Dreams...

I put this in the newsletter but wanted to share it here as well because I think it's really important.

The book I've been reading this month is Your Road Map for Success by John Maxwell. He says,

"We can do anything but we can't do everything." and goes on to say, "There can be no success without sacrifice."

I think that in order to obtain any level of success in life we need to learn how to give up control and trust others...We must also be prepared and disciplined to do the things that get us closer to our dreams even when those decisions aren't necessarily what we want to be doing.

Over the past couple of years Mike Colon has burned the words "Think Long Term" into my brain and that advice has allowed me to make decisions very quickly because I only do things that will get me closer to my goals and I only set goals that will get me closer to my dream.

I want to encourage you all to spend some time thinking about what your dream is? What do you want to create with your life and then start setting goals that get you on the path to that dream.

What is our business really selling

I was reading yesterday and thinking about a changing point in my business and wanted to try and look cool with my sunglasses and share it with you. It's interesting because I noticed on our poll that most everyone thought that our Gallery was the most important piece to our websites.



Personally I have a tendency to think that it isn't but I've definitely been wrong about many things so I thought it was cool to see how different people thought...so if you wanna see some of my thoughts on this
video - click here!



...and if you missed these videos of Colon's little boy go and watch them right now! :)

I miss my friends!

Before I left for France my friend JT Pals came to stay at my place for a few days and he hooked up my desktop and laptop so that I can do work on my home computer from the road and it's amazing! ...and when I logged in to upload some files for my web designer I saw this fun picture of my friends from the PUG group last night! Amy Nave, who has been a life saver for me handling all my album designs, ran the group and it looks like they had so much fun! I wish I could've been there with ya'll!!!



...and I just clicked over to Amy's blog and saw that they totally cleaned my place and she has the funniest post! My friends are incredible! That's Amy & Janey & JT - I love them.

...and here's THE VIDEO from after the France game that Sara France just posted on her blog

Another good day!

Plagarism is the ultimate form of flattery. :D

A nice photographer just sent this over and I totally cracked up so I thought I'd pass it along. :D Stuff like this doesn't really bother me that much but I got a good chuckle that my picture is on somebody else's site.



Anyway...on to more important things - yesterday was a pretty good day. I got up early and spent 4 hours reading which was awesome and then had lunch and then layed by the pool for the rest of the afternoon and listened to some speeches. I even swam a bit and the pool here is so awesome b/c it's a salt water pool so you float like crazy.

Then we went up and ate sushi and watched the French come from behind and win their World Cup match against Spain and the people went nuts and were driving around hanging out of the windows of their cars with flags and honking - it was awesome and we got some video we'll put up later but I'm headed down to do some more reading now...and it's my mom's birthday today so I'm excited to call and chat with her too. :) I love you mom!

Made it to Monaco!

Your posts are so funny! I love you guys! ....good advice about the sleeping pills and laxative Andrew - wow!

We made it to Monaco and it is amazing here and it's even more amazing to know that I don't have to do go anywhere for a week!

Here are some quick pics I just shot while Brett and Sara were getting cleaned up and resting for a bit. :)

Here is our view from the hotel room!



and this was a cool little map thing from the lobby...



Me in the elevator! Yea!



and a picture of Brett (he's really small but see if you can find him) :)



ok...dinner time! Love you guys!!!

We are almost there!!!

Yea!!!

So we had a gnarly delay in Washington but it didn't really bother me because I got a lot done and got to chat with Keats about all sorts of fun stuff...and the two flights seemed like an hour each. It was amazing. I slept the whole way here expect for the time that Me and my copilot (Brett) were manning the plane (video coming)

The delay made me miss my flight to Paris so I missed the meeting I was supposed to have there so that means it's all vacation now! haha...just kidding! We're gonna be cranking on stuff everyday and we'll be posting it up for sure.

Ok....one more flight to go....yea! :)

Part way there!

