Eric Smyklo Photography

I'm a slacker, I know...

2009-06-22T20:31:00.003-04:00

...but I have a good excuse! Wedding season is in full-swing and I'm up to bat every weekend. Sometimes twice! Coming up soon, three times! So I've been devoting most of my not shooting time to editing and getting my clients their photos as fast as humanly possible on top of the typical house work and yard work. So there it is, my reason for not blogging. I've been lucky so far this year, all my weddings have been absolutely fabulous and I've had the best brides and grooms to work with which makes my job that much easier. So thanks guys! And to prove how amazing the weddings and clients have been, I'm posting some of my personal favorites so far this spring/summer since I've blogged last. Without further ado (and in no particular order)...

Until next time! And I promise I'll try to update more frequently. And as always, all photos are copyright of Eric Smyklo Photography.

Eric

Social Networking

2009-05-11T22:11:00.005-04:00

HEY GANG... I hope everyone is doing great. Wedding season has been wonderful so far. It seems like between twitter, facebook, and myspace, social networking has become a fulltime job! But I am definitely enjoying the closer and more personal approach with clients. So feel free to add us on any of those popular networks....There are links right at the bottom of the intro page at ejswedding.com.

The blog also has kind of a new layout. We now have it archived so only the few recent ones show, instead of all of them at once. Any feedback or comments would be helpful to let us know if it is working out and if its comfortable to navigate.

This past weekend Katie and I were at Treasure Lake in Dubois, PA. I had never been there, and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got some great shots.

One of my favorite shots so far this year is the dark blue image below. I retouched it with the vision of a moonlit night in mind. You know one of those nights, walking along the dock on a crystal clear summer night where you can see every star? It went a slightly different direction, but that was my inspiration for the dark blue retouching.

Thanks-Eric

Sara & Mitch

2009-04-19T23:50:00.005-04:00

What a wedding we had yesterday! We had an absolute blast and the weather was amazingly perfect. What a dream it was having Sara and Mitch to photograph. Seriously folks, I don't think it is possible to take a bad picture of these two. What a beautiful couple. The fact that they acted madly in love with each other the whole day helped too. Katie and I are so lucky to have gotten the chance to get to know them as a couple and for letting us capture their wedding. Thank You Sara & Mitch!

New Folders for Brides and Grooms

2009-04-08T20:48:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! Ive been working the past few weeks on a marketing piece for my brides and grooms. Its an Eric Smyklo Photography customized folder with all kinds of great information inside. It has lots of new products, a whole section of FAQ's and tips, info about new albums, and much more.
If you are an upcoming bride or groom and your signed up for a 2009 or 2010 wedding with us you should definently drop us an email or phone call. Let us know your mailing address and we will mail one out to you ASAP.
In other news... Our first wedding of the season is coming up next week! its gunna be a doozy! There should be lots of awesome pics, so I should be posting some.
Katie and I are off to buffalo tomorrow for a wedding photography seminar. We are real psyched to learn lots of new things!
Thats it for me. See you guys soon!

THIS IS CRAZY!!!

2009-03-23T21:21:00.002-04:00

I'm just joking, theres nothing crazy going on....I just couldnt think of a better name for the blog. HA HA.

I just got back from a meeting with the "EWP" Erie Wedding Professionals, which is a new professional group of wedding vendors in the Erie Area. It was great meeting all of the other vendors in the area. Anything we can do to make the brides wedding day better is fine with me!

Things have been going good here at the studio. Were finially finished with last years production, and have a little bit of a rest to work on the business side of things for the next month. I'm currently putting together a promotional piece for my clients. Its going to be really nice, and have alot of great information for new and upcoming weddings.

Weddings start in about a month for me, and im sure it will be another fully action packed summer. Until then I'm warming up my shooting skills with a couple newborn shoots, and a family shoot.

Last but not least....here are some images to enjoy. THANK YOU!

~February 2009~

2009-02-17T19:29:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone! Man what a snowy winter in Erie! 14 more inches and we break the record?!

