MN Photostars!!

MN Photostars!!!! What is this, you say? It's a little group I put together back-in-the day with the uber-awesome Sara Montour, who has since moved to Seattle! Our vision was to create an environment for the raddest photographers from Minnesota to just get together, have fun, grab a beer and chill! We hosted a few of these, but since Sara moved, I kind of put it on the back burner until Stephany lit a fire under me one day and said, "Hey! We should still do this!" Hence, a new generation of the Photostars is born and I am thrilled to say that we had THE best turn out EVER at Photogen Inc Studios! These events are an open invitation to any and all photographers in the area. Experience level doesn't matter, your niche in the industry doesn't matter - all that matters is that you BRING the FUN!

I have this vision of putting MPLS - or the Midwest for that matter - on the map in the photo industry and let me tell you, we have some KILLER talent in this town!

We also have some killer looks...obviously!

Thank you SO much to everyone who came out to the event! I foresee many of these in our future!

To view all of the photo booth images, click here!

LOVEe

LOVEe Consult : Emily Steffen!

I absolutely love my job. Sometimes I can't believe that my work is to create, inspire and empower people! And then I realize, yes, Eliesa, this is your work, but it is also deeper than that - it is my purpose. This past fall, I launched LOVEe Consults, which is my one-on-one mentor session for photographers (or any small business owner for that matter), and I am simply smitten with these days! Yes, they are all about learning, but again - it's deeper than that. They are more about having conversations, exploring our deepest secrets and dreams and developing a plan to create the best life possible for us! Just as much as I teach the photographers who sign up, they teach me so much more!

This past week, I had a LOVEe Consult with the lovely Emily Steffen. I absolutely love this girl! One of the best things I adore about Emily is the fact that she gathers inspiration from SO much more than images. Many times we talk about looking at magazines, ad campaigns, labels, websites, branding, etc. to be inspired, but in Emily's case, she doesn't seek inspiration through any of those visual aesthetics. Instead, she is majorly inspired by crafting, knitting, sewing, gardening, baking and simply loving. I realized in our conversations that sometimes, as working artists, we forget to be creative in the sense of creating. Maybe that statement doesn't make sense. It is SO important to have other outlets of creativity besides just taking photographs (or painting, drawing, etc - whatever your art might be that you get paid for!) I realized I really haven't had another source as a creative outlet for quite some time, and I am empowered to do so!

The essence of who you are and what you love  = happiness.

Another awesome conversation we had was about how stinkin' far behind the Midwest appears sometimes. We are, in fact, not far behind in Minneapolis, but sometimes people's mentalities are when searching for a wedding photographer and how we need to educate our clients on our shooting styles. We talked about how funny it is when (usually the older generation) make comments about your photos, such as, "Oh, isn't that nice." or "Yes, these are sure...different." Emily put it into the perfect quote, " In our state, when people call your photos 'different', that is Minnesotan for 'suck'!" The fabulous part about this statement is that when you do find your perfect clients - the words/feelings/comments about suckage will absolutely never be an issue - ever again! I am also a firm believer that there is some KILLER talent pumping out of the Midwest now that is truly remarkable - and I am SUPER stoked for this revolution!

There is no doubt in my mind that Emily is going to do some really amazing things in her life! In her own words, her goal is...

"To share the love and effect the world in a way that I can to make an impact. I want my life the be simple and I want to live my life to simply inspire people."

LOVEe

My consultations are more than a how-to-be-an-amazing-photographer, they are truly meant to be life-changing. If you are interested in more information about a LOVEe Consult, click here!

If you are READY for THIS, e-mail me: eliesa@photogen-inc.com

Unconditional Love!

As Valentines Day approaches, the big L.O.V.E. is on the minds of many! Despite if you celebrate the hallmark holiday or not, we can't deny this time of the year makes us reflect on the love that surrounds us! To me, I see the purest form of love every day from my dogs. Yes, the love me, but more importantly, they love and care for each other and their 'friends'. Yes, my dogs have friends. They have, over time, inherited three stuffed animals that are life-size to them and they looooove these stuffed animals unconditionally! Laugh all you want, it's totally true. They always have to be near by - and if they don't know where they are, they will surely go find them! They bathe them, cuddle them and sleep with them at night - these friends mean absolutely everything to my dogs.

Love is simple.

What is LOVE to you?

Happy Valentines Day!!

LOVEe

Lofty Goals

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. ~Thornton Wilder

Lofty is the perfect word for me, and especially right now.

Many times I have people say to me, "Oh, Eliesa. You've done so much already and you're always doing something! What is next for you?" This is always immediately followed up by the question," And how do you keep going?"

