Halloween Fun

It was fun

113 photographers!

I held my first ever live Q&A/chat through the Freedom Club and I'm not sure if this has ever been done before! We had 113 photographers from 4 countries all tuning in including Jamaica and Puerto Rico! How awesome!

This live web streaming thing just came out and it worked great! We had 113 people on at one time this evening and it was so fun! I'm exhausted though b/c it was super hard to sort through the 100's of questions because the chat box was just exploding! Which is a good thing and I'm amped to do it again in a couple of weeks!

Thanks to everyone for tuning in! Stoked to see ya'll in a few weeks!

This is FUNNY!

OH this is FREAKING hilarious!

My videographer, Paul, is the coolest dude and he's hilarious! He lives in Kansas City and he works for me full time so don't go on bothering him asking him to do projects for you. :P

I had never met him and I actually haven't ever met a couple of my employees because everyone is so remote these days but I really wanted to hang with him and so I brought him to SB for a few days of hanging out and filming and while he was here he realized that in Santa Barbara it's mellow and he made this video with Crystal one night while they were waiting for me to get back from a date. :)

I am a jackolantern!

My dear friend Susan Han from Pictage is so great! She comes and visits me in SB sometimes and she said that Pictage is having a pumpkin carving contest and all the Pro Consultants made this one! Isn't this amazing! I love you guys! Thanks for helping free up my life! I never would've been able to create the time and space needed in my life to accomplish what I want to accomplish without having Pictage handle all my order fulfillment.

Fun House Pics

So my buddy Deyl is hooking up the most insane house-swap EVER! ...it's gonna be a fun little vacation for a few of us over New Years so I had to take some more pictures of my place. I still don't have any bedroom furniture but it's coming soon and it's really cool.

Click to see the pictures bigger and if you wanna see my house swap listing click here!

Guess what my favorite piece of furniture is....and if I already told you don't guess.

night night

So it's super late like 1:40am. I just got back from a birthday celebration and it's pretty cool because there are 8 people checking in on the live cam. I just have it pointed out at the city because I love seeing the city at night.

I'm stoked that blogger finally added the ability to be notified when blog comments are made so be sure to check this on when you leave a post so you can see what everyone else says too.

I have breakfast with my buddy Kevin Sturm in 6 hours so I better crash out. He's a super smart business consultant and you can get some awesome business advice on his blog!

Email and Live Cam

After the shows things always get a little crazy with emails (see the spike in the graph below) and things and I love reading them and I wish I had more time to respond.


Another thing that's fun is Facebook! I've been getting all sorts of crazy things on there like "Hatching gifts" .... I dunno.... I'm scared to accept things like that so I pretty much deny them unless it's a friend request from a friendly person but they make me laugh when I see them so thanks for sending them.


How fun is the LIVE video! I'm so setting up more cameras but I got busted by my friend Crystal Goss yesterday because she called and or some reason her number got deleted from my phone and so I screened it and she saw me do it! Oops...Sorry darling! :)


...and then this was even more fun! Allison sent me a picture of her and all her roomates watching the show! It's crazy to think people out there are tuning in but as soon as I get some more cameras and computers it'll be even more fun!



I'm just gonna be reading today but tune in if you want!

Spy on Me

***see video above***

Getting Fit

Getting Fit, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I went for a run yesterday for the first time since moving in
here...wow....that's scary. I had been swimming a bit but not enough.
It's time to get serious and get in shape. Now that I'm home it's
easier to eat healthy too.

Yesterday I had an energy bar for breakfast
- a sandwich and grapes for lunch and cereal for dinner. I had some
yogurt in the middle of the day too.

This morning I am making myself a shake.

Sent from my iPhone

PhotoPlus and Adobe

This was my favorite tradeshow thus far and a big part of it was because my buddy Frederick Van asked me to join up with Adobe and I got to do two presentations for them. The first one was a press event where they invited a dozen or so members from the photo publishing world and had myself and "The Photoshop Diva" Katrin Eismann give a demo on Lightroom. It was a new experience for me and kind of nerve racking but it went well and the next day at the Adobe booth went incredibly well!

Adobe doesn't mess around at these tradeshows and as you can see their booth is packed. It's such a great thing that they sponsor education right from the tradeshow floor so if you don't want to pay to go to the individual sessions you can go to the Adobe booth and hear tons of great info!

Here are some more fun pictures I pulled off people's blogs!


Me and my new friend Vatche from Prizma Productions who brought me these cool decorative masks from Lebanon. I love stuff like this because they are so beautiful and unique!





And the incredible Kristen Leigh! I just met Kristen at the show and she is such a doll. She just turned 18 and is already doing an amazing job growing her own business. See more fun pics on her blog.

My dear friends Amy Nave and Amber Holritz. Despite being sweethearts they also make sure that my big head doesn't expand too much at the shows. They've known me a long time and they keep me real. :)

Sarah Barlow and Becker! NON-STOP fun... There were a couple of times when I thought Sarah Barlow was literally going to explode because Becker had her laughing so hard.

Becker put me way on the outside of this wide-angle shot to try and stretch my head. He also hid my laptop at the reception and I thought someone stole it. I tried to get him back but it backfired...lol...you can ask Sarah or [b] about it.



On Friday morning I got up early for an interview with Scott Sherman who hosts The Digital Photography Show which goes out to 40,000 subscribers.

It was a lot of fun and I'll let you know when it's going to be sent out.

We talked about a bunch of different issues in the photo world both dealing with professionals and prosumers.

...and I'll leave you with a few more pics of me looking silly at the wedding and sporting my Britney Spears mic at the Adobe booth.

sleepy

This was a great great great week! I met with so many amazing people and really had a wonderful time here in NY.

The days were all very packed usually with interviews in the morning, demonstrations and meetings mid-day and then dinners and parties in at night. Every second was packed which is both invigorating (I actually don't really know what that word means) and exhausting. I cancelled all my plans for tonight and tomorrow so I could spend some time with my friends who all worked very hard this week as well. Also, tomorrow morning I am going to sit on the roof and look at Central Park and just be quiet and not say anything. A big part of my job involves talking so after conventions like this I need to detox.

Tomorrow night I go home. I'm very excited. For the next two months I only have one thing in the calendar. This year I wanted to start making an effort to keep my calendar clear at the end of the year. I've been needing to reprioritize things and giving up business in order to spend more time with people and have a life was difficult at first but the more I do it the more thankful and happy I am.

Beautiful NY

Beautiful NY, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I'm staying in the most beautiful place...I'll post more about it
later but I'm on the roof right now and it's breathtaking. I never
thought it could be so peaceful here in the city.

Sent from my iPhone

Yum

Yum, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I feel bad because you all know that Dunkin Donuts has a special place
in my heart but I've never had it for breakfast and lunch
before...yikes...if I die today just know that I love all of you.

Sent from my iPhone

Justin and Mary!

I have an interesting observation and unlike most of the things I post on my blog this is actually not an absolute fact. :) ... but yesterday I shot another wedding for two friends who are wedding photographers as well and I've shot 4 or 5 weddings now for wedding photographers and they are always gorgeous. Why is that? I dunno but it's true...even Justin was gorgeous yesterday. It was great!

They had an incredible wedding and I was so excited for them because they are the type of people who everyone enjoys watching succeed and they have so many friends out here and that will drive their success more than anything else.

Click here and go to their blog to see the Showit Slideshow!

I got to shoot with Becker, Matt Grazier, my videographer Paul Rogers and Sarah Barlow as well as 12 or 13 of the awesome photographers that they invited to their wedding. It was a blast and I really enjoyed seeing Becker do his magic with the ladies. Seriously...everytime the girls congregated Becker was there and I don't know if he was there because they were or if they were there because he was there but we had a good time harassing each other all day and it's all on video so stay tuned.

Bizy week

I have some super fun shots from the plane trip but I left my camera in the car so I'll have to show you later... Virgin was running a deal so I flew first class which I'm so glad I did because I had been up almost all night filming a bunch of Freedom Club videos. It seems that everyone loves the content which is awesome and now I'll focus on raising the consistency.

Some other cool news is that my buddy Frederick hooked me up with a gig for Adobe and I'll be kicking off a press event for them in New York next week where I'll show the media how it's possible for wedding photographers to wiz through our workflow using Lightroom.

Then come meet up with me at PhotoPlus! I'll be at the Adobe booth from 11:30am - 12:30pm on Thursday the 18th. Free copies of Showit Web will be given out too. :)

Lastly, if you want to be the first to demo the upcoming Showit Sites come to Jason Groupp's studio next Wednesday morning at 8am. You can get an address from his website
and more info about the workshop at this website.

This is a great trip because I'm cramming a lot in. After this I have one more wedding in November and that's it. I have a full two months without a single thing on my schedule and I'm so amped.

Tricked out plane!

Tricked out plane!, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Sent from my iPhone

Full Hands?

I'm not sure if I just posted about this but it's something I'm fascinated by so it's worth two posts- it is the importance of being available. My friend Deyl and I talk about it a lot because we constantly see how the best opportunities come to us when we haven't filled our schedule in advance.

It's so weird how it works but in the C.S. Lewis book, The Problem of Pain, he quotes St. Augustine saying, "Often God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are too full."

Are you working hard to free up your life? There are lots of ways to do it - Automation - Outsourcing - Delegation - Elimination and probably many many more. The fastest is Elimination but it's not the easiest. This week I want to challenge you to think of one thing that you can eliminate or maybe just trim down from your daily routine.

