We have a winner!!! Yay!!! Thanks to the over 4700 + people who participated in our little contest. We appreciate all of the retweets, the comments made and especially your votes. All of the videos were either fun, artistic or very creative. We actually took a long time watching the videos and videos over and over again to pick our favorites. From there the public decided. Thanks to the many people who took the time to watch the videos and cast their votes to pick the winner.

Below is the poll. I screen grabbed it at 5:00 pst from my iphone, cause I was at the airport picking up the Bui bothers.

Below is the winning video. CONGRATULATIONS! See you in Tuscany.

First of all, Thanks so much for all of the 45 entries!!! All of them so amazing. They made me laugh, cry, sing dance and one even scared me. yikes! I even want to learn to juggle, rap, wrap present better, and look both ways before crossing the street. Be careful! Awe, the kids, you gotta love the kids. But, most of all it was a fun little project to do. Don’t you agree? People from all over the world entered, South Africa, Sweden, UK, Brazil, Costa Rica, and across the US. Thanks for sharing 12 seconds of your life with us and most of all your time and talent to be creative and tell us why you want to come to Italy.

Honestly, Jose and I would love to take all of you with us. What a fun and crazy group this would be. It was a extremely hard decision to make, and it took all morning for me to do. But, here are the top 3 + 1 videos in particular order. The public will decide the winner of the scholarship. If you are in the top 3 + 1, we encourage you to get your friends to vote, twitter and facebook it. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 12 at 5:00 p.m. PST.

All votes must be cast here in the comments section. We ask that they simply post the videos name and why they think it’s the winning video.

Good luck to all of the top 3+1.

Robert Evans and Curt Appanovich the creators of photography mentor were in San Francisco last week, for the Photo-fusion Tour. Some of you may know of Robert Evans, he shot Tom Cruise + Katie Holmes and Brad Pitt’s first wedding to Jennifer Aniston a couple of years back. Amazing! They were kind enough to ask me to do a wedding model photoshoot. Photography Mentor is a educational website for the up and coming or seasoned wedding photographer. Photography Mentor is one of the best social medias out there for wedding photographers in San San Francisco and abroad.

Jaime Dollaga is THE amazing San Francisco based model who was happy to be my bride for the day. Armando Sarabia got her do up and glammed up her make up. All of her amazing handmade jewelery was from Lindsie Jones of Haute Bride and Jose gave me the dress. Thanks everyone for the hook up.

Armando Sarabia
get your DO up!
415.425.8259
www.getyourdoup.com

Lindsie Jones
Haute Bride
415.923.5900
www.hautebride.com

Here are some of the shots from the shoot. Stay tuned for some behind the scenes shots from Candice and Gustavo. The video will be posted on Photography Mentor.

enjoy!

Crystal M. Lequang and Nicole Ha, two of my favorite vendors are getting together for another amazing event. I couldn’t make it last year, I think we had a wedding in Peru. So, this year I am honored to be one of many talented vendors who will be showcased. YAY!!!

Here are the details. If you’re interested in attending contact Nicole or Crystal.

Limited space, for details and registration please visit: UNA BELLA SERRA
Sunday April 5th, 2009 5-9PM
The Merchants Exchange Building (Julia Morgan Ballroom)
465 California Street
San Francisco, CA 94104

Hope to see ya there. Leave a comment if you are attending or have been in the past.

We are about a little less than two weeks away from one of the largest wedding and portrait conventions. WPPI is the place to be. This convention has changed my life and it will do the same for you. I have so much going on that week, but I wanted to encourage you all to join me at my talk.

I will be speaking on how my niche market has literally changed my business. From shooting weddings in a small town to now traveling the world. I will encourage you to reach for the stars and create something extraordinary in life and business.

Hope to see you there.

Time to give back. My cousin Esther married a Prince of a tribe from Cameroon. Cameroon is one of the many countries in need of clean drinking wanter. So this auction is a perfect place for me to give back. My auction will be 1.5 hours of One on One mentorship at WPPI and free seat in my next San Francisco Workshop. Dates TBD. Seat, valued at $2000.00.

The Mission: Our mission is to overcome death and disease resulting from the consumption of contaminated water by providing safe, clean drinking water to those in need around the world.

……….

Thirst Relief International has partnered with ShootQ to provide clean drinking water to communities around the world.

Did you know that every 15 seconds someone dies of a waterborne illness? That’s 5760 people every day! Photographers can help in a unique way. Check out Thirst Relief’s Mentor Auction TONIGHT and bid on a mentoring session with your favorite photographer!

Bidding starts at 10PM EST (7PM PST) tonight on Thirst Relief Mentor Auctions! Check out the auctions at http://thirstrelief.shootq.com!

By tapping into the talent and generosity of the wedding industry, Thirst Relief raises funds and expands their impact around the world.

Many of the photographers participating in the auction are sweetening the deal by including a free lunch, workshop seats, and more if you win their auction.

ShootQ is proud to be associated with ThirstRelief. Happy Bidding, and Happy ShootQing!

Sincerely,
The Team at ShootQ

Happy Bidding.

As some you may know know I was asked to take part in a fun project called, “The Longest Day”. Some of the hottest photographers in the industry came out to take part. Here’s a cut and paste from the Longest day website.