Click Here for the video from the United Red Carpet Club - very nice.

:)

lotsa flying....yea! :)

Click here to watch the video

sorry for the stretchy video

The Le Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel

What is most important!

Yea!

***Vote here!***

I wanna know what you think is the most important thing on a wedding photographers website!

home sweet home!

I am finally home! YEA! After 24 hours of traveling I made it home from Ohio...ya know it was funny because while I was there I was talking with some friends and they told me that a lot of people grow up in Ohio and never leave...and now I know why - ya can't! Just kidding - it was a wonderful trip and I'm so excited to go back...

...but now I gotta get my clothes cleaned and packed because I actually have to leave tomorrow for Paris instead of Sunday so I've lost a few days at home but that's ok b/c I'm super excited about everything and we'll be posting up tons of videos and pictures while we're there!

Ok...bye. :)

So close - yet so far

I spent the last 12 hours waiting at airports and slowly making my way across the country and by the time I made it to LA there were no more flights left to SB so I have to spend the night here and then I'm gonna head home at noon tomorrow. Here's a pic of me waiting in Chicago with my trusty headphones on. I'm so glad that I have tons of speeches, and videos on my iPod for long days like this because I can't read for 12 hours.

Alive Slideshow!

Here are some more pics that I threw together in a little slideshow! :D

Also...please don't send me emails about discriminating against the guy artists...I would have shot guys but it just so happend that the day I was there happened to be the same day that mostly girls were playing.

Enjoy

***CLICK HERE!!!*** for the SLIDESHOW!

WOOHOO!

Stuck in Ohio

I'm at the airport in Ohio right now getting ready to fly through Chicago and then back to SB but I don't think I'm gonna make any of my flights today because of the delays in Chicago and it's funny to watch everybody get all bummed because I kinda like it. I have my computer and my pictures from this week and so I can really work from anywhere so whenever the plane comes is good for me. :)

The Alive festival was so awesome and I can't wait to go through some more pics so I'm gonna go do that right now and I'll post up a slideshow later. :)

Here is a pic of Rebecca St. James and her brother that I thought was really cool...it's a composite. :)

On my way

I'm in Chicago on my way to the Alive Festival in Ohio and I am so excited! I've never been to a big music festival like this and I wish I could stay the whole week but unfortunately I can only stay for one day. My friend Crystal that I met when through Missy Carl invited me out there and I just can't wait to get there. I LOVE the Christian music industry and if I wasn't doing wedding photography I would definitely be involved in that industry.

:)

Lotsa love!

I had a wonderful time shooting today and I just love Katie and Isaac! Isaac was a roommate of mine in college and Katie roomed with one of my ex-girlfriends so I got to know her pretty well and they're both just incredibly wonderful people.

Press the little triangle play button below to see the slideshow!

Feel the Fire

:) Wow! This was so fun! I think I wanna be a fireman!

***CLICK HERE*** to watch the video!

Here's me chimping by the fire!

Don't play with fire

On our way from Denver to Ft. Collins tonight we saw all this stuff in the sky and Brett was like "I think it's a big rock" and I thought it was a tornado but when we got closer we saw that a big field had caught fire so we whipped the Hummer off the road and grabbed our cameras!


I started shooting with my 5d and the fisheye



I like this shot just b/c it's kinda artsy... :)





Then I grabbed my Mark II and put on my 70-200 for some closer shots but we were way on the opposite side of the road so I couldn't really get anything very cool but if you wanna see really cool fire shots go to Beckstead's site b/c he and his wonderful wife Kassandra were gnarly fire fighters!



Then we watched this guy hose around as the fire got close to the road but the flames pretty much chased him outta there because it was so windy






I was kinda crazy to see this big field on fire and to see how fast the fire moved. Brett has some video that we're watching right now so we'll put it up soon.

...oh yea...and these cool borders come free with Showit Borders!

