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.

Thanks for all of the interest for the Italy workshop with us in Tuscany, Italy. We thought about how we could make this fun for you, us and even people who won’t be applying.

Here are the details:
The scholarship will cover a 3 days wedding photography workshop in Tuscany with Gene Higa and Jose Villa. Flights to and from the U.S., rooms at the Villa and any miscellaneous fees are not included. These items will be covered by the winner. The workshop value of $1950 cannot be transferred, or redeemed for cash.

If the winner is a husband and wife team only 1 of the photographers may take advantage of the winning scholarship seat, any and all other attendees will have to pay the $1950 workshop fee. The rate per night per person is $85 a night at the Villa.

This is all you have to do:
No boring essays, no applications for this scholarship. So how do you apply? Simple. A Italy Workshop account has been set up on 12 Seconds.tv. Simply log on to the 12second.tv website and record your video, it takes 12 seconds..

http://12seconds.tv/

Username: italyworkshop
Password: wedding

So how creative can photographers be in 12 seconds? Anything goes. We want to laugh, so sing, dance, and just have fun with this. Be you and tell us why you deserve to go to Italy. Be funny, creative and most of all, WOW us.

After you have recorded your video. Post a reply link on twitter to 3 different accounts  @italyworkshop, @josevilla and @genehiga.

Deadlines: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 midnight PST. From there we will select 3 of the best videos. They will be linked on our blogs the following morning (June 11th). From there the public will decide the winner of the scholarship. If you are in the top 3, we encourage you to get your friends to vote, twitter and facebook it. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 12 at 12:00 p.m. PST.

Good luck and see you in Tuscany!

Gene and Jose

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!

The blog is back and I am really excited about this first post. I’m thrilled to be doing a workshop with some of my favorite east coast photo-friends, Justin and Mary Marantz.

The details:

Date: July 22nd
Location: New Haven, CT (and surrounding areas)
Investment: $700 (includes lunch)

This will be an all day workshop! We’ll start in the morning with some seminars, break for lunch, do a killer on location shoot with our models (that should make for some pretty amazing portfolio pieces) and then come back to show you all of our post processing magic.

Some of the topics to be covered during the day are:

Who are you? The core of your business
What do you want? Defining your path to success.
Where do you want to go? Setting goals
What is important to you? Striking a balance
The magic of thinking Big
The power of Momentum
Finding and creating a niche market
Be a Lovemark: the future beyond brands
Creating Loyalty Beyond Reason: The customer experience from start to finish
Creating value
Developing a signature style
Coming out of non-exsistance - getting your name out there
The Triangle Offense of Marketing: Clients, Vendors, Other Photographers
Getting published and profiled
Destinations weddings
Giving value first and Creating rich relationships
and so much more…

I feel in Love with Conneticut about 4 years ago and have been fortunate enough to shoot some weddings out there. I am thrilled to be returning, hanging with friends and meeting some new ones. So I would LOVE it if you guys could be there too!! Plus, I am definitely hitting up Pepe’s Pizza. My buddy Harvey Goldstien introduced me to Pepe’s. Ever since, I have compared every slice to it. Hands down Pepe’s is the best pizza in the nation. IMHO.

The workshop will be launching at 9am (EST) on Monday morning and seating is VERY limited. To keep the group intimate and be able to give personal attention to every attendee, we will only be accepting the first 20 people who sign up. So make sure to set those iPhone alarms, so you don’t miss out!  Feel free to email me if you have any questions at gene@genehiga.com.

At the end of the video the room lights up. You can see some the video being showed in the actual room. Elvis and I are waiting to enter. But, the best thing was friends Aaron Dieppa and Lan Bui showed up to shoot a very raw look at us entering the room. The room was about half filled by this time and I was ready to get them pumped up for the talk. Elvis handed out a couple of autographed pictures. We took the stage and through out about 100 mousepads to help promote my new workshops. The rest is history.

The video below was created by Aaron and his fiance’ Barbara for his daily show called, The Big Picture. This whole moment was such a blur, so glad these guys caught it on video. Watch it till the end, when Elvis gives my my mom a special gift. That’s right my family was there to support me. How cool is that!?!

BTW, if your the guy in the green polo filming. I would love to see the video you shot . Or anyone else who has still from the talk. Please email them to me at gene@genehiga.com.

Thanks to all my family and friends in the front rows for your support. I couldn’t have done it without you.

enjoy ~

WPPI was a blast this year! It was the first year to be held at the MGM Grand. I met so many talented photographers from all over the world. I also reconnected with some of my closest ones. I love you all.
As some of my blog readers know I was asked to be a platform speaker. This was my 3rd year of speaking and I hope to return. WPPI has changed my life in so many ways. I would love to hear how it has done the same for some of you. Please tell my leaving a comment below. Talk to me.

In the spirit of Las Vegas I wanted to do something special for my entrance. So I teamed up with the uber talented Bui Brothers. What they put together for me was amazing to say the least. Aaron Dieppa stepped to take some stills, along side who else, Ann Hamilton. Ann was kind enough to flip video it for me. Thanks everyone for pitching in. I couldn’t have done this without you.

Here’s the concept. The room is filled with photographers. The room goes black. I am no where to be found. This video is what shows. Remember this was filmed, edited and shown in Vegas in a manner of days.

Special Thanks to Elvis. enjoy ~

Italy is a dream .. A perfect place to conduct a workshop, the lighting is so warm, the surroundings are stunning and the people are so genuine. It was one of my favorite places to shoot. So, we want to share that experience with you.

My good friend Jose Villa and I are excited to bring to you this awesome opportunity to join us in a 3 day Wedding Photography Workshop in the Chanti Hills of Tuscany on October 27-29, 2009.

We blocked out 1 whole week at the Chanti Farm Villa, which was built more than 300 years ago. Stay as long as you’d like for only $85 a night. A personal chef, models, make-up, floral, and much more.

Visit the A Villa Workshop to see what is included and what we will be covering through out our 3 full days of classes.

CLICK HERE for more info and scroll down to, “Italy.” Or email me directly at gene@genehiga.com.

If your looking for a hot new workshop in the video world. Well, I’ve got the workshop for you. Lan and Vu Bui, THe Bui brothers are putting on a workshop. Here’s the details.

Workshop
Our next workshop is in Las Vegas during WPPI 2009!!!

We will be having the workshop in a hotel suite (exact room # TBD) on Saturday, February 14th from 1pm untill 7pm. Space is EXTREMELY limited as we wish to keep this workshop small and personal.

Here’s a list of things we’ll cover:

- technical details of videoblogging… straight up how to shoot, capture, edit, encode, post and distribute web video
- social media and the implications of putting yourself out there
- connecting with your audience
- storytelling through video - it’s about you!
- the power of music
- what not to do on the internets

Video blogging workshop - $600 -

coupon code “geneWPPI2009″ get $200 off.

Click here to visit The Bui Brothers website!

It’s been a couple of days since we have been down in here in Guadalajara, Mexico. Today was the first real day of the workshop, filled with business and a engagement shoot. Jose and Cameron are rocking the house. Joel Serrato is here doing his thing, you know the super 8 thing. Very gifted! The Hacienda El Carmen is one of the most beautiful locations I have ever visited in Mexico. Everywhere you look there’s inspiration with wild peacocks to the history of the hacienda. Tomorrow, Ann Hamilton and I will share with the group about destination weddings. It’s been such a blessing to be part of a inspiration group and to have amazing friends. I will look forward to the next two days. More images and stories to come.