Ask Jesh De Rox How You Too Can Get High For Only $16,500

Jesh De Rox. What the hell happened to you? That's the question we were asking in our minds last night. In fact, we've been wondering that about Jesh for years now. And we know thousands of photographers have been waiting for our beloved Photogzilla to chime in. Yes. Pun intended right therrr. And more puns to follow. Cause we can't help it.

So some quick background for those who were confused when they checked into their beloved Twitter accounts yesterday. We had Zack Arias (@zarias) going off on Jesh de Rox (@jeshderox, #onedaywithjeshinstead) for offering a one day one-on-one consultation to photographers for the price of a pimped out Hyundai. We want to thank Zack for giving our sexy editor in chief the night off.

Jesh is a photoshop student who bought a camera some years back. He refers to himself as the crying experimental photographer. Ok. He doesn't refer to himself as 'crying,' but we take liberty in applying that. Cause he cries. A lot. Show him a girl in a chair. He'll cry. Show him a brick. He'll cry. Show him toilet paper. He'll cry. You get the point. So he's an 'experimental experientialiasticexpialadocious photographer.' You know. Like an experimental experientialiasticexpialadocious doctor. Experimental Experientialiasticexpialadocious lawyer. Experimental Experientialiasticexpialadocious paramedic. You have to pray things turn out at the end. And if it doesn't, it still does. Cause hey, just slap the word art on it and you're done. Right? In Jesh's case, a layer of dirty concrete with about 10% opacity. Oh hell. Take it up to 20%. Don't forget to play with the little color sliders. Go crazy. Um. Well. You decide. Anyway.

Over the last week or so, Jesh spammed emails across the vast internet inviting photographers to watch a live presentation he wanted to give about what he calls the Beloved. More on that in a minute. Where he got so many emails, that's a whole different question. From his Twitter, apparently over 3500 photogs registered to watch. It was password protected and all. Basic email address collecting for future marketing spam. No problemo.

The presentation was about a product he's trying to move. The Beloved Potpourri Box. It has dried up ferns, pine cones, berries, thistles, thyme, British Columbia weed, and maybe some oregano. Oh. And 30 4x6 photos printed on card stock as a bonus. There's some gibberish written on the back of each photo. "Blow in her ear. Now click the button." And "Stare into her eyes. Think about straddling each other. On a horse. Now click the shutter. Don't forget to cry." And our favorite "Tell the guy to put one of his hands in her shirt. Tell him to cup her. Tell her to close her eyes. Tell them both to pretend they are laying on a vibrating bed. Without any quarters. And their kitten died. Cry again. Now click the shutter." Things like that. So the photos give you some direction to give to the subjects. All for the bargain basement price of $295.

Now, we know there are morons who will pay that price for potpourri. But we think it's the BC Bud in the box that's really adding value here. Our take is if you did buy this box, you probably qualify for a slap thyself hard in thy beloved face. Or maybe we need a savvy drug dealer. But the fun doesn't stop here.

Of course, Jesh started talking about a movement of expressing emotion in a photo. A whole new genre of photography. Something that's never been done before. Over a 125 years of photography. And we don't understand how this wasn't thought of before. What a fucking revolution of epic proportion.

You take a photo. Then you explain to people what was happening. Without an explanation, it's just another, well, photo. Let's see some visuals. Shall we?

Sample 1 Beloved Session - This one is called "Man Hide Face Blow In Her Ear Oh Where's Your Hand Naughty Boy" 

Sample 2 Beloved Session - This one is called "I Lose Composition You Think It's Hilarious Wind Blowing Up The Hill Shit Fuck Shit I Lost Focus"

Sample 3 Beloved Session - This one is called "Think About How Jacked Up It Was Your Parents Didn't Let You Attend Your Middle School Halloween Dance"

To be honest. These photos don't make us think there's much of a revolution going on here. Oh. Yeah. So he added the word Revolution to the Beloved. Sadly, the marketing effort to stir up a revolution similar to Egypts recent actual revolution has fallen short. Photographers haven't exactly taken to the streets. But they certainly did last night on Twitter.

The beloved shit that hit the fan was when the normal come-hither-for-free-seminar-but-a-sales-pitch-at-the-end was coming to a close. Besides the products like the useless Beloved Potpourri Box for $295, Jesh pitched one of his workshops for a one on one consultation. Normally this goes for the already bargain price of $20,000, but if you act now, Jesh would spend an entire day with you, and maybe even throw in some fish tacos, for a sale price of $16,500. One. On. One. With. Jesh. De. Rox. Only for Sixteen Thousand, Five Hundred Dollars. Do we need to spell that out again?

WTF to the tenth power. Here's our sexy beloved rockstar, Photogzilla:

"I nearly fell off my beloved stationary 10-speed bike while watching Dancing With The Stars on my DVR. What the fuck can you possibly teach me in one day that could be worth $16,500? Perceived value is bull shit. Perceive my left nut please. While we have people who are trying to be a professional photographer walking around with glazed over eyeballs making emotional commitments to workshops and lessons being taught by braintards with less than a handful of years of experience (breathe), we have a high as a kite idiot fooling other idiots. Jesh DeRox needs a consultation with Jesh DeTox to clean out his system. I hope he's staying away from operating any heavy machinery. The asinine price cannot be debated. Don't even try."

We encourage a free market. People can buy whatever they want. They do all the time. But that's not the point we're making here. Services disguised as education fall extremely short as it is. From newbs to professionals, a bad idea is a bad idea. If it quacks like an idiot, it probably is Jesh-like people going on for hours and hours talking up fluff. Making little to no sense, hoping you get lost in the same psychedelic emotional feel good moment. And then take your credit card. There goes that shiny new lens you could have invested in instead. In this one-on-one case, about 2 pro DSLR bodies, 5 gorgeous lenses, a template website, and some business cards. Hey. You're a pro by nightfall.

We know for a fact that Jesh's approach to selling whatever he's selling is not only foolish, but unethical. If you don't want to actually sell the service, you put an ass-tronomical price on it. Maybe some big idiot fish will bite. However, we don't encourage anyone to participate in such misleading practices of inflated pricing to try to look important. When in fact you can't even deliver on it.

Some more unethical practices. It's done by not only fools we've talked about before, such as Dane Sanders (organizing fluff seminars that always fail) and Jasmine Star (stealing other photographer's work to market herself or using a fake last name to sound important), but Jesh is trying to be a little sneaky about it too. One would think original ideas would come from the person passing it along as his own. We've already discussed the original idea of the very legs Beloved stands on. Revolutionary idea it's not. Prove us wrong. Photogzilla welcomes a public debate. But PZ sexy does have a huge speaking fee. How about plagiarizing someone else's ideas and words to pass off as your own. David Jay's entire talks are nothing but lines he's taken out of self-help books. So Jesh giving an interview without even referencing his source so he could easily make himself sound smarter than the average bear shouldn't be so bad either. Ethical? You decide. How many other ideas has he ripped and charged others to regurgitate? Photographer Julia Bailey shared the following example:

Exhibit A from julia bailey on Vimeo.

