Wow, its been way too long since I posted last. I intend to get more on top of updating my blog!
Business Side of things
Shawn and I have a few new photos up on our website since my last post. We've also put up 10, 11X14 prints of our photographs at a local cafe. As far as marketing.. I'm constantly re-supplying our holder at a local Choices with the bookmark we created to spread the word we exist. Not too sure people who pick those bookmarks up are actually visiting our site though... so that avenue to marketing may have not worked out so well. I've been adding our url to every website I can find that permits it.. we have to drive people to our website and this is a good way to do it.
I just went to see an e-commerce expert a week ago to talk about ways to improve our website and make it easier for people to find (and for search engines to find too). He gave me lots of great tips and I worked on major changes and additions to our homepage on illustrator based on his suggestions. I'll be meeting with our web developer soon to make the changes. I'm pretty excited to see the results and if it will indeed help drive traffic to our site.
Picture Taking
Been hiking in the last month been to Wedgemount Lake (tough hike! gorgeous turquoise water), Garibaldi Lake. Have some photographs up on our website from those hikes so do check them out!
I'm heading to Toronto in the next while and am hoping to get some great Fall in Ontario photographs. I can't wait to see the reds and yellow of the trees!! So I'm hoping for more photographs in the near future!
Social Side of Things
My book club is going very well, we just read Lullabies for Little Criminals - interesting read about a coming of age in Montreal's red light district. Went to see Naomi Klein speak last week about her latest book Shock Doctrine - she's an awesome speaker and a really strong advocate of people taking charge of their own destinies. Played some Kings Quest III this last month - I was 12 years old since I last played Kings Quest and it was fun to feel like a kid again running around in the virtual world and trying to save the kingdom from a dragon by casting magic spells.
WELCOME
Lyda
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Evolving
Business side of things
Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last blog. Yikes, time is flying by. We got the 6000 bookmarks, now it's just a matter of distributing them. We've given a batch of them to a few bookstores to distribute for us and I dropped some at a local market for people to pick up if they want. I also played post woman for one day and it took me 4 hours to deliver 200 bookmarks. I am going to have to figure out a more efficient way of distributing the bookmarks for sure! We've decided we're going to add a whole new dimension (new products, services) to our website so we have delayed our bookmark distribution until our website is up to date.
I've also been exploring the whole networking thing. I went to Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) gathering. It was very fancy and everyone was dressed to the nines. I felt a bit out of place there as I'm most comfortable in a pair of hiking pants.I also went to the SWAN (Successful Women Always Network) meeting in North Vancouver. I felt more at ease in this group, though again.. I wonder if going to networking functions is really "me". It felt like everyone was trying to sell you something. Though, I did meet some interesting people I'll admit. I went mainly to meet new people who are in the same boat as me (learning the ropes of starting a business) or those who have been around for awhile who might give me some advice being that I'm new at this whole thing. I think I might do better finding a mentoring program. So might start exploring that.
I think there are definitely pros and cons to going to networking gathering. The main pro is you never know who you are going to meet, and you just might get some great advice and even some business!! The main con as I mentioned earlier is that you feel like everyone is talking to you because they want to sell you their product or their service. It sometimes feels like watching and listening to endless advertising. I commend the people who do this, as it is probably important to "sell yourself" when networking but I guess I was naive going into these networking events - I thought it was more a place where people support one another with suggestions, advice, good business tips, a way to connect with other people trying to make a go of it in the business world and far less a place where you get bombarded with endless products and services you should spend your money on to make your business a success. I like the networking concept.. and I'm definitely not going to give up on it, but I am less naive going into it now.
It's quite interesting, because a great opportunity has since come of the SWAN gathering. I have become assistant to one of the women who I met there. Its in a photography studio so the experience I'm gaining is invaluable. So far I've assisted in a family photo session and been learning how to laminate photographs and prepare them for customers. I have to admit I absolutely loved the family photo shoot. It was a blast, even though it was raining. I love people and enjoy interacting with them so I definitely want to try out the service part of the photography industry.
