Thursday, August 07, 2008

David Jay's Free to Succeed Tour

Tonight I went to check out David Jay's Free to Succeed Tour. Jasmine Star was his guest speaker, and both she and DJ were great to listen to. It was nice to see Todd Johnson, Robert Evans, Roberto Valenzuela, April Rocha, Kara Franz, and to meet a bunch of new folks like Christina Domingues and Mark Bassam to name just a few of the photographers who were at the packed out event. One of the tour sponsors is Couture Books, and the samples I saw were just gorgeous. I might have to add them to my studio...

Click here to see if David Jay is coming to your town, and be sure to sign up! If for nothing else but to check out the tour bus with his GIANT face plastered on the side.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Monthly PUG

We had a GREAT Pictage User Group this month. Thank you to Rudy Arpia for being our Studio Spotlight. I was so impressed by the Spanish Wedding Photography Forum he created, Foro De Fotografia.







Our speakers, Michael & Anna Costa gave a lot of great information! Thanks for coming down from Santa Barbara to speak to our group, guys.





Anna was getting ready to sing for the American Idol auditions, so we asked her to sing for us, and she did!! She has such an amazing voice. Best of luck, Anna!



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Saturday, June 21, 2008

June Pictage User Group

June's Pictage User Group was very informative with Justin Kifer of Gigbooks as our speaker. If you are looking for very comprehensive ONLINE business organizational software, you should definitely check them out!

Thank you to Jennifer Disney for being our Studio Spotlight for June. She is so talented and it was great getting to hear her story and learning a little about her.

As usual, our host, Ann Kelley made an amazing spread (including rootbeer floats!) for us to snack on.

If you are a photographer in the LA area, you are welcome to join us! Email me for info!







Jennifer Disney













Justin Kifer







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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Monthly Pictage User Group

We had a fantastic turn-out at last night's Pictage User Group. This is the monthly group that I lead where photographers get together to learn and network. Last night's speaker was accountant Mark Varshawsky of Mark S. Varshawsky & Associates. He really knew his stuff, and if you are looking for a great accountant, I recommend giving him a call.

Thank you to Juan Turcios for being our May Studio Spotlight. He showed a slideshow of really lovely work and told us a little bit about himself and how he became a wedding photographer.



I really appreciate Ann because she allows us to use her home each month to host the PUG. Here she is introducing Mark.



Also, congratulations to Michael Andrews who won the Jules Café Kevin Kubota DVD RAW workflow contest by sending us the best tip or trick. Visit Jules Café to see some other tips and tricks that were sent in!



Jules & Robert Evans.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Hanging out at the Kubota Bootcamp

Even though I am finished speaking, I'm just hanging out here at the bootcamp for a few days to spend time with Joy and soak up Kevin's amazing PhotoShop knowledge. Since Joy's in-laws are in Bend, her whole family came up for the week to stay with them. Yesterday, Joy's girls came out to model for the group. The girls loved it! I couldn't help myself... I joined in to snapped a few shots, too. Later it was fun to see the hundreds of cool shots the group took of my nieces.







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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Speaking at the Kubota Bootcamp

I was so flattered when the fabulous Kevin Kubota invited me to be the Guest Speaker at his popular Digital Photography Bootcamp. Kevin has been empowering photographers across the Galaxy - including yours truly who has used his PhotoShop Actions for years.

Traveling always fills me with excitement. Anything can happen... like your flight can be canceled, you can be re-routed through another city and your luggage can get lost. :)



Bootcamp is a week-long experience at a remote place called Rock Springs Dude Ranch. Dude, check out the view this morning:



I revised a talk I gave at PartnerCon in 2005 called: Finding Clients Who Love You (and will rave about you to their friends). It was such a great group! I wanted to show really recent work, so I played the slideshow that I did at Kevin & Maya's wedding reception on Saturday. Can't get more recent than that!







Jules & Kevin Kubota hamming it up!

