Webcam chat at Ustream What: We’ll be speaking tonight at the Connecticut PUG, and we’re so excited! We’ll be doing a talk titled “Keepin’ it Real in a Rockstar World” which is the same talk that we gave at Pictage’s Partner Conference earlier this year in New Orleans, but with some fun changes. We can’t...
Category Archives: PUG/Pictage
That’s right, it’s that time of year again! Come and get your holiday party on, San Diego PUG style! This year we’re kicking it up a notch and bringing out the photo-booth setup, cranking the holiday tunes, and gettin’ crazy!! Evan & Kristy (bishophoto.com) have graciously opened up their beautiful Point Loma home for our...
Jeff and I are not what you would call “morning people.” Let’s begin with that. When our alarm went off in our hotel room at 5am for the third day in a row, my body all but revolted. Suddenly my arms nailed themselves to the bed and my eyelids turns into mini-anvils. My feet had...
Question: What happens when you get a bunch of photographers together with way too little sleep and way to much camera gear? Answer: You get the third annual Bedjump This year’s Bedjump includes my good friends (from left to right) me, Jeff McCue, Scott Anderson, Gerald Pope, and Jared Bauman. Big thanks to Jeff McCue’s...
I always know I’m home when I wake up and I can’t move my feet. When I crawl into bed at night, I like to curl up into a ball, bringing my knees to my chest and pressing my curled up self against the warmth of Jeff’s body. Jeff always laughs, murmuring something about “only...
I guess I didn’t realize how much work goes into this kind of thing. I knew it would be difficult. I knew we would have to dig deep to overcome some things. Some fears. Some insecurities. But I never understood the kind of months and hours it takes to form a message together. To understand...
Before I dive into the exciting news about PartnerCon, I just have to say that we just had a CRAZY weekend!! Our last wedding of the year was on Saturday and 2009 couldn’t have ended on a more beautiful or wonderful note. We’ll have all of the juicy details and highlights from Erin and Blair’s...
Jeff and I realized last night as people began arriving at our house for our monthly Pictage User Group (PUG) meeting, that most of our photographer friends never actually get to see what our house normally looks like. Every month, we have to rearrange our little abode to even have a prayer of squeezing in...
This is just a quick announcement that the San Diego PUG is taking place tonight at 6:30 at (the real) Casa de Youngren! We’re so excited to be featuring Leon Sandoval, founder of Colorati, a color-correction and design firm based out of Carlsbad, CA. Leon comes with years of post-production expertise, and he’ll be talking...
Between the smell of morning coffee, doing pilates in my pjs, and the purr of kitty Gracie, it was a fantastic morning. Warm sunrise light filled our kitchen as Jeff cracked some eggs for breakfast and let them sizzle while he pulled me into a hug. I stirred the orange juice and ran upstairs to...
Every month our house gets invaded by the most wonderful people I know. There’s chips, dip, sandwiches, music, friends, wine, beer on tap, and – as always – my famous bottled sangria filled with whatever fruit I can find in our fridge. I can’t believe how amazingly tasty it turns out every time! Seriously, its...
Little known fact about me: I used to do public speaking competitions as a kid. And I did really well at it. I would work tirelessly at being the best I could be, spending hours writing and crafting and re-writing every sentence of my ten minutes of competition glory. I came up with catchy titles,...
When we got the call last week from Pictage asking Erin and I to come to New Orleans and speak at their annual Partner Conference, we were fall-out-of-our-seats excited, to say the least! Erin and I attended our first PartnerCon three years ago, and after having attended some *other* super big conferences, this one just...
Last week Erin and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by our friend Sara France for the Pictage Podcast! We had an absolute blast chatting about how we got started, our thoughts on where the industry is going, workflow, and our clients. Also, I learned that my laugh sounds HILARIOUS (read: dorky) on tape....
Well folks, its really happened. I’m behind. For the past couple of months, I’ve been in a place that is extremely rare for someone of my profession. In fact, I didn’t want to talk about it because I knew it could be jinxed. I was caught up. Completely caught up with all of my most...