:)
DJ

Safe in LA

Well I just landed at LAX on my way to Colorado and the headphones were a life saver on the flight. It was so bumpy and scary and Brett was laughing at me because I always freak out because of the bumps....but don't worry - I am safe.

:)

So excited!!!

Right now we are planning our trip to Italy and I am so excited! This is the first we have all chatted about it and the trip is just one week away! It's going to be so incredible! I'm going with two of my closest friends Sara France and Brett Austin and we're gonna have a blast and Brett's gonna be shooting video of all of it and we'll be putting it up on the web on a secret site. :)

I have a meeting in Paris the first day and then we're heading to Nice and planning to stay at the most insane hotel there for a week or so...after that we don't really know where to go so if you have any advice let us know!

Matt Wagner hooked me up with the wedding out there b/c he was already booked so I totally owe him BIG TIME! :D

Stay tuned for the secret site...

Pardon?

These new headphones are so cool - I put them on and it's like I go into another world because all the noise goes away. I can't wait to try'em out on my flight tomorrow! :D

Buy now DJ...

So my buddy, and Showit Web partner, Todd passed along some incredibly valuable words of wisdom to me when I was very young. He sat me down and said "DJ, buy all the toys you want before you get married." ...so after a rough couple of weeks I decided it was time for DJ to get himself a little treat. So yesterday I was down in Santa Monica having dinner with Keats and Shyla and I couldn't resist picking up some fun goodies at the Mac store.



I got these Bose headsets that are insanely awesome b/c they take away the noise - it's really trippy to experience total silence but I'm getting used to it...and then I also got some "Swanky" (as Keats described) sunglasses...I didn't know what that word meant but I smiled and said thank you.

Then today I finished it off with a camera that David Beckstead convinced me to buy. He was showing me some of his incredible shots while we were up in Canada last week and I knew I had to get one so be on the lookout for some fun fisheye shots from a full frame sensor of my new 5d! Whoa! Here's the first pic from it of me on my little balcony! :D

Not My Fault

Funny song on my MySpace page! Check it out and be my friend.

Click Here! (my friend wrote it)

:D

Feeling appreciated

I've been thinking a lot about how important it is to show people that we appreciate them. I mean isn't it interesting how we are all desiring validation for our hard work and how good it feels when somebody shows us or tells us that they enjoy what we've done.

Last night I noticed that Rebecca St. James had put one of my pictures on her MySpace pics page and so I went through and read the comments under it, most of them from high school students because that's the market she's controlled, and it amazed me that reading their comments made me feel good and it really encouraged me to be better about showing people, whether I know them or not, that I appreciate what they're doing.

***Click here*** to see the other comments!

One Strike Ahead

So the last two nights we played Ping Pong and then we went bowling and I'm gonna try to be humble about this and say this without my pride getting in the way but I'm just awesome at both of those sports...and ladies there aren't many men that can claim these sort of talents.

Anyway, last night was Gary's first time ever bowling so that's why he got a smaller ball. Somebody has video of his first throw so I'm excited to see that.

It's always so sad to leave friends after having such an amazing time. Thanks everyone! I miss you!

Crazy Beckstead

Beckstead is a wild man!

Haha...

Watch the video here!

Almost dead

We almost lost our friends Amy and Janey yesterday which would've been kind of a bummer.



I'll let them tell the story as soon as they're emotionally able to talk through the ordeal but here's a fun video of them and as you can see the boat got going too fast and they fell off...it's hard to hang on when the boat gets over 2 mph but I shouldn't really talk because I didn't want to get in b/c the water was too cold.

*** CLICK HERE *** to see the video



and here's another video of Gary showing us the importance of safety on the lake.

*** CLICK HERE *** to see the video

:)

Break-ups make you think...

Tonight we went to see the movie "The Break-up" and overall it's a pretty funny movie but I wanted to share with you all that I'm a lot like the main character...not Jennifer Aniston unfortunately...the other one - Vince Vaughn ...and I know you're all going to say "no no DJ..." but I seriously am and a year ago I was out in Chicago shooting a wedding and Pastor Joe asked me what I needed to work on and, among a million things that I could improve, I recognize that I need to focus on myself less and others more.

