August 23, 2008

Facing Debt after your Wedding

Debt and WeddingsKnowing all to well about the difficulties of dealing with debt, from Heather’s and my own experiences, I figured I would share some advice for those that are newly married or are planning a wedding soon.

Our debt load isn’t a tremendous amount, compared to some. We have about $15,000 in credit card debt and 2 years and 3 years left on our car payments. (I’m not including our home mortgage).

But if you think about the amount that goes to paying the bills every month it is downright sickening and depressing. Considering the monthly payments suck so much out of our wealth building. So I’ve been pretty proactive lately on looking at ways to get out of debt faster. And I’ve been doing a lot of personal finance reading this past month and have a few resources to share with y’all:

Get Rich Slowly: Great website resource for turning your salary into a fortune over the years. It’s the true antithesis of the Get Rich Quick Scheme that everyone and their Mother is touting these days on the internet and infomercials. Sound advice.

The Total Money Makeover: By Dave Ramsay. An intense and no holds bar look at your finances and how to get out of debt. This book will change the way you look at and value your money. A great introduction to the Debt Snowball Effect.

The Only Investment Guide You Will Ever Need: A book by Andrew Tobias that discusses the best ways to invest your money. And to start off he discusses ways to invest that you might not think about but actually make a lot of sense, such as purchasing as much non-perishable foods as you can.

The important steps are as J.D. at Get Rich Slowly puts it on the How To Eliminate Debt post:

  1. Stop acquiring new debt.
  2. Establish an emergency fund.
  3. Implement a debt snowball.

It’s also paramount to remember, after paying for that amazing wedding, that you do have more than you think. And with level headedness, a little sacrifice and a good debt snowball plan you will get out of debt, free and clear in no time at all. And remember not to let the stress affect your new marriage.

Posted in Wedding Photography
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August 18, 2008

Green, Hemp, Wedding Dresses

Environmentally Friendly Wedding Dress - By Tara LynnI just came across this great article on environmentally friendly and Green wedding dresses over at Treehugger.com. The article talks about Tara Lynn, a dress designer from Vermont, that designs very lovely dresses out of green products such as silk, cotton, bamboo and hemp!

Looking at the dresses, they are very beautiful. But I’ve also heard a rumor that bamboo in clothing is very hard to get into a soft wearable clothing product and the energy and methods in which to do so are actually contradictory to the green movement. I haven’t verified this, but knowing bamboo, I would not be surprised.

I am pretty excited about the other products though, silk and hemp would make such a lovely great feeling dress!

Treehugger has a great archive of how to “Green” your wedding. Feel free to look around the site for extra ideas for your upcoming wedding.

One of the reasons I moved to digital so long ago was the environmental aspects of doing so. The environment has always been an inspiration for my photography and have been a huge proponent of organizations like Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, and other pro environment organizations. I think we should all do what we can. And if that means buying a Hemp Dress, and it inspires you… Then go for it!

Posted in Green Photography
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July 22, 2008

In the top ten!!!

Top Ten Wedding Photographer in Austin TexasAfter starting my business here in Austin, my goal has been to become one of the top ten wedding photographers in Austin. I believe that the photographic vision and talent that I have along with the energy and passion would accelerate my status right to the clouds.
It came as a surprise as I was doing my monthly search engine status that I found that I was, according to Google, one of the top ten wedding photographers in Austin!

What’s next? Well, Maybe top five… There are definitely some strong photographers here in Austin, and I’m delighted to be mentioned in the top ten group. I think I will sit down a year from now to re-evaluate my position in the pantheon of wedding photographers here in our beautiful Hill Country and see where I am then.

Posted in Studio News
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July 14, 2008

WolfPack

Brokedown Fuji This weekend I took part in a workshop with Wolf Pack Film Group an Austin Film Production company. The workshop was mostly for models and actors to build their portfolios. I was interested in working on some experimental work and networking for the headshot photography side of my business.

I did have one scary moment as I was standing up near the pool at the $3.5 million house we were shooting at. The strap of my camera grabbed a ledge and slammed back down onto the ground just inches away from the edge of the water!!! I was petrified!
After running a couple cards through the camera it appeared that the only damage was to the mode selection ring which took the brunt of the impact. My old Fuji will live to take more pictures!!! YAY!

I’d like to say thanks for Robin Blesch at Wolfpack for putting the workshop together and to Barbara Brinkley from Brinkley Casting for her immense experience and insight.
Thank you to all the models for being great sports and doing all the crazy things we asked of you. Special thanks to Dallas, Stacy, Candice and most definately Carrie.

The weekend was full of great talent and I got a ton of amazing photos. Here are a few of the first round cool ones without much work done to them. I will post some more as they get imported into Lightroom.

Candice - Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Stacy - Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Candice - Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Stacy - Wolf Pack Film Group Session

Posted in Portrait Photography
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July 8, 2008

Ahh… A breathe of fresh air

Wordpress logoQuite some time ago I used WordPress for my Rebuilding Thailand blog. It was strictly a blog site that chronicled my year as a volunteer after the 2004 tsunami, and the adventures that went along with it.

When it came time to building a professional level site (this one) I ended up looking at ModX. For what it was worth it was a very rich content management system, but I found that it took a lot of time to learn the system, and in some circumstances even learning a new code structure. And the blogging software was rather clunky.

And now I find myself jumping ship back to the familiar platform of WordPress. But this time in a much more robust application than before, and I couldn’t be more happy. Along with the thousands of available plugins to make it super powerful, the interface is just simple enough to do no more than what you really need to do.

