Commercial/awesome photographer Chase Jarvis is currently live broadcasting a commercial photoshoot with a band for their new album today from setup to teardown. The stream will be up til about 8 tonight. Check it out at http://blog.chasejarvis.com/live/
Very Cool Idea!!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Pursuit of Excellence
So, is it worth it?
Do we even know what it costs?
Is the pursuit of excellence worth the cost, what if it is our only prize, what if we pursue excellence and never reach it. Is just the pursuit of excellence worth it?
Things to think about as we are early into this year. I hope that these words challenge you. I have the answer to this question and the answer is Yes! Yes to all of the above. God created us for greatness, not mediocrity. We all have the ability within us to be great at something. None of us have an excuse to not pursue excellence and greatness. I don't believe that there is nobility in pursuing excellence in something you hate just for the sake of pursuing excellence. Go do something else!!! Something you love! The people who actively pursue excellence are typically in a field or activity that they love. Something they are passionate about. There can be no excellence without passion, without feeling, without sacrifice, without failure, without heartache, without help from others, without exhaustion, without courage, and without vision. You always have a choice! You are not stuck! You just aren't willing to do what it takes, so take a deep look at yourself. What is holding you back? Is it the sacrifices your family will have to make? Is it you level of comfort? Are you scared? Have others tried and failed, maybe even better people than you? Be honest! Until we know what is holding us back, we can't address it. And just because we address it doesn't mean it changes. You will still be scared. You family will still have to make sacrifices. People you consider better than yourself have failed and you probably will have failures and setbacks too.
Life is hard. Pursuing excellence is hard. That is why it is so appealing. Most likely, you are already doing easy things. You re already living comfortably. You already eat out more than you should, you already sit in front of the tv for 3-4 hours in the evening, you already pay to put your child in extra curricular activities, so you don't have to spend too much time with them. You already go to church on sunday morning and don't think about your faith until the next Sunday Morning. We all do these easy things, because we are selfish and weak. I have done everything on this list at one time or another. We are selfish and weak, but we yearn for greater things! Why do you think we love movies so much. We want to be those people. We want to be someone's hero, but everything in our world is so comfortable and we are told everyday that this is the american dream. An easy life with nice cars, nice houses, nice clothes, and plenty of food on the table.
THIS IS NOT WHAT OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON! THIS IS NOT WHAT GOD MADE US FOR!
I love this country because of how we came into existence. The founding of this country was a pursuit of excellence. People made real sacrifices. Their families made sacrifices. They were scared, but they pressed on. People went without to make this country great. They died horrible deaths to make this country great. They killed others to make this country great. Others who became too comfortable in their power. Others who didn't pursue excellence. Other's who pushed their views on them and told them how they could or couldn't live. This country isn't great because we allow people to live in the suburbs and drive nice cars and have 401k's. This country is great because we stop others from committing travesties against other people or groups of people. This country is great because, as a people, we reach out to others in devastation and we help them. This country may not yet be excellent, but I believe we are in the pursuit of it.
We must pursue excellence, no matter the cost. In the end we have one life to give, not to keep. Being happy with our mediocrity is just another way to try and keep our lives. We must give them away. We must give them away to the pursuit of excellence. If you don't no one will remember you. You are just a waste of space and resources that could be used by others in the pursuit of excellence. Hard words, but Truth.
Pursue excellence, make a difference...Live your life with passion and you will inspire others to do the same.
Do we even know what it costs?
Is the pursuit of excellence worth the cost, what if it is our only prize, what if we pursue excellence and never reach it. Is just the pursuit of excellence worth it?
Things to think about as we are early into this year. I hope that these words challenge you. I have the answer to this question and the answer is Yes! Yes to all of the above. God created us for greatness, not mediocrity. We all have the ability within us to be great at something. None of us have an excuse to not pursue excellence and greatness. I don't believe that there is nobility in pursuing excellence in something you hate just for the sake of pursuing excellence. Go do something else!!! Something you love! The people who actively pursue excellence are typically in a field or activity that they love. Something they are passionate about. There can be no excellence without passion, without feeling, without sacrifice, without failure, without heartache, without help from others, without exhaustion, without courage, and without vision. You always have a choice! You are not stuck! You just aren't willing to do what it takes, so take a deep look at yourself. What is holding you back? Is it the sacrifices your family will have to make? Is it you level of comfort? Are you scared? Have others tried and failed, maybe even better people than you? Be honest! Until we know what is holding us back, we can't address it. And just because we address it doesn't mean it changes. You will still be scared. You family will still have to make sacrifices. People you consider better than yourself have failed and you probably will have failures and setbacks too.
