Gotta Make That Money

All my photography so far has been of inanimate objects (landscapes, still life, flowers, etc). I really like some of pictures, but there is one problem with my shots; they don’t pay the bills. No one is going to buy a picture like these from you if you aren’t already a big name. So what does pay the bills in a terms of photography?

Portraits. People work. Photography that has a personal touch for the people involved. This happens to be my least practiced technique. Last week I told myself that I had to start going all out to get my skills up and eventually making some money on this very expensive “hobby”. I ended up telling many friends that I would take picture of them or their children for free with the only requirement being that I can use the shots in my portfolio. I even posted a listing on craigslist offering the same deal for someone looking to get into modeling and needing some shots.

I ended up getting several hits off the craigslist ad and a couple friends have taken me up on my deal. In the next week I’m hoping to do at least two different photoshoots. It’s very exciting to start this brand new type of photography that I haven’t ventured too far into as of yet.

The Ice Cream Man Is Coming

Spring is coming. I say it’s coming because in Washington, the weather has been very un-spring like, but I can feel it right around the corner. Spring for me is spending weekends at my parent’s property on Lake Cavanaugh in Arlington Washington. Boating, swimming, fishing, laying in the sun, and of course, taking pictures. It is the time for the sunsets to shine.

Being a photographer makes me crave those beautiful sunrises/sunsets. Everyday on my way home I look at the sky to see if the clouds look like they would reflect the light from the sun going over the horizon. Usually they don’t and if they do, they usual burn off by the time The sun goes down. Every once in awhile you get a perfect gem though.

iPad Review

So I decided to finally write up a little review of the iPad now that I’ve used it for a couple days now. When I went to best buy on saturday to look at the iPad, I wasn’t there to necessarily buy one. However I had held off buying a netbook around Christmas time because I wanted to see what Apple’s “new thing” was going to be. After playing around with it for a but in the store I thought about how this would be a very nice replacement for what was originally going to be a netbook for the house. I found myself debating what size to get but since I had a couple hundred dollars of gift certificates I decided to “go big or go home” (although I almost did have to go home because even though they said they had some iPad’s when I got there, 10 minutes later when I decided to buy, they said there were out so I had to trek over to another bust buy). Long story short, I have a 64gb wifi iPad.

I’m not a power user, nor am I an “Apple fanboy” but you can tell how much thought and effort goes into an Apple product like this. Everything about this thing is based around ease of use. I’ve found the onscreen keyboard very easy and quite pleasing to use (this review is being written up on it).  This sounds dumb, but the best part about this is the screen size. Now for someone that doesn’t use an iPhone, this doesn’t mean as much. The iPad is so much more pleasing to use all your apps that you have on the iPhone (even using the 2x magnification, they don’t look half bad). Already a couple times I’ve been using my iPad and then need to check my phone for something and iPhone screen looks terrible after being used to the iPad. And the screen is gorgeous. Videos and pictures look great. Being a semi pro photographer, I’m happy to show off my pictures on the iPad and I’m sure third party companies will make some great photographic-centric apps to take advantage of this screen and processor.

Apps, apps, apps; that’s where this thing shines (and will continue to get brighter and brighter). Right off the bat we have the new Netflix app. Already having a netflix account that I use frequently for instant viewing and managing my rentals, this app was a no brained and the first one I downloaded. Instant watching is so cool because your basically holding your tv in your hand and you can walk all over the house and continue watching. I can’t wait for all my apps to get refreshed for the iPad, mainly Flickit Pro. I will say that some apps are prone to crashing and it seems like every time you go to the aol store there is some update for an app you have that “fixes bugs” or “issues app crashing”. All that is to be expected with a brand new product so I don’t sweat it (developers only had a small window to get their apps ready).

In conclusion, this is a perfect replacement for a netbook. Just think about it, what was the netbook created for; getting on the net. This does that and so much more. Now I’m not saying a netbook doesn’t do more too, but this has a massive ceiling of growth with so many people developing apps for it. The issue with the iPad not working with Flash on the web seems to be becoming more of a non issue everyday as we hear about more and more websites changing from Flash (which the iPad and iPhone can’t do) to HTML 5 (which the iPad and the iPhone can do). This is when you know a company has made something special; when other industry giants willfully change their products to accommodate this new product.

Well I decided to take the plunge

After picking myself up an iPad over this last weekend, I figured I would use it for something other than just games and checking up on my flickr account (I’ll write a subsequent post about the iPad soon). So even though I’ve been a techie kinda guy all my life, I didn’t actually know what a blog was until just a couple years ago, and to be honest, once I found out, I really didn’t care. Well now that I’ve had a couple years to digest the essence of what a blog is and what it can do for someone, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. I’m writing this really for no reason other than it being some place where I can put into text the thoughts that are in my head about whatever; my brain-words. Sounds silly but that’s exactly what a blog is.

Just a quick background; I’m (currently) a 27 year old, engaged, programmer with a massive photography hobby. I love watching movies and tv shows with my girl in the downtime. I recently starting going back to the gym so I can get down to, what I feel to be, a comfortable wedding-weight. I love my Seattle Seahawks, Mariners, and our, newly started, MLS Sounders. I live in Everett Washington and commute to Seattle everyday for work.

Anyway, that’s a good start for now. I feel like it’s going to be a mini adventure to put my thoughts down into these digital memoirs known as blogs; and if anyone wants to read it along the way, then that’s cool too. By the way, I signed up for, wrote, and published this whole thing from my iPad.