When: Saturday March 27, 2010 at 12-7pm
Where: Krishna Temple, 8628 S Main St., Spanish Fork, Utah
What: COLORS – There will be 50,000 bags of Colors for sell.
They will do the event TWICE this year 12pm and 4pm
The initial start of the throwing will happen about 1 hour into each event so about 1pm and 5pm
What happens? Throwing of colors, dancing, chanting, body surfing, indian cuisine, people watching etc…
I will be there from before sunrise until after sunset. I will have about 12 other photographers there helping out. (See bottom or contact me for details)
Anyone is invited to come and take pictures, they love having you there and seeing your pictures.
Photography safety
Last year I wrote a post that dealt more with the philosophy of being smart with your camera. It still applies.
This year while I would go without any protection to the camera… I will also be buying underwater bag so I can get a little more crazy and closer.
Key Suggestions:
Stay away from people that are throwing if you don’t want to be thrown on.
Consider a long telephoto lens to shoot from far.
Consider staying in no throw areas. (If you’re more worried)
Use an internal focus, internal zoom lens… or a prime.
Pro lenses will handle the dust better than cheap lenses.
Use lens filters.
Consider a lens hood.
Don’t change lenses, specially not anywhere near the action.
Don’t change memory cards, specially not anywhere near the action, dust can be even more dangerous than water to a memory card.
This means get a big memory card.
Bag them cameras and lenses up… get some tap and cover any openings.
Wear a jacket and tuck the camera inside when not being used.
Make it known you’re not part of the action and they’ll tend to be nicer.
The mentality
This festival is meant for the throwing of colors, what do you expect? You’ll probably get stuff thrown at you. If at once you involve yourself you become part of the crowd and you’re probably fair game to everyone. If you’re clean you could either be a target to some or a keep-clean-sign to others that this person isn’t here to be thrown at.
People in the middle of the fray are way into this and expect anything and do anything.
People on the outskirts tend to do a little throwing hear and there but aren’t as hard core as the center.
Watch out for un-savory characters who don’t care that you’re carrying a nice camera. 99% will respect the fact the other 1% don’t care.
My 1st time experience
I took my brand new DSLR and didn’t cover it with bags or anything. I had a jacket which helped. I kept it under the jacket most of the time until all of a sudden i needed to take a pictures and I pulled it out fast took a picture and put it back inside. When I was in an safe spot I didn’t worry as much. More so when going through the crowds.
I even changed lenses and used an external focus and external zoom lens along with a prime 50mm.
Result: I was fine! The camera bag I was carrying was the hardest thing to clean. (Washer in delicate mode was best) The bag got hit hardest because from behind no one knew I was carrying a camera.
I made a lot of eye contact and was always vigilant of people with bags of colors ready to throw. I avoided areas that might be problematic
Safe Zones – and Crazy Zones
There will be areas (on or in the temple) where throwing will not be allowed for those wanting refuge.
The closer to the throng of people the more you should not have problems with claustrophobia and the ability to hold your breath when the initial throwing happens.
Worst Case Scenario?
Colored corn maze gets inside the camera and you need to take the camera to Kew’s in Provo and for $135 he cleans a large DSLR, meaning he opens it up and cleans out the intire insides.
He’s done a lot over the years after Holi
Photography for the more adventurous or the more paranoid.
Get an underwater casing. They can cost $1500 and up or perhaps get an ewa-marine bag. B&H sells them. for $300-400
They’ll make it a bit harder to navigate your controls but you shouldn’t have any problems taking pictures.
You can even use a point an click made for underwater.
I’ll have an EWA bag for one of my D-SLRs and my G-11 will be in the underwater casing.
Then I’ll probably have another 1 or 2 DSLRs that I’ll prep with bags and tape the night before.
I’m mounting a camera for time lapse pictures right above the stage.
Join JarvieU photographing the event
We will have about 12 photographers shooting the event.
We will have our own safe and clean staging area.
We will have an area for people to come and get portraits done quickly.
We’re syncing our cameras, they’re all getting sorted and edited at once (each photog can use their own pics at home As Well)
We’re printing up 10,000+ business cards with the link to the pictures photos.jarviedigital.com/holi
We’re donating half of the enlargement profits to the krishna temple
We’re using other of the money (if there is any) for future JarvieU events and projects.
We’re contacting newspapers and national media outlets to tell them about the event and offer our pictures for use.
If we can get it done in time we could even do banners they said.
We’re trying to get them all done and online in one day.
We’re experienced on how to edit them well. (But we’ll take as much help as we can that next day)
We’re having a prep our cameras party the night before.
This really isn’t a photo-making event… for me it’s a labor of love.
So if you’re thinking of joining us because you want to make money… sorry think again. You’re free to go on your own and do your own thing.
When things get so busy I sometimes step back and do the lest important things on my list. You know… just to take a break. Well that’s what I did today. I edited pictures from my trip last week.
On my way to WPPI in Las Vegas I spent the night at Bryce Canyon and woke up early to do sunrise picutres. Spent a couple of hours there doing all the stops and then drove through Zion’s and on towards Vegas by night fall.
Having the snow on these formations really added a lot to the whole experience. I was suprised just how much snow there was there.
Way more than there was up in northern Utah. But the same snow storm that had hit provo the night before didn’t hit here so none of this was new snow which I was hoping for.
I’ve been using the 8mm fisheye so much for the JarvieWindow that I thought i’d try it with some other stuff.
I must admit… I loved using it and now I’m glad I own it even more. It’s not just a one trick pony like I had supposed.
A big part of me (the part that doesn’t enjoy sales) tells me just get the year booked and stop spending time on it.
I would love to be done booking weddings and have my summer all planned out.
Busy, but lots of space
I’m already going to France late July early August.
I have most of my weddings in California and perhaps back to Hawaii again.
But while I am planning on doing a lot less weddings this year than the hectic year last year… I still have plenty of spots.
Specially when you compare to the crazy amounts I did last year.
Win-Win
Main Reason: Why give money to random companies I don’t care about for advertising, when I can give it to friends.
So I decided instead of me investing so much time and effort to finding new wedding gigs…
I’d enlist the help of everyone else.
A Win Win… I get help booking jobs and you get money.
The hope is that you feel confident enough in my work to want to refer me.
The thought is to make referral amount big enough amount that no one would easily forget.
So it wouldn’t be one of those things that you’d say “If it happens it happens”
Instead, So that people think about it, and try to make it happen.
Where people would actually pro-actively search. Instead of passively mention. (Active, not passive.)
A Month of March deal
I’m gonna test this out for March.
I know it’s a lot of money to give for a simple referral, but like I said if I can book up the year by the end of march then it’s well worth it.
We’ll see what happens at the end of march, I might continue or I might not.
Your input will determine if I continue doing this… and obviously how motivated people are.
If no one uses it, I’ll stop of course.
Money
I will give $200 cash for a booked wedding (To the referrer)
-OR-
I will give $400 towards a photoshoot or $500 in print products
How do we know who sent who and how they found me?
Well if they found me BECAUSE of you, let them know they themselves will get a $100 discount or $150 towards print products.
Things to keep in mind
Good way to discount your own wedding (by a LOT if you’re the motivated type)
Heck some of your students could probably pay your rent this way.
I’m not a budget photographer anymore, i realize that, I’m very good at what I do… but I’m not for everyone.
I will try to set these people with other photographers who are in their price range.
Maybe as we refer them to other photographers those same photographers will hook you up too. (No Promises)
I travel a LOT… about 60-80% of my weddings are Out of Utah now.
If you have any questions about my services call me, I’ll give you the run down.
Now perhaps it’s time to start thinking of what I’ll do for the April Special.
I reserve the right to change this special at Any time.
Written on February 24, 2010 Posted in JarvieU Event
Impromptu Decision to do a Workshop
On saturday I created an impromptu workshop on How to find locations and use them.
