Eli's Photography Blog

Tuesdays with Eli – Wedding Details For My Big Day!

Les + Eli – St. Thomas Virgin Islands October 5th 2010!

Okay, so I’m guessing some of you who read my blog are just a little bit curious about my personal wedding plans ever since I proposed to Leslie in December. I know we’ve definitely had our fair share of questions about when, where, and who is gonna be our photographer. Leslie and I have given a lot of thought into our wedding. I’m sure I’ve probably been a little more vocal with some of the planning than other grooms, but I have seen my fair share of weddings, haha. Leslie and I are so excited to be getting married! She has had her heart set on a destination wedding from day one, and that was just fine with me! I really love the idea of doing a wedding/honeymoon all in one. The only downside is not being able to share the day with much of our friends and family. We gave some serious thought about it, and have decided to have a very small, immediate family only ceremony in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. We want to keep the wedding very simple and come back after our honeymoon and throw a big party for friends and extended family. Oh and of course we’re gonna bring some photos back to share. We’re not sure on the details for the reception yet, stay tuned…but here is some info on our wedding in St. Thomas!
The ceremony will be Tuesday October 5th at Sugar Bay Wyndham!

Here is where we will be staying. It’s got some character huh? It’s called Bluebeards Castle. The original section was first built in the 1600′s. Sweeeeeet!

I sure do hope that we can find some beaches just like this one!!!

Okay and now to introduce our team of photographers. Haha, I say team because we may have went a little overkill on the amount of coverage for such a small wedding, but you know me. I love wedding photos! All I needed was an okay from Leslie. Leslie and I looked at a lot of really great photographers. There are so many talented photographers out there, the decision was a challenge. My grandmother did suggest that I just take my own wedding photos, haha.
Leslie and I are so excited to have booked Collin Hughes and Spencer Combs as our wedding photographers! Not only are these guys incredibly talented photographers, they are also two of the coolest dudes ever. Super nice guys and way fun! After my first phone conversation with Spencer and our video chat with Collin, we knew we had selected the perfect photographers for us!
The complete icing on the cake to this whole package though, is that we are also getting one of the most talented wedding filmmaker’s we’ve ever seen. Matt Brue with Capture Studios!! Before we booked him, Leslie and I would sit together and watch his past videos with tears(Leslie) for couple’s we didn’t even know. There is no doubt that Matt has some serious talent.
So there you go! Please check these guys out. They are all based out of Minnesota.

Leslie and I are so excited to get married! Our initial date discussed was Jan 2011, we just couldn’t wait that long! So now the madness begins! Stay tuned for more updates!
P.S. I want to apologize to whomever I stole the St. Thomas photos from. I just did a google image search for St. Thomas Virgin Islands. I’ll have some of my own to show soon enough.

Tuesdays with Eli – Rehearsal Dinners

The rain last weekend keep me from going to the Buffalo River and camping with my family, so I had to come up with something else to blog for this Tuesdays with Eli. I’m hoping that I will have another free weekend at some point before it gets too unbearably hot to go camping, and I can share some photos with you guys. So yesterday I blogged my good friends Brent and Rachel’s wedding day. I was looking through all the photos that I also took on the rehearsal night and I thought, hey I can blog this right? Haha. I’m not sure how many other wedding photographers attend the rehearsal of the wedding ceremony. I assume, once you’ve done it enough it’s unnecessary. But I am still pretty new, plus I enjoy going to meet the rest of the family before the wedding day. As long as I don’t have anything holding me back from going, I sit in during the rehearsal of the wedding. I love weddings because of the environment. I love how happy everyone is. From my experience, the rehearsals are just as good. I can also scope out the venue for some cool locations to shoot. Plus, the best part, most of the time I get invited to the rehearsal dinner. I’m not gonna lie, I like to eat! And once again this gives me an opportunity to get to know everyone a little better and everyone can get to know me. What better place to open up to people that around a dinner table breaking bread? Most importantly, I want the bride to be comfortable with me on her big day, but it’s always nice if everyone else knows me too. Anyway, here are just a few photos from Brent and Rachel’s rehearsal dinner. I had a blast, even better, Leslie was able to join me for this one!


Brent, me, Leslie, and Rachel.


Brent and Rachel had this super great candy jar set up! They had some of their engagement photos framed on display and various candies for everyone to enjoy. Of course I just got my new iPad and I’m eager for new ways to use it. I just so happened to have Brent and Rachel’s engagement photos on it, so I put it on slideshow and let it roll. Of course everyone loved it. Maybe you’ll want one for your wedding?

