Special thanks to Evan. He did a great job. I can't express how much I love teaching in London. It is such a great time. Believe it or not this was my 4th time there and I had never really acted as a tourists. This class allowed me to really see and appreciate the beauty of London. We are actually considering a European tour. The other great part of the trip was getting to do a class with my buddy Kevin Kubota. It was such a unique experience for us. It is always fun to lecture with Kev. Although we couldn't be more different, I believe with both of us together you really create the perfect photographer / business person. The class was so different then our usual classes. there was no Posing, lighting, photoshop or lightroom. It was about life and business and more importantly having a plan. Just loved it. Well here are the images of my favorite subject, me. LOL!

 

As you can tell it was freezing

I feel the less you see of me, the better,/p>

Another great view of me, The back of me.

,p> I can't explain how awesome it was to be roaming the streets and having people follow me. I felt like Rocky climbing the steps in Rocky 1

 

Like I always say, if you lay a bride on the ground the people will come.

I love dancing shots like this, the rain made the reflection and the shot so much better.

A shot of our class, what a great group. It was cold, rainy, snowy and they all loved it.

 

 

Some are mine, Some i have read, Some I have changed. But it all boils down to if you make the mistake one, that you grow and learn from it.

 

I've learned that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change. I've learned that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them. I've learned that money can't make you happy, but is hard to be happy without it. i've learned the Mets will probably not win a World Series in my lifetime. I've learned that if you don't love what you do, it is very hard to be happy with rest of your life. I've learned isn't fair,but it' still very good. I've learned when i doubt, just take the next small step I've learned that life is way too short to waste anytime hating anyone I've learned that you don't have to win every argument. It is okay to agree to disagree. I've learned it is better to cry with someone then crying alone. I've learned not to compare my life to others, because you have no idea what their life is really about. i've learned to over prepare, then go with flow i've learned that now matter how good or bad a situation is. It will change. I've learned that my children will only get childhood. I've learned that when it comes to going after what you love and really want in life, don't take no for an answer   I've learned that you can keep going long after you can't. I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel. I've learned I am the only person who can make me feel inadequate. I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you. I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place. I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences. I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score. I've learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time. I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up. I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel. I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have. I've learned that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them, and less to do with how many years you have lived.     I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself. I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief. I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become. I've learned that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do love each other. I've learned that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever. I've learned that two people can look at the same thing and see something totally different. I've learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you. I've learned that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you you will find the strength to help. i've learned that no matter what the costs is, honestly is the only way. I've learned that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being. I've learned that the people you care about most in life are sometimes taken from you too soon

 

 

 

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.

I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.

I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts

I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned that you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I've learned that learning to forgive takes practice.

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.

I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself

I've learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

 

Most changes are created in an instant. What's unfortunate is that most us wait till that instant happens before we finally decide to make a change. Stop Procrastinating. Procrastination is something that many of us struggle with every single day. We simply fail to find the motivation to undertake a specific type of task or activity because of a myriad of excuses, habits, thoughts and fears that absorb our daily ritualistic behavior. Yet, procrastination can easily be overcome if we simply take time to make reasonable educated assessments of who we are and what really want. Don't wait for that instant. Plan your future.

The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now.

If not now ... when?
Your life will always be filled with challenges.
It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D Souza ...

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin.
But there was always some obstacle in the way, 
something to be gotten through first,
some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid.
Then life would begin. 
At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

This perspective has helped me to see 
that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.

So, treasure every moment that you have.
And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, 
special enough to spend your time ...
and remember that time waits for no one ...

You can't do today's job with yesterday's methods
and be in business tomorrow.

So stop waiting until you finish school 
until you go back to school 
until you lose ten pounds 
until you gain ten pounds 
until you have kids 
until your kids leave the house 
until you start work 
until you retire 
until you get married
until you get divorced 
until Friday night
until Sunday morning
until you get a new car or home
until your car or home is paid off 
until spring, until summer
until fall ... until winter 
until you are off welfare 
until the first or fifteenth
until your song comes on 
until you've had a drink 
until you've sobered up 
until you die 
until you are born again
to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy

Happiness is a journey ... not a destination!!

