ANSAROV's blog

This blog was created to foster mentorship through the life experiences and inspirations of Commercial, Fine Art and Portrait photographer Aaron Ansarov. Ansarov can best be described as a "passionate creative." When not on assignment in south Florida, Aaron can be found at the Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale working on his degree in Advertising or spending time with his wife, baby daughter, newborn son and 10 year old son. Ansarov also enjoys the accomplishments of home repairs and his garden.

Joey Lawrence shoots the 'Twilight' movie poster at 18

There are sometimes people that you look at and wonder, "How in the world." What element was added in their mix of life that propelled them to such a level so fast. Is it that natural God given talent? Is it being spanked/not spanked as a kid? Are his parents very wealthy? Or can we all thank Google for this? What is it? I look at Joey Lawrence and ask that very question. I remember when I picked up a camera at 13. I remember the years it took me for light bulbs to go off. To this day, I still wonder what I am doing now that I will be wishing I 'didn't do' or 'did more of' when I am 40. It's that whole saying, "If I knew then, what I know now." Well, If we can think about it in the opposite sense maybe we would do more now so we can be better off tomorrow.

I look at an incredible talent like Joey Lawrence and am simply amazed as to the abilities a young person can have at such a young age. Joey picked up a camera when he was 7 years old. Corbin has been taking pictures with Daddy's camera since he was 5. Does this mean Corbin will have the potential? Maybe. I don't know. All I know is no matter what my son is interested in. I have to support it and provide all the opportunities in the world for him.

Check out Joey Lawrence's website at http://joeyl.com

Also read the article about him and the movie poster deal at MTV.com

Best of Luck, Joey, on your next 18 years!!!

Fwd: On PickensPlan: A Personal Note from T. Boone Pickens

Got this from the Pickens plan. It is a very short and very simple ad.
In Poland, everybody uses Propane. It is a way of life. I though we
are supposed to be the smartest.

NBC is refusing to run one of our strongest ads, and I need your help
in showing NBC they can't control what we can or cannot say.

The 15-second ad talks about how the government of Iran is making a
MAJOR effort to use natural gas in their vehicles so they can free up
$120 a barrel oil to sell to us while we are doing nothing.

I need you to click on the link, watch the ad, then send it to five of
your friends. Please ask each of those five people to send it on to
five of THEIR friends.

This is important. Let me know what you think: http://www.pickensplan.com/news/2008/08/27/too-hot-for-nbc/

--T. Boone Pickens

Visit PickensPlan at: http://push.pickensplan.com

--
To control which emails you receive on PickensPlan, go to:
http://push.pickensplan.com/profiles/profile/emailSettings

subscribe to my blog

Guys,

Finally figured out how to get you to subscribe to my blog. I think it is actually a new feature. Blogger is probably the cleanest and most user friendly of them all. I find that I can take a photo on my iphone and quickly email to the blog from the phone. lovely!

One of the biggest way to increase hits and references to your site is through making comments on other sites. One way also is by leaving comments on the photo company sites like BandH and Adorama. Adorama actually has a cool way of attaching images to a comment. I just did one where I talked about Elinchrom lights and attached working shots from the shoot.

Check out my latest on my client access through the home page.

Password is KrisKrome

Just updated my livebooks to unlimited and Anna to a select site. There is an awesome deal right now and we saved close to $900 total.

Stacy, If you where thinking about it, I would suggest looking into this tomorrow as the deal expires (ad is below). You can have Andy call me about it if you want.

Tom, Hope all is well with you. I will see you in less than two weeks and very excited about that.

Sam, Miss you buddy. Thinking about you and hope all is better since last week.

Matt, Get off your ass, and shoot! ; )

Later,

Hi there, you are receiving this email because in the past you are a current client of liveBooks If you are having trouble viewing this email, try theweb version. If you prefer not to receive promotional email messages from us, just click here to unsubscribe.

Summer savings ending in 4 days

Show off your creative vision with more room for all your latest work

You have spent your summer creating new work, and now it's time to get the best shots onto your website for the world to see. Take advantage of these great offers to help you present yourself in the best light to prospective clients. All offers end August 29th.

And while you're at it why not make it easier for people to find you by learning how to optimize your site for search marketing. Attend our FREE webinar -- "How to setup your editSuite for search success".

Don't confuse potential clients.
Get a second site for up to 50% off.

You wouldn't FedEx your wedding portfolio to an ad agency. Showing too much diversity in your website can be distracting to most audiences. Clarify your vision with a second site at these great rates:

•	50% off a second site with your same site design
•	30% off a second site with a new site design

Read about what is included in our various packages on the professional packages page.

Example Price Savings	Second site Basic Package	Second site Select Package	Second site Unlimited Package
Regular pricing	$800	$1,700	$3,200
Second site with existing design 50% savings	$400	$850	$1,600
Second site with new design 30% savings	$560	$1,190	$2,240

Create more space for your work to truly shine.
Upgrade your site package with 25% savings.

