The Word is Out

My friend Tristan first posted this on OSP but since we're trying to get the word out please checkout this link.

***Click here*** and send in your support. I am foregoing public funding b/c I know all of you will come through!

Props to Max and Superchick!

A couple years ago I met Max Hsu who started the band Superchick and some of you were there when we met in Nashville! :) A super funny first meeting but he's a great guy and we've become friends and business partners since. Today he is launching another killer record. They've sold over 700,000 records and my favorite songs of theirs are HOLD, and Stand in the Rain.

Click here to hear their music.

Max is a killer musician but also an incredible photographer! He's always shooting stuff and posting it on his blog like this sweet picture here!

Lastly - the video below is a great song of theirs too!

Leaving Alive

This morning I decided to head home from Alive. It was another great festival and I'm always in awe at how they put it together. Bill and Kathy Graening are in charge and then there are a zillion volunteers that help out! I shot this picture on my iPhone last night and you can see the 1000's of people. It's insane how many people come to this!

I left this morning at 6am so I got to LA at 10am but now I have to wait around till 1pm for my flight to SB.

I added some flying tips and tricks to my traveling blog so go check that out if you're interested in how to survive in the sky.

Rock on!
DJ

Alive Festival!

I'm out at the Alive Festival and it's been incredible! I gave two presentations yesterday and met so many wonderful people!

Mark Davidson took this shot of me and it was the first time I've given presentations without notes! Kinda scary but it went so well!

Then last night I got to hangout with some wonderful photographers who's businesses are flourishing in this difficult time! Brian McGuckin, Marisa and Nate from Imagen Photos and Mark Davidson are such great people and have seen the power that community will play in succeeding during the upcoming years.

I head home tomorrow morning and am so excited to be back to SB.

Wonderful Group at PPO

The PPA group here in Oregon was beyond incredible! I really can't say enough about them and how honored I was to get to spend the day here and I know that sounds cheesy but I am dead serious and I am so thankful to have met these photographers.

I also wanted to update everyone on the Free to Succeed Tour. We launched it one week ago and have 858 signups so this is gonna be a rocking time in every city!

SF is leading the charge with 78 which I'm stoked about b/c I think a lot the Adobe folks will be at that one so I'm glad they won't be in an empty room!

:)

Cool people

Cool people, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Multipurpose

Multipurpose, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

So I'm in Oregon getting ready to speak and it's a bit cold and dry up
here so after my shower I went to put on some face lotion and didn't
have any...and this hotel didn't have any either-crap!

I didn't want to get on stage with my face peeling off so I found out
that if you're in a pinch hair product can also be used as face lotion
and it works pretty well!

Rock on!
DJ

Bobby and Lindsay!

I freaking love my new friends Bobby and Lindsay Earle! I just met them a month ago in San Diego and I have been trying to get them to come visit SB ever since...but they're too busy traveling the world! ;P

They just got done shooting a wedding in France which you can see on their blog and I love following their adventures!

Lindsay just put in her two week notice so that is awesome and I'm so excited to see where they go next!

Rock on you guys!
DJ

It's time to do the dishes when...

...you are stirring your coffee with a giant serving fork and drinking it in a disposable cup. :)

Crystal is outta town this week so things went to hell in a handbasket - fast once she left. I'm actually 100% certain that it's Paul's fault because my nature is to keep things spotless but I would never say something like that because I don't like to blame people for things and Paul's a good person.

I just got done talking with my dad. I hacked into one of his accounts online and ordered him somthing for fathers day. lol...I should've used his credit card too but I didn't. My pops has taught me so much and I know he's gonna love what I got him. We are total guys because even though I called him to tell him how much I love him we ended up talking about and watching Tiger Woods be Tiger Woods. Seriously that guy is unreal!

Tomorrow I leave for Oregon and then Ohio and I'm beyond excited to see a bunch of you there!

8pm and still in bed

It's been a great day. It's 8pm and I'm still in bed. I've had a lot of catching up to do on email and I've been having fun playing around with Showit Sites and building my website.

It was pretty funny because at 4pm today I noticed that I hadn't eaten and my mom always scolds me for not eating because she said if I don't eat my metabolism will stop and I'll get fat and sometimes when I go home my dad squeezes my side and then flexs his muscle subtly saying that I'm getting fat and he's getting stronger.

CLICK HERE to have a look. I'm slowly adding stuff so check back in tomorrow and I'll have more pages in there. It's so fun to be able to use my website as a tool instead of simply a portfolio and I've been thinking about tons of ways we can use our sites to actually add value to our service...more to come...

