Uncategorized — Minneapolis Wedding, Event and Portrait Photography by Austin Images

Nassau, Bahamas

March 25, 2011 By Susan 1 Comment

I’ve never been so this is all new to me. I decided, back in January, to click “purchase” on a round trip ticket to the Bahamas and join my sister’s family (minus Ben) on their Spring Break. Now, I know I was just in Mexico with Gary but…really…can you blame me? We spent the better part of the day traveling yesterday and with a bit of a delay in Atlanta we landed around 5pm.

Customs, a breeze. We all hopped in a van and headed to the hotel. Pete, being the local, sat in front next to the driver (Larry) and within minutes, Pete and Larry were talking about Pete’s family and how Larry knew of Pete’s father, Useph (who passed away over 40 years ago) and his uncle George. It seemed as if during the cab ride the two of them were old friends.

Settled in our rooms we quickly hit the town and grabbed a bite at “Conch Fritters” (I kept calling it “The Crab Shack”…turns out, I’m turning into my mother!)

Pete showed us where his family’s store is “A Baker & Sons” (closed…we’ll hit that another day) and we peeked into the newly remodeled Hilton for a night cap then we decided to get back to our place and listened to some live music in our lobby bar area. We all turned into pumpkins a midnight. Big first day.

What I know for sure right now…..the local beer (Kalik), in a can, at our hotel is $8.05 and a coke at the pool (in a glass with ice) is $3.00. A Coke, served to you at the beach (in a glass and by the time it gets to you the ice is melted), is $3.75 and an ice cold can of Coke in the hotel store…..$2.50.

Having a BALL!!!

Filed Under: Family, Featured Content, Personal, Uncategorized, Vacation Tagged With: Bahamas, Nassau, Tavel

Wedding|Portrait|Event Photography-Simplified

February 19, 2011 By Susan Leave a Comment

You may have noticed, if you’ve stopped by my site in the past several weeks, that I’ve been doing a bit of remodeling. For me, it’s been challenging to “stay open” while the construction was being completed but I know that you will all appreciate the, infinitely better, user friendly functionality and….wait for it….you’re welcome!

It drove me nuts that things weren’t more easily accessible and I apologize for causing any confusion. This was never meant to be a “search and rescue/recovery” website! THAT said, going forward…BAM! things will be right there at your fingertips! Simplified searches for all your inquiries regarding Wedding Photography, Portraits and Event Photography.

While I wasn’t able to complete things for a January 1 relaunch, I assure you that I see this as a New Year’s Day all it’s own. I’ve had several projects and fabulous opportunities in recent months as well as in the weeks to come of which I’ll be posting on very soon. I thank you for your patience and continued support.

This is going to be a great year!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Cinco de Mayo

May 5, 2010 By Susan Leave a Comment

Translated…May 5th. I’m told, by some Hispanic friends, that this is mostly celebrated here in the States. Shocker that we would find aNOTHER reason to drink in this country! Click HERE for some facts on this historical date.

I, on a more personal level, will celebrate a victory of my own on this date. May 5th, 2010 will mark the 7th anniversary of the date that I finally quit smoking. That’s right, after many years of “trying”…it finally stuck. To this day, I gauge every challenge by the difficulty that came with becoming a non-smoker. Hooray for me! The climb was worth it! Contact me if you are even thinking about quitting and I’d be happy to be your “quit-partner”! You won’t believe the free time you will come away with not to mention the years that you will add to your, already, FABulous life! First, go to QUITNET.COM and gear up for a life changing, life extending, life enriching, life embracing experience.

Later today I will venture into Minneapolis to the Central Library and attend this month’s NACE event! Always a great time! I’ll post shots tomorrow!

P.S. Happy 3rd Birthday Wedding Wire!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Playa del Carmen, Mexico 2010

March 24, 2010 By Susan 2 Comments

Well, I finally got my internet up and running thanks to Carlos at Hotel Lunata on 5th avenue! Arrived yesterday and getting off that plane in Cancun was like coming home. I just love coming here. This trip is pretty crazy, however, so much has changed in such a short period of time. I mean, things change down here all the time….I always say “expect the unexpected” but this time I really mean it! About 45 minutes south of the airport and all that is “Miami South” (Cancun) is Playa del Carmen. It used to be thought of as “a sleepy little drinking town with a fishing problem” and now…Holy Hannah…the growth is out of control! Perhaps they will soon change the name to “Playa del Condo”!

