#27 Lockdown Day 17

Thu 9th April 

Happy non wedding day. Kirsty and I were supposed to be tying the knot today.
Thought I’d start the day with a Posh full breakfast. Basically a stack of poached egg, on black pudding, on potato scone with a dollop of beans. Goooood times.

Following this we did our 6k walk all the way round the lady Mary’s loop with ruby, really starting to enjoy the walk and ruby especially loves it.

Whisky whisky whisky. Decided a wee while ago that on my wedding day, I would gather my best mates together and tan a bottle of posh whisky - I had been saving a bottle of the glenturret 30 year old for exactly this reason. that as this was the day I was supposed to become a husband, I decided to finish the bottle off and share the experience with some of my mates. By sending them a photo of it. Tough chuff guys, it was gorgeous (at £450 a bottle I should hope so!). Spoke with gran, mum and grace who were also celebrating our non wedding - using FaceTime they took me round the table that they had decorated in wedding style which centred a fabulous cake.

then onto dinner -

starter: Scallops n poached eggs

Main: Steak and dauphinois - I’ve never made dauphinois before and these were awesome! Ask me in five days time how to make em and I’ll probably have forgotten.

finished the evening with a tasting of glenturret 30, Arran Sherry cask and finally the amazing glenturret grace gow single cask.

#26 Lockdown Day 16

Wed 8th April

Lazy morning - 

Walk down lady Mary’s, whilst on the walk I realised that I had forgotten a scheduled forgot conference call, fortunately we agreed to reschedule, as on the way back from the walk where I was starting to run late for the reschedule, we bumped into a walker by the name of Christine, who was so polite she just wanted to talk. Unfortunately, I had my 70-200 lens (which, in addition to being expensive, it looks expensive - so she proceeded t ask a thousand questions about it - which, being a nice guy, I chatted about. Kirsty, became more impatient than me at this stage.

on the call we just discussed some upcoming Social media posts and also that these fancy Email sigs still need to get finished. I took on the design of these, but the coding and testing is just too much for a noob like me - so I had to reinforce that I can try, but I’m really just the “graphics” guy - as I don’t want to set any expectations and then fall short.

Whilst working on this I heard some slapshong in the bathroom and went to investigate - only to find Ruby’s bed slotted right next to the bath and Kirsty shaving her legs…

So I went downstairs and made a Dark and stormy. Happy days.

#25 Lockdown Day 15

We have started scheduling posts on social media and I think this will work well, means I can plan a week out and then it’s done, minus the ad-hoc posts and things that will need published on an as-and-when basis. Built doors for the woodshed over the last few days and today did an over the phone order with the local hardware store for some hinges, screws etc - got home and put the doors up - which are quite weighty. All it took was one gust of wind to blow one straight off. Bollocks. So, not only did I build, I fixed.

we then did a shop at the supermarket. Two hundred bloody quid. Gaaaawd.

Got home and on the way back I was asked by the client to publish a post saying Cheers to an investor - set up the 70-200 at 200mm in the garden so as to compress and blow out the background. I decided to keep the image simple; just my arm, hand and a glass in focus with only greenery in the background.

after a great dinner - oven roasted chicken with a home made chipotle and honey mayo dip, we sat down with a glass of wine and a brilliant film - “the professor and the madman”

scorcher.

#24 Lockdown Day 14

So today started with an absolute revelation.

Double cream into the milk frother, a little bit of vanilla paste and half a teaspoonful of sugar - added to a double espresso and you got yourself a homemade coratdo meets flat white belter. Had about 4 of these before 10am.

new dining chairs arrived in the post - 4 legs, 3 6mm Allen key bolts per leg. Dead easy. Couple of calls today on the Luss project - took a bit longer than expected and not too many answers so still have some things to figure out.

after this the housework duty was of cleaning the windows. Boy did they need it.

our next step was to take the dog out - decided to go for tennis ball chucking as a method of “tiring the untirable”.

hint* chuck the ball downhill as you walk uphill - more distance between you and the ball, and she has to run uphill to get it back to you…blinder.

after this, dinner comprised of meatballs and tomato and mascarpone sauce which was actually spot on. also had a bottle of wine - whooooops.

