17. May 2010 by Algernon.

As many of you know, I’m serving my country in the US Navy. I’m currently deployed and still practicing my photography. One of my photography goals at the beginning of cruise was to learn more about the business side of photography.

Being a photographer automatically makes you a businessperson. Dealing with clients, accounting, negotiating, marketing, etc. are all part of being a good photographer. From what I have learned you are a businessperson first and an artist second. Being a good businessperson is key to running a successful photography business.

When many of the sailor here found out that I “take nice pictures”, everybody wanted there picture taken. So, I thought about it and it was a great opportunity to learn to deal with clients. It’s kind of different though because a lot of the work is Navy related, so I couldn’t charge for my services. If I did charge, I would probably lose out on a learning experience because they could always get the ship’s photographers to do the work for them. Which I have been told that I’m a lot better than the ship’s photographers.

I try to treat the sailors as if they were paying customers. I talk to them about what they want. I shoot in a location that they choose. Sometimes they ask me what I suggest. I also shoot re-enlistment for some sailors. I’ve even shot sailors at work as you see in the above photo. The last re-enlistment I did, the sailor requested me over the ship’s photographers. After the photo is done, I offer them a CD with low-resolution images on it. They are able to email these photos to there loved ones and I have a satisfied customer. Satisfied customers equal business and word of mouth when I return from this deployment. Navy related projects such as posters, slideshow, etc. shows my talent and create potential clients.

I include contact info through metadata. And I also leave a word document on every CD with my info contact info. When I get home I should have a few clients just from my work being displayed throughout the ship. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool!

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7. May 2010 by Algernon.

My Aunt Emma posted something on Facebook that inspired me to post this photo.  My grandmother raise her kid and many grand kids in this house.  This, now abandoned, house is where I was raise most of my life.  This is what I knew as home.  My grandmother was a great woman.  She devoted her life to nine kids and countless grand kids.  My memories of her are all strong memeries!  I knew her as having all the answers.  When I was sick she always knew what to do.  She always knew what to say to make me feel better.  This house was like a huge playground.  Everything is big when you are young and small.  My cousins, brothers, sister, even my mom, aunts and uncles used to run up and down the street and all through the yard.  It was so easy to entertain ourselve over there.  I took this photo when I visited my mom in December.  This photo is feeled with memories of my childhood!  My beautiful, strong, encouraging, loving grandmother is all over this photo!  Myrtices Marie Parker   August 9, 19??-May 9, 2002…

Posted in Family, Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

7. May 2010 by Algernon.

Spending my whole life with PC, I always defended PC. PC has taken it’s place in the world as over 90% of all computers. There is a PC almost everywhere you look. It’s a system that is very upgradeable. My first computer was an i386 that I put together myself, running Windows 3.1. It was so rewarding to piece together my own system and upgrade parts when needed. For a while that was a hobby of mine. I enjoyed tinkering around with different computer parts. But, over the years my interests changed.
PC and Microsoft are very dominant in the computer world. You have PC gamers that love their computers. You have Microsoft office, which I have to say is very useful and an excellent suite. I have always used it and I still do. You cannot go wrong with Microsoft Office. I run Microsoft Office for Mac now. It actually seems a little better than the Windows version, but I haven’t had a lot of time with it.
Throughout my years of using Microsoft’s Windows, I have had nothing but problems. I have had enough problems to begin to think that these things were normal. I believed that it was normal to have to reboot on many occasions. I have had to reinstall Windows on many occasions. Many people say that they have no problems at all with Windows and the problems people have are operator error. I can believe that most of the problems are operator error. But, I don’t seem to have any operator errors with Mac. I can do what I need to do much easier and enjoyable on my new iMac. I still use a PC at work because that is what the navy provides and the ITs stay busy. I actually had to call then 3 days in a row and neither problem was fixed. I have not have any problems at all with my new system. I have yet to find any faults. I know that discussions like this one usually start a Mac/PC war. But I just wanted to share my thoughts on this subject. I never really had a point to discuss when I was using PC.
I’m really enjoying my Mac and I have absolutely no problems! I was impressed as soon as I took it out of the box…

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