Today's Guest: Eli Haber of Images by Eli Photography in Palm Coast, Florida
Today's Host: John Bentley
October 2007
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Eli Haber Transcript Page
Eli Haber Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today's program is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
JOHN: Today we are in the Studio with Eli Haber of Images by Eli Photography of Palm Coast, FL. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photographer's Spotlight, Eli.
ELI: I'm very happy to talk to you, John, and give you a little bit of information about ourselves.
JOHN: Well let's talk about your photographer business.
ELI: Ok. I actually started my photography on a coincidence when my dad gave me a Brownie Camera when I was 13 years old, and that started me enjoying taking little photographs here and there of family members. From there on I wanted to see the images right away so at school a took a course about developing and it started rolling and rolling. I used to go outside and go to the park and see the kids over there and take their photos, and the next I' m there with photographs presenting it to their parents. Oh, I love it, can we buy it, and it started going. I started my first studio at age 17 and from then on it just kept on going and going. I love what I do, and my dad told me years ago that if you enjoy what you do it's not a job. So, I consider it a great, great, great fun and time passes by so quick. You get to meet so many people and they become your friends and you have a bigger family. We do basically a lot of work in the tri-state area for about 25 years, 30 years. We were in the New York, New Jersey area. There we did a lot of high end weddings and portraits and about two and a half years ago, we moved to Florida. And I'm doing here executive photos, some companies, JVC Corporation, up in La Rouge, 3M Corporation, AT&T. We toned it down more to family affairs, weddings and portraits, children and motorcycle events. We do very little bit in sports. But the weddings and the portraits are basically our main studio and out of studio work. Wedding side of it, we have a lot of consultation with our clients, and we believe that whether you have a ceremony, a wedding, reception, you know, traditional or funky one, each one is unique in it's own special way. Every bride is beautiful, every groom is a prince. I try to capture the feelings and emotions. That should last a lifetime. It only takes a second to capture it the right way, and it's so important that you're not going to have vases sticking out of peoples' heads and trees and backgrounds that don't belong there. Paying attention to little things like bow ties, ties, lapels, dresses, bouquets, you want to show the beauty of everything. Same as in portraits. If somebody wants a portrait on a yacht that they own, or they want to go to the beach, or they want to have something in their home that they just bought. Concentration is so important because at that point I get to understand what my client is all about and then I can capture that magical moment that I'm looking for and they don't know what they want, but they want something special.
JOHN: Now, do you work out of a studio, or are doing remote photography?
ELI: We have a home studio where I do have backgrounds and I do capture, you know, traditional portraits with children. We don't do like 20 or 30 groups at home. We do it on location where they would be, you know, in the church or in a hall, or on the beach, or at peoples' homes, reception halls. There's always a place to do beautiful work. That's what got me into coming to Florida. Because in New Jersey four or five months out of the year you can't go anywhere. You have to do it in the studio. Here it's beautiful. We have the ocean, Flagler Beach, it's so beautiful over here. Ocean hammock, Plantation Oaks; there are so many parks and places that people just love as a background for it. And they like to be there because it's nice and quiet and beautiful.
JOHN: I notice that you shoot bike week down there in Florida. Tell us a little bit about that.
ELI: Yes, we did. What happened is I came here one day, probably about four or five years ago just to have fun, and we took photos of bike week and everybody asked us, you should really post this on the internet and you should do this and you should do this. This is the time I started thinking, well we could take photos. This was when we were all in digital, because with film there's no way to do it, and I got in touch with More Photos, and we set up a website that we can take photos and post them on the internet. We started taking photographs during bike week, Biketoberfest, Leesburg, and people were just thrilled with it. We actually on the road, asked people riding by with their motorcycles with their friends, and we tried to capture them, you know, with the ocean side so they see the ocean in the back with a lot of people traveling coming from all over the country. It's a beautiful back drop and while they're riding, we captured their images and we hand out cards to them and they take the cards, it has a beautiful photo on the front of it, and all the information on the back and they take that card home with them, they log onto the internet site and they can order the photograph, they can order t-shirts. I can order key chains and it's becoming so great that people that we have done photos on bike week, call us up for engagement photos, family portraits, weddings, you know, some commercial jobs, because people that like motorcycles are all over the place now. Everybody wants to have fun so they get a motorcycle and they feel so free on it. So I think it was a great idea that started and hopefully we can continue and continue it, because our client base is growing and growing.
