I threw out a tweet the other day where I said the following:

If you’re under 30 and offering life coaching, stop. You haven’t lived long enough to coach others.

Some responses were positive and some were not negative so much as they were concerned about what it was I was saying. For instance, Tyler Braun tweeted back at me:

Is age the main determinant for when someone has enough knowledge/experience/wisdom to coach others? I hope not.

Joel Klampert responded with this tweet:

me @ 25: married 5 years. 1 kid. PK MK. Lived in 3 states. Missionary in Ukraine. Worship pastor. Designer. Sales rep

And then followed up with this one:

me at 34. Same as 25. Now 14 years married and 4 kids. And 200 new things god has done.

And ended with this one:

both at 25 and 34 I think god has used me to lifecoach others based on where I was in my life.

First of all, let me say that my comment was no a reflection of age being a factor in determining whether or not somebody can coach somebody else. But life coaching (and the example I saw) is built around this platform of coaching people on areas of life related to parenting, careers, spirituality and other aspects from a person who had hardly an experience in these areas. And the fact is, most people under 30 don’t. They especially don’t have the kind of life knowledge to request people pay them $300 a month for the benefit of their wisdom. Trust me when I tell you that life between 30 and 40 is drastically different than it is between 20 and 30.

That being said, I am a big supporter of the millennial generation because they are this country’s next set of leaders and all of these people have a lot to offer. All are under the age of 30 (I know I have learned from them despite our age difference):

Kyle Reed – I got to know Kyle through Twitter, met him at Catalyst in 2010 and then got to hang with him a little again in Nashville this past January. It would be nearly impossible to not like Kyle. There is a genuinely warm spirit about him that comes out when you spend a little time with him. He’s a designer and really has his finger on the pulse of social media.

Tyler Braun – I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Tyler in person (yet) but I am familiar with him through his blog and through Twitter. Despite his awful taste in sports teams, Tyler is a young man that is wise beyond his years. He’s a husband and a worship leader.

Tom and Meghan McFarlin – I got to meet Tom and his lovely wife Meghan in Atlanta when I was up there visiting some other friends and then again during Catalyst. When I originally connected with Tom on Twitter, I actually thought he was older than he is largely because his knowledge of pop culture and music ran pretty deep. When I first got to hang out with them, I thought my face was going to fall off we spent so much time laughing. Tom is a developer and I really miss the blog posts he used to write about what he learned at church that week. Meghan is like a ray of sunshine. She’s becoming quite the photographer and though I kid her often on Twitter about Tom, she doesn’t get mad at me. Tom and Meghan are also expecting their first child.

Jared and Eryn Erickson – If there was a picture that defined Christian hipster cuteness, this couple would be it. Haha! But really, they’re both artists to the core using the gifts God has given them in an amazing way. Eryn is a great singer and Jared a kick but designer. Jared cracks me up because his web based self portraits always have him making some kind of face or scowling but in person he’s almost always laughing. When I traveled to Nashville earlier this year, I asked if I could stay at their place overnight so I wouldn’t have to drive straight through and without hesitation they welcomed me into their home. Next time I see Jared I am going to give him a Godsmack CD.

Darren and Crystal Libby – if Darren, Crystal, Jared and Eryn ever got together some amazing things could probably happen. Darren used to be an assistant worship pastor at our church before he moved back to North Carolina to marry Crystal. Thankfully, they make routine trips back to this area so we get to see them a couple of times per year. Crystal is an artist as is Darren. Both of them can sing and I never had more fun worshipping at church than I did when I was on stage with Darren. If there was anybody that missed Darren the most it was my son who was getting guitar lessons from Darren and really having fun doing it too.

Chris Fenner & Julia Purcell – This is another couple (who will be married one day!) that I’ve only come to know recently via Twitter. We share similar passions. Julia is a photographer and Chris a film maker and a damned good one. He and I have spoken and while I won’t give details here, we’ve both been anxiously awaiting news from somebody to see if the two of us can work together on a project. I had also exchanged some emails with Julia where she was introduced to the realities of pricing her work. With the kind of client that has a long list of demands and wants to do it at the cheapest of prices. I really look forward to what they’re going to be doing in the future.

