Back to normal...

The internet police called this morning and said I am taking up to much space online with my long posts. So I am cutting back to normal posts that focus on what I do well, the images, and give you a break from my weak attempts at humor! :) So if you actually read everything about Vegas below...take heart!

Vegas / WPPI...2008 (finally the last post...)

ok, trade show, here's the love you deserve.
if the last two posts bored you to death, this post is definitely for you whether you are a photographer or a client (you can find out about some new equipment and products). Charlie always talks about "keep it simple". Unfortunately I was born with the "Keep it complicated" mentality. So 400 vendors representing about 40 options for every aspect of this business was right up my alley.

First of all, it was awesome to own the piece of equipment that was all the rage of the convention. Yes, I am a Nikon guy and about 6 weeks ago picked up a D3 (a review). So I got to check out all the new lenses at the Nikon booth and it was fun to answer all kinds of questions from everyone while hanging around. Shooting at 6400 ISO virtually clean is no doubt amazing, but the images at 400 ISO are as amazing as anything I have ever seen also. I think my favorite part though is shooting full frame. Or is it shooting at 9fps. I don't know. ha!

anyway here are a couple images from the last month with this new bad boy.

The man himself...

The following images are all Straight out of the camera (except of course the branding, I haven't figured out how to make the camera do that yet.) No sharpening, no nothin'.
ISOs are listed below each image.

ISO 200

ISO 200

ISO 320
To see some finished photos of this shoot...click here

ISO 1250

ISO 3200

ISO 6400


I am starting a D3 dedicated blog soon so stay tuned if your interested.

I did hang out at the Pictage booth a while and got to know the folks there. I met Jamie Collier, my pro consultant. It was cool getting to know you Jamie being that people like you can sure make my life a whole lot easier. (BTW, I am starting the OKC Pictage User Group soon. Chris Humphrey is gonna rock it in Tulsa. Check back every minute to find out when it will be. ) I have to give a mention to my buddy at Pictage, Monty Jessop. Here is one of those guys that the client never sees and probably many photographers never know about but is so valuable. He is the print quality control specialist and makes sure all the prints look their best. I have spent so many hours on the phone with him over the last year working on different projects so it was awesome to meet him in person.
Pictage also had a mini-conference before the big daddy and they are always awesome at getting the rock stars of our business in to speak. I loved hearing from Jason Keifer and Gary Fong about the beginning days of Pictage. It makes you realize how in demand an idea was like this company and the massive effort (a.k.a. growing pains) it took to innovate a whole new type of business in the digital photography era.

My other main goal at the show was to expand my album offerings. I haven't made any decisions yet, but I can tell you that between Queensberry, La-Vie and Cypress, you will have the best options available. I already use Leather Craftsmen who have a beautiful product and a great company (great to meet Dan Hammel while there!). They just released a new product that is exactly what I was looking for. I will be ordering a sample as soon as it is available.) I will say Dena from Cypress was everything I hope for in an owner of an handmade album company. The people and approach behind the product is super important to me. If you are in the biz and have any experiences to share on working with these companies, do share.

So after I sort it all out and add 1 new album company, it will be super simple for you to see the options in studio.

Let's see what else...Oh, of major importance, I may have found some album design software (thanks Chris) that will provide for great designs while significantly speeding up the process. Of great interest to many of you I am sure (I Know! I Know!).

As Josh mentioned on Facebook, I picked up a ShootSac for him. I have been using one since Hawaii last year and love it. And Charlie, I am comfortable in my manhood, even it I do wear a man purse at weddings. HA! (I prefer to think of it as a holster for my weapons!)

But dude! Apple was not there! What is up with that? Aperture 2.0 is awesome. Oh, well, if you are interested, the boys over at the Apple Store in OKC are going to have me over for a ProSeries demo of it soon. When it gets all worked out, I will of course post here.

WPPI / Vegas...Part Deux

So, as I mentioned below, the best part of WPPI was definitely the hanging out and making friends. As a nice little bonus, the best creatives, innovative thinkers and great inspirers did all kinds of talks. And oh yeah, there was a little trade show with about 400 booths of the coolest new nerdy photographer stuff and gorgeous products for the wedding industry.
So, where to start?...
I think the most memorable times came from hearing Michael + Anna Costa and David Jay speak. All three of whom just so happen to live in la-la-land, Santa Barbara. In case you don't know, it is my dream to move there someday. From the few times that I have been there it seems like the perfect balance between laid back SoCal culture, gorgeous surroundings, but relatively small crowds and very cool, laid back, non-big shot attitudes. Maybe that is why the median home price is somewhere around $1.5M. (sorry, I think in reading these things, you know why I didn't become a writer!!)

