Owen vs. Brooke

So we had two guest speakers coming in to talk to our class these couple weeks, Brooke and Owen, and I definitely prefer one over another. Janelle Brooke. She's young, and her photographs show it. She's different and gave herself a signature style that most couples nowadays would love, which is great because all she does is wedding photography. She was very inspiring, seemed very happy with her job, and really gave the entire class hope. Whereas Owen sort of... did the opposite. He kept mentioning the past and how much better photography used to be because of the amount of amateur photographers there are today. He was almost irritable and annoyed that he had to be talking to our class. Didn't seem to have much to say to us.
Anyway that's what I picked up. I'm still glad I got to hear what both of them had to say though.

Research project

Fact-sheet

a. Travel photography is the field I have chosen

b. Self-employment is the most commonly used way for travel photographers to start their own business

c. The buyers/customers are those who work for books, magazines, newpapers, travel company brochures, calendars, greeting cards, posters, advertising agencies, fine art print collectors, and websites.

d. Formal education is not necessary and this field can be self-taught

e. Assisting and internships are important steps to becoming more successful and better experienced

f. A typical work day/week differs with photographers but for Tewfic El-Sawy, the travel photographer I interviewed, his days are long and he usually starts early in the day for best lighting conditions.

g. Pricing, again, depends on the way the photographer chooses to sell their work, but stock photography is commonly used with travel photography and can range from very little money like 10 dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the demand of the photograph.

h. As a travel photographer, one can make from 21,000 to 229,000 (or above if you're lucky) a year.

i. Professional organizations such as the ASMP help create connections, and leads to workshops, internships, and jobs.

j. I had asked El-Sawy how to approach strangers when photographing them, and he told me to be honest and to spend some time with them prior to the shoot.

k. This research paper helped me understand this field more and taught me that it is not an easy field to be in but I believe I have the will to make it happen.

Photoshop fun

I had some time today and decided to put together some crazy layers of people and nature... one is of my little brother, and one is of myself :)

Daydreamin'

photomanip I just finished. I've been listening to this song, I love it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaUeiCaAejA

Purr

My little life companion died this Halloween. His name was Bichon and he was a fat, purring fuzzy red thing that did nothing but love on people. He has traveled the world with our family and lived until he was 13. I was looking through a folder of my self portraits just now and realized that more than half of my self portraits have him in them. This goes to prove that he was such a big part of me... I really do feel like I lost a part of myself.
This is a photograph I took of us about a year ago. He loved to tackle me with his head :3

Diversity

I have always embraced diversities and seeing this poster and the quote made me realize that not only should I embrace everyone's differences, but that without it, there would be no inspiration for my photography.

My favorite model

Kieran, again