Amy and Ben's Engagement Session

Who says you can't shoot an Engagement Session in December? Well, maybe me. Amy and Ben's session was delayed twice due to rain, but we finally got it done. What a cute couple! They also booked me for the coveted 06-07-08 date this year. It seems like EVERYONE wants that date.

Well too bad, they got it first.

Payment Options

My usual policy with regard to payment is that 50% of the order total (before tax) is due as a retainer fee at the time a contract is signed. Recently I started offering a new payment option that is turning out to be much more popular than I anticipated. I set up a payment plan for those who want to pay for their package with a credit card. We can now divide the total cost of a package up into any number of automatic equal payments, on the first of each month. Here's an example:

If your wedding is on November 29, and you want to purchase our Modern Package, the total cost is $3168.25 (with tax). The Retainer Fee, if paid by a check would be $1450, due with the signed contract. The balance of $1718.25 would be due two weeks before the wedding date. Under the new optional payment plan, a credit card payment of only $288.02 would be due with the signed contract. Then each month on the 1st, between now and November, an additional payment of $288.02 would automatically be charged to your credit card.

This option is great for those who are on a tight budget, or for those who really just don't want to have to remember to make their final payment. Of course, we will gladly take full payment at any time, but I figured this would be a convenient option for our clients, and a number of them have already opted for it. Let me know what you think.

Sir Edmund Hillary: RIP

Just a quick note this morning to mark the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to summit Mt. Everest in 1953. This was a guy with a pretty big pair. He died yesterday morning of heart failure, at age 88.


I'm not sure what it is about Everest that calls to me, but those close to me know that I would like to someday climb it myself. Maybe I feel the need to somehow test my own mettle. I don't really think I want to go there "because it's there" or just to be able to say I did it. Adventure has always interested me. When I read for entertainment, I prefer to read adventure non-fiction. I find that my favorite books have been about Everest. It's just my thing. I'd also like to go to the moon, but that's a story for another day.

Preview Albums

Here's a cool new product we offer with some of our wedding packages that make it a little easier to see all of your proofs. Preview Albums!

How cool are these things? I think they look completely awesome. Since we shoot so many images at each wedding, in most cases you would actually end up getting TWO books, like Anna Mary & Chad did here. The books are 11 x 14 inches, printed on archival photographic paper, spiral-bound, with a frosted-clear cover.

We still give you Online Previews with these packages, but the preview albums make it so much easier to select images for your final prints and albums, plus you won't have to wait for the images to download online.

Tell me what you think about them.

Wedding Show Thanks!

Yesterday, Jordan and I attended the wedding show at the Agricenter in Memphis. This wasn't my first wedding show (not by a longshot), but it WAS a first for Kevin Barre Photography.

I spent literally every spare hour (and some not so spare) of the last two weeks getting ready for the show. I had to run through all of the weddings I've ever done and select just the best images. As you can imagine, this was no small feat. I settled on 1222 images (from over 37,000!) to put in my slideshow. I put together some music to go along with it and showed it all on a 60-inch HDTV screen at the show, which I feel was really well received. We actually had people comment to us about what a great marketing decision it was, instead of using "old-fashioned" albums. Who would have believed that, even a few years ago?

It was a bunch of work (I got only 90 min. of sleep the night before), but I think it will be worth it. My phone is ringing off the hook today, so if you are one of the ones I spoke to yesterday about a specific date, you may want to think about booking us soon, as many of the good Spring and Summer dates are being taken.

Also, to any of those who stopped by to chat and get some info, I had a really great time meeting with you all and look forward to working with many of you in the future. Keep checking back with my site. I'm going to do some serious gallery updating this week, so there will be MANY new photos on my site.

The coolest thing about the show was hearing from one of the other photographers who checked out my site today. He called just to do a little networking, and in the process said this: "Man, you have a really great eye for this, I mean you just SEE it."

I'm pretty much speechless.