Kevin is a good friend of mine who I have known through the local San Diego PUG group since he is an awesome Wedding photographer in San Diego. The local PUG group meets each month and every time that I would see him I would ask how he is doing. He would laugh and reply with, “I’m happy, healthy, have an amazing wife and two great kids… life is sweet!”. SO, he kept telling me about his amazing wife and one night after PUG he & I had a long conversation about life, faith, photography and how amazing his wife/my fiance are in our lives. He told me he wanted me to meet his wife and the way I met Beth was through the portrait session I did with them last week.

Kevin & Beth are perfect together. They have had such an amazing marriage, they love the lord and they are great parents. At the start of our shoot, I asked Beth what would make Kevin laugh? Her response was,”lines from Arrested Development”. Okay, so I have never seen this show and they have seen every season multiple times and they share conversations with nothing but the lines from the show! At first I was confused because I have never seen the show but you know what? Kevin started to laugh, then Beth started to laugh and I started to laugh at these sentences that I have NEVER heard before. I guess I need to start watching Arrested Development?

Their portrait session was so much fun. We hung out at the Carlsbad Flower Fields for a while and we had a great time! “Life is Sweet!”

Kevin & Beth, you both are so awesome!! I can’t wait till we get to hangout again soon!!

Facebook Ads are a very unique way to market to future clients through the use of social media. Facebook ads will allow you to create an Ad and market it directly to your target market for whom you want to shoot weddings for. In this video, I ask the heavily asked questions of  1) what are these ads 2) how do I create one and 3) what are creative strategies to getting attention through them. I actually have used this model previously for my own business and what has come from it is that I have booked two weddings through Facebook Ads directly. Check out this video and hopefully it can help you grow your business!

Ask away Wednesday: Facebook Ad’s from stephen knuth on Vimeo.

(These videos were on Youtube but they now limit videos to 10 min and facebook uploader isn’t working so I went vimeo)

To view past videos: click here

After last weeks wedding in Miami, Scarlett & I traveled up to Georgia to shoot our second wedding together as an engaged couple! This is the wedding of Charles & Tiffany. They travel often to the location of their wedding in the very sweet town of Sea Island, Georgia. The wedding day took place at the luxurious Cloister Hotel which is an amazing hotel that has a secret garden, large ballrooms and every square foot feels like you’re in a castle.

Their wedding took place at a cute little southern chapel in St. Simons island. Their reception was at The Cloisters grand ballroom which was rocking all night with the incredible band led by Bobby & The Aristocats! When the clock struck midnight Charles & Tiffany excited to their honeymoon with fireworks! Literally, there were real fireworks!!

Here is some of my favorite images from the day!!

Vendors

DRESS: Romona Keveza

SHOES: Jimmy Choo

CEREMONY: St. Simons Presbyterian Church

RECEPTION: The Cloister at Sea Island

BAND: Bobby & The Aristocats

Click here to view Scarletts’ images from the wedding day too!

Do you ever feel like your so busy that you never have a personal moment? Are you currently working in a professional position for work (photographer or something else) and is there a “fun” side to your job and you never embrace it? Do you only do it just for work and not play?

Last summer I went to Seattle, WA to visit my family and during one afternoon I took the car into town and did my own walking tour where I just focused on me as a photographer… doing what I love most by capturing life through my lens. I had this plan to release these images months ago and I forgot about these images. As a photographer I love to get images done right after they are captured and this wasn’t the case. So I just went through the best images and I’m putting them on my blog and I would love for you to soak in how real Seattle is. If you haven’t ever spent a week up there you need to! I saw so many things that I’ll never see in any other city and I can’t wait to go back again!

I want to encourage you that if you’re a photographer… get out there and just take photos and have fun with it!

These images are just fun, lively, pieces of art because I am a (Photographer)

Inside of the first Starbucks ever! As a coffee drinker, this was like Disneyland for me

The world famous Seattle wall of gum

This guy kept following me for a few blocks. I turned around to take his picture (just to see what he would do) and he posed. Then he walked off. I guess he just wanted his picture taken?

Last week, I drove down to Miami with my fiance Scarlett Lillian to Miami, FL where we shot our first wedding together as a team (first wedding since we got engaged). This wedding was uh-MAZING!!! Everything from the perfect Miami weather (other than the afternoon rain), perfect location and the perfect couple, Marc & Lauren.

