Quality and online ease – a perfect wedding
Many community members know him as a special-events photographer and now Michael Warshall has reinvented himself, investing in revolutionary Israeli printing technology.
MELBOURNE special-events photographer Michael Warshall has parlayed a lifetime of premium-quality photography with today’s demands for quick turnarounds and the ease of online ordering in his start-up business Emot Weddings.
The web-based enterprise enables couples to go online to order a wedding photographer from more than 100 photographers, and select the type of work required – from options including prints, self-designed or expert-designed photobooks, and professional video.
Emot Weddings was hatched in 2018, after Warshall sold Nulab, his award-winning photography print business of several decades. He retired, only to realise he could not sit still. Developing the online startup from his home at Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula during the height of the COVID pandemic, he recalled wedding plans buffeted by rolling lockdowns and cancellations.
But brighter days are back, and Emot is expanding rapidly, with eight major investors and offshore access to software developers.
To master setting up an online business, Warshall enrolled in a course that taught the finer points of capital raising for internet-based ventures.
At the core is the top-quality photography Warshall’s clients have known ever since he began special-events photography in Melbourne in the early 1970s.
Warshall, born to a Jewish family in the Soviet Union, arrived in Australia in his youth and studied chemistry. He earned a reputation as one of Australia’s best analogue (film) photographers for simchas. But when the digital era dawned, he reinvented himself. Investing in revolutionary Israeli printing technology was part of that process.
In the early 1990s, Israeli company Indigo came to market with a new concept – a printing process that creates a different image on every impression. The technology, which enabled variably printed, database-driven marketing campaigns, improved year by year, and the company, founded by Israeli print visionary Benny Landa, was acquired by America’s HP corporation. However, HP had the foresight to keep Indigo in Israel’s “silicon wadi”.
In 2014, when Warshall invested in HP Indigo presses for Nulab, he realised the output, while great for the commercial market, was not up to the demands of special-events photography. Over several years, he worked with the Israelis on developing a seven-colour, high-definition process which HP Indigo has since made available across its range.
“A new ink, part of the seven-colour process, enables a smooth, accurate rendition of facial features and other exacting aspects of photography expected by clients for personal celebrations like weddings,” explained Warshall.
With the convenience of web ordering and a quality that matches the best photography available, Warshall believes Emot Weddings is an unbeatable service for simchas in the 2020s.
To find out more, visit emot.co
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