#23 Lockdown Day 13

Sunday 5th April

started today off with a road bike ride - out to Kirsty’s school (Hit 36 mph on the way down the wee hill - beast), via the backroad then returning via the main road. Felt really good getting out on the toad bike, but I like my road cycling to be a bit of a social outing too, unless commuting. So it was strange - also, with no Bluetooth earphones, and no headphone jack, it was just me and the wind. And the gorgeous birds of prey which are ALWAYS out when I don’t have my camera on me. Buzzards I think.

Once back and showered, with a quick snack it was back into the garden - this time weeding. I have managed to convince Kirsty that it only needs 30/45 mins a day to batter through it. I also had more work to complete as the cut video from yesterday now needs to be resized for Instagram stories - pain in the aaaarse.

after this, Kirsty and I sat down and bossed our way through about 6 episodes of Friends - that show is simply timeless…

#22 Lockdown Day 12

A few things to note from today - I took a step back and realised that I haven’t touched my PS4 from a gaming point of view for a while. So, sat down and completed shadow of the tomb raider - effort. But great game and what a long way that franchise has come.

also spent some time in the garden, Kirsty put a big push on that las night so decision was made that I would cut the bloody hedge.

that god damn hedge.

however, looks pretty good and even had a compliment from a passer by - albeit from more than 2m away.

spoke with Sean and Hannah briefly following the final upload of their high res wedding images - I have gained permission to start uploading images to my own Instagram / Facebook / website for promotional purposes.

also had a mishap with the neighbours pressure washer - will need to try and fashion a small o-ring rubber seal from something…job for tomorrow.

#21 Lockdown Day 11

Friday 3rd April

spwnt a fair bit of today planning out some more home improvements, including a very ethnically method of measuring the available floor space in the loft. It’s about time. The plan is simply to put a decent floor in place so adequate storage solutions can then be thought of. The flooring was then ordered from wickes who are operating a strict click-and-collect policy. What I missed however, was that they are to text you when your order is ready…well, that was a wasted trip.

Got home and had to take a conference call with work - basically a covid-19 update, the company are being brilliant - super supportive and not just in the financial sense. After this I then set about cutting down the interview video that I produced to segments that would suit an Instagram story set up - we are starting to move forward with the promo side of things now - not ideal as I can’t really get out with the camera…

went for an evening walk with the dug and Kirsty and most notably, went for a quick one behind a tree and noticed a hollow in the tree in a shape that only be described as resembling an anus.

#20 Lockdown Day 10

2 April 2020

can you do is an email signature?

aye

here you go

Brilliant, but can you make these all hyperlinks though - one to Facebook, LinkedIn, the website, Instagram, one to open up and email and one to open a call?

right. No problem…

easy to make a pdf, not easy to make an email signature.

so this has basically been my day…

create the design first - normally I would use photoshop, but this isn’t shopping-photos, so my next go to is in design, but this isn’t for print, so off to illustrator we go.

learned that the basic running order is;

get the design sorted

”slice” that up into individual elements (each thing that someone may want to click on, and each other thing)

each of these elements then gets saved as it’s own image

you then need to put them all back together but with the code behind each click through image.

got about 80% of the way there I reckon, but all my elements have gaps between them which is a right pain, as it’s not a completely white background.

so, after beginning to learn how to HTML’s code, and also replying to a wedding customer from last month who has made their final cuts and also had a couple of photoshop editing requests AND taking delivery of two client prints for which Kirsty is NOT letting me use one of our frames, we decided to hotfoot it to the supermarket. A for more essentials and B to see it they had any picture frame to fit the peculiar size of print (chosen because it fits in one of our frames - raging at Kirsty’s unfounded unjustifiable emotional attachment to an ikea picture frame doesn’t cover it!)

so, two new frames ordered on express delivery, quick bite of lasagne and back to the computer.

also today I had to approach service provider to ask for a deposit back - didn’t feel good but I know I would be refunding deposits if anyone asked, if they were cancelling due to covid-19 government restrictions. Hats off to the supplier though, she is happy to work with us which has further instilled my faith in humanity that little bit more…

#19 Lockdown Day 9

1st April 2020

Could I sleep? Nope.