Jesh ends with "one of the things I say." No sir. YOU don't say anything it seems like. You repeat what you hear. But nice attempt to make the idea sound like your own. You are bordering on the realm of fraud. Strong word. Don't worry. You're in good company.

Ironically. Our old friend Dane Sanders is in the same video too. Guilty by association. This is the Fasttrack master himself. So maybe Jesh's $16,500 can WarpSpeed you to the upper echelons of photography businesses everywhere. To the point you won't have to shoot EVER again. Dane Sanders hardly does. And neither does Jesh. At least we haven't seen any proof to the contrary. Jesh hasn't had a wedding client since September 27, 2008. 2nd WTF.

Ironic. So many of these workshop seminar overnight successful business in a Fasttrack Potpourri package sellers don't seem to shoot that much at all or have very little to qualify them as an experienced professional. Experience seems to have taken a backseat. Marketing and the number of social network friends & followers seems to be the measure of success. Not actual ongoing on the job experience. Let alone thousands of hours mastering your craft.

Is Jesh a nice guy? Sure. Everyone can be nice. Look at Photogzilla. He's super nice to every hot girl just so he can get into her pants. Nice means shit at the end of the day. Let's start practicing some humility in how we conduct ourselves as newb or pro photographers. Sure you'll make some money in the short term taking advantage of naive newbs. But at the end of the day, you fall into the category of asshole. If you genuinely want to educate others and charge for it, educate yourself til you bleed and then teach. Many years later. Many many years. Say at least 10,000 hours of on the job experience if you need to quantify/qualify yourself.

In closing, we would like to go ahead and let you know that Photogzilla is now offering an all day one-on-one phone consultation. He will talk your ear off for 8+ hours talking about his feelings, throw in a crying session or seven, and promise to follow you on Twitter. Regular price is $50,000. But first person to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity will get the bargain price of $25,000. That's half off! He's even going to throw in a couple of male, female, or hermaphrodite strippers. Your choice.

Keep Stalking Photogzilla!

Top 20 Reasons You're Probably A Rockstar's Asshole and Not A Rockstar Photographer

You've seen them. They pollute the Twitter air with their trash, their friend's trash, and anything else they can pile on to stink up your social network time online. We're talking about people that you wish you could say something to, but were too afraid to say something and come off rude. The problem is, these people are quite self serving, and not trying to genuinely connect with you. And you know it.

The PZN staff is hanging out in Newport Beach, California doing very little shooting (surprised? no one really does around here), so we had some time to compile this list of top 20 asshole behaviors of photographers on Twitter. Why asshole? Well, this word seems to be thrown around a lot these days. You may recall some photographers from California are actually using this word a lot these days. So we thought, why not?

Without further ado, here we go.

You're a Rockstar's asshole if:

1. You tweet about the last 2 seats left at your workshop while all seats are still available.
2. You retweet about someone else's workshop with only 2 seats left.
3. You use "my friend" when @mentioning someone you're only an acquaintance with, if that.
4. You @mention D-class celebrities that you were the 5th shooter for. (Even then, its a D-list!
5. You tweet about your email inbox in hopes people believe you're in demand.
6. You have automated tweets of quotes by other people set to repeat every few hours.
7. You're fighting with people on Twitter between your automated tweets.
8. You tweet every positive press you get, even though you know your clients won't see it on Twitter, but only photographers.
9. You retweet every other asshole's positive press, secretly believing the person you're retweeting might like you.
10. You tweet #FF lists you've saved of people every Friday to cradle ballz, in hopes they return the favor.
11. You don't use your real last name because it cheapens your brand value.
12. You use 'The' in front of your last name.
13. You endorse people on Twitter because you are butt buddies, not because your objective.
14. You mix religion with your place of business, Twitter bio, Twitter feed, etc, that you actually believe won't polarize people of other faiths because they're going to hell anyway.
15. You actually have the word 'Speaker' in your Twitter bio.
16. You actually have the word 'Leader' in your Twitter bio.
17. You block people on Twitter for questioning your self regarded greatness.
18. You actually believe in your head that blocking people on Twitter is like a restraining order.
19. You use Twitter as a marketing platform for your photography business for clients, but 99% of your followers are photographers.
20. You actually believe you're a Rockstar photographer, but the guy at Taco Bell only asks for your order and not your autograph.

We started with top 10 but couldn't help but cap it at 20. We know there are plenty more.


EDIT (the ones we forgot):
21. You say "Goodtimes" after every tweet. (Thx @maloman)
22. You also say "Goodtimes" because you saw another asshole tweet it.
23. You announce you booked a destination wedding, but don't share that you're losing money on it.
24. The 150+ emails you just announced were mostly Facebook status updates from friends (Thx @analogepilot)
25. Your tweet includes the word "stoked."
26. You announce on Twitter you just booked a wedding.
27. You tweet a link to your latest blog post review on equipment you borrowed/rented.
28. You say things like "I love love!" or "I love Weddings" or "...for Fabulous People" in the profile (Thx @blifestyles)
29. You post blogs about internet courage wondering what all the fuss is all about (see Doug Boutwell).
30. You post a video on your blog about how you support the internet courage post and try to deflect by calling others 'retarded' and 'assholes' (see The Becker video and image above). (Editor's Note: The PZN staff has received numerous emails from our readers indicating they were offended with the word 'retards' Chris Becker used in the video he posted, along with his sad attempt to downplay and discredit anyone saying anything critical, which can be viewed here.)

If you're not picking up the theme here, it's quite obvious so many people really dislike the fakeness, a.k.a 'asshole behavior.'


Have one you wanna share? Which one is your favorite?

Go on with your bad self and tell us in the comments.

Keep Stalking Photogzilla!

Internet's Courageous Photogzilla Ballz: Doug Boutwell & Friends Want Some

PZN was mailed this blog draft copy that Doug Boutwell (pronounced butt'well we think) reportedly wrote, but never published. We couldn't figure out why after comparing what he actually posted on his blog, because we really agreed with this version below. We also have to warn you that both Doug Boutwell and his friends, like the Becker, use profane language like its their job. Please make sure your kids are illiterate so they can't read this:

"The other day I became so bothered enough about a trend in the photo community to sit down and write some thoughts about it. Plus, my Ridiculous Asinine Dipshit (RAD) Actions aren't selling so well since people are actually figuring out how to brighten & over saturate their own photos, and also that my west coast friends aren't plugging me enough. So I'm writing this blog post to get some much needed attention and buzz. I know that by even getting two sentences into this article, I’ve already let the terrorist-Photogzilla-Rockstar win, but like the old lady from the Burger King commercial said: “Where's the beef?”

Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere have their own special breed of ball cradlers and narcissistic morons, and I'm no exception. Personas that exist solely for the purpose of intimidating, ridiculing, and generally tearing down anybody who dares to question self proclaimed leaders who's only intention is to be in the spotlight. I privately fancy myself and my friends as some sort of innocent angels of charity, guiding the inured newb sheep away from the eye opening anonymous voices that expose the elite-wannabe opportunists. I see the Photogzillas of the world as Twitter terrorists that are out to destroy the stage my friends built with fancy business cards. I am just like the self-styled close friends of mine, defending them because we have business relationships where money is constantly changing hands and ridiculous plugging of my products (Remember: 'A' is for asinine) all over and spend our time taking pot-shots from behind online blogs, sparing no opportunity to cross-defending friends who are disillusional enough to call themselves industry leaders.

Sure, secretly, I admit that the pointed barbs of truth and cynical jabs are GTFOH (Editor Note: Get The Fuck Out Hilarious), and definitely on point. We all could use a bit of reality when we aren't shooting much, so we resort to selling fluff workshops, actions, books, and anything that a naive newb will buy. Anyone that knows me, like my close friend Becker, Jessica Claire, and anyone else I hang with in the OC, knows that I only rant and bitch about the world in acronyms because I'm too big of a pussy to spell out GTFO (Editor Note: Get The Fuck Out). But at a certain point, the truth begins to represent the kind of worldview that makes me and my friends, literally, a loser. If all you Photogzillas are pointing out the problems, and all our self-proclaimed heroes who include starting words in their Twitter profile as "Leader," "Speaker," and then maybe include "photographer," are your villains, it has a tendency to drag our platform of easy money making down.  Devoting an entire website or Twitter account to burning our shit down isn’t just depressing, it points how dysfunctional we are at our photography business. It's true; time we spend blocking and ignoring all of you instead of confronting the reasons behind the lashing, we're NOT spending doing something productive, like actually taking photos.

To be more succinct – toddlers cry and hit things when the world turns on them and exposes their stinky diapers they've been wearing around while selling moronic books and workshops, giving speeches of empty motivation and no real learning of the craft (trust me, I have OC friends).  Adults, like Photogzilla and all those 'phony' Twitter accounts, figure out how to expose the real phonies so we can fix it. They take time away from their real photography business, get up off their asses and work at making the world a better place. If all you do is bitch and moan, and call those that call you out "assholes,' you’re basically a FBAP (Editor Note: Fucking Bitch Ass Pussy), like my junk food addict pal, Chris Becker (Editor Note: aka 'The Becker,' The Pecker,' 'Principal of Dropouts A-Many B-School'). Check out his moronic rant where he basically calls anyone who follows Photogzilla an asshole:

 

Of course, no ANONYMOUS people spend 100% of their time calling out all of my circle of friends or others trying to profit from people's ignorance, or they wouldn’t have any real photography businesses to run. The fact is most of the friends I'm defending act as if they still are in high school. That delusion is an important social construct in their minds for them to function everyday. With being online, their true social worth is removed and they can bedazzle themselves into popular high school rockstars with some fancy blogs. Most of us are faking it, but some of our real side leaks out, and we get angry when people realize we're the ones who are actually peeing in the pool and biting off more than we can chew. We thought it was kinda cute at first, but like kids, we're still throwing fits and now owning up to how little we have to offer. After all this, it’s grating and exhausting I'm sure to listen to my friends and other phonies repeatedly just sound like motivational hot air. For me, endless stream of cynicism is long past due and I realize, well deserved.

Furthermore, the real way to build a better world is not to concentrate all your energy on tearing down the people that criticize and call out my friends and others who are only after fame.  If you’re angry at the Photogzillas, channel that anger into something positive and start by unblocking people like him. Ignoring others is equal to saying your opinion is not important. If you don’t like the way your position in the industry is questioned, take positive steps to make it better. Shine the spotlight on your criminal ways of conning people, instead of trying to hate on Photogzilla for calling your ass out.  Tell people how little you know about photography & the industry, instead of focusing on how they should buy your book or actions to help them fasttrack to pro levels of rockstardom. Champion people that challenge and question you, instead of ridiculing and ignoring what they say. That’s how true leaders act; they embrace their weaknesses along with their strengths; the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you don’t like people like Photogzilla, then don't be arrogant and ignore them. There’s no use ignoring the problem that people like my friends are perverting the industry.

Yes, dialog needs to happen. When industry leaders step out of line, anyone, anonymous or not, DOES have a responsibility to call them on it. When the emperor is naked, the Photogzillas of the world should absolutely tell them so. Someone needs to be checking the kool-aid before we all drink it, cuz we've been drinking and passing it on for far too long. But it’s a slippery slope for my narcissistic buddies because it’s too easy to turn into a negative asshole like how Becker, David Jay, and others who rant about being bullied and told we're 'naked.' Sure someone should give many of these self proclaimed leaders a time-out for taking it too far. If you've ever gone to a workshop or bought one our products, didn't get much out of it, then went out and actually learned the craft of photography and business, then realized how full of shit we were, then you probably know you what I'm talking about. And if we egomaniacs can’t be bothered to stand our cash flow disappear and be discovered like the Wizard of Oz, I can’t imagine why anyone ever gave us credibility in the first place.

So I’m officially calling out all my friends, David Jay, Dane Sanders, Becker, and other cynics on the interwebs, both in and out of the photo world. Stop behaving like children and trying to be the post popular kid in high school. If you are so passionate about photography, go and actually shoot and stop trying to make money off of naive newbs who don't know any better. Otherwise, STFU and GTFO.  And by the way, your motivational powerpoint slideshow could use a change. It's been like 5 years."

PZN Editor: Like we said, we like this version of Doug's post better than what he published. What do you think in comparison? See the original here.

Keep Stalking Photogzilla!

Escalate Live: The Secret Tape

Risking life and limb, PZN's own sexy chief Photogzilla went under cover this past Sunday to a secret meeting that was called the night before Escalate Live was to begin. After he managed to leave undetected, he was kidnapped by two assailants and driven all night to an unknown location.

After bribing his captives, he managed to escape and hitch a ride from a chicken farmer. His camera was lost amongst some hen cages, however, the farmer was kind enough to come back and returned it to Photogzilla.

Without further ado, PZN is proud to take you behind the closed doors of Escalate Live to show you everything the organizers don't want you to see:

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Escalate Live: The Secret Tape from Photogzilla from Photogzilla Rockstar on Vimeo.

Escalate Live: Streaming Live, Kinda Not

PZN is not responsible for the claims and constant plugs of books, workshops, and services throughtout the Escalate Live presentation.


Live TV : Ustream

Dane Sanders, The Becker, David Jay, Scarlett Lillian: A Lesson In Looking Like An Ass

Branding. You work your ass off creating one for yourself and your business. You want to have an appealing image that tells people your ass is successful, reliable, trustworthy, and just the whole kitchen caboodle of the century. All this is what makes people volunteer over their checkbooks to you...You're a freakin' rockstar and everyone wants a piece of your ass. 