Remember if you are not happy with your work, it is very hard to be happy with rest of you life. We do this to make our living

Y

 

Identity is who you are. Image is how you are viewed by others. Both influence the choices that you make but identity offers much greater longer term rewards. Whenever possible, base your key life decisions on the person that you are. 

“You can’t stop being who you are because you’re afraid.” Have you heard that before. If you like Sex and The City you have. But it is so true. Great quote

I realized a long time ago. That life is too short and is about taking chances. i know one thing to be certain.No one ever stumbled on to anything great while they were standing still. You have got to move. The pursuit of dreams inspires personal growth and development. Never stop defining your vision of what life could be. 

Here is another great inspiration quote from The Astronaut Farmer

“Somewhere along the line we stopped believing we could do anything. And if we don’t have our dreams, we have nothing.” Life is about Vision and dreams. Do you have both of these?

 

 I will conclude with a quote that applies to our profession and is one to create a mantra too.

“Whoever tells the best story wins, Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.”

Remember one thing loud and clearly. 

You will always get what you settle for. Want more, Dream bigger and work harder.

Yesterdays question was What is your definition of success?

Now think about your answer, and lets figure out how to get you there.

What do you want to achieve in your life? Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? 25 years? Have you sat down and looked at your life? If you don't know where you want to go, then I can guarantee that you won't get there.

Most people don't know what they want. They may think they do, but in reality, they don't. They only know what they don't want. They don't want a to be broke, have a boring job, be a disappointment to their families, etc. Understanding exactly what you want is not the same as knowing what you don't want. If all you know is what you don't want, your life will have no focus. Try to always think and dream big.

It all starts with Focus and clarity. Without focus, you have nothing to work toward except what you don't want. Rather than slowly building toward an ultimate goal, you end up working on a bunch of small negative goals that are easily toppled if something goes wrong. This will eventually end up creating confusion, discouragement and worst of all, failure. Whereas, if you set an ultimate goal, you can develop a clear plan of action on how to get there.

A specific goal is much easier to achieve than vague goals like not being poor, or getting rich. Setting specific goals allows you to map out a path and to setup of step by step action plan for getting there. Every accomplishment will be one step nearer to the final goal. Committing to a clearly defined goal, regardless of what it is, gives you the best opportunity to achieve success. Knowing what you want to accomplish and what it's going to take to get there leads to inspiration and self motivation.

Self motivation is something that originates from within and helps you to overcome barriers while you pursue your goals. In business and arts, self motivation is absolutely essential. You will not be able to rely on others to get you motivated to successfully achieve your goals. The power of self motivation will allow you to accomplish anything you want in life, and this power exists within us all. It's about wanting more and being willing to do whatever it takes to get it.

An artist must have personal goals. Your goals together with a positive attitude will provide the keys to your success. Setting personal goals allows you to direct your passion and energy into producing the desired outcomes. Setbacks and challenges are frustrating and inevitable, but an artist with a positive attitude is motivated to succeed while accepting setbacks as learning experiences.

So, in order to develop a motivation to succeed, you must set specific goals that tell you where you want to go. You then must develop a plan to get there which outlines the necessary tasks you need to do everyday to achieve your ultimate goals. Knowing what you need to do and why you're doing it is a critical step for fueling your self motivation. If you cannot develop a strong self motivation to succeed in  business, you'll have little or no chance at being successful.  There are way to many wonderfully starving artists. Make you art worth something.It's as simple as that!

Those of you who have studied with me know who Big Steve is. He is not only my life long best friend , but a head photographer at my studio. My video department today obviously did not have enough work created this video of Big STEVE or BDWG (Big Dumb White Guy)as we refer to him.

