I don’t know what it is about Nashville, but it seems like they have a knack of churning out amazing pro photographers in a short period of time. A few weeks ago we had celebrity portrait photographer Jeremy Cowart who started out as a graphic designer, then switched to commercial photography, and now after only about 4 short years, he’s photographed the likes of Sting, a bunch of other celebrities, and was the official photographer of Britney Spears’ Circus tour. Today, we have a good friend of Jeremy and a wildly successful photographer in his own right. David Bean is also in Nashville, started out as a graphic designer, switched to photography, and now only about five years into this business is a sought-after celebrity portrait and commercial photographer. My wife discovered his website and brought it to my attention when she read a blog post of his where he decided to take a sabbatical from self promotion. After reading that, I knew I had to have him on the show.
David story is such an inspiring one. He talks about how he got his start, how his faith and morals play into his business (in one year he turned down $90,000 from two jobs), how sharing and building relationships have helped him, and ironically how a month after his sabbatical from self-promotion, he made more money in one month than he’s ever made in his life. I think you’ll find both David’s passion, experience, and advice very enlightening. (Oh, and you’re going to love the story he tells near the end of the interview about the “grumpy” old-school guy who sent David a seething email after David invited him to a workshop.) Enjoy.
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Due to some travel and work, the next two weeks we’re going to have re-runs. Then in September we’re back with all new episodes, starting off with the bright and energetic portrait photographer Jen Basford of 3 Girls Photography.
Sometime the stars all align for a guy and an innate talent can quickly lead to super stardom. Jeremy Cowart is such an individual. He started his full time commercial and music editorial photography business in April 2005. In December of that year he was photographing music legend Sting (yeah, as in the ex-lead singer of “The Police”. When he was first discovered by his agent, he didn’t even know what an agent was). It’s been all up hill from there. His client list reads like a who’s who of entertainment: Sting, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cirus, Denise Richards, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, ABC, E!, Fox, FX, Capitol Records, Island Records, and on and on and on. Last year he was the official photographer for the Christian concert tour Passion (comprised of four of the top bands in the Christian music scene), and he was the official photographer for Britney Spears’ Circus tour (talk about diametrically opposed. 
Oh, and did I mention he has NO formal photography education? Crazy man!
In this insightful interview, Jeremy tells us the story of his path to success, what life on the road for months at a time is like (hard when you have a wife and two kids waiting at home for you), where he gets his inspiration, and how his faith plays into his work. He also talks about his first foray into video production shooting his first music video for the group Abandon (using a 5D Mark II of course). He mentions on the blog post for that video how he just jumped into it without knowing anything about video (kind of like how he started in photography). I’m confident you’ll find this another inspiring interview.
Next week we have mother/daughter portrait photog sensations Sana Antisdel and Kia Bondurant of Antisdels Photography. Another example of an uber-successful studio in a small town.
In early October 2008, Brooks Institute hosted a very special F-Stop Beyond: In Living Color, which we produced in partnership with PhotographyMentor.com. A live webcast was held. Renown celebrity wedding and lifestyle photographer Mike Colon took almost three hours of his busy schedule to share his personal and professional take on life and the industry.
Mike has been very public and vocal about his faith. It therefore seems apropos that in this seventh installment of our series with Mike, this is the episode where Mike talks about how and why he mixes his faith with his business. I also challenge him to reconcile his educational message of “image is everything” with the teachings of his faith.
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Get ready for a roller coaster ride. This is one of those episodes that goes from one extreme to another. Our guest today is none other than that marketing maven in the world of wedding photography, and co-founder of Kiss Wedding Books, Kevin Swan. Kevin is a man known to state his mind and get into a few heated debates. Whether its whether or not marketing is more important than art in a successful studio (for the record, he admits both are important), or if it’s his conservative political beliefs, Kevin is someone who can both inspire and infuriate. In the first half of the show, you get a Harvard School caliber business course on marketing and branding. Kevin shares how in his first year of business in 2004, he booked 36+/- weddings. Last year in 2008, his profit (not revenue, but profit) on just album sales was almost $100,000. One of my favorite quotes from Kevin in this episode is, “By saying no to some things, you’ll succeed more in the things you say yes to.”
Then, we make a 180 degree turn into the dreaded “F” word territory. That’s right…FAITH. Kevin shares about his faith, how he came into it, and his thoughts on how one’s faith should and shouldn’t be incorporated into your business. For you long-time listeners and fans of the show, this one is a true delight. If you’re one of those people who get offended when people talk about the dreaded “F” word, turn the interview off about 25 minutes in.
Today’s outro music is courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
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Next week, we’ll have Trevor Brucki, co-founder of Il Foto, a triumvirate of Winnipeg, Canada wedding photographers committed to fighting Breast Cancer.
The inaugural episode of F-Stop Beyond had two guests: Jasmine Star and today’s guest, Dane Sanders. But, back then, we only had him on for about ten minutes. Since Dane was a guest for the very first show, it seems apropos to have him on this first episode of the show on the F-Stop Beyond: EXPERIENCE website (www.fstopbeyond.tv).
Dane has been a leader and visionary in the wedding and portrait photography world for a number of years now. He was a trailblazer of photography video podcasts with his Simple Photo Minute (later to become Dane’s Photo Minute); he created what was affectionately referred to as “YouTube for Photographers” with his CutFrameTV (now part of PhotographyMentor.com); and he’s the author of the very well received book Fast Track Photographer. This episode is chocked full of amazing info. Dane shares about his thoughts on the controversy of selling the photograPHER vs. the photograPHY. He also talks about the challenges he faced as the leader of Team A for the reality TV show “The Longest Day” (premiering here on the F-Stop Beyond Experience shortly); his take on social networking and the terrible faux pas he did adding his wife Tami to Twitter without her permission (note to husbands. Don’t do that!); and speaking of Tami, we get to learn about “the Tami Factor.” He even shares about how he feels about the loss of his dad at a very young age. A moving interview you don’t want to miss. There’s just too much to write here. You gotta listen.
