Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast

Navigating the Wedding Photography Landscape: Unfolding Paul Spatrini’s Journey and Techniques

Jason Groupp

Get ready for an exciting ride through the vibrant landscapes of Providence, Rhode Island as we navigate its charm and allure with the gifted Paul Spatrini. Paul, an award-winning journalist turned associate wedding photographer with Orion Photo Group, unwraps his intriguing experiences from the diverse cities of Rhode Island that seamlessly blend into his unique wedding photography setting. We stroll down memory lane and discuss Paul's journalistic roots with the Southern Rhode Island Newspapers and how this background has shaped his visual storytelling.

Stay with us as we drop the veil on the art of crafting a successful wedding photography portfolio. Paul unveils his methodical process of cherry-picking splendid photos that narrate his personal journey as a photographer. He enlightens us on the significance of having a streamlined system to handle thousands of images and pinpoint the striking ones that mirror your vision and style. As a second shooter for George Street Photo, Paul enlightens us on how this vantage point has honed his skills, nurtured his creativity, and helped him develop an impressive portfolio.

Fasten your seatbelts for an array of insightful photography hacks as Paul and I dissect various techniques to score the best shots. Paul shares his 'spray and pray' modus operandi, where he snaps as many photos as possible from varied angles. We underscore the significance of prepping ahead for identifying the perfect angles and lighting. Wrapping up, we emphasize understanding client aspirations and delivering photos that not only capture moments but also stir the right emotions. So gear up for a riveting discussion, and pick up some industry secrets from experienced professionals.

Speaker 1:

Howdy, Thanks for tuning into Orion Photo Group's exclusive podcast. For each episode, we're going to dive into the lives of OPG's photographers and videographers across the country. We're going to talk, shop, hear their stories and listen to any advice they want to offer us up. So grab a tasty beverage and settle in for some fun conversations featuring our little community that's you. Let's go. Welcome to another episode of Success Stories with the Orion Photo Group. These stories are about people who are photographers and videographers that shoot across the country in different places in the country. They don't shoot all over the country, but they shoot across the country in different cities where they're the experts in their city. Today, I'm thrilled to be I think you might be our first associate photographer that's joining us and I met Paul Paul Spatrini. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you very much for having me.

Speaker 1:

I met Paul last year. Was it last? It was last year, right yeah, last year in Little Meat Providence Right. I had one of our meet and greets in Providence, rhode Island. Truth be told, providence is one of my favorite places in the Northeast and we met at a really cool bar and had some drinks and lots of appetizers A small crew, so we had lots of drinks and appetizers. I know I was feeling pretty good on my walk back to the hotel, but thank you for being here today.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you very much, Jason. It's an honor and a pleasure. This is my first podcast, so I'll try to do my best right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I'm glad that this will be your first podcast. We'll try and make it as easy for you as possible. So I just Real quick. I really enjoyed that. I think I had like a day and a half in Rhode Island, in Providence specifically, and I had never stayed in downtown Rhode Island, so I got a couple of mornings that I got to go out running and then Providence is pretty hilly so I didn't run up the hill, but I had never really kind of toured the campuses of RISD, rhode Island School of Design and Brown right. Is it Brown right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we're pretty well known for a lot of universities and colleges. I mean you can pretty much throw a stone and hit one of them Right Downtown Providence is really good with. I don't know if you had a chance to check out Johnson and Wales. They have a campus over there. It's pretty good. Uri has an office somewhere around there. There's Providence College, boston University there's a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and in some of the, just when you walk up the hill from the river there, the campuses are just absolutely gorgeous. I think it was Johnson and Wales that I ran into like super old campus, like really old.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's a lot of history in this area. Yeah, I love it. It's more modern, I think, than Boston, walking in the downtown Boston area, where you kind of sense the contemporary vibe of the city and it kind of feels like its own little place. But just two or three days down in Providence you can see a little bit of everything the country has to offer. That's one of the reasons I love Rhode Island is there's so many things to see, so many things to do and in the wedding industry in particular, I can shoot all kinds of weddings in one weekend in one state. I can have three completely different feeling weddings that you would think were shot in different parts of the country, from the rural areas of Exeter to the city landscape kind of urban or vibes of Providence to the ocean area of Newport. That's all within a 30-minute drive, which is really kind of what I think is one of the more unique markets in the entire country.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I totally agree with you. Coming from New York, I would get up to the New England area at least a couple times a year, whether it be Rhode Island or Nantucket or Boston. I've been very, very fortunate to shoot in lots of different places and you're right, you can be in a very modern city setting and have a very elegant wedding and then the next day you could be shooting a backyard wedding or on the beach. The summers up there in particular are really, really my favorite. I miss those New England mornings in the summertime. There's nothing like it. You can have the winters.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying the winters aren't that bad, I'm speaking as a wedding photographer. But winters are slowly turning into my favorite time, mostly because I'm off and I can relax a little bit, catch up on editing, do all that fancy stuff. Honestly, the winters haven't been bad that last couple of years. But I love Rhode Island and New England in general because you really get to taste all four seasons. You don't get sick of the hot summer. You might get sick of the winter in Vegas or California or something. It's a really pretty place.

