Weisinger Fam

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to make a family portrait for the Weisinger family. I was thrilled that they showed up in casual clothing because I was able to pose them to best let their personalities shine.



This was actually the first time that I got to meet the boys in the family. I've known Charlie, the Proud-Papa, for quite a while since he used to work in the same office as my wife. L'via, the Mega-Mom, has sorta been working alongside me for a few years since she provides the amahzingly fantabulous cakes and stuff for many of the events that I shoot - you MUST check her out! I shot Tali's Bat Mitzvah some years ago (dontcha love her Punky Brewster kicks?!) and Batya was one of my many models during Camp Shalom picture days last week.

Couple wrapped in a puddle inside an engagement.

Ok, so I may have reinterpreted this famous Winston Churchill quote, but that's kinda how this picture makes me feel. I took this portrait of Tova & Judah a few months ago and with their wedding fast approaching I figure its time to preview their preview shoot.

Errday

The above graphic was originally posted on A Photo Editor and unfortunately represents the exact reality of my photo studio. The thing that I love to do and that you hire me to do has become secondary to myriad other aspects of my daily business and personal life. This problem is not exclusive to any single industry but seems to get frequently forgotten when creatives are involved. The 87.8% of the pie not spent "doing what we do" is entirely necessary since those are aspects of the business that support, enhance and grow the creative aspect of what we do. Businesses that ignore those pieces are not really business at all, they are hobbyists doing something fun on the side, a truth I have become well aware of.

I initially saw the above graphic on Chase Jarvis's Blog and he points to a different misconception than the graphic addresses. While the graphic speaks to the non-photographer (or client's) perception of what we are doing, Chase points to the amateur photographer as thinking this lifestyle is "all that." In fact these are two separate and distinct problems; Chase touches on the poser vs the pro, with the former not realizing the full efforts of the latter. But I get plenty of clients and friends who have no clue how many other things I must spend my time with when I'm not taking pictures.

Guy 1: Hey man, when do you work?

Guy 2: I work errday!


I have no formal photo studio training. I never assisted for anyone and never went to bidness school. I was an amateur hobbyist who moved up the ranks to poser status. It was never my intention to go pro but clients started to seek me out and I decided I should probably take this seriously. And while I did eventually concentrate on making the transition to a Pro Photographer I never gave my STUDIO the same respect. I now refer to this tidbit that accompanied the above graphic on Seth Godin's Blog:

"Part of the magic (and the risk) of the internet is that if you want to, you can use your access to tools, markets and media to go even further in the direction of the chart on the right. You can become your own booker, accountant, publicist and more. Hey, it's free! You get to keep all the money!

Of course, it also means you don't get to spend very much time at all doing what you set out to do in the first place, which is shoot pictures, or write music or coach or whatever it was.

The other thing you can do is find the guts and resources to move even more to the left. Hire other people (at huge expense) to do all those things you certainly could do on your own, so you can actually do the work you were born to do."

I knew that there was more to the business, to running a studio, than just taking pictures. I knew about all of the pieces in the pie and I eventually dedicated MYSELF toward them. But that was not the answer, that was a terrible mistake. For years now I have run a full service Photography Studio all by myself, doing everything myself, making every decision by myself (with some important input and encouragement from my wife of course ;)

Thankfully most of my clients never knew or cared how things got done, they just wanted to hire me to take pictures and that was that. On occasion I have missed a deadline but for the most part the problem with my studio is that I was completely overwhelmed. I had overcommitted and was killing myself, physically, mentally and spiritually. This is not hyperbole, I was kinda burning out.

We are restructuring. We are rethinking. We are reworking. We are a team.

Several months ago I came to realize all of the above points by all of the above post authors. I knew that I needed help running, maintaining and developing my Studio and I spent considerable time seeking it. I have since found a couple of people who have started to make a profound difference in my work experience. I have committed to spend that "huge expense" that will allow me to move from the pie on the right to the pie on the left.

I'm nowhere near finished. This is an ongoing process and I'm dedicated to building Kruter creatively forward.

If you or anyone you know are interested in joining the team please leave a comment below.

Thank you.

Gabi's Smashcake Session

This being the first post post-contest lets celebrate someone's 1st.





Of course these are pictures from Gabi W's 1st Birthday Smashcake Session taken this past summer. Her father was the winner of my recent Comment Contest and his first daughter was first featured here.







In case you are not familiar, it has become a tradition of sorts to let your kid devour&destroy a cake and photograph them doing so in honor of their very first birthday. We actually did that with our little guy at his first birthday party several years ago, long before it became a "thing." While he wasn't officially getting his portrait taken while doing so, his smashcake was the ceremonial highlight of the party.

I dunno how this thing started - maybe it's because kids are not old enough to blow out candles yet. Or maybe it's just us parents allowing ourselves to allow our kids to make a huge mess without freaking out about it. Whatever the reason I love the idea and I love photographing Smashcake Sessions. Good clean dirty fun.



And hopefully this will hold over the W family until they cash in their prize...

