I think most people will recognize that title as the well known documentary film about Wal-Mart that provides an in-depth explanation of the trade-offs associated with Wal-Mart’s notoriously too good to be true low prices.  The list of indiscretions is so long I don’t even know where to start but for sure there are environmental violations, extremely poor employee relations and practically nothing in the store is made in the USA to name just a few.  So… the topic of this little essay is not Wal-Mart but it is about shedding some light on wedding photography that is priced significantly below the industry average.  I wish that this was not a topic that is constantly in need of addressing but alas I see the problem persisting.  For all you brides I’m sure you’ve run across more than one of these articles and you must think to yourselves “What’s the big deal?”

Let us address the question “What’s the big deal?”

In reality this is an exceedingly simple issue and it boils down to the old adage you get what you pay for.  The reason that highly experienced, talented and successful photographers don’t shoot weddings for next to nothing is not because they are greedy and full of themselves (as the competition would no doubt imply), the reason is because they know how to survive in the real world.  The truth of the  matter is that quality products are not inexpensive, experience cannot be faked, bills have to be paid and the time we spend working on any given wedding is far more than just the time spent photographing the event.   One of the reasons that so many photography studios do not achieve longevity is because they literally drive themselves out of business by simultaneously under pricing and over booking themselves.  The inevitable result of this is not being able to keep up with the work load (therefore producing an inferior product) AND not being able to pay their bills.  Nothing spells frustration like running to stand still.   These things together equal burnout and burnout is a short road to finding a different career.

Who gets the short end of the stick here?  Well, clients do of course.  I would assume everyone would agree that any amount of money that is not well spent is wasted.  Sure, it may seem like you’re saving a bundle by hiring someone with bargain basement pricing but what about the money you’re spending?  Where is it going, how will it benefit you?  If you are not pleased with the outcome, do you still feel good about the money you saved?

I want to keep this short but here’s just one analogy for you.  If you needed surgery would you hire the best surgeon or the cheapest surgeon and do you think there is probably a good reason for the discrepancy in price?  I’m not saying that wedding photography carries the same weight as open heart surgery but, like open heart surgery,  you still only get one chance to get it right.

That may come across as blunt but it really is that simple.  Don’t take my word for it, check your gut and see if it’s true.

-DeAnna Dimmitt

Dry Heat Photography

As promised, here is Carl and Aubrie’s wedding and the session in the snow!  Aubrie and Carl were married on New Year’s Eve at Faith Lutheran Church and our snowy mountain session is at Elena Gallegos Open Space.

To Aubrie and Carl, thank you so much for making us a part of your special day!

-DeAnna Dimmitt and Rick Meiers

Dry Heat Photography

You’ve all met Megan and Chris previously in their Engagement Session and you’ve also seen Megan in her Bridal Session.   Rick and I shot this wedding together on January 29th.   The ceremony was at First Family Church but most of the photos were shot prior to the ceremony at the Sunrise Bank Building downtown.  Flowers and decor were provided by Joann Baldwin at A Personalized Affair. This is their Wedding Book, hot off the press and created by Dry Heat Signature Album Design.  Enjoy!

To Megan and Chris, thank you so much for making us a part of your special day!

-DeAnna Dimmitt and Rick Meiers

-Dry Heat Photography

Rick shot Laura and Greg’s wedding quite awhile ago, on September 20, 2008 to be exact, and you can see the original blog entry from their wedding here.  Well, sometimes people wait a little while to come back and order their wedding albums which was the case here.  Anyway, I just finished the layout for the book and here it is!  For those that are curious, the ceremony was at St. John’s Episcopal Church and the reception at Four Hills Country Club.

-DeAnna Dimmitt

Dry Heat Photography

Joaquin and Jennifer were married on December 5, 2009 at San Felipe de Neri in Old Town and a reception at the Hispanic Cultural Center.  They had booked with us over the phone and the first time I met them in person was to shoot their Engagement Session which was only one day before the wedding.  Anyway, I had dealt primarily with Joaquin and he was so polite; having the most impeccable manners and I knew that Jennifer was a scientist so I was really quite surprised to see how young they were when we finally met.  These two are some of the most genuine and kind people I have ever worked with and I was very honored to photograph their wedding.  What you see in this blog entry is the pages of their wedding album created by Dry Heat Custom Design (i.e., me!)

To Jennifer and Joaquin, thank you so much for making me a part of your special day!

-DeAnna Dimmitt

Dry Heat Photography

You see those leather chaps Joaquin is wearing in the photo on the top left?  He made those himself, pretty cool!

I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph Tiffany and Clarence’s wedding last September.  An incredibly fun couple that threw an incredibly fun wedding.  We started at Sandia Resort and Casino with some family photos and set up a little meeting for Tiffany and Clarence. We then loaded up into party bus and made the way downtown to St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral Church and rocked out some more family and wedding party photos.  Tiffany and Clarence got married, (St. John’s is one of those great hidden little treasures of a church) and we made our way back to Sandia.

One of the coolest things here in Albuquerque has gotta be seeing the Sandia mountains change color in the evening, especially when it had rained most of the day and there’s low clouds.  And it’s freakin’ awesome when everything comes together and it does it during a wedding.

So here we have Tiffany and Clarence’s wedding story.  DeAnna knocked out an excellent design for this wedding book (my wife’s a pretty awesome album designer ).  I hope you enjoy.

