Congratulations to Jen Kroll for being the highest bidder and winning 90 minutes with Lara and I at WPPI for a mentoring session! She'll also receive a free copy of ActionRunner too!

Only problem is, aren't we supposed to mentor the one who pays? She rocks! I'm sure we'll have some questions too! Can't wait to meet Jen!

Also, if your interested in a little bit of the online drama that happened last night check out www.thirstrelief.blogspot.com and see my post! We brought in over $25,000.00 dollars through the WPPI Mentor Benefit Auction!!! But it wasn't without some excitement! (crashing servers, maximum user overload errors, anti-sniping features on the auction site that made it so that you couldn't win unless you really were willing to bid the most, just like a real auction.)

Anyway, I was up til 3:00 a.m. dealing with the drama and excitement of the auction and then I was up at 5 a.m. in order to be downtown and ready for a photo shoot with Coach Tony Dungy (2007 Super Bowl Champs) Coach Jim Tressell, go Bucks! and Archie Griffin! I love being the photographer for the Columbus Gathering as it provides really incredible opportunities to hear incredible speakers and take some pix of awesome people! Check out this photo of all the guys praying together before Coach Dungy speaks!

We really are a lot nicer than we look here in this shot, but it's what I have. Anyway, this year at WPPI Lara and I will be offering a 90 minute mentoring session. We'll take our highest bidder out for a meal, it will be one-on-one or I guess 2-on-one or 2, just depends on if a spouse attends. Before we meet we'll take the time to evaluate your portfolio and website and consider any questions you might have. Share openly about our lives, our business, about Thirst Relief, how we juggle the responsibilities of family life, business, running a non-profit, how our faith plays a role in all this etc. Pretty much whatever you want to talk about we'll be happy to do it. Be warned though, this could be dangerous! Last year the girl we mentored was sobbing! By the end of our time she was smiling again and hugging us. We were actually able to uncover a deep sense of guilt over charging "too much" for her services etc. and it was this guilt that was keeping her from taking her business to the next level where she could reach her fuller potential. Anyway, we spoke truth to her, prayed for her and she left changed! It was awesome! We left changed and never dreamed a photo mentor session could be so powerful. We recently received a nice big box of gourmet candies with a special note of thanks for how we affected her life and she went on to tell us about how much her business has changed for the better and more!

So, not to lay out too much expectation or make anyone afraid, but if you would like to take advantage of this opportunity we'd love to do it! Plus 100% of all the procedes go directly to benefit Thirst Relief International! It's an online auction so go HERE if you'd like to bid. Plus we'll also demonstrate our editing tool ActionRunner and giving a free copy to the highest bidder. There is only one day left to the auction so check it out if your interested.

Also, be on the lookout for who is on the cover of Studio Photography this month when it's realeased!!

I just had to share this very quickly, it's an all-time classic!

For those who don't know, Lara and I are expecting our 3rd child! We are very excited, however when Lara conceives she is typically VERY sick from about week 8-20 and is bedridden most of the time or she ends up hospitalized from dehydratoin due to excessive vomitting. It's pretty rough, so right now everything is on me and with the support of some friends and family I am taking care of Lara, the boys, the business and still operating as president of Thirst Relief International. (this is volunteer, my real job is a passionate wedding photographer! And my thirst staff does more of the day to day than I do!)

Anyway, so a nurse came to our home yesterday (since our insurance finally agreed to pay for a zophran pump, cause you know we only pay nearly $1000 a month for our health insurance.) So, she came to show Lara and I how to hook up this pump/IV type thing that pumps regular doses of this anti-nausea medication called zophran. Anyway, I'm sitting there watching the nurse show us how to do it (so that lara isn't vomitting all day) and Brayden my 3 year old comes over and say's "Daddy, hold me my stomache hurts. Will you rub it?" I said sure honey and held him as I listened carefully, a few moments later he HURLS on my chest!!!!! I was a bit in shock as I was covered in vomit and I ran to the bathroom carrying him to get him over the toilet where he proceeds to emmit the rest of his lunch!

Funny thing is I wouldn't trade the last 6 weeks of misery for much less than a million $ maybe :) but for real, it's been amazing how God has used it in me to see how little so much of what I strive for matters. In the end if I love my family, my God and serve each of them faithfully life is GREAT! In that I can serve my clients with excellence as I am serving God but as almost anyone with a family and carreer or any other passion can relate to it's easy to drop the ball on the most important things while seeking to maintain your own "shtuff". I heard a line the other day in a song, it goes "You put me here for a reason, How can I further Your Kingdom when I so caught up in mine?" Often my own little kingdom gets in the way, it's like James Cameron (you know the guy that directed the totally inaccurate show that claimed they found Jesus' bones?) when he won the oscar for Titanic he jumped up and down saying "I'm the king of the world!" NO, not even close, just a good director with some seriously great talent that doesn't mean a hill of beans to most of the people that me and my staff at Thirst Relief labor daily for to save their lives and most of the rest of the world. (sorry for the run on.)

