Simple Photo Minute

All good things must come to an end... :( so tomorrow we head home but it's been an amazing vacation and because we have to head to the airport tomorrow Gary brought us down the mountain to stay in the castle tonight and we just finished watching a movie in his movie theater! and I can never just watch a movie so I had my laptop open ( so did Amy, Mike, and Gary - haha ) and I just got so amped because I saw that Dane Sanders posted his first online show!!!


This really is the coolest thing ever that he is doing through Simple Photo Life and I'm so stoked that he got one out so definitely tune in every Wednesday to see the latest shows!

***Click Here*** to see the first one!

:)
DJ

Big White - Big Fun

Gary Fong invited a bunch of us up to one of his killer places in Canada and this place is unreal! Here's a picture of his Raven Creek Estate and this is the one that Me, Amy Nave, Mike and Julie Colon, and David and Kassandra Beckstead are staying at!


There are more pictures of this amazing place here so be sure to have a look! It's incredible! Click here!

The picture of Amy (above) is earlier today when I locked her outside by the hot tub! She thought it was funny so I let her stay out there awhile... :)

Blessed

Happy New Year!

I've never felt more in love and more fulfilled with my "work" than I have this past week...and I know the words love and work seldom appear in the same sentence and I don't want anyone to freak out and think that I'm some workaholic and that I'm consumed with what I do because I'm really not....I am consumed with why I do it though.

I do what I do because God has given me these gifts and I feel that through working hard I honor Him. There are times when I'm lame and I gripe about stuff that I don't enjoy but this last week, even though it was busy and I had to miss Christmas with my family and shoot a couple weddings with a long day of traveling in-between, I felt more blessed and more inspired to work harder than ever before.

The wedding that JT Pals, Ken Krehbiel, and I shot last night was for the twin sister of a wedding that Tim and I shot in Hawaii earlier this year and the word beautiful doesn't even come close to describing this family. They are some of the most caring, loving, and beautiful people I have ever met and when I'm around them I can honestly feel their beauty...it sounds weird and I don't really know how to explain it...anyway.... those of you who were at WPPI last year heard me tell a story about our experience with them in Hawaii. The picture in the collage is the father of the bride showing me what having two weddings in one year will do to your wallet...haha....

Here's the slideshow!

I also wanted to let you know that because of the incredible growth we've had on OSP we get to upgrade the server again! I never would've imagined that we would have over 400 people join this community this year! So tonight we will do the transfer and tomorrow the server will be "propagating" so there will be some down time and that will be a good time for all of us to sit down and do some planning and goal setting! :)

I'll also be preparing a yearend newsletter so if you're not on the list be sure to go to www.davidjay.com and get signed up.

Much love to all of you and I look forward to meeting more and more of you in 2006!

Blessings,
DJ

Chris and Katie

I got to shoot with Kristin Shaparenko, Kim Fisher and it was my last wedding with Tim which is kinda sad but Chris and Katie absolutely shined and God was definitely present and blessing everyone who was there! Chris and Katie both come from amazing families and it was an honor for me to spend the last couple of days with them.


Last night at the rehearsal I was talking with Chris's dad, George, and he started to get kinda choked up and I could just see how proud he was of his son...and what's really cool is that I believe he hasn't seen anything yet! Chris worked with me for a little while and then started Chris Humphreys Photography and he has been skyrocketing ever since! His best years are ahead of him and it's gonna be a blast to watch!

See the slideshow here!

Merry Christmas from two of OSP's finest!

I just had to post this because these girls are so awesome!!! Liana Lehman and Jessica Claire are two AMAZING wedding photographers...and I don't want to get off track here so I will understate their looks by only mentioning how gorgeous they are once in this post.

So we had a Christmas gift exchance on OSP and my AZ buddy Jefferson Todd, also a stellar wedding photographer (and strapping young chap) made this stellar gift and sent it out to Liana... it's really not a "gag" gift by any means and I can understand why the girls are fighting for it in the picture! j/k ... they were just being champs! Thanks girls!

xoxo,
DJ

Showit Christmas Sale!!!

Judging by the orders coming in tonight this Christmas sale has already leaked out but if you haven't already grabbed Showit Web and Showit Effects there will NEVER be a better time!!!



Honestly...we won't ever offer them this cheap again so Check out the sales here!!!



...and if you've already experienced amazing results from Showit Web then you can share it in true OSP fashion and give it as a gift for a SUPER SUPER SUPER discounted rate! So go here and check it out!!!