They are both originally from one of my favorite places, New York but they chose to host their wedding in the city that they got engaged in, Miami!! They chose to have a destination wedding away from their current home of Orange County so that all their guests could enjoy a little vacation as well.

Their wedding day was hosted entirely at the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens which is lined up against the Miami harbor. The acres of land that this romantic location sits on is covered by ancient concrete statues, hanging oak trees and mixed blooming flowers. The ceremony was hosted inside of an area that reminded me of an ancient roman empire mixed with an ancient hidden forest.

The reception, which had a long royal dinner table & nightclub dance atmosphere was held on the backside of Vizcaya which hosts of a view of an old sunken ship in the Miami harbor!!! So much fun!

You also need to check out Scarletts’ blog with all of her images from the wedding day!!

Vendors:

Shoes: Christian Louboutin

Dress: Oscar de la Renta

Linens: Wildflower Linens

Florals: Parrish Designs

Venue: Vizcaya Museum & Gardens

Here are my favorite shots from the day!!

Uh-Mazing reception!!!

Facebook fan pages are a HUGE asset for brands & artists around the world. It has become a huge new way to market yourself to your target market all in ONE central location. As a photographer showing work to brides and my clients facebook fan pages allow me to show my work, tag clients, voice my opinion and most of all.. sell my PERSONAL BRAND. It’s your online home of where you can be yourself and truly present that!

A few days ago, facebook changed their “become a fan button” on all of our pages and replaced it with a “like button”. I have seen a lot of people who are outraged at facebook over this but in this weeks Ask away Wednesday I discuss my thoughts about it and why I actually LOVE this move by facebook and how I think it will change the way we grab peoples attention in the future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Start a conversation!

I have been traveling  A LOT! I mean it.. I was in Jacksonville 2 weeks ago then Scarlett & I drove to Miami to shoot a destination wedding, back to Jacksonville then we went back up to Georgia to shoot another wedding. One day of rest hen back to San Diego on a late night flight. Whew!!

So I took yesterday off so that I could just clear my mind before I start a week of work. Today I woke up early and my dog “princess” who is a Shiz-tzu/Maltese mix who I actually believe was born on Endor with the ewoks and she was sleeping. (This is the first time I have ever blogged about her) Little did I know that I had already woken up earlier this morning and fed her a bowl of food once. I went back to bed, woke up again at 11am and gave her another bowl. Usually she is running around the house in big circles but sadly, I think I accidently put her into a doggy food coma!!! She is sleeping still and she occasionally wakes up but “uh-oh, I fed the dog too much.” I bet she enjoyed all that amazing dog food that actually sort of smells good.

You know that feeling you get the day after you travel? It’s a mix of woah I’m tired but hey I am also sort of in my own time zone. If you don’t thats fine because that is how I feel right now. But anyways… I blame this mix up on that jet lag feeling!

The day after Jason & Carries engagement session in Coronado, I was honored to have photographed Carries sisters 1 year old daughter Lila for a little portrait session around Coronado beach. Lila is full of great energy & she is one of the best 1 year olds that I have ever met!! During our shoot, it was the first time that she had ever encountered sand!! It was hilarious, she was laughing and giggling as she put sand all over her face and rolled around the beach!

Lila, you were too much fun!!

Beautiful shot of Mom & Daughter!

Carrie works for her dad with his car dealerships in Arizona. Jason applied for a job at the dealership and after a while caught the attention of Carrie. At the time they were both seeing other people but through the friendship that they both had before their relationship they were able to realize that they shared a unique chemistry. Their love is strong, the story of their relationship is fun and they light up every room that they are in.

When Jason proposed to Carrie over the holidays it was Christmas morning and he purchased a large box. Inside of the large box was a few bricks. Inside of the big box was another & another & another. After a while Carrie was getting tired of opening so many heavy boxes. Finally, in the very last box was a tiny box that contained her engagement ring. Jason got down on one knee in front of their entire family and he proposed!

Jason & Carrie are a really fun couple and I had so much fun on their engagement session at the Hotel Del Coronado. What made this engagement session special was that their wedding will be at The Del this September!!

Jason and Carrie, Thank You for allowing me to capture you both during the engagement session and I cannot wait to capture your wedding day!!

A few photographers have asked me to do a video to follow up to my recent video which discussed folder organization for photographers. The follow up to that video is a new video where I am now presenting the workflow part 2 “rough editing” for photographers. Hope this helps!

Click here to view in HD

If you have any further questions regarding my workflow. Please email me @ stephen@stephenknuth.com