Anyway, it was just too funny. And literally I was laughing as I held my little guy over the toilet and watched him chucking it all right there! I wasn't laughing at him, I was laughing at the fact that just earlier that day in church I was standing there worshipping God with my hands raised high and I said to God in my heart, "Thank you for helping me to learn obedience and perseverance in the midst of suffering, just like you did." I kinda thought to myself as I stood there "I got it, I got what HE wants me to get in this trying time, now it will be over soon." Then almost in humor I go home and get a chest full of vomit!!! It was so funny.

Over the past 5 weeks I've had some seriously hard times (hard for my comfy sheltered world) and at times have failed at being a kind and patient father and loving, compassionate husband, but in the end God is using it all to draw me to Himself and set my heart in line with His will, not mine!

Thank you Jesus!

And thank you to all who have prayed, called (probably w/out a return call) and have brought a meal or played with the boys!

WPPI 2007 Thirst Benefit Mentor Auction


Who: You and generous and talented industry leaders who are donating their time, wisdom, experience and excellence in the form of 1-90 minute mentoring sessions.

The List in Alphabetical Order:
Becker
Charles and Jennifer Maring
Chenin and Doug Boutwell
Chris LaLonde
Dane Sanders
David Beckstead
David Jay
Davina Fear
Denis Reggie
DQ Studios
Gary Fong
Gene Higa
Huy from f8 Studio
Jeff Jochum
Jefferson Todd
Jeffrey and Julia Woods
Jerry Ghionis
Jessica Claire
Jim and Lara Davis-Hicks
Joe Photo
John at Imagemakr.com
John Michael Cooper
Joy and Garrett Nudd
LaCour's Rachel and Andrew
Laura Novak
Liana Lehman
Marcus Bell
Matt Antonino
Me Ra Koh
Michele Celentano
Mike Colon
Mike Larson
Nathan and Amber Holritz
Parker Pfister
Pepper Nix
Ryan Joseph
Stephen and Jen Bebb
Vanessa Hall from Wildberry Studio+Design
Vicki Taufer
Yervant

What: The 2nd Annual WPPI Thirst Benefit Mentor Auction is happening this week! Each of the Mentors listed above has donated 1-90 minute mentor session to the highest online bidder. 100% of all proceeds will go directly to providing pure water for those who need it most via Thirst Relief International.

When: The Auction will be live March 1st-March 8th at midnight PST.

Why: Because over 1 billion people lack access to safe, clean water and nearly 2.5 million children die annually as a result. For $5 we can provide a lifetime of safe, clean water to one person in need! Click here to learn how.

HOW????: Follow these instructions in detail to place your online bid!

1. Click the link below (thanks to fotoverite.com for the free online auction)
2. Once you arrive at fotoverite.com click on the Thirst Relief Logo and register for the auction.
5. You'll then see all the different names and auctions you can bid on. Follow the intuitive online bidding format provided.

BID ON YOUR FAVORITE MENTOR NOW!! By clicking HERE.

Note: If you win the auction you will be required to make your payment online via credit card at www.thirstrelief.org within 24 hours of winning. If you do not make your payment you will forfeit your session and the second highest bidder will be the winner. Please do not bid if you are not prepared to donate online within 24 hours of winning the auction.

I created a new action today! It's kind of a cross between a vintage look and a color infrared. I call it Colortage. It will be bundled in the User Friendly V.2.0 of ActionRunner. The GUI for ActionRunner 2.0 is so smooth and seemless, user friendly and dummy proof! It's gonna be rockin!

However, while I've been able to get alot of work done today since my parents are in town Lara has had a horrible day. Please pray for her health. I can't stand to see her like this. Why pregnancy affects some like this and not others is a mystery.

God bless,

jim

so my last post was on friday, lara's best day was saturday.

could it be a prayerful connection?

let's do an experiment.

if you know anyone that is a praying, miracle believing believer ask them to pray for Lara to be freed from the extreme nausea she experiences in pregnancy.

right now she is completely bedridden and vomits multiple times a day. saturday she experienced some freedom and actually got showered, dressed and out of the house for a few hours. it was amazing to have her back among us! the next day, she was back to normal.

so, that said, she is in need of some prayer! please pass this request on to others and i'll report back on how she is doing!

thank you.

Life Comes At You Fast!!

Though we do have our coats on since it was only 56 degrees and windy, it was sure nice compared to what we came home to! Frozen pipes in our kitchen (our house was built in 1875 and has poor insulation under our floors in the kitchen) anyway it's been anywhere from -7 to 20 degrees but not above that for like 2 weeks now! Lara is also really sick with the first trimester of our 3rd child! So, from 56 to -7, to a sick and bedridden momma and some needy boys with a thriving business and helping to run www.thirstrelief.org I am kinda busy!

