Gustavo Fernandez Photographer » Workshop

Volunteering for NILMDTS at Sandy Puc’s Tot’s to Teens Tour

Gustavo Fernandez — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:31:12 +0000

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!

Newport Beach Engagement Session I Fast Track Photographer Workshop I Lindye & Winn

Gustavo Fernandez — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:22:44 +0000

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!

Gene Higa & Jose Villa Workshop in San Francisco

Gustavo Fernandez — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Yesterday i had the opportunity to attend the Gene Higa & Jose Villa’s one day workshop. They are great friends and run their business very differently. Jose is all about being an artist as Gene is more of the businessman. I connected with both of their approaches as they talked about many topics including SEO, destination weddings, pricing, handling clients, albums, getting published, etc. I took many key learnings from both and look forward to creating my own blended business. Here are some of my favorite images i shot, enjoy.

Our location at Fourth Street Studios.

One of our two beautiful models Tyria.

Gene talking to us about posing and getting the best light and expressions from our clients.

Jose and his Contax 645, yes folks he shoots film!

Miss Caroline.

The group…

Bouquet Provided by Mandy Scott, San Francisco

Gown Provided by: Amy Kuschel, San Francisco

Makeup for models by Maria Chang (Professional Makeup Artisty PMA), San Francisco

SF Treasure Hunt for Mr DJ

Gustavo Fernandez — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:32:00 +0000

A couple of days ago i attended David Jay’s Free to Succeed Tour in San Francisco. As part of the tour they have been creating a treasure hunt type of game in each city they stop in and gifting $500 of Showit Products to the winner. Oh, and by the way you have to videotape yourself trying to find it! Basically they videotape and hide one of their small characters, more like big heads (made of paper cutouts) of either DJ or Jasmine. They then place the video on DJ’s blog and the race is on for the first person to find it. I thought they would release it the following night of the event and waited anxiously that night til my clock passed midnight and i called it a night. The next day i noticed no news on the blog and started to forget about it as i went about my day. Later that night before settling in for a movie i noticed it was up. I was bummed as i noticed it was posted five hours ago! I watched the video and quickly knew where they had hid it, either The Cheesecake Factory on Union Square or the Chancellor Hotel. Unfortunately it was already 10:30pm and the Cheesecake Factory closed in 30 minutes, not enough time to get there and maybe someone might have claimed it already. I then planned on driving in the next morning at 11am when the Cheesecake Factory restaurant opened.

So yesterday morning i once again checked the blog for any signs of the Mr DJ head being claimed by a local photographer. Heck, there was 150 people at the show and figured someone that lived much closer than me was all over it! Well, you can’t win if you don’t play the game so i was off driving to SF to claim my price. See the video below for the results, a bit long but my first foray into video editing, gotta say i love iMovie and Mac products, so easy to use. As Jasmine would put it, “i rocked the template!”

Winner!

Can’t wait to claim my prize and create myself a totally unique website with the amazing Showit Sites! Thanks to Jasmine & Paul for the fun treasure hunt and of course many thanks to the man behind it all, David Jay!

San Francisco Free to Succeed Tour

Gustavo Fernandez — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:29:00 +0000

Last night i attended David Jay’s Free to Succeed Tour with guest speaker Jasmine Star. Got to catch up and hang out with some of my local photographer friends. My friend Sam Harnack drove over from Lodi and we carpooled in. I had the opportunity to hang out with DJ earlier this year at his Freedom & Slumber Workshop in Santa Barbara and my admiration for what he has to say continues to grow. I have also been a fan of Jasmine Star’s work and loved what she had to say about branding and separating yourself from the pack. DJ showed us his new product Showit Sites and how simple it can be used to create a completely custom website. He sold me when he showed us how easy it was too incorporate video into the site. If you are in one of their tour cities definitely go see what these guys have to say.

The Bus! These guys are riding in style…

DJ in action…

Jasmine branding us…

Mr DJ

The beautiful inside and out Jasmine Star. Come to find out she is a fellow Latina (part Puerto-Rican). No wonder she is so cool…

Miss Shyla is helping with the tour as THE Assistant Crystal heals up a torn achilles. We missed you Crystal!

The video guys, Ron Dawson & Paul Rogers. I listen to Ron’s F Stop Beyond Interviews every week, he has interviewed many of the top photographers in the wedding community.

The Sam Harnack, thanks for coming out…

Sandy Puc’s Bellies & Babies Workshop

Gustavo Fernandez — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:38:00 +0000

Last night i attended Sandy Puc’s Bellies & Babies Workshop in Foster City, CA. I was joined by my friend Tamee Renae and come to find out a ton of my fellow members from NCPP. I was looking forward to seeing Sandy in action since i had seen her in some of my Photovision Educational DVD’s in the past and was attracted to her work. I wanted to learn more about shooting babies and how she markets that business since many of my friends are now having babies and calling me up for images.

Sam (a nickname her Dad gave her that stuck) runs a very successful studio in Littleton, CO named Expression Photography. She also started the non-profit Now i Lay Me Down to Sleep a few years ago which has about 4,000 photographer from around the US participating in it. NILMDTS provides bereavement photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby and to help them in their healing journey. I put in my application a couple weeks ago once my website was up and running and still waiting to hear from them.

Sam spoke for over 4 hours and shared with us an amazing amount of information and more specifically how to build a profitable Baby Plan, Posing Techniques, Marketing, Community Exposure, and much more. First thing i realized was that studio lighting was not that complex. Sam uses mainly two sets of lights from Larson Enterprises which she demonstrated how to use on stage. I came out of the talk wanting to buy some studio lights, getting rid of all the furniture in my living room and doing what she does everyday in my home. She actually started the same way and was telling us how she had to back up all the way into one of her bathrooms and i think standing in the bathtub to get enough space to shoot with a long lens. Once i get my wedding business going consistently i think i might just invest in some lighting and start playing with what i learned. Thanks Sam for an excellent workshop.

