Michael [mahy-kuhl] – noun
1. A male given name. 2. A witty, charming professional wedding photographer who enjoys movies, exercise, romantic walks on the beach and large pepperoni pizzas.
Maven [may-ven] – noun
1. A connoisseur or trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass his knowledge onto others. 2. An intense gatherer of useful information. 3. An individual who demonstrates passion for learning and teaching a specific topic, particularly through a well connected social network.
Thank you for coming to my blog! I update it regularly, so if you ever want to know what I am up to, please come by and take a peek. Feel free to leave your comments below.
Flew back to Arizona today, there was a huge storm and I have a friend (grown up) who likes to go out and play in the rain when it is really pouring. It felt good- like being a kid again.
Been super busy with a lot of projects, so many good things coming. Life has never been better and I have never been happier.
PS- A little birdie told me that the APT DVD Pre-Order will be ending tomorrow evening (and that would only happen on the day they ship if that's a hint to those of you who have pre-ordered) so if you think you are going to get it anyway, you might as well get the free Sky Cam Guide and buy within the next 24 hours.
Without any unforeseen problems, some of you will have them by Tuesday, possibly sooner!
You guys remember Evan Monsignac from Haiti, who survived for 27 days buried beneath the rubble? I did a little looking around and found that there have been a few articles written about him, this one I am linking here is the most descriptive. When they brought him in, we all had a hard time believing what we were hearing, but after reading the article, it makes sense and it answers the water source question.
Quite an amazing, determined and extremely lucky man.
My heart goes out to him as he is still recovering from his ordeal.
Starting to miss the whole 365 project and realized I still have 20 days to go to finish. The last 40 seem to be the hardest for me.
This was taken after a very, very long day of shooting, taken with my iPhone 4 and the weird pattern we are seeing was caused by the sun shining through a plastic door logo and then refracting on the glass of the camera lens.
We began shooting around 10am and finished around 5pm. While that may not seem like a big deal, it was for me because I was in front of the camera talking for all but an hour or so of it. I think the Business Photography Crash Course is going to an amazing DVD set. Been working on it for 2 years and we are still 6-8 weeks from finishing.
It was such a GOOD day production wise and I think my favorite part was there were so many problems (potentially deal breakers) that popped up, and one by one we just solved them and moved forward. I LOVE that feeling of just dealing with my own problems and not waiting for an excuse not to take action.
I wake up this morning and there is a giant pimple on my forehead. Not a great scenario for shooting so many lessons. No problem, go to the store, buy some make-up, put it on. To a woman, this is not a big deal, to a man...its not normal to think like that. First time I ever purchased and used make up on myself.
We start setting up the main light, and upon opening, the bulb shatters. No problem, I just so happened to have a spare in my backpack that I brought along "just in case".
Wireless Microphones start acting buggy. No problem, we come up with a quick fix and solution.
We have another issue during transfer of the files from the CF card to Adam's external drive, no problem, find a work yet another work around and make the transfer.
We didn't panic, complain, or freak out and it just feels awesome to look at the situation and solve it instead of blaming someone or putting it off another day.
I have a GINORMOUS shoot tomorrow. Something like 27 different lessons all in one shoot. Typically it's pretty easy to keep track of things, but I've never attempted so many lessons in a single day (at the most it has been 5-7). Even with 1 or 2 Camera set ups, this is a necessity:
The Movie Slate App- Turns you iPad into a Digital Movie Slate! So far I am loving it, highly customizable. We don't even really need it to sync cameras because most of the lessons are one camera shoots, but something tells me I will be using it more in the future. Slates are awesome for syncing up multiple cameras so you can jump around from one shot to the other in editing, it gives you a reference starting point and helps with organization. We are going to use it primarily to keep track of which lessons we are shooting. At $20 its a great deal compared to the professional slates.
I couldn't resist- In between flights I threw my camera down on top of my camera bag, which was sitting on a chair and aimed it at a busy crossway. I really need to start shooting more feels like its been forever. I flew back to Bama today for a shoot Tuesday and part of Wednesday.