Speaker 1:

Down the coast it's a little more mild. My wife and I used to go up to Maine and lots of places in New England. It's where we got engaged. I remember specifically we were in the town of Algonquit and we were eating dinner and the waitress knew that we just got engaged and she said oh, you know, it's nice that you hear.

Speaker 1:

This weekend it's a little bit slower. This is pretty much the last weekend of tourist season and then we have our summer. So it was like I think it was like October 20th or something like that, and you know it was already starting to get pretty chilly. And she said that you know, we love the tourism, we love the people here, we love the weddings and all of that stuff, but you know we get our town back come early fall, but anyway. So this we want to get to know you a little bit better and I think so. For those of you who to get to know Paul a little bit, you've been a journalist, you worked with them and, looking at your photographer bio, you worked for the Southern Road Island newspapers and you've had lots of awards. So you definitely seem like you're a photojournalist first and wedding photographer is definitely a big part of what you do. You also shoot some sports and you kind of knock around to a lot of different things and you've been with George Street or Ryan Photogrupp for quite a few years, right.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I believe I joined in 2014. I was a baby photographer back when I took a picture on George Street. I had no idea what I was doing and it was actually. Really it's been a great experience, part of the reason that nine years later, or whatever it is, I'm still with George Street, and occasionally people ask me why am I still associate shooting for?

Speaker 1:

George, my first question for you, yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's what people ask. A couple weeks ago I just shot my 300th wedding of my career, which is a big milestone. That is a big milestone which is crazy Because it really from about 2010 is when I started, and it wasn't until I hooked up with George Street in 2014 and 2015 that I started to see my bookings really increase and get the experience that I think you need as a photographer. I started with George Street as a second shooter Because, quite honestly, I wasn't confident enough as a lead shooter. I was shooting weddings for some friends and people who might cut your little slack if you mess up, but generally I didn't have that confidence that I needed to be a real wedding photographer to have the experience to shoot in all kinds of settings. So my first George Street wedding I was working with Aram Orchanian of Cap Studios, who at the time was I think he was working as George. He might have been the person who hired and interviewed me, but he was the first person I was with as a lead at George Street. And our first wedding was on a beach setting in Newport and it was back lit. The lighting was just horrible and I just remember doing what I thought at the time was just an awful job. But as a second photographer the pressure wasn't on me to develop everything, so I had some time. So I had a little bit of room to kind of learn my craft but at the same time still deliver quality photos that the couple is expecting to see, but also learning on the fly. So it's been nine years. I know you probably want to know why I'm still an associate shooter. It's because I still love doing that.

