Jules Café has fresh, new content all the time, and it is built to help you, the photographer learn, grow, and share!

Look in the Grow section to find information about lighting, shooting, and equipment. The Learn section will have articles about business, marketing, networking, conventions, and workshops. You can find inspirational interviews and information about photography contests, charity work, and other fun tidbits in the Share section.

So grab a cup of coffee, curl up in a chair with your laptop, and dive in to Jules Cafe. In honor of our latest Coffee Break with Kevin Kubota, our November prize will be $100 Kubota Bucks for anything you want at the Kubota Image Tools shop! It’s like a kid in a candy store, the plethora of amazing-ness that they offer there. Think of all the things you could have… action paks, DVDs about lightroom, the amazing DASHBOARD… oh the possibilities are endless….

What we want from you for our comment section is your favorite Kubota Action. Leave a comment in the comment section and let us know how Kubota Image Tools has changed your life and you could be the lucky winner of $100 Kubotabucks to spend on anything you like. Kevin’s treat. Thanks Kev!

I tempted Kevin with local sushi, knowing he was a foodie, and was thrilled when he agreed to attend.

Kevin is the kind of person who lights up a room when he walks in. He has probably single-handedly changed the way most photographers do their post-production, with his amazing array of products designed to help professional photographers speed up their workflow and make more money in the process. Kubota Image Tools products have won multiple Hot One Awards as well as the Readers Choice Award, and if you have never tried them, you are truly missing out.

Here’s a shot of that night, with some of my favorite photographers, including Ann Hamilton, Robert Evans, and some previous Coffee Breakers Gene Higa and Frances Marron among the crowd! American Photo Magazine named Kevin Kubota one of their first “Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World”. His photos have been featured on the covers and within the pages of many popular magazines and photography books. Kevin has been sponsored by Nikon and Adobe, and his work with the Nikon digital camera earned him a spot as a Nikon “Legend Behind the Lens”. Kevin is also a PPA Photographic Craftsman.

Kubota is an internationally recognized speaker and author, having presented for every major photographic convention in the USA. He created the popular “Digital Photography Bootcamp” workshop in 2002 and it sells out every year. A few years ago he invited Jules to come and speak at his camp, and I was lucky enough to be a classmate. If you can attend, it is worth EVERY penny. Here’s Jules and Kevin doing what they do best… playing around with a camera!

I love that Kevin is constantly trying to improve himself, to learn, to engage…even in his workshops and presentations, he never wants to give the same talk twice. Last year he developed a new presentation for the Imaging USA convention, interviewing 10 successful photographers to see what they could offer as their top success tips. He was so inspired by what he learned from them that he wants to keep interviewing other photographers and successful business people for a potential book in the future. You can read Kevin’s interview with Jules here!

Kevin works with his wife Clare in the sleepy town of Bend, Oregon, and even though he travels the world speaking, I know that coming home to his boys is the highlight of his day. I asked Kevin to participate in my Coffee Break because he constantly amazes me with his insight, and I knew that he would blow me away again with his responses to these simple questions of Learn, Grow and Share. Which he did. Keep reading, and you’ll be inspired by him too.

Learn: What’s something you’d like to learn more about, something you are continually learning? What is something you’ve learned the hard way?

Kevin: A while back, in one of my workshops, I had a man who was in his 70’s. He was as eager to learn as the 20-somethings fresh out of photography school. He said he attended several photo workshops a year and loved Photoshop, digital photography and all the gadgets that went along with it. I was so impressed by his enthusiasm; by his wide eyed approach to learning new things. I wish everyone could be this way, life is so much more exciting!

I’ve always loved to learn new things, in fact it may be to a fault. I dive deeply into new projects and opportunities to learn about something and once it’s figured out I need to learn something else. I think one of the smartest things a photographer, or any business owner, can do is to set aside time and a budget for ongoing education. You never reach a point where you “know it all” or even “enough”. The most successful and creative (educated creatives) people I know are constantly trying to improve and grow.

What else can you do? Our minds need to constantly learn in order to keep fresh. I often challenge myself by taking on something completely new, just to keep myself learning and growing. The most challenging thing I’ve done in recent years was to take on getting my pilots license. I’m still working on it, and it has been one of the most challenging things I’ve done. It’s pushing me out of my comfort zone, and that’s good, I believe.

I also think some of the best ways to grow are to occassionally study things outside your obvious area of focus. For example, a photographer can learn a lot by taking a fine art painting class, or a class on art appreciation, or color theory, etc.