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Monthly PUG

I love being the Los Angeles Pictage User Group leader. Its such a great way to meet other local photographers and hear great speakers. Last night we had our April meeting. Thank you to Ann Kelley for being our Studio Spotlight. The PUG always takes place at Ann's house, so she was able to show us all of her cute products and how she uses her house to demonstrate to her portrait clients how their prints might look when hung on the walls.





Thank you, also, to Erik Johnson who was our speaker for the night. His discussion on the key categories of a balanced life helped us to identify what would really lead to our increased happiness and success.





Thank you to Michael Andrews for these cute photos of me leading the group!



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Thursday, March 27, 2008

L.A. PUG

As many of you know, I am the leader for the Los Angeles Pictage User Group. Last night's PUG was really fantastic. Every single person participated and we either shared something we learned at WPPI or shared a gadget or gizmo that we use at every wedding. I was thrilled with how much I learned!

Our speaker and Studio Spotlight was Roberto Valenzuela, a fantastic photographer who had 11 award winning prints (including first place for the "wedding photojournalism humor" category) and two award winning wedding albums at WPPI!

Roberto compared practicing music with practicing photography to become perfect. We were thrilled with the bit of music he played for us. His presentation was very thoughtful and chock-full of fantastic images and information.







One great thing about having the PUG in LA is that we have lots and lots of samples of the latest Pictage products. Last night we got to check out first hand their cool new "Art Books" now available for consumers!





Thank you to April Rocha for this cute pic of me facilitating the meeting.

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Friday, February 29, 2008

Denis Reggie & Joe Buissink at our PUG

Yesterday was an entire day of photography networking. I am the leader for the Los Angeles Pictage User Group, and each month we meet to discuss various topics and all things new at Pictage. This month's meeting was a little different in that the highly regarded and well respected talents of Joe Buissink and Denis Reggie graced our PUG with their presence. There was no real agenda, just two hours of questions and answers, and we combined the OC, Clairmont and LA PUGs for this event. We had a turn out of over 100 people!

My day started out with a VIP (Very Important Photographers!) lunch that was organized by Pictage. In attendance were photographers Denis Reggie, Joe Buissink, Jon Barber, Jared Bauman, Dane Sanders, Robert Evans & Jules Bianchi, Pictage employees Lisa Allen, Scott Anderson, Debra Gerson, Jason O’Hare, Betsy Hirayama, Ian Siegel, Renata Dionello, Jason Kiefer & Michael Caro. The very talented Ron Dawson was there to videotape the event.



Joe, Jules & Denis.



Clairmont's PUG leader, Julie Weaver, and I introduced our speakers.



The first speaker up was Christine Smith of CLS Photography, our Studio Spotlight for the month. She shared how her business really started to take off after her mentorship sessions with Mike Larsen and her Tea for Two session with me! (Thank you, Christine!)



Then Denis and Joe were on! Ron Dawson of Cinematic Studios videotaped the entire thing to feature on his site, F-Stop Beyond. You should be able to check it out there soon! Denis and Joe answered countless questions on many topics including marketing, albums, how to keep your work fresh, the direction wedding photography is moving in, lighting, as well as sharing their own personal stories. Both remarked about the importance of community and sharing. They both had amazing insight and were so open to everyone's questions.



Afterward, you would think there were movie stars in the house! Everyone wanted to talk to them and have their photograph taken with them.



This picture of Denis Reggie and Veronica Slavin cracks me up because Denis is pointing to where he wants me to "foof" my flash.



And to wrap up our day, a bunch of us went out for sushi afterward. This is a shot of me, Debra Gerson, Robert Evans, Jay Goldman & Julie Weaver that I captured in the mirror of the bar!

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

First PUG of '08

I am the leader of the Los Angeles Pictage User Group, and I wanted to share some pics from our monthly meeting which was this past Wednesday. The crazy talented Jay Lawrence Goldman was both the Studio Spotlight and the speaker. His presentation "To Shoot or Die in LA" drew an enormous crowd despite the fact that it was pouring rain.

