Pittsburgh based wedding and events photography experts
Just a quick post to let you know our sister site – wdophoto.com has been updated and looks really awesome now!
The design and layout is all new as is the content. When Don moved from the Strip to Lawrenceville he didn’t just change the address! He changed the website too!
It goes without saying that theknot.com is a HUGE wedding resource. They themselves claim that 80% of brides turn to them for information which makes them the industry’s equivalent to Walmart. If 80% of the consumers are using them, even for just a small percentage of their planning, shopping, and other wedding prep needs then it should be a no-brainier for most wedding vendors who want to gain more clients – the knot is probably where you can find them.
That being said I recently discovered how ruthless, manipulative, and deceptive they are in their marketing, advertising, and vendor relations. As you’ll read below I sent the regional sales rep, Sara Brunner, a message expressing my feelings about their deceptive practices and asked them to change their ways. I’m not holding my breath but what I am doing though is this – blogging about it in the hopes that you my dear reader will avoid using them in favor of other, more organic, more truly local resources. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m meeting with Maya today at Espresso A Mano to go over the proof of her and Ryder’s wedding album.
It’s taken a little longer than I’d normally like to get it together and get them to sign off on it but I know that in the end it will be worth it because it’s going to be a beautiful book. They were married in October and we’ve had one review already now that we’ve made some big changes I’m sure that they are going to love it!
I got Sarah involved a bit more with the album process this time and taught her how I put them together. I think she was a little scared at first but she did a bang-up job. I can’t wait until Maya sees what we’ve got for her!
It must be time for spring cleaning because we’ve finally updated the portfolio and added some photos from a few more recent weddings. We’ve included photos from Matthew and Heather, Maya and Ryder, Wendy and Aaron, and Amanda and Fred. The last update we did was more than a year ago.
We still have dates open in 2011 so after checking out the portfolio be sure to contact us to see if we have your date open.
Be sure to call or email soon before your date is booked.
I seem to be on a Matt kick lately. Actually I’ve been friends with Matt here for years and when he finally popped the question he and Zahava came to me and asked if I would photograph their wedding. Matt was the best man in my wedding so clearly I was happy they asked me to be their photographer but was saddened to learn that they had selected a date that I already had booked. As a consolation, and a wedding gift I did their engagement photos.
Typically I take my couples outside and we go to either Frick Park, the Strip District, or some other very cool location. In fact I don’t think that I’ve ever done engagement photos in the studio but they requested it so we did it. It was a lot of fun! I usually don’t get to shoot tethered, (which is with my camera attached to my laptop), I like shooting this way because I can instantly show the couple their raws.
We spent about 30 to 45 minutes posing and shooting and in the end we came out with a few great shots. Another thing that is funny these days is that many of the couples I work with don’t publish their engagement photos in the newspaper but Matt and Zahava have chosen to do so which is great! The photo above is the one they are publishing.
I wish you both so much luck in your lives together and am so happy for you. I know you two are perfect for each other, I’m so glad that we’re friends and only wish I could have been there to photograph your wedding.
Matthew and Heather are a great couple, they both are professors at Robert Morris University. Heather is a very talented musician and Matthew is an equally talented photographer. Which reminds me of my own wedding where I apparently made my photographer, good friend and former classmate Jess nervous. The photos that Jess and her assistant took were amazing, (as I knew they would be), but some photographers get really nervous taking photos for other photographers. I won’t claim that shooting for Matthew and Heather didn’t make me a bit more nervous than I otherwise get when photographing something as important as a wedding. That’s alright though because the nervousness keeps me on my toes and I thrive on it.
Matthew and Heather were married on May 1st at the Mattress Factory on Pittsburgh’s Northside. We took a walk to Allegheny Commons Park to do their formal portraits. It was a beautiful day, it was warm, the sun was shinning, and people were out all over the park.
There were two additional wedding parties that showed up when we were doing their portraits and since it was prom season there were prom photos happening too! Add to all of that the folks that were out with their dogs or just laying about reading and it made it a bit of a challenge to get photos of the happy couple without getting other people in the photos. We managed though and ended up getting a handful of great shots. It helps when you have a great couple to work with and Matthew and Heather made it really easy.
Matthew and Heather live on the Northside and are very involved in their community (just one other thing that makes them awesome). They’ve become great friends with the shaved ice vendor that has sold his tasty treats next to the park longer than anyone can remember.
Their wedding photos wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to their friend. The line was long and it took us a few minutes extra but it was a lot of fun talking to all the people and seeing the crowd smile at Matthew and Heather – everyone loves weddings!
In the end Matthew bought a shaved ice and gave it to the girl in line behind them. I guess nobody in the wedding party wanted to stain their dresses or tuxes.
As I mentioned Heather is a very talented musician. We took some photos of her playing and some photos of their rings on her violin.
By the end of the night the happy couple was still all smiles and we sneaked away to the top of the stairs at the Mattress Factory to snap a shot of them with the city in the background. This shot was tougher than it looks because there was absolutely NO light in the stairway to focus with.
We were able to sneak out there because Matthew and Heather had work in the Gestures show which opened the week after their wedding and goes through June 20th.
Thank you Matthew and Heather for choosing us as your wedding photographers, Sarah and I had a great time!
We are sorry if you visited the site earlier today only to find it down. While doing routine maintenance on our server we lost a number of files. We’ve been meaning to upgrade several of the websites and the main site: wdophoto.com is still down right now.
We should have it back up by late tomorrow morning.
In the mean time please contact us via this site if you have any questions.
We will be uploading a new portfolio in the next few days. As of right now we do apologies as some of the photos are not loading and at least one is corrupt.
We’d love to hear what you think of the new site. We’re excited to introduce it in a Blog format which will allow us to update the site more frequently. Primarily Don will be doing the updating but we look to have a guest blogger or two when we can. We may not find time to blog about each wedding that we do but will do our best. In between weddings we hope to add information about other events that we are shooting and so on.
Thanks everyone who has already contacted us to let us know what they think about the redesign!
Please check back soon – our website had a hiccup and we are rebuilding it. The site should be back to functionality by the afternoon of Nov 17th.
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