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I feel that the most important aspect of having a smooth, enjoyable wedding day is proper planning – especially when it comes to the photography. I work with all my wedding clients to help plan the photography of their big day from start to finish so there are no surprises or big slow-downs.

Since there are now so many ways to enjoy your wedding photos, I offer a number of packages from basic coverage and online hosting only to a complete package with prints, custom-designed photobooks, and more. The pricing plan for these packages is found below.

If a package doesn’t meet your exact needs and you wish to customize its features, don’t hesitate to contact me!

Wedding Package Prices
(Rollover to see details)

	Basic	Designer	Print	The Works
Complete event coverageComplete photographic coverage of your entire wedding day, from getting ready to the last dance!
Facebook GalleryA public Facebook gallery of your photos to share with your friends and family.
Web gallery & print orderingYour wedding photos will be hosted online for a minimum of one year. An online ordering system & shopping cart lets your friends & family order reprints at any time, shipped directly to their door!
Custom-designed photobookA large format, hardcover, screen-printed photo album that looks and feels amazing! The finish is just like a bookstore product. Some call these coffee table albums because they look so good you can’t help but display them at home!
Print packageA preset package of prints at significant savings over a la carte ordering. Please contact me for package details or customization.
Reprint discountEnjoy a discount on future reprints from your online photo gallery.		10%	10%	15%
Original files on DVDDo you want to do your own printing or make your own albums, or do you just want an digital archive of the Big Day? No problem! Your files will be backed up to DVD, boxed and labeled professionally for safekeeping.
Basic post-processingBasic photo processing ensures the best quality images of your important memories – these edits are done by hand, never batched, and are the difference between a snapshot and a work of art.
In-depth retouchingFor the most important memories, choose to have careful retouching applied to remove blemishes, frizzy hair, and more! Applies to a limited number of images of your choosing – contact me for details.
Price	$700	$1,000	$1,000	$1,500

If you have any questions or wish to discuss scheduling a photo session, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

We met up again a couple weeks later to finish the shoot – this time I had a shiny new D700 in tow, with a Tamron 24-75mm f/2.8 (in addition to my Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 micro). We got to splend plenty of time in the late afternoon and as the sun began to set, and I’m really pleased with how the shots  turned out.

As a side note, I’m blown away by the sheer quality difference between the output of the D80 vs the D700. Even under controlled conditions with off-camera lighting and sharp lenses, the D80 can’t hold a candle to the D700. The noise handling is the primary improvement, of course, but I was shocked to see just what a difference it makes. I had to rely on ISO 800 on some of my D80 shots, and it looks downright pathetic in comparison to the D700 at that level (or even 1600!). I’m so pleased to have the increased flexibility at my disposal now!

Gallery samples below, or view the full photoshoot.

We’re doing a bi-weekly photo contest on the local VW web forum. This week’s theme was “up close”, so I submitted the above image. Taken with my Nikkor 60mm micro + extension tube for true 1:1. This is almost too much magnification; every speck of dust and grime was visibly evident in my first shots. No amount of cleaning/wiping/blowing could get it to be pristine under the mighty eye of the macro lens. I also had a hard time getting the composition how I liked it at such a close range. At closest focus, I was looking at maybe a half-inch area of the circuit (itself a small controller board on the bottom of a 3.5″ SATA hard drive).

For these reasons, I decided to back off a little and take in a wider field of view. The resulting shot was an area probably about 1.5″ across, which offered much more flexibility in composition (and much more forgiveness in dust pickup).

Shot setup:

• Nikon D700 on el-cheapo Sunpak tripod, pointing straight down on hard drive on dining room table
• Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 micro + PK-13 extension tube – manual focus, aperture, shutter
• Nikon SB-800 flash on camera, bouncing toward nearby wall up and to camera right

Here is an “outtake” at actual 1:1, before I cleaned the dust off as thoroughly as I could:

And a wide shot of the hard drive controller, showing the size of that 1:1 macro area:

I figure it’s about time to kick this thing back to life. This blog started as a personal outlet/resource/whatever, many years back. As with most blogs, it was sporadically updated and devoid of content. I hope to change that starting… now.

jkingweb.com is now my primary personal space on the web. It will serve as an exhibit of recent photography expeditions, both for clients and personal or artistic endeavors. And sometimes it might contain my personal msuings, rants, reviews, and so on. Hopefully, there will be something that will catch your interest as time goes on.

Let’s get this show on the road…

Big News of the Year:

My wife and I are expecting! Our little baby boy, Felix, is due January 4, 2010, although we’re pushing for a December birth (come onnnnn, tax break!). We’re at 32+ weeks and things are going well – ultrasounds are awesome, no big worries to report. We’ve just started a round of (gruesome, at times) childbirth classes, and have been working on prepping the baby’s room. More to come on that front.

Photography:

Photography is going well. I’ve been doing more and more paid gigs, most recently a senior portrait shoot, as well as a few weddings. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m hoping to get this thing off the ground.

I recently destroyed (or nearly, anyway) my Nikon D80 (see here for details), along with an 85mm f/1.8 lens. That motivated me to finally take the plunge and upgrade: The D700 is my new workhorse, and I’ve never been so happy. I can’t say enough positive things about this camera.

