Tellastory Photography

Luxurious Wedding Albums

by Rebecca Bystrom | Apr 28, 2016 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

You are planning a wedding.
You’ve hired your vendors.
The big day arrives. It’s absolutely AMAZING ~ imperfectly perfect!!

A few weeks go by as your continue life blissfully married.
Flash backs of your wedding day are rehashed through stories and memories shared between family & friends.
You receive your Images on a flash drive from your professional photographer.
L.O.V.E. all over again!!! Memories have come alive with the images on your computer screen.
You experience “things” that you didn’t notice on your wedding day. (it pays to hire a professional)
Imperfectly Perfect. Life is good.

Turn the computer off, and back to life. Back to living in the present reality.
Work, sleep, work sleep Eat. Not necessarily in that order ~ you catch my drift?
Days go by. Your wedding photo’s are sitting in a dark file on your computer.
You may wish to check them out ~ if time allows in your busy schedule.
It may be a year before you realize it’s your anniversary and time to relive that very special day.
Turn on the computer “Ooooo” and “Aawwww” – Love all over again. Your memories have come to life once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~WAIT A MINUTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a better Idea. Don’t keep your memories stuck on a computer.
My lesson was learned 3 years ago the hard way. when my computer crashed.
ALL — yes ALL my files wiped clean. 2TB of files Gone. Kaput. Missing. No more memories.
Don’t let this happen to you —

It is my “job” to educate you on why prints and albums are so important. Technology fails.
Did our parents have their wedding photo’s stuck on a flash drive or computer somewhere?
If that was the case- I’m sure our recent technology would no longer retrieve this information and their “memories” would be long gone by now.

I encourage my clients to get something tangible, a storybook that allows your memories to come to life each time you open the cover or look at that Wall art.
A keepsake album you can pull out and look at whenever your heart needs a reminder of the wonderful memories made on a day filled with love and excitement.

There are so many styles to choose from when creating a specialized storybook.
My favorite album is timeless. Printed in a castle located in Italy! (nostalgic!!)
These albums are amazing in every way. Sometime you’ve got to see for yourself to believe.
I can preach to the choir, and babble until my face turns blue ~ instead I’ll show you a few pictures of these heirloom wedding albums.
Please note** pictures do not do justice for the quality and craftsmanship held within the binding.

Contact me if you are in the market for a wedding photographer ~ Let’s chat! We can meet for coffee or dinner ~ I’d love to show you in-person the products I’m talking about. We will casually chat about your wedding plans and I will help you decide exactly what you need from your photographer to get the best coverage.

Your wedding day is special, and should be treated as such.
Get the full service from your wedding vendors- you don’t go to a car wash and expect to have 1/2 your car cleaned.
Just as you don’t go grocery shopping to purchase 1/2 of an apple. Get the FULL service you deserve.
The 2016 Calendar is nearly full – with a few select dates still available. Now booking 2017 Weddings- Reserve your date today!

Planning your Engagement Session

by Rebecca Bystrom | Mar 1, 2016 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

You’re about to take that leap of faith, into a new life with with your fiance. As you are busy planning and spending the big bucks on creating that fairy tale wedding. Researching and hunting down the perfect vendors you can trust and rely on to fulfill your dream wedding visions. The last thing you may think of is an engagement session. Perhaps you have no desires for photo’s because you are camera shy. It’s not important to capture a few pre-wedding photo’s. I’d love to persuade you into a different mind set. Your engagement session IS important.

This is the beginning of your story. A new chapter where two become one. It doesn’t start at the wedding. This is the prequel to the big celebration day. It is a time to celebrate your love for each other. It’s a time to capture moments that illustrate who you are individually and who you are together. I don’t know about you, but when I read a book, I want to know the beginning; I crave all those juicy details that sets the scene of the story. Most books typically have a major event and a story line to keep the reader entertained. When creating a story with visuals, it is important to set the scene. Your pre-wedding story. I’d like to think that I already know the outcome of a wedding. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes the baby in the baby carriage…. right? Oh, and they lived happily ever after.

Your engagement session is a great way to understand your photographers style. Get to know them, and how they capture moments. This allows you to be more relaxed & comfortable having your pictures taken on your wedding day. From a photographers perspective: the engagement session is a stepping stone to understanding each client on a personal basis. What they like to do as a couple, what posing is most flattering and what angles to avoid. I love engagement sessions, witnessing “young” love as a spectator and given the gift to capture these moments is a heartwarming experience while standing behind the lens. I want to share that with you, with your family & friends.

So you’ve had your engagement session, now what?
Having digital files is a great way to share your images with friends and family. Upload them to social media and brag about your lovely fiance! Think of how romantic it would be to have your first chapter in your story visually told. A picture book showing off your images from the engagement session. You won’t have to worry about losing your digital files when the flash drive becomes obsolete or when your computer crashes and all your digital images are lost.

Want to really make a statement? Hang a 20×30 canvas in your living room. Visually seeing your love for each other on display, those tender moments will remind you where it all began.

