If you’ve spent much time on Anna Maria Island, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Jack Elka’s photography.
His photos seem to be everywhere: calendars, real estate offices, gift shops, the newspaper. If it’s on the island, Elka probably has snapped a picture of it.
That explains why this week feels bittersweet for Elka and his wife, Hope, who are leaving the island to explore new horizons among the hills of Hendersonville, North Carolina.
Elka, 69, calls it “a new adventure,” though you can’t help but hear the melancholy in his voice.
“There’s a lot I’m going to miss,” he said.
But he is primed to clone himself in the mountains. Rack cards. Piano gig. Realtors on speed dial. A scenic outlook for memorable family photos and weddings. Check, check, check, check.
Forty years ago, Jack Yencho came to the area from Philadelphia, settled in Anna Maria and eventually opened a photography studio in Holmes Beach.
He adopted the name Jack Elka for his business.
But, first, he paired up with the Billy Rice Band, playing keyboards. He soon branched into photography to capture the burgeoning beauty of the island’s scenery, sunsets, the beach and weddings.
He studied “in the school of hard knocks,” he said, learning frame-by-frame about techniques that worked and some that didn’t.
The beach became his canvas, and he began calling his new business Portraits by the Sea. Weddings and family photos on the beach were a staple.
But when he started shooting aerial photos almost three decades ago, that’s when things really took off. He hired a pilot, rented a Cessna and began shooting everything he could from the sky.
“I shot every condo, every property on the island. I went to the Realtors and told them I had stock photos of everything,” he said. “That’s how I got started in aerial photography. And it took off like crazy.”
He walked into The Islander office with an aerial photo in December 1992, shortly after the launch of the paper. It also was the very beginning of a huge beach renourishment project and his photo showed bulldozers moving mountains of sand at what became the Beach House restaurant.
“It was a big hit on the cover,” publisher Bonner Joy said. “The papers were flying off the shelves.”
As his clientele, including The Islander grew, he partnered with other locals to create a comprehensive wedding guide, designed to streamline the process of managing island weddings.
It made sense, he said, having penned the phrase, “Anna Maria Island, the beach wedding capital of Florida.”
About five years ago, Elka’s aerial-photo business soared to new heights. He built a powerful drone, attached a high-end camera and soon he was shooting even more intriguing images.
He is an FAA-licensed commercial drone pilot, and he follows strict regulations for flying in populated areas.
“I don’t fly the drone for fun,” he said. “It’s a flying camera, and I do it for business.”
While packing their home goods last week for the move to North Carolina, Elka said he plans to maintain his studio in Holmes Beach.
It’s only a one-hour, 15-minute flight from Asheville — near Hendersonville — to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, he said. So, he’ll be able to zip down to the island regularly to serve local customers.
Elka said he’ll miss the islanders he has come to love, people like Joy, Billy Rice, local real estate people and the Island Players theater troupe.
“I’ll miss them terribly,” he said, a tear in his eye.
“I’ve got so many friends here,” he said. “I don’t want to lose track of the island. It’s so much a part of me.”