What have I learned the hard way? Clear communication. I’ve only had a few real “regrets” in my life – I see everything as a learning experience. However, the few that I have came from a lack of clear communication. The issues were not insurmountable, but simply mis-understandings that could have been avoided by being very clear and open up front. I’ve learned to get every business agreement in writing up front. Tell people your expectations of them, and intentions with them. Be honest about what you want and will do. It’s also very important, I’ve learned, to commit to only what you truly can and want to do. Otherwise you can end up doing things out of a sense of obligation that you are not whole-heartedly committed to – and may hold internal resentments that are not really fair to the other party. You committed, so they believe you really are committed.

Grow: How have you grown in the past five years and how would you recommend others grow? Kevin: I have grown to learn to let go. In the early years of my business, I felt the need to be a control freak. I stayed up late worrying and working and didn’t trust anyone else to be able to do things the way I wanted them done. To a great extent, I have grown out of this. I learned to trust others, hire good people, and believe in their abilities. I caught myself in that never-ending circle where work consumes you and you realize time is slipping by faster than it did in previous years. I didn’t want to miss anymore time with my family, or forget the reasons why I moved to a beautiful, slower paced town. While my businesses have continued to grow, I’ve grown to work smarter and relax more. I’m still busy, but I feel like I’m busy doing the things that really matter now.

Continually learning is one of the best ways to grow, as I talked about earlier, but I really feel growth comes from putting ourselves in other people’s shoes – and in uncomfortable situations. This happens for me with travel, especially to other countries. My eyes have been opened, my tolerance increased, and my appreciation for life and the life I have has grown, through travel. As photographers, we have opportunities to create travel related work if we choose to. It’s a gift. Not many professions offer that possibility. Wedding photographers can market themselves as destination photographers if they do a little creative thinking. Fine art photographers can create sale-able image products, or offer their images as stock. At the very least, we can write off our travels if we legitimately use the experiences to create images for sale. (Please consult your own tax advisor!) I think the best photography workshops are those that take you, both physically and mentally, outside of your comfort zone. Push yourself to try something really different or challenging. Maybe try something that is not directly related to your current photographic direction. An art class abroad? A filmmaking class? Maybe something that is not even obviously related to photography, like scuba diving, or sky diving lessons!

Share: What is something you’d like to share with your colleagues?

Kevin: When I first started teaching photo workshops and presenting at conventions, I was driven by the thrill and satisfaction I got from seeing light bulbs ignite in the minds and eyes of the attendees. It energized me and became just as creatively satisfying to me as photographing. Eventually, the phrase “Empowering Photographers” became my business mantra and it guides everything we, as a company, do now. I’ve always felt that I’ve tried to make myself available to anyone who needs help (I probably get that “quality” from my mother), and I firmly believe that sharing whatever I know will not hurt my own business. As the supply of me lessens, and demand for help grows, I obviously can’t get to every opportunity. But, I try.

I know, and it’s widely known, that you learn more about your own skills from teaching them to others. I think every photographer can share something of what they are good at with others. Start a local photo group and do a short presentation. Teach a class at your local college. Take kids out and teach them to photograph. Mentor someone just getting started. Take the fear out of sharing your knowledge and you open an amazing door. I believe that photographers have an awesome gift that can benefit charitable causes as well. Every photographer, at any level, can find some way to give back to their community. Even if it’s just occasional office headshots for a local organization – make it a regular part of your job.

While recently we’ve been very moved to provide service to communities in Africa, the charity that has been closest to my heart is a local group named Sparrow Clubs. Sparrow Clubs connects children in school as a group, or club, to provide assistance to a child and family in dire medical need. The club at school does fund raisers, community work, and other activities to raise money and provide support to the sick child and it’s family. It’s an amazing thing to see these kids pull together and learn to share their compassion and caring. It’s amazing what they do and it’s such a valuable life lesson. The children and families in need are often transformed for life by the acts of generosity and caring. I was able to take photos of the children, both the clubs and sick ones, to provide promotional material to raise awareness for them. It was transformative for me to be able to visit the children and learn from their energy, love, and simple faith. I never felt so humbled, and yet proud to be able to offer so valuable a service with photography.

I think charity work is really a key inspiration for me as a photographer. I didn’t realize the power of it in the early days of my career. We can give a priceless gift with photography, something that transcends even monetary donations. Someone once said, and I agree, nothing matters more than knowing what you do matters.

