PARADISE POINT WEDDING :: LEA + JULIUS
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Lea and Julius with the Mission-Focused team (Brother Joe, Malia Dadez, and Cyndi Smith). Everything about this wedding was amazing, the location and weather rocked, and the people were all amazing. Lea and Julius were so much fun and it’s easy to see why they have so much love and support from their friends and family. Here are the photos from this amazing day, to see the full set please visit the Mission-Focused site.
some film shots
EASTLAKE CHURCH :: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
Lately there have been a lot of cross roads in terms of the photography teams that I am a part of. I currently am a part of the Rock Photographers and am also helping to develop a new phototeam called Mission-Focused. On top of that I recently joined the Eastlake Church Photoministry. This past Friday I was blessed to shoot an amazing event with team members from Eastlake as well as an entourage from Mission-Focused.
“A Night to Remember” is a prom for students with special needs from High Schools all over San Diego. The turnout for the event was amazing, there were so many people that came together and volunteered their time and talents to bless these students.
To learn more about any of these groups please visit their site:
Mission-Focused
Eastlake Church
A Night to Remember
to view my images from the event please visit: http://www.firstkiss.smugmug.com
to view everyone’s images please visit: http://eastlakechurch.smugmug.com/
PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSES :: BRANDING
Mission-Focused is having a series of classes for anyone who is interested in the business aspect of photography. We are a team of young growing professionals who meet every other Monday and discuss the various aspects and challenges of setting up a photography business. We will be meeting this Monday (March 21) at 5PM in Kearney Mesa at 8525 Gibbs Dr. Ste 206 San Diego, CA 92123
This upcoming Monday’s discussion topic is branding. We will be discussing the following:
A. Logos
B. Website (hosting, domain names, templates, etc.)
C. Blogs
D. Packaging
E. Emails / Correspondence
F. Business Cards
G. Graphic Design
H. Promo Videos
If you’re interested in attending please email Trevor at: firstkissproductions@gmail.com for further details.
Here are some insights to the branding of my business First Kiss.
Business Name: First Kiss – this name derived from my original business I started in college as a graphic / web design company which was first kiss productions. When I started my photography business and moved into shooting weddings I strongly considered changing my business name to I Do Photography. After a lot of consideration I decided to go with First Kiss simply because my goal is to capture memories for my clients that will last a lifetime, everyone remembers their first kiss!
Logo: having a graphic design background meant I was continually changing my logo which got really confusing. That’s when I came to the realization that I will never be satisfied with a logo that I created. At that point I had another designer create my logo, I gave a few ideas as to what I was looking for and a week later I had my logo. I haven’t thought of changing it since.
Logo designed by Raul of Faith by Design (faithbydesign.com)
Colors: As I was going through my logo identity crisis I was doing the same with colors. I was using everything from black and pink to black and tan. In thinking about color I wanted to choose something that represented quality. 2 company’s consistently stood out to me in terms of color and design that represented quality, Tiffany and Apple. I love the idea of how a teal box with a white ribbon creates so much joy for the ladies, and I love how apple at the time was using a lot of black and white to create some very clean packaging. So I decided to go with the teal and black for my color schemes (although my 2011 brides will be receiving their images with that famous white bow look)
Business Cards: Again my focus is on quality. You can determine a lot about a business by their business cards. I wanted a card that was durable and professionally printed. I have been using moo.com and love their cards. It allows me to use different images on my cards so I always have a card to hand out that pertains to what each client is looking for. The back of my cards are simple, dominated by black with just 1 line in teal, features my slogan, name, number, and website. NO CLUTTER!
Website / Blog: I recently revamped my website and love how my images dominate the site. I use photobiz.com which has some amazing templates that are easily customizable. Changes take seconds to make, I’m a big fan. The text content on my site has also been a work in progress. The connection between a photographer and the couple is very important. I wanted to really have my potential clients get a good idea of who I am so my focus was to show my personality as well as some of my likes and dislikes. I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on my profile, I’m glad I was able to accomplish what I was looking to do. I hate boring profiles (especially ones written in the third person)!
My blog is my next project to revamp. It’s currently set up through wordpress.com but it isn’t as customizable as I would like it to be, I’m not sold on the template I’m using, I like that I can show some large images, I don’t like the white text on a black ground, it makes reading long posts like this one harder to read. So this will be my next project! As for my web names I wanted to come up with some that hopefully are easy to remember. My last name is impossible for most to spell so I don’t use my name as my domain name (or business name). I went with shootingbrides.com for my website and iwanttoshootyourface.com for my blog. That always seems to make people smile, or get a really worried face until they put it together.
So that’s a little insight into my branding. I can’t wait until I open my studio and get to really go all out with my brand, I think I’ll need some interior design help from Lisa Ronco!
Join us this Monday if interested, all are welcome!
SAN DIEGO OUTREACH PHOTOGRAPHY :: TOYS FOR JOY
Earlier this month I had the chance with my fellow shooters at Mission-Focused to shoot Toys for Joy. This is an event I helped document the previous year and was blessed to see and shoot the pure joy on the faces of so many children who may only get 1 or 2 gifts during Christmas. This year I really wanted to limit the number of shots I took so I could really experience the magnitude of the event and not be so caught up in shooting everything that took place. Here were my favorites from the day.
Here is our team of photographers at Mission-Focused. Photo by Malia Dadez.
Here to Serve
I had the pleasure of shooting with Franco, Kiki and Natalia this past Monday. Thanks again for your service and allowing us the opportunity to bless your family!
Military Family Portraits: The Williams
I had a great time photographing the Williams Family this evening. Every Monday night the team at Mission-Focused serves our military through offering free family portraits. We have now been doing these shoots for the past 6 months, it was exciting to hear tonight how much this means to the families and how quickly the time slots are filled up, sometimes within minutes of the schedules being posted.
I’m Batman
I had a great time shooting Bruce’s 1 year photographs tonight, he was kind enough to bring his daddy Bruce and mommy Alicia, his uncle, and his grand parents who came all the way out from Tennessee to celebrate his 1st birthday. I had shot their family portraits a ways back so I was excited to get to see the Estep family again tonight, it’s fun to see how fast kids grow up. Anyways, I had a great time shooting tonight with Malia and Lisa, we decided to break the mold to avoid a creative block (sort of like writer’s block) so we shot around Liberty Station this evening. It provided us with a lot of great backdrops to work with and we were glad we made that decision. I got to learn more from Malia who is great at posing which is something I am wanting to get better at. anyways, here some pics from tonight. . .
Reflections
It’s been a while that I’ve written on my own personal blog. I have been actively involved with Mission-Focused and have spent a lot of my blogging on that site so I neglected my own. I have recently committed to going full out on my blog again as I miss being able to share with everyone how I view the world through my lens. So what exactly have I been up to these days and what can you look forward to seeing on this site? Well here’s a preview of what’s in store.
e-book: It was my goal for 2010 to write my first book on photography. This will be made available in the fall for the extremely low price of $5. The first book will take a selection from my work and explain the process behind the images giving insight into my thinking process when creating the photographs.
events: I have the privilege of shooting Comic-Con again this year. My Comic-Con postings in the past have by far been the most popular so I look forward to sharing images again this year.
military portraits: Every Monday I shoot with Mission-Focused and provide free Military Family Portraits. This has been a wonderful way to give back to those who serve and sacrifice.
Hayden: Watch Hayden grow up (slowly I pray).
first kiss 