And well, you can see what won. While you can watch the entire VOD here, below, I’ll showcase some of the work I had done. I truly enjoy doing exercises like this.
After
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This last one… well, this is where the stream kind of went off the rails.
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Before
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I will say this up front, there are millions of people on Fiverr, including myself. *cough* shameless plug https://www.fiverr.com/stefanglazer *cough*.
However, I will also say this up front. Fiverr is HARD to get into, especially if you are doing something like Photo Editing and Retouching, Restoration, or Anything that is small, tedious and frustrating for the general population. It’s over-saturated, supremely over-saturated.
Take my basic “gig” I am offering is 3 Photos edited, corrected, and touched up for $5 dollars. Let me tell you this, that is a steal. That is giving away work, but I need to start to get a foothold in the service. The problem is, there are 30,000 other Photo Editors, 25,000 Photo Retouchers, 16,000 Photoshop Editors on this site. And a lot of them, who seem to have a lot of positive reviews and customers, have questionable skills at best.
I hate tooting my own horn and as a creative I’m not confident in a lot of things, but there is one thing I know I am exceptional at, and that is editing photos. I’m not a “Professional Amateur” like everything else I do, I am a top tier professional, but, that means nothing on this platform.
I did, have one client so far, it was a friend and I am thankful for the chance they gave me to work on their photos. I can only hope that more will follow suit and ask for my services.
In the mean time? Here is the work I did for Koibug, a cosplayer and great person overall.
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Hopefully more people will call on me for some side work during this quarantine. For now, I’ll just keep on pushing!
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I will start straight away, I have been rather productive since sheltering in place. Scheduling Social Media posts for my businesses, blogging more often, keeping skills sharp with self tests and fiverr, have all helped me push forward in productivity.
However, I do have some projects that I can’t seem to get past my mental blocks on.
Video Tutorials
Podcasts
I will take heed in the lyrics of a song that always pops in my head when I have issues getting started on a project. I don’t want to turn this into a live journal, but I will post lyrics and the video… but the important reminder to do what is important when starting a new project. Just Begin…
Take the step
Take the swing
Take the buy
Just go all in
Where to begin eludes me
Without you to remind me Just begin
Maynard James Keenan
Looming, omnipresent
This task ahead, this task at hand
Ominous and daunting
Crippling undertaking, I’m frozen
Where to begin eludes me
Without you to remind me
Just take the step
Just take the swing
Just take the buy
Just go all in
Where to begin eludes me
Ruling ever deeper
This mass of endeavour
Ominous and daunting
Crippling undertaking
Just take the step
Just take the swing
Just take the buy
Just go all in
Take the step
Take the swing
Take the buy
Just take the buy
Take the step
Take the swing
Take the buy
Just go all in
Where to begin eludes me
Without you to remind me
Just begin
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This is the design company that my wife and I started and continue to grow. We do a lot of Enamel Pin and Greeting Cards but are starting to branch out further into other markets
This is my Pug, there are many pugs on the internet, but mine is semi-famous. She has been on the news, been in magazines, and has an almost cult following on Instagram.
Once thriving but now dormant, this is the Video Game aspect of me and my friend Bradley. Brad and I are in talks to start up some new ideas with all the extra time we both have. So, be on the watch for this stuff.
We all are in this together, it’s true, this Covid-19 Pandemic is taking a toll on every single person in this country and on this planet in some way. A lot of people lost their jobs, and a lot of people who work as independent contractors or are self employed and rely on being out in the public are at a huge loss right now.
So, what does life look like as a Content Creator during a time like this?
It’s busy, and a little unnerving.
I supplement a salary by doing things like Walking Dogs, Doing Photo shoots, and Selling things online.
Well, the first two things are shelved for the foreseeable future since we must maintain proper social distancing guidelines. Which is frustrating, because that is a bulk of my income.
Selling things online is tough, because everyone is watching their money right now, and that is understandable as well.
I’m grateful that my wife still has her job in Corporate America and can work from home. What that means is that I can work on doing a large number of different creative and essential work to make sure I come out of this on top.
I have a list of things I do every day.
I will repeat that, I do these every day, to make sure we are staying relevant and up to speed with the internet and life.
Daily
Write out my to-do list for the day
Go over analytics from the previous day to see what is getting traction and performed well on all social platforms and websites. This includes
This Blog your are reading and it’s Facebook Page,
Philomena’s Website, Youtube, IG, Twitter and Facebook,
SNG Design Co’s Etsy, Shopify, FB and IG.
