Yes we have moved the Toronto office!!!

The new address for Excellence Photo, TorontoHomeMovies.com, DGVideo and ObjectiveEye Video is:

3893 CHESSWOOD DR
TORONTO ON M3J 2R8




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From Downtown: Take DVP north to 401 west. 401 west to Allen rd North. Past Sheppard until you see the Mcdonald's on your left. The next street turn left (west) onto Steeprock and go to the end. We are on the North East corner, the north building 3rd unit in we are unit 3893.

From Mississauga: 401 east to Allen rd North. Past Sheppard until you see the Mcdonald's on your left. Turn left (west) onto Steeprock and go to the end. We are on the North East corner, the north building 3rd unit in we are unit 3893.

From Woodbridge: Hwy 7 to Dufferin go south on Dufferin past Finch. At the top of the hill turn right onto Steeprock and go to the end. We are on the North East corner, the north building 3rd unit in we are unit 3893.

Jamba Juice is the best - Panera Bread too

I love Jamba Juice and Panera Bread.

Today I woke up and went for breakfast at Panera. Had an amazing quiche (yea real men do eat quiche). After meeting with a few new customers at the Boca Raton Excellence studio I picked up a nice Strawberry Nirvana from Jamba Jucie. You know it pure juice no extra junk and only 200 calories.

As you know I am a huge Starbucks fan. As a person who follows the ideas of perfectionism its very important for me to surround myself with quality. Compare the following


Starbucks - Dunkin Donuts/CoffeeTime

Jaguar - Kia

Sony - No name TigerDirect special

Whole Foods - Food Basics/Publics

Of course, you could say its just the price that marks the difference. Thats true. But its also the standards. I would rather do without than to deal with mediocrity. Yes a coffee is a coffee but when you only accept the best then your life changes. You begin to compare and contrast all facets of your life. I give Marianna credit for making me this way. I remember when we purchased our first house. I would have been satisfied with a fixer upper. She refused with no chance at a rebuttal. As far as she was concerned our first home had to have a number of minimums. It had to be in a very good neighborhood. Had to have a nice kitchen, 3 bedrooms, a den for business, a large living room, and basement we could rent out.

In fact because of her we not only bought a way nicer house than I expected, $100,000 more than I thought we could afford, but because of the renters we were able to pay down the mortgage way faster, because it was in a good area we were able to sell it at a huge profit and we were able to run our new business out of the front den for 3 years.

You could say her uncompromising standards set the tone for our Excellence - (nice pun huh!@@)

very cool video - slow motion video

March break!!

It wasn't until I became a parent that I began to dread March break. Don't get me wrong, hanging out with the kids for 8 hours a day is great, but boy am I tired!!! I've taking a few days off to recharge my batteries. I'm living in Boca Raton in the winter and Toronto in the summer. So today I spent the day at the beach. Yep I burned my neck (does that make me a red neck??)

Anyhow, I am slowly getting back into the grove and will update the blog with some more photos etc.

There are a few 2007 customers who have yet to place their orders. PLEASE contact us asap. We must complete your order by April or risk being grouped with our competition who takes 6 months instead of the 6 weeks we usually finish in.

You know who you are.

FloridaHomeMovies.com is trucking along. Our 8mm to DVD, Super 8 to DVD and 16mm to DVD film conversion department is now 3 times as busy as last year at this time. Soon we will be hiring@@.

If you are getting married in South Florida from October to April and still have not booked you wedding photography, wedding videography services then visit http://www.boca.excellencephoto.com/

We are booking a LIMITED number of weddings this 2008-2009 season and will only be handling 1 wedding each saturday and 1 wedding each sunday. Remember, we only book wedding where we shoot both the photography and video.

For Toronto area customers, most of the spots for May and June 2009 are booked. We only handle 2 weddings on Saturday and 1 on Sunday so contact Marianna to see if we are still available. So far we have turned away 9 weddings for 2009.

Google Reader Tip

Here's a tip.

If you use iGoogle and set up personal gadgets. Try adding the google reader gadget. Then in your reader itself set up all your feeds as folders. The most popular set up as the only items in a folder so that you can quickly view right from your iGoogle home page from within the gadget!! Cool huh.

For those of you who have no idea what the hell I just wrote about:

The new address for Excellence Photo, TorontoHomeMovies.com, DGVideo and ObjectiveEye Video is:

3893 CHESSWOOD DR
TORONTO ON M3J 2R8

You can see it on the map we are right on the corner of Steeprock and Chesswood. You should notice the parking lot. If you click off the bubble. Look for the red car. We are in the north building 3rd air conditioner unit.



