I am currently working on a top secret project that will technically be bringing the inLIGHTin Workshop to each and every one of your houses.
I really appreciate everyone who keeps checking out this site even though it has been pretty barren for new content as of late. Rest assured, this new project will be well worth the wait.
More news to follow so be on the lookout!
Hello fellow inLIGHTin’ed Ones,
Man, I never expected my workshops to go so well last year. The feedback has been so great and I got to meet a ton of amazing up and coming photographers. It is always great being able to share knowledge with others and I know that I have learned so much since 2009 and how I can better “inLIGHTin” future students of mine.
The only downside is that these workshops have really had me booked solid without any breathing room. My workshops and my photo business (www.ParamourPhoto.com) made it so that I really had no free time with my wife and child. I still love doing what I do but the photo business is my main priority. The only way to really make things work is for me to raise my workshop prices for 2010. Prices last year were VERY affordable and you got years of knowledge in a 6 hour seminar. Now, prices will remain on the affordable side, unlike other workshops, with only a $100 price increase for my one-on-one workshops.
I would really like to do more group workshops. This will be another way for me to get you all the most bang for your buck. I can keep prices lower when multiple people attend and I can reach more people in one day as opposed to individual sessions so it is a big win-win situation.
I also want to branch out past Buffalo, NY so if you aren’t a Buffalo native and would like to host a workshop in your town then be sure to get in touch with me and to set something up. Those who host a workshop get a lot of perks such as a free admission, complimentary phone consultation and other special goodies.
Thank you all for such a great 2009. I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2010 and hope to see you all very soon at one of my workshops.
~Michael
Hello everyone.
So much for my daily posts huh? Man it has been a busy couple months but I cannot complain. I feel like I am coming down with a cold of some sort which is going to be some good times.
Anyways, I have been receiving a bunch of emails asking where I have been so I just wanted to update you all on what is going on. I do have a lot of posts ready to go and be released. Hopefully this winter will slow down enough for me to get back into the game and post more tips and tricks over here on a more regular basis. The primary slowdown is from me wanting to shoot more videos and less text but that eats up a lot of time to push up to the site.
So I hope everyone is well and that you are having yourselves a prosperous year.
Keep checking back for more content to be added… eventually.
Great news! I just found out that I will be featured on www.photoforthepeople.com in a live interview. All members of the site are encouraged to log in and chat things up.
The interview will take place at 7pm EST time and should go for a couple hours. If you are a photographer of any skill set then be sure to register on the forum and be there! I will be available to answer any questions regarding photography or business.
Hope to see you all there!
I came across an amazing video that I just have to share with you all.
It really hits home in the grand scheme of things and is a MUST SEE, especially for everyone who has a camera in their hands.
Here is another one that is equally as motivational! I am at a loss for words.
WOW! Thanks to Zack Arias for putting this piece together and sharing it with the photography community.
Hello fellow inLIGHTin’ed Ones!
Long time no see. How has everyone been lately?
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am always thinking and brainstorming… For example, I should be editing a wedding right now. Instead, I have finally came up with where I want to direct my inLIGHTin Workshops. Before I get going, these are all good things! I am in no way, shape or form stopping these workshops so you can let out that sigh of relief now haha ;P
Now in my head I always seen a ‘loop-hole’ in my workshops so to speak… I basically held up a sign that said, “come to me if you want to know anything and everything about photography…” That was ideally what my one-on-one workshops did. You came to me with what you wanted to learn and I taught it. However, in my 5 year plan, I planned on doing more speaking engagements, group workshops and team learning (both locally and on a national level)… How can I get to that point when I only affect one photographer at a time? Also, do I want to be known as the guy who is like the Bob Villa of photography or do I want to be known for being an expert in my strengths and passions? Why give you an overall general knowledge base of things when I can hone into the nitty gritty and provide you with more concentrated content. These are the questions that I have been racking my brain on and here is my answer!
