Redundancy Blues

Once again it’s been a while, to be honest I haven’t ben in the right frame of mind to write much. Last month I was made redundant from my 9-5 job, this came as a bit of a shock to say the least as the company is doing well, but that’s a story for another time. So since then I’ve been job hunting and trying to further educate myself in this Art  we call photography.

Whilst it seems to have affected my pain levels somewhat, (is this due to the stress of being out of work?), I have been able to put some energy towards my photographic business, with 2 family bookings this month along with a day at a Dog show. The bookings are both from prizes I donated but I’m hopeful that they will lead to a: sales of images and b: word of mouth publicity.

The first of these is tomorrow and, I have to say, I’m really looking forward to this one. It’s for a little boy’s 2nd Birthday and he has Quad Cerebral Palsy. This means he has little movement in any of his limbs or head, but His smile lights up everything around Him, so I hope I can bring that out in some great pictures.

The Dog Show is more for publicity than anything else, with a percentage of the proceeds from any images I sell going to the Animal Shelter itself, I’m hoping it will be a busy day, I’m taking some pet portraits and also some pictures of the competitors in an agility race. In between the 2 I have a family shoot in one of the local Villages, with the local picturesque scenery as a backdrop I’m sure there’ll be some cracking pictures from that shoot.

Sunshine, Social media and sport

After some glorious weather at the weekend, I got out to the River and took some shots of the Flowers etc. there. Also had great results in the football and rugby over the weekend, if not the cricket!!

Last week I decided to bite the bullet and organise my Lightroom4 images, so I finally set up folders and catalogues and went through my images, so that by Friday I had the all tidied away into folders.

The best part of this was the number of images that I found that had been there, forgotten, or discarded previously, that I have now been able to rework using Perfect Effects 8 which I had downloaded a few weeks earlier. Including the image above, which I had taken last Autumn, but had looked somewhat Bland before, and the image below, which is from a Client shoot a couple of weeks ago, given quite a harsh treatment, I hope they will like the attitude of it.

I’ve been quite active on Facebook, but will have to work on other forms now, I know very little about Instagram and Pinterest, but should get going with them and see what audiences I can get there, my Facebook profile is getting bigger, which is great, now I just need some work to come from it.

All of my new images are now for sale on my website http://www.amcphotos.co.uk where I have also catagorised images.

So, what next? I am looking into putting my images on Cards and I’m photographing a Spring Ball in a few weeks, so Hopefully that will keep me busy and get me introduced to some new clients too.

 

Its been a while

I know, its been a long time since I blogged here, but with the 9-5, the photography and the FM I’ve managed to be remiss in my Blogging duties…..

Been busy on may fronts, with the “day job” getting very busy, pressure from them to do 5 days a week, but I can’t do, I don’t want to risk a massive FM Flare from overdoing it, to be honest I’ve had a pretty bad 3-4 weeks as it is, health wise.

I’ve finally got an appointment to see a Rheumatologist, beginning of next month, so I’ll be interested to see what He thinks about my treatment/medication so far.

The Photography work seems to be heading in the right direction, albeit pretty slowly, but, hey, the tortoise won the race, right? I’ve set up an account with a company to send me leads for the postcode covering some of the lovely villages near to me, so hopefully they’ll start coming through in the next couple of weeks and I’ve got 3 bookings on the Calendar so far.

Trifold (My new leaflet to be handed out at a charity event next month)

I think that’s enough for now so I’ll hope to get back on here in the next day or so and find something more interesting that my potted history to write about.

Great Weekend

 

Had a wonderful weekend, although it didn’t look as though it was going to be…

Friday, after a poor night’s sleep, I finally awoke a 1:30PM, I don’t remember doing that since I was a teenager, so having wasted half the day I went out with my camera. Unfortunately, inspiration did not strike me and the few pictures I took I deleted when I got home as they were pretty poor.

Saturday; I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this but I’m a Man Utd fan, and today marked the poorest start to a premiership season, thankfully, I can remember the 70’s and 80’s when they were even worse, so I’m still happy that they’ll never be that bad again….(Crosses fingers)

Sunday; went to a bird sanctuary in Bedfordshire with Steve Magennis, a wonderful wildlife photographer where i and several others spent a wonderful, sun-filled day, taking pictures of 5 of their birds.

 A Red Kite, a Kestrel, 2 Goshawks and a Long-eared Owl. The day was over in no time and I’d filled 3 memory cards (1920 images), the editing is now on-going lol.

I have to say, I slept like a sleepy thing that’s very tired that night, waking only when my alarm chimed the morning in at 6:00 (I had a sneaky extra 30 minutes after that too).

Of course, all good things come to an end etc, and back to the day job yesterday and a rotten night’s sleep last night, oh well.

I’m starting to wonder, after a good start if my Alpha Stim is helping at all, I think I’ll give it until this weekend and then call them and see if they recommend anything.

