NEW BLOG LAUNCH!!!! (#95...check!)

Ok---don't waste any more time looking at this post. Go DIRECTLY to my brand new blog!!

www.melissajill.net

When it Rains it Pours

So the flu is gone. I'm feeling better which I'm thankful for.

Yesterday the ladies who clean my house were over and while reaching to clean a window, one of them put her weight on my desk and broke it causing my 21" monitor to fall and break along with a few other things. Ahhh!!!!! Why does everything happen all at once!?!

I took my monitor in to the friendly guys at the Apple store and they are hooking me up with a new foot for it (basically a plastic part that helps it stand up) for $100. Thankfully the monitor itself is alright. But the desk is being held up temporarily by some album boxes and now I'm in Flagstaff for the weekend :).

I'm here with my friends Sarah and Ryan who are getting hitched in August. Sarah's dad lives up here and we thought it would be a fun place to do their engagement shoot.

So hopefully bad things really do happen in threes and my grandpa's heart attack, the flu and the destruction of my office are it for me this week :).

Disaster Update

So...the website is back up and so is the blog. Let me know if you click on any links that don't work somewhere or find any photos missing where they should appear--just leave a comment here so I can get all my bases covered.

But email is still down. No telling when that will be fixed. Feel free to email me at melissajill@mac.com in the meantime or communicate through the comments on my blog.

Tomorrow I'm heading out of town AGAIN to take care of #55 on my list -- Go camping! I'm excited to get out of the heat and head up to northern Arizona once again. It's going to be weird, though, going a full 3 days without any contact with the outer world via email or the internet. I'm sure I'll go through some hard core withdrawals. I guess if my email is going to be down, this is a good time since I won't be able to check it the next couple days anyways. But I'm very sorry to those of you who I haven't gotten back to. Please be patient with me! Things are going to slow down and I'll be able to get on top of everything again soon.

Disaster Relief Mode

Right now I'm going through every small business owner's nightmare--my website is down, and I can't receive email! Ahhhh!!!

I'm in the process of transferring my domain to a new hosting company and it's quite an arduous process because my original domain registrar is basically out of business and is taking his time getting everything straightened out. I don't fully understand all this stuff but realized late last night that I wasn't receiving emails and then checked my website to find out it was down. So I've been scrambling ever since.

Please be patient with me as I get all this sorted out and feel free to call instead of email if you want to get through to me today.

Thanks!!

Traveling

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days, guys. I've been scrambling to get everything wrapped up at the office and then today spent the day traveling up to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where I'm shooting my cousin Laura's wedding on Friday. I made it even though I feared for my life a bit in this small plane I took from Minneapolis to Duluth in the midst of a rain storm. It was pretty turbulent.

It's been nice to see family today and breathe in some cool tree-scented air. My aunt and uncle live in a log house they built near a swamp and the noise from the frogs that live there is unbelievably loud. I'll have to post some photos of how beautiful it is here soon.

In other news, I sent out my May newsletter yesterday. So if you didn't receive it and are interested, just put your email address in the box to the right and you'll receive fun news from me every month.

#64...check!

64. Be on "Simple Photo Minute"


I'm so excited! My friend, Dane Sanders, a wedding photographer in OC that started his business up around the same time as me and helped found OSP (Open Source Forum) has this great thing for photographers called "Simple Photo Minute." He puts together short videos that are educational and seek to help wedding photographers simplify their lives and businesses. It's great and I've been watching the weekly podcasts for over a year now.

When I made my list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days, I put this one on there. About a month ago, I filmed a segment of myself walking through how I run my client meetings and Dane used it! Click here to view my 1st Simple Photo Minute!

Lunch with Gino

Today I went to lunch with Gino Lucadamo of Story by Photo. Gino has been in the wedding photography business a lot longer than I have and is doing very well for himself specializing in destination weddings. Not only is he talented but he's a fun guy to hang out with. We've gone to lunch a number of times over the past couple years and it's always fun.

I really enjoy hanging out with other wedding photographers. We have a great industry of people who enjoy networking and helping each other out.

Thanks for lunch Gino!

New issue of The Wedding Chronicle!

I just got the new issue of The Wedding Chronicle and Elizabeth & Nathan's wedding was published in it!! Very exciting!

