If you’re a fan of cinema, you have no doubt heard of director Robert Rodriguez. He burst on to the movie scene in 1992 with his low budget action movie, ‘El Mariachi‘ and has since gone on to direct ‘Desperado‘, The ‘Spy Kids‘ franchise and ‘Sin City‘ amongst many other films.

Rodriguez is known for keeping his films under budget and using creativity to solve problems instead of writing a check. Rodriguez and his friend Carlos Gallardo set out to make ‘El Mariachi’ merely to sell it to the Mexican video market in order to fund their next film project.

Instead, it went on to win an award at the Sundance Film Festival and launched a lucrative career – all on the back of a film that cost $7000 to make.

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The best photographers (and creatives in general) are not afraid to share ideas. They’re not threatened by other photographers and are eager to share their experiences, “secrets”, methods and other information in an effort to help others with their own photography.

In a previous post, I shared a video created by commercial photographer Chase Jarvis.

Jarvis boasts a client list that includes Nike, Reebok, Apple, Red Bull, Subaru and Volvo. In the following video he shows how people can create some very cool photographs and videos using cameras and equipment that won’t break the bank.

The dolly made with PVC and skateboard wheels is really cool.

The overall point Jarvis is driving home here is that we shouldn’t allow our creativity to be defined by our gear or lack thereof.

Sometimes you have to dig deep and figure out a way to do more with less.

Sharing is caring and you lose nothing for it.

What’s stopping you from providing “inexpensive” tips to others?

[Images from mikebaird]

If you’re in any kind of creative position within your church or ministry, chances are you have a specific workflow you like to adhere to.

If you don’t, then you should. You never know when you’ll need that footage you shot last year or an image from a shoot you did six months ago.

Photographer/director Chase Jarvis shows us in below video his entire workflow — from the time the images and footage is captured all the way through the archival process.

Check it out:

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Simplicity. I like it.

Photography can be ridiculously complex but it an also be quite simple. Many times people look at photographs and they say:

How did they get it to look like that?

Often the solution is easier that one might think.

There may come a time when in your ministry or church you’re asked to do some portraits for the pastors or office staff and they’ve decided this time they’re not going to Sears (thankfully!). Your portraits come out looking good, but you want to give them more punch.

The high pass filter in Photoshop can help with that and it is very easy to do. Check out the video:

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I have the privilege of playing drums for the worship team at my church. Our worship Pastor, Derek has always tried to gather the information necessary for the teams (there are two) to prepare.

However, this meant downloads of charts, mp3s and links to YouTube videos to watch.

It was tedious when getting and collecting the information and the work putting it together was even more tedious.

Solution? Yes.

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Ruts.

I cannot stand them. All creative people get stuck in them from time to time.

As a photographer, I am always on the lookout for new sites, new (new to me anyway!) photographers and new blogs. Many times, just looking at what other people are doing can give us that boost we need to get the creative juices flowing again.

So here are five sites that I check often for inspiration…

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So…

You’re a photographer and everyone at your church knows it.

They approach you one day and ask if you’ll consider doing photos for a special service such as Christmas, Easter, July 4th, etc. in addition to other events surrounding those holidays.

Anybody can take snapshots. So instead of giving them the typical things one would see in almost any service, be creative. Do something people will remember. Stand out. The best part is, it’s not difficult.

Here are several things to keep in mind…

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Last week, Kyle wrote about several websites where church designers can get stock images to use in their projects. I’m not a designer, but I am a creative so I can understand the necessity at times for church designers to use stock photos when the need arises.

As a photographer however, I am not fond of using stock photos for church websites, particularly on the landing page. The people in the photos do not attend that church and it’s not hard to spot a stock photo, even for those who have limited photography skills.

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More and more I hear my Pastor talking about how new visitors decided to come to our church after visiting our website.

This is great news! But it proves something: The days of looking for a new church to visit in the yellow pages are over. More and more people are entering, “church” and “city name” into a search engine and going that route.

If you have an established church or are launching one, then a web presence is critical to sustaining growth. However, unlike the promise of “If you build it, he will come” in the film Field of Dreams, a church website will not attract people simply because it is built.

Drawing on the principles laid out in Smashing Magazine article ‘10 Principles of Effective Web Design’, here are some ways to keep website visitors from hitting the back button and leading them to attending your church.

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People are creatures of habit. It probably couldn’t get more obvious than the Church environment.

Having attended my current church for nearly 6 years and being on the stage as part of the praise team, I can easily tell you when certain people are going to come in and exactly where they are going to sit. It’s a habit for them and it can be difficult behavior to change if church leaders are attempting to make changes during the service.

And this is not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself, but we all know it can be better, and that a better experience could be created if we simply dealt well with “scattered” congregations.

Here are 4 tips for helping to deal with these creatures of habit:

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