PROM CIRCA 1950                                                                       MORP CIRCA 2010

Do you know what a morp is? If you answered no, you’re not alone. We had no clue what is was until we received a photo booth inquire by phone this afternoon. It felt like kindergarten all over again when someone had to explain the meaning of a, “morp.”  That, or we’re just getting really old because there was no such thing as a, morp, when we were in high school which wasn’t thhaaaat long ago.

What is MORP spelled backwards?…. That’s right, PROM. A morp is backwards prom. It’s the anti-prom where high school teens let loose and go wild. Well, not completely.  It’s an unofficial prom organized by students, or the ASB (Associated Student Body) themselves. Usually, girls ask guys out. It’s  smaller then your typical prom. Students can get loose and don’t have to conform to prom, “standards.” There’s usually an entry fee ranging from $5 to $20 depending where the morp is held. A typical theme for morps is the 80’s.

Morps have even appeared on TV. Back in 2006, in an episode of Malcome in the Middle, Malcome decided to organize a morp for his peers shunned by the, “cool,” kids.  Who knew?!

So why are morps so popular at high schools? There are a couple reasons:

1. It’s a protest or boycott toward the standard official prom. “Anti-proms (morps), do not follow any prescribed format, catering instead to the varied tastes of the large spectrum of students who feel dissociated from prom culture. Nevertheless, anti-prom participants are generally concerned with arranging social activities that are not only fun and enjoyable, but which also serve as an assertion of solidarity and of the legitimacy of social difference.”

2. It provides a safe gathering for peers who aren’t in the, “in-crowd.”  For those labeled a, “dork,” “geek, ” “loser,” “weird,” “gay,” or bullied by the, “cool,” kids.

1. They’re smaller and cost less money than your traditional prom. Let’s face it, the economy sucks, and someone in high school can probably afford an entry fee of  $10 as opposed to $80.

Some of us here wish morps existed when were in high school.

PS: If you’ve personally been to a, morp, we’d love to hear from you! Please share your experience in the comment section below.

Over the summer Cliques Photo Booth had the pleasure of setting up a custom themed photo booth for Summer Solstice, an annual charity event held at The Playboy Mansion. Getting into The Mansion with our gear was a struggle. Security was tight and there were cameras everywhere. In order to enter, one must be on a guest list. It took us about an hour to enter just to set-up.

After setting up we had to go to a, “secret,” parking garage where we were escorted back to The Mansion via a VIP bus.

Throughout the evening, we hung out with Hugh Hefner’s personal security (Wait…shouldn’t they have been looking after Hugh?). We learned a lot from them about The Mansion:

1. Hefner has his own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star on the property.

2. Hefner purchased the mansion in 1971 for 1.5 million. Today it’s worth 50 million.

3. There is a secret room called the, “Elvis Room,” that the public has never seen.

4. The Mansion is the only private home in Los Angeles to have pyrotechnic license for setting off fireworks.

5. The Mansion is one in few homes that has a zoo license.

6. 70 staff members work at The Mansion.

7. The Playboy Mansion used to be called the Playboy “West” because Hef had an east coast mansion as well. He now only owns one.

PS: We think Hef is a pretty cool guy!

PPS: Pleas post this on Facebook and re-Tweet!

Ok, so this isn’t a post about a wedding, a bar mitzvah, or a photo booth. It’s simply about the Polaroid Camera.The first instant camera. Thank god for digital camera and die-sublimation printers. What if we had to use a Polaroid camera to snap our photo booth photos? That would be a lot of film with a hefty price tag.

A little history:

Polaroid was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, an American scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. Polaroid gained commercial success with the introduction of the first practical system of in-camera instant photography on February 21, 1947.

Called the Land Camera, Polaroid originally manufactured sixty units, fifty-seven of which were put up for sale at Boston’s Jordan Marsh department store for Christmas 1948. Polaroid marketers incorrectly guessed that the camera and film would remain in stock long enough to manufacture a second run based on customer demand. All fifty-seven cameras and associated film were sold out within the first day!

Edwin Land considered his leadership towards the development of integral instant color photography – the SX-70 film and camera – to be his crowning achievement. The SX-70 (The above film.) was a sales success and was embraced by photographers such as Ansel Adams.