Some time ago my wife asked me what would make me feel like I have arrived. What is the pinnacle for me. When I told her, she said she wanted me to write it down and put it in my wallet like a check and hold it there till I reached my goal. You know what is funny I have changed that check at least 5 times over the last 3 years. I believe in positive energy. My wife has encouraged me to believe it. She is a wonderful woman who believes negative thoughts should not be let in. I used to honestly believe is was crock, but I learned it imagining the great things that I want . And guess what it works. You need to learn expectations. So with being said I want you to write the following question down and answer it honestly… 

My definition of success is________________. 

Good, now that you’ve answered that question compare what you’re doing each day to what you’ve written above. Will the actions you’re taking move you closer to what you wrote down? Or like so many, do you find that much of your day is made up of mostly filler, designed (either knowingly or unknowingly) to get you through to the end of each day. 

Really give that some serious thought. If you find that you’re not giving ample time to tasks which are necessary to move you in the direction you want your life to be — don’t beat yourself up over it. Instead, right now — at this very moment take a real, concrete step which will lead you in the direction that you want to go. After you’ve done so, take another step! 

Keep the following saying in mind — the doing of a thing makes it so… now get doing! 

– It’s your life, LIVE BIG! 

I believe in experiencing everything. Most people don't want to know the truth and the reality that comes with it, through honesty is the only way you will get to know a person and be able to get past the boundaries that we all put up and problems before us. My dad always said it is crucial in order to be successful you must  learn from peoples mistakes, but more importantly know when it is ok to make your own, because no one will do everything right. Never hold back, even if you think you are wasting your time, there will always be something to learn from any experience, it just depends on the way you look at things. Life is full of change and most people don't embrace it. When you make change you need to expect the drama and uncertainty that comes with doing something different. Be ready for it, plan, and think of it as a personal challenge of your skills. If you can  cope with a situation that might seem out of control to others, then you may have already won a battle. In life it is not important how many people you can knock down, it is important how many times you can get knocked down and keep getting up.

Always try to have a positive attitude. Don't let frustrations and poor luck get in the way. People do not want to be with someone always portraying their own self-pity. This  will only push away the people that will really want to help you. Don't be afraid to admit you are in over your head. Be honest about who you are and where you are going in life. Stop and take a breath. In the long run you will be better off. Be a role model, inspire, push and motivate people. Through other's fortunes you will be repaid in some form or another even if it does not happen immediately, it will. If someone else becomes a better person due to your influence than you have both gained respect and gratitude from the situation. Above all the most important thing is to be a good friend.If you are lucky you will have one great true friend.  Friendship is the one thing that you will miss the most if it is taken away or lost. Always become friends first this applies to every relationship you make. Always try to build that bridge of friendship between people; without it, you are just going through the motions. Never, never burn bridges. Treat everybody you meet , the way you would want to be treated.  Always Respect!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do not follow where the path may lead. 
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Emerson

 

What does this mean to you?

 I used to believe, I still do, that if you give something your all, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, as long as you've risked everything put everything out there. And I've done that. I did it my entire life. I did it with my business.

My Question is :

Have you?

There really isn't much more to say , is their. I realized how selfish I am sometime.. How selfish most of us are to complain about our lives. As it bad as it seems sometime, it is nothing compared to what these people are going through. I just wish there was more to do. It is scary.

 

I as most of you probably did, watched the Hope for Haiti Now telethon last night and my heart just broke all over again for the people of Haiti. This is just so sad and I wish there was more that I can do. So we are doing the only thing we can. We have already and will continue to give a portion of our proceeds from our workshops and educational mater to the Doctors without Borders Group. We started with a $1000 and hope to give more.I just want to encourage the people who follow me in anyway to donate whatever you can. I know times are tough right now in this country, but we are still a million times better off than the people who survived this unspeakable tragedy. Everyone reading this post can afford $10, so please at least text "Haiti" to 90999. Also you can pre-purchase the album of some of the performances on iTunes  It's only $7.99 and at least you'll get some great tunes out of it. If you can give more, donate through the website above or call 1-877-99-HAITI .

