Our New Studio - Before Pics

I have been asked to post some images of our new space before we started adding our personal touch. So I snapped some images with my iPhone for you all.

Follow this link to see some before shots of our new studio. You can also click on the image.

We are shooting to open June 2. We will plan some type of open house for everyone to stop by and check it out! We can't wait.

Enjoy :-)



David Burke Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer Photography Studio Mt. Lebanon

Shoot and Learn was a blast!

We are behind on blogging some fantastic shoots. I promise they will all get here eventually. This past week has been a whirlwind of excitement. New Studio, LifExpo and our first Shoot N Learn workshop. I am about to run out and shoot the engagement session of Jill and Joe so I have to make this quick.

I thought I may get 2 or 3 folks out for the workshop, but we had 10! I was blown away. The people that came were awesome. I made some new friends and cannot wait to do it again. We are brainstorming on what we can do each time to make it super useful. We are putting together a survey to send out to see what you all think. Thanks to everyone that came out and look forward to seeing you again!

Here are a few of my snaps from the night. We did Available Light Portraits. Fun!!

My beautiful Wife, Bridget, was our model. Bray Bray made an appearance too.

(these are from my flickr page, sorry for the small size)

LIFExpo 2008 - Come and see us!

**Update. We also have an awesome announcement to make later today**

We were invited to be a part of LifeExpo this weekend down at Heinz Field. We are very excited to be there and will be shooting the entire event this weekend. TWe would love it if you would stop by and say hello.

Here is some info:
Come Down to the LIFExpo at Heinz Field this Thursday May 1st through Sunday May 4th!

It’s a FREE Event where you’ll have the opportunity to:
See Tunch Ilkin of the Pittsburgh Steelers for autographs on Thursday from 12-2:00
See Jennifer Antkowiak speaking on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 1:00
Experience the Steeler’s Heinz Field Coca Cola Great Hall
See How You can “Go Green” Everyday right here in Pittsburgh!
Go Online at the KidZui Internet Cafe as seen on WTAE’s “Plugged In”
Enter Prize Drawings and Giveaways for All Ages
Introduce the Kids to the Pirate Parrot, Pirate Peroggis, and Kenny Kangaroo
Learn How to Lower Your Cost at the Gas Pump
Bring Your Home Products and Toys to Test for Lead Content
Visit the booths of many regional companies and non-profit organizations!

LIFExpo Times: Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 12 PM – 8PM and Sunday: 12 PM – 5PM

Visit the website at www.lifexpo.com for much more information!

And on the website, check out the Schedule of Events for more info on the Stage Schedule and Special Attractions!
(All scheduled times are subject to change)

We look forward to seeing you there!

Lots of exciting things going on...

Hi all! I am sorry I have not updated in so long. We have been super busy on a number of projects here. One is HUGE and I cannot wait to share.

In the meantime, I have been shooting tons and meeting a lot of wonderful people. I will be updating the blog with some images soon, but I have to run for now.

But I can't leave you without any images, so check this out and then be sure to check my friend Heather Lahtinen's Blog for more. I shot a beautiful wedding with her on Saturday and as usual we had a wonderful time! She is awesome! This is an image I created that she posted on her blog.

And, if you get the opportunity to shoot with friends, DO IT. Enjoy It. You will grow.

Out of the office :-)

I will be out of the office until Monday April 7.

I am heading on a youth retreat with my son Damon. It is called Destination Unknown, so the kids do not know where we are going! It is going to be a wonderful time. I really look forward to these trips for so many reasons. Reaching out to the unchurched, having great times and spending quality time with my oldest son. Lots of value!!!

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See ya next week.

The [ b ] School

Al-righty folks (especially photographers) if you have not checked out Becker's the [ b ] school, you need to! the becker is a wedding photographer in Southern California that has been shooting amazing weddings for many years. He is hilarious and a fountain of knowledge. He has been published in major magazines and books on wedding photography.

The [ b ] school is going to be an online learning environment that will be unlike anything else out there. See the the [ b ] school blog for many tips and tidbits on photography.

I met him last year at Mike Colon's 4-day intensive, when we had a poker tournament the last night. I am terrible at poker, but it came down to Becker and me. Becker is also an excellent poker player (check becker's blog for his run at the World Series of Poker!), so he ended up smoking me. After the game we hung out a bit and talked shop. I then saw him again in Vegas at WPPI 07 and again this past week.

This year he was doing free headshots outside of Paris, so a few of us went out to get some shots and of course be entertained! He is a joy to watch work and interact with. Here is my headshot:


So a big thanks to [ b ] for the headshot and a note to all of you to check out the [ b ] school. He has posted about 60 mini videos that are filled with golden nuggets of information about business, photography & personality. I guarantee you will be entertained and more than likely become a student.

