The conventional cooler has been greatly improved upon from days gone by.  There was a time when you were lucky to get a summer or two out of a standard cooler.  Those days are gone and the concept of a lifetime cooler is here...meet the YETI Tundra 65.

The YETI Tundra 65 does a lot of things...but it does one thing incredibly well and that's keep beverages ice cold.  How long you ask?  This cooler can easily keep ice in 80 degree weather past 4 full days.  That's amazing!  Other notable features are the giant ColdLock gasket that runs around the entire lid.  When the rubberized clamps are used to keep the lid closed none of your precious cold air is escaping.  The design utilizes a NeverFail lid hinge design which we love as that was the exact point of failure on our previous cooler.

The EMBY Setup:

• YETI Tundra 65 (Seafoam Green Limited Edition Color)
• Add Cooler divider (allows you to keep beverages sorted with ease)
• Add Upper Rack (great for when you want to drop in some food to keep cold for the tailgate)
• Add YETI Coozie (your drink is already cold...might as well keep it cold)

So what does this have to do with photography?

We have had our YETI for a while but it was only during the last couple weeks that we realized how useful it could be while out on a series of engagement photo shoots.  North Carolina temperatures have been at or near triple digits for the past two weeks.  When this heat wave rolled in we reached out to our scheduled clients and offered reschedules to anyone that wanted.  To our surprise noone wanted to reschedule due to many reasons but mainly the fact is people are busy and there isn't always an opportunity for a reschedule.  So, with shoots on and 100 degree weather all we can do is make it as comfortable as possible for all involved.  The YETI was so amazing to have at some of our remote shoots.  Freezing cold drinks are a hit with clients for sure (Thank You YETI !).

Questions? / Comments?  We would love to hear from you!  Drop us a note below.

Emby

So much of present day photography happens during the post processing stage.  We at Emby Taylor Photography remain focused on delivering the best imagery possible to our clients.  The addition of a purpose built Mac Pro specific to a digital photography workflow will be one of our latest tools used in creating fine works of art.

So Why a Mac Pro ?

This is a really good question as there are some stellar hardware options available.  However, finding a feature loaded, customizable, future proof solution is not nearly as easy.  Both the Macbook Pro and iMac 5k are common amongst photographers yet both these options are very limited when it comes to hardware customization (future upgrades).

The Mac Pro allowed for tremendous customization to meet our needs as well as much more connectivity options.  A factor we had to consider as well was that Apple & Adobe have made commitments to leveraging multi-core processors moreso within upcoming releases.  So essentially the software we use will begin truly taking advantage of the incredible hardware potential already available today! Furthermore, Apple's next release of OSX named El Capitan expected Fall of 2015 is set to unleash even greater performance from present day robust hardware via Metal for Mac (this will be a game changer!).

Emby whatcha got under the hood ?

In looking at what present day software could take advantage of (multi-core processors) and balancing our decision alongside what we expect to see from the likes of Apple and Adobe in the months and years to come we came up with the following specs that we feel make for the best workstation for a digital photography workflow:

Mac Pro

• 3.5GHz 6-core with 12MB of L3 cache
• 32GB of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC
• 1TB PCIe-based flash storage
• Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each

Summary

This build was an ideal solution for the requirements we have for our equipment.  Our clients demand gorgeous wedding day imagery and this tool allows us to do just this!  We realize that every teams needs are unique and it's not always a one shoe fits all...which is the exact reason you might want to consider a Mac Pro as it can be customized far more than other Mac offerings currently on the market.

Comments? / Questions?  We would love to hear from you.  Drop us a note below.

Emby

I actually met Bridgett for the first time at her bridal portrait session.  We had talked on the phone and gotten along so well and I knew I was going to love this session!  I was so honored when she called me to tell me that I had come highly recommended by one of our favorite places, The Arbors Events in Cleveland, North Carolina.  We had such a beautiful day for pictures and Bridgett dotted all of her i's and crossed all of her t's to make sure that the bridal portraits were going to be everything she had hoped for. 

Thank you to Jessica Kendall at Beauty Asylum for the fabulous hair and makeup and to Lily Bee's for the beautiful bouquet.

When I met Sarah and John at Mr. K's in Charlotte's South End for ice cream, I knew they were perfect for each other!  John is hilarious and keeps Sarah laughing all of the time!  They are the sweetest couple and I was so excited to be a part of their wedding day!  

When they told me that it would be a zany crowd at the wedding, I was double excited!!!  And then, to top it all off, the wedding was in Romare-Bearden Park in Uptown Charlotte...that's like a triple score!!!! 

When Wedding day came along, the weather reports were not looking good.  I texted Sarah to wish her a happy wedding day and to confirm the time that we would arrive and she was nothing but excited!  The only thing in this world that mattered to her was that she was marrying John that day!  That's it, that's all!  I loved her even more at that very moment :)  I promised her that we "had her back" and regardless of the weather, we were going to capture the love, beauty and all of the shenanigans of her day. To see more of our weddings, visit our wedding portfolio HERE