Temple & Ryan

My BFFs:)  The night time is the right time… classic RJ in full-effect:

New York City Engagement: Sean & Amy’s Album

Now, more than ever more photos are created, yet never make it to print. There’s no value with a disc of images if you don’t do anything with them.

Make your photos a solid piece of art you can hold in your hands, turn each page and smile, and pass along to your next generation.

I’m so pleased how this 8” x 12” metallic page album turned out from Amy & Sean’s engagement session in New York City, one brag-worthy photo album:

Lightpainting Tips, My Secrets Disclosed?

Dear Friends,

I stand at a cross-road today after reading a beloved email inquiry about my lightpainting techniques from LA-based photographer Chris Michikazu Hori. He writes:

I just wanted to say thanks for offering such a cool site for other photographers to check out. Your outlook on life is refreshing and its great to see such positive energy.  I’m a 2nd year photographer from Los Angeles and I’m always trying to learn more and shoot better. Anyways, just wanted to reach out and tell you how much I appreciate your site!  I actually had a question as I look through some of your past posts. I was wondering what types of things you use for your long exposure effects. I just notice that a lot of your “glow” streaks are very clear. Being new to all this I have been doing the trail and error process and have been having a great time! Its totally understandable if you don’t want to disclose your secrets, just had to ask!

When in doubt, I turn to Ancient Chinese proverb:

Give a man a fish and he won’t starve for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he won’t starve for his entire life.

I ask myself: Do I disclose my lightpainting secrets?

Awesome Jeff Newsom won’t.

Alt-F John Michael Cooper will.

HUUUGE question for me. Why?

In 2007, I experimented with my first lightpainting on cactus (too embarrassed to show) In 2008, I taught free workshops in coffee shops on the subject. In 2009, I won my first award on the subject. In 2010, I taught workshops in New Orleans and Palm Springs on the subject. In 2011, I won another international award and got published in a magazine on the subject. Today, I continue to shared my thoughts on the matter.

That’s 4 years of exploring, experimenting, messing up, practicing, perfecting lightpainting to arrive where I am today.

Do I give it away for free? Do I give it away for a $10 downloadable PDF? Do I give it away for a $100 DVD tutorial? Do I give it away for a $600 private mentoring session? Do I give it away for a $2200 inclusive workshop? Do I (dare) give it away on sale for $16,500 (Sorry, Jesh)

How I do I share what I’ve learned for so many years when some new photographers want one thing: a free fish.

At what point is giving away too much of a good thing???

It is better to teach someone how to do something that to do it for them. Giving them the simple answer (a fish) is good for the short term, but teaching them the root of inspiration and how to find your own tools in the aisle of REI or Home Depot is better (teaching how to fish).

Meanwhile, momma cooks for her babies. She can’t do it forever, so she teaches how to make cookies, bread, and stew. Eventually, Martha Stewart or Julia Childs goes big.

***REWARD*** If this post receives more than 20 comments, Mr. Hori will receive a 30 minute mentoring session from me, along with one lucky commentator. Win-win-win.

Is CouchSurfing Safe?

You bet! And it’s a great way to meet international travelers!

I’m proud to share my most recent CouchSurfing experience. I hosted Wei Chan from China for a few days last week. CouchSurfing is a non-profit organization that “seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.” Wei has been my third visitor I’ve hosted. I highly recommend the opportunity to host a “surfer” or crash!

Think of CouchSurfing as one small step to making the world a better place. Sounds nice?

Or think of it as an international pen pal opportunity, but only in person for a few days. Wei brought along his Canon 7D and 35mm f/1.4 lens and we created this 5-minute video our Top 5 favorite things shared:

How does Couch Surfing work?

1. $25 verifies you as member of CouchSurfing.com. You create a profile including photos, kinda like your Facebook page.
2. Let’s say you decide to spend two weeks traveling around Greece and Europe. After you get your plane ticket, you log on to CouchSurfing.com and search for cities of interest.
3. You email your prospective host and wait to hear back. Wei emailed 10 people in Denver, heard back from six and “chose” me. It’s a two-way street… I get to see what he’s all about. He had great referrals, I saw he wasn’t a bum, and he’s a Chinese photographer with many stories to tell. Perfect!
4. We texted briefly about logistics, spoke for a few minutes, then I picked him up a the train station and the fun began! He had just been on a train for 16 hours, so I knew the perfect pizza place to take him. After that, introduced him to my place and showed him his room.

What it’s like from a traveler’s perspective? Wei left his space cleaner than he found it. We hugged good-bye with hopes of seeing each other on another continent someday, perhaps in Sweden next year. After hiz\s stay, we both wrote about each other’s experiences on respective CouchSurfing profiles where others can read and judge if they’d like to cross paths.

How do you know it is safe? You don’t actually know, to be honest. This is where trusting your gut, counts! However, if you’ve ever bought something on E-Bay, you know the importance of seller ratings. It’s kinda the same thing for Couch Surfing. You can read all about where that person has traveled, view their photos, and most importantly, read the words of others.

