Staying focused on their trade

Husband-and-Wife Wedding Photo Team Has Seen Everything

OCEANSIDE - After more than 38 years of snapping photos, Ray Metcalf has seen it all, especially when it comes to taking wedding pictures, his specialty -- he's shot nearly 4,000 of them.

Ray and his wife, Marijane, work as a team during weddings and special occasions.

In between shots, she's hemmed up dresses, sewn on buttons, shortened sleeves and altered pants for members of wedding party. Ray has done everything from giving the bride away to performing the ceremony.

He learned long ago that Murphy's law is alive and well during any wedding, so he became a licensed minister - he never goes on a job without his Bible. Marijane always has her sewing kit handy and a supply of bobby pins.

"I've been at wedding where the minister has forgotten to show up, the father of the bride was so drunk he couldn't stand, and the bride was so nervous she fainted," Ray recalled.

"For one of the brides who fainted, I revived her by sprinkling holy water over her face."

Ray said he's filled in by giving the bride away more than once.

"One time it was because Dad's plane was late; another time it was because the father of the bride got to thinking about who his daughter was marrying and before he could walk her down the aisle, he stomped out."

There's not much that can go wrong that the Metcalfs aren't prepared for.

"Taking pictures isn't the problem," Marijane explained. "It's getting the couple, the attendants and the family through the day - that's the biggest problem on any wedding day."

And the Metcalfs have encountered just about every combination of brides and grooms one could think of - some of them multiple times.

"Iv'e shot three weddings for one local businessman over the past 20 years - of course, he married different women each time," Metcalf chuckled.

"I've shot the wedding of a mother and her two daughters who married three brothers. I've shot two different weddings where a stepsister and stepbrother have married each other."

Over the years, Metcalf Photography has become a household name throughtout North County. Ray Metcalf owned and operated one of the largest independent photography studio operations in the West during the 1960's and '70s, with seven outlets in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Fallbrook, Escondido, and Encinitas. He sold the last of his studios, in Plaza Camino Real, in 1982.

And he does more than just weddings. He's done hundreds of family portraits, and the portraits of most of the Oceanside mayors over the past two decades, turning them into oil paintings by using a special technique.

"I've found that working out of the home is far better for me and my clients," said Ray Metcalf. "My overhead is considerably less, so I pass the savings on to the client."

A former Navy photographer who learned his craft swinging an old Speed Graphic box camera, Metcalf has kept his business on the cutting edge of technology. Today, Metcalf Photography is the only studio in North County offering state-of-the-art electronic imaging.

The Metcalfs have invested more than $16,000 in high-tech photo imaging equipment, which allows them to transfer negative film into a computer and show it on a video sreen. All 300 to 400 exposures normally shot during a wedding can now be captured on video and viewed on the home television set.

"In the past, the couple and the family maybe would choose 10 to 20 shots to have prints made, because having all of the shots printed was very expensive," Ray explained. "Now we can not only put all of the images on the video screen to show the couple and the family in helping them select the photos they want prints of, we can give them a videotape with everything on it to keep for years to come."

Marijane said many families are finding their video-imaging service handy, especially when sending photos to relatives living out of state.

"It can cost a lot of money having extra prints made or sending an entire photo album to a relative just to look at, then have them return it," she said. "We can just make extra copies of the video so the couple can send the entire wedding collection to whomever at a low cost."

Depending upon the job and photo print order, the video presentation can cost anywhere from nothing to $30 per copy.

"It's nothing for a family to spend $1,000 with us, so in those cases, we usually include the video as a courtesy, but on smaller jobs we'll charge $25 to $30," said Marijane, who does all of the computer scanning work using the Album Arranger software system on a standard personal computer.

The Metcalfs charge a retainer fee to shoot a wedding; photo prints are additional.

"Depending upon the size of the wedding, our retaining fee can run anywhere from $100 to $500, but no more," said Ray. "Our fee is scaled to the size of the event."

Marijane said she designs the video presentation, complete with music, so that the invitations and other accompaniments are included. "I can do it on my own, or the bride can sit beside me and make the selections herself if she wants to take the time," she said. "It takes about two hours to set up video with a couple of hundred photos."

NOTE: The prices mentioned in the above article is what we were charging in 1994. Today, we are getting away from videotape, and moving towards DVDs. Currently our retainer fee can run anywhre from $100 to $650, depending on the size of the job.

The bottom line
Business: Metcalf Photography
Address: Home - based
City: Oceanside
Phone: (760) 722-0678