Gustavo Fernandez Photographer

From melting glaciers to increasingly intense weather patterns, we know that climate change is already impacting life on our planet.

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, at 8:30 pm, we will take part in Earth Hour—the world’s largest global climate change event. By simply turning out all non-essential lighting for one hour at my home studio, we will join tens of millions of concerned citizens throughout the world in calling for action to save our planet for future generations.

We’d like to encourage you to join us in this important and inspiring effort.

Led by the World Wildlife Fund, more than 50 million people in 370 cities around the world took part in Earth Hour last year. The lights went out at Sydney’s Opera House, Rome’s Coliseum, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. Even the Google homepage went dark for the day.

This year, Earth Hour will be even bigger. Cities large and small have said they’ll participate with more signing up daily. International cities such as Beijing, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Paris, Rome, and Toronto are participating.

To get a better sense of the magnitude and inspiring nature of the event, take a moment to watch WWF’s video about Earth Hour 2009 below.

Participating in Earth Hour is easy, fun and absolutely free. To get more information and to sign up to for Earth Hour 2009, just visit www.earthhour.org and agree to turn out your lights from 8:30-9:30 pm on March 28, 2009.

Energy efficiency isn’t just good for the bottom line. As citizens of the world, we all have a stake in the future of our planet and must seek to operate in ways that don’t deplete our world’s limited natural resources.

We hope you’ll join us, and encourage people you know in the community to also take part. Don’t forget—March 28^th at 8:30 pm, switch off.

I got the call yesterday from my friend Lou Lesko that my images had gone live on the new Blinkbid website.  Lou created Blinkbid and it has become one of the industry standard softwares for bidding and invoicing for the creative professional.  Lou is also a talented writer and wrote the book “Advertising Photography: A Straightforward Guide to a Complex Industry“. I have gifted this book several times to my friends that want to learn more about commercial photography or just need some tips on navigating photography licensing. Here is what i wrote on my Amazon review of Lou’s book after giving it a 5 star rating.

Gotta Love Lou! Another excellent example of his fun & sharp-witted writing, November 9, 2007:
Having read and laughed through many of Lou’s published articles i looked forward to reading his new book. I picked it up at Photo Plus Expo (which he graciously autographed for me) when it was released and enjoyed every bit of it. He tells it like it is and gives u a real life perspective on the process of the advertising photography world. Lou uses many of his experiences and examples of his colleagues to tells us the story that we really want to hear. Not the ones taught to us in textbooks but the real life scenarios that actually do matter the most. We learn through his mistakes and enjoy every minute of it giving his never ending honesty, humor and shrewdness.

Thanks Lou for the honor of being featured on your site.

Yesterday i had the opportunity to help out at Sandy Puc’s “Tot’s to Teens” Tour.  She co-founded the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) for which i am a local Area Coordinator and photographer.  To best describe the NILMDTS foundation i copied their About Us section on the webpage.

Pregnancy and birth are miraculous journeys. This amazing time of life is full of mystery, anticipation, joy, hope, and wonder. Feeling the powerful energy of birth and new life, watching as a new family is born unto each other. These things humble and amaze. These are the things that we celebrate when a baby is born.  But there is another aspect of pregnancy and birth. There is an unexpected place in this journey where some families may find themselves. When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

This is the place where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation administers a network of almost 6,000 volunteer photographers in the United States and twenty-five international countries. At a family’s request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby.

Our entire network of affiliated photographers graciously donate their time and talents to our families and we are proud to be able to offer our services at no cost.Your Donations are greatly needed and greatly appreciated.

I set up the booth and answered questions to many of the photographers who stopped by and asked about volunteering. I also got to enjoy the talk by Sandy and pick up a few business tips to implement in my kids photography. If you are a photographer and want to learn more about photographing children this talk is a must see.

Sandy is amazing, i don’t know how she does it, she will be covering 50 cities in 70 days!

This weekend i had the opportunity to take part in the Fast Track Photographer Workshop by Dane Sanders in Newport Beach, CA.  I often get questions from new photographers starting in the wedding industry and i always direct them to buy Dane’s book Fast Track Photographer. I became a Fast Track Founder early on when i first read the book and believed wholeheartedly the teachings he shared.  We spent about a day and a half in the classroom and then got a chance to go out and play with one of Dane’s recent couples Lindye & Winn.  Here are some of my favorites of the session. Enjoy!

Yesterday i had a great time driving down to Sanger, CA to shoot Erin & Brian’s engagement session.  Erin really wanted to get some image with all the Cherry Blossoms in bloom and that we did.  Here are some of my favorites, enjoy!