I have a new direction for the inLIGHTin Workshops which will be effective immediately:
All future inLIGHTin Workshops will be conducted in a group environment and the topics of these workshops are now divided into four categories: Lighting, Post-Processing/Workflow, Photography 101 and Nature/Landscape Photography. These are the disciplines that I am most passionate about and love to teach. My lighting workshops cater to my passion for portrait photography. The nature/landscape workshops combine my love for traveling, sight seeing and fine art landscapes. Post-processing and workflow lets out the inner geek in myself and the photography 101 courses will be my way of giving back to the industry. We all started off somewhere so these Photography 101 workshops will get my students more comfortable with their cameras and hopefully help them to acquire a new found love and passion for photography.
Take a look at the following link for more information on what these workshops entail: http://www.inlightinworkshop.com/about/
I will most definitely still offer one-on-one workshops but they will come at a premium and on a more limited basis. Please contact me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com for more information.
I also hope to start taping these workshops and am looking to partner up with a videographer to help this vision become a reality. If you miss the workshop then you can always have access to it via these videos.
All in all, I have big, big plans for The inLIGHTin Workshop and I thank you for being on-board! If you are interested in hosting an inLIGHTin Workshop in your neck of the woods then please email me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com .
These workshops have always and will still be 110% about YOU. Therefore, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments so please comment on the blog below and let me know your feedback.
Thanks for reading and for all your support!
Michael
I wanted to go over my recent inLIGHTin Workshop for today’s Friday Night Lights segment.
I gave an inLIGHTin Workshop to about a dozen photographers over at the iPrintFromHome.com Headquarters over on Niagara Falls Blvd. For those local to Buffalo… did you know that we have an awesome photo lab right in our backyard?
So we started at 6pm and went a little over three hours! This workshop was all about lighting. We talked about everything from free and available light, to continuous light, speedlights (on and off camera) and ended up on studio strobes… There was A LOT of content and could have easily spent an entire day talking about things…
I had a great time and wanted to thank everyone for attending. I hope to see you at other workshops of mine and as always, call or email whenever if you have any questions guys!
Here are some pics from the workshop that my assistant, Martha, shot during the workshop:
Thanks to the George and Sarah over at the iPrintFromHome.com family for letting us use their space.
Take a look at the link about the inLIGHTin Workshop from Michael and Anna Costa on their blog:
http://michaelandannacosta.com/blog/2009/07/featured-with-inlightin-workshop.html#links
I will also be doing a Live Chat on their www.PhotoForThePeople.com site so be sure to register with their forum and chime in with any questions you may have. It looks like September 30th will be when the live interview with me will go down so mark it down in your calendars now, register on their forum and check it out!
Enjoy!
Michael
Michael and Anna Costa are a husband and wife team based in California. I am lucky enough to call them friends and they have been a great inspiration to me for years. Plus Mike and I have a great time exchanging killer music with one another. I had both the honor and privilege of interviewing them for the website. I know we have a lot of wedding photographers checking in so pay extra close attention to this interview! Be sure to take a look at their website HERE (their Blog is HERE) and I am sure you will see why. So without further ado, here is what they had to say:
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourselves?
A: We are Michael + Anna Costa Photographers. We are located in Southern California and shoot mainly in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles with various jaunts around the country/world each year for shoots.
Q: What areas of photography do you specialize in?
A: We are wedding photographers! We have been in business for 4 1/2 years and love what we do. We love the creative control, energy and fun of shooting weddings. Its a VERY rewarding job and it certainly keeps us on our toes. We love a challenge and so this business give us the opportunity to constantly be growing. Not only in our work, but our business as well.
Q: How would you describe your styles?
A: We are fine art photojournalists. We are also hybrid photographers – shooting BOTH digital and film photography. We put a high priority in quality of work and providing our clients with something truly unique. We want them to hang our pictures on their walls not only because its their wedding, but because they consider it a work of art.
Q: So where do you draw your inspiration from?