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Phone Problems

Well it looks like we had some major telephone problems when we were in Florida. As most people know if you need to reach Marianna you can call her anytime (usually 9-7) and she will pick up at either:

905-326-9622 or 561-674-6515

And of course I detest the telephone so if you need to reach me email me - read this article to understand my motivation -

http://excellencephoto.blogspot.com/2006/05/why-i-dont-use-phone.html

I understand that people need to reach me, but if they want to reach me faster - email.

Here is a list of other numbers that can be used to contact our team.

Excellence Photography (Marianna) 905-326-9622
THM Studio Direct - 416-630-0090
FHM Studio Direct - 561 347 1101
FHM/ Excellence Cell (Marianna) 561 674 6515
FHM Toronto Desk - 561 807 7092
Toll Free - Toronto Desk - 888 705-6380

If you ever get the situation where you call and our mailbox is full, or there is a weird message that says Sammy and Isaac can't come to the phone then please email me!!! I'm probably in the middle of the ocean but I will still get your emails and get one of the team to empty and email me the messages.

Why does today feel like a Monday?

Can't sleep

Each day it seems that I get closer and closer to my goals. We work hard to improve ourselves each day. But in the end why?

For the past few weeks I've come back to an idea I had many years ago. I was trying to look cool drinking wine with a friend, and his boyfriend actually. They were doing their best to explain the intricacies of the sommelier. You see, up that point I hated wine. I though it tasted like grape juice that went bad. But, as Will and whatshisname explained the process of how much work goes into making the wine, how grapes are harvested on just the perfect day, picked in a certain way, and aged for just the right amount of time I began to understand the fascination with creating something perfect.

Strangely enough, I began to see parallels with my music. Striving to be a better musician, then teacher. The sad part was that I had basically gave up teaching and playing only a few years before. Maybe, if I had my revelation earlier I would have still been playing.

But, fate or whatever you what to call it lead me to Marianna, and to photography. And to this day I still aim for that perfection. Every time.

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The memories are pouring in.

Today is Family Day in Canada and Presidents Day in Florida.

So I spent my day partly with the kids and mostly working on the Excellence Photography website. In fact, once I got started I couldn't stop. I'm updating out of date information and as I go though the pages I keep running into amazing couples!!! People I havent seen in years. Like Stephanie and Vaso. In the old days I used to have to scan every single image from the proof. Then resize and format each photo just to put it on the web. Because the photos had a protected coating you can see the bumps in the scan. Today we can put 150 photos online with audio in 11 minutes. 7 years ago it took 2 hours to do 20. ahhhh progress.

My back is sore!!

Wow those 2 weeks flew by!!

I've been sooo busy that I havent had a second to write. But I'm back in Toronto and hopefully things can go back to normal.

First off - Boca update.

To all the couples who called and visited and booked at the new studio I would like to say thanks. We are planning a move to a larger studio in August but I'm going to miss our first home!

We attended 2 bridal show in the past few weeks one in Miami and one in West Palm Beach. The first thing I gotta say is our Toronto couples are sooooooo spoiled!! In South Florida there are very few Banquet Halls and the cost per plate is nearly double.

There are 13 bridal shows vs 5 in Toronto and the show in Florida are only a few hours in lenght rather than the 3 day festivals we have in Toronto. Of course, the photo locations in Coral Gables, Miami Beach and Boca Raton are really nice. I'll be shooting Engagement Sessions in 2 weeks in Florida and will put some up on the blog.


I saw the coolest thing ever!!! M and Ms that you can get with your message on them
click here

Personalized M&M'S® Chocolate Candies on mymms.com. MY M&M'S® are a great way to customize your wedding favors, birthday party, or give as a creative gift. Personalize your candy with your choice of color and a personal message.








Toronto - We are moving!!!! Not very far just a few doors down but we are doubling our square footage. This means that we will be able to add at least 2 new editors and get your packages done even sooner.

In fact - anyone who has the uncontrollable urge to paint can join me from 9pm to midnight for the next week.

Darn I'm getting a sunburn. 2 days until the The Great Bridal Expo in West Palm

The Great Bridal Expo in West Palm Beach is happening on Saturday. As I cram as much work as possible getting the studio to look amazing, making a booth and dealing with FloridaHomeMovies.com problems, I still have Sammy, Isaac and Marianna that are a little under the weather (get this their not feeling well, but still feeling well enough to play on the beach.

If you a an Excellence Photography bride and groom and live in South Florida then visit us on Saturday at the Palm Beach Convention Center (I take my coffee black).

I plan to write about how different things are in Florida vs Canada. Once thing right off. There are over 500 professional photographer in the Greater Toronto Area pop 3 million. In South Florida, pop 6 million there are less than 300.

The are only a few huge shows in Florida. Nothing like shows in Toronto with 600 exhibitors. Mostly small 40-50 vendor events.

Show Date: 02/09/2008
Show Time: 12:00 NOON
Address:
PALM BEACH COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER
650 Okeechobee Blvd
West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Toronto	Boca Raton, FL
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