June

Hello World! It feels like life has been whizzing by for the past couple of months. I haven't blogged in a while so I figured I would share what's been going on in my life.

Work has been busy, busy, busy, which is definitely a good thing! I've been working on some really cool projects which I'm so excited to add to my portfolio once I'm done my tenure. One of the things I worked on was the Swag Catalogue, where I photographed  and edited around 100 items. They were all edited to the result of a white background, photoshopped shadow, and reflection. In total, I probably took close to 1,000 images, and edited over 150 of the selected photos for the catalogue. Two associates and myself even won awards for the work we did on the catalogue. I've also been busy in the photo studio with lots of fun shoots, and lots of really cool prospective assignments coming up.

iStock has been very busy also. I love being an exclusive contributor because my images get approved within 2 days (it used to be up to 2 weeks!), and downloads seem much more worthwhile. I have tons of images to be uploaded and so many photo shoot ideas floating around in my brain. Although working full time conflicts with my dedicated iStock time, I'm trying to make it work and stay encouraged.

I have also been researching to find out how I can get my Word Art Wednesday images printed so I can get that part of my site ready to go. I love creating word art and can't wait to see where it can take me.

Weekends have been usually spent away from my temporary home, which has been really fun, but gets me behind on doing little things like cleaning, going grocery shopping, and doing laundry. I look forward to the next weekend I can relax and get caught up on things.

I was able to go home for Father's Day, which was really fun because we got to go sailing. I love being on the water. Last weekend I visited Paul in Wasaga Beach and enjoyed the nice weather (and air conditioning!). This weekend I am going to visit Emma and the dogs in Waterloo. I can't wait for the fun times I know we will share.

In other news, Paul graduated and got his very first paramedic job in the same day! It's a part time 1-year contract with the ER Academy, based out of Toronto. A big congrats to him!


Anyway, what I thought would be a quick update has turned into a short essay, so I will make this short. Thank you for reading about my life these days and I hope you are all doing fantastic!

Then and Now

When my parents visited for my 21st birthday, we decided to enjoy the beautiful weather and walk along a park we used to visit when we used to live in the city. While we were walking, we stopped by a certain jungle gym where we had taken a photo of us at least 14 years ago, and since I had my camera, we tried to "recreate" it. Here is our shots put together:

I couldn't remember what the original picture looked like at the time this photo was taken, so I find it very interesting that I decided to have my hand on the railing.

It's so amazing to see how we and others change over the years. So much has happened within the 14 or so years between these two photos that has transformed our lives. I can say though, without a doubt, that I'm thankful for every one of them.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Exclusive!

I got home from work a short while ago. When I checked my email, I saw that I had gotten a reply to my exclusivity application. Three months ago, I applied but got denied because I had some files for sale on a partner site to Veer.com, where I had tried selling my photos for a while. I asked for my files to be removed from Veer, but they didn't drop off of the partner site (which I wasn't even aware of) in time for my application to go through. Before I was able to apply again, I had a waiting period of 90 days. I was so disappointed that I hadn't caught those images which prevented me from becoming exclusive. Waiting 90 days was no easy job, either!

Today, I can now finally say that I am an exclusive contributor to iStockphoto. This means that since I only sell my photos on iStock's site, I get paid more for each download. The little crown icon below represents that I am exclusive. I'm so glad that I stayed determined to keep uploading and waiting for downloads. Hard work does pay off!

Thank you so much to everyone who had helped me, encouraged me, and of course, modelled for me! None of this could have ever happened without you. :)