SX-70 RETURN IN 2010?:

While Fujifilm still produces some of the older-style, professional ‘peel-apart’ films, Polaroid’s Enschede, Holland film plant was the last source on earth for the ‘integral’ SX-70, 600 and Spectra films… Impossible as it may seem, in late 2008 a dozen former employees of that Polaroid plant and Florian Kaps, an Austrian entrepreneur behind the effort, undertook the aptly named Impossible Project

http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

They were able to take a lease on the plant and intercept the 9 integral-film assembly-machines before they were cut up and hauled off for scrap. They are currently working from scratch to create new development chemicals so that they can begin selling new versions of the 125 and 600 ASA films in 2010.

Here’s what our friend Chase Jarvis had to say about the Polaroid:

“Polaroid – the original social network.
Snap a picture, show your friends = Create. Share Sustain.
Note the range, accessibility and the diversity.
Pretty impressive.”

Polaroid camera’s are still cool.

PS: The first automated photography machine (photo booth) was filed in 1889 by Matthew Stiffens. 

Within the last 6 months we’ve worked nearly three dozen Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s, many wedding’s, several corporate events, birthday parties, Playboy Mansion parties, film premier’s and so much more! And guess what? We’re not stopping! This month we’ll be at Universal Studios and Cinespace (A cool venue in Hollywood) just to name a few hot spots. Next month we’ll be in Atlanta, Georgia for a special movie premier. And, we’ll also be at The O.C. Auto Show for a couple of days!

About two weeks ago, we hit the road and ventured North to San Fransisco for a special screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World! We set-up our paparazzi themed (which is very popular) photo booth. Teen’s lined up as early as 11am for the 7:30 screening. By the time we arrived, it was 3pm and a line wrapped around the theater! Our photo booth gave teens and parents something fun and entertaining to do as they stood in line anxiously waiting to enter the screening room! Here’s what we have to say: We love you San Fransisco and we can’t wait to get back up there and work more amazing events!!

Guests prepping for the photo booth at Scott Pilgrim in SF.

One..Two..three..Say, "cheeeese!!"

We posted the above photos for a reason. We’ve been receiving a lot of emails of people asking us to please post more behind the scene photographs. Well…here they are, and we’ll be posting more! We’ve also been getting emails of people asking us to post behind the scene video’s and fun interviews of people in and around the photo booth. It’s a great idea, and look out for some videos within the next couple of posts. We love our fans and any great suggestions. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

Our next post will be all about our experience at The Playboy Mansion and the incredible charity we worked with! Stay tuned. You don’t want to miss this one.

PS: Did you know we’re on Facebook and Twitter. Follow us.

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Two weekends ago we were in Santa Ana for Eliana’s Bat Mitzvah. I think this was the first event where kids out numbered adults by a lot. Now a days, families are crazy for themed parties. Some common Bar/Bar Mitzvah themes are: Club, rock n roll, sports, destinations & movies. Eliana’s theme was Hairspray. We created a custom overlay with her name and the same font used for the Hairspray name. The room was decorated with pink and purple projected flowers on the ceiling. The table lines were bright oranges, pinks and purples? The food was fantastic and cooked on the spot!

As far as our photo booth, we were a huuuge success! We shot close to 300 photos and cranked out over 500 prints all in under 5 hours! Not bad!!

A couple of days after the event, we received a heartfelt message from Eliana’s mother. We loved it so much, we put together a sweet short photo montage with her words.

1. Customer satisfaction. It’s simple. We want you to be happy with our services. If you’re not happy, we will do everything we can to generate happiness! We’re a small, yet successful company in Southern California, and keep our customers up to date once they book our services. A lot of pre-production customization goes into our photo booths. We will make sure you get what you requested every step of the way. In general we keep in contact with our customers 2-3 times a week until their event.
We strongly believe in hiring educated, friendly, approachable photo booth personal. Everyone that works for us, we personally know, is a college graduate in the field of photography, easy to talk to and super friendly!

2. We’re a compact curtainless mobile photo booth studio that uses extremely professional equipment. The gear that we use is the same gear used in the field of celebrity portraiture and couture fashion editorial photography shoots. No point and shoot cameras with built in flashes here. The prints that you receive on-site, look above and beyond. We’re talking studio quality images that will last a lifetime and make an impression on your friends and family.

3. Cliques Photo Booth allows you the freedom to completely customize your photo booth. Having a themed party? Have a color scheme in mind? Want to include a special tag-line on every image? We’re there right with you. We do not use green screen technology. Our graphic backdrops can be seen at your event making it a momentous occasion.

