Happy New Year!

Sorry, no pictures this time! It's a little crazy here at the Esposito house hold. We are painting! And out of paint supplies. The snow storm outside is preventing us from going to get more. I'll post soon about our much needed trip to Boston, the Get To Know You session I shot (there were dinosaurs!!!!), and my end of the year purchase/tax deduction that I just made. Now I have to get the cats mouse out from under the table, AGAIN, before she claws the table apart.

Happy New Year to all, with love, from Kelley and RE!

We're Off!

So I set a goal for myself this holiday season. No work, no blogging, no nothing. I haven't turned my computer on in days! Christmas for Kelley and I is all about family. In 3 days we had 5 family gatherings for Christmas! It was awesome. And now, Kelley and I are leaving for a little weekend get away to a b&b in the North End of Boston. While up there we are meeting up with the Grazier's for a little dinner. Otherwise, total relaxation! Maybe some post Christmas shopping in the city.

This morning I had a little time for some photographic inspiration. I am currently going through my 2008 season for my next best of compilation. I'm also going to be releasing a series of images for my new collection, RE:MASTERS. Here's a sneak peak of one of the images I'm working on.



I'll be back in the office on Tuesday! I hope everyone had an amazing holiday and your taking some much needed rest this weekend.

Snowfall Earth

Any Sunrise Earth fans out there? Here's a little Snowfall Earth from North Haven today.

Albums x 5

Every day at 1:30 (like clockwork) I hear the UPS truck coming around the parking lot here. There are days he delivers to my door and days like today he beeps and pulls up to my garage. Besides the last minute deliveries for Christmas orders, he had 6 albums for me! One of them I'm keeping for a studio demo.

I use a little known album company called Album ML, formally known as Memory Link. There's a lot of album companies out there, and I do use a few others, but Album ML has been so consistent, puts out such a great product, and they are so easy to deal with. I thought I would take a few shots of what came in today.



These are the 3 main album covers that my clients like to order. The middle one is a clear acrylic with a designed image under it. It really makes the colors pop and gives me a lot of freedom to do what we want with the cover. The back left is all black leather with a custom cut out. The back right is a piece of metal with a color image printed down the side.


Here's a close up of the acrylic.


Another acrylic with a different design.


Yet another acrylic with another different design


It's a good thick piece of really clear acrylic.


A nice smooth piece of metal. I like it better than the brushed look.


Here's the black leather with a custom sized cutout and the clients names and date imprinted into the leather.


Their bindings are really nice and lay flat. The pages are three layers each. The white, black, and white is a single thick page. I think it looks nice when you're looking at the album sitting out. I've only had one person gild the edges so they are completely black.


Here's a close up of the binding. It's just a bump across the seam.


Album ML just released a new presentation box that's so much better than they used to have. It's a good sturdy black leather-like box with stitching.




The stitching around the box.


The magnetic flap.


The inside is lined with a velvet like material.


To my clients seeing their album here, they will be mailed out on Saturday! You should have them by Christmas.

O Holy Night

This year Kelley and I handed out a few mix CD's of our favorite Christmas music to friends at a party we went to. One track in particular I'm sure not many people have heard before, but it's the one track I can play over and over. It's a rendition of O Holy Night by an insane jazz musician known as Trombone Shorty. I'm not an emotional person per say, but this one song just makes you feel how fortunate you are. When this song goes on I usually have to stop what I'm doing and stop thinking about whatever is going on in my head.

There is one reason why this song brings so much emotion to me. There was a show on NBC not too long ago called Studio 60 (On The Sunset Strip). I honestly thought it was by far one of the best shows on television. Maybe it's because I used to work in tv studios and it reminded me of that. But, apparently, 30 Rock was doing better for NBC and Studio 60 got cancelled. Before it was canned, there was the Christmas episode where Trombone Shorty played O Holy Night with a jazz group from New Orleans. They played in front of images of the destruction in New Orleans. You may have to know the show to understand parts of this clip, but the song and the images were amazing. The part that gets me is this one sign that says what someone wants for Christmas, so heart breaking. For me it was one of the most amazing moments in television that I've ever seen and I just can't forget.

So with that said, Here's the only clip I could find on YouTube that has the dialogue in it which makes the clip complete. It also has some guys info on it since he has it posted, just ignor that. Oh, and if anyone can't figure out what to get me for Christmas, the complete series of Studio 60 on DVD would be awesome. Enjoy the clip:

Skittles Texas Holdem

This is what happens when you have a deck of cards and the poker chips aren't around. You find an alternative. A bag of Skittles. I ate about $50 while we played.

Aura Website

My last post had some of the photos, now here's the website I made for the Aura Day Spa.

I did an initial conversion of the images for the website, but I'm not sure how happy I am with the way they came out. So I'm going to do a different conversion for web images and hopefully they will look a little nicer (not that they don't already). I'm just picky. The owner of the spa was really thrilled with the way everything came out. I'm going back to the spa to take some more photos of product and the rest of the rooms.

