I love Starbucks and but suddenly not as much as I used to.

Everyone knows I love my Starbucks coffee. In fact I loved it so much that I am now on a Starbucks reduced diet.

I have reduced my 10$ a day habit down to 4$ a week. It was just getting too much. Not just the money. But each day I would stop at the local Starbucks, flirt with the baristas and waste about 10-15 minutes 2 times a day.

According to my calculations

10$ a day 7 days a week = 70$ a week

$3650 a year -

109500$ after 30 years.

If I was able to invest the 10$ a day for 34 years and get an average of 10% return I would save.

Get this !!!!

Results

Total saved: $1,003,286
Starting with $0 and depositing $3,650 annually over 34 years and 1 months (at a rate of return 10% compounded monthly), you will save $1,003,286.
Initial balance:	$0
Total deposits:	$124,100
Total interest earned:	$879,186
Total taxes paid:	$0

Now lets calculate how much my time is worth.

If I was making 20$ an hour (I'm definately not)


30 mins at 20$ an hour = $10 an hour a day in lost wages.

How much was my 2 coffees a day costing me in time?

Same as above -$1,003,286

sort of.

That is assuming I make 10$ an hour
That is assuimg that I do not become a better business person and increase my ability to make money
That is assuming that my net worth increases at the same interval as the 10% return as above.


Thanks to David Bach - for the inspiration to change.

Couples Pages

OK OK guys.

I really am going to make some improvements to the 2005-2007 couples area ---Tonight.

The problem was how can we do this without a major rebuild but yet make the process of uploading video and photo simple.

In the end. We had to completly upgrade our GEEKIMS to our latest version. Funny how we do this for other companies very quickly but for us it takes forever.

I'm planing on shooting in the studio this month --- and even willing to give it away!!

More info tomorrow.

Another early morning - thanks Isaac

I spend a lot of time talking. Yea yea no laughing. But it seems the business of photography is also the business of managing.

Take the wedding day. I only just realized why I spend so much time talking to Brides and Grooms about their wedding day schedule. It's to make my life easier. And theirs of course.

When I compare weddings in which everyone is one time to that where they are not the differences are incredible.

The late weddings are more stressful for everyone. People, including guests are less happy. The bridal party, tip toes, around the bride. The bride for the most part is so focused on problems that she snaps at people. The groom usually become quiet and tries to take control only to get more and more frustrated. -- Guys this is for real!!! It a wedding day. A very special time in ones life. Yet you can see what happens.

The time robbers!!!

1. Hairdressers running behind -- the fix is to lie. Tell them you need to be finished at least 30 minutes before the photographer arrives. If he/she is arriving at 10:00am you should not be jumping out of the limo running into the house at 9:55.

2. Bridal Party - the fix is to lie. Again. Same as above, tell them an earlier time, and threaten them with death. Ok maybe not death just something that hurts.

3. Limo company - let them know you are a time freak. Have them write it down. The driver will not endanger his tip showing up late and will usually show up a little early. This way we can use the limo when bride walks out of the house!

4. Guests who arrive late for church. Guys. Unless its the priest or your mother you do not wait. If they cannot respect you enought to show up on time for your wedding day - I release you from having to respect them to wait.

5. Family portraits after church or first thing at the park. --- You see of all the images we take, the family photographs will end up being (by a huge margin) the MOST IMPORTANT to you. Maybe not in the first year, but lets say 28 years later. When you do look at your wedding photos, the family images will be the ones you spend the time reviewing, remembering and crying over.

So if it is possible shoot your family images when everyone looks their best. Right after the church. At the Church if possible, or bring them to the park and we will shoot your family portraits first. Then they can leave.

6. Start the Receiving Line late. --- For real!! I have written extensively about this – just read the article --> http://www.excellencephoto.com/site/index.php?id=8,16,0,0,1,0

7. Get a good DJ. --- The difference between a DJ that is experienced and one that is new is that the experience DJ keeps the night rolling along. Events are planned and a schedule is followed. I can’t tell you how many times the clock hits 12 midnight and the parent dances have not started, half the guests have left and the Bride and Groom are no where to be found.

The planning for your day should not just be about who is doing what job. It should include delegating key people (Maid of Honour and Best Man) to ensure that your dream day goes off without a hitch. Spend your day having fun!!!

I hate when that happens

Have you ever spent time on something only to have it erased in seconds. It happened to me this morning.

Isaac woke up at 5:30. So after getting him milk, blankie, a banana ever a pillow I turned on his cartoon and got to work on www.torontohomemovies.com . All was going great. The next section just flowed out of me. After about 30 minutes I decided to save.

