Elbow grease

So typically if I'm without my computer I'm pretty much worthless. So I spent a little bit of time reading yesterday and then I cleaned! It was amazing! My cleaning lady is sick and can't come till tomorrow so I jammed out a bunch on my own and I am really proud.

I even moved my desk (kitchen table) to give my self a better view because it's gonna be a long day of jamming out slideshows and a newsletter.

Showit Effects and Showit Borders just got updated for CS3 so that's awesome and I need to tell everyone to go get the new FREE update by logging into the store.


Having an internet store is so crazy because people buy stuff from the craziest places. Someone ordered from Slovakia yesterday? Where is that? ...and Latvia! Today people have already ordered from the U.K. - Canada - Brazil - Italy - Australia and of course the U.S.

I just counted and we are now in 33 countries! We work really hard on this stuff and so it's really rewarding to know that people are enjoying it and spreading the word about it!

Life

Life, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I left my power plug in pismo and the mac store was closed yesterday so I almost passed away not having my IV for so long.



Sorry I missed some of your vm's yesterday. My office line comes into my inbox on this computer and I couldn't figure out how to check it on the other computer.



Can you believe these things are 100 bucks. Gnarly.

Are you a spinning top

Are you a spinning top, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I was reading this morning and came across a quote that I think really nails what business or work has a tendency to become - a distraction!

Work can easily become a drug that keeps us so distracted that we don't have time to confront the realities of what our life is really about. We become like one of those toy tops that you spin on the table. They spin round and round and they are moving really fast but they're not going anywhere.

In the book Brian Mahan says, "the power of the social scripts of mere success, then, is not, as it is often thought, the power of seduction; it is the power of distraction."

In my own life I've redefined the word "success" and I encourage you to adopt this new definition as well.

The tendency is to define success by how much work we have and how busy we are because these things make us feel important and hide the truth about our life, but instead I think we need to define success not by how FULL our schedule is but by how FREE our schedule is!

I spent years distracting myself and maybe some of you have as well. Maybe some of you have spent decades - it doesn't really matter because what matters is that you make the change today. That you stop distracting yourself from what you're really meant to become and you free yourself up to live a life with greater meaning and purpose.

Excited to wake up

Excited to wake up, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I just got home from a wedding in pismo this weekend and it went great! I can't wait to show you guys the pictures!

I gotta sleep for a little bit though because it was a long day but I'll be up at 6:00.

I'll probably grab a few extra pictures from the reception to put in the show because it was a trip! You'll know what I mean when you see it!



Night night!

Fun with Remotes in the Press

The video that me, Swan, and Holritz made messing with everyone at the PPA show is still being talked about and has been viewed over 24,000 times on the different video sites it's on! Amber just sent over this link!

Checkout the article

Validation Marketing

I've come up with a new addition to my "Hands-Free" Marketing system and it's called "Validation" Marketing. I've found it to be incredibly powerful.

It's my belief that marketing should focus on validating the purchasing decisions of current customers rather than simply trying to reach new (potential) customers.

Great example below from a bride who paid over $15,000 to have me at her wedding. A couple of days after her wedding I put a slideshow on my blog and 1000's of people saw it. One of them apparently stopped her at the gym in NY. Now that's "Hands-Free" (Validation) Marketing at it's best!


Here's one page from the workbook that we'll be going through at my first ever workshop later this year. Stay tuned because I'll post it here first!

I'm off to shoot a sweet wedding in Pismo today and tomorrow and then I have a couple of weeks off to finish preparing this workshop.

Translation :)

I just got a voicemail but I think it's in Spanish and I don't really speak that much spanish. Press the play button and hook me up with an English version...feel free to make it a loose translation with your own interpretation.

Yea! Sweet!

Everyone says that RSJ will never notice me but I have faith! :)

...and my picture along with Showit Borders is now being featured on her MySpace page! How cool is that.

Longest Run - 5k

I've been getting hounded by all of you about not having run since May 2nd. I know...that's quite a long break so I came out charging and did my longest run ever with my new "Fast - I Am" shoes! :)

I slowed the pace down a bit but my average is still pretty good. Ya see I'm not much of a distance runner but I will beat everyone in the 50 yard dash. Long distance running actually trains you to be slow so that's why I never did it. Athletes need bursts of speed not a long consistent jog so we did more training like that and the longest run we had to do was a 2 mile run in under 12 minutes.

