Convention Season!

Just in case you've called the studio and have gotten the voicemail, it's because it is convention season for us and we are on the road speaking and judging. We will be in Las Vegas at WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) 2.18-2.23.

The following weekend we will be at VPPA (Virginia Professional Photographers Association) from 2.24-2.27. Our next to last stop will be 3.2-3.6 when we speak at PPNC (Professional Photographers of North Carolina. Lastly, we'll be attending PPO (Professional Photographers of Ohio) conference 3.16-3.19 near Cleveland.

Thanks for being understanding and we'll do our best to keep up with voicemails and e-mails while on the road!

The Knot Best of Weddings 2012!

The results are in...we made The Knot magazine's Best of Weddings for the fifth year!

A very special thank you to all of our wonderful clients who voted for us. We are so blessed to witness and document some the most special moments of our clients' lives.

We relish every event and milestone that you share with us and are truly honored to be a part of your lives. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Studio News and Travel Updates!

You may have seen our work around town lately. Our images made the cover for Reach Magazine as well as Cincinnati Wedding's Reception Planner special feature. The lucky couples are Christy and Nick and Kara and Nathan. Also, we will be in New Orleans at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) national convention. We will be out of the office January 14-18th.

Mark and I will each be receiving National Photographer of the Year awards. To receive this honor a photographer must submit four entries and have all four entries be submitted into both the General Exhibit as well as the Loan Collection...not the easiest of challenges. We submitted four client wedding albums and had all four accepted into both exhibits. Shhhhh.....but rumor has it that we have one album that has made it into the Top Ten Best Wedding Albums in the Country. We'll be sure to keep you updated as we learn more.

We are also looking forward to photographing an engagement session in New Orleans. We then be photographing their wedding this June in New York. Lots of fun!

Bridal Sessions!

Don't you just hate that you only get to wear that gorgeous bridal gown one time? It seems like such a pity to take the most exensive article of cothing you've ever owned and box it up never to be seen again after just wearing it once.

Doing a Bridal Session after the wedding is a fun way to enjoy the dress just a little bit longer. It is also the perfect opportunity to shake things up a little. By changing your accessories, the groom's attire or photographic backgrounds you can get an entirely new feel to your images. The best part is that you are also no longer so worried about getting the dress dirty either.

Kristen decided to do a Bridal Session the week before she was to have her dress cleaned and preserved. They are then going to use these images to decorate their newly decorated home office. You can see their actual wedding day photos here.

Destination Wedding, Powel Crosley Estate

We will be out of the office Thursday, March 24th thru Tuesday, March 29th, while we photograph and celebrate Marks son's wedding in Sarasota, Florida. We are very blessed to be adding a new daughter to the family!

We will have photographs from the happy event posted soon when we return. You can still send us emails and leave voice mails at the studio. We will return your messages as soon as possible next week. Thank you for your understanding.

Travel Dates...Oh my!

Between judging, speaking and destination weddings, this winter/early spring will be busy with a lot of travel. While traveling we do try to keep up with voice mails and email, but it can be tricky sometimes depending upon where we are.

For more timely updates, we do check and post on Facebook. We appreciate your understanding! Thanks!

Imaging USA!

We will be out of the studio now through Tuesday, January 18th, while we attend our national convention in San Antonio.

Each year the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) holds its annual convention and tens of thousands of photographers from all over the world attend. Even though we aren't speaking this year, you can find us in seminars, the gigantic trade show or in the print exhibit.

The studio will reopen on Wednesday, January 19th with normal business hours. Thank you for your understanding.

Holiday Hours

We hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season full of love and laughter. As you celebrate with loved ones, we will be taking some time out to do the same.

The studio will be Open a half day on, Thursday, December from 9am to 1pm.

The studio will then be closed Friday, December 24th through Monday, December 27th.

The week between Christmas and New Year's we will be working by appointment only.

Please call the studio at 937-748-8445 or send an email to garbersonline@gmail.com if you need to schedule or have inquiries.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Katie and JP at Dayton Art Institute!

Katie and JP are a super sweet couple and it was a joy to work with them. Katie and JP, however, probably would have preferred not to have hired us. Let me explain....

