A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of doing a workshop for our local Pictage User Group. We walked around Hillsboro Village with my two of my favorite models, our long-time friend Bekah and her boyfriend Josh, and learned about how to get a wide variety of portraits in a short period of time. After all, wedding days can get crazy so Sean and I developed a system for making sure we could deliver great results no matter what. I love helping other photographers learn to do the same and I had such a great group for this workshop!

I thought I’d share some of the results here. To those who attended – thank you all for signing up and allowing me to share with you for the evening and Bekah and Josh – thanks for being our adorable models. :)

 

Many of you have said that you’d like to see more behind the scenes stuff so this post is for you. :)

One of the things Sean and I teach on the most is how to find something beautiful when you think there’s nothing you could possibly work with. One way to do this is to look beyond what an object is and search for textures and patterns in your surroundings – no matter what they’re found on.

Take this image for example. I love the color and the pattern on this background. It has a great modern feel and the way the light falls in this location is lovely. Can you tell where it is?

That’s right – it’s an old kitchen mat out back of a restaurant in an alley way. That sounds like a terrible place to make a beautiful image, but by looking for patterns and textures, a floor mat becomes something so much better. (And the awesomeness is just amplified by these two and their awesome posing. ;P)

Just looking for these elements, I bet you can see several great photo opportunities in this small space, right? So next time you’re out shooting and you think there’s nothing to be found, ignore the titles your brain wants to place on objects and look for the pleasing elements that make up those objects. The possibilities for beautiful imagery are all around you. :)

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Being a part of a small group of driven entrepreneurs from across North America can revolutionize your business and change your life. Having the opportunity to attend a conference while it’s still at the ground level and small is a great way to find such a community.

Sean and I were able to find this early on in our career and we have been able to achieve far greater things in our business because of that group than we ever would have without them. These people have become some of our most loyal friends, trusted advisors and the people we look to for encouragement and support. These friendships are invaluable and we have them all because we were fortunate enough to find something we could become a part of before it got so big that connecting with individuals on an intimate level became too hard.

I’m telling you all of this because this same kind of opportunity is available to you now.

Some of our dearest friends and two of the most driven and amazing artist-preneurs we know have created a conference specifically for creatives who are in business for themselves. If there is one thing we have come to know about Jen and Steve Bebb, it’s that they give everything they do all they’ve got, and they work tirelessly to deliver real content that has the power to transform people’s businesses and lives. The What If Conference is their labor of love.

I pulled this line off of the What If website because I think it explains perfectly why we’re so enthralled with this particular conference:

“There is no other conference like WHAT IF. This is a SUBSTANCE over style event where we’re serving up a helping of INNOVATION and a side order of MONEY MAKING IDEAS. Most importantly, we’re going to challenge you to MEET YOUR POTENTIAL, to BE YOURSELF, and to become part of a COMMUNITY of other artist-preneurs.”

The first What If took place in Cabo, Mexico in January. Every attendee we’ve spoken to has had a fanatically positive response to their time there. They are diving into exciting new ventures and feeling revitalized in their business!

Sean and I are excited to go see what all of the fuss is about this coming July 23-26 at What If Portland!  Kudize.net (a website/community we founded that helps you build your referral based business) is sponsoring the event. We encourage you to come join too, and we’re so sure this will be an experience you won’t want to miss (yes, even without having been before, we are totally sure!), we want to sweeten the deal.

Anyone who signs up for What If using our code: kudize will also receive an hour of one-on-one consulting with us (a $250 value).

You choose the topic and we promise to be an open book. The photographers who have done these in the past have gone on to report record breaking sales and huge strides in their photography immediately after implementing what we discussed. We would love to help you make a breakthrough in your business as well!

Your one-on-one can take place while we’re all in Portland together, or we can arrange to meet with you over the phone or Skype. We’ll work out the details later; we just want you at What If – the conference that is sure to empower you to take your business to heights you’ve only dreamed of!

Why are we doing this? We miss the experience of a great, small conference, the new people we meet there and the new opportunities that always come up as a result of attending. If this is something you connect with, then we want to meet you and see you there.

Will you join us?

Go sign up today using this link and select the Learner Plus registration. Your registration will be upgraded free of charge by signing up through us which will make it so that $50 of your registration fee will go toward helping someone else get to What If who would not otherwise have been able to attend. How cool is that? :)

We look forward to spending time with you in Portland!