The only worse run was when me and the other freshman didn't do our job of cleaning up the gear one day after practice so the upper classmen grabbed us and put us in their trucks and took us to Coyote Road which is a long windy road going straight up the mountain. They let us keep our shoes on but then stripped us to our underwear and made us run up the hill while they threw things at us from their cars. We did a better job with the gear after that.

How to stay alive with no wrinkles

I had lunch with my friend Ashley today and she takes such good care of me. She's the one that first gave me Emergen-C and now I live on this stuff. I usually just have Airborne with me because it's easier to travel with. It comes in a little tube and you don't need to stir it but when I'm at home I can take the Emergen-C which tastes better.

So today when I showed up she handed me this bottle and said you have to start using this! I looked at it and was like oh thanks but I thought it was for removing wrinkles on my face...but once she started to explain it I figured it out that it's for traveling with clothes and not having to iron them! I'm stoked to try it out this weekend and I'm glad I didn't spray it on my face.

She also gave me lots of tips on healthy food to eat too. I usually don't buy food to keep at home because I have so many great restaurants by my house. This picture is of all the restaurants within just a few blocks of my house but she told me about healthy snacks and if any of you guys have healthy snacks that I can make without turning on my oven that would be cool b/c I've never turned it on and I don't wanna get too involved in all that stuff.

Yea! Gary and Missy!!!

Jessica Claire is amazing! She just took the best pictures of Gary and Missy and they are all up on her blog! Rumor has it that Gary pulled his groin in the shot above.

Connecticut Wedding!

Checkout the wedding I just shot in Connecticut! Justin Marantz helped me shoot it so if you see a cool shot it's probably one of his!...and it's Mary's birthday today so be sure to hitup their blog and wish her a happy birthday!

Also, I love this first image. I used the "Paint Scratch" texture from the Swiss Rough Pack for this one!

I also wanted to point out how much nicer it is to simply click through a Showit Web slideshow that is embedded into a blog rather than scroll down to view 30 pictures or so. Personally it makes me kinda dizzy to keep scrolling down to see all the pictures that photographers put in their post so if you have Showit Web save people from getting nausious and embed a show or a gallery rather than making a mile long post to scroll through. :)

Life if good

Life if good, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I got home late last night and I always love coming home.



I forgot to get a mug in CT so I will have to get one next time but it was so fun to come home because Carey Schumacher (barefoot memories) had sent me this fun mug! I love it! Thanks Carey!



.

New (Jersey) Friends

The New Jersey PPA show was awesome! A special thanks to Al Dicampli for putting all of this together and for everyone that showed up! It was a packed room with 113 people! A few hecklers but hey it's Jersey! What can you expect! :)

Also, I was stoked to see Paul Loftland already putting some of the "Hands-Free" marketing tools to work on his blog by posting some of these pictures! Rock on!

I'm in Chicago now just getting ready to head home for a few days before a big wedding up in Pismo this weekend.

Sweet!
DJ

Central park

Central park, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

We're just cruising through central park and they have all these remote control sailboats which looked like fun but then I was thinking it'd be more fun to take two boats and tie a string between them before you put them in the water so as you drove the two boats around the fishing string would catch the sails of the other boats and they would tip over! That'd be so fun!

Refueling

Refueling, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I had a great wedding yesterday with Brett Austin and Justin Marantz and after a long day of work it's always important to refuel.



We're on our way to spend a few hours in NY before heading to New Jersey tonight because i'm doing a one day workshop for the professional photographer group there tomorrow.



Sorry I couldn't hang with you guys from CT but I'll try and stay for a few extra days when i'm back for Justin and Mary's wedding.



As we're driving here in CT I've noticed that there are a lot of dead people here. Cemetaries everywhere...in California we hide all our cemetaries but out here they seem to be kind of an attraction.



I'll post some pics from the wedding later. My coffee is getting cold.

Rockin Connecticut

Brett Austin jammed out this sick video from my engagement shoot with Justin and Mary in the rain last night! Check it out! This is awesome!

Made it to CT

I've never been to CT before but it's really nice and peaceful...and the people are very friendly. I'm staying at the Boulders Inn which is a cute little bed and breakfast place. I kinda like boutique type places b/c each one is different where as I'm finding the big hotels all kinda blends together.

We got here early so we're waiting in the living room but there's wireless which is great b/c my Verizon card doesn't work and neither does my phone. Yikes...

I'm also liking the late night flights because I just take 2 Tylenol PM's and crash out and then I'm traveling while I'm sleeping instead of wasting a day traveling. I don't know how these little pills make me so tired but it's great because I sleep the whole flight and I only take them when I do an all night flight b/c Jeff Jochum told me that if you take them consistently you'll start forgetting everything.

Brett hasn't quite adapted to the travel thing so he stayed up all night and is just dead. haha...

Music industry softening

Music industry softening, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Just landed in Chicago and read this article on the front of the business section. Looks like sometime next month itunes will start selling some non-protected music for $1.29 and then Amazon will also join the game. Prett cool! EMI is the biggest label allowing their music to be sold this way but it's only a matter of time before all labels have to follow.

Workout

Workout, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

My camera bag and my computer bag which also has my projector in it for this trip weighs 62.5 pounds! Gnarly!!!

Whoa

Whoa, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Things got a little out of control in the last couple of days of unpacking and repacking.

:)

Fast I Am - huh? :)

So I was so excited because my Nike+ shoes just shipped and I received them today even though they weren't supposed to come until tomorrow and I thought I'd miss them.

So I got the box and tore it open taking pictures along the way...



...and Nike does a good job of packaging this stuff - I think they've taken a lesson from Mac on this one because it's all very nice and the shoes come in this cool little bag.

...but when I whip them out I see that they say "FAST I AM" - LOL - oops!

I went to double check the order online thinking that this may have been the first time I actually made a mistake but that wasn't the case...of course..what was I thinking.


So I hitup this little chat thing on their website and the dude is sending me another pair. He was pretty cool and it's nice to chat with a CS person like Larry...and since I can use these shoes in the meantime I'm happy with that solution.

Larry: Hi, my name is Larry. How may I help you?
David: Hey Larry :)
David: I just received my order and the printing on the back of the shoes is backwards
Larry: Hi David
Larry: Oh no. I am sorry to hear this
David: It is supposed to read "I AM" on the left shoe and then "FAST" on the right shoe
Larry: I would be happy to get you a label to return your shoes
Larry: That is clever!
David: It is also a lie. :)
Larry: Ok, what is your order number please?
David: not a big deal and I'd rather not have to return them and wait for new shoes...is their another solution.
Larry: David, I am sorry for the error
Larry: But, you will need to return the shoes.
Larry: Let me take a look at your order!
Larry: I may be able to request a remake
David: no worries...if you could even just discount me for the custom printining I'd be happy with that
Larry: I do apologize but we don't have any policy to discount product due to errors
David: That's too bad. Seems it's more work and money and time for everyone to have to print out a new shoe...
Larry: Yes, I sure do agree
Larry: Would you like me to order a remake?
David: How long will that take?
Larry: Unfortunately same time frame.
David: ...and that's the only option you offer?
Larry: I am afraid so. I can send you a prepaid return label to return your shoes and then have NIKE iD remake them.
David: Can I use them in the meantime
Larry: As long as the shipping date was within the last 30 days
Larry: Sure
Larry: First I really have to look at your order
Larry: May I have your order number??
David: Great! I just received them today and haven't even laced them up but as long as I can use them while the others come then I am happy.
David: Sure...
Larry: Ok, coo
Larry: cool
David: Here is my number -
Larry: thans
Larry: thanks
Larry: Ok, I have requested the label.
Larry: Please allow 24 hours to receive
Larry: I have sent over the request for the remake
Larry: Please allow 4 weeks to recieve
David: Fantastic. I appreciate your time.
Larry: I am sorry about all of this
Larry: You are welcome
Larry: Anything else I can do?
David: No problem...I make plenty of mistakes myself so it's all good. That's all I needed.
Larry: I appreciate it!
Larry: Have a great night and thanks for visiting NIKE iD

Bridesmaid contract

My dear friend Shannon Rice just posted the most hilarious bridesmaid contract on her blog!

CLICK HERE!

Britt Nicole!

I just found this new artist - Britt Nicole - on MySpace and she's amazing.

Click here to go to my MySpace and hear my favorite song

...or here is a little teaser of a bunch of her songs.

David Jay Media Group

For the past year I've been pretty curious about why I've only been offering photos and albums and the typical things that people have been offering their clients forever. The answer is that it's pretty easy to do the same old thing over and over but to be honest I'm bored of it and being a photographer is great but I think I want to offer people more. I'll be partnering with other types of media professionals to see how cool of stuff we can put together for my clients. Brett Austin who's my videographer and programmer for one of our Showit projects put together this video from the wedding in Palm Springs.

Look at this album!

Rarely do I have the chance to stay in touch with a client after I shoot their wedding and that's ok. I understand that they have their life and I have mine and so usually after the wedding I lose touch with my clients but every once in awhile I meet a couple who is special and Brooke and Blake are definitely one of those couples.

