Bar Mitzvah Photography Testimonial

September 28th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

Beautiful photography that reflected all the special and unique elements of our bar mitzvah. They were creative from start to finish in planning the timing of the photos, to incorporating a range of pictures including our family trip to Israel a week prior, to the painstaking work of perfecting the book. The book has all of the most current benefits of digital photography with the quality of the finest leather bound traditional bar mitzvah albums, the attention from start to finish was personalized and Elizabeth, the owner became a friend by the time we were done!! Don’t hesitate or spend your time scouring the city, this was my 3 rd child and we used top photographers for all but no one gives the personalized attention to detail that you get from elizabeth, her photographers, and staff!

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 »

What I Learned at Harvard

January 24th, 2011 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

I’ve been asked over and over what I got out of the three year program at Harvard Business School that i recently completed.  It’s taken me some time to fully absorb and mentally organize my observations, because I learned so much it’s hard to narrow down the experience into one cohesive Blog post.

It’s not just the Harvard program itself bouncing around my brain, but the realization that this program corresponded with one of the world’s worst financial crises since the Great Depression.  I’ll never forget that first year in October 2007, watching the large screens in the communal room as the market fell before our eyes and business as we know it changed.

At that time, I had recently separated my corporate photography business from my original business, so my revenue source was mostly from corporations, and two of my largest clients were Lehman brothers and AIG.  If any of you own a small business, you can imagine what this economic news did to my peace of mind.

At Harvard that first year, I learned about finding opportunities in turmoil.  And there was certainly a lot of turmoil. Read the rest of this entry »

How the Ultimate Engagement Came to be

March 1st, 2010 by Elizabeth Beskin | Share Blog

As an entrepreneur who’s been involved in the wedding industry for over the past 20 years, I’ve never known a more interesting time to come up with a new idea.

Because nothing is the same as it was ten years ago…

Ever since the internet came to be, information is on overload.  There is so much easy access to information from blogs, wedding websites and directories of vendors, most consumers find the choices overwhelming.

I started my career in the photography industry, where brides first started to purchase their wedding services online.  I saw photographers shoot one wedding with their inexpensive cameras, create quickie websites and – voila! – they suddenly became experienced wedding photographers.  Most people couldn’t detect these photographers’ lack of real experience or artistry from their websites.

As an entrepreneur, I noticed that these brides still wanted heirloom albums.  I created Album Boutique to fill that hole in the market and give all brides a chance get a high quality bound album for a reasonable price. Read the rest of this entry »