I just LOVE Jay's studio space:



He's got these cute little birds that live there!



Here's me making Jay's introduction:



Here's Jay doing his thing. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, I highly recommend it. He's not only incredibly informative, he's so funny!





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Thursday, December 13, 2007

PUG Holiday Party

I just LOVE the holidays! As most of you know, I am the leader for the Los Angeles Pictage User Group. We meet once a month to network, listen to speakers and learn about the latest goings on at Pictage. However, this month in lieu of a meeting we had a party with both the Orange County and Clairmont PUGs at the very cool Life on Wilshire. I was thrilled with huge the turn-out!!

One of my PUG members, Zephrine Hanson, came up to me as she was leaving just to tell me how much she has appreciated the monthly meetings. She told me that not only has she really grown in her business because of them, but the community that Pictage and the PUGs has provided her as a photographer has been invaluable. I couldn't agree more... its nice to have a community of friends who understand the kind of crazy life photographers lead. If you are a photographer in the Los Angeles area, feel free to come join us!!



PUG leaders Lauren Hillary, Julie Weaver & Jules Bianchi



The party people!!!







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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Leather Craftsmen Holiday Party!

Every year, Leather Craftsmen invites all of the photographers who use their fantastic albums to their annual Pizza Holiday Party. The party is always at Robert Evans' Studio, and this year it was jam packed!! There were so many people to catch up with, but here are a few faces I managed to get snaps of with my Point-and-Shoot, too.

First let me say congratulations to the three following husband-wife photography teams who are expecting babies soon!

Cat & Adi of Next Exit Photography



Nate & Jen of B&G Photography



Ryan & Carrie of Ryan Phillips Photography



And to Kim Fox, who recently had her baby, Tessa! (What a cutie!)



At the party...

Me and Brian Kramer



Lauren Hillary, John Solano & Sara France



Jessica Claire & Chenin Boutwell



John Mireles, Jessica Claire & Ira Gershoff



Joe Photo & Becker



Me and Jon Barber



Joshua Bobrove & Sterling Franken-Steffen



Dina Douglass & Elice Schwartz



Ann Kelley & Marianne Lozano



The gracious host, Robert Evans and me!

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

My LA PUG at Robert Evans Studio

As most of you know, I am the leader for the monthly Los Angeles Pictage User Group. Its a great way to not only keep up on the latest offerings at Pictage, but to have a chance to socialize and get to know other photographers in the community better. One way we do this is the monthly Studio Spotlight. Last night's PUG had the very well-known Robert Evans as not only the Studio Spotlight but the speaker as well. It was a HUGE success! Mr. Popular pulled in a whopping 58 photographers!

The PUG was at Robert's very cool studio, and he provided tons of yummy snacks for us! THANK YOU, Robert, for all of your time and the informative lecture. Be sure to check out Robert's newest venture, PhotographyMentor.com where you can learn from the master himself!



Here is Robert dispensing his wisdom...



Everyone taking the wisdom in...



Robert shared a few pics from way back in his very early Hasselblad days... some were really funny!!



Jules Bianchi and the lovely Shannon Lott. (Thank you, Shannon, for making the long drive up, and thank you, Scott, for taking this snap of us.)

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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Speaking at Cypress College

A few weeks ago, I was invited by Greg Bumatay of Bumatay Studio to be a guest speaker for his Wedding Photography class at Cypress College. The class was tonight, so I drove down to Cypress for it today. I am really starting to love public speaking, and it was fun connecting with a bunch of new photographers. Thanks for inviting me to speak and for shooting these great pics, Greg!







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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Monthly PUG

Every month, I lead the Los Angeles Pictage User Group. This month, Gene Higa came down all the way from San Francisco to talk to the group about how to get into destination weddings. THANK YOU Gene! You were great!

