For our non-client blog stalkers, there’s something in it for you too! We’ve assembled a gallery of some of our favorite personal images that we’re making available if you’re looking for something new for your wall. And these are also available at 20% off this week! Check them out here…

Happy Shopping!

As we’ve rolled over into 2012 and the holidays are in the rear view, we’ve been starting to get a bunch of questions about this year’s Genesis Workshop. So we wanted to make a little post to talk about what we’ll be… well, talking about. Before I do, let me say this: I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited for a Genesis workshop as I am for Genesis 2012. Our favorite parts of the last 2 years have always been the time we’ve been able to spend with people between the ‘official’ workshop events. This year that will be on full blast as we all will be staying/eating/jacuzzi-ing together. We really can’t wait till March 20th!

What We’re Teaching

Without a doubt, the biggest thing that we’re seeing photographers struggle with is how to blend their visions/ideas/prices/personalities with those of their clients. Now more than ever photographers are facing a series of challenges that they haven’t faced before. So how does a photographer shoot the way they want, price themselves to be profitable and produce great work while still trying to appeal and please a modern bride who has handpicked her favorite 300 photos on Pinterest and has 3 friends/family members who are dying to shoot her wedding?

This year we’re going to talking about embracing these things rather than fighting them. Specifically we’re going to be talking about how to run a client-oriented business. That is, one that still accomplishes our business goals AFTER making sure we’re giving our clients what they want. We’re going to be talking about pricing ourselves in ways that make us profitable but also that make sense for our clients. And probably most importantly, we’re going to be shooting… a lot. We’re going to be showing more shooting and lighting techniques than we’ve ever delved into at previous workshops. And as we do, we’ll talk about how we can make even our shooting style match what our clients are really wanting.

Also, we’re going to spend a night talking about Branding and spend an afternoon/evening giving individual Branding critiques. Branding is (in my opinion) the single most thing that most photographers overlook. It also happens to be thing thing with the most potential to make their business grow and thrive. We’re going to delve into building a successful brand from the ground up and do a live demonstration of building a brand. Then we’ll have time to give each student advice about how they can apply those things to their own business.

We’re so excited about this year’s workshop.

If you’re interested in attending, check out the Genesis website, where you can find out all about what the others are teaching, what you can expect to take away and even read reviews from past students on our Genesis blog. The workshop runs from March 20-22 in Las Vegas (flights are very cheap right now) and is all-inclusive. All your accommodations and food will be provided as part of registration! Hope to see you there…

About 6 months ago I (Tony) posted a photo of Amy on Facebook that I took while we were working. Someone mentioned that we should post more of those. Then I had a brilliant idea to wait until the end of the year and post a bunch of them. Clearly I didn’t realize a few things:

1. We have way too many photos of ourselves making ridiculous faces.
2. There’s no chance that anyone will actually be entertained by all of these.
3. Amy’s hair color changed about 5 times throughout the year.

So, without further ado, here’s a bunch of photos we took of ourselves (and interns and assistants) during 2011. Don’t judge us for it… It’s your decision to be here :)

I told you it was long.

…Emily and Joel!!

Wow, that was difficult! We had a few hundred submissions over the past few days for our annual Shoot Me for FREE contest. Makes sense, it’s a free trip to Vegas after all! We had people enter from 5 different continents, and all over the country. Lots of great people to choose from, for lots of great reasons!

In the end, we chose Emily and Joel because they both submitted separately (seemingly without knowing the other was doing it), couldn’t say enough good things about the other person and are cute as a button (Amy’s words, not mine). It didn’t hurt that they took us up on offering a bribe, which we are totally taking them up on by the way. Congrats to Emily and Joel who will be joining us in Vegas all the way from Denver, Colorado!

Thanks again to everyone who entered. You all are incredible people. Choosing this was SO hard! Stay tuned next week for our annual ‘best of the year’ post and a few other goodies…

Well, I’m happy to announce that this year will raise the stakes in a HUGE way. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that this spring we’re holding The Genesis Workshop (our annual photography workshop) in Las Vegas. That’s where YOU and the Shoot Me for FREE contest come into play…

The winner of this year’s Shoot Me for FREE contest will win an absolutely free trip to Las Vegas. That’s right. We will be choosing one couple to come to Vegas during our workshop, all expenses paid! This includes flights for 2 to Las Vegas, 5 night’s stay in one of the workshop mansions, food with the workshop crew from our own private chef and a whole bunch of amenities (pool, pool tables, ect..).