I'll take all the prayers I can get! God bless you all.

Here is the snow outside my back door!

I don't know if this is from who it say's it is but I must say I think it's pretty accurate and a real masterpiece.

Enjoy.

AN EXPLANATION OF TAX CUTS.........................
Sometimes politicians, journalists and others exclaim; "It's just a tax
cut for the rich!" and it is just accepted to be fact, without
questioning it. But what does that really mean? Just in case you are
not completely clear on this issue, the following might help.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that
every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to
$100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something
like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce
the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just
$80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so
the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men; the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's
bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the
amounts each should pay.
And so:
The first four men (the poorest) would still pay nothing.
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The
sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5
instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25%
savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth
now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four
continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men
began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the
$20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got
$10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar,
too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get
anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the
tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers
without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something
important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even
half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how
our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might
start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, PhD
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

This picture represents our growing family. Count how many snowmen there are!

I've read that Ancient Celtic Warriors used to strip down naked and paint their bodies before heading to war! This must be the Irish coming out in my boys!

Today is Brayden's 3rd Birthday. He definitely has a warrior spirit. Sometimes it wears me out, I am just praying that I can help to direct it in the right direction.

Happy Birthday Brayden, your daddy and mommy love you soooooooo much!

Every year now at WPPI we are doing a Thirst Relief Benefit Mentor Auction. Big name photogs like Mike Colon, David Jay, Dane Sanders and many others sign up to be mentors for a 45 minute session. All the procedes go directly to benefit Thirst Relief International!

Super cool news is that Denis Reggie known as "the father of wedding photojournalism" is on board as a mentor! I am blown away at the continued amazing responses that we get in support of Thirst Relief International!

Thank you Denis and the entire photo community!

Just as I was writing this I received word that [b]ecker and jessica claire are both in too!

This weekend's slidshow from the wedding. click here

So this weekend I shot this really great couples wedding, Jennifer and Jason. But, as wedding time often is running late we were running out of daylight fast and on top of that it was raining! So we had to get really creative. I saw this old horse barn at the venue and thought, that'd be a great shot, but no light???? hmmm, I don't want a fake look of just flash, even bounced or filtered wouldn't give me the look I was going for, so I asked Mike Lotz of Lotz Photography who was shooting with me to pull my truck up and shine the lights in the barn at an angle, this is what I got! If you could see what it looked like with the naked eye you'd be amazed at how this shot turned out! When I showed them on my D2x lcd they couldn't believe it! I was very pleased. I'm gonna make a soft box for my headlights, no joke.

God bless guys! Have a great time in Canada on your honeymoon, I hope you get the snow you were praying for!

all i can say is "what happened to my bucks?" that was not the same team i cheered on all year!

wow, i'm in shock.

i will give credit to Troy Smith right after the game he said "There is a whole lot more to life than football, this kinda stuff forces you to grow up."

wow, he didn't blame the line, or lack of line, he just recognized it's a sport and he better build his life on more than just how well he plays it.

i'm sick at the loss but i wish i was more sick at what is happening every day across the globe with injustices that are too sick to mention here. know what i mean?

Scrooge/Grinch or next to Santa/Elf like???

Which one are YOU? I'd love to hear what best describes you this time of year and why?

I can be a bit of a Scrooge cause I hate buying gifts for folks that already have everything already! I think that consumerism christmas has almost completely wiped out the real meaning of Christmas, but I do love the concept of giving, it's just hard cause so many folks need so much more than us and yet we give to eachother. Don't get me wrong, I love giving a gift to folks that need it or if it's something really cool that they don't have but I'd rather go in with my family and buy a car or something crazy for a family in need or do international effort stuff like fund an entire well $5k in Zambia with Thirst or something.

So what are you? I'd love to hear!

Also, I have a super cool photog seminar idea, it will only accomodate like 3 photogs max per session but it will be super cool! Shoot me an email info@davistools.com if your interested in learning more.

Being the President of non-profit www.thirstrelief.org is like being a kid during Christmas time! I never know how much year end giving we'll see come in and it's so exciting to see them when they arrive! It's been so fun to see Mike Colon, Gary Fong, Jeffrey and Julia Woods and many others getting involved and generously!

Life is good, business is good, kids are great, marriage is rockin! I like when life feels like it does right now, but I know that whether it feels good or not God is good!

I'm thankful for the gift of Jesus this Christmas and for all of you too!

God bless, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What a "Weekend to Remember"!!!

For real, I must say this past weekend was by far the very best investment I've made into my marriage. What an incredibly amazing experience! I can't say enough.

Whether your engaged to be married, into it a few years, on the rocks, doing great or are celebrating your golden anniversary this conference is a winner!

I was so impressed I want to go back next year. They have them all over the country and in some really cool locations too! WOW!!!!

Jose Alvarez and Karl and Junanne Clauson were the speakers and they rocked!