I posted on craigslist that Shawn and I were willing to do a free photo session. We did this for the experience. We heard from Chelsea who wanted photos of her and her brother, so we set up a meeting and met down by Kitsilano beach. I have to say we had the best time. I definitely want to do this again. Here are some of the photos from that:
We have our first wedding photography gig coming up at the end of July, which we are really looking forward to. If we like it, we'll definitely be open to doing some wedding photography.
In other "business happenings", Shawn and I have been working on creating new products. We've created 4 products: 4 bookmarks with themes (birds, flowers, landscapes and miscellaneous), 6 miniature easels, fridge magnets, blank greeting cards. We plan to have these up on our website shortly. We're also going to add some services as well, e.g. people, event, pet photography. All this will be updated on our website shortly, we have a web developer working on this.
Picture Taking
Been having fun taking photos around False Creek, Kitsilano and Boundary Bay. I do have to admit, I think its time that Shawn and I started heading up the mountains (been waiting for it to be safer with less ice) and going on a few road trips.
Talking of road trips.. we went on a very short one to Princeton BC, the road through Manning Park was very cool!! We saw: a coyote, a mother bear and 2 cubs, mountain goat, and a marmot.
We're heading to Manning Park this weekend to take loads of photographs! Hiking season is here and its time to go hiking regularly. I can't wait to smell the mountain air and take in the spectacular views this season!!
Social Side
I'm co-organizing a big Green bbq at a local park here in Vancouver. There has been so much work to do. We're hoping to give out enviro goodies to attendees (anyone who cares about the environment is welcome to attend) to encourage them to act environmentally friendlier at home. We're also going to have free veggie food and a drumming workshop! It should be a blast. I'm really looking forward to it!!!
Been playing soccer once a week. Watching plenty of movies, saw an old 80s one the other day called "The Goonies" which reminded me of when I was growing up. Also saw Rocky V was actually quite good, very nostalgic, it was good to see an old timer come up to bat again.
Had an author come to a book club meeting a couple of book club meetings ago (Heather Burt - author of Adam's Peak) and it was quite a lot of fun. Lots of discussion about the character's search for their authentic selves.
The next book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, its over 1000 pages long and wow.. what an intense book. It's main premise is that man should be self-interested and that making money is the main goal in life. She hates incompetence and weak people. Even her biography page in the book quotes her as saying that she has never expected anyone to help her in life and that all the success she gained in life she achieved on her own merit. Competence is a good thing, but money making and doing everything for self-interest the main goals in life?
Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last blog. Yikes, time is flying by. We got the 6000 bookmarks, now it's just a matter of distributing them. We've given a batch of them to a few bookstores to distribute for us and I dropped some at a local market for people to pick up if they want. I also played post woman for one day and it took me 4 hours to deliver 200 bookmarks. I am going to have to figure out a more efficient way of distributing the bookmarks for sure! We've decided we're going to add a whole new dimension (new products, services) to our website so we have delayed our bookmark distribution until our website is up to date.
I've also been exploring the whole networking thing. I went to Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) gathering. It was very fancy and everyone was dressed to the nines. I felt a bit out of place there as I'm most comfortable in a pair of hiking pants.I also went to the SWAN (Successful Women Always Network) meeting in North Vancouver. I felt more at ease in this group, though again.. I wonder if going to networking functions is really "me". It felt like everyone was trying to sell you something. Though, I did meet some interesting people I'll admit. I went mainly to meet new people who are in the same boat as me (learning the ropes of starting a business) or those who have been around for awhile who might give me some advice being that I'm new at this whole thing. I think I might do better finding a mentoring program. So might start exploring that.
I think there are definitely pros and cons to going to networking gathering. The main pro is you never know who you are going to meet, and you just might get some great advice and even some business!! The main con as I mentioned earlier is that you feel like everyone is talking to you because they want to sell you their product or their service. It sometimes feels like watching and listening to endless advertising. I commend the people who do this, as it is probably important to "sell yourself" when networking but I guess I was naive going into these networking events - I thought it was more a place where people support one another with suggestions, advice, good business tips, a way to connect with other people trying to make a go of it in the business world and far less a place where you get bombarded with endless products and services you should spend your money on to make your business a success. I like the networking concept.. and I'm definitely not going to give up on it, but I am less naive going into it now.