Public Relations. This is the hand that wipes that hard working ass when it gets dirty or when you need someone to get you more ass. Funny enough, it also requires to kiss a lot of ass. Yes, there's certainly a lot of ass involved in public relations. Networking is also a part of this, so there's multiple asses available in one room at one time. 

Google Search Results. Your branding and public relation butt cheeks both come together to form a nice ass that can be seen by the world. You want great search results if anyone Google's your ass. You want your hard working ass to look fiiiiiine.

The Photogzilla Effect. When your egotesticle ass gets a well deserved reality check spanking and no furious, amazing SEO bullshitter, or PR can save your ass from the natural algorithms of the beast known as Google.

PZN is proud to share with our readers the result of what happens when your ego gets bigger then your ability to think logically, rationally, and most importantly, with good old common sense. We hope this lesson on The Photogzilla Effect helps save your ass in the future.

Chris "The" Becker Search Result on Page 1:

Dane Sanders Search Result on Page 1:

David Jay Search Result on Page 1: 

Scarlett Lillian Search Result on Page 1, Just For Ol' Shits & Giggles:

PZN Staff Pleading: For your own good, our entire PZN staff agrees that you just not mess with our sexy chief Photogzilla. Your ass will be grass if you step out of line. Just sayin.

Keep Stalking Photogzilla!

Tweet

PZN Intern Double Agent David Jay the Hypocrite, Escalate Live Still Lame

PZN is growing! (kinda) We want to unoffically extend an offer to David Jay to become the newest member of our staff (we're offering minimum wage). After years of being a sappy man on the verge of tears and secretly being a person who reportedly detests gay people (strangely), he has decided to take a turn in his approach to life. For this reason, he is now being considered by our staff to be an official PZN DOUBLE AGENT INTERN.

For a couple years, David tried his hand at wedding photography, but after reading a few Tony Robbins' books and regurgitating it for a couple of people, he realized he could fool more by simply quoting other authors verbatim to sound more intelligent & knowledgeable. A light bulb went off in his head and he put away his 20D away forever to pursue a career in being a full time cross-promoter and speaker. However, there were only so many sheepish followers & bored housewives he could fool. After a couple of adolescent years of doing this, he is now bored. Very bored.

Lately, for every waking hour, DJ has been secretly watching our commander in chief Photogzilla in action with envious eyes. DJ could not resist staying away. At first, he fought his desire to participate in the act of healing the industry, because he knows he himself is a part of the problem. He continued quoting authors, as usual, with inspirational messages. He was preaching for others to ignore critics, they don't matter, ignore legitimate questions, turn the other butt cheek, hide your head in the sand like your other friends, let us pray people throw their money at us for doing much of nothing, and reportedly don't-associate-with-anyone-who's-sexual-orientation-your-friends-don't-agree-with-because-gay-people-are-not-human-and-are-going-to-burn-in-hell-but-you-give-the-impression-you-kinda-are-curious-yourself-ehem, and more. We're sure you get the idea.

PZN knew David Jay was contradicting himself up to now and probably has been most of his life, but the latest came just a few days ago. First some much needed background.

As everyone knows and is probably sick of, are the endless quotes he Twitters to inspire others. These fall quite short of being remotely of any original thought, but whatever. Here are some Tweet examples from David Jay himself. (Hint: Let's play a game and find the patterns):

Did you see any patterns? If not, look closely. Note the times and the spacing between post times. Yes, there is exactly two hour spacing in between these tweets and occur in the middle of the night.

Notice where most of the tweets originate from though: "via SocialOomph." If you don't know what SocialOomph is, worry not citizens; PZN won't leave you in the dark. SocialOomph is a free online service that allows you to admin your Twitter account to control who can follow you, set it up to automatically follow anyone that follows you, and even schedule tweets...Hang on, hang on. What was the last one you ask? If the light bulb has gone off, it's for good reason.

Is it a horrendous crime to use SocialOomph? Not at all. Even our sexy Photogzilla uses it to send lame automatic DMs thanking folks for following him. Is it questionable to program hundreds of quotes like a robot and time their delivery to make it appear you're inspiring or truly interacting. Kinda yes and no, sir. We at PZN simply can't find any evidence to ANY original thought David Pees-Still-in-His-Jays has to share. But we digress (it's a habit, get used to it). It's the next set of particular premeditated SocialOomph Twitter updates that caught our attention that made PZN sit back and think, "DJ would make a great PZN intern to fetch our coffee and walk our dogs & bitches:"

After his normally programmed Tweets at 2:35 AM, 4:35 AM, and 6:35 AM, again spaced apart by 2 hours to not look like spam (which we think it qualifies for). This time he's made sure to preprogram a fun tweet to be announced at 7:52 AM. He calls out a photographer and accuses Asim Soofi as being our sexy chief Photogzilla. Mr. Jay of course is also too afraid to use Mr. Soofi's twitter name @asimsoofi, but he proceeds to mock this photographer for a private workshop he offers. This premeditated tweet also shows us Mr. Jay was planning an attack, which is again very out of character for him.

PZN did some digging and could not find the workshop page on Mr. Soofi's website. However, we did manage to Google like crazy and came across the form through an independent search. So we knew DJ had to do some serious work to find Mr. Soofi's workshop page. But we weren't concerned about his so called 'outing' of Mr. Soofi, as we have received numerous accusations of who Photogzilla Rockstar is and no one has been able to reveal his true identity yet. This list includes even Gary Fong.

The irony is the tweet quote at 6:35 AM from DJ right before his attempt at wrongly throwing Mr. Soofi under the bus: "Don't think you're on the right road just because it's a well-beaten path." PZN is amazed how these egomaniac kids do such a great job at learning lessons the hard way but don't follow their own advice. Great quote PJ. Please ponder it with your other friends.

All in all, this auto-tweet tells us a few things:

• David Jay never responds to Photogzilla, but now planned strategically to play dirty.
• After Photogzilla's criticism didn't sit well with DJ, his message to his followers was 'let's not stoop to their level' but this example demonstrates perfectly he's changed his tune.
• DJ displays true hypocrisy and knows how to mock people, contradicting his universal message of love & understanding.
• DJ isn't concerned about answering legitimate questions, but focused on eliminating anyone that threatens to criticize his perversion of the industry.
• Lastly, we thought it was Photogzilla's job to call out people about workshops but there's definitely enough room.

Of course, PZN isn't done just yet. Knowing DJ had planned this pre-medidated tweet, we came across another anonymous Twitter account that was being used to throw a random photographer under the bus. We believe this to be DJ himself or someone working in partnership with DJ (one of our staff members made a joke it's DJ's partner in life, the PC way of saying it). If it's DJ, we're truly impressed of him finally getting creative and having some balls, but if it's someone else, we know the other person is someone who wants to cradle DJ's ballz really badly or vice versa (more then likely, already has).