:)
DJ

Friends! :)

I'm so blessed to have the most wonderful friends ever! I couldn't possibly list or put pictures up of all the wonderful presents and cards I've received but I just wanted to say a special thank you to all of you!

Much love!
DJ

Portland - very cool!

Ok so Portland is super cool! (Oregon video) WOW! If it wasn't like -30 degrees I would totally visit here a lot. I've had such a blast hanging out with Kevin Meyers and one of my old soccer buddies Chasen and his wife Lisa and my old assistant Lindsay who is way cuter than Tim and two of her friends Courtney and Jen who are super awesome girls but I don't have a picture...sorry.

Anyway...before dinner tonight we stopped into the sweetest store ever and I am totally gonna order like every bit of furniture from this place! It's called West Elm so check it out!

....and it was so funny because at dinner everyone kept asking me when my flight was and I never know that kinda stuff so I was trying to look it up on my phone but couldn't find it so I just checked and it's at 1:45pm today...ahhhh....I guess I missed it by 10 hours or so.... Good thing Alaska Air is super cool and didn't give me a hassle or anything. I love Alaska Air/Horizon Air. The first time I flew them was to Alaska (weird I know) and they are always so nice and you can usually upgrade to 1st class for only $100.

Ok...BTW did everyone get the podcast link to the videos! Click here and sign up so you can automatically get all the latest videos! It's so easy! I'm not sure if these videos will work on the iPod video but for some reason iTunes podcast thingy won't pickup the videos compressed for the iPod - weird...anyway... goodnight.

Atlanta video for iTunes

I'm still testing this out but slowly getting the hang of it.

Good times in Atlanta with the OSP crew!

Bitter Sweet

It's really a bitter sweet time for me because I've reached the final days of what's been a wonderfully crazy six weeks. It feels like yesterday when we were all together in Atlanta for OSP-South and then I rushed to Puerto Vallarta, Hollywood, Boston, Santa Monica, Bel Air, San Diego, and now Portland...and I used to hate this sort of traveling but this streak has turned me around and I've loved nearly every minute of it!

I've also had the chance to hangout with some people who I've looked up to for a long time and I've been learning so much from spending my down time with them! Colon, Fong and Becker have all helped me see this industry and my business in a whole new light and I'm excited to pass everything along to all of you!



I was talking with Kevin Meyers on our way to the wedding the other day and we were just so psyched at how far the industry has come in the last 10 years and the guys listed above are the ones who did it! These guys, along with maybe a small handful of others, have turned the wedding industry into what it is today and have paved the way for the rest of us so if you ever have the chance to thank them for their hard work don't pass it up because they deserve our gratitude.

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!
DJ

Fire Alarm

Remember how fun it was in jr. high when you had a fire drill because you got out of class...well it's not nearly as fun when you're in a hotel and it's 3am and -20 outside...

This is my mad face for whoever pulled the fire alarm!

Podcast

Ok...I left my laptop down in San Diego so I've been doing nothing all day...well not really but I have been having a way better day than usual so I think I'm gonna intentionally lose my laptop! :)

This is super fun trying to figure out how to videocast.... I hope this works!


this is another attempt to submit an iPod podcastable dj video

A Wild Wedding

Tonight was the first of a trio of weddings I'll be shooting without ever setting foot in SB and it was amazing! See the slideshow here and and read more here!

Viva La Mexico

Mexico was so much fun! Wow! watch the 8mb video here (be patient for the download) I've never really been able to vacation there but I love it and I'm definitely gonna come back! The wedding was super fun and kept us kinda busy and we were also filming a DVD of the trip so that's been a blast as well and I can't wait to see all the footage! Watch the slideshow here and read more here.

Aloha

Hawaii is so awesome! It's actually a lot like Santa Barbara with a lot of really nice kicked back (Hippie-like) people. I always feel at home when I'm here. Today Tim and I tried to find the North Shore but we got lost...I get lost everywhere but the important thing is that I always pretend like I know where I am and that I never ask for directions...any of you men with me! Yea! Go men! We're dumb. :)

Me @ PartnerCon

My friend Loren Scott is the Director of Product Development at Pictage but he's also a Rock Star and an awesome photographer! He was running around snapping all sort of pics at PartnerCon and you can see all of my favorites here!!!

Showit Web (beta) is here!

I've convinced one of my perfectionistic (word?) programmers that I don't care if the program is perfect I just WANT IT NOW!!!! Haha...I guess I'm kinda like my clients! Speed sells and the quicker we can show our clients the great job we did shooting their wedding the more they will love the result!

