August

I've been meaning to blog for such a long time now. I can't believe how fast time has gone. Things have been crazy in my life recently.

As you can probably tell by my lack of blogging, I got very busy with work. I spent around 3 hours commuting to and from work each day, which meant that I had little time for myself and anyone around me too. I had a great time at work and learned so much about photography, editing workflow, lighting and so much more. I feel so blessed to have been able to be a part of such a valuable experience, and a big thanks goes to my parents, because without their support it would not have been possible. Through work, I discovered a passion I have for working in the studio, and I will definitely keep that in mind when looking for a future job.

Last week, my family and I rented a cottage in Stokes Bay (on the Bruce Peninsula) to take time away from lives and relax. It was also a celebration of Emma completing her last exams of university for good, and also me completing work. We made several day trips to Tobermory and its gorgeous beaches —both sandy and rocky, and also spent a lot of time at the cottage playing games.

Now that we are back home, and Emma will be here for a while, we are switching back our rooms, which we had changed when Emma first went to university. It is a long process for us because we find so many fun memories when going through diaries and things in our closets.

I am also hard at work revamping my website. At work, I learned a lot about portfolios and the importance of keeping a professional portfolio website available which represents who you are as a brand. I will keep my current photography blog and Word Art Wednesdays, which I am in the process of moving over to a Blogspot site. I enjoy Blogspot much better than Wordpress because it is much more customizable with headers and fonts. Under www.rebeccadost.com will be a new portfolio site which is clean and simple. I have a mockup below of how I hope it turns out:

In a nutshell, that's what's been going on in my life. Thank you for taking the time to read it, and I hope you have all been enjoying your summers too!

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. :)

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend was my birthday. I turned 21 and had the pleasure of celebrating it over the entire weekend with my roommates, boyfriend, friends and family. On Friday night, Paul drove up and my roommates took me out to a local bar. I don't really go out much, but it was really nice to have a break from work and get out of the house to go dancing!

On Saturday, my sister took a bus to come visit me, and my friend from Burlington stopped by quickly with her adorable pup Lola. Then, Emma, Paul and I went to a "family fun" day to see my friend Rebecca who was working at the event. We also saw an Emergency medical team do an extrication demonstration. Or, in other words, the too apart a car with the "jaws of life." It was so neat! Shortly after that, we went to meet up with my parents and the dogs, who had driven up for the day. We walked around a local park we used to visit often when we lived in the area. After we were tired of walking and talking, we stuffed our faces at a delicious thai restaurant! That night, after my parents left to head home, we met up with Paul's friends from college at Playdium for some games.

On Sunday, Emma, Paul and I met up with my friend Emily for a lunch date. It was so much fun! Later that day, Paul and I drove Emma back to Waterloo and had dinner and desert there. I'm so thankful I was able to see so many amazing friends on my special day!

Mother's Day Weekend

This weekend was a good one! I completed my very first week of work, which was so much fun! I'm really looking forward to what exciting projects I'll be working on and what I'll be learning. My co-photographers are also amazing, which makes things awesome!

On Friday evening, Paul visited and was able to meet some of my co-workers at a 'goodbye' meet up for some associates who were leaving. Then, we did some grocery shopping and went out to a small get together with some friends. Saturday, we went out to run some errands. We went out on a nice walk to enjoy the beautiful sunshine before making a delicious dinner!

On Sunday morning, Paul drove me to the bus stop before he went to go to a St John's Ambulance duty. I went to Waterloo to meet up with my parents, Emma and the pups for mother's day. We went for brunch at a renaissance-themed cafe and then walked around the mall and a beautiful waterfront park. It was an excellent weekend! Emma and I will both be going home in Friday for the long weekend - can't wait!

Super Moon

Last night, my roommate Chev and I went outside to see the super moon. It was supposed to appear something like 14% larger and 30% brighter. I couldn't see a size difference, but it was definitely brighter! Of course, I took my camera along on the trip, and got some really neat pictures. Night photography is very difficult, but I somehow managed to maintain focus in some of them. The picture below is not featured on my photography blog post, but I loved how the aperture rings created a "sun-like" effect on the moon.