It's gorgeous outside! Snow fall means a good ski season for NH! I hope it will last for a little while. I love the snow! I was overseas last year for that record snowfall season. We got some snow in Budapest but it didn't last very long. Austria was a different story. That place was a winter wonderland!


I start my training at State Street Corporation tomorrow! I'm wicked excited! It'll be fun to see all of the cool new hires I'll be working with. In my Princeton Review book "Best Entry-Level Jobs" it talks about my peers.

"That is one of the great things about this company when you are coming right out of college: There are a lot of young people working there, and it presents a great opportunity to make new friends. The nature of the job allows a lot of bonding. Everyone goes to lunch at the same time, and the entry-levels, the seniors, and some of the managers tend to stick together."

Cool man! I love meeting new people. For the interviews there were young kids like me coming from New York, New Hampshire, and even California! It's just like school, accept you're actually doing something that's worth the time and effort! :D




Here's the sunflower still standing.

Finally here's the ground accumulation so far. To everyone in the area: Drive carefully! It's different physics variables out there (coefficient of friction)!

I just updated my flash website! Like the old pic from this summer? I still like it but it's a bit edgy! :D

I've really simplified. Now that I've found a new sense of clarity, I want to share that with my website. I know what market I want to serve. I know the people I love to talk to and hang out with. Simply put: It's my generation!!

Therefore I've decided to restructure my service for a more digital culture. Of course I'll still offer more traditional products with my service. And my core will be focused on the digital age of sharing media.

My first couple weddings were of couples fresh out of college and getting into the workforce! Just as I do the same, I am able to understand the couples and provide them with relevant information, tastes and products!

Hay Perfecto!

Check out my Website!

With this rebranding, I may want different photos to go along with it. Update or perish! :D

I've been doing some thinking lately. It's about my products and pricing as a wedding photographer.

I feel that this digital age requires me to take action.

I'm beginning to understand why folks are taking away tangible products for the digital age. I also understand that I can have more fun with digital products, than being so serious about physical products such as albums and such.

I won't completely throw away the tangibles. I will always offer them at a price. But I think that tastes are changing rapidly. Our generation is what I want my target audience to be. I feel there is a real need for wedding photographers for young couples. A lot of these older more established photographers go after the 26-35 crowd that get married in america today. I don't want to do that. Although, they are always welcome to hire me. But I want to focus on my generation. Those getting out of college specifically. Those that are well versed in the digital world. That gap needs to be filled with a professional like me.

Therefore, I will change my services very soon. I've been doing a lot of thinking. For the first time in a while, I know where I want to go with my business. That's self-empowerment. :D

Ever notice how prices at stores have been out of control low? Even stuff you did not ask for off is marked down.

I think retail knows it's going to be hurt pretty bad, and needs to shovel in price sensitive customers to survive through the holidays.

That's good news for us! In fact, with the slowing economy and falling of house prices it's wonderful! During the housing boom, only big expensive projects were taken on to build houses for the moderately wealthy, and people who could get a ninja loan. The result? A housing bubble, and fewer middle class worker housing. In NH, this is especially true. There is very little affordable housing and most people leave the state after graduating from high school.

The result? An aging population and a fleeing future generation. Fewer younger people leads to fewer workers and starving businesses.

Good job NH! Did Lynch, the governor, see this coming?

But there is something to say for that. Working families bring in children that are expensive to school. Down the street they built a big huge development for seniors. It's a 55+ as they call it. It doesn't cost the city any more money for education, and that's why it's easier for the government to say "Ok, you can build here!"

Quite simply we need affordable worker housing, not professional and wealthy retired housing here in NH. That's why NH businesses are hurting badly.

American Auto Industry: The Stubborn Dinosaur

GM, Chrysler and Ford are headed for a nose dive according to the Wall street Journal. Due to high gas prices, the American public is vomiting up the large SUV's and trucks the American auto industry has been shoving down our throats since the mid 90's. Those big expensive vehicles have been the lifesaver of our precious auto industry since then and also in years past.

Our auto industry fails to remain competitive and spends money in all the wrong places. GM has been losing money for a while now, and bankruptcy might be an option. GM was on the cutting edge of innovation with their EV cars back in the mid 90's, but destroyed them due to incompetence.

Is big oil to blame or is the auto industry entirely to blame? The three big dinosaurs can be hard to move especially with huge plant machinery spread throughout the globe. Not to mention they have spend their resources on R&D for trucks and SUV's. Most of the innovation is in electronics, and minimal structural design. And who can blame them?

Reasons for no quick change?