It's quite interesting, because a great opportunity has since come of the SWAN gathering. I have become assistant to one of the women who I met there. Its in a photography studio so the experience I'm gaining is invaluable. So far I've assisted in a family photo session and been learning how to laminate photographs and prepare them for customers. I have to admit I absolutely loved the family photo shoot. It was a blast, even though it was raining. I love people and enjoy interacting with them so I definitely want to try out the service part of the photography industry.
I posted on craigslist that Shawn and I were willing to do a free photo session. We did this for the experience. We heard from Chelsea who wanted photos of her and her brother, so we set up a meeting and met down by Kitsilano beach. I have to say we had the best time. I definitely want to do this again. Here are some of the photos from that:
We have our first wedding photography gig coming up at the end of July, which we are really looking forward to. If we like it, we'll definitely be open to doing some wedding photography.
In other "business happenings", Shawn and I have been working on creating new products. We've created 4 products: 4 bookmarks with themes (birds, flowers, landscapes and miscellaneous), 6 miniature easels, fridge magnets, blank greeting cards. We plan to have these up on our website shortly. We're also going to add some services as well, e.g. people, event, pet photography. All this will be updated on our website shortly, we have a web developer working on this.
Picture Taking
Been having fun taking photos around False Creek, Kitsilano and Boundary Bay. I do have to admit, I think its time that Shawn and I started heading up the mountains (been waiting for it to be safer with less ice) and going on a few road trips.
Talking of road trips.. we went on a very short one to Princeton BC, the road through Manning Park was very cool!! We saw: a coyote, a mother bear and 2 cubs, mountain goat, and a marmot.
We're heading to Manning Park this weekend to take loads of photographs! Hiking season is here and its time to go hiking regularly. I can't wait to smell the mountain air and take in the spectacular views this season!!
Social Side
I'm co-organizing a big Green bbq at a local park here in Vancouver. There has been so much work to do. We're hoping to give out enviro goodies to attendees (anyone who cares about the environment is welcome to attend) to encourage them to act environmentally friendlier at home. We're also going to have free veggie food and a drumming workshop! It should be a blast. I'm really looking forward to it!!!
Been playing soccer once a week. Watching plenty of movies, saw an old 80s one the other day called "The Goonies" which reminded me of when I was growing up. Also saw Rocky V was actually quite good, very nostalgic, it was good to see an old timer come up to bat again.
Had an author come to a book club meeting a couple of book club meetings ago (Heather Burt - author of Adam's Peak) and it was quite a lot of fun. Lots of discussion about the character's search for their authentic selves.
The next book is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, its over 1000 pages long and wow.. what an intense book. It's main premise is that man should be self-interested and that making money is the main goal in life. She hates incompetence and weak people. Even her biography page in the book quotes her as saying that she has never expected anyone to help her in life and that all the success she gained in life she achieved on her own merit. Competence is a good thing, but money making and doing everything for self-interest the main goals in life?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
3 1/2 weeks in
Business side of things:
Some people say marketing is the second most important thing after producing a good product/service. That is something we have still not started, and is moving along more slowly than I had expected. One mistake I can say we've made is not starting with creating and producing marketing material before the website launched. If we had done that the minute the website opened up online we could have started marketing immediately. We learn most from our mistakes I think.. so that is one lesson learned.
I spent the first week after the website was launched getting our website url onto other websites (e.g. photography related websites, bc business websites etc.) but I noticed after checking out the website statistics that people are rarely finding our website that way. Not too sure why, or if perhaps I'm just linking to websites that are not popular. Will have to rethink this strategy.
We've just put together a bookmark with our pictures on it, website url and a few words indicating what we do, then we're going to send it to the printers - I've priced a whole bunch of different copy centres and the one I've gravitated to, even though its more expensive than the others, the one where the bookmark is printed on 100% recycled material and vegetable based ink is used. That goes along best with my way of being in the world so I will have to suck it up and eat the cost I think. We'll drop them off in mailboxes ourselves because Canada Post doesn't allow attachments and we want to put tassels on our bookmarks. Anyone can create a bookmark, but a bookmark with original BC photographs on it, on 100% recycled material with a tassel might have a better chance of being kept and actually used, at least I hope so! We all get enough "junk mail" the last thing I want to do is add to that.