This whole thing, my life, my business, etc. is all fueled by passion. I am passionate about doing big things. I'm not interested in being mediocre or okay - I am determined to be great. I am determined to be a legend. These are big words and I have set some extremely high expectations and lofty goals for myself, but I always have. I think there have been two keys to my success thus far. 1) Everything has come about and happened very organically and naturally for me. I have never tried to be anyone else but myself and I have stayed true to the art that I want to create. I have always put my efforts into projects that I believe in and I have not compromised anything to get to my dream. 2) I have always had momentum. I am constantly pushing myself - and those around me - to go out of our comfort zone and create things and chase our ideas to make them a reality. If you own a business and want to continue to do so for the next 30 years, you better not get comfortable. In fact, you better get UN-comfortable...the more, the better.

On the flip side, this past week, I was out to a little impromptu dinner with some fellow photographers and one of them said, " Sometimes I just hate being around you Eliesa, because you are so god damn motivated and that is just not me! It's exhausting...but deep down I suppose I need a little of that right now." She is absolutely right! You shouldn't feel like a horrible person if you are reading this and thinking, "But, I don't want to be a big deal. I just want to make photographs that make people happy and have my little happy business." Great, fabulous, lovely. Everyone has their own vision of how they want to impact this world and Oprah is no better than the volunteer in the soup kitchen.

However, my point for the whole post is to encourage all of you to do something that is uncomfortable for you and see where it takes you. Whether you are interested in photography and you've been putting off buying that camera  - do it. Maybe you want to quit your day job and pursue your passion as a full time career - do it. Maybe you feel like you need to do some soul searching and you really want to book that trip - do it. Sometimes in life, your best decisions are made as spontaneous ones. I guarantee you that by taking a big risk, you will be absolutely terrified, but I also guarantee that it won't be as scary as you think. You will have catapulted yourself into a situation that you simply can't fail at. Failure has never been an option for me, and big surprise...I've worked my ass off, but I have never failed myself.

You can thank my great friend Josh Elliott for this photo up above, which started me thinking about all of the above thoughts! This image was taken about a year ago when we were at a workshop together and I love it, because I am SO focused on whatever I am doing.

Passion. Truth. Momentum.

Don't get comfortable - ever.

LOVEe

Related articles:

• The Best and Worst Times to Raise Your Prices (blogs.photopreneur.com)
• 8 tips for starting your biz while working full time (cnn.com)

JNP Workshop!!

Last Monday, I had the extreme pleasure of guest speaking at the first-ever JNP Workshop in Santa Ana, California! Jeffrey is one of my absolute best friends in both life and this crazy photography industry. We met 3 years ago at a workshop and have since developed a beautiful relationship! Jeffrey and I are complete opposites in almost everything, but we are constantly challenging and encouraging each other to dream bigger.  We often talk about that workshop and how the best thing we took away was not necessarily the content but the lasting relationships and friendships with other photographers. When Jeffrey approached me about speaking at his workshop, I was absolutely on board! Our vision was to simply inspire the students to live their dreams and spread the love! (I know, it sounds totally hippie...)  The workshop came together beautifully with an amazing table scape from the ladies at Utterly Engaged and Treasured Petal (sneak peek below...the rest of the beautiful images will be in an upcoming issue of Utterly Engaged E-Zine!)

The workshop was filled to the brim with some intense information! Seriously, we covered everything from Branding to Building your Personal Style to Pricing to Getting Your Dream Clients! It was a fun filled day of learning, but I think what the students appreciated most was the hands-on-shooting time we had with lots of new equipment that they might not have had the opportunity to use before! I enjoyed this time the best, because I was able to get out of the classroom and actually teach the students how to direct and shoot!

Putting on a workshop is definitely not easy. There is a ton a prep work that goes into a day like this and both Jeffrey and I learned along the way. However, it is absolutely worth it! I had SO much fun being a part of this day and it really solidified my passion for giving back to my industry! It also proved that I am a leader - and a strong one at that. There will be many more workshops in the future, that is for damn sure. Boo Ya!

A special thank you to all of the amazing attendees! You made this workshop and I am SO excited to see what you all accomplish in the future!

ROCK ON!

LOVEe

The Hills!

There are two things that I absolutely love to be around. The mountains and the ocean. I think that is why I am so obsessed with Vancouver, because it has THE perfect balance of the two beauties! However, considering that Minnesota has a very flat terrain, the ocean and hills of California were a warm welcome to my soul! The Juddster traveled with me to Orange County, where I was the guest speaker at the first-ever JNP Workshop (more details to come in my next post)! We took some time to enjoy the sand, sun, almost 70 degree weather (which felt like a dream!)....and I got to indulge in my all-time-favorite treat, Pinkberry! We also had the opportunity to see some of our fabulous friends...yes, Cali was pretty much bliss!