So there you have it. These are just a few of the many fine qualities Cliques Photo Booth has to offer. If you have any other questions, please feel free to email, or call us!

This is just a third of the inquiries we’ve received since the beginning of the year. The majority come in by telephone. We really had no idea how 2010 was going to look for us. So far, so good. We’ve almost booked up the first quarter (Don’t hesitate to still call us and check availability!), and are just starting to get requests for the second quarter (April, May, June).

We can’t complain.

If you didn’t know it, we’re on TWITTER much like the rest of America and the world. If you don’t have an account and don’t want one, then bookmark us there. We will keep you up to date with our latest news, where we’re vending, & any specials, discounts we’re offering. And just for the hell of it, we’ll keep you up to date with our daily lives even when we’re not working.

So what is twitter and why has it become sooo popular?? Honestly, it’s the dumbest thing we’ve ever come across, but miraculously it works for us! In a nutshell, Twitter is a simple media social platform for people to share any information on anything. Pick any topic and you will find people “tweeting” about it. As a photo booth business we follow our competitors and keep track of what they’re up to and what they’re doing in general. It is also relatively easy to get followers. Once you have followers, Twitter is a great marketing tool. You add links to your website and market your company.

Twitter is also an excellent way to keep in touch with clients you worked with in the past. In business the best client is a repeat client. Twitter is a simple, quick and easy way for past clients not to forget about your business when you tweet an update especially if they have an account and are following you. They will be reminded of your services, and the chances of them using you sooner then later are greater.

You can also follow celebrities who have hundreds of thousands sometimes millions of followers. You can mention them on your profile. If they catch it and like what you said, they might re-post aka, “ReTweet”, what you said. Hence all their followers will check you out and may follow you. Celebrities may want to follow you as well. I’ve personally done this numerous times, and now have celebrities following our photo booth company. This opens a window of opportunity for them to explore our website and possibly booking our services.

Twitter, like MySpace and Facebook is just another social media outlet allowing you to market your business to people who generally may be out of your reach. In other words, when it was only MySpace, we had two arms to reach out to and connect/market with people. Now with Twitter, we have hundreds of arms going in every direction reaching and marketing to people.

You can follow us HERE.

If you don’t already know, Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010. Over 100,000 deaths have been claimed and more are on the way. CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports, ..”that up to 20,000 deaths a day are occurring to due infections and gangrene.” These deaths are known as, “stupid deaths.” More people will die due to the aftermath then the quake itself. The repercussion of this devastation will last for months if not years.

Haiti is in dire need of money for supplies such as antibiotics, first aid kits, clean water, food and shelter. There have been numerous organizations such as The Red Cross and Unicef reaching out to the world asking for your support.

For the past 20 years some of us here at Cliques Photo Booth have been annually donating charitable contributions to the IRC, or International Rescue Committee. “Founded in 1933, at the suggestion of Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee is a global leader in emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights, post-conflict development, resettlement services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by conflict and oppression.”

“At the moment the IRC has deployed it’s Emergency Response Team out to Haiti to deliver help to the devastated city of Port-Au-Prince. Their team includes experts in emergency health, shelter, and children’s welfare. They will be working with local aid groups to provide vital help to survivors. the IRC has committed to raising $5 million for reconstruction work in Haiti over the next year.”

Now you can help. Book our services immediately, and 10% of the proceeds will go directly to the “IRC’s efforts in helping survivors of the Haiti earthquake cope its devastating aftermath.”

Your support means a lot to us, and especially to those in Haiti.

Cliques Photo Booth was honored to be a part of, Friends of El Faro benefit (Sponsored by JC Penny.) event hosted by Molly Sims at Sunset Tower in West Hollywood on Tuesday, December 15th 2009.

Celebrities attending the event included, Samantha Harris, (with husband Michael and daughter Josselyn in tow), Bachelorette couple Trista and Ryan Sutter (who brought along their adorable baby daughter Blakesley Grace), and Make It Or Break It’s (& Full House’s) Candace Cameron Bure and daughter were among the notables who joined us to ring in the holiday cheer.

Cliques Photo Booth provided a special santa photo booth where celebrities and their children dressed up in holiday hats and antlers, and posed with Santa. Some children even brought their Christmas wish lists for Mr. Claus. Other entertainment included, a live brass band, and a lavish, beautifully done holiday candy bar provided by, Custom Candy Buffet Bars. Do check them out!!