Good Night :-)

New Site and Vegas!

Out of the office from March 15 - 21




We are in the process of implementing a new website! We have decided to make our blog the first thing our viewers see because it is updated the most and gets the most traffic :-) The Portfolios will be consolidated to one 'Flash' page with multiple galleries for kids/weddings, etc.. We hope you enjoy! Please bear with us while we work out the bugs.

One of the bugs is with our email.. I am unable to set up an auto-responder at the moment, so you know that I am not ignoring you :-)

I will be out of the office from March 15 - 21, because I am attending WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas. This is the years biggest convention for my industry and I make it a point to attend every year. I always come away with more knowlege, inspiration and more friends. I love connecting with old friends and making new ones.

During this time I will have limited access to email/phone and blogging. If you need to contact me, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you,

David.

Interview with Michael Gerber

Michael Gerber, Author of The E-Myth, was recently interviewed by Tim Ferriss. It is an excellent read for you budding entrepreneurs out there. Gerber has a new book coming out on March 4 "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within". I will be picking up a copy of this book too. The E-Myth is one of my all time favorite business books. He has a way of writing that really gets your fire going for success.

One thing he touches on that is VERY VERY important is that successful entrepreneurs today, seek Meaning rather than Money. This is not to say that the entrepreneur is not interested in money, but money without meaning is too big a price to pay. I cannot agree more.

Meaning is what has driven me to continually create and improve my business and purpose. We all need money, but the meaning of making a positive difference in people's lives far outways the weight of any dollar I can ever make.

Author Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" has a great blog that I subscribe to and read whenever he has an update. I have read the book and refer to it often to stay "fired up". His blog is a great supplement to the book. He is currently working on a second revision of "The 4-Hour Workweek" due later this year or early next. I will be certain to pick it up. If you have not read the book, you should!

His blog has lots of cool information and is just different from all things photography. Check it out sometime.

Tim Ferriss' Blog

Feedburner!

Hi Everyone! You can now subscribe to this Blog via an rss feed reader, such as Google Reader . You can also subscribe by entering your email address and having updates sent right to you. This is a great way to keep up to date and prevent you from spending countless hours surfing your favorite blogs :) You will be notified when new posts are published instead of checking only to find out that there is nothing new.

Time is precious so subscribe to the feed. I placed the tools to do this on the right-hand sidebar ----->

Have Fun!

Master Your Craft - Mike Colon & Bob Davis

We headed down to Baltimore, MD last week to attend the Master Your Craft workshop with Mike Colon and Bob Davis.

There was a few additional bonuses to this workshop, 1. The hotel had a pool, so Bridget, Christian, Brayden & Bryleigh joined me for a mini-vacation. 2. My good friend, Kenny Kim was accompanying Mike and Bob on this leg of their tour. We headed down Thursday so that we could hang out with Mike, Bob & Kenny to catch up and grab some dinner.

The workshop was fantastic. I love 1 day workshops. They really get the juices flowing for shooting & business. Mike and Bob are so passionate about teaching and sharing. I am happy to call them friends. I picked up a lot of new things and relearned some old things. It is like sharpening your sword... Learing and continuing to learn is awesome. If you are in one of the upcoming cities, be sure to attend!!

I met quite a few photographers that I hope to see again in the future. I am heisting some collages that Kenny Kim created and some images a few of my new friends captured. I didn't take any pictures this trip! I was on vacation....hahaha

Thanks Mike, Bob & Kenny for a great time! I also want to thank Michelle and Maureen from Graphistudio for hosting/coordinating such a great event. It was nice to talk and spend time with both of you! And to all of my new friends especially, Peter, Armin, Asim and everyone else! I hope to see you in Vegas next month.

Quick Overview of Wedding Workflow

The question 'What is your workflow like?' comes up quite a bit. I think workflow is an ever changing process that needs tweaking, every once in a while to improve efficiency. When I first started I discovered a workflow and decided to emulate it. It worked well, but it was not entirely for me. I eventually tweaked and adapted strategies from other workflows as well. Now, I have my own that works well for me. This is not the end all nor the greatest, but it works for me.

I love repetition (steps that are easily repeatable) and automation. Wherever I can batch process or script, I do. Saves TONS of time in the end. I have posted a .pdf of my workflow here if you are interested. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line at david@davidburkephoto.com.

I also posted this to my Facebook group of David Burke Photographers. I plan on posting lots of tips, tricks and info here so be sure to join the group!

And a post would not be right without a picture or two. Here is Bryleigh today:

New Website: davidburkekids.com

Hey Peeps!
We have launched a new website!!! to showcase some of our children's work. The site has a few portfolios as well as information about David and details about our sessions.

