Blog Archives

Girls- Make Up- Wedding Day- What a Team

May 12

So I asked my friend Victoria DiPetro, Owner Of Bella Angel To please give me Some tips and Hints for my brides on their Wedding Day. So Victoria immediatley got to work and Sent me over these tips. Please check out the Bella Angel Website. Victoria has been doing make up and Hair since I was a kid! Lol just kidding. Bella Angel has a really fresh and cool approach to Hair and Make Up on the wedding day, or any social or corprate function for that matter. Please check Out! 856.227.7774

Fixing An Eye Makeup Mishap:
At Bella Angel, we recommend using a cotton swab and water to wipe away any stray eyeliner, or mascara. Wet the bulb of the swab or Q-tip™ with water and clean the area. We do not recommend a makeup remover; this may add oil to your face and take off too much makeup. You can also use a dry cotton swab or Q-tip™ to soften eye shadow.

“Slim” Your Face:
To make your face look slimmer (more narrow) you need to contour, that is, accentuate the naturally inward curves of your face. To contour, use your regular color foundation then make a “fish face” (lips extended) and suck in your cheeks. Next use a contour foundation at least two (2) shades darker then your other foundation and apply under the apples of your cheeks and blend up to the hairline horizontally. This will give the appearance of a thinner longer face. Make sure you blend in any harsh lines.
Avoid A Wedding Day Breakout:
We recommend sticking to your regular skin regimen. Don’t try anything new, such as a new facial cleaner or moisturizer. Your skin could have a reaction to a new product introduced for the first time right before your wedding. Also, if you are going to get a facial, waxing or any other skin treatments, get them at least two (2) weeks prior to your wedding day.

Apply Perfect Foundation:
If you have generally good skin (that is, you are not prone to breakouts) and you usually do not usually wear a lot of makeup, the best choice would be a mineral foundation. This should be applied with a brush, but if you want or need more coverage it can be applied with a sponge. If you have a skin condition such as acne, rosacea or any breakouts you may want to try airbrush foundation. This foundation is sprayed on your face through a gun and the coverage is amazing. It is actually recommended for all skin types but the coverage is so incredible you might want to consider airbrush if you have a skin condition.

Whiten Those Teeth:
If your teeth are not perfectly white or have some yellowing or other shading, a red lipstick will work great to give the appearance of whiter brighter teeth. Make sure the red you pick has a blue-base red or berry color. Orange-reds will not work– the red must be in the purple-red family. If you do have time to work on your teeth and can’t afford hundreds or thousands to have them professionally whitened by a dentist, over-the-counter white strips work great and chewing two (2) pieces of whitening of sugarless gum after every meal will help to clean your teeth and can also help whiten.

Apply Eye Shadow The Right Way:
To apply eye shadow properly, start with a large eye shadow brush and select a light color such as a white or beige color and apply all over the entire eye. Next, select a darker color for all over and use a contouring eye shadow brush to apply. Brush this color all over the bottom lid and in the crease of your eye and start from the outside of the crease line and work it inward. If you want the eye to really pop, take your light color and go over the brow bone below the eyebrow and highlight that area a bit more.

Keep Your Lipstick On Your Lips:
Lipstick is made to come off especially on your wedding day. You will be eating, drinking and kissing. The best way to keep your lipstick in place is to use a base or a lip primer prior to applying your lipstick. You should apply your primer and let it set for a few minutes before applying your lipstick. Another option that works well is applying lip liner on the lip line then all over your lips before applying your lipstick. Keep your lips off of utensils and use a straw to drink.

Make Mascara Run Proof:
This is simple– make sure you use waterproof mascara on your wedding day. Apply a coat to the top lashes then a coat on the bottom. When it dries, apply a second coat to the top lashes.
Prevent Under-Eye Circles:
This is also an easy one. Get at least eight (8) hours of sleep every night, drink plenty of water eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and take your vitamins. You should also wear a sunscreen everyday on your face.

Do The Perfect Pre-Reception Touch Up:
If you are having your makeup done on your big day by a professional makeup artist, your makeup should last all day and night. If you choose to do your own makeup, you will probably need to do touch-ups throughout the day and evening. We recommend carrying a powder compact and lipstick in your carrying purse. If you tend to get oily you may want to also carry blotting papers. These will remove the oil and leave the makeup

Blog Archives

Courtney and Tim

May 7

Hey you guys. Please take a look at Courtney and Tim’s Slide Show. More to come!!

