You will see there are thousands of photographers out in the marketplace, all vying for your business, how on earth should you choose?

• Do you want the cheapest possible job but pay more in the long run as the quality is fine for Facebook but not your dining room wall?
• Do you want the highest quality possible but then can only afford the complimentary print being offered?
• Or do you go on reputation, quality and price?

For most of our clients, the third option is the route taken. Sure a lot of them have gone to the likes of Venture, Olan Mills or whoever but when they see the pictures they like and are told “that will be £990 please sir”, you can visualise their hearts skipping a beat or few – “£990 for five photographs, you are having a giraffe!”

A lot of the work we do is by referral i.e. past clients pass our name onto their friends who then go on to book us and never look back. Why?

• Our prices are very reasonable – we are not and never will be the cheapest – this is our living and we need to meet certain overheads and of course make some money.
• Our approach is second to none – we have a lot of fun with all our clients, this allows them to relax and consequently their pictures shine.
• Our quality is top notch – Simon is a particularly fussy bugger and will not allow anything to go out unless he is happy for it to be on his own wall or album
• We try and accommodate all your needs so if you want the shoot to go ahead, purchase a couple of prints and then can only afford more in 12 months time, that is fine – we can do that. This happens a lot with Weddings where we will shoot a wedding, say Budget Bronze at £350 for the photography and then wait 6-8 months whilst the couple save up to get their album done. They then spend another £325 on the album plus get some canvas prints as well – in total the couple have spent over £800 on their wedding package but spread the costs over 8 months hence they don’t notice it as much.

One saying we do go by is:

“Good photography isn’t cheap….. and cheap photography often isn’t good!”

Remember this. There are a lot of bedroom shooters out there that are trying to make it work but with inferior equipment, inferior skills and most importantly, they are not insured – 90% of the time, it’s their second income  and all these points together explain why they are cheap.

Do you research, talk to the photographers, meet them, find out their style, look at their portfolio and then ask yourself, would I like their style of pictures on my wall or in my album – I’d hope that you would find a full time professional to then take your photographs for you, I know we would!

Simon Steed

March 2010

Simon Steed is a full time professional photographer that focus upon high quality portraiture, wedding and baby photography. He covers the Stockport, Greater Manchester and Surrounding areas and is available for commission work. He can be contacted through his website, http://www.simonantony.co.uk

Full details are available from this link

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Simon & Sharon

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After looking around for a couple of months for suitable equipment, we eventually settled on the Lencarta brand. There were a number of reasons for this which i’ll explain below:

1. They are very cost effective compared to Elinchron and Bowens – effectively more bang for your buck
2. They accept Bowens S Type fittings so there is no problem with accessories
3. We like the company – they answered all our querries quickly and efficiently and they seem to have a good reputation in the UK
4. The units are made of ABS and not metal – this means they are very tough, much more so that metal in our opinion. Think about it, car bumpers are made of ABS so they flex and move back into shape when hit – Metal doesnt! Think what happens when you drop your metal lights onto the floor – they dent and the shock goes through to the components, not so much with ABS as it absorbs the shock better giving you a fighting chance of finishing the shoot!

There are a few reasons why, another one which was a big one in our eyes was the fact they are a UK manufacturer and offer an 18 month warranty – that is important should anything go wrong. Here are a couple of pics of the kit.

I do have one problem which has just surfaced, the bag I purchased separately to hold the lights has ripped already so i’ll be in touch to get that sorted out

All in all we are happy with our lot!

Enjoy

Si

We would like to formally welcome you all to our new blog.  We have a few intentions for this so thought we would share them with you:

• Keep you updated on what is happening in the work of Simon Antony Photography
• Post sample images of recent works
• Allow you to interact and get ideas and share techniques to allow you to become better photographers

That is for starters, but we shall see how things go. If there is anything in particular you would like to hear about or ideas on packages we could market, please post away.

Regards

Simon and Sharon