Woke around 4:30 / 5:00am and decided for finish writing the questions for the quiz I was going to hold tonight over a zoom conference call, in a bid to get the family together in some way, particularly for my gran.

come 7am and the alarms sounding, I’d managed to doze off again, so basically woke up grumpy af.

Got a request from a project client to resize a portrait image to more of a landscape resolution - serious use of the content aware full tool and the clone stamp - even working quickly this still can take a couple of hours to get a usable product…finished with a product I think looked good - so happy with that. After this, Kirsty and I hit the garden again, this time with a bit more anger - I was tackling the log store (CHAINSAW and log splitting action!) and Kirsty was on lawnmower duties and also power washing the fencing etc.

a bit of a frustration as it seemed to be every two minutes I was being asked to plug this in, or help unravel that, or lift this out, or set that up…what’s the analogy; give the man a fish and he will feed for a day, teach him how to fish and he will feed for life? Same with getting the lawnmower going - learn how to do it so you don’t need me to help you…grrrrr.

that being said, noticeable improvement and a good impetus to get back into it…

also a good days hard work - now a chance for a quick beer before setting up the conference call quiz.

It actually went well.

mum (the worlds biggest technophobe) managed to dial in first, and slowly everyone joined, including Kirsty from downstairs in the living room which was pretty cool for her to want to be involved…

great to see everyone, I do miss the family - however with Lesley being at work all day, she decided to give it a miss - quite right as it wasn’t not-stressful if that makes sense.

good laugh, the london lot took the win so I will be sending them their prize shortly…a potato.

honest.

#18 Lockdown Day 8

31 March 2020

What. A. Sleep. woke up super comfy in the smaller double bed in the spare room.
proceeded to argue with Kirsty about the fact she NEVER just gets up and makes the tea / coffee…

so, I ended up making my own coffee.
also made a blinding breakfast of some malted bloomer lightly toasted, topped with avacado, mackerel, black pepper and lemon infused balsamic vinegar.

Following this was a quick toot out to pick some essential supplies, more eggs and some vegetables from the farm shop two thirds of the way between the house and my old work.

yesterday on the bikes I saw about 6 or 8 birds of prey (one was definitely a kestrel, I think the others may have been kites), so this morning I have decided to bring the Canon 6d ii and my 70-200 f2.8 L - just in the hope that we see at least one. And as it happens, not a bloody bird in the sky.

on the way back Kirsty has yet again forgotten something from her work, and after a quick sanitising of the door handles both in and out, we were on our way home again.

once home, Kirsty jumped on a conference call with her colleagues so this gave me a great opportunity to do whatever I wanted. So, I started making bread. Whole meal with fresh chilli and some rosemary infused olive oil. whilst this was proving, tomb raider…spent ages trying to get through a cavern, and then, as I went for a glass of juice the last button I pressed must have moved Lara forward, into a bloody jaguar pit. Shat myself when I sat back down and very quickly had to restart that level. Next up was bread in the oven, which gave Kirsty and I a chance to act like kids and play badminton in the garden. One word which will explain why people don’t play badminton outside: breeze.

next up was to enjoy a slice of bread or two, some chicken pakora and chill out with a g and t until our leftover calzones had heated up in the oven as our dinner.

whilst having dinner, I introduced Kirsty to the classic guy ritchie film “snatch”…belter.

a quiet day, no invoicable work but a nice day, relaxed and chilled.

”pull yer socks up avi…”

#17 Lockdown Day 7

29 March 2020

following a wicked evening of board games an wine with the missus, we awoke feeling pretty fresh. Only a few things on the agenda today, Conf call with Roddy about a design project, daily exercise and capture some footage for the projects website.