******

THANK YOU Kev, for your thoughtful responses to Learn Grow Share! I really enjoy learning from Kevin, and in 2009 Kevin was personally awarded the Monte Zucker Memorial Humanitarian Award for his work in Rwanda and other organizations, which is, of course, an enormous honor, but I think speaks more to who Kevin is as an individual. He is an inspirational human being and I am grateful to know him.

One last thing about Mr. Kubota.  He’s actually 12 years old. Well, at least in spirit (he’s gotta keep up with his two boys somehow!). Recently at the PPE convention in New York and again at PartnerCon in New Orleans, Kevin sparked a now nationwide craze, The Laying Down Game (and yes, it is grammatically incorrect thank you very much). I’ll leave you with this final image to spark your curiosity, and then make sure you check out Kevin’s blog to find out more! It’s fun to know that even though Kevin can be found anywhere in the world at any given time giving workshops or speaking, he still maintains a healthy photography business shooting weddings and portraits. I really love his fun, romantic, and sexy style. His images have been featured in a number of publications…

….and now the world-famous Jules Cafe!

The idea behind our Photograher’s networking meetings is to encourage friendship and support among colleagues.  Often it can be a lonely road, editing and post-processing images alone in your studio (whether a home studio or a retail space) and knowing that others like you are out there is encouraging.

Our motto of Learn Grow and Share here on Jules Cafe is extended to our real time studio, and we want to help others to succeed in their businesses.  One way to do this is by learning from each other.  If you live in the East Bay of California, we’d love for you to be part of our group.  Please join us on Meet Up… the address is http://www.meetup.com/Jules-CAFE/ or just click here.

Through Meet Up we’ll be able to let you know when the next meetings are, and you can interact with each other as well.  We were thrilled to have a representation of all kinds of photographers.  We are also grateful to our sponsors at Pictage for supporting this group as one of their East Bay Pictage User Groups (PUG).

I want to thank Frederick Van Johnson for taking the time to visit our studio and meet with our group!  He gave a fantastic presentation on the the power of Adobe Lightroom and also a sneak peek into Lightroom 3!  I can’t wait to play with the beta program!

Most people walked away from the Meetup with prizes!  Thanks to our sponsors Tamrac and Kolo, we were able to give away some fun camera bags and photo albums!  Frederick gave away some helpful books on Lightroom thanks to Peach Pit Press and at the end of the night gave away FIVE free copies of Lightroom!

You can see some networking happening here, and unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me, so in the words of Chase Jarvis, “the best camera is the one you have with you,”  I attempted to get some shots with my iphone.  Ah well, you get the idea.  We had a blast, and I look forward to hosting the next one either in early December or mid-January.  Stay tuned for dates!  If you are interested in learning more, or finding a helpful workshop you can check out Tea for Two with our own lovely Jules Bianchi.

If you have been concerned about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) lately, you’ve probably heard of Lawrence Chan. Lawrence is a Los Angeles wedding photographer who worked with his brother in their joint  venture, Furious photography until in 2008 he decided to spend more time with his new business, Tofurious, marketing “Digital Tools for the Modern Photographer.”

Since he has started offering workshops to help photographers navigate the confusing world wide web, and SEO in particular, you could say Lawrence is getting a reputation as the king of SEO.   To learn more about what Lawrence offers, check out his site here.  He has started a Coffee Tour around the country, taking his SEO tips nationwide! You can click the link to see if he’s visiting a town near you!

Essentially, Lawrence’s point is this:  it doesn’t matter how good of a photographer you are if someone can’t find you on the web.  Knowing about internet searches and how to manage your online marketing is critical in today’s industry.

Along with championing the quest to figure out SEO, Lawrence offers several other digital solutions for photographers such as pre-designed album templates and blogs. Lawrence is donating one of his super cool album templates to a lucky winner on Jules Cafe! Check it out here: If you want to win the entire set, go to Olive’s monthly contest on Jules Cafe!

Grab your cup of coffee and let’s see what Lawrence has to say.

LEARN: What’s something that you feel like you’d like to learn more about, something you are continually learning?

A: An area that I would like to explore more would be cinematography. Our current cameras have the ability to offer so much! Technology is changing the way of how business is conducted in our industry.

What is something that you wish someone would have told you before you had to learn it the hard way?

A: I wish someone would have told me how awesome Wordpress is before I had to learn to hand-code my own websites and experience the limitations of other web platforms. I had spent two years figuring out features that Wordpress already had created. This is why I like to share this Open Source platform with everyone so that they don’t have to learn it the hard way like I did.