Speaker 2:

Being able to go to a wedding for George Street is a really great experience as a second shooter because I finally get to be creative. I'm not sitting there worried about did I get the photo with the bride that groomed the aunt, the uncle, niece, nephew, cousins I'm just there to accentuate what the lead photographer is doing. Help them in any way that I can help them and shoot stuff. That's a little more creative. A lot of times when you're a wedding photographer and you kind of get down in the mud with everything, you lose focus of why you're doing this, and for me it's always been telling stories and finding the emotion in photos.

Speaker 2:

And when I'm a second shooter I love doing it just because there's no pressure, I can walk in. I meet the couple that day. I'm usually with the groom and the groom's men and they're more relaxed and I can find ways to create photos that help the lead photographer's coverage but, more importantly, that provide the couple at the center of the wedding with images they wouldn't have seen and images I may not have taken as a lead photographer, because I have a checklist in my head. When I'm a lead photographer, when I'm a second shooter, I can be more creative. I can look for things that I may not have seen at first glance.

Speaker 2:

So part of the reason I'm still with George Street in that role is I just love it. I really, really love it and I try to open my calendar as much as possible to get those weddings, those last minute weddings that I've been used, I wouldn't have been at, or couples I wouldn't have worked with and memories I wouldn't have been able to capture otherwise and honestly like that to me. I don't want to give that up.

Speaker 1:

And I totally understand that there's a lot of and I'm not discounting you still being an associate. I'm not looking down on that in any way. I do think that there's something to be said for really spending the time to hone your craft and I think we talked about this a little bit. And when I started my career way back when as a shooter, I probably shot 50 weddings before I started going out as a lead on my own and even then it was baby steps. Where I was, the photographer would leave at the end of the night and I was just kind of taking over for him and then slowly he was leaving earlier and earlier as the day went on, and I think that was kind of a practice back in the day too. Like the bride in the groom loved to see my boss Steve. At the time they loved to see Steve, Even if it was for a half an hour, and then he would take off and that kind of went on and it was definitely a really slow way to rip that band-aid off for me and it gave me the opportunity to really hone my skills and there definitely is a craft to it as far as still being able to be creative and, at the same time, get the shots that you need.

Speaker 1:

And there are definitely people my studio manager, who worked with me as my second shooter for many, many years, and Paul I'm sorry my video keeps freezing, so don't worry about it, I'm still here she loved second shooting and I talked to her recently and she hasn't worked for me for over 10 years and she says my favorite thing to do is still go out and second shoot weddings. That's all I want to do and I've opened my schedule up and I make a pretty decent living doing it and I have really no interest. I love going, I love shooting, and then I love leaving at the end and handing over my cards and they mail them back to me when I'm done. So I totally get that. And also, she has also said to me it's helping me build the portfolio that I want to build, because I would never be able to do that starting here and I'd be kind of pigeoned.

Speaker 1:

Hold into these weddings. I want to be able to show lots of different kinds of weddings. So I want to switch the conversation a little bit, in that you worked as a newspaper person in lots of different kinds of pictures and styles and genres. One of the things that we've been struggling with in OPG is gathering portfolios, and we've had photographers come to us and say you know, I need to gather my images. I'm having trouble gathering my images. Can you offer any advice into how you all edit and then save your images for your own portfolios down the road and stuff like that? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2:

So everything I do is kind of a filter system. I like to say so. When I'm at a wedding, I'm very focused on working with the bride and groom and capturing everything I can. That's my photojournalism background. Is you learn you have to shoot everything and then find the story later. So when I'm at a wedding, I literally may shoot 4,000 photos at a wedding. I don't know if any of them are good until I start working on them, so I filter them down from there into the photos I can compliance and then from there, as I'm working with every wedding every year, I'm thinking ahead to the future of finding that portfolio, of finding the 48 images that tell who I am as a photographer. The way I do that is, as I'm shooting and editing a wedding, I'm pulling 20 photos or 30 photos or whatnot, from each wedding because I know at the end of the year when I update my portfolio, I can't process the 200,000 photos I shot one year, but I can process the 20 photos from that April wedding.