Also Matthew Lin of Poetry in Light was our Studio Spotlight for the month of October. The slideshow he shared of his work was absolutely remarkable. Thank you, Matthew!

And lastly, I would like to thank Michael Andrews who kindly shot all of the following photographs since I forgot my camera last night!

Gene Higa!









Matthew Lin!



I like this shot Michael caught - its Robert Evans, me, Gene Higa & Jay Goldman at the back of the class...2 cool 4 skool. ha!




After the PUG, a few of us went to the Troubadour to see my FAVORITE band, Earlimart. We were practically standing ON the stage - I got this one with my Razr!

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Friday, October 05, 2007

The Freedom House, Santa Barbara

On Thursday, October 4, Joy and I were together to a. celebrate our birthday and b. shoot part two of a three part wedding. Part two was happening in Santa Barbara, so before we began we HAD to visit the Freedom House of my buddy, David Jay. Check out the kick-ass view from his porch! After the house tour, DJ sat us down to show us some top secret stuff going on at ShowIt... It is unbelievable, but you'll have to wait to check that out at Show It Fast later this year.



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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Networking fun!

I come to San Francisco a lot, but I don't get to hang out with my photographer friends as often as I would like. I had four hours of meetings today, but afterward I drove over the bridge to hang out with photographers Gene Higa, Ann Hamilton, Lisa Neighbors, Linda Chaja, Jose Villa and wedding planners Stacy & Alison of Alison Events. Thanks for the fun time, guys!

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Friday, September 28, 2007

F-Stop Beyond

My very innovative friend, Ron Dawson, launched a very cool new site called F-Stop Beyond.

The concept is this:

"F-Stop Beyond, a show that journeys into the heart of the visual artist. It’s our hope that this will be a program unlike any other. One that will reveal the underlying textures and personalities of your favorite photographers, videographers, and filmmakers. Beyond the techniques and talent, this show is about people. The people behind the lens. The souls underneath the exterior. Beyond brands and beyond the hype."

Love it! Ron interviewed me earlier this month at PartnerCon, and I'm on the show this week!! Even though he got the sound on his video camera, the interviews are sound only. You can click on the bar below to hear it or just go to F-Stop Beyond.





F-Stop Beyond.com

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Thursday, September 27, 2007

Pictage User Group

Every month I lead the Los Angeles Pictage User Group in Beverly Hills. If you are a photographer and would like to join, just let me know! We usually have a speaker, but this time we all talked about what we'd learned at PartnerCon earlier this month.

THANK YOU to Joanne Distaso of Joanne Distaso Photography for being our Studio Spotlight for September!





I like this photograph of Robert Evans holding court in the kitchen.



Instead of a big group photo, I just went around a shot a few faces...

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Photographer's Summer BBQ!

I am the Pictage User Group Leader for Los Angeles. My group meets on the fourth Wednesday of every month to talk shop, listen to speakers, etc..... however, THIS month not only did we have a GREAT speaker, but we had a really fun Barbeque, photo contest AND a headshot swap! It was SOO much fun!

Those who wanted new headshots for their websites or promotional materials brought cameras. We paired up and spent about 40 minutes taking turns getting shots of each other.



My headshot swap partner was Martin Gee of "I Can See the Light" Photography. Isn't this shot he took of me cute?? (Photographer technical note: He shot the image RAW, so I used my "jb dramatic" preset and changed the WB to "cloudy." I love the slightly retro tone it gives the image!)



Summer BBQ fun! Adam Lopez and Robert Evans manned the grill and cooked up the meat everybody brought. There was SO much food! A brand new member, Christa Meola, even brought delicious cupcakes for her birthday! Happy Birthday, Christa! After Adam spoke, a bunch of us stayed late to swim. The pool was nearly 90 degrees!! THANK YOU, Ann Kelley, for generously hosting the event at your gorgeous home!!