But first breakfast. For some reason I woke up and all I could think about was eggs benedict. So, a quick google for a recipe and (YouTube actually) off we go. They turned out, well, perfect. I grilled some peppered mackerel for mine, and as Kirsty was unsure, she even got her hollandaise sauce in a shot glass. After this, a nespresso coffee and a cheeky chunk of chocolate, was time to get the tyres pumped up and head out for a ride. But I also had camera work to do.

im ashamed to say this meant leaving the house twice today as Kirsty wanted to (finally) go for road bike ride as part of our #oneaday exercise and I wasn’t going to let this slip. This was also handy as Kirsty needed to pick up a couple of things from the school she teaches in and also give the place a wee once over, just to make sure nothing sinister has gone down in the time it’s doors have been closed.

Lovely pedal - at a very relaxed pace, although Kirsty can run around a netball pitch like a boss, biking fitness is different…

once we get back, quick shower and then I take the opportunity to do the best thing in the world every - putting comfy trainers and fresh socks on, after wearing road cycling clip less shoes.

then, off to an undisclosed location, knowing it would be quiet, to get a few shots in. Decided on this occasion to take the gimbal, and I’m glad I did, it is a bit of faffing about, but it’s worth it for the steadier shots, leaving for less work in post processing.

grabbed the shots I wanted, and then headed back to the house, via the shop to pick up essentials. And by essentials, I mean it; eggs, flour and milk.

Once home, shots edited and video dropped into the shared drive, time for dinner; calzones - from scratch.

homemade pizza dough -turns out in retrospect, the yeast was out of date - another thing for the shopping list.

however, all in very happy and only managed half the pizza so: calzones for lunch tomorrow I guess.

after all this productivity, just before bed, we realise the bedsheets had just come out the laundry, so spare bed for us tonight…

#16 Lockdown Day 6

So, today started off with a bang. Oh, nope, sorry, it didn’t. Extremely lazy morning today…After losing the battle to have ruby sleep downstairs, she is now a permanent fixture at bedtime. Not the worst thing in the world however as she emits this incredibly soothing aroma when she sleeps (I know, sounds weird) - almost like horlicks / ovaltine…

so after a play around once we finally get up, it’s off for a video call with Roddy who is doing all the design work for a project I’m working on. Roddy and I go waaaay back and, through a long story, find himself in a position to be freelancing design work. So after sorting out the design brief and what we want to produce, and after an actual catch up, tome to tackle prays big task: operation shed tidy.

the shed has become a bit of a dumping ground of late, and, under lockdown conditions - now seems like a hoot time to get shit done.

and I’m not gonna lie, it feel like a new shed.

not only that, but I sorted the little shed out too, and fixed a strimmer. All whilst Kirsty floundered her way through erecting a badminton net. Time lapse of this to follow…#epicfail

in amongst all this was a handover - the in-laws (to be) popped up to collect the dog - whilst adhering to social distancing rules (which I myself enforced by building a barrier of bikes, right across the garden. Parents or not, 2m please!

following the conclusion of the tidy out, was a bath and a beer (ginger cider to be precise!) followed by board games with Kirsty, in a calm, peaceful environment - nice to finally get a chance to relax without having a very excitable dog all up in my face for play play play.

after a PERFECT GAME in snakes and ladders, no snakes at all and made it to exactly 100 first time, we moved on to ludo followed by Jenga. each time, loser had to take a shot, if you captured the other player they had to take a shot and so on and so on.

southern comfort is particularly sweet. The shots didn’t last long until replaced with gin and tonic and just drinking it at your own leisure.

all in, a pretty productive day, and just really nice to spend time with Kirsty on our own. Also nice to have my dinner prepped for me, albeit turkey dinosaurs, pakora and pizza - but to be honest, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

#15 Lockdown Day 5

Saturday 28th March.

first thing I notice today is that, although I’ve never washed my hands this frequently, the high gloss black paint that leaked through my gloves (from when I was last at work) is still on my knuckles.
next up as moooore housework, which is constantly being interrupted with Kirsty’s ranting at the Hoover not working - carried out in very much a “I can’t do this, you need to fix it” way.

after some trouble shooting - start with the easiest problem first - decided that the filter needs a clean. This is also backed up by the fact I don’t know how to do it, so I can safely deduct that it’s never been cleaned before.

then, ooot with the dog for a walk, but also have to brave the shops for the essentials. Milk, beer and chocolate. Got absolutely flanked by a bloke - the till attendant opened the till behind her for me and this guy came out of no where…absolute military precision.

today we head to the knock again for a walk with ruby, but today it’s particularly busy - surely it can’t be because of it being a Saturday, everyone is on lockdown so I would have assumed that each day is the same as each other.

biggest takeaway from today however, WE HAVE FOUND MY MILK FROTHER.

#14 Lockdown Day 4

more work for the new project put in Luss, but fortunately I can do it all from home as I collected extra footage when I was out there last time, good start to the morning following a pretty smashing cup of coffee, if I may say so myself.

following this was the slow cooker effort of a chicken curry, THEN a quick video to send off to the distillery team as we are all posting a “happy international whisky day” message to everyone.

also been asked to try get a specific photo for someone and have been eyeing up my bike for a while as it has been pretty neglected of late.

one mended chain later, my camera bag and I were ready to go for my one period of exercise today, conveniently tying it in with a brief also.

photo in the bag courtesy of the drone, headed back to realise the dog hadn’t been out. So, Kirsty and I took a trip to the distillery car park and set off for a walk up the hill from here.

once home, it was time to enjoy a few drams, hibiki masters select, Arran 10, Tobermory 12 and a springbank 10 - sweet to peat.

#13 Lockdown Day 3

Thursday 26th March

few things to note today, first off, hilarious chat with an old colleague about selling their kids online - is lockdown is making some folk go bat sh1t crazy I tell ya.

next thing was a culinary adventure, with last nights bolognese being upgraded to a chilli / chicken / beef effort, which went very well on a baked potato.

kirstys “care package” arrived from jade, her friend who work is in the brewing industry…to say i wasn’t jealous is a lie.

after another lovely walk with the dog on a slightly more “moody” weather day, it was time for a corona and a FaceTime call with Martin to check in and see how the most active lad in the world is doing being kept indoors -turns out not too bad and there are big plans for the garden apparently. Next up was a FaceTime Jade and her significant other as we were all taking part in the worlds most widely joined pub quiz, being done virtually on YouTube live.

we sucked.

but it’s the taking part that counts right?

#12 Lockdown Day 2

Wednesday 25th March

finally getting round to editing the wedding photos from a week and a bit ago - an expectation that I had already set with them. The guys were great, very relaxed, their kids were excellent and the weather was the only dry day in Crieff for about 6 weeks: nailed it.

although it was cold, so unfortunately, we missed the shots with the bride and groom with the grandparents, as they had to retire from the cold outside - learning point there.

After a few hours editing the whole lot, I have managed to produce 317 keepers and with a couple of secondary style edits (I like duplicating photos and editing slightly differently) the couple have about 340 images from the day. Looking good to me, just waiting to hear back if they want any further changes before sending full res catalogue for them.

Not a badday spent and also, through tutorials, learned a few things along the way.

not helping, is the missus, who doesn’t want to let me work, so there are included in the couple of hours editing time a few ten minute long distractions. Utterly pointless.

Following this was the mandatory dog walk where we discovered a new path that we discussed with another dog walker a couple of days prior (from across the path).

today will also set a couple of trends for the foreseeable:

• if Kirsty says she will make a brew (or do anything in fact) don’t expect it within the hour but do expect 13 other meaningless things to get done in the meantime

• Don’t walk the dog on the same route you did the day before

#11 Lockdown Day 1

Deep clean begins.

but first, coffee. As much as I love my nespresso machine, we now have a slight time luxury, so I’m gonna use it. Pour over coffee promotes a certain peace and calm. It’s more about the process than the product for me. So this, this is 5 minutes of JJ time.