Tiffany and Clarence, Thanks for letting me be part of your special day.  I had a great time.

-Rick Meiers – Dry Heat Photography

In response to the recent and devastating earthquake in Haiti, starting January 14th we will donate $25 from every wedding booked until February 28, 2010 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.  Your wedding can provide aid for others in need!

To check availability and to schedule a consultation call 505-730-8576

We look forward to hearing from you!

-DeAnna Dimmitt and Rick Meiers

Dry Heat Photography

Just now I was checking up on my facebook wall and right away the status update of a friend of mine caught my attention and sent my brain off on another one of my benders.   I know I’m not always the most popular kid on the block because I speak my mind, and I do it for two reasons.  One, because some things just need saying and two because deep down I feel the need to be an advocate for my peers in the photography industry and especially to be an advocate for the most important people of all, my clients both current and future.  So here goes nothin’; speaking up about something that has been weighing heavily on my mind lately.  By the way, the aforementioned status update read Don’t chase success, chase excellence.  Success will follow.

January is the time of year commonly known to wedding professionals as bridal fair season.  We all pack up everything we own and schlep it across town to various venues that host huge trade shows catering to the newly engaged bride who is just embarking on her wedding planning journey.  Bridal fairs can be hugely valuable in that regard because it is an excellent marketing opportunity.  You go, you meet people, make connections and ultimately close deals, at least that’s the plan.   We’ve done quite well with the shows this year and I am pleased with our success, as it were.    The thing that eats at me is when I see other mass produced photog studios actually bragging about their numbers and not only that but bragging about how little they charge and about how big the discounts they offer as booking incentives are.  So they might as well say “your wedding cost less at Wal-Mart” and then show a  touching photo nicely lit with diffused lighting to induce a sense of calm.  I’m sure a lot of brides, not really knowing what’s going on see a deal like that and think to themselves how awesome a find this must be.  Now, to be clear, this is not an essay of shameless self promotion because like I stated earlier I am an advocate of the true professional photographer and I am an advocate of the client who wants the best and needs to know how to find it.  Whether “the best” is Dry Heat or another studio is purely besides the point.

What I actually want to talk about is how we define success.  What does success mean to you?  Well, to me it means seeing a return on an investment, accomplishing a goal, taking pride in my work and knowing that  I act with integrity.  So in a nutshell, I work extremely hard for years to hone my photography skills.  After working for someone else for a considerable amount of time I open my own studio where I actually work even harder to produce an outstanding product and the success of it is that people hire me based on merit to photograph the most important day of their lives.  I am committed to my clients and they know it, they see me working hard for them and they appreciate it.   I am reasonably priced for my demographic and I do believe in fair compensation.  Does this sound like a reasonable definition?  Here’s what I don’t understand; why a photographer would work for well below industry standard wages and then offer a huge discount to boot and brag about it to top it all off.   Let me just turn it around a little bit so that we can see eye to eye.   Let’s say you go to work tomorrow and your boss tells you that your pay will be cut by 40% but don’t worry because your hours are being doubled.  So that means you will now work twice as hard to make only %10 more money than you were in the first place except now you are over taxed, burned out and doing a half assed job on everything because there is simply not enough hours in a day to do any better.  Would you call that success?  Furthermore, how motivated would you feel to actually carry that work load?  Think about it, you know the answer.  So if this scenario is true for everyone else, why would it not also be true for the photographer?  Sure, photography is an incredible career and every working professional feels (or ought to feel) eternally grateful for being able to turn this passion into a legitimate job but make no mistake folks photography, and especially wedding photography is time consuming, physically and mentally demanding, and most of all while it can be taught to an extent, having the ability is something you either do or do not have.    I have to ask, why would you intentionally sell yourself short so that you can run to stand still and let your quality control slip between the cracks and then call that success?  Who wins in this situation?  Not the photographer and most certainly not the bride.

Thus concludes tonight’s edition of me running my mouth in public

-DeAnna Dimmitt

Dry Heat Photography

You’ve all seen Samantha and John in their Engagement Session and now here is their wedding album featuring Dry Heat Signature Album Design!  Samantha and John were married on August 1, 2009 at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, NM.

To Samantha and John, thank you so much for making me a part of your special day!

-DeAnna Dimmitt

Dry Heat Photography

Atsuko and Conrad were married back in April in the Hummingbird Garden at the Hyatt Tamaya.  You all may recognize Atsuko and Conrad from their engagement session back in March.   The wedding was loads of fun and quite educational.  I learned about some Japanese wedding traditions, mainly, tea, fruit trees and sake but I’ll get to that a little further down the post.  Linda Mertz from Awakened Weddings presided over the ceremony and did a spectacular job as always.  Thanks, Conrad and Atsuko for letting me be part of your special day.

Rick Meiers – Dry Heat Photography

The very cool tea set for the ceremony. 

These traditional wooden sake cups were pretty sweet.  As was the smashing of the sake barrel.  I can honestly say that in 15+ years of shooting weddings, I have never seen anything like this.  Nor had I ever tasted sake, note to self, when drinking sake from a wooden box, drink from the corner otherwise you’ll end up with a little mess. 

I couldn’t resist the graphics on this one, just in case there wasn’t enough excitement in smashing a sake barrel with a wooden mallet.