JOHN: Speaking of your website, a place where people can come and see the photographs that you take. Why don't you share website address and contact information for our listeners.
ELI: The website is www.imagesbyeli.com. Our phone number here is (386) 447-7771 and we are in Palm Coast in Florida. We are in the yellow pages. The best thing, though, is to see the website that you can go into. On the website there is information; our address is on it and you can email us the email address is info@imagesbyeli.com. We'll be more than happy to email you back or call you back. If there's one thing that we do promise our clients is if we get a phone call, you will get a phone call back as soon as possible.
JOHN: We are in the studio with Eli Haber. His company is Images by Eli Photography. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. We're going to step aside for these important messages, we'll be right back.
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ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight with your host, John Bentley. JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. We are in the studio with Palm Coast, Florida, photographer, Eli Haber. His photography business is called Images by Eli Photography. Welcome back to the program, Eli.
ELI: Thank you.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about your photography business down there in Florida. I understand that you have won some awards for some of your photos. Tell us little bit about that.
ELI: Yes, we have won awards national and international awards for our wedding photography, pet photography, portraits. We had some of our photographs in books and magazines and displayed in the PPA international awards. We've also had a photograph displayed abroad, you know, in Israel we had some photographs that we've done, and I feel very happy that my peers see the kind of work that we do. It's very important because you get critiqued from other people and you feel that you've done really well with photography and capturing the special moments.
JOHN: Now, if I was a, let's say I was getting married and I did happen to get married last month, but I didn't know of your photography business, otherwise, I might have hired you. What if I wanted you to come to Michigan and do my wedding, is that something that you would consider?
ELI: Absolutely. We do all over the United States, we'll go abroad and in the United States which is what we call destination photography. As long as our clients ask us to come, absolutely, we go back to New Jersey and New York a lot. We do work, you know, in Miami, we do work in California, you name it, you want us, and we have the time available, we will absolutely go. I enjoy traveling. Next year we're going to be going out to the midwest to do some work. So it's something that, you know, every wedding, every affair is something different and it's a pleasure to meet different people and different places to do affairs because each one is beautiful.
JOHN: Now, when you're doing portraits, do you prefer natural light? What are you doing especially in the studio to get good lighting to capture those photos?
ELI: In the studio we use what's called artificial lighting strobes. We still believe in the concept of there is one light source which if you go outside, you'll see it. Whether it be a cloudy day to diffuse lighting. If it's a very bright sunny day, it's direct lighting. And using lighting reflectors, lightings in the background, pale light, it's all how you perceive the image to be. Some people want a dramatic image, some people want a soft image. I you take, let's say for instance, a mother with a baby, you want a very soft fused image. If you're looking for like a fisherman or a person who works outdoors and he does work in the sun all the time, you want a more direct lighting. You want to capture the lines in the faces from the sun. You want to capture his image as portrayed by what he does. That's photography...capturing that moment for people that, for instance, a fisherman, I don't think a fisherman would want a photo sitting around on a box someplace in a studio. He'll probably want something you know with his fishing poles on a pier or on his boat, capturing the moment that he loves the best and that's all through concentration and understanding our clients.
JOHN: Ok, Eli, let's go back to the area that you cover. You're down there in Palm Coast, FL. What about some of the communities down there. I know you mentioned some of them earlier. And what about wedding facilities or banquet halls, anything like that you use too?
ELI: Yes, we have done affairs in the colony which in Palm Coast, Washington Oaks which is a beautiful state park, Halifax Plantation which is a great country club, St. Augustine Winery, Maria Del Mar it's another church in here, Pine Lakes Country Club, Marisol Country Club, you know, so many different places that people have things at home in their back yard, or on yachts, you name it we go there.
JOHN: Well, I guess if a client is looking for some high end, quality photography work down there in the Palm Coast, Florida area, Eli Haber would be the guy to contact. So why don't you give your web site information and phone number again for our listeners, Eli.
ELI: Ok. The website is www.imagesbyeli.com. Our phone number here is (386) 447-7771. Our email address is info@imagesbyeli.com. All this information is on our website, and we'll be happy to contact back with any person any client that wants information...help. We are there for them, and we will get back as soon as possible.
JOHN: Well it's certainly been a pleasure having you on the program today, Eli.
ELI: Thank you. I appreciate it.
JOHN: We have been speaking with Palm Coast, Florida, photographer, Eli Haber of Images by Eli Photography and you have been listening to VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great afternoon everyone.
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