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VTalk Radio Spotlight
Today's Guest: Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel's Photography in Brooksville, Florida
Today's Host: John Bentley

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ANNOUNCER:  Welcome to the  More Photos Photography Spotlight brought to you by morephotos.com helping professional photographers with all their internet needs. Now here is your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Today on the More Photos Photography Spotlight we have Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel’s Photography. He is a photographer out of Brooksville, Florida, joining us via the telephone. Welcome to the program, Ezekiel.

EZEKIEL: How are you doing. Thank you very much for having me.

JOHN: It’s a pleasure to have you. Now you have a pretty thriving photography business down there in Florida. Can you give us a little overview of what you guys are up to?

EZEKIEL: Well we’ve got a studio here on the corner of 41 and 50, and we have a gallery. We actually have two galleries, and we display our large photograph or large portraits there, and we meet with brides and with people interested in photography to capture their images and catch their special day.

JOHN: So when people come into your studio, do they walk through the gallery before they get to the reception desk?

EZEKIEL: Yes, sir. They come through the door and basically the gallery is in front of them with photographs all around them, and we greet them and answer any questions they have.

JOHN: That’s a good way to introduce your art to perspective clients. Now what is the main flux of your business as a photographer, Ezekiel?

EZEKIEL: Weddings has been primarily what I started out with and then about 6 years ago I opened up the photo studio realizing that there is another aspect of it. I wanted to take my brides and offer them family portraits after the wedding. So I didn’t want to just offer them the wedding and be done with them, I wanted to offer them once they get pregnant to do their maternity, get their infant pictures done. So we offer a program with our brides that gives them basically lifetime sessions and all they do is they come in anytime they want to get pictures done and the only thing they pay for is what they want.

JOHN: Let’s talk a little bit about weddings then.   What do you find to be the most challenging part of photographing a wedding?

EZEKIEL: Well that is what I get…the whole pressure environment. You’re dealing with a lot of family issues sometimes, and my personality is one that, you know, I ease the situation and the pressure to bring out the creativity and I think that’s what makes me the wedding photographer that I am. So pretty much that keeps me happy doing weddings which a lot of people don’t want to touch weddings because of that, but that’s probably the most challenging thing for a lot of photographers is that which you deal with family issues that are there and so try to keep everybody cool.

JOHN: And in some ways it’s kind of like herding a bunch of cats to get them all into the photos and stuff, isn’t it.

EZEKIEL: It is. It is because a lot of times people start partying a little early and then that becomes a little challenging, because I don’t want to be that stuffy photographer trying to keep everything in line, but at the same time I have a job to do and also for them in the future to look at an album that they are happy with that there’s not anything missing. So it is some times challenging when you deal with different personalities working with people.

JOHN: Now do you find that there’s a certain point in which you as a photographer want to bring an assistant with you or do you always bring an assistant with you?

EZEKIEL: I like to bring an assistant with me just because to hold my camera back. Sometimes I have to rush. I’m one of these photographers that I’m like all over the place. I don’t stop so I need to make sure that if I need a reflector, if I need a light, if I need anything, it’s hard for me to just go back and get it. Sometimes I leave my coat back in the church. You know, little things that are important that will keep me flowing to get them to the next stage of the wedding day.

JOHN: Now do you find that being in a warm area like Florida that you do a lot of outdoor weddings? 

EZEKIEL: Yes, of course, you get a lot here and because of that sometimes even in the summer, we do get people who won’t want to do an outdoor wedding especially with the hurricanes we had a couple of years ago. People want to do the indoor, but we do get a lot of outdoor weddings, and that’s my favorite, because there’s nothing like the light that comes, you know, automatically just the sun light and what I call the outdoor studio. Just the lighting that is created by nature.

JOHN: Now could you name maybe some of the areas in the Brooksville area? Maybe some of the beaches and stuff like that that you actually do weddings at?

EZEKIEL: Sure. We have Daytona Beach. We have Fernando Beach. We have Clearwater Beach, St. Petersburg Beach. There’s just a lot of areas, a lot of lakes that we do.

JOHN: Of course, like you said, do you kind of do this in stages where you’ll do a wedding and then hopefully they’ll want you to do the maternity photos. So you have a portrait studio and so you’re doing a lot of family type portraits right in the studio, aren’t you?

EZEKIEL: Yes, sir. I do a lot of families. We also started doing when we opened the studio six years ago a lot of seniors so we are doing a lot of seniors from the area which has been a great experience, because working with young people is another area that I love to do.

JOHN: What are some of the schools that you’re actually doing work for?

EZEKIEL: We have Fernando High. We have Hernando Christian Academy. We have Springstead High School. We have Chamberlain out of Tampa, Jefferson out of Tampa. Those are some of the main schools in the area.

JOHN: Alright, Ezekiel, we’re going to take a break here, but before you do that why don’t you give your website information and contact number for our listening audience.

EZEKIEL: They can visit us at www.ezekielsphotography.com and the number is (352) 799-7744.

JOHN: We are in the studio with Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel’s Photography out of Brooksville, Florida, and you’re listening to the More Photos Photography Spotlight.  We’ll be right back after these important messages.