Now onto business: Clean every surface. Our journey here will begin in the kitchen, where we will then meander our way through the living room initially to cover the dining room and once done in here we can give the living room some proper attention. Up the stairs from here to the bathroom, then the main bedroom before finally arriving at our final cleansing destination, the spare room. And why do we finish here, you’ll find out shortly.

Next up;

Sweep every floor that’s not a carpet (when you have laminate and a dog, this is a daily recurrence anyway).

Mop every floor. New mop head, not gonna lie, she’s a thing of beauty.

Hoover, Or should I say dyson, every carpet again, finishing in the spare room, why finish here again I hear you ask?

this is it, the spare room is going to become my new workspace for photography and videography.

which takes us onto the next task, sort out the space so it’s a relative working environment before making a final trip to the office to grab all the kit and set up shop.

done.

time to relax, chill and spend time with Kirsty and the pup for the evening.

*edit I have since discovered I have lost the card reader that takes a micro SD card (drone) and the micro-normal SD card adaptor has also gone walkies. Hmmm, getting footage from the DJI is now going to be a challenge.

#10 the corona call 23-3-2020 2153

I receive a call from the distillery manager, whom I have been seconded under over the past week (for the amount of time i was in) advising that management have agreed to close the site for safety reasons.

this is a bit of bittersweet news - had I been 18 years old, this would have been great, “don’t come into work” who wouldn’t want to hear that when you have zero responsibilities. However, I do, and I also like working. I like having things to do. I also have an older sister who works for the National Health Service on the front line. This cannot be easy time’s and I keep thinking about this…

so, Kirsty, myself and ruby are now a team. As one. Taking on this pandemic from the solitude of our home, minus a planned escape once a day to let ruby burn off some steam.

#stayhome and #staysafe will probably be the most trending hashtags shortly, and “just one more episode” will probably be the most overused comment in thouse for a few evenings to come.

#9 PRE pandemic

After some jiggery pokery with the shifts at the day-job, I managed to get at paddy’s day off, shot a wedding (update on this coming) and then on the Saturday morning bolted to Dunblane to get the eeeearly morning train to connect to Manchester for a friends stag do. As I had missed the Friday night, a) I was on catch up duties and b) everyone was knackered so this wasn’t too difficult.

Returning on Sunday with the guys was a quiet journey but a great chat with some old friends (the ones who weren’t asleep anyway). Getting home, I received an email advising that I had been moved to the production side of the distillery, which was great - hard work, but a great environment to learn (mainly from some mistakes). However, I had managed to arrange a swap with a colleague, so wasn’t due back to work until the Thursday, allowing me to travel to another shoot for a new project - not to use the weather as an excuse, but it was a testing environment. Client seemed pretty happy with the results and, although there was a lot, and I mean ALOT of procrastinating (not on my behalf may I add) I managed to squeeze in some additional footage which would later prove useful for further edits.

coming back a few days later, I arrive at work and being told that I’ve got the upcoming weekend off - two day week; unintentional belter.

extra lucky as this was the significant other’s birthday weekend.

so Kirsty myself and ruby bolted to St. Andrews for a drive with the intentions of staying in the car and, although being one of Scotland’s most popular beaches, it was dead. Good excuse to get the dog out for a run around, keeping to a safe distance from everyone of course.

what a great day - good chat, fun times with the dog and a chippy to finish things off - again keeping a safe distance from everyone (mandatory as they had allocated standing spaces for everyone to stay within) - simple but effective.