Tonight I drove up to Los Alamos to have dinner with them and I was reminded once again what a special role we, as wedding photographers, play in people's lives.


When I arrived at their house all I could see where my pictures - everywhere! It was amazing...and then best of all I saw their gorgeous and HUGE album sitting on their coffee table.







Pink Penny did the design on it and I was utterly blown away. I don't see my albums or prints once their made b/c I'm rarely in town and so it would be a big bottleneck if everything came through me.

I sat down and looked through the whole album and I dunno how many pages it was but I'm guessing it was the max that Queensberry can do. It was this beautiful chocolate brown leather with the same color matts and gold trim and it looked unreal.

Here is the Showit Web slideshow from the wedding a year ago and Pink Penny have the whole layout for you to checkout here!

Art of the Deal

I was amped when I came home from this last trip because a couple of books I had ordered had come in and one of them was Trumps, "Art of the Deal" - My buddy Deyl recommended that I read it and I'm loving it! I had to order it b/c nobody sells the hard back version anymore and I hate reading paper back books. Reading a paper back book is like eating a nice filet on a paper plate or drinking wine out of a plastic cup. If I'm gonna invest time and energy into a book I want a real one.

On the first page trump says,

"I try not to schedule too many meetings...you can't be imaginative or entreprenurial if you've got too much structure. I prefer to just come to work each day and see what develops."

This is a lot like I work. I hate planning things and I like to keep my options open. To get me to commit to anything is like pulling teath and my friends will verify that I always give myself an out. Yes - this is also probably why I'm still single....

:)

My Mugs

I drink coffee each morning and so I started to collect coffee mugs from all the places I visit. It's pretty fun because then every morning I wake up with a memory of a trip I've taken.

Back in Action

For the past couple of months I haven't really felt myself. I dunno what it was but for some reason I had trouble finding motivation to do anything. I felt in a slump and really tired and burned out even though I wasn't doing much.

Now I feel like I've been reenergized and I think I figured it out...it's because I'm doing more! Now I'm not doing more things that because I have to do them...I'm doing more things that I believe fall in line with my gifts and my purpose in life and that gives me so much energy and I am so amped!

Today on the flight I had 298 emails to respond to and I responded back to 46 of them and enjoyed it! ...and I'm gonna crank on some more tonight! I'm also excited about the weddings I have coming up. Not because I wake up every morning and want to shoot weddings but because I've found a new purpose in them and have reshaped how I see wedding photography fitting into my life.

Are you looking for purpose in everything that you're doing? I know I often don't and when I don't those activities drain me. Having a purpose behind what you're doing is possibly the greatest motivator you can have so if you haven't thought about why you're doing what you're doing then do that today! It will change your life.

Stellar

Ok..me and my friend Amy Nave always joke with each other about traveling and so a couple of days ago we were both staying at the Barlows and she was flying out and was just heading out the door and I was like why are you leaving so early. She was leaving at 10:00am for 12:30pm flight. The Barlows live 30 minutes from the airport and so she would've been there two hours early! I slowed her down a bit and it's so fun to watch her stress out. Seriously...it's great... but then b/c I'm a nice guy I showed her some tricks for getting through O'hare really quick b/c I am a self proclaimed expert.

So today I had my flight out and my flight was at 10:00am. The 10:00am fight through LA is the best one because it's not super early and it allows me to just catch the LA -> SB flight at 2:05 so I still have half the day at home.

So anyway, we left the Barlows at 8:50am which is 1hr and 10 minutes before my flight. Awesome...and Sarah got me to the airport at 9:20 so when I was checking in my flight was actually boarding...but I was sure to take some extra time to get a photo.

I didn't run but I walked real fast and got to the gate at 9:40 which means that I got from the Barlow Inn to my gate at O'hare in exactly 50 minutes!

I've been putting some travel tips up on one of my other blogs so check it out if you're bored.

I'm on the plane right now....gotta fly. :)

PartnerCon Fun!

PartnerCon was such a reunion and I've loved getting to know so many amazing photographers over the past couple of years.



This was the first time that Showit did the booth thing and here's a pick of Kenny Kim and Master Todd hanging out!


Kenny always gets so many great pics from the conventions and so be sure to checkout his blog!

Also, Davide Greene from Canada had the funniest slide in his presentation and here's a little video clip of it!

Heaven on earth!

Heaven on earth!, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

This is the best combination ever!