Aura Day Spa

As the wedding season comes to an end, my commercial season is just beginning. I don't think I've ever put my commercial work on the blog. I've done head shots for many companies. I even have some to do today! I've been photographing for a builder of condos and homes as well. I'm always amazed at what comes my way.

I just photographed a really nice day spa in East Haven. Aura Day Spa opened a little while ago, and the therapists there came from other day spas in the area. This ended up being more than just photos for me. I just finished building their website too. I'll let you know when it goes live! It contains the following images, and more. The owner was so thrilled with the way everything came out, I'm going to go back and shoot some more images.

This was tricky. It's 6 vertical shots combined into one. I took a similar shot with a fish eye, but it got too curvy. The wide angle wasn't enough. So a stitching I went.




















I noticed once I posted it here that one is missing... and the random screw in the wall. Retake?

Therese & Sonny!

Therese & Sony's wedding was the last wedding of the year for me. It was a great way to end this wedding season. Sonny and his three kids lived next door to where I grew up. I baby sat his kids when we were all younger! It's so crazy to see them all grown up now.

Sonny met Therese and it was obvious that they had one thing in common. They both have 3 kids! Two boys and 1 girl each! Not only that, but Sonny's daughter is named Jackie (or Jacqueline). And Therese's daughter is named Jackie! And they are about the same age! Isn't that amazing?



















Two thumbs up little one... absolutely adorable.




I decided to experiment a little towards the end of the reception. I took my 100mm macro and took a photo through my 50mm lens. It wasn't easy. The macro had to be focused just right. Then in order to focus the subject on the other side of the lens, I had to move the 50mm closer or further from the macro to focus that lens. I only had a few shots come out. I can't wait to try it again!


This has been wedding announcement #180!

Pic _ _ _ _

Pictage or PickPic. Well, I did it. I stopped using Pictage and started using PickPic. I feel elated, but not ELATED!!!! There is some sense of walking away with my tail between my legs.

First, my PUG people. This is the Pictage User Group that I get together with every month. The good thing is that not everyone there is a Pictage user, so I'l still be seeing everyone every month! How could I not? If it wasn't for this group I wouldn't have some of the closest friends that I have today. I wouldn't have gone to or done some of the things that have grown my business and myself especially as a photographer.

Second, Pictage itself. I really don't want to get into detail all the reasons why I left. They are things that I hear a lot of complaints about amongst photographers and even the general public. I know there are other alternatives to Pictage out there, but they are not as in-depth, complete, and easy to use as Pictage, which is what makes Pictage so popular.

As all my clients are probably aware of by now, I have a new site for my online proofing and sales! It is rephotodesign.net. This site was installed with PickPic. Where do I begin with how great this is?

Although it is PickPic's system, it is really REPhotoDesign's system. All orders, inquiries, payments, customer service, etc, goes through me. The only involvement with PickPic is that I purchased the program from them and they installed it on my server. Unlike Pictage, PickPic has nothing to do with my sales, prints, products, and customer support. That's all on my shoulders now! I think this becomes more apparent since my .net looks just like my website and blog. It's all about branding! What do I want to put the REPhotoDesign name on or associate it with? Pictage was not the answer for me.

One reason why I chose the PickPic system is because they are now owned by the amazing lab that I use for my prints. Integration between the two is coming soon! Which will make things a little easier on my end. Also, my costs have been lowered. So much so that my print prices have been lowered! This is making my clients and guests of weddings happier and is generating more sales for me, which means more income. I love that I get to crop and check orders before they are sent to print. And your prints should be at your door in 3-4 business days!

This winter I will be putting all of my products on .net available for purchase. My clients and guests can pick out their photos for their album, and order their album, right through .net. My canvas prints are already available. I'll have more products on there for my clients to choose from soon. The best thing is that the products are the same products I show in my office!

So it was a tough decision to leave Pictage, but a good one at the same time. I think about what is good for my clients before I think about what works for me. For my business, PickPic is a better option for all.

Check out REPhotoDesign.net! Since you won't have passwords for the events, here are a bunch of screen shots.

Here's what .net looks like after the initial redirect from the splash page. I'm working on a new splash page.


Once into an event you can see the categories. At the top of the list is a link to a slideshow. Before this, guests rarely got to see the slideshow that I make for my clients online and on DVD.


It looks even nicer with a vertical image.


Each category has 30 images per page. It's a very simple clean look with just the image number underneath.


Once you choose an image you can pick an image size. It will even show you and allow you to adjust the crop for every size available. You can make the images black and white and preview that, and add borders. There's an easy to use cart to check your order and check out. And you can save your favorites too! When it's time to do your album, you can just send me the favorites folder.


If anyone is trying to access my events on Pictage, they have been expired. You can find it on .net. The password is the couples last name, something I never publish anywhere.

AND I made changes to the splash page on rephotodesign.com. My promo video was put in! I'm going to be reworking the video this winter. And I may add another section to go to and make the graphics smaller. We'll see what happens!