california
“TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE, BECAUSE THEY HAVE A GOOD REWARD FOR THEIR TOIL. FOR IF THEY FALL, ONE WILL LIFT UP HIS FELLOW.”
ECCLESIASTES 49-12
I had a great time photographing this sweet family. on their special day! This was a unique experience for me because it was such a small and intimate ceremony of only about 12, including my bride and groom, The hardest part about shooting a wedding on the beach is always the sun, but I think I did the newlyweds justice.
September was another wild month. I spent two weeks of the month on vacation, and exploring new areas. The first vacation you will see is Miami which was an absolute blast, The food, zoo, and atmosphere was a lot of fun, but I can say with full confidence that our beaches in the gulf are way better.
For our second vacation, we went home to my parents house in Michigan. This was the first time in almost two years since I moved to Florida that we had been back to Michigan. It will also be the last time I ever go back to that house since my parents have since sold it to move more south and get away from the harsh, cold winters we have always lived around.
Enjoy the next sneak peak in the series, and next months sneak peak will be written a little bit differently so be looking out for that as well!
Below are links the the other A Second A Day Sneak Peak videos and the blogs to go with them just incase you ever miss one, or want to rewatch/reread them.
Links to the other sneak peak videos in order:
1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK
2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak
3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak
I always talk about the month I had when I post my monthly sneak peak, but I never really criticize or talk about my learning process. Which I think is a very big part of the videos themselves. With that being said, I want to share with you something I have learned during this video process, and my own solution to go forward with for next years video.
If there was one thing I would have done differently for this project, it would be better organization. When I started this project, I never really thought about the process of organization I was going to need to successfully and easily make this project run smoothly. Well, let me tell you how important organization is with this project now that I am a little more than half way done,
The biggest way I could have stayed better organized would have been by putting these videos in sub-folders based on months and put each month in one folder. Right now, I have all the videos in one folder, and now that there are over 100 videos in this one folder, with more added more daily, When I sit down to edit, I am constantly searching though the entire media library consisting of all the videos from this year so far. This causes me to edit slower, and take more time looking for certain videos, rather than having all the videos right there per month. At least I know how to make this project run smoother next year, since I have decided to make this a very permanent ongoing project.
Below are links the the other A Second A Day Sneak Peak videos and the blogs to go with them just incase you ever miss one, or want to rewatch/reread them, they are all right here. Underneath these links, is July’s sneak peak. Enjoy!
Links to the other sneak peak videos in order:
1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK
2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak
3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak
As promised, here is the monthly a second a day sneak peak for the month of April. This sneak peak so far is definitely one of my favorites.
April was filled with lots of adventure, friends and laughs. the month started out with a trip to New York, and ended with priceless times with my great friends.
I’m sorry but i’m standing by my “no sound in sneak peaks rule”. you will just have to watch the final product for the full experience! The video below is the sneak peak for April. I also have the links to all the previous months sneak peak blogs below, in order.
Links to other blogs in order:
1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK
2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak
3. March’s ASAD Sneak Peak
A few weeks back I blogged about moving to a new area called Destin, Florida. (link to this blog at the bottom.) Since I have been here I have been working really hard at building connections, and making friendships. Through these connections, I met a really genuine and good friend.
As Some of you already know, I have been working with an organization in the area. That organization is called Coastal Community Cleanup. Coastal Community Cleanup is a non profit organization that was founded by one of my good friends, Megan Betancourt.
Coastal Community Cleanup is an organization that sets out to do just what if says. Clean up the beaches! Every few weeks the CCC team picks a beach in the area to clean up. Its typically scheduled as a two hour event. When you arrive, you are provided with resuable gloves or tongs, and a burlap bag to collect trash that you find in the sand or in the water. At the end of scheduled cleanup, you come back and sort what you found out into trash, recyliables, etc. Then the CCC team takes care of depositing the trash to the right centers. For this event, the CCC team helped out a Target volunteer event that was great fun and a big success! The cleanup happened at a small beach access called Norriego Point. The total amount of trash collected and removed weighed about 40 pounds! It was really great to see all the teamwork and hard work from my fellow friends and coworkers! (link to their website below if you want to help out and see upcoming events!)
Below are a few of the images I took during the Cleanup. Enjoy!
Link to Coastal Community Cleanup website:
https://coastalcommunitycleanup.com
Link to Coastal Community Cleanup Facebook page::
https://www.facebook.com/coastalcommunitycleanup/
Link to my Previous blog about moving:
one-year-in-florida
This is March’s ASAD monthly sneak peak! Just in case you missed the previous posts, I will be linking them at the bottom of each these blogs in order so you can catch up or stay up to date on the sneak peaks before the big preview at the end of the year.
Everyday i’m learning more and more about video editing and myself which is getting me very excited about the final. I might even extend this into a full time project! Thanks for watching this sneak peak, and check out the other links below!
Links to other blogs in order:
1. Exciting Projects in the Work/ ASAD January Sneak PeaK
2. February’s ASAD Sneak Peak
So just in case you missed my first post (link below) I am working on a new project that will last me the entire year. Its a video project called A Second A Day or ASAD for short. I have been working hard to stay updated on this project to keep it from being a daunting folder of 365 videos at the end of the year. Since I am keeping up with the editing of the videos, I am also abled to look through each month and pick out some of my favorite moments from that month and share them with you.
