A friend recently told me that I’ve got as much energy as a roomful of second graders. He’s probably right. I do have energy. But more importantly, I have fun. Running around with lights. Rolling around on the ground to get the perfect angle. Looking through the grass with my lens to find the sparkle in the bride’s eyes. For me, wedding photography is an opportunity to turn up the energy, get creative, and take honest shots that truly reflect the bride and groom.postcard from Kailua
Sunset on Kailua Beach, Hawaii. PhaseOne P30+ / 645DF / 80mm 2.8 LS
Going Pro series pt 4: Make Amateur Photography Pay
“There is more spontaneous and active interest in photography today than at any time in past history.” 
Those words were written 75 years ago. Ansel Adams would stand at about my age, a whipper snapper 33. Yet, those pearls of wisdom hold true today, appropriate to kick off A.J. Ezickson’s book, “Making Amateur Photography Pay,” available here for $4.94.
I found this 1937 gem after cracking the cover of a book I stumbled upon for $20 find at Bookends, a used gently used book store in Kailua, Hawaii. I felt compelled to share my Cliff’s Notes :
10 Truisms, 75 Years Later :
- Tell a picture story, and tell it well. This goes without much explaining in the world of digital photography. There is no room for the full type of picture which tells little or nothing. According to Ezickson, the image must be informative and carry immediate interest which may depend upon action, personal emotions, adventure, the strange, the everyday events revealed from a fresh slant.’
- Be cool in emergency. This might take years of training to keep eyes and hands and nerves steady at critical moments. Avoid stage fright.
- Be friendly. While you might straighten your tie or look twice in the mirror.
- Watch trends. Know your market carefully and be well conversant in your genre, including key players.
- David can beat Goliath. Freelancers can still out scoop a staff photographer, thanks to social networks like blogs, Twitter, and the like.
- Accept jobs willingly. Not every shoot is a Grace Ormonde feature or New York Times spread. Moments and incidents we shoot often are drab and dull, however it is up to us to make them interesting. Do your duty and do it well. If you treat most people decently they will likely reciprocate.
- Steady persistence pays. You may not acquire perfection in the first few attempts at anteing, but conscious efforts and hard work and patience will in the long run reward you with pictures which will not only satisfy yourself but please even a discriminating audience.
- Dull pictures bore. There is no room for the type of picture that tells little or nothing.
- Exclusive remains important. Editors want to publish a picture rivals don’t have.
- Do your own book reports. It’s easy to read other’s thoughts, gloss over, and be on with you day. Think critically, arrive at your own conclusions, share. These are MY thoughts to pass along.
In the iPhone age, the best camera is the one that’s with you … yet the same ideas existed 75 years ago, illustrated by Ezickson: “ The miniature camera has accomplished one big thing. As a bright new weapon in the ceaseless quest for the photographic gem, it has stirred the imaginations of thousands to the possibilities of new triumphs in the photographic field…. to new vistas of accomplishment… and record new picture documents to give the world as imperishable data.”
My jaw dropped after seeing the author signed these very pages… in my very hands, at this pivotal point in my life, watching a sunrise on Kailua, Hawaii : 
As an extension of my gratitude for your readership, I share a bit of creative energy… an image created shortly after sunrise at Kailua beach, Hawaii. I shot the images with my Nikon D-700 paired with my Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR II panning for 1/15 sec, sans Photoshop. 
Continue Reading…
Going Pro series pt 3: Knowing When to Make the Jump
Aloha from Oahu! The next installment of “Going Pro” addresses the important issue of when to launch from an amateur photographer to full-time photographer… especially in the age when so many dream to be a Hawaii destination wedding photographer.
I focus on this simple quote and follow-up in answering three important questions.
“I spent the weekend working with some great photographers volunteering their time for a great cause. They had the right equipment, were experienced in weddings and were very good, yet were not full-time photographers. Their photography was supported by their day job. One couple had been in business for 3 years and they were reinvesting in gear so much that they had not reported a profit yet.
As an artist, you sell your work as apart of yourself. That is key, yet without risk comes no reward. No different than hang gliding for the very first time… sure jumping off a ledge is a scary thought… but the bliss can be worth it and I hope you can visualize this in this next image: 
Good news. There IS a balance between getting all of the pieces in place to go pro, yet still affording milk for the baby. We all juggle the same pins.
1. How long do you stay in the reinvesting and portfolio building side?
If you stay passionate, and have the means to keep at it, then by all means keep doing it and hit that goal of being a destination wedding photographer. You’ll never see a funeral hearse towing a Uhaul. While money provides lifestyle options, you can’t carry it with you after you die.
Sometimes it takes 10 years to be an overnight success. Other times, you’ll go bankrupt even with a Kodak name. You have to be a CEO and a creative business person at the same time, which is never easy in this line of creative work. If you find yourself constantly justifying your art to pay bills, you might need an additional source of income to support your passion. However, there is nothing wrong with a ‘day job,’ as it long as it supports your passion and doesn’t burn your out from working two jobs at once which balancing health, lifestyle, family, and friends.
