Whirlwind

Just letting everyone know that after a myriad of travel changes we made it to Nicaragua safely. In a few minutes we'll be headed out on our last little flight and short boat ride and then we'll be there! Sooooo excited!!! Thank you to all the AMAZING people who helped us get here!

Off we go!

In a few hours Allie and I will be headed off on the most insane island adventure you could imagine! Deyl and Paige know this incredibly inspiring entrepreneur Martin Thomas and lined up this getaway a few months ago and 8 of us are headed out today for 10 days of rest and relaxation on this private island off the coast of Nicaragua without phones or internet and I've been needing this escape!!!

We are also flying in two world renowned chefs from New Zealand as well as a masseuse!

You can read more about the Thomas family (pic below) and their wonderfully untraditional way of living on their website - aFamilyOnTheMove.com - and see more about the island in the video below or on the Little-Eden-Cay.com website.



and watch a video of the island here!



I won't be returning emails or phone calls until I get back to Florida for the PPA show so have a wonderful New Year and I'll be excited to see all of you in 2008!!! Yea!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Only a few travelers today and I am so happy that it is Christmas even
though I don't get to spend the day with my family. Today I am flying
up to be with Allie and then tomorrow eight of us are heading out on
an incredible adventure in Nicaragua for New Years!

I'll post more about the trip tomorrow but I hope everyone has an
incredible Christmas!

Checkout Syphone

Hey Everyone! If you are an iPhone user checkout Syphone! It's a free app that lets you save your text messages! Very cool! I'm kind of sentimental so I like to save everything.

Enjoy the Santa Barbara Sunset with me!

Becker's Christmas Greeting

I've never gotten my act together enough to send out Christmas cards but I just saw that Becker sent out a Christmas video which is WAY BETTER than a card! Becker and David Beckstead where the first photographers who's websites I saw and who's work I studied when I first got in the industry and it's still surreal to me to now have them as friends.

This year I got the chance to a shoot a wedding with Becker and it was an absolute riot! ... Midway through the reception somebody stole my computer and I blamed it on Paul (my videographer) but it was actually Becker. So then I stole, what I thought was, his camera and took it upstairs to take some "special" pictures on it for him to enjoy later but when I came downstairs he was laughing and told me that Sarah Barlow would like her camera back! Ahhhh!

Battle for the Top Spot

I've always kept my top spots on MySpace for my boys! ...but as I was getting to know Allison she crept up into my Top 8 and when she came up next to Deyl's raised fist and clever smirk she also threw her dukes up ready for battle.

At what point will she knock Deyl from the coveted top spot!?!

Haha! Oh MY!

My friend Melissa Jill is an amazing photographer in AZ. I'm so proud of her because it was just a few years ago that she decided to dive into wedding photography and I've seen her life change so much since she decided to step out in faith and many of you know her and have seen her business boom!

One of the things that I believe has helped her succeed so fast is her blog. She blogs the way everyone should blog. I know for a lot of photographers the temptation is to use their blog as a quick way to blast their photos out there and that is nice but we want to see more of YOU! Post up your life! Post up WHO YOU ARE - AND - What you do! Both are important.

Melissa has a cool thing she does where she made this big long list of things she wants to do and then she checks them off as she accomplishes them and it's fun to track with her as she reaches her goals and experiences her dreams!

Melissa has been a friend of mine since I was really little and she found this awesome picture of us, probably from a Thanksgiving dinner, when I was only 10 years old and she was 14! Looks like I had a huge bowl of soup or something. No donuts though :(

Click here and go see more on her blog!

I NEED this!

Ok...seriously.... I just read about this thing called the "Kindle" on Tim Sanders blog and I need it....I am a simple man and I don't need many things but I really really need this and they are all sold out.

I sometimes have 4 or 5 books to carry with me in my carry on and my bag gets so heavy. So much for my cool library now that books are going digital. I am seriously so excited though because it's so hard to search paper books and when I want to find something it would be so awesome to have it searchable.

Here is more info on it.

Please please please Santa make me a Kindle.