Music:

As usual, I’m scouring teh intertubez for the latest & greatest. Recent tunage includes Land of Talk, Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton, St. Vincent, and the Royal Bangs (among many others). I’ve been pulling out a lot of old stuff too – Polvo, Damien*, Sloan, etc. Too much to list, but I just wanted to mention a few. I’m really misdirected lately; nothing has a consistent style or any sort of commonality. I think I’m at the point where I’m sick of the trends (even in the “indie”/underground movement). Most of my recent acquisitions are decidedly “weirder” than even the stuff I’d normally pursue. We’ll see where this goes.

Other:

What, you want more? Well I guess you’ll just have to stick around and see what comes up!

I’ve seen and heard a lot of comparisons thrown around about the band: The Decemberists. Matt & Kim. Death Cab for Cutie. The Postal Service. But I’d prefer not to describe them relative to another group like that. The Seedy Seeds can stand on their own. So how would I describe the band? Joyfully simple. Deliciously uncomplicated. Humble, happy and kind. They’re not just good musicians, they’re good people.

I had the opportunity to experience this first-hand when they stopped by the Nite Owl, a tiny club in Dayton’s Oregon District. The MySpace pages of both the band and the venue claimed the show was slated for 9 P.M., with two other acts joining the Seedy Seeds: Eat Sugar and Human Reunion. I didn’t want to miss anything, so I arrived promptly, wife and friends in tow, at 9 P.M. I quickly realized we were in for a wait: The bar was practically empty and there was no sign of a band anywhere. Well, that was okay. It was Friday night, and it gave us ample opportunity to enjoy some drinks and company.

It wasn’t long before Mike Ingram and Margaret Weiner (compositely, the Seedy Seeds) showed up at the club and started getting set up. Approximately three minutes later they were ready to go. That’s part of that “joyful simplicity” of the band: Their full kit was just a guitar, banjo, accordian, and a couple kazoos. Oh, and an iPod. Who needs expensive Korg synth keyboards or MacBook Pros when you can just load your backing tracks on an iPod and jack it straight into the PA? Divinely unpretentious.

Despite the brevity of their stage setup and levels checking, we were in for more of a wait before they actually took the stage to start their set. I could only assume that was due to the lacking attendance. How typical of the indie music scene in Dayton. Clubs like the Nite Owl have been pulling in some surprisingly good acts in recent months, but either due to lack of promotion from the venues or just general lameness on the part of Dayton music fans, attendance at most shows is sorely lacking. This is truly sad, since these fantastic artists aren’t getting near the audience they deserve (and are used to in other towns!).

Even when Mike slung his banjo over his shoulders and Margaret donned her acoustic guitar to start their set, the number of people present and attentive was probably under thirty. Twenty would be a generous estimate, actually. But they paid it no mind, happily announced themselves and dived right into their set.

You couldn’t help but smile. Mike fingerpicked his banjo steadily over the toy-keyboard beats pumping out of the iPod, while Margaret strummed her acoustic guitar passionately. When the vocals kicked in, it was synchronized perfection. Mike’s voice was strong and sure, yet smooth and inviting. Margaret joined in and harmonized wonderfully, with a sweet tone you could curl up in. And invariably, everyone’s feet were tapping to the synthesized beats pouring through the PA. Sure it’s simple. Sure it’s a bit cute and bubblegummy in nature. But it’s that simple formula that draws you in, and then invites you to stay for tea. And you just have to shrug and say “sure!”

They covered the breadth of their album in their (relatively brief) set, playing their strongest tracks, including “The Little Patton”, “Alberta”, and “Earned Average Dance America”, a real leg-thumper. As the songs went on, the crowd grew. And many of those who came without any prior knowledge of the Seedy Seeds seem to have grown to love them in no time at all. Given the quantity of hardcore metal bands that frequent the Nite Owl, I was glad to see all the bar-hoppers having a great time watching two quirky musicians play their mix of indie-synth-bluegrass-pop.

After the set I spent a few minutes chatting with Mike and Margaret, and I can say with confidence that they’re very kind, humble people. I was glad to have seen them in such an intimate setting, and hope to see them many more times in the future. I’ll be closely following their progress as they release new material, and I encourage anyone who hasn’t yet heard them to visit their website and pick up their album. Not only will you be supporting one of Cincinnati’s finer indie acts, but you’ll be getting an album that you’ll cherish for its simplicity and originality. And if you have the chance to see these two live, don’t pass on it. You’re sure to have a good time.

More pics from the show:

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Music has been holding me together lately. 2007 has had a lot of really solid albums and I’ve been trying to expose myself to a wider variety of music, especially older stuff. Part of that is because I recently got into vinyl records. I picked up an awesome direct drive turntable for free + beer a few months back, and I’ve been collecting odds-and-ends vinyl ever since. A lot of that has been 80s stuff that I’d never really exposed myself to before, like XTC, Ultravox, Fine Young Cannibals, some really classic U2, and more. And I picked up some stuff I just couldn’t live without and had to experience on vinyl: Elvis Costello, the Smiths, Led Zeppelin, CCR, and newer stuff like the National’s “Boxer” and some Okkervil River.