I know that I've been incredibly blessed with an amazing family, wonderful friends and a couple of great businesses and so all those things have kinda spoiled me and allowed me to do what I want when I want but I'm committing myself to focusing less on what I want to do so I can spend more time focusing on what I should do....and I already know that what I should be doing is investing more in others.

Yours,
DJ

OSP Royalty!

Matt Antonio has just been crowned OSP Royalty for single handedly finding and decoding the little devil of a virus that a host of people have been trying to crack for the last week!

Matt discovered the code earlier today and figured out the crazy way the hackers had disguised it using numbers instead of letters! Wow! I've had several guys trying to solve this mystery for a week and I have to admit to you all that I've been kinda depressed this week...this unplanned "OSP fast" put me in kind of a funk and I know it did the same to many of you so I have to run and catch my next flight but I will be posting more from Canada and once again THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Matt and I just can't even put into words how excited I am for us all to be back together again.

***CLICK HERE*** to go to Matt and Sarah's site - thank you for saving OSP!

Close Call :)

So yesterday I had breakfast with my buddy Deyl and we always eat at 6:45 so I had my alarm set super early and forgot to change it BUT THAT WAS GOOD!

...because when I got outta bed to turn my alarm off I remembered that I had parked in a place where there was a no parking sign for today so I threw on my shorts and ran down there just in time! ....and it was really weird because even though the sign said "No Parking 1am - 10am" they were just now getting around to towing me at 7:30...


When I got down there my new friend Sergio was just loadin' up my car to take it away so I just gave him an extra $20 not to take it and he was stoked! ... in fact he was so happy that he started to point out all the cute girls that were walking by and then he said, "I love my job - there are always hot girls around." ...and I just said, "me too brother. have a nice day."

Happy Saturday everyone and happy shooting to those of you that have gigs and remember when the road is closed do not park on it.

:)

Currently Backing Up for Reinstall

Just a little update - we are currently downloading and backing up the posts and forum content and then we'll be doing a completely fresh reinstall and then we'll load back on the posts and user data. It's been a crazy project but it will be well worth it as I've been going nuts without OSP!

Seriously - how did I ever survive without this place!

So cute!

Sarah Barlow put a video of her sister asking for a "davidjay" bedtime story here and she's got my hat!!!

:)

Knowledge Sharing

Becker put together a really awesome lunch for some photographers in LA yesterday and it's always so great to get together and share ideas and hear how we're all running our businesses. Thanks to Ira from Leather Craftsmen for sponsoring the gig and here's a shot that I stole from Becker's blog ... Becker gets better shots from his point and shoot than I do from from my big camera. This guy's amazing.

Offline

I turned the board offline again because we are having lots of new people sign up and post but if we have to resort to a backup we'll lose all that info so I have currently allowed "Knowledge Cat" members to view the Offline board but all others will have to be patient till we get it back up.

Chef DJ

Well I must admit the days seem longer without OSP and I am as eager as all of you to be able to open it back up and have us all back together again.

Tonight I did something I've truly never done in this apt - I cooked. I actually didn't even know that I had a pan but I found a brand new one tucked away and with the help of Trader Joe I cooked up some Sweet and Sour Shrimp w/ rice. It was very good although I think I overcooked it a little bit because it said to cook it for 4 1/2 minutes and then mix in the special souce and cook for another 30 seconds but when the timer hit 4:30 I tried to add in the special souce that had been unthawing under the sink and I realized that it wasn't in one of those easy tear open bags and I had to go find a pair of scissors to cut it open because I don't have any knives.

It also requested that I use some sort of spray to put on the pan but I didn't have that either so I used this butter stuff that's called Country Crock and it worked great!

I miss you all!
DJ