We've also worked on an original looking business card.
We used our images to create it! - This will help when I get more into the networking aspect of marketing in the near future. I'd like to create some original letterhead paper as well.
Also working on the whole accounting part of things. I learned the basics of Simply Accounting this past weekend and I'm meeting with prospective accountants tomorrow. Running a business is really about wearing many different hats, and the financial aspect is just another hat. This is a valuable learning process for me, especially as the book keeping process is new to me.
I'm exploring the possibility of writing articles to go along with photos to submit to magazines and newspapers. Bought 8 magazines last week that I think our pictures would work well in and I'm planning to sit down read them well and come up with some article ideas. Definitely would like to enter our photos into competitions as well. There seem to be tons in magazines and online.
May consider adding a service to our product and wedding photography would be something cool I'd like to try out! I also even went down to Kits beach to take impromptu pictures of dogs, which I really enjoyed - this is definitely an area I'd like to try out.
The Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation is having an event on May 27th (a walk to raise money) and Shawn and I volunteered to photograph the event for them. This will be good experience for us and I bet it will be a lot of fun too.
Photography
Been loving the past few weeks photography wise. I've been to Boundary Bay three times and Delta once. Got a few pictures of the snowy owl -
which was an awesome experience! Worked hard to get it and fell into a swamp in the process of getting the shot. luckily my camera equipment was kept dry! I just love being out there taking pictures, it's fun, I feel alive, exhilarated, excited and all those kind of good feelings. The question is whether the photographs will sell.
Sent a bunch of pictures to Nature Canada for their e-cards and photo of the month thing. Hopefully, they will include a photo on their website. Here are a couple of photos. the first one includes two wood ducks and was taken at Burnaby Park, the second was sunrise at Boundary Bay!
Side stuff
I've read one and a 1/4 books for two book clubs. The first book is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, it was ok - couldn't relate to any of the characters and didn't feel there was much depth. The second book is one hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia - didn't get past page 147, wasn't my kind of book.
Saw the movie The Departed, which was very good. A lot of intricate plot lines, good acting - a bit too much blood splattering on walls but Martin Scorcese definitely deserved the Oscar!
Been swimming lengths as of late, roller bladed a few time, biking quite a bit. Preparing for the coming hiking season. I want to hike all the time as soon as the weather gets nicer. went up the BCMC trail (the trail next to the Grouse Grind) on Sunday, and the top portion was icy (which was very slippery and scary). I went to check out the wolves at the bottom of Grouse Mountain and I became depressed looking at them. They look so sad in their enclosure.
Went to a Climate Change rally in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed more people hadn't showed up. But there were about 300 there, and it felt good know 1400 similar events were happening simultaneously.
Some people say marketing is the second most important thing after producing a good product/service. That is something we have still not started, and is moving along more slowly than I had expected. One mistake I can say we've made is not starting with creating and producing marketing material before the website launched. If we had done that the minute the website opened up online we could have started marketing immediately. We learn most from our mistakes I think.. so that is one lesson learned.
I spent the first week after the website was launched getting our website url onto other websites (e.g. photography related websites, bc business websites etc.) but I noticed after checking out the website statistics that people are rarely finding our website that way. Not too sure why, or if perhaps I'm just linking to websites that are not popular. Will have to rethink this strategy.
We've just put together a bookmark with our pictures on it, website url and a few words indicating what we do, then we're going to send it to the printers - I've priced a whole bunch of different copy centres and the one I've gravitated to, even though its more expensive than the others, the one where the bookmark is printed on 100% recycled material and vegetable based ink is used. That goes along best with my way of being in the world so I will have to suck it up and eat the cost I think. We'll drop them off in mailboxes ourselves because Canada Post doesn't allow attachments and we want to put tassels on our bookmarks. Anyone can create a bookmark, but a bookmark with original BC photographs on it, on 100% recycled material with a tassel might have a better chance of being kept and actually used, at least I hope so! We all get enough "junk mail" the last thing I want to do is add to that.We've also worked on an original looking business card.
We used our images to create it! - This will help when I get more into the networking aspect of marketing in the near future. I'd like to create some original letterhead paper as well.