I just can't believe how great it was! I know you can also listen to some of Karl's other messages at www.changepointalaska.com what a gifted speaker and a man full of the life of God!

Weekend To Remember

Lara and I are headed off to this really incredible weekend marriage conference. I'm super exctied about it. They say "If you don't agree that this is the best money you've ever spent toward your marriage we'll refund your money." With this type of a guarantee plus the recommendation of some friends who have been to it we figured we couldn't pass it up!

Marriage is such an amazing gift and such an incredible responsibility! I had a friend who said "You know, I started thinking, "I'm getting this walk with Jesus down pretty good, I'm doing pretty good in life and just being a better person. . . . then, I got married and realized what an absolute jerk I still was. Then I got the marriage part down a good bit and started feeling good about me again . . . then I had kids and . . ."

You get the point. Anyway, I'm excited to learn how to be the best husband I can be!

God bless you all!

P.S. Thanks Mom and Dad for staying with the kids!

I just received an email from a sister-in-law of a couple we shot like 4 years ago. She had a print that was somehow damaged and wanted to order a new one. It's times like these that I am so glad to be a Pictage partner! Using a pro lab like Pictage allows me to simply go online, select the event I want to rerelease and click "release" and it's done. Now the customer can simply go online, reorder the pic and I don't have to dig up old back up cd's, make the print, mail the print etc. for what would be nearly no profit when it's all done. Plus by releasing the event online again it might just generate a few more sales etc. as I added a discount purchase price for the next two months! If you've not used Pictage or have heard negative things in the past about them, just know that the CEO Jason Keifer recently sent out a letter addressing the 4 most common complaints about their services and he described in detail their efforts to improve in these areas. I'm proud to be in partnership with such a great company! And since I've had no sponsorship from Pictage (though I wish I was) I say this with no other motive than simply turning others onto a great service that really reduces the stress in my life and allows to focus on running my business, not just maintain it.

This Christmas consider giving the gift of life by providing a bio sand water filter to a village in need. For only $50 you can implement and install a filter that will radically change the health of a community, save lives and provide jobs for our ground workers that labor diligently every day to produce these incredible life saving filters! To learn more about how you can get involved visit www.thirstrelief.org also, the first 50 responders will receive a free Thirst t-shirt!

I just received these pix from Dave Webster who recently visited our water project in Zambia! Dave has been an amazing supporter of Thirst Relief International both as a source of encouragement and financially! Thanks Dave.

Sometimes I wonder how many people are jealous that I have the cutest kids in the world!

Not really, but man I can't imagine them any cuter!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I just received this VanValkenburg Original drawing that has my son Brayden's name in it.

Can you see it?

These are really incredible works of art!

Brayden, my almost 3 year old son fell asleep in his grandpa horsey's arms (he calls him that cause he had horses, but it's grandpa hicks, my dad) while he was riding four wheelers through the woods at our cabin! What a fun day.

What's crazy is that he is the most difficult child at nap and bed time! He fights it sooooo bad but so desperately needs it or he's really crabby. And yet he'll fall asleep like this as we are riding over hills and creeks etc. so funny.

One of my favorite things to do (when it's not demanded of me) is to lay down with him at nap time and tell him a story about Jesus and then pray for him. So I'm laying there praying the other day and I say "Lord, draw us near to you." He say's "daddy, daddy why you pray for John Deere?" His grandpa would have been proud. He must be a country boy at heart!

God bless you all and I pray you/we have eyes to see all of our blessings for what they really are and we are not so caught up in the things that so easily distract us from what really counts!

And for anyone who can't believe I'd take my child on a fourwheeler, we go really, really slow and are very careful while we ride around with the little guys.

It's amazing how much little notes of encouragment make a difference in your day.

I just received this note from a groom to be in 2007. I'm shooting he and Amy's wedding in May, their whole family is awesome! I shot Amy's sister's wedding a couple years ago.

Thanks James, you and Amy rock!

Jim,I hope this email finds you and your family doing well. I wanted to express my sincerist gratitude for the excellent job you've done with Amy and my engagment session...it was so cold that day, but you can't tell it through the photos. I'm sure you're exceptionally busy right now but your efforts to push our proofs through your workflow, so we could have them to show friends and family for the holidays is something I'm extremely grateful for. Being able to view and share the set on Pictage has been an added convenience, with both sets of parents having laughed and cried while viewing the set. I'm sure this is one of many emails you have recieved in relation to your exceptional customer service and even more so your talent with a camera. Thank you again! James Laine

My most sincere appologies to all of you who have run into problems with the PC version of ActionRunner.

An error occurred with my tech guys when they bundled the last version together.

Two ways to solve the problem:

1. Go into Photoshop and rename the "Davis Tools ActionRunner" action set to "Davis Tools Actions".

2. Or go to http://www.davistools.com/ and download the updated version for free. The same password can be used to get in if you've previously been given a password.

I really do appreciate your patience and I sincerely hope that you'll be willing to try this amazing tool again now that the problem has been remedied.

Sincerely,
Jim Davis-Hicks
http://www.davistools.com/


If you have not requested your free 60 day trial version of ActionRunner and would like to receive a copy please e-mail me at info@davistools.com and I'll send you a password to access the download site and a password to activate your trial version.




Jeff Laplante "I just edited a wedding today using ActionRunner and I am amazed at the amount of time I saved using this incredible tool."

I must say that I'm shocked that someone who approves of partial birth abortion would be put into office to lead the state of Ohio!

Did you know that every single day in the USA there are more children killed through abortion than total soldiers killed in the war in Iraq?

I'm not saying I agree with all of what has happened in Iraq, I feel a far more aggressive attack upon the rebel forces there would be far more affective, but that's not my call. What I am saying is that I am sickened that people are more concerned about a current seemingly poor economy and the status of the war than they are about the thousands that murdered daily just cause they are an incovenience.

"America is great because America is good." We are more benevelant than any other country in the history of the world.

"America will cease to be great when it ceases to be good." How can we be good if we could care less about babies than to just dispose of them even if their hearts are beating loud and clear as early as 8 weeks? They beat before that, that's just when we hear them.

Last and most significant of my thoughts, (in my opinion) When does a human become valuable? Is it after someone else would miss them if they were gone? Is it after they've been invested in or received an education? When???? Any answer less than "The moment they are conceived!" puts others at the center, it puts the mother, the father, the friends, the institutions and people that that human life affects at the center. How selfish is that? I don't take pure water to folks in Zambia and Brazil because somehow my life is affected or I'll miss them if they suffer and die! I do it because all humans are created equal, valuable, worthy of life and worthy of our joy or our inconvenience! Either a human is valuable or it's not. Who are we to decide when they become valuable? If grandpa is old and a burden to take care of should we give him a shot to let him "pass away?" No, that's murder.

Get out and VOTE!

As a Christian and a concerned citizen I take our responsibility and privilege to vote very seriously!

When we went to vote at our old precinct we were turned away because we had moved!
So, it wasn't really convenient but we located our new precinct, got some utility bills to prove our new address and took the boys out and voted. I explained to the boys about how many places bullies rule and we have no say who upholds the Laws and rules that govern our country etc. I'm not sure if it was too advanced but I tried to lower the bar as far as I could.

Anyway, here is a quote about Christians and voting that I thought was really good! Enjoy.

"Christians should vote as a tangible demonstration of our love and concern for our neighbor. Many of the policies instituted by those in elected office will affect our loved ones and those around us in very real ways. Christians are not simply another narrow special-interest group, pushing only for those issues that directly impact us. Rather, just as God 'causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45), so should our concern be ensuring justice and liberty for all." -Dr. James Dobson

So how hard does your heart have to be to steal these little cuties pumpkins?

Today we went outside to do some fall leaves clean up and realized our pumpkins had been stolen off of our porch! Can you believe it? Four really big pumpkins, just gone! We colored them, made them pretty etc. and someone had a hard enough heart to steal them.

Anyway, you could see that little one's colored the two, a loving mom did the welcome and well the weird face it was mine. The best part is that I wrote out John 3:16 on the back of mine "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son and whoever would believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life! Even ME!!!" making reference to the weird face on the front. I hope these thieves read it are convicted and change their ways!

The boys were so upset about it but we used it as an opportunity to pray for the robbers and asked God to bring them close to Him and change them!

I guess in that it was a really good thing. I'd rather my kids learn mercy, forgiveness and grace than have a nicely decorted front porch!

We got sooooo much candy and had soooo much fun!

What a great time to meet new neighbors, have a ton of fun, eat free chipotle and more!!!

God is good and He has so blessed me and my family!

The whole time we'd introduce ourselves by name and brayden would pipe in "No, I'm not Brayden, I'm Scooby Doo!"

Are they flippin cute or what?

Go Bucks, Whoof whoof!

p.s. today's game was wayyyyyyyyy too close, they played like they were drugged! still won, for which i am glad, but not the performance i've come to expect from #1, Oh yah! Go bucks!

did i say go bucks???? go bucks!

Just a thought.

Someone asked me how I'm doing today on e-mail.

My response started out like this "i'm doing well, really busy and just trying to keep family and God in their proper place."

As I wrote this I had to stop and consider what I was writing. Hmmm, family has a proper place, but what is God's proper place? How do you keep an all consuming fire in it's place?????

I had to stop and rewrite my response. "i'm doing well, really busy and trying not to be consumed with all that's going on, love my family properly and let God the all comsuming fire have His way with me."

If this doesn't make sense to you, then perhaps you too have tried to "put God in his proper place." God wants all of us, not just a corner of our life.

God bless you all.

jim

FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS!!!!!