Living in the Clouds

Ok...so...my biz partners often tease that they bring me back to reality because I do tend to be overly optimistic about projects and things and in all honesty they are optimists too and I love that. I love living that way.

Although recently I've realized that I've possibly spent a bit too much time trying to convince people of how great it is to live this way and not enough time growing with and enjoying people who are already live this way. I'm not into the debates and unfortunately there are some people who will not choose this way of living and when I'm around them a lot I see how it affects my own attitude and my own life. So I decided to make an immediate change in who I spend time with and where my thoughts go.

The last couple of nights I've gotten into bed and started laughing because of how excited I am about life and how surreal my life feels. I think it feels this way because I'm consciously making the effort and taking the time to grow and focus on how I can make positive changes in my own life and hopefully in others lives as well.



This morning I woke up quite literally in the clouds. Can you believe how beautiful this is. My house is just above the layer of fog that rolls into Santa Barbara sometimes and it feels like heaven.

Crystal is more valuable than diamonds.

I've worked with several amazing photographers, many incredible programmers and videographers and there is no doubt in my mind that my friend Crystal will be playing the most important role in making sure that my businesses and my life keep moving in the right direction - which of course is that of freedom. :)

I met Crystal a little over a year ago through Gary and Missy Fong on a trip to Catalina and then had the chance to go out and work with her at the Alive Festival. She felt like it was time for a change of pace so she uprooted her life in Ohio to manage my life out here in Santa Barbara!



She's only been here a few weeks and has already made a world of difference and this past weekend she did one of the things she is brilliant at which is host a party! Some of you know she was the wedding coordinator for Gary and Missy's incredible wedding and after seeing her put on that show I knew we were going to be able to host some sweet parties...and last night we did.

It wasn't the official house warming party so don't trip out if you didn't get invited. It was an alumni party for all of my friends who I went to Westmont with and I don't know how many ended up coming but probably 60 people and it was soooooo much fun! We picked out bottles of wine from every country we could find and ordered sushi from Sakana to have alongside all the yummy treats that Crystal and Jasmine made.



My dear friend, client, and ridiculously awesome photographer Jasmine Star came up for the weekend and helped out a lot too - including taking all these gorgeous photos. Jasmine also wrote a sweet note on her blog about how blessed I am and she is spot on about that and a huge reason I feel blessed is because I have friends like her in my life.

Life is so short but can be made so sweet by surrounding yourself with the right people and I am very thankful to have the luxury to work with my friends.

Wii Boxing at the Freedom House

Last night Westmont had a Presidental Gala (I have no idea what that means) but afterwards I invited some friends over for some fun and we couldn't help but break out the Wii which my buddy Todd had just sent up to me and it's amazing! Just watch this video! These are my dear friends Erin and Paige beating each other up.

U R Loved

I've been loving getting up each morning and having the library all setup. I've been wanting a place like this for so long.

Today I was looking back through some of my books and I came across this quote from Henry Nouwen and I want to encourage all of you to look for a time this weekend, whether you're out shooting a wedding or whether you're at home with your family, to get yourself to a place where you can show someone that they are loved. I'm sure it will change their world - and yours.

So Excited!

Yesterday I found the most amazing piece of furniture! I'm picking it up today and you'll trip out. It's so beautiful.

...also yesterday Crystal received the bookshelf and lamps from Design Within Reach and got it all setup. It was basically a giant lego set and it totally confused me but she figured it out and I love it! She thought of the idea of putting the lamp inside of it. She's artsy like that.

I feel a little bit bad about the raindeer rug but it looks really cool and the only thing this room needs now is the rest of my books, a big painting and a little shelf in the corner to put a flower on. :)

Animal Karma

Last night I continued my animal whispering with the Freedom house cat. It's a really friendly cat. The end of the video is so funny because it didn't want to leave and kept trying to sneak in.

My favorite is still the hummingbird video though!

Back to School

I was really excited to go and chat with the marketing class at Westmont today and share my story with them.

I wanted to challenge them not to sacrifice happiness for a sense of certainty. Uncertainty is inevitable and so why not be happy and pursue something with purpose and passion!

I actually think some of them were not into my philosophies but it was an 8am class so I can't blame them for being a bit out of it...and at all my talks I tend to go a bit overboard on the philosophies and not give enough practical "How to" but I'd rather error on that side... and it was the first time I talked about my new Get-FIT idea.

FIT stands for Flexibility - Income - Time which are what Tim Ferris would call "Freedom Multipliers"

I had a great time and all the pretty faces made the experience worth it. If you want to listen to a good song click on Ben Harper's "Forever" in my little audio player to the right and listen to the words.

People spend so much time
every single day
running 'round all over town
giving their forever away.

Don't give away your forever.