Question for you!

Quick questions:

There has been a lot of talk lately about digital files so I'm curious about two things.

1. If you don't sell your digital files - why not?

2. If you do sell your digital files - how much do you charge?

Feel free to post below or go to the OSP forum and join the conversation there. :)

The Reach of the Web

It's always fascinating to me to see people all over the world ordering from the e-store and trying to understand why people buy on certain days. Friday is actually a slow day in the U.S. but I'm starting to think that internationally maybe it's a hotter day to buy.

Already today:

Metro Manilla (Philippines)
Aquitaine (France)
Kungasangen (Sweden)
West Midlands (UK)
Tupelo, MS (USA)
San Jose, CA (USA)
Alameda, CA (USA)
Lexington, KY (USA)
Paola, KS (USA)

Chicago Shout Out!

A quick shout out to my 2nd home and 2nd family here in Chicago! :)

I'm just flying through and only in the airport for an hour and unfortunately I am going to somewhere just as cold. It's super snowy and white here which is fun to look at but not good for me battling a cold.

I'll come back when it's warmer! :) From the looks of my webcam it looks cold in SB too.

Back Traveling

I left for Ohio today for a PPA regional convention and I always miss Santa Barbara so much when I leave so this time I set up my little 13in Macbook in my living room and left it on so I could see the view from the road.

I logged in from the airport this morning and it was so awesome! The new Mac OS has the best remote login abilities built in so it's just click and see!

David Brenot is rocking!

I just got an awesome email from David Brenot who came to my first workshop in France last year. He is now taking the French photography scene by storm! Some of the photographers in Paris and Lyon kept saying that French people won't pay much for wedding photography but I knew they would if somebody would just step out from the pack and try!


It takes BELIEF in order to create the confidence required to be successful and I'm so amped for David!

Here's a picture of him and I from his blog last January!

He also just started a forum for French photographers to share knowledge! Awesome!

Click here to check it out! and David will be here in the U.S. later this year will be shooting a wedding with me and some other photographers so I know he's looking forward to meeting some of you!

Real Weddings

Last year I shot a wedding down in the Mayan Riviera and the wedding is in a contest on the Knot. If it wins the couples gets a safari in Africa - pretty cool! If you already have an account on The Knot click on the link below and vote otherwise you could create an account and vote too.

Rock on!



View my Real Wedding Awards Nominee!

My Role in OSP

A couple of days ago I came across a post on OSP that said "Don't be silly, DJ has nothing to do with OSP anymore." and a friend of mine said that my "absence" comes across as "better than thou."

What I thought was really sad was that people probably believe both of these statements. I don't comment on every post like I did for the first couple of years because by the time I read a thread 10 people have already given the advice I would've given! It's great! Everyone is sharing and we've all seen the community grow and grow and grow because more and more people took on that role.

I also travel the world speaking and part of my presentation talks specifically about OSP and the community here and that is how a lot of people hear about and join this wonderful group.

Lastly, OSP takes a lot of time and money just to keep it running. I pay over $5,000 a year to keep it going and commit a good bit of time personally to verifying the accounts.

My role has changed but to say I'm not involved or to think that I'm arrogant simply because I don't post as much is a bummer and I thought it was important for me to share with everyone the reality of my role and responsibility changing.

Love you all,
DJ

p.s. I still have the most posts so ;P

Friends and Family

It's been a wonderful weekend! My parents came into town along with my uncle and Jasmine and JD!!! Yea! Deyl's parents were also in town so it was super fun for everyone to get together! Deyl treated us all to breakfast! Deyl found out that at Sharkeez you can get pancakes, eggs, bacon and hashbrowns and unlimited Mimosa's for $3.50 so we had a blast there!


....but then this happened! ...a blast into the future! YIKES!!!! Deyl and I looked over and saw our dads chatting away and saw what we are gonna look like in 30 years! haha!


This is another crazy week - I've had so much going ever since coming back from Nicaragua. I've been to Florida twice, to DC and to New Hampshire and had a Freedom and Slumber Party! ...as well as a wedding at Firestone Vineyard.

This week all the Showit developers are staying at my house pounding out more work on Showit Sites. I can't believe how amazing it is coming along and it seems like it's happening at the perfect time. I see more and more photographers wanting a custom and unique website instead of having a template that is the same as somebody elses. Showit Sites is going to provide a completely new and revolutionary way to create and manage your web presence. Get stoked!

Good idea Gary!