For the next two weeks you can get online, buy ActionRunner 1.0 Suite or ActionRunner 1.0 only and if after READING the User Guide and actually editing a wedding or a large number of images you are not fully satisfied I'll refund your entire purchase price! (But you have to delete it from your harddrive! And you can't steal the idea etc. It's between you, the Law and God at that point!)

Here is what Jeff LaPlante has to say about ActionRunner 1.0

"Sure, you can batch process images in Photoshop/Bridge but you have to do them all one action set at a time. ActionRunner gives you a electric carving knife to cut up the bird vs. using your old dull paring knife. Simply, you can power through 1100 images in an evening unattended and end up with 10 variations on the same images for you to choose from in the morning while you're drinking your latte. THAT is the POWER of ActionRunner. Don't try to bill it as something new and great for manipulating your images. Bill it as a time saving device that saves you from editing the files yourself or paying an assistant to do it."

For real, you could pay a part time employee $10 and hour to help edit images and in two weeks time you'd pay your employee more than the $350 for ActionRunner Suite.

I promise you that if you take the time to learn this tool, use it to it's fullest and customize it to your likings you'll be SOOOOO glad you did. I LOVE this tool!

BUY IT HERE

ActionRunner 1.0 is now available at www.davistools.com

This tool will revolutionize your editing life!!!!

Enjoy,

Jim Davis-Hicks

we are sooooooo close.

hang in there to all of you who have been writing and asking when it will be ready!

for real, we should be live in the next 24-36 hours or so. i'm at the mercy of my web guys but it's sooooooo close. for real, this is the best tool i can imagine. i just edited a family session today in no time using it! it's incredible.

lastly, many of you have wondered can i use my own actions with ActionRunner??? YES! That's the best part is that you can use your own actions, others actions, create actions, add actions etc. all you have to do is add them in. Nobody, I mean nobody is beyond this tool. you might be set in your style and ways or you might be just starting out, ActionRunner is designed to make your life easier and your images better!

off to watch a show with my wife.

God bless.

jim

I just did a sr. portrait last night of this really great guy named Josh.

I took about 170 of my favorite images, put each of the 170 images into 10 different action folders, clicked ActionRunner and went to bed. I woke up to 1700 different images. I put this little slideshow together with Showit Web and some of my favorite pix from the day. You'd never guess these were captured while it was drizzling out!

Enjoy!

"Click Here" to see the show.

Davis Tools ActionRunner is about to go live!

Many of you have been asking "When????" Well we are soooo close. The user guide will be perfected and we should be live in the next 24 hours (or 36 or so, it's really up to the web guys to finalize it all.)

The user guide is really simple but we want it to be very thorough so that technical support is almost never necessary. The QuickStart guide is like 5 lines long, but the detailed deal and instructions on how to fully customize it are what we want to perfect so that even if your not a Photoshop person etc. you can use it to it's fullest ability! (This thing is sooo unbelieveably easy to use but we want it to be completely dummy proof before we release it.)

Be sure to check out www.davistools.com in the next day or so.

Also, please leave a comment. I'd love to track how far the grapevine travels in the early stages of ActionRunner.

To see the slideshow click here.

Jen and Mike,

What a joy and pleasure it was to shoot your wedding!

We had a really great time and I hope you guys really enjoy your wedding pix for years to come!

Remember when you start working on that nephew that your brother spoke about we'll be here for you!

Talk soon, God bless.

Jim and Lara

Davis Tools ActionRunner 1.0 is up and running! It's still a beta version of it and we are working out any of the quarks but it's amazing.

Hopefully at the end of next week it will be completely available for purchase and ready to run.

For real, I edited a wedding yesterday that started out with 3000+ images, narrowed them down to the top 1000 images and edited them all in less than 3.5 hours time in front of the computer. It's so amazing!

If you want to know more or be notified of when it's ready go to www.davistools.com and sign up for the mailing list.

This is a fully automated deal, it's not like other workflows.

I'm working like crazy to finalize this. Testimonies soon to come from the beta version folks.

i just received this from a client from last year. i thought it was well worth sharing about how to treat a client.


this is a bit random, but i just felt the overwhelming need to express how much we enjoyed working with you both, and how wonderfully easy going you were-- i think my appreciation quadrupled this week a whole year in retrospect, and i wish i could figure out how to better articulate it. chris' sister is getting married next week, and they are absolutely traumatized by their photographer. apparently the original price of the contract has now tripled with extras that "they absolutely have to have", and the family is just shocked, because the woman will not back down and refuses to change her agenda. it is as though she knew when they would be the most stressed out, and moved in for the kill. whereas, i still remember meeting you and walking through the contract, with you telling me straight up "what you see is what you get--no hidden costs"--and that was certainly the case. not to mention, we never felt as though you treated us with anything but the utmost respect, regardless of which package we chose or photos we purchased. at any rate, it had been a pleasure working with you from Day 1, but i certainly have a new, enhanced perspective about how fortunate we were!
best,
jen

i think we settled in in record time cause we were putting in like 18 hour days since we were kid free and we had a lot of amazing friends and family helping us with the move and painting etc. i love our new place and i am so excited to have a formal studio that is gonna rock!

