Monday, April 26, 2010

Starting (Continuing?) a New Business

Yes, there is some confusion as to whether it's starting or continuing. Jason has a degree in photography that is just sitting there getting dusty. He has been showing me how to use the Adobe Photoshop program. He has also told me that I take really good photos of the kids.

Honestly, Jason isn't super social. He doesn't have a lot of free time to dedicate to photo shoots. A wedding is something that is scheduled months in advance so he can easily make sure he has the needed time for it off of work. However, things like family photo shoots are scheduled, often, a couple of weeks in advance, at most. They also take less time to do.

I really enjoy taking the photos. I love working with the kids and getting them to act naturally. I like working with the natural light, and as Jason has told me it allows for the best photos.

With all of that, we are officially going in to business. At the moment it's very small scale. This summer I will look in to getting a business license and tax ID number as well as registering our business name locally. I know this will mean extra work come tax time. I also know it has the potential for some extra income for us.

If you are my friend on facebook, I've sent you a like/fan request. I've also started a blog. At the moment, I'm uploading photos of different times Jason or I have taken photos of the kids. To act as a portfolio. I'll be ordering some business cards to hand out as well. I know that to begin with we'll be using a lot of family to build the portfolio and get the word out. That is fine. So if you are family (or not) and would like some nice photos done as a portfolio builder for me, give us a call. For the portfolio builder, we are doing no charge. We'll give you a CD/DVD of the pictures that are taken, sized to 8x10 so that they will be good quality printed up to that size and a stack of business cards. Just spread the word when you are asked who did your photos. If you want, we can get photos printed for you for the cost of the printing.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

An Editorial I Wrote.

Yes I know it's been over a month since I posted. I have pics to put up and things like that. However, here's a quick post with a link.

I wrote an editorial to our local paper. There was a case that had been moved to our county from where it had happened about an hour south of here because the judge felt that it wouldn't get a fair jury in it's home jurisdiction. It involved a very horrific death of a young woman, who was 16, and she was homeschooled. She had special needs, the same diagnosis as James in fact. Her parents were the cause of her death, though they didn't set out to kill her, that was a horrible accident. The parents were found guilty of 1st degree Child Neglect and Abuse as well as Torture. Yeah. The young woman's name is referenced in the editorial. If you search her name through Mlive you'll find the articles regarding the hearing if you want to know more.

Because the young woman was homeschooled many many many people came out and said that there need to be tougher homeschool laws because "look at her". In fact, she had been in Public School for many years and the abuse had been reported, however CPS had dropped the ball. I believe the girl's grandmother is now looking in to a civil suit against that agency, which I completely understand. If they had followed through, the young woman would still be alive. It was stated during the trial that the investigators for the state knew of the methods of restraint (torture) and condoned it.

Needless to say, I was angry. It made my blood boil to read about this trial, that this child should have been treated so cruely, that the state passed her over, that people would assume that because she was homeschooled that was the root of the problem.

I don't know if the editorial will be printed in the local paper, right now it's just online. Our local paper has shrunk considerably, as have many/most in the US, so space is limited and I was told there were many editorials ahead of mine waiting to be printed. Here is the link. Let me know what you think.