The site will be updated frequently, with new pics and information. The 'Pricing Details' link is not active but will be shortly :-).

davidburkekids.com is an extension of the David Burke Photographers brand that is dedicated to providing excellent service and imagery of David's favorite subjects... KIDS! Maternity to Seniors is what we are about.
Our Galleries are named:
Fresh - the freshest lives. newborns and babies.

Exploring - the toddler to youth years

Leading - seniors. moving on to be the next leaders.

Together - maternity & families. we want to capture the 'togetherness' of people, not just a portrait.

We are SUPER EXCITED to launch this site and are already booking up sessions quickly! Please drop us a line @ info@davidburkephoto.com to let us know what you think!

Without further adieu please visit http://davidburkekids.com

**EMAIL ISSUES**

We had a major malfunction with our email system over the past two weeks. For some reason, our main email info@davidburkephoto.com was missing from our server. If you have sent an email to us, using the info address, over the past two weeks it is likely that we did not receive it. Please accept our apologies and I believe that the issue is resolved. Please resend any emails that you may have sent.

Also, we have started to use SPAM ARREST due to the large amount of spam we receive. If you send us an email you will be asked to verify your address. I hated to enact this line of defense, but we waste so much time deleting junk mail that the junk filters do not catch. Thank you for understanding :-)

Resting...

All is well. Dr. Says Bridget needs to rest until the baby arrives. She has been trying to do too much and now she just needs to relax and wait. Obviously, I need to pick up where she leaves off. She does SO MUCH for our family. I appreciate her more than words can say. I know that we would not be where we are if it were not for her.. I love you B!

So with that being said, over the next few weeks while we wait for our daughter to arrive, I may be slow to return phone calls and emails. Please bear with us while we prepare for this wonderful experience and I can assure to help my wife get the rest she needs.

We will post about the baby as soon as we can. Until next time....

Out of the Office

Hi Everyone. Just an FYI, we are out of the office until Tuesday September 4. If you have emailed or called, we will return your message on or after Tuesday. Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

David

Newsletter and Videos

If you did not receive our recent newsletter, you can subscribe by clicking the 'Newsletter' link on our menu. We plan on sending out occassional newsletters to provide updates and specials we have going on here at david burke photographers.

In the newsletter we talked about a new 'Video Section' on our website. This section will be the home of our videos that we want to share with everyone. Currently we have some informational videos posted for our clients and potential clients. They give a great overview of what it is we do here. If you get a minute, check them out!

Here is an Introduction:

Backup, Backup, Backup!

One thing I love about my Apple Computers is the fact that viruses, spy ware and pop ups are basically non-existent. The machines always "just work", which is an absolute pleasure. One thing that Apple computers (or any computer) are not free from are the potential for hard drive failure.

As a good rule of thumb, your hard drives WILL FAIL, eventually. That is why it is SOOOO important to have a backup plan in place. Even if you just use your machine for email and surfing the web... Back it up! There are a lot of little things on your computer that you use so often, you don't realize they are even there.

We just had one of our main machine's hard drive crash. Thank goodness we have a backup plan in place. Even though we have backup in place, it does set you back while you get things squared away again.

If you are waiting on orders (prints, albums, proofbooks, etc...) or for responses on album designs, email inquiries, please sit tightly, while we readjust. We will get to them ASAP.

Thank you for your patience and get working on your backup plan!

WELCOME TO OUR NEW HOME!

Our blog has a new home! http://davidburkephoto.com/blog. We have been super busy around here lately, working on a number of things. It is very exciting for us! Stay tuned for more news and info via the blog. I promise to start updating again :-). Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. DON'T FORGET TO UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS and RSS FEEDS to our Blog!!!

Software Solution - Highrise

When I find a good piece of software that makes my life simple, I love to tell everyone! Well, I recently found another piece of software (web based) that is my new favorite. Highrise. Highrise is from 37signals, which is a small group of guys that have the philosophy of less is more. Keep it simple. All of their offerings are so intuitive and most of all USEFUL! Highrise is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, to help with managing your contacts.

Being a photographer, my photo tools are priceless, but the biggest part of my business is managing relationships. Before Highrise, we had a mish-mash of emails, address books, blackbooks, etc... It was really hard to manage and to find things because they were so spread out. Now, everything is in one place! Easy to find and manage. It makes it fun!!!

It was so easy to export our Mac Address Book and other contacts from email accounts, etc... It is also easy to export from Highrise and bring them in the other way.

Keeping track of tasks per client, notes, emails and schedules is a breeze. I HIGHLY Recommend trying this out. 37signals always offers a free plan for starters and upgraded plans for when your business grows. So if you are looking for a fantastic way to manage your relationships, be sure to give Highrise a try.

Image borrowed from 37signals