Adam Lopez gave an inspiring talk about envisioning, building and LIVING our financial goals. I highly recommend contacting him for a private consultation!

adamlopez.photo@gmail.com



There were 35 entries from my PUG for Pictage's national contest, and Marie Bunke of PhotoArt by Marie won! Her image will now go up against the winning images from all the other PUGs in the country to see who is the final winner. Congratulations, Marie! Best of luck to you! Here is the winning image.

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Sunday, August 05, 2007

Ciudad downtown

I really love the community of wedding photographers here in Southern California. Last night I met two of my favorites, Robert Evans and Sara France, for tapas at the yummy Ciudad restaurant downtown. Thanks for the good company, guys!

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Friday, July 20, 2007

July PUG

Because I'm going out of town next week, July's PUG (Pictage User Group) was held this week instead. I lead the Los Angeles PUG on the last Thursday of each month, and if you are a photographer in the area, please come join us!

Our speaker this month was the very handsome and talented photographer Mike Larson. He was quite inspiring and had a lot of great things to teach us about how we should be approaching our business and personal goals.

Also, I want to give a big thank you to Alice G Patterson who was July's Studio Spotlight. I think Alice's tag line "big Events, little Moments" is just so cute! She showed us some beautiful work, and it was really great getting to know a little bit more about her.

Afterward, a bunch of us went to Canter's to get Matzo ball soup - my favorite!

the gang:



Mike Larson:



Alice G Patterson:



Mike Larson, Robert Evans, me and the Matzo ball:

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Kevin Kubota workshop!

This past week has been an insane week of getting up early and running all over the place. Thursday morning, Robert Evans and I flew to the Bay Area to attend Kevin Kubota's Lightroom workshop in Walnut Creek. I was really excited because it meant I got to see my family as well as learn some new skills by the super talented Kevin Kubota. The class was all day on Friday, so my sister, Joy, organized a really fun sushi dinner for a bunch of local photographer friends on Thursday night.

Joining my sister and I were Gene Higa, Ann Hamilton, Robert Evans, Kevin Kubota, Frances Marron, Allyson Wiley, Julie Mikos, Heather Whiting & Jennifer Skog.

One COOL thing I discovered is that my custom presets work in both Bridge CS3 and Lightroom on JPEGS!!! Woo Hoo! I'm off to work on the beautiful wedding I shot this weekend... check back soon to see those images!





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Thursday, June 28, 2007

LA Pictage User Group

I lead the the Los Angeles PUG once a month. Tonight there was a HUGE turn out because Ursula Mentjes, a business coach with Potential Quest, was our speaker. She shared very insightful information as well as leading us through a visualization exercise, and I can see why her services are invaluable!

Patrice Gaspard-Nelson of La Bella Vita was our Studio Spotlight this month. (I would link to her website, but it is still under construction.) Patrice showed us some gorgeous work and passed around the beautiful promo kit she gives to her clients. I love your logo, Patrice!

If you are a Pictage photographer and live in the LA area, you are welcome to join us.

Big turn out tonight...Thank you, Ann, for hosting!



Ursula Mentjes.



Patrice Gaspard-Nelson.



Nate of B&G Photography and me!!

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

fun with photographers

Tonight I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends - also all wedding photographers. We ate delicious snacks and talked about all kinds of things going on in our industry. Its really fun to get out of the house and hear how other professionals are handling things such as RAW outsourcing, payroll, copyright issues, etc. We even had a mini Lightroom demonstration by Nate.

Thank you to Jen & Nate Berggren of B&G Photography for hosting! Also in attendance, Cat & Adi, Kim Fox, Christine Haws, Laura Kleger, Giselle Macfarlane, Carrie Phillips, April Rocha, Laurie Bailey, Leanna Creel, Veronica Puleo, Tiffany Stern, and Dina Douglass. it was such a nice group and a really fun, informative night.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Jules Bianchi speaks for the PPGBA!