1. Trucks and SUV's are the life bread of the industry. You make these, because they sell! It's all about power and safety.
2. People are resistant to change. A complete redesign takes time for the public to be comfortable. Big companies can't afford to make such bold moves, because all of their investments cannot take such high risks.
3. The high risks of quick change also cost a lot of money. Building plants and new equipment is no easy task. The more standardized the lower the costs. A complete redesign can kill itself before it even gets started. Investors in these big companies don't like to take huge risks, They just want their money to increase in growth, not decrease.

Reasons for quick change?

A change of trends, and a change of need. America used to be prized for it's innovative engineering and inventions. It still is today, but not like the times of Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford. Not like the times where we put a man on the moon. As Kennedy put it "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

We need to make bold leaps in engineering and design. We need to rethink how people get from place to place, and how we coexist with mother nature. Power plants are still emitting mercury into the air, and people are bitching about having a windmill next to them. I think windmills are very pretty. They add flavor to the scenery, where a power plant (coal) is a big ugly thing that makes our fish not safe to eat.

Bold moves make money! Nobody ever made a good deal of money and served the public by making minimalist moves. (Nobody we've heard of) Sometimes people are too proud to change things and create new jobs while destroying others. They laughed at the horseless carriage.

If I was head of GM, I'd run the company into the ground before I sat on my hands and waited for our ship to slowly sink. That way people can get on with thier lives faster, than being worried sick about if the plant will close down or not.

Well the good thing is I'll have a little more time to do things that need to get done today.

These past few weeks have been hard and tiring. But things are looking up. My photography is getting significantly better. And I start training for a fund accountant position at State Street Corporation. Just in the nick of time. (student loans)

Finally my education is paying off. I can contribute significantly to society, and learn all about the business.

I've been doing portraiture for a professional dating service company. They are really great. But it takes so much energy to do portraits. For me right now, it's a steep learning curve. I always have to be thinking. The thinking starts before I pick up the camera till after the client decides what he or she likes. It's very much like designing the image to create beauty, instead of the photo journalistic approach of "Oooo that's pretty! I'm going to grab that shot!"

In the studio I have to use manual controls. I vary my lighting power when appropriate (moving closer and further from the subject.) I've used the alien bee ring flash, and it seems to do a very nice job as a fill and main light. I bounce my Canon 430 off the walls and ceiling to add a little flavor to the ring flash, since they are both on the same axis. I think I'm going to want to get a second alien bee strobe with light stand and umbrella/softbox. Perhaps in a week or so. I don't want to go overboard quite yet. This stuff it too much fun, I don't want to get carried away.

The portrait work is really helping me to become a much better photographer, and helping to develop my style. I LOVE STROBES! This way, I can work the portraiture into my wedding photography. I want to eventually pose the brides before the day for beautiful fine art portraits. Perhaps to give to family members.

It's funny, I'm in a transition with my photography. At first, I learned to develop my eyes by shooting for the paper, events, and birding. I got really good. Opening my eyes was such a huge thing. And now that I have my eyes, I am developing even more so, my mind. I am creating the photographs in my mind before I shoot like sketching before paint is applied.

I first got fast lenses so I would not need fancy flashes and other nonsense equipment. I was an available light photographer! What you see is what you get! And now I'm breaking into new ground. High powered flash units bounce light off of the subject so I can close down the aperture, and illuminate all of the crisp features if I want to. I can also darken other pars, even overpower the sun! But I'm glad i started out learning to use a camera without flash first. This way, I could look for the light first. Learning to use the strobes is not too difficult. I need to get a light meter to do serious work, but that's another $400.

So here's to the day off I have. It's time to organize this mess of a room. I have books everywhere! But it should not take too long, since I've been organizing every so often.

My Ring Flash came in the mail! Whoo hoo!

I love it so far! It is built kind of cheap, but it's pretty awesome for the price!

I was doing a few test shots, and It works very well as a catch light for the eyes.



I got a honey comb and some gels for it.

I got my back drop in today with some seamless backgrounds!

:D

I took these photos myself with my flash on my camera. Not too bad! They are a bit out of focus since it was hard to guess where my eyes would be. I think also my smile is kind of fake since there was nothing to smile with. :D

It's so true! The mouth is the most powerful tool a photographer has when shooting people!

But for a self portrait on a timer, It could be worse! I'm excited about it!

I'm also excited to get my lighting set up, but those are on back order. That's a good sign that a product is on back order, which means the product is so good the company can't keep up with demand! At least, I hope that's the reason!

Labels: back drop, self portriat

I voted today! You should too. It's one of the only times people will listen to you. Although it's a drop in a sea of people, nobody can take it away from us in this DEMOCRACY! So do it!

I don't care who you vote for in this election. I want you to care who you vote for in this election!

More craziness to come!