Here's the story that's included:

"Nestled at the base of South Mountain, Secret Garden Event Center is the perfect place for a romantic wedding. The 1929 historic home has been lovingly restored to provide the backdrop for brides and grooms to have the weddings of their dreams. And to this beautiful place Elizabeth and Nathan traveled from their home in Minnesota to become husband and wife. Elizabeth spent several years as an on-site coordinator for other venues in Phoenix, but she chose this place for her own wedding."

"With lots of attention to detail, bright, bright colors and many handmade favors for the guests who traveled from the Midwest to be with them, Elizabeth and Nathan planned a party to be remembered for years to come."

"Their minister took a moment during the ceremony to read letters written by the bride and groom to each other. These letters were filled with moments shared and many words of love and concern as the couple lived through Nathan's deployment in Iraq and his safe return home to Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth's advice to other brides would be to start planning early and concentrate your money in the areas you think are most important. For the bride it was photographer, DJ and florist."

Thanks for the shout-out Elizabeth! What a beautiful wedding! It's been fun to re-live it!

Speaking on Blogging

Last night I had the opportunity to speak at our monthly Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC) meeting. I've been a part of this networking group for two years now and it's been a blessing to my business. I've met a number of consultants that I've gotten to know and work with as well as many other vendors within the wedding industry. We meet at a different wedding venue each month and enjoy a fully catered meal. There are always new people to meet and now that I've been going for awhile, I have some good friends who I get to touch base with as well.

Last night I was able to share a little about my business and then I talked about blogging! Out of 30 people who were there, only 3 had blogs. I was a little surprised! The two main reasons people gave for not blogging were that it takes too much time and that they don't know if they would have anything to say. I can relate to these because this is exactly how I felt a little over a year ago before I started my blog. But I jumped in and quickly came to enjoy blogging and see that there are also huge benefits for my business! If you'd like to take a look at the handout that I passed out last night that lists a number of those benefits as well as ideas for blogging topics and tips, click here. And, by the way, I'm not sure what happened with the font. I used a very readable font on my handout but for some reason when it was converted to a pdf it got all funktified.

Bright Event Gallery

Yesterday I spent some time at Bright Event Gallery shooting some images for their website. Bright was started this year by fabulous wedding coordinators, Victoria Canada and Kelly Gill, as a high-end "one-stop-shop" for planning extraordinary events. I am honored to be one of their select vendors that they feature at the gallery.

Bright's Old Town Scottsdale location is so fun and beautiful and every time I stop by there are new things to look at. The girls do a great job.

They've got lots of fun favor ideas:



Purses in every size and color:


Cute wedding planning binders:


Fun quotes on the walls:


Table settings that are updated and changed frequently. I love this one:


Look at these fun, colorful glasses:


I loved how Kelly from Kelly Ashworth Design used characters' names from one of my favorite TV shows, "The Office" as place markers (this one says "Jim Halpert" in case you can't read it):


Fun T-shirts:



Colorful wraps:


They've got everything displayed so beautifully. Check out these cubicles:


Scented candles:



Stationary:



This is a great idea -- packets to keep the children busy at receptions:


These are great too. They're etch-it cups and stickers that you can use to personalize your drinks:


They even sell custom made jewelry:


And Victoria always amazes me with her creative ideas. These are inexpensive candles she bought from a grocery story and stuck letters onto. You could spell out anything (happy Cinco De Mayo, by the way!):


Finally, one of my favorite things about stopping by the store--the candy bar:


The girls were nice enough to model the wraps for me. From left to right --Ashley--an associate planner, Victoria, Kelly and Mary with My Wedding Film who was there to meet a client:



Gorgeous girls! Fun hanging out with you today!

Playing with Light

I finally got all of my new equipment that I was inspired to get after the One Light Workshop. So last night Jamie, Shannon & I went out to Old Town Gilbert to play with it. It was fun! I was so thankful to have both of them because the light stand kept wanting to blow over and it was so dark that I needed someone to shine a flashlight in order to focus my camera. I would definitely recommend bringing an assistant for this kind of shoot.

Check out some of the fun shots we got:






Thanks guys! I can't wait to use this stuff more!

Where on earth are you?

I found out about this cool blog tool on David Jay's blog and thought it would be fun to try on my own. Now I can see where all my friends are logging on from. It looks like I have some all around the world, which is fun.

If you click on the map, you can see current and past visitors and even zoom into different areas of the globe. The dark parts of the map are where people are sleeping; or are supposed to be sleeping, I guess. It's dark where I live right now but yet here I am, blogging. What a crazy workaholic blogger I am :).

#67....check!

