Studioten, Photography Website and a New Server

The last 2 months have been crazy. What am I talking about, the whole year has been crazy so far. My usual slow months of January through March were not slow at all. Last month I got the wild idea to actually open a studio. This is something I threatened myself with many times over the last few years but never went through with it. I finally found a decent location at a price that didn’t make me nervous. In the matter of a few days I had keys and lots of new ideas. We completely revamped the entire place, it was super gross. I decided to call it Studioten. It is named after the suite number, which is ten. Here is a short video of us painting.

My old home office is now my Wife’s crafty space. She has been making it her own and even posted a before and after over on her blog.

I recently contracted/hired a guy to help with some of my online projects. Ben is now in charge of video reviews over at DailyAppShow.Com. This takes a huge load off of my shoulders and will allow me to grow the site and focus on other projects. Ben works with me at Studioten handling the app video reviews and will be doing other video projects for clients of mine. The new studio really took a lot more time and effort to get up then I thought it would. I imagined doing half of what I ended up doing. Ben is working on a video that shows the rest of the process of us setting up the place.

My Photography website was getting out dated. I had not changed anything there in over a year and a half, maybe longer. I had been wanting to create a site that had large full width images on the home page so that is what I did. The focus is the photography, just like it should be. Take a look and let me know what you think. I wanted to do this design update last year but I didn’t have the time available.

I now offer videography services as well. Many of you know that I have a love for video and have some experience behind me in wedding videography. My main focus over the last several years has been Wedding Photography but have recently decided to expand to offering video as well. Because my team now includes more than just myself, I have the resources needed. Check out some of our wedding videography.

Earlier this month I taught a class on the Mac. I had been wanting to teach a class for quite some time but never had a place to do it. Now that I have Studioten put together I plan to do classes more often. At the Mac Class I had 18 people in attendance which is about all the room can hold. I am excited to put together more classes and even head up some think tank sessions with some of my favorite local ideas people.

I have also partnered with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) on a few projects and have been doing some photography and video with them. If you get a chance to visit UCP’s Modesto Office you will see photos I captured all over their halls. It was such a fun experience and I can’t wait to do more with them in the near future.

The last big thing that has been going on lately is the migration of all of my websites to a new server. This includes my clients websites. I have been on the same server for over eight years. To be honest I am very surprised at how it has performed considering how old it is. Liquidweb has been amazing over the years with their support. I have had minor issues with that server considering that it runs 24/7 to keep my clients and my own websites live. The new server will go live early at the end of the week. This server is screaming fast compared to my old server. The need for an upgrade is due to an increase in traffic on a couple of the sites I host. If you are looking for great hosting I highly recommend Liquidweb.

What’s next?

Over the next few months I will be pretty busy with weddings but I also have some plans for DailyAppShow.Com that I have been wanting to roll out. I have a few class ideas that I would like to get working on and a podcast on Photography that is long overdue.

I had a feeling that 2011 was going to be pretty cool, so far it has not disappointed. It has not been an easy year, but I am enjoying the ride.

Liam will turn one year old on June 5th and my Wife will hit quarter-life at the end of May. Pretty darn cool!