Tuesdays with Eli – Two Wheel Road Trips

Last weekend I took a short motorcycle trip with my brother in law, Nick. This was the first Saturday that I have had free in a while, and with the busy wedding season coming up, I’m gonna take these opportunities as they come. Riding a motorcycle through the winding Arkansas roads on a sunny spring day is one of those experiences that cannot be duplicated. I love smelling the country air, and feeling the warm sun and wind, plus exploring the back roads of Arkansas gives me an opportunity to find more possible portrait locations. Win. Win.

I met Nick at the public parking lot at beginning of Cantrell road downtown. This is where are journey began. I think we road for about 8 hours total. Highway 10, then highway 9 and 7 to Hotsprings, where we had lunch. I had the “Eli’s Cheddar Cheesebuger”. The burger was named after the owner’s son, Eli. I thought that was pretty cool, but the burger was not that great. Haha.  After Hot Springs we took highway 5 back to Little Rock. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, I hope you guys enjoy the photos!

Tuesdays with Eli – EM Photography Welcomes the iPad

This weekend Leslie came to visit me all the way from Nashville. It was great! We had dinner with friends, spent Easter with my family, and enjoyed the beautiful Arkansas springtime weather. Saturday was the big release of the Apple iPad. I will admit that I am a proud Apple fan. Some call me, fanboy, some call me a fanatic. Either way, I have used Apple products since I was 16. My first computer was a 1GHz Apple eMac G4 with 768GB RAM. I bought it with the money I made working at my first official job, a local pizza place, “Pizza Perfect”. I’ve been a loyal fan of Apple for years because I really think the company make exceptional products. They are more that just beautiful design, they last. That 7 year old eMac is still used on a daily basis. : ) Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox, and cut to the chase.

Saturday Leslie and I went into Best Buy to check out the new iPads. I had ideas before looking at them of what I could use them for in the business, but I didn’t intend on buying one yet. I just wanted to look. When we got there, I was sold. These things are really nice. When I picked it up all of a sudden I had tons of ideas on how I could use this for my business. I’m not going to tell everyone reading this to go out and buy an iPad, they are definitely not for everyone. If you already have an iPhone and laptop, then it’s probably not necessary, but if you don’t yet have a laptop, this could just omit that need. I have owned a lot of technology in young life, but I have never owned a single iPod. I skipped right over them, strait to the iPhone.  So after giving my tax guy a quick call, I bought the 16GB Wifi only iPad. If you want to check one out (and your a recently engaged), give me a call, I’ll bring it right over. Haha, just kidding I’ll let my single friends play with it too. Seriously though, if we do have meeting scheduled, you can bet, I’ll be bringing my new iPad with me.

Here’s some photos!




My iPhone in the shadows of the iPad. This thing towers over the iPhone.

It really is just a super-sized version of the iPhone. Except, when you hold the iPad,  it doesn’t feel like it’s too big, it just makes your iPhone feel too small. Haha

Tuesdays With Eli – WPPI, Las Vegas, & Friends!

Today is Tuesday! I have to apologize for not getting my “Tuesdays with Eli” blog post up sooner for you guys. I’m still here in Las Vegas for the giant WPPI convention and things are a bit crazy! There is so much going on I really don’t have time to blog, but I know that you guys are waiting on it! Haha. As I’m typing this, I’m sitting here in the MGM Hotel’s lobby up against the wall using their electricity and free WiFi. This is Vegas, it’s 2010, you would think there would be free WiFi everywhere…there’s not. This week has been so much fun! I’ve meet so many people and seen so much stuff. My feet hurt, because for 3 days I’ve walked everywhere and let me tell you this place is not small. I still have 2 days left, and I’m trying to get as much as possible out of this trip. I really am have a super great time, but I’m also really starting to miss Leslie. The people in the photography industry are some of the best, positive, friendly, and inspiring people. To get this many people in one area that all love what they do radiates excitement! I can’t wait to get back and share all that I’ve seen and heard with my friends back home that didn’t get to come. I’m sure thankful that I’ve had the oppertunity to go to WPPI! God has blessed my life immensely, and I’m excited to share with others!
Here are a couple photos for you guys that I took while walking the Vegas Strip! I also wanted to let you guys download them if you wanted for prints or desktop wallpapers if you want. So here you go, Enjoy! Full downloads here: PhotoA, PhotoB, PhotoC.