Speaker 2:

I haven't thought about months. The 25 photos from the March wedding that I really, really loved, that I haven't thought about since I shot it At the end of the year, once I finally have a chance to breathe and I've delivered all my deliverables and my clients are all happy and I can think about the future. The hardest thing for me is to decide what direction I want to go in, and that's why it's up to past Paul to push me in the right direction. So I narrow it down to maybe a couple of hundred photos, all broken up into parts of the day, so that when I want to do my new portfolio and I want to tell the story of who I am entering a new wedding season, it's easy for me to say, oh man, I need a photo of the bride getting her dress zipped up. What was that wedding where the mom really started laughing? Oh, that's that one. Yeah, okay, great, I'm going to tell you something awesome. Or I may see photos that, in the moment, just completely wrapped my entire world around it. It caught my emotion. It really made me feel something.

Speaker 2:

I might not think about that a couple months down the line, but when it comes time to update my portfolio, my job as a storyteller, as a photojournalist, is to figure out how to put together the best pieces to create the puzzle that I am so that I can present that to my clients. So, talking with George Street you asked about, or Orion you asked about, building the best portfolio, I think you have an obligation both to yourself to show what your current style is, but you have a bigger obligation to show what you can do for clients to help them understand what your vision of being a wedding photographer is. Because it is so easy to research photography, research weddings and see the same six photos of a pretty bride, a pretty groom and a pretty background. But that might not be there. If you're showing beach sunset photos and they're getting married in a mill, that's not them.

Speaker 2:

You have to find a way to break through those barriers and anticipate what clients you haven't spoken to who are researching you at 2 am with a bottle of wine. You have to anticipate what questions they're going to ask and what images they want to see. And to me, that's why photojournalism is so important is because you really are the entire time you're telling a story with your photos. Right, the cliche every photo tells pictures worth a thousand words. I think it's more that a picture is worth every word. So every photo you take has to be the noun, adjective and verb in a sentence that conveys what your message is to your clients and to me. It's hard, but if you approach it with organization and you have a system in place, you can figure out pretty easily what you're looking to tell, what story you want to convey to your bride, to your groom, to your parents, whoever it is that's researching.

Speaker 1:

That's the perfect answer, and definitely from a photojournalist's perspective. But I want to hit on a couple of points that I think are really important in that and very similar to how I would gather images, too. Every wedding has, I believe, whether you're first or second shooter those images that you have from that wedding. I believe there's generally five to six hero images, like the ones that are the best images that you. They are the images that define you as a photographer. Right, then You're as good as your last shot. They say right, those are the five or six shots that you could say this is the best photo I've ever taken. Generally, you're going to find that in each and every wedding. So I usually will start there, like those five hero shots, and then I'll have 15 or 20 other favorites and I always try and make sure that I have that folder of heroes. I call them heroes because they're the best images from that wedding. And then those images may be in other folders, getting ready, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

But I know that I can go into my folders of every single wedding that I've done and there's that folder of heroes. So when I'm looking, when I was super organized, I would tag those so that I could find them in Lightroom or something like that. I was super organized and that's taking it to the next step. But for the people that we're going to now, I think it makes it when we say we need your best images and then all of a sudden, you have to sit at your desktop. I mean, how many times have you gone to your desktop and be like, okay, I need to find my best images? That's an incredible task, right? So if you can say to yourselves okay, well, I shot 15 weddings next year. There's 15 folders for you to go into. That's an hour's worth of time versus hours of time. That's just gonna be a frustrating experience for you.

