If you are even thinking about the remote possibility of hiring me as your photograopher and are really still in denial about your son or daughter approaching that big age or that your wedding day is fast approaching please remember that photographers will book 1-2 years in advance. Even the great DJ’s and catering companies will book that far in advance as well.

Now that doesn’t mean that if you have a last minute event you SHOULDN’T call me. Please do. There are always open dates in my schedule. I never work 52 weekends a year. Whew, I think my head would be in an eternal spin. I do, however, stop booking events for a year after 30 events. So I keep a lighter schedule on purpose so I can still deliver the outstanding quality and service my family of clients are asking for.

So there are still just a few dates left in 2010. If you have a date please call and ask about 2010 and we can check your date for you. To all others 2011 is starting to get blitzed with calls so if you are entertaining the idea of a photographer please do call me at 888-517-6374 right now to check your 2011 date. We make sure to get all of your details in order and I’ll schedule a time to meet you and show you more examples of what you see and get when using Josh Barry Photography Inc as your photographer.

Remember waiting until the last minute only leave you with a few choices for vendors because most will be booked by then. Don’t be left stressing out over the details of your event when you can take care of them early and get them out of the way now.

Talk to you soon!

“You have time to post this but not update your blog on your sessions!!!!”

I know I know I am deserving of a good tongue lashing by all of you. To help make up for it I have updated the main part of my website recently so if you take a look around there you will see plenty of new and amazing portraits. I promise though I am now getting my head above water with catching up and dealing with some other family matters so I will be going through and updating the blog with my sessions. (End excuse paragraph).

Ok so on September 20th you may have read the Sunday edition of the Patriot News. In the middle of the paper, as a beautiful glossy insert, you may have caught a glimpse of the ‘Wedding Style Guide’ by The Patriot News.

I was interviewed as well as Bob Bossinger, a friend of mine and another amazing photographer, for the article written by Barbara Trainin Blank.

It was an interview where we talked about how to find the right photographer for your wedding. We also touched on trends and other things concerned with wedding photography. Here is a link to the PDF of the article if you’d like to read it.

ENJOY!

Click here to read a PDF of the article

“So Josh what does this have to do with me?” Great question. I would like you to put the word out on an insanely ridiculous special I have never done before and probably will never ever do again. I am ONLY doing this for a limited time due to my goal to move in to a new space by June. See I am trying to save some money to really hit the ground running on a new studio so once I decide to either move or not move the special will be over with no exceptions.

Here’s the offer, on my most popular collection for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, ‘The Platinum Enhanced’ I am offering an unheard of $600 off this collection. This collection includes my amazing Pictobooks Storyboard album which is the absolute favorite among my clients now. It also includes Bimah Portraits at your Temple the week of the event and 4 hours of coverage at your party. Also included are 4×6’s of every photo from the event, a free facebook/myspace CD of all the images, an 11×14,8×10 and a set of wallets AND OF COURSE…me!!!

Normally this collection is over $3100. For anyone who books a NEW event, existing clients or new clients welcomed, this collection will only be $2500. Conditions do apply to take advantage of this special offer. Again this is for NEW BOOKINGS ONLY and is welcomed to repeat clients or new clients as well.

So to summarize: Josh Barry Photography Inc needs a new studio space and to help raise money I am lowering the price for a limited time only on my most popular collection ‘The Platinum Enhanced’ from $3154 to only $2500. This is not because I am having problems booking at my usual price point. In fact I should be raising the price. Due to my goal to move in by June I am closing this offer down by May 31st.

Please forward this blog post to all of your friends who you know are looking for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah Photographer in the Pennsylvania and Maryland (PA MD) or have them call me at 888-517-6374.

This is the perfect opportunity to save lots of $$$ for you or your friends AND help your favorite photographer.
If a new client books using your name you will receive a special gift from me for being such a great helper.

Here is a portrait from Rachel’s Bat Mitzvah just taken last week.

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home “photo printers”, when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time – How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 (actually more then what I charge) for an 8×10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here’s why.