For other WordPress users here is a short list of some of the useful plugins I am currently using:

  • Skype Online Status: Display’s when I am online on Skype and allows Skype users to directly start chatting with me.
  • Google XML Sitemaps: Essential tool for SEO geeks like me. Automatically rebuilds your Google Sitemap with every new blog post.
  • Clean Notifications: By Mike Davidson who’s blog I read. Makes the email notifications very pretty.

These are just a few, but they make the experience of blogging and adding new pages so nice.
I hope that you enjoy navigating and viewing the site as much as I enjoy writing and updating in it.

Posted in Studio News
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June 27, 2008

Great News & Great Shots

Great News

So I had mentioned that there were two pieces of great news a couple of weeks ago. The first, the t-shirts and clothing line of my photos was a huge hit. Everyone loved the shirts and they look great, I’m actually wearing my Dunes at Sunrise in Death Valley shirt now. I hope to at some point in a few months offer posters as well. I think that will be a great alternative for people that like my work but cannot afford one of my fine art prints.

The next big piece of news is that I have hired a Salesperson to book my weddings and portrait work. Her name is Sandy Hargrove. A wonderful person that has been in the Austin area for years and has a number of great connections that we are hoping to tap into.
Sandy’s background is really strong in marketing and sales, and currently runs her own business in the Spa industry. She is a welcomed addition to my business and should prove to be invaluable.

Great Shots

While I tend to market my Headshot Photography separately from my Wedding and Portrait work here, I just had to put these images up that I took today. This is Holly. She is a Conductor for a choral group in Austin. These are my two favorite photos from todays shoot. They turned out so lovely. And they haven’t had any retouching yet. Straight Out Of Camera, cropped to 8×10 and uploaded.

Thanks for looking!

Holly 1 - Headshot by William Bay

Holly 2 - Headshot by William Bay

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June 5, 2008

Photos on Shirts for a Great Cause

I promised a couple big items earlier this week. Here is the first one (the second one is still coming):

For a couple years I have wanted to find some way in which to give back to the world with my photography. Well, I have just started selling a signature series of my photographs on clothing through Café Press.

Most importantly, half of all profits will be donated to ecological and natural disaster relief organizations.

As most of you know Burma (Myanmar) was hit with a very severe hurricane that killed 125,000 people. I was in Burma once a month while living in Thailand. It’s something close to my heart and I hope to give what I can.

You can reach the store here or by clicking the “The Shop” link on the menu above.

Remember, it’s a great way to get some cool clothes and assist some people that really need it now, at the same time!

Here is an example below. Have fun shopping!

Long T-shirt by William Bay available through Cafe Press

Posted in Tithing and Giving
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May 31, 2008

Some fresh new things coming

It has been awhile since I have written any blog posts. Many life things have changed, some haven’t. But I am really excited about some upcoming changes to William Bay Photography. This is just a teaser. I know it’s a little mean, but the announcements (yes, more than one) will come soon.

On another note I recently did a portrait photoshoot for a local family here in Austin. I had teamed up with Keep Austin Beautiful and donated a portrait session for one of their charity events. I just shot a couple of weeks ago with the winning family and here are a few of the best photos of the Myers family.

Myers family

Myers family

Myers family

Myers family

Myers family

Posted in Portrait Photography
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2 Comments
April 5, 2008

Gettin’ some Leg-o

When I was a kid I loved playing with my Legos. That may be why I later aspired to become an Architect. Each night I would take my five gallon bucket of Legos out, dump them onto the floor and build elaborate (for an 8 year old) multicolor worlds complete with buildings, rocketships, and little people. It was the great pleasure of my life at the time!!!

Well I recently ran across a photographer on Flickr that has combined my childhood love of Legos with my adulthood passion for photography. He has taken classic photojournal images from the last century and recreated them in Lego format. Going by the name of Balakov, he has managed to create a set of nine benchmark photographs ranging from Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare” (my favorite), to the ever romantic VJ Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstadt shown below.

Additionally, Balkov has some other great Lego creations he has photorgaphed. I highly reccomend you taking a look at his profile on Flickr. I would also take a look at the original photos that are linked to. These are images that have become societal changing, I still remember the Tieneman Square Protest so many years later because of that one photo of the singular student in front of the tanks. Photos are just a slice of time in our lives, literally a fraction of a second. And taken at the right time, and the right place (what Cartier-Bresson called the Decisive Moment), photos really can shape and impact the world.

VJ Day in Times Square in Lego

Posted in Thoughts on Photography
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March 29, 2008

Holga-tastic

Holga Photo

The image above is taken with a Holga camera. It was taken by a user on Flickr named Jen Mo. I’ve been looking at potential for using one of these little plastic cameras in weddings to get a similar look to the picture above. It would have an edgy, shoot from the hip, kind of photography. Unfortunately it’s not something that can quite be duplicated in Photoshop. The quality (or lack of) comes from the plastic lens, the tendency for light leaks and the film. Yes FILM… It’s not just “stuff that forms on your teeth when you don’t brush” As Vincent Versace claims.

Now, I will admit, I haven’t needed to or wanted to shoot much film since about 2003, but the grainy structure and characteristics of different brands give it that 1960-70′s retro look. Much like Super 8 movies (which I will be blogging about a little down the line).

I’m thinking I might be purchasing one of these Holgas to try it out around town, and then bring one to my next wedding shoot. If you are interested in seeing more photos go the the Flickr Holga Group.

Posted in Thoughts on Photography
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