GROW: How have you grown in the past five years in your business, in your own personal quest for growth, in your awareness of the world around you? How would you recommend others grow-do you have a favorite marketing tip,workshop suggestion, or convention to attend?

A: In the past five years, I feel that the biggest growth in my business would be my online presence. I have been able to target a wide demographic of brides from all around the world based on my website. On a parallel note, someone could be the best photographer in the world, but without the ability to be found, his or her skills will never gain full appreciation.

I suggest that everyone attends WPPI at least once (if not every year). The convention has so much to offer through educational programs, workshops and trade floors. This year was my first year and it was eye-opening!

SHARE: How do you feel that you contribute to the industry? What is something you would like to share with your follow colleagues? How can they turn around and do the same for others? Favorite charitable contribution?

A: My biggest contribution to the industry is what took me two years to learn and master – SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and blogging. What is the point in being the best at anything if one cannot be found? My goal is to offer photographers the tools and resources to bring in business through their websites.

****

THANK YOU Lawrence for your thoughts!

I just love Lawrence’s images below… really fresh and fun perspective on food and travel… my kinda guy.  Take a sip of your coffee as you peruse through a quick trip to Europe, through the eyes of Tofurious!

Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30pm come to our brand new studio, the home of Jules Cafe for fun, networking, support, education, treats, and prizes!

Hosted by Pictage.

Our headliner for this event is the fabulous Frederick Van Johnson, host of “This Week in Photography,” one of the world’s most popular photo-related podcasts. As well as being an amazing fashion, portrait, and wedding photographer, he regularly conducts training classes on topics ranging from business to photographic technique.

**Please rsvp to joy at joy@julesbianchi.com. Click here for directions.

Hope to see you there!

Look in the Grow section to find information about lighting, shooting, and equipment. The Learn section will have articles about business, marketing, networking, conventions, and workshops. You can find inspirational interviews and information about photography contests, charity work, and other fun tidbits in the Share section. So grab a cup of coffee, curl up in a chair with your laptop, and dive in to Jules Cafe.

Along with championing the quest to figure out SEO, Lawrence Chan of www.tofurious.com and our featured photographer on Coffee Break this month offers some digital solutions for photographers such as pre-designed album templates and blogs. Lawrence is donating one of his super cool album templates to a lucky winner on Jules Cafe! Check it out here

So for this month’s contest we want to know your favorite webtips. In honor of Tofurious and his SEO workshop, what is your favorite website? Where do you find yourself going every day? Is it facebook? A favorite blog? Where do you go for inspiration? Leave a comment below, and we’ll choose a winner at the end of the month! Thanks!

I’ll be focusing on workflow tips, cool software, marketing ideas, business brainstorming, branding, shooting styles, keeping it fresh and basically all things photo! For those of you that have seen my weekly workflow tutorials at corsentinoblog.com, writing for Jules Café will give me a chance to talk about the business and marketing side of things as well as giving you more killer tips.

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun!! I’m looking forward to connecting with you.

- Michael

In 2006 Lauren partnered with talented photographer Sara France and together they created GoBee CF card holders, which is featured this month in Olive’s Monthly Contest!!  GoBEE’s goal is to create a stylish solution to keep your CF cards protected and accessible at all times, while expressing your personality and be fun to wear!  Can you do all that in a card holder?  Check it out and see!   This is a fun shot by Kenny Kim of the dynamic duo in action at last year’s PartnerCon event! 

In addition to being a featured photographer on Adobe’s website, Lauren’s work has been published worldwide and has graced the pages of Grace Ormonde’s Wedding Style, Susie Coelho’s new book “Style Your Dream Wedding”, Inside Weddings, The Bride and Bloom, Modern Bride, Brides southern California, Brides New Jersey, The Knot Weddings Southern California and Texas, Studio Photography and Design and Greersoc.com. She is currently the resident editorial photographer for The Bride and Bloom Magazine in Los Angeles and was just named as one of the Top 5 photographers in orange County by Fox 11 in Los Angeles.

I was thrilled to read what Lauren had to say about Learning, Growing, and Sharing… she talks about the power of social networking, and recommends that everyone take advantage of some of the conferences out there as well as connecting with other photographers in community…. In Lauren’s words:
***

Learn:
Something I continually want to get better at and learn how to balance is learning how to balance my personal and work life. I find the need to set boundaries in work and personal life and create concrete work and play times in this flexible career.

Business 101 is so important to learn and master even in the most creative of fields. I wish I had taken some small business courses to be an expert on things like accounting, sales tax, banking and file management. I am such an artist I have a tough time setting aside time for these very important parts of running your own successful business.