Simply put, you’re not just paying for the actual photograph, you’re paying for time and expertise. First, let’s look at the actual time involved. If you don’t read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 – 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 – 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won’t bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let’s not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera – and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way – the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don’t compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won’t come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you’ll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you’re there, you’ll also spend $200 on other things. They don’t have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Quoted from http://www.caughtonfilmphoto.com/costofphotography.html

I am flying out March 22nd and will be going through 2 intense days of soaking up their techniques. I will return on March 25th. Make sure, while I am gone, you check out www.portlandpinups.com and http://andyarmstrongphoto.com/.

I must say I am super psyched to get this opportunity to do this. be on the look-out for something ni the works from to hit the ground running for great Pin-up Photography. See you in about a week!!!

Below is an example of one of Mike Long’s amazing brainchild’s. Enjoy and don;t forget to check out www.portlandpinups.com

In this position you will learn everything from A-Z. That means learning the boring stuff and being a grunt sometimes to eventually creating portraits yourself, answering the phones and meeting with clients.

Being that this is an internship you must be willing to work and learn in return for priceless knowledge. Through working with me you will know all the ins and outs of not only creating portraits in the style that I use but also learn how to run a successful photography business.

We are taking applications using this form only. Please follow the instruction on the form to avoid being looked over. We will be calling the finalists back to set up an interview with me after looking through the applications.

By the way if you don’t think you are a good photographer yet and think I am looking for the best talent out there you are wrong. All skill levels should apply but you should have good handle on the relationship between aperture and shutter speed.

Below is a link to the PDF file to fill out and email back to me if you are interested.

Internship Application Form

Thank you and good luck!

Josh Barry

I used to travel a lot and found myself in airports frequently for about a year straight. I would always see men and women coming home from overseas dressed in their uniform. I always felt like people in their airport should be going up to them and thanking them for their efforts, their risks and their sacrifices. I wanted to walk up to each and every one of them and shake their hand. I felt they deserved recognition rather than demoralizing banter from non supportive individuals who aren’t truly appreciative of their efforts.

I thought about what I COULD do to show appreciation. Send stuff in care packages? Adopt a soldier? All good ideas. However, I remember being away from home and really taking comfort in the photos I had to help remind me of home. I think these men and women deserve the same thing. Something professional and perfect. Something better than the chain studios who only treat you like cattle with checkbook.

If you are a service member and would like a photo session with your family please keep reading. Whether you are single and would like a photo session with your parents or you have a family of your own and want the session to be with your children and your husband or wife. As long as one of you in the immediate family (son, daughter, father, mother, husband, or wife) is an ACTIVE service member this offer applies to you.

You have earned a free in-studio or on-location ($200 value) family photo session. Also included with your free session is a free no strings attached $100 reprint credit for you to use towards any reprints.

Call 717-541-0681 to book your session. I am not sure I can create family portraits for every family that calls due to filling up on my bookings. I may decide to end it once I get too many requests that I cannot handle. So please book sooner than later to ensure you have something special and unique to take back overseas with you on your next deployment.

I am based out of Harrisburg, Pa and will go on location to most of my surrounding areas. If you are reading this and you are in Maryland (which is an area I cover) I welcome you to come up to my studio for your family session. Call 888-517-6374 if you are out of state.

*****Offer limited to active personnel only. Must have valid military ID present on day of session. Session only good for service members and their immediate family. Soldier must be present and in the photos. Session will be done in a family style only, sorry no substitutions. Cannot be combined with any other offer. No hidden fees or charges. This is the real deal.*****

P.S. I would also like it if you would take a photo or two with me in it =)

LOTS OF COLD SHOWERS!!!!!!!!

Other than that major mistake my family and I had a great time! The first couple of days were rough because I injured the muscles in my back the week before but after doing some exercises to strengthen the muscles I was back to about 90%. Good enough to do some activities like going to the beach, 4 wheeling, jet-skis and a charter boat fishing trip.

The weather was a little rainy but when it rained it only rained for less than an hour which was good. LOTS OF PUDDLES TO DRIVE THROUGH!! Yippee!!!! ASk anyone who knows me. If I see a puddle while driving you’ll usually hear VROOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!! AFter the rain there were planty of puddles to go around especially in the 4 wheel drive access area behind the beach up in Corova.

I highly recommend going up to the 4 wheel drive access area because you can take your SUV or truck right on the beach and park where ever you like and just get out and set up your beach stuff. Beats walking and carrying everything to the beach from the parking areas. But be careful, if you get stuck it’ll cost you $125 to get towed out. There is a guy who drives up and down the beach all day looking for people who are stuck. I bet he makes 1500 to 2000 smackaroonies a day doing that because right in front of us there were about 4 or 5 people who got stuck.