Is Hummus good for you?

I really like it and I have a lot of it in the fridge so I've been eating it but I was wondering if it's good for me.

I try to eat it with carrots if I can but sometimes I have it with my crackers.

I'm watching the Lakers game right now and the Lakers are absolutely smoking the other team. I don't even know who they're playing b/c they are dominating so much!

I actually don't care about teams really I'm more a fan of players. I loved the Bulls when they had Jordan and now I like the Lakers because they have Kobe and he's an entertainer.

Long but GOOD days!

I went to bed at 5 and was up at 8:30 this morning for a rocking day. I even *tried* to play soccer but I was worthless.

It's been nuts - we had 514 orders and over 450 of them were signups for the tour so that is CRAZY! A bunch of cities already have 50+ people registered so I thought I was excited before but I'm even more amped now!

I also wanted to thank some of your for posting this on your blogs!

I saw that Mike Steelman posted on his blog and Lynn-Kai Chao made a nice post too.

...and Claudia Hung posted too and this is so awesome and we're super thankful for you guys helping get the word out and hopefully you'll be able to bring a friend who can benefit as well.

WOW!

We sent out our newsletter this morning to announce the tour and in just a few hours there are already 315 signups! Holy Smokes! It's filling up fast so don't miss out on the great deals if your in the first 30 signups of each city!

Click here to get more info!

I'm so excited to come out and meet all of you! This is gonna be incredible!

Just the beginning

I'm so excited because my dear friend Jasmine Star has just launched her new website! It's the first complete website built with Showit Sites and it's so uniquely her! The site just screams Jasmine* - I love it!


It's so fun to read the comments on her blog!

New furniture

New furniture, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Another Gorgeous Sunset

I shot this time lapse the other night from my living room. I have a little suction cup thingy that I can attach my camera on and stick it to my window and works great for stuff like this.

Also, many of you have emailed me about when we are going to release Showit Sites. We are doing very limited releases right now and currently the only way to sign up is to get one of 5 special codes from one of the 69 Lifetime members that are out there. Chat with a few of them here...

Rock on!
DJ

Passion and Destiny

I'm reading a great book right now called "David - A Man of Passion and Destiny" .... I was named after King David so I figured I should read more about him and this book by Charles Swindoll is awesome!

One of the things that I read today was that David tried to live his life with "nothing to prove and nothing to lose." I think that's a good message for us as well. It's so easy to get wrapped up in this desire to prove ourself. I think it's really a death trap because if that desire consumes us we will never be able to focus on doing the things we were meant to do.

In skimming ahead in the book I also came across David's three major failures and it was eye opening because these are all areas of my life that I struggle with.

1. "He become so involved with public pursuits that he lost control of his family." Of course I don't have a family (yet) but I have at times felt like I've lost my life because of my pursuits and I know how geared I am to pursue these ventures and so this was a good reminder to keep my priorities straight.
2. "He indulged himself in extravagent extremes of passion. Whatever he did he did it with all of his heart" This is me to a T. Since I was very little I was an "All-In" sorta kid. Whether it was soccer, magic, paintball, girlfriends, ninjitsu I was 100% into something. My life has never had "balance" and I actually don't seek balance the way most people would define it...but I do understand the importance of having dimensions to ones life that blend together simultaneously.
   
3. "He became a victim of self sufficiency and pride" Yup - me again. Probably the most baffling thing in my life is how cyclical it is and although I feel like I'm making progress I still find myself making the same mistakes I did years ago. I remember talking with my friend Dane Sanders years ago about how great it would be to get to the place where we didn't have to think about the decisions we were making because our gut decisions would be the right ones. Maybe someday I'll get there but until then I need help and reminders of who I am, where I've been, and what I'm about and so I'm always thankful for books, my family and friends and most of all God for continually reminding me of that.

Ok... wow...that's a long one.

:)
DJ

Upcoming Gigs!

I'm super amped to see some of you in Oregon at their PPA convention on June 17th and also out in Ohio at the Alive Festival!

Email me or post up here if you're gonna be there or want to connect!

I'm super amped about the Alive Festival because even though there are many people of faith in the wedding industry I always respect the fact that not everybody believes what I believe and so I don't preach from my platforms...but at the Alive Festival it's the first time I'm doing a little workshop about how our faith and our photography mix together!

I'll also have my gear so we can go shoot together! I always love getting shots of the musicians!

Here's a short slideshow from 2007
Here's a slideshow from 2006

Rock on!
DJ