Speaker 2:

So let me ask you this from your perspective as a photographer yeah, if you're picking five or six hero images, right, as you described it how do you avoid just taking the same? Oh my God, I love this bride and groom portrait and then suddenly your entire folder is bride and groom portraits, but you don't have details, you don't have group shots, you don't have first looks, you don't have ceremony shots. To me, a part of my job is thinking of every component of a wedding to tell a story. My perspective on a portfolio is you have to be able to show start to finish the end a wedding in your best terms, because you never know what your clients are looking for, right, you never know what image is gonna speak to them.

Speaker 2:

If it's a bride who just recently lost her father, and the father daughter dance is gonna be a really emotional moment she may connect with those photos more than you know she might. That might be the thing that really hits her heart. If it's a bride, that's the bride and groom that are really a big party crowd and they want those dance floor reception photos. How many photographers do you know that? Don't even show those because the lighting's not great, the motion blur. You know it's great to show the beautiful sunset, mountain, cliff, side, veil and the air. It's awesome, fantastic, cool. Let me see the nitty gritty. Let me see what you're really doing when things are perfect, right.

Speaker 1:

That is a really great question and, truth be told, many of the folders will have the same images and my way that I would try try to circumnavigate that would be before every wedding and this is the truth. Before every wedding I would look at my homepage and my website and say what is missing here and I would try and capture those. So I'd give myself my own photojournalistic assignment and I would say to my assistants we really need these images, we really need these images. My Achilles heel was always detail shots and I'll let you guys in on a little secret. Brides wanna see themselves looking beautiful and they want great detail shots. That's it On your website. Like, of course, you need everything else, you need great dance floor pictures and you need great bride and party pictures.

Speaker 1:

But my thing when I was in the pinnacle, like the peak of my career, was really taking great portraits of my couples and I did that a bunch of different ways and I was kind of known for that. If I can make my bride look really hot, whether whatever their style was, whatever their looks were, my job was to make them look as beautiful as possible and that was kind of my thing with my fashion experience. So I would really use that as a selling feature for me and it would attract those kinds of clients. But detail shots obviously are things that are really, really important. But, yeah, giving myself an assignment for something that I'm really looking for, that was always a big thing for me to deal with that issue.

Speaker 2:

And, yeah, you hit on something I think is very important, right. And when you're a wedding photographer, to me and you're thinking about portfolios, think about images and think about how to communicate with clients, to me it's a matter of authenticity. So I spent and you may have researched this when figuring out who I was for the podcast, but I spent literally two weeks figuring out how to write my bio in a way that was authentic to me, because I wanted to turn away clients who weren't my perfect fit. So I do the same thing when I'm creating my portfolios or showcasing weddings and choosing what to put on social media all that stuff. I want it to be authentic To me. I don't know what photos are gonna really connect with people. I can only go with what connects to me. So it actually was kind of funny when you said that the detailed shots are what matter to you. To me, I tell my clients when I first meet them I'm terrible at detailed shots. Thumbs up Because I'm being authentic. Now am I terrible at them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, but it's literally the last thing I wanna do. I can take great photos and I can take photos of your centerpieces, but I'm doing those because I'm hitting a checklist and I'm authentic about that. So I think to me, if you can convey who you are to clients, it goes a long way to getting them to trust you and breaking down their walls on the wedding days that you can connect and get the photos that you really wanna walk away with.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you do need to be authentic. There's definitely things that I didn't like doing as well, like table pictures or something like that, and when they would ask me about it, that would be like I'm gonna do it, but here's a better solution for my time. Maybe we should hire somebody else to do that. Just do those. We can have them come for four hours, or we can do this, we can do that. So there's always an answer to that question and like that, I'm gonna ask you one more question, going back to the beginning of our conversation, and that's beach weddings and shooting beach weddings and offering some of your knowledge on that.

Speaker 1:

So I think people and I know that you have a lot of experience doing it, because that's what you guys do up there but shooting midday on the beach is brides and grooms imagined going out on the beach and shooting these beautiful weddings. And then it comes May, it's supposed to be a nice day and all of a sudden, the breeze is blowing in from inland. So you know what that means, right, that means bugs, which there's nothing you do about that, but worst lighting scenario. Talk us through how you shoot in that situation.

