Bonnie and Dan and I took some engagement photos at Lake Park Bistro. They brought their dog, Josie, and we took some pics with her towards the end. I love these photos of her!

Fun at the Pfister!!! We even hung out at the top floor bar, Blu. Pretty Sweet.

I thought this was really cool partially because the groom was such a great dancer – his dance with his mother was really fun to watch.

I also like to refer to this wedding as “Fun with Umbrellas”

I am sorry for not updating this blog on a more regular basis. What happened is that for awhile I did not have internet on my Mac, which is where I do all of my photo editing. This meant that I had to burn a cd of images for this blog and then go over to my PC and upload images from there. Obviously this was a pain in the butt.

I am really proud of myself though, because today I set up a home network – and I did it all by myself!!

So I have a lot of photos to show off!!!! Stay tuned….

Another part of my portrait series. I am really excited about how it turned out!!!! I will be having a show of these images on November 10th, so keep your calendars open. I’ll update with more specific info soon!

Paige and Johnny are gigglers. Which is good, because it made me laugh too, and we got a lot of great photos! Using the ol’ fall colors that the Midwest is known for…

When planning a wedding, the question of photographer fees often come into play. “Why do photographers cost so much?”

This is my little informative essay to help consumers understand photography costs better.

Photography Costs

Did you know that small business owners pay 15% small business tax, on top of State and Federal taxes? This is our version of Social Security. When you add all the taxes together, this means that about 33.3% of what we charge goes right to taxes. So if a wedding photographer, for example, charges a client $2500, then $825 goes to taxes, leaving $1650.

Many Photographers have assistants for the day. The average cost of an assistant is $175 for the day (this is for assisting only, not for second shooters). $1650 – $175 = $1475

Most wedding photographers offer a proof set. My proof set generally costs me about $300. $1475-$300 = $1175

These are just immediate costs. In addition, there are overall costs such as : Business Liability Insurance, Errors and Ommisions Insurance, Advertising fees, Accountant Fees, Cell Phone, etc.  The average Midwest wedding photographer shoots about 25-30 weddings a year (since not many get married here in the winter). If I pro-rate the insurance costs, etc, between the weddings, that would come to about $150 per wedding. $1175 – $150 = $1025.

$1025 x 27 weddings = $27,675 annual income.

Not exactly a millionaire. And this doesn’t even take into consideration a lot of other things, such as purchasing photography equipment.

My point is, I don’t want potential clients to feel that they are being taken advantage of. It costs a lot of money to run a photography business. I think that there is a feeling that the wedding industry charges clients more just because it is a wedding event. From my standpoint as a wedding photographer, this is simply not true.

Here are my Shepherd Express photo’s for the restaurant Ilijah’s. I met the owner and he was a real sweetheart. This restaurant is located in Cudahy, so if you’re in the area, check out this quaint place. The full review will be in the Shepherd on October 5th.

Ok, my new website is up!!

There is one folder that is not correct at this time, and that is the “personal” work folder. Other than that, everything else is a go.

If you have some time, check it out! www.JessicaKaminski.com