So far I’m learning a lot about myself and video editing from this project and I can’t wait to see how the final project turns out. I have been getting lots of great questions about this project, and my blogs. One of the most frequently asked questions was “why is there no sound in the video?” and my answer to you all is simply I have not yet picked out music for it yet, and I don’t want to give everything away in these sneak peaks. Since I am letting you see some of the seconds ahead of time, I need to have another element for your engagement in the final video at the end of the year.
Thanks for watching this sneak peak and all the ones to come!
Link to previous video: January Sneak Peak/Full Explaination
About two weeks ago, I posted a blog titled "First Michigan Fashion Shoot". In that blog I described a little bit of what brought on this set of images with this amazing woman that I am lucky to call a friend. The other week I finished the images from the extensive fashion photoshoot I did with my friend, Kelli.
Incase you missed the last blog, what we are trying to achieve is a new branding for Kelli. These images and others to come will be used on her instagram and social media accounts to rebuild her brand and self image for future business opportunities. These images are two more outfit changes we had go the many options we discussed and planned. We are currently in the process of creating a new concept for the next shoot that im very excited about! Some of you might have already seen them on my updated website within the last week, but they had yet to be blogged.
As always, I would also like to send out a special thank you to my boyfriend, Chris for learning how to be an assistant to the photographer by moving around the lights and equipment, and even learning how to use and set up all the equpitment to be the best help he could.
Out of courtesy for Kelli, I waited to post the rest of the images until I was sure she had received them. So I hope it was as worth the wait for you as it was for her. Enjoy!
I am in my eleventh quarter at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on my way to getting a bachelor’s of science in photography. I am so close to graduation, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of school stress. Being this close to graduation, I need to start thinking about where I want to live. The first step I had to take was researching cities that have a lot to offer me, especially in the fashion and advertisement photography field.
I will be looking for research on the cost of living, jobs, closeness to home, and family members or friends in the areas. Hopefully when I finish my research I will be able to make a decision based on my research.
Cost of Living
For me to determine the cost of living in both Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, I had to look into what it would cost to rent, the groceries, utilities, and transportation. I found a site called info please that really helped me figure this out.
In Los Angeles the average one bedroom apartment rent is $2,282.00, while Pittsburgh’s average apartment rent is $958.33. In Los Angeles the average you would spend on weekly groceries is $106.00. Pittsburgh’s average weekly groceries are about the same at $104.10. Los Angeles’s monthly utilities are around $101.70. Pittsburgh’s monthly utilities are around $97.00. Finally, Transportation in Los Angeles on an average costs $113.60, while Pittsburgh’s transportation costs $105.90. The rent was the main difference, but I still think it’s necessary to talk about the groceries, utilities, and transportation.
I would like to say that I am not at all surprised by the rent differences between Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, because I know that Los Angeles is one of the most expensive places in the United States to live. Pittsburgh is 34.4 percent less expensive to live than Los Angeles. You would need to make $30,792 in Pittsburgh, and $50,000 in Los Angeles to keep the same standard of living.
Distance
The distance from friends and family is a very important part of this to me, but not necessarily a deal breaker, especially with social media. I know a few people in California, one of my best friends and her husband live about 5 hours away from Los Angeles, which would be nice when I want a getaway, I also have a few friends closer to Los Angeles, one even living in the city, working for Paramount, which would be a fantastic networking opportunity for me. The down fall of Los Angeles is that my family Lives in Midland, Michigan which by plane is a 6 and a half hour flight, and I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio which is a 5 hour flight if I wanted to see my friends from back home. Pittsburgh is has much shorter distances from Michigan and Cleveland. From Cleveland it’s only a 2 hour drive, and a 6 hour drive to Michigan.
Jobs
As a fashion photographer it is very important to be in the fashion cities. I cannot just go out and get jobs anywhere, and still be doing what I love. Or if I am, I won’t be making very good money. I used the website indeed to figure out the salary and available jobs.
In Los Angeles, there are 5,720 fashion photography jobs to choose from. The average yearly Salary for a fashion Photographer in Los Angeles is $59,000. In Pittsburgh there are 2,396 fashion photography jobs available. A Pittsburgh fashion photographer’s yearly salary is $47,000.
Conclusion
The cost of living right now in Los Angeles is far too expensive for a just graduated college student. In order for me to be able to move there I would need to work in Pittsburgh I would need to save up money. Especially because it will still take me months to get a job probably in my industry especially one in my field.
The only fall back Pittsburgh has is under the jobs category. Unfortunately there are not as many options, which would make getting a job a lot harder.
The distance from friends and family is important also, but as I said before would not have been a deal breaker. I know that if I had to I could make new friends in another city. I had to do it before when I moved here. I would rather be closer to my family and friends. It would also be nice to visit California again since I have not been there since I was a little kid to experience what is is like to get around down in LA.
Now that I have researched all categories, cost of living, jobs, distance from family and friends I have decided that it would be better for me to go to Los Angeles for my job, but nothing else right now and chose Pittsburgh. Until I can afford to move to Los Angeles anyway.
I hope this has helped out any other photographer that is in the same place I am, because before going into all of this research, i felt seriously lost. at least now I know what I am getting myself into, before just up and moving. just for a little bit of a throw back, here are some pictures of me and my family hiking and exploring California when i was a little girl, and some of the memories i have made in Pittsburgh as well. Enjoy!