Tuesday and Wednesday will be the final days of shooting for the Business Photography Crash Course DVD. The Business Crash Course DVD originally started out as part of the Wedding Photography Crash Course and it just got ridiculously huge, so I had to split it into 2 sets, this is the first, we are hoping for a in the next 1-2 months. I've been working on, or planning, or shooting this project for over 2 years now.
I think we have a pretty good coverage of the basics and I am guessing the set will run about 7 hours in length, but I want to make absolutely sure I am not missing anything, especially when it comes to the more minor lessons. I am fearful that there may be some things I know and think are easy and therefore may assume everyone else would know and leave it out.
Are there any lessons you guys would like to see lessons on when it comes to "Business" practices?
We have all heard the saying that the “Customer is always right” and this is in most cases true. However, most business owners know the truth about this phrase, and they also know that the customer does have certain responsibilities. If this wasn’t the case, there would be no law suits against businesses. What this means is, no…companies and owners do not really believe it, its more of a general rule.
What the phrase means to most business owners is that, we will pretend that the customer is right, even when we know they are wrong, because the cost of losing that customer is greater than not losing them. In most cases, an upset customer will do much more damage to your business through word of mouth than a happy customer will bring. Some studies have the cost of an upset grocery store customer can cost up to $100,000 in lost revenue.
This is why managers and employees are taught this principle, they are not the owners of the business and for all intents and purposes, it isn’t their call anyway. The owner would be willing to take a small profit loss to help them instead of dealing with the bad reputation. All of the business owners I know have encountered situations where the customer is absolutely wrong, they know it – dealing with it just comes with the territory, and for the most part these cases are very isolated.
The reason the customer is right 99% of the time is because they have invested time, money and most importantly TRUST in your company. I see this all the time with the DVDs, you purchased this DVD online and in so doing I know that you took a chance on me, you demonstrated faith in me and therefore, I want to retain that trust, I want you to know I greatly appreciate your support and that is why I am so devoted making GREAT products. I want my customers to look forward to the next one. Building trust, making quality products and having fast, speedy service are the best ways to get repeat business. Sometimes things go wrong, its bound to happen, if I can make it right- awesome.
Having said that, there have been at least 3 or 4 instances I can think of when the customer was not correct, and it was time to walk-away. Over the last few years, I have “blacklisted” a handful of customers. This means they are blocked from future purchases and I not longer want their business.
Here are some general rules on when it is time to walk away:
1. You have made at least 2 or 3 legitimate attempts to satisfy their needs and they are still demanding more. This is a good indication you are being taken advantage of and the customer has overstepped their bounds.
2. They are threatening, swearing at you or calling you names.
3. You have physical proof they are intentionally trying to deceive you.
4. They are no longer a customer. This can happen once you have refunded their money, or the expense of meeting their needs has far exceeded any profit you hoped to gain from the original transaction.
I think the best policy is to always try to work it out, but yes, there may be some more situations where the customer is no longer right. Always be sure to have contracts signed- it’s your best insurance against problems, even if you do not think they will happen, they can and they will.
I try to spend at least a half hour each day reading a self-improvement book, and another half hour reading a skill type book- on any subject that interests me. Ultimately, your value is determined by your skill sets, and if you are not improving, you will always peak out sooner or later. You can give yourself a raise by increasing your skill sets your entire life. Always get better than you are today. Find the time to invest in yourself at least half an hour each day and it will always pay off over the long run. Im finding if I read on the elliptical, I tend to enjoy both more. I have a deal with myself that I cannot buy any new books until I finish the last one I am reading.
I'm absolutely loving this book: Master Shots - By Chris Kenworthy
It really should be Titled "Moving the Camera for Motion Pictures 101". It's extremely simple, well illustrated, but most importantly, it defines the relationship between the motivation of the story and the movement of the camera. If you are a dSLR owner interested in movie making, I would say this is a must read.
Yes, you read this correctly. There is a new App coming that will allow Facebook users to print images at Wal-Mart, and apparently it isnt limited to just their's either. I don't know about you, but I am not so cool about other people printing my images. Aj Wood has a nice video that explains how to block it. Here is the video and article. Thanks to Kelly for the heads up.