So Cool

Last night Colon made the nicest comment and it totally made my day! ....and it reminded me of the story of the little boy who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold and the wish was granted and then he died because when he would try and eat his food would turn to gold. bummer. :)

Also! the OpenPhotoContest has been rocking! Sign up AND SUBMIT A PHOTO fast to take advantage of the 1/2 off special and for your chance to win an 85mm f1.2 lens (or equivalent) worth $1,800!!! We're giving that away to the winner of the "Stellar Brides" contest and what is so cool is that YOU choose the winner! 162 people are already registered on the site and we've been receiving thousands of votes EACH DAY! Checkout how fun it is to pick your favorite images by clicking here.

Stock up

Stock up, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I've never had such a full fridge! This is great! I've been bunkering
down and working and I actually went two full days in my PJ's and
slippers. I even went out to Thai food with Deyl and picked up Chinese
last night in them. I don't know why we wear anything but PJ's.

Master Your Craft

There is no debating that Bob Davis and Mike Colon are heros in our industry. Mike has been an incredibly generous mentor of mine for years and I've just gotten to know Bob over the past year and I am equally impressed with his style and grace. You can see video of Bob and I doing a workshop shoot together in Paris earlier this year! Very fun!

All of you know that I am very very careful about who I promote and you also know that I am an Adobe Lightroom fan so my first instinct was to not mention this because it is sponsored by Aperture but regardless I think this is worth going to because Bob and Mike are two revolutionaries and I have learned so much from each of them.

Go to MasterYourCraft.net and see more about their tour! I'm going to try and make it to the LA show.

Freedom and Slumber BOOKED

Thanks everyone! I am super amped about this! Within a matter of hours the Freedom and Slumber event was filled up! It's going to be an incredible experience and I'll be sending out an email to all my new friends today or tomorrow so we can get things rocking! Sweet!

Live Chat was AWESOME!

It is absolutely incredible to me that I could be sitting in my Pj's here in Santa Barbara with the raining pounding down around and participate in a live video Q&A session with 130 people from all over the world. We had folks in Sweden, Lithuania, Spain, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and all over the U.S. and Canada. Wow! How is that for freedom - for everyone! :)

Also, I am super stoked about the "Freedom and Slumber" event in January because I just launched it this afternoon and there is only one spot left! I am honestly flattered b/c I have never launched an event like this before and so I was wondering how it would go.

I had several couples write to me and ask about doing an event where spouses could come and I think that is fantastic!

Whoa! cool!

So the "Freedom ...and slumber" event will probably be full by tonight. I am blown away and super excited. Within an hour of sending out the email it was half full so get your reservation in asap. 6 spots are filled and that means only 4 left. Gnarly!

Click here to see the schedule and to register!

I'm getting ready for my Freedom Club LIVE chat too! Super fun! I love these! There are 55 people online and ready for the 6 o'clock start from all over the world! This is cool!

I guess 12,000 was too much

I sent out my monthly newsletter to the 12,000 of you that signed up for it and within 2 minutes it pushed us over quota.....Ughhhhhhhh....I'm so pissed! We will of course extend the discounted signup and this site is so cool so I'm amped for you guys to get to check it out.

Stay tuned!

HUGE ANNOUNCMENT TODAY

I'm announcing a couple of REALLY cool things today so if you are not already on my newsletter be sure to sign up FAST so you don't miss out! You can sign up on my webpage - davidjay.com

Also, TONIGHT I'm doing another LIVE Q&A on the Freedom Club so if you want to see some sweet videos, great deals, and be part of that be sure to go sign up.

Don't let Christmas get cracked!

Don't let Christmas get cracked!, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I've gotta admit that this past week was one of the worst weeks of my
year. :( ... I dunno what it is but it seems that so many things come
to a head at the end of the year and everyone is under extra stress
and extra pressure and I've seen a change in myself and in nearly
every one of my friends.

I'm sure we are not the only ones going through this and I want to
encourage everyone to be aware and extra sensitive to others in this
time because I know personally when I suffer from what Tim Sanders
calls "the scarcity of time disease" I'm miserable and I have a
tendency to only think about myself and that has a spiralling effect.

Also, set expectations and get to the heart of issues instead of just
putting bandaids on them. This requires openness and honesty AND
vulnerability which isn't comfortable at the time but is a necessity
for any lasting relationship.

Happy Sunday!

Pug Party! Yea!

Oh wow! We had sooooo much fun last night! Pictage has an incredible group of photographers here in Santa Barbara and what a treat it was to have them all up to the Freedom House! A BIG thank you to Kacie Jean and Crystal for putting on such a wonderful party...and to all the folks who came up from Orange County and LA to celebrate with us!

We even setup a pretty cool photobooth in my bedroom and had the pictures being sent wirelessly to the computer using Canon's Mark III wireless device.

Here's a Showit Web show from the photobooth! :)

Christmas Party tomorrow! Yea!

Hey Everyone! Tomorrow night I'm having a Christmas party here at the Freedom House so come hang out. We will be chillin with plenty of Egg Nog and yummie treats and stuff. Kacie Jean, the fearless Santa Barbara PUG leader is putting it on along with the famous Crystal Hutchinson so it's bound to be a great time.

The Wii will be in full force with new games like WWF wresting and some game with guns to get us in the Christmas spirit. lol... and it will be live on davidjay.TV so if you're too shy to come you can watch the fun from home.

Party "officially" starts at 6pm but please come over at 4:45pm for the most amazing view of the Santa Barbara sunset. Honestly - don't miss it. Every night I just sit and watch it because it is so gorgeous and I will be sad if all of you miss it. I can't wait to see everyone. Please do not contact me for directions because I'm not very good at giving them so hitup Crystal *@* davidjay.com and she can guide you in...and my address is on my Facebook page.

One day extension

Wow! 43 Showit-DVD orders yesterday and it's definitely been a mad rush but we are able to extend the Christmas deadline for one day! So if you or your clients haven't gotten their orders in they need to do it before midnight tonight - December 11th - AND select the priority option. Rock on!

I just got this email from Alex Abercrombie a few minutes ago.... :) ... I like the sounds of this!

Cool video of flying people

This is amazing! I usually just trash forwards but I'm so glad I watched this! WOW! These guys are truly flying! Incredible! Marie Moyers just sent it to me! :) Thanks!

Click here!

The lady who I bought the house from was a world famous sky diver and she died base jumping. Here is the story...very sad...and the picture on the right was a clip from a documentary made about her last jump. I thought it was interesting that the TV-G rating is shown as she jumps and her chute doesn't open. I guess that is G-Rated these days.

Poll results on Personality

So a couple of days ago I started this poll on OSP and asked the question:

"In the industry that you are in what percentage of your success is based on your personality?"

I was curious to know what everyone thought and the results showed that out of 200 responses:

92% of you said that PERSONALITY should be credited for over 60% of your success.
68% of you said that PERSONALITY should be credited for over 80% of your success!!!

Wow! That's so awesome!

SO....my big *hypothetical* question for all of us is that if we can all agree that personality is a HUGE part of our success then how much time in the past year did we spend thinking about ways to improve our personality!

I'm as guilty as anybody and It's something we can all get better at! So if we really do believe what we wrote then we need to start thinking about how we are going to take our personality up a couple of notches this next year and then think about how that will help further our success!

6000 Members! Wow!

OpenSourcePhoto hit another landmark today! 6000 members! Can you believe that!

Thanks to all of you who have made OSP what it is. Over the years it has changed a lot and that is a GREAT thing. Even though it was wonderful when there was just 10 of us it was also kind of a ghost town and in the first 6 months of OSP's existence we had 279 posts TOTAL and now just four years later there are 6000 OSPers making 500 posts a day!

...another amazing stat is that over 2,700 OSPers have contributed which is ABSOLUTELY UNHEARD OF in a democratized community like this! You've all heard of the 80/20 rule...well in social networking there is something called the 1% rule which states that 1% of the users in a social network usually create all the content.


I think we've blown this stat away because of the patience, love, and grace that OSPers have for one another and for how accepting we are of new photographers entering our community. This is something we must keep as a core value of our community and I want to invite the 3,280 members of OSP who haven't gotten up the courage to make their first post to stick your toe in the warm water.

Much love!
DJ

p.s. I'm also really happy that we have been able to keep OSP 100% FREE and not have any advertising or moderators! All of this is possible because all of you have adopted it as your own! Keep rocking!

Showit Web Facebook settings

Be sure not to miss out on the viral power of this app! Whenever I add stuff like this I have a tendancy to uncheck all the little boxes but don't make that mistake with the Showit Web app because then nobody will know you've added a show!

If you did uncheck it then it's easy to fix by clicking here and editing your settings and don't worry we're not going to send you any spam or anything dumb like that but make sure that you are publishing your shows so everyone can see them!

FREE Showit Web Facebook App for a LIMITED TIME!!!

If you get Showit Web before the end of the year you also get a FREE Showit Web App for Facebook that will get your "Word-of-Mouse" marketing spreading like wild fire! Don't miss out!

It's so cool! All you have to do is to copy paste the URL to the show and now you have posted a new show that your clients and everyone can also easily add to their page. No other program makes it this easy to get your photos in front of 1000's of people and for a LIMITED TIME we are offering it for FREE!

If you already have Showit Web then Click here to get your FREE Showit Web Facebook app NOW!

I am smart now

So I was on Crystal's Facebook page and saw that she added the quiz thing too and I noticed that I was rated as smart on her page! That made me feel better after not even making the list on my other friends page. My dear friend Sarah Barlow beat me out but I was ok with that because she is crazy smart so I feel ok with her being smarter than me.

...but what made me really smile was the other ratings below... thanks to everyone that voted. There must have been 7 or 8 million votes to come up with such accurate results. I dunno.

Showit DVD's EXTREMELY LIMITED

Our goal with Showit-DVD was to let photographers decide if it would be successful and it's been fascinating to watch it grow and grow and grow and in 9 months to already have 1,877 users and to be shipping 100 disks a week it's super cool to see more and more people realize the FREEDOM that is available to them and the ability that we have to make money without doing any work!

Since we launched we have paid out over $85,000 to photographers just like you. Some photographers make $1000's of dollars from Showit DVD and that makes me really happy.

Of course like any company we have growing pains and we are thankful for all of you have helped us through them!

...and around this time of year EVERYONE is ordering like crazy and we just can't keep the cases in stock. We have really nice cases (as shown by Jessica's stellar pics) compared to other companies and we are looking into even more options for next year. We are rushing in more cases this week and next week to try and keep filling all the Christmas orders but if you are at all hoping to get some disks before Christmas then you need to order like this very second because like in the next couple of days we are gonna have to cut it off and chances are slim we will be able to get enough new cases in to handle all the orders.

Bedtime

Bedtime, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Yes I am going to bed now...I am tired and trying to get over a little
cold...winter hit hard last week and the severe climate change got the
best of me. Good night.

Wii Action

Phil Wickham

The band from my church was opening for Phil Wickham last night and Crystal and I went down to check it out. The Reality band was fantastic and Phil was brilliant.

I don't know the first thing about music but I do know how to get people to spread the word about a product and one of the things that I think makes Phil such a hit is that he is super real. I've been around lots of artists (both music and otherwise) and one thing that separates successful artists from those who struggle is the way they view (and portray) themselves AND how their fans connect with that. I'm guessing that every single person at the show left liking HIM which does translate into liking his music.

I made a POLL on OSP - In the industry that you are in what percentage of your success is based on your personality? GO VOTE!

I'm stoked because I'm gonna get to hear him again at this year's Alive festival near Cleveland, Ohio! I've gone the last 3 years and it's the best time! This year I'm going to stay the whole time because the last two years I've had to leave early for weddings. If you're in that part of the country you should come and we could even do a little photo get-together at the festival!

Funny and hmmmm....

So yesterday I clicked over to my friends Facebook page and saw this! I don't add all the Facebook apps b/c there are a million of them and it's just overwhelming but at first I was flattered when I saw this and then I realized that I wasn't even listed at all on the smart category! What's up with that!!! I was flattered I guess...

...and then the lack of intelligence came out later as I tried to put up my new bookshelves. I can't tell you how the books stay on the wall but if you are a Ninja then you already know.

I drilled four holes in the wall before finding the stud and some of you witnessed my trials on the webcam...lol... I let Crystal do the rest otherwise I wouldn't have a wall left.