Also working on the whole accounting part of things. I learned the basics of Simply Accounting this past weekend and I'm meeting with prospective accountants tomorrow. Running a business is really about wearing many different hats, and the financial aspect is just another hat. This is a valuable learning process for me, especially as the book keeping process is new to me.
I'm exploring the possibility of writing articles to go along with photos to submit to magazines and newspapers. Bought 8 magazines last week that I think our pictures would work well in and I'm planning to sit down read them well and come up with some article ideas. Definitely would like to enter our photos into competitions as well. There seem to be tons in magazines and online.
May consider adding a service to our product and wedding photography would be something cool I'd like to try out! I also even went down to Kits beach to take impromptu pictures of dogs, which I really enjoyed - this is definitely an area I'd like to try out.
The Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation is having an event on May 27th (a walk to raise money) and Shawn and I volunteered to photograph the event for them. This will be good experience for us and I bet it will be a lot of fun too.
Photography
Been loving the past few weeks photography wise. I've been to Boundary Bay three times and Delta once. Got a few pictures of the snowy owl -
which was an awesome experience! Worked hard to get it and fell into a swamp in the process of getting the shot. luckily my camera equipment was kept dry! I just love being out there taking pictures, it's fun, I feel alive, exhilarated, excited and all those kind of good feelings. The question is whether the photographs will sell.Sent a bunch of pictures to Nature Canada for their e-cards and photo of the month thing. Hopefully, they will include a photo on their website. Here are a couple of photos. the first one includes two wood ducks and was taken at Burnaby Park, the second was sunrise at Boundary Bay!
Side stuffI've read one and a 1/4 books for two book clubs. The first book is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, it was ok - couldn't relate to any of the characters and didn't feel there was much depth. The second book is one hundred years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia - didn't get past page 147, wasn't my kind of book.
Saw the movie The Departed, which was very good. A lot of intricate plot lines, good acting - a bit too much blood splattering on walls but Martin Scorcese definitely deserved the Oscar!
Been swimming lengths as of late, roller bladed a few time, biking quite a bit. Preparing for the coming hiking season. I want to hike all the time as soon as the weather gets nicer. went up the BCMC trail (the trail next to the Grouse Grind) on Sunday, and the top portion was icy (which was very slippery and scary). I went to check out the wolves at the bottom of Grouse Mountain and I became depressed looking at them. They look so sad in their enclosure.
Went to a Climate Change rally in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed more people hadn't showed up. But there were about 300 there, and it felt good know 1400 similar events were happening simultaneously.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Our Website is Finally Done!!
Business Side of Things
Our website just launched on Monday!! I'm excited to see what kind of response we get. So far only family and friends have checked it out, but we will definitely spread the word. We've had nothing but positive feedback about the website and considering we have no experience in web design, I'm really happy with how it turned out. We wanted a simple, professional and eye catching site, and I feel we accomplished that, hopefully, others feel the same way and enjoy our website!
Now I'm busy trying to figure out different ways to market our website. Some ideas are a brochure, getting our website linked onto other websites, meta tags for search engine optimization. We have to get word out that we exist or we won't survive very long. Marketing is the second most important thing after producing a great product. Some people even argue marketing is the most important thing. We're learning as we go.
A major development after discussions with Nature Canada last week - We are pleased to have secured their logo for our website. We will be contributing 5% of our proceeds to them. This makes me really excited because it means that not only will we be showing the world our photographs and hoping others appreciate the natural world as much as we do, but we will also be contributing financially to an environmental organization going out there and doing work conserving our environment. This really means a great deal to both Shawn and I.
Picture Taking
In the last while we have gone to two spots to take pictures. Lighthouse Park and this area called Peg Leg in Chilliwack where people go to dirt bike and ride around on their ATVs. I wandered around and took photos. Learned more about how to get the ISO just right to catch quick moving objects and people. It was really fun to see people go dirt biking through water
Social
Had an awesome book club meeting last week, we discussed A complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. Great book, very depressing though. I read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger over the weekend, easy read.. flew through it, but what a crappy book - it had a lot of promise starting off with an interesting idea but it really had no substance. I think I'm the only one in the universe who thinks that. I got an email from Heather Burt a local author who would like to have my book club read her book and she'll join us at our book club meeting in May - I really like the idea of supporting a local author so if the rest of my book club members agree, we'll definitely go with reading her book!
