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On Wednesday afternoon, we practiced engagement images with lighting, as well as available shade. We practiced posing from John's Lookbook and set ups for fashion images. It was a pretty freakin' cool time to explore creativity. Enjoy!
The morning of Day 2 we practiced using the sun as a 2nd or 3rd light for the wedding day. Of course the whole time we practiced "expanding our visions" by experimenting with different poses and lens.
Teaching a workshop is a lot of work...for the instructors. It's hours of prep, packing, and set up. Day 1 we discussed business, blogging, goals, values and lighting. John and I also stood in as models and cooked dinner for everyone. Last week was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun. It's so exciting to help facilitate the inspiration and education of photographers who share in our passion for creating images. I'll be showcasing the attendees work all week. Enjoy!
Photographic technique is no secret and – provided the interest is there – easily assimilated. But inspiration comes from the soul and when the Muse isn’t around even the best exposure meter is very little help. In their biographies, artists like Michelangelo, da Vinci and Bach said that their most valuable technique was their ability to inspire themselves. This is true of all artists; the moment there is something to say, there becomes a way to say it. - Ralph Gibson - from his book Déjà vu [cited in: Creative Camera December 1972, p. 401]
Perhaps today you need a little inspiration.
Do something fun today that you've been putting off.
Last week, being in the desert was extremely inspiring to me.
Give yourself permission to enjoy a creative spark today.
My excellent friend Brook Todd sent me the link to Chuck Norris Facts yesterday, and I spent far to long laughing and memorizing my favorite quotes. Perhaps I'm behind the curve by just now discovering this site. For those of you who, like me, are just now tuning in, it's worth a look.
Here's my contribution.
"Chuck Norris forbids instructions while being photographed. Chuck Norris is no poser."
Good Morning Friends!
It's 9 am in California and I've just finished unpacking my car from all the stuff I had out at our second Rimrock Workshop. The weather was as beautiful as our models. This year our now-famous couple Priscilla and Josh made the trek out to pose for the students again, as well as another one of my brides, Samantha, who also agreed to be a model for the day. Thank you so much to all three of you!!
I'll start posting images on Monday!!
I'd also love to give a huge shout-out to Mirta Barnet from Barnet Photography and Sam at Fotoworks who both helped me to quickly handle an order while I was in the desert with no phone reception and limited internet. Thank you soooo much!!
Have a fabulous weekend and get out there and shoot!
People who are different, stand out and get noticed.
For good or bad, "different" gets noticed, and remembered.
I saw this woman from a mile away.
Are you using the assets you've been given to make your business memorable in the mind of your prospects?
Break the Rules.
Often, you get attention when you do something others won't do.
The question is, what kind of attention will you receive when you do it?
Act accordingly.
How are you perceived by others?
Does your business blend in like a chameleon on the business landscape?
What separates you, TODAY, right now, from everyone else in your industry?
Quick! Think of three things that make your business stand out to prospects.
Do you capitalize on those qualities that make you unique? Or are they hidden and hard to see?
Most importantly, be true to yourself. Not everyone will stand out in their appearance. Nor should everyone try. But remember, your clients do judge the way you look. Dress accordingly.
How do you perceive this man? When I jumped out of the car to photograph him he was very polite and soft spoken. We were in a parking garage in Monterey and he was there with his wife and little girl. Often it's difficult to get past first impressions.
Are your business benefits blending into the background of your competitors?
Yes, Yes, and Yes. I absolutely loved the lessons Elizabeth Gilbert came to recognize on her radical journey of self discovery. I may totally sound like a woman here, but there is such great value in evaluating your life and redefining the terms of your happiness. Yes, I definitely sound like a woman. So what, my best friend is a woman (Ingrid), I live with girls, I grew up with sisters and I work for brides and their mothers. OK, before I get side tracked too much, I really want to recommend this book for those of you with a desire for adventure on the journey inward. Enjoy the Blessings and Wisdom shared. And then apply them:)
From Barnes & Noble
Oddly but aptly titled, Eat, Pray, Love is an experience to be savored: This spiritual memoir brims with humor, grace, and scorching honesty. After a messy divorce and other personal missteps, Elizabeth Gilbert confronts the "twin goons" of depression and loneliness by traveling to three countries that she intuited had something she was seeking. First, in Italy, she seeks to master the art of pleasure by indulging her senses. Then, in an Indian ashram, she learns the rigors and liberation of mind-exalting hours of meditation. Her final destination is Bali, where she achieves a precarious, yet precious equilibrium. Gilbert's original voice and unforced wit lend an unpretentious air to her expansive spiritual journey.
I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn. - Pablo Picasso
Whoa, now that's taking photography seriously.
