Natasha was kind enough to show me samples she has ordered from Finao before she left for New Jersey and I thought about it long and hard for a few months and finally decided to give it a try!

I received my swatches from Finao yesterday and I am really excited! The swatch samples are great for our clients to choose from!

So now, my clients will have the option to choose from a Leather Craftsmen Album and a Finao Album! :) This is quite exciting indeed!

We don’t really have anything planned. No big celebration. I just wanted to remember that today we were blessed that our business has reached another year. It would not have been possible without the support, faith, and trust of many people: our family, our relatives, our friends, and everyone who has given us a chance to be a part of their lives…Thank you all so much for your support! From the bottom of our hearts, we just wanted to let you know we really appreciate each and everyone of you! Thank you! Thank you!! THANK YOU!! :D Maraming Salamat Po!!

And because we wanted to at least do something special for ourselves, we decided to get a new camera bag for Ryan! After 4 years we each have a new camera bag and they are really awesome because we can put our whole camera in it!! It’s a CAMERA BAG.. not just a lens bag… but a CAMERA BAG! :)

I got myself a Kelly Moore Bag (KMB) which arrived yesterday. I offered to order Ryan a Kelly Moore Boy Bag, but he wanted something more manly (hahahahah) so Ryan and I went down to Samy’s Camera and bought a Tamrac Bag! YAY! Happy Anniversary!

P.S. Thank you to my cousin, Natasha, for telling me about the KMB! To view more photos on the bag, check out her site! She took some awesome photos of her Purple KMB and she shows how our cameras easily fit inside!

Yesterday, I met with Wanda and she was just sooooo nice! She handed me some sample cover swatches and now my brides and groom can choose exactly what they want for their album cover!

I can’t even express how happy I am with how April and Paul’s album turned out! It’s so beautiful I wanted to keep it to myself! Its a good thing Wanda says that I can always purchase a Studio Sample album! So I’m going to order another copy of April and Paul’s album :))

Here are a couple of photos of their album.

I’m so glad we have the option to include our studio’s logo on to the presentation box!

I really liked the cover photo April & Paul choose for their album! It just goes with the color of the album cover.

Yay! Our logo again! :D

Thin white pages :D

Some of the pages in the album.

I really need to design myself an album with my wedding photos….

I have a couple more albums that are on the way and I can’t wait to get those as well! :D

I really like to support our local businesses so here I am, again, referring my family and friends to something that I know they will enjoy!

If you’re around the area and need to order a cupcake or two or three or more, visit Miss Priss Cupcakes!! :)

We ordered the: Tuxedo, White Chocolate and Chocolate Coconut, and of course Red Velvet :)

I had come to know about Allison when I did some research about the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment. After reading about the treatment and what it does for our hair, I wanted to get it done for my hair too! I did a search on the website for local stylist that did the treatment and I came across Allison’s name. She is certified in doing Brazilian Blowouts and have done it for dozens of clients!

I like reading testimonials and reviews about local businesses too, so I did a google search for Allison and found 2 five star reviews on her. So I gave her a call and she was very accommodating with my schedule. I told her my only free time would be Sunday afternoon, so she said she would open the salon up just for my appointment!  Now, that’s great customer service there! If you are thinking about doing this and would like a certified professional with great customer service to do this for you, I would really recommend Allison! She did a great job with my hair and I LOVE IT A LOT!! I think I’ve found the stylist I’ve been looking for!

Here is her contact information:

Studio 7
Allison Johnston
4649 E. 7th Street
Long Beach, California 90804
562-889-0480

Thank you Allison! I’ll see you in 3 months – or less, because I want my sister Janice to get the treatment done too! :)

Okay, I did buy it for Ryan for his birthday, and it really is for him, but that doesn’t mean we are not going to make it work for our business as well. Ryan thinks it’s a great idea to use it for es-sense too! I really love how with a few moves, I can show off a recent engagement, wedding or portrait session! I love how I am able to upload photo slideshows on to it and have it play right then and there!  This new toy of ours is going to give a whole new experience to client meetings and that’s quite exciting! It really is perfect for photographers!

I think what I really love the most is how long the battery lasts! They said it would last for approximately 10 hours, and you know what, it does! That just means family road trips will be so much more fun with this awesome gadget! Especially since I’m always trying to set up trips for my family and relatives! I’m so glad we got the iPad!

Anyway, this just leads me to my blog contest!

Ryan and I would like to help someone in purchasing an iPad by giving away a $100 Apple Gift Certificate. I think this would help someone, don’t you? I mean, if the iPad starts at $499 and you win the gift certificate, then you basically just need to come up with $399 (+tax) to get a 16 GB iPad with wifi, right? Now, if you don’t want the iPad, then you can use the certificate to get something else from the Apple Store.

So this is how you can join the contest.

1. You must be a fan of es-sense. I could open it up to non-es-sense fans, BUT I wont. I need to take care of those who support me first. To be a fan, join by visiting this website: http://www.facebook.com/essense.photography and clicking the “Like” button.