Create Save the Dates:
This is a great way to make sure your guest are available for your wedding date. By sending out a reminder to keep the date available with more information to follow. You can easily incorporate your engagement photo’s on your custom save-the-dates.

Start your own Instagram Hashtag:
The pressure is on, you will need to come up with a fun hashtag for your family and friends to start tagging photo’s of the 2 of you. This a great way to share images and have them earmarked in one location. Be sure to include your hashtag on your save-the-dates and your wedding invites.

Create a Wedding Website:
This is a great way to share all the information regarding your plans, things to prepare for, and how-to’s for your wedding date. Keep in touch with your guests & share up-to-date progress on the planning. This is a great place to share a few of your favorite engagement session images.
TSP is currently working on making this become a reality for future clients. I can’t wait to share the details ~stay tuned.

Your engagement session should reflect you. It’s a time to slow down and spend some time with the love of your life. Make it a date night. Hang out and relax with each other. This is all about you and what brought you two together.

To learn more about TellaStory Photography Engagement Session follow the Engagement Planning Guide link to view full magazine: Engagement Planning Guide

XO~B

The 365 Challenge : From a Wedding Photographer’s Perspective

by Rebecca Bystrom | Jan 17, 2016 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The 365 Challenge : From a Wedding Photographer’s Perspective

For me…..2016 is all about change. If we aren’t changing, and growing who we are then we are at a check-mate. Dead in the water, left clinging to the life raft and will never discover our true potential.

As we enter the new year, I have decided to embark on a challenge. Something that will push me as an artist, and rediscover who I am at this moment. I also want to grow my photography skills by trying new things. Up to this point fear has kept me from pursuing this task. Fear of failure. Fear of not completing the challenge. I want to change this. Live fearlessly. Embrace life and indulge in simple moments that pass us too quickly.

You may or may not have heard of the 365 Challenge. What does this mean? Each and every day you take a picture – There is a guide to follow for each day, the guides may vary depending on what you want to accomplish. 365 days?! That’s a really long time to maintain focus {squirrel}! I couldn’t imagine entering a challenge of this magnitude. Setting myself up for failure is not an option. That is the truth. Sometimes the truth can be very scary when you face them head on.

After reflecting a little more upon this matter, I decided I would modify the 365 challenge to something more manageable. Behold the 52 week challenge. In this challenge I will be tackling a personal photo goal once a week. Taking on a vision or new concept that I want to work on and going for it. As Nike says: “Just do it”. My list is set, but not in stone. There is room for modification as long as I pick up my camera and snap ‘that’ photo once a week.

My goal is to post once a week on Facebook. Perhaps I will blog about the monthly topics so I have a place to display my vision in one place. I guess time will tell. Maybe I’ll discover new ways to consolidate & display this challenge — non-the-less I am sticking to my guns and pushing thru to completion. As I said before failure is not an option and change is good, Right?

Week 1 was easy: Resolution.
Many of us find it easy to say I’m going to do this; I’m giving up that as we roll into a new year. Changing our ways but we quickly discover that change is difficult to enforce and we fall back into our patterned behavior. The comfort zone. The old adage says: Old habits never die quickly. There is wisdom & truth to those words.
I have accepted Resolution as a personal growth. Instead of going cold-turkey on anything, I’m focusing on weekly change. Baby steps.
What does Resolution mean?

Wikipedia defines this word as:

res·o·lu·tion ˌrezəˈlo͞oSH(ə)n/ noun

a firm decision to do or not to do something.

“she kept her resolution not to see Anne any more”

2.the action of solving a problem, dispute, or contentious matter.

“the peaceful resolution of all disputes”

WOW! COOL! SIMPLE??! I can do this.
Week One I have discovered a new flame from within. A desire to do more, dig deeper and re-discover.

Week 2: Self Image.
This task was a little more daunting. A true Challenge. Fear of stepping out from behind the camera into the spotlight of the lens. Capturing who I am in this moment.
After much reflection on how to approach this challenge. I realized it’s not as difficult and I made it out to be. I can do this!!
I teach my clients to not fear the camera and it should be fun to have your picture taken. By engaging into simple conversation and approaching imagery with a candid approach….. HOW IN THE WORLD do I portray this when I’m alone? Besides risking my sanity and talking to myself, laughing at my non-existent jokes? {Bwahaha}

Music. It’s who I am. Music touches my soul like non-other. Speaks volumes to me, relaxes me in ways I can not describe. I use music as my voice when I can not speak the words.
With week 2 I decided on a collection of images combined to present a more personal story. My story, behind the hidden walls that I have built up around myself. The song choice: Beatles “Yesterday” speaks to me whenever I pick up my cello. My go-to song when I am in a rut; When I need to internally reflect on an idea. Although this project is not perfect and there is room for growth, I present Week 2: Self Image.

The 365 Challenge : From a Wedding Photographer's Perspective