Bye, bye cold, rainy, foggy nights!

At least for now I can enjoy working inside for the winter. Yeah, you figure right, the football is officially over for High schools in this area! It's sad but ok too. This year I have experienced weather for one season like no other. It is like mother nature wanted to make sure everyone knew she was in control and did not like "normal" conditions for football!

Its been a terrific season. I experienced a new kind of zoom lens, rented of course, that just helped me capture the most outstanding images ever! You can go back through my gallery and you can absolutely pick out the images that were shot with the pro lens. My customers will almost always be there, but they seemed to pick up when I used the expensive lens. I guess I am gonna have to buckle down and get one for next year. Luckily I don't need it for basketball or wrestling seasons.

I am still having a blast with the photo business, but it is becoming a job to keep it running smoothly. Some nights when its after midnight, I wonder why I am doing this. Then all I have to do is walk down the hall and look into a couple of bedrooms and see what my obligations are. They are still to young, but hopefully they will appreciate my long hours and that I do have my office at home so I can see and interact with them. I was raised on the work ethic and the harder you work, the more you get out of it. My parents look at me as if I work too much, but they should take a look back and realize that I get it honestly from their many hours and overtime as I was growing up.

Bring on the indoor sports! I look forward in sitting under a basket and dodging balls, referees, and players too! But I have to remember that as soon as winter ends, I will be standing outside again, wandering where the warm gyms are and those darn loud buzzers!

What is the big deal with socks?

Socks, you know the things that you keep in your top drawer. The things that always seem to lose their partners after taking a bath! The things that start out brisk and soft and end up strong and hard. Yeah, you got it now, Socks!!
I have been working with a client now since March on a sock webstore. It has been a task in itself but who knew when I signed on for this project that I would still be working on it in November! There are so many variations of socks. From the colors, color combos, the styles and then the lengths that just keep on growing. You have ankle socks, crew socks, Knee Hi's or High's, OTK or as most of us know them, Over the knee socks. Then you have this strange thing called a Flip Flop sock. It kind of looks strange but it has potential.
The process of making a sock is actually a daunting task. Yes, there is a machine that weaves them up but the process starts in the designing stage. From there, the web of yarns and elastics is utterly amazing when walking through the plant. Every minute or so another socks pops out and then its off to the toe stitcher. After that, it goes to the dryer to make all the yarns shrink up a bit and then they are pressed and packaged.
I have been living a every fun loving sock hell these past few weeks tyring to put these variations of socks online so that the world can see and buy. They even have Boxed Sets, but I digress. The next time you take for granted the morning routine and are sitting on the side of your bed getting ready for your day, take a minute and and just glance at your feet. Ask your feet, "are you guys worth all this effort that went into keeping you warm and dry today?" I think so!
Buy some socks! www.Sock-Options.com

What's the point anyway?

Today the lonely life of a high school teacher was in full play. We offered a full day for parents and teachers to get together and talk about how their children are such angels or lack there of. The only thing missing was the parents!
I felt like the Maytag repair man today. Out of all the students that I teach, I only saw 3 parents the WHOLE day! And to top it off, it was parents of some of my best students too! So whats the point? Is there a law that states we have to offer Teacher conference days to parents? Is it a law to have teachers restricted to their classrooms all day long, not allowed to wander around and visit colleagues so that they not miss the rare parent wandering the building. We have been so programmed to not leave our rooms that they will actually page us over the intercom to let everyone else know you are not where you are supposed to be and are actually not bored!
So what did I do? I worked on the school website, took a picture for school/community promotion and tried to assist our band director with some pictures. Amazingly, the day went by rather fast. I am not really sure why either, but neither am I complaining!
I love what I do with the exception of a few things. Paperwork and rude students are at the top of the list but today was right up there that just seemed like a waist of time and money!

The Fish are Back! well, almost!

I am a true Miami Dolphins fan! I have been following them as long as I can remember. And that is not lie. I have a pennant from their undefeated 1971 season that says "World Champions" on it. I know that I should not toot the horn to hard or fast as they only won 1 game last year, but I still pulled for them! It sure was great to turn on the NFL pregame shows today and they were all talking about the Dolphins as they were a contender.

Maybe one day I will actually get to see them play. Now here is an idea, lets get them schedules to play the Panthers and I will try to get a sideline media pass to shoot the game. I love it when I have had a good days rest and can think clearer!! Go Fins!!!

Have you ever. . .

Had those times in your life where you just thought you would never get caught up? I am there right now. Every time I think I am getting close, more projects pop up. Today for example was supposed to be my catch up day but turned out entirely different.

Last night, we had the final Fat Friday game (county rival) at the school where I teach. After the game, I stayed behind to take a few requested shots of the marching band so they may submit to the upcoming inauguration ceremonies in Washington, DC. All pretty harmless, if you include all the trash left behind in the stands that had to be photoshoped out in post production. Anyways, I got home and began the enduring task of photo processing. This time we had 907 images to process. Before you freak out, let me tell ya, that a normal night or assignment will be between 300-500 images and I can process those in an hour or so from start to finish. So I was hauling butt to get things going. About 12:30AM got a message from the newspaper wanting to know if I was going to upload my images. Long story, a bit short, I got to bed around 2:30AM!
This morning I woke at 8AM, got up and almost immediately started working in my office. I had some team photos to send to the coaches for names. Then I was off for the youth football championship games and a womens basketball scrimmage. In total, I shot 4 games today! Btw, the basketball was going on at the same time of the football games, 5 miles away!

I finally got finished submitting to the newspaper today about 4:30PM, then decided it was family time! We went to our church for a benefit BBQ! NO, it was not eastern NC style, but it was still good. We went over to the in-laws for a visit with them and my nieces and got home around 8:30PM. I really needed the time away. I have not had much time with just family and not actvities in a while. It is now 12:30AM, and I am beat but wanted to write in my blog. I am hoping to write at least 5 out of 7 days a week.