Today was an awesome day! I had my first real shoot. Today was just the group shot for the >100 kids of the Brookfield Country Club Swim Team. Monday I do the individual shots. While I've done this type of work in the past for Fotoillusion, I did it simply as a photographer. This time, I'm running the show and I take care of all of the business side of things including client relations, sales, marketing, processing, printing, etc. It's a lot more intense working the administrative side of things, but I like this better. It's a great start for my business. Thanks to my mom for assisting me with the sales table while I do the shooting!
While this isn't what I'd like to do in the end, it does give me a chance to develop my business and marketing skills, both of which I'm putting a lot of attention to now. While, we're on the subject, I'm currently trying to word what I feel is my mission in life. My mission is to bring the beauty and life of our world to the masses with my landscape and nature photography. Note how I said "to the masses." My vision is to do this on a large scale. Not only will prints be available online, but I'd also like to present my work in calendars, posters, greeting cards, desktop wallpapers, and even books. A calendar is currently on its way here filled with my photos corresponding to the seasons, ie. beach photos in the summer and snowy mountain tops in the winter (Great idea Papa!). It's a great start for what I've got in mind.
One thing I REALLY want to do is create a book, if not several. The big one is a coffee table book. Buddy's mom gave me an incredibly wonderful gift of a coffee table book filled with fantastic landscapes by Art Wolfe, a very talented landscape photographer. I would definitely like to do something like this. After a little more traveling to create the necessary content, I'll be ready. I've done some research online as to what all is involved with producing a book and mass producing one, printing, etc, and it looks very doable!
heh, my brain is definitely pumped. Everything right now is geared up towards running a business, including seminars and coaching by successful businessmen. My time at Tech is winding down and an MBA is on the horizon. There's no way I'm going to wind up in a cubicle doing the 9-5. That doesn't suit my personality. I gotta be out there living it up! Exploring!
Whew! Alright, so how 'bout this photo? I just spent a few minutes chasing this butterfly around the other day. After a little reading about the differences between a butterfly and a moth, I found out that this was, in fact, a butterfly. You can tell by the thin antennae with a club shaped end, versus moths which usually have feathery antennae. You learn something every day!
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