Photography Garage Sale

Hi everyone! As most everyone visiting this website knows, I'm moving to Sweden. We leave in one month!! That means I need to get rid of everything I own. Most of my stuff is worthless, but I do have some camera gear and associated bits that I'm hoping to offload. I'll update this page as I sell things. Pickup for everything is in Shirlington (Arlington). If you're interested, drop me a line to amber@amberwilkie.com. Photobooth! (Almost everything you need to start marketing these to clients) $300. More info here. I'm willing to break this up at this point - if you're interested in just the photobooth countdown-shutter contraption, or just backdrops, etc. - let me know. Blu-Ray Burner. $40 Bought this guy in 2012 for long-term backups of RAW files. Never had a problem with it. It's this one. Westcott X-Drop in Blue / Slate pattern. $50. Just like this one but in the pattern shown below (no I never got around to ironing it). I have all the stuff that came in it, nothing wrong with it - but it is a little small for photobooths. Great for headshots or whatever. Impact QuikBox folding softbox. $75. This one. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. Truth be told, I never used it on a shoot, though taking it out for the photo - I definitely should have and I am a gear idiot. Two rolls of 5' White Seamless. $15/each. Mostly unused.  

Marriage Equality: eff yes!

I keep restarting this paragraph. There are many things I feel about the Supreme Court's decision yesterday. We've come so far and still have so very far to go. But today we get to celebrate - thrill at the rainbows appearing everywhere, including the White House. It was about damn time and the win is hard-earned and well-deserved, for LGBTQ Americans and straight Americans: we watched our country turn an important leaf yesterday.   You've seen this, but I want it on my blog:

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.

Congratulations to everyone who fought for this, and all of us who wanted to fight more but weren't sure where to jump in. And to all of the couples who can now legally wed and receive the same protections under the law as a couple with mismatched genitals. And to everyone in conservative areas who are still confused and wrong about this issue, who will hopefully have more chances to be exposed to and recognize that people who are not exactly like them are, in fact, human. Congratulations to America. We grew up a little yesterday. There's still so much more to be done. So many more minds to change. And myriad other issues that demand our attention, determination and strength. But for now - maybe for just a little bit - RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE, BITCHES!

A wedding photographer’s wish-list and my ideal wedding conditions: May 2015 update

I'm photographing an engagement session at Dinosaur Land today, something I wished for way on back in 2011. It reminded me of this blog post I wrote in 2013 about the places and conditions under which I wanted to shoot. It's about time I checked in and updated the list. I haven't made too much progress, and one venue has stopped operating entirely, but I'm happy to say I can check off a couple. And I can feel the Star Trek wedding coming...

---

Every wedding photographer has a wish-list, whether they've got it written down or just in the back of their heads. For instance, my buddy Maggie wants nothing more than to photograph a circus wedding - with a striped tent and performers and all that good stuff. That sounds awesome to me, but it wouldn't make the list. But before I give people having their wedding at hotels or golf courses or vineyards a big sad, I thought I'd instead muse on my favorite wedding things.

My ideal wedding conditions

I get asked this question a lot, so maybe it should instead be an Infrequently Asked Question. Potential clients ask me about my ideal wedding conditions. They think I'm going to say something like good weather, outdoors, sunset ceremony, beautiful venue. Those things are nice. Certainly if I were given complete free reign to make a wedding (ha!) I'd make it sunny, golden hour all day, no bugs, gorgeous outdoor venue with funky artsy indoor spaces and - heck - let's just put the whole thing in Paris. In reality, the only thing that really matters are the people. A gorgeous venue in perfect light is great, but if everybody's all mopey, it's crap to photograph. I love weddings with lots of rambunctious kids or drunk friends or really tight families that are constantly hugging and laughing. I love weddings with activities - lawn games, pre-wedding festivities, art projects. I love weddings with a crazy dance floor. I love weddings filled with happy people. Everything else is just window dressing. So, that said, you can see that my wish-list basically doesn't matter. Happy people in an Applebee's trump mopey people on a beach in Hawaii any day. But...

My wedding wish list

Places and circumstances I would be freakin' ecstatic about photographing. Star Trek wedding. This is hands-down #1 on my list. I'm talking all-out set design, costumes, boldly-going-where-no-one-has-gone-before vows, taser instead of bouquet... I want to photograph a Star Trek wedding. Seriously. Come to me. Wedding at a zoo or aquarium. (August 2015 I'll photo a wedding at the Maryland Zoo!) Skydiving, white water rafting or other extreme-sport wedding. Okay, so I've never been skydiving, so I don't know if I could even take a single photograph while doing it. But I'm sure down for the challenge. I've done a hot air balloon engagement session, so I'm ready to ramp it up for the actual vows. Hawaii. I think Hawaii is on this list because I can't imagine flying myself there. I'm not much of a beach person, so getting a trip together over places like Greece or Thailand is just not in the cards... at the moment. My travel ends up being all rugged and somewhat painful and grueling. But Hawaii seems like this magical land of always-great weather and absolutely jaw-dropping scenery and generally a wonderful place. Whenever I imagine photographing something, I always imagine I have a bride and groom to place in the scene. Hawaii wouldn't be the same without a wedding.

Venues I want to shoot at

So those are the big four. But while I was putting the list together, I came up with a bunch of venues I'd like to shoot at, and this seems like as good a time to mention them as any. Probably this year I'll get my ish together and do a post on my favorite venues I've already been to (hello Patapsco Female Institute), but for now, here's my want-tos.

• American Visionary Arts Museum (I worked there just a couple weeks ago - blog post coming very soon!)