Picture 439...

WELLLLLLLL!!!
HOWDY!!!
How art thou?
I be-eth fine-eth.

Things have been going great with my new…. “job”.
I mentioned it last time I posted, but I didn’t go into details.
That’s what this post and video are all about.
For my class, there was a job shadow assignment that I had to do.
So, I used that assignment as an advantage to getting a job.
Usually, photographers make their own photo business.
I realized a long time ago that is not the way to go.
For some people, it works.
But for me, I don’t want a business.
I just want to shoot photos.
I knew that in order to do what I want to do, I need to work WITH someone and not work all alone.
So for the assignment, I remember this guy coming into class to talk about his business.
His name is Randy and he works in the realm of retail photography through his business, Next Door Photos.
Basically, a house goes up for sale and they need photos to put up online.
Normally the house owner or the retailer shoot the photos on their photo and they look like garbage.
FOR EXAMPLE!!
I’ll use photos of MY OWN HOUSE that were posted on Zillow.
Look at this hot garbage…

That's lighting looks lovely... yes......

WOW!!! A WALL!!

There was a second round of photos that look much better... but not the best.
Our house was that empty.... whoa.

Once again, this is closer to what I'll be doing... just.... better.
I guess those photos were good enough to entice us to buy it.
Now here are some sample photos from the Next Door Photos website…

THOSE LOOK MUCH BETTER DON’T THEY.
That’s the type of stuff that I’ll be doing.
That’s the level of excellence I need to achieve!
So, that means I need to go through some training.
All this started on July 11th, when the job shadow took place.
It’s now July 29th and I have yet to do… anything.
We’ve mostly been talking, trying to figure out a plan.
The one thing holding me back…. A phone.
I need a cell phone.
I haven’t needed one in my life until now, which is why I don’t have one.
Even when I could have afforded one, I still never got one.
I didn’t need it.
Well, now I do and I have no money to get one.
The reason I need one is mostly for GPS purposes. 
He’ll text me a location to go to and I don’t want to get lost.
Also, they use an app to track my travel miles for which I’ll be compensated for.
The longer it takes for me to travel to a location, the more money I get.
All this depends on a cell phone.
And it can’t be a cheap one.
It has to be able to properly do all that stuff and more!
So, we’ve just been talking about how to get me a phone.
I can’t start training until I get one.
He gave me a suggestion for a carrier service that is cheap and works on any phone that’s not locked to a carrier.
I did my research and found a few ways to get a cheap iPhone 6s that’s unlocked.
Lastly, I just need the money.
Luckily, I found a solution.
We are going to scrap my car.
A while back the transmission died and it will cost $2000 to get it fixed.
That’s more then what I bought it for, so that was a big NOPE.
We were going to scrap it a long time ago, but then this guy wanted to buy it from me.
That deal fell through and we forgot about it after that.
I’ve been looking for two weeks on how to get a phone, and the solution was right there the whole time!
We did run into a snag.
APPARENTLY….. I never got the title for the car.
You need that in order to scrap a car.
I have records that I transferred it to my name… but I never got the official title in the mail.
I got the license plate… and the registration…. But no title.
So, we have to wait until Monday for a copy to come in the mail.
Once that’s done, I’ll order the phone and the service.
WHICH MEANS HOPEFULLY, by the end of the week… I’ll have a phone.
*GASP*
Now that my class is over, I can spend all of August getting trained and ready to work.
Until the 22nd, which is when classes start back up… for the final time!!!!!
I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
Ok, I’ve talked enough.
I cover a lot more in the video, by the way.
SO WATCH THAT.
ONTO THE PHOTO!!!
The photo was apart of my last few assignments for my class.
They wanted me to get more business exterior shots.
Plus, that helps tie into the job that I’m going to be doing… sort of.
Anyways, this was the last place I was getting a photo of.
I had my evil adorable niece and nephew with and we were having fun.
SEE!

While we were doing that, I snuck in this photo.

I might seem like I’m being silly in the photo because the kids were there.
But that is not the case….
That’s my excited face.
I was all giddy because I got the job.
For the ending, I didn’t do a lot.
I brightened the shadows and BLASTED the saturation.
There was a lot of empty space, so I cropped it in a lot.
I made it SQUARE.
Usually, square photos are just… bleh.
That’s why I have never made one… I think.
But I think it fits this photo nicely.
COMPARE!!

Hover your mouse (the computer one :-P) over the original picture to see the after editing one.
If you're on a touchscreen device, just tap on the picture. You may have to tap more than once.

That compared the editing, now compare the cropping and little Photoshop touch-ups.

LOVELY
Let's try the Image Slider for a split comparison.
CLICK and DRAG the BLUE BAR around to get our own split image.
Or, you can use these presets.
Before FULL, After FULL, 50/50, Before a QUARTER, or After a QUARTER.

Before

After

ALRIGHTY!!
The video…
It’s a long one.
41 minutes.
It covers EVERYTHING about getting the job and finishing my summer class.
It’s basically another update video.
I’ve been uploading pre-filmed stuff like the VHS camera and the Cedar Point trip.
And all these new events happened in the background while I was editing those videos.
So naturally, I have to update on what’s going on!
ENOUGH TALK!!
You can CLICK HERE to see the video or watch it below.

And yes, I specifically picked that video thumbnail....
OK! All done.
I mention in the video that the topics I talk about in this post are going to go silent.
I need time to get a phone and do the training.
So, it’ll take time to record those update videos.
Luckily, I still have some pre-filmed stuff to go through.
Back when I got to use the old-school film camera, I mention a part two to that series.
The next assignment in that class was creating a pinhole camera and using a janky Holga camera.
I was going to upload those video right after the film camera video…. But…..
I hit an issue.
I lost the videos.
Before the assignment, I went through a huge data management shuffle.
My hard drives were getting full, so I needed to make room by moving things around.
In the process, the pinhole and Holga videos got buried somewhere.
LOST…. IN THE DATA……
…….UNTIL LAST WEEK!
I finally found the videos!
So, I’ll get to editing those and they’ll be uploaded next.
I had fun during that assignment and I’m glad I found the videos.
SO! Come back in a week or two to see them!
I’ll see you then.