ANNOUNCER:  More Photos Radio is powered by www.morephotos.com the online sales solution for professional photographers worldwide. 

ANNOUNCER: Did you ever wonder why the groom is supposed to carry the bride over the threshold?  What does the saying something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue mean?  Visit www.weddingdetails.com and click on the lore and tradition section.  We've got culture and tradition information from around the world.  Visit www.weddingdetails.com tonight.

ANNOUNCER:  We now return you to More Photos Radio Photography Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN:  Welcome back to More Photos Photography Spotlight. We are in the studio with Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel’s Photography He is a photographer out of Brooksville, Florida. Welcome back to the program, Ezekiel.

EZEKIEL: Thank you.

JOHN:  Now we’ve been talking about the wedding business as a photographer. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the other types of photography that you do. I noticed on your website that you do pet photography. Is that a real popular type of photography?

EZEKIEL: Yeah it is. Especially here in the Brooksville area The Hernando area has a lot of people that have pets and they’ve already retired. They’ve raised their families so they now dedicate their lives to pets, and they want pet portraits. Sometimes they spend a lot of more money than people that have children. So it’s amazing to see the importance that people give their animals, but it’s absolutely incredible to see the beautiful family pictures that we get from that.

JOHN: You already kind of touched on the fact that you do maternity. What kind of delicacy is involved in having someone come into the studio and do maternity photos?

EZEKIEL: Well a lot of the people who want to do maternity, they tend to be a little artsy, and they want something a little bit fun and photo journalistic which is a terminology that’s used a lot. It’s basically candid shots where the person isn’t necessarily smiling at the camera; they’re just interacting and you’re capturing them in a moment of laughter or thought or anything like that. So maternity tends to become a little bit more artsy and people want it for the memory. A lot of times they do it for their first baby. They tend to really do some albums, including that with the baby as it grew through the first year. So they include that in a book that we offer telling the story from maternity to the first year.

JOHN: Do you find the album business a pretty big part of what you guys do?

EZEKIEL: Yes sir. We design pretty much an album for all our sessions. Again, if that’s what they want and we’re trying to tell a story of that session depending on the photo shoot that we did, but yes, albums are a big part of it.

JOHN: I personally absolutely love babies, and you have some very nice photographs of infants on your website. How is it as a photographer. Do you enjoy shooting infants? Is that a fun part of what you do?

EZEKIEL: Yeah, it is. Because of my personality as an artist and, you know, just the way I am, I’m never in one place at one time, I don’t want to stick to one thing. I love the art of photography in general so maternity, infants, and even small children just capturing them being who they are instead of those types of portraits sometimes you have done that we call them the mom shots. They’re looking at the camera and smiling. I like to capture them being who they are. It just becomes so fun. It just becomes a playful environment. I raised 5 kids so I’ve been around kids. I enjoy being around kids, so yeah, working with infants doing that is awesome. You get some really cool shots, and I’m always thinking of something different to really take our photography out of the box.

JOHN: Well Ezekiel, how long have you been in business as a photographer?

EZEKIEL: I’ve been shooting weddings, I started weddings, about 23 years ago. Started out because I just had a passion for art which you probably hear that from a lot of photographers and frustrated artists that doesn’t have the patience to wait for the oil to dry so they become a photographer, and that’s what happened to me. And I shot my cousin’s wedding…the photographer never showed up, I was there with a camera. I did a great job, and that built up my confidence and since then, I’ve been shooting pretty much weddings. So, 23 years ago.

JOHN: It’s amazing how many times I’ve heard artists kind of stumble into this line of work.

EZEKIEL: Exactly. 

JOHN: Very true. Now what do you want your customers to take with them when they leave a session with you?

EZEKIEL: I want them to take a moment that I capture for them out of their life. I go through my family pictures and often you sit down and you look to a moment and it just brings back a memory, a moment in life. Sometimes a song does that too, of course, and it brings them back to a moment, and that’s what I want to do. I want to capture a moment in that individual’s life that they’ll remember and it’s not just a photograph that was well taken, but a moment that was captured that caught that personality, that moment, that mood, that feeling that will always bring them back to that moment.

JOHN: Now if somebody requested an onsite session with you that might be a ways away, is that something that you would consider doing?

EZEKIEL: Yes sir. We can do on site locations. We go to people’s homes. We travel. We basically, yeah, a lot of times people want something specific with a certain background, a certain look, so yes, we will.

JOHN: We’ve been in the studio with Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel’s Photography out of Brooksville, Florida. Before I let you go, though, let’s get your website and contact information one more time.

EZEKIEL: You can visit us at www.ezekielsphotography.com and the phone number is (352) 799-7744.

JOHN: I want to thank you for taking time out of your day for joining us on the More Photos Radio Photography Spotlight, Ezekiel.

EZEKIEL: Thank you.

JOHN: We’ve been in the studio with Ezekiel Merino of Ezekiel’s Photography out of Brooksville, Florida, and you’ve been listening to the More Photos Radio Photography Spotlight program. I’m your host, John Bentley. Thanks for tuning in. Have a great afternoon.

ANNOUNCER:  This spotlight is powered by vertio.net.  Vertio Talk Radio, talk radio for the 21st century.

 



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