ΑΝΕΞΑΡΤΗΤΟΙ ΠΑΝΑΘΗΝΑΙΚΟΙ
Το blog απευθύνεται αυστηρώςPublished on: 24.04.2012
Sail Away
21 May 2012 16:03:00
I attended my Uncle George's funeral on May 12, 2012 and that evening I dropped off his brother (my Uncle Bob) and his wife at the airport. The timing was impeccable as this is the scene that greeted me right after. Somehow it was just what I needed after a sad, emotional day -- I pulled my rental car over to this packed parking lot on the side of the docks. I couldn't find a parking spot, so I put on my hazard lights, got out and started snapping away.
I figured anyone who needed to get by could wait a moment for me. The sun setting is such a fleeting thing, even though it happens daily. I wanted to drink this one in as slowly as possibly.
This one's for you Uncle George.
The Next Chapter Begins
18 May 2012 13:30:00
an a-ha moment for Jess
I painted this little venn diagram for myself early in my Hello Soul, Hello Business coursework. We did a worksheet on dreaming big -- really, really big -- and I started out thinking about my business dreams. As I continued on the worksheet, I was asked to think about what I would do if I reached all of my biggest goals for my business? I had the answers ready to go and it turned out that they had nothing to do with photgraphy at all. Instead, they were my biggest dreams for me, Jess, my family and my life.
My husband took me out last night for a little bubbly to celebrate quitting my day job
That is when it hit me: my dreams for my life and my dreams for my business intersect within ME. I am my business and my business is me. It is a truly symbiotic relationship. It seems simple in hindsight but it was one of the biggest a-ha moments of my life (to date).
And so the next chapter begins!
Twelve Years
11 May 2012 15:36:00
Twelve years ago today, I got a phone call from my doctor. And I have been looking for magic ever since. Do you see
the light in this straight-out-of-the-camera photograph? Magical.
I believe in magic.
This post is dedicated to my Stop NHL family, cancer survivors everywhere and all those left behind.
Things I am Not Afraid to Tell You
09 May 2012 05:00:00
I hope what came through in my last post is the message that I crave a balance in blogging, just like in life. I like the pretty, I like the real, I like the happy, I like the sad, I like it all mixed up, just like life.
"All is Well just the way it is;
all weird and broken and wonderful."
Mandy, on Little Brown Pen's post
I thought that was such a wonderful way to sum up the whole idea! So here is a bit of weird and wonderful news from me, something I am NOT afraid to tell you: yesterday I gave my notice at my day job of the past 19 months!
Do you know that I walk or drive under these trees on my street every single day? I look up through them and get all lost, so happily lost. I dream and dream and dream. Dreaming is but half of the equation though. It is time to act. These big, old, stately, beautiful, strong trees started out small, mere saplings and now look at them! I definitely see myself in these trees. With my husband's amazing support, I will now be able to grow Sweet Eventide into her fullest, most abundant potential.
I have been on Kelly Rae Roberts' email list for a long time and last night, she happened to send this image out to her subscribers:
Synchronicity! Amazing, right?!
Things I'm Afraid to Tell You
03 May 2012 15:08:00
Graphic designed by Ez of Creature Comforts
Have y'all seen this movement going around the blogosphere today?! I am exhilarated by it. I am energized by it. I am in awe of it and I am proud of it. I am inspired by it! Please click on the graphic to read the back story and see the full list of bloggers participating in this truth-telling spree. So far, I have made it to only a handful of blogs to comment and cheer, Nichole, Erin and Rena but I plan to make my way around the entire list. I am committed because it is so important to support this kind of heartfelt bravery and honesty in our saturated, perfection-inducing online world.
I'm going to get straight to it, but if you've read my blog for any length of time, I hope you have seen glimpses of this kind of honesty from me already. I have fought against making a perfectly pretty blog, because it's not true. Life is not perfectly pretty.
Things I'm Afraid to Tell You:
When I look in the mirror, I say hateful things to myself. And then I feel deep shame because I am a cancer survivor and I should be grateful to be alive and who cares how I look? Except, I do care. It's sad but true. I actually took "aging gracefully" off the list of things I like on my Pinterest profile page recently because I realized it was pretty much a lie. I mean, I love the idea, but I'm not living it right now.
