brief web update

just a quick note about a couple things i just updated.

on the sidebar on the right you'll see a section called 'places to go' i've just updated that to include a few more things of mine.

and if you know anyone getting married next year, on my photography site i decided to do a end of year special and reduced my price from $3600 down to $3000. that price is only good for couples that book before jan 1st. the actual wedding date can of course be anytime in the next year.

for 09 i'm going to be revamping allot of things and making some big changes to my web presence.

so take a moment to go check out those links. and then come back next year to see what i've come up with.

Sabbath Center - may 08 retreat

Just wanted to write a quick post to share some images with you.(click above image to launch slideshow)
I went on a prayer retreat from sunday evening through tuesday morning at the sabbath center.
It was a really good time, resting for one, hanging out and talking with the other guys that came(Joe Barlow, Rob Ritacco, Roger Flanagan) and also walking and just hanging out with God.
In the slideshow you’ll see pretty much all the images I took minus the bad ones that I deleted. Driving in, the morning walk, and the evening walk.
If you get bored of it be sure to at least go to the end and take a look a the couple panorama and HDR(high dynamic range) images. the image in this post is my favorite of the HDR ones.

some thoughts on business

the following is some excerpts of things i wrote from a IM conversation i had a little bit ago, i was sharing some of my thoughts on business, and thought i'd post them up here in case they're useful to someone else.

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12:00
Something i've learned is that having your own business takes allot of time and effort spent learning and choosing the best options for your business. if you don't have the time to put into it, it may be hard to make it successful
12:05
the thing i see people try to do is just do the same as others they see. when really everyone you look at does things differently. for example pictage may not be right for me, but sarah seems happy using them. and she's been pretty successful. of course that's her full time job, she has lots of business flowing through. i on the other hand am doing a whole bunch of varied things and not a high volume of weddings.
12:17
what's fun is each one of us has a different set of skills and talents which makes us unique, this is why you see such a huge variety of ways of doing the same business, two people may do the same business in completely opposite ways and both be very successful and happy with how things are.
so the reason i'm always pointing at ways of learning the answer to your question instead of just giving you some answer. is cause i know for you to develop your business into something truly successful, you're going to have to spend time learning what things are best for your unique business.
12:25
i hope i'm not discouraging you in any way. i just felt it important to point out that there aren't any formulas or presets to make your business take off. i've seen people who waste of ton of time and money trying to find those formulas, and never make it very far. for example i'm willing to bet that there are people out there who try to do everything exactly the same as david jay, and are wondering why it's not working.
12:26
of course take all i say with grain of salt, as i've only booked and shot one wedding on my own.
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Stephanie & Blake

i should have posted about this amazing couple a long time ago.
Stephanie & Blake booked me to shoot their wedding in December, and for their engagement shoot they had the idea of going and hanging out at a cubs game (they're both big cubs fans,) we had a great time.
so main reason for this post i just finished doing the layout on a 6x6 vision art book. for a cool little engagement album. click the image above to check it out.

Stephanie and Blake and been so much fun to work with starting with the very first email i got from them. I'm so excited to be shooting their wedding in December.

enjoy