We have a nice size background and plenty of objects to photograph or use. We have flowers, roses, lanterns, lights, cacti, bird houses, two canopies, a large table, two chair swings, two grills, a shed and of course the fencing. Each area of the our background presents some sort of challenge, such as lighting and /or composition. The goal when backyard shooting is to not move anything, and use your brain instead. For example, if you want to photograph a flower, but you keep getting an ugly backdrop try moving five steps to the left and then five steps to the right. This changes your composition which may help you avoid that ugly backdrop. Another example, if want to photograph a flower, but half of that flower is in shadow and the other half is in direct sunlight what do you do? At this point you can begin to learn how to modify light in your favor. You can use a flash to fill in the shadows, you can use a reflector to fill in the shadows, or you can use an object to block or diffuse the direct sunlight. All are possibilities.

I do encourage everyone who has a backyard or a local park to get out there and photograph anything and everything and put use some of the examples I listed above. You will be amazed at the results you can achieve. Still to this day, I use my own background as a practice ground and I still continue to learn new things. After all, we are in an industry that is always changing and evolving, which means we must also do the same.

Following the rehearsal the invitees went to Journey’s End at Pechanga Resort and Casino for the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately I was not an invitee. The following information was provided by one of the bridesmaid, Tonya. The dinner started with happy hour where everyone was talking, drinking, winding down, and having a great time. The dinner was self served and the food consisted of lasagna, pasta and garlic bread.

June 12th, 2010 Kristy Younker and Nik Taylor were officially Married at 3:01PM. The wedding was beautiful and the colors were fabulous, but it wouldn’t make for a special day without any mishaps. The flower girl ended up having a tough task and she handled it very well. First the ring bearer threw the rings so she had to go back, pick them up and carry them down the isle, second she had to make sure the ring bearer got down the isle, third she had to give the rings back to the bearer and lastly finally got to throw her flowers. Following the ceremony people began to get seated, get their drinks and appetizers while food was being prepared by the catering service. Everyone who stayed got their choice of carne asada or chicken tacos for dinner. I can’t further comment of the rest of the day, since I left immediately following the ceremony.

I was not one of the paid photographers. Kristy is my cousin and I only shot the wedding ceremony because I was asked personally by several people to take some images. Some of the information was provided by Tonya.

Shooting the event was a major challenge being limited to where I was allowed to go, battling against the hundreds possibly thousand of people and other photographers jumping in the way. Towards the end I eventually disregarded the rules and walked next the mats before I was eventually told to leave, along with the other hundred people who were standing around taking pictures of the kids.

Escalate Live 2010 had eight inspiring speakers all bringing their personal experiences to the table and sharing them with everyone.These eight speakers are: Dane Sanders, Becker, Jasmine Star, Julieanne Kost, Jerry Ghionis, Jessica Claire, David Jay and Jeremy Cowart. Each and everyone had something to offer to help you become a better person at running your photography business.

Dane Sanders: Kicked the whole event off with a speech on collaboration. When Dane talks about collaboration what he is referring to is that fact that photographers “should be for each other” or “being for each other”. Another key note in Dane presentation is that there are many benefits to photographers coming together in a community and sharing their ideas, techniques, and collaborating with one another.

Becker: Talked about the ABC’s of Success: Attitude, Branding, and Connecting. Becker motivated people to have a better attitude and shared a bit on power of a positive attitude. One of Becker’s keynotes is that a photographers attitude can make or break a client. If you go into a shoot with a positive attitude that client is more likely to refer you and remember you. Becker also explains all the hype around “branding” and what branding really is about. Branding is all about feelings. Good, bad or indifferent. Becker’s goal for everyone is to connect with your clients and other vendors and provide a positive experience for everyone.

Jasmine Star: Talked about the power of social media and how she uses it to her advantage. She also shared examples of how other companies are using social media to gain presence. An example she used was “Pink” by Victoria Secrets facebook page and how the two girls who maintain that page are real. One of J* most important points in her presentation is to be yourself. She stressed this over and over again.

Julieanne Kost: closed day one talking about Adobe Photoshop CS5. She talked about how there are two versions of bridge which she called “little bridge” and “big bridge”. She also noted that Bridge is now part of Photoshop again instead of being its own application like is was back in CS3/4. She also talked about the new content aware fill, which is absolutely amazing and she talked about the new Adobe Camera Raw 2010 and compared it with the older 2009 version. When she was talking about Lightroom 3 and how CS5 uses the same Raw Engine, I was hoping she would have dropped a release date, but teased us all and said “it will be out soon”.

Jerry Ghionis: Kicked off day two. (I missed most of Jerry’s speech because I had an important final project that I needed to get completed. From the last bits that I got, Jerry is a great speaker, and has the ability to inspire others.) Jerry flew all the way from Australia to partake in Escalate Live.

Jessica Claire: She laid it all out on the line and was real. She was direct, honest and even went beyond and shared some of her not so great images to prove a point. It doesn’t matter what you as the photographer wants, what matters is what the client wants. It’s okay to shoot some images for yourself, but ask the client what they want and connect with them.

David Jay: What an amazing speech. DJ brought everything together and put it in simple terms for everyone. Collaboration and Attitude will get you everywhere.

Jemery Cowart: Ended Escalate Live. Jeremy told some stories, shared some techniques and shared the importants of Vision. He also shared that photography is always a learning experience and that a photographer must always be willing to learn. He was honest and authentic in his speech. He’s a commercial photographer from Nashville and his work is amazing. You have to check out his Voice of Haiti project and his Help Portrait project this coming December. I have been following Jeremy and Help Portrait months before he really pushed the concept, and last December Help Portrait was a huge success.

Sorry if day two sounded a little bland. I was only listening to Escalate Live this day while I worked on finals.

If you missed the conference and would like to watch it, it will be available through a video on demand service in just a couple of weeks. The low resolution rough cut will be available June 7th and the HD fully edited version will be available June 7th. Sign up here: http://escalatelive.com/vod/

I was recently asked to do a guest blog post on Scott Kelby’s site. I had free reign to talk about anything I wanted to talk about. I took it as an opportunity to get off my arse and make something that was new and fresh for me. I decided I would do a video. I decided to do this for my wife, Meg, because she is always inspiring me to go beyond the normal stuff I create. She’s always pushing me. Sometimes it sucks because she knows just what buttons to push in me to make me think about things a bit deeper. So I took all of her button pushing and went out and made something of it.

This video is over a year old and I still continue to come back to it every once in a while to watch it. Transform is a very powerful video that can relate to all photographers and then some. Transform reminds me why I have chosen to become a photographer, the struggles that I have faced and the struggles that I will face. When Transform came out, I to was dealing with the fact that a loved one was in the hospital so this video was very emotional, uprising, and inspirational to me personally and as a photographer. Just weeks before Zack Arias released Transform I was in an emotional wreck debating whether or not photography was for me and looking at all my options. After this video I had to make some hard decisions and I decided to stick with photography because it made me happy. Today I am still perusing my dream and following Zack Arias advice of not giving up. Zack Arias Transform: