Come On Spring!

After last year's long hot summer with wildfires that lasted from June until October, and then being cooped up in the house all winter with a damn broken leg, I am SO itchy for spring! It seems as though it will never arrive!  Still snow on the ground and more in the forecast. It warms up for a day or two (not enough to keep the snow away), but then Old Man Winter jumps out from behind a tree and yells, "GOTCHA!" 

I have so many ideas for photos now, and I also want to start shooting some photos for fun, using “props”: toys, household items and a crystal ball (which I ordered and received a few weeks ago).

I signed up for four photo classes!  Mastering Manual Controls, Shooting in Any Light; Photographing the Moods of Water; and Wildflower Photography Workshop. The first two I desperately need for shooting the dog agility trials, as they are held in a large barn with little lighting. The other two just sound like fun. 

I love taking the photo classes at the Lifelong Learning Center. They are reasonably priced and lots of fun. There is also one called Photographing Garnet Ghost Town, which I would so love to do, but it's the same weekend as the July stock dog trial - damn. Too many things going on at the same times!  Maybe next summer... 

The Ball is Rolling!

Things are beginning to fall into place!  I have been approved to have Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays off; I’ve made sure the Manager at work knows that I have to have a minimum of 30 hours a week (32-34 would be ideal); the stock dog trials are already scheduled; I’ve scheduled photo shoots for the Equestrian Club; I have three projects with the Downtown Association; approximately 250 business cards have been dropped off to the Equestrian Club; 1000 business cards have been received; 1000 tri-fold brochures have been ordered & shipped; and I have prints and note cards ready for the Spring Market!  

With the help of a friend I am working on shooting dog agility and rally for the local kennel club, and possibly some dog portraits. 

I need to find a company that will print my note cards inexpensively, with no minimum order. Someone gave me a web address several years ago, and they were very reasonable, I lost the address when my old computer crashed.

Getting Ready for the Market

Spent all day Sunday and last night, matting all of the 4x6 & 5x7 photos, and they look amazing!  The backer boards on the 5x7 mats give them a nice, finished look, and I placed a return address label on the back of each one, with my business name and address on them. The clear sleeves make them look absolutely professional!   I think they’ll be a hit at the markets - at least I certainly hope so!  
 

A Lucrative Deal??

Years ago I had contacted the Missoula Equestrian Park, to find out about shooting photos at their events. The response I got was basically, “sure, go ahead”. I did go to a few of their events but nothing panned out, so I bagged it.  

This past weekend, I looked them up again online, only to discover that their website has been changed from Missoula Equestrian Park, to Missoula Equestrian Club.   Hmmm…  I took a shot and contacted them again. I received a reply the very same day from Rachel, who is the secretary of the club. Her reply was as follows:

           

            “Good Morning Vicki,

            I looked at your website - your work is beautiful - very excited you want to come

            photograph our equestrians! Please see BSHP calendar for all event dates.

           

            For the Mini's and the CMR shows - packets are given out to all who enter. I'd

            suggest you provide fliers for us to include in the packets, as well as display at

            the  show office, or even a banner too if you have one.

           

            The BSHP (Big Sky Horse Park), Board is happy to put a link from their website

            to yours to promote your service, and asks that in return, you provide 5-6 digital

            images to the Park, per event shot, for promotional purposes. These shots will of

            course include your photo credit.

            I've cc'd all the other BSHP show managers so that they can contact you for their

            specific events.

            Thanks so much for reaching out to us - look forward to seeing you this Spring!”

WOW!  This is very exciting news!  I’ve checked out their website before, and they usually have at least two events per month. If it all pans out, this could turn out to be a very lucrative contact!  

Originally my thought was to go back to work full time in the winter, but if I can find other events during the winter months I would make it permanent.  Maybe I would just go back full time between Thanksgiving and Christmas…  four weeks of chaos. I could handle that.  Maybe…

Ideas

I signed up today for a Spring Market in a small town about an hour south of me. I've done their holiday markets for the past four years, and do quite well there, but they decided to move it to spring to avoid as much holiday competition as possible.  There are far too many many markets around the holidays! 

I opted not to make new cards, but to just try and sell what I currently have to clean house, so to speak. I did go through them all and brutally edited out ones that I really liked but had not sold well in the past - if at all. Those went into the discount basket; $1.00 each. The price alone should sell them. 

I decided to try and sell prints for the first time. I picked out my very best photos and ordered 100 5x7s and 100 8x10s - mixed and matched. I also found a place that sold white beveled mats with backer boards and clear sleeves at a very reasonable cost. I ordered enough to cover all of the photos I ordered. I can't wait to see how they look!  

