Update

It's the time of year again where the leaves shrivel up and the trees become bare, the sky is a bleak shade of grey, and a mixture of rain and snow slicks the ground. The transition between fall and winter is the most uninspiring time of the season. Much the same as any transition between seasons, besides fall in general. Fall is my absolute favorite. Lately, I have been lacking creativity and it's killing me. I have no want to look good in appearance, general laziness, and an overall negative change in mood. Waiting for actual winter weather to come is painful and boring. I have so many ideas, but no motivation to do any of them. Bay City isn't the prettiest place in the world though, and I've lived here my whole life and basically discovered everything already, about a thousand and one times. I want to travel around soon, but am nervous to do it on my own.

On a side note, I am looking into selling my camera! Its a Nikon D3200 and I have only had for about a year. I would be selling the body and the 18-55mm lens that it came with. I paid around 500 dollars for it, so my asking price would probably be 350 or so. It's a perfect starter camera for people either wanting a nicer camera or is planning on going into photography from a professional standpoint. I am planning on getting a new camera with the money. I'm going to stick with the brand Nikon, because I think it's nice and it's what I know. The new one is around 1,000 dollars, so not cheap. But I am looking for higher quality photos and this will give me exactly that.

Currently...

I just finished editing a wonderful collection of mommy and daughter pictures. This was my second time taking pictures of kids and I really enjoyed it. Some problems that occurred were freezing weather, lens switching, and lack of good location. So first of all it was about 38 degrees out, and the little girl, Anavaeh who was only two years old, wasn't very comfortable. I got a few smiles out of her, but the poor girl barely moved. The second problem was the fact that we were crunched on time, and I had keep changing my lenses! My prime lens is a 50mm and it has no zoom. So when we were doing picture on the swing set and other places where I may want to adjust the space between my camera and her, I had to change lenses. Even though it's a quick on and off, I wish my 50mm could zoom. Lastly, this time of year is the transition from fall into winter and it's not pretty. All of the leaves are fallen and dead, it's either raining or windy, and the sky is always grey. So finding a location that was remotely picturesque was difficult. We were at two different parks and a bridge (which was the prettiest). 

Here are some of the good ones.  

For my next shoot I plan on doing something editorial and high fashion! Like I said in a previous post, I get high fashion magazines in the mail every month and I am especially inspired by them recently. One of my other talents is makeup and high fashion makeup can be very abstract sometimes. It's fun to pay around with it and find a cool location to capture it in just like editorial photographers do in the magazines. I just need to find someone that is willing to be my model! 

Organization Time!

I have had a wonderful time doing shoots with different people of all ages and being able to build up my portfolio. One thing that I have discovered through the process of working with multiple people at the same time, is that shooting and editing for just one person takes a lot of time. While I was doing multiple people all at once, I wasn't giving 100% of my effort. I am the type of person that doesn't particularly like to say no to people or really anything. So I always end up with more on my plate than I can handle. Well, I've come to a point in my life where my unorganized, creative, and non-stop part of my personality has taken over. I've become so unorganized with doing the simplest tasks, that it's hard to even complete them. While going to college over full time, this is a huge problem.

Today I'm saying enough is enough. I need to get my life together and mainly my photography life. I've decided that I should start my contract. I will have set rules and fees, that way there won't be any more confusion. I was having people that wanted to pay me, but they were unsure how much. I never realized how many decisions there were until I began to research it! Some include setting and location fees, rights released or not released, different packages, and most importantly my name and logo. I have been brain dead for a long time on what to call myself. Designing my logo would be a breeze, but actually finding a name that sets me apart from other popular photographers in town, is next to impossible for me. I feel very pressured to come up with a brilliant yet unique name so spur the moment. Waiting for a good idea to pop into my head when I'm actually inspired sounds more comfortable to me. 

I kind of feel like I'm not really justified to have a contract seeing that I am a newbie and haven't taken classes for it yet. Developing a contract, was mainly for myself to make sure I looked organized and professional. I really hope people see it that way, rather than think of me as some self centered girl that thinks every photo she takes is amazing, or someone who only cares about the money. What I really care about is if my client is happy. But unfortunately, you can't make everyone like you. 

Wish me luck!

-Annie ♡