Watching Jelly Fish is one of my favorite things to do! OK that may sound weird, (because it is). But they exude such a lovely, peaceful, ethereal mood. They hold a child-like magic spell over me. It is one of my dreams to have a huge jelly fish tank in my next home. Of course, when that happens, I'll post the images on the blog. Stay tuned!
"Computer photography won't be photography as we know it. I think photography will always be chemical." -Annie Leibovitz
This image was captured shortly after Parker and I arrived for Mardis Gras 2006.
Before
After
"All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." -Richard Avedon
Travel weddings are so fun for me. I love shooting in new places. Last Saturday, Ingrid and I shot at a very cool location in Sonoma. It's called Artefact Design and Salvage. The owner travels the world to buy unique pieces from old chuches, estates, ect and then showcases them in this most inspiring location. Enjoy!
THIS BOOK ROCKS! My friend Charlie Samples suggested that I read The Four Agreements after I got all worked up about a publishing issue. He pointed out to me that I was frustrated due to my expectations. I listened to this book 4 times last week. It's 2 and half hours long (unabridged!) and will change your life!
In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.
Don Miguel Ruiz has dedicated his life to sharing the wisdom of the ancient Toltec. For more than two decades, he has guided others toward their personal freedom. Today, he continues to combine his unique blend of ancient wisdom and modern-day awareness through journeys to sacred sites around the world.
Get the Audio Book today. Click on the link for Audible and get two free books when you sign up!
I had an amazing conversation with Gary Fong, David Jay and Dane Sanders at WPPI last March. Becker set up a dinner at Mandalay Bay for about 25 people. We were talking about the influences of success and Gary explained the importance of pre visualization. I'll never forget it. He was so excited to tell us about how he regularly spends time daydreaming in vivid detail the goals he wants to achieve. And then they materialize as he expects them too.
What do you dream about? Give yourself permission to dream today about your goals. Make them very specific. Create time to do this on a regular basis (as often as possible) and watch your dreams materialize.
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. ~ Walt Disney
My lovely wife Ingrid and I flew up to Napa on Friday for a Saturday wedding. While we were there, we had to visit Merryvale, our favorite winery in St. Helena. It was a picture perfect day. We also ate desert at the Culinary Institute and got a little relaxin' in too.
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." -Robert Capa
Becker and I travelled south of the border for a photo field trip in Jan of this year. This is one of the street musicians we encountered.
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After
"I think all art is about control - the encounter between control and the uncontrollable." -Richard Avedon
September 16th was my most requested date for weddings this year. Fortunately, Joe & Michele had booked me last year for this gorgeous event. Coordinated by Sheryal Rozzelle of Unique Elegance and flowers by Square Root. This wedding totally Rocked!
A beautiful Monday morning to you all. Let's start the week in control of our learning. This weeks book is a classic. It's one that I've read twice and I also have the audiobook! This one is a must read. It's not a manipulation book to control people. It's a book to help us recognize what we all want, successful relationships that nurture those around us. If you've read it, I'd love to find out what spoke to you most powerfully. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
You can go after the job you want...and get it! You can take the job you have...and improve it! You can take any situation you're in...and make it work for you!Simon & Schuster Audio is proud to present one of the best-selling books of all time, Dale Carnegie's perennial classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, presented here in its entirety.
For over 60 years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this audiobook has carried thousands of now-famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.
With this truly phenomenal audiobook, learn:
The six ways to make people like you
The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment
And much, much more!
The audiobook is 7 hours long! Unabridged, Yeah!! Listen while you exercise today! Do it now.
Get the Audio Book today. Click on the link for Audible and get two free books when you sign up!
The Fall Season is really busy for me. It's probably busy for most of you. In fact, the world seems to be moving faster and faster. In order to nurture our creative soul, we must take time to relax our minds and bodies. Give yourself permission today to relax. It's ok. Just do it.
“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” Leonardo da Vinci
While shooting engagement images in L.A. atop one the hotels downtown, I came across this cool old coin-operated viewer. I took a couple of snaps for myself while I was scouting the location. Always be aware of your surroundings.
"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them." -Diane Arbus
While Charlie Samples was here, I had laid out an album design and wanted to show him the process I use. It's old school, but it works great for me. I provide all my clients with 4x6 previews. I select a box of my favorites for them and ask them to put in their favorites and pull out any of mine that they don't like. Then we get back together at my studio to lay them out on a big table and I work them to design their album. They leave those images with me while we're retouching and designing the pages for their finished 10x15 or 12x18 Leather Craftsmen album. Charlie got a lot out of me talking him through the process.
"Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
The last couple of days, my friend Charlie has been in town and hangin' out with me. Charlie and first spoke several years ago after he saw me speak at WPPI with Becker, Mike Colon and Jon Barber. He called me and asked if I would consider coaching him one on one. He wanted to make a career change and he thought that I could really help him shape his business. He was my first official student. Since then, we've become close friends and I greatly admire his character and integrity. He now works full time as a wedding photographer. In fact, I was a guest at his retirement party last March from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Check out his work here. Here we are with one of Charlies' favorite wines. It was his gift to us. Good friends and good wine. Life is good.
Last weekend I had the pleasure to be involved in the wedding of friend. It's such a blessing to be a guest of honor at a wedding. Congratulations Amanda and Randy!
Mondays rock and so does this weeks book recommendation! I gave this book to Becker last year and it changed his life and his business. (He prefers the printed book over the audiobook, whatever). I actually have both. The audiobook is abridged. Either way, check it out! Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith.
