Archive for January, 2010

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The Broshot Lifestyle – Brand Identity

January 31, 2010

Today is the second part in an ongoing series of blog posts outlining my goals for the coming year…ish

Friday:  Develop my Visual Language (the big one)

Today: Brand Identity

Monday: Hassie Set-up

Tuesday: Workflow: From Scanning to Printing

Wednesday: New Blog and Folio Sites

Thursday: Car 2 Sleep In

Friday: NYC 2011
I buttoned up my shirt metaphorically, I put on my business face, and had a sit-down conversation over the phone with my friend Andrea.

The topic?  Branding.

Drea, as the cool kidz call her, made a career out of this stuff in NYC.  Once I started to explore the idea of my brand I knew she was the first person to ask.

Below, the Branding Sensei shows off her ‘sweet’ skillzzz




I came to the conclusion quickly that my brand needed to reflect my own personality as much as possible.  I’ve mentioned before, that to do anything else would be disingenuous.  So when Drea asked me some probing brand-related-questions, really she was was asking me about who I really thought I was, and what did I want to present to the world.

In creating my brand, I’m less creating something new, than creating myself as the person I’ve always been, and just didn’t know it.

Be true to myself and excel at the things I enjoy.

I can’t help but think of this whole branding thing as keeping everything congruent; like a guideline or a roadmap, for my business and my life.

When they come out shortly, my new logo, blog site, and folio site, will more accurately reflect who I am and the experience you will have when you meet me, know me, or hire me.

Below, I’ve attached a short list of questions that really helped me get started in thinking about my brand, and if you’re doing the same feel free to look at them.

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The Broshot Lifestyle – Develop a Visual Language

January 29, 2010

Yesterday I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my blog by briefly stating seven goals to work on in 2010.  You can jump to any of these goals using the links below as they become available.

Today: Develop my Visual Language (the big one)

Sunday: Brand Identity

Monday: Hassie Set-up

Tuesday: Workflow: From Scanning to Printing

Wednesday: New Blog and Folio Sites

Thursday: Car 2 Sleep In

Friday: NYC 2011

I have no doubt that developing my visual language and best style will be a much longer journey than the whole of 2010.  The goal of consistently being able to communicate my ideas in a unique and identifiable way, no matter what the medium, is a process I’ve been working at since I realized I actually had ideas to share with the world.

That was a long time ago.

You can read this to say, “What my pictures will look like in one, five, ten, and twenty years.”  For me this is figuring out a way to succinctly transfer my thoughts and emotions from my brain to YOUR BRAIN.

For the most part, the photography presented on this blog has been wedding photography.  And I originally intended it to be that way as a means of keeping my business life separate from my personal life.

To keep the two separate no longer seems possible, and is disingenuous to you, my clients!  I’m coming to shoot your wedding, and I want you to know that you aren’t hiring a wedding robot!  You’re hiring everything that comes with me; my past experiences and my future dreams.

Wedding photography is a business and, just as in life, where this is someone out there for everyone, there is a wedding photographer out there for everyone too!  When my style changes subtly, I imagine I will have no trouble finding clients to fit it.

I love shooting weddings!  And I really hope that I can continue to shoot them.  As long as my personal style remains congruent with what people want for their wedding photography then so be it!  If my personal style shifts to a realm where no one who is getting married likes my work, well I imagine the market will speak!  I can’t help but smile as I write all this.  That’s why there are so many exclamation marks!

Example.  I began shooting with my Holgas in my personal photography.  I was mixing developing chemicals in my kitchen sink and developing film there.  Personally, this was a direction I wanted to explore.  I began to show my personal holga work here on the blog, and I decided to offer it up to my brides and grooms as a wedding-package option.

I couldn’t have imagined the response that I received from the many brides in grooms jumping for Holga options and Holga only TTDs. No one has splurged yet on the Holga-only wedding-day coverage.  I know you’re out there somewhere!

O.K. back to the visual language.  My one goal, in developing a visual language and personal style, is that you, the viewer, can find something in my work that you can identify with and ultimately, relate to.  My belief is that art makes you feel less alone.  It’s a comfort when you’re sad and a joy when you’re happy and art will always exist because of that.

My only hope in life is that my work, channeled through my own unique style and language, can have that effect on you.

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The Broshot Lifestyle – Happy Birthday Blog

January 28, 2010

Happy Birthday Blog!!!

One year down and I enjoy looking to the future more than I enjoy reflecting on the past.  A byproduct of my young age? Probably.

I have a few goals for the following year-ish and one overarching goal.

