On the second day of Inspire Boston we all wearily trudged into our first session of the day at 9 AM. Blam, Eric Laurits hits us right up the head with an inspiring video that made me think about my entire vision as a wedding photographer (He has the video on his FB page).

Then the second BLAM. A slide with seven questions that make us question who we are. I don’t mean who we are as a wedding photographers. I MEAN who we are as a human being.

1. How would you define personal vision?
2. How do you articulate personal vision?
3. Where does personal vision come from? Is it ingrained or acquired?
4. How do you go about taking personal vision and putting it into practice?
5. How has your personal vision changed over your lifetime?
6. Have you ever compromised your personal vision?
7. Have you ever questioned the authenticity of your personal vision?

I mean! WOW! Those are questions that rock us to our core. I had scribbled down my answers and then took some time this weekend to reflect and write out my answers in a quite place. It was a gut wrenching experience and I looked at it from the angle of being several things in one person. I’m not just a wedding photographer, I’m a husband, dad, son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend and I needed to write out my statement so it incorporated all these facets. I also wanted to be real and attainable. I didn’t want it to sound like some corporate bullshit mission/vision statement. I won’t share it here, but if you’re an interested friend I’d be glad to e-mail it to you so I can have someone keep me on the path if I get off track. I sent Eric my personal vision today and I know he’ll hold me accountable if I get off the path.
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

Wedding Aces
Green Wedding Shoes
Wedding Bee
http://www.utterlyengaged.com/
Offbeat Bride

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How do you top of a unique event like Inspire Boston? The Jug Band! These fellas and ladies have been playing every Wednesday night at the Colonial Inn for the last 30 years. After the pizza party at LensProToGo about 20 people were left and evryone migrated back to the Colonial Inn for a last couple of hours of socializing. You had 30 wedding photographers whipping out everything from their cameras to mobile phones. One time when I Looked back there were literally 5 cameras and 10 phones up and at the go. The clarinetist is the a member of the White Heat Swing Orchestra and they played a wedding I shot last spring and were a blast to listen and watch. Nothing like everyone in the band in white dinner jackets to bring a little classic class back to a wedding reception.

These were all shot using a D700 at ISO 6400. Not the prettiest pictures in the world, but when you need the shot even in the worst light they deliver! As a photojournalistic wedding photographer I’m looking to capture small moments and nights like this are great practice for weddings and more importantly, they’re a lot of fun!
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

Project Wedding
Ruffled Blog
Style Me Pretty
Green Wedding Shoes
NY Times – How to Take Great Wedding Photos

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At Inspire Boston we had wonderful Robert Norman do a series of interview for his PHODCAST series that interviews wedding photographers. I believe he conducted 11 interviews and I had the unenviable job of following up Jim Collins, the CEO of Pictage. It was interesting to say the least. Let’s just say that technical difficulties required a second take, but the first take would have worthy of any highlight reel. I agree with Jim that it was probably divine intervention that the first one was unable to be recorded! You can only imagine the jokes about the “large white balls” of the microphones he was using.

There was quite the cast of characters coming in and out of the room and Robert kept his interviews on track and blocked all of us out as we socialized and chatted. A real professional at work.

Robert I’d love to do something more in-depth with you sometime. I Know everyone I spoke with felt the same way.

The reason that the first Inspire Boston Conference was so successful is that every single person that came brought something extra to the table such as Robert with his Phodcast series. You can find Phodcast on iTunes if you look for “Connecticut Phodcast”
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

Ruffled Blog
New York Times Wedding Resources
Kiss The Groom
Green Wedding Shoes
http://www.utterlyengaged.com/

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