I saw this post on Gary's blog about a great way to learn is to go along with another photographer and I also know that Bob Davis is doing a workshop that allows photographers to essentially shoot a wedding with him!

Click here and checkout this opportunity! Bob Davis and I did a workshop together in Paris last year (video below) and it was incredible to see Bob work. His specialty is...well...everything...but he is a master at working with small external light sources to give your images so much more depth and impact.

YOUR VOTE MATTERS

The OpenPhotoContest just exploded and we are so stoked! With over 40,000 votes in the first day and over 160,000 of your votes tallied so far this is just beyond incredible!

Around 6,000 votes come in EVERY SINGLE DAY so be sure to hop on and check this out!

I also want you to vote for what contests you would like to see so I made a poll on OSP where you can pick from a list I threw together and feel free to post up other ideas too!

CLICK HERE and GO VOTE IN THE POLL!

Rock on!

Beautiful and super fun wedding!

Here is the Showit slideshow from this past weekend! It's a collection of work from me, Jessica Claire , Kristen Leigh and Josh Newton! It was so fun and the wedding was just gorgeous so be sure to check it out!

You can also check it out on my facebook page and you can see how easy it is for my clients to go ahead and add it in their facebook pages as well!

...and you can see it in all its glory by clicking here! and the best thing about all of this is that Showit Web did all the work. I only had to create one show in minutes and now it can be shown in tons of places!

Sporting our Shootsacs!

Checkout our crew! We all showed up and had Shootsacs so we had to sport them for a picture! Everyone should have one of these bags and for those of you on the Freedom Club you're gonna get to see a special interview with the Shoootsac queen Jessica Claire that we are filming tonight.

***below post was an unauthorized post and I didn't lie about being the best at Lazer Tag***

I lied

I'm sorry that I lied in my earlier post.  I've felt bad ever since, not letting you all know that Jessica Claire is a far superior laser tag player than I will ever be.  She deserves the credit for beating me senseless in the laser tag game last night.

I dunno why....

Ok...so I don't like to brag about things like this so I will not say that much about it but I did go undefeated in Lazer Tag last night.

I dunno why I am so good. I am just a natural I guess but it is lonely at the top and I kind of feel bad for everyone else who was defeated last night. One side of me wanted to let them win just so they'd feel better but I just couldn't lose.

Surreal Moments

So I just had one of those surreal moments.

I just got back from shooting a wedding and I don't shoot a ton of weddings anymore but this one was incredible and I got to shoot it with some wonderful people which made it one of the most enjoyable weddings I've ever done

A good part of the day I spent just standing outside of the action and realizing what a blessing it is to be a wedding photographer. It is hard work but we certainly have a lot to be thankful for and I'll tell you more about the wedding tomorrow but now we are all over at my house and we're just enjoying hanging out here at the Freedom House enjoying the view and good wine. Life is good.

and to top it off we are now playing lazer tag! So fun!!!

Until tomorrow...

Wonderful Article in Rangefinder

CharMaine Beleele is one of the most talented, wonderful and patient writers I've ever worked with! She interviewed me last year at WPPI and then worked with me through this whole year to put out an absolutely incredible article this month.

Click here to download it!

Today I'm off to shoot my first wedding of the year! Yea!

Jessica Claire is up here shooting with me and Kristen Leigh came all the way out from DC and a local SB photographer Josh Newton will also be snapping away so we have a crew! I'm excited! ...and my videographer Paul will be there capturing us in action!

Orlando Props Conference!

So this morning I was at the ProPhotogs "Props" Orlando conference and it was awesome! A truly wonderful group of photographers and I must say that this was BY FAR the best looking group I've ever met! I believe the count was 95 girls and 5 guys! They posted a few pictures on their forum so I stole these from this post.

Thank you all for the incredible time and remember to say hi here on the blog and to send me more photos! :)



...and I love to get good constructive feedback by reading the forums after my presentations. :)

Tricky Travel Tips

Ok so I reached DEEP into my bag of travel tips this weekend.

It's often cheaper to fly THROUGH your destination than it is to fly TO your destination.