What do you want?

I had a wonderful conversation with my mom over Thanksgiving that made me realize that often times in life we act, and continue acting, in ways that we think are getting us closer to what we want but when we actually think about it we haven't even decided what we are striving towards and instead letting life's circumstances pull us in every possible direction. It's incredibly unfulfilling and can be incredibly painful.

I've been guilty of this in many areas of my life but especially in by business. Isn't it easy to get consumed with all the fun, exciting, possibilities of things we could do instead of FOCUSING on what we SHOULD do!

How many of you are willing to admit that you're spread too thin. That you've taken on too many projects and you're keeping yourself from reaching your potential because you're paralyzed by all the possibilities!

Stop gambling with your life. Stop flirting about hoping and START CREATING! It's your choice what you do with your life so decide what it is you actually want and make some decisions today about what you are NOT GOING TO DO next year in order to get that.

The sun will rise...

This was my view when I woke up this morning and it was a great reminder that even in difficult times the sun will rise and I'll have another day and another opportunity to make things better.

There's a great quote that says, “We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness”

I like to get up and see the sunrise because it seems that no matter how I'm feeling I'm always reminded that there is something bigger at hand. Each day is a miracle and having reminders of that has helped me be thankful even when things aren't going the way I want.

What in your life reminds you of how blessed you are? You don't have to post about it but definitely think about it.

Downsizing

Downsizing, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I've been trying to downsize my carry on a bit and these new Shure SE
420 headphones are awesome and take up only a fraction of the space
that my Bose headphones take up. I also have opted to simply bring the
iPhone instead of a phone and an iPod.

I wonder what other areas of my life contain things that I'm
"carrying" around but don't really need.

Are you weighing yourself down with technology, toys, people or even
beliefs that should be left behind? This is a good time of year to get
back to asking yourself those all important WHY questions!

Glory Days...

...and awkward high school dance poses. lol :)

It's always so fun to come home and go through my old stuff.

I found some pretty funny soccer videos too. I'm gonna try and get them digitized so I can put them online and show you guys.

I'm back with the Showit Crew and we are cranking. No rest for the wicked. I guess it is still a holiday but we are doing the coolest stuff so I'm glad we got to connect up here in AZ.

lens story

You can read the story on Melissa Jill's blog. Seriously...it was so funny to see all the men (I don't include myself in that statement) spend the afternoon thinking of ways to get the silly filter off the lens.


My advice was to send it to CPS and have them figure it out. Some help I was!

photo.jpg

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Here we are at Thanksgiving dinner...can you guess what my dad is
doing to Melissa Jill's lens!!!

Willow Creek Repents

My dad just showed me an interesting article that came out last month about a big church in Chicago called Willow Creek. Many of you have heard of it I'm sure and in the article the pastor comes out saying that they have done some studies that show that the way they have been going about their ministry hasn't been effective.

They had a very business approach to their ministry and it's something that I would've thought would've been a good way to go about it but apparently it isn't.

If you're interested check out the article .

Do you think the big - "program centered" model for church should still be kept and maybe just adapted or thrown out all together after what Willow Creek discovered?

Room

After 2 months of sleeping on an aerobed I finally got my bed in! YEA! If Crystal wasn't such an awesome taskmaster it never would've gotten put together! I can't believe how complicated a bed can be!

I'm headed home today for Thanksgiving and am so excited to see some family and friends. I may extend my stay in AZ to hangout more!

p.s. I didn't put the decoration on the ceiling. It came with the house. :)

Bachelor fridge

Bachelor fridge, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Memories -> Change

I got a new book yesterday and read a great quote in it.

"Part of a quality life, part of true success is learning to appreciate and consider the emotional struggles of our neighbors. This gives us a greater sense of gratitude for our own lives, even for our own struggles." - Anthony Robbins

We all know that emotions are the fuel of our lives and almost everything we do is in pursuit of some type of feeling. One of the quickest ways to change our emotions is to think about things we appreciate or experiences that have shaped us. This month I gave a quick chat on ProPhotoResource about how to instantly create emotions in order to change the experiences we are having. I do this be recalling memories and it's fascinating how well it works. Check it out!