67. Find good legal music to use on slideshows


I'm still working away on my list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. It's going pretty well but I'm working on some bigger goals that are taking me a little longer to complete. For instance--running 3 consecutive 10 minute miles--I'm realizing that is a BIT of a stretch for me. But I'm going to eventually get there.

When I was at WPPI in March I came across Triple Scoop Music -- a new company that is working to bring musicians and photographers together. For photographers, finding good music that is legal to use is tough. Everything is copyrighted and we could be sued hundreds of thousands of dollars for using a song without permission. But large music labels and famous artists don't tend to respond to our emails about wanting to use their songs on our small business websites. They're selling the rights to the songs to people who are making movies for thousands of dollars. We're chump change. So it's a dilemma. We want good music but it's nearly impossible to get the permission to use it legally.

So I made a goal to find some good legal music to use. There's a lot of royalty free music sites but the songs are generally pretty cheesy. But thankfully I found Triple Scoop Music at WPPI and had them put together a custom CD for me with 10 songs I picked off their website. They have some decent stuff. I still think there's a ways to go in bridging the gap between musicians and photographers but this is a good start.

Check back on my website soon to see some fresh intro slideshows with some of the new music. I will also be using the new songs on my upcoming wedding slideshows that I link to on my blog. I'm sure you're all getting tired of the old stuff :).

NEW - Gift Certificates for Pre-Registering

I'm excited to announce that I am now offering $20 gift certificates that can be used toward the purchase of prints on Pictage, my online lab, for ALL GUESTS who pre-register on Pictage to view photos of an upcoming wedding. All you have to do is go to pictage.com and search for the upcoming wedding you will be attending, then log in using your email address and a password of your choice. Then, when the photos are posted on Pictage, you will receive an email letting you know that they are available and giving you a special code to redeem your gift certificate online. It's easy!

If you're a bride whose wedding is coming up, you can send an email out to all of your family and friends, encouraging them to pre-register. Also, at your reception, I always collect the names and email addresses of guests interested in viewing all of the photos online after the wedding. Then I send them an email with a link to see the slideshow and instructions for pre-registering. So either way, whether they hear it from you or me and take the time to pre-register, they will receive a complimentary gift of $20! Exicting, huh!?

Record Phoenix PUG attendance

Last night we had our monthly Phoenix PUG meeting. This group of local photographers that I lead has been meeting for over a year now and I love it! It's such a great time each month getting together and networking and talking photography. We always go out to dinner afterwards too.

Last night we had around 35 photographers which is a new record. We've had over 100 photographers come through at our meetings but never all at once. So the meeting had a lot of energy. Leo Garcia, a training specialist from Pictage, flew out from California to train us on the Album Designer and Album Design Service that Pictage offers. We also debriefed WPPI and Mandy Hank, a local photographer, did a studio spotlight where she shared some of her work and a little about herself and her business. It was a great meeting!

Community is such an important element that blesses me and my business. Owning a small business can definitely make you feel isolated and like you're on your own under an immense amount of pressure to succeed. But getting together and building relationships with other people who are in the same boat and who want to support and help each other makes all the difference.

One Light Workshop

Yesterday I was in the One Light Workshop in San Diego from 9:30 am to after midnight. It was a very full day but I learned a ton that I am really jazzed about taking home with me and applying to my photography. Above is our talented professor, Zack Arias, who really has a great handle on how to use light. His work is amazing.

We basically learned how to turn a descent photo like this:


Into a more dramatic and powerful photo like this:


By using a set-up like this:


I love how Zack was willing to lie on the ground and in puddles to get the best shot. It makes me question my own dedication :).


We hit the streets of San Diego and ran into a cool local artist who let us use his rooftop to shoot on. I took some time to shoot some photos just for fun (no workshop application here--I already know this stuff :))

A rooftop garden:


Another rooftop garden:


The view:


The cat:


Mitch shooting Ivan shooting something:


The beautiful Jasmine Star working her stuff:


I like the layers of this photo:


Zack set up this shot and let us give it a try:


Then he sent us out on our own in groups to see if we cold figure this stuff out ourselves. This is what I came up with using the very modelesque, Sara France as my model:



Pretty cool huh!?

At midnight when we were all wiped out we decided we needed to take a group photo out on Sara's front lawn. It started out all cute and normal:


Then....the sprinklers came on:



The perfect ending to a great day.

Thanks so much to Zack and all the fun photographers who attended who made this workshop one of the best I've been to yet!