Know all our sites are built on a database platform designed in house by Alex Kink. Our brainiac programmer. Actually we have a team of 4 guys that build sites for a number of huge companies like yogen fruz, digital defence, btvplus etc.

So after 30 minutes the system automatically resets to avoid being left open on a desktop with no one around. I lost all my work.


The lesson I learned in high school computer class is haunting me right now

save
save
save
save

Ahhh Love. But its Art too.

We have been shootng weddings, portraits and families for nearly 10 years. From time to time we get asked to explain what makes our images so much better than - let's say a less experienced photographer.

Well it's like this. We create/capture ART.

Take the photo I have here. To your left. The fact is upon first glance it is a pretty basic straight forward shot. Boy kisses girl (yippee!!)

But if we analyze it further we see a number of subtle effect.

1. We have changed the image from colour to sepia. This reduces the conflict of the red car competing with our subjects Mike and Laura
2. The back of the seats and the sun visors create a square pattern framing the subjects
3. The soft focus further enhances the framing effect pulling you into the image. The goal is to draw you immediately to the kiss.
4. We have tilted the mirror to reflect the lips.
5. the dept of field is also reduced to make the sharpest point of the image to be the kiss.

WOW that's a lot of stuff for a simple kiss. But then remember these images are for life. Don't you think we should take this as seriously as?

Marc Chagall -- Salvador Dali -- Leonardo Da Vinci Paul Klee -- Henri Matisse -- Claude Monet Pablo Picasso -- Pierre Auguste Renoir -- Henri Rousseau Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -- Vincent Van Gogh -- Andy Warhol

Dont you hate going to the dentist?

Well for me it's not the dentist I hate, but the accountant. As a mostly creative person I get that wierd feeling in my stomach every time I know it is time to visit.

Because of the different businesses we are not only doing taxes for Excellence but 3 other busiess and personally.

I found myself at the back window over looking the construction dreaming about Boca Raton. For those of you who have not read my previous blogs. I live on the top of a hill. My kitchen sliding door is on the second floor with a french balcony. From my table in the kitchen I can see huge construction site where they are build aproximately 400-500 homes. At this stage they have only started the drainage. As I write this the whole house is shaking.

THe good with the bad. The good part is that when I get up with the sun (and the kids) I can sit and watch the progress. The bad part is these guys start at 6:30am 6 days a week. I have come to hate the sound of tractors backing up. The beep beep beeping sound is slowly driving me nuts.

Up to 5 miles on the treadmill. wow I am really behind compared to last year. I have less than 3 weeks until I run my 2nd 10km run in 20 years. yikes

Lots of work done on the couples' pages. Still have problems with the catagory list and I have to figure out a way to add the flash viewer for video. Alex thinks its easy but I can;t take him off Yogen fruz, NABF and Beats2Lease.com we are too behind.

Its shooting time again - what a sunny day!

Hey everyone. Just had a an amazing time shooting in G.Ross Lord park today. Very few people. The sun was beating down on us. Must have been 20 degrees.

Almost felt like florida (ok not really) but it sure beats sitting in the office!!

I'm going to make an effort of uploading at least one image everyday for my blog faithfull.

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Finally going to get the new couple pages started

It been absolutely insane. Sunny one day, raining the next. I've been out shooting over 10 couples this week in the park. On the days that were beautiful - we got some amazing photographs.

Alex is completely overwhelmed. Between NABF and Beats2lease.com (2 websites we have been building for nearly 2 months) I'm not sure who is spending more time online. To make it even more exciting we just got the final 4 sites for Yogen Fruz.

All this on top of TorontoHomeMovies.com, ObjectiveEye.com and DGVideo.ca. Thank god for Vitaly, yuri and Andrea.

So if you are having your engagement photographs taken in the next few weeks be patient, unfortunately we cannot control the wheather.

So now that I have about 10 couples from 2006 I really need to get these pages done. Plus I plan to get video to work on each page.

Wow what I nice day in the park

Spent the day shooting Engagement Portraits in the park. Absolutely amazing day. Thanks to all that came.

For all you other customers that have not had their photos taken yet. Please visit the customer care link on the website. There you will find links to a) Dress code and b) directions to G. Ross Lord park.

Guys. I am usually very booked with 3 or 4 couples in a day and would very much apprecitate if you get there on time. Marianna always leave about 15 minutes between appointments so if you are more than 15 minutes late I have rush.

Very important that you read the directions we have set up on the customer care page.

here is the link------> http://www.excellencephoto.com/site/index.php?id=27,0,0,1,0,0

I will put some images up tonight when I get to the studio.