Call To Action: Share It Forward
So, since the launch of my website on January 13th of this year, and the final decision to just commit to that dream of becoming a "professional" (whatever that means) freelance photographer, I have had the best time learning the ropes of creating an online presence and marketing one's brand. And, very exciting to me, I am nearing this month 300 views since the inception of this website! That is thanks to all of you who have shared through various social media, like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. A big, heartfelt thanks to all of you!! I'll admit, I still have a long way to go as far as networking and making a name for myself. The business end of being a freelance photographer is not nearly as much fun as just grabbing my camera and going out into nature wandering around looking for subjects. In fact, I would say it's right up there with the post-shoot work of reviewing, editing, and filing. It's a lot like work.
Yet, it certainly beats the work I do at my "day job" in Cube World, and I am convinced, somewhere down the road, it will all be worth it. One wonderful thing that occurred recently, was an unexpected upgrade of my "digital darkroom". I was gifted a new(er) desktop PC, and man, has that ever been a blessing! I knew the dinosaur Compaq Presario I was using was old, and slow, and in spite of my having upgraded various innards on the beast, it was on its way out. My kids had used it for their school projects, netsurfing, and a myriad of other junk. It was overloaded with unused programs and photos. (In fact, when I counted, I had 10,000 plus photos stored on it, even though I do own an external hard drive to store them on. Transferring from one to the other was just too time consuming.) You wanna talk about work-- it really pained me to have to do any editing or filing or ANYTHING on that old computer! I avoided it like the plague. Knowing how painfully slow and outdated the thing was only fed my natural procrastination tendencies. It was awful. I actually started this website and blog while using that old heap.
Came the day the new PC arrived and was set up, I was amazed at just how bad the old monster was! Having my PC at work to compare to, I knew the old Compaq wasn't much longer for this world, and had been scheming about what my next move was going to be. Can't run a website/blog/business on a ten year old PC that only has limited RAM and Windows Vista on it. (Yeah, Vista. That was half the problem right there.) This new machine has been awesome! It was a custom build my husband's cousin had concocted for my father-in-law. But Pop decided, after a week or so of use, it was more computer than he really needed, and had our cousin just revamp his older computer. Pop gave me the new computer tower right around my birthday last month.....what a fabulous birthday gift it was! Windows 10, a whole terabyte of memory, and the speed I really need for editing photos and working on my website.
Since then, I was able to download Gimp (going to give it a go, my photographer daughter seems to like it), and an updated version of an old editing program I like to use, but had lost usage of on the ol' Dinosaur machine-- PhotoFiltre. I like it. I had missed it. I'll continue to use it until I get the hang of Gimp, or can afford to go with Lightroom , or some such. I try to shoot in such a way to begin with that not a lot of post work is needed, so I really don't require a heavy-handed editor. And uploading photos to my website, or even typing out my blog entries-- WORLD of difference! This PC can actually keep up with the keyboarding, and the whole thing goes SO much more smoothly and quicker than before. It has added the joy back into the dream.
So, that is the latest. I know, not very exciting, but thought you might like a little insight on a tool other than my camera. I'll probably cover that one not too far on down the road. But my desktop is one of the most important tools I have next to the camera. It's my darkroom and my publishing center. Without it, I wouldn't even be able to do any editing or digital storage, or be creating my online galleries. And if I'm gonna make this freelance photography thing go forward, it will be a very important tool for me.
So, do me a little favor: if you see something you like on my blog, or in my photo galleries, won't you please share it with the world? Take advantage of the social media buttons peppered about the place, leave comments, and just generally spread the word about ImaginationRanch Photography. It won't be only my camera, my PC, and the time I put in working, but it will also be the support and generosity of my viewers and visitors that helps push that dream into reality. You, my friends, are my most valuable networking resource, and I would really appreciate you sharing it up and sharing it forward! Feel free to share on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, and anywhere else you tend to spend a lot of time and have built a network. I''d really be grateful for that!
And someday, you'll be able to say, "Yeah, I knew her way back when, and I helped her get noticed!"
Leave me a comment, questions, or even just say "Hi"! Tell me a bit about yourself, what you like or dislike about my work or my website, and where you've shared my work on the Interwebs, I'll be sure to jump into the conversation with you!