This is THE Place for Photographers!

by | May 18, 2018 | Updates & Opportunities | 2 comments

Having never been to one before, I wasn’t sure what to expect at the Photography and Media Summit hosted by Miracle Mountain Ranch last weekend….

Well, here’s what happened and my opinion on it:

 

Behind the Scenes Insights

  • My first connection with Miracle Mountain Ranch was two years ago at a HEAV Convention. I was walking by their booth taking pictures for the Convention when Donnie gave me a friendly greeting and asked me about my photography. He happened to be a photographer too and we soon discovered we had a lot in common.
  • After the Convention, Donnie asked if I would be interested in speaking at the Photography & Media Summit that he organizes at the Ranch. The Ranch is up in Pennsylvania, only about 4 hours from my house, so I thought it was neat to have an opportunity close to home. I wasn’t available last year, but I made sure to plan ahead enough to fit it into my schedule for this year….and hopefully next year?
  • As I get more and more into the business of photography, I’m reminded over and over again of how incredibly important making connections and investing in relationships really is! However, if my motivation is simply to “make a connection”, nothing usually comes of it….connections are only as valuable as your willingness to serve others and fill in the gap for another’s need.
  • The Summit wasn’t about photography only. Garrett Hampton covered video-related topics from his vast and professional bank of experience. He has an amazing testimony and is in the middle of making a really interesting documentary on homeschooling called Schoolhouse Rocked.
  • It was a huge bummer that it rained all the time we were supposed to be doing outdoor shooting, but they made up for it by doing some pretty awesome stuff with smoke bombs in the barn.
  • My absolute favorite part of the entire summit was the night photography shoot on Saturday night. That really stretched me. I don’t normally have fireworks and lights like that to play with either. And thankfully it wasn’t raining then!
  • How the spinning fire cover photo was taken! Take an old kitchen whisk, put some steel wool in it, light it on fire, and spin it around! 
  • I was very impressed with the overall focus of the media summit to pursue excellence and glorify God with our art. The first session was especially insightful on this topic. Perhaps I’ll share my notes from that session on a future Photography Moment podcast release with Sharpening Character.

If you didn’t make it to this year’s Media Summit, feel free to subscribe to Miracle Mountain Ranch’s mailing list to stay in the loop when they announce the dates for 2019!

 

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2 Comments

  1. Benjamin Holmes

    I’d love to hear more about that session on the podcast James! 🙂

    Reply
    • James Staddon

      Awesome! Let’s see, will plan to get that recorded here today or tomorrow!

      Reply

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