For those who haven't seen it yet, check out my site!
It's sweeeeet.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Orchard Cross
NorEast hired me to photograph their cyclocross race at Applecrest Orchard in Hampton Falls, NH on Sunday, November 1st. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and all the competitors enjoyed a great day filled with apples, ice cream, costume races, and lots of mud! But isn't that what cyclocross is all about? Photos are on my website.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Fall!
It's fall (or autumn, depending on where you grew up) in New England, and the trees are amazing!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Rant
Getting into wedding photography, I have been doing a lot of research and recently came upon this trend... wedding photogs complaining because other people "stole their poses and ideas."
Seriously?
You do know that there's nothing truly original left, right? Even if you had never seen the shot before taking it, you're probably still copying someone else.
Anyways, that's what art is about... drawing from other ideas and manipulating them and giving them your own spin.
If someone's doing the same thing you're doing, do it better. If you can't do it better, then you deserve to lose the contract or customer. It's an eat or be eaten business. Just because you have an cool idea doesn't mean you automatically deserve the praise or business, it's about execution. If you can't execute it well enough, and someone sees that, they're going to do it better if they can.
That's business for you. You know what they say... if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Seriously?
You do know that there's nothing truly original left, right? Even if you had never seen the shot before taking it, you're probably still copying someone else.
Anyways, that's what art is about... drawing from other ideas and manipulating them and giving them your own spin.
If someone's doing the same thing you're doing, do it better. If you can't do it better, then you deserve to lose the contract or customer. It's an eat or be eaten business. Just because you have an cool idea doesn't mean you automatically deserve the praise or business, it's about execution. If you can't execute it well enough, and someone sees that, they're going to do it better if they can.
That's business for you. You know what they say... if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
PSPrint Review
This is for all the people probably coming here from a google search, because when I heard of PSPrint and their deal on postcards for my company (event photography) I googled them and found a ton of negative reviews.
Let me say, my experience with them has been easy and left me with a great product. I admit, their system is a little weird where they make you enter your payment information before you upload your graphics and everything, but they were right on schedule with processing, and then shipped it, provided me with a tracking number as soon as it was sent, and a couple days later it arrived. I opened it up and took a look, sort of expecting to have color imbalance, crooked cuts, etc. because of the reviews that I had read, but nope. Great quality stuff, all cut correctly, colors were correct, and printed on nice stock.
Seems most of the negative reviews were written by people who made mistakes on their own end then want to bash the suppliers for it.
I just wrote this review to hopefully provide people who are thinking about using PSPrint with a review from a very satisfied customer.
Let me say, my experience with them has been easy and left me with a great product. I admit, their system is a little weird where they make you enter your payment information before you upload your graphics and everything, but they were right on schedule with processing, and then shipped it, provided me with a tracking number as soon as it was sent, and a couple days later it arrived. I opened it up and took a look, sort of expecting to have color imbalance, crooked cuts, etc. because of the reviews that I had read, but nope. Great quality stuff, all cut correctly, colors were correct, and printed on nice stock.
Seems most of the negative reviews were written by people who made mistakes on their own end then want to bash the suppliers for it.
I just wrote this review to hopefully provide people who are thinking about using PSPrint with a review from a very satisfied customer.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A tip of the hat, wag of the finger...
Tip of the hat to Olympus Camera Service. Submerged my Olympus 850sw in the water no more than 3 feet (it's waterproof up to 10) and it died, water got inside the camera. Sent it back, and in a week I had an entirely new camera.
A wag of the finger to RRVelo. I broke my Tarmac SL frame, and speaking with one of the shop guys a week ago, he quotes me at 225 to fix it. Fine. Whatever. It'll get me back on my bike. Sent them some pictures as they requested, another employee quotes me at $475. Yeah, right. No thanks.
A tip of the hat to Smugmug. I made the transition to them last week and it is my favorite website in the world. They are absolutely amazing to work with, and everything looks so much nicer when you're with smugmug.
