Kirstin & Todd's Wedding Orfilia Winery 7.31.2010

Just finished photographing Kirstin & Todd's beautiful wedding which was held at the Orfilia Winery in Escondido, CA.
Stay tuned for some more images from this wedding, I will post more as soon I have them touched up.
Wanted to post this one image and express how much I love what I do. Of course I had to come home and immediately work on at least one image...
Working with such a wonderful couple like Kirstin & Todd surrounded by their family & friends was very cool to be a part of. I would like to thank the both of them for allowing me to be a part of their special day. Best wishes to you both and have a good time in Hawaii!

Special thanks to Greg Davidson for assisting me on this wedding today, you did a great job.

Real Estate Photo Shoot out on Del Dios Highway

Had a real long day today and finished it off with a real estate photo shoot out off of Del Dios Highway near Lake Hodges. After the hectic day it was nice to have this house completely to myself with the peace and quiet and the real nice views to photograph.
Definitely time for bed for me..., long day ahead of me tomorrow. Shooting a wedding at the Orfilia Vineyards and Winery which I am really looking forward to.

Have a good night!

Close up shot of the front of the house.

View of Lake Hodges from the Master Bedroom.

Sewing Lesson with Grandma Barros

Had a great lunch and got a first time sewing lesson from Grandma Barros (my wife Michele's grandmother) today up in Murrieta, CA. With the help from Grandma we were able to knock out this hand bag today which you see below. Must say I am beyond impressed with the outcome for a first time. This whole idea stemmed from Michele having similar hand bags and always being asked where and how she got the hand bag. After the 40 to 50th time of people asking, we thought we might try one. Today was the first day we took a step forward and gave it a whirl. For never been on a sewing machine in my entire life, I think Grandma and I did a pretty good job. The next hand bag we are going to make is black & white and Michele is going to do that one on her own. Grandma is going to show us the ropes before we get the confidence in doing it all ourselves.
All in all I had really good time spending some quality time with Grandma Barros and learning something new. I really appreciated the time we spent today and it is times like these you look back on and hold in high regard.

Love you Grandma, you're truly awesome!

Grandma sporting a pose with the new bag.

Sell your photos Online

If you are an amateur photographer or just someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to make money from your images. The business of stock photography has grown significantly on the internet, which in turn has allowed photography enthusiasts to find a marketplace for their images.


I'm extremely happy to say I stopped procrastinating and finally submitted some images to a stock agency. The stock site I heard the most positive reviews on was Shutterstock. After working on some images I thought were worthy enough of being stock images I finally uploaded them. Reason why I procrastinated so long was because I read up on Shutterstocks forum about their entry requirements. To get "approved" to have access to upload to their site you must submit 10 images for them to critique. You must get 7 out of 10 approved or you cannot submit again for another 30 days. Long story short, I submitted the images and got an approval within 12 hours. I got 9 out of 10 approved which I am really happy about. The image that was rejected was a image of the word "health" spelled out in Scrabble letters. Copy right infringement, which is a no-no, I had to learn somewhere though...

Now that I am approved I can upload as many photos as I want. All images still go through the review process, but, almost all are getting accepted. I'm getting rejected for focus, noise, no commercial value, etc.
Again, I am really happy that I finally followed through with my goal of pursuing my stock. Now I just need to keep making milestone goals with my stock to keep pushing it. You are not going to get rich over night doing stock. But, if you keep chugging away and keep feeding the machine you will build a nice portfolio, make a few bucks, and enjoy yourself in the process. To me, that is living. If you do look into using Shtterstock please use my referral code: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=628330
Please take a look at my current gallery which I will be building upon.
http://shutterstock.com/g/joehamilton
After being accepted 7/20/2010 I have already sold 46 images! It is really quite cool to check in on your stats and see what is being purchased and downloaded and seeing your money adding up. Of course it is not a lot of money right now, but, I do see the potential.

If you have good images, you can easily earn anywhere from $300 to $1,000 a month. Here are some places where you can sell your photos and earn money from them:

Shutterstock - one of the most, if not the most popular micro stock photography sites on the Web today. Some photographers earn about $600 a month from this site alone. The site pays you $0.25 per download of your images, as well as referrals both in terms of other photographers and photo buyers.

Alamy - as a contributor, you get 65% of the sale of your photos while you retain copyright and editorial control over your images.

iStockPhoto - royalty structure is 20% if non-exclusive and 40% if exclusive.

