You'd love to have a family portrait session that fully captures who you are, how you connect, and how much affection surfaces when all the members of your family are present within the camera frame.

We're happy to capture your family in our studio, complete with gorgeous light and minimal distractions, or in your comfy-cozy home full of familiar toys and routines. No matter where our session takes place, we'll delight in your delight. And we'll encourage you to pay attention to one another instead of the camera, because there's no 'add happy' button in Photoshop.

We don't care whether you're barefoot or wearing fuzzy slippers, and we won't be sending over a twenty-page list of suggestions about what to wear. (We can make you look beautiful in sweat pants if you love each other.) We just want to capture your family. Your habits, your quirks, and your love. Die-hard beach goers? World travelers? Animal lovers? Trekkies? We wanna see it. And when you view the images we've created together for the first time, we want the depth of love you feel for your family to grab you by the collar and bring tears to your eyes.

The video below provides a peek at how portrait sessions unfold. If you have questions or would like to schedule a portrait session, click on the 'Contact' link above or call 215-206-3689. Oh -- and thanks for stopping by, lovely!

-- Kristen & Haunani, Essential Imagery owners

P.S. That's Kristen up in the header -- Haunani is camera-shy.

THE BEST POLAROID APPS FOR IPHONE

As a pro photographer, I am just plain awful at taking snapshots with my camera gear. Either a shot is worthy of rocking the heavy camera and then hauling the image into Photoshop and messing with, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, the moment passes, and I am snapshot-less.

As a Mom, you probably have a TON of snapshots that are going unprinted and unseen by the masses (or at least your Facebook friends.) You may even own Photoshop Elements but can’t find the time to make your images snazzy between trips to the doctor, the vet, the school, the ballet classes, and the grocery store. Understood.

There’s a solution for both of us: the iPhone polaroid! While real Polaroid film costs $24.00 per pack of 10, iPhone polaroids are free, fun, and downright artsy. The best part? They look great straight out of the phone camera!

A quick review of my favorite iPhone apps for Polaroid:

1.) Polarize

For the slightly-green, true blue look of Polaroid film that hasn’t expired, Polarize is the bee’s knees. This app includes the Polaroid’s distinctive white border, and is also free.

Unfortunately, this app also tends to punch contrast too much on dark or underexposed images, resulting in black blobs where the regular iPhone camera picks up detail. This quality sent me looking for another Polaroid app in my iPhone arsenal.

Polarize iPhone sample images

2.) ShakeItPhoto

I’ve got to be honest, here: this app makes me squeal with delight, just like regular Polaroids do! Once you take the image, it drops onto your screen as a gray square, then develops before your eyes. Just as you would with a real Polaroid, waving your iPhone about makes the image show up just a teensy bit faster.

This app uses softer contrast, and more closely picks up on the colors associated with the SX-70 line of Polaroids : dreamy pinky-orangey-vintage-y color. It costs 99 cents, and has a killer website to back up your purchase and make file-sharing easy. (Read: buy this one!)

Unfortunately, the Polaroid border I so love is not featured with this app, so it produces a simple square with white border.

ShakeItPhoto sample images

Yah, I know, more pictures of Hermione. YOU get a puppy and take pictures of something else for the first 10 days of living with her, okay?

Finally, a straight-up side-by-side comparison of the original snap, the Polarize version, and the ShakeItPhoto version.

original iPhone image, Polarize, ShakeItPhoto samples

Posted in neat stuff

show hide 3 comments

shelby - I googled iPhone “polaroid” and this came up and was exactly what I needed – a compare/contrast. Super late comment to an old post, but a very helpful one nonetheless. I just downloaded both Polarize and ShakeItPhoto. Woo,Thanks!!

Crystal - I’ve been stealing a co-workers iPhone and taking photos with it around the office using the ShakeItPhoto app. It’s so much fun! I’ve only taken a handful so far, here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/krstlchik/sets/72157622529827970/

CrossProcess iPhone app review | ESSENTIAL IMAGERY, Philadelphia photographer - [...] At less than a dollar, this app is a fun way to fake the look of Photoshop actions from your iPhone. Oh, and the same people behind this app created ShakeItPhoto, which was reviewed when I listed the Best Polaroid Apps for iPhone. [...]