Simon McConico | Valo Photography

Gaaaaaah!!!! You brides out there that are getting married, I don’t know how you come out alive. My fiance is amazing and is going crazy with last minuet details for our wedding that is 10 days away. I am soooooo excited for it and can’t wait for everything to be done and enjoy a party for us.

There is so much that goes into planning a wedding and I am so glad that all of our work will be captured and remembered. The most common question that I get from people after they know that I am getting married is this, “Who is going to shoot your wedding?” and “How did you choose a photographer??”

Those are some tough questions. There are people that we would have liked to shoot the wedding, but they were so far out of our budget that we couldn’t do it. It isn’t that their photography isn’t worth it, because it totally is. A ring from Tiffanys, an original Warhol, a mint signed Micky Mantle basebal card… those are all worth what you are going to pay for them… I just don’t have the cash to purchase them. Am I sad about that? Nope. Would they be nice to have? Yup.

Intermission:

Now… I am not encouraging you to get something that is cheap or no get something that is expensive. I bought my ring for my fiance and it was out of my budget at the time I chose to get it. I scrimped and saved and did what I needed to in order to get that ring. I made it happen because it was very much worth it to me. If I could have chucked all the pomp and went with a backyard BBQ and afforded someone like Jose Villa, I sure would have, but that would still be out of my range.

What matters to me is having someone at my wedding who will get killer shots that I will remember for the rest of my life, be able to pass on to my kids, and will bring back emotions from the day when I look at them. I know people who can do that. Jake can do that. Which is why I am having Jake shoot my wedding. I have been working with Jake for over a year and we have shot lots of weddings together and he consistantly, time after time, comes up with great shots that meet the criteria that I just metioned. Not only that, but he brings his art and style into the equation and I know that on my wedding day, he is going to be consistant, calming, and in control.

I am so excited to marry the love of my life in 10 days. I can not wait to spend my whole life with her until we are old and saggy. She encourages me, she tells me that I am talented, and she doesn’t b.s. when I need things straight.

p.s. Would you guys like me to post our engagement story here? Lemmy know.

12 Comments | In: Personal | tags: gettin married, milwaukee photographer, Personal, Valo Photography. | #

So… I don’t normally make videos.  I have been experimenting a bit with it since I got the Canon 5d MK II, but I still have a lot to learn. Two days ago (Feb 4th) I stumbled upon a contest for the photography conference WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) and thought I would enter.

Jake and I just finished meeting with a soon to be bride and groom and were brainstorming all sorts of nonsense in the car ride home.  We finally were set on making a rap video.  Since neither of us have actually been to WPPI, it was hard thinking of reasons why we want to go back or be there… I spit off a few lyrics and we laughed pretty hard (Use to make crappy freestyle videos in college… long story).

I got home and was pumped. We were gonna get grillz, flava flave clocks, and bikes (Impalas are a lil out of my budget).  I looked at the site for the details and say this: “ends on February 5, 2010″

Holy crap!!! It is Feb 4th and this thing is due tomorrow! Screw all that biz… I gotta get to work on this. No grillz, no girls, and no bikes. That night I got to work on the lyrics.  Started writing and workin it out.  Also, looked online for a beat, since I didn’t really have a program or time to make one.  Found a beat from someplace like “freebeats.com” and decided to work with it. Polled twitter for a free music program and found Audacity, which worked for what I needed.  Finished up verse two then hit the sack… had a long day ahead of me.

Got up early in the morning and started to record the tracks. I don’t own a mic, so I had to record into my iPhone, email it to myself, put it into iTunes, converted it into an mp3, then put it into Audacity. Had to do it a lil ghetto because, well… that’s where I’m from. We just make things work.

From there my friend @kumays dropped by and helped me film for a bit.  He didn’t have a whole lot of time, but we shot for about an hour and got almost everything that we needed. Next I put the files on my comp, sorted through a whole lot of crap where I forgot the lyrics and spliced it all together.  I really don’t do video, so this was the most frustrating part.  Converting files, sorting through clips, trying to figure out how to put words on it… ugh. I need a teacher. I put everything together in a really old version of Vegas Movie Studio (kinda ironic), which was annoying.  It was super hard to do things that should be really easy. I think. I BS’ed my way through the program and finally got it uploaded to Youtube and to the contest page.

It was a lot of fun and lots of work, but the headache today was worth it. (Until they extended the contest until Feb 12th) Hopefully I will win, but if not, it was fun to put something out that was creative and different.

18 Comments | In: Personal | | #