Mark Fiore!

My buddy Mark Fiore is such a stud! He works primarily for Linkin Park but he's done work for tons of the biggest bands in the world and here's one of my favorite videos he's done for a band called Olivia.

He and I are working on finishing up my mexico DVD and I'm so grateful that he's working with me on this because he is slammed with these big rock bands wanting him and he's taken a month out of his life to work with me!

...and yes ladies he is single and if you can find him on MySpace you can probably become his friend.

:)
DJ

Scott Corridan

Yesterday I was so stoked because I got to meet Scott Corridan who is a BIG BIG BIG TIME wedding designer and you've probably already seen some of the magic he's done on TV or in a magazine because it's everywhere, but anyway, it was such an honor to meet him and his lovely assistants and we're working a wedding together later this year and it's gonna be such a killer Santa Barbara wedding! I'm so stoked!

Another thing that was so cool about Scott is that he's so humble...and I notice the same thing with Mike Colon and it always cracks me up because these guys, who are the absolute best and at the top of what they do have such a down to earth view of themselves and are such awesome guys.

I'm so blessed!
DJ

Funny Story!

So my buddy Deyl was over last night and he said the craziest thing happend the other day... He searched for my name on iTunes (I dunno why he was stalking me) anyway... some people popped up and he started watching this podcast and he first said the photos were awesome and he loved the song and just had to know who it was. So he writes to this photographer and the photographer writes back saying, "Hey Deyl...are you still doing some video stuff?" Wild huh! It totally tripped him out so he showed me who it was and it was JT Pals! Haha! Isn't that so awesome! For those of you who didn't know JT used to be in video and still incorporates that into his stellar photo business so he must've remembered that I started a video business with Deyl way back in the day!

So the point being - this song is HOT! ***WATCH THE VIDEO!***

:)
DJ

Let's chat :)

Ok..so...over the past couple of years I've been fortunate to be able to talk with 100's of Brooks students and many other photo students and most of them are absolutely wonderful, positive and incredibly hard working....I've even had the opportunity to do a couple of workshops up at Brooks and have spoken to a few classes up there about my business but I have begun to notice a trend in some of them and obviously a large enough of them for me to make a point about it here and I'd like your feedback so please let me know if I'm off base or help me understand why this is the case and what we can do to fix it.

So here goes...

A troubling amount of photo students that I've come across have been so negative, with nothing positive to say about anything and this really bums me out. They instantly spot what's "wrong" with this photo or that website and they throw this snob attitude that their way is right and everybody else is wrong. It really does bum me out that these people are missing the point and I'd love to help them see how important it is to be able to spot the positive.

Let me tell you a story about one of the most successful business men ever - Sam Walton. One day he and one of his business partners were walking through a competing store and the store was filthy with empty shelves and junk everywhere and when they got outside Sam asked his partner, "what'd you see?" and his partner immediatly went off about the mess and how poor a job they were doing keeping the shelves stocked and sales updated and then the partner asked Sam the same question and Sam said, "That store had the most amazing perfume rack I have ever seen. When we get back to the office order one of those for all of our stores."

Through the mess and mistakes Sam Walton was able to see the good and take advantage of it and become one of the most succesful business men in the world. Can you do the same? It's easy to spot what's wrong but the real winners are those that can spot what's right and use it to better themselves.

I did it!

Ever since I moved downtown I've been saying I would get a membership to 24 Hour Fitness because it is honestly 20 yards from my front door so today I am very proud because I actually went in and got signed up! Just the sign up process got my heart pumping b/c they've got all this stuff like trainers and payment plans and vitamins and I'm like dude, "just sign me up for as long as possible and let me pay right now." So I got 3 years for just over $800 and then it's only 80 bucks a year after that!

Obsessed!

Whenever I travel I read more than usual so I have this stack of books that I'm reading right now, but this book just came in.

Creating Customer Evangelists

..and I can already tell that it's gonna be awesome! I'm becoming obsessed with this word of mouth phenomenon that is completely overpowering the traditional (aka. old school) ways of marketing like print/radio/tv advertising and mailings. There are so many ways we can get our name out now and it's really incredible to think about the power we have right at our fingertips!

