Cyberward.net

I have finished going through the pictures from the wedding. I now have a proof gallery up. If you are family, send Barb an email if you want the password. I put some more of the pictures together for display here. Hope you enjoy the pictures Jen and Cody. I enjoyed taking them.

Chase Jarvis CURRENT: The Consequences of Creativity from Chase Jarvis on Vimeo.

This is from a little while back, on July 1 Chase Jarvis posted this video on his blog. It was a talk he gave in denver to some creative types. In it he really pushes how we are living in a time where anyone can publish their own work. How anyone can and should push their own creativity in ways that energize them, and then publish it. He talks about doing whatever it takes to sustain your self, whether that is some form of photography, or waiting tables, and once you have that, then get creative on your own time.

It is a great watch, at a little over an hour, it isn’t something you can slip in between something else, but I watched it in three different sessions. It does make you think, just what is it that brings out the creative in you?

I had the great pleasure to be the photographer at Jen and Cody’s wedding last weekend. They had their wedding at a pretty great outdoor location, the Riedel Mansion in Fridley. There was a gazebo outside where the ceremony was held, and the Mansion could have been used if the weather was poor, but fortunately it was wonderful, and everything took place outdoors.

Here are just a few of the pictures from the event. There will be more later, and families will have a gallery in the Clients section next week where they can see many more.

Thanks again Jen and Cody for letting me share your day, and thanks Barb for thinking of me. It was a lot of fun. More pictures soon!

Now, this would have  been a fun wedding to be the photographer. Jill and Kevin look like they got married in St.Paul even. Nice to see some people having fun at their wedding instead of being all stressed out.

Just a quick note, then need to get going. I was at two photowalks yesterday: Stillwater and North Minneapolis. They were both great. I missed the social get together part of both, but I just couldn’t stop taking pictures. I will have pictures later. Unlikely today.

Today I shoot a wedding in the afternoon. I need to go get packed up for that.

I finally have the Christopher Ward Photography site up and running. I feel like I have been working on this new site for ever. Off and on for a couple of months anyway. This was a new site for me in several ways. First is that I designed it based on a business card, and I started by putting it together in Photoshop.

This site is much better representation of where I am at, and where I am trying to get to. Some of the other landscape pictures and city shots I really liked, and maybe I will find a place for them on this site somehow.

Some of the cool things about this site…

The menu at the top with the rollover images is one big image and some CSS tricks. I plan to blog about that later. The index page, and the galleries page have slide shows that use jQuery and the cross slide plugin. It does the Ken Burns effect on the galleries page. Not sure if I should keep it. It seems like it is jerky and pixelated in versions 6 and 7 of IE. Works great on Firefox and Safari.

Clicking on an image in a gallery brings up a larger image and allows you to move between the images using the Thickbox jQuery plugin.

The text on the galleries thumbnails is done with a transparent PNG overlay. I forgot that IE6 doesn’t handle it very well, and that IE6 could be used as much as 30% still. I might need to just redo those images with the overlay put on in Photoshop. I did have plans to change the thumbnails dynamically, but I might not bother now.

This last weekend I had the chance to take some pictures of Capri and her little girl Mariah. She is such a cute little girl, and very sweet. I am not finished with all the pictures yet, but here are a couple of them as black and whites.

My friends Rich and Mary of Twin Shot Photography have now got themselves some studio space. I went to see the space, and it is pretty cool. Not huge, but looks like it will be a great space for them.

While there we played around with some lighting and stuff. Here is a shot of my friend Kristen.

After this closeup, I decided to work on a concept of three. I had just seen this idea that another photographer that has space in the same building had done. Not really new, but the three pictures in graphic frames on one image was something that I hadn’t done yet, but thought it would be good for senior pictures.

Follow through to flickr for a bigger shot.

You have a nice space Rich and Mary! Hope to steal a few frames in there every once in a while

I used to think that you went to school, then got a job, and you were good. Unemployed meant bored and panicked all the the same time. The last thing you would want. I was probably 10. I have gone to school formally a couple of times, but probably have learned more out of school since, than in all the time I spent at University (both of them). I have had many jobs. From fast food chef, to restaurant buss boy, to retail sales, to bike mechanic, to snowboard store, to tree planter, to construction, to cabinet maker, to janitor, to mainframe programmer, to web programmer, to java GUI programmer, to educator, to photographer. But through all of those jobs, I have never had much time off. Sometimes doing more than one at a time. I would always try to find a job before moving to the next one. If I was ever without a job, I was usually slightly panicked.