If these are the kind of people who are going to be leading this country in the next 10 to 15 years, then the rest of us are in good hands.

I don’t apologize for my tweet but I guess it was missing some context and thus this blog post.

Thoughts are welcome.

The above image is one my favorites that I have made. There are several reasons. First and foremost, that is how I composed it. This was not a full length shot of Chris (the Dad) and his daughter Lola which I then cropped. I purposely went in for that look because Lola at the time was fascinated with the little of sand and rocks she had on her hand. It just so happened that both of them started to take a step at the same time when I shot this frame. So his left foot and her right foot have a little bit of motion blur which I love.

Before I go further, please know that Chris is a firefighter here in Palm Coast. Right now there are wildfires in the area that are being fought day and night by guys like Chris. Please keep him and the other firefighters in your prayers.

Another reason I love this image is because to me, it represents what our relationship with God should be like. Notice that Lola isn’t concerned with her surroundings. She is confident in what she is doing because she is holding Chris’s hand. That’s what it should be like with us and the Lord. There are a bunch of different things going on in my life right now that I can’t talk about (but I will at some point) and my wife asked me about a situation and asked, “What is keeping us from doing that?” and I immediately answered, “Fear.”

But we shouldn’t have to be fearful. We should all be like Lola in that photo. Confident that our heavenly Father is watching over us and guiding us.

Joshua 1:9 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know I am going to Togo, Africa in August with a missions team. There are 12 of us going. While I have raised a good portion of the money (and I have been blown away by the generosity people have shown), I am still looking to raise more. It’s the hardest part of doing this trip.

I wanted to think of a way to ask people to donate and do so in a way that it would be a benefit to them or to others in more way than one.

Part of why I am taking the trip to Africa is to help document the trip with photographs and video. What I would also like to do, is offer up my services for a family by doing a full portrait session for one.

Some of you are local and can take advantage of this opportunity yourself. Others however, live all around the country and may not be able connect with me to do so. However, you can provide that opportunity for a family in need. Here is what I am proposing:

A Drawing For A Family Portrait Shoot

For a $10 donation, your name will be entered in a drawing for me to do this family portrait session. If you can donate $15, your name will be entered twice. For a donation of $20, it will be entered three times.

For those of you that are local, you can enter for yourself or give the gift certificate to a family member or friend.

For those of you who are not local, your gift certificate will be given to a family (our church is aware of those families who could benefit from this) in need and provide them with something they may not have been able to take advantage of otherwise.

Below is a Paypal button. Enough of your information will be provided when you donate. Please indicate in the notation area the following:

Mission Trip Photo Shoot Drawing

This way I am certain of why you are issuing that donation. I appreciate any support you can give and please, if you have a Facebook account, Twitter account, or a blog, please pass this on.

Thanks!

When I left my previous employer, the plan was over time to transition to photography full time. I was going to use the IT/Project Management skills I had gained over the last 10 years to supplement that income. John, a good friend of mine from church had met several times and discussed working together with a project he was looking to do in the IT field and asked me to be a part of it.

John has been working as a developer for the last 15 years, started a company with a friend of his, raised millions of dollars and headed up a successful business. The goal was to work off that success but we also had conversations about the future. John’s passion is film and video production. It was a field his father was in, and it’s a field his son’s Ryan and Michael are working in. You can see some of the videos Ryan has made for his church on Vimeo. John’s goal “down the road” was to write and produce a new television series. One that would seek to uplift God but also not be an “in your face”, “preaching to the choir” type show.

But recently, John has praying about it and asked himself,

“Why do this down the road? Why not do it now?”

So he started making a list of people he thought might want to be involved. Literally 2 days after this, he received a phone call from his son Michael. Michael works for a guy that is a fishing celebrity (they have them. This guy even signs autographs at fishing shows). In addition to being a professional fisherman, he runs a company that produces video and commercials, does graphic design, sells apparel, etc. He works with big companies that have products sold in that profession and his company creates commercials for these clients.