Just today I was on the phone with a company that handles my international medical insurance, because I might have a fun trip coming up, and I was chatting with a lady who was handling some of the payment stuff and I just mentioned that I was a photographer and she said "Oh yea! I was just on your website." I've never even talked to this lady before in my life! It's wild and I'm slowly getting a grasp on how this stuff works!

:)

Updated Schedule!

My buddy Todd always gets mad at me because he made me the sweetest website ever and I still lag in keeping it updated! Haha....but I just finished updating my schedule from the last couple of weeks and I'm gonna really try and keep on it because it's so cool! All I have to do is type in this little text file and then upload a picture and it adds in all the other stuff!

I also made a little slideshow from the Atlanta PartnerCon so be sure to check that out too!

***CLICK HERE*** to check it out!

... and be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter which you can now do right here! (just submit your address in the space to the right) LOTS of really cool stuff to share this month including a SUPER AWESOME shooting trick I've been doing that is definitely gonna get you stoked!

:)

Thanks Jeff

The day before PartnerCon last week the four of us, David Salomone, Davide Greene, Liana Lehman, and me got to hang with Jeff Jochum for about 6 hours and for those of you who don't know Jeff he is the Head of Marketing at Pictage and he actually came out of retirement because he really believes in what Pictage is doing and how they're going to be the company that is gonna make an awesome change in the wedding industry. (and they already are!)

Anyway...he spent the whole day with us teaching us about presenting in public and how we should be knowledge driven and make everything valuable. It's something I need a lot of work at but I was just so amped that he took a whole day to share with us all that he's learned.

***CLICK HERE*** to see a motivational presentation he made and showed at the first PartnerCon!

Then the next day at PartnerCon he shared some of the cool things that Pictage will be releasing soon and he also shared his strong belief in Gary Fong's way of selling albums. I heard there's been some commotion on the forum about that and I haven't been able to read the thread but I also see Gary's way of selling albums being the best way to increase your revenue from an event. I've chosen to be a "fee based" photographer so I charge my clients for shooting and then stay away from the backend sales but there is no doubt in my mind that his system works very very well!

I'm so excited for WPPI :)

United Miles

Well I just got done shooting my first wedding of the year and it was so much fun! I'll post some pics tomorrow and I'm also amped because I am so close to becoming a Premier Member on United in just over a month!

A month ago when I was flying to Brazil the guy was like, "You should sign up so you can get miles." So I did and in the last month and a half I've racked up almost 25,000 miles! I'm gonna try and fly 100,000 miles this year so I can be in the 1K club but if I don't make that I'll at least be in the Premier Executive club which is cool too.

:)

...and I just read this and it made me feel pretty good too! :) I've never met Jonathan but I think he's a Police Officer in Singapore (oops) :) which is so cool because I wanted to be a Police Officer for so long! I even used to go on "ride-alongs" when I was younger!

Don't Miss Out!

I'm so excited because the sale that I offered in my newsletter was the biggest sale ever and it has already saved photographers almost $3,000 in just 2 days! I've seriously been so stoked the last couple of days because I've been getting so many emails just like this one from Chris Uglanica who's an awesome photographer up in Canada.



Here's one of his shots that I love! He has a super cool style and it's hearing this sort of stuff that really motivates me and I jammed on emails today and I got back to exactly 71 of you so I'm pretty much caught up and I'll try and get to the last 50 tomorrow...and I just got an email that 40 new people just signed up for the newsletter which is encouraging too!

...and the point of this late night post was actually just to remind everyone that the sale does end today so if you're wanting to get this stuff for the insane low price that I offered in my email be sure to jump on it before midnight...and thanks again to everyone who emailed. I love hearing from and I'm so excited to get to meet lots of you this year!

My best!
DJ

Helping people

For those of you who have read my website you know that my dad gave me the best advice ever when he said "if you make your business truly about helping people you'll always have plenty of work." I have tried to work hard to do this and although I still act selfishly more often than I'd like I'm so encouraged by the response I've had to my newsletters and my software.

