June 11th, 2010 at 4:30PM the wedding rehearsal took place at Whispering Oaks Terrace, Pala, California for Kristy and Nik’s wedding. During the rehearsal the bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents practice their entrances, exits and who they will be walking with. They ran through the procedures twice to make sure everything goes smoothly, appropriately, and as well as making sure no further changes needed to be made. The rehearsal was not all seriousness. We did have a few laughs especially at the reactions of the flower girl and ring bearer.
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 official photographers. This was a family wedding. Some of the information was provided by Tonya.
This past Saturday I shot my first ever event. I didn’t have any special perks such as a press-release or badge to be in close were the action was, but none the less I feel like I still captured the event. I attended this event because my uncle asked me to come and take pictures of his daughter during the US Open Elite Taekwondo Championship. I said yes to get some practice in and to shoot my first ever event, which was really cool. I took some pictures of my cousin performing her poomse (she won silver) and sparring (she won gold). Congrats! It was a fun and boring type of day. It was fun watching the team I was supporting but when they were off the mat it becomes a waiting game which becomes the boring part, not to mention sitting on cement is not the most comfortable thing. After attending the event I feel like this could be something that I would like to shoot again as well as be more involved in, but that will never happen. Anyways our team rocked and congrats to everyone who showed up and participated in the US Open Elite Taekwondo Championship.
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.
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I was honored to join thousands from across the world to participate in Escalate Live. For those who are unaware of what Escalate Live is, Escalate Live is a photography conference about bringing your vision into reality. It’s meant to inspire and equip you to uniquely define and grow your creative business. Top experts in the photography industry will give you an under-the-hood view into their real-life experience and actively advise on how to tackle your business hurdles. This conference is for anyone who is ready to change how they approach their photography business.
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/
