26th August 2009
Issue Five
I told ‘you’ so...
The sun has come out in Wellington this week and it has ‘stopped raining’ long enough for me to be able to see some of the progress I am making towards the first of my goals, setting up my business, and because of the things that have happened I am more committed than ever to making this work.
The first good thing that happened was I got back the results of Assignment number Three, and being completely honest I was a little nervous when I first saw the email telling me it had been marked, because it was one of the most technically challenging things I have done in a very long time, and ultimately very important as far as being a gauge to how well I was doing in the course with all of my other commitments.
I think I might have mentioned that in doing the assignment I discovered how to actually use my camera, that all the pieces of the puzzle simply fell into place and I now have a much greater understanding of how it all works, because of the information I learnt in the assignment, but all this seemingly came at a cost.
I have discovered My tutor is not as committed to my assignments as I am, she is often distracted by her own world, and this has caused us to argue prior to my last assignment being handed in because I had asked her a lot of questions during the assignment (because I wanted to properly understand what I was doing) and she was taking longer and longer to reply.
She eventually told me that I had asked too many questions and should just submit my assignment, that if I got any of it wrong it would be explained in the summary of the answers, that she only worked part time as a tutor and was sometimes too busy to answer my questions, which I had asked a lot of.
I was far from happy as I didn’t completely understand the last part of the assignment, but I submitted the assignment anyway.
I was unsure how well I would do, I knew I had done a lot of work throughout the assignment, that I had tried to show how much I had learnt in the answers I provided, but I never expected to get a high mark when I received the results, I actually had to read it twice because I got 90% in assignment number three.
That made me very happy, all the hours I put in actually paid off and earned that 90% mark, but it also taught me a lot, it made me want to learn more, so the next step is Assignment Number Four.
One of the other big things that happened over the past week was I have actually figured out how I am going to start my business, what I am going to do to begin my plan of being able to travel around the world and take photos of the best race cars, street cars, and hot rods on the planet, and eventually sell limited edition art prints, raising money for various charities, and find somewhere I can build a home.
I have gone into this whole thing with a rough plan of what I want to achieve, but being completely honest I have never really known how to begin the process, how I would start to work towards what I want to do, I just had faith that at the right time I would figure it out, I knew I would have to work towards it, that it would not happen overnight, but I never knew how it would start, and now I do.
Last week I printed out a few of my older pictures on some canvas paper I had just brought, took them to work with me, and a young lady I like heaps asked how my course was doing, so I showed her some of my photos that I had printed out, to which she simply said that she thought they would look great as postcards, and I knew at that moment that would be the perfect way to combine everything I have done previously, with what I want to achieve, and be the perfect place to start from.
Since then I have done a little more work on the idea, a few concept drawings and started to investigate how I could sell limited edition postcards, postcards that include using my photography on the front, and knowledge of New Zealand on the back, combining to create something that is simple, yet can be produced to a high quality and large volume to accommodate the always booming tourism market here in New Zealand, and then maybe other countries as well.
It is funny how life dictates what we do, who we meet and what happens to us along the way, regardless of how we feel about it, and it is funny how if we listen to ourselves we can end up doing things that alter everything around us and put us in situations that cause us to wonder if what we are doing is in our own best interest, regardless of who we are or what we have, and so we then go against what we want for ourselves, who we really are, only to eventually discover we have remained no different than the person we wanted to change, often settling for what we have, instead of all that we could have if we lived our life to the fullest and listened to ourselves.
I have found that being me is easier than if I try to be someone that other people want me to be, but I have also learnt that I can be who ever I want to be, that my only limits are the limits that I place upon myself, and because of that I have done some incredible things in my life, met some amazing people, people who have shown me that no one is more important than anyone else, that life throws some really crazy stuff at us and we will all deal with it in our own way, that those ways are neither right or wrong, just different, and that is what makes us human, whether we like it or not.
I have decided myself that I want to make a difference in other people’s lives, that this is something that has been a part of who I am since I can remember, but I now have the method of doing something about it, and that is what I am going to work towards, because that is what I want to do, and knowing that I am at the very least going to try is a damn sight better than knowing I didn’t, no matter what happens from now on.
I hope you all had a great week, in this issue of the weekly(ish) update I have included a mock up of a postcard I was playing around with using a water color function that I have in one of the programs I use that I like and may hold a few options down the track, but for now it is something that I can give to you.. it is called ‘Makarora Morning’.. I hope you like it.
Till soon.. Stay safe.. Be You!!!
.K
Ps. I have just received a reply from one of the letters I wrote to the various car magazines asking for advice on becoming a car photographer, it is from New Zealand hot rod magazine who so far are the only one kind enough to have replied, they say they wish me luck with my endeavors, they do not really offer any advice, except to say they think I have a great chance to get a good grounding here in New Zealand, but to firmly establish myself I will need experience on the world stage, which I still think is nice of them.
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