Third Day Concert

I had an amazing time tonight at the Third Day concert in Raytown. It was at the First Baptist of Raytown and they played with Sanctus Real, December Radio and Revive. I went with my awesome friends Rachel and Erin. It was such a great time of worship and the place was packed out. It's just a small taste of what heaven will be like when we are all gathered praising our Lord. I was really impressed with December Radio. Their song 'Drifter' is such a cool song and I just related with the lyrics so much. Check it out on my myspace page. Here are some photos of us and the concert...




The girls were all googlie (is that a word) to get their photo taken with Decemberadio...

This is hilarious! Erin thought I was looking at the camera for this photo and she didn't even know I was next to her acting like a dork...

We then took a serious photo with each other...

My best friend, Rachel, and me. Isn't she cute!...

Me, Erin and Rachel...

More from Sara's Bridal Shoot

I wanted to share some more images with you from my friend Sara's bridal shoot. There were so many great images that I couldn't share them all in just one post. She is getting married tomorrow and I will be there with my camera. Can't wait to share more photos with you from her wedding. Congratulations Sara!

Puppy Photoshoot

I had a friend, Rob Moritz, call me last week and asked me to take photos of his boy, Andrew, with his new puppy. I am more of a wedding and fashion photographer so puppy's usually aren't my thing but we went out to Shawnee Mission Park and got some fun shots. The puppy's name is Hayley and she is so cute! She kept trying to bite my lens when I would get down close to her. I think I even had some slobber on my lens at one point. Here are a couple of my favorites from the shoot...

Easter Feast with Rachel's Family

I stayed in Kansas City on Easter Weekend and my best friend, Rachel, invited me to celebrate Easter with her family. Her family is great! They have pretty much adopted me as one of their own. We went to her aunt and uncle's house where they had a huge feast of food. Grandma Olga's beans are the best! After the big meal what would Easter be without an Easter Egg Hunt? There were so many kids and we must have hid over two-hundred eggs in the backyard. Kids were climbing trees and digging in leaves to get every egg out of the yard. Each egg was filled with yummy candy. I think the kids made out better on Easter then on Halloween. It was great to gather with Rachel's family and I always have such a fun time playing with all the kids. I love her family so much! They all love the Lord and it was great to be around her family and celebrate the true meaning of Easter! Thanks Rach! Thanks Cari and Tracy for having me over and for your servant hearts!

Beto Lee and Beta Olga...

Rachel with her mom and dad...

Rachel and me doing our sexy pose...

Cary and Tracy with their kids, CJ, Taylor and Savannah...

The Easter Egg Hunters...

The Hunt Begins...

Sydney...

Taylor and Savannah...

Taylor...

Happy Easter and Christ blessings to you all!

Compilation of Images for Clients

I put together a compilation sheet with my favorite images that I can give out to clients. This is a good way to give clients a print version of some of your work so they can pass it around to friends and family when they are deciding on a photographer. When deciding on images for a compilation sheet include your best work and remember that the bride is the one that is hiring you so include photos that focus on her!

Sara's Bridal Shoot 3.13.08

I had the privilege of shooting a bridal shoot session with my friend Sara Tafoya. Sara is an amazing photographer herself and she is getting married to Josh Howell on March 29th. The greatest thing about photographing another photographer is sharing ideas with each other and knowing that you both are looking for the best shot. Not to mention that I got to use her camera and wide angle lens for some of these great shots. Sara is so gorgeous and easy to photograph too! It was an overcast day and we found an awesome location with an abandoned barn. Sara wore her cowboy boots with her dress and it really added to this location. The roof of the barn was caving in and the lighting coming down on her was stunning. The barn gave us plenty of great shots inside and outside. Afterwards, Sara danced in a field where the stormy sky in the distance painted a beautiful backdrop. Then we added a splash of color with some shots at a red barn and silo. The weather was scary but we stayed dry and the sky was awesome. Sara was as beautiful as ever in her wedding dress and the amazing photos we received are too many to count.

This one is my favorite...




I love this shot. Thanks for the idea Sara...




Sara and me...


Congratulations Sara! You are a great friend, photographer and woman of God. -Kevin

'BEYOND Photoshop' Workshop in May

After such great feedback from the 'Beyond The Basics' Photography Workshop and hearing everyone's desire for a Photoshop one we decided to continue the excitement. So, the BEYOND Tour continues with a NEW workshop. We are now introducing the 'BEYOND Photoshop' Workshop that will be held on Sunday, May 4th in Kansas City (Overland Park). This will be a one-day five hour workshop to teach you everything you need to know in Photoshop in order to turn your good photos into AMAZING PHOTOS in just minutes! We will be working with adjustment layers, curves, actions and many other useful Photoshop tools. There will also be a small introduction into Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom uses a lot of the same tools as Photoshop but makes it easy to process a large amount of photos in a short period of time. Don't miss out on the fun as three amazing photographers, Larry Perez, Kevin Keith and John Jordan, share their talents in order to make you a better photographer. There is limited space available so REGISTER TODAY! See you in May:)

'Beyond The Basics' Photo Contest

On the first day of 'Beyond The Basics' we did a photo contest after teaching about lighting and composition. This was a great time for everyone to put into action everything that we had just talked about. We paired off in four groups of two and gave each team 15 minutes to shoot in a small area. Afterwards everyone voted on their favorite image and the winning team received two complimentary meals from Panera Bread. I want to share with you a shot from each photographer and the winners. The results were absolutely amazing to me!

NOTE: I did basic color enhancements on these photos but there is little retouching and no cropping other then that.

Drum roll....... "and the winner is"...

John Sharp (partnered with Lori Hill): FIRST PLACE


Lori Hill: RUNNER-UP


John Liams:


Jenni Gilson:


Jolee Spencer:


Marvin Noernberg:


Marjorie Townley:


Troy Harris:

Parents find healing through photography

This video was on the TODAY Show. It is sad but very touching and shows the power of photography:

Click here to watch the video.

'Beyond The Basics' Group Photo

Meet everyone from the first ever 'Beyond The Basics' Photography Workshop that took place on March 1-2 in Overland Park, Kansas:


(photo by Larry Perez)
Front Row: Larry, Troy, Jolee, Lori, John
Back Row: John, Marvin, Jenni, John, Marjorie, Kevin

Photos of Ashli from 'Beyond The Basics'

Sunday was the second day of the 'Beyond The Basics' Photography Workshop and was designated as a shoot-with-the-pros day. We spent 3 hours at the Overland Park Convention Center and the Sheraton Hotel with our lovely model, Ashli. It was a great location that was wide-open so everyone could have the opportunity to get some amazing photos. I first demonstrated how I would shoot if I was at a wedding. Afterwards, I tried to spend time with each photographer making sure that they were comfortable with their camera. It was such a great time and we all got some good shots. The rain held off for the most part and we even developed an audience from the Convention Center because they were having the Lawn and Garden Show at the same time. It was hilarious to see all the old men stick their faces to the glass to get a glimpse at Ashli and all the lucky photographers. I will be sharing some of their photos and more from 'Beyond The Basics' later in the week. These are a few of the photos I was able to capture during our Sunday workshop...

'Beyond The Basics' was a HUGE success!

We just finished up an incredible photo workshop weekend with 'Beyond The Basics'. We had 8 photographers registered for the event and they were all at different areas in their photography journey. Some had been shooting for years and wanted to get more connected with the digital and business side of photography. Others were just getting started and wanted to understand more about their camera. The HUGE success came in knowing that everyone left the workshop overly satisfied regardless of where they were with their photography prior to this weekend.

On Saturday, we started by educating everyone on understanding their camera, lighting, and composition. We then had an enjoyable lunch with everyone from Panera Bread (one of my favorite places to eat). After lunch we continued with lighting and composition by going outside and using our cameras to but everything we talked about into action. Toward the end of our shooting we had a contest where we paired everyone with another photographer to see which team of two could get the best shot and win a complimentary meal from Panera Bread. Let me tell you that the photos were so AMAZING and I can't wait to share those with you in the next couple of days. Then, the last couple of hours of the day we shared Photoshop lessons and key points in marketing yourself as a photographer. We actually went over our scheduled time by more then an hour and nobody left early. We covered so much stuff and had such a great time doing it.

On Sunday we all went to the Overland Park Convention Center to shoot together. My friend, Ashli Ford, came out to model in a wedding dress for us. She is so beautiful with a wonderful personality to match and this makes her a lot of fun to photograph. I could see the excitement of each photographer as they looked at the back of their cameras and were surprised they they actually took the shot they were looking at. I can't wait to see some of the photos. This weekend was just a great joy for me to share with everyone and I now have 8 new friends in the photography world. Thank you all for coming out. I am still on such a high from this weekend! Also, a huge thanks to John Jordan and Larry Perez for partnering with me to give what I would call 'The Best Photography Workshop in Kansas City'. Check back in as I share more photos from this weekend's 'Beyond The Basics'!

More photos from 'Beyond The Basics' on John Jordan's blog