New Year, lots of new ideas and plans - Time will tell if they pan out

This year is the one I plan to make work out the best of all the years thus far. HTFotography is going to grow into something amazing with the help of some of the plans Henrik and and I have been putting together over the last month or so.
The first aim is twofold, approach big industry, and micro daycare businesses. Both will be given options that will make working with me worthwhile for them in the long run.
We have also added more equipment to our collection to enable us to do the best work possible and provide the most fantastic images to our clients straight out of camera with as little post pocessing needed as possible which in turn will make my workfolow more streamlined and efficient.
We recently made a move away from storing out images on disks and began investing in extra external and internal hard drives. Working out the cost of DVDs for back-ups, it became apparent that it worked out way more expensive and was much more prone to fail than if we kept buying extra hard drives.
I also stopped providing people with disks of images from their shoots, and instead providing password protected online galleries which they can share with others via a link in an email. I find this helps keep control over print quality. Often people used to take their disks to photo print kiosks which didn't read different folders and simply loaded up the lower res images more quickly than the high res versions which meant they often ended up making their enlargements from the wrong images with horrifying results which they would then blame me for.
No I work in partnership with two professinal labs in Durban, and also do prints up to A3 size at home with my own professional photo printer. The result, much better looking prints and much happier clients.

I might look into taking a part time job sometime this year with a photographer where I can learn more and earn a regular salary enabling me to build up some savings to help me realise the dream to build our own warehouse studio/home. That might take some time, but with a bit of hard work and luck, we will get there eventually.

HTFotography has also recieved a new look with a brand new logo designed for us by the fantastically talented Jürgen Henke of Creative Studios(info@creativestudios.co.za).

How they slip away, no chance for last goodbyes

Today I lost an old and dear friend. He slipped away in the early hours of this morning and I only heard about it a few minutes ago.
Michael had had pancreatic cancer for some time. He has struggled with pain for much of his life having hurt himself early in his career as a ballet dancer which put paid to his dancing dreams.
This is a man who once danced with Nureyev and spent time with Andy Warhol, yet today one cannot find a picture of him on google so far had he faded from fame and fortune. Michael had faded from my life too, I hadn't seen him in almost 18 months. I thought of him just last week and wondered how he was. Somehow in the rush and madness of running around getting busy with life and everything that goes with it, I had lost my old friend.
Now it is far to late for goodbyes.
RIP Michael Richter

Sticks and stones might break my bones... but keystrokes can sometimes kill you.

This story really freaked me out today.
I am pretty tech savy but it made me think about how my daughter, aged 2, might concievably have to deal with some things which go far further than sticks and stones in her day to day interactions with her peers and collegues in the future, and I might not have the skillset to help her cope with it.
It made me think about how much I as a parent need to keep up with what is going on in my child's life right from now, and how it is my responsibility, nay, my duty, to make sure that I not give in to technology and shrug my shoulders saying, "this is too higher-grade," the way many parents are doing today.
We are thinking seriously already about when Evangeline is going to get her first computer. At the moment it will probably just be a simple machine without any real network access, more a workstation for herself to keep her away from ours where she can do real damage by accidentally downloading HUGE files or undoing steps I spent hours on in editing photographs (both of which she has done already, did I mention she is only 2?).
Parents of teenagers who are not up to date with the technology being used everyday by their sons and daughters have a daunting task ahead of them.
An I being naieve in thinking that if I keep upo to date from now I even stand a chance of being alright by the time my child is a teenager?
An adult friend was attacked in a similar fashion to that described in the article on cyberbullying about a year ago.... He, at 38, struggled with the same issues and ended up wasting a lot of time and energy fighting an enemy he couldn't see who didn't follow the rules.
This sort of thing is going to get worse before it get's better.
There are all sorts of statistics of suicides which are related to stuff that happens online.
It really makes a mockery of the old song my Mum used to teach me to help me deal with taunts and teasing, "Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never harm me."

http://www.calora.co.za/competition/evangelineliliththomassen

http://www.calora.co.za/competition/evangelineliliththomassen

SurveyBasket.co.za a great way to earn extra income online

I joined this market research panel a few months ago and filled in a few surveys but then forgot all about it until a little while ago when I realised I had accumulated enough "baskets" to more than cover my activation fee.
So I activated my account and lo and behold I have already recieved a payout of R120 from them with more due to me at the end of the month.
I recommend this to anyone who is remotely interested in either making money online or just to have people ask you for your opinion.
It can only get better as more people join up therefore making it's panel more attractive to companies wanting research done.
Click: SurveyBasket.co.za to join yourself. Even if you just operate as a free panelist until you have earned enough baskets to make your activation worthwhile. I'm sure you will find it beneficial.

Your service is only as good as your weakest link

"You are the weakest link, goodbye!" might well have been the comment I made after three staff at an Internet Service Provider served up the most awful service I have recieved to date from any company.
However I am of the opinion that the only way to make things better is to take on issues head on and make sure that those who need to know about problems hear about them.

It is exactly this type of thinking that is behind HelloPeter a local South African site that gives customers a chance to report bad service and compliment companies that are doing a good job.

They grow up too fast

This past weekend I had occasion to do a photo shoot with a difference. It was done as part of a young lady's 12th birthday party.
While studio parties have in the past been quite with older girls this was the youngest group I had done one for. They were wonderful. All between the age of 12 and 13, all girls, and full of fun.  One or two of them took me aside at various times during the afternoon to quiz me on ways to break into the modeling industry, each quite concerned that the others might find out so I was sworn to silence about their inquiries.
The girls dressed up in three outfits, a black outfit, a white outfit and something with lots of "crazy colours" as the invite described it.
They went without make-up (they are only 12 and 13 year olds after all) and they had a blast.

Made me think of what is to come with my own daughter. She is only 2 at the moment, but already a star of the studio strutting and posing like a real little lady when we have here there while we do shoots. But when we actually want her to pose, for a picture with her grandparents, or because we want a new picture of her for family, then she pulls her bottom lip out and sulks and says "No! Stop it!" and runs away.

I cherish this time while she is still little but everyday I see more and more signs of her growing up and I feel quite helpless because it feels like just the other day that she was born and was so little her dummy took up almost her whole face. She still likes the dummy and Henrik is quite worried about it but I assured him that she will most probably not want to take it to her Matric dance one day so we shouldn't waste time worrying about it.