Here’s your part: We need a couple that will model for us during some of our workshop sessions on March 20-22. We will fly you out at least a day early to do whatever you’d like with your spouse/significant other. Then you can model for us for certain sessions throughout the week. The rest of the time is yours! And of course you’ll be able to keep digital versions of any photos we take while we’re there. So in exchange for us using your pretty faces you get a 5-night all-expense paid trip to Vegas with someone you love as well as all the photos we shoot of you throughout the week… all for FREE!!!

To recap, here’s what you get:
2 round trip tickets to Vegas
5 nights stay in one of the workshop mansions
All meals
Photos from the shoots during the whole week

Here’s what we get:
2ish hours of your modeling talents for shooting in the morning and 2ish hours in the afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The rest of the time is yours!

Here’s the Rules:
- Contest entries start today (12/27) and end on Friday (12/30).
- You must be a couple to enter.
- You need to be available to travel 3/18-3/23
- You should be outgoing and very much in love.
- We’d love to choose a couple we’ve already shot for, but are absolutely open to anyone!
- No purchase necessary… duh.
- Bribes accepted

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED! THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

For the next three days, you can get workflow for just $129. That’s $50 off the regular price! Oh, and it still includes all the goodies from before (did we mention a $100 gift card?). Get it for the photographer you love or just for yourself. Start saving time so that you can eat more Christmas ham. No one wants to be editing photos during the start of the NBA season after all…

I usually think it’s silly that when people announce new things and it’s always the biggest and the best version… but I think I’m starting to understand. The last two years of teaching the Genesis workshop have been nothing short of incredible (Year 1, Year 2). We’ve met so many fantastic photographers and have seen so many lightbulbs go off in the process.

When we started planning Genesis 3, we wanted to take all the things we loved about Genesis (the community, the venues, the small group learning) and turn it up to full blast. So we’ve decided to announce the first-ever all-inclusive Genesis workshop. This year we’ll be in Vegas and we’re going all out. We be staying in 3 ridiculous mansions with a private chef and all the hookups, and we’ll all be together for the week to maximize our teaching and hang out time. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that this all-inclusive approach will significantly lower the total cost of attending Genesis!! We are so incredibly excited about it.

Registration for Genesis 3 starts RIGHT NOW! You can head over the the Genesis page, get all the info and sign up to be a part of an incredible 3 days of learning. Oh, and hurry! Because of our all-inclusive layout, the cheap flights to Vegas and our commitment to small class sizes, space is very limited. And the best spots in the mansions are first-come, first-serve. Can’t wait to see you there!

Oh, and for the non-photographers out there… keep an eye on our blog for this year’s Shoot Me for FREE contest. I’ll give you a hint: it just might involve the aforementioned city and a free trip… stay tuned!

As our business has continued to grow, we been faced with more and more great weddings that we simply can’t fit into our schedule. You’d think the problem would be as easy as hiring someone else, but in this field that’s a tricky situation. The simple fact is that although we’ve had lots of options for associate photographers over the past few years, we never found a photographer that we felt was the right fit. We simply weren’t willing to sacrifice quality in order to have an associate photographer. In short, we wanted a photographer that made us jealous of his images, not someone to play second fiddle to us. Someone who was a legitimate expert at what they did and who could offer something different than what Amy and I do.

We got one.

A while back we started chatting with Chuck Anerino. Chuck is a friend of ours who has been operating Anerino Originals for the past few years and (as you’re about to find out) his work is incredible. We’re still counting our lucky stars that Chuck will be shooting under our name. As you’ll see, Chuck’s work is fantastic while being undeniably different than ours. For us, Chuck will not be a Hoffer Jr. Rather, he’ll be representing a documentary style, focused on timeless moments. Chuck shoots lots of B&W images, is an expert at a candid, fine-art style with a wonderful sense of timing. For us, having an associate isn’t really about trying to make more money. It’s about having another amazing option for our clients.