In this dynamically lame duo's desperate attempt to distract from the real issues that Photogzilla has been advocating to address, DJ/@youtwitface tried to blackmail & coerce our super sexy rockstar Photogzilla via DM:

So DJ and his 'friend' want Photogzilla to "back off" from "attacking" his friends. If we didn't know any better, this was the best display of cowardice we have ever seen. They're saying 'let's ignore the issues plaguing our industry and the legitimate questions regarding farces like Escalate Live.' Instead, let's shut those people up that ask the hard questions. Of course, this person has never hung out with Photogzilla but may have with this Mr. Soofi they are jointly accusing of being our rockstar Zilla. Our theory is that this anonymous person must have a personal vendetta against Mr. Soofi and attempted to drag his name through the mud. Here's Photogzilla:

"Hey! If you're accused of being me, be proud you son's of women! I'm a freakin' rockstar! Have some ballz and blush like flattered tweenieboppers! It's not easy being me."

Well, Mr. Soofi seemed to have a good sense of humor about all this finger pointing & dirty tactics by DJ & company. Initially when we had seen the link, the workshop was pretty standard stuff. However, one of our staffers DM'd us to tell us about a funny change that happened the day after DJ linked to Mr. Soofi. We went back to the workshop link DJ/@youtwitface shared with the world in a failed attempt to disgrace a bystander photographer.

Mr. Soofi's response to Mr. Jay's smear attempt:

It appeared DJ's attempt to mock someone else sorta failed as Mr. Soofi had personalized the form to be more fitting. DJ/YouTwit had apparently spit into the wind. We really loved the inclusion of Photogzilla-like stars as well, but the DJ endorsement had us laughing our asses off to be honest. Well played, sir, well played.

PZN's true concern comes from the fact that with only 2 days left until Escalate Live, David Jay has been wasting his time playing games online and not focusing on his presentation. With the self-produced theatrical of fooling 200-some photographers in person starting on Monday, the program guide still has the following:

May 14, 2010, Pathetically, David Jay's presentation details are still absent:

 

PZN feels that DJ & company needs to stop dicking around and get serious. It's bad enough 95% of the material is lackluster and will not truly help any professional photographer. The organizers fooled themselves and others with the following statement:

April 29th, first official announcement of a free seminar streaming:

Yes, they said "small location" and "difficulty of getting all the photographers in the world" into this seminar. Don't worry; we really appreciated the egotistical and condescending remark ourselves. Again, with 600 seats available and only 200-odd seats sold, it's not such a small location when 70% of the seats are still empty. Again, sad. 

While David Jay is out there more worried about the witch hunt McCarthyism campaign he is trying to run instead of focusing on FINALLY submitting a topic to talk about (Dane Sanders should think about putting DJ on a leash, or is having playing fetch as we speak, hmm), people are really confused about being conned to pay for a ticket when they could have just wasted time watching this sad production online. This commenter left a question on April 26th related to this moronic PR strategy, and still two weeks later, no one from the Escalate party wagon even cared enough to respond. They not only avoid PZN's legitimate questions, but also ignore people on their own website.

Question left on Escalate Live website by a concerned photographer on April 26th, ignored even up to this day:

Maybe ticket goers will get a surprise at the seminar when David Jay simply talks about how wonderful Showit sites are and runs a slide show of his top 10 favorite examples. That's the only thing we can think of. If he does give some inspiring speech, please be sure to compare any presentations Tony Robbins gave in the last couple of years. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

In the end, the PZN was impressed wth David Jay's display of having the ability try to be a funny man and super rockstar hero just like Photogzilla. We believe with a little house training, David Jay could finally be a positive contributor to Photogzilla's movement for change in our industry. PZN would love to hear your opinion. Should we hire DJ as our next intern?

Keep Stalking Photogzilla!

Escalate LIVE Gravy Train Diverted, Speakers May Seek Real Work

New development: PZN has been keeping a close eye on ticket sales, and with only 26 days left to sell tickets priced at $256.22, the organizers of Escalate Live have sold ONLY 220 tickets. This is a far reach from the 600 seats of cash flow Dane Sanders & company were looking forward to pocket. With numerous attendees jumping off after realizing this train was taking them and their wallets for a ride, they are looking to sell their prematurely purchased tickets to someone who doesn't mind lining the pockets of people that rely on taking advantage of those too naive or blinded by savvy marketing. Many more have lost interest in the event and more so, have lost respect for the speakers of this event.

PZN may have already taken out all the hot air that part time photographers Dane Sanders, Chris Becker, Jasmine Star, David Jay, and the rest of the company were planning on using to float across beautiful California blue skies with wads of cash in their pockets. Dreams of starting a seminar that would could someday become a lucrative cash flow for the speakers who could use a controlled platform to promote their own products, services, and workshops to an unsuspecting audience, assuring an annual pay day for giving inspiration speeches without much substance. A private little WPPI if you will. Only this time, a handful of part-time wedding photographers/full-time motivational speakers & bloggers would be collecting bags of booty as they made their way to the banks.

PZN asked Photogzilla for a comment on the pathetic ticket sales for an event with less then 26 days away.

"This is a clear sign that professional photographers everywhere are far more intelligent then these speakers give them credit for. Hard working people don't want to waste their money on fluff, and they're sending these 'self-proclaimed leaders' a clear message that they cannot be taken advantage of anymore. This gravy train on biscuit wheels, thinly disguised as some kind of educational seminar, is now coming to a slow grind before it has even left the station. My objective from the beginning was to educate the masses about these unethical and veiled techniques these people are using to make money. This is a big step in helping our industry realize it needs to realign back to the thinking that hard work and dedication based on a solid foundation is what is required to be successful as a photographer."

PZN will continue to keep a close eye on any new updates and whether the organizers will cancel the event. We do know for a fact that the speakers have had numerous discussions on how Photogzilla has thrown off their entire plans and have been redoing their speeches and presentations in an attempt to salvage their reputation. However, what is worse is that none of the speakers have responded to Photogzilla's numerous attempts to get even a comment. No one from Escalate Live seems to really care what people have to say and simply block anyone from following them on their Twitter page that they don't agree with. We feel that if you are a person has who has chosen to lead a public figure life, you cannot ignore the public that questions you and be selective to keep as an audience only those that you are able to fool. Photogzilla commented, "Not only did most of the speakers block me on Twitter, even @EscalateLive blocked me for asking some tough questions. David Jay even called two people 'clueless' for asking why doesn't he respond to questions. These people have some really huge egos and history teaches us this is the downfall of many."

PZN knows all of the speakers have been keeping a close eye on Photogzilla, because the organizers have even changed the iStock micro stock images they were using on a...wait for it....photographer's conference! One of them went out and took a few snaps to change around things on the Escalate Live website. PZN broke this news to our readers in an earlier report how EscalateLive had used a selective coloring image. What's really sad is that the images being used now are actually far worse in quality then the iStock photos. Photogzilla fell out of his chair when he saw the new images, "And these are professional photographers?? Can't even take high quality images themselves? What is wrong with these people?!? The humanity! If you DON'T know how to take professional quality images, what are you doing teaching a conference about photography? I guess, when your best is just not good enough as a wedding photographer, you become a motivational speaker for other wedding photographers. This is such a train wreck."