Is Adventures in CouchSurfing right for you? Time magazine profiles this one sojourner’s truth.

What do I look for in a prospective host? Couples are nice since they have generally twice the stories to tell (from two perspectives). And guys are generally more like a college-roomie where we can talk guy stuff… sorry, ladies!

Are all experiences gonna be the same? Nope. Variety is the spice of life. My second time hosting, the couple dropped in during around 9pm and left the next morning at 9am. Others might choose to stay a week. It is all up to the host and traveller, really.

I shared something near and dear to me: snowboarding! Wei had never been up in snowy mountains before and this was his first time on the slopes! I lent him some of my old gear and it fit him perfectly! Wei had a great attitude learning to snowboard up at Winter Park ski resort (I like to think he had a good instructor). Here we are on Colorado’s Continental Divide at Berthoud Pass, elevation 12,000 feet: Here’s the official Before and After (individual results may vary): All you lighting geeks, here’s to you:

Friends with Benefits (Do you offer discounts?)

Ever heard these words? “A friend is going to shoot my wedding for free.”

After I bight my tongue really hard, two things happen:

ACTION #1:  I ask them, do you trust this person? If they “yes,” I precede to ACTION #2.

ACTION #2:  After finding their name, I size up the said photographer. Yes, I judge. GUILTY.AS.CHARGED. Things I look for: If I find no website or an out-dated website with no profile photo and a blog not updated in 4 months, I hold my breath. If they have consistent work in an easily describable style which the couple can see and understand, I relax.

—–

I’ve found myself on the receiving end of this conversation TWICE in the last month. Two dear friends I’ve know for 10+ years shared the glorious news recently. You know who you are. I’m still grinning ear-to-ear.

“Do you offer discounts?”

Chime-in: *Crickets*

Short answer: No.

Sometimes I forget I’m a wedding photographer. I get all caught up in the story, the connection, the genuine love. I wanna be there already. Then again, the business pays my mortgage, my insurance, my health insurance, my retirement. I don’t work for free. I volunteer for free to help people. I indulge in quality exchange for services.

One exception: active duty military receives 10% off. If a solider is willing to die for my freedom, that is the least I can do in return.

What if a clients says, “I have lots of single friends that will be at the wedding and I am sure they will hire you.” I like to think “a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.” There are days when I pound my head (repeatedly) asking myself why oh why did I sign up for this???

By discounting weddings in the past, I saw where the extra money went: top-shelf booze and fancy chair coverings. Lesson learned.

Reality Bites

 I’m amazed how many people ask for discounts. Would you walk into a grocery store and dare ask for a discount? Would you ask an OB-GYN friend, “Will you be there to birth my child, assuming you’ll take on the stress, risks, and liability resulting from complications?”

While weddings are not necessarily a life-or-death situation, there are no re-do’s. Yet the pressure drop falls all the time. What if something happens? What if I get in a car accident driving to the ceremony? What if all the memory cards are stolen? Then I not only let down a client, but a friend.

Then the topic of money rolls around… “we don’t have much money… we are paying for it ourselves… it is going to be really simple,” yada yada yada.

The options:

1). Either I am shooting the wedding because I want to and they are a friend I’ve known for a long time (10 years is a good rule of thumb) and I’ll be at the wedding regardless. Criteria: I am a friend at your wedding with a fancy camera. My time and talent is my gift to you and product is available at full cost.

2). You pay full price. Weddings are real business. When discounts start coming into the equation, the artist immediately becomes devalued and the artist turns into a hired hand.

This video illustrates vendor/client relationships in the real world…. sound off with your 2c below!

Best of Wedding Photography

As professional photography organizations grow daily, it’s awesome to see the good ones really succeed.

I count Best of Wedding Photography (BOWP) the Top Gun of wedding photography organizations. It’s the best of the best. (There’s two “O”s in Goose… name the reference?)

Scrolling through the BOWP blog inspires me daily.

Erick Danzer approached me in the fall of 2009 during the beginning of his wedding collective, which has grown to now include 160 of the world’s best wedding photographers ranging from Australia to Morocco. No wonder American Photo magazine featured BOWP in the March / April issue. Whoop whoop! Big kudos to an organization that has stayed true to it’s roots. And one I’m proud to be apart of. —-

BRIDES: Hiring a someone you trust is rule #1 when it comes to choosing a wedding photographer. However, with a saturated market, it’s not an easy picking which one. All the photographers you’ll see in BOWP grace the pages of the world’s best glossy magazines. They create stellar work: artistic, fresh, and modern. They have solid brands, are passionate about their work, and lead the industry by teaching workshops, publishing books, and winning contests.

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Best of Wedding Photography is an invite-only association by members. While money won’t buy your way in, but your skills will. Being nominated by a member is the first step. Next, a review board comprised of some of the best photographers in the world approve final selections and offer the invitations. Details of the process described here.