Life is hard. Pursuing excellence is hard. That is why it is so appealing. Most likely, you are already doing easy things. You re already living comfortably. You already eat out more than you should, you already sit in front of the tv for 3-4 hours in the evening, you already pay to put your child in extra curricular activities, so you don't have to spend too much time with them. You already go to church on sunday morning and don't think about your faith until the next Sunday Morning. We all do these easy things, because we are selfish and weak. I have done everything on this list at one time or another. We are selfish and weak, but we yearn for greater things! Why do you think we love movies so much. We want to be those people. We want to be someone's hero, but everything in our world is so comfortable and we are told everyday that this is the american dream. An easy life with nice cars, nice houses, nice clothes, and plenty of food on the table.
THIS IS NOT WHAT OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON! THIS IS NOT WHAT GOD MADE US FOR!
I love this country because of how we came into existence. The founding of this country was a pursuit of excellence. People made real sacrifices. Their families made sacrifices. They were scared, but they pressed on. People went without to make this country great. They died horrible deaths to make this country great. They killed others to make this country great. Others who became too comfortable in their power. Others who didn't pursue excellence. Other's who pushed their views on them and told them how they could or couldn't live. This country isn't great because we allow people to live in the suburbs and drive nice cars and have 401k's. This country is great because we stop others from committing travesties against other people or groups of people. This country is great because, as a people, we reach out to others in devastation and we help them. This country may not yet be excellent, but I believe we are in the pursuit of it.
We must pursue excellence, no matter the cost. In the end we have one life to give, not to keep. Being happy with our mediocrity is just another way to try and keep our lives. We must give them away. We must give them away to the pursuit of excellence. If you don't no one will remember you. You are just a waste of space and resources that could be used by others in the pursuit of excellence. Hard words, but Truth.
Pursue excellence, make a difference...Live your life with passion and you will inspire others to do the same.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Weekends off and the Book of Eli
Well, I have decided to take weekends off from blogging. Secondly I saw an inspirational movie tonight. The Book of Eli. It was a great movie! I expected nothing less from Denzel Washington as he is one of my favorite actors. But the story behind the movie really made me think. I don't want to ruin it for you so I won't, but it made me really think about what we hold dear and how maybe we should re-prioritize and learn the true value of devotion. Go see it and you'll know what I mean.
Friday, January 22, 2010
We're sick of it...
Has anyone else seen the hilarious sock commercial where the dad is dipping his son's feet in this cement looking mixture because they kind find any form fitting socks and they are "sick of it, yeah we're sick of it!" well Jake experienced that first hand today when he got fitted for his shoe inserts. I call them shoe insert, but really they go halfway up his shin and are 2-3 sizes bigger than the shoe he's wearing now. We will see how well he likes them soon enough. Also my wife and I had an awesome idea to attract seniors(high school) to our photography business. So expect something awesome in the spring...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Quality Time
Had a great day with Jake today! My sister came over about 10 and brought Katelyn and the twins. Man I don't know how she does it, those twins wore me out! But Jake had a fun time with Katelyn and later we went to my mom's and Jake got to swing and slide, and he absolutely love it! I had a great time to. That little guy has come so far. He does have to go get some shoe inserts tomorrow to help his walking, but he has started to be able to stand up without having to hang on to the couch or something else. I love that little guy. Spend some extra time with your little one tomorrow...and have a happy Friday!!!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Consol Cheerleaders
Yesterday I had one crazy photoshoot. I had a ridiculous amount of equipment, about half of it borrowed from a great friend. My idea was to photograph the cheerleaders in front of some lockers using 6 lights! I used 1 light high in a softbox to light there face, 2 fluorescent strip lights main just for the catchlights in their eyes, 2 umbrellas on either side to provide the great rim/side lighting and one light directly behind to provide some rim light. The girls were great! It took me about an hour and a half to setup the shot and tweak it until I got what i was looking for and then about 45 min to shoot them all. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a ton of fun! Check out the image below to see what I'm talking about!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Just Keep Swimming...
A couple years ago I taught a little saying to my older son, " Greenlee's Never Quit!". Over the last couple years it is something that has kept
him going when he became frustrating with something. We have all heard something along these lines in the past and these statements are just so true. We can always take just one more step. So if we just take things one step at a time there is nothin that we can't do. Think about this nexttime you have a tough situation and want to quit. Dori says "Just keep swimming", that's exactly what I'm gonna do because the alternative is to drown! Greenlee's Never Quit!!!
him going when he became frustrating with something. We have all heard something along these lines in the past and these statements are just so true. We can always take just one more step. So if we just take things one step at a time there is nothin that we can't do. Think about this nexttime you have a tough situation and want to quit. Dori says "Just keep swimming", that's exactly what I'm gonna do because the alternative is to drown! Greenlee's Never Quit!!!
Three Cheers!
Well once again blogging from bed and very tired. I did get some rest in today because Angela and Ty were off of school for mlk day. I started out the day today cleaning and vacuuming out the car and then packing for the consol cheerleader photoshoot. I photographed 20 girls today over the course of 4 hours and ended up taking about 600 images. The big difference with my images and the reason that it takes longer on a photoshoot is the fact that 95% of the time I am shooting with studio lights outdoors. This requires heavy duty stand sandbags a crazy heavy battery system and having giant umbrellas on the lights and trying to stop the lights from flung off while you are shooting. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I may be exhausted by the end of the shoot but the images speak for themselves. The cold and clarity of the image is amazing. The subject's eyes stands out and the image is sharper than shooting just natural light. Overall photography is all about light, and I have found some light that I love. Images to follow soon...
Monday, January 18, 2010
Crazy Sundays!
Well Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest but I didn't stop today from 7:15 this morning til, what is it now, 12:45 tonight. I'm writing this post laying in bed from the iPhone. Today was crazy worship practice and church this morning, cleaning this afternoon, family pictures for the barnett's this afternoon, more cleaning and cooking to get ready for small group. Hosting and leading the small group(we had a full hous tonight!), then driving to Franklin(45 min away) to borrow some photo gear and talk shop for a couple hours, then to walmart at midnight to buy delsyum, Vics, and Tylenol for the sick little sweet one. Then home to put away all the food from tonight write this post and crash. This was busy but a GREAT day. Tomorrow I get to photograph 30-40 cheerleaders and do it again for a special shot hopefully on Tuesday. This shot is gonna blow you away. I'll post something soon as well as a few picks from the family session tomorrow. Attack this coming week folks!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
A Near Miss...
We just got back from the ER over at the Med, which by the way if we have a choice we always got the Med. They are amazing! They have a great and friendly staff, get you in and out quickly and have actual rooms in the ER instead of just curtains! You must be wondering why we were at the ER. Well Jake got the croup...again! This is the 5th time in ten months that we have had to visit the ER for jake and his respiratory issues. We were in and out in ONE HOUR! Jake is doing much better, the staff was super friendly, and very complimentary of our parenting(which makes you feel good)! Anyway we got lucky and Jake wasn't as severe as he has been in the past. Now time to watch some playoffs! Go Colts!!!
Friday, January 15, 2010
HEB, What a great store!
Once a week I am going to be spotlighting a local business! This week is HEB grocery store. Starting next week I hope to be able to do a commercial shoot at the weekly local business spotlight.
If I had to move out of Bryan/College Station the first thing I would check into is whether the place I was moving had an HEB. This store is awesome. They have two store brands, one organic, that are actually good products. They have a wide variety of products and have a lot to choose from in those categories. They have things that you wouldn't find at other stores like an olive bar, sushi, rabbit, cornish game hens, and they have a large hispanic section. Whether your hispanic or not you know you love mexican food if you live in this area and that have a great international aisle which has many different items from different cultures. They also do a great thing for the kids, Buddy Bucks! This is fake money they get from the cashier and go put in one of those claw style machines. They can pull out points which they can collect to get cool prizes. Overall they service is great and even though it is busy they have more checkers available than walmart and the store is clean. Also the prices are amazing! I have shopped at both walmart and HEB and HEB is cheaper. Not by much but they are and you don't have to put up with the ghetto-ness of the local dirty walmart. Go check out HEB. You'll love it!!!