anyway, i'm trying to catch up but putting in the 18 hour days made me a ringer for the flu and i caught it! :( i'm almost fully recovered but still feeling a little junky. it's amazing, every time i get sick so many things are exposed for what they really are, stuff. at the end of my life i wont care about most of what i spend my time doing but i'll so wish with all that is within me that i'd known God and my loved one's more. this year i want to really, truly seek to love God with all that I am and seek to love those around me with all I can!

i'll post some pix of the new place soon, lara has done an amazing job of making it look really sweet already! thanks to all of you who helped us and showed us how loved we really are.

i had to share this real quickly. lara and i went out and spent 9 hours picking out fans, lights, paint and more so that we can make our new home look and feel like we want it to (or at least get a start on it.) when i got home i sat down and picked out my favorite images from a wedding i recently shot, put them into my respective actions folders and clicked on my new "run actions" icon and now i am heading to bed!

what does that mean? it means that all i had to do was select the pix i like, drag and drop them into one of my 25 custom action folders and click "run actions" and now i'm heading to bed. while i sleep all 25 actions will be fully automated, any images having multiple actions applied will be renumbered so i don't lose any images and then they will be automatically placed into my almost finished folder. when i wake up in the morning i'll check to confirm that my images look exactly like i want them to, (if i want to adjust any i'll just use my micro actions that are included in the new Davis Tools EZ Editor 1.0 to edit to final perfection,) then i'll renumber and ftp them to Pictage where they'll take care of the rest!

i know i sound like a salesman but this thing is truly unbelievable. it wont be long before i'll have the beta version available online at www.davistools.com

gary at www.robintek.com is so incredible. he's the guy that does all the programming stuff i need for this project. we are working on making it pretty and working out any problems.

i never thought that editing a wedding could be so easy! if your interested in learning more about this product please go to www.davistools.com and sign up for my mailing list at the bottom of the home page.

360 payments more and it's all mine!

Praise the Lord! We've been looking to get this home for 8 months now and after a little patience, a ton of showing our current home and a big leap of faith for a bigger house payment we are going for it!

We'll be moving our home and office this Sat. Sept. 16th from 9:00 til whenever we are done.

I am really trying to tie up any loose ends for business and make sure everything transfers over as seemless as possible but please be patient if I am not quick to return emails and phone calls.

I'm so excited about this house cause it has a bunch of character as a one of a kind built in the 1800's, an incredible yard, we can walk to anywhere in uptown old westerville and it also has an old out building that we will be converting to our studio shooting space!

Keep us in your prayers as things are a bit stressful as we prepare to move!

God bless,

jim, lara, ashton and brayden

p.s. our new address will be 64 S. Vine St. Westerville, OH 43081

Here's my latest family portrait that I recently did with Brynne and Max's family.

You guys did great and I hope you enjoy these pix for years to come. They grow up so fast! I wish we could put a halt on them growing up. :) God bless you guys and your family.

jim and lara

VIEW SLIDESHOW of JEN N MIKE


The other night I went downtown with Jen and Mike and their dog too! (I probably would have scored some points if I could remember his name. Poindexter maybe??) Anyway, we had such a great time. We spent about 3 hours in the Arena District and had fun, shot pix and ate ice cream. What a blast! Enjoy this show guys. I can't wait to shoot your wedding!

God bless,

Jim

VIEW SLIDESHOW


Emma and Tucker enjoy!

I just shot this wedding this past weekend. I've never shot at The Columbus Club or COSI, both were very, very cool! I'd say they are one of my top picks for a wedding that is around 150 folks! Very fun. The florist did a great job and the coordinators too. And of course my favorite video guys at Outsider Entertainment and Rob Mcdowell at Encore Entertainment did amazing too! Love working with these guys!

two rubber bands, 4 pieces of celery, 4 pieces off of a broom.

a whole lot of fun!! I love my little men!

www.davistools.com/yennyethan

Yenny and Ethan enjoy!

If you want to mail the link to the show it www.davistools.com/yennyethan

www.davistools.com/meganjames

Megan and James, enjoy this little slideshow of your awesome day!!

God bless you guys.

http://www.davistools.com/alexmarta

Check out this slideshow of Alex and Marta! This is my first Showit Web show and I love it!!!!!

Congratulations to Alex and Marta! What an incredible wedding to be a part of and to shoot! God bless you guys!

Also, my Outlook is on the blink and I'm not sure why. If you have e-mailed me recently and have not received a response I appologize. I'm not sure how long it will be until this is resolved.

Thanks for understanding.

I clipped this blog entry from my good friend Mike Colon. He is doing a raffle for some really cool products that are priced well above and beyond the price of a $25 donation. Every $25 donated gets you another ticket and you save 5 lives at the same time. How can you go wrong doing this?