Last night I was the final speaker in the Professional Photographers of The Greater Bay Area's "Four Nights" Series for May. May's topic was weddings, so among other things, I talked about marketing, shooting, workflow and how I use my custom xmp files to easily and quickly batch process RAW files in Bridge without ever opening ACR. (Shoot me an email if you're interested: jules@julesbianchi.com)

Thank you to both my mother and sister who came to hear me speak and shot all of the photos for my blog. Love you, guys!!

The lecture was held at PhotoLab in Berkeley, and besides the fact that I LOVED seeing all the FILM that was still stocked there, I almost fell over when I saw what they were using as a DOORSTOP.



I had one of these when I was 17!!



You can see my blog behind me because we touched on the importance of blogging and what that could mean to them on a marketing level.



I spent most of the lecture here behind my computer because most of my talk was workflow demonstration.



This is my new friend, Harry Burton. Check out the film behind us!!



They even presented me with this lovely certificate. THANK YOU, guys, it was an honor!

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

May PUG

Another month, another fun PUG! I lead the Los Angeles Pictage User Group on the third Wednesday of every month, so if you are a Pictage member and live in the Los Angeles area, come on down!

I had a chance to demonstrate my workflow and show the group how to use my xmp files to more quickly batch process RAW files. If you are interested in batch processing your RAW images with my custom xmp files, shoot me an email for more info! jules@julesbianchi.com



A big thank you to our Studio Spotlight tonight, Marie Bunke of PhotoArt By Marie. Its always great to see other photographer's work and learn a little bit about each other.







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Friday, April 27, 2007

My Los Angeles PUG

Last night I held my monthly Pictage User Group at the very cool Melrose Lightspace. I want to give a big THANK YOU to Marianne Lozano for being our Studio Spotlight and to Jay Goldman for giving us a very informative lecture on how he lights his weddings.

If you are a Pictage photographer and live in the LA area, you are welcome to join us!

See how happy I am that you are here?



Here is Jay sharing his useful info...





This is Marianne telling us all about her photography.



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Saturday, March 31, 2007

Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!

Every year, all the wedding photographers I know gather in Vegas for the WPPI or DWF convention. Albeit exhausting, its always a really fun time!



Me and my fabulous roommate, Joy.



I always want to support my friends, so I made sure to catch the talks (from top to bottom) of Rob Evans speaking at the Pictage booth, Dane Sanders speaking for LiveBooks, and Dina Douglass giving a lecuture on lighting for the DWF...



... and to buy one of Jessica Claire's cool new Shoot Sac camera bags!



LiveBooks grabbed me for a quick interview on the Trade Show floor...



And later I was interviewed by Ron Dawson of Cinematic Studios for a promo DVD he is doing about me and my studio!





Here I am with the winner of the Thirst Auction mentor session, Penny Sylvia!! She is a great photographer, and I really enjoyed meeting her.



Carrie Phillips, Cat Krantz, Christine Marie & Sara France



Yvette Roman, me & Suzi Varin



me & Jon Barber



Me and the adorable David Jay

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Friday, March 30, 2007

The Bianchi Sandwich

My twin sister, Joy, has been working with me for over a year. She came to Vegas with me last year to help facilitate the DWF workshops I was doing, and she had such a great time that she came back this year.

Everyone we hung out with thought it was just so much fun to make a "Bianchi Sandwich." Joy said it would be funny to post all the "sandwiches" we made while in Vegas, so Joy, here you go! I know there are more out there, so if anyone has a "sandwich" on their camera, please send it to me!

I am going to post more images from Vegas soon, but for now, here is me and Joy with the following folks (from top to bottom, left to right), Rob Evans, Becker, Dane Sanders, Sara France, Brian Kramer, Matt Gillis, Joshua Bobrove and a Vegas showgirl!

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

What happens in Vegas...appears on my blog!!