Rabbi Gershon Zeffren zt”l

It is with great sadness that an hour from now we must bury our dear friend and family member Rabbi Gershon Zeffren zt"l. He was a pillar of the St. Louis community as well as the Jewish education and kiruv community worldwide. A founding member of Chinuch.org, he was able to make an impact and touch the lives of those near and far. As my Mothers first cousin I was honored to know him and will always be honored to say that he was a member of my family. He and his wife Donna are two of the strongest, special, influential, outgoing, brave and well rounded personalities that I have ever known. Professionally, I have a debt of gratitude toward them for asking me to shoot their daughters wedding four years ago, where the above picture was taken. It was only the second large scale wedding that I had ever shot and by entrusting me and my team to manage it they took a risk. Within the weeks following the wedding he was diagnose with a brain tumor that he successfully fought for the last three and a half years. At my Grandmothers funeral a year ago he officiated and spoke very poignantly, as he always did. He was also in the unfortunate position of burying his mother, my grandmothers sister, a few months prior. He leaves behind a legacy of stellar Torah observance that is punctuated by his eleven children. Jonathan, as he is know to family members and old friends, will be very sorely missed.

A live feed of his levaya can be found here.

Comment Contest Winner

ariw

"Who in gods name are these people and why isn't more of our daughter on here?"



Happy now?....Crybaby :)

In case you didn't already know, the girl featured in the Comment Contest Update post is his older daughter, the girl pictured here his younger. Makes a whole lot more sense now don't it?!

If Ari didn't have many sleepless nights worrying about who won he certainly spend many of them voting for himself. How many times, you ask? Approximately two thousand and eighty! That's right:
2,080 votes
The second place winner was Daniela G with a mere 1,350 or so votes - admittedly I estimated a bit as I tallied them all. Next time I may want to rethink the "I don't care who votes or how many times they vote" rule and use a captcha to keep voters and spammers at bay. And as much as I hate those darn forms I have a whole new appreciation after watching this video:



Anyway Ari your right, for a while this did feel an awful like Gore/Bush 2000 as you guys hashed it out several hundred votes at a time (how'd you do that anyway). But it was worth it as you are now the proud owner of one Portrait Session by yours truly along with a Delux Picture Package.

Congratulations my friend!

Comment Contest Conclusion

And the Winner is...

UPDATE: Zealous voting had taken over this post!

I'm impressed by those of you who have taken the time to vote, either once or repeatedly. We have heard the opinion of past presidents and current football players as well as many regular followers of this blog :)
Rusi & I intended to sit down Saturday night and tally the votes and I figured we would count at least twice to assure accuracy. That is no longer an option as the task would probably take days. So I'm once again turning to you for help:

HELP ME COUNT THE VOTES

To make it more manageable please use the following guidelines:
A. We must count each single comment for votes. Each comment may count toward multiple finalists but only one time per comment. For instance, if "Anonymous said...1 & 2" then that is one vote for Finalist #1 and one vote for Finalist #2, TWO separate votes. But if "Anonymous said...3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3" then it only counts as ONE vote for Finalist #3
B. We need to keep track of how much we have counted. As votes continue to come in as well as the limited time people are able to help count we need to mark what was tallied. The comments/votes are listed as separate pages, in 200 comment blocks. Simply list the comment numbers that you were able to count.
C. We need to keep the tallies formatting consistent. After you are done counting please post your total as a new comment and write "COUNT" above the tally. Please also post your name below so I know who to thank.
D. We all know that honesty is the best policy!

If you are able to help count your new tally/comment should look like this:

___

Anonymous said...

201-600

#1/20
#2/145
#3/77
#4/850
#5/5,001
#6/60

-Joe
___

Thanks for the help!!!



...I can't decide! Until I started looking through the posts I hadn't realized the sheer volume of comments since this contest started, let alone great comments. One of the finalist consistantly posted so many good comments that I thought she was a shoo-in for the prize (see #4 below); if there was an award for "Most Great Comments" she would definatley have won. But this is the SINGLE best Comment Contest and comparing them one to one I was left with several that I think could win:

1. "I like the 'we'll work something out' part. Proud to be your first commenter on this post!"
- Dvora in Israel on Comment Contest

2. "The first photo I saw of yours was the one you sent me during your Yeshiva year in Israel. It was my brother playing guitar. It captured him so well and I missed him so much. I looked at it every day. Thank you."
- Shana on Comment Contest UPDATE

3. "I never really think about the fact that I don't have pictures from Daniels bris (it having taken place on shavuos), but only your work could make me a little sad about that three and a half years later... Then again, maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones kicking in (Doubt it though :) you rock at what you do!)"
- Aviva on Danny's Bris

4. "Can you throw in a free coloring book for the second place winner?" & "Its tiring matching your clothing with the decor"
- Daniela G on White Winter / BMOB Portraits & on Blogging Is Hard

5. "Who in gods name are these people and why isn't more of our daughter on here?"
- Ari W on Comment Contest

6. "only time ive ever heard a guy thank his wife for endlessly talking...."
- Sara Cohn on The Longest Night

-----------------------

If you haven't already figured it out I would like YOU TO VOTE FOR THE BEST COMMENT
Simply post a comment below with the number of the above comment that you think should win.
While I am curious to hear explanations along with your vote it will not help in deciding the winner. Whoever gets the most votes wins, end of story. And I don't care who votes or how many times they vote, I'm just going to tally up the comments after the voting period ends.
VOTING ENDS 4PM EST FRIDAY JAN 6TH