If I had to move out of Bryan/College Station the first thing I would check into is whether the place I was moving had an HEB. This store is awesome. They have two store brands, one organic, that are actually good products. They have a wide variety of products and have a lot to choose from in those categories. They have things that you wouldn't find at other stores like an olive bar, sushi, rabbit, cornish game hens, and they have a large hispanic section. Whether your hispanic or not you know you love mexican food if you live in this area and that have a great international aisle which has many different items from different cultures. They also do a great thing for the kids, Buddy Bucks! This is fake money they get from the cashier and go put in one of those claw style machines. They can pull out points which they can collect to get cool prizes. Overall they service is great and even though it is busy they have more checkers available than walmart and the store is clean. Also the prices are amazing! I have shopped at both walmart and HEB and HEB is cheaper. Not by much but they are and you don't have to put up with the ghetto-ness of the local dirty walmart. Go check out HEB. You'll love it!!!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Helping out those in need
If you would like to donate through a great organization to help out those in Haiti affected by the earthquake, you can donate through the Church of the Nazarene at the link below.
https://secure2.convio.net/cn/site/Donation2?df_id=12760&12760.donation=form1
https://secure2.convio.net/cn/site/Donation2?df_id=12760&12760.donation=form1
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Heat is on...
Well not really, but it has gotten warmer down here and I am dying to get out of the house and create some images. I do have some exciting shoots planned for the near future and am now up to 99 fans on facebook!!! I really appreciate the show of support that I have scene from all you great folks. Please give me a call and take advantage of our facebook fan special and get a free session fee in January!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Marketing
So over the past year and a half I have been building my business full time. Well I say full time, but I have also been watching my youngest son full time. During that year my photography has improved drastically. I have attended monthly meetings, participated in a week long reality show that taught me a ton, I have read countless blogs, listened to a hundred or so podcasts. Looked at thousands of images, read at least 10 books and clicked the shutter button about 40,000 times. All this to say that this year is the year of MARKETING. For all of you photographers out there thinking of going full time let me just say don't underestimate the business aspect of professional photography. I had a very steep learning curve and am still working on it. I have found that there are always about a thousand things to do and it seems like there always will be. I believe that this year has great things in store for me and I am going to be putting myself out there. This Saturday will be my first session of the new year and I am very excited about it, so I will have some new images for ya'll soon. Keep reading and please tell all of your friends to check out the site and think of me if the need any photography.
Sorry this may have been a little scattered but american idol is on... so til tomorrow
Sorry this may have been a little scattered but american idol is on... so til tomorrow
Monday, January 11, 2010
Blogging Day 1
Today is my first day of many to begin blogging. Today I was reminded why it is I LOVE photography and am so pasionate about what I do. This morning Jake's bedhead was ridiculous! He literally had two hair horns sticking out the sides of his head. Have a look for your self!
Early Morning Hair Awesomeness!
I just had to photograph the little man and like many of the images I take I posted them to my facebook account. A friend of mine left me a message saying that I had made his day! This made my day. I love that I can touch others lives by the gift that God has blessed me with. This year I have big plans for my business and have been working hard the past two weeks to get some of those plans underway, this being one of them! I realized over the last couple months that I love photographing High School Seniors. Out of all the different subjects that I have been able to photograph this is the one that I have enjoyed the most. So this year I will be specializing in Senior Photography. I will of course still be providing you with great images for your weddings, family, event, children, and maternity images. I have some really cool ideas for some upcoming sessions and can't wait to be able to share them with you. I have also revised my website and would love for you to check it out. I will also be updating my facebook and twitter on a daily basis so become a fan on facebook and a follower on twitter. Trust me you don't want to miss what I have in store this year!
Early Morning Hair Awesomeness!
I just had to photograph the little man and like many of the images I take I posted them to my facebook account. A friend of mine left me a message saying that I had made his day! This made my day. I love that I can touch others lives by the gift that God has blessed me with. This year I have big plans for my business and have been working hard the past two weeks to get some of those plans underway, this being one of them! I realized over the last couple months that I love photographing High School Seniors. Out of all the different subjects that I have been able to photograph this is the one that I have enjoyed the most. So this year I will be specializing in Senior Photography. I will of course still be providing you with great images for your weddings, family, event, children, and maternity images. I have some really cool ideas for some upcoming sessions and can't wait to be able to share them with you. I have also revised my website and would love for you to check it out. I will also be updating my facebook and twitter on a daily basis so become a fan on facebook and a follower on twitter. Trust me you don't want to miss what I have in store this year!
Friday, January 8, 2010
New Year, New Blog, EVERY DAY!
I'm putting myself out there this year. Starting Monday I will be blogging everyday for the rest of this year!!! Don't believe my, better check every day
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
