My good friend Michael Williams and I had an awesome day of shooting yesterday! It turned out even better than I hoped. My daughter played an excellent model for us as well as we drove around Macon. We're planning another outing in May but hope to have more photographers involved. I personally learned a great deal from watching and being around Michael 's talent and skill. My daughter was a great help and very willingly changed clothes in the car and trekked across parks, wet grass, and parking garages without complaint! I will post some pix soon!
These are a few shots of my recently graduated nephew Mr. Tevin Riley. Watch out world, here comes success.
To anyone that wants to get better with their photography skills.
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I found this quote and thought it was great!
{"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." -Ansel Adams}
Love it and had to put it somewhere to be seen.
All is well. I thank the Lord for a beautiful year! With all the ups and downs, health issues and other things, He’s still keeping me and the family! For all the things that I see Him doing and the things that I’m not aware of, I’m grateful.
I recently had a chance to help my good friend Michael Williams of Michael Williams Photography, get his new website designed. He’s ecstatic about “going-live” in the next two days. It’s been a blessing to be able to help him get his redesign done.
Friday the 18th of December, our church had an adults only Christmas party and it was great! My wife looked fantastic too! I took a couple photos of us at home that evening and they’re below for you to see.
BUSINESS UPDATES:
I received a call on Saturday evening from a young lady that is wanting to put together a portfolio for her modeling career! She’s supposed to call me later today (Mon).
I have a family photoshoot on the 23rd for a local family. A portion of this family found me on the net and made contact. She orig. wanted the 24th, but I’m busy that day.
I shot a couple hundred photos of a prominent IT figure’s retirement this past week. It was not immediate money, and I just did it to help out, but it was a opportunity for networking! I expect it will bring some business in the future.
Ok, enough for now, thank you for reading.
Remember, Christmas is about Christ. Blessings unto you.
Well, I can say that I’ve been busy! I have not been as busy with taking photos as I may have desired to be, but I have been busy with redesigning some aspects of Carlisle Photography.
Some of the changes are already evident in the package pricing for the senior portraits. I’m very proud of what I’ve come up with for the pricing structure but it is not of my own imagination or creativity. I actually got the structure idea from Mr. Kirk Voclain, a brilliant photographer from Louisiana and from Kevin Kubota and also, Sarah Petty. You can probably guess that the WPPI Atlanta Road Trip had something to do with it. You’d be right! I am still going back over my notes and getting some new ideas for enhancing what I provide to the clients.
One of the biggest changes I have made is that I’ve done away with packages! Kirk made it so clear; why limit your clients to package-based sessions? It’s your money, spend it how YOU want to spend it! I could not agree more! Soon to come, no packages for portraits or weddings!
Another good piece of news is that I recently received an email from Mr. Laymon Hicks, a motivational speaker from Tallahassee. He is scheduled to speak to some high schoolers on 13 Oct (today) and needed a photographer. He contacted me last week and we were able to make an appointment for the shoot of the event! He is a great young inspirational speaker and you should look him up some time! I’ll let you all know how it goes later on in the week (time permitting).
I’d like to send a thanks to Rhonda & Michael for allowing me to document your wedding day in photos. I had a great time with you all and your families. The photos are beautiful and will be available soon. Thanks again and many prayers and wishes for a lifetime of love and happiness.
This past Monday I was very fortunate to be able to attend the Atlanta WPPI Road Show! Mr. Michael Williams of Michael Williams Photography went with me. It was a day of incredibly valuable information!
Bambi Cantrell (www.cantrellportrait.com) was the Master of Ceremonies and as a bonus taught on creating impactful albums. She was not listed on the schedule of speakers and she spoke to us at the very end and if everyone was like me, we felt so honored to hear her talk! In-between sessions, she was so approachable and down-to-earth, it was great. She is a wealth of knowledge and experience, as all the speakers were.
Sarah Petty (is tall!) (www.thejoyofmarketing.com) started of the presentations and from the start, had you thinking about your business in a new light. She really caused you to reflect on how you were growing and presented your products and services without losing your shirt.