Now, the PR minds at Escalate LIVE have decided to offer a live stream for free. The speakers are trying utilize any method they can to salvage their reputation, so they'll do anything to save their public image. Here is Photogzilla again.

"This is another clear sign that Dane and company are desperate to save themselves. They are going to try to play this giveaway free seminar to gain points from sympathizers. It's just so sad. What's even more moronic is what they will have to do with the 220 people that HAVE bought a ticket already to attend what is now a FREE seminar. Who's the moron running this train wreck?? Oh yeah. The speakers. I think they need to focus on their wedding photography business. They apparently aren't making enough money on that, so their wasting everyone's time and money on this recycled and regurgitated garbage. I can tell you right now, they have changed their entire presentation to NOT plug their products and are going to try to look like angels by trying to give away a free presentation. They should just cancel the event and go home. Cut your losses. Focus on becoming better photographers or seek another line of work. Don't try to be the next Tony Robbins, who I might add is who Dane & company have been ripping off and plagiarizing. Oh, and did you know that line Jasmine always says 'I'd rather fail at something I love then succeed at something I hated' that you hear at every seminar she speaks at...She says her husband JD said it to her. Turns out, it's also ripped straight from the Cameron Diaz movie "What Happens In Vegas," where Cameron's character turns down her promotion in the board room scene. Go check it out for yourself. Unoriginal. Fluff. Empty motivations. Just full pockets with money from deceived photographers who trusted these people. Very sad."

If you would like for the speakers to respond, ask them on Twitter by pasting the following: @DaneSanders @_DavidJay @JasmineStar @JessicaClaire @theBecker Why are u ignoring legit questions from @Photogzilla - http://bit.ly/aATAN7

We also invite our PZN readers & Photogzilla followers from Twitter to take our poll to see what should happen next.

Escalate Live Sitting Down or Walking Out

Dear Escalate Live Speakers: PZN has received numerous requests from concerned photographers who have either bought a ticket to Escalate LIVE or were thinking about going but have now changed their mind. Some are even trying to get a refund or sell their ticket to some other poor chap. They are really worried and would like to know exactly what are they getting for letting each one of you make over $10,000+ to just talk about yourself for 2 to 4 hours.

Chris Becker - Besides the blow me pose and how to throw network parties, what else will you talk about?

David Jay - Can't remember the last time you shot a wedding. But you're great at quoting others. Do you plan to just plug Showit Sites?

Jasmine Star - You sound pretty busy most of the time. With the blog, JD, and the dog. Besides ghetto fabulous marketing, what else do you have planned to discuss?

Jessica Claire - We have a pool going to guess how many times you will say Shootsac during your speech, mention your own wedding, and talk about Jose Villa.

Dane Sanders - Will you plug your book, your ownership of OSP forum, investment in Showitfast, or even when is the last time you shot an actual wedding. Now you're just an 'author' of 'Fast Track Photograher?' 

Jerry Ghionis - Really? What are you doing at this thing with some of these people? We're slightly confused. What do you plan on talking about?

Jeremy Cowart - You spent a lot of time with Britney Spears. That must have been fun. Everyone else is a wedding photographer. You're like the third wheel. It almost feels like you're supposed be the different dish on the table for the sake of being different.

One other simple simple question for the speakers of Escalate LIVE:


In 2009, how much did you gross for shooting weddings and how many did you shoot?


We know all of the speakers are very nice people. We just don't know how honest some of them are, exactly how justified this money making seminar really is, and most importantly, how much value is it for a paying attendee? As seasoned photographers are professing, they would NEVER recommend this seminar to any photographer, newbie or not. Why do you think professionals who have been in this business for years not supporting this cash cow seminar?


After all, many people used to think Tiger Woods was as good as they come. Boy, were they wrong. Image & branding can really fool many people. Unfortunately, the photography industry has more flocking sheep then actual professional photographers. And sadly, there are some 'self-proclaimed leaders' that are clearly taking advantage of many of these people.


We would also like to know why with over 10 hours and 43 minutes still left in Tier 1 ticket discount pricing did you have a 'Sold Out' status marked on the following purchase page? The reason we ask is because we know, and you well know, that you still have not sold 300 seats at the stated time or even now, as 300 is the exact number of seats that were made available at Tier 1 pricing. Was this done to create a sense of urgency? Is this part of some strategy to sell more tickets by creating false demand? 

This above example just shows us ticket buyers have a justifiable reason to question the organizers about this event.


So, if you're one of the speakers, go ahead comment to this post.


If you have a detailed syllabus for topics to be discussed, please share. We know you wouldn't take people's money without giving them something to value. So share the details.


Photographers, newbie or not, don't need to pay for inspiration. That's like cans of hope; all you get is hot air.


For all you photographers out there: know someone who's thinking about going to this event? Spread the word by Tweeting the following: 


RT @photogzilla Why z @escalatelive refusing 2answer HARD questions: Creating FALSE DEMAND? Ask WHY, leave comment: http://bit.ly/b1DdOO

Keep stalking Photogzilla Rockstar!

Escalate LIVE & Dane Sanders, An Exclusive Interview With Photogzilla

Photogzilla Rockstar has been thoroughly confused since the inception of EscalateLIVE went public just as we at PZN have been, along with many wedding photographers deciding whether they should even flush down the money to go. It was only a few weeks ago that Colonel Sanders (aka @DaneSanders) began promoting the baajesus out of @escalateLIVE. Along with his co-speakers, who have garnered an army of Twitter 'followers' (yes, that word should make you really go into some deep thought as well...followers, sheep, flock, herd, the list goes on), they started to tweet that people should get excited about and follow @escalateLIVE, a two day speaking event targeted at wedding photographers.

Our interest was certainly piqued and we knew for sure the same was true for our resident chief, Mr. Photogzilla Rockstar. So PZN decided to track down Photogzilla and get his thoughts on the event.

PZN: Mr. Rockstar, could you share with our readers what your first reaction was upon seeing all of the speakers begin their online promotion marketing campaign through Twitter and other social networking avenues?

PHOTOGZILLA: My first reaction you ask? (laughs) I was like, 'Holy shit!' Are these people [Colonel Sanders & Company] really that stupid? Everyone has just come back from spending close to a thousand dollars, leaving their families for a week, and going to Vegas to listen to all of these same people at WPPI. What moron would schedule this event in their right mind, right after WPPI?

PZN: But Mr. Rockstar, scheduling aside, isn't their some value to this event?

