It's the little things, like 'Thank you' that make it worth it

Yesterday was a great day for Emanon Photography.  My business day started with a meeting with one of my brides and her mom for a wedding I will be shooting in two weeks.  We went over some of the details of the wedding and I had a chance to get to know them a little better as well.  They ended up buying me lunch and will probably be booking me soon for a Morning after the wedding family portrait session.

Later I met with another one of my brides whose wedding I will be photographing in mid November to go over some details with her.  I shot a family portrait session with her a few weeks ago and she surprised me with a thank you card and a gift certificate to a local restaurant to thank me for the photos.

Working as a photographer is quickly becoming the coolest job I could have ever imagined.  I can make my clients and their family members cry tears of joy with just a few clicks of my shutter.  It blows my mind, and I am grateful for all my clients and their support of this adventure I call Emanon Photography.

Thank you, to all my Past, Present, and Future Clients!!!
-Pete

Family Portrait Session with Stephanie and Brandon

UPDATED:  Watch the full slide show here.

On Tuesday this week I had the opportunity to shoot some family portraits for a couple friends at Old Fort Park in New Smyrna Beach, FL.  I went to High School with Stephanie and Brandon back when New Smyrna Beach High School was still on the island.  I had run into Stephanie about 2 years ago where she works and I knew I remembered her from high school but could not remember what class we had together.  It took me awhile but I finally realized what class it was.  Stephanie and Brandon welcomed their son into the world just over a year ago, which makes this a great opportunity to start a tradition of family photos every year.  I was really happy with the way these photos turned out.  It is always a challenge photographing little ones, even with a few tricks up my sleeve.  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the family portrait session.  (I've also made a full photo slideshow video of this shoot which I will add to this post tomorrow after I show it to Stephanie and Brandon).

I am looking forward to photographing Stephanie and Brandon's wedding in a couple months.  So Stay tuned, more great shots are still to come.  

-Pete

New Smyrna Beach Engagement Photography: Ashlynd and Morgan

UPDATED POST:  Watch the full Slideshow.

On Saturday I met with a really fun couple and their dog to shoot their engagement photos.  The photo session was scheduled to make the most of the time just before sunset, the "golden hour"as photographers call it.  The photo session was shot at Smyrna Dunes park on the North end of New Smyrna Beach, FL.  The photo session started with a walk along the boardwalk where I had a chance to get to know Ashlynd and Morgan as we walked and talked and I shot photos.  We made our way to the South jetty of Ponce Inlet on the beach which is where their wedding ceremony will be.  These shots are just a sample of the whole shoot but they are some of my favorite ones.

Their dog Timber was a great addition to the photo session.  He was really well trained and seemed to pose on command when needed.  He will also be the Ring-barer for the upcoming wedding. 

We had some great light right before sunset.  We even ran into another photographer along the boardwalk who seemed to be shooting some senior portraits.

This is one of the shots where Timber seemed to pose right on command.  

On of the shots I really like was this one which I just got just after I put my 50mm lens on my camera.  I really like the way this lens can really blur the background out completely so you focus only on the subject of the photo.  

This photo session was a lot of fun.  Congratulations to Ashlynd and Morgan!

Thanks for letting me capture your love for each other.  

-Pete: Emanon Photography

Just Another Day at the Beach

Family Portrait Shoot on the Beach 1
Originally uploaded by Emanon Photography

It's been awhile since I last had a blog post sometimes things just get a little hectic around here. I had actually started a blog post a couple weeks ago just after my post reviewing the iPad but I could not get the pictures to work as I was trying to write the blog and post the pictures from my iPad. Posting shots to flickr then using the blog it feature there seems to work a bit better for me, then I can type up the blog posts like this one on my iPad while my computer does other things like it is right now (uploading the hi-res retouched version of Mondays shoot to my sales gallery site.).

So on the this picture. Monday's shoot was great the family I was shooting was in town visiting New Smyrna Beach on vacation. I met them at North Beach Community Park which is one of my favorite locations to shoot at the beach because it is pretty centralized in NSB, it's not nearly as crowded as some of the other beach parks and it offers natural sand dunes as a background. I took a lot of shots in several locations as the sun was just starting to drop below some clouds to the west. This is one of my favorite shots from this shoot. I got lucky with the clouds in the fact that they were there. The last shoot I did here there were almost no clouds an the background was a haze/sea mist filled sky. I like this pic, but felt the clouds real made some thing of it, and I thought it would make for a good bw conversion so i just started playing around with some of the b/w presets in aperture3 until I found a really contrasty effect which almost silhouettes the family. I have another version of this which was taken in the vertical position you can see that one my clicking on the photo and going to my flickr photo stream.

An iPad Review: The 5 things that the iPad is missing... and no I don't care that there is no Camera!