This guy (and I am keeping it a little on the down low for now since details are still being negotiated) wanted to free himself up from some things. His main video guy left the company to Pastor a church (the guy who owns this company is a Christ follower) and he needed to offload some of the work, and the video is where he wanted to start. Enter Ambient Picture Productions to help and the work is there already. This gentleman wants a video created that focuses on him personally but also has an angle that will get other businesses to say, “I want to do business with this guy.”

John called a bunch of people together to see where they wanted to be involved and has since narrowed that list down to 4-5 people that will make up the core team as this rolls out. We had a creative meeting with the client on Friday. It was our chance to get to meet him, see what he was like and also bounce ideas around to see what direction we wanted to go. It went very well. Based upon the results of this video, so many more opportunities open up as we go along. The ultimate goal is to put together a television series we could pitch to NBC, CBS, etc. But, this initial work will allow the team start seeing what it will be like working together and potentially provide an income for the team.

So we’re off and running. We have to deliver the video in the beginning of June and we’re on a tight schedule because the client travels a lot. In addition, we have to go through a ton of previous footage to work into the new video as well as plan on possibly doing some shooting with his employees and parents. It’s going to be crazy.

But this is so exciting.

So what do I get to bring to the table? Well, my background of course is still photography. But I can use those skills for setting up shots. Director of photography type work. I am also going bring my project management skills to the table. All of us really are going to be working together for the first time and we need a centralized system to make sure all of the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed.

The chance to work in a creative environment is just blowing me away. This has moved so fast it’s almost a little scary. So friends, if you pray, then I ask that you pray that God is opening these doors and that we’re not barreling through them. As excited as we are, we want to be sure this is the path He wants us to take.

More to come soon!

Justice has caught up with Osama bin Laden. It’s irrelevant as to whether he was captured or killed. In fact, he was given the chance to surrender and he chose to engage in a shootout with the Navy Seals and died in the firefight.

Osama bin Laden was the mastermind behind the deadliest terrorist attack on our nation’s history. 3,000 people died that day in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and in field in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. It was an awful day.

The attacks were very personal for me. I was born in New York and lived just across the Hudson River in New Jersey. I lived off exit 12 on the Turnpike and whenever my family drove up north (or later on when I started driving) on the TP, the Twin Towers were clearly visible across the river once you got near Exit 14. In November of 1993, I got a job in NYC working for Cargill, Inc. I worked in the World Financial Center right across the street from the World Trade Center. I could see the towers right from my desk. I took the Path train into the WTC almost every day (if not the Path, then the ferry which provided a beautiful view of the WTC). The newspaper vendor and I were on a first name basis. I bought ties at a store at a store in the shopping area. Used to go to the ATM at what was Chemical Bank.

Before I even started working NYC, my girlfriend at the time (and now my wife) used to go into the city almost every weekend. If we went on a Sunday, we drove as it was easy to find parking. If it was a Saturday, we’d drive to Hoboken and take the ferry (or Path) and be under the shadow of the Twin Towers. My photo archive is filled with images of the World Trade Center. There is one above. This goes back probably 17 years:

We loved that entire area. I loved working there and commuted with many people who worked in that area. So I was angry and sad on that day. So many millions of people felt the same.

Last night, Osama bin Laden was killed. People celebrated. People were happy that justice had been meted out. Considering all of the bad news people have had to endure lately – tsunami’s in Japan, tornadoes causing destruction in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, a lousy economy, continued ramifications of the housing crisis, high gas prices, Donald Trump’s presidential run. The list goes on. The news that Osama bin Laden, number 1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, terrorist, anti-semite, and a man who professed that women and children were fair game in jihad was treated as good news by a whole host of people, including many Christians.

It didn’t take very long for the self-righteous Christians to come out of the woodwork. Some people thankfully engage in thoughtful discussion. You can read this post by Jenni Clayville and then there is this one by Carlos Whittaker.

But the self righteousness and judgment I saw coming from others wanted me to reach through the Intertubes and shake some people. “Oh, I think it is so so terrible that Christians are celebrating a man’s death.” and “People need to really stop this and read Ezekiel 18:23.” And on and on.