(Note: 33 minutes into the interview, we switch from Skype-to-Skype to Skype-to-phone, so there’s a noticeable change in how Dane sounds).
Today’s musical outro is “To Show You My Love” by Mike Schmid courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
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Next week, we have the one…the only…David Beckstead.
Hi folks. As I write this, I’m on the road as we make our big move to the Atlanta, GA metro area. There is so much in the works, I don’t have time to go into detail. Because of the move, I’m going to have to play some re-runs over the next couple of weeks. Since we recently launched the trailers for the original reality TV mini series I created, “The Longest Day,” I thought it would be nice to re-run some fun interviews of photographers who are part of the cast. This week, I’m re-running one ofthe earliest shows we did, episode #8 with Robert Evans, PhotographyMenotor.com co-founder, and famed celebrity photographer for Tom-Kat as wells as Brad Pitt’s second marriage (the one to Jennifer Aniston).
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A couple of years ago, I came across a fellow videographer’s website whose work I thought was terrific. Sadly, shortly after discovering this videographer (and sharing some tidbits of wisdom with her), I learned she turned her sights from videography to photography. Since that time Scarlett Lillian‘s star has been quickly rising. In this episode she talks about her transition and her passion for photography. She also shares with us the challenges of seeing two parents battle cancer—her mom’s a breast cancer survivor, and her dad is currently dealing with level 4 terminal lung cancer. Scarlett is another deeply spiritual person who is very vocal about her faith. As such, I ask her to delve into what that means for her. I even challenge her with some tough questions about reconciling her faith with her branding. I also ask her to address the issue of someone relatively new to the industry offering a “behind the scenes” look at her business. She takes all my tough questions head on. You may be surprised.
The musical outro this week is appropriately “A Girl Like Me” by Marieandre courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.
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Next week we interview surfer and destination wedding photographer Mike Larson.
In a number of past episodes, we’ve brought up the topic of using one’s artistic skills to better one’s community. The amazing photographers at LaCour, who are also the founders of management software solution ShootQ, have started a grant to give photographers an opportunity to pursue personal projects that raise public awareness about a social, environmental, or economic issue. This year’s $10,000 grant winner is Sherrlyn Borkgren. Sherrlyn’s an Oregon-based wedding, portrait, and editorial photographer with a passion for helping people. In this episode, Rachel Niesen of LaCour joins Sherryln to talk about the origins of the grant, and Sherryln’s winning application to raise public awareness of the horrific atrocities happening to women and babies in the Congo. I hope her passion to use her photography in this way may encourage you to do pursue your own cause.
WARNING: About 30 minutes are so into the interview I read a portion of Sherryln’s winning application and the details are pretty graphic. But I wanted our listeners to understand the height of the atrocities. Also, in light of last week’s controversial email, if you get squeamish at the mention of the “G” word (you know, has three letters, ends in “d”) you may want to turn the episode off about 14 minutes in. That’s when she first says that word. Then, later towards the end she shares why she feels compelled to do this kind of work, and she mentions that word again. I know some of you find it difficult to hear people talk about how their faith affects them, so I’m warning you now. 
If, however, you can stand it, I encourage you to listen on.
Next week, we speak with New York photographer and photo community party host Jason Groupp.
We recently got this e-mail from a listener to the show.
Hi:
If you are the guy that does the f stop podcast interviews I wonder if you can possibly avoid religious photographers eschewing and promoting their pompous religious beliefs on your show? I can’t stand these idiots’ beliefs, their espousing their beliefs or your pandering to them. Maybe that’s the ‘beyond’ thing in your title? Other than knowing who was paying the great masters to paint, we know very little of their religious views and that is good and certainly makes no difference- if it’s good, it’s good. god or no god.
Get off this BS please!
Otherwise, it’s a good show.
Oooooh! Controversy. I love it. So, what do you think? I’ll save my response for a later audio podcast. But I’d love to know what you think. Should we actively avoid photographers who are open about their faith (whichever faith that is!) Do you think I pander to them? Chime in. Send e-mail to feedback@fstopbeyond.com. Or, comment on this post. I’d love to know what you think.
At least he/she recognized it’s a good show.
What started out as an innocent enough challenge, to see who could grill the better BBQ dog, turned into a major event. RangeFinder Publishing/WPPI President Skip Cohen took on wedding and portrait photographer Carey Schumacher for a battle of the sexes, a la “iron chef.” It probably won’t go down in history as big a battle as the famed 1973 dual between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs, but it will be remembered by many as a terrific endeavor for a worthy cause. On today’s episode Carey and Skip come on to talk about the BBQ Smackdown, the worthy cause for which they duked it out on the grill (Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep), and the value of cause-marketing. But not before we get to chat it up with Carey a bit and delve into more simple topics, like “why do bad things happen to good people and what’s the point of praying for good things anyway!” This is a fun episode with an inspiring message. Enjoy!
Also, this week we’re adding a new feature to the show to spice things up a bit. Instead of the usual F-Stop Beyond theme song, for the outro music we’re going to have a new selection each week from the vast library of songs over at Triple Scoop Music. This week’s show features “My Everything” by Violaine.
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Next week, we have as guest, a master of light, Cliff Mautner, as he shares with us his thoughts on photojournalism, style, life, and photography in his “no holds barred” style.