Blog Archives

Great Weddings in New Jersey

Apr 7

Well as we all know there are really some great parts of New Jersey that offer us some really great wedding scene’s. The first place that came to your mind was the Shore, Right? Well I am here to tell you that the Majestic Images team photographed this wedding in Teaneck New Jersey a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. Of course having a great looking Bride and Groom and not to mention pretty good weather for the end of March did indeed help the situation.
Our Bride got hair and makeup done believe it or not in downtown Manhattan. She felt comfortable with the salon that she used on a regular basis which is understandable and that startled off the day with great positive energy. Our groom on the other hand got ready at the Rommer Synaguge in Teaneck New Jersey where the ceremony and reception were taking place. Great concept, everything in one location.
They saw each other for the first time on the wonderful brick patio in back of the synagogue and even being sleight bit overcast and treating a small bit of rain, we still managed to do most of the bride and groom portraits outside.
Majestic Images and Expressions Cinema NY Made a great team for this handsome couple on their wedding day, and believe it we had a lot of fun. We didn’t join them at their after party liked they asked though. Time to head out and recharge ourselves and our batteries.

I Had some really great areas to photograph outdoors.

You think They Love each other?

Wonderful Ceremony

Blog Archives

Jen and Tom in Newark Delaware

Apr 1

Well you remember Jen and Tom. They had their wedding at the Hotel DuPont. Great wedding ceremony at the hotel however the day was a bit drabby and rainy and we could not do any outdoor photographs. What a shame that was. Every Bride dreams of having their wedding photographs done outside in the area they are getting married.
Well God smiled down on them because shortly after their wedding the Delaware Professional Photographers association asked me to do a program on lighting and portrait capture. Well there were 2 other photographers that were also teaching the course for the day and we were asked to bring our own models. Going back over a year ago I asked Jen and Tom if they were interested and they jumped at the chance. A lot of the people you see around their images were actually photographers that were taking the class. The day turned out to be great. The weather was great and we went to a few different locations in the morning. What we did interesting was that since there were 3 of us teaching the program and the group was split up into 3 different groups, we changed around the couples that were being photographed 3 times and each couple received 3 different prospective of photography for their wedding portraits. The 2 other Brides and Grooms had very similar situations on their wedding day.
It worked out great for everyone. Jen and Tom made and album out the session different from their regular wedding album and we just had a ball. They still get notes from the other couples and I believe they socialize. Some good friends were made on that day.

We actually walked the streets of Olde City Newark Delaware and really stopped at a few different locations. Just playing it by ear or as they say shooting from the hip.

We found Some really great doorways

Yes the guys on the left side are my photography students!

Blog Archives

Julie and Dan at The Radison Valley Forge

Mar 31

Hey you Guys remember Julie and Dan. You were with me thru their engagement session, thru their wedding images and now just a few samples from their Wedding album. What a great couple. As you remember they got married at the Radison in Valley Forge. What a great day. I remember as if it were yesterday enjoy these couple of Album Spreads and send me feedback. eli@majesticimages.net

Blog Archives

Marina Del Ray In the good Old Bronx.

Mar 29

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph a wedding at the Marina Del Ray in the Bronx, New York. Well to tell you the truth, I have not been there in almost 7 years. They did a great Job in redoing the lobby. It used to have this Giant white Piano sitting on a fountain. Now some very nice and elegant Marble and wood. I loved it.
It was a great day out and as you can see from some of the Images we had a chance to work outside for just a bit, it was still a little chilly. Our Bride Photographed great, she loved the camera and the camera loved her. I still managed to use some of the harsh daylight and turn it into a positive for us by reflecting some of the background into her face. My assistant Carlos came in very handy holding my Scrim’s and reflectors. Funny thing it was so windy at a certain point that while Carlos was holding my 6 foot scrim we all thought the wind was going to take him out to the water.
There were about 450 guests at the wedding at truth be told it was really nice to see some real health love put out to Our Bride and groom. The music was great gave us all plenty of energy and the food was excellent.
I had the opportunity to work with a good friend Jon as well as the Expressions Cinema team out of New York. Look for more.

Blog Archives

What makes me Happy! 2

Mar 29

I will constantly up Load new Images that pertain to my Blog “What Makes Me Happy”. So thru out the season you will always see new images and shorter blogs, LOL.
I have someone working on the wedding blogs for me. It is taking just a little bit of time to catch up on the wedding blogs. E-mail me with any questions eli@majesticimages.net.
Eli

Blog Archives

Hollywood Tans At Top Dog

Mar 26

So a few weeks ago the Majestic Images team had the opportunity to photograph the Hollywood Tans official Year end party which actually took place in February.
The event took place at Top Dog in Cherry Hill and they had top performers awards for the top performers. As you can see from some of the images they did indeed hire a few models, so some of the people have someone to take a photograph with. Believe me everyone that works at Hollywood tans looks like a model anyway. We printed out instant photographs for Hollywood Tans team and they were all thrilled to go home with a great memory of the evening.
It seems we are doing more and more of the instant printing at great events such as corporate parties and weddings. We have been doing Green Screen at Bar/Bat Mitzvahs for years and its now getting very popular at these events.
Why not a photo-booth you ask? Well we find that the photo-booth is great for the photo-booth experience during the event. Guests like to go in behind a small curtain and just have fun making silly of themselves. The images from the photo-booths don’t last for a long time, they start to fade. Green Screen being shot by a professional photographer with great lighting and great printing equipment, last much longer and I find people keep the images forever and tend to put them in their own personal home picture book.
So ask or e-mail me if you have any questions and you are looking to do this for a corporate event or even a wedding.
Enjoy these Images and e-mail me with comments eli@majesticimages.net