We had a blast. And as always, our photo booth was a HUGE HIT!

Apparently Warhol loved the photo booth. For him it represented quintessentially modern intersection of mass entertainment and private self-contemplation. The serial, mechanical nature of the strips provided Warhol with an ideal model for his aesthetic of passivity, detachment, and instant celebrity. Warhol would incorporate his photo booth pictures in his art and started what is know as, “Pop Art” in the 1960’s.

We also came across an amazing photo (above) of Ansel Adams Usually Adams was found behind the camera taking photos of landscapes across America.

FACT: The photo booth was invented in 1889 by Mathew Stiffens.

This year I’ve attended close to 10 weddings so far. What did 7 out of those ten weddings have in common? They all had an interactive photo booth. Yup, those photo booths once stuck in malls or movie theaters, are now making their debuts at weddings. Cliques Photo Booth, in particular has done a number of wedding this year, and will be doing more in 2010.

So, what’s all the fuss about?

Well, for starters, a photo booth is affordable. Your average photo booth costs around $1,300 for 4 hours of unlimited snapping and printing. Some range as low as $800 and others as high as $3,500. Somewhere between 300-500 photos can be printed out during your wedding event.

They’re entertaining. How many weddings have you gone to and thought, “Gee, I’m bored. I wish there was something to do than just sitting around..” This is when your guests can be kids all over again and grab their friends, family and really go all out, laugh and make funny faces as many times as they want. A really good photo booth company will provide costumes and props to play dress up in. This get’s really fun after their 5th drink or so.

A photo booth provides a great ice breaker. Sometimes a line can form. While your guests wait, this is a perfect opportunity to talk to someone they don’t know. They can ask questions like, “What do you think of the photo booth?” Or, “What are you going to wear?” Also, you never know who will grab them to take a picture with. Again, this is another great opportunity to say, “That was fun, what’s your name?” Believe me, I’ve experienced it. A photo booth scenario provides the perfect ice breaker.

How many weddings have you attended, and how many times have you been photographed by the wedding photographer? Have you ever seen those photos, let alone received one?… probably not. A photo booth allows guests to leave the wedding with something they can hold on to forever, and keep on their refrigerators and desks. Your friends and family can look at their photos and think about how fun your wedding was. It’ll bring a smile to their day.

Speaking of wedding photographers, a photo booth can relieve a lot of stress from a wedding photographer trying to capture fun, candid moments. Back in June of 2009, we set up a photo booth for Heather and Abe’s wedding. By the middle of the party, the event photographer came up to us and said that she was thankful, making her job a lot easier. She loved what we were doing and wanted to blog about our company. How could we say no.

Dare to be different! Some people who just can’t afford a wedding photographer and a photo booth end up just going for the photo booth because they want something unique, fun, entertaining and still capture the party. The majority of Cliques Photo Booth’s clients are simply looking for something different that they’ve never seen or experienced at past weddings. They’re tired of seeing and doing (or not doing) the same stuff over and over.

So the next time you’re at a wedding, don’t be surprised to see a photo booth. If not, this is your calling card to be different and have one at yours!

The parents of post-bar or bat mitzvah children often display their photo album featuring moments from the big day — their child holding the Torah, posing with family, hanging on for dear life during the chair dance and mugging for the camera with friends. But these albums reflect how the parents see their child, rather than how the children see themselves.

Today’s teens live in the Facebook age. Their expectations exceed the traditional brag book gathering dust on a coffee table. They don’t remember a time before computers and multimedia, and a photo album — real or virtual — is often a visual statement about who they are and what they want to become.

Mindful of this trend, a new breed of event photographers offer services that allow for greater creativity during the celebration as well as provide added entertainment.

In addition to photo booth rentals, like those found in malls or amusement parks, photographers are also offering setups that resemble a fashion shoot, with props and green-screen backdrops as well as multiple wardrobe changes and magazine-inspired glamour. Family and guests get unique take-home souvenirs, effortless scrapbooking and instant gratification with photos that can be printed and shared on the Web — even before the bar or bat mitzvah is over in most cases.

While these photographers are also still preserving the bar or bat mitzvahs’ serious moments in elegant, conventional ways, they are adding fun to the celebration afterward through add-on packages that enhance both big-budget themed celebrations and more scaled-back events, with prices that start around $500 and can run more than $10,000.