1. There is an article in the Feb/March 09' issue of Lake Erie Living Magazine about weddings. Its a really good article, and I would suggest checking it out at borders/Barnes&Noble. I actually have an image feautured in the magazine..YAY! Its not that big or great, but its still cool to say that I am in a magazine!
2. I attatched a little ditty of an image to the blog here. Its from a wedding I did down near Philadelphia this past fall. Its kind of unique, and I thought it was neat.
Gotta run for now, but I should be back in a week or two.

Happy Planning!,
Eric

New Year for New Memories

2009-01-07T20:57:00.004-05:00

Lets start off by saying......YES THiS IS ME, YES THATS DUCT TAPE ON MY CAMERA, and YES I WAS BLOWING A NEW YEARS HORN!........Thanks Katie for capturing this moment. I look oh so professional! LOL. (by the way. I ordered a new bracket so I no longer need duct tape. haha)

Happy new year everyone!! I know a few days late, but better late than never. We shot a New Years Eve wedding at the Bel-Aire last week and had a great night. Everyone was very nice and I really enjoyed partying my night away with everyone.

Our good friend DJ Michael John was there, and he did a fabulous job as always. I always refer to him if anyone is looking for a great DJ in the area. Feel free to give him a call or check out his website link on this blog.

good news....production is slowly coming to an end here in the next month or two and I should be able to post a little more frequent after that. Thats when I will be able to catch up on all the "business side" of the things and take a relaxing break from the shooting and retouching side of things.

We have tons of new plans and ideas for the next years weddings, and I am sure I will be posting about that throughout the winter as our ideas get to a more finalized state. I actully just ordered some new lenses online, and also some new lighting......so that will be among the changes. I will post some images once I get some test shots with the new setups.

New Web Albums

2008-11-07T22:50:00.010-05:00

Web albums have become more and more popular over the recent years with the digital revolution and the popularity of things like Myspace, Facebook, etc.

I have finially found a web posting solution that I feel really shows off our images nicely. Our clients family and friends can also download the images themselves, and they can also order prints right through the website without having to bother the bride and groom.

Feel free to contact me for more information about the posting of your own wedding images. Pricing is available on my pricing list. Here are a few samples of current Albums I have up.

Full Day Wedding

Engagement Shoot

Talk to you soon!
Thanks,
Eric

Recent Engagement Shoots

2008-10-27T08:01:00.012-04:00

Hello! I hope everyone is well. Sorry I havent posted about anything as of late, but it has just been a crazy fall! Within about 5 weeks, we did a wedding in Virginia, a wedding in Philly, a wedding in Pittsburgh, and a wedding In state college! I also did a few in the Erie area during those times.

I have done a good number of fall engagement shoots lately, and I wanted to show off some of the fun shots we got. So here goes nothing. Have fun!

Sunset

2008-09-14T21:10:00.002-04:00

Here's another photo from a recent wedding. Great colors in the sunset, and I love the peacefullness of the bride walking along the cliff. Talk to you soon!

Classic Black & White

2008-09-12T22:25:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to drop in and make a quick post. Here is a classic style Black & White image from a great Erie Venue "The Warner"
Things are going great, and wedding season is still going strong. I think November is when the craziness starts to slow down for us. I am looking forward to finishing up the season with a bang in the next few months and then a well deserved rest will be needed!....but for now, more great images, and more fun weddings. See you soon. :0)

Love and Memories

2008-06-29T21:13:00.007-04:00

Hi again!...just me. I hope everyone is doing well. We had two great weddings this past weekend. We really lucked out with some nice weather for photos. We took almost 1800 images at each wedding sice there was just so many beautiful things to photograph.

I have attatched 2 images....one from each day. I attatched a cool reception hall shot since I dont usually post those kinds of images. So that will be nice for a change. And the other is a complete candid of the bride before she was about to walk down the isle....I dont think she even knew I took it. What a breath-taking image. Beautiful brides!

OK, I have to get back to editing images.

Have a safe and fun 4th of July....we will be at a wedding ;)

A few shots from last weekend

2008-06-19T13:58:00.007-04:00

I just wanted to post a few shots real quick. We did a wedding up at Peek n Peak last Saturday(We're there again this upcoming Saturday actually) and I'm posting a few shots from throughout the day. I LOVE THEM! They have such a unique fine art quality to them that is beautiful and unexplainable in words. Photoraphs for me keep the memories of an event where the words and stories leave off...unforgettable & unexplainable moments in time...enjoy

Lots of awesome wedding images!