Katie and JP got married just a few weeks ago and another local photographer did the wedding. Katie and JP had their hearts broken when they got their images back and were disappointed with their wedding images.

Katie then called us and asked for help. We were happy to do whatever we could to help make Katie and JP's wedding memories the best they could be. We got them dressed back up and headed to the DAI. While we can't replicate an entire wedding, we helped them get back a little of what they had lost. Such a wonderful couple deserves to have great memories of their special day.

Unfortunately, this happens several times a year were we get phone calls from brides asking us to salvage their wedding photos. While we are happy to help as much as we can, it does make us sad to have to help these desperate couples. Be sure to learn from Katie and JP and make sure you have really researched your wedding vendors and make sure you are 100% happy with all the vendors you hire.

Congrats to Katie and JP and we wish them years and years of happiness!

PS. What are your options if you find yourself in a similar situation. First, if you have your camera files and copyright release, we can try and salvage images through artwork, cropping and proper finishing. Make sure your camera files are high res, aren't cropped or have special effects on them because that drastically limits what we can do with them. Your second option is to do what Katie and JP did by reshooting your bridal portraits. We can then merge the wedding day images with the new images we've done into an album for you. Call the studio for more details 937-748-8445.

Hotlanta!

We will be out of the office June 13th -16th, while we judge the Professional Photographers of America's (PPA) International Print Competition in Atlanta. Mark and Jennifer are both International Jurors and will be judging albums and prints for 8-10 hours a day all four days...that's a lot of prints!

Mark and Jennifer also have 4 entries (the max number of entries) in the album competition as well. All four entries should *hopefully* merit putting them in the PPA General Collection. However, the BIG goal is to have the entries go into the Loan Collection, which is considered to be the 'best of the best.' This is also how PPA determines it's National Photographers of the Year. Photographers with 4 out of 4 Loan prints/albums will then be published in the Professional Photographers Magazine and Loan Collection Book. We accomplished this three times...let's hope for a fourth!

Keep your fingers crossed that we have all four entries go Loan! We'll make periodic updates on Facebook as we learn results, and we'll post the winners on the blog as well.

Engagement Season Approaches!

Warm weather is right around the corner! Be sure to schedule your engagement session early. We are booking about four weeks out for prime times and dates, so call early to get your time reserved now!


PS. Start thinking about some cool locations (although I already have a few tricks up my sleeve too)!

On the Road Again!

So here it is...the ugly February Convention Schedule! Don't think we are whooping it up while we're on the road speaking and teaching. We usually don't get to see anything other than the inside of our hotel and whatever convention center we are in. Even at Bahamas School we'll have no beach time :( Not to mention it is so hard being away from little Charlie.

We will be checking voice mail and e-mail as we can. We will also try to make periodic posts from our travels. Thank you for being understanding.

PS. We were just at the Mid-East Region Convention hosted in Kentucky last weekend and won the Kodak Gallery Award (Stofer Wedding) and the Fuji Masterpiece Award (Weaver Wedding) for the Top Wedding Albums in the Region. I'll have more on that shortly. Congrats to those families!

PPS. The Weaver wedding has a great story behind it. When you read Nikki & Ben's original post, you'll learn that Mark did Nikki's mom's wedding nearly 23 years ago. That makes Nikki our first second generation bride! Pretty cool that Mark is still doing great work...somethings do indeed get better with age :)

Holiday Hours!

Well, we made it through! Working 16 hour days 6 days a week for 6 weeks, 4,125 Christmas Cards, 11,840 square inches of canvas prints, 1,082 album pages and what seems like miles and miles of photographic paper...we made it to Christmas!

• Monday, December 22nd 9am to 2pm**
• Tuesday, December 23rd 9am to 6pm**
• Wednesday, December 24th 9am to Noon
• Thursday, December 25th Closed
• Friday, December 26th by Appointment Only
• Saturday, December 27th Wedding
• December 28th - Jan 2nd By Appointment Only

Much like Santa, who gets exhausted from all his efforts, we are going to take a little time to ourselves to relax with family. The week between Christmas and New Year's we will be working by appointment only.

**If you have orders that need picked up, but can't make it to the studio during business hours, please call to make special arrangements. We will get your order to you however we can :)