 

Related articles

• UK’s Blogging Red Kites (kevinsnatureblog.wordpress.com)

Photography

As it’s quiet at work today, I thought I’d take the chance to upload some more pictures.                  This first one was at a Country Park near to us, taken in August, there was an Owl display there and just as I was setting up the shot for this Barn Owl, he decided that he’d pop off his perch and land on my lens. This was just as he was about to take off. Of course, he didn’t fit on the end of my lens and fell to the ground, unsure of what had just happened, so I picked him up and put him back on his perch, managing to wrap myself in his tether while I was doing it! The owner was a lovely guy, who spoke to me for a while and he unravelled me from the owl.

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago at the Victorian village near to Ironbridge, a “living museum”. I was particularly struck by the tones of white the painted stone gave off from the light through the window, contrasting with the black hat and the colour from the berries.

I hope you enjoy them and look forward to any feedback.

Painful Weekend

It’s been a while since my last blog, sorry about that, but after a very busy week in the 9-5 job last week, I may have overdone things and had a rotten weekend, pain and sleep wise. Too much driving left my legs very sore and too much physical site work left my upper body aching badly.

After Baths, drugs and alpha stim, I felt OK in patches, but only slept for about 2-3 hours at a time, if I was lucky, so have got to Monday now knackered. Hoping to get back into a routine of more office work from now on and let the alpha stim take over from the drugs as it was meant to be.

Other than that, I’ve had my first magazine ad. go out and my first enquiry from it this morning, so hopefully that’ll lead to something.

The image here is from last week’s shoot of Monty the whippet and Holly, this was one of the client’s favourites, and one of 3 they requested as prints.

 

Also, I wanted to link to this, I know a few of you are photographers, maybe some of you in the UK and wanted to highlight this shocking behaviour from a government dept…

Not so GREAT for Photographers

Would love to hear what others have to say, or if you have come across this, either with this project, or any other.

Related articles

• Pain is killing me slowly (meanbitchx.wordpress.com)

First Order!

What a weekend!

Me and Ali went off to Ironbridge Gorge, where we visited Blists Hill Victorian Museum, which was great, ending with the best raspberry ripple ice cream I’ve ever had 🙂 . Then on Saturday went to Ironbridge itself, which is stunning, the village is lovely, set amongst the hills and forests of the local area. I’ll put some pictures on when I’ve finished them.

Of course, I’ve paid for it in the last couple of days, shoulder pain, leg pain, sleeplessness, finger pain, you name it etc etc… and then back to the 9-5 today 😦

On the plus side, I got my first photo order today, so Thanks Emma, I’m glad you liked the pictures enough to order some :)…(Guess what I’ll be doing tonight).

As regards the Alpha Stim, I’m not sure how much help its been this weekend, whether I’d have been even worse without it, or it made no difference at all, who knows. All I can do is press on with it for a few more weeks and hope it starts having a long term effect. On the whole I think i slept better last week than I have for a long time, so I’m hoping that’s a sign that it’s working 🙂

Related articles

• Ironbridge Gorge (whstravellers.wordpress.com)
• Coalport China Museum, Shropshire (comestepbackintime.wordpress.com)
• The Iron Bridge (ginzandtonic.wordpress.com)

Bank Holiday

Having a busy weekend so far. Up and out early yesterday morning to take some pictures of Jess doing a tandem sky-dive in aid of Breast Cancer Research. I’m glad to say this went well, despite a few hours waiting for the weather to clear, she eventually got in the air.

Luckily Jess was the only one in a Red jumpsuit, so we could spot her as the parachute was opened.

Stopped for lunch at Buddies Diner, had a great “pulled pork burger”, with fries and corn cob, then home.

Settled in for the rest of the afternoon to watch the end of the Ashes match at The Oval whilst using my Alpha Stim for the second time, had a good nights sleep after that, though I was awake early this morning.

This gave me a chance to process yesterdays pictures before I set up for this afternoon’s session with one of my Sons’ friends, she’s coming round to model and give me a chance to try out my new lighting set up and maybe some sunset shots outside somewhere this evening.

New guitar

I

I’ve decided to start playing the guitar again. So yesterday I collected thid beauty from The Guitar Lounge in Peterborough. Not as expensive as it should have been and truly lovely to play.

A new Hofner solid body.
Also received my alpha stim device yesterday and early results are positive. I used it last night and the pain in my shoulders was reduced immediately. Todays session did similarly with pain in my legs and back. Im hoping this will become longer term pain relief as i use it in the upcoming weeks and months.
Early start tomorrow for the drive to the airfield where i’m photographing a charity parachute jump so time for a relaxing evening in with a film.

Another free day

Another day off from the 9-5 and I’m feeling not too bad, a little foggy, but nothing major.

So, decisions decisions, do I get out my new backdrop and lighting and start using that, I need to practice, or get out in the sun somewhere, get some lunch out and take some photos. I’ve got some processing to do, but think that can wait, it’s not for a client. (I could sit in and watch the start of the final Test Match!)

Also, I need to arrange some more shots for future promotional material and my website, so anyone local to Northants, I’m looking for a Sports team/Club, a new born and some Pets (preferably exotics and Dogs).

Like my FB page and message me for details.

Anyone with advice in any of these areas is welcome to comment with ideas/pitfalls etc.

I look forward to hearing from you