Joy and I have been in Vegas at the WPPI/DWF convention since Monday afternoon. Although going to seminars and the tradeshow is a great component, one of the best reasons to go to Vegas is to hang out with other photographers and reconnect after a year of working hard shooting weddings. This afternoon we ended up at a fun lunch with a bunch of my friends, so Joy passed her camera around the table got the following video.

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

March PUG

I want to give a big thank you to Jim Kennedy who graciously gave his time to be this month's Pictage User Group speaker. I feel so fortunate to know Jim because he is so extremely well respected in the industry. Jim owns a beautiful studio in Orange County which shoots over 100 weddings per year. He will be teaching a Master Class next week at WPPI in Las Vegas, and I think everyone got a lot out of hearing what he had to say tonight. And after listening to him, I no longer feel as bad about how fast I talk!

I also want to thank Edo Photographer for being tonight's Studio Spotlight. Edo has been shooting weddings for two years and really has his own take on things. I love the Studio Spotlight because each week we really get to know that one photographer just a little bit better.

Jim teaching to the group:







William Henshall getting creative with his projector during our "tips & tricks" portion of the evening:

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

A Soolip Wedding, 2007

Today I got to hang out at the hip club, Social Hollywood, to shoot this year's "A Soolip Wedding". It was really fun event with tons of amazing ideas and vendors for brides-to-be.

check it out:



The Soolip Table:



Sooo many great details:



Wanda Wen is a good friend of mine and the founder of Soolip Paperie & Press.



Getting ready for the Monique Lhuillier fashion show:



I loved that all the girls wore red shoes with their wedding gowns:



The show was gorgeous:







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Sunday, March 04, 2007

A night with Skip Cohen

A few nights ago, Cat & Adi of Next Exit Photography hosted a talk by Skip Cohen. Skip is the President/Chief Operating Officer of Rangefinder Publishing Inc. and has responsibility for Rangefinder Magazine, the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Association and the WPPI Convention.

His program was titled: "The Whacko Factor - It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you!" It took a fun look at an extensive variety of ideas on diversity in business, cost-effective self-promotion, publicity generators, ideas on networking, cross-promotion, packaging, direct mail, website development and online hosting. The group was small, and it was great to be able to get to know Skip afterward.

Thanks to both Skip and Next Exit!



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Sunday, February 25, 2007

The Patina Bride

Today my assistant, Jessica, and I spent the day at the lovely Walt Disney Concert Hall where The Bridal Bar and Patina put on a little bridal fair!

The Event:



Jules Bianchi Photography table!



I love this self-portrait of me and Robert Evans taken in the reflection of the Concert Hall wall. (Also, did you notice Blythe on my camera??)



Jessica working her magic...



Jenny Stafford was the official photographer for the event, so I took a shot of her at work through the lens of my Kodak Brownie!!



I was floored when I found out that EVERYTHING on the cakes made by Cake Crumbs is edible!! (Yes, even the flower pots! And YES Joy, its rolled fondant!!)



details, details...



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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Blogaholics Unite!

The second part of Dane Sander's "Power of the Few" Simple Photo Minute is here! This episode features yours truly much more heavily than the first, and talks all about my favorite topic, BLOGGING! Ironically, I mention in the episode that my plan for 2007 was to spend a little less time blogging... but you probably know I've not really succeeded with that yet!

Click on the shirt to check it out...

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Friday, February 23, 2007

LA Pictage User Group

On the third Wednesday of each month, I lead the Los Angeles Pictage User Group (PUG.) This is a great way for local photographers to get together and not only learn about the latest and greatest that Pictage has to offer, but to socialize with and bounce ideas off of each other. We also have the opportunity to meet vendors and other companies who will help us take our businesses where we want them to go!

Our Studio Spotlight this month was the extremely talented Laurie Bailey who showed us some of her fantastic work and openly shared a few of her unique lighting tips.



Our speaker for the evening was J. Sandifer from the very innovative Live Books. He came to show us what they have to offer for those photographers looking to take their website to the next level.





