Surgery

My wonderful assistant Crystal is heading in to surgery right now so please keep her in your prayers. We miss her so much. She is hoping for a McDreamy sort of doctor!

She just made a post about all the things I like on her blog so be sure to read that too!

SmugMug Discount!

Hey Everyone! Just a quick post!

CLICK HERE to get 20% of a SmugMug account and type in "opensource"

Rock on!
DJ

F-Stop Beyond!

This is awesome! A month or so ago Ron Dawson came down to Santa Barbara and did this wonderful interview with me and it was so refreshing because Ron is all about the bigger picture and understanding and helping people far beyond what our jobs or careers can do and so these interviews he's doing are all about people's personal lives and of course a little business is mixed in there but he really did an incredible job!

So you can watch it below but then definitely go to his website and see all that he's doing.

Here's more reviews from the Free to Succeed tour!
Click here to read what my "smooth" new friend Akil wrote! ;)
Click here and read what Erika wrote!
Click here to read what Nick Haskins has to say about Showit Sites!
Click here an read what my man Collins said!
Click here to read what Jamie wrote!
Click here to read what Amanda wrote!

Yea Austin!

Pics coming soon both here on the blog and on FreeToSucceedTour.com!

So we are now two down and tonight was GREAT! Some new friends came all the way from Mexico to join in the fun and others drove 5 hours from southern Texas!

I'm really loving the bus style of traveling! WAY better than flying! Seriously! The show ended and we hung around chatting for over an hour and then I walked out and was home. We're becoming a family which is so fun and everyone is having a blast. I hope it stays like this on day 40!

On our way outta town we stopped at this place called Whataburger which I thought was Wienerschnitzel but it had really good burgers. Since I'm on a low cholesterol diet I didn't want to eat too much of that food so I split one with Kenny and then I'm gonna eat some Cheerios because those are better for me. :)

This picture is of my room on the bus. I found out tonight that I can flip on the TV and cycle through a bunch of different cameras all over the bus and see what's going on right from my bed! So now I'm watching the road. It feels like I'm driving this big rig.


Ok! See ya in Dallas!

Tour Website!!!

Hey Everyone!

We just made a website for the Free to Succeed Tour and it's so cool - made completely with Showit Sites of course! So if you're wanting to track our progress and see pictures and videos from the trip checkout the map page! Yea!

It's two hours till the show here in Austin and I'm amped! My google alerts have been going crazy because everyone is posting about the amazing show in Houston last night show!

Click here to read what Lindsay from Studio 563 posted!
Click here to read what Brandi said!
Click here to read what Sassani said on his blog! *sorry for the typo*

Read more comments here!

Houston Kickoff!

Tonight was incredible! I am still in awe at how wonderfully well it went! It's 1am and we're cruising down the road towards Austin and I can't wait to get there. I really believe this is what I'm meant for and to have the chance to come and meet so many of you is the most exciting thing for me! I really feel like I'm living my dream.

We'll have more pics and videos to post up tomorrow but here are a few from my stellar photographer friend Kenny Kim! Be sure to checkout his blog and facebook for more pics!

I just saw the sweetest post pop up from Patricia at Plum Tree Studios about tonight so be sure to check that out too! It was a packed house and so much fun!

Here are some pics from Kenny's blog! He's freaking amazing and that's why we brougt him out to document the first part of our trip and if we had more bunks here in the bus we'd keep him on the whole time!

It's finally the beginning!

Tomorrow the Free to Succeed Tour kicks off here in Houston and tonight Lightroom v.2 is gonna be released and it's sick, sleek and super fast! I'll be showing how to dial it in on every stop! Each city is packing out fast with the bigger cities already exceeding their limits. We are trying to get bigger rooms b/c the big cities are already at 100+

I'm beyond excited about this but I have to give a shout out to my incredible asst. Crystal who at the 11th hour ruptured her Achilles!!! :( She's done such an incredible job planning this 21 city tour and dialing in all the arrangements and now she has to go into surgery this week and miss the beginning of it. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be able to hop on for the second half and I think she will. She wanted to come even though she could barely walk but I didn't think that would be smart and it's a miracle that we were able to find somebody to be Crystal's substitute.

Two days ago when we found out she had to have surgery I immediately thought of my friend Shyla. She was the only person who fit the bill and so I emailed her and it is so crazy how her schedule fit EXACTLY in with our tour. Shyla is a stellar wedding photographer so she had jobs booked in California the first week in August and in Ohio the 23rd of August which ended up being the EXACT dates we're going through those places! Can you believe that! I seriously am the most blessed person ever to have this fall into place like it did.

So now I'm here and Jasmine* just arrived so we're gonna hang and then the rest of the clan arrives in a little bit!

See you soon!
DJ

Showit Sites

I can't even begin to tell you all how excited I am about Showit Sites.

Just the other day I was making a change to my website and dragging some new pictures on there and I was just blown away b/c this has never been possible before! To be able to drag and drop and make changes to a website and to make it totally unique is like a dream come true for me and I know for many others as well.

We just officially launched today and we already have 60 people signed up (not to mention our Lifers who we owe so much to!) and over 2000 people using the tool! It's insane!


I'm really stoked that we have so many web designers signed up and I love that we were able to launch a tool and create jobs for other people as well! I think people like Nick Haskins and JT Pals and many others are gonna make a huge splash designing Style Groups for people and helping photographers create a website that can be totally different!

...and if you want to check out what Showit Sites can do for you download a free copy for a month and you can instantly have a site up using our included Style Groups. Watch this video to see more about them.

Adobe Success Story

CLICK HERE to read the article!

A nice article just got posted about me and ShowitFast Inc. on the Adobe Showcase website. As you all know the great people over there have given us an ability to do what we love and are changing the world through their technology!