Speaker 2:

I mean, jason, you're assuming that I have all this experience with beach weddings. I mean, it's just weird that I just did one three days ago. We were on the beach, it was, I think it was 95 degrees out, the wedding ceremony was at one o'clock, the lighting was awful. So you just go well. Thankfully I have experience with this right. So that's when.

Speaker 2:

When I started with George Street, that was one of my biggest weaknesses was knowing how to work around those things, knowing when to use some off-camera lights or when to direct flash. I've had a couple of beach weddings that have been so bad with the light reflecting off the water behind the couple that you just gotta throw some direct flash on and maybe that'll work. You experiment to see what kind of what will get you the photos that you need. The good thing about living in Rhode Island is that this is part of what we do, so you have to trust that your previous past experience is going to be able to help you overcome these things. Now, wedding that I had on Monday I had an amazing couple, really awesome wedding day. It was an interracial couple. So part of the problem when you're shooting an interracial couple in midday sun is you have to expose for two people individually and in this case my bride was Caucasian, so very light dress, very light skin. My groom was African-American, so dark skin, dark tux. So it kind of worked.

Speaker 2:

I've had previous weddings actually shot one for Orion. I photographed Bobby Brown's daughter's wedding in the hot midday sun and so she was African-American with a white dress, he was very Caucasian and Irish with a dark tux. So you have to just sometimes shake your head and go. This is going to be a day. This is going to be a day where we have to experiment.

Speaker 2:

We'll leave ourselves 10 to 15 minutes before the ceremony so we can play around with some test shots to figure out what angle to work, to figure out. Ok, I can't shoot directly behind them because there's a giant sunspot in their head, but if I turn and move, shuffle over 15 degrees, I could still get the first kiss shot without the light directly behind them, or I can shoot from the corners. That gives me a little more flexibility on getting direct angles. My approach when I shoot these weddings is to just spray and pray baby, all the photos I can take as fast as possible, get as many possible photos as I can from all the angles that I can, because I know that when I sit at my computer and I'm drinking my cherry Coke and it's 2 in the morning and I'm calling those photos, there's going to be a lot that are going in that trash. But if you do enough preparation and you're calm in the moment, you can still walk away with the client never knowing that it was chaotic and stressful for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I'll just add my thoughts on that, and I've been in that situation too.

Speaker 1:

It's midday, they're walking down the aisle, the lighting's either the sun's either right above them, so they have these raccoon eyes, or the sun is just so bright you can barely see through your camera and it's directly behind them, or, worse, it's directly in front of them and everybody just blaring light.

Speaker 1:

I've discovered in that and I'll just share this with everybody who's listening direct on-camera flash Done right, is your savior, and it is ugly. It is not the most pleasing light in the world, but at least it's not completely overexposed or you're just adding enough light to it to overpower the sun, to give yourself something that's and it doesn't work all the time. And typically what I would have done was on-camera flash directly at them, like point it straight at them, and then where I would have started would be some sort of softer lighting Like dome on top, but then you're going to need an external battery pack if you want to do it, and then on-camera flash directly at them and if none of that works, I would do exactly what you do, which is just spray and pray, find an angle that's going to work and hope for the best.

Speaker 2:

Part of the other thing that I'm not sure how many Photographers that are listening to this have tried different methods of lighting, but part of it is also Finding that right. Next, finding out, okay, this is not what I would normally do, but this situation calls for this. With me, the way that I have always, you know, kind of developed was initially bounce flash and getting that really nice, soft, you know room, you know the reception ceiling to illuminate my couples really nice. But then I realized I really have some holes in my game. So this the last year and a half I've been, you know, playing with off-camera lighting, and so it's having as many tools in your toolbox that you can rely on, because sometimes that things just aren't gonna go right and you really, as a wedding photographer, your bride and groom don't want to hear about it. They don't want to hear I couldn't shoot your ceremony because they don't care.

