   Everything you decide depends on the three things.

The date – if you need to book a photographer, we need your date   There is no way to “reserve” a range of dates.  While vendors such as baker or florists can do multiple weddings, most wedding photographers can only do one wedding per day and some times, one wedding per weekend.  The availability is based on the date and the location.

The location – generally, this just has to be the location of the wedding (city, state, etc.)  and not necessarilythe actual ceremony and reception.   Once you have the date and the location, most vendors can show you the availability and also the cost.

The budget – This is where things get tricky and this is where you need to decide what you want to empahsize on in your wedding.  This is the area that we don’t feel is our place to get into, because it really depends on what is important to you. Is it the dress?  the cake?  the photographer?   etc.

The simple 7 steps we’ll recommend is the following:

1.  Pick the date and location and the budget – these should go at the same time.  Everything pretty much depends on this first step.

2.  Photographers – of course, I am somewhat biased – but, wedding dates book up fast.  We must have received 10 inquiries for May 1st and half a dozen for other dates in May after the date is booked.  It all depends on who the photographer is, and what you’d like in your final product.   I’d recommend that every bride look at a COMPLETE WEDDING SLIDESHOW or two or three, from beginning until end, to judge how good the photographer is throughout the day.  That’s the only way to gauge our ability to produce and the consistency of our product.  You simply can’t have a bad day as a wedding photographer.  Do you want more portraits or more photjournalistic approach?  Does the photographer catch the not-so-obvious moments, or just the garden variety type?

3.  Planners/coordinators – some venues have planners, some don’t.  The thing about wedding planners is this – their recommended “list” of vendors might not be what you want.  In fact,  a lot of wedding planners and coordinators’ photographers’ list are photographers who produce the work that they like and not necessarily what you’d want, style wise.  Planners like to emphasize on details (that’s what they do), so the photographers they recommend will be ones who emphasize on details – and if you’re looking for a photojournalistic photographer, most likely it won’t come from a planner.  I’m speaking in generalities, but a lot of times, that’s what planners do.  Again, it may not be in the budget, but a coordinator/planner is a nice thing to have on the wedding, especially if they can coordinate the family members afterwards for the family formals so that we don’ t have to spend a lot of times on them.

3.  Cake/Dress/Florists – If you have a planner, you’ll probably get a list of the vendors as well.  Again, this all depends on the budget and how you want to appropriate (i.e. how much do you emphasize on the vendors), so we won’t go into that.  If you want to get a list of the vendors we worked with in the past, feel free to email us.

4. Entertainment/DJ/Band/Hawaiian dances – This again, depends on the budgetand what you’d like at your wedding.  A great band adds to the atmosphere of the wedding and it’s a guarantee that the guests will go wild on the dance floor, same goes for a great DJ.

5.  Themes – this is where you can bring out your favorite wedding magazines and try to figure out what you want to have in your wedding.  And it can affect #3 and #4.   Special cultural weddings is important here.  This is where you should get an idea of what you need and speak to your photographer about it, particularly for ceremonies that are not of the “norm”, if there is such a thing as a normal wedding   Personally I believe each and every wedding is unique and should be reflected in the photos.

6.  Timeline – we just need the generic timeline – the rest we can get at the reception with the DJ or if you have a band or coordinator, then we can get it from them as well.  It’s good to speak to your photographer about what you need in terms of portraits, etc. so that appropriate “time” is allocated, as well as the appropriate time of the day for the best light.

7.  Don’t stress out if you only have a couple of months.  We have two couples in 2009 who decided to get married within 2 months of the wedding day, and both had spectacular weddings.  One had a planner and the other couple did not, and honestly, I didn’t see a difference in the schedule, etc.  Both were great and unique in their own way.  If you have 6-12 months, then you have a bit more time – but don’t wait if you need to make sure a particular vendor (photographers and venues) is available for your wedding day.

Hope that helps out a little – if you have any questions, feel free to ask us.

2009 favorites slideshow coming soon in a couple of days.

Best wishes for the new year,
Tony & Hazel

Amongst the changes is the albums that we offer.  Currently we have two sets of albums, 9×12/12×9/10×10″  with 15 spreads, and the other ones are at 25 spreads for our Artisan line of albums.  

After further study and getting feedback, it turns out that whenever we offer a choice of vertical/horizontal or square formats, 80-90% of our clients choose a square book (which is my favorite anyway, it’s a compromise between the horizontal and vertical).  So, for 2010 (we’ll still have the old set ups for 2009) weddings, I’m now offering two options:

Artisan 10×10″ Book with 15 spreads (30 pages) – 60 images or so.

Artisan 12×12″ Book with 25 spreads (50 pages) – 100 images or so.

Previously both options were only available for 10×10″ dimension, but we have upgraded the larger size book to a “bigger” book as well.  Having them at the same format (square) would also streamline the design process for me.

Here are the books:

This is a sample album from April 5th wedding of this year, Shani and Seth.    This book is 12×12″ in unopened dimension, when it is opened, it goes to a whopping 24″x12″.

It was hard to photograph these on my coffee table because they become a lot bigger when opened.

Compare them with the original 10×10″ format:

The wedding above is from last year’s wedding from Nadia and Khalil’s wedding.

Starting August 1st, 2009, we’ll have a meeting place setup, finally, in Austin, TX.

Located in Austin’s downtown Omni Hotel, which has some incredible architecture (I think this is the elevator/5th floor view from the office space toward the Omni)

I actually got the idea of getting a space to meeting clients in after photographing Wendy and John’s wedding – she got ready in the Omni and I noticed there were offices across from the hotel and hence, started to look for possibilities of leasing/renting meeting spaces. 

I agonized over whether to get a studio space (i.e. a storefront), an office space, or to lease a meeting space in a nicer area in Austin or not.  And decided on the leasing space just for meetings.  Since I do 100% of photography ON location, a studio space/storefront that I don’t use to photograph portraits just doesn’t make sense at all.