Work Portraits

Some work Portraits I shot of Dad today after we installed a parking break on the rabbit...

Turned out pretty good!

http://evenstarphotography.com/Other/Dad/11958445_cyd7G#847189688_Y6zuH

Walks in Gowland Tod

Hey hey

Check out my pictures from walking in Gowland Tod this week. Gorgeous.

I've been having a lot of fun showing Jenny photography and the beautiful nature around Victoria. The Easter Lilies were out and blooming.

The astute amongst will notice that one picture is not from Gowland Tod. Sorry. Thetis Lake.

Cheers,

Matt

http://evenstarphotography.com/Nature/Gowland-Tod/

Starting a business

Yup that's what I'm doing....and its going to be interesting.

The big news! My photography finally has a permanent home, and a name.

Evenstar.

Which took forever to decide on. More on that later.

But for now, check it out --> http://evenstarphotography.com/ or actually http://evenstarphotography.ca/ works too if you're still feeling patriotic after the olympics. Haha.

And you can email me at matt@evenstarphotography.com if you feel like it. Cause that would be fun.

Anyway, I'm just getting started, and its already overwhelming trying to sort stuff out. I'm not enthused about tax season next year.

I've been running ads on Craiglist and Used Victoria, learning how to advertise on Facebook and Google (just made my first ever Facebook ad...we'll see if it works at all) I have it targeted at engaged people who live within 50km of Victoria, which apparently is about 5,000. I pay depending on how many people click on the ad and go to my site. Like I said. We'll see. Kinda skeptical, not gonna lie.

What else...I did Jill and Nic's

engagement pictures

which turned out really well...I'm so happy with them...I was nervous...I mean I have tons of experience with taking pictures and I studied lots and everything, but only a few experiences with the "these pictures are super important so they better be good" type of situation. And yea, I love their pictures actually. They look so cute and happy and well, beautiful, so I am pleased.

Anyway, the good news is I have the intial business investment (basically) in all the equipment that I have collected. And now I have quite a collection of good portraits etc.

The bad news is I have to work on my self promotional skills. Apparently that's what its going to be all about. Which is lame. But hey, I guess people don't just randomly know you're a good photographer. Word of mouth+time is the formula it seems.

My website rules by the way, so you can buy matted and framed prints, lots of products and everything else your heart desires. Yup rock on. Order away. Haha. I might have to make an order just to test the system.

On and I'm also in the middle of moving and trying to find a day job too while I build up some clients and a reputation for myself here in Victoria. So I am officially going Bananas. More on all this later ~Matt

Oh Job Hunting how you suck

So, I successfully made Jenny a nice cover letter and resume and sent it out to a bunch of places. Got her signed up for foodsafe since all the restaurant jobs need it. Turns out the food services company at my Mom's work needed people so she gets to be a server at Shannon Oaks.

Its really perfect cause its what she wanted to do and it should be a nice place and it pays better than all the other jobs she was looking at. So that's awesome.

Me? As you may know, what I'd really like is to make a living doing photography. As with most entrepreneurial type things I guess that takes a while.

So I have a nice new website to showcase my stuff and I suppose I have already acquired the initial business investment (the lenses etc...in which I have um, lets say more $8000 invested) I got good with the camera, I'm almost finished the professional course from New York Institute of Photography and I have a nice craigslist ad. I have everything right?

So why is nobody calling me? Start calling me already people. Haha. If only.

In second spot would be photo related jobs working for somebody else. I have a couple gigs as a second photographer in the summer.

And there was a job at Kerrisdale cameras so I applied. We'll see.

Also Sears Portrait studio too, so I applied today. We'll see.

In third spot would be teaching English again. I liked doing that in Korea. But the schools here are notoriously hard to get a job at. But they did post an ad. So I applied. We'll see. Also a five or so tutoring companies. Applied. We'll see.

Maybe I'll shorten that to AWS.

Next up, a good paying job at one of the municipalities.

Saanich who I worked for last year posted a programming job that pays awesome and they will probably fill from within. Boo. AWS

OakBay has some well paying 5 month gardening jobs that they will probably fill with people from last year. AWS.

And since starting this blog post I have applied to two more ESL schools and sent a message to another photographer about working together. Go me. Whoot.

Wish me luck.

~Matt

Finally getting around to blogging...

Finally back on the blogging horse. Sorry for the delay, and wow so much has happened. Since then I have had tearful farewells with super cute students, moved half way across the world, taken an unplanned trip to Japan, gone on a road trip to Tofino, been helping Jenny try to find her feet in a new country, and taken multiple trips to Vancouver to experience the Olympic craziness.

Oh, and gone house hunting and found the best deal in Victoria and rented it out. I have been a little busy. Just a little.

I guess I have to change my title page don't I? Ok, I'll do that. Now actually. Actually...my picture change didn't work...so we'll have to sort that out. But anyway, I will be back to blog again shortly. I promise.

My new photowebsite is paid for and almost ready to go, so you please check it out if you have a minute...

http://mattsimus.smugmug.com

A weekend in PIctures

Some snippets of my life...a picture story courtesy of my new found habit of taking my camera everywhere.

I met Jenny's brother for the first time, with Seo-Yeong too, went to the playground together.

Went wandering at night in Gangnam taking Koreanish pictures that I won't be able to take in a week or so

Went to another hockey game
Enjoy.

PS stupid slideshow refuses to align left, so I have to keep it small. If you want bigger you can follow the "weekend" link. The little yellow man in the bottom left.

The wallet returns

Hey Hey, so for anyone who didn't get to hear on facebook, my wallet made its way back to me last week! I bit slow reporting perhaps, but I was a week behind reporting its loss too, so it balances out haha. I would be remiss not mentioning a happy ending to the story I think.

Not a very exciting story to tell, but it was exciting for me! My phone rang when I was in class, and for some reason I had a feeling that it was about my wallet. So I gave the phone to my boss to answer and I was right! So I did a little dance. Several actually.

I got all my I.D. back and all my cards and everything....minus the $40 or so that was in it. Which was to be expected I suppose. I had already replaced my Korean bank cards and stuff, but I only had a hold on my Canadian ones, so I don't need to remake those after all. Yea!

Now I have 8 work days left. Crazy.