Here are some fun images that my friend Laura Cottril took when Sam asked me to pose to check her camera settings during a break before the next demonstration.

My First Trip to WPPI

Gustavo Fernandez — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:09:00 +0000

I am off to WPPI in Las Vegas tomorrow. WPPI hosts the largest wedding and portrait photographer convention and trade-show in the world. I am looking forward to the great lineup of speakers and getting to meet some of the top photographers in the industry.

Here is a couple of fun clips that talented videographer Ron Dawson of Cinematic Studios produced for the show. Enjoy!

“Diary of a Washed Up Rock Star Wedding Photographer”-Episode 1

“Diary of a Washed Up Rock Star Wedding Photographer”-Episode 2

Adobe Lightroom Class with Tamee Renae

Gustavo Fernandez — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:12:00 +0000

Tonight i attended a Lightroom class that was sponsored and put on by our local PPA group NCPP. The class was led by photographer Tamee Renae whom i met last year at Bambi and Jerry’s Workshop since she works for Bambi. Lightroom is a program made by Adobe that helps photographers manage their files. Tamee did a wonderful job getting us all acquainted with Lightroom and giving us an idea of what a good workflow might look like. Thank you Tamee for helping us out and getting me started with what i think is now the market leading software in file management.

Ed Pierce Captivated by the Light Workshop-San Francisco

Gustavo Fernandez — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:59:00 +0000

Tonight i attended the photography seminar “Captivated by the Light” by Ed Pierce. Ed has been in the business for over 30 years and is an excellent teacher. I have followed him via his Photovision DVD’s that come out every two months. A testament to how well respected he is the DVD’s are now offered free (you only pay the shipping and handling for the year-$35) due to the generosity of his sponsors like Canon and WHCC. A lot of what was discussed involved in studio lighting and shooting which is not necessarily where i am right now in my business but it was wonderful to see and hear (via video) from some of the top studios in the nation. The last video he presented was of Sandy Puc discussing how NILMDTS got started. NILMDTS is a wonderful organization of photograsphers nationwide that provides free photography services for bereavement photography. This reminded me to make sure i get my website up next week so i can put in my application to them to become a local photographer.

Ed Pierce in action…

Digital Photography Edge-Bruce Dorn & Maura Dutra Seminar

Gustavo Fernandez — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:45:00 +0000

Tonight i attended the Digital Photography Edge Workshop by Canon Explorer of Light Bruce Dorn and his partner Corel Paint Master Maura Dutra. Learned advanced speedlite techniques, cinematic composition for capture, artistic application of textures, introduction to digital painting, elegant and efficient Album design. Unfortunately they were pressed for time and they had quite a vast knowledge on each technique but were not able to go in depth on each or spend more time on them. I mainly learned more about how to use my flash creatively by taking it off camera and placing in in other areas of a reception during weddings. I purchased their Baby Slipper so i can hang my flash on the wall or even place it on top of one of the DJ’s speakers. Will be giving it a try at my next wedding in Chicago.

The set up that i will essentially have when i put mine together. Flash & Pocket Wizard right behind it, hard to see in this image.

David Jay’s Freedom & Slumber Workshop in Santa Barbara

Gustavo Fernandez — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:07:00 +0000

I had an amazing time this weekend attending David Jay’s Freedom & Slumber workshop in Santa Barbara. It all started with a party on friday night where i met DJ’s friends. Many were local talented photographers: Rodolfo Arpia, Brittany Leigh Gebler, and Michael & Anna Costa. I even got to meet DJ’s best friend Deyl Kearinand chat with him about their trip to a private island in Nicaragua the amazing book written by the family that owns the home (A Family on the Move).

Friday evening we all found a corner to crash(slumber party remember) and filled up our air beds and settled in for the night. We awoke to a a nice breakfast set up that Crystal (DJ’s assistant extraordinaire) put together for us. We then submerged ourselves with 8 hours of intense training befeore heading oof to downton Santa Barbara for Sushi and then an evening engagement session with some models. The weather did not agree with us as it continued to pur so we headed back to the Freedom House. The next day we continued talking through some new techniques for a “Hands-Free” workflow and we also talked about how to “Get-FIT” and create more FLEXIBILTY, INCOME, & TIME in our lives and then how to use those things to create more meaning in others lives. I was sad to leave Santa Barbara and all my new friends. Mike Larson also stopped by and spoke to us about being first or being forgotten and about the power of the slideshow. He even did his famous camera toss in the house for us.

The Freedom & Slumber crew!
Front (left), Mark Barnes, Crystal Hutchinson, Amy Jett, the host-DJ, Penny Sylvia, Melanie Merkling, Mery Donald,
Back (left) Corey Hage, Kenny Kim, Me, Regas Chefas, Andres Valenzuela, Santa Barbara in the background, and
shot was taken by the beautiful Miss Brittany Leigh.

Most of these photos were taken by the awesome photographer and new friend, Kenny Kim. Check out his blog post for the rest of the highlight images and slideshow.

The boys…

The gals…

I borrowed DJ’s famous Canon 50mm 1.0 Lens that was handed down to him by the father of wedding photojournalism Dennis Reggie. An amazing lens which is not in production and very rare. Thanks Corey for taking this image.

Thank you DJ for your wonderful hospitality and sharing your knowledge with all of us.