PHOTOGZILLA: To be honest, I really can't seem to find it. Besides the words 'inspire' and 'inspiration' constantly being thrown around, there isn't much to go on. For blessed baby Jesus' sake, there isn't even a syllabus or subject matter even detailed on their site. How do you sell $250 tickets to an event without knowing what you're even getting?? Just take a look at this [slips us a the following image]

PZN: Okay, what are we looking at here? It just looks like a simple schedule for two days. Speaker 1, 2, 3, etc, some lunch, and there's a countdown thing on the right, which kind of tells us like we better jump on the bandwagon so we don't miss out. Kind of like when we're buying concert tickets at TicketMaster for our favorite rockstar's show. Mr. Rockstar, we are a little confused by this page.

PHOTOGZILLA: Exactly. It's promoted like its some rock concert to Lady Gaga or something. It's part of creative marketing and PR. Dane Sanders has been famous for his subliminal marketing techniques, along with some of the other speakers involved in this event. Quite confusing schedule isn't it? This is the schedule details from Escalatlive.com's own website. There's no concise outline about what exactly is being taught. From what I gather with the motivational name and escalator taking a person to the next level in a mall, it's just a make you feel good conference. There is no earth shattering knowledge you'll gain by going to this. Period.

PZN: So what is the value of going to this conference?

PHOTOGZILLA: None. There is absolutely nothing that makes me want to spend hundreds of dollars to go listen to people tell me their life stories or motivate me. My motivation comes in the form of a mortgage bill every month. I need to make the benjamins so I can live. These speakers will be sharing the same stories that are on their blogs and online videos that will be simply rehashed for a paying audience. The only difference will be it's live. Kind of like going to church for inspiration when the manual [bible] is sitting at home gathering dust. Sorta like, most photographers that are trying to find out the secrets to taking great photos, when all they have to do is start with picking up their manual and knowing their equipment inside and out. Then just go out and practice like crazy everyday. And if you want to become a wedding photographer, lower your ego and go 2nd shoot for a year or two to really refine your skills and build up a solid REAL portfolio of REAL brides. Not paid models at a workshop that is staged.

PZN: That's an interesting point you bring up Mr. Rockstar, about photographers needing to focus on the actually photography and not motivational talks. Why do you feel so strongly about this?

PHOTOGZILLA: Isn't it the photos that matter to our clients at the end of the day? If you produce shit, you better correct that first. I don't give a shit how ghetto fabulous your marketing is, the only people that are really paying attention to your Twitters and blogs are OTHER photographers looking on in envy. By the way, isn't envy one of the seven deadly sins? Hmmm...ironic statement since so many of these self-proclaimed leaders are supposed to be Jesus abiding followers yet try very hard to make sure they're in the limelight, but I digress. As I was saying about fab-type marketing, just look at Scarlett Lillian. Her ghetto fabulous marketing is just sad. Any self respecting photographer that knows the craft will look at her work and immediately say she does not know enough to qualify her as a professional photographer. And there are many imitating to be just like her, just as she was imitating other self-proclaimed leaders in the industry. This industry has just become a constant pool of imitators and not creators of anything original or uniquely their own.

My point is that people, not real photographers, don't truly know their craft and are not seriously learning the basics of photography. You can't go out there and call yourself a pro photographer when you don't even know the dynamics of the technology you're utilizing in your hands. You can't go out there and say, 'Oh, I don't know Photoshop cause I just use actions' or pop on a 50 1.2 and say 'go shoot wide open for awesome blurry effects' & call it a day. They don't know why they are doing what they're doing. They are just imitating what they read and use it all day. That's not photography. And that's not art. Kinda like baking a Betty Crocker cake mix and then saying 'I made this cake.' No you didn't make the cake, you just opened up a box and cracked two eggs. Photography is just like becoming a real cook. You need to be able to bake a cake from scratch, understanding what and how the ingredients play into the sum of the whole.You need to understand the chemistry before you can call yourself a professional.

PZN: So aren't today's workshops teaching the 'culinary' skills required to become a pro photographer?

PHOTOGZILLA: (Laughs so hard, he farts) No way! Most of these are just teaching people what isle the cake mix box is sitting in and which flavors they, the instructor are using. They are saying, 'Go to this store, pick up these actions, pick up these lenses, pick up this Shitsac, pick up a pack of these Shitdomain website, and follow all of my friends on Twitter who sell this prepackaged stuff.' Everyone wants to make the quick buck. What is there left then to differentiate you from those weekend warriors undercutting the real professionals? There is NO turnkey solution when it comes to learning ANY profession without sacrificing the time to learn the fundamentals.

PZN: We're confused Mr. Rockstar. Why are these so called self-proclaimed leaders promoting these types of workshops & seminars that won't really help a persons skill set?

PHOTOGZILLA: Greed. Make money anyway you can. Even if it means its at the cost of taking money from honest people that are a little lost in this industry because they are just new to the photography business world or even just business itself. You have to have a skill or product to sell. You don't go to an interview without the right credentials and say 'Hey, I can do this job cause I'm motivated & inspired.' You have to walk the walk. That's why I say, most of today's so called wedding photographers, including some these 'self-claimed leaders,' would fail if given a Photography 101 exam. Would you feel comfortable going to learn from a professor that couldn't take his own quiz?

PZN: That's very interesting and sad at the same time. You mentioned imitators earlier. What did you mean?

PHOTOGZILLA: Well, besides the obvious imitating of style and the actual photo another photographer took, you have these less known people across the country in every city having meetings with other photographers to imitate the jockstar lifestyle. The self-proclaimed leaders are doing a disservice because others are thinking that what they do is the same thing they have to do in order to become famous or popular in the industry. They want to be recognized, so they try to make a name for themselves by having a networking get together, and one guy or girl will get up and just regurgitate everything they heard from a workshop they wasted $99 on. In turn, everyone in attendance thinks this persons knows their stuff and begins to look up to them. In fact, this person is not even looked up to and respected for their actual photography skills. Just an organizer who knows how to invite people to a party and managed to fake it till he makes it. 

What's really disingenuous is all this person has done is make themselves more known to 20-30 people without contributing any original thought or ideas. It's a waterfall effect. Hear something from these so-called leaders. Repeat it downstream to others. Look important. Be popular. Where's the reminder, 'Hey, do you know your skill set as a photographer?' It's become a race to become popular so you can become a sponsored speaker or paid endorser of some camera bag or an album company. Even athletes spend years in order to prove themselves to be great at a sport before they gain fans or sponsorship. It's the reverse with the current state of our industry. Become popular first, then worry about being good at your sport later.

PZN: Wow. Never did look at it that way. You make a very solid point Mr. Rockstar. So do you think Colonel Sanders is qualified to be teaching this two day workshop?

PHOTOGZILLA: Like I said earlier, what are they even teaching? If inspiration is it, I say pick up a self help book or go to church. Don't waste your money. In regards to Dane Sanders teaching any kind of photography seminar, I honestly don't think so. The guy is a community college professor that took a few notes from his textbooks and plagiarized the stuff into his own book. It's funny that he even named it after a toll road in Orange County called Fastrack that he drives on. It just floors me how original this guy is.