Then, off to work on Monday for another week ahead in with the production boys, moving casks, sampling whisky, stacking and stowing - heavy stuff, but you go home with a tired energy if that makes sense. picked up some flowers and card for Kirsty, after helping her pick out her new trainers and that was a different, but happy birthday, popping my clothes in for a quick wash, in prep for the rest of the week ahead at work, or so I thought…

#8 Construction

So “we” are 1 year in to the solo project of JJ Greig Photography. I’ve made lots of new connections, reconnected with older friends and ex colleagues and taken on projects and briefs that I never thought I would be pointing a camera at.
 
Along the way I have learned a few things, some technical, some business and some, well, “life” lessons which I think are pretty appropriate to most endeavours in the day to day running of things.
 
First off – Planning:
 
Video:  I was  asked to do a video project for a band, which was great fun. They had the end goal in mind and that’s ideal. I had listened to the song in which the visuals would be accompanying, breaking it down to the second and having a nice timeline for everything in place. This means that we knew how much time we needed each shot to last, and having knowledge and experience of shooting allowed us to figure out take lengths etc.
 
Newborn: – as I’m pretty new to this style of photography,  I’m taking my time with it – and am taking my time on set in particular. These wee guys have only been with us for a short while, so when I’m booked for one I clear the whole morning/afternoon/evening. I’ve found that for a “1 hour” shoot is in reality about 2-2.5 hours – and you know what, I’m totally cool with that. Having the parents do some prior research and rehearsal of any poses they want the kids to be in has helped big time. I’m not particularly into the whole “prop” photography, so for my shoots there hasn’t been a need for lots of costume changes and prop changes. But having an idea of what type of shots they want helps the parents be involved in the process and keep interaction with the child. This also allows for me to stay with the camera and direct as opposed to physically moving the precious little thing, which in turn means I can capture the un-rehearsed moments too – seems sensible, right?
 
Diary: I’m now 33, and for the first time in my life, am religiously using a diary. I share my diary with other photographers and business owners so they know when I’m free and if I’m not free, where I am. It just feels good to know that you are on top of things and that you know what’s coming. Also having to pull shifts elsewhere to bankroll this project means my actual free time is pretty limited at best – so once the 9-5 is done for the day, every minute counts in some cases.
 
Have a plan. It helps big time.
 
Next up: Time:
 
So this is more of an ongoing problem. Let’s do the maths:
 
7 days in a week, 24 hours a day :
168 hours a week to get productive.
 
Subtract 42 hours a week for the day job (including to-ing and fro-ing):
126 hours a week left.
 
Subtract 42 hours a week for sleep (imma 6 hour guy):
84 hours a week left.
 
Subtract a couple of hours a day – let’s say 8 a week in total , nothing huge,  to spend on mundane things like housework, laundry and all the rest.
76 hours left to get things done.
 
Then you got dinner each night – that’s an hour or so:
69 Hours left.
 
Then you have to factor in the weekly shop, or the trip to the in-laws which will inevitably take a good few hours at least once a week:
65 hours left to change your life.
 
Gotta have a beer with your mates from time to time aswell -  few hours, one night a week:
62 Hours left
 
If you are lucky enough to work in tourism and get a weekend day off – that’s a write off with either family or Kirsty:
54 Hours left
 
We are extremely privileged to have a gorgeous dog, but man is she full of beans and in need of play, or exercise, or both – at least an hour in the morning and a couple at night. 3 hours a day, 21 hours a week.
33 Hours left a week to get cracking on creative thoughts and ideas.
 
Then there’s the one off thing that actually happens almost every week – say 2 hours to take your mate to the hospital, or help back up a hard drive or something
31 Hours a week left.
 
Then you get down to do some work. Travelling to Glasgow to meet a client: 2 hours travelling.
29 Hours left in this busy week.
 
You take your photos after setting the rig up, couple of hours shoot, then back in the van to head back and get editing.
27 hours left for the whole week after one shoot.
 
Editing – we will talk about gear later – so this can take 5 minutes, or 6 hours, depending on the shoot – lets meet in the middle and say 3 hours.
24 Hours in the week left, better get cracking.
 
