Coming Soon! :-D

It's coming soon!!!! I'm reallllly realllllllllly realllllllllllllllllllly excited! Ryan has been working on a new design for our blog which means photos posted on my blog will be bigger than what I am able to post now! Ryan has been working on the blog design for the past week now, sleeping past 12:30 am... Sometimes I really have to pull him away from working on it so that we can both get some sleep... (I can't sleep well when I know he's working late at night...)

At first I looked at having someone else design it for us... but Ryan was determined to do it himself :-D. This is what I mean when I say, Ryan is my EVERYTHING :-D. He is my IT guy, my video editor, my blog site developer, my website creator, my 2nd photographer, my music composer, my music arranger, my solist, my pianist, my music tutor, my best friend, and most of all my husband… I would be lost without him and life would be a big blah... Hopefully, the next time I need to post on the blog, it'll be on the new one!

THANK YOU RYAN! ILYMYSM! ;-D

Just us..

The last wedding we worked on had a rented a photo booth.  The kind where you take funny photos and wait a couple of minutes to get a printed copy of your shots.  Here are a couple of photos of me, Ryan, my brother and cousin.  They help me out so much with weddings and events, I wouldn't know what to do without them.  Just a little thank you to them for all their support! I owe you guys dinner one of these days... maybe after our upcoming CFO Night. You guys are THE GREATEST! I enjoy working with you a lot and I hope we'll get to work together more this coming year.  

I'll be posting up pictures of Lauralee and Steve's wedding before the end of the week! After a crazy busy 3 weeks, I just needed a couple of days...to stop and take a breather...

Ryan and I taking another opportunity to be photographed!

Updated Blog - Free 2009 Mini-Calendars ALL GONE

Regarding my blog below... - CALENDARS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.. It's been reserved for the first 40 who responded.

Thank you and sorry if you didn't get one. :( Next year again :-D

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I'm giving away 40 of these 2009 Calendars! They usually retail for more than $7 at stores! First 40 people to email me at joan.solitario@es-sense.com will get it.

It's cool because it's small enough to carry around, it has a pen with it that can be tucked into the back of the calendar, and there's lots of room to write your appointments. Let me know if you're interested in getting one!

One per person only! If someone you know is interested, please have them also email me. It won't be fair for others if I save 2 or more for anyone since it is first come first serve basis.

Please e-mail me your name and address in case I need to send it to you.

I got a Shootsac!!!!!

Today, I got to work and totally forgot that I had a package coming... when I got in, I already had a ton of things to do, so when Brad came by and handed this package to me, it made my day!

Here's my shootsac! I love it already! I tried it on and I can't believe I didn't get one of these a long time ago... it really does conform to your body unlike the typical camera bags out there. Plus what's cool is that the cover can be changed too!! I need to get one for Ryan :-D.

So, if any of you would like to give me a gift for whatever reason... a gift certificate from shootsac.com would be soooo awesome! *hint hint* :-D

Welcome to the Family!

On Saturday, during my photoshoot with Fred and Natasha, I did the unthinkable... I dropped my camera!! (AHHHH)...

My lens broke, but the camera (thankfully) is still working...

I was so depressed though for the past couple of days! Why was I so clumsy! =P I was seriously stressed... until now...

Ryan bought me a D300! I wanted a D3.. but this is fine for now :-D

So, to my D300, welcome to the familia! ;-D.

Registered Trademark!

So lately I've been reading a lot of materials about small businesses. There are soooo many things to figure out such as what to consider my family/friends who help me out during photo/video gigs. Are they considered employees? independent contractors? seasonal employees? I still have no idea but need to figure things out asap! I'm keeping track of everything until I do...

Today I applied to get the es-sense logo/trademark registered through http://www.uspto.gov/. I don't know about you, but for some reason, I enjoy reading government forms and instructions.. I know... I'm weird like that. But really i do! :P Anyways... I applied for the trademark registration and at the end it says it could take months to get it approved!?!! Hopefully I answered everything right and it'll get approved sooner rather than later...