I just bought two tickets myself cause I passionately believe that it's good to save a life for only $5 and I really like the cool products that he is offering. Check it out!


Thursday, July 13, 2006

Hey Everyone! Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth for a couple weeks! I've been working hard, shooting, and spending time with my family. Life is good! God is good!I just now opened up my newsletter from Thirst Relief International and read about all of the cool things that are happening. I'm so excited that things are going so well and so many lives are being saved! I'm thinking about doing a photo expedition workshop to Brazil to raise funds for Thirst. It would be very different from your typical posh newport beach Mike Colon workshop. We would be roughing it on a large boat out in the middle of the amazon jungle sleeping on hammocks and fishing for our food. Totally adventurous and not entirely safe, but a guaranteed life-changing experience. 100% of the proceeds would go to Thirst. If you are crazy enough, and seriously interested, contact me at mike@mikecolon.com, for every $25 you donate to Thirst, I will put your name in a drawing to win one of many cool Tamrac and Epson prizes including bags, accessories and an Epson P4000! For example, if you donate $100 to Thirst, you will have 4 tickets entered in the drawing. Just email your donation receipts to thirstrelief@mikecolon.com. The drawing will be held on Tuesday, August 1, 2006. I will be accepting entries starting now through the end of this month.***CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW AND SAVE LIVES!***

This is the home page for my new Davis Photography Dzine Tools; Photographer Resource Website. It should be live sometime in the next two months. Check out www.davistools.com in the next month or two.

On the site I'll have upcoming seminar information, feature products available like my Davis Dzine Digital JPG Workflow that gives you the freedom and power of a RAW flow but you wont have to spend thousands of $$$$ to buy new harddrives, more cf cards, Adobe CS2 and more. It's really smokin. I've edited all of my 06 weddings with this flow and my clients couldn't be happier with their pix! I am finding that I now actually have time to grow my business and live my life instead of just maintaining and enduring the "busy wedding season" that we all can relate to.

For real, I took my kids to a junk yard on a field trip the other day and then we went to the airport, equipped with light sabors, to hunt some monsters that we heard were landing in Columbus. I have two boys if you can't tell! :) Gotta love them. But I wouldn't have the time to do this kind of stuff with them if I was still editing the way I used to. This workflow has changed my life. If you want to know more about it and would like me to e-mail you when it's available online I'd be happy to contact you, just send me a message that's titled "Workflow Info" in the subject line and I'll be sure to let you know. Write me at info@davistools.com

Today's digital photographer has to do far more than just push a button. An image is a work of art created in a digital darkroom called Photoshop. That's why this workflow is more than just some actions, it's a system of organizing, selecting, editing, renaming, protecting, and automating custom touches to hundreds of images. I am editing 1000 plus images in just a matter of a few hours and getting faster every time I use this new flow. Below you'll see a few before and afters of just a few of the actions that will come with the entire workflow package. Each action is a customized one of a kind created for and by Davis Photography and soon will be available to you who are interested.

I just finished editing Megan and James Bagdalia's wedding! Seriously a job shouldn't be this fun and easy! All we had to do was push the shutter button and they looked amazing! I used my new digital workflow that I custom created to edit this wedding. All of the images have customized actions run and they look awesome. I hope to have my workflow for sale online in about 2 months. Be on the lookout for our new Davis Photography Tools site where we'll have our digital workflow, custom actions, how to's, workshop info and more. I'm excited about it!

Megan and James,
enjoy a couple of the images from your wedding! They'll be available on www.pictage.com in a few days. God bless you guys!

We are now home after 11 days away. We went to Lakeside Ohio and had a great family vacation with lots of fun and then headed to my folks for the Independence Day Weekend and visited with my sister and brother in law who were in from Missisippi and the rest of my family. Lara and I took a ride on my folks Gold Wing too. It was so fun. I want to buy a bike but am waiting patiently for the right one and the right time. It's now back to work. We'll be designing albums for the next couple weeks and doing some business development as well. Also, I'll have some images to come from my most recent wedding of Megan and James. They turned out incredible. Can't wait to edit them.

The Four most important things in my life are God, my wife Lara, my son Ashton and my son Brayden.

Over the next couple weeks we'll be back and forth all over Ohio. This weekend we're shooting a great wedding at Congress Lake, then we'll be at the Alive Festival representing Thirst Relief International and then at the Lakes shooting another great wedding, then on to family vacation at Lakeside. Because nothing means more to me than the four I mentioned above I've been working extra hard lately to get ahead enough to be able to really enjoy our time away. Therefore, I will probably not be updating the blog for a while, we'll see how that goes and I wont be attending to business matters as quickly as normal. So if you find yourself waiting for a reply to e-mail, a returned call, or a meeting just know that your very important to us and we look forward to connecting soon. God bless and may all of you who read this blog be as blessed as I am and more!























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