An image I liked from my Santa Barbara trip 2007. (my grandparents live there so I hung out with them for a couple days on the way to...)

Pismo Beach just after the wedding I shot there. Taken just minutes apart in different directions.

Michael + Anna exemplified the balance of fresh original photography, a solid but simple business model, and a commitment to customer relationships that is very genuine, personal and wants what is best for their clients. In many interactions with people in all avenues of business, there are some who have a "watch out for me first" mentality. One that will do everything to protect your own interests, cut whatever corners you can for a greater profit and will sell you anything if you will buy it. (fortunately, there are many who don't subscribe to this also:) I have never been comfortable with that and tried to do the opposite. Since starting my business in 2000 in the media marketing industry, I have always believed that if you give someone the best possible product, do whatever you can to meet their needs and requests and only market the truth, it will always create a loyalty from your customers. Now, I will be the first to admit, I have made many mistakes in the attempt to do this and many times been slow to meet one person's needs while trying to help another. But this is the main point of emphasis for me right now and one that I really hope will be the biggest area of growth this year. Michael + Anna were great inspiration that this can not only be done but it really works for building a great business. Thanks!
On the last night of the conference, I went to hear David Jay & Jeff Jocum speak, Jeff gave some really practical and motivational ideas for making your business work by delegating more everyday tasks to be able to focus on what you do best and only you can do. Man, do I ever need to make that happen! :) ha! I really enjoyed D.J.'s talk but I can't pinpoint really what it was. It was just inspirational in the sense that he sparked me to think more intuitively or innovatively about what product and experience we can give to couples. To think way beyond just photography and albums to the whole experience we can give.

Why am I sharing all this? Hmm, I don't really know. I guess I want all my awesome clients who have trusted me to capture such an important time in their lives, (and all of you who are considering doing so) to know how much this work means to me and how passionate I am at developing an entire experience that is everything it can be. I am genuinely so honored to do something I love but more importantly, something that can both capture such great moments, and provide for many more as you enjoy the work for years to come.

Also, every few days, I find out another local photographer that checks this blog often. Some of the best people in this industry (both locally and nationally) have shared so much with me, I am so glad to be able to pass it on.

Ok, the trade show got bumped again. Next post. For all you fellow camera nerds with me, I do have some really cool news. Hint: It was cool to own the one piece of technology that I think had the most buzz of the whole show!!!

Vegas / WPPI...2008

I feel a little like that guy on the motel commercial."I've been to Nashville, Dallas, Cancun, and Vegas..." in the last 6 weeks. Fortunately Cancun was vacation. Oh and on that note, everyone was asking about the destination wedding in Cancun. Sorry, this trip was just me, Anna and Elaina, chillin' on the beach. The bride and groom from the the wedding I shot just couple days before we left just happened to be staying close by. I will definitely have a post soon about Mexico. But I digress....

This was my first trip to WPPI (for non-photographer blog fans, that is the premier wedding photographers conference and trade show of the year) and it was my first trip to Vegas too. I am not into gambling, insane crowds or showgirls so Vegas isn't really my thing but world class restaurants and golf are my thing so maybe I will come back for that someday. I will pretty much always be back for WPPI. As great as the whole trip was, this was the best part...

This is what I get to come home to now days!

The best part when I was actually there was the networking and making friends in the business. This industry is sooo cool in that respect. There is a major trend to a new school of thinking where "competing" photographers can be friends, share with each other and really want to raise the bar across the board. That makes this business so much fun for me.

The King of this way of thinking is [b]ecker out of Orange County. He has helped me so much in the last few years from great inspiration and challenging me to take my photography to the highest level, to so many really insightful business tips to being an amazing example of "Paying it Forward" in all your friendships, even in the business. So needless to say I was totally stoked to get invited to the [b] party.

