logo!

so i now officially have an official business name and a logo. what do you think? it technically still isn't done - i realize that by virtue of the name, people will think i'm a scenery/landscape photographer, so i'm in the process of deciding on/finding a little tagline thing that explains something about how my photography is to document and capture our time on 'earth.' we'll see what i come up with... i'm open to your suggestions!

so what do you think of the logo? yes, i created it myself - i LOVE Adobe Illustrator with a passion! :) really. :) i found a free tutorial online that showed how to make the lens, but i modified it for my own purposes. i have the above center-justified version which i'll use for my website and for copyright, and then i have the following left-justified version that i'll use on my business card, letterhead, etc.

i'd love your feedback!

photography business...thing?

so i think it's pretty fun that i'm sort of starting my own pseudo-business!! a friend of mine saw some of the pictures i took in alaska, and wanted me to do his engagement photos for his upcoming wedding. i told him that i had no experience, so i didn't want to be paid, but that i did want to be able to use the pictures in my small-but-growing photography portfolio. for the last few months i've been thinking about how fun it would be to start my own studio, but didn't really know how to go about it since i've had no formal training and have just enough talent that every once in awhile i get lucky and take a good picture.

well, the engagement shoot went surprisingly well (the pictures weren't absolutely phenomenal, but they were better than i expected - and i learned a LOT about working with people!), and it got me thinking.

i ended up posting an ad on our school's 'bulletin board,' where anyone can advertise whatever they want. i advertised free photography services for weddings, engagements, maternity shoots, etc., as long as i could use their photos for my portfolio. i posted a hastily created weebly site to show what portfolio i did have, so i didn't expect to get many hits... i assumed that i'd maybe get one or two people vaguely interested.

instead, the ad has been up for only a few days - and i've had about ten people email me who are really interested! i've got three people scheduled for next week, and twice as many who are just deciding what day to do it! sheesh - when it rains, it pours! i haven't gotten so many emails for a LONG time. :)

i'm SOOO excited, because this is my chance! if i can do enough free photo shoots to get the experience i need, i can actually build a decent portfolio! if i have a decent portfolio, i can start charging for shoots and actually get something out of the time besides experience! i'm really happy, and super excited. :)

so, chris, being the techno-geek/adorable husband that he is, built me a website that looks a heckuva lot better than my makeshift weebly thing. we're working on putting a calendar and survey in there, but i'm really happy with the result! if you want, take a look at it and let me know what you think - i'm always looking for honest criticism (seriously - be harsh. i don't care - i just want to learn) of my photography, and for ideas on how to improve the site! kmduncanphoto.com.

wish me luck in this little endeavor. :) even if it doesn't go anywhere, it's still really fun, and a good way to keep me busy while i'm looking for a real job!!

WHEW!

So I know it's been WAY too long since I updated the blog, but in my defense, we've been crazy-busy!! The last finals were on Thursday (April 9th), then we had to be packed for Alaska, moved out of the apartment and into the house, and have the apartment SPOTLESS by Monday morning at 7am. Needless to say, we slept very, very little that week. :)

Monday we left for Alaska, and it was pretty much one of the coolest experiences we've had together. I'll probably blog about it a LOT in later posts (yes, with lots of pictures), so I'll spare you now. :)

One unfortunate result of Alaska is that my sleep/awake clock is completely screwed up. In Fairbanks, the light made it look like it was 7pm when it was really 9pm, but with the time change it felt like 11pm (Idaho time). Because they gain 7 minutes of daylight every day during the spring, in the two weeks we were there, we gained almost a full hour and a half of daylight! It was crazy.

SO, annoyingly enough, my body hasn't figured things out yet. The light and time changes threw me off enough that for the last week I've been staying up until 3-4am and not waking up until 11 or noon. *sigh* very annoying. Pretty sure I'm turning nocturnal. Good thing I'm off school for the next few months, and still looking for a job!! (And yes, it's 5:46am right now, and no, I haven't gone to bed yet.)

Anyway, more later! I'll throw in a couple of Alaska pictures, just for Dad. :)



YES. i am wading in the (literally!) FREEZING Alaskan ocean waters.



This is of our friend Brandon... one of the cooler pictures I took. :) You can see the incredible mountains behind him... yeah. the scenery was breathtaking!!



This one's for dad. :)



Mt. Redoubt! We ended up being about 60 miles from it when we went to Homer - pretty cool. :) This is the view from our host family's deck in Soldotna.