Anyways, another thing that I'm looking into, is getting some sort of diploma/certificate of completion for photography. I'm also looking to taking some courses on photoshop for photography as well. There's just so much to learn but its so much fun! A friend of mine asked me how I could do this part time while I have a full time day job and church and family responsibilities too. I guess I just like that fact that I can help people capture special moments in their lives! Also I get to meet new people that I would never have met if I didn't do photography/videography part time.

I've met really awesome people who still keep in touch with me and continue to refer our services to their friends... For this reason, I really want to do my best in giving them the best. Learning new things as well as doing things right will help me achieve these goals... with God's help of course :D

It's All About Presentation...

I remember working for an accountant 5 years ago during tax season as a temp. He had a small office and worked for himself. The only time he would get someone to help him out was during tax season so yes, he had a really small business. He was very meticulous about everything! He was meticulous about how papers should be stapled, how the forms should be arranged, even about how center the type on the cover should be... I'm telling you... he would measure everything!

Then talking to him one day, he explained why he made sure things were done his way. He taught me something that I will never forget. He explained that his clients are the reason why he is still in business today. His clients could go to any other CPA but because they continue to go to him for his services, it was important that everything he does for them is presentable. His exact words were, "It's all about presentation, Joan".

Since then, I've kept that in my head... everything we do in life, people look/judge us at how we present ourselves. Yes, we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but no matter how much we hear this... and no matter how much we try not to judge people that way... we still tend to judge people by their "cover". I'm taking to heart what my former employer has taught me. I believe that God makes us meet people and makes us experience things for a reason... and His reason for introducing me to this CPA was to help me out one day with how I present es-sense!

Today I found a nice lady who was willing to help me get our es-sense logo embroidered on our black polo shirts. I love it!! Our shirts makes us look more professional and presentable to clients and that is what we want to portray. We are professionals and we intend to look like it in all our upcoming photography-videography jobs! Plus, it shows how we are UNITED as well!

Here are two shots of what it looks like:

Anyways... I'll post up a picture of the crew with our new embroidered uniforms!

Oh and if you're wondering who this CPA is... his name is Sean Jonas, CPA who has an office in Torrance, California. He's really cool! So if you're looking for a good CPA.. just tell him Joan Solitario sent you heheh.. hopefully he remembers me... cause I don't think I'll ever forget working for him!

Our New Video Jingle!!

Okay... I know I posted earlier... and it's about 12:45 a.m. but I'm excited to share our new video jingle!  Here it is... low quality.. but it looks better as high res... just imagine it heheh :)

New Logo!

We finally have a new-hip-modern logo for es-sense! Ryan and I designed it last night at 1130pm-1230am and we love it! We were going for a simple look and I think we accomplished it! From now on, we're going to put this on all our marketing materials and more importantly it'll be on all our work! Here it is!

Grand Central

There's this new service online acquired by google: GrandCentral.com. Read more about this new way to use all your phones by using just one number.

We're able to connect our number from our website as well as our blogsite. Try by just clicking on the "CALL ME" button.

We're on Google!

So ES-Sense Photography - Videography is now on GOOGLE! How awesome! :)

Photo Montage Price Change in 2008! Take Advantage Now!

Hi everyone!

Many has been asking our price to create photo montages, so here it is:

$300 for a 10 - 15 minute photo montage contain 150 photos. Additional photos are charged at $2.00 each. It's up to you if you want to send us your original hard copy photos or scan them yourselves... but the price remains either way. In January 2008, it will increase to $350 so please take advantage of our prices now! :)

We also offer flash animation to accompany your photo montage and the cost for that is $85/minute of flash animation. This will increase in January 2008 to $100/minute of flash animation especially since it is a customized flash animation.

I will start putting up samples of our flash animations and photo montages soon! Please check in later!

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@es-sense.com or at 310.739.8622.

Thanks for all your support!

Joan Solitario