#42 – Judging photos

Wednesday night was a late one after judging and sending out Exposed!

Below are a few photos – thanks to Cynthia at PhotoBuddies for the first two photos:

The judges debating:

A slightly wobbly P&S portrait (taken by me) with some camera club members:

Also some bureaucratic good news… in theory. I got an e-mail from Corporations Canada:

” The Paperwork Burden Reduction Initiative (PBRI) involves measuring the costs and
impact of regulatory compliance on business, including small businesses, and pursuing
opportunities to reduce, rationalize and simplify regulatory requirements across federal departments and agencies. It was launched in February 2005 in response to the
Government of Canada’s 2004 Budget commitment to measure the impact of regulatory compliance on businesses and make measurable reductions in paperwork burden.”

Fulfilling federal and provincial obligations like paperwork is a very large task for a small company like mine. I have spent many hours filing, phoning and visiting gov’t offices trying to comply with their policies – it IS a burden! Sometimes there is unfortunate bungling that costs significant time. The Corp Can e-mail was fresh air that seems to be moving at a rather glacial speed – at least it’s moving!

#23 Exposed! Newsletter

My latest Exposed! Newsletter went out to subscribers late Tuesday night. It will be posted on my newsletter page in about a month. You can subscribe to receive the articles automatically by entering your e-mail at the top of the Exposed! page.

The latest article “:: What is Your Photo Worth? The Business of Photography::” starts:

“I’ve been a photographer for over 30 years. I need a real job to pay the bills.” I gasped as I received this e-mail.

I get enough questions about the business of photography that I developed and present elements of the Creative Business Seminar to college, university and private groups.

Watermarking and embedding copyright data

Update on Canada Web Hosting – I had trouble with my host as they set up a new server for some of their hosted websites at Synergy Web Services (I was told it’s the same company). They bungled and I lost database functionality, some e-mails and some data. The errors seem to be fixed – took 4 days to fix all the problems! Currently the two web hosting sites are blaming each other for the problems. I am not very happy! What can I do?

Coming up this weekend I am hosting the Event Photography Workshop – students will be shooting the Ottawa 67s sub NHL pro hockey team. It may be full – awaiting confirmation – please inquire if you are interested.

Next weekend is the Night Light Photography Workshop – a time to experiment with funky low light elements of photography. There are spots available.

Both April sessions of Creative Fundamentals are full. I took the first booking for the fall session last night. That makes me happy!

Tomorrow – I introduce my new point and shoot (blog) camera with tips on buying one.

Thanks for looking!

H

#21 Bungling

As I mentioned Friday I was looking forward to a fun-filled weekend – it is rare I can leave work alone for a whole weekend and enjoy the snow. There’s usually some deliverable that needs at least some attention!

This weekend we skied a lot including a trek into a cabin for dinner. I even got a game of hockey and some telemark skiing done. By Sunday eve I was tired but happy with the fun!

As for work all I had planned was to write and prepare my monthly e-Newsletter, Exposed! I am very lucky (and grateful) to have help posting it to the web. I write and my GF prepares it for the web – she does it far quicker than I would!

In so doing she discovered some problems with my site’s host Canada Web Hosting. CWH were switching to a different server and had warned people they were doing some work. It seems that their work was only partially done. I lost a day of email, some database functionality and many hours of my life trying to work with their hapless help desk.

It was a very bungled job and I am still trying to fix some issues they created. Their support staff did not follow-up as promised. It affected my blog, e-mail and databasefunctions – sorry to any of you that noticed. As my friend, JQ, would say – it was a big ‘fumbleton.’

I’ll keep you posted!