If you are looking for a fantastic dress for a prom, pageant or your wedding dress, I think it would be worth a trip to visit Dimitra Designs!

Owner Dimitra Mandala's experience comes from over 30 years of dressmaking. After graduating from design school, she worked in the Los Angeles fashion industry for such notables as Nolan Miller and Bob Mackie.

She was then recruited by famous pageant designer Stephen Yearick in Greenville, SC. When Mr. Yearick relocated his headquarters to New York, Dimitra decided to open up her own salon. She has had the privilege of dressing 
                                 many beauty pageant contestants and brides.

DressProm.Net is brought to you by Dimitra Designs Bridal Emporium in Greenville SC, that offers full service bridal attiere, wedding bridal gowns, bridesmaids dresses, mother of the bride dresses, tuxedo rental from famous brands, prom dresses and homecoming dresses instock every season from top designers, exclusive pageant gowns for beauty contests, even little girls pageant dresses. Also Dimitra Designs has in the Upstate the largest selection of quinceanera dresses and formal dresses for almost any special occasion as well as bridal accessories, wedding shoes, veils, tiaras and wedding invitations.

They gave Bella Rose Photography some love on their blog today! Check it out!

 

The glamorous 'Haute Hat Show' was the 'grown up' equivalent of playing dress up. All of the models were dressed in sophisticated 'little black dresses' with jewels, gloves, boas, high heels and of course, fantastic hats! I felt like I had gone back in time and we were witnessing a modeling show from the 1940's with models that stepped out of Vogue magazine.
Jan Wutkowski of aMuse! has been creating custom-made hats since 1995 when she studied hat making in Melbourne, Australia. She now resides in Wilmington, North Carolina and has a charming little store. Aside from creating hats, veils and headpieces, Jan has an extensive collection of vintage jewelry, gloves, handbags and other pretty things. It was so exciting to photograph this show and I absolutely loved every minute!

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?
This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is published in the December 2009 edition of Professional Photographer Magazine.

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home "photo printers," we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they're paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let's look at the actual work involved:

• Travel to the session
• Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
• Shoot the photos
• Travel from the session
• Load images onto a computer
• Back up the files on an external drive
• 2 - 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
• 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
• Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it's not uncommon to end up with 1,000 - 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don't forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The expertise and cost of doing business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though now some DSLR's  cost under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don't forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The chain store photo studio

Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don't have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos...and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The real deal

Professional, personal photographers are just that--professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs, created by a Personal Photographer are so expensive.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela and Gavin Richter - cofphoto@aol.com

Our website - Caught on Film Photography

Our photography forum - Learning Digital Photography Together

What a perfect day to put photos of my 'winter bride' on the blog! We woke up to 4-5 inches of snow this morning and a temperature of 9 degrees with wind chill! Very usual for Raleigh, North Carolina!
These photos were taken in Wilmington with much milder temperatures on a pleasantly warm day in late November. We decided to create our own 'snowfall' on the steps of the courthouse. My mom and assistant Jill each had a bag of snow that they threw at our lovely bride. Elena was the perfect person to represent our 'winter bride' because she is gorgeous and also from Russia. This girl understands cold! The lovely dress is and Enzoani from A Carolina Wedding. The moment I saw this dress, I knew I wanted to accessorize it with a black sash. I decided to go for a glamorous 'Imperial Russian' feel once I saw the incredible necklace that Jan with Amuse Artisanal Finery offered to let us borrow. The color of that necklace with smoky sapphires became our inspiration. The make up was expertly done by the talented Amy Kennison of Mac and the lovely bouquet was designed by Salt Harbor Designs.  We shot on location at one of my favorite locations- The City Club.

The story behind this shoot is kind of entertaining. I bought this vintage 1950's prom dress from Ebay for the awesome price of $30 as an Alice in Wonderland halloween costume for my daughter. When it arrived in a beat up old Budwiser beer box, my daughter said it was not her style. I knew it was a bit over the top for a 7th grader and decided it would be cool for something else- I just didn't know what. The dress was super small. I guess it is true that people were smaller in previous generations, because that dress was little- probably a size 2.

I was looking around for models with red hair for my fall bridal shoot, and I met with Alison to consider her as a model. She just happened to be a perfect size 2. I brought the vintage dress with me to her fitting to just see if it would work for something and suggested that Alison try it. She fit the dress perfectly and lit up with excitement at the thought of modeling in it. The light blue color looked great with her hair color and we decided to skip the traditional bridal gown and go for a vintage/bohemian bridal look. To update the look of the dress, I cut off the bottom of the dress and made it shorter and added some new ribbon. I decided to feature Alison's beautiful hair and have it down in loose spiral curls. I bought jewelry, hair accessories and shoes and ended up making the bouquet myself in the car on the way to the shoot! I guess the moral of the story is that you can have a unique, creative look on a very small amount of money. We had Alison's makeup professionally done by the fabulous Amy Kennison of Mac. Amy completely translated my vision into reality and she looked amazing. The shoot took place at Orton Plantation Gardens. The perfect place to find fall color! 

I am so excited to announce that one of my photos will be featured on the cover of The Bride's Book magazine. It is always a huge thrill to be featured on a cover and I am so pleased that the image is one of the photos that I took of Rachel at the Dudley Mansion this past July. Congratulations to all of my ladies involved in this shoot! Tonya with A Carolina Wedding, Jennifer with Salt Harbor Designs, Amy Kennison with Mac makeup, and Jan Wutkowski with Amuse Artisanal Finery.