Check out the video below for an annoucement about an amazing event for business owners!! It will be an amazing event. I hope to see you there!

Click here to register for the event!

Identity Conference 2010 from stephen knuth on Vimeo.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of shooting a Mom & Daughter portrait session in Coronado. It was a really special portrait session because it was my Cousin Michelle’s 21st birthday. My aunt debbie & I surprised her by taking her to the beach and *SURPRISE* we’re doing a fun portrait session right now!! They loved it and I really enjoyed their love for laughter! Thanks for the fun time you two! Check out some of my favorite shots from our session.

I’m hanging out in SLO town (short for San Luis Obisbo) hanging with our good friends The Larsons. Scarlett & I took a few days off to relax and we are having such a good time! The beaches, mountains and sunsets up here are breathtaking and words cannot express how great this place is. God sure knew what he was doing when he created SLO.

One main reason we are hanging out up here is that Mike Larson shot our engagement session yesterday among amazing textures, a world famous farmers market street fair and an unforgettable time in open golden fields with a 1973 Porsche! I really learned a lot going through this great experience to be in the clients position to really understand how my clients feel when I am the photographer.

I know I’m a little biased but I think that Scarlett looks uh-mazing!

If you want to see the teaser, I want you to visit Mikes blog and give him some blog love! Click here to go there

Where have you been? The question should really ask where have I been? Haven’t really tweeted, facebooked or worked for a little over the past week and that really sucks because I have so much work to get done and who wants to work when your sick? I think my mind just got rocked a little too much in the past month because I was shooting weddings then went with showit to San Fran & OC all in 3 days and that was a ton of travel. Then I came home, went to the San Diego fair with my friends, I eat some nasty fried food that no human should ever touch and I get sick the next day. I thought it would just pass by quickly… NOPE. It got worse and worse then slightly better then bad again. Last summer I shot a wedding when I had the flu (that sucked) and then last weekend I shot a wedding when I had a bad cold and it was almost 3 days to the date that I have shot two weddings one year apart when I was horribly sick. WHAT. THE. HECK!?

So, I am finally getting better. Scarlett arrives tomorrow and I feel like I’ll be 100% by the end of the week when a summer filled of amazing weddings starts up so I MUST get well by Saturday. COLD, I hate you with a passion. I’ve said that a lot this week.

While I was sick I watched a lot of TV and movies. Price is right, Let’s make a deal, Ellen, the news, americas got talent, last comic standing and sports center. Yes, I did watch Ellen a few times because I couldn’t stand watching soap operas. I watched one for 5 minutes and it made me fall asleep and it was lame so Ellen was the next best thing. You watch weird shows when you’re sick.. Price is right was pretty good but Bob Barker was way better than Drew Carry.

The one tv program that I was a loyal viewer of the most was… The World Cup! I never watched soccer before but watching so many great countries play for the past week has lead me to become a soccer fan!

Also, when your sick and need something to help detox the cold out of you.. drink LOTS of wheat grass. That stuff might taste like your eating a lawn mower but after you’ve had it for a while, it makes you feel SO good! Try it!!

Thats all for now.. I hope to be 100% again shortly! I’ll get back into the normal blogging routine then.

I’m sitting in a Starbucks. The time is 5:30pm. I have traveled from San Diego to San Francisco and now a road trip to Santa Barbara before we head down south near my hometown of Orange County. This is intense. I’m tired but really excited to see what comes next at the same time!

A few weeks ago, Showit contacted me asking if I wanted to speak on their tour. At the same time, Actionrunner & Thirst Relief who are the tour sponsor contacted me in the same day asking me to speak for them too! So I’m part of the tour on the west coast representing both Showit & Actionrunner. It has been special for me to take part with them because it was only two years ago when I attended the “Free to Succeed Tour” in San Diego right before I started my business and since then I have been building my brand and on the same type of tour today, I’m speaking on it. It’s been emotional in that respect and I’m extremely humbled to be on this journey with them!

Tuesday morning I woke up at 6am for my 8 am flight to San Fran. Arrived in San Fran, did a little final prep for my presentation. Later that night everything started to get together and people started to arrive. It was the first stop in the 2010 SHOWIT Freedom Tour!

By the way, HUGE thanks to Henry Sun for snapping such great images of the entire evening!

First part of the evening I joined Showits rad support stud Andrew with the live help desk to help photographers make their sites rock out!

Right before me were great presentations from David Jay, Jessica Claire & Jasmine Star and a wonderful concert from Molly Jens0n!

Okay so at this point, DJ walked up to me and asked if I was ready to speak. Uhhhhhh… (long pause) Yes! I couldn’t believe it and I was so excited that my body was a little shaky. But the group of attendees were so awesome and they made me feel really chill. Thank You guys!

Overall. San Francisco was incredible. My presentation was great, the photographers attending were so awesome!! Thank You!

I first met Phil a couple of years ago right after I had first gotten saved. He was the lead singer in the worship band at church where my parents & sister were all married and its the same church where I have been serving as a youth leader for the past six years. He recently went to Nashville, TN to start the recording process for his new worship album that is is releasing sometime in the early fall. I got a call from him last month asking if I would shoot the cover. Okay, now I really wanted to respond with, “Yes, Yes, Yes!! That sounds like so much fun!” The only thing is that I have little experience in photographing musicians. I am a wedding & portrait photographer. (Side note:If you want to see an incredible music photographer, checkout my friend David Molnar) Phil believed in me and he knew that I would do a great job. I accepted the shoot and we planned some sweet concepts for his album. I knew that during this shoot, Christ would give me the power to do great and he really did come through.