If you’re interested in an amazing documentary photographer, you can see more of Chuck’s portfolio here or read more about him here. He’ll be shooting a limited number of weddings per year and we’ll start incorporating more of his work on this blog. We’re so excited to have Chuck as an option to offer to our couples. Here’s some highlights of one of his recent weddings…

From Jonathan

How do you usually end up with your shoot locations? Do a lot of clients look to you for suggestions or do you prefer they have something personal in mind?
Whenever possible, we have our clients pick them. There are some situations (commercial/portraits) where it makes the most sense for us to pick, but the majority of the time we prefer if others do. Part of our style is that we like to make things comfortable and meaningful for people. Often that involves putting them in places that mean the most to them. It’s something we really stress with people as we’re going through the process.

From KT

For clients that don’t need time pressing shoots, when do you typically have slower months?
We don’t really have much of a slow season these days. Winter is always the slowest because of the weather here in PA, but recently that’s when we’ve been traveling and shooting in other locations. Generally speaking, the winter is a bit slower than the other 9 months though.

From Megan

What was your favorite photo session/wedding to date?? and is there somewhere you dream of shooting, that you haven’t got to yet??
Oh man. Picking a favorite is like choosing your favorite child. You can probably do it, but you’re not sure if you’re allowed to say it publicly. :)

Most of our favorite work revolves around traveling or around trying new things. There’s just something special about seeing something with a fresh pair of eyes. Some that stand out from this year are our Hawaii wedding and aftershoot, our Rhode Island engagement session, the portrait project, and a few other things.

As far as places to go, there’s a list longer than I am tall. This next year we’re hitting a few of them though and we couldn’t be more excited!

From Ashley

How do you make a client not notice you during the ceremony at a wedding? where do you place yourself to help stay out of the way and let the ceremony shine but still capture the important up close emotional moments?
Ceremonies can certainly be tricky. We try to approach them on a case by case basis. Some weddings are very low-key, outdoor affairs, so it’s no big deal to be a little closer. Others are traditional, big church weddings where we try to be very quiet. We have two goals: make great photos and don’t be noticed. We can usually do both, both sometimes we end up sacrificing a little more of the latter to make the former :)

From Kiel

Have you noticed that people do not buy/want prints anymore but always ask for the digital files? How do you handle these requests?
Not really. There certainly has been a big push for digital images in the last few years. There’s no doubt that people want to share them with others. We try to stress to people the importance of physical prints and albums. These are the kinds of things that only grow in sentiment over time. Although it’s hard to think about the fact that Facebook won’t be around forever, it’s true. Having something special to hold, hang, or give to someone else is something that I don’t see going out of style anytime too soon.

From Kiel

On your blog, why are there a few posts that are blocked?
Because they’re more intimate shoots that we post just for the clients due to their nature. Oh be careful little eyes what you see…

Ok, that’s it for now. As always, thanks to everyone for the great questions!

Teaching a workshop is quite an interesting phenomenon to experience. On one hand completely nerve-wracking, on another completely exhilarating. At times feeling completely self-indulgent and at others feeling completely vulnerable. It’s no wonder we come back absolutely drained of emotion every year. It’s quite difficult to replicate real-world situations for our style of shooting (very personal and relational) but luckily we had an incredible group of students that really complimented our style and were soaking things up like a sponge. Our favorite part was our ‘Branding’ lecture. It came after talking for 10 straight hours that day, but I really loved sharing things that I feel are so important to our lives.

If I’m being honest, teaching workshops still feels like a very arrogant thing at times. After all, I really don’t feel like there’s much special about photographers. Our job is mostly to show the lives of other people. But if teaching the workshop teaches us anything it’s a realization that our identity doesn’t come from our job, but the relationships we make (with client and photographers alike) and from things that are much bigger than our own lives. After all, when the glitz of a workshop starts to fade, we get reminded that our ‘normal’ lives should be just as fulfilling (if not more) than the ‘fantasy’ life of the workshop… and for us that’s the real challenge of Genesis.

Here’s a few photos…

And a few photos from behind the scenes with our point and shoot camera…