A couple months ago I get this email from Maddie over at A Practical Wedding who is also one of the driving forces behind Hart & Sol Photo. She said, ”I wanted to reach out to you about a photography workshop that is beginning to take off and I’d love to have you involved.”

But but but… I’ve never spoken at a workshop before, I’m not sure I’m ready, I’m blah blah blah blah blah… so my answer is thank you, but no.

That was basically the email I sent back to her which she must have translated as saying something completely different because her response was, “Of course your speaking at our workshop.”

Okay. Her response was actually… “So, I don’t think you wrote that e-mail expecting me to say ~ Good point, maybe next year. ~ Right? Right? Ok, good.”

She then proceeded to say she understood my feelings but that I should, in her words, just- “fuck it and do it anyway.”

So I’ll be speaking at the CoLab workshop in San Francisco with Maddie of Hart & Sol Photo, Emily of Emily Takes Pictures, and author / blogger Meg Keene of A Practical Wedding,  on May 21st & 22nd of 2012! You can register now!

DETAILS:

*Emily will be covering much of the business side of running a photography studio.

*Maddie will be going over branding.

*Meg Keene will be keynoting… “giving my Very Strong Opinions about building a creative business, maintaining your personal creativity, and not acting like a douche (just because the wedding world tells you that you should).”

*AND finally, I’ll be shooting and showing step by step my workflow and post production process using Photoshop.

Oh… I’m sure there will be a lot of overlap in there between all of us.

And if the pot wasn’t sweet enough… there will be GOODIES:

*Acclaimed wedding photographer Jose Villa has donated a signed copy of his book to be given away to one lucky attendee.

*Designer Promise Tangeman has donated two SITEHOUSE websites to be given away to two lucky attendees.

*Meg Keen of A Practical Wedding will be giving out a copy of her new book.

*Alien Skin will be providing 15% off on all their photoshop plug-ins and products for attendees of the workshop.

*Kubota Image Tools will be giving away Kubota bucks and discounts as well.

*Epiphanie bags is giving away one free Paris bag.

*H20 Creative will be giving all attendees 20% off on template designs.

*Photojojo will be giving away coupons to their store.

*Colab attendees will receive a special discount at Shootsac.

*Each CoLab attendee will receive a 15% discount on a one-year membership to Two Bright Lights, and one lucky attendee will receive a free Editorial Star one-year membership.

*CoLab attendees will receive a 15% discount on their choice of camera bag from Kelly Moore.

*CoLab attendees will receive a 15% discount for Totally Rad Actions, and one lucky attendee will win TRA’s RadLab software.

*All CoLab attendees will receive a special discount on Code & Hustle products.

*Colorati is offering $15 off $50 orders as well as a $100 credit to one lucky attendee.

*Rory Gordon will be giving a special discount to all CoLab attendees.

*CoLab attendees will receive a 20% off coupon for all Photography Concentrate products, and one attendee will get a free tutorial of their choice.

*One CoLab attendee will receive a copy of Lawrence Chans’ (the man behind Tofurious) book, Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers.

*Pink Slip Industries will be giving special discounts on their branding packages.

*And more!

*******

NOW spread the word…

and get your ass over to CoLab and register.

*Want more? You can get a discount for $100 off on registration. Just check out this recent post about CoLab on A Practical Wedding for details.

]]> http://americanvirus.com/2012/04/ill-be-speaking-at-the-colab-workshop-in-sf-next-month/feed/ 2 http://americanvirus.com/2012/01/the-year-i-jumped/ http://americanvirus.com/2012/01/the-year-i-jumped/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:43:29 +0000 Americanvirus http://americanvirus.com/?p=17611 I read an interview with a producer at Pixar. He said at the outset of every movie they make, it feels as if everyone involved is jumping out of an airplane while promising each other they can build a parachute before they hit the ground. That pretty much sums up last year for me.

The year I jumped.

I went from having a steady ‘real’ job and playing at photography part time to being a full time professional photographer.

I am so grateful that last year actually happened to me. I got to be a story teller, photo-documentarian, landscape photographer, still-life photographer, architectural photographer, and portrait photographer all in one day… in one extremely relevant day! The day my clients made their own personal leap.