Here's to Sunshine and Pinkberry!

LOVEe

I Left My Wallet in El Segundo

I found this guy on the corner of a street in California. I had to take his photograph.

I love me a little street photography.

LOVEe

Related articles:

• body art #1 (chromasia.com)
• Street photography (borutpeterlin.wordpress.com)

Sunshine!

I'm in southern California for the weekend and it has been super refreshing to see some sunshine and water! Tomorrow I will be guest speaking at the JNP Workshop and I am SO excited to meet all of the attendees and get this awesome show on the road!

LOVEe

Making [Your Dreams] Happen...

There's been a bunch of buzz in the wedding industry about something called Making Things Happen. To be quite honest with you all, I wasn't so sure about it. All of the twitters, facebook updates, blogs and e-mails circulating about it were all super mushy and preached about how 'life changing' this event was. I was sure it was good and all (I mean, if you know Lara Casey - everything this woman touches turns to gold, so there was no doubt in my mind that she was sharing valuable and empowering information.) However, I was on overload. There is a saying that 'Too much of a good thing makes it turn sour' and if I heard one more tweet about "OMG! I am SO Fired Up and Ready To Take on the World #MTH2010"...I was going to vomit.

Now, please don't get me wrong, I love Lara and her movement. I was just overwhelmed by this CONSTANT chatter in my industry and it was too much. However, part of me was absolutely curious as to what all of the buzz was about! One of my biggest frustrations with where I am at this point in my career is continuing education. I've been to many workshops and I have learned and built an incredibly strong business. I have my dream studio, an amazing crew, I am booking my perfect clients and pushing our limits to be the best possible photographers and people we can be. I mean....shit.....I. MAKE. THINGS. HAPPEN.

So, did I need this motivational speech? I mean, I've got it all figured out, right?

Wrong. I learned a lot about myself yesterday and I am incredibly happy that I decided to go. The big thing that I think anyone who will attend this workshop in the future should know is that it is what YOU make of it. The session really has absolutely nothing to do with Lara and Jeff, but everything to do with yourself. They are simply creating a safe environment  for you to explore yourself, which is the foundation of owning a great and successful business - and also allowing you to dream big....like REAL big. (I confessed I was going to be on Oprah someday and be the next Richard Avedon....)

I also want to encourage all of you 'veteran' photographers, coordinators, vendors or people who DO have it all 'together' to attend the Making Things Happen tour. I had to dig down really deep to find things that I needed to change or face some fears that I was holding back from and when you are established, there are expectations that you are suppose to reach. I fully intend to reach those lofty goals, but they are scary and personally, I had been putting off many of those BIG things, because I might fail.  Well, fuck it if I do, but I am also the type of person that if I go for it, I will absolutely succeed, so what's the point in putting it off? There is always, always room for growth. Challenge yourself and live your dreams.

I am also very proud of the Minneapolis industry right now! I live in such a great community of artists who really do offer a great support system for growth!

Midwest is the best, yo.

A big thanks to Lara and Jeff for bringing their workshop to Minneapolis! These two really opened up and gave ALL of themselves, emotionally, to the attendees, so thank you! I am a big believer in the Midwest photographers, so it's nice to get the support from others in our industry!

LOVEe

Unpredictable

Half of the fun of shooting a wedding is getting to hang out with my crew! We never know what the weather is going to be like here in Minnesota, so a big part of our job - and a quality I pride myself on the most - is doing an amazing job of working-on-the-fly. Not only does it make creating more enjoyable for me, but I simply have SO much fun with my team on the day of a shoot! Honestly, we are really funny and we seriously...do need a reality show! ;0)

A couple weeks ago, we photographed the McCullough's amazing wedding and here are just a handful of the awesome adventures we had:

1) Melissa surprised us with New Moon candy...I've never read any of the Twilight series, but she is a big fan! Regardless, the sugar was quite nice!

2) It was 9 degrees that day, which meant two things...One, I was wearing Under Armour beneath my clothes and two, we killed the brides flowers by being outside for 20 minutes! (Side note...we absolutely LOVE our clients, because they sacrifice a lot to create amazing images...:0)

3) We forgot our stand, so Brandon was the "Human Light Stand"

4) My crew shows tons of passion during the day...and a little bit of camaraderie as well! This collaboration between artists takes our creativity up 10 notches and I looooove it!

5) Since it's so cold here, I decided to have a glamour-shots moment with a heater...I was nice and toasty!

The point of this post is to show you all that crazy things will always happen on a wedding day and encourage photographers not to get stressed while shooting. Remember to have confidence in your craft...the best photographers can make magic out of the most blah of situations, rock it out and create some amazing images!

Here's to shooting in the Midwest and to my kick-ass-crew!

LOVEe