The reason was because an Intern just booked 2 weddings and had to do engagements and needed place ideas.
I said I had a free Saturday so why not make an event of it.
Not publicized
No one really knew about the workshop because it was immediatly full and therefore I didn’t announce it.
I opened it to the students of JarvieU and they all came.
We invited a few models to join us as well.
We didn’t want a huge caravan of cars… just 2 maybe 3.
No Rest: As we waited for a spot to sit at Red Iguana for lunch… we kept at it. (at least a few of us did)
Did it work?
I hadn’t done an event like this before so it was nice getting an idea of how it worked.
In short…. It was amazing!
Everyone seemed to really enjoy all the information that was shared on locations.
Of course other things were discussed and learned as well.
We even took note of all the spots we stopped at.
It was a fun experience because we had no pre-objective. We were out driving around SLC, just finding new spots.
We even stopped at spots which some attendees probably wondered what in the world we were doing there. And yet we ended up with some of the best shots of the day.
Hopefully beyond finding some new spots they learned to utilize well any location they happen to be at… and are able to see and find spots more easily.
We also had an awesome lunch and time to chat. (Red Iguana is Amazing)
AGAIN?
I have another free saturday coming up and I know the students are really interested.
I also am looking at getting a new Projector for the house and JarvieU events.
So why not?
Another Workshop this Saturday?
I can’t take many people and I don’t feel I need to charge a regular workshop rate, specially since it’s only one aspect.
So at a fraction of the cost for a full day event. $200
I’ll take about 4 people. JarvieU students are still invited of course but they all know they’ll be kicking it in a separate car following us along.
So if you’re interested let me know.
If there are at least 3 people I’ll do it.
I might continue to do it in the future… but who knows if it’ll be the same cost. Specially when spring/summer comes and my weekends get much more busy with real paying jobs.
We start early and we go until people need to go.
Last time it was 9am until 3:30pm
With a lot of people there the ideas were pouring in.
You might remember the couple from their wedding day pictures in San Diego… the super sunet. Check them out here
Their reception was at “The Point” at the huntsman cancer center.
I liked the location and the food was awesome.
If you go to the full gallery you’ll see all the pictures including the many pictures my two interns took.
Taking pictures for the organizers of the event and the salt lake street event
We had full access to in front of the stage for all the bands but only two songs for collective soul.
But they had such a crazy awesome light show and so much action going on up on stage that I was on rapid fire non stop.
A note to those doing concert photography. You can take great photos and not be rude and in everyone’s way during a concert.
You don’t need to use flash even if they let you.
Remember there’s a lot of people who paid money to come, you should be try when you can to be out of their way.
Don’t stay in one place for too long. Be courteous.
Don’t give us other photographers a bad rap.
I must say that Collective Soul puts on the best show I’ve ever been to.
And really I haven’t been to a lot of concerts.
I’ve just started because I’ve found I love photographing them.
Ah the 14mm, fun lights and the use of my flash set up in the back to make it really light up. Firing with a pocket wizard.
Made for some fun fan shots throughout the night. Didn’t affect the stage of course.
Allred sang and it was a bit more low key. Just needed to wait for the moments and the expressions.
Did an impromptu SmugMug training, setup a new SmugMug account live and then went through pretty much all the functions of SmugMug
It was a first I’m sure for me to a group (and not just interns one on one) and it was a first for all that came.
Lots of pleased individuals when I left… I heard a lot of positive responses to what SmugMug has to offer.
My way of saying thanks to SmugMug for being great and dealing with me and all my massive amounts of pictures.
There was a suggestion by a couple people at the end of the evening that perhaps we could all write a comment if you were there. Everyone was passing around business cards and perhaps felt this was a good way.
I of course wouldn’t mind at all the comments… and feedback would be great, as well to show SmugMug how good a time we all had. haha
Haha you thought it was going to be the city. Tricked you.
They call him Boston.
He asked for some pictures and I saw that I did his shoot just a month or two before I started using smugmug… so I went back through his pictures and uploaded them to SmugMug.