2008-06-14T13:29:00.004-04:00

Hey! Its been crazy busy around the studio here....sorry for not posting sooner. I think we've done something like 5 weddings in three weeks. Two Saturdays in a row....a Friday night wedding, and even a Thursday evening wedding at Chataqua Institution.

The good news is that I'm staying up quite well on production so far and all of the images are turning out just gorgeous!

I am featuring a slideshow of about 275 images this week. As far as I know these slideshows are working good on everyones computers, but drop me an email if they are not. There are 3 recent weddings featured in this new "webshow". There is a Mercyhurt chapel/campus ceremony...A Bel-Aire Reception...a Union station Reception....and an on location Riverside Inn Ceremony & Reception.

The images arent in any particular order, so be patient with the ordering please! Of course we shot many other images at each wedding...I just picked out a few of the ones that I thought were unique.

Ok...I gotta run. We are off to Peek n Peak today to shoot an on location Ceremony and reception.

I hope all of everyones summer wedding planning is going well!

Thanks!
Eric Smyklo

Spring Webshow Sample

2008-03-25T15:42:00.003-04:00

Well its officially spring in Erie PA, but mother nature doesnt seem to think so...Its still snowing, lol. I'm ready for some warmer weather personally, but i guess i wouldnt have time to blog if I was out doing "warm weather things". lol.

Summer 09 bookings picked up a bunch in the past few weeks, which is a good thing. I think Ive met with something like 10 brides and grooms in the past 2 or 3 weeks to talk about their 2009 weddings. THANKS!

Anyways, this is my first attempt at posting a "webshow" of images....so we will see how this goes. These are some sample spreads of the storybook albums that I offer. Let me know what you think.

The first wedding of the year is this weekend, I'm real excited to get the season started, and I will post some of the images once i get a few retouched and ready.

HAVE FUN!, blog to you soon

Eric Smyklo Photography
Erie PA wedding photography, photographer

2.29.08: Thank You...YES YOU!

2008-03-10T14:47:00.005-04:00

Welcome everyone to the new website. I don’t know if any of you had viewed the previous site, but we’ve revamped our whole business identity and website in hopes to have a more structured and modern business. I am totally siked about how it all turned out. My photography and your wedding images have never looked better. It’s the little things like this that get me incredibly excited about this summers weddings to come.
Tony Oshlick was my head designer for getting this website project done. Hes a longtime friend of mine, and by far the best graphic designer I’ve seen. He said he would be more than happy to do save the date cards, programs, etc for brides. I have seen weddings in the past where the bride and groom have actually created there own custom logo and design scheme for everything in their wedding…..everything from their pre wedding hoodies, to programs, down to the napkins at the reception. True these were a lil higher price range weddings…but still a cool idea.
Last but not least on this first blog on the new site.. I just want to thank all of you, future and past clients, or just readers of my ramblings. Making beautiful images for you all means more to me than you can imagine. Its truly my life’s passion, and the “memories” I can give you through these images have become a huge part of my life and well-being. Thank You!

2.19.08: Engagement Photos

2008-03-10T14:46:00.015-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I do offer engagement photo sessions. I figured I would post a few on here since I don’t really advertise them anywhere else in my packages or websites. Engagement sessions are usually around $200 and you get all of your images on CD with that. You can put them up on your facebook or myspace and show everyone how cute you guys look together. HAHAHA joking!.....but seriously, you can!. They’re usually fun to shoot….I like to go on location, anywhere fun we can think of. Here are my 5 favorites from the past year or two.

2.1.08: Katie Ayers

2008-03-10T14:37:00.009-04:00

I’m up at the Erie Panera (my usual blog spot).… between the website and retouching wedding images I swear this laptop never leaves my hands. LOL.
Some of you may know Katie Ayers my assistant…. She has assisted me at many of your weddings, she will be assisting me at more weddings this summer, and she is also starting to shoot her own weddings this summer. In prep for this she has done a few shoots of me with our new equipment. Check out some of her shots…. She got some really nice results.