You may have noticed I only mentioned 1 hour for dinner – although you can’t allocate time to spend with your better half, we probably should.
17 Hours a week left.

AS its getting close to the wedding, ill be at the gym a few time a week, 45 mins to an hour in the gym + a half hour sauna.

15.5 hours left.
 
15.5 HOURS A WEEK LEFT
 
15.5 Hours a week left and I’ve not been on my bike, I’ve not watched any movies, chilled out with a glass of wine in front of the fire, put the headphones on and just listened to music, gone on a YouTube journey into the unknown or travelled to  a hill I’ve wanted to climb for ages.
 
15.5 Hours a week free time, before we even think about any (extra-curricular activities) is what I have to plan/organise and run shoots, edit them, run meetings, maintain equipment, learn new skills and put them into practice. This means my working environment has to be nice and productive so every second becomes a productive one, which leads me onto my next point:
 
Next up: Working environment.
  Working at a tiny Ikea desk, holding a 13” MacBook and a 22” monitor, keyboard, mouse and chargers etc, real estate is an issue. Add to this it is placed in the far away corner of the spare bedroom, a room where the aforementioned Hungarian Vizsla and my partner just love to come and spend time in whilst I’m trying to get work done. They never go in there when I’m not working – funny that?!
 
Distractions are not good. A sever lack in Space is not good.
 
So, excitingly, we (I) now have a small office space to work in with a small portrait studio through the back. Free from distraction, good lighting, more space, sharing with others who are also there to do work and I’ll now have a bigger desk which I can walk all the way around – how cool is that. This also opens up the avenue for filming videos, vlogs, tutorials etc.
 
Next up – Advertising and promotion of services.
 
A good website, I believe, should be the second part of this process. This is where I refer people to once we have established a connection / rapport – which is way more important than anything in my opinion. I will of course be looking to generate more traffic this year – but my opinion of this will never change – you need to trust the person you bring in to complete your brief – and I want to be trusted and then hired.
 
Mind I mentioned a small bit about time earlier, let’s look how your equipment affects this.
 
So: Gear
 

Gear is important, Find me a photographer that doesn’t geek out at a new bit of kit?! But! I’m not going to discuss lens quality, which one is better, full frame vs crop sensor and all these other debates and opinions about kit and equipment – more about how it all works in synergy to create your “work flow”.
 
You take your head-shots with Mr Smith, who is in real estate. They need to be well lit and not too dramatic so you set up the studio. AS you are shooting, you lose a few minutes over the course of the shoot with flash guns taking longer to charge as the batteries start to run out, until they completely die and you need to change them. Awkward. Should have got mains operated ones too. Once you have finished the shoot, you upload all your photos to your workstation via Wi-Fi, or the memory card and the memory card reader – this can take a few minutes depending on which method and if with a memory card; how new and quick your memory card is. Once they are on your computer you then begin editing the images. You make lighting, colour and level adjustments to one photo, and then sync those changes to all photos – when working with several hundred images, this can take some time depending on your computers RAM and your processor speed, and even your graphics card.  Same goes for once you have done any Photoshop editing and you now need to save/export the images to a drive and then to the cloud.
 
You can easily lose up-to 30 mins on just applying edits (not the actual editing) to multiple photos and then saving them. So what am I getting at – Gear DOES make a difference. Fast memory cards + Fast transfer card readers + Fast computers =  More efficient operation and work flow = more time to spend camera-in-hand, quicker turn around for that precious wedding album and so on.

So what do I have to look forward this to this year?

At this moment I’m booked in for a good few weddings, (plus getting married myself), hopefully expanding my commercial photography for products and food for brands based locally and slightly further afield, I’ll be doing my first ever self-assessment, the upgrading of my editing equipment to speed things up a bit, working closely with additional service operators out-with a photographic context and hopefully striking up some new partnerships with new exciting clients. I’m considering 2019 as the foundation year, 2020 is to be the first of many construction years ahead.

Oh, if Kirsty lets me, I might even buy a new bike

Ciao till the next time.