2. With this quote, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”, take a picture of yourself that creatively depicts that quote with an apple or a bunch of apples. The fruit kind. :)

3. Email the picture you took to: info@es-sense.com

4. Ryan and I will choose amongst the photos we receive, our favorite and post it up on our ES-Sense Fan Page. 

6. Deadline to turn in your photo to me is Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST on my watch.  I will post up the winner on June 1, 2010. Goodluck my friends and thank you again for always showing us your support! :)

Last night, Ryan and I met up with Iris Cheung of Iris C Photography. Iris and I have been blog stalking one another and last night we finally got to meet in person! We had dinner at Olive Garden in Irvine and we talked about familyand of course photography! We found out that we both got married in 2003 and that we are both going to be in the Bay Area in April 17 because we each have weddings booked that day!

I loved the stories she shared with me of her experiences with her photography business, from newborn portraits to cool places to shoot around in Orange County and I can’t wait to hang out with her again soon! Iris is going to meet me and Ryan after work on Friday to do a fun photoshoot after work and maybe if everything works out, we will be doing a wedding together in August!

Iris: THANK YOU for meeting with us last night! It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed it very much!! Thank you so much for dinner and looking forward to shooting you (with my camera) on Friday!!  

Here’s a picture of my new friend, Iris :)

P.S. If you missed my last post, you can try and win a shootsac! More details by clicking here.

In celebration of my new blog design (Yes, I’m STILL celebrating!) I want to help someone win a Shootsac.  (Special thanks to Jessica Claire for giving me the go signal to give one away)! I kept thinking about HOW I was going to give it away and then it hit me! I want to see how people can help their friends win a Shootsac! So here are the rules.

1. You must be a fan of es-sense. I could open it up to non-es-sense fans, BUT I wont. I need to take care of those who support me first. To be a fan, join by visiting this website: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Long-Beach-CA/es-sense/120695114014 and clicking “Be A Fan”

2. Comment on this blog by answering the following question: Why do you want to win this Shootsac?

3. On the es-sense facebook fan page , put a fun, creative, non-derogatory picture of you with a sign saying, “I want to win the Shootsac!”

THIS IS WHERE YOUR FRIENDS ARE GOING TO HELP YOU OUT!
4. Have your friends comment on your picture!

5. The photo on our es-sense facebook fan page with the most COMMENTS and does all the above requirements wins the Shootsac.  Each of your friends can add as many comments BUT only ONE comment per friend will be counted.  CLICKING THE “LIKE” BUTTON WILL NOT BE COUNTED.  They need to comment on your photo.

6. Again, you must do all the steps above to be qualified to win the prize. Any missing requirement will disqualify you.

7. Deadline for comments for your photo is Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST on my watch.  The WINNER will be announced on Wednesday, March 31st.  That way I’ll have time to count all the votes on your photos!

Now if you’d like to help me out too, ask your friends to be es-sense fans! I will really appreciate your help and support too!

Since photos makes a blog post more pretty and interesting, here’s a picture I took after work last Friday. I went to the Upper Newport Bay and took some nature shots just because :o).

So with my camera and my lenses in hand, off I went asking my family and friends if I could take their picture. You know, I’m really blessed to have WONDERFUL and SUPPORTIVE people in my life! Whenever I offered to take portraits of them, I never got denied. My family and friends were always willing to take an hour or two of their day to help me grow and learn to use my camera. To all my friends and family, I’m forever grateful! With your help, our humble business is still up and running!

Although ES-Sense has definitely come a long way from the time it began, there are always improvements that need to be made! There’s always something new to learn and new areas to explore. So what do we to to keep our business minds open to new ideas? We read! Ryan ordered a book called, “Rework“. He had finished the whole book in a couple of days, but you could probably finish it non-stop in less than a day because it is such an easy read! The ideas that the authors have about ”business“ is totally opposite from what I had learned in school, but it makes sense… common sense! :)  I really recommend those planning to start their business as well as those who already started their business to get this book! If only this book was available to me back then.. then I wouldn’t have given myself a hard time about not having a business plan… and I’m not saying that having one is a bad thing…

We decided to go with ProPhotoBlog.com to create and customize our blog design. It’s really pretty simple and I was actually surprised that I was able to customize the look of the site easily. Plus, if I need to make changes to my blog design in the future, I can do it myself quickly and easily! It took me one whole day to finish my blog site to the way I want it to be. If you’re interested in purchasing ProPhotoBlog, here’s a $10 Discount Code that they gave me to share with you: JOASOL449. Here’s an overview of what ProPhotoBlog can do: http://www.prophotoblogs.com/overview/

Well, I hope you enjoy visiting our blog site! Ryan and I really do appreciate your support and trust!

Here’s a screen shot of our old blog design. It has been good to us but it’s time to say goodbye!