Bee-zee

Filter

So this week we have been working really hard, as the very first presentation of our photography business at the Prom Expo is fast approaching, we found out about it Monday  and it is happening this Sunday. So it was rather short notice but we couldn’t pass this great opportunity to advertise ourselves, set up a vendor table and meet prospective clients. After all, prom season will be upon us before you know it and with it – senior photo sessions. (For those new to my blog, I have started my business I long dreamed to start but never had time or courage, Thousand Words Photography, two weeks ago and we are trying to make things happen. By we I mean my very supportive husband who is also my partner, not only in life and in crime, but also in this business:)

Getting our first public presentation and vendor table/booth ready in less than a week, with an infant in the house, my husband’s full time job and our parental duties to our older kids, required a lot of dedication, working relentlessly and staying up really late. We are busy like the bees, or I should say bee-zee.

Photo by Thousand Words Photography. Canton, NY

Filtering was the key word of the week, filtering through deals for printing and frames, filtering through table cloths, backdrops and decor, through tons of photography and studio blogs, articles and posts for dos and don’ts. We filtered through tons of information and ideas, to get us on our A game and be prepared for what one would need for successful photography business vendor table.

This week was full of picking out photos for my portfolio, designing signs and a banner and figuring out how to mount and display the 2×6 photo banner (since it was such short notice, banner was printed at local walmart and thus is on photo paper instead vinyl, which will be here in a few weeks). Managing all social media websites was rather challenging this week, as so much other stuff had to be done as a result I missed yesterday’s post and broke my “everyday post” rule.

Stay tuned, as I will be posting a compiled list of things you might need for setting up the vendor table if you are stating out photographer, artist or starting out anything for that matter. I promise it will be useful.

On a side note, I must say, I am so grateful for my husband taking on two websites, canvas ordering and technical tasks, is a life saver.

P.S.

Thank you to all my followers and readers for taking time to read, comment, like and otherwise give your feedback. It is greatly valued by us. Please keep us in your minds, share our blog or photos or spread the word as you deem fit.

Love to all.

 

 

Glass of Blues

Oversight

This glass of blues I shall drink to the very bottom.

Oversight of what’s important, failure to notice and act upon what matters, can surely cost you, a lot and everything, everything and anything you hold dear. If it sounds all too familiar – pour yourself the glass of blues, taste it, savor it and own it! Drink it to the last drop and when there is no more blues left and no more oversight to regret, move on and move forward, with confidence and without fear. Oversights and moments of blues will happen for sure, but you’ll learn to appreciate those moments, like lessons to be learned, like advise from old friend, like bitter sobering truth, like old scars that tell the story.  Just remember this too shall pass, get up and keep moving forward.

So if you are singing the blues today…cheers. This one is on me.

This photograph was taken by me using light and long exposure technique. You can check out my work here https://www.flickr.com/photos/miarossa/
and most of my work is available for sale here
www.thousandwordz.com and www.thousandwordz.zenfolio.com. More work is added every day.

Exposure is much needed

Exposure

This daily prompt is a much needed action for me…EXPOSURE  is something that my business and photography dramatically lack. So I am going to shamelessly use that to hopefully gain more exposure and more interest.

If you like my photos, please come check out my work at www.thousandwordz.com and www.thousandwordz.zenfolio.com and help me spread the word if you like what you see. We offer other products with my images as well. We also are trying to work out other ways to order photo prints, that upon request can be processed faster and ready to pick up within one business day at your local walmart. If you are interested or have questions email us @ marinasmith@thousandworz.com

Thank you,

Love to all,

Marina and Ben

Overworked can be sexy

Overworked

This post may not be what, one would imagine, should come with such prompt of the day or the title. However, I do wish to focus on positive things ever more…

So this is

my husband’s old overworked tractor. It proved itself useful numerous times and in many ways, no doubt, it existed and aged way before I came into the picture. It looks rusty and is in a rough shape, but still runs and does the work, nonetheless. I took this photo of it, as a memory.

This is the first tractor I ever got to ride and drive. It is one of the many fun and sweet memories my husband and I share together. I was having fun and loving every minute of it, then he told me about this song “She thinks my tractor is sexy”…hmm… indeed, I later got to listen to it too. From that moment on, it is the phrase I associate with this tractor, this memory and this photo. On Flickr it is titled just that 🙂

So yes, from my experience, overworked can be sexy…even if just for this tractor.

 

 

Everyday art

Aesthetic

There is always something aesthetic to be found in everyday life. You don’t have to go far.

This drink, was made out of fresh strawberries right in front of me and for me.

Now, I don’t always take a photo of my drink but when I do, it is because the drink was, exceptionally executed and pleasing to the view, work of art and the atmosphere was a complement to the aesthetics of the moment.

On that note:

“Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.”
― G.K. Chesterton

Cheers! 🙂

Baby steps

I spent Day 4 of my photography business progress, making small steps. Uploading photos to my own new website, processing new photos and trying to understand how the website I chose to host my domain operates. For those of you interested I went with smugmug and my experience with it was plenty disappointing.

First, they aren’t clear in their description of plans and what features you are going to get. It looks clear at first, but there is a lot that they don’t tell. For example for Power plan it stated that prints can be ordered from their lab, it is not untrue they can be! Only by the owner of the site, not everyone else. To be able to give the access to my customers or sell my images, I had to upgrade, which was way more than I was wanting to spend for a year, but now that my money was tied up in the “power” plan which was not going to cut it, we upgraded to portfolio package. Here customers can order their prints in different sizes with tons of different options, here I can sell images in digital format etc, and get 85%. Sounded like a deal, but not really.

Now the pricing, yes I can customize my own pricing, that is if I want to charge on top of the prices they already set and let me tell you, they set them high enough. After I mark them up, only then I get 85% of the MARKUP! Otherwise I don’t get anything. As a starting out, new business and not knowing how well anything will sell, I was not even remotely interested in paying $150.00 for the domain per year, not fora plan like this one anyways, where the cost of prints is overpriced and for me to make any money I have to mark up very low and get next to nothing or mark up high and risk not selling anything.

Oh well. What’s done is done. A word of caution to anyone who is looking for a domain, read all the plans’ descriptions carefully and don’t assume anything. If i had an option to go with different host, I would.

So the website is progressing one day at a time, logos are made, feel free to click on the link and vote on my logos. The business phone number and email with domain name is set. I am still working on the business card design and as soon as it is ready, I will be very excited to share with you.

As the most difficult part of it all approaches, I am starting to break out in cold sweat. The advertising and gaining clients!!! I am not sure where to begin except Facebook, twitter and giving out business cards. I am thinking, I will need to give away some photoshoots for free, to get a better, more up to date portfolio. All day long I was sweating it, worrying, since I was going to gradually transition from free, hobby photographer to a paid one, very gradually. Now I feel that with the money invested into site, email domain, small studio kit and additional canvas prints for the gallery, I have to move faster, more aggressively and I was not at all prepared.

Then, I paused and watched my 8 months old, holding onto the couch making baby steps towards my husband’s unattended laptop, that he so clearly wanted to get his hands on and sure enough, one baby step at at time he got closer, some steps were more confident then others, his little legs a bit shaky. A few times he landed on his butt, he slowly got up, he then moved towards the window, made more steps holding onto to the window and there he was, right next to the laptop not even pausing he started slapping the keys and getting all sorts of things on the screen.He was happy! It wasn’t his advanced walking skills or very sturdy legs that got him there, it is the determination, the goal and the strong desire to achieve it and no intention of giving up. It’s the small baby steps and a couple of tough landings that did not deter him, that got him there. I was so proud of him and let him have his few minutes of triumph, before I gently guide him to something different.

I felt a relief in my chest, I knew I am going to get there. My 8 month old son just taught me a valuable lesson without even knowing it. He has the determination that I believe he inherited in part from me.

Now on to the next step….

I invite you. Please take a minute and vote.

Invitation

My dear fellow bloggers and readers, I invite you to check out my logos that I came up with for my photography business. I spent some time yesterday working on those, and of course, I could not create just one logo, I created 3. By the vote of my family, one got voted out instantly, the other two that were left, they are all evenly divided on and as for me I love them both.

So please take a seat in one of the judging chairs and join one of my best friends, to be the judging panel. (Referring to the photo above)

I invite you to vote and kindly ask for your opinions. Please let me know which logo you think is better.

P.S.(To those of you who are not familiar with my blog, it is about my day day progress of starting my photography business, called Thousand Words Photography, just like this blog.)

Logo 1?

OR

Logo 2?

Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully participate. I value all feedback.

 

Very truly yours,

Marina.