How to Shoot a President…With a Camera, That Is!

June 23rd, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

Yes, that’s me standing next to George W, and not the one you see in Madam Tussaud’s – although I’ll admit it’s hard to tell.

Last week we had the pleasure of working on the annual fundraising event for the Jewish Enrichment Center (JEC), along with the amazing folks at Global Events, Gotham Hall, Bentley Meeker and Foremost Caterers – plus the former president’s staff and Secret Service detail.

These grip-and-grin photos don’t just happen spontaneously; they are fully staged, with plenty of pre-planning.  This was by far our most carefully produced step and repeat session.  Happily, all the advance work paid off, because the results are spectacular.  We were able to take 150 images of the President with the VIP supporters of the JEC.  After the portrait session with President Bush, the photos were printed onsite and placed into engraved silver frames for the special guests to take home after the program.

What made this photo session unusual for us was the black curtain blocking all the guests from the portrait station, so no one saw President Bush until their turn for the photo.  There was also a Disneyland-worthy line that snaked around as people waited for their private time with the former president.  These parameters were arranged through Bush’s secretary of special projects.  She had the final word on where the president would stand, how big the line needed to be and how to quickly distribute the prints. Read the rest of this entry »

5th Avenue Digital Introduces a Newer, Sleeker YouBooth, Photo Booth

June 13th, 2011 by Beth Baynum | Share Blog

One of our company tenets is to stay ahead of the curve and look for new ways to innovate and improve.  Even when we do something well, we look for ways to make it better.

That’s why, despite the strong reception our YouBooth has gotten in the past year, we looked for ways to make it even more attractive and fun to use.  I’m using the royal “we” here but actually it’s all the work of our exceptional Producer and resident Genius, Rylan Crooks.  Even though the booth he invented has been a huge success,  he envisioned some tweaks that could make it even better.

So improve it, he did!  Thus is born our new, even more beautiful YouBooth.

The new YouBooth is translucent white, so it blends with any décor, and can easily be branded with a logo or customized images.  It’s smaller and lighter.  The photos print even faster, and can of course be branded as well.  Another innovation is a count-down monitor that alerts people when the photo will be snapped.  Very cool!

If you haven’t tried the 5th Avenue Digital YouBooth before, now’s the time to find out how much fun it adds to any event!

Recent Events Using You Booth, Photo Booth Read the rest of this entry »