Of course, here is the REAL reason everyone wants to come to my PUG....

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

We've Got the Power!!

A few weeks ago, I attended a "Power Lunch" down in the OC with a few other top-notch photographers. The entire thing was taped by the very talented Ron Dawson of Cinematic Studio to be made into a few installments of Dane Sander's "Simple Photo Minute."

Hold on to your hats because the first one has arrived! You can check it out by clicking here or on the funny pic of me!

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Power lunch in the OC

This past August, I shot a wedding in Sonoma and had the pleasure of working with Ron Dawson and the team of Cinematic Studios. Of course we blogged about each other, and through my blog, he discovered Dane Sander's very cool new site, Cut Frame TV.

Dane and Ron began a conversation which eventually led to today's luncheon. Dane gathered a few of the premiere photographers in the OC to discuss how community, sharing and networking has affected our business and lives. Ron filmed the whole conversation/luncheon to be used on both his growing archive of the Event Professionals Resource Outlet and on Dane's Cut Frame TV.

The whole thing was a lot of fun, and I'll be sure to let you know when the actual videos are online!

The Gang:

me, Dane Sanders, Jim Kennedy, Ryan Phillips, Joe Photo, Jessica Claire, Becker, Chenin & Doug Boutwell, Erin Reed, Mark Adams



Check out these shady characters...



Ron shot tidbits of each of us for the project...



The lunch!



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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Happy Birthday, Cat!

Today a bunch of girl photogs met at Il Cugini in Santa Monica to celebrate Cathryn Krantz' birthday! Cat and her husband, Adi, make up the very hip Next Exit Photography.

Presents!!



The lovely luncheon ladies...

First Row: Christine Marie, Carrie Phillips, Cat Krantz, Jennifer Wilson, Britney Alves, Tiffany Stern, Cheri Steinberg,

Second Row: Trista Lerit, Mae Van Vooren, Tammy Smith, Jenifer Greer, & Jules Bianchi

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Friday, January 26, 2007

Los Angeles Weddings Magazine launch party

I love the parties that Los Angeles Weddings Magazine throws for its vendors! Last night's party for the launch of the Spring issue did NOT disappoint!



Some of the players...

Los Angeles Weddings Magazine editor, Kathy Nenneker & Jules Bianchi



Photographer Brian Kramer, Bridal Bar owner, Harmony Walton, and photographer Robert Evans



a little love for Jules from Rob & Brian....



Creative Blu's Michelle Arnett and photographer Alice G Patterson



Rene of R Jack Balthazar and Occasion's Mary Sushinski.



Photographer Todd Johnson and Red Loft Studio owner, Jenny Stafford.



Jules Bianchi and floral designer Linnae Asiel of Asiel Design.



Jenny Stafford, Jules Bianchi and Wedding coordinator Stephanie Lairson.



I want to thank Dana Grant who photographed the event on my behalf - She will be shooting with me at a lot of my Los Angeles weddings this year, and I was grateful she could cover this event for me! She is the best!



Dana Grant and me.



My new favorite party activity - the Red Cheese Photo Booth!



Jules & Dana hamming it up....



me and my new friend, Chris Jaros of Progressive Marketing & Media.



Last but NOT least... LA Weddings Magazine gave out kick-ass gift bags with all kinds of goodies for everyone!

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Friday, January 12, 2007

Docuvitae

Docuvitae is a collective of photographers, filmmakers, designers and bookmakers founded by the award-winning photojournalist, Laura Kleinhenz.

Today the team threw a post-holiday open house at their über cool office/studio space downtown complete with hot apple cider and delicious ginger snaps! Thanks for the fun time, guys!

Here is the Docuvitae collective of artists:



Of course I love that Laura's dog, Dory, is a regular member of the staff...





Like me, Laura has a cool collection of vintage cameras. I like how you can see my face in the shiny flash...



Jules Bianchi and the lovely Laura Kleinhenz.

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