Grow:
The last five years have been all about growth in every part of my business and personal life. My business has become well know in my area and we get more and more great opportunities every year. In the last three years I have become a resident editorial photographer for The Bride and Bloom magazine here in los Angeles and also have been recognized and supported by Adobe as a photographer. This last year photography has taken me me all over the world which has been an amazing adventure. The world is getting smaller and smaller every day and it has really had an amazing impact on my photography business.

These last few years I also started GO|BEE Bags , a company dedicated to designing fashionable and functional camera gear for professional photographers. GO|BEE has opened my eyes to a whole different side of the photography industry and challenges me every day in being a designer, drumming up new business and thinking of new creative ways of marketing.

I also just started to embrace the power of social media especially Twitter and Facebook.  This is one of our most powerful self marketing tools available out there and its totally free.

Share:
I love thinking of new ways to help and challenge this industry. For me I want to help photographers look and feel their best on a job, while being able to do that job in the best way possible.

That is why I started GO|BEE. Our products are Fashionable, professional and functional. I believe it is extremely important to create communities with our photography peers and continually share with each other to elevate this profession and educate our clients on why photography is so important in documenting the lifes of others.

I think growing and learning and sharing is essential in any business but especially photography, and I constantly try to reinvent myself and try to do everything a bit different than the rest of the pack. A great place to learn and grow on annual basis is Pictage’s annual Partner Conference and of course WPPI in Vegas. You really can’t find a more talented group of teachers and mentors in one place.

***
Thank you Lauren for sharing!! Check out some of her work below, I love the way Lauren sees the world. Lauren brings fashion flare to her pregnancy shoots! Leave a comment for her and thanks for reading!

Make sure you come back to the studio on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30pm for our very first Jules Cafe in real time, our networking meeting for Photographers, sponsored by Pictage! The address is: 5772 Thornhill Drive, Oakland, CA 94611.

The party was a huge success, and so much fun. We want to thank our sponsors again for their generous donations and prizes. We gave away so much fun stuff my head is spinning. If you won a prize, we’d love to hear about it on twitter or Facebook, so give us a shout out and thank our sponsors.

In fact, to thank you all for coming, or just for checking out this post, here is another prize right now! Mark Adams of ShootQ has given the Promo Code JULESPARTY to give you a FREE MONTH of ShootQ when you book your first job via ShootQ’s Online Booking Engine. (This is in addition to the 30-day trial you automatically get when you sign up).

THANK YOU to our fabulous sponsors and prize donators:

Adam Fried of Simply Canvas flew in to personally give away several large canvas wraps.

Simon Anderson of Pictage flew in to personally give away a registration to PartnerCon in November — if you are not going, you need to reconsider!

Castine Rees of Tamrac flew in to give away a ton of great stuff like:
SpeedRollerâ„¢ 1, Model 5551
Velocity 8x, Model 5768
Express 6, Model 3536
Superlights® Laptop Sleeve 15, Model 1705
Safari Case 3, Model 3433
And everyone won a neoprene memory card pocket — so cute!

Lori Nordstrom of Pepper Custom Camera Straps flew in to give away her amazing cool personalized straps!

Kevin Kubota of Kubota Image Tools gave away a starter action pak.

Sara France and Lauren Hillary of GoBee CF Card Holders gave away a sweet ole CF card holder.

Heather Covault of Kolo Albums gave away tons of super cute Noci Album Brag books and other cool Kolo Albums.

Jim Garner of Boda Camera Bags donated a brand new V3 bag.

Dane Sanders of Fast Track Photographer gave away three audiobooks.

Craig Strong of Lensbaby gave away two gift certificates to lensbaby.

Ira Gershoff of Leathercraftsmen donated a companion album.

Brett Brown of Claremont Resort & Spa donated a Bed and Breakfast night out at the Claremont.

Candice Cunnigham of Camera Slingers donated a sweet ole Camera Slinger.

Kerry Garrison of Camera Dojo donated a set of presets.

Jules Bianchi of Jules Café donated a set of presets and her fabulous “Olive Goes to Hollywood” book to a happy dog-loving recipient!

We also want to give a HUGE thank you to our event sponsors:
Simply Canvas
Pictage
OnOne Software
Papineau Calligraphy

And a final thank you goes out to Michael Corsentino for coming early, hanging lights and pictures, and for shooting during the event. We love you!

Congratulations to Jules and her studio partner Colin for a fantastic opening!

If you are interested in buying a print or two, click
here! Leave a little love in comments for us!