My amazing husband Justin has been invited to speak and attend as an innovator at the What If Conference January 23rd-26th. He's been invited to consult and share his thoughts, ideas, and experiences with those in attendance. Since Justin is both a photographer and a successful producer, he has much to impart and a unique background. There have been so many times in his career when he's had to think about the very question: WHAT IF?! What if he never took leaps of faith? What if he didn't follow his dreams in producing? What if he was too scared to face the unknown? What if he listened to what others thought about his passions? What if he let go of all his inhibitions, with a full face forward and let the amazing things life has to offer come his way? WHAT IF?

Ever since I've known Justin, he's had a "streak of luck". He always gets the best parking spot in a busy parking lot, he always seems to be meeting the right people he needs to for producing, and he always has a positive outlook on life because of it. In fact, anyone that knows him can say that he always happens to be in the right place at the right time to get exactly what he wants! I can vouch that this "lucky streak" is not luck at all, it's Justin creating that luck, being brave and basically barging his way into life's opportunities. Again, it's that "what if" in his mind that he is constantly living by and has brought him much success in life (that's how he won my heart over when we first met). 

Interested in attending this conference? There is still time to sign up and reserve your spot!!! Plus, this conference is ridiculously affordable! Click here for details!

I'm super excited for him to share all that he has learned over the past decade and the value of asking himself WHAT IF? Here is what the What If team has had to say about him:

First, I want to express an opinion: A photo shouldn't just be shot, burned to a disc, then handed over to the client...if you're a digital photographer (and an artist at that), one must work on the images. Even if it's proofs being handed back to the client, never, I repeat, NEVER, give a client an untouched image! Would a painter hand over a paying client an almost blank canvas with just the pencil sketches? No. Especially when the paying client is expecting "art"! They hire you to do what they cannot do for themselves. We are artists, lets be respectful to our paying clients and deliver to them the amazing photos they are expecting out of us!

Okay, now that I'm done ranting I want to give credit to the amazing companies that make my life 100 times easier when it comes to the post processing of my images. These two companies are Fotofafa and TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! I use both of these companies separately for two totally different purposes and I'll explain that below. I'm proud to be an affiliate for both of these companies, because as I rave about them constantly (they deserve it more than they know) they are "scratching my back" with beautiful images I can give to my clients and in return I get to share what they do, along with how awesome I truly believe they are for a small percentage return in my pocket.

Plus, I thought this would be the perfect time to share about these two companies because both Fotofafa and TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! are running HUGE Black Friday sales, see below to take advantage of that as long as it lasts:

To redeem the discount for 15% off at TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS! type in the coupon code 1016BLACKFRIDAY (you don't want to miss out on the RadLab if you don't already have it). Their sale is only running for 24 hours only on 11/25/11!

To redeem the discounts and HUGE savings from Fotofafa during their Black Friday sale, be sure to type in the coupon code  LYON11. Their sale is currently running through Monday 11/28/11!

Fotofafa:

Working on images takes time, we all know that, and if not time-managed properly, post processing of images can take over your life, which will in turn make you abhor the job you once loved. I am a complete believer in outsourcing so that I can have more time to do the things that I love, like spending time with my family, going out on a date with my husband, or even at this time of year taking time off for the holidays.

After shooting a wedding with 3,000 plus images, I get to send all of my photos over to Fotofafa to cull down and process into beautifully proofed jpegs. They take each image and color correct to my preference, adjust the white balance, perfect my exposure, and even add contrast if I need them to.

Here are a few recent images I received back from Fotofafa along with my raw (in camera) image so you can see the before & after:

This image seemed a bit dull and I like how Fotofafa brought it to life.

Again, a HUGE shout-out to Fotofafa & Totally Rad Actions for making my life easier, especially during the holidays when I really want to get things done fast in order to have more time to myself and all the while still being able to deliver the quality images my clients deserve!

I conducted a one-on-one mentor session a few months ago with the lovely Kara Mercer and her sweet friend Brooke Ogilvie. They both teamed up and opted to do a full day mentor session together with me. It was really fun getting to know them and helping them out with things they wanted to work on to improve their photography businesses! Click here to see what Brooke had to say about the mentor session!

I set up a shoot that covered how to work with natural and available light, the use of different lenses, client interaction, and specific camera settings.

If you'd like to book a private one-on-one mentor session with me email amelia@amelialyon.com asap for availability and more information!

Who wants to be part of the next LYON-SHOP?!!! We'll be holding this next on on May 19th, 2011 in Laguna Beach, so hop on fast and grab a seat, we'd love to have you out for a day full of learning, shooting, networking, post processing, and inspiration! CLICK HERE to reserve your seat now! You can also visit our official LYON-SHOP site to get more info! Can't wait to see who makes it out!

Our last LYON-SHOP was held on February 19th in Las Vegas. Here's a recap of the two shoots we did with all of the attendees. A HUGE thank you to our models Emmy & Josh who drove down from Provo, UT to join us that day!

Again, to reserve your seat now for the next LYON-SHOP, CLICK HERE! Also, check out what past attendees have said about their experience about the LYON-SHOP by visiting "the love" section on our website!

We also would like to thank all of our awesome sponsors, these are companies that we believe in and each make our lives a little easier here at Amelia Lyon Photography: