April PUG is going green

Hey everyone just wanted to share with you about this month’s meeting.  In honor of Earth day we will be going green.  Gustavo Fernandez is going to go over something on how you can make your business a greener place, and talk about some companies that can help carry greener products.

Lindsey Freitas will be in the hotseat.  Please take a look at her site and be prepared to share with her some of your thoughts.  You can view her work at

my blog is
http://bellaluphotography.blogspot.com/

website:
www.bellaluphotography.com

fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/BellaLuPhotography

We will be having it at the Sononma Chicken Coop in Campbell.  Meeting starts at 7pm but doors open at 6:30 for you to come grab a bite, and catch up with everyone.

30 day challenge for March 23 PUG

Ok everyone I know many of you are overwhelmed with the many aspects of our business and life and melting them together for balance.  This month Tanja, Jill, or both of us will be talking to you about “The Power of Less”  a book we both decided to read and wanted to share many of the things with you.  There will be a ton of things to go over with you as we are both only half way through the book but applying things already.  But what we wanted to do was set up a challenge for you to see if you could make a new habit in the next 30 days which is roughly the amount of time between PUG meetings.  We aren’t asking you to  train for a marathon just something simple.  We want your feedback and who could do it.  What I would love is for you to look over the most 12 common things that make a difference in almost anyones life.  If you have another suggestion share it with the group.  For example, I thought spend more time on your daily spiritual life could be a good habit to start for many.  Below are some advice on how to achieve the goal and suggestions.  If you are really daring one of the suggestions is to let people know your doing this.  Check in with them and have them old you accountable.  So please share with us the new habit you would like to change.  Keep us updated on here, facebook, twitter, or the pug reply all e-mail.  I dare you!  How fun to see what we all make a new habit.

12 Key Habits for you to Start With

1. Set your 3MITs (Most Important Tasks) each morning.
2. Single Task. When you work on a task, don’t switch to other tasks.
3. Process your in-box to empty
4. Check e-mail twice or three times a day
5. Exercise 5-10 minutes a day
6. Work while disconnected, with no distractions, no phone, twitter, e-mail, t.v.
7. Follow a morning routine
8. Eat more fruits and veggies every day
9. Keep your desk decluttered
10. Say no to commitments and request that aren’t on your short list (Chapter 13)
11. Declutter your house for 15 minutes a day
12. Stick to a five sentence limit for e-mails.

The Rules for the 30 day challenge.  Try to follow these and the challenge should become a new habit by the end of the 30days.

1. Do only one habit at a time.  Picking multiple has a higher failure rate
2. Choose an easy goal.  Something you know you can do like exercise for example.  If you know you can workout 30 minutes  say a minimum of 10 minutes so that it makes it easier for you to start the habit.
3. Choose something measurable . You should be able to say whether you were successful or not at the end of the day
4. Be consistent. Try to do it the same time every day
5. Report Daily to someone to help keep you accountable. You can check in every few days but more effective if you share your goal with others and ask them to hold you accountable and encourage you.
6. Except setback, note them and move on.  No high pressure or embarrassment

March’s meeting will be Tuesday March 23, 2010 at the Campbell Sonoma Chicken Coop.  As always dinner starts at 6:30 and the talking begins around 7pm.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

Heading in to our 4rth PUG Year this month!

Hey everyone sorry for the late update.  We will be meeting tomorrow the 23rd at the CAMPBELL  Sonoma Chicken Coop.  We have no podium speaker this month except some ideas I’ve been tossing around and to hopefully answer some questions that have been asked repeatedly.  Main topic is going to be about who inspires you and why? Trends your seeing in the industry and the future of the industry. But mostly an open ended round table discussion this time.  I would also love it if you could bring a copy of your contract and price list if you feel like sharing it.  Many people have been asking about contracts again. so I’m sure it will come up at the round table discussion.

The perception of a wedding photographer

Saw this on a tweet from Bride Tide and thought I would share it with you.  She has some great things on wedding photographers today.

Here is her site.  For more on the article click on the link below.