Tony Corbell (www.tonycorbell.com) is so passionate STILL! Oh man did he take us back! He made us fall back in love with the craft again. Those of us that felt like they were sometimes just going through the motions to get paid, got their money’s worth. I enjoyed him for his honesty and passion and raw “give it to them in the face” approach. Eye-opener for sure.
Kirk Voclain (www.kvphoto.com), hmmmm, how many ways can you say CRAZY? This guy was incredible and his talent is over-the-top! He kept us entertained (for sure) and educated us in so many different areas. His approach to senior photos and his pricing structure, his mobile home beginnings, made you feel like anything is possible. His prints were simply amazing. The way they pop off the screen on his site are the same as the huge prints he brought in!
Kevin (class-act) Kubota (www.kubotaimagetools.com), what can I say? He’s so laid back, it wasn’t until he was up presenting that I recognized him. Yes, he looks like his photos but he just blended it with everyone else. He’s a little crazy too (throwing door prizes from the stage) but so professional it was jaw-dropping. I was sitting and just honored to have the opportunity to see the amazing photos he’d taken and how his workflow made so much sense.
Icing on the cake…….I took a moment and sent all the presenters a personal email, thanking them for their time, talent, and willingness to help us “little-guys”. At the bottom of each of the emails (the main content was different) I asked that if they had time, to stop by my site and leave me a note, or just respond to the email. Well to my surprise (definitely pleasant), Kevin Kubota was the first to respond. Not only did he comment, he complimented. He did not send a “canned” response, he actually visited my site! That is why I call him “class-act Kubota”. Below is his comment back to me.
Message: “Hey AJ! Thanks for your GREAT note! Made my day for sure :-) I'm thankful you came to the workshop and that it was helpful to you. I enjoyed looking at your site too, great photos! I love the story of how you got your dads cameras too :-) I inherited the photo bug from my dad too and he gave me my first camera, an old Nikkormat, to start my photo biz. All the best!
-Kevin”
Oh, and the mini trade show was great too! I won a white balance tool ($99 regularly)! During the breaks we would go into the trade show room and visit the vendors. Color Right (www.colorright.com) was located in the corner of the room and it was crowded. Through the people, I noticed a jar on the table and business cards being placed in it. I did NOT know what it was for, I could not see the paper that stated there would be a drawing. I figured it was a sales tactic for them to put you on their contacts listing or send you coupons. During one of the later breaks that day, I received a call and noticed it was an Atlanta number. I answered and the voice on the other end explained she was at the WPPI show and I had entered the drawing and won! I asked her to raise her hand so I could see where she was located. I walked over and to my surprise I had won the “original” colorright White Balance tool. What made this really cool is that I was wanting to buy one anyway! God is good!
May God bless and keep you all!
AJ
It’s been a long 3 weeks! I received a call from Peachtree Camera Repair in Marietta, GA at 12:30pm yesterday. They notified me that my D300 was ready for pick up. I was more excited than I can say. I will admit that while it was in the shop, I was forced to “re-learn” my D70. I found that although I did not want to necessarily go back to it, I remembered after doing a photoshoot with it, just how nice and sharp it was. I appreciated the D70 again and was able to do my session without any issues.
My wife Tabatha and I left for Atlanta as soon as I got off work at 2:30-2:45 and high-tailed it up I75 so we could miss the Atlanta traffic. We were blessed to be able to get all the way through downtown Atlanta and up to Marietta in a timely manner. The traffic was good all the way until about 2 miles before the exit I needed to take. We arrived at the shop just before closing and I was so pleased to check the camera out and see it focusing like it was supposed to.
We left and had dinner at the Marietta Diner (seen on Food Network on DDD) and that was nice. We both had to bring food home, they give you A LOT of food! We bought two slices of cake (Carrot and German Chocolate) and I tasted them when we got home and by the way, they are gigantic slices. The cakes are delicious and worth a trip up there by themselves.
I took a few test shots once I got home and they were sharper than ever, even more than I when I first started shooting with it! I was very impressed and I’m very happy.
