Now this is sammy at 4 and half (future photographer?)

There was some confusion regarding Sammy's age because of the post below. A few people assumed based on the pic below of Sammy's invite that he is only a year and a half old.

Actually Sammy is 4 and a half and Isaac is 20 months old. I'll try not to fill this blog with their images but it will hard.

In the meantime we set up the booth for Canada's Bridal Show this afternoon and will be setting up for the National Bridal show tonight or tomorrow.

If anyone needs tickets or wants the 2 for 1 deal visit the links below.

http://www.canadasbridalshow.com/
http://www.nationalbridalshow.com/

Introducing Sammy!!!

This is my son Sammy at 9 ot 10 months old. We actually used this image as the photo for his 1 year birthday invitation cards.

Our family has a tradition of having a huge 1st birthday. Sammy's was held at Bellagio banquet hall. And it was large enough that we sent invitations and reply cards.

If you click on the photo you will see some digital editing on the pee pee area. No I didnt make it bigger!!
I took one of the spiders comics from the wall and added over the "area"

HEHHEHEHEHEHHEHEHHEHEHHEHEHHEHEHEHHE

What are those links?

A few people have emailed me asking for information on the links that appear on the left side of the page below the recent post section. The heading is called Jean's Links.

All of those websites are companies in which I am a major parnter or owe outright.

DesignerGeek is Toronto's formost web design company that specializes in create web portals for meduim and large corporations throughout North America. Our signature product is the GeekIMS.

GeekIMS Information Management System

Developed over 3 years, GeekIMS is a highly developed, stable Information Management System. GeekIMS enables you to update your web site as often as you like. Our revolutionary system is search engine-friendly and very easy-to-use. Add, modify or delete web pages to your web site as and when you choose. All updates and amendments are immediately seen by your website visitors . GeekIMS allows a structured editing process and separates the underlying code from the content preventing errors occurring due to the code being mistakenly altered. It also facilitates sites that are quick to load, accessible and will run on any browser.


I will try to update you on the rest of the group over the next few days.

Major changes to the Excellence Photo site!!!!

Spent the night - yeah all night, working on the Excellence Photography website. Most of you won't remember the old Excellence site that for nearly 3 years had the top 3 spots on Google.

Unfortunately since 2002 I have been a little preocupied with DesignerGeek.com, ObjectiveEye.com and TorontoHomeMovies.com.

Well this weekend Marianna visited the Excellence site and well was not impressed.

sooooooooo

I got right to work. In fact I had planned a major overhaul since September. Remember, if you see any spelling mistake or grammatical error please let me know. Give me a few days to get the site finished first.
One of my goals os to go back to an interactive communication between my couples and the viewers of the site. I figure that the more people see our work the more likely they are to be impressed.

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You ever notice how when you have a lot to do, more stuff usually piles right on. So to make sure that all my employees are busy I am going to request that all 2006 couples start getting their baby and couple photographs together.

For couples that have ordered a video presentation, I will ask that you contact me for detailed instructions. For all other couples.

- choose 5 baby photos for each of you and 5 couple photos. Number them BP 1 to BP 10 and the couple photos number them CP 1-5
- if you have a specific song thatyou would like us to use let us know BEFORE.
- if we are scanning the photos drop them in our mail slot anytime with a note identifying you!! Please the song
- if you are planning to email us, let me know by email - I am setting up a special section in the new site that will make this a very easy process. YOu will be able to upload right from your browser.

The idea is that we complete as many of the Baby/couple photo montages during the winter as possible. If we have shot your engagement walk we will try to get that done as well.

Engagement Portraits

The most overlooked part of Wedding Photography today is the Art of The Engagement Portrait

Many couples believe that the only reason to have an Engagement portrait taken is so that they have something to show at the wedding. Other understand that an Engagement collage created by Excellence Photography and designed by Marianna Kogan is an exquisite uniqueness that few if any photographer in the world can match.

But it is only the first encounter and an important step that must occur at least 9 months before your wedding, if time permits. We believe that having your engagement photo taken is like your 1st date. We get to know you both as people and as subjects. Would you let your doctor perform surgury without a pre-examination?

Just as Renoir and Monet spent hours learning about their subject, so too must we spend time with you to learn, listen and create. The only way in which to be extra ordinary is to learn.

Please click here to learn more about Engagment Portraits and see some incredible samples!!

TURN UP YOUR SOUND!!!

Click Here to see more Samples

At the first kiss I felt something melt inside me that hurt in an exquisite way. All my longings, all my dreams and sweet anguish, All the secrets that slept deep within me came awake, Everything was transformed and enchanted, everything made sense.

- Herman Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund

So I am going through the 2 old sites and finding a ton of great pages that most couples have probably not even seen since 2002. Below is a great one on Engagement Portraits. I will try to upload the original photos that went with the page if possible. In the case where I cannot I will put a newer one that looks similar.

Also, in most caes I have updated the links and text

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Engagement Portraits




O.k. so you went to a wedding and you saw a beautiful photograph in a frame and everyone was signing the matt. Pretty cool. We began this aroung 8 years ago as a way in which to bring attention to our photography and add that little extra to your engagement presentation. But, why do you think Excellence Photography does Engagement portraits? To make the Wedding Photography better!!



The Engagement photo session is a "get to know you" period. We shoot your Engagement portraits for 3 reasons.

1. To Get to know you better. We not only learn your likes and dislikes- we learn about YOU. Are 4 foot tall and him 6"8. How can we overcome this?

2. So you can get to know us better. We will shoot a number of different types of photographs. Candid (photojournalistic), poses, romantic, sexy (don't tell mom). Once you are back at the studio you will meet with Marianna and she will help you design a collage of images that will suit you like.

3. I know you are all models, but we need to teach you how to work with us.We need this time to teach you how to stand, how pose, how to look and be comfortable in front of the camera. This is the time in which you get to know your photographer. So that on the wedding day he/she is not having to explain what they need and you can concentrate on having an amazing time.

Would you image that 50% of the couples today have someone other than the wedding photographer shoot their engagement portraits. Terrible.

It also helps if each couple take a few minutes and read about make up and how to dress correctly for your Engagement Portrait session - Dress Code

Note: All Engagement Portrait sessions are shot at either G.Ross Lord park in North York or South Beach park in Boca Raton.


"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall and a perserving sweet."

Shakespeare

Spent the day at the Museum. They have added a number of new galleries. I especially love the one on Japan. Marianna and I have a special affinite with Japan having visited there just before Sammy was born - about 9 months before. (:

While walking around these artifacts I realized that what we do, capturing the memories and images of couples will someday be cherished as much as these pieces of art.


When we tell people that our images are covered by the Kodak Promise of Excellence, I sometimes think that they do not put enough value into what I just said.

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Wedding Photos You'll Cherish for a Lifetime.

That's the Kodak Promise of Excellence.
Your wedding photographs are timeless reminders of the most important day of your life. In the United States and Canada, make sure they're wonderful by hiring a Kodak Promise of Excellence member photographer. POE members use only the finest Kodak Professional Film and Paper. And, your prints are guaranteed for a lifetime by Kodak. If anything happens to your photographs Kodak guarantees to pay for reprint charges through a Promise of Excellence member professional lab!*
Look for the Kodak logo next to your photographer to be certain he/she is a POE member.

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That's right your prints are guaranteed for a lifetime by Kodak!!

So for those people who are reading this blog for the first time and have not met Marianna, Natasha or myself your need to know that we are absolutely fanatical about quality. We know that a) these images that we produce for you represent our vision b) 90% of our business is referals so if we are not proud of the final product then our successful business will quickly become less so c) being the best in ones field is work. We understand this and work hard to ensure that no one of our portraits will ever have to be reprinted. That 300 years from now when they open a new section at the ROM, one of our images will be there, and they look as great as the day you picked it up.

My new favorite photo

One of the greatest advantages of digital photography is that it allow me the photographer to complete my vision.

When I took this photograph I had this exact image in mind before I took the shot.

Of course my camera shoots color and for me to make the outside blurry edges I needed to finish my image in Photoshop CS2.

Couple: Antonella and Stephen
Park: Richmond Gardens 

Bridal Show this weekend and I'm pumped

Wow the new year has just begun and I am already pumped for the bridal show.
See the blog from a few days ago for links to the 2 shows.

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The truth is that although we have always been very good at getting referals and marketing per se. I know that I have not put the effort I could to make the booths blow people out of the water. It seemed like a waste of time ( last year we had to turn 56 couples away because we only handled 2 wedding each saturday)

This year we are extending that to 3 weddings for certain weekends as Marianna's Mom Natasha will be shooting with us this year.

So the first thing I have done to improve our presentation is take some of the 20,000 photograph that we have shot in the past year and perpare a slideshow. This will only be shown in the studio for now. But eventually I will add it to the site.

I showed the new presentation to a few of the guys a the studio and they were absolutely blown away. One of the problem with film is that once we no longer have the proofs or the negatives (all our couples usually end up with them) we cannot get convenient access to the images.

With digital photography we archieve the images on DVD, in our File Server and on the main photo

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The next time you visit the Excellence Photography site you will notice that I have added a few new catagories.

The first - Jean's Blog - Of course if you are reading this you found my blog.

The second - Digital Art - Coming Soon
Any day now you will be able to view our brand new digital art gallery. Here we will feature Digital and Film wedding photographs that have had additional enhancements.

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Happy New Year!!!!!!

To all have a wonderful year and good tidings

- what does tidings mean? did I even spell that right.

Don't you hate saying you've heard a thousand times, then you try to use it yourself and realize you have no idea what the hell your saying.

maybe it has to do with Tide laundry detergent - you know have a good year and clean cloths.

whatever.