That's why we do onsite slideshows with Showit Effects

and now we can put those same slideshows up online in a matter of minutes with virtually no work on our part! Showit Web is incredible and you've gotta try out a beta version on ShowitFast.com. I guarantee you'll be blown away at how easy it is...and it's gonna get even easier once the final version is released.

PartyCon was AWESOME!

Well Pictage has outdone themselves AGAIN! I've been to every tradeshow this year (New Orleans, Vegas, San Diego) and PartnerCon outdid them all!

It was the most incredible experience ever and I was so stoked to be able to meet so many of you and put a face and personality to the name and picture! You're all the coolest and funnest people and I can't wait to get together again! I can't believe these get togethers aren't like monthly occurances! I would seriously come down to LA every month if we could get a big group together like that!

I had a blast and I can't wait to see more pics so post'em on the forum! I only had my camera out for one night so please do post everything up!

:)
DJ

LS2PJ Rocks

This week has been such a rush with my birthday and then getting prepped for the PartnerCon next week, but I was amped to checkout my pics from last weekend and see the amazing pics that Gary Fong's LS2pj produced.

I admit...I wasn't a LightSphere fan AT ALL because of how big and bulky they were and the big white dome was just too much of an eye sore for me, but this new version works brilliantly and you can hardly tell it's on your flash.

Because I have a beta version for the 580 flash I had to stretch it a bit to get it to fit over my 550 and I actually jacked my nail in the process...I'll post up a pic soon...wow...did I just complain about breaking a nail! Anyway...I was kinda worried about taking it on and off but that's the best part - you don't have to! It folds up perfectly even while it's on your flash so you can pack your flash in your bag and have it ready to go at a moments notice in true PJ fashion. As you can tell it made for some beautiful, soft, and warm light. Everything I love for my pics!

Thanks Gary!
DJ

p.s. the shot of my better side is compliments of Dane Sanders and there are more pics here!!! and I'll upload more when I have a minute... :)

I am so lucky...

...to have such INCREDIBLE friends.

I had an amazing birthday!!! My friends are incredible and you can read the whole story here.

Dane posted this picture on his blog along with some other fun ones!

I love you guys!

Chimpers

I had the honor to shoot with a stellar crew of PhotoJournalists this weekend and it was such a blast! I've never experienced anything like it! Two years ago my friend Dane Sanders convinced me that it was more fun to shoot with friends than alone and we've been shooting weddings together off and on since then and it's always a blast. I stole this pic from his blog.

Yesterday we also had the treat of having Nathan Holritz come all the way from Tennessee to shoot with Tim and me! He totally rocked and it was a blast hanging with him this whole weekend!
Be on the lookout for a few chimping shots of Mr. Holritz as I think Tim caught him sneaking a peak a few (dozen) times! :P

Here's a quick collage of the day and you can see a bigger one on davidjay.com under my Schedule.

Among Greatness!

...and with greatness comes great chimpers! :p

My friend and long time OSP comrad Janey invited me down to LA today to hang with three of the greatest wedding photographers of all time (Gary Fong, Joe Buissink, and [B]ecker! :) I felt the same that I felt when I first met Mike Colon and the only way to describe it I guess would be like a young aspiring basketball player getting to spend the day with Michael Jordan, or a young golfer getting to hang with Tiger Woods.

Honestly these guys are incredible and Gary Fong gave us each one of his new Lightsphere PJ to try out tomorrow so I'll be sure to post some pics from it after the wedding!

After that I got to celebrate with Raya and Forest because Raya graduated from Brooks today! Yipee!!!

Click Here for more pics! :)

I wish I was shorter

At the end of the wedding last night I was exhausted and I realized two things:
1. I'm very out of shape and I need to exercise more...err...just exercising period would be a good start.
2. If I was a little bit shorter photography would be so much less tiring! The day after a wedding my legs are dead and these shots from Chris and Tim showed me why! I pretty much squat the whole day. :)

davidjay.com is here!

Six months after my friend Todd and I first dreamed up this crazy idea IT'S HERE!

In the months to come we will be adding wedding shows from Block Island (Rhode Island), Bel Air (California), and Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) so be sure to checkout the Schedule section to see more info about those weddings!

Enjoy the experience and may God bless you in everything you do!

Cheers,

DJ

p.s. If you'd like to be added to my monthly mailing list please subscribe through the "Contact" page on the website...all future mailings will come from that list.

Check This Out!

Check This Out!, originally uploaded by opensourcephoto.