Other sites that you need to check include:

Corbis - http://www.corbisimages.com/
BigStockPhoto - http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

Exum Recording Studio

Stopped by Exum Recording Studio in Escondido, CA today to take a few photos of my younger brother Jordan. Scott Exum who is the owner of the studio laid down some tracks of Jordan for his new album while I got a few images. I will keep you posted with a link to Jordan's new album when it is finished.
Any bands in southern California looking to record their bands should definitely hit up Scott for his expertise. He is very well known and has a lot of history in San Diego. Check out his website for more information.

Exum Recording
Scott Exum
629 West 5th Avenue
Escondido, CA 92025-4040
(760) 739-9700
http://www.exumrecording.com/

Baby Hunter's 1st Photo Shoot

Finally got a chance to photograph my new niece Hunter Lynn Hamilton. No words needed...

"BlueBloodRed" & "Being Jared" Birthday Bash

Headed over to Pier View Pub in Oceanside to celebrate my younger brother Jordan's birthday.
Michele and I cruised over a little earlier to check out the Oceanside Street Fair which is held on Thursdays on the same street as Pier View Pub. Plenty of good food and lots of interesting stuff to check out at each of the vendors booths. If you have not attended the Oceanside Street Fair it is worth checking out.
Jordan set up a show for his band (Being Jared) and my other brother Jeff's band (BlueBloodRed) to play a show on his birthday 7.15.2010. Jordan was pretty stoked to finally play a show with his older brother whom he looks up to a great deal. Jeff & Jordan have always been the true musicians of the family and I was proud to see them both doing what they love to do in front of family & friends.

For more info on the bands check out their links:
Being Jared:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Being-Jared/114410755249119
http://www.myspace.com/beingjared

BlueBloodRed:
http://www.myspace.com/bluebloodred

Dale's 50th Birthday Party - Slide Show

Finished off Dale's 50th Birthday Slide Show and thought I would put it up on the blog to share.
Must say I really enjoy putting together slide shows of important life events with family & friends involved. The laughter and tears mixed with the right music can be very powerful and the memories will be cherished for a lifetime.
The song I chose for the slide show is called "La Mar", by The Beautiful Girls.

Dale's 50th Birthday Party from Joe Hamilton on Vimeo.

Natalie & Dare's Wedding - Santa Barbara 7.10.2010

Michele and I headed up to Santa Barbara this past weekend for Michele's good friend Natalie's wedding. I had some time to kill during the day so I cruised around town and got some photos of Santa Barbara.
The Santa Barbara Mission was my first stop and you need a lot of patience to get the shot you want here. Took a while to get the shot I wanted without people being in the photo. In this 1st image the only person that wasn't moving anytime soon was this lady with her baby, bottom left corner. There was close to one hundred people in front of the Mission so I was impressed I got the shots I did get without people in the shot.
It was actually really nice to attend a wedding and not be the official photographer and just enjoy myself. Of course I can't entirely enjoy myself without the camera, so..., I had to get a few images. Michele wanted me to leave the camera in the car, that wasn't going to happen...
Brought along a medium format camera I got a little over a year ago and I've never put it to use. Thought this trip would be a good place to try it out. Shot a few rolls of b&w & color and dropped them off yesterday to get processed. As soon as I get the finished product back I will post one or two images up on the blog.
Natalie & Dare got married at the Granada Theater on State Street in Santa Barbara which was just awesome. This place has to be one of the most unique places to get married. Drove by earlier in the day to get a picture of the Theater with their names on the marquee. Again, patience is key, waiting for no cars or people to be in the shot on a Saturday at 12 noon.
Extra special thanks and congratulations to Natalie & Dare for this past weekend. You both are amazing people and I wish you the best in your future to come.

The official literature calls Mission Santa Barbara "Queen of the Missions for its graceful beauty." Founded on December 4th, 1786, it was the tenth of 21 Franciscan missions in California.

The Granada Theater is Santa Barbara's oldest standing movie palace, opening on April 9, 1924, and is the tallest building in the city.

Chocolate cigarettes for everyone!

Father & daughter dance.

Natalie & Dare's first dance.

Natalie gracefully doing her amazing dance.

Snapped a quick picture of the Granada Theater during the reception with no one in the entire place. I wanted to grab the bride & groom and place them in the center of the image, but, I wasn't working remember...
One of my more favorite images of the trip.

Michele and I enjoying ourselves with our chocolate cigarettes & cocktails.

Michele signing the official paperwork.

Michele & Evan (Natalie's father) after the wedding.