When Forest and I first started cranking on software for my business we had no idea that so many people needed the same thing and then I pitched some ideas to my friend Todd as well and then he got his buddy Nate involved and I've just been so blessed by these three guys and their willingness to work so incredibly hard for me (and now for the whole photo industry) and it's so encouraging to know that everyone is loving the software and that it's helping people succeed in their businesses and hopefully provide better lives for their families.

I've gotta say it again that I just feel so lucky and blessed to have the friends that I have and I'm so glad that in some way they are able to touch your lives as well. My friend Deyl has also played a huge role in my understanding business as a whole and figuring out how to free up my time so that I can concentrate on being with the people that I love and hopefully help you all do the same. And I can't say enough about how supportive Gary Fong has been as well. He, possibly more than anybody else, has helped me see the needs in this industry.

I was up until 4am this morning working on my newsletter and I was almost falling asleep at the desk but I wanted to make sure that it added value to everyone who read it and so I was amped to wake up to dozens of emails thanking me for sending it out. I'll do my best to respond back as soon as possible.

We also had a flood of orders and I'm just so glad that this software is something that everyone sees value in and again a special thank you to the programmers who have allowed me to offer it for so cheap. They are amazingly generous guys and I pray God's richest blessings on them!

Yours,
DJ

Monthly Newsletter

So we come to the end of another month and I just realized that I haven't been home for more than 48 hours since January! Wow! ...but it feels so good to be home now and one of my favorite things to do every month is send out my monthly newsletter so that's what I'll be working on later today.

There is some really good stuff including a bunch of new book recommendations that you won't want to miss and a new application called Showit Borders! There will be a huge discount code only offered in the email so be sure to get signed up here if you haven't already!

Eric and Roz!

I just finished a whirlwind of a month and it ended with my first shoot of the year! Yea! I got to go up to Mammoth this weekend and do an engagement shoot for a couple who's getting married later this year at the Four Seasons in Kona! I've never gone this far to do an engagement shoot but Eric and Roz are so sweet and hanging out with them this weekend was so fun! Eric even took some pictures of me! Haha! ...and the picture of Roz above happened when this huge gust of wind almost blew all three of us down the mountain...seriously it was crazy but being the manly man that I am I kept shooting despite the danger.

***CLICK HERE*** to see the slideshow!

...and just to prove how wonderful they are - they gave me a super nice travel bag because they know I've been traveling so much! Can you believe that! I seriously am so lucky to have clients like this!

Oh Yea!

Just when I thought this week couldn't get any better I come home and go through my mail and find this Valentine from Olivia Barlow!



For those of you who don't know how significant this is just listen to these words by SuperChick!

Yea! How do ya like them apples!

Top 10 Week

This definitely goes down as one of the top 10 weeks of my life! I'm riding such a high right now because of all the AMAZING people I got to meet this week!

Recap!
Sunday...got to go down to Rock Harbor Church which I love and then head over and see the BarlowGirls in concert!




...and this was a total rush for me because as Crystal so sneakily pointed out I do love the BarlowGirls! The are so nice and they let me use their music on my website.

and then I rushed back to SB for the first ever Santa Barbara PUG where I got to reconnect with so many of the Santa Barbara photographers who I've learned so much from and enjoyed working with over the past couple of years.




then I cruised up to Seattle to see Gary and Melissa at Gary's tour Finale! They are two of the funnest and most thoughtful and giving people I know. I've just gotten to know Gary in the past 6 months and I've just been blown away at what a caring guy he is and how he works so hard to help other people.

After that I buzzed straight back down to Orange county because Mike Colon was putting on another one of his INCREDIBLE workshops!!!



And afterwards everyone came and hungout at this huge mansion they had rented and we just had the best time together.



I miss all of you so so so much and if I wasn't so tired I would've come to Disneyland today but I needed to get home and get ready to head up to Mammoth tomorrow. I'm shooting an engagement there in the snow and I'm probably gonna try and drive there - shoot - and drive home in one day because I have so much to do before PartnerCon in Atlanta.