I’d say that 50% of full-time wedding photographers put all their eggs in one basket for their full-time income, which I think is stupid. Diversifying your business will provide you the grounds to build your cliental, experience, and offer the needed time to genuine connects in the industry which will sustain you a la Chase Jarvis. Create. Share. Sustain. And have a bit of fun with taking a picture of a polaroid in a picture perfect spot on Oahu: 
2. What self “checks” do you put in place to make sure you are moving ahead and not stuck?
Look at your bank statement. If more money is going out than coming in, that’s a sign perhaps your biz skills could be improved.
If you earn $100 and spend $99, then you are heading in the right direction. If you earn $100 and spend $101, you aren’t. Can’t paint a simpler picture.
Setting goals is paramount, but not at the cost of staying happy. Paying yourself now might come in the form of a piece of equipment, but if you owe more time that you care to give, reconsider outsourcing or be prepared to call it quits.
If there is passive income, however when the bread and butter of your livelihood comes from shooting, then knowing how to draw lines of profit vs loss is important. Do 50% of small businesses ‘fail’ within 5 years? Not sure, but I know that if I work smart, not just hard, the pay off will always come. 
Going Pro series pt 2: Delay Instant Gratification
All too often we work for something we can’t see, but pray the results are somewhere on a foggy horizon.
Like chopping firewood, washing a car, or mowing a lawn, we love seeing the instant fruits of our labor. However, what happens, after years and years of work, there’s not much to see?
We have two options:
- Give up and resign to the fact that it isn’t worth doing.
- Knuckle down & stay focused, knowing the results will be worth it.
Take high school chemistry class, for example. Some of us arrived at the correct answer, second-nature. Some interpreted the funky mole symbols divided by delta stuff and manage (I’m proud of my “B” in college chem 102). And some quit. Like having a baby, loosing weight, or growing a creative business, the process is much sweeter if you can see it, feel it, measure it, and share it. And there are those who had to work extra hard and persevere, years later see the fringe on the horizon. “God, give me patience now!” we pray.
Deep inside, we all rest easy that good things do come to those who wait. Things money can not buy, but efforts which put us closer to genuine happiness, builds strength and discipline, and leads us more to a fulfilling life. The benefits of delayed gratification are many. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that the cliche runs true.
But when you study for months and months for what seems like the most difficult test in your life, waiting for the results tests nervous of anxiety. Anticipating the results might look something like this: 
But the reward is bliss when you arrive on the other side!!!
When you find out the great news, it’s off to celebrate! Here’s what 1,000 words of happiness with frozen yogurt looks like: 
If we look like we are 11th grade, it’s because we both feel that way! I am so proud of Krista!!! I also think we found the fountain of youth… which lies somewhere between the local frozen yogurt stand and an Polaroid moment. It’s nice to cherish something in our hand, a tangible memory not necessarily for the final product but for the laborious process to arrive at that destination.
Photographers, do you dream for analog simplicity with instant gratification? My solution on the cheap, a pair of Instax cameras VERY cute together, because sometimes one good thing needs a match: 
Continue Reading…
ice fisherman
Days can pass by before Ben catches a fish on frozen Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. “It’s better than a good day at work,” he said.
Thank you, Martin Luther King, Jr for giving us this day to enjoy a bit of solitude and appreciate a life worth living, no matter the color of our skin, status, education, occupation, or where we live. I love my new {winter} neighborhood and look forward to meeting more guys like Ben.
Ice texture of frozen Lake Harriett. 
Found this little piece of trash. Ironic. 
Krista dons her new coat in stylish Midwestern style: 
Cheers to finding something off the beaten path… the essence of exploring!
#90 … check! {enter WPPI Print Contest}
90. Enter a WPPI Print Contest.
I almost checked this goal off my 101 in 1001 list last year.
Turns out, my prints I sent via UPS and never made it to the Awards of Excellence 16 x 20 Print Competition at Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Convention (WPPI). UPS sent an insurance check to cover the costs and WPPI refunded my $140 entrance fees. I was thankful for this, but they still never got judged which is what I was really hoping for. I detailed the account in last year’s blog post, There’s always next year.
Well, that next year is now.
***UPDATE***
In November, I got a call from WPPI. The prints arrived at their doorstep, 10 months late! WPPI was kind enough to ship them back to me in perfect condition without charge. Thank you, WPPI !!!!
Steady persistence pays off, I tell myself. I made the effort the first time and it didn’t work out. I’ll do it again.
Today, I re-submitted these two prints in this year’s WPPI Awards of Excellence 16 x 20 Print Competition in the Premier category (my first time entering): 
Insured and guaranteed to arrive by January 9, 2012, my mounted metallic prints are packaged in a Fiberbilt P50 Print Shipping Case and ready to journey back to WPPI. 