Autumn 1906: Picasso announces that he has discovered photography ... "When Picasso declared that he had discovered photography, he was revealing the most profound nature of his eye. For when Picasso drew or painted, he already saw what he was still in the process of drawing or painting, on paper or on canvas; his eye projected the image because it was already prefigured in its own pupil. Very frequently, all he did was to trace out the lines of what he already saw. His discovery of photography changed everything." – Fernande Olivier
Check out Picasso photos here and live your art with passion.
Somedays, you just want to come here and see images. I understand. That's what a photographers blog is for....
Today is the day that I reveal the value I hold most dear. I know how important it is to be clear about what is most important in my life. I think that many of us struggle through our lives, without giving much it much thought. I'm so grateful for sitting down and doing this exercise with my friend Brian a few years ago. It has stuck with me and I think about the impact of knowing what is close to heart, so that you can direct your time and energy in those directions. Thanks for hanging out with me this week as I share my heart with you.
Todays lucky three winners are:
Will Parris
Sandy Buller
Melissa Jones
Winners, email me your addresses so I can send you the cards.
Have a great weekend!
Alright, alright. We're getting down to the wire on Values week. I hope that you have considered what's most important to you this week.
Hold fast to the values that make you feel true to yourself.
Today's winner of the Value Cards are;
Rick Rosen
Samantha Carless
Guy Orr
As always winners, please email your address to claim your cards.
Next week is Rimrock Workshop fun in the sun. Tomorrow is the last day to register for $1,200. Yeeehaw.
Hmmmm, I wonder if any of you can guess my #3 value. Check it out on The Caffeinated Addict Blog.
Today's three winner of value cards are:
Lori Fusaro
Kristen Scott
Mike Prasad
Thanks for playing. Please send me your addresses to collect your Value Cards.
Todays party is brought to you by Rimrock Workshops, the most fun you can have with your clothes on:)
Everyone photographer, and I mean everyone should read the story on my Caffeinated Addict Blog today for Value #4
Today's three winners of Value Cards are:
Frank Hupalo
Kristin Bednarz
Jonathan Knox
(Winners please email me your addresses)
Todays winners are brought to you by Rimrock Workshops, where all your dreams will come true:)
Hello Friends!
I'd like to thank you all for visiting Cup of Joe Photo as often as you do. I'm grateful for your comments and your encouragement. I've tried to create a blog that focused on life and happiness issues as well as photography and the arts. I've made this blog a reflection of the things I value most. I am a photographer by profession, however, I am so much more in the bigger picture of life. I am a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a friend, and a child of God.
It's been a revealing season in my life over these past few months. I have spent considerable time pondering things of an eternal nature. I've been questioning my motives, evaluating my goals and being grateful for the depth of friendships I enjoy.
This week will be dedicated to Values. I'll be revealing my top 5 values to my Caffeinated Addicts and giving out a deck of Value Cards to 3 randomly selected Caffeinated Addicts each day.
Today's 3 winners are:
Andrew Hair
Heather Ciras
Yelena Wilkins
Congratulations! (Winners please send me an email with you address and I will send the cards out to you).
Next week John and I will be teaching our Rimrock Workshop. I know that there are some of you who really want to be there, but for whatever reason haven't yet signed up. You know who you are. It's not to late to join us. Don't miss out on this opportunity to expand your vision and boost your business. Email me today for if you're interested. joe@joephoto.com.
An Act Of Kindness Contributed By Lee Ryan MillerHe was driving home one evening, on a two-lane country road. Work, in this small mid-western community, was almost as slow as his beat-up Pontiac. But he never quit looking. Ever since the Levis factory closed, he'd been unemployed, and with winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home. It was a lonely road. Not very many people had a reason to be on it, unless they were leaving. Most of his friends had already left. They had families to feed and dreams to fulfill. But he stayed on. After all, this was where he buried his mother and father. He was born here and knew the country.
He could go down this road blind, and tell you what was on either side, and with his headlights not working, that came in handy. It was starting to get dark and light snow flurries were coming down. He'd better get a move on. You know, he almost didn't see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill that only fear can put in you. He said, "I'm here to help you m'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm. By the way, my name is Joe."
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough Joe crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down her window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid. Joe just smiled as he closed her trunk.
She asked him how much she owed him. Any amount would have been alright with her. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Joe never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Joe added "...and think of me".
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight. A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The cash register was like the telephone of an out of work actor, it didn't ring much.
Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn't erase. The lady noticed that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Joe.
After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to get her change from a hundred dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. She wondered where the lady could be, then she noticed something written on a napkin. There were tears in her eyes, when she read what the lady wrote. It said, "You don't owe me a thing, I've been there too. Someone once helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here's what you do. Don't let the chain of love end with you."
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could she have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, "Everything's gonna be alright, I love you Joe."
Open up an image.
Duplicate the background layer and invert it (apple I). Change the layer mode to "difference" and flatten the layers.
Then invert the layer again and save it with a different name than the original.
