Filed under: Business, Getting Started, Ramblings | Tags: house, ignite vail, job, maryland, minturn, mobloggy, photography, radio free minturn, rental, social media, vail, wild blue bug
So it’s been a little over 6 months since I moved from Maryland to Colorado and challenging to say the least (family sickness, getting sued (we won), crazy snow, new debt, etc.). I have not officially started up the photography business again, however, I have been taking photographs for money. Does that makes sense?
After a recent inquiry for a couples portrait session, I was inspired to check-in to let you know what I’ve been up to!
I met a really cool gal named Rebecca (@rebeccaruck) on Twitter before I even moved from Maryland. She was really helpful in helping me get my bearings in the mountains of Colorado. We hit it off (though I think she gets along with everybody) and she invited me to help her with her social media & internet marketing business called Mobloggy. It’s been fun and the extra money has been awesome. Ideally, her business will continue to grow and there might be room for a full-time job with her. I like social media and the creativity behind it. It has been fun doing some product photography for her business as well.
In the meantime, I have realized that I needed to complete my degree (completion this month! with a BS in Liberal Arts). Though I love working with Mobloggy, until it’s steadier work, I need to keep my options open for full-time work that will pay the bills once my alimony is up at the end of June. TMI? 🙂 Well, I consider myself an open book. Just check out my Twitter account to see that 😉 (@wildbluebug). I have thought about marketing the photography business full-time, but I have not yet landed on a solid decision. … Something to do with turning what I love into full-time employment that makes me worried I’ll start looking at it differently.
David (my fiance) is very married to his job so our first goal is to stay in the area. The rub right now is an existing mortgage in Maryland and slim-pickings on employment in the Vail Valley for me (local paper had 43 total jobs posted). I hear a lot of ‘locals’ have an extra job to make ends meet. Though winter has been a new experience for us (I truly understand the meaning of winter doldrums now)…I think we’ll know what to expect next year and can plan for a plow to dig us out of these feets of snow and I can prepare to not have easy access to my family in Denver during certain months of the year!
For now, it’s just a matter of finding a renter for the house in Laurel, Maryland and a decent, steady income for me before the end of June. Here’s my resume just in case! 😉 And yes, I’d love to take your photographs for a small fee.
Oh! Almost forgot to mention that I’m still one that likes to have a lot on my plate (sometimes against my better judgement). I am a volunteer DJ at Radio Free Minturn (Wild Blue Bug’s Lunch Ladies) and I have started an Ignite Vail project that has recently been accepted by KickStarter.com (luckily I have help with this project). I am still the Vail Photography Examiner but have put that on the back burner lately. I need to have some fun even if my stress levels are reaching a new high…and to me, these side projects are pure fun.
Until next time…
Cheers! –Jodi aka Wild Blue Bug
Once Upon A Time I was the photographer for Ignite Baltimore
Filed under: Business, Ramblings | Tags: baby, colorado, dad, edwards, facebook, kisses, moving, photography, session, toes
Life is crazy but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Just learned a week ago that my boyfriend, David, got a transfer to Avon, CO. He asked me to go with him.
The crazy part? He starts work on June 14th…giving us only 2 weeks to pack up our lives in Maryland. Well, here I am with 1 week left and I have yet to pack one box.
I am having a packing party this weekend. So tomorrow will be spent getting boxes and buying some food and drink as rewards to my awesome help!
I’m not sure what will happen for me in Edwards but I am optimistic that I will find my niche and love it.
The hope is that I will be able to continue my photography business out there…and maybe, my dream, of opening up a storefront in time for the big tourist season.
Here’s hopin! I’ll keep you posted here for now…or visit me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wildbluebugfan
p.s. I edited my last Maryland session today. Made me a little sad…but here’s a peek at what made me smile during the processing.
I couldn’t have asked for a better day! Though if I do this again, I don’t think I’ll take on the challenge of cooking my own food. My skills are minimal, although I now know I can make a mean dip and salsa. I am glad it occurred to me to give the kiddos in the morning session something to occupy them for a bit. Blank paper, crayons, silly hats and juice boxes go a long way! I was lucky to have a budding photographer help me that day and she captured some great candids of the event and helped me with a few sessions when the kiddos were involved. And for the adults I had a mock game of Price is Right that included chocolate prizes and one cash prize game. My impression is they had a good time as all but two attendees for both sessions bought their photographs. I think everyone liked their “take-away” gift boxes that included a Union Street Soapworks Healing Bar, chocolate, Love charm, and rose scented votive. I’ll post a few of the portraits below…
And in other news..I started a Facebook Fan Page! I’m such a computer nerd and so addicted to social networking and media that I couldn’t help myself when I saw a fellow business owner start one. Hope to see you there! FAN PAGE
It has been awhile since my last blog post! Where have I been? Lately, I’ve been learning how to run. For me, running closely resembles learning how to walk. I’m not naturally athletic…but I am stubborn. Somehow those two cancel each other out.
Before that…mostly lost in a dramatic pause. I’m sure you know the kind. It makes you hold your breath and not want to move a muscle so as not to affect the outcome. Though sometimes it feels like driving blind, I’ve realized that I just need to find the right gear.