Thanks Ron:

It’s been a long time in the making, but it’s finally here. The premiere episode of the first online reality TV show for and about professional photographers, “The Longest Day,” this year’s buzz-building videos series for WPPI 2009.

The premise is simple: get 24 of the hottest professional photographers in the country (and Canada), bring them all to southern California armed only with the knowledge that they would be split into two teams and given an assignment to complete in just 24 hours. Once they arrive, they find out their assignment is to write, shoot, and edit an original short film about photography, AND an original PSA about the respective charity for which they are playing: ThirstRelief and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.

Over a series of ten episodes, you’ll see the drama; the comedy; and the battle for the best video and PSA as voted on by YOU. That’s right, as we lead up to WPPI (February 14-19) we’ll air the episodes. Then, about a week before, we’ll show the final short films and PSAs by both teams. You will then have an opportunity to vote for the videos you like the best. Thanks to our sponsors, the winning team will win $3,000 for their charity. The other charity will earn $2,000. (In this episode you’ll hear me mention $1,000 and $500 as the respective prizes. The ante got upped since the taping of this show).

EARN VALUABLE PRIZES
As we did last year, we’re offering some valuable prizes for those of you who participate in the viewing and sharing of the video series. First, anyone who adds any TLD video to their website or blog will get free admission to WPPI 2010 (note: that’s NEXT YEAR’S WPPI, not the upcoming one in 2009). Just get the embed code from the show player, then add to your blog/website. Once added, copy the URL for the specific post, then go to the “WPPI 2010 Freebie Form” at the top of this blog and fill it out. It’s that simple.

Also, for each episode we’ll have a drawing for a free song download from show sponsor Triple Scoop Music (A $60 value). You must leave a comment for that episode to be entered into the drawing. The deadline for each episode’s drawing is the post for the next episode (which will vary from 3-7 days).

For all you beautiful brides to be, please mark your calendars for the Grand Opening of THI Makeup Studio on December 20th … 21st in Palo Alto! Sorry, I won’t be able to make this event, as I will be in Los Angeles for the holidays.

Details below.

The amazing Taylor Pham is behind THI Makeup Studio and founder of THI Cosmetics. Taylor is a close friend whom I’ve known and had the pleasure of working with for many years, and I couldn’t be more happy for her. Please join Taylor and her team for the grand opening and two-day shopping soiree!

p.s. I love that Taylor used Ann Hamilton’s image, below, for her grand opening advertisement and studio wall! A few months ago, Taylor commissioned myself and Ann to do a photo shoot for THI Cosmetics. Taylor plans to use more images from that shoot in future advertisements.

As some of you may know, a couple of weeks ago I was invited to be a part of reality film series for WPPI. The WPPI convention is just right around the corner and photographers around the country/world are really excited to be in Las Vegas for this annual event.

Ron Dawson and “some” of the hottest photographers in the country got together to create a reality short film. You can read more about it on further down my blog. The trailers below are teasers of what’s to come. There will be a series of reality videos leading up to the actual video shoot, which is hilarious. I was on “Team B”, so vote for your favorite video. the winners will be announced at the awards show in Las Vegas. So stay tuned to all of the videos. You’ll get to see the behind the scenes footage from both teams.

http://www.thelongestday.tv/

Team A Trailer:

Team B Trailer:

Leave a comment on which trailer you like the best. Love to hear from you.

It was the longest and most fun day I have had in a long time. Ron dawson of Cinematic Studio gathered 25 of the hottest photographers in the industry together for 2 good causes. We were all kept in the dark till that day of the event. Amazing to me that people from all over the country would come with such enthusiasm and not know what they are doing. Ron is the man! I guess you just let them know that all the effort will go to charity and they humbly accept.

Here what we did. This all took place at Robert Evans Studios in Universal City, California. We were broken up in to two different teams and asked to write, produce, direct, film, act and edit a reality short film in 24 hours. Simple right? I don’t think so. I can’t tell you what our team created, but I can share the image below to give you a hint. We also did a PSA (Public Service Announcement) for our charity, Now I lay me down to sleep. The other team did one for Thirst Relief International. Filming ended around midnight and the editing began. Editing lasted through the night. We all gathered the next morning to preview what the other team had create. Amazing and hilarious. Skip and Arlene came from WPPI headquarters to get a sneak peek.

There will be a website dedicated to the movies and and the public gets to vote on who the winner will be. The winning video will be shown at the WPPI awards night in from of thousands of photographers. Amazing! The winning teams charity will be given $1000, the 2nd place team/charity will be given $500. Mike Colon matched the amount, with other undisclosed donations. A total of $5000 goes to charity. WOW!!! Stay tuned to see the video and much more.

Thanks to all the people involved and all the hard work that went into putting this together. Lets do it again, next year. In no particular order, here’s who was involved. Jim Garner, Dane Sanders, [b]ecker, Jasmine Star, David Jay, Bronson Plate, Mike Colon, Alisha and Brook Todd, Steve and Jen Bebb, Gene Higa, Ann Hamilton, Jules Bianchi, Kenny Kim, Amber Holritz, Kevin Kubota, Catherine Hall, Michele Celentano, Joe Photo, Rob Evans, Chris and Katie Humphreys, Jessica Claire and one “surprise” guest

http://www.thelongestday.tv/

Thanks to Jules, Gustavo, Dave, and Dane for the pictures below.