PZN: But isn't he a professional wedding photographer who other wedding photographers can learn from?

PHOTOGZILLA: That's funny you call him that. Can you remember the last time Dane Sanders was referred to as a 'wedding photographer?' Or do you even remember one of his Twitter updates being about shooting a wedding? I certainly don't. No one even knows how many weddings he shot in 2009 alone. And if he did shoot any weddings, how much revenue did he make from his wedding photography business? I mean, if you're laying out all this inspiration and great model to follow, show me the motherfuckin money man. This applies to ALL of the speakers at this event, any workshop, or seminar. That's what tells me at the end of the day that your shit works and I need to listen to you. Money talks. Bullshit walks.

PZN: So are you saying Dane Sanders is one of the speakers that should not be teaching a seminar on wedding photography?

PHOTOGZILLA: You don't have to take it from me. Colonel Sanders KNOWS he's not good enough to teach a workshop. More so, the irony is Dane even tells people they shouldn't go to a workshop. It's just amazing the hypocrisy and the self evident ironies that come out of his own mouth. Take a look at these two videos for yourself. Dane does all the talking. 

Here's what Colonel Sanders says about going to seminars/workshops in his own words; don't go. Ironic because he stands to profit the most for organizing and promoting EscalateLIVE. Look at what he says between 1:05 and 1:20:

Why settle for a little life from Dane Sanders on Vimeo.

PHOTOGZILLA: If you missed it, Dane said, "Everything you need is already inside you. This is a true statement. It turns out you actually don't need to go to anymore workshops about photography ever. You don't...The point is, everything you need, you have." I couldn't have said it myself Dane Sanders.

PZN: Mr. Photogzilla Rockstar! He...he....he just said don't go to any workshops! That just turns the entire EscalateLIVE event on its head and goes against Colonel Sanders' philosophy. What is this?

PHOTOGZILLA: We call this flip-flopping for the sake of greed. But I'm not done yet. To answer your question is he good enough to teach a workshop, he himself admits he wouldn't have been able to be a speaker unless he organized this event himself. Good point indeed Colonel Sanders. Take a look for yourself from their sadly produced EscalateLIVE promo video with the Becker. Watch 5:12 to 5:23:

Escalate LIVE- Episode #2 from Dane Sanders on Vimeo.

PHOTOGZILLA: Let me quote him again in case your eyes need to read the actual words. Dane said, "I figured that the only way I could ever really get on this ticket is if I created the event myself." What I really like is how The Becker responds with the most honest statement I've ever heard come out of his mouth, "Well, hey, you did it and that's good for you...And I think it's going to pay off." Just look at the Beckers face as he turns and takes in the view of the theater seats as he says "pay off." I'm fully convinced the Becker was doing the math in his head about what the actual pay off will be for filling all 600 seats. Oh, yeah. This event will definitely 'pay off' nicely for a few people for selling inspiration without much substance. And this pay off is for the Dane and the speakers. The facts can't be denied.

PZN: Wow. Just wow Mr. Rockstar. This is quite disconcerting. How much money are they going to make from this seminar alone?

PHOTOGZILLA: Yes, it is very upsetting isn't it? Confuses everyone that watches it, especially when it comes out of their own mouths. Well, I did some conservative calculations myself. The Lido Theatre is a one screen theatre that rents out its space often for private events and meetings. This one theater only holds 600 people. Here's my breakdown so far:

Lido Theatre rents out its space at $1000 per hour and includes all audio/visual/and staff support required to run a meeting. EscalateLIVE presale price per Tier 1 ticket to first 300 with fees is $184.47. If the first 300 physical seats sell out with Tier 1 pricing and then the remaining 300 at Tier 2 pricing, that's Tier 1 $55,341 + Tier 2 $78,866 = $132,207 dollars in gross sales. When you deduct the cost of the rent of the theatre, which will likely be negotiated a bit from their normal $1,000/hr rates, you're around $12-15,000 cost for the two day facility rent. This means your roughly around $115,000 after subtracting rent. Now, that's the bare minimum with the current data we have. They are also planning on selling it on 'Pay-Per-View' by streaming it online. How much revenue will be generated from these online sales is another factor to consider. More then likely, they will also be profiting from selling DVDs recordings of this event. 

There are minimal expenses like travel for some of the speakers, but that's a drop in the bucket, along with some turkey sandwiches, mini-bags of chips, and some cans of Diet Coke from The Becker's trip to Sam's Club.

I just also want to mention, there are people spending hundreds more, if not over a thousand dollars, flying in from other countries and states to go to this event. They are plunking down more money to attend, not to mention the money they've already spent in going to WPPI. These are not the economic times to be taking advantage of these strapped for cash business owners. Look at me, I have to work at my part time job at a drive-thru just to make ends meet. But I do eating free food at work, I won't lie [Grins].

From my calculations, each speaker stands to make a minimum of $10,000 for just inspiring photographers with their personal biographies and plugging the "tools" you will need to ahead. Dane Sanders could be profiting more as the producer of the event. Also, just watch what tools they'll be plugging. Products that the speakers are owners/producers of and/or belong to their close friends. David Jay & will plug Showit sites. Dane Sanders his lack luster plagiarized book. Becker will plug his silly B School. Jessica Claire will plug her sadly designed Shootsac. The list goes on. 

Should they make money? Sure, why not. It's capitalism. People sell crap all the time and poor suckers buy into it. But this is part of the underlying problem known as the fleecing of America. Is all this inspiration information free and available on their sites, blogs, in other forums, and in books? Of course. Are you learning to improve what's really required from your knowledge of photography to have a strong foundation for the service you provide? No.

So there you have it. 

I hate to cut this short guys, but I need to get back to work. The drive-thru is probably backed up by now.

PZN: Mr. Rockstar, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day and sharing your insights. We really appreciate it.

PHOTOGZILLA: You guys better appreciate it. This is the weirdest interview I've ever had to give. I mean, who follows a guy into a public bathroom stall and starts asking questions? You guys are just nuts and will do anything to get a story!

PZN: Yes, sir! We'll do whatever it takes to share the truth with all of the professional photographers we love and help them make a more informed decision to better the industry that belongs to them! We don't want anyone throwing away any of their hard earned money.

PHOTOGZILLA: Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Anyway, can you just throw over some toilet paper or even some newspaper. I'm all out over here.

PZN: On a final note, PZN wants to leave you, our readers, with the following image. We honestly assumed, as professional photographers would agree, that selective coloring was dead. Apparently not.

This image is from the home page of EscalateLIVE website. These pros are keeping the trend alive. Apparently, with at least 9 PROFESSIONAL photographers with a bunch of cameras on hand, not one of these 'pro' photographers had enough creativity to produce their own image for their own event. We are truly saddened and surprised, as you will be, to learn that this image is from iStock microstock photo services. Photozilla just yelled from behind the bathroom stall, "WTF? That's just pathetic!":

Keep stalking Photogzilla Rockstar!