"I've helped brides and grooms relive their wedding memories for way more than 20 years.
Wedding photography is my only vocation and the weddings I've photographed
probably run well into the thousands.
Because of my low overhead and
my established contacts in the industry, I am able to market my most
popular value-packed wedding photo packages for $1295 to $1495 per wedding , which is substantially less than other area
comparably experienced wedding photographers who can offer the same high quality
of wedding photography.
I dedicate myself full time to the industry and am available 7 days a week to accomplish my total customer satisfaction goals".
877-811-7608 TOLL FREE or 765-866-6138
My Mailing address is:
Bill Collins Photography
P.O. Box 244
Greens Fork, IN 47345
(I'm originally from Connersville, IN
...about 22 years or so ago)
email: ProWeddingPhotos@yahoo.com
Serving the
INDIANA
WEST & CENTRAL & SOUTHERN OHIO NORTHERN KENTUCKY
wedding market.
Wedding Photography has always been my absolute
passion! I probably have
as much fun as anyone at a wedding! I also
have a really relaxed attitude
while photographing weddings. I have come
to realize that: "Every wedding
has it's own rhythm and flow. If I just lay on my back and float downstream
with the natural flow of the wedding, then the job is a lot easier, without a lot
of unnecessary pressure on me to do the assignment in any certain order. If
something doesn't get done when scheduled, it is mentally check marked and
will get added in and done later on." With well over 1,000 weddings
photographed, I have photographed them just about every way possible and
this really makes me flexible in how I do my coverage, always trying to make
the bride and groom's day as enjoyable and uninterrupted as possible.
I have received formal professional photography
training at the Professional
Photographers Of America's owned, Winona
International School of
Professional Photography...and personal hands-on
training with over a
dozen of the top wedding photographers in the world over more than 20
years in wedding photography workshops, where they taught
me their
techniques and methods. I took a little from each master photographer's
style and technique that I liked over the years and gradually combined
them
into my own unique style.
If you haven't already done so, please check out why brides hire me over
everyone else available in the big city markets
all around me in Indy, Cincy
and Dayton, OH. Here's the link
to do that: What brides like about what
I
do, how it I do and what I offer
For 10 years, from 1988 thru 1998, I was a member
of the Professional
Photographers of America, but I dropped my membership
when I came to
realize that I never attend their conventions or enter their
print judging
competitions and therefore, I was not getting enough value
out of my annual
membership to make it worth while continuing.
I've photographed India Hindu weddings, Quaker weddings, Jewish
weddings,
Medieval weddings, society weddings, a Mennonite wedding, an
Amish wedding
and even a gay wedding. (I'm up to any challenge you might
want to throw
my way.)
My policy statement on sharing any info you ever give
me: I never sell or
pass on any information you might ever give me about
yourself or your
upcoming wedding to anyone else.
Never look for me at a Bridal Show, as I never display
at them. I book up
solid and have all the business I can hope to
handle without having to go
begging for business at Bridal Shows. Attending Bridal
Shows is a good way
for brides to get to realize how expensive other
photographers are and will
make them really appreciate my prices for
the value I offer!
My hobby is running, racing 5k's and marathons
(26.2 mile races), which
keeps me feeling a good 30 years younger than my
actual age of 63 (as of '08)
,...as of this posting. I currently train about 30
miles per week, by running 4
days per week. Since the bulk of my "work"
is done on Saturdays, I get
plenty of time to train during the week...but,
my work schedule keeps me
from running very many road races, as they are usually
on Saturdays, too. I
just won my Age Group Championship in the
Wayne County Challenge for
'07...an 8 race year-long total points
county-wide+ competition, which
proved to be quite a struggle, as I
broke a couple of ribs mid-season and had
to rebuild my conditioning
and racing speed all over again, but I still
managed to never give
up my age group points lead anytime during the
competition of
monthly races. (See photo of my Wayne County Challenge
'07 Age Group
Award in photo below.) My long term training is devoted to
me running a
sub-20 minute 5K race within the next 2 to 3 years by taking
another
minute per mile off my 5K time: my current 5K PR is 23:21. If
training
can get me there, I'll do it!
