Weather

June 21, 2008

Entrepreneur Traits.

[Sigh] Well, I’ve arrived at the second to last week of my stress management class, and the last week of journal entries! I’m excited, not because the journal entries are expiring, but because I’m nearing the end of a short-term goal for the summer – much to be celebrated and excited about!

Speaking of summer, yesterday was the first official day of summer, though it sure felt more like Spring. Today was much warmer and I spent a fair amount of my waking hours outdoors finishing up some more woodworking projects.

I finally finished all the bedroom baseboard trim!! What an odyssey that had been – almost a 7 month project! I actually felt incredibly satisfied once I stood back and admired the finished bedroom. Whoever said much pleasure is derived from the simplest of things was spot on.

My overall happiness carried into the early evening when I decided I would do my neighbour a favour and mow his lawn, since he was out of town. It definitely feels good when you’re doing good. And, the 15 minutes that it took me to mow and edge his lawn seemed effortless to boot. I really didn’t even realize how fast I had completed the work until I was putting away my mower and trimmer!

I had made a list of things I wanted to accomplish for the day, and I got a fair amount of them done, leaving just a few things for Sunday. ‘Twas a very productive but relaxing day! I’m definitely recognizing how I’m happier and more satisfied when I’m productive than when I sit around and wittle away my hours on meaningless tasks.

I wonder if that’s a personality trait of all business people and/or entrepreneurs… 🙂

June 16, 2008

Flooded.

panera_flood
While I was at Panera Bread with a friend of mine, a pretty hefty storm blew through and completely flooded the parking lot! The power of water is an amazing thing. In about 15 minutes there was probably 8-10 inches of rain water flooding the huge parking lot! I started to think about an old schoolmate, Jamie, in Iowa who has had to deal with much larger flood waters. I can’t imagine what that is like – to be in a flood plain with water as deep as 7 feet. Crazy.

After about 30 minutes, the skies had cleared and the sun was beaming down. Craig and I watched as all that water disappeared into the storm drains – which was pretty neat because the water made a little tornado-esque vortex as it drained. Neat-oh!

Later tonight, when I got home, I decided to tackle my first relaxation technique for this week – meditation! It was a little weird at first, and took me a while to get settled in, but once I did it felt really good. I have to write a small lab report about it, so I’m not going to repeat information. But, it felt good – not only to cross it off my list of things to do, but physically, it was rejuvenating. 🙂

I think after photographing an engagement session or taking wedding photos, I might implement a little meditation time afterward to refresh and rejuvenate my mind! The next time I’m hired as a wedding photographer, I’m going to try and work in some meditation time. Shooting weddings is very much a non-stop job – I concentrate on delivering the best and most creative wedding photos possible, that it’s simply difficult for me to slow down. 🙂

June 5, 2008

Routine Basics.

I find writing to be relaxing and words easy to come by. In fact, one of the biggest problems I have when I write is trimming back the words. I guess I have a lot to say!

I started writing this blog at the beginning of 2008, and while I was able to maintain writing every single day for the first month, I simply found it impossible to write every day. I should really keep a voice recorder handy and just dictate my thoughts at the end of the day. 🙂

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to catching up on a long-distance project with a group of friends from high school. We’re trying to organize a fund raiser for a fellow student who was murdered back in February. The proceeds from the fund raiser will be used to establish a scholarship in her name – the Lindsay Graygo Empowerment Scholarship!

I’m planning on tomorrow being a good day to hunker down a bit on that project, and a few others. 🙂 For the most part, I’m in a good place with respect to my projects and my tasks that have deadlines approaching.

It’s hot right now – really hot, almost sweltering. In fact, at 12:32am, it’s 73 degrees outside. And, tomorrow is supposed to be 90! Someone kicked it up a notch alright. Bammm! I have a few more things to do before heading off to bed. I’m meeting my friend Craig for breakfast in the morning too, which will be nice as we have fallen out of our usual routine of weekly breakfasts. I’m definitely looking forward to it. 🙂

There is some photographic equipment that I’m looking to buy in the upcoming months, that should really come in handy photographing weddings here in Rochester, New York. Upstate is such a beautiful location to have your wedding photos taken, and the new equipment will surely augment New York’s beauty! 🙂

June 2, 2008

Wedding Photography At Keuka Lake.

I photographed James and Luba’s wedding on Saturday and I’m very pleased with how the wedding photographs turned out.

