Amsterdam Workshop, Flash bouncing Demo

Todays workshop we had a cool dark sky in the background, This is cool because I wanted to overpower the ambient light at 3:30pm in the afternoon, in broad daylight(this is best when its cloudy), I was able to use my 580 exII and bounce into a 4x6 reflector, then I had another sunbounce mini (silver 3x4') bouncing the light from the 1st flash back to fill the shadows. I wanted to have my bride walking so the wind would be blowing through her hair and I was able to do that with my 2 assistants walking along with us as a unit, all at the same speed. Setting were pretty simple:

85mm, 50 iso, 1/200th, @ f /4.5

In this second shot I wanted dramatic lighting coming in from each side and I wanted even more light to make the sky darker, the only way to do that was to have more flash power, two flashes worked perfect, same sunbounces on each side as before, yet my settings were pretty much the same with exception to the f-stop:

85mm, 50 iso, 1/200th, @ f / 7.1.

Zurich & Rotterdam

Zurich was great, we shot in this open window light with a reflector to the right...

And the camera toss was now done in its 10th country!

Today in Rotterdam, the host photographer shot these images of me sharing and teaching

Again, using the sunbounce in open window light, bouncing back on the shadows and filling in them, saving post production and using the fill feature in Lightroom.

Its a blessing to teach when people are eager to learn. To see them soak up what I've been blessed with. I believe that God gives to you, what will flow through you. And I've been blessed with much.

Thanks guys for coming today!

Thanks to Bert Stephani for helping out

Spanish Hills Country Club, Camarillo CA { Mike and Allie }

Rachel and I had a blast shooting Mike and Allie's weddings at the beautiful Spanish Hills Country Club, in Camarillo CA. It was our first time shooting at this venue and we look forward to more opportunites to work at this photogenic location! Flowers for the day were designed by Florist Allie Friedman from These Buds a Blooming, and the cake created by Cake Artist, Joeleene Medina with A Sweet Design. Thanks to all- esspecially Mike and Allie and their energetic bridal party for letting us share this day with you!

Oahu, Hawaii Workshop June 28th - July 1st 2009

I wanted to We have rented a house on the North Shore and are gearing up for an fabolous 3+ day intensive workshop with stunning portfolio shooting sessions, in depth look at running a business for the right way. Plus we'll have ample beach time and lots of Q&A, portfolio and website reviews as well. Check out the details for the workshop here!

"The difference between today's photographers and tomorrows success stories are the knowledge they obtain, the passion they have, and their drive to be excellent at everything they do."

I've learned so much in the last year, from my mentors, Jon Maxwell, Dave Ramsey, and others that I'm am very passionate about sharing this knowledge with this industry.

Life is too short to have a stressful or lukewarm business. Become a Leader, Serve & Influence others, Create Freedom, Live. Stoke your clients out.

If you want to sign up, email seminars@mikelarson.com and I'll let you know if there are seats available within 24 hours.

Wrap up from Philippine Photography Conference (Congress 2009)

Here are some shots from Carlito Pullan and as you say here, "Salamat Po" (thank you) for sending these!

We did a demo shoot for the workshop part of the conference, and we lucky cause the weather cooperated!

below we used the California Sunbounce to light up the models, even in party cloudy light, this reflector helped out a lot to give some kick!

Here they are giving me the Award for coming out, I felt so honored and surprised! I am always blessed and stoked at how kind people are as I travel around the world!

Thanks to my friend Louis Pang who is in the dead center of this image taking a lot of shots of me talking, and helping out! I did an interview with him for his new website helping photographers in Malaysia, I'll be excited to see and post that when it comes online in September!

Mike Larson Speaking in Santa Barbara this week

I'm excited to announce I'll be speaking in Santa Barbara Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

On Tuesday night for those who are PPA of Santa Barbara County members, check out their website for more information

Here is the Topic I'll be discussing:
LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE" When it comes to our clients, they want to follow leaders, they want to be inspired, led, and influenced. When we know how to do this better, we build a reputation of being a successful leader in the industry and with our past clients. This directly results into a better business. And lets face it, in an industry where there is much less to separate us from others, with our gear bags being similar, and a similar story with our websites, WHO we are is our biggest degree of separation. This is the least expensive area to grow and develop. However its the most costly to leave undeveloped. I believe in this photography industry, today's leaders are going to be tomorrow's success stories. Be a leader in your industry, you don't have to be nationally recognized to succeed, but you will have a business that will grow and stay prosperous in a recession, with clients that respect and refer you.



For Pictage users, check out Wednesday night Jan 14th @ 7:00pm, the Pictage User Group @

1339 Sagehill Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93109 US

I'm excited to see you guys there! Have an amazing week

For those of you who cannot make it I have some upcoming workshops which I'll be posting more on this week.
I have a Las Vegas Saturday Feburary 14th "Party of 4" workshop with only a few seats left.

And a San Luis Obispo Workshop Feb 2 & 3. I'm stoked about these as well, so check out www.stepitupseminar.com for more info.

Chattanooga Workshop

Here is a shot from the Chattanooga workshop, a full day of Kevin Swan, Shaun, Nathan and I pouring out the best of what we know to photographers to help them get on their way to being better and growing. Kiss wedding books sponsored this, and I love it when we can put these on.

While we were out there we did a little shoot and demo of Shoot Sac, thanks to them for helping put this on.

thanks to Nathan & Amber Holritz, they captures some cool images of the day.