God bless America!

Pink flamingo pajama party!

Pink flamingo pajama party!, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

We're having so much fun at the barlows but the girls would rather blog than talk to me... So i'm taking pictures of them and blogging too.

PartnerCon!

The conference has been so fun! Yesterday I needed to get a TV so I took a cab to Costco and had him wait while I grabbed a TV! It's awesome! It's a 32inch Sony LCD and it's amazing seeing the Showit-DVD's play on it!

I set it up in my room. I'm not sure how I'm gonna get it home yet cause it's pretty big.

Ok...tonight a group of us is going to get sushi! My favorite! :)

I will go take more pictures now. bye

Sleepy

Sleepy, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I'm just taking off on a late night flight to Chicago...I was going to come in tomorrow but then I lose the whole day traveling and I have to go find a TV to have at the Showitfast booth...I haven't had a TV in a long time but I suppose if I buy one I'll bring it home.



Anyway...I just took two Tylenol PM's and those things really knock ya out... ;) ...off to bed...



Oh yea...if you check www.showitfast.com you can get the free update to showit web with the new embed feature which allows you to embed super easy and even works on MySpace!



...and if you prefer to read my blog in French you can now do that by clicking on the "French Translation" button on the right.

---->



Night night.

I am still at the wedding!

I haven't tried this before but I'm actually posting this Showit Web show before I can even put the on-site slideshow up! I rocked it out while they were eating and they had a bit of a longer dinner so here's the show!

...and I'm using a brand new embed feature that is so awesome b/c you can resize and do some other super cool stuff without having to upload a new show! We'll put it up for download next week!

...ok...back to shooting!

PHewww...

Ok so I'm on my way down to Palm Springs for my wedding this weekend and Brett is driving so I brought my Verizon internet card so I could book a room on the way...but there were no rooms. We couldn't believe it!

I think the 2nd stop of the Swiss Watch Tour must be here in Palm Springs this week b/c there are seriously no rooms.

So when times get desperate I have to actually pick up the phone and make phone calls. So I called this nice place right next to club where the wedding is and while I was on the phone with the lady telling me they were booked full somebody cancelled their reservation so we got it! Sweet!

We're staying at the Rancho Las Palmas resort which I've heard is pretty nice.

Ok...we're just arriving. Ciao. (BTW - this place isn't that nice) lol

....so we got checked in and I remembered Samuel showing me the bed jump website so I decided to do one of my own! Pretty fun!

Mashups

I like this song from Avril...this isn't a real video of it but since the band didn't make a video the fans make them themselves and they are called Mashups. In the WOM world it's further evidence that our brands are being created by our supporters and as long as we allow them to they will create content and marketing for us without us doing anything. It's a great example of "hands-free" marketing.

Exercise Changes Everything

Look at the food I'm buying...this is rediculous.

Mayan Riviera Slideshow

We had a great time shooting Vanessa and Jordan's wedding and all the good shots you see are probably from Kevin Swan who was so fun to shoot with!

Press the play button to watch the show!

Also, I've been have a lot of fun on my trips taking pictures of all the unique textures in these places and then mixing those textures with the photos! I love how they're coming out and the picture above is a cool example of what you can do!

So I packaged up all the texture files and made a video showing you how to use them.

Click here to Getit!

The training video is free and the textures come out to about a dollar a piece right now b/c they're on sale.

Have your DEFAULT be YES!

It's great to be home! Although I do have to leave again in the morning for a wedding in Palm Springs. A few of you emailed about wanting to come along and sorry I haven't gotten back to you. I haven't had much internet access and so it's been tough to correspond with anyone.

When we got on the plane yesterday I realized their was a mistake with our seats so I asked to move to an open seat in a different section and the flight attendant said "no" ... so I informed her that I was a 1k member and she still said sorry I can't move you. That's when I got on my high horse and told her that she was being unreasonable and that the rules she was spouting off were flat out silly and I wanted to talk to somebody else. :) ...Can you imagine how silly I sounded!

She sent back her superviser who moved both me and Brett as soon as she could but I asked Brett if I had been rude to the lady and he said, "The way you acted was very unDJ-like" which was Brett's brilliant way of flattering and scolding me all at the same time. So when the flight attendant came back through I apologized to her for how I had acted.

Lots of lessons were learned:
1. Always check your seats at Check-in.
2. If your default response is "no - I can't help you" don't expect to have many friends.
3. When you lose your patience, even if you're right, apologize.
4. When correcting someone - do it like Brett did.