I also re-edited his pictures some because I’ve certainly improved a bit in the last two years.
It is a good exercise for me and the student-interns to go over some older less essential pictures and play around on them.
Shall I Re-Edit your pictures too?
So I guess the offer is open to other people… if I took your pictures a while back and you’d like to see them re-edited let me know.
I’ll bump you up higher on the priority list if you’re interested in Buying prints of them as well… or at least if you’ll show them off to everyone, yeah but probably more so if you want to buy a couple prints
OK so I can’t honestly remember the last time I was caught up on my editing.
I think it might have been February… but then again maybe it was last November.
And as of this morning… well I still am not. (Kinda)
I’ll always have something to edit.
I could a few road trips I’ve never touched or even Europe pictures (2006)
But as far as shoots I’ve done for money… well I think I’m pretty much caught up! Hurray.
And I think I’ll stay pretty caught up all the way until the christmas rush.
Here are pictures from the last shoot I did… get this… Friday (two days ago)
These were for an old friend Jason.
He grew up in Park City so that’s where we went.
This was the 3rd time downtown park city to do engagements… and I’m happy say we did all new places.
Park city has a lot of photographic spots to offer.
I specially loved how they were creating snow on the slopes and they were willing to go stand out in the field to get some… it was way cold there. (Much warmer downtown)
Since they met skiing they’ll probably like this one.
I love how in photography you’ll travel an hour just to get a picture of the sky.
The mayor of park city was here and he offered to get them married right then and there. In the end he just gave them a free print.
We were done but I just had to try out one last shot. Looking back i should have done more on this (meaning more poses to choose from)
The Rush is coming
It’ll be another fun and crazy christmas like last year, maybe just as much or more driving but with only 4-5 states.
Then a nice lull again to start getting on some projects that are long since needed to get rolling.
I believe in stretching yourself to such a limit that all the rest of the time everything’s a cake walk.
See how far you can go. I found out I can do 48 shoots in one week.
All fine until I’ve almost went crazy sorting them all then editing 3000 pictures in the last 3-4 days.
This is a long and yet very fun post… like 48 mini-posts all wrapped up into one.
I was looking through some pictures to perhaps add to their discussion.
I know my style of food pictures is probably going to be different. Less diliberate more consequential of where I am at. Less product orientated and more to catch memories.
But I thought I’d share some favorites over the years.
Though most of my stuff comes from wedding gigs. This one was taken as I was sitting down for a meal in Italy.
Just kinda took a picture of what was happening
Wedding pictures are mainly done to preserve memories. Remember that awesome cheesecake we had at our wedding?
Well now this is perhaps the only real memory left… my picture.
Let’s start with the ending. Those are always lots of fun
They got married at the Draper temple.
The reception was at Thanksgiving Point
When we all figured out after like 20 minutes of shooting that they didn’t want to be told what to do, like it seems everyone else expects of me.
We started to really have fun and just do some crazy and fun stuff and I was just there to document it and tell them when something wasn’t working.
For instance on the last two they just posed differently after every shot. Believe it or not they had no idea of what the other was doing.
The last day of the charity shoot went very well.
I was pushing myself to take new and unique pictures in a location I had done 10 shoots in 2 days previous.
I did a few more family shoots which isn’t something I specialize in… but I’m learning to like it, and at the same time conform them to what I do like, which is the Family Lifestyle Photography format.
And of course I totally enjoyed getting the aspiring models to come take pictures. (As seen above)
Thanks to dad for coming up with this laugh! As the photographer you don’t know what will get the kids to errupt in laughter… or tears for that matter.
The whole family was crazy photogenic and that helped. Look at these two models!
No need to put a lot of effort into posing these kids up… they’ll do their thing and I hope to get them as they Are, and make them good pictures while i’m at it.
Nice big landscapes don’t mean the group has to be tiny, but sometimes a bit smaller in the frame can help show off why we drove all that way and make it not only a portrait, but a work of art.
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