Travel Shots

I really enjoy traveling. I was going through my photos as I sit in a hotel in Denver, and I thought, why not a post about some of my travels last year. I got to meet up with my good friends in San Diego, our old stomping grounds. I went to Savannah to meet my soon-to-be in-laws. I took my then-boyfriend, now-fiance to San Francisco and caught some junk on camera. I went to New York for the fourth of July with my cousins. And I watched as the sun melted 1 year ago from today on August 4, 2007.

 

San Diego

  

Savannah

  

San Francisco

  

 New York

  

Dallas 

I've decided I'm going to use my blog to showcase more of my photos. I went out this evening, it's been a lovely, balmy 80 degrees, and I shot the Millennium Bridge, LoDo (lower downtown), and Larimer Square. I should have those up tomorrow. Have to find something entertaining to do when you're in a city for a statistics conference. I'm going to go to the State Capitol, and stand 1-mile above sea level on the 13th step. Work travel has its perks.

Impromptu Photo Shoot

I wanted to make the most of the day at Halfmoon Bay so I took my camera with me. On the upside, there were two adorable kiddie there.

I like kids, especially when they are intrigued by the camera and allow the paparazzi to shoot continuously!

Responsibilities

So, I'm convinced that having a lot of responsibilities is overrated. To me, having to ensure sales and revenue is not something I want to be held accountable for. After sitting in several meetings, listening to others ruminate about making sales goals and meeting the magical Q4 number, I realized that I don't want that to ever be my problem. Yes, I'm held accountable for the projects that I manage, and yes, I know that's a form of responsibility, but making sales numbers, not my problem.

On top of that, those that do have those responsibilities, spend half their lives in meetings. The other half is spent trying to carry out the so-called "marching orders". Seems a little too military-ish if you ask me. "Carry out these orders, or you're toast." Too much. Let's just say that I wasn't ever cut out to be in high-pressure sales, or any type of sales, really. I know that the industry that I work in has a very different sales model, not based on pressuring someone to do something, but still. For me, the whole idea of "sales" is icky. Because what do you do if you don't make your number? In British vernacular - you become redundant.

Don't get me wrong, I'm handling my added responsibilities on the media front. I've had to do a ton of clean up after the boat load of "legacy" projects were left to wade through. I think I'm finally finding my bearings. I'm bound and determined to rock this job. There's just so many office politics that I'd rather not get mixed up in the mess. I guess that I feel that I know my place and role, which I cannot definitively say the same for some others around here. Alas, that's the way the corporate cookie crumbles. I'm hoping that having a new team (although removed on the other side of the country) will shed some new light and breathe some fresh air into my world.

I'm tired of the petty and clueless.

365 to go!

Yes, I know that a full year is still a long time, but I'm sure it will fly by! Yay!



July 18, 2009. :)

Published!

Check it out! Random and by chance, one of my photos was published on the BART website.

You can see my pic here. My photo is the first on the left of the lady pushing the stroller. Woo hoo!

Original is this:

After a little magic get this:

Thanks BART!

A Published Winner!

Well, almost. In the last two days, I won a $10 iTunes card through comment contest on Southern Weddings and  I was asked permission to publish one of my photos on BART's  redesigned website. They are still currently working on the redesign, but my photo may be published there (someday)! Woo hoo! Who knew that snapping a shot of a lady walking through the Oakland Airport would amount to anything?!

I was really excited about winning the $10 iTunes card, because I just entered the comment on a whim. I didn't think I would win, but I think my secret Southern vibe tapped into the judges. Well, my mom is a Georgia Peach and Cent is from the South. I've never won anything online before. Very exciting.

In addition to the aforementioned, I also won free lunch at Kabul's, an Afghan restaurant in San Carlos. Business cards are good for something after all.

New to my WANT list

So Nikon just announced their new full-frame sensor DSLR. It's more compact than the ultra pro D3, but has all the functionality of the pro DSLR. I think they are calling this their compact professional DSLR. I'm really excited about this release because I really like Nikon products. After reading about professional photographers and finding out that a lot of them prefer the Canon 5D in terms of a compact professional DSLR, I wondered if I should do the switch eventually. However, I tried my friend's Canon and in terms of the ergonomic and comfort quality of the camera body, it didn't compare to Nikon. My Nikon D80 is much more comfortable to hold than her Canon XTi. What can I say, I'm a fan of Nikon.

I'm excited about this release and hope that eventually I get my hands on one and continue to pursue my dream!

[photo from dpreview.com]

TravisHoehne.com in Full Effect!

Our awesome and totally rad photographer has launched his new website: travishoehne.com!

Congrats Travis!

Fun Project #1: Save the Dates!

As I keep finding more and more ideas for what to do with my Save the Dates, I'm almost overwhelmed. I have a general idea of what I want and I want to stay focused on the vision that I have. It's hard to feel unique when you see your idea translated and created by another bride. I'm so thankful, though, for all the of the wonderful resources online that brides have been sharing since the blog boom.

I love the idea of magnets, so your guests will have a constant reminder on their fridge of the upcoming nuptials. I also like the idea of including stickers for guests to mark in their other calendars. This may seem like overkill at times, but I think that if you send a Save the Date to someone and then an invitation, they have absolutely no excuse not to know when your wedding is. I would hope that this would cut out the "Oh I didn't knows" or "You should have told me sooner" or "I wish I knew ahead of time". That's the whole point of a Save the Date, right, to SAVE THE DATE.

Here's some inspiration from Melissa Jill, a Scottsdale-based photographer, who has a new line of Save the Date Cards:



Here is what I have come up with. I'm planning on maybe using these as the magnets and including another insert with information for our out of town guests. It's so hard to decide on just one idea, that I want to include everything! These are preliminary designs, with some others on the way.




Awesome engagement photos by our rad-tastic photographer, Travis Hoehne!

Mini-Vacation Here I Come

I luckily get to miss marketing planning, also known as "hours and hours of boring stuff". Very intellectual, I know.

I'm going down to San Diego to hang out with my cousins from Montana as well as the local San Diegans.

Thoughts on the future

I was reading archives from a wedding photographer's blog over the weekend, and her words just spoke to me so clearly. I was humbled to learn that she had the same fears and worries as I currently do about getting into the business. It's been a dream of mine for the past few years and the thought of working for myself has been very tempting. But it's hard to take that leap of faith and JUST DO IT. I don't think I'm quite at that point yet, but I'm getting there.

Speaking of a leap of faith, I decided to e-mail said photographer as an informational interview type thing. The worst that could happen is that she never responds. But my gut tells me that she probably will, because she seems like that type of person. I'm excited that I decided to just do it. The last time that I emailed a photographer was probably a year or so ago and I asked about how she started out, and she replied back, happy to be of help.

I still need to work on composition and lighting a lot. I've got a good hang on retouching and processing in Photoshop thanks to my class. I would definitely start out with this being a hobby/job on the side until I was able to take it on as a full time endeavor. I'm starting to looks a some lenses and thanks to borrowlenses.com can try some out before I buy. And they are located in San Mateo!

Jet Fuel is ruining my life.

If it wasn't bad enough that gas prices jump every single day (it's not even easing into this whole $4 thing), plane tickets are even more expensive thanks to uber-expensive jet fuel. What used to be $220 on a good day to fly to Dallas on American is now between $350-$400 if you're lucky. It would be fine if all these prices went up, and my salary went up with it in proportion. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Hmmm, I feel the beginnings of an even wider poverty gap. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer. I hope this economy starts to turn around come November.

I'm still for celebrity socialism. Those who spend $30,000 a month on gas can help.