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Two years ago Haiti was rocked by a 7.0 earthquake (January 12, 2010) that resulted in  316,000 people killed and 1.3 million displaced. About a month later I traveled down with a team to Port Au Prince to photograph and help with food distribution. While there I wanted to photograph the humanity of those who were left behind. I put together an ebook of my thoughts and photos from my time there that will be released tomorrow. The ebook will be a free download and for those who would like to donate to help me with future special projects like this and breast cancer can do so. Here’s and video I made shortly after coming back. Special thanks to Third Day for giving me permission to use their music. Get the free ebook here

Everybody matters and that’s why I’m wishing (for the second year in a row) all my facebook friends a, by name, Merry Christmas. As a gift I’m giving everyone a free download of Gabrielle Aapri’s Techno “What child is this.” She wrote it specificlly for this project. Click Gabrielle Aapri Techno What Child Is This to get your free download.

I’m pretty maxed out on facebook friends so please don’t hesitate to find me on facebook at facebook.com/storyboardlife

A few weeks ago I got the great opportunity to be a guest on the Atlanta Sales Radio program hosted by Steve Cadley [@salesologist] along with guest Claudia Havi Goffan of Target Latino to talk about selling in this economy. This is a relatively new show that I think is a great resource for those whose business is based on sales. In fact, Steve the host, rightly says that everyone is in the business of selling. Why is that? Because selling is

about negotiating what you would like to happen. How many times have you had to “sell your idea” on where to eat amongst friends?  Also, there are many people who are looking to create a new business from what they love to do. The most important suggestion I gave in starting a business is to not go into debt but to also focus on running a business to make a profit. If you aren’t making a profit then you can’t feed your love to create a business.

Claudia Havi Goffan describes how “Word of Mouth” marketing is revolutionizing the world of marketing and Sales. She has great insights that would be a boon to any company who is looking to create a deeper influence from word of mouth. I love the story of her helping a company make money in a Latin American Country that had 4000% inflation. I’d say that’s a great case study.

The interview lasts about 45mins or so.

• Atlanta Sales Talk Interview (Just Me)
• Atlanta Sales Talk Total With Target Latino

Host Steve Cadley brings over 20 years of dynamic leadership in sales, marketing and business management in organizations ranging from technology startups to Fortune 500 companies.  He has developed and managed multi-channeled sales environments leveraging process and accountability to deliver outstanding results.

I photograph Ben and Sheryl’s wedding a few months ago but what was unique was that Ben’s brother was in China and couldn’t attend. So what did they do…..SKYPE. So when it came time to take family photos we just maximized the screen and included him in the shot. Photo Tip: Always take the opportunity to do something a little different.

As you know, 11.13 is my birthday, so I thought it would be a GREAT idea for me to be the gift giver this year. Excited yet??  With that in mind, I’m giving $100.00  to the first 13 couples or families to book photo-sessions before December 9th!!!  That’s right – $100 off  my usual $250 photo session just because today  is my birthday.  There are a few restrictions, but you are going to get the same amazing photographs for you and your future legacy to cherish as you would with the regular price.  Your price just 150.00. Click here to contact me to book this special birthday gift today!

I got a call from Snehal of  reve.ology event  to photograph Puja and Tapan engagement and wedding. I knew during the engagement session that this was a couple that I was going to enjoy being around. They had a traditional Indian wedding which the festivities lasted for two days. I loved the community of the two families and I’m looking forward to more traditional Indian weddings.

What else was amazing…the colors. Colors and fabric flowed and it was amazing. It was important that the photographs show the relationships among everyone. I always kept my camera up and my eyes open for family members who were communication with each other. Point and shoot shots of family members are nice to let you know who was at the event. Photographing interaction within that family will show connection and love.

This was one of the weddings from 4 weddings in 6 weeks post

Earlier this year I got a call from Benjamin’s dad, Steve, about photographing his son’s upcoming wedding. Steve, his wife and I served down in Haiti a month after the 2010 7.0 earthquake. What a great little family that knows and feels the importance of photographing family. They were married at Hill Manor which was an outdoor affair much like a backyard wedding where guests attended because of their relationships with the couple and their families. What was exciting was the fact that Benjamin was able to be part of the family photos even though he was around the world in China. The blessings of video chat!

Photo Tip: The Hill Manor has a lot of themed rooms that was just asking to have a photo shoot. Since I didn’t have time to set up lighting I just pushed up the flash on the camera so that the flash would bounce off the white ceiling. With that set all I had to do pose them. With rooms like this you could spend hours.

This was one of the weddings from 4 weddings in 6 weeks post

Christy and Keith are one happy couple along with their children. This was one of the funniest family celebrations I have ever been to photograph. Family celebration? Normally you don’t hear that with a wedding but with Christy and Keith this was the case a Villa Christina. Their wedding was at 11am and many of their friends and family had children. Normally there isn’t much tolerance for many children running around at wedding but here there were plenty of things for the children to do. Dawn of Traditionally Modern designed a wedding that was elegant and kid friendly. There was a photo booth, caricature  artist and instead of a wedding cake there were plenty of cupcakes for everyones delight.  In addition, everyone had the pleasure of having a nice gourmet breakfast. I thought it was a nice touch that you don’t see very often. A big thanks to DJ Eric for bringing on the tunes. He’s one of the few DJ that can get anyone on the floor.

This was one of the weddings from 4 weddings in 6 weeks post

I’m not talking about I photographed four weddings and “gee I’m really tired.” I’m talking about four weddings FINISHED in six weeks as in the photographs are ready to be viewed FINISHED. In fact it is the policy of Storyboard Life to have the photographs ready to be viewed with the ratio 1 to 2.  This means if it takes a day to photograph the wedding then the photographs will be ready to be viewed within two weeks. I was a little ahead of the game. One of the four weddings was a two “dayer” so one could say that I finished 5 weddings in 6 weeks.

There are photographers who espouse  ”photographing a wedding takes more than just a day.” Yes that is correct but I fear that most photographers use this as an excuse to procrastinate for months. If the truth be told theses photographers waited months before even looking at the photographs and only did so when they get a call from the groom about the timeline. The photographer says, “I’m almost done and you should have them within a week.” In a mad dash the photographer sits down and “creates art” in mere days. It seems that I might be on a rant and maybe I am but the fact is that photographers need to focus on getting the photographs right at the time of the click rather than “creating art” out of their mistakes.

Click on their names to see the weddings. Enjoy!

Liz & Ben  |  Christy & Keith  |  Sheryl & Ben  |  Puja & Tapen

I’ve known Liz for some time so when she approached me to photograph her awesome day with Ben I just had to make it work. They were married at Cathedral of Christ the King and their reception in Ivy Hall at Roswell Mill where we shot their engagement photos. The day couldn’t have gone any better other than a particular vendor causing us to get to the church an hour late. Which meant we only had 40 mins to photograph Liz and her brides maids and ben and his groomsmen. We got what we needed and the wedding went on without a hitch.

This was one of the weddings from 4 weddings in 6 weeks post