Make sure you have a good 4 wheel drive vehicle and if you do get stuck don’t use plastic shovels to dig yourself out like I saw this one group of people doing.

We also went crabbing on the sound between the outer banks and the mainland. I was quickly reminded why I like snow crab and king crag much better. Eating those small blue crab are a lot of work for very little meat. Amanda and I abandoned our cooked and uneaten crab and went straight to the nearest crabhouse for an all you can eat snow-crab leg extravaganza. Plate after plate they would bring them out to do. Hot and full of good crab meat. Yum!!!

Below are some photographs that were taken while on vacation. Enjoy!!!

UPDATE FOR MY CLIENTS:

I am hitting the ground running and have loads of editing to do so I am tackling everything with full force.

Lipka, Ehrlich, Brody, Katz, Vanderau, Heiserman, Turkheimer, Kandel Smoliga. If any of those names match yours than that means you are all at the front of my mind and am feverishly YET CAREFULLY working on your portraits so don’t anyone worry that good ole Josh got amnesia due to too much sun. The sun may burn my back but not my brain =). That was the beer’s job LOL.

Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions please call me. 888-517-6374 or e-mail me at Josh@JoshBarry.Com

The same people that spotted her about 10 days ago are the same ones that caught her. I had put Penny’s kennel in their back yard after they saw her the first time hoping she would be smart enough to stay around houses and water since there is a big pond and plenty of fresh water running in streams around that neighborhood. My theory proved right thankfully.

There is a side story to this though which is equally impressive. The nice people who saw Penny the first time, Cindy Lashinsky and Ben Fiereer saw her again yesterday. Ben said he spotted her way up on the hill moving around and decided (with some help from Cindy) to go running after her up the hill and through the woods.

Ben gave chase and Penny ran from him but eventually after realizing that Ben wasn’t a threat AND seeing their yellow lab nearby decided to turn aruond and headed right for their dog.

They were so nice guys. Really. I came to see penny and they had already removed several ticks from Penny and gave me the rundown of all the things I’ll need to do to get her healthy again and up to speed health-wise. She handed me shampoo, phone numbers for vets, a tick removing kit (which I am still using ) and a new collar for Penny. I think Cindy said she is an animal trainer so her knowledge on veterinary medicine seemed to be really extensive.

It was meant to be. They took such good care of her in such a short amount of time. I’m glad they found her.

Here is Penny with her welcome home present after her much needed bath.

If you have a business in Sarasota/Venice area and want to take advantage of a new head shot at a good price, be sure to email or call him to set it up. Everything is done on location – all we need is 15 minutes and a nice smile!

For more information about Rob or to schedule a session please visit http://rmo-photography.com/blog/venice-sarasota-family-beach-photography

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Nadia’s disappearance is also mysterious.

Below is a photograph Scott sent to me so I can post it on my blog.

#############PENNY UPDATE############
Penny was seen the night before last in the area of HIdden Valley Lane off of Fishing Creek Valley Road. If anyone lives in that area please keep your eyes peeled.

Yesterday I left to go to an engagement session down in Frederick Maryland around 1:15. I locked Penny (My Dog) i nher kennel in the basement when I left. There is a sliding glass door to enter my basement but it was locked. I am 150% sure of that because earlier I tried to enter the house through that door but couldn’t because it was locked, so I went around front instead. No one was home other than myself when I left at 1:15.

My wife got home at 3:15. When she went downstairs she saw the kennel was open and the sliding glass door was wide open. Penny was no where in sight.

Penny is not the type of dog to run away either assuming that Penny opened her kennel by herself and the sliding glass door as well (CHYEAH RIGHT). When she is outside without a leash she won’t go further than 50 yards from the house and will come back to the front door with-in 15 minutes of being outside.

Something is odd about this whole thing. All of my photography equipment was upstairs so there were 1k’s of dollars worth of equipment to just take and the ONLY thing missing was my dog. She is a MUT so she has no value other than sentimental value to me.

This was taken by someone close to me. Either in proximity or relation. This stinks through and through.

There were contractors out back and they didn’t see anything or anyone leaving through the back basement door.