Lastly... a wag of the finger at Nikon Service... it sucks. I broke the card lever door on a d300 by opening the card door. It snapped off. No, I didn't use excessive force, just twisted the lever to open the door, and bam there it went. My boss says "you might as well throw the whole camera in the lake." I'm beginning to think he was right. I sent it to Nikon to get it fixed via expedited repair. Sent it on thursday, priority mail, insured for the full $1300 I paid for it. I track it online, and on saturday it says that the delivery failed, and a notice was left. Fine, they'll get it monday. I check monday evening and still it's sitting in the P.O. So much for expedited repair...
So I check tuesday night... still sitting at the P.O. I call Nikon, and they say that the repair center has no way to get it and that I need to schedule a redelivery. I say that I already tried and that there's no way for me to do that. They tell me to call the P.O. to do it. So the next morning when USPS opens, i call them to arrange a redelivery. "can't do it," they say. Apparently only the recipients can arrange a redelivery. But wait, they say I can do it online, if I enter in the recipient's information. So I go online, and every time I hit submit, I'm told it's not the correct address. So I call Nikon again, extremely pissed off, and the guy gives me the number for the service factory. I call them and leave a message, then finally get a hold of someone who knows what they're doing and DOESN'T hate their life. Turns out the P.O. never left a slip, and the facility holding it isn't actually the right facility, and they should have delivered Saturday anyways, because the service center always receives shipments on saturday, however that saturday they did not for some reason. So a wag of the finger to you, too, USPS. So finally I am told they will pick it up tomorrow and check it out. Finally, I can get my camera back.
They actually got to it today, which is awesome. Minus the fact they want 150 DOLLARS to fix A PIECE OF PLASTIC that never should have broken off in the first place. I'm finding another shop that will fix my defective equipment.
A wag of the finger to RRVelo. I broke my Tarmac SL frame, and speaking with one of the shop guys a week ago, he quotes me at 225 to fix it. Fine. Whatever. It'll get me back on my bike. Sent them some pictures as they requested, another employee quotes me at $475. Yeah, right. No thanks.
A tip of the hat to Smugmug. I made the transition to them last week and it is my favorite website in the world. They are absolutely amazing to work with, and everything looks so much nicer when you're with smugmug.
Lastly... a wag of the finger at Nikon Service... it sucks. I broke the card lever door on a d300 by opening the card door. It snapped off. No, I didn't use excessive force, just twisted the lever to open the door, and bam there it went. My boss says "you might as well throw the whole camera in the lake." I'm beginning to think he was right. I sent it to Nikon to get it fixed via expedited repair. Sent it on thursday, priority mail, insured for the full $1300 I paid for it. I track it online, and on saturday it says that the delivery failed, and a notice was left. Fine, they'll get it monday. I check monday evening and still it's sitting in the P.O. So much for expedited repair...
So I check tuesday night... still sitting at the P.O. I call Nikon, and they say that the repair center has no way to get it and that I need to schedule a redelivery. I say that I already tried and that there's no way for me to do that. They tell me to call the P.O. to do it. So the next morning when USPS opens, i call them to arrange a redelivery. "can't do it," they say. Apparently only the recipients can arrange a redelivery. But wait, they say I can do it online, if I enter in the recipient's information. So I go online, and every time I hit submit, I'm told it's not the correct address. So I call Nikon again, extremely pissed off, and the guy gives me the number for the service factory. I call them and leave a message, then finally get a hold of someone who knows what they're doing and DOESN'T hate their life. Turns out the P.O. never left a slip, and the facility holding it isn't actually the right facility, and they should have delivered Saturday anyways, because the service center always receives shipments on saturday, however that saturday they did not for some reason. So a wag of the finger to you, too, USPS. So finally I am told they will pick it up tomorrow and check it out. Finally, I can get my camera back.
They actually got to it today, which is awesome. Minus the fact they want 150 DOLLARS to fix A PIECE OF PLASTIC that never should have broken off in the first place. I'm finding another shop that will fix my defective equipment.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I'm still alive
I've had some requests to update my blog. So I will do that. And I'm sick of seeing the same post every time I visit the page (though I'm not entirely sure why I keep clicking on my NZ Blog link like someone will have miraculously updated my blog for me).
Let's see, I'll cap up the past year or so for all of you.