Creating a posting game plan for Live Posts (it’s an algorithm game) and Schedule a few posts for the next few days at a time for each channel. My wife handles Philomena’s instagram, but I make sure to share those posts across other platforms that aren’t auto handled
Create a list of 3 creative things I want to accomplish for my To-Do list. ie; create youtube thumbnails, edit photos of the dogs, write a blog, live stream a photo shoot.
Watch and work SEO for Shop and Blogs
Find one thing to clean every day in the house.
Yoga and Strength Training
Figure out what we are eating for dinner.
Weekly
Record, Edit, Post 1 Philomena Youtube Video
Stream 1 Photo shoot
Schedule Blog Posts for the Week
Do Creative Writing Exercises Once A Week
Draw or Paint something
Do a creative photo shoot and editing session by myself to not disturb the process with outside influences
It might not seem like much, but, when all you have is time in the house, you make due with what is going on. What I hope that all this prepping, upkeep and pushing does, is help me come out of the quarantine ready to network and get the ball rolling on other ventures.
Now, beyond those “set” pieces of work and creativity. I do have other avenues that I need to explore now that I have the time. Reviving old podcasts and creative outlets with friends, starting new ventures through the very blog you are reading, and most importantly, getting in contact with as many people as possible to make sure that I am in demand when a demand can be achieved again.
This is a lot of words for me blog, I know. You all come here for photos of pugs and other fun stuff.
I won’t let you down, here is your reward for sitting and reading through my ramblings. Enjoy some macro photography of heatsinks and a CPU.
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I will start here: If you don’t have this lens and you do portraits of any type, what is wrong with you. If you have the F1.4 then, well, look at you fancy pants with that extra half stop and 4 times the price lens. Ok ok, I get it, no angry emails about how much creamier (ughhh) your Bokeh is, or how silent the motor is, this isn’t for everyone, this is something a lot of people will say, this is for people who are on a budget and want to get the best professional results.
So let’s begin:
I had talked about the 50mm F1.8 in the past as a must have prime lens, and I stand behind it, you can get one for 100 bucks.
But we want to really take everything up a notch, we want to get ahead and get into a prime range that a lot of photographers, professional or otherwise, is what some call “home”. That is 85mm.
This is a happy place
If you haven’t shot with a prime lens before, it makes you approach shots a little differently. You can’t “cheat” your way to properly setting up and getting your shot in frame by zooming or any other tricks. You’re working with 85mm and light. Now, how much light is up to you, but that is what is great about the F1.8, you’re going to be able to let a whole lot of light in, and that is great, until there is too much light, and that is where you will run into problems. We’ll talk about that later, up first, what to expect when you shoot with this lens.
Not as much glass as the F1.4, but still substantial
When you do something as simple as a headshot with a lens like this, fully open at F1.8, you will notice something magical happen. First of all, you’re going to get a sharp image, with the smoothest and most beautiful Bokeh ever. What is Bokeh? It’s the aesthetic of the blur that the lens gives, basically how the lens renders out of focus light. Giving you these wonderful orbs of happiness. Here is an example of Bokeh that was shot with the 85mm lens in question.
People Love Bokeh
It’s very aesthetically pleasing to the eye to have this kind of beauty in the background of your photos, and this lens always delivers on a promise to do so.
I know, I don’t have many photos that I have done without my pugs in them, but I can show you the range of what you can do with this lens.
This is also done with the 85mm
However, there are some issues when you are wide open with a lens like this, you tend to get some heavy chromatic aberration in bright light.
PURPLE EVERYWHERE!
This review is just my personal opinion, and I really enjoy using this lens for a range of work because of how crisp the image is and how great it works in low light situations.
You can get it for relatively cheap too, for something so versatile. You can actually pick up the same lens I use for $350. Which is 1/3 of the price of the F1.4 and about 6 times cheaper than the 85mm F1.2.
Don’t want to buy brand name and want a third party option? I haven’t tested any but this from Sigma the 85mm 1.4 ART which is probably the most amazing lens for the money https://amzn.to/3eeZvh3
In the future, if I have some spare money and get to it, I want to give a good review between the other third party lens makers out there, that have questionable prices for a lot of glass.
For now, enjoy a few photos and if you have any comments or questions, feel free to let me know!
MATILDAMore MATILDA
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I had been going through some of the fun shoots I’ve done on the fine art side. And this set was a collection of shots from an AirBnB in Asheville, NC.
This place was an amazing set piece and great background for photos, as shown here in some of the pug shots I had done there.
But what most don’t know, is I love deep diving on the lines, movement and texture of a place.
So, beyond these amazing sets, there are amazing little trinkets and antiques around the house that I fell in love with and captured them all.
So, let’s take a look at it all.
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