Aside from my Explorations in Vinyl, WOXY has been keeping me alive, musically speaking. There’s a lot in the works over at the station; of greatest note is their recent announcement to return to the FM airwaves in the southwest Ohio area thanks to a partnership with local broadcast station WXVU. WOXY will be pumping out on one of WXVU’s new HD channels, which means anyone with an HD radio in the signal range can listen to WOXY anytime, anywhere. This is huge news for local WOXY fans, myself included. I’ll be picking up an HD radio very soon, assuming the signal covers most of my commute with acceptable reliability.

The biggest thing on my plate lately has been my photography. I was approached a few months back about photographing a wedding for some friends-of-friends. I agreed and spent every moment until the Big Day prepping, planning, researching and practicing to get as good as I could. I’d never shot a wedding before as the sole photographer, let alone for money, so I was pretty nervous about my abilities. Well, it finally came and went and looking back, I’m really happy with how I did. But anyway, I’ve been busting my tail trying to get all the photos processed for the couple. Here’s a glimpse of a couple of the shots if you’re interested:

So I’ve been somewhat stressed with all of that going on, but there’s rest & relaxation in sight! Our vacation to the Outer Banks, NC, is in just TWO WEEKS! I’m really looking forward to it; Jess and I are sharing a beach house with her brother and sister and their families for a week. We’ll also get to spend a couple days with Jess’ mom in Virginia, which I’m really looking forward to.

Let’s see, what else? There are a LOT of great concerts coming up over the next few months, several of which I’m planning to attend (Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem, They Might Be Giants, The Decemberists, etc), so hopefully I’ll have some photos to share. I haven’t taken a single picture since the wedding I shot, so I’m definitely looking forward to taking some photos just for fun.

Well I think that’s about it for now. Sorry for the novella of a post, but it’s been forever since I’ve updated this and I wanted to bring everyone up to speed. I hope everyone else is having a good summer. Keep in touch!

Jesse

Our evening started with an unplanned viewing of the 80’s classic “Weird Science” to kill some time. We hit the road with plenty of time and were amazed to see snow falling heavily (It’s APRIL folks!). Halfway to Cincinnati we decided to break for food and hit up the intriguing Dickey’s BBQ Pit, a fast-food-esque barbecue joint that was not exactly worthy of writing home about. An hour and one major traffic jam later and we were across the river, in our slack-jawed sister state of Kentucky!

The two-block walk to the Southgate House was somewhat miserable due to the frigid Arctic conditions, but we made it inside quickly and wandered down into the basement just minutes before the Broken West plugged in and switched the tubes off standby.

Their set was brief but enjoyable; I recall about 6 songs, including “Shiftee” and “On the Bubble”, two of my personal favorites off “I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On”. The crowd was still rather slim and the energy not ramped up, but the band seemed to be very glad to be there and had a great attitude on stage.

After what seemed the briefest of intermissions, Brooklyn’s simplistic electo-pop outfit Say Hi To Your Mom hit the stage. Without wasting any time they got right into one of their biggest hits, “Dimensions and Verticals”, which immediately brought the crowd to attention and kicked the energy up a few notches.

SHTYM played a decently lengthy set featuring many songs from their latest release, “Impeccable Blahs”. I was saddened to hear just a couple songs from my favorite album, “Ferocious Mopes”, but the set was still killer and a lot of fun.

We had some time to kill after SHTYM left the stage and I was ordered to photograph a couple performing the ancient art of “throw the weird neon light-thingies”. Without further ado:

It wasn’t too long before the Long Winters tuned up and switched on, and it was plain to see that they were the main attraction that evening. Personally I was there primarily for SHTYM, but I was eager to see the Long Winters in person as I’m a big fan of all their work.

It was immediately clear that they were there to have a good time and play some old-fashioned awesome indie rock, and they came out swinging with the excellent “Sky is Open”. The room’s energy soared as they played a mixture of tracks from their latest work, “Putting the Days to Bed”, as well as each of their older releases.

After a few opening tracks, frontman John Roderick opened up the set to requests and really got a good rapport going with the audience. The interaction was really fantastic, and made the difference between “just” a great performance and really memorable show. Musically, the Long Winters were amazingly tight and coordinated, and replicated the recorded versions of their upbeat indie rock songs with ease.

What further cemented the lighthearted relationship with the crowd was the fun “jams” they digressed into; they began level testing by covering Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”, and returned to this song later in the set whilst John Roderick rapped Beastie Boy’s “Fight For Your Right” on top. When an audience member announced that it was his birthday, John declared a Birthday Blues Jam was necessary, and the group proceeded into a classic 12-bar walk with John shredding the lead. We ate it up and begged for more, and that’s exactly what we got: They played until just shy of 1 AM, and when they walked off the stage, we stood cheering, exhausted.

See ‘em all (hi res available too) here.

We were able to stay with her in a private room during delivery and it was amazing. Labor went pretty long but went without complications and both are doing very well!

I haven’t had the chance to get many good pics of Carly yet, since she was sent to the nursery immediately after birth. Here are a few though (she is so adorable in person!):