A: There are so many amazing photographers out there that are truly inspirational. Mostly commercial photographers are who we like to follow the most. However, we’ve found that in this stage of our career we have to really have to look inward for inspirations so as to set ourselves apart artistically. However, on the business side we’ve found inspiration from legendary authors such as Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie to great leaders in business such as Robert Kiyosaki or Tim Ferriss. We find countless inspiration from reading books pertaining to our business and find that it may be one of the most important things in separating ourselves from the masses long term. RIF (Reading is Fundamental)
Q: What is it like being a husband and wife team? Any pros and cons?
A: We absolutely love being a husband and wife team. We joke that our marriage has been put on hyper drive a bit since we spend about 3x’s as much time together as most normal couples. The draw backs are that we have to treat each other with more respect and consideration then we might an employee. As a wife, I try to not nag Michael about things – and as a husband Michael tries to be mindful of not hurting my feelings when giving feedback. We’ve worked out many kinks in the beginning and it only helped our relationship become stronger overall. We now really hate spending too much time away from each other, since we aren’t used to it!
Q: Back to you both shooting film. Can you tell me a little bit about that? What you are using? What got you back into it and so on?
A: Film is a really important component to our style and work being set apart from the crowd. There is a texture, feel, depth and look to film that is unique and unlike digital. Our clients don’t necessarily know that we shoot film until we tell them – but they do know that they like whatever it is that we are doing. The more we shoot, the more we want to shoot film. Digital is amazing too, and we shoot that as well. Especially in a digitally saturated market, a bride is used to being offered a ton more photographs than even 5-6 years ago because of the “unlimited” capacities of digital. So its great to use both tools for different uses. Digital is also amazing for low lighting situations and creates amazing shots in its own right!
Q: Has shooting film benefited you from a niche market or workflow point of view?
A: Shooting film has benefited in terms of niche marketing, although most brides don’t know that we shoot film until we tell them. Once they know and are educated about the look of film its much harder for them to choose someone else who doesn’t provide that luxury. As far as workflow, there is an extra step in getting the film processed and scanned so we can add it to the digital files. But its worth it and an extremely simple process. We just mail out the film and it get’s mailed back to us process and scanned onto CD’s. In general, shooting film is about US being stoked about our work . You have to do what you love and are passionate about. If you do that, the work will follow.
Q: Who handles your film processing?
A: Color Services in Santa Barbara does our processing and they are simply amazing. A big component in our business is customer service and they exceed our expectations on a regular basis. They have never let us down in terms of rush orders or quality.
Q: What would you say a typical day in the live of the Costa’s would involve?
A: We are pretty nuts most of the time. We juggle our photo shoots, with everyday office workflow (getting events online, emails, business building tasks), blogging/online presence, managing our forum photoforthepeople.com as well as preparing for speaking presentations that we have a few times a year or more. We outsource most of our photo color corrections for our digital images and all of our Album Designing. We also outsource our print orders which are handled completely by Pictage.
Q: Can you talk to me about some of your favorite images and why they mean so much to you?
A: One of our favorite pictures is of a grandpa at this wedding sucking down his stoggie! We also love this shot of a little red headed ring bearer who was just too unique and adorable looking for words. We shot a wedding in Mexico awhile back that was literally a photographers dream. We have a bunch of photos from that wedding we love. We love NYC and have so many photos from there that we really love. Most of the work that stands out is because our clients allowed us the time to really play. When we are rushed on the wedding day, we will get great shots. But when the client puts a priority on photography and gives us time – that’s when the magic happens!
Q: Can you go through what equipment you are using…
A: We shoot the Contax 645, Canon EOS 1V, Canon 5D and have all the lenses/flashes etc….We are having fun playing with our new pocket wizards!
Q: Do you have anything special in the works or coming up that you would like to talk about?
A: We are working on a tool that we are hoping will automate our workflow and marketing. We are hoping to share it with others as well, so hopefully it will be up and running soon!
Q: Do you have any workshops or speaking engagements coming up?
A: We are speaking at the WPPI 2010 Business Institute. We are excited for that! We love speaking in Vegas!
Q: Would you like to give some props to your sponsors?
A: Of course! We LOVE Fuji Film, Queensberry Albums and Pictage!
Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy day to speak with us. Keep up the great work guys!