I love you all!
DJ

Good Times

Seattle was great and the Fong Show was awesome! I've never focused on albums and I've definitely been one of those "hope" album sorta guys! Haha...it was so funny when he described what that was because it is totally me! After hearing all his tips and stats I think I'm gonna have to change for 2007.

Gary was tired and wanted to be documented truthfully and photojournalistically, and after traveling to 14 cities in just a few weeks I can imagine why, but Missy smacked him on the head to create the wonderful second image. lol

I also got to hangout with Jeff LaPlante and he has a great new website he just put up and he's a master of customizing Showit Web and so be sure to checkout his iPod proofing page! It's the coolest one I've seen!

Ok...I'm headed back down to OC! I can't wait!!! See you guys soon!

Santa Barbara PUG

Ok...so the photographers in Santa Barbara are so awesome! Last night we had our first ever Pictage User Group "PUG" and it was AMAZING to see everyone come out! When I counted we had 26 people there which makes SB one of the biggest launches and it's just a little tiny town! That's how cool SB is! :)

Sara France did a great job giving us all the vision for what these PUG groups can be and this is going to be a very strong group of photographers and I'm so excited for the next one!

My friend JT came out all the way from AZ and we had Mellany and Tobi come all the way from Palm Springs too!



Today I got to fly out to Seattle first thing to hang with Gary Fong at his tour finale! He's an incredible dude! He just did a 14 city US tour in just a few weeks! ...and I've been reading on the forums how career changing these seminars have been so if you didn't have a chance to go definitely pickup a copy on DVD once it's released.

Yesterday was awesome!!! I had such a blast hanging out with all my friends from OSP and getting to go to the BarlowGirl concert and getting totally hooked up with backstage passes from Sarah Barlow was sweet!!!

***CLICK HERE*** for the slideshow!

...and I actually think I look kinda goofy in the picture above but with these girls standing next to me (Liana and Jess) I'm 100% certain nobody will even notice that I am in the picture....and BTW these are two of the most amazing photographers I've ever met in my life so be sure to checkout their sites!

:)

Home from the Amazon

It was a pretty incredible 10 days and I'm sure I'll be sharing tons about my experience in Brazil but I just wanted to post up this picture of the four of us from the first Thirst Relief Team and say thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers because we needed them!

Our host while we were there was Richie Bouthillier and this guy was freakin gnarly (in a really good way)! I remember the first day we were on the river and we had some spare time so he hops off the side of the boat into this dark water that you can't see anything in and like 10 seconds later comes up with a Piranha! He shot it with his spear gun! It was insane and freaked me out because down in that water was where we were going to be bathing for the next week! He even taught us how to hunt Crocodiles!

There are some wonderful stories on his blog about the trip and the picture you'll see of "Celio" ( he had his hands blown off by fireworks ) is the guy we'll probably use in the video at WPPI. He has a great testimony of how these water filters have saved his family and it was such a blessing to see Celio's excitement to tell Richie about how their family isn't ever sick anymore now that they have a filter!



The kids were amazing!





They were always so happy and excited to see us they loved seeing pictures of themselves so Colon would always chimp with them and I'd try and turn my video screen around so that they could see what I was filming!



and here's a cool shot I got of a bird up on a cross.



...I didn't have my camera out there so these were just little pics I took with the camera mode on my video camera so that's why the quality isn't very good.

Definitely go to Richie's Blog and see some more pictures and read the stories from our trip and I'll post up more when I get back from Fresno. :)

***CLICK HERE***

The land is moving

After a wild week we're back on land but it's kinda weird because it feels like the earth is still moving! I've never been on a boat for very long but I guess it's normal. Anyway...it was an amazing week and Thirst was able to help so many families!

