Thanks again to Jennifer and Aaron for letting me capture this special day.  Their wedding, which was at the Happy H Ranch in Comfort, Texas was on a beautiful and sunny April day.  I captured thousands of photos during this session and will be posting a few of them throughout the month in seperate posts since I have so many to share.  I hope everyone enjoys this first set.

Jennifer's wedding was this past Saturday, and it was a blast to shoot.  Now that the wedding is over, I thought I would share the photos from the bridal session.  Thanks again to Jennifer for being so awesome to work with.

This session was done during the Christmas season of 2012 and I am just now getting around to posting them for everyone to see.  This was a perfect day to shoot as it was a typical warm Texas winter with just the right amount of cloud cover.

Another picture of my lazy cat who will crawl inside anything that was never meant to have a cat in it.

Congratulations to Renee and Rob.  This wedding took place in Vanderpool Texas and made for a beautiful location for this event.

Louise Hays Park in Kerrville provided the setting for Blake's senior portrait session.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of taking some photographs of Jennifer and Aaron at the Happy H Ranch in Comfort, Texas.  The morning started out cold, but as the sun came up over the hills it began to warm up.  I usually don't like to take pictures in direct sunlight, but the sun coming up over the hills provided some fantastic shots.  Many thanks to Jennifer and Aaron for giving me this opportunity to provide them with engagement photographs.

Every morning I leave the house to a front yard full of deer and return home to a front lawn full of deer.  They use to scare away every time I pulled up in the driveway.  Now I barely even get a glance when I exit my vehicle.  They only time they do pay attention to me is in the evenings but that's only because my wife feeds them around this time and they are expecting a hand-out. 

I'm sure you're wondering where the attack cat fits into this story.  Widget, our house cat, is a true predator.  When he is not making my wife mad killing birds and lizards (yes, my wife likes lizards), Widget stalks and attacks deer.  It is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.  I'm not really sure why an animal of his size thinks he can take on a deer, but the deer are stupid enough to think my cat can cause them harm so they run away.  If I get a chance, I'm going to try to get one of his deer attack sessions on video so I can share.

Some people wonder why I've modeled my photography business around affordable photography services when other photographers seem to do the exact opposite.  Many are so close to each other in prices, the decision to hire a photographer seldom leans on price but on style and quality.

​​My emphasis on affordability seems to have stirred up some other photographers as well since recently my prices, website and blog have been publicly admonished on my Facebook page (This was in response to an article I wrote about photographer markups.)  The question is, why does John Whiten Photography put so much emphasis on price and being more affordable than the competition?  Read on and you will find out why.

I've spent money on a high dollar photographer before.  This was before I got into the business and, from looking at his work, I was really impressed.  I was never able to take pictures like he did, nor did I know anyone that could.  I thought that professional photos came from the equipment the photographer used.  I also thought that this equipment must be really expensive because my $500 Sony Cybershot sure couldn't take pictures like that.

I had several friends get married around this time and they skimped on the photographer.  They had lovely weddings, but they just couldn't afford the thousands of dollars required to hire a professional photographer.  In the end, they used a hobbyist or a friend and they were able to get their pictures developed at a 1 hour photo lab.  Now they have a photo album filled with a bunch of 4x6 photos that look like they were taken with a cheap disposable camera.  This is what they have to remember their wedding.

Well, around this time, I was getting my web and graphic design business off the ground and I noticed that my clients were bringing me the same unprofessional pictures to put on my designs.  I was trying to sell myself as a professional and the photos I was being supplied with were making my work look amateurish.  I suggested to some of my clients that they hire a professional photographer so that I could be supplied with better photos, but many of the small businesses I was doing work for could not afford the extra costs of a professional photographer.  

There was only one way that I was going to get better photos for my designs, and that was to take the photos myself.  However, I knew that the pocket camera I had was not going to provide me with the results I was looking for so I invested in a really good SLR and a quality lens.  I'd love to say it was smooth sailing from this point on but it was not.  What I discovered is that my photos didn't look any different than the ones I was being supplied with.  Sure, I got a good shot every once in a while but the majority of my photographs still looked like they were taken with a cheap point-and-shoot.

You can imagine my puzzlement as I was always under the assumption that it was the equipment that provided the quality in the photos.  As far as i knew, I had one of the best camera setups around and I spent a small fortune on it.  I knew right away that it had to be something I was doing.

I was bound and determined to provide my clients with professional work and that meant professional pictures.  I could either hire a photographer myself and lose money on my contracts, or I could learn how to use the camera I just bought and do the work myself.  I chose to do the work myself and that meant spending a lot of time reading and researching how different aspects of cameras work and how they all tie together.  Depth of field, apertures, f-stops, focal lengths, shutter speeds, iso's, and lighting were just some of the things I spent a long time researching and then applying.  Before I knew it, I was taking professional quality photos for my clients, I didn't charge extra for the services, and soon my work was well known amongst those in the industry and those seeking my services.

One of the biggest projects I had ever worked on at the time was a print media project.  It was a 10 page, 8.5"x11" brochure detailing a new line of product my client was fixing to start making and selling.  I had taken photos for much smaller brochures and websites, but never for anything so large.  Many of the photos I was going to take were going to be printed on a full page so I knew they had to look good.  After the photos were taken and the brochure was laid out, I sent the work off to a print shop to get proofs printed.  The guys at the print shop came to deliver the proofs personally to the business I was doing the work for.  They asked the business owner if they could meet the designer of their brochure.  When I showed up, they greeted me and then proceeded to tell me that the brochure I designed was by far the best piece of work to ever come off their press.  That's when I knew that I had made a solid investment in the time and money I spent on learning how to take pictures.

Naturally, this lead me to eventually start taking photos of people.  As I sat down to come up with a pricing model, I did research on what many of the photographers in the area were charging. Over a decade has gone by since I spent money on a photographer, but I found something that surprised me; prices had changed very little.  Things have changed a lot since the days of film when I hired a photographer.  No longer do photographers have to be careful of how many photos they can take per roll of film.  Photographers don't have to spend time in darkrooms exposing pictures exactly the way the want for the desired effects they are trying to achieve.  Digital photography has made things faster and more efficient.  Certain file formats give you the ability to adjust things like exposure and color after the photo has already been taken so you don't have to worry about making sure those things are set correctly before taking the picture.  So why are the services still just as expensive when the cost of doing the business has gone down?

I knew I wanted to be competitive, but when coming up with a pricing model, I remembered all of my friends and family members who could not afford professional photography services for their events.  They are left with mediocre pictures to remember a special time at a special place.  It was when reflecting upon this that I decided that I wanted to do something that I have not seen any other photographer do before.  I wanted to emphasize affordability.  I wanted to separate myself from the photographers that charge thousands of dollars for their services.  From this desire to provide affordable photography services, John Whiten Photography was born.  

My slogan is "Capturing your moments, not your wallet" and I have based my business model and customer commitment off of this very idea.  As I continue to point out exactly how my services are saving money, I will be prepared to be admonished by others in this industry.  After all, other photographers wouldn't get on my Facebook page to publicly chastise me on my wall unless their business model has been upset and they feel threatened that they will lose business.   ​

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Yes, John Whiten Photography wants your business, and if that means providing you with unmatched quality at prices you will not find anywhere else, then I will wear that as a badge of honor. I will provide you with quality that you may not be able to afford anywhere else, or I will provide you with savings over the high priced photographer you were thinking about spending money on.  Whatever your reason for choosing John Whiten Photography is, you will walk away feeling good that you not only got some of the best quality work this area of Texas has to offer, but you also saved a fortune.​