I’ve listed the goals below, and each day I’ll elaborate on one.  There are seven, which is perfect, it’ll be a birthday week for my blog.

Friday: Develop my Visual Language (the big one)

Sunday: Brand Identity

Monday: Hassie Set-up

Tuesday: Workflow: From Scanning to Printing

Wednesday: New Blog and Folio Sites

Thursday: Car 2 Sleep In

Friday: NYC 2011

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Nadine + Jesse Part 5

January 27, 2010




Day 4/5: And just when I thought everything was going my way.  The cool and comfortable falling action of my tale was supposed to carry me effortlessly overnight by bus to Oaxaca City.  From there I would catch a 6:45am flight to Mexico City, Dallas, and finally Portland, arriving twelve hours later on New Year’s Eve.

I made my last meal in Huatulco tacos al pastor, packed up, then went to catch my bus.

At 9pm my bus left the station and immediately broke down.  Right outside the parking lot!

I had already fallen asleep after taking my seat and jerked awake when the bus lurched in to reverse.

We were back at the station again.

OK, no worries, I was cutting it close.  My bus is supposed to arrive in Oaxaca at 5am.  The taxi to the airport is ten minutes, so realistically I could still arrive at the bus station at 6:15 and still make my flight, maybe even 6:30 (The Oaxaca airport is really small, not much more than a few kiosks and a security check point).

I glanced at my cell phone frequently while I watched a dubbed version of Hancock on the drop-down screen.  The bus started up again and pulled out.  O.K. only thirty minutes, still plenty of time to make my flight.

I drifted in and out of sleep again, too many switchbacks, I lost track of time.  And then we stopped.  I looked out the window, there was nothing around.  We definitely broke down.  Again.

An hour must have passed, maybe more.  I tried to sleep but I couldn’t, I was so damn anxious about missing my flight.  I really wanted to be home for New Years.

We got going.  A little while later, we stopped again.  My countdown to New-Year’s-Eve-fun was ticking away.

We drove for a bit, then stopped.  They told us we could wait on the bus until it was fixed, and who knows how long that was going to be, or we could get off and wait for another bus, although of a lower class, to come pick us up…shortly.

At this point I started texting my youngest sister to vent.  Marin is good at listening…errr or reading…my texts that were ending entirely with sad-faced emoticons.  (Photo above).

I whipped out my Nintendo DSi and waited.

Remember how I said the Nintendo DSi was the best and most timely Christmas present ever? (thanks mom)  Here’s why.

Every time I’ve had a delay or had to wait, and on this trip there were many of those times, I pulled out the DS.  Instant time-kill!

Of course now that I’m NOT on the road it’s an instant time-suck!  WORST Christmas present ever!…Mom!

Yea, so I missed my flight to Mexico City, and therefore all my connecting flights. I got to the Oaxaca airport more than three hours after my plane left!  Something like five hours late.

Would I still make it home for New Years!?!
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Trash the Dress – Huatulco, Oaxaca (Nadine + Jesse Part 4)

January 25, 2010




When I first got into La Crucecita I immediately began asking everyone I could about the various beaches, bays, and locations that would be best for a TTD.  After a couple recommendations, a taxista gave me a really convincing argument for playa Punta Arena.

From the photos below, you can see the beach was properly deserted.  So awesome.

I hired a taxi driver for the afternoon, Pedro Luján, and if any of you are headed to Huatulco and need a good taxi driver to show you around Pedro is your guy.  Pedro was friendly, professional, and charged a fair price.  Let me know if anyone wants his contact info.

I had this long shot idea for the trash-the-dress that I could take Nadine and Jesse up into the mountains to this town I had heard of called Pluma Hidalgo.

Pluma Hidalgo is an old and isolated mountain town known for it’s coffee and historic coffee plantations.  I thought the coolest idea would be to do the TTD on a two-hundred year old coffee plantation!  Yes, they have them.  So baller!

Turned out that Pluma Hidalgo was three hours inland from the coast and we didn’t have the time to try it out.   So any future Huatulco brides out there, if that’s something you’d be interested in, (certainly rustic and unique TTD photos) hit me up!

Thanks to all you brides and fans out there.  On Thursday, you broke the one day record for unique visits to my blog, and then you proceeded to SHATTER the one-day-old record on Friday.

Who are all these people!?!  My blog is very happy, he told me to tell you that.

Also, the little bloggster will be celebrating his first birthday this Thursday.  So put your party hats on and enjoy these photos of Nadine and Jesse!

CLICK BELOW!!!  (13 Photos Total)

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