When I last left you, I had just competed in The Mayflower Triathlon and was back at school enjoying (kind of) my classes for that semester. I was taking Homicide, Counseling, American Sign Language I, and Drugs and Behaviour. Drugs and Behaviour proved to be quite the difficult class, and not having taken Psychobio, the pre-requisite, I was very surprised when I finished the class with a B+. Lots and lots of reading and memorization, and when I recently came across my study guides for one of those exams I just stared in surprise that I actually managed to remember all of that stuff. Lots of drug names and neurological pathways.
My second and final semester brought upon lots of stress. I was under the impression that my Photography History and Crit course that I took in New Zealand would count for my History Perspectives gen ed requirement, but after turning the petition in and waiting for a few weeks to hear back, I learned they had lost the petition and simply rejected my request. So on that final day to add classes, I met with my advisor and ran around to different professors pleading with them to add me. One finally added me, and so on top of my 4 courses, ASL II, Family Sociology, Animal Cognition, and the Psychology of Happiness, I now had US World Affairs as well. And it turned out to be the hardest one. But one semester and 4 20 page single-spaced take home exams later, I am done with the class having pulled out a C+, and managed to maintain a 3.29 GPA for college.
During the spring semester, I joined the cycling team. I can honestly say it was the best move of my entire college career, and I greatly regret not doing it sooner. If you want to lose all your shame, become completely content with you are, and experience absolutely ridiculous antics at every hour of the day, transfer to UNH and join the cycling team. You don't have to be experienced, just open to being crazy. And I did fairly well, too, securing multiple wins in the team time trial and a second place criterium finish!
This year I met lots of wonderful new people, and improved friendships with many others. Some of the people that I befriended didn't remain good friends, but others continue to make me smile and enjoy time with them.
Speaking of enjoying time with people, my wonderful sister is currently home, having arrived home for my graduation. She also had a visit here in the winter months, but this time she's home for a bit longer and not rushing around. It was a great surprise to see her at graduation, one that instantly brought a smile to my face. I was hoping that she had the idea to surprise me at graduation but wasn't counting on it because I knew it was far for her to come just for my graduation.
Yes, I did graduate. A couple weeks ago, in fact. On Friday I attended the Honors Convocation to receive an award for being a presidential scholar, and received my small piece of rope to wear at graduation. I went out to the bars that night with some people from high school, and after paying the bartender in coins I had cleaned out of my drawer while packing up my room, I quickly ran off and retired. Saturday morning I woke up half an hour before graduation, learning how to tie a tie via youtube videos, and made my trek down to experience my last moments as a UNH undergraduate. The ceremony was fun and my family, cousins, aunt, and uncle were there to experience it with me. We went out to eat after and I felt reality setting in.
Since graduation I haven't been doing a whole lot besides trying my best to help out around the house since I am living back at home for the summer. I hope to move to Dover once the summer is over with some people from my old cycling team, and I will see how that turns out. I've been job hunting, and was under the impression when I graduated that there would be a position for me at a local bike shop but when I went in to talk to the owner he informed me that because of the slow economy he wouldn't be hiring any part-timers this summer. Gotta love when that happens. So I've been trying to find other jobs that will interest me for at least the summer. I'm doing some freelance photography which is great when there are actually events to photograph, but when there aren't, there's no money to be had.
All the while I have been riding my bike, swimming, and running. Maybe running and swimming a little less than biking. Two days ago I also experienced my first real crash, and went down on my forearms and knees at about 20mph. Let me tell you, 20 mph feels a lot faster when you're sliding across the ground compared to when you're safe on your bike. So the last few days have involved lots and lots of pain, painkillers, grimacing, and limping around.
This upcoming Sunday is the Mooseman triathlon, my first half-iron distance. Swim 1.2 miles, bike 56, and run 13.1. I won't drown thanks to my wetsuit, I'll tear it up on the bike, and probably die on the run. But I'll have fun, and that's what is important.
Alright, as I'm typing this I'm watching heaps of birds splashing around in our bird feeder and creating the potential for great photographs, so I'm going to go take some photos now, after I get some food. Take care everyone, wherever you may be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
