Creation of a business.

So I spent most of my spring break thinking about creating a photography business. Saturday I spent two hours taking over 200 pictures for the first set of Portraits that I  have every done. Most of these turned out great but I did see some areas that I need to work on.

I enjoy taking pictures, it is relaxing and you can preserve a moment in history. There are so many awesome things that you can do in photography too such as painting with light, editing the picture and alot more however I think that Photography is becoming like the music industry. In music you do not see very many of the new artist that do not clean up their voice with technology so that when they sing live they do not sound like they do on the album. Well in my opinion we are doing that with photography too. We are editing the way that people look to much. It is my goal, if I do start this business to keep the pictures natural with as little editing as possible. This first set of senior pictures that I have taken have showed me how easy it is with some people to not have to edit pictures.

The thing that is slowing me down though is the fact that you have to do so much work and legal studies to even know where to being. First you have to register your name with the Missouri Secretary of State's office, then you have to file for tax ID and some other things. This is a huge gamble when you don't know how much of a call you are going to have. I mean lets face it, Lamar is in SW Missouri, not that far from KC, Springfield, and Joplin. Even in Lamar I know of at least 4 professional full time photographers and that is not counting the people who travel to KC and Springfield to get it taken. I just don't know if I should take that gamble.

I would like to hear what you all have to say. Listen to a voice of reason outside of those that I know are just trying to help me but be nice about it. Thanks in advance for your help!

This weeks top stories in my opinion :)

1. Baseball is almost here. I am sitting here trying to think about what to right on this assignment. So I got this idea that I would do a Its almost here one and then the linked piece would be about things that I thought were important this week. So hear goes.

It is the end of March and that means that Baseball is almost hear. I got a new (for me) camera this semester, its a DSLR and I am wanting to try it out. So I was thinking that since MLB is about to start up and Kansas City is not to far away I may try to catch a game and see how well my camera takes pictures of the sport. So hear is the really important part, pricing. What does it cost to get a good seat at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium? For a good seat against the Yankiees or the Cardinals (which are the two games that I wouldn't mind seeing) cost about $55/person for the dugout seats and then less the farther you get from it. To me that is a good price. I am willing to drive to see a good game against two teams that are really well known. Also Kansas City is hosting the 2012 All Star Game. That would be a game that I would love to see but you can expect that the prices for that will be expensive! That game will be played July 10th in Kansas City, Missouri.

2.  Everyone has heard about the Meaga Millions drawing that the lottery has been doing this week. The next drawing is for $600+ Million dollars. This is a large amount. According to yahoo, the chances of someone winning this amount are 1 in 176 Million. What I would do to be that one person who won! Is it worth that dollar per chance to win? I guess that is up to the person spending the dollar to win. In my opinion it is your money to spend how you see fit. Just don't waste all of your money on it.  Yahoo also list five reason why you don't want to win the mega millions jackpot. Check it out on this link.  A lot of these reasons are a very real threat and have a good deal of reason behind them. So think hard before you choose because you may regret it.

So those are my stories that I wanted to link on. Have a good weekend all!

So close...

Just a few more hours until I do not have to worry about anything from school or work to bother me. Oh yea, thats right I took a vacation at work during my spring break so that I can just sit back, relax, and write two papers. Yes, I am a procrastinator, I have yet to do the 3rd paper for this class and I have a primary source paper due the Monday classes start back up. What can I say, I like to feel free while I can only to have my hopes dashed as I do work during my breaks. But am I the only one? No I don't think so. A lot of people a procrastinators like myself. So while I enjoy the first few day's of my week off I will try not to think about what is going on in the world of school work.

I know that that is a kind of small entry on this week but it is just about a half hour before spring break officially beings for all of us.

Have a great and safe spring break all!

Where was winter?

I think that we can all agree that while we had some cold days this last winter, it was nothing like the norm. With just one snow storm that interrupted schools across the area I don't think that the winter was that bad. With that being said I want to pose another question. Where has spring gone? While we have yet to get into the stormy season, spring is already upon us and the trees are in full bloom. Temps are in early summer temps though. Click on this link to see average temps for this area and what has actually been recorded. Right now we are running about 10 degrees above average. Now those temps are not bad right now but think about mid-summer when the average temps are in the upper 90's to lower 100's and add the ten degrees on to that. Hopefully that will not happen but if it does expect me to stay inside most of the time.

For us staying here in Missouri on spring break, it looks like it may get a little bumpy with the weather. The Weather Channel is calling for possibly sever storms on Monday. If this happens (which I hope it does not,) please remember to be responsible and keep you and your family safe.

While we may be having storms next week we are not the only ones. On the national forecast it looks as if the US is in for a kind of stormy week. Check out the written version here.