Tired Tim

Haha! Checkout Tim passed out on the train! I'm not sure if the pic will show up but I hope so! :)

Showit is Here!!!

Hey Everyone!!!

Showit is HERE!!! Thank you thank you thank you for being so patient with me! I've never done anything like this and there were so many i's to dot and t's to cross...not to mention x's and o's for Forest to masterfully program into Photoshop to make this thing work so well! :)

I'm sending this email from the lobby of our hotel in New York because I was so excited to let you all know! We're on our way to shoot in Rhode Island this weekend but stopped off here to shorten the trip a bit - and quite a trip it's been! :)

As a way of saying thank you to the OpenSourcePhoto community I am offering $50 off to all members who invite one new person to join OSP before August 21st, 2005!

Also, because I want the newly reffered members to feel the true OSP love I will also offer them a $30 discount so long as they order Showit and post a welcome message in the "All About You" category before August 21st, 2005.

The $50/$30 will be refunded after the purchase.

In the weeks to come I'll also be offering some really useful additions to Showit so stick around OSP for sneak previews and happy slideshowing in the meantime!

Showit...always a crowd pleaser! :)

DJ

Checkout my buddy Dane Sanders! I'm so proud of this guy! I've never seen anyone develop their business and grow their image faster than him and I attribute his RAPID success to his ability to change! Honestly! I don't know how he does it but it's incredible! Everytime something needs to be switched around - BANG - it happens and he's off like lightning again! Big time D! You da man!

You can view all the bio's here!!!

10,000 Posts!!!

Tonight was a monumental night for the OSP community as we logged our 10,000th post! INCREDIBLE!



WOW! For the first time ever I'll be sending out a mass email to all of you (who have email notification turned on) and I'll try and send out an email every month with info about Showit and other cool stuff that I think you'd want to know about.



Another very exciting thing is that tomorrow morning a small group of beta testers will be receiving their versions of Showit! Yea! Forest and I have been cranking and doing as much testing as possible and I'm certain this program will be a huge help for people creating quick slideshows. We're going to try and get feedback from them quickly so we can make adjustments and get it ready for release to everyone! It will be available through davidjay.com

Again, much love to all of you and thanks for making this such a stellar place - I'm looking forward to meeting a bunch of you soon!

Cheers,
DJ

Thank You OpenSourcePhoto!!!

A couple of days ago we received this awesome sign from a mystery OSPer and it's the funniest thing ever! I can already guess what my brother is gonna say and it's not something I can post! 8-) haha! He's the bad son and I'm the good son ;-)

You rock - thank you!

Also, OSP is almost at 10,000 posts!!! Can you believe it! As soon as the server switch takes place that number will be set back a a little bit and a few recent posts will be lost :( ... but please post them back and we'll have an online forum Hooraay to celebrate the 10,000 milestone!

Sweet!
DJ

Epson Workshop

Last weeks workshop went really well and I was stoked when Brooks invited me back this week to do a quick wedding PJ chat/shoot with a group from Japan who didn't speak any english and was badly jet lagged, but good sports and we had a fun time shooting together!

...and I've gotta admit that I don't mind hanging around these pretty models all day ... read more...

I love my mom!

....and I'm beginning to think I don't keep in touch enough! haha!

We've been converted! :)

Sorry Xanga...but you're too ugly. :) haha.... :laughing:

As some of you may have seen I converted the front page to a Blogger site b/c of some of Bloggers mobile functionality and it's compatibility with Mac. Xanga just wasn't cutting it and now everyone can post on the main page but it's nice to keep'em in the forum so feel free to continue your posting here. I almost always make a thread for everything I put over there.

Dane showed me a cool way to post by sending an email with my phone so check out the pic of my carrots that I just posted up...see... I'm a healthy boy!

:) Enjoy!
DJ

Awesome Group!

I had the opportunity to be a part of a workshop that was happening up at the Brooks Institute this week and it was incredible! Definitely one of the best experiences of my life and I learned so much through the process and met so many amazing photographers!

Brooks had originally wanted me to do 2 days on shooting and workflow with a little bit on marketing the second day, but the group wanted more of the business stuff so we spent almost the whole second day on that! I was stoked because that's what I like to talk about and it was so exciting to me that these photographers understand the huge importance of that! I'll post more pics on the forum.

Sweet Wedding!

Tonight Tim and I shot the wedding for the couple who's engagement pics I posted a while back (see'em here) and this couple is so sweet! Seriously I love them! Everything about the day was perfect...even though one of the moms wanted a few too many formals but I got over it and they had an awesome wedding!