This feeling is finally fading. One of the reasons I can “take time off” is that I haven’t spent as much as I made in the last three years I was at my last contract. This gave me the flexibility to finally not feel paniced when the contract ended. So I got to thinking, there are a lot of people for which the definition of the traditional job we think about doesn’t apply. Just about anyone with a small business. They often don’t have a steady or regular paycheck every month or two weeks. Neither do photographers. This is where I am trying to get to, to be able to do photography full time, but not for someone else.

So this brings me back to this summer, where I am unemployed. I am certainly not sitting around. To start with, we have pulled Lily from daycare, and with the exception of a couple of day camps Kate is in, she will be around too, until Kindergarten starts. So Daddy Day Care it is. This will take up a huge chunk of my time. They are at an age where they don’t yet run out the door to play with friends the whole day. On one hand this is good, because I will get to play with them all summer. One the other hand, I have a long list of things I want to do.

First off, I have been blogging about building my NAS as I get it running again. This is my photo backup, and needs to get finished. I also need to finish the redo of my site at¬†christopherwardphotography.com. After watching the Zack Arias critiques, it is obvious (as if it wasn’t before) that I need to make that site reflect the direction I am trying to take my photography. I have the design done, and need the pictures and content now. Once that is up, I need to start marketing. I have some ideas, and will talk about those another time.

Also, my education in photography is far from done. It is just starting. There is so much to learn. So I am signing up for Kelby Training for the next couple of months. Not just for photoshop classes, but I am really looking forward to the stuff that Joe McNally and David Ziser have up there. I am sure that I could spend several hours a day doing this stuff. Never mind the books that I have that I could finish or reread.

Oh yea, I need to get out and shoot. This is photography right? Tonight I am meeting friends at a studio to practice some lighting setups, and tomorrow I have a shoot with a young mother and her newborn. I also have an upcoming charity shoot for a Lions banquet coming up.

Does all this sound like work? Yup, kind of does. Just that I am not getting paid much if anything. But its all ground work, and all necessary. In fact, there could be a lot of people that will be working far less than I will this summer, but will still be getting paid by their employer. Such is life. I am just glad that I get the opportunity this summer to do the things I want to do: hang with my kids, and take pictures.

Note: the image is not to suggest that most people unemployed sit and watch tv. If you are unemployed not by choice, how about looking at it as an oportunity to do something you haven’t been able to do, or learn something new.

I am finished with my position at the State of Minnesota. I was there for a one year contract that turned into three. It was a good run, but time. When you are on a location for three years, you can make a lot of friends. I made no enemies. I will miss some of the people there. It took a long time to walk around and say good bye to everyone. I left almost two hours later than I had planned.

It was a good contract. I had pretty good flexibility to look after sick kids, and got 3 years of solid swing experience as well as struts2, mentoring, and teaching 13 lessons in the classroom. See the “Intro to Java” tutorials.

July 1, Canada Day by the way, is the start of a new adventure. Yea in the title is not “Yea, you heard right I’m unemployed and bummed about it.” It is more of a “YEA! WHOO HOO! I’m Unemployed.” I know alot of people are pretty bummed and paniced about being out of work, but I am not right now. The plan is to hang out with the kids this summer, and find work in the fall when Kate starts kindergarten.

There was a time when people were very defined by their jobs. Er… wait, we still are in that time. I really have too much I want to do to be working. I am lucky to have this time without panic because I thought ahead. Three years ago I started putting more money into an account than I “paid” myself monthy in salary. It was specificly to cover times when I didn’t have a contract. Right now, it seemed like a good oportunity to take advantage of this.

Before today, I felt like I had at least two jobs. One I got paid for (Computer Consulting), and one I am trying to get the skills and experience at (photography). And as any Father knows, playing with kids, and maintaining a house also consume a great deal of time and energy. I have no intention of sitting at home watching TV. I still have more things to get done than I have time for, but now I get to choose. It feels great. I will blog tomorrow about what the plans are (photography and otherwise), and explore what unemployed really means.

PS. Happy Canada Day