Know what? Those people need to chill out. Yeah, we’re Christians. But we’re also human beings too. That’s not an excuse. It is a fact and we sometimes react to news the way humans do – with emotion. And it is not unfair for people with pent up emotions about 9/11 to react a particular way over this kind of news. How about next time instead of judging and rebuking, you silently pray for those you see doing it? Pray that their response is merely an emotional one at the time and will be tempered later.

Throwing out what God would do and what Jesus would is pointless.

God and Jesus are perfect.

Humans are not.

My friend Meghan has her own thoughts about this. Check it out. Well worth reading.

I’ve been seeing this subject come up from time to time. Those of us in a creative field will often hit these walls where we need to get the juices flowing again. I wanted to share some of the things I do in order for that to happen. You can take what I do and then adopt it your creative outlet.

1. Prayer – We were created by the greatest of creators. I often look to him to draw some inspiration. I also use prayer to clear my mind of distractions which allows the creative juices to flow more easily.
2. Go To The Beach – I often complain about Florida. The humidity and the heat during the summer months is almost unbearable. It gets so bad that you don’t want to go outside. But, at times of the year, I love taking a ride down to the beach. I live 10 mins away from the beach depending on the time of the year, I can go late afternoon or early evening with my family and we’ll have the entire area of the beach we’re to ourselves. The sun will be setting, the waves are rolling in and just that sense of calm does wonders.
3. Browse Flickr – As a photographer I am always on the lookout for inspiring work. I will often go to Flickr and check out the ‘Interesting’ category which will include some amazing photographs.
4. Go Through Old Magazines – I keep (hoard?) copies of Popular Photography, American Photo, Digital Photo and others. I’ll take them out from time to time and flip through them. I’ll see things I have forgotten or discover old tips.
5. Read The War of Art – I think this is a universal one. It’s a short book. Around 155 pages. But filled with wisdom and inspiration that could fill 500 pages. Pick this book up if you can. $7.50 at Amazon. Worth every penny.

What gets your creative juices flowing?

This is often something I hear Christians say or I see Christians write:

“I am waiting for God to reveal His will for my life.”

I remember I used to say this myself at times. Unfortunately it’s not something we should be saying or writing. God doesn’t sit there with a sign hidden behind His back that says, “My will for Jay’s life”, waiting for the perfect moment to “reveal” it to me. He doesn’t show it from time to time and then quickly hide it declaring, “Made you look!”

God’s will for our lives is shining as bright as the sun for us to see. If we’re not seeing it, it’s because of us, not Him.

When we say we’re waiting for God to reveal His will for my life, we’re really fooling ourselves. What’s really going on is something self-centered. We’re waiting for what we want to come along. In the meantime, we’re ignoring all of the doors opening around us.

Tunnel vision leaves us oblivious to God’s will for our lives.

Thankfully, the solution is easy. I learned it from Andy Stanley in a small group study ‘Discovering God’s Will.’ Obviously, the study goes into more depth, but it boils down to this:

1. Accept God’s providential will – God’s providential will are things that will happen no matter what we do. We cannot control these things nor even understand them. Some we know about already. We accept that one day Christ is going to to return. That is part of God’s providential will.

2. Follow God’s moral will for our lives – This boils down to doing what God has already told us to do. It doesn’t mean we won’t stumble and fall at times but we still clearly know His moral will for our lives.

3. When we follow the first two steps, we will know God’s will for our life. – Andy Stanley put it so succinctly when he said:

It is surrender to the known will of God that paves the way to discovery of the unknown will of God.”

Have you ever said, “I am waiting for God to reveal His will for my life?” and does this affect your attitude about that or not?

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so why not a movie with Irish characters? I am really surprised at the amount of people who tell me they have never seen ‘State of Grace.’ The same people though have seen ‘The Boondock Saints‘ which is so overrated its not even funny. It’s a ripoff of Tarantino and not a very good one at that.

‘State of Grace’ on the other hand, is an excellent film. It has a stellar cast including Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, John Turturro and Robin Wright.