When Jeff and I were sitting at the Pictage booth at WPPI with microphones in our hands and a crowd of people around us, we asked if anyone else had questions for us. A cute girl in the front row raised her hand and asked, “What exactly is branding?” As if I didn’t already feel...
My eyes blurred open this morning to two feelings – humility and exhaustion. Both of which were very good feelings. The past week has been a crazy one. From the moment Jeff called me last Thursday with the news of a “sideache” on his lower right abdomen to the moment my head hit the pillow...
If you’ve been following Jeff or me on Facebook or Twitter, you probably heard that Jeff’s appendix decided that it was about time to jump ship. Around 10am last Thursday, Jeff suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his side, and by 7:30 that night his appendix sat inside of a jar instead of his body....
Yes, you read that right. Joe Buissink will be at the San Diego Pictage User Group on April 15th at 7:00pm at the Handlery Hotel and Resort! Come on out to hear Joe talk about “The Psychology Behind Shooting Weddings.” Everyone is welcome, so load up the ol’ station wagon and bring your friends. However,...
Recently we shared on our blog our tips and tricks for having a great engagement session, and Pictage asked if we would share our tips and tricks for having a great engagement session from the photographer’s point of view. As leaders of the San Diego Pictage User Group (PUG), we love sharing our knowledge with...
A little while ago Pictage used the Bed Jumping image from PartnerCon LA in their thank you e-mail to all the participants! I had to giggle when I got an e-mail asking for permission to use the image. After all, the guys were jumping pretty hard on a hotel bed in an upgraded suite… But...
The chatter slowly grew as 6:30 turned to 6:45. More and more friends came pouring through the door as I poured more ice tea and stirred the lemonade. Katie and I tossed the salads (actually Katie tossed, I threw lettuce everywhere), and the voices grew louder. I smiled to myself as I picked up another...
Pictage Partner Conference is an annual photography tradition that apparently comes with many other “traditions.” Last year, our good friends and San Diego photographers Jared Bauman and Bronson Pate initiated The Bedjump. The Bedjump has since become one of those urban/conference legends that many believe doesn’t exist or, more likely, wish that it didn’t exist....
Pictage is a wonderful company for lots and lots of reasons (giving us our life back to name one), but I think the best reason is their commitment to the industry as a community. Not only do they sponsor the Pictage User Groups, of which we lead the San Diego group, but they also put...
San Diego’s August PUG came a week later than usual this month, but it was well worth the wait! We had Kevin Swan and Shaun Austin, the dynamic duo from Kiss Wedding Books, out to talk about the art of selling albums (which Kevin has PERFECTED by the way). These guys were so fun to...
I wanted to cry. I looked around at the office and couldn’t think of anything else to do so I tried to cry. But nothing came out. Argh! Why is it always when you need to just get some stress out, you just can’t cry? I leaned my head back, thought about everything that was...
A successful entrepreneur very rarely considers themselves as having succeeded. The most distinguished experts always have something new to learn. A good photographer will never be quite good enough. What a thing to think about. This weekend at the Shootout, I didn’t do much shooting due to logistics (I was keeping everything running together!), but it gave me...
This past weekend Erin and I got a bunch of the folks from the San Diego Pictage User’s Group (SD PUG) together for an awesome afternoon of hanging out, shooting, and learning from one another. One of the coolest things about Pictage is how much they dig fostering a community of photographers and Erin and...
Tonight was the San Diego PUG meeting, which is something I look forward to every month. This month was extra fun, though, because I got to give a talk on the importance of personality as a wedding photographer. I’ve been preparing for the talk for a while, and it was so great to get to...
Hey guys! Just a reminder of the holiday deadlines for ordering reprints:December 7th: Cutoff date for STANDARD shippingDecember 12th: Cutoff date for PRIORITY shippingDecember 14th: Cutoff date for OVERNIGHT shipping (Also Erin’s birthday!) If you’re waiting for your images to be placed online, rest assured that we’re working very hard to get them online as...
