We are so excited to have Jennifer Opeka as one of our guest bloggers!  Jennifer is going to write a series of articles for us based on eyebrow grooming, make-up for weddings/boudoir and skin care.  Come back next week and check out her first article on brow shaping 101!  Without further ado – here is a little bit about Jennifer’s background.

Jennifer Opeka is a make-up artist and brow specialist with nearly 10 years experience in the fashion, entertainment, and wedding industry. Her skill set includes everything from clean and classic beauty, to edgy and dramatic with an emphasis on weightless yet perfect-looking skin.

Since 2000, she has been perfecting her craft while working with the top industry professionals including Laura Mercier, Trish McEvoy, Jillian Dempsey and Jeannine Lobell. Her years of experience on the celebrity circuit in Los Angeles have landed her backstage at Fashion Week, on-set for TV shows and photo shoots, and in many wedding photo albums across the country.

Based in Boston, Jennifer’s home away from home is Sarra Beauty Studio (840 Summer Street, Boston, 617.269.8999) where she offers make-up lessons, make-up applications and precision brow shaping by appointment. For on-location jobs such as weddings and photo shoots, she may be booked in advance depending on availability (for inquiries please email: jennopeka@gmail.com).

When it comes to applying make-up, Jennifer’s philosophy is simple: create a look that enhances “you” and fits within your own personal style and comfort level. So whether you’re walking down the aisle, the red carpet or going on a very special date, Jen will get you there looking and feeling your absolute best.

In this economy everybody is looking for two things, a deal, and a paycheck.  I was talking with a fellow photographer recently.  We were going over the ins and outs of the sales process and he said, “you know what makes the whole sales process really hard,” about fifty thoughts leapt to mind and after his pensive pause he said, “I put my prices on the web, and customers will call me having seen them and their first or second question is always, ‘can you do it for less?”  I know the feeling all too well.  Here’s the deal: I don’t have a problem with reducing services in return for lower prices, that makes sense, its reasonable.  Where I, and a lot of my fellow photographers have a problem, is the customer that wants ten to twelve hours of wedding coverage with two shooters, an engagement shoot, an album and great images for less than a photographer thinks knows they are worth.

I can’t blame a bride and groom for wanting the best value for their dollar.  In fact, I’d be surprised if they didn’t.  Here’s where some education as to how the process works might make it easier for a couple to understand just what they’re paying for.  In this digital age, we all know that with the click of a shutter and an upload to the computer we can have images ready to go and fired off to social networking sites, friends, family, blogs, etc. in a matter of moments.  I think that mindset has distorted the worth of the photographer to the wedding photography consumer.  Photographers will often have images posted to facebook and up on their blog before the bride and groom wake the morning following the wedding.  Images will be up for preview in proofing catalogs by the end of the week and albums are being turned around at blazing speeds compared to even 5 years ago.

In the wedding photography industry we photographers are a little bit of everything.  We’re sales people, IT specialists, bookkeepers, digital archivers, advertising specialists, and…photographers.  Most of us do it because we love photography and people.  If you love those two things then what better way to combine them than by doing wedding photography.  The downside is we are being pushed harder and harder to offer more service for less money.  There are plenty of photographers out there.  Some cheap, some expensive.  Some of the cheap ones are fantastic and some of the expensive ones aren’t.  A lot of it boils down to your taste in photography and how much you like the actual photographer.

Jennie and I have taken the line at Strawberry Road that our price is our price.  Not only do we think we’re worth it, but we know what our time is worth.  That’s not to say we won’t work with a customer to find a product we’re happy to deliver and they are happy to receive!  But I can’t put a value on weekend time spent away from my kids.  I’m not going to lie, I love working weddings so it would be hypocritical of me to say that the work is drudgery.  But I can’t in good conscience leave my family to struggle to break even as a photographer.  I’ve seen plenty of wedding photographers that will do that and I’ve seen plenty that will burn out before the wedding day is over simply because they aren’t being compensated.  By the end of the wedding day they’re bitter for having to agreed to a price that will probably end up costing them money in the end.

In closing, we love our customers, we love our job but we’re not going to forget that we need to eat…

written by:
Dave Field
Co-Owner
www.strawberryrd.com