I am excited to be heading off to my enviro networking thing I co-organize tonight. Should be fun. I never know who is going to be there or who I'm going to meet. For the last two gatherings (we gather once a month), I hardly recognized anyone and that is saying a lot since I've been co-organizing for over 2 years - a lot of new people turning up.
Our website just launched on Monday!! I'm excited to see what kind of response we get. So far only family and friends have checked it out, but we will definitely spread the word. We've had nothing but positive feedback about the website and considering we have no experience in web design, I'm really happy with how it turned out. We wanted a simple, professional and eye catching site, and I feel we accomplished that, hopefully, others feel the same way and enjoy our website!
Now I'm busy trying to figure out different ways to market our website. Some ideas are a brochure, getting our website linked onto other websites, meta tags for search engine optimization. We have to get word out that we exist or we won't survive very long. Marketing is the second most important thing after producing a great product. Some people even argue marketing is the most important thing. We're learning as we go.
A major development after discussions with Nature Canada last week - We are pleased to have secured their logo for our website. We will be contributing 5% of our proceeds to them. This makes me really excited because it means that not only will we be showing the world our photographs and hoping others appreciate the natural world as much as we do, but we will also be contributing financially to an environmental organization going out there and doing work conserving our environment. This really means a great deal to both Shawn and I.
Picture Taking
In the last while we have gone to two spots to take pictures. Lighthouse Park and this area called Peg Leg in Chilliwack where people go to dirt bike and ride around on their ATVs. I wandered around and took photos. Learned more about how to get the ISO just right to catch quick moving objects and people. It was really fun to see people go dirt biking through water
SocialHad an awesome book club meeting last week, we discussed A complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews. Great book, very depressing though. I read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger over the weekend, easy read.. flew through it, but what a crappy book - it had a lot of promise starting off with an interesting idea but it really had no substance. I think I'm the only one in the universe who thinks that. I got an email from Heather Burt a local author who would like to have my book club read her book and she'll join us at our book club meeting in May - I really like the idea of supporting a local author so if the rest of my book club members agree, we'll definitely go with reading her book!
I am excited to be heading off to my enviro networking thing I co-organize tonight. Should be fun. I never know who is going to be there or who I'm going to meet. For the last two gatherings (we gather once a month), I hardly recognized anyone and that is saying a lot since I've been co-organizing for over 2 years - a lot of new people turning up.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Things Take Longer than Expected
Business Side of Things
As the title suggests, things seem to take longer than expected, especially when it comes to business. The website is still not done; however, both the web developer and myself are working on it regularly - from dealing with the technical side of it to its content. It's almost there.. I can see the end in sight!!
Picture Taking
Things have been quiet on this front but I managed to get out there and take a few shots on the very few sunny days we have had this month. It's quite interesting what you can find right outside your doorstep. I've been focusing a lot on flower shots lately.
I really like colour and there is nothing like flowers to make colours pop out!
Social
The environmental networking event I co-organize each month went really well this month. It's the strangest thing, our regulars seem to have taken a hiatus and brand new people have been showing up. I barely recognize anyone. Attendance continues to be good with about 60 people showing up to meet other like-minded people. We also secured an interview talking about our environmental event with the editor of a new magazine that is coming out, which I'm really excited about.
The book club I founded and run is going really well too. I had my book club members read a book by a local Vancouver author and had that author attend our book club meeting to read from his book and talk to us about the process it took for him to write the book. It was really interesting to get a behind the scenes look.
I'm looking to get back heavily into hiking soon, both for getting fit and picture taking opportunities. Maybe Shawn and I will do a road trip soon..
As the title suggests, things seem to take longer than expected, especially when it comes to business. The website is still not done; however, both the web developer and myself are working on it regularly - from dealing with the technical side of it to its content. It's almost there.. I can see the end in sight!!