I spent most of Saturday photographing the wedding, which was right next to Keuka Lake in Upstate, New York. I wrapped up taking photographs by 5:30 and I was able to manage a few hours at home afterward to import the nearly 2,700 wedding photos, select all the good images, kick out the bad, and have them posted online by 12am!

There were some really excellent images that I was able to capture that I hope to post in the coming days. This was the first wedding trying out a new post-production workflow and I was pleasantly surprised by how quick and efficient the new workflow is – it will dramatically cut down on the amount of time I spend post-processing photos.

On Sunday I received confirmation that I would be shooting some family portraits in July at the Webster Arboretum which I’m really excited about! I’ve never shot there before, so I’m looking forward to it!

The weather in Rochester, New York has been gorgeous, perfect wedding photography weather!! 🙂

May 29, 2008

Do West-Coasters Get SAD?

Today is the Chase Corporate Challenge at RIT and I’m excited because I’ll be getting out of work a little early to join the other 11,000 participants at this year’s race. Though, I’m on the fence if I’ll run, walk, or just hang back with my wife and help her out at her company’s tent. 🙂

I’m going to bring my camera and see if I can’t pop of a few shots before the race starts. If I end up not running, I’ll take a few pictures of the race start and of the first hundred finishers and my wife’s team’s picture too!

Portrait photography is something that I’m starting to really enjoy, along with wedding photography and fine art photography. There are so many beautiful locations in Rochester, New York and really in Upstate, New York in general. Photographing weddings in Rochester is truly exceptional!

It is beautiful outside! Something that I’ve noticed is that I’m much happier when the weather is very sunny and warm. I started reading forward into my Stress Management text, to get a jump start on things and not fall behind, and in the chapter the text refers to SAD, a phenomenon that occurs when people do not get enough sunshine – such as in the arctic circle. While I definitely do not suffer from SAD, it was interesting to read about the link between weather and personal health altogether.

There’s a consensus that folks on the West coast are a lot happier than us East coast folks, maybe there’s a correlation there. Can sunshine make one warm on the inside too?

Anywho – I’m excited for the weekend, as I’ll be photographing a wedding in Keuka Lake, New York which will kick start the wedding photography season in Rochester, New York. 😉

I’ll post some of the wedding photos later on in the weekend. It’s gorgeous outside – warm, sunny, and 70º!

January 3, 2008

A Cold, Frosty One…

Day that is.

It was warmer this morning at mid-night than it was 8 hours later, when I left for work.

Remind me why I choose to live in the Northeast section of the United States.

This morning at 8am, the temperature in Fairport (a suburb of Rochester, NY) was 6ºF (-14ºC).

Now, I’m no stranger to cold weather, I’ve lived in the Northeast my whole life – first as a child in Erie, PA, then moving to Rochester when I was 19 to work at a CBS affiliate. Incidentally, kids, if you have even the slightest notion of working in television as a career, allow me to redirect you away from making one of the most horrific decisions of your life.

You will work like a dog.
You will make no money working like a dog.
You will work weekends, making no money working like a dog.

Fortunately, I was only subjected to this abuse for a little over 9 years before finally getting out.

My wish for you is that you learn from the past mistakes, or misfortunes whatever the case may be, of others and choose greener, less dusty and burnt pastures as a means to an end.

If you hear the words, “Bachelor of Communications” from your school guidance counsellor – leave the room. It’s a trap. Don’t become another one of Skinner’s rats searching for a piece of educational cheese.

Do yourself a favour – listen to those who have been there, done that.

Anyway…

It was another day “exciting” day for me at work. Fortunately, there was only 1 commercial to work on. This allowed me to dive into my blog 🙂 I also retouched a photo for a friend of my wife and, I laid out a financial plan for the next several months.

Keziah also forwarded me a link to a new undergrad business program at RIT which looks like a program I’d be interested in applying for – after I attain my associates.

That reminds me, I need to run out to the bookstore to buy books for my classes which start on January 22.

I’d run and do that tonight after work, but:

1.) It’s ridiculously cold out.
2.) I have a date with paint tonight.

I’ll push it off until tomorrow or the weekend 😉

It’s 5:15pm, and I’m heading home!

About 8 hours later and we’re about 95% done with all the painting in the house.

It’s 1:15am and I’m heading off to bed.