L.A. photographer Jay Lawrence Goldman credits the rise in this innovative photography to the fact that today’s teens are savvier than ever when it comes to pop culture. He says that because the ways teens want to celebrate the big day is becoming more sophisticated, a byproduct of this shift is the implementation of photo booths and photo studio environments at the celebration.

“Bar mitzvah photography is becoming themed around the personality of the child, and an integral part of the party’s décor,” Goldman said.

The trends he sees at the forefront are shots that mirror popular magazine covers and iPod commercials.

Interactive photo companies with green-screen technology have been around since the late 1990s. As the technology and quality improved, along with the pricing, more providers began offering the service.

Traditional photography packages range from basic services starting at about $800 to photojournalism-inspired approaches that can run $3,000 to $10,000. Interactive packages, which can include photo booth set-ups, novelty video and other amenities, can run an additional $500 to $3,000.

Vivian Hurwitz hired Cliques Photo Booth for her son’s bar mitzvah earlier this year, and said it was a hit with both children and adults.

“Our guests were having such a great time with the fantastic backdrop and props,” she said. “They kept coming back for more.”

The company’s instant digital results enable kids to post the bar/bat mitzvah party highlights on their MySpace or Facebook page, while adults can visit the Cliques site to download their favorites for free to share with others.

Cliques’ pricing ranges from $1,500 for a basic package to more than $2,500 for elaborate packages using the latest interactive photo booth technology. Owner Dov Viramontes said all of his packages include photo booths or backdrops as well as a roving photographer to capture the day’s more serious moments, and he is planning to add 3-D backdrops in the coming year.

“Not only are we added entertainment, but we do formal shots of the child and his family, for use in traditional albums,” he said. “Because bar and bat mitzvahs are big on themes, we also work closely with families to model our booth to fit with the party’s personality as well as the child’s.”

Looking back on the experience, Hurwitz recommends consumers consider selecting something beyond the most basic package. Two hours “is not enough time, especially because kids and adults are going to be doing other things during the party. Those who miss out [on the photo booth] will leave the party disappointed,” she said.

Madison Bishop’s parents hired LA Photo Party after hearing a recommendation from friends. Similar to Cliques, the business attracts customers who have access to the city’s best photographers but want to try something bold and new.

After a sports-themed bar mitzvah for Madison at Dodger Stadium, his parents — including his mother, party planner Yvonne Wolf — said the LA Photo Party set-up impressed kids and adults alike.

“Not only did the kids have a blast and get literally hundreds of photos from the booth, but by the middle of the evening, as the red wine flowed, the adults all ventured over there,” said Richard Bishop, Madison’s dad and owner of Three Artists Management.

“As I was at the door saying good night at the end of the evening, probably 10 of my own friends came up to me proudly displaying their photos wearing top hats and Hendrix wigs.”

LA Photo Party’s Brian Miller described his portable set-up as being like a professional studio shoot.

With “so many girls watching shows like ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ we’ve devised a set-up with a fashion-studio feel but with the efficiency of a photo booth. Images are shot every five seconds and printed out instantly as glossy 4-by-6 photos,” he said.

While he wouldn’t discuss his pricing with The Journal, Miller said LA Photo Party is in line with what other companies are charging.

“A photo booth can produce a great souvenir for two people at a time, but this gets the entire party involved in souvenirs they can share and enjoy together,” Miller said. “The entertainment is also about instant gratification as guests can see the photos on a projection screen as they are being taken. People can also flip through photos on a flat screen monitor so they can choose their favorite shots, which are ready seconds later.”

Miller said he is planning to add new technology to his offerings in the near future — Photosphere, a 360-degree panoramic photography format that captures the bar mitzvah and his guests from every angle.

“It’s our way of keeping up with the changing trends of event entertainment, and a way that we can offer repeat clients something brand new to really wow their guests,” he said.

While modern event photography is reaching some dazzling extremes, Miller said it’s the family and guests who are the subjects in the photographs, not the props or the other extras.

“The focus should be on the people in the photo,” he said, “backdrops should not take anything away from them.”

Goldman echoed a similar sentiment.

“Though we offer the photo booth as an add-on, I am still hired to document the details of the party,” he said.

Goldman considers his job as part family historian, and he said entertainment photography should not take away from the importance of artistic, traditional photography.

“It is also extremely important to feature grandparents and other close relatives, as these photos are the ones that get passed down from generation to generation,” he said.

Check out the short video here.