Picture Taking
Things have been quiet on this front but I managed to get out there and take a few shots on the very few sunny days we have had this month. It's quite interesting what you can find right outside your doorstep. I've been focusing a lot on flower shots lately.
I really like colour and there is nothing like flowers to make colours pop out!
SocialThe environmental networking event I co-organize each month went really well this month. It's the strangest thing, our regulars seem to have taken a hiatus and brand new people have been showing up. I barely recognize anyone. Attendance continues to be good with about 60 people showing up to meet other like-minded people. We also secured an interview talking about our environmental event with the editor of a new magazine that is coming out, which I'm really excited about.
The book club I founded and run is going really well too. I had my book club members read a book by a local Vancouver author and had that author attend our book club meeting to read from his book and talk to us about the process it took for him to write the book. It was really interesting to get a behind the scenes look.
I'm looking to get back heavily into hiking soon, both for getting fit and picture taking opportunities. Maybe Shawn and I will do a road trip soon..
Monday, January 29, 2007
Finally sun in Vancouver!!
Business side of things
This week I concentrated on exploring which environmental organizations we'd be interested in giving 10% of our sales to and sending out emails of inquiry.
Been also working on the website with our web developer - we've been fine tuning the purchase page to make it as user friendly as possible. I've also been having fun learning how to use our custom website administration tools - I uploaded a bunch of photographs to test it out as well as changed text on our website.
Another really important business activity: even though I already have a business plan, I am really pleased and excited to be getting some outside market research help to figure out the best marketing strategies for our business. We're going to learn a great deal I imagine!
Picture taking
This last week we went to Delta and Boundary Bay three times looking for a snowy owl, but no luck so far. However, we caught sight of other very cool wildlife: a rough legged hawk, Northern Harrier, three short-eared owls, and a tiny bird we thought was a falcon at first but after consulting our bird book we believe is actually a sharp-shinned hawk. The bird weighs 140 grams!
Yesterday we decided to head up Cypress Mountain to check out the sunrise and we saw an incredible view of Vancouver covered by cloud/fog with the city of Burnaby poking out in the distance. It looked like the city was floating on the clouds.
I went to Stanley Park on Saturday with a photography club to take a look at the damage from the wind storms we had and to take people shots. It was a nice change to take silhouettes of people on the beach. Gives me the opportunity to try a different kind of picture taking.
Social Activities
A quiet week on the social activity front this week. Went to a games night with some friends. Watched an interesting movie called District B 13. It illustrated extreme athleticism and it's message was clear: Question everything and do not to follow blindly. Definitely not the type of movie for the faint of heart - there were a lot of snapping of limbs (Which I had difficulty watching as I am a wimp).
This week I concentrated on exploring which environmental organizations we'd be interested in giving 10% of our sales to and sending out emails of inquiry.
Been also working on the website with our web developer - we've been fine tuning the purchase page to make it as user friendly as possible. I've also been having fun learning how to use our custom website administration tools - I uploaded a bunch of photographs to test it out as well as changed text on our website.
Another really important business activity: even though I already have a business plan, I am really pleased and excited to be getting some outside market research help to figure out the best marketing strategies for our business. We're going to learn a great deal I imagine!
Picture taking
This last week we went to Delta and Boundary Bay three times looking for a snowy owl, but no luck so far. However, we caught sight of other very cool wildlife: a rough legged hawk, Northern Harrier, three short-eared owls, and a tiny bird we thought was a falcon at first but after consulting our bird book we believe is actually a sharp-shinned hawk. The bird weighs 140 grams!
Yesterday we decided to head up Cypress Mountain to check out the sunrise and we saw an incredible view of Vancouver covered by cloud/fog with the city of Burnaby poking out in the distance. It looked like the city was floating on the clouds.
I went to Stanley Park on Saturday with a photography club to take a look at the damage from the wind storms we had and to take people shots. It was a nice change to take silhouettes of people on the beach. Gives me the opportunity to try a different kind of picture taking.Social Activities
A quiet week on the social activity front this week. Went to a games night with some friends. Watched an interesting movie called District B 13. It illustrated extreme athleticism and it's message was clear: Question everything and do not to follow blindly. Definitely not the type of movie for the faint of heart - there were a lot of snapping of limbs (Which I had difficulty watching as I am a wimp).
