ABOUT US

  We have been photographing weddings and Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for over thirty   years and have been able to capture and share the memories from approximately 800 joyous life events with our clients and their families throughout these years.

  How did we get started in this exciting profession? In fact, it actually came from the somewhat disappointing experience we had with our own wedding photography!   Like most people who ultimately wind up with an album that hardly gets looked at, we were too unaware of the wide variation in the quality and services and too focused on the price. As a result, we lost sight of the value of the work and wound up being not very happy. (The bitterness of poor quality lingers forever, well after the sweetness of a low price is long forgotten!) While we were not thrilled with our own wedding photographs, we were able to see how the results could have been very positive had we approached this differently.

  What I also did realize was that photographer had an opportunity to touch two people and their families for a lifetime. While our photographer just didnt understand that, the important thing for me was that I did. Thus, it was this negative experience that turned my life around in a very positive way.

   I also saw there was a lot more to photography of a familys life event then just being a technician. It was not just a question of recording what people looked like at the time!  It was also all about synching up with our clients emotionally and capturing through our own heart and soul what our clients were FEELING, whe they were feeling about that special day and what they felt about each other.

  At the time, I was already a degreed Chemical Engineer in grad school on the way to a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. Luckily I somehow came into this world loving to use both sides of my brain and accepted the fact that I also enjoyed art and photography. I loved to paint; sketch and even draw cartoons   as well take photographs, particularly of people. I had started into photography at about age 6 with my own camera, had my first darkroom at about age 12 and loved working with people and photographing them. The thought of going to weddings and celebrating with people also seemed like a lot more fun too than doing homework. The very idea of actually touching peoples lives through photography and giving them joyful memories for a lifetime turned my life around!

  I watched other photographers at weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and said to myself: I can do that! I also began to pick things up very quickly on my own but also apprenticed under a well-known photographer in the D.C. area.   I joined the MD Professional Photographers Association in 1970, which is an ongoing educational experience and went on to become its president a few years later. I also served on the executive board of the Southeastern Professional Photographers Association, or SEPPA, a regional organization that represents the entire Southeastern portion of the country and served as its president. I continued to represent MD on SEPPAs Board of Governors for many years.  I am currently a member of the Professional Photographers of North Carolina (PPNC) and an officer in the Metrolina (Charlotte) Photographic Society (MPS), a local professional group.

  My photographic credentials include lots of awards, but also the degree of Maryland Fellow of Photography, the national degree of Photographic Craftsman from the Professional Photographers of America as well as their accreditation of Certified Professional Photographer, or CPP. I have received PP of As highest recognition, the National Award and have twice been recipient of The SEPPA Award both from both my state association and from SEPPA itself. I was also recently recognized by SEPPA with its Board of Governors Award.

  But the best award come from my clients because they know I put my heart and soul into every image I create with them. Every wedding couple or Bar or Bat Mitzvah is unique and our clients deserve to have an album which tells the unique story of their celebration in a way that they want to remember. One of the ways we do this is to offer photographic opportunities to work together in advance of the event so that we can feel comfortable together and to create special portraits of your everyday selves. We want to create memories for you to cherish and to even share with your descendants as yet unborn. These images can also include special places or interests that you can even at the event.  This can be portraits or a memory board image that family and guests can sign around and record their thoughts and wishes. Not only do the portraits of wedding couples also make great engagement portraits, they can become a wonderful part of their album.   We have shown where couples have met or fallen in love, re-staged marriage proposals, or have shown the amazing variety of interests and skills that today's kids have.  We can even include some imaginative and creative enhancements with digital manipulation.

  We encourage our clients to be creative in their interests and needs, and to challenge us on the way we capture them for their story. We also have unique ways to get the important group portraits at your celebration, families, friends, limited only by your imagination. (And the only difference between a rut and the grave are the dimensions!)

  When we have finished photographing the event, we dont throw our clients out the door with a pile of proofs as so many photographers do and make them struggle on their own without a clue as to how the images can be cropped and arranged in an album. True stupidity is doing the same thing time and time again and expecting a different result. We know what is too hard to do for people, and the usual treatment by many studios is one of them.  Instead, we work with our clients, Bride and Groom, or Bar or Bat Mitzvah and parents, to go over the images, show them cropping so they can make informed intelligent decisions about what they want. Like a decorator, we even work with them in the arrangement of the prints in their album. This is particularly necessary because of the wide variety of sizes and arrangements we offer and what the clients choose. We use a computer to help design their wedding or Bnai Mitzvah album. We also offer their images on CD slideshows with music. We usually can include your real invitation in the album and do so at no cost to you.

  Thus, the greatest awards I get are the smiles and hugs from my clients, and   the joy in their faces when they see their albums and the images I create with them. I also get to go to a lot of great parties and celebrate the joy of a lot of really nice people. If you consider yourself one of those warm fuzzybear type people and you are looking for a photographer coming from the same place, please either email me at mel@photosbymel.com   or, better yet, give me a call: 704-366-8341 (Mobile: 704-258-3332)