Tell your story whether that be with more images or more information pages. You will end up gaining both when you upgrade to either Select or Unlimited from your current package.

Save 25% on the following upgrades:

•	Basic to Select - gain 3 portfolios, one added menu page and the custom design of 2 pages by our in-house design team
•	Basic to Unlimited - gain a magnitude of portfolios and menu pages along with custom design of 4 pages by our in-house design team
•	Select to Unlimited - gain a magnitude of portfolios and menu pages along with custom design of 2 of these new pages by our in-house design team

Welcome to Delta. NOW GIVE ME YOUR WALLET!!!

More and more it is becoming a pain in the ass to travel. If it isn't
the TSA destroying your gear or the idiot at the lost baggage claim
asking if your plane landed yet, there seems to always be something to
make a trip less enjoyable. I really can't wait for the day where you
slide into a tube, close a window and the shoot a spray of gas that
knocks you out for the hours it takes to take off and land. Until then
I have to deal with figuring new ways of minimizing my gear and
traveling more "High Speed / Low Drag"

You have to admire the marketing guys at the headquarters for their
inspirational ways of bleeding people. I am sure in the industry there
is a plaque somewhere for that guy who figured out how to save Delta
half a million bucks by cutting out 5 pieces of corn from the inflight
service. Changes like that aren't so subtle anymore. Now they simply
take away all the food and charge you to give it back to you. Then
there is the fee you can pay them for for hurting the environment.
Although I am all in support for charging an obese person for an extra
seat.
AND NOW if that wasn't enough they come out with this deal where you
have to pay for the two bags you check in. HAsn't anybody figured out
that proper incentive to help people bring less bags is to offer a
rebate by bringing less bags instead of all of a sudden charging
people for something that used to be for free???

Anyway. Here is a link to Expedia's site for travelers to see how much
each airline is charging now.

http://www.expedia.com/daily/edit/alerts/air_fees/default.asp?emlcid=CM-O-issu053-testX-segm-sega-date20080826182151-vers01-link308393-paid110572927-dma-wave11403

How do you catch a bald eagle?

Two days after Tropical Storm Fay came through I found myself scouting
for a good spot for my next photo shoot for Tag Heuer sunglasses. Came
across this bald eagle out on Key Biscayne.
Boy that would be cool to catch him and add to my backyard project.
Although I am sure I would have all kinds of police and homeland
security all over my ass. Thinking I was some terrorist.

Hunting Doves

Recently, there have been three doves hanging around the porch. So I
fugure this will be one of the best ways to shoot one. I am using
NIKON sb-800s and pocket wizards to trip the cameras. I also have a
cable connected to a tv so I can see how I am shooting.
I unfortunately am not using the NIKON CLS system because the preflash
scares the animal before the shot is taken. Instead I am using the
good old fashioned su-4 flash trigger.

Bee casting call

Look what Corbin found a few minutes ago. These bees are right outside
my window.

Now I have to figure out how to get them into the studio.

Aaron

The Backyard Project defined

I recently sent an email out to my friends and mentors for suggestions into what I should call my project on shooting living creatures in backyards around the world.

Thank you to my friends for your input on the backyard project. Words sometimes are just as important as the image when justifying an idea and purpose. The following are suggestions from everyone I emailed.

-"The Backyard Project : A Study of Living Things"

-"The Backyard Collection: A close-up visual study in the art of living"

-"The Backyard Collection: A Close Up Visual Introduction to life both Big and Small."

-"Big and bug ... Small things made big."

-"Where the Wild Things Are"

-"Backyard Beasts and Bugs"

-"Backyards and Life Within"

-"Beetles, Spiders and Toads...oh my"

-"The Backyard Project: It's Not Such A Small World After All"

-"The Backyard Project: The World At Your Feet"

My favorite is

"Where the wild things are"

But I don't even want to risk anybody associating my project with the famous children's story. ESPECIALLY since I just found out that Spike Jonze (dir. Being John Malkovich) will be releasing a movie about the book next year.

For now, I think I am going with "The Backyard Project: A close-up visual study into the art of living."

I feel "A close-up visual study into the art of living" says it all because the purpose of this project is to show the details, colors, design of all the creatures that inhabit our backyards. From major cities to backwoods, these guys survive in a way that can only be associated with an art of living.

I don't want to use contrasts between big and small or beasts and bugs because until I shoot an elephant in a backyard in Africa I can't say I am shooting big. And to me, beasts are in all sizes and include bugs. Shoot a 1/4 inch spider with a micro lens see his teeth and he jumps at you. You will give the same response as any other beast. I guarantee it.

Thank you so much for all your help.

God bless,