Blog Archives

Backing up your home files

Mar 18

Being in the Professional Photography Business for as many years as I have, I have had a lot of strange things happen to negatives and files over the years. Let’s talk about negatives. Most photographers at certain times in their career, found ways to back up negatives. Some of the ways of backing up negatives were to take them off premise. Sounds funny, but true. We found and thought by taking the negatives home and away from our studio nothing would happen and we would always be able to keep our clients images safe and sound. Boy were we wrong, we just moved it from one location to another. As time progressed we learned how to scan our negatives to keep them safe in what we started to use, something called a computer; not a bad way to keep things safe. Little more reliable then moving negatives off premise, but sometimes not a great answer. Scanning resulted in not such a great resolution file (in those days) but usable as an emergency. We kept these scanned files in hard drives. The advantage to the external drive was, that as e-mail and the World Wide Web (WWW) became more common and in use, so did virus attacks to our computers, which could destroy our back up scanned files. External drives were a little safer at that time. We had drives that we’re 250 Meg’s, which was the amount of information it could hold, sometimes 2-3 weddings or events. Now days we have 4 Tera bite drives.
So let’s talk about the onset of digital. Professionals as well as the average consumer found it easier to capture their images and look at them immediately thru the back of the camera. Let’s talk about how most or some of the professionals do their backups. Me for example. I photograph the event on what we call flash cards. When we started in the Business of digital the flash cards were at a high 250 megabits of storage. We would need anywhere from 10-20 cards at an event. Now we have cards that hold 32 Gigabits of space which we can actually photograph 2-3 events depending upon our shooting habits. We bring 2-3 cards (just in case).
Backing up: Some of us bring an external type of drive device and load the images to this drive constantly thru out the event. Fortunately my camera is built with 2 card slots and generally capture on 2 cards. Back in the office we then load the raw files onto our desk tops and this is where the fun begins. Some photographers will start burning DVD’S of the raw files. This can be an extremely time consuming project which can take a full day just to burn. What I do now is copy the RAW images to 2 other external drives, one which remains off premise. I leave everything on the Flash Cards till I have confirmed the images are safe on the drives then I will clear the cards to reuse them. So I have 3 copies of every event I photograph before I start working on the images for color correction and contrasts. These are things the average consumer does not know we as Photographers go thru to make great images for you. I will talk about how we color correct and save the images in a future blog.
Let’s talk about how you can save your own pictures that you take of your children or even on vacation and holidays. I talk to people all the time and ask them let me see the pictures you took when you went on vacation! Most of the time they say. “you know I didn’t print them I have them on my computer”. What happened to feeling and touching a photograph and getting the feeling of where they were at instead of a computer image with a monitor that might might be off color… Hhhmm. So my next question is “what do you do if your computer crash’s what happens to all those images”? Usually response is either “I never thought of it” or ” I have them on Face book”. Could you imagine spending your life showing friends your vacation photo’s on Face book! What a nightmare! There are a few solutions to help you. First go to the store, Staples, Best Buy etc. they have very inexpensive external drives. I like the one called Passport by Wextell. You can buy a 1 Gigabyte drive for about $69.00. Plug it into your computer and copy all your pictures to it. Remember these hard drives are not fool proof, they can have issues also, but at least you have your pictures in 2 places. A different way to go is that there are companies out there that you can back up your pictures to as well as important documents keeping them off site and you can access them anywhere, from any computer. Very safe and pass coded so only you know how to get them or anyone you give access to. Very safe and easy. Some charge as little as $59.00 per year for 5 gigs of storage. Look into these companies, very easy to set up and you can set it up so it will Auto Back up.
Check out CARBONITE.COM OR MOZY.COM. Good stuff. E-mail if you have any questions. Eli@majesticimages.net.
More to come.

Blog Archives

Jane and Seth at Rockleigh Country Club

Feb 14

We had the opportunity to photograph Jane and Seth’s wedding at Rockleigh Country Club in North Jersey. What a gorgeous place Rockleigh is. We had a great opportunity to photograph around the club, with unlimited background changes.
As you can see from some of the spreads I posted, the gazebos as well as the fountains were just awesome. They had these 2 large fountains that were outside smack in the middle of 2 large ballrooms. We photographed a great amount of night Images. What didn’t hurt was the fact that Jane was absolutely beautiful. What a bride. There was a great combination of weather, great looking couple and a load of desire to make wonderful images, and that’s what made these photograph be as spectacular as they are.
Expressions Cinema did a great job on the video. They have loaded the video on their sight so don’t forget to check it out.
Jane and Seth love their photographs and video and I am honored to have had the opportunity to photograph this wonderful couple.
Stay tuned for more.