Some sad news….My (now not so) awesome vacation camera…the 10D decided to wait until I got here to crap out on me. I could just strangle Canon! It’s been a “back up” camera for a few years and now I am resorting to shooting with my iPhone! I always wondered what it would take to “unplug” on a trip and now I know…with no camera and no international data plan…I’m….well…sunk. I feel like a kid in a candy store with…no mouth! I have another camera on the way! Lucky me…my sister and her family are joining tomorrow and so you could say I’m having a replacement camera flown in! What can I say…I’m a junkie!

I’m sitting here in the entry hall at the base of the stairs that lead to the reception and there is a constant stream of people coming and going. Not unlike when I first popped my head in here and said, “How much are the rooms?” Seriously. The rest, for me, is hotel history. I love it here. Only 10 rooms, the are all named not numbered, includes a breakfast in the garden. At the risk of running myself out of a room one day….pop in and ask for Fabiola and tell her Susan & Gary Austin sent you! I promise you she won’t charge you double!

Ran into Ann & Jim Keller on the beach today. Of all people! They practically hopped on a plane right after mom’s memorial service. I had no idea that they were fans of Playa. Nice. Fun to bump into friends anytime but Mexico! Totally a God thing cuz Ann had this ring on that I commented on RIGHT AWAY!!! She got it here last night on 5th….at Swarovski…YIKES! I just stopped in from the beach and grabbed one myself…GORgeous!! Can’t show you yet..but it’ll be worth the wait!

Hey…what do you think I do all day on our vacations….blog? Gotta run…there’s a beer calling my name and they don’t drink themselves down here ya know!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Gemma.

February 11, 2010 By Susan 1 Comment

I feel so fortunate and blessed to have the ability to love two occupations. Photographer and Hair Dresser. Quite a lovely marriage of vocations, really. On occasion I get to do both for the same client~that’s what I really love! Yesterday, my niece, Gemma, came by to cash in on her Christmas present…haircolor (of her choice) an a fresh cut. After a rather quick consultation we decided to do a TON of blonde highlights on the top and go dark underneath for the “peek-a-boo” color. Gemma’s been dark for a while so it was fun to see her go lighter. Before she left, I grabbed a few shots….I love her. She’s growing up fast and is even going to head out to San Francisco in March for a first ever, on her own, trip! I’m so excited for her! I pulled out all of my San Francisco albums and reminisced about all of my love for that city. She’s pretty stoked about going and I’m excited for her! Perhaps one day she and I will go on an adventure somewhere, together.

Filed Under: Family, Family, Featured Content, Personal, Portraits, Uncategorized

Change & Hope.

April 28, 2009 By Susan 1 Comment

Change & Hope…Hope & Change.
Can you do both simultaneously?
I have some change on the horizon and I
hope that folks will understand and
embrace it along with me.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: HOPE and CHANGE

He is Risen!

April 12, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

Happy Easter everyone!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Uncategorized

Hurricane Wilma Footage

April 10, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

Wow, just ran into this searching for something else.
Now, I don’t really care too much for Coco Bongo but
the photos are pretty cool!

And to think that I shot a wedding in Playa del Carmen
5 weeks later is CRAZY to me!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Mexico, YOUTUBE

Why are Professional Photographers so Expensive?

April 9, 2009 By Susan 1 Comment

Okay, so I stole this off Facebook but I am giving credit to the author at the bottom.
Might I also add that I love the bit about hiring a professional hairdresser analogy as well…enjoy. Thank you, Robin, for finding this.

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.
Author: Shawn Richter

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Pricing

Adam Lambert.

April 8, 2009 By Susan 1 Comment

WOW.
I had to run out last night for a NILMDTS
session so I missed the last couple of
contestants on this week’s American Idol.
Thank goodness for TiVo, right? WRONG!

Adam Lambert’s performance got completely
cut, leaving me to wonder “What did he sing?”
“Did the judges love him…again?” “How did
he do?” “What did he where?” etc..

I was so disappointed when we rewound to
watch only to have TiVo end abruptly at 9pm.
GET IT RIGHT FOX!
We will set it to tape the news at 9 in the
future also so it doesn’t happen again.

Today, I Googled and found THIS!

I have other favorites but this bastard
keeps knockin’ it out!!!

The best season so far, in my opinion.
And I’ve seen them all. (my guilty pleasure)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: American Idol, t.v.