I also called the Downtown Association about information regarding the signal boxes around town. These large, ugly, gray boxes have been commissioned to local artists, who have painted wonderful scenes and designs on them, and have turned them into beautiful works of art!  I've been very interested in photographing them, and the lady who answered the phone was so very helpful in showing me where to find the locations of all of the boxes.

We discussed three other possible photo projects as well - one that I want to do and two that she suggested. She said there is a good chance they will pay me a stipend for copies of the photos, and will make sure my name is on each one they use. I agreed wholeheartedly!  

Nope, sorry - I'm not going to reveal what these projects are just yet. You'll have to wait until they are done and ready to be shown to the public. Really, I'm not certain anything will come of it, but if nothing else it will be great publicity for my business! 

The Plan

Ever since the first though of cutting back hours at work popped into my head, I’ve been struggling with how to make things happen. What do I do??  Where do I start?  I have been able to think of nothing.

And then today, while I was at work, a flood of ideas raced through my mind!  I wrote them all down and have already typed up two pages of ideas!  Locations, events, group photo shoots, contacts, markets…  more ideas than I thought there were out there! 

My first point of business however, is to get the written proposal to the Assistant Manager at work, and have it signed by her, as she is responsible for making the schedule. She was the one who told me to make myself unavailable in the system.  

I’ve already sent emails to the Native American Center at the local university, as well as the local Equestrian Center, asking permission to take photos at their events.

I need to get more business cards!  I need to get photos printed! I need to make more cards!  I need to go online and find more events to go photograph! I need to submit photos to contests, and calendars, and magazines! 

On those weekends I don’t have anything going on, I need to take more photos, edit them and repeat the entire process (or maybe just sleep all day…) 

Most importantly - I need to pace myself!  The worst thing I can do is to get everything moving to fast and then not be able to keep up with it all.

I’m nervous, I’m scared, and I’m very excited! 

A Leap of Faith

Today I made a leap of faith. 

For several years now, I’ve wanted desperately to put more time into my photography, and shoot more events around the area to try and drum up more business. But because 99% of the events are scheduled on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I can’t go because I usually have to work on Fridays and Saturdays. 

I woke up on New Year’s Day with an overwhelming sense of “this will be the year!” This year - 2018 - will be the year to really get serious about it and DO something to make it happen!  That feeling has been so terribly strong that I’ve just been aching to jump and run. I’ve been dreading going to work and hating it more and more every day.

I had an appointment with an investment rep to discuss my retirement fund, selling baseball cards, and putting my photography plan in place. I’ve been hesitating because I just don’t know if I can make it work, financially. But as she pointed out - I might as well go for it now, while I have financial assistance for food and medical. I guess if any time was the right time, it is most certainly now.

So I stopped in at work to talk to the Assistant Manager about it.  Both she and the Store Manager were there so I proposed it to both of them.  I told them that I wanted to pursue more photography, and to shoot at events around the area, and that I wanted to cut back to four days a week. I knew she would have no problem cutting my hours back, but the big issue was getting the days off I wanted.

I explained that I needed Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays off because that is when all of the events are scheduled. The Assistant Manager said “of course”, and then became very hesitant about it. I told her that this could be the stupidest decision I've ever made, and it could all come back to bite me in the ass, but I did not want to look back in five or ten years and kick myself for not jumping on an opportunity that was literally placed right in my lap, and I really did not want to look back and say, "I wish I had". That must have been the comment that persuaded her, because after thinking about it for a few minutes, she said, “Well, I guess make yourself unavailable in the system then.”  I took that as an ok, and jumped right onto the computer to make myself unavailable.  I also handed her a typed proposal with my "plan" on it, and the days I needed off to put my plan into action - two sheets; one for them and one for me, both signed and dated. 

I also told the Assistant Manager to call me if they need extra help on the weekends, and if I was not scheduled for a photo shoot, I’d be happy to come in and work. She said she would be calling me every weekend, to which I said that was fine. She also asked if I would be willing to work nights. Damn, that was my ace in the hole if she balked at this, and I really didn't want to play it, but I told her that as much as I hate night shifts, I would be willing to do that to make this happen - BUT that I won’t work Thursday nights, because if I have an out of town shoot, I’d need Thursday evenings for travel. 

I was very surprised that she agreed to it - and so quickly. I truly thought she’d put up a stink about taking every weekend off, but I’m sure as hell not going to question it - I’m going to RUN with it! 

I am so nervous about this, but so very excited at the same time, and as I drove out of the parking lot, I had the biggest smile on my face that I’ve had for a very long time! It's very possible that it may turn out to be the worst decision I’ve ever made, and it may come back to bite me, but even if it does, at least I can say I tried.