Looking for Freedom Ambassadors!

As we get ready to head out to our first tour stop in the great country of Texas :) we wanted to invite a few of you to be Freedom Ambassadors in your city. We are looking for a few people to help with logistics and questions on the day of the events so if you're interested hitup Crystal@davidjay.com.

We'll give you a tour of the bus and have limited edition "Freedom T's" for you as well. :)

Thanks Michigan!

As you all know I was in Michigan earlier this week meeting with the MTPPA group and they just put up a sweet post on their blog so be sure to check that out. It's so encouraging hearing things like this and I really loved this group!

I did a sampling of what I'll be talking about on the tour and I hope it can help these photographers make some good changes!

Here's a shot with my friend Jackie! I met her while we were both doing a regional show in Utah a couple years back and then she's the one who brought me out to Michigan. She's wonderful!

Prepare or be Punished

One of the things that's been really interesting to me lately is why it's so difficult for us humans to change our behavior until we are absolutely forced into it. In this time when we know things are gonna be tough why can't we prepare for it? I'm totally guilty of this in so many ways and it's baffling. Gary's been barking at me for a couple of years about the economy and everyone (myself included) was in denial and maybe I still am but I do know that I'm starting to change my behavior? Are you?

Why do you think it's so hard?

United Airlines is Terrible

*** Let me preface this post by saying that I had an incredible time with my new friends in Michigan and I hate that my trip was tainted by an unbelievable amount of troubles with the airlines...but such is life. Thanks to everyone who came and I tried to fit everyone into the shot below and that's why I took it sideways but if I had included everyone I would've had to modify the title ;P ***

Another terrible week as a Premier Executive passenger on United Airlines.

Conde Naste just rated United the worst airline and I have to agree. The other airlines are bad too so it's really a no-win situation.

Sunday:
3 delayed flights on Sunday causing me to lose my first class seat and sit in a middle seat in economy plus for 4 hours. Also forces an overnight stay in Chicago costing $300
Monday:
1 canceled flight on Monday morning
Tuesday:
1 canceled flight on Tuesday causing me to miss my connection and miss my meeting in Portland
1 flight delayed and downgraded which turned it into an oversold position by 70 passengers and bumps me from my first class seat past economy plus and into economy...I feel bad for myself but I feel super bad for the 70 people who are not gonna get on the flight they paid for! It's disgusting that this is tolerated!

...and get this - they offer nothing - absolutely nothing for their mistakes.

If this is how they treat their loyal customers I'd hate to be a "normal" passenger. I can't believe that it is legal for a company to screw its customers and offer them nothing in return. Imagine calling all your brides an hour before their wedding and saying I'm not gonna shoot your wedding and I'm not gonna refund you anything but I will offer you something different from what you booked for the same amount as you paid.

It's disgusting and I'm so glad we're taking a bus on the tour!

Airlines - you're getting what you deserve.

How many of you have had a nightmare story on United?

Cool people

Cool people, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

The best thing about today...

The best thing about today..., originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Is that it's over. :) it was a rough day in the increasingly
unfriendly skies but God did leave me with this gorgeous sunset to
remind me that the sun will come up tomorrow! :)

I snapped this on my iPhone from my hotel room in Chicago...and
tomorrow I'm completing my journey to Michigan to hang with the PPA
group there. Then i'm off to Portland for a quick meeting and then
back home!

Where do you spend your time

I started a poll on OSP for photographers b/c I'm curious how much time everybody is spending in certain areas of their business. It's anonymous so please answer it as accurately as possible.

Click here to check it out!

:)
DJ

I've been cranking (and sometimes cranky)

So life is motoring along right now! I know many of you are feeling the same way so we have to be really good about taking advantage of what Tony Robbins calls "NET" time. No Extra Time are the spaces in our life like when we're waiting in line at the super market or commuting or other times that often get wasted doing nothing but in busy seasons we must take advantage of them.

I've been bunkering down working on the presentation for the tour and some other logistical things and I'm just amazed at how many resources there are available that I never used. That's ok because of course we can't use everything but I'm excited to share lots of new ways to get results - fast.


On a completely different note I just took this picture because I looked out the window and noticed that even though I'm having a bright sunny day my friend Deyl (who lives on that hill) is in the clouds and it's probably all gloomy over there so I'm gonna call him and cheer him up! :)

Do you have any friends who are probably bumming about something right now! Call them and encourage them right now! Encouragement is one of the most powerful tools that every single one of us possess and we don't use it nearly enough! Go encourage someone and it'll make their week better AND yours!

Happy Birthday Deyl

Yesterday was my best friend Deyl's birthday but he was traveling back from spending two months doing a house-swap in Spain. Yea - isn't that awesome. He and his fabulous wife Paige traded their house for some spanish dude's house for two months!

Deyl is the guy who first turned me onto the idea of "passive income" and we used to listen to all of Robert Kiyosaki's cd's while printing pictures in the darkroom. It took about 8 years of Deyl's chirping before I began to understand how to escape the self imposed "rat race" and create freedom in my life and I'm forever grateful to him for that.

We got to skype while he was in spain and here he is chilling on the porch in Spain.


Deyl - you da man! Thanks for being such an inspiration!

A few pictures

I'm still in Marina Del Rey after the wedding. It's been an incredible weekend! I can't even begin to describe the gift that Jasmine Star and Crystal Goss gave me this weekend. They came out and helped me shoot one of my friends wedding and it was beyond wonderful having them there. I didn't have to worry about a thing and it allowed me to really enjoy being there!

I've been looking through their shots and am just blown away. These girls are phenomenal photographers and everyone just fell in love with them at the wedding!

I can't wait to see more of the pics they shot but here are a few that I took. Jas and Crystal wouldn't let me hang out with them so I went and found the guys and I like this shot.

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