Have a safe spring break and watch for weather!

Photography...

One way to keep sane is by having hobbies. I have a few different hobbies such as riding a long with deputies, reading, building model aircraft and taking pictures. By far the most expensive hobby that I have is photography. The reason it is so expensive is because a good SLR camera cost money.

SLR stands for Single Reflex Lens. SLR's are expensive because they can do a lot with the different functions of a camera. Not to long ago I acquired an SLR. It is an older model Canon but it works for me. I love taking pictures with this type of camera because I can do much more with the different lenses and zooms, depth of field, and focus. Recently I was outside taking photos in just the moonlight and they were turning out well. I was even able to capture the Big Dipper.

 The reason that I use this intro is because I want to show you a couple of things that I want to eventually try out. My ultimate goal is to go to the National Parks and take pictures there and start a business secondary to my career choice.

One of the things that I want to try out is called Time Lapse Photography. Time lapse photography is where you take a whole bunch of pictures from the same place with time in between them. Sometimes this is accomplished by taking a picture every 26 seconds for a couple of hours. Sometimes you have to take a picture for longer times. For an example of a fun way to do time lapse photography with a friend click on this link.

One site that one of my instructors told me about this year is awesome. He does a lot of time lapse photography and they look awesome. Check out his website at 599productions.com. He has a few different types of time lapse and my favorite would happen to be the one with the night sky.

But for right now until I get to the point where I know what I am doing, I am going to stick to doing photography like the one above. If you have a Facebook account you can look at my photos by one of the following links. Even if you don't have a Facebook you should be able to look at some of these pictures.

Night Life Album
Fall 2011 Album
Photography

Taking pictures of Nature is a good stress releaver. When nature is working with you that is. Animals and even the plants have a mind of their own it seems. I like to head out in the middle of nowhere and find a good image that I think I can make look a certain way. By the time I get the picture taken it normally looks close to what I had in mind.
Let me know what you think. Have a good weekend!

Changing of the Seasons

Well it is the end of the first week of March. Just one more week until spring break. As yo may have noticed the day is getting longer and the night is getting shorter. The stars are changing position in the night sky and it is warmer. In my life this is getting to be the busy season. With the change of the seasons from the colder to the warmer more people will be going out and about at later times. This leads to more calls being placed with the Sheriff' Office. Not that that is a bad thing it just leads to me doing more work.

I am looking forward to the warmer months because that means that I can stay out longer and do more things after work. With the ending of school for the semester that means I will not have to go straight home from work to sleep but will be able to hang out with some of my friends.

Of course the main thing that is not good about the seasons changing is the weather. With the seasons changing the weather swings hugely to where the colder weather that is leaving collides with the warmer air pushing the colder air out. This of course creates the storms that lead to the sever weather that is so prevalent in the Midwest.

So why the rainy season is good and the warmer weather is nice, the change of the seasonal weather change is not good.

So we will see how long we can have a good spring without the sever weather.

Have a good weekend you all!

Spring Break 2012

So spring break is just around the corner, literally. By the end of next week I will be flying to hang out with a friend in the Capital. I can't believe how difficult it has been to look at tickets and see the prices, I do not remember having this much difficulty last year looking up prices. Of course there are sites like southwest.com, kayak.com, and travolocity.com. But this doesn't really help when you are looking for a price for a flight that is less than a week away.

On a side note is it just me or have airline prices gone up way to much. Why do you think that airlines are going out of business? It is because they have hiked up the prices way to much and no one is really wanting to spend that much money on a trip. I know I am really double thinking about going on my trip.

This just really annoys me, I mean how can you make money if your to uptight to realize that your target can't afford your product. Learn from others mistakes before you make the same mistake and go out of business.

Well I am going to try and think about what I am going to do wish me luck.

Help or no help.

My rant for this week is over the helpfulness of people.

I am irritated, I have been since last night when I was out at Walmart. While I was walking around the store with my Grandma I noticed that someone who was in one of those electric carts had dropped something and could not get it. Instead of directly going out of my way for maybe a minute to see if I could help him I hesitated because I did not want to insult him. This rant is more out of annoyance on my part and the fact that we can no longer freely offer to help without feeling like a jerk.

I have always been taught to be nice to people, to treat them like you wanted to be treated and to always be respectful. Yesterday showed me that while doing so I am now unable to inquire if someone needs help because I feel as if I am insulting them. While I do want to help I am not wanting to insult them. I guess I just do not know how to approach the subject.

By the time I made up my mind the other night, someone else had already stepped in and helped the guy pick up what he dropped. That made me feel like the lowest man on the earth. I don't know what to think about this. Is it just me being over critical or what?

Let me know your thoughts