‘Clients’ sounds funny, because even though we’ve only met just a couple of times, I feel I know you.

I can’t begin to describe how grateful I am for you.

Thank you for trusting in me. Thank you for choosing me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Without you, I could have never started building this parachute.

****

It would be impossible for me to compile a ‘best of’ collection. I don’t think I’m capable of making decisions like that. Below are 150 images that for some reason or another resonated with me this year. A few of them I haven’t posted to the blog until now.

Soundtrack: Your Hand In Mine by Explosions In The Sky (on iTunes)

Thank you 2011!

I’m so excited for 2012! I’ve already got bookings for weddings in California, New York, Montana, Utah, and Washington!! Openings still available. Contact me for booking here. Connect with me on my new Facebook page here.

Also, special thanks to Ariel & Megan at Offbeat Bride and the all the girls of the Offbeat Empire for pimping me out so hard in 2010 you literally booked 99% of my 2011. Thanks to Kat at Rock N’ Roll Bride, Jen at Green Wedding Shoes, Ashley at Hi-Fi Weddings, and Seattle Bride Magazine for featuring my work last year. Also, Kathryn at Snippet & Ink and Meg & Maddie at A Practical Wedding for the upcoming stuff in the works for 2012. Thanks Catherine Abegg, Alyssa Wilcox, and Jeff Marsh for pitching in and lending tons of talent and experience to second shoot with me. Finally, thank you to Mary who took a three months leave of absence from work to travel around assisting and shooting with me last year.

Now, Let’s see what we can do for year two!

Lena Simon at Experience Music Project. Seattle, WA.

Tera & Mike’s Save The Date

I’m so looking forward to Tera & Mike’s wedding day! I’m the only vendor they’ve decided to hire! The entire wedding is being put together by Tera, Mike, family, and friends. In fact my services as a photographer will probably be the only non-DIY element of the whole event. The marriage will be taking place outdoors in the Cascade Mountains; the ceremony in Tera & Mike’s backyard. The food will be home made. They are actually hoping to grow a lot of the food themselves. They will be picking the berries which will be made into a wedding cake. Tera’s Uncle Dan will be doing the cooking and there’s even talk of a family fishing expedition in order to catch the main dish. They will be either growing their own flowers or buying from a local farm and arranging them themselves with the help of the mamas and grandmas. They not only designed these awesome Save The Date buttons, but they will be designing their own invites as well. And Tera? She’ll be making her own dress.

Spring/Summer 2011 Issue of Seattle Bride Magazine

I’ve been totally thrilled these last few weeks having the wedding I shot for Susanne & Scott featured in the weddings of note section of the latest Seattle Bride Magazine. You can see a mini online version of the print story here on Seattle Bride’s website.

If you wanna see more photos from my shoot with the band you can check them out here and here. Also, you can check out my photos of drummer Norman Scott Rockwell’s wedding to Susanne which will be featured in the January 2011 issue of Seattle Bride Magazine.

Paths Of Glory. 2010

How Cool is that?

My first three photos licensed to Getty

]]> http://americanvirus.com/2009/12/americanvirus-344-my-getty-invite/feed/ 1 http://americanvirus.com/2009/09/americanvirus-279-the-gasteig-cultural-center-in-germany-has-requested-to-display-more-of-my-work-in-2010/ http://americanvirus.com/2009/09/americanvirus-279-the-gasteig-cultural-center-in-germany-has-requested-to-display-more-of-my-work-in-2010/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:21:52 +0000 Americanvirus http://americanvirus.wordpress.com/?p=2696 The same day I received the email from Niklas Frisk in Sweden (previous post), I also received an email from Andreas Merz, a curator for the Gasteig Cultural Center in Munich Germany (see May 22nd, 2009 & Dec 12th, 2008). In January of 2010 they will be doing an art instillation of pieces from around the world projected onto two large movie screens. They’ve asked me to contribute work for the instillation. At the moment I have nothing new, so they may just be showing some more of my older stuff. Then again, there’s still a few months ahead of us to be creative.

It’s really wonderful to be getting such positive feedback from other parts of the world!!

Here’s the photo he’ll be using to advertise his show.

~Niklas Frisk~

Niklas Frisk at the Crocodile in Seattle, Washington (2009)