The Perception

How some people think wedding photographers spend their time (and how some photographers WISHED they could spend their time):

The Reality

How wedding photographers REALLY spend their time:

We clearly spend more time in front of our computers than behind our cameras, which is a sign of these digital times.

To read more on this article click here. We will probably be discussing some of this in February or March meeting.

Second Pug for January with Cristine Thomas

Hey everyone quick reminder that Cristine Thomas of Today’s Bride magazine will be our speaker.  We don’t have a clear topic as of right now but several ideas are brewing.    If you can make it I would love it.  It has taken my over a year to get our schedules to coincide with Cristine.  She is a delight and I know you will love her and her insights in to the wedding industry.

So the meeting is this Tuesday January 26th.

Dinner starts at 6:30p.m.

Speaker starts at 7:00 p.m.

Sonoma Chicken Coop CAMPBELL.  We meet upstairs in the Orchard Room

See you all there,

Jill

Mike Larson & live shoot at our PUG

Please join us as we host Mike Larson at our PUG this month:

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Time: 6:30PM
Location: Sonoma Chicken Coop Campbell, 200 E. Campbell Ave  Campbell CA 95008 

Mike will be doing a Live Night shoot Demo & Innovative talk: Excelling in client relationships, Trust, 100% referral biz, UN-commoditizing yourself, Mastering your art, Excellent times.

Details: We’ll do a LIVE Night (flash) shoot of a couple going over practical examples of how to relate to clients and get amazing images during a casual portrait shoot OR a wedding. Mike will share how he relates to clients to build trust, and confidence with your clients and yourself to separate YOU from other photographers. Its important to know where you stand in comparison from the rest of the industry Are you a commodity or a highly desired artist? How to become that unique artist you want to be. Then a final inspirational slideshow & stories with open Q&A

Mike will be meeting before hand in each city for breakfast or lunch to share his heart of where the industry is now, what trends are developing, what the future holds for successful photographers growing a business in todays economy. You are invited to come, hang out and participate in this dialogue and open conversation, as an intro the the Pictage sponsored evening!

Mike’s Bio: Developing his style from an editorial/catalogue photographer, and shooting surfing & lifestyle, Mike had the opportunity to work with multi million dollar ad campaigns which gave him a perspective on quality, mastering his craft, and real world marketing. Big clients such as Roxy, Bodyglove and Swell.com like these, don’t accept anything less than perfect. Shooting slides for immediate editorial demanded shooting right the 1st time. Traveling the Globe and getting things done required excellent management, and closing leads and maintaining excited clients became his number one job. in 2004 Mike jumped back into weddings with both feet and within 2 years had shot 80 weddings. His mindset to fast track and develop a big client base in 2 years paid off.

Now in the last 2 years Mike’s business has grown and so has his outlook on business & life. He has a team of 6 photographers who photograph 80+ weddings per year. Their volume has given them the freedom to grow and pursue exciting opportunities. His business has allowed him to travel the world. Using his business growth and buzz he built a brand new studio on the coast of California.

He maintains an amazingly blessed marriage with his sweet wife Rachel. Striving to always be learning, reading, sharing & encouraging others. He believes that one’s business should be a vehicle for a more abundant life. Have your business support your ideal lifestyle. Recently he has photographed weddings in Singapore, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Hawaii & the West Indies as well as having a recent wedding published in InStyle Weddings and another upcoming feature on Style me Pretty.

“Business success & profits should be just scalable as your freedom in life”

December Holiday Party this Friday December 11th Please RSVP!

Hey guys I think we have a really fun time planned for the Holiday PUG this year.  Tanja and Ryan have opened up their home this year which will give us a little more ease this year.  But don’t worry I have a fun activity planned that will get everyone going and some of you will even win presents.  Yeah!  Like many of our other Holiday parties you will need to be there at a certain time so that we can start the main event.

I believe I will have dinner catered and we will start the food at 7pm and the activity at 8ish which is when we need everyone there. Lets say that cocktails will start around 6:30 pm. If you would like to bring spouses/signficant others just let me know they are more then welcome.  This is one of those events I really need an RSVP from you.  To make sure that we have enough food and spaces for the activity.  I”m going to ask everyone to donate $15 per person  to help cover the cost.

