Esther Louise Photography Journal

Kerri & Rick – a couples portrait session

esther louise — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:50:56 +0000

If you’ve followed my blog at all over the past years you will probably remember my wonderful friend and fellow photographer Kerri McConnell. Last week we decided it was her turn to get on the other side of the camera and capture some memories of her and her sweet husband Rick. Here are a few of my favorite…

Heidi & Matt’s Post Card Inn Wedding

esther louise — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:35:18 +0000

This post is very near and dear to my heart. Today I’m going to share pictures from my beautiful cousin Heidi’s wedding. She has been one of my closest friends and confidants since I was a little girl and having her in my life has been such a source of joy and comfort for me over the years. Last week we celebrated her wedding day with an intimate beach ceremony at the Post Card Inn. I have never seen her look more beautiful and I had a giant smile on my face and tears in my eyes editing every single one of these pictures. Every last little touch of their wedding was well thought out and made with love. They brought down driftwood they had collected along the beach in Virginia and North Carolina and built their own arbor out of it. They also spent the last few months collecting crab pots from along their beach and arranged them around the ceremony site and along the aisle. Our other cousin Sarah and I made her bouquet together and our other cousin baked the most incredible home made cheesecakes I’ve ever seen for them. There were so many other beautiful little touches like a hand painted vase from our grammy and shells our grandfather had collected but the most memorable part of the day was the sweet joy between the two of them. Here are a few of my favorite parts of their special day:

A film portrait

esther louise — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:43:10 +0000

isn’t she lovely?

love and moments, nicole & jeremy’s downtown wedding

esther louise — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:20:38 +0000

“Life gives us brief moments with another…but sometimes in those brief moments we get memories that last a life time…”

So much planning and thought goes into a wedding day and then it comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Some things from the day will be forgotten with time but there are those little moments that will stick with you forever. It’s funny how sometimes the littlest details stand out the most in your mind – the look in a loved one’s eyes, a laugh shared between you and your husband, the way your bouquet smelled.

Here are a few beautiful moments and details from Nicole and Jeremy’s wedding day.

Congratulations to you both, I hope you have a lifetime of wonderful memories together.

a beautiful night

esther louise — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:25:59 +0000

I couldn’t resist posting just one as I backup my images from this week, lots more to come soon from this wonderful occasion!

Nathan & Laura – st petersburg portrait session

esther louise — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:53:15 +0000

Over Christmas break Jesse’s brother and his wife came down to spend the holidays with us. I had only really gotten to spend time with Laura at her wedding and then at mine so this was the first time we really got to hang out and get to know each other without the craziness of a wedding going on. I absolutely cherished the time I had with them. Growing up I was such a girlie girl and would daydream about what it would be like to have a sister to go shopping with and share clothes with and do all those other girlie things that only a sister can appreciate fully. Growing up with two older brothers meant a lot of climbing in the woods and getting my barbies heads ripped off or rearranged. Over Thanksgiving I went camping with my family and I got to spend some time with my mom and my aunt and listen to them recalling stories of life together from almost thirty years ago. They laughed and got teary eyed over years and years of memories and I loved seeing that special bond between them that only years of time can create. It’s so incredible to me that marriage has not only given me a new family in Jesse and the one we will have together in the future with kids of our own, but also a new brother and sister and parents. There is something really special in knowing that even though friendships come and go and life changes, no matter where we go or what we do they are a part of our life, our family, and someday in thirty years from now I could be sitting around recalling stories of our lives together with my wonderful new sister.

Call me sappy and sentimental but I’m just feeling really grateful for everything that we have in our lives these days.

Over the break I got the opportunity to do a quick photo shoot for them and wanted to share a few of my favorites with you.

Emily – Class of 2012 Senior Session

esther louise — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:39:08 +0000

Meet Emily! She is graduating this year and is still waiting to hear back on college acceptances to make a decision. Her top pick is University of Florida and I can always encourage a fellow gator so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for her on that one! Her whole family is just delightful and I absolutely loved shooting with her, isn’t she gorgeous?

The Finchum Family portraits

esther louise — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:25:56 +0000

What a gem of a session, I just loved this family and am excited to share a few session tidbits with you. I was thrilled when I realized their beautiful back yard had a big wooden swing, aren’t their kids precious together?

Kristina & Mike’s Waldorf Astoria winter wedding

esther louise — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:03:39 +0000

I’m back after some much needed rest and website maintenance I’ve got some exciting things to share. The first one on the list is this beautiful winter wonderland wedding that I shot in December at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando. It was such an elegant and wonderful wedding. They did a fantastic job of planning every last detail perfectly and everything came together so well. Their theme of navy blue and metallic tones was just perfect for a Florida winter. After a beautiful and sentimental ceremony the family danced the night away together in celebration.

Congratulations Kristina and Mike! I’m so happy for you both!

Vendors:

Ceremony & Reception: Waldorf Astoria

Wedding Coordinators: Just Marry

Wedding Dress purchased at: CC’s Boutique

ShootQ

esther louise — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:28:23 +0000

Hey fellow photographers!

Most of you have probably already heard of the studio management system ShootQ. I just wanted to take a quick moment to give them a double thumbs up and say that if you aren’t using it already, go get it!

If you aren’t familiar with it already here are a few of the wonderful things it does in helping me keep my sanity. I tend to be on the disorganized side so it has been such a valuable tool in running my business the way I want it done and saves me precious time. It helps me keep track of everything I have to do and simplifies how I do it. I love being able to view reports on my progress and easily access clients shoot and order information all in one place. Because it’s an online program you an access it anywhere, even on your phone. The other day a client had a question about their invoice during a shoot and I was able to pull it up right there and answer them instead of waiting to get back to my desk. I think the most important role it plays in my business is time savings and organization it just wouldn’t run the same without it.

Here are a few of the functions I love about it:

1. Lead management – when you get new leads you can link it to automatically sync with ShootQ so you have all of your prospects in one place and can manage follow ups and get statistics on your bookings over time. Having new clients contact information automatically synced in is also one more little time saving thing and its great to have everyone’s information all in one place.

2. Booking – this is what sold me on it in the first place. You can create a custom client portal for each person which means everything they need for booking is in one place. It’s really easy to setup and saves so much time. The best part about it is that it includes an online contract system. No more mailing back and forth or filing papers or digging through paperwork to find an old contract if someone has a question. All of your contracts are now available with just one click of a button. Done and done.

3. Process management – you can create your workflows for each type of client so for a wedding you can create a workflow that includes pre-wedding tasks as well as post wedding tasks and they automatically show up on your calendar. So if you like to have an album design done two weeks after the wedding it will pop up as a task in your calendar when the wedding is done. Once you’ve got this part setup to your liking it really helps keep everything on track and running smoothly.

4. Reports – there is a wealth of knowledge recorded over time and you can view reports on bookings, billings, future income, past income… you can also export this data right into quickbooks to keep all of your records in perfect order and to prepare for tax time.

5. Referral Systems – in the contact area you can setup your favorite vendors and link them to referral jobs so you can remember to thank them and track your partnerships over time.

These are just touching on everything it can do, and although it does take a little elbow grease to setup just right once thats done it’s such a great tool in keeping everything in order and simplifying managing your business.

So again, if you don’t have it yet, go check it out…