As we were packing up the bride came over and pulled me onto the dance floor for a picture. I'll post some wedding pics tomorrow!  :)

 

Happy Day!

This morning at 3:03am I moved the last piece of furniture from my old apartment into my new apartment and I am so happy to be done!!! I have many many many thank you's to say to my parents who were champs to come all the way out here and help me get this place put together, as well as to Tricia who has been an incredible help and support through it all even when I'm lame and don't answer the phone.

...and of course my man Tim who had to work in an empty apt for a week with no help from me and then who packed my car so full of my junk that I could hardly drive it! Seriously - if he wasn't so good at photography I'd suggest he start a packing business!

and lastly Happy Graduation to all of our friends from Brooks who graduated yesterday! Tim, Amy Janey, Jen, Becker, Jamie, who else??? I know I'm missing some...anyway...you guys rock and I'm sorry I coulnd't make it to any of your parties yesterday but I was there in spirit!

I'll get some more pics up soon but here's one of my parents that I shot with my new SD500 that Tim persuaded me to buy! I love it!

Cool people find cool stuff!

My friend Dane Sanders always shows me the coolest stuff and this is no exception!

Gifts from God

We're kind of running with a theme of "gifts" this past week and there are several other things that have happened that have left me both INCREDIBLY EXCITED and INCREDIBLY EXHAUSTED!

It's ironic that last week my pastor talked to us a little bit about the gift of encouragement and how God has blessed some people with the abiity to communicate His love for us at just the right moment!

Well... someone like that has written their way into my life...it's a future bride who's wedding I'll be shooting in Hawaii this September and I know she's going to read this (you'll see why in a minute) but I would say the same thing even if she wasn't going to read it because I want you all to see how UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING this girl is and how much impact you can have on someone by taking the time to do what she did! Seriously...I've read this email over a dozen times and it couldn't have come at a better time. The stress of the move, our new website, and the Brooks workshop totally hammered me last week and this girl is nothing short of an angel for taking the time to write this! Thank you!

Is it Christmas?

Ok...seriously...I think that I am probably the worst friend ever most of the time! I do love my "job" and there is a lot of cool stuff happening right now so I definitely neglect relationships more than I should...but people are still so nice to me! I'm the luckiest person alive. I love you guys.

Here's what I mean: My friend Sara France knows that I've been wanting a pair of Diesel jeans because they are really cool, but I'm super picky about having a pair that is nice and not all shredded like most of their styles! So a couple of weeks ago she found a pair that's perfect and sent it to me! WOW! I couldn't believe it! Thank you so much Sara!

...and then my brother sends me this shirt!!! Haha! Ya see...he's kind of a city kid and he spent most of his life in Phoenix and L.A. where everything happens right on time...like to the millisecond and I'm usually a few minutes late and sometimes I don't shave for a day or two (see picture). So one time when I was in AZ he called me up to see if I wanted to go hit some golf balls with him at 3:00 and I showed up at seriously like 3:07 and he was gone and he was so mad that I was late and now he calls me a hippie. LOL. He's such a funny guy!

...and then just yesterday our beloved Katherine sends a box of very authentic southern treats for Tim and I to eat while we work! There is so much food I don't even know what to do with myself....I'm gonna have a feast if I can keep Tim away from it! Inside those cans are cookies and they are sooooo good! I started eating those right away and then the bags have Crawtators in them and I have no idea what Crawtators are but they're spicey and they're good too!

Thank you all for having so much grace with me! I don't deserve your friendships but I love you all and I'm soooo blessed by you everyday! - DJ

.... read more and post comments here...

More girls like this...

This is so funny.... we definitely need more girls like this around!

Tim is mean...

LOL...I hope this joker doesn't bash into Tim's nice new Audi while trying to get out! :)

Nice People! :)

Today I spent 7 hours at my favorite coffee shop - Bogarts - with my friend Dane and because we're guys we really didn't have that much to say so we pretty much just played on the internet and look what I found! Thanks Vicki!!!

ShowIT

ShowIT is coming!!! :)

A couple of months ago Pictage asked me to talk to a group of about a hundred photographers about the shows I do at wedding receptions...and the people wouldn't let me sit down! They kept asking question after question and one of the main things was how I managed to edit the pictures so quickly...automation! Up until now I've had a very ghetto way of quickly stoking out my pictures and I'm incredibly excited to announce that I've teamed up with my friend Forest from Nitorix to create a marketing tool that will absolutely rock your world and bring you more clients than you could ever imagine!

Here are just a few of the sample images we've been using to develop the software!