It was such an honor to be here and to be able to help a little bit because the people, and especially the kids, were so excited to see us and one family had been waiting a year for a filter! That kinda pissed me off but I guess that's why I am here. This organization is doing a great thing and I shot so much video it's gonna take me a year to go through it all but it'll be worth it just to see the kids smiling faces again. The people here are so beautiful and some of Colon's and Jim's pics will blow you away so keep your eyes peeled for more of them! Until then enjoy the shot of me that Colon took! ;)

I can't wait to get home and see so many of you next week at Colon's workshop! It's gonna be so much fun!

Posting from the river!

Posted Feb 5th.

We made it to the river and and have been cruising as fast as we can because it's a ten hour trip to Porto de Moz and WOW it just started pooring down rain like crazy!!! The rain here is unbelievable and so they're dropping the tarps on the sides of the boat but the wind is still pushing it in! This is awesome!

It's been quite a trip so far with Mike and I losing our bags yesterday to running through the airport and only catching our flight by a few seconds and now we'll be living on this huge boat for the next seven days or so.

It's fascinating how we sleep! They just have these hooks on the boat and we tie our hammocks to them! We even slept in hammocks at the house last night because they have the same setup there.

The reception on my blackberry is kinda shady out here but I'll try and post whenever I can but it might not be for a day or a week...but look forward to an awesome video!!!

....and thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! Because today was Sunday there weren't any shops open so we're kinda making due with the clothes we had!

Off to the Amazon!

Some of you already know that I'm headed to Brazil with Thirst Relief International but what you don't know is that I powered through a wedding in like 3 hours last night and it looks soooo good!!! I've been working on perfecting my workflow which is based off of Denis Reggie's workflow but it now makes use of some pretty sweet automation tools and I'll be talking more about it at WPPI this year. I've just added 2 huge new steps to it that cut the time from 6 or 7 hours which is what it was taking us last year down to 3 or 4 which is amazing! ...and this is including downloading!!! Can you imagine only having 4 hours of post wedding work to do and then the rest of the week to enjoy the beach! Wooohoo!

I didn't feel like going to the beach so I reinvented my Away Message! I know many of you liked my last one and everything but I just thought it was time for something new so if you wanna see something cool send me an email! ;)

***Click Here for Email Surprise!***

Please keep me, Mike Colon, Jim Hicks and Greg Gibbs in your thoughts and prayers because I've heard that it can get pretty gnarly down there!

Love you guys!
DJ

Ninja Party

My buddy Mark Fiore throws the BEST parties! tonight he had a Ninja party and there were over 40 Ninja's and Geisha's there and a few cowboys too!

In the mix there was one of my brides from last summer, one of my former girlfriends, my first assistant, my first software developer, and some other dear friends! See if you can guess who is who from the slideshow! :)

***CLICK HERE FOR THE SLIDESHOW***

Tonight Show

What a random crazy day! I woke up today at 8am and I was supposed to have left for LA at 6am so that I could get my Visa application turned in for a trip to Brazil that I leave for in 10 days but anyway....I'm just heading out the door and Amy Nave calls me and invites to go to the Tonight Show with Gary, Melissa and Jessica and some of their friends so I was like sweet!

I jammed down to LA and just as I'm getting my Visa taken care of I run into Mike Colon turning in his application totally last minute as well! Haha! So we call and Gary gets another ticket and we all end up at the Tonight show together and we got to see J. Lo! Holy Hot!

Anyway....it was wild and I got to ride in Fong's new Porsche Cayman Rocket Car and I nearly had a heart attack! That thing shouldn't be legal.

Thanks again you guys!!!

I leave Saturday for a week in Texas at the PPA show and I'm so excited to see some of you there!!!

:)

Thanks Gary and Melissa!

I had the time of my life up in Canada this past week! Wow! Thanks to everyone for all the special memories!

***Click Here*** for the video!

:)

OSP Chatroom is LIVE

I'm super stoked because OSP now has its very own chatroom!!!

You'll need to create a user name and password and it's always so helpful when people use their actual name for this otherwise nobody knows who you are! :)

I'm so amped! Check it out by clicking on the "OSP Chatroom" link to your right =======>

Rock on!!!
DJ

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