We did the shoot last week in downtown San Diego. We partnered up with my good friends at Hotel Indigo to shoot on their rooftop and also walked around the area near Petco Park. Such beautiful light!!

Checkout some of Phils music by clicking here

The facebook “like” button has gone through a few changes in recent weeks. Now, you can install the “like” button to your blog which will now alert your blog visitors facebook friends that 1) their friend has a cool blog and 2) it alerts their friends to checkout your blog too!! Here is a video describing everything you need to know about this!

Do you ever feel like your so busy that you never have a personal moment? Are you currently working in a professional position for work (photographer or something else) and is there a “fun” side to your job and you never embrace it? Do you only do it just for work and not play?

Last summer I went to Seattle, WA to visit my family and during one afternoon I took the car into town and did my own walking tour where I just focused on me as a photographer… doing what I love most by capturing life through my lens. I had this plan to release these images months ago and I forgot about these images. As a photographer I love to get images done right after they are captured and this wasn’t the case. So I just went through the best images and I’m putting them on my blog and I would love for you to soak in how real Seattle is. If you haven’t ever spent a week up there you need to! I saw so many things that I’ll never see in any other city and I can’t wait to go back again!

I want to encourage you that if you’re a photographer… get out there and just take photos and have fun with it!

These images are just fun, lively, pieces of art because I am a (Photographer)

Inside of the first Starbucks ever! As a coffee drinker, this was like Disneyland for me

The world famous Seattle wall of gum

This guy kept following me for a few blocks. I turned around to take his picture (just to see what he would do) and he posed. Then he walked off. I guess he just wanted his picture taken?

It’s time for another installment of “Ask away Wednesday”!! If your reading my Ask away Wednesdays for the first time, welcome! I’m glad you’re here!

Ask away Wednesday is my weekly blog post where I help other photographers reach to the next level. Occasionally, I’ll get questions from other photographers on my facebook page. Each wednesday I pick a question and answer it on my blog with the goal of helping the photographer who asked the question and hopefully others who read these posts!

If you have a question, please write it as a comment or ask me on my facebook page and I’ll be glad to answer it here in the future!

As I have noted before on my blog, I was a videographer first. When I first switched into photography I was shooting on  b&w film & I was a Starbucks barista. One of the other baristas told me she had been following my work and that she was really impressed. A few months later she approached me with the idea for me to shoot her wedding. Her wedding led to another referral which led to another referral.

Next, what worked well for me was making it apparent to people at my church, small group and my friends & family members that I was a photographer. I gave away shoots to close friends of mine and posted their images to facebook then tagged them in the pictures. All their friends could now see my work. That led to some phone calls from their friends who admired my work & wanted to hire me.

Those couple of referrals led to more work and eventually all that work became my future client base.

If you have a strong network for friends, you already have a client base. Focus on making those friends happy in general, offer them a photoshoot for their family or just their own couples session. Don’t do too much of that though… focus on maybe 2-3 free shoots that you can afford to give away. If you give them an experience you can get them to talk about then you should expect some referrals from those “clients”.

When those clients know a friend who is getting married your first “free” clients will give back to you by dropping your name for you. That’s what happend for me and it has worked great.

The next option is on the wedding day… WOW the bridal party and focus on treating them all really well. An experience they can remember is one that they too will want. I have a few bridesmaids from an upcoming July wedding who already want me to shoot their weddings and I haven’t even met them yet. What experience can you give your clients that stands out to all their engaged friends?

Hopefully this has all been something great for you to think about!

My Dad is a retired Captain in the Navy and though I was too young to remember his deployments back in the day, experiencing deployments & homecomings is something that is very close to my heart. The very town I live in, Coronado is a military driven city and I see a lot of local military each day. I love & respect all of them for everything they do to give us our freedom. Especially Andy.

Courtney contacted me a few months ago. She was a newlywed Navy wife & her amazing husband Andy was on deployment for 8 months. I give major kudos to Navy wives!! Courtney explained that she felt a close connection to my photography. It was Andy’s first deployment & she wanted the entire experience captured when he came home. I was so excited to capture this moment because that is what Photography is all about!! There are these type of special moments that mean so much to someone and its a huge honor for me to be chosen to capture them.

Courtney & I connected earlier in the year. She told me their love story and how she couldn’t wait till the moment when his ship pulled in. A few weeks ago we had this entire plan set up for when he was supposed to come home. The Navy pushed his arrival back 2 months then 2 more weeks then 1 more week. Finally the day arrived and I woke up feeling so awesome that I was about to capture a moment that was so special to Courtney & Andy.

We arrived to the 32nd street Naval Base. The moment was something so unique that cannot ever be replicated. Crying, cheers, music, American flags, and ANTICIPATION. The moment the ship started to pull in ignited a loud choir of screams mixed with the sounds of kids cheering, clapping and tons of noisemakers that were leftover from New Years eve.

I still have a love for B&W imagery. From the days that I shot film, B&W film – editorial imagery is something that represents life and reality. I love this image for that reason!