Ok I have fought this for a while now. to be honest I felt like kind of a tool. However due to FB dumb friend rule limit which applies to less then 1 percent of their total population. They make you do it. I had no idea you keep  compiling friend request during this time. So as you can imagine it started to get out of hand with requests and me not answering them over the last few months. I apologize I did not know you were there. With being said this will force me to get off my butt and make this page worth something to the people who join it. So on Monday we will start filming a series of tutorials that we will be putting up from time to time on this blog and the fan page for you all to see. It will cover everything from posing, lighting, Workflow, business and of course life.

You can connect to it through Doug Gordon Workshops fan page 

here is the link

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Doug-Gordon-Workshops/191007682903?ref=ts

 

This is my favorite time of year. As we all know life and business is all about expectations. I believe one of the worst things you can do in business is not set goals. We spend way too much time making excuses of why we can't do things, rather then just doing it. Besides January being my favorite time of year, it is also my most critical of the year. I think in life we all expect the new year to bring change and promise. The truth is we need to begin with a starting point  and change in mindset. The best advice I could ever give is to:

 

      * EXPECT POSITIVE RESULTS!  

      *YOU ONLY FAIL IF YOU STOP TRYING!

      * IF YOU KEEP DOING THE SAME THINGS YOU

         HAVE ALWAYS DONE, YOU WILL GET THE SAME

         RESULTS YOU HAVE ALWAYS GOTTEN!

• Understand the critical factors that are impacting your business right now.
  Learn a systematic method to elicit, utilize, and maximize every business problem that has not yet been solved by you and your team. By looking at your business through a new filter, you will discover what needs to be solved first and how to capture, categorize, and sequence your approach to build momentum and maximize success.
• Know exactly where your business really is—not where you think it is.
  The competitive advantages that put you in business and made you successful in the first place are almost certainly not sustainable moving forward. You will review in detail where your business has been, where it is today, and where it is going.
• Don't use the economy as an excuse
  Where there were once 100 brides to every 50 photographers; the economy is changing to the point where there are closer to 50 brides to every 50 photographers. With fewer buyers, you must understand how to protect yourself and use this opportunity to shift the market in your favor. Most Importantly accept change. Learn to pose. I promise it is the new in thing! It's not that bride's don't want to pose, it's that they think it takes forever.
• Understand the impact of your studios current situation
  Only by understanding where your business is really at, can you anticipate, predict and solve the inevitable challenges that will occur in your business in advance. Most importantly accept change.
• Create an end vision of what you want your studio and life to be
  Regardless of how successful or profitable your studio is or has been, without a vision for its future, you will not grow. Without an open mind to change , you will not grow. You need to think big. Try to design and refine a vision that is big enough to both inspire and reignite the passion and genius that made you want to be a photographer in the first place. Create a starting point and a goal. Remember even if things are going well, it can change on a dime. Even if it's not broke, IMPROVE IT!
• It's time to reshape your business.
  Take a step back and think about what got you to where you are. I always believe it is important to reflect on positives to and negatives to learn. Expand your mind. Take educated changes. 
• Develop a strategy.
  Our strategy at our studio is simple. Most importantly we create and guarantee moments. We believe in delivering a tangible product. Albums, Prints, etc. Our business mantra is everyday find a way. What does that mean you ask. It means everyday take time to do something you have never done before. Take time to market. Think about how much time you spend on the creative side , the technical side and the business side of your day. If you are not spending at least 75% of your day on business ideas, marketing etc. You have problems! Remember business first, we do this to make a living.

 

I will leave you with one basic rule to live by as a photographer. 

Create personal relationships with everybody. If they like you they will love your work!

Happy Sales Season everybody!

I am excited and honored to be Mr February for Animoto's famous photographer ad campaign. This ad is supposed to capture the essence of who you are as a person and  a photographer. The portrait is also to be a self expose. This ad will be displayed throughout many trade magazines including a full page in Professional Photographer Magazine and get this a 2 page spread in Rangefinder. The first two page ad in Animoto history. Also because of this great news Animoto is giving anybody who signs up with them 3 months free when they buy a year membership. So that is 15 months for the price of 12. The pass code is London DG. so i guess you want to see the ad. Please let me know your thoughts. 

Also in case you are wondering my belly has been liquified larger to hide the six pack! He He!