How I see my Job of
Photographing your Wedding
I view my job description, when photographing a wedding,
pure and simple
as "people pleaser...whenever possible". If anyone at the
wedding wants a
photo...say of a group taken, I will do everything in my
power to see that
photo gets taken....and with digital coverage, I'll usually
do two or three
exposures to make sure I get a good one of it for them, too.
So often, the needs and wishes of the father or the bride
or father of the
groom are totally overlooked at a wedding when it comes
to picture taking. I
let the parents on both sides know up front when
photographing them early
on with their son or daughter, "if there are any
special group photos you
want taken, ...like you, Mom or Dad, with all his
brothers and sisters that are
here let me know and I'll get them
taken for you".
I also tell them that the real trick to getting it done
is to make sure it gets it
done as early on as possible, before any of these
people sneak off and leave.
(By the way, the reception is usually not the
best place or time for group
photos, as groups are thoroughly scattered and
hard to round up at a
reception....seems like someone is always missing when
you go to pull a
group together for a photo.)
Quite often people seem totally and pleasantly surprised
that I am so willing
to go out of my way to do this for them....that's when
I tell them about how I
view my job description as "people pleaser...whenever
possible". It also gets
them thinking about what groups they would like to
get done with aunts and
uncles, close life-long friends and multi-generational
group photos.
I probably have as much fun at a wedding I am photographing, as
anyone
there! I thoroughly enjoy myself and love what I do for a living.
I'm in my
element when photographing a wedding. I really seem to come to
alive there
and crave the challenges of getting the best photos possible
under all the
varying circumstances I encounter at weddings. (After well
over 20 years
of
photographing weddings, I still find ultimate enjoyment in what I do.)
I am like an old fire horse going to a fire when I'm
on my way to photograph
a wedding.) I guess I am lucky that I enjoy my chosen
profession so much, as
most photographers seem to burn out on weddings after
a few years and
grow grumpy on the job, because they hate what they are
doing...but have to
continue doing it anyway, just to earn their living.
My wife has even said that she can see a personality
change as I perk up
when putting my suit on to get ready to leave out for
a wedding. She says it's
like I'm putting on a different persona....as she
so often describes it with a
wink as, there's "Mr. Professional Wedding
Photographer!"
Ask yourself, which would you rather have doing your
wedding photos....a
grumpy photographer that hates what he is forced to do
for a living, or one
who lives for the opportunity to enjoy pleasing others
with his abilities? Oh,
by the way, don't expect those photographers who
hate what they have to
continue doing for a living to give you even the slightest
clue before the
wedding about how they view what they do for a living. Most
will do
everything possible to hide their feelings, as they know it would
adversely
affect their bottom line to do so with a potential client.
(The grumpy ones often charge the highest prices, too,
because they don't
want to be forced to photograph any more weddings than
they have to....and,
if you are going to force them to do something they
don't really like to do in
the first place, then you are going to at least
have to pay them top dollar for
their trouble! I learned all of this first
hand, from the horses' mouths, at
wedding photography discussion groups of
seasoned professional
photographers at evening informal gatherings at portrait
photography
seminars where they hone their craft under the guidance of the
worlds' best
photographic teachers. This is where they really let their hair
down, among
their peers, and say what they really think and feel. Until
experiencing these
encounters several years ago, I had no idea that so many
full time
professional photographers absolutely hate photographing weddings!
I had
no clue, as I certainly did not feel that way myself and therefore
presumed
that everyone else felt like I did about it. What an eye opener.
I hope you enjoy browsing proweddingphotos.com
and come back often.
There is a ton of good, useful information on it. And
I hope that you include
me in your wedding plans as your wedding photographer.
Nobody will work
harder for you or take more photos of your festivities
than I will.
I meet brides
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.
(At 63 as of '08, I guess you could say that I'm almost semi-retired,
as all my real work is all done on weekends on location at weddings
in the
Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Dayton, Oh
wedding markets...and everywhere in
between.)
Thanks,
Bill Collins,
wedding photographer
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© 1999-2004 Bill Collins Photography. All Rights Reserved.