In order to market effectively, you must learn how to sell something you can't even see - services. Millions of people work in, and depend upon, America's "service economy." This useful guide tells you how to sell your company's services, as well as how to develop them and help them grow. Ace marketing man Harry Beckwith put his 25 years of experience to use to develop hundreds of quick, practical, and easy-to-remember strategies that will help you master this crucial branch of marketing.
Understand your market! Enjoy!
Get the Audio Book today. Click on the link for Audible and get two free books when you sign up!
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of one of the darkest day in US history. The consequences of that event have changed the world. Today, let us purpose our lives toward Grace and Peace with generous portions of Understanding and Forgiveness. Our world can be changed through your life. You posses a great power within you. Your Love can bless your family, your friends, your community and beyond.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Mahatma Gandhi
This is a great site on the rebuilding effort at ground zero. http://www.projectrebirth.org
I love this image. This homeless man wandered around talking to himself for several minutes before he stood still at this intersection, waiting for the signal to change. I quickly decided to shoot from a low angle to avoid the cars and trucks in the street. This is the resulting image.
"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." -Ansel Adams
When Parker and I photographed New Orleans last Mardi Gras, we parked his car about a half a mile away from Bourbon Street and had to walk because there were so many parked cars. This was the first doorway we walked past and I just couldn't wait to start shooting. This doorway has become a memory, because I took a moment to document it. The original image and the tweaked version.
Before
After
Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with two friends I don't get to see often enough. First, my buddy Paul was in town from Las Vegas. Our relationship goes all the way back to Jr. High School in Wisconsin in the early 1980s. We "explored trouble" back in the day, (almost everyday). Here's us today in 2006.
And us in 1983. As you can see, my rock star dream and my fetish for sunglasses goes way back. Guess which one is me.
It was also my friend Brians' Birthday and we partied and danced "in da club" at Mosuns in Laguna Beach with his wife Christie and a small posse of his peeps.
"My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph." -Richard Avedon
These are some of my favorite images from last weekend. This wedding took place at The St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Beach. Cynthia Pritchard of CP Event Company and her team coordinated this beautiful event. Square Root did all the amazing floral design and Mike Ivey did the lighting. Finally, that insane wedding cake was created by the super exclusive Sylvia Weinstock. I love weddings! How much more beauty more could a photographer ask for! A special thanks to Joe and Mirta Barnet for their help covering this huge event with me. Yeah teamwork!
Mondays are the best day of the week to start off on the right foot. Millions of kids are going back to school this week and it's your turn to learn too! About a year ago I began a love affair with audio books. In my opinion they are the best and fastest way to improve your business skills and your life's direction and goals. I get most of my audio books from Audible.com. Click on the banner for Audible and get 2 free books when you sign up. Do it today and let's learn together.
This week I'm listening to The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
In this brilliant and groundbreaking book, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point.
Ahh, Sunday. Brothers and sisters, we all need at least one day of rest. Sundays are going to be dedicated to nourishing our souls. May you recognize the blessings that abound in your life today.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson
I am beginning to understand that no one achieves anything great by themselves. Success is achieved as the result of the contributions of many people in one's life. I have been incredibly blessed to have had a lifetime of support and I would like to thank the following key influencers in my career as a photographer.
First, my parents. Thank you Mom and Dad for your patient love and support of the decisions I've made to pursue my passion as an Artist.
Thank you Mr. McIlwee for your non judgemental support and direction in encouraging me to take my first photography class as a senior in high school. My art came alive in the medium of photography and my life found it's expression.
To my lovely wife, Ingrid, whom I met at the very first wedding I photographed almost 16 years ago. Thank you for consistently encouraging me to follow my passion. Your faith in me has allowed me to soar far beyond what I believed I was capable of. You are my best friend and companion on this glorious journey through of life. I love you.
Cheers and props to Russell Pierce at Road Design www.roaddzn.com for offering to create the "coolest possible Joe Photo Logo" for me back before I was cool. Russell's vintage logo and coffee mug design are what I chose to use for this "Cup of Joe Photo" blog. Thanks a million Russ!
To my best (guy) friend, Becker. You and I have had such an amazing adventure in this business. We decided to make it BIG in the OC and bring photographers together. You have played a huge role in my success. I love you, bro!
Finally, and most importantly, I thank God. Through Him all things are possible. My life would be empty without His purpose, love and grace. All glory and honor are His.
As many of you know, I'm slow to adopt new habits. As Kip sang to his new bride LaFawnduh (in one of my very favorite movies) "Yes I love technology, not as much as you, you see....but still I love technology, always and forever. Always and forever." I have a "love - hesitation" relationship with all things technical. Let's just say, I'm cautious.
Technology has, in fact, completely changed the entire landscape of the Wedding Photography World. Digital cameras and computers have allowed photographers infinitely more control over their art. I shot my first completely digital wedding on Jan 26th, 2002 (with my great friend Becker watchin' my back) and I haven't looked back since. In fact, I joke that you really couldn't pay me to ever shoot film again. It's just not fun. However, many photographers had been shooting weddings digitally in early 2001. I took my time. I sat back and watched and let others figure it out. I waited until I knew I could do it fabulously. Then I jumped in.
The same can be said with blogging. I've sat back and watched and waited. Cameras and computers have once again joined forces to allow us to share our passion with countless viewers. I'm hopeful that I can now do blogging fabulously too. Always and forever....