I've had the iPad for almost a month now, and I've had enough time to play with it.  Over all I would say it's great.  I've generally really pleased with the purchase decision, however, there are some shortcomings.  There are a few things that I think the iPad should have come with, and a few that I hope are fixed soon with a software update.  Let me start off by saying that the main reason I went ahead and got the iPad was because I was amazed when I saw how the iPad displays photos.  As a photographer, it's critical that I am able to use the best method possible to display my photos to potential clients.  The iPad simply outshines any other method to portably display photos.  Since I got the iPad I have also been looking to find as many other uses of the iPad for my business I have come across some good ideas which I will be implementing, and I will share some of those here too.   As great as the iPad is and as impressed as I have been let me get into the dirt here.
First off, this is not a rant about what the iPad doesn't have, that everyone seemed to want to criticize as soon as the iPad was released.  I know the iPad is not going to replace a laptop or desktop.  I also don't care that the iPad doesn't have a built in camera.  That's not why I got it, and I'm fine with that.

The first thing that the iPad is missing
-A micro fiber cleaning cloth.

Even my ipod touch came with a cleaning cloth to keep the screen clean and to wipe off finger prints.  I was kind of shocked when I opened the box and took out my ipad and there was no cleaning cloth.  for $499 for the 16GB iPad WiFi apple could have and should have thrown in a 2 cent cleaning cloth.  For anyone else who has bought an iPad, the first thing you should get after you get the iPad is a cleaning cloth.  I've been using some extra micro fiber lens cleaning cloths that I have, you can get them really cheap from most eyeglass stores, and they work great.

The second thing that is missing:
-The protective case that Apple sells for an additional $39.

While Steve jobs showed off the iPad at the press conference and said it could be held any way and the screen automatically adjusts, it was pretty cool.  Its not until you are holding your own $500+ after taxes and shipping piece of magic iPad that you realize how smooth and slippery it feels while you are holding it.  The first iPad i saw and got to hold, had the Apple case and it make so much of a difference.  I would say that you could go out and get other cases from some of the companies that specialize in accessories for iPods like Griffin technologies of any of the numerous others, but the simple answer is that none of them have released a case that can compare with the design of the Apple case.  The ones that seem to come closes in design are much more expensive then the apple case.  The only problem that you have when you order the Apple iPad Case is that the wait time is longer for the case then for an actual iPad.

The third thing that is missing:
-A web browser that doesn't crash

I have been using my iPad a lot, I've been really having fun with it, but I still can't figure out why is causing the safari browser that comes with the iPad to crash and shut down at what seems like completely random times.  After it crashes, I will restart it and it will open the same web page and seem to work fine  it is really random and to the point where it is a bit annoying.  Secondary to the browser constantly crashing, I have 2 more complaints about the browser.  The first is that the button that opens the new windows is located directly next to the bookmarks button and I have several times been meaning to open the bookmarks menu when all of a sudden it has opened a new window.  Also, as you are browsing the web, it seems like every link you click on the browser wants to open a new window.  I know that there is the same effect in desktop web browsers, but it seems like new windows open a lot more easily and frequently on the iPad, there is also no indicator on the window you are currently viewing as to how many other open web browser windows there are.  I have also been finding it annoyingly that some web pages are automatically loaded as the mobile friendly version of the page, there are some of these mobil pages that don't have links to get back to the normal web page.  I think I should have some control over a setting as to how the browser is recognized by websites so I don't have to get the mobil friendly site.

The fourth thing that is missing:
-Flash... There I said it Adobe's Flash Player

When Steve jobs showed of the iPad at the Press event he said something to the effect that the iPad made for one of the best web viewing experiences ever.  Well, we all knew there was not going to be support for Adobe's flash player, and I think most people have been able to come to terms with that.  The problem is that until you are viewing the web on an iPad, you do not realize how much of the web has Flash supported content.  It seems like on most web pages that I brows through there are markers telling me to download the latest version of Flash player... The problem however it when you click on that link you get the short message from Adobe that Apple will not support the software at this time.  This would not be a problem if HTML5 was here today and in use and taking over the content that is currently out there as Flash content, but it's not, and it's really anoying.  Jobs and Apple and Adobe need to loose the egos and make it work.  Just make it work!

And the fifth thing that is missing:
-Built in support to be able to use the iPad as a second monitor when connected to a computer.  This is a software issue that Apple should have just done.  Having the iPad connected to my 13in. Macbook almost doubles the display space and in using the iPad as a Second display, I can make use of secondary display features for some of the programs that I use like Aperture.  Now you might be asking how I know that this is a simple software issue, be cause there is an APP out there that lets you wirelessly do exactly this.  It is called AirDisplay and it does work great.  But it const $9.99 in the APP store and I feel that there should just be a built in option when you have the iPad connected via the USB cord to your computer.

There are a few other things that I have come to feel should also have been included in the iPad, and while I might feel they should have been included, I do not feel that they are missing and detracting from the iPad experience as the 5 above.  Including a SD/Macro SD/or micro SD card slot would have been useful.  I don't think the price difference between the different iPads based on Memory 16/32/64GB models is really justified.  I think having one model and an available SD slot would have been all that was needed.  Also, It would be nice for there to be a free word processing app, while typing can be done with the included notepad app, it's not really a productivity tool, I think the iPad can be good for taking notes in meetings and such, and there are some APPS that make use of the built in Mic and will make an audio recording as notes are typed, but I feel that Apple should have given this to us.