And before that…I was traveling. First to San Antonio to reconnect with friends who helped remind me how much fun I am! And then on to a much larger adventure to Ireland with a travel companion I hadn’t seen in over a decade. It was here that I experienced every emotion available. I ended up taking well over 1400 photos…and still working through them. I think I finally finished day one of my ten day journey. So it may be a long while before I can consider the album complete. Ireland was a wonderful place…and I hope I can get back there one day.
Besides the photograph below…I have some of my Ireland trip completed at Ireland Photographs. Only 55 so far of the 1400 I took though. It will be awhile before I can call the album complete.
view from the bridge to County Tipperary in Ireland
Yesterday, I did something I had never done before…participated in a photo walk. This was out of the norm, as locations from around the world had a photo walk on the same day. http://www.photoshopuser.com/photowalk/
The weather was fantastic at Fells Point in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. We all met at Max’s, an eclectic restaurant that caters to gluttony in the form of food and beer. See the pic from my iphone below of a fellow photographers lunch. With 50 photographers on the walk, we were all keen to take a photograph of everything, including lunch, with much enthusiasm.
two foot longs
Most of us are hoping to make this a monthly event and become a photo walk club. I’m sure this will happen, as even after the 50 registrations cutoff, there was a waiting list.
What happens on a photo walk? A leader plots out a location, walking route and time to meet. We meet, take a group photo, set out to take photographs along the way, then meet for lunch afterwards to discuss. Quite a simple concept and a rewarding experience. Here’s a link to a photo that the walk leader, Stacie, took of the group. http://www.flickr.com/photos/staciephoto/2790275064/
And lastly, my favorite shot of the day is below. Fells Point is a unique location in the inner harbor with many colorful doors, quirky decor, and interesting architecture. To view more of the photos I took, visit Worldwide Photo Walk -….
see me sitting there
Filed under: Ramblings | Tags: quoted military spouse magazine photography light
I have been officially quoted in my first national publication…Military Spouse Magazine! I’m so thrilled. I don’t have the actual magazine yet, but I saw a copy of the September issue in the community center and made a photocopy.
I’m a moderator for a forum called To Work or Not To Work on Milspouse.com. I posted all the details behind my portable career, photography. This writer saw that I was a photographer and sent me a questionnaire to fill out…which lead to her published article and my quotes! Hooray! I especially love that she included the fact that I’m a military spouse. Hooray again!
I’m not really sure what it means for my business, but how many folks can say they have been quoted in a national magazine. Surely less than half the population?
I tried for several summers from ages 8-12 to get a quote into Readers Digest (my grandpa loves it), but to no avail. My jokes may not have been funny enough or my stories clever, but I kinda feel like this makes up for it.
I’ve had my photos on exhibit at Barnes and Noble, now a quote in a national magazine…what cool and wonderful things could happen next?
Maybe I should try Readers Digest again…
doing my happy dance...
…I said this to someone today…I’m wise.
“…in a holding pattern…I’m just trying to be patient and see if that gets me anywhere 🙂 Kinda like real airlines…when you get stuck on a plane that can’t take off…you can’t get off the plane unless you act like a crazy person (and that won’t get you where you want to go)…so you just wait and hope that it takes off soon and that the air condition continues to work so it’s at least comfortable and bearable.”
Of course I’m speaking of all things that I cannot control…the weather, my age (without lying), and more importantly…other people.
Wow…I’m wiser than myself two seconds ago.
In other news, I attended my Baltimore Photography MeetUp. The homework assignment was “old and new.” And because I’ve been engrossed with updating my website and other collateral, I put off doing this homework until about an hour before it was due. I was walking around my house trying to make the correlation with fruit (I only had old bananas), dishes (which were really more dirty than old), and a gallon of milk with a cheese partner. I never figured out the cheese correlation.
So anyhow, my husband is a home roaster. Meaning, he buys green (unroasted) coffee beans and roasts them at home. He has recently roasted using his air popper. This means the air is soaked in burnt cookie smell for the remainder of the week because of this “archaic” way of roasting (there is an expensive roaster in his future by the way). Yes, I said ‘burnt cookie’, not coffee. I believe it’s the chaff that causes the burnt cookie smell.
Long story, slightly longer…the burnt cookie smell makes me wonder if I dumped out the old coffee filter. And alas, I had not (go figure). So, I set up this shot in my kitchen of…you got it…OLD and NEW coffee filter art. I must say…it’s quite literal, but effective.
and once again…I’m now wiser than myself two seconds ago.
Wiser than coffee grounds
I had a “wine and say cheese” social at my house and the most beautiful light was shining on my brie! heehee! See my header for some cheesy goodness. I invited the neighbors over promising wine and cheese and a free, framed 5×7 in exchange for the opportunity to photograph them. I made the invites from a couple photographs I took of a wine glass and a wine holder I bought from Ikea. I did two different invites hoping to appeal to the masculine and feminine sides.
This was when I was trying to build my portfolio. Now almost a year has gone by and I feel like I’ve made some real progress. I have paid off my initial camera equipment investment, acquired more camera equipment, got a new logo and am now getting ready to unveil a new, and much improved website that I bought from bludomain.com. I’m hoping that will happen before the week is up! The old logo is on these photos by the way.
Here’s one of the framed images I gave away that night. It’s a 200mm shot in low light, so it’s not the sharpest. However, her mom loved it and hung it in their home…and her dad immediately used it as his computer wallpaper.
Oh! and I had some lovely fruit on display as well.
Perhaps I should hold a 2nd annual Wine and Say Cheese event.
Wild Blue Bug 