Womens Day - just another public holiday!

Well it's actually a stunning day in Cape Town for a public holiday, one more of a seemingly endless supply of lazy days off work supplied by our esteemed government - leaders of the lazy and useless masses of this beautiful land! But hey, I'm not complaining! I don't enjoy my job anymore anyway, it's just a formality, so I'm quite happy to be where I am right now - in the comfort of my home on a Tuesday morning! Besides, there's light at the end of the tunnel, gradually getting closer as if the aperture is steadily opening one f-stop after another! Ha ha!

So it's a lovely day outside, crystal clear, the sun is shining, not a breath of wind, the air is crisp and fresh and it's clearly going to warm up later!

I was up early and on the squash court in the gym by 7.30 for one of those great solo games where I get into my game at a comfortably sweaty rhythm and get lost in my thoughts, plotting and planning and skeeming about the stuff I need to do in the near future! After a good workout upstairs in the circuit and a good old think with a few more great ideas in storage I headed home for breakfast.

Talking of food (as always) last nights dinner was some of my best ever toasted sandwiches, comprising of the steak left over from Sunday's braai, hammered flat and tender, stacked on a layer of gouda cheese, and topped with the last of the sweet potato and dad-style cabbage, with a dash of Bushman's Revenge chilli sauce on mine! Gross as it may sound it was frikking devine, and filling! I only had one sandwich, and just enjoyed the other one for breakfast, cruelly in front of Liezel and her mom as they didn't have their own leftovers!

Liezel's mom stayed here the last two nights, she was on Tammy duty yesterday because the schools were closed but us suckers had to work!

In case you're wondering what the hell I'm doing in the house behind my computer on such a lovely day, it's not going to be the whole day. Once Liezel and Tammy are clean and dressed (which could still take hours!) I'm going to pack them off to the Koeberg Nature Reserve for a picnic and a bit of sunshine. The snakes such as cobra's and boomslang apparently common in the reserve should still be hibernating so it should be safe for Tammy to jol around. Also a good chance to get some practice on the camera with the latest functions I've been studying.

I was up late again last night studying, I covered the rest of the manual ("professional") shooting modes (P, A, S & M) in detail, collaborating with functions such as ISO (light sensitivity), white balance, exposure compensation, etc. Now that I understand these functions in theory they make sense and I'm looking forward to experimenting, but I can see that getting the combinations correct to shoot the desired pictures in variable situations is going to take plenty of practice! What is for certain is that my days of pointing and shooting on automatic are for the most part gone. Sure auto has it's place, and I got thousands of good pictures with little effort in the past, but from now on every photo will involve some skill and the thought to plan and expose the image professionally for the best possible shot! I want every picture to contain it's own character and attraction, even a story!

I'm in love with photography and I am going to make this work for me! The prospect of someday quitting my boring menial job and the petty shit I have to deal with daily to work for myself as a succesful photographer is an exciting dream which I will work hard on until it becomes a reality!

Talking of my business, last night I was also researching specialised printing machinery to print on coffee mugs, clocks, mousepads, t-shirts, cushions, etc. I found a few potential sources to import equipment that does not cost the fortune I expected it would. Even just a coffee mug printer is a single value added attraction that could potentially be a decent earner! Eg, the mug printing machine costs around R7000. A single plain white mug is around R10, with printing inks, electricity, etc it should cost R20 at most to make a mug. 3 years ago we got coffee mugs from a school photographer as an added option at R60 per mug! We bought about 8. Do the math, at around R40 per mug profit (my estimate), do a couple of school shoots and the machine has paid for itself and then some! Add a few extra's like coasters, glass cutting boards, teddy bears with printed t-shirts, etc, just as the value added extras over and above the actual photo packages... I reckon I'm onto a good thing here! Providing of course I can put together a decent enough business plan to convince a bank to give me a loan big enough to get this all up and running with the necessary equipment! But that will come, I'm optimistic!

Anyway, in all my excitement I've given away enough of my trade secrets! There's not been much I have been good at in my adult life, but this is something I can be good at and will make a success of!

I've even got a couple of good ideas for a business name and branding style, but that will stay in my head. Sorry, I won't just give my business away before it starts!