It makes no sense so let me explain. If you are flying to a hub the price of your ticket might be $400 but if you're flying to another remote city with a layover at the hub the price of the complete ticket (2 segments) can often be $250! CRAZY I KNOW! So yesterday I wanted to fly from New Hampshire to Washington DC and the flight was almost $500 and so I booked a flight all the way to Orlando for $289 that changed planes in DC and then I just got off the plane and went to my hotel. :)

The 2nd tip is that you can often get a better flight slot by showing up and asking BUT you can only get on it if you didn't check your bags. Unless I have a lot of connections I always try and "Gate Check" my bags and that way I don't have to deal with them taking up my legroom and I get them instantly as I get off the plane instead having to wait, sometimes for an hour, at baggage claim. Flights are often priced by the time of day and the ideal time for me to fly to Orlando today was at 5:30 but apparently the airline knew that so that ticket was close to $300 so I booked the next flight out at 7:30 for $189 and then came to the airport for the 5:30 flight and they put me on that flight for free.

...and the best part of this is that I am telling you all these tricks from United's Red Carpet Club which is their premier lounge. I love these places because they are a quiet little sanctuary outside of the intercoms and chaos of the terminal. They have free drinks and healthy snacks and so if you travel much get access to the clubs. Chris Humphreys just shared on his blog about an AMEX card that can get you in a bunch of the clubs so go check that out too!

I was reading in the USA today that 25% of US flights last year were late! Wow! It was the 2nd poorest annual performance ever. Also, nearly a million seats were sold by US airlines that didn't exist! Resulting in "Oversold" situations. Can you believe we let airlines get away with this rubbish. In what other industry can people sell things that don't exist? Delta and Continental (sorry Mrs. Beckstead) were the worst...and the article said it's just going to get worse.

Ok...later everyone...I've got a flight to catch.

The White House

The White House, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Guess where I am! :)

I pulled a tricky travel move in order to spend one day in DC! Yea!
Allie is flying in tonight to work here through the weekend so it's
gonna be so fun to be able to see her on this side of the country for
one day before I have to head to Orlando tomorrow for a quick 3 hr gig
at the Props convention. Then I'm flying out the same day for a big
wedding this weekend in SB!

:)

Encouragement is great! Thank you all so much!

From time to time I like to go around on Technorati or other tools and search for conversations about me. I dunno... sometimes I find people saying mean things and sometimes they say nice things and of course both types of feedback can be used to improve but positive posts do so much more than that. So thank you thank you thank you to all of you! It means so much to read posts like these and I love all of you and I hope our paths cross (again) soon.

Reading things like what Keri Schimpf just posted last night really drives me and motivates me to keep doing what I'm doing even when I'm exhausted and don't feel the passion that I really have inside of me.


Click here to read the post.

And Alli Gaulin post as well and I always love collecting the pictures from everyone off their blogs!

And you guys can see that I'm sporting a Tom Brady jersey which was a gift from Christine and Richard McGarry!

I wore it all day but now I have my Giants Jersey on...lol...just kidding!






I even found this funny post from my friend Anna Costa saying she feels tongue-tied when she talks to me! lol... I don't think she does but it was funny to read that. Her and Michael always have the coolest things going and I love getting together with them because Michael and I always harass each other about Film/Digital and other photo things and then Anna and I talk business!

And my new friend Andre Valenzuala who came out to the Freedom and Slumber Party a couple of weeks ago! ...and who's Giants just pulled out a great win in the Superbowl so props to them!

...and it was super cool to hear from Corey Hage who was also at the Freedom and Slumber Party and how he immediately went home and went part time at his job and booked three weddings! So awesome! I think the wedding inquires actually came in while he was at the Freedom and Slumber Party but it proves how when we commit ourselves to things we always get results!

And I found this post from a photographer Dror Eyal in South Africa who came across my videos on YouTube.
Thank you again!

Yours,
DJ

Cool friends

Cool friends, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

David Jay VS. Tom Brady

Today I am proud to announce that a couple hundred people will choose ME over Tom Brady and the Superbowl at New Hampshire's PPA Winter Seminar. :) ... I won't bring up the fact that 90 million people will choose him...

It's gonna be a great day and I have 6 hours to rock through as much as I can and meet some wonderful folks.

Special Feature

Special Feature, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

The other day we filmed a special feature for the Freedom Club! I'll
post a little clip up here in the next week to show you guys. :)

Right now I'm in Washington DC on my way to New Hamphsire to hang with
their PPA group! Should be really fun and then I'm headed to Orlando
for the ProPs convention on Thursday. I have to speak in the morning
and catch a flight out the same day to get back to SB for a big
wedding this Saturday.

With Freedom and Slumber last week and then two gigs and a shoot this
week I'm starting the year off strong. I think this is going to be an
incredible year!