He books pretty much the best suite in THEhotel and invites the best wedding photographers in the world just to have fun and connect (I'm not claiming to be in that category by the way...:). Thanks to my good friend Charlie Samples, I got introduced to some amazing photographers, many of whom are my heros in the business and also leading the way in sharing the wealth. Got to say hi again to Mike Colon, (I have had many chances to chat with Mike in the last year...he has probably influenced how I do business and shoot more than anyone-go buy his DVDs and go to his workshops), and Joe Photo (who I totally enjoyed chatting with a little this week). Met David Beckstead, and Michael Costa (Michael and Anna are awesome, inspiring people and photographers who live in my dream spot, Santa Barbara). Charlie also introduced me to a few of his long time friends Joe and Mirta Barnet and Brooks Whittington. All of whom were great to make friends with. Also got a really cool chance to share mutually about the journey with Jeremy Peck and Brion Hopkins, two guys in the process of building great photography businesses.

Anyway, it was super cool to be there and connect with so many great people. Huge thanks [b]!

w/ Charlie, Mirta and Joe. I am not exactly a pro at being on the other end of the camera, so by the time I figured it out, it was over. :( Ha !!

I really do want to stay in touch with everyone I met so say hi in the comments...

What I spent most of the rest of the time doing though was hanging out with my friends from Oklahoma. These guys are the some of the best photographers in the region and really have jumped into the concept genuine networking. I even hate to use that word sometimes because it doesn't do justice to the relationships that I am developing with some of these guys. It hasn't been all that long that this has been going on and I can already call many of them good friends.
Also reconnected with Jerry & Ingrid from San Fran. Great to see you two!

So to Charlie, David Baxter, Chris Humphrey, Robert Trawick and Ace Cuervo (who I just met this week), thanks for making the week a blast and always challenging me.

There also happened to be the world's biggest trade show for wedding photographers and sessions with all the rock stars in the business but that will have to be in post #2 coming up.

A craftsman at work.../ a really cool labor of love /

I have been working on and considering this project for really about 18 months. I finally got it right with the help of Jimmy "Live" Wire and Kevin Bennitt. The guys at Fine Arts Engraving treat your job with the same passion and craftsmanship I strive to always run my business with. Now I have an album company, a framing company and a printer who are truly master craftsmen at work for me. Sweet! So what is the project you ask?
Take a look and see when you can figure it out.

Here is the bad boy...a 1952 Heidleberg. Arh. Arh. Arh!

Here is the recipe: 2 3/4 parts Pantone Blue, 1 1/4 parts Pantone Green, 28 parts Pantone trans. white...

Jimmy has been a printer since birth he says. It literally was his dream growing up to run a Heidleberg Letter Press. Now he has been doing it for 28 years. He was awesome. He prints by the sound. By listening to the press.
Here he is giving me a history of letter pressing. All the way back to Gutenberg's (sp?) bible. I loved it.

In action...

This should do it for you.

So, yes, I have my new ultra simple, super cool (i think:) business cards. You will have to see and touch one to see why I am excited about them. I can't wait to get one in your hands. (and now that I have shared that I am so excited about them, you will have no choice but to act like they are the coolest things in the world! ha ha)

A huge thanks to Kevin and Fine Arts for helping me get them in time for WPPI next week! I also have to give a big shout out to Mike Colon. He is the one who introduced me to letter press. He has been such an awesome help, inspiration, and resource to me through his online resources, DVDs and every time I see him, he is willing to take the time to chat more about anything.

My Favorite Color

Hey Blog fans...
this one's coming to you from poolside as any self-respecting destination photographer would have it. :) Ha!
Actually I am equidistant from the pool and the Caribbean at the Gran Melia in Cancun. Having a great time and trying to keep email checking and blogging to an absolute minimum. But Ashley and Jeff, who were just 10 minutes down the coast from us for most of the week, are back and deserve some highlights from their wedding last week so I have a couple posts below for them.

Man the water here is magical. I absolutely love the Caribbean Waters. It relaxes you just looking at them. We'll be back on Thursday and ready for a great Spring.

I'm not much for hand held self portraits but this one turned out ok so you can take a peek of my seaside view right now.
talk to ya soon...

Ashley & Jeff / 02.23.08 /

Ashley and Jeff had a gorgeous February day in Guthrie at the Dominion House. Julie at the venue was awesome as always and had the place looking classy for the Brown's black and white wedding. A few highlights for now. /make sure to check out Ashley's bridal shoot below./

Ashley's Bridal Shoot

We shot these just a few days before the wedding at The Colcord Hotel. The staff there has continually been so accommodating and helpful. What a great place! Go stay there! Or use it for any wedding events. Ronda is the new events director (who I just met) and seems to be great to work with.