You can call me at 408-482-0166 to get Tanja’s address or e-mail at info@jilljohnsonphotography.com

November Pug meeting with Couture Celebrations on Tweeting

Hey everyone just a quick update and reminder that this month’s PUG has been changed because of the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will be meeting on Tuesday Nov. 17th at the Sonoma Chicken Coop.  Meeting will start at 7pm.

Heidi Hughett of Couture Celebrations is going to be our guest speaker this month.  Heidi and I started a conversation a while back on Twitter and how she attended a seminar and “Why you should be on Twitter”.  If you already follow her you know she is really enthusiastic about it.  So, it you tweet great, if you don’t maybe she’ll change your mind and motivate you.  I would love people who are both pro and con of Twitter so if you don’t tweet still come I’d love your views.

Other quick notes December Pug which is our holiday party will also be on a different day. As requested by some of you we’ll be having it on a Friday night this year.  The date is December 11th and it will be at Tanja Lippert’s house.  More info on that later but we have something fun planned.

January speaker is going to be Christine Thomas editor in chief of Today’s Bride.  In January we will go back to the fourth Tuesday of the month.  This will be on January 26th.  So put it down.

I’m also looking for more hotseats!

October’s speaker Frederick Van Johnson of “This Week in Photography”

Meeting Info:  Sonoma Chicken Coop Campbell

Date: Tuesday October 27, 2009

Time:  6:30 dinner  7pm meeting starts

Address:  200 E. Campbell Ave  Campbell CA 95008

Contact Info:  Jill 408-482-0166  or info@jilljohnsonphotography.com

Hey everyone September’s Pug is already a  go and it is going to be a great one.  Frederick Van Johnson (you may of heard of him from his podcast and he has attended the pug ) will be our guest speaker.  Frederick is going to be talking about Lightroom and Aperature and will give tutorials on how to make your life easier with these tools, and probably comparing the two products.  I know he will have some great tricks since he worked for Adobe until December of this year.  He will also be showing you how to integrate uploading directly to pictage from lightroom.  A great time saver if you don’t already do this.

The meeting will be at Sonoma Chicken Coop in Campbell starting at 6:30 for dinner.  This meeting is going to start at 7pm sharp because there is going to be a lot of great info.  Don’t forget we meet upstairs.  Also, a special thanks to Karl Ko for last month for sitting in the hotseat.  I know he got some great advice from everyone plus remember to play with the new slideshow Pictage has offered.  I would love some feedback.

To learn more about Frederick read below and check out his site at www.frederickvan.com.  Last if you haven’t had a chance check out his podcast.  You can go to itunes and punch in his name.  The podcast should come right up.

Frederick Van Johnson is a professional fashion, portrait, and wedding photographer. He is host of ”This Week in Photography”, one of the world’s most popular photography-related podcasts, and regularly lectures and conducts training classes on topics ranging from business to photographic technique. Frederick began his career as a Combat Photojournalist in the United States Air Force, where he served for 8 years and was decorated many times for his work in the field. Frederick’s unit was among the first in the military to receive, and put into daily action, the very first digital camera technology—Frederick was awarded the Air Force Commendation medal for his key role in facilitating the transition from film-based photography to digital. After leaving the military, Frederick went on to study visual communication at the University of California in Santa Barbara, California. Highly knowledgeable about multiple genres of photography, technology, and Internet trends—Frederick is able to discuss how emerging trends and technologies effect and benefit the working photographer. Frederick has a wide and diversified knowledge base, and is author of the popular book “Global Mobile, Connecting without Wires, Walls, or Borders”. Frederick was also instrumental in the development of iPhoto, Apple’s award-winning photo management application. Today he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and continues to practice photography whenever possible.

PartnerCon early bird special coming to an end. Come to New Orleans

Ok everyone Partner Con early bird special is coming to an end so start talking with your peeps and get them to come with you.  I just found a great air and hotel package to stay Mon-Thursday and and fly out Friday.  It will give you some time to just hang out and shoot.   Check out the blog post to get more info but there is so many exciting things.  There is even a contest you can enter to help with cost.  Check it out.

Contest http://blog.pictage.com/?p=1519