Photography growth

I know it's been awhile since my last post.  Stop judging me.  At least it hasn't been over a year!

So far this year has been fantastic!  I've booked a wedding, I've had two photo shoots in studios, and helped create a group of creative artists get together for monthly photo sessions.  We got models, fellow photogs, and makeup artists.  I'm very excited for the coming months.  Speaking of which, if you have checked us out yet, do so here.

I've met some great people in the past month.  I try to take each session as a learning experience.  Sometimes I learn what not to do.  I got very frustrated with myself during a natural light studio experience.  A lot of the shots I took were unusable because I forgot a basic rule in photography.  You can't really hand hold a camera at anything below 1/60 shutter speed and  get sharp pictures.  Well, I can't anyway.  Even then it's hit or miss on the sharpness of the photo.  But I try to look at it as a growth lesson.  I know from now on, I need to have the shutter at 1/60th or higher or the image will be unusable.

I'm pretty excited about the upcoming year, I've got shoots scheduled until April, my first wedding, and tentative plans through the summer.  I've also got my website almost finished.  All in all a great start to 2014.

Photoshop 2: Electric Boogaloo

I'll be the first to admit I'm not much of a school person.  Going way back to junior high I never really enjoyed school.  And to that end I never put much effort into it.  Much to my parents chagrin I basically did enough to get by.

Five years ago (almost to the day) I met my wife.  She has influenced me in ways I'll never be able to fully comprehend.  She is a high school teacher, and for ANYONE who says teachers don't work hard, should spend one night doing parent/teacher conferences.  How she doesn't inject heroin into her eyeballs during these is beyond me.  But I digress.  Within the past year and half I have changed is my attitude towards school.

I'm going back to school to learn Photoshop and become Adobe Certified.  Couple this with my photography and I'm hoping to eventually work in this field.  I actually enjoy school now, I miss it during breaks, I yearn to learn something new and have assignments to show off my knowledge and skills.  Yearn for school??!!  Who is this person?  Alas it's true.

Today I go back for my second semester of Photoshop and I'm truly excited about it.  Before last semester I didn't know anything and just thought it was a cool program.  Now I'm fairly confident in my skills and am realizing it's waaaaaay cooler than I thought.  For office types I relate it to Excel, you know you can do certain things in it, but most people don't realize HOW MUCH YOU CAN FRIGGIN' DO!

So as every blog, especially one about photography and art, should have images enjoy these from last semester.  I fully blame/credit my wife for influencing me and changing my views.  She also has gotten me into naps....I never used to nap.

New Years Resolutions

Ha!  Soooooo....Apparently it's been about a year since I last posted a blog.  So much for sticking to it.  Again I will try this year to keep up with it.  Without boring the internet with the details, I'm in a much better place than I was this time last year so hopefully I'll stick with it.

I'm not usually a fan of New Years resolutions.  My thinking is if you want to change something then do it.  Just because it's January 1st shouldn't matter.  And to somewhat justify my thinking on this, I've been thinking of my resolution for quite some time.  I'm determined to get my photography "business" to the next level....or any level for that matter.  This past year I've had two paying clients and a few friends I did shoots for.  My goals this year is to get my website up and looking official, and to become more comfortable shooting with models.  Basically to get my name out there to more than just friends and acquaintances of friends.

To this end I have created The Plan.  I intend to get my website up and fully launched by the end of the January.  I have one shoot already scheduled with a model I've never met, and intend to schedule more.  And I'm going to start networking with other photographers to help me grow my business.  Using more social media through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google + etc.

So that's my New Years resolution, although I've been thinking about it since before New Years so don't consider it a New Years resolution...here's a picture of a cute dog to distract you.