Speaker 2:

And the other thing that you learn I think this is also a really important thing is you are your toughest critic, your clients.

Speaker 2:

They will not or most of the time they might not notice some hairs that went in their eyes because the wind was coming.

Speaker 2:

They're looking at the emotion of the moment to them in perfect photos might be perfect for them, so for me, that's why I that's why I kind of gravity toward photo journalism is because I want to show you what it really looked like, right, I mean, anybody can do the really cool, you know Style shoots and with all the perfect lighting conditions and the beautiful backgrounds. For me, I want you to look at these photos in 20 years and be back on that beach in that moment. I want you to feel your husband's clammy, sweaty hands when he went to put the ring on him. And the only way I know how to do that is to recreate what I see to the best of my abilities in the, in the camera and in the file that I deliver to you, so that you can travel back in time in 20 years and go back to those moments. So it might not be perfect for me, but as long as it's perfect for my clients, that's perfect.

Speaker 1:

And that's, you know what it's all about right, taking care of our clients and not making it about yourself. And then, unfortunately, you know, with many wedding photographers, it takes, take some time to learn those things. And you know, I had to remind myself daily when I was going to a wedding Maybe wedding that I was excited about a venue that I had never been to before and I had an idea of what I wanted to do. And, you know, halfway through the day I realized that that wasn't going to happen and I had to remind myself. This isn't about me in my portfolio. This is about serving your clients and doing what's right for them. And you know it's sometimes can be hard, less and learned. But you know, based on your feedback that I can see in your profile, you're definitely one of those people that takes care of your clients and we here at OPG appreciate that and I definitely want to get you at some point To join us as an as a lead as well.

Speaker 2:

Honestly, jason, I think you've asked me that every time we've talked. I completely understand. I get that. It's so much fun and maybe eventually I will. You know every, every client I've worked with from Orion and George tree whether it's Lily Lyme or George tree except work with both. Every client I end up walking in there and I don't know them. I've never spoken to them, I've only spoken to the lead photographer, but almost every one of my clients from Orion have been amazing people that I would love to a photograph on my own business as well. So to me, that's why I love working with with this company and being a certain associate photographer. You know, maybe someday I will move up to the lead position, but honestly, so much fun. I really, really appreciate this company. I, you know, carry the flag whenever the discussions online comes about types, these types of companies. You know George Street is treating me right, orion's treating me right. It's been a great community to be involved in right on, right on.

Speaker 1:

We appreciate that All right. Well, that was a quick 32 minutes. I don't know how that we got through that that so quickly, but it kind of reminds me of that night that we were in that barn Providence. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna end it here and thank you again for sharing your wisdom and your knowledge and your stories with us. Thank you so much, paul.

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much. There's a pleasure, pleasure talking to you and we got. We got to hit that Providence bar again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no kidding, no kidding, and we'll talk about that after, after we end this. So, all right, that's it for this episode of success stories. If you'd like to be on an episode, everybody has a story. I'm a pretty easy person to talk to you. I'd love to hear your story. Please email me. Jgroup at Orion photo group, comm.

Speaker 1:

And, like Paul, after this conversations over today, he's gonna get a $25 B&H gift card and that should at least pay for the taxes on whatever he buys that B&H. But you know what? Who doesn't need a B&H gift card? So please hit me up. We'd love to have you on and we'll catch you on the next episode of success stories. Take care everyone. All right, that'll do it for this episode featuring OPG's best of the best. Would you like to be featured in an upcoming episode or do you have a suggestion for somebody you'd like to hear from in our community? Please email me, jgroup with two peas at Orion photo group, comm. That's jgroup at Orion photo group, comm. I look forward to hearing from you and hearing your suggestions. We hope that you enjoyed this episode and I look forward to hearing from you and your story.

Speaker 1:

That's it for now. We'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day.

People on this episode