Jeff and Besty McCue of La Vida Creations are awesome photographers and members of the Pictage Community, not to mention huge San Diego PUG advocates! Check out our recent interview…
Describe your photography style or words that describe your brand?
We focus on keeping our couples relaxed during their engagement session as well as on their wedding day. We are fun, easygoing people that live life and love life, and we feel that our branding and imagery reflects that. We capture and document emotions as they happen so they are preserved for generations to come.
What is your favorite thing to shoot?
Our dog “Mace Windu” He is a lab-chow mix (we call him a Labrachow).
What is a must read or must see?
Whenever we need artistic inspiration, we like to look to the cinema. Amelie is one of our favorite movies for this; it has a whimsical storylines and great cinematography! We have watched this movie over and over. We like to pause movies like Amelie at certain scenes to study how actors are positioned and the way lighting is used.
What is your favorite thing about Pictage?
The community, hands down! We love our PUG peeps and getting together with like-minded people at the PartnerCon conference each fall.
What lens could you not live without?
Nikon 14-24mm, 2.8: it’s sharp as a prime and lets us shoot wide without as much distortion as our fishy-lens.
How do you juggle your business and family/social life?
This is something we need to do a better job of in 2009. Right now, we’d leave it at taking afternoon breaks for bocce in our backyard!
What workflow tools do you use?
ShowItWeb, Showit Sites, Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, RPG Keys, ShootQ. We also love our primary album vendor, KISSbooks. Simple is hot!
Most listened to song on your ipod?
We listen to A LOT of Jimmy Buffett. If there was just one song to pick, however, it would most definitely be “Knees of my Heart” from his Riddles in the Sand Album. That was the song we played for our first dance as husband and wife!
What is one thing we don’t know about you?
We often travel to Paso Robles vineyards for some R&R. We had entered the annual Bocce Tournament at Eberle Winery for several years in a row, and lost in the first round each time. One year though, we plowed through the competition and won the whole thing! Our prize? A $400 magnum of their finest 1999 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. They way we felt after winning that tourney, the bottle may as well have been an Olympic Gold Medal!
Who inspires you?
We’d say “what” instead of “who”… life, travel, movies. We find inspiration in sunsets and big puffy clouds. We enjoy looking at the constellations when the skies are clear. We are inspired by the beauty of naturally occurring events taking place all around us. We are also inspired by Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken.
How do you get most of your bookings? What is your primary way of marketing?
Word of mouth and editorial images in San Diego Style Weddings.
What blog do you stalk?
There are lots, but Jasmine Star’s blog is a daily addiction! We also like to follow Youngren Photographers, Jessica Claire, and many others. It’s always so much fun to see what other photogs see at weddings and engagement sessions.
Any words of wisdom to share…
If you’re not already involved, get out to your PUG meeting. We truly value our network of fellow photographers for the friendships, support, and learning. It’s really influenced our business. Other pearls of wisdom, get out and shoot for fun! We recently took a creative day for photography together out at the Salton Sea. We photographed each other which was a lot of fun! We also created some fine art landscapes for a gallery showing in Laguna Beach from that day.
For more on the McCue’s check out their links:
Site – http://www.lavidacreations.com
Blog – http://blog.lavidacreations.com
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/lavidacreations
Jeff’s Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeff-McCue/1118206984
Betsy’s Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/people/Betsy-Erickson-McCue/3327830
Mace’s Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/people/Mace-Windu-Mccue/1683758983?ref=mf