Sean Penn plays Terry Noonan, a Boston cop sent to New York to work undercover in his old neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. His childhood friend, Jackie Flannery (Oldman) and his older brother Frankie (Harris) are higher ups in the Irish mob (it’s based on The Westies though the term is never used in the film). They are expanding their power by partnering with the Italians and Noonan is in the middle of it all, torn between loyalty to his friends (and love for Kathleen Flannery (Wright)) and his duties as a police officer. Jackie is not happy about this partnership with the Italians, thinking his older brother shouldn’t be taking orders from them. Jackie has a short temper and at one point explodes, culminating in a shooting that could bring it all crashing down.

Director Phil Joanou, who up until this point had directed television and also the excellent (and completely underrated) Three O’Clock High, does an excellent job building tension and directing the all star cast. Everybody in the film is great, but the standouts are Ed Harris and particularly Gary Oldman. I remember reading Leonard Maltin’s review and he said, “Harris and Oldman sear the screen.” It’s true. Oldman is fantastic as usual.

This one is definitely worth checking out.

Note: This film contains a lot of bad language. In addition, it contains graphic violence and one intense sexual scene.

I’ve been using Twitter regularly since the summer of 2008. I actually signed up earlier than that but found no real use for it. When the 2008 election campaign kicked in, I found in Twitter the best place to get links to stories, up to date information, and of course, tweets from candidates, particularly President Obama. At the time, he had something like 50,000 followers which was an unheard of number. Since then, I have used Twitter effectively and it has resulted in a whole bunch of new connections, friendships, website traffic and more.

Lately, I have noticed some people complaining about Twitter in that they’re not getting out of it what others do. When I examined how they use it, I noticed there are some similarities in how they use it. If you want Twitter to work for you, then be sure you’re not falling into these habits.

Follower/Following Ratio – You cannot expect Twitter to be a two way street when others are doing all of the work. Some time ago I saw somebody ask a question on Twitter and then about 30 mins later complain that he was getting no response and making comments about “social media” not being very social. He was being followed by nearly 1000 people, but only following 80 people. How does he expect people to be social if he doesn’t care about what the people following him are saying? I don’t follow everybody that follows me, but I am also not going to build up nearly 1600 followers and then only follow 100. Twitter is about more than conversations. It’s also about being part of a community. If you have a Super Bowl party, invite 100 people to come over to watch but then make 95 of them watch through a window outside the house, what does that say? Following rules are not set in stone. Famous people have large followings and only follow a few, but often many of them are willing to be part of a community. Gary Vee is a perfect example. He has over 800,000 followers but Tweet something at him and more likely than not, he will respond. Others like Guy Kawasaki follows everybody back, but his Twitter stream is much more of a content aggregator than anything else. The bottom line is, if you’re a basic Joe on Twitter, engage with more of the people that follow you by showing interest and following them back.

Promoting Yourself At All Times – As I said above, Twitter works best in the context of community. If all you do is talk about yourself or tweet links to only your blog posts, then people will eventually tune out. It’s worse if you’re not following anybody because you have no idea what it is they’re talking about. When I see a new follower, one of the first things I do is look at their stream. If all I see is self promotion, I don’t bother following back.

It Is Not About You – One of my favorite books of all time is ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People.’ In it, Stephen Covey writes, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This is essentially an offshoot of what Jesus said in Luke 6:31 – “Do to others as you would have them do to you. (NIV)” It is easy to find people on Twitter who have the same interests you do. Don’t jump into Twitter and start asking people questions (unless of course it is related to using Twitter itself) and looking for help on issues. Do that first for others. Ask how you can help others. Seek out those with similar interests and see if they’re asking questions. If they are, jump in and assist. It is the easiest way to engage people and have them follow you.

Make an effort to provide interesting tweets – Twitter indeed start off being a, “What are you doing?” application. And early on, people used it for that purpose. But Twitter has evolved. Yes, people still send out tweets that say, “I’m off to Starbucks” or “Getting ready to see ____ in concert.” I do it. It’s common. However, your entire twitter stream should not be filled with the mundane facts of your life. Other areas to avoid: Doing nothing but tweeting quotes, never tweeting anything yourself, but just @ replying others and doing nothing but re-tweeting.

Change how you use Twitter if you’re frustrated with it and it will work better for you.

Anything you would add to the list?

If you’re a beginner, check out this post by Jeff Goins for some good tips.