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Boundary Bay + Delta
Business side of things
This week has been all about our website. Lots of little details are being finalized such as image sizes, drop shadows, general layout, functionality of the purchase page. I've been using illustrator to basically create the way Shawn and I would like our website to look turning it into a pdf and then sending it to our web developer who is then turning it all into a functional website. It's really cool to see our design and layout turning into something usable. Our hope is that it looks good and it's very easy to navigate.
I've also been looking at stock photography websites (e.g. fotolia, istock) to post our stock images on. Stock photography images are quite different than the kind of photographs we're selling on our website, as they are more general and not the kind of images you'd have up on your wall.
The next thing I need to do is find and finalize a non-profit enviro group to give 10% of any of our sales to. Both Shawn and I think it's important to contribute to the environmental movement as much as we can... and this is a start.
Picture taking
Shawn and I headed to Delta (we love it there!!) - I got a n
ice shot of a bright yellow barn reflected in water with an ominous dark sky behind it. Then we headed over to Boundary Bay, where Shawn got a glimpse of a snowy owl!! Unfortunately, someone scared the owl away before we got a chance to take a good shot. Shawn also took one heck of an amazing picture of a juvenile eagle in flight. I think the wings look really majestic and there is something about it that looks artsy. I made him keep showing me the image cause I loved it so much! We then went to Crescent Beach and wandered around there to watch the sunset.
Fun and worthwhile side activities
I co-organize a monthly gathering of people interested in the environment and this past wednesday was our first gathering of 2007. It was a blast, and about 70-80 people turned up at a local spot. Met a lot of interesting people who are trying to make some difference in the world. It's really great to be around like-minded people - it makes me feel hope that there are others out there who are trying to do their part to conserve the environment. I can't believe that next month it will be two years since myself and two others joined forces and started this event. Time sure flies.
Went to see Pan's Labyrinth - which is a Spanish film with subtitles. It was a very interesting and dark movie. It is a mix of Alice in Wonderland, The Lion Witch the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the Wizard of Oz. I left the movie thinking about the political/social state of Spain in 1944, and contemplated its religious undertones.
This week has been all about our website. Lots of little details are being finalized such as image sizes, drop shadows, general layout, functionality of the purchase page. I've been using illustrator to basically create the way Shawn and I would like our website to look turning it into a pdf and then sending it to our web developer who is then turning it all into a functional website. It's really cool to see our design and layout turning into something usable. Our hope is that it looks good and it's very easy to navigate.
I've also been looking at stock photography websites (e.g. fotolia, istock) to post our stock images on. Stock photography images are quite different than the kind of photographs we're selling on our website, as they are more general and not the kind of images you'd have up on your wall.
The next thing I need to do is find and finalize a non-profit enviro group to give 10% of any of our sales to. Both Shawn and I think it's important to contribute to the environmental movement as much as we can... and this is a start.
Picture taking
Shawn and I headed to Delta (we love it there!!) - I got a n
ice shot of a bright yellow barn reflected in water with an ominous dark sky behind it. Then we headed over to Boundary Bay, where Shawn got a glimpse of a snowy owl!! Unfortunately, someone scared the owl away before we got a chance to take a good shot. Shawn also took one heck of an amazing picture of a juvenile eagle in flight. I think the wings look really majestic and there is something about it that looks artsy. I made him keep showing me the image cause I loved it so much! We then went to Crescent Beach and wandered around there to watch the sunset.Fun and worthwhile side activities
I co-organize a monthly gathering of people interested in the environment and this past wednesday was our first gathering of 2007. It was a blast, and about 70-80 people turned up at a local spot. Met a lot of interesting people who are trying to make some difference in the world. It's really great to be around like-minded people - it makes me feel hope that there are others out there who are trying to do their part to conserve the environment. I can't believe that next month it will be two years since myself and two others joined forces and started this event. Time sure flies.
Went to see Pan's Labyrinth - which is a Spanish film with subtitles. It was a very interesting and dark movie. It is a mix of Alice in Wonderland, The Lion Witch the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the Wizard of Oz. I left the movie thinking about the political/social state of Spain in 1944, and contemplated its religious undertones.
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