Now open your original image and drag the new version on top of the original. Add a layer mask to the top layer and paint with black whatever elements you'd like to see from the original image. Have fun!!
Another fun Photoshop tweak is to pick an image and duplicate the layer. Add a layer mask and paint with black anywhere there is skin on the top layer mask. Then adjust the hue on the top layer. It's lots of fun and you can create some surreal effects.
Have a great weekend!
What do you value?
What are the qualities that guide your life?
Perhaps it's Trust? Or maybe Fun? It could be Fitness? Or Creativity? Some may choose Passion? Or Competence? How about Wealth? Or maybe Simplicity?
I've been thinking a lot about what is truly important to me lately. It's often a blessing in disguise when heart ache comes our way. I've never sat down and invited heart ache into my life so that I could see the world differently - having gone through the pain of the process. However, when it comes, it brings with it many lessons that are often hard to see in the beginning. Pain helps to focus our attention. My values are becoming clearer.
One of the values I've clung to this week is the many friends in my life. I'm so very grateful for friends who have kept me in their prayers this week and offered heartfelt concern and encouragement. We are all connected to one another. I'm filled with joy that I have generous people to hold me up.
Next week I'll be posting my thoughts on the values that are most important to me on The Caffeinated Addict blog. I'll be sharing my top 5 values from Monday to Friday.
In addition, I'd like to help 15 people find out what's most important to them. What they value most.
I'll be doing that be selecting 3 people from my Caffeinated Addict member list and posting your names each day from Monday to Friday on my Caffeinated Addicts Blog. If your name is selected please email me your mailing address and phone number and I'll send you out a deck of John C. Maxwell's Value Cards.
Additionally, I'd like to do this Value Cards exercise with you over the phone once you've received the cards.
I'd like to make an investment into your lives. It's a small way for me to thank some of you who bless me each day with your thoughts and prayers and attention.
Any new readers who would like to join my Caffeinated Addicts list can join here.
I'd like to share a great opportunity with you. On May 14th, 2008 my good friends Brook and Alisha Todd will be doing a one day seminar in Santa Cruz. Space is extremely limited. Check their blog for more details or call them directly to answer your questions - Alisha & Brook Photographers 888-686-1006. The fee is only $299! It will prove to be "fun and educational"....according to their blog:)
Matthew 18:3 "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Mackenzie and I had a wonderful day filled with childlike moments. Spending time with your kids reminds you what is truly important. We ate ice cream, played games, drew pictures, ate great food, and ran and skipped and did kart wheels. Thank God for the blessing of kids. There is no sweeter sound than kids' laughing. That, I believe, is heaven.
Joel Osteen has an encouraging message, filled with Faith and Hope. This was my first time listening to one of Joel's books. I appreciated his words and stories. I hope you will be encouraged by them too.
From Barnes & Noble Televangelist Joel Osteen's message of hope and encouragement has won him praise from actor Chuck Norris and author Joyce Meyer. In Your Best Life Now, he encourages believers to discover their innate, God-given strengths and abilities to overcome obstacles and achieve authentic success.
I have experienced an emotionally heart-wrenching week. Although there were many great moments of love and happiness, there were also great moments of suffering that have stretched my heart and refocused my purpose. Today I'd like to encourage any of you who are heartbroken. Any of you who are feeling lonely and without hope. My prayers are with you.
If you learn from your suffering, and really come to understand the lesson you were taught, you might be able to help someone else who's now in the phase you may have just completed. Maybe that's what it's all about after all... ~ Anonymous
We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it in full. ~ Marcel Proust
What was hard to suffer is sweet to remember. ~ Seneca
OK, so what did you do yesterday that was childlike and wonderful? Practice, practice, practice, living as a child. At the very least you'll live longer:)
Attention Adults. Act like a child today and report back tomorrow (comment) on what you did.
Hello friends,
In just a couple weeks, John and I will be teaching our second round of "on location lighting" for wedding and portrait photographers in the beautiful desert of Southern California. This is a hands on experience with 3 days of instruction and tons of shooting. We'll share our processes from shooting and editing to designing and Photoshop. Lots and lots of Photoshop. Pick our brains for 3 days for only $1,200. Class groups are small, and each group is able to pose their own models. This is the best way to learn. You will not just be shooting over our shoulders. Each of you gets to direct the Bride and Groom to create your own unique images. Then, each night we share what we've shot. Do you need a creative boost to Expand Your Vision? Sign up today. Your success is a direct result of your effort. See you in the desert!!
Continuing on my theme of "children at play", here's a few more from last year. Can you imagine adults doing these things. That would be cool. Enjoy.
I have always loved being around kids. They are so uninhibited. They often do exactly what they feel like doing. We adults often get stuck in doing what we are supposed to do. This week, I thought I'd honor kids at weddings and the freedom and joy they bring to The Big Day.