Although I'm a Virgo, I am hopelessly unorganized at home. My files are a mess, especially the digital ones. I have over 25,000 photos now on my external hard drive. I cannot access them quickly, they are not rated or tagged with keywords or anything. I have so much work I could share and promote and this is a huge hindrance to my progress as a photographer. Don't even get me started on emails. I save almost all of them, I have five email accounts, it is ridiculous. It is an enormous, inefficient part of my life. Sigh.
I pick at my lips when I'm stressed or worried or tired. Now the Noodle is mimicking this behavior of mine which makes me want to vomit. More shame.
I think the last thing I want to share is how lonely I have been since I moved to Portland. I really miss my friends and family and school community at home in California. While I have some community here (thank goodness!), I have felt very disconnected overall. As a result, I have developed a ridiculous attachment to my stupid iPhone. I check Facebook on it all the time! I don't even like Facebook! It is a real symptom of my need for a community. Not finding a school community yet has been a big setback in feeling settled here. I know this won't last forever, but I did notice it and it feels good to say it out loud. I feel like I read stories of people packing up and relocating and it's a breeze! Happy kids, easy transitions, no problems at the new school or making new friends and that has not been our experience.
Oh boy, this movement is really scary! I'm going to hit publish before I over-think it because I love it, I love it so much. I feel like sometimes my tag line is a sham, "photographing the magic of the ordinary" because I don't find myself really showing the un-magical sides in my photos. I use a fixed lens with a shallow depth of field on purpose! So you can see the parts that I want you to see and blur out the rest. But sometimes, wouldn't it be nice to see everyone's dirty dishes, and not just their pretty coffee cups?
I think we can take this movement to the next level with photographs too.
Are you in?
P.S. I deleted one thing and I'll admit it right now. It was just too much, I felt too vulnerable. I am human.
On Watermarking Photographs
30 April 2012 05:05:00
Good morning! I am having a bout of insomnia so I gave up on sleep and started tinkering on the blog. I hadn't really warmed up to the spring banner that was here, and I love my Etsy banner so here is a version of it for the blog. I have also gone back to a font I fell in love with years ago. I'm sure it's not web-perfect but for now, I'm going with it. I tinkered around with my laptop file folders too, and found these spring roses from Betty's garden in California to share with you.
Yes, I am watermarking my photos again. Let me explain, even though it might be self-explanatory.
Last week, I discovered another uncredited pin of my ranunculus image. This happens a lot on Pinterest, and not just to me. I suppose I consider myself lucky that no one (to my knowledge) has taken one of my photographs and added some text to it and then called it a day. Ugh! I've seen that happen. I'm flattered my ranunculus image is so loved still and it accounts for 25% of my sales over on Etsy. But last week's discovery was pinned by a well-known magazine whose staff member had repinned it from some random blogger, and so with their large audience, it's been repinned from them way too many times and with no link to me at all. It's really too bad that image wasn't watermarked, then there would be no issue. Good old hindsight!
I have wrestled with the watermark issue since I renamed my blog three years ago. I used to watermark and then I took some advice in an e-course to stop watermarking because "the big blogs won't feature work that has watermarks on it." At the time, I was eager for any possible exposure so I dutifully stopped watermarking.
And in a way, it worked just as predicted in that e-course. The ranunculus photograph was featured on a big blog, and they linked it to my Flickr where I had uploaded it. The traffic from that big blog to my Flickr got that image on the Explore page. And then it made its way around Tumblr and then over to Pinterest and well...here we are with a rampantly uncredited image floating all around the internet.
Now I am going back to watermarking my images. I do not believe I am a one-hit wonder with my photography so while I cannot really help the ranunculus image come back to me at this point, I am going to do my best to keep my future images connected to me. I have had many people find me on Etsy and say, "I fell in love with this ranunculus photograph on Pinterest and I had no idea I could buy the print until now!" Gulp. How many more of those people are out there?
Looking back, removing my watermarks was a fear-based decision. Now, if a "big blogger" wants to share my work with their readers badly enough, well they can certainly reach out and contact me. I'm very friendly and responsive. It's not worth another ranunculus/Pinterest/Tumblr problem, that much I know. I guess all of this is the evolution of Jess the photographer and businesswoman.
Back to the fun stuff, what is blooming in your garden or neighborhood?
Glimpses
23 April 2012 14:30:00
I thought I would share a few glimpses of what has been going on this month, all via Instagram. I am @sweeteventide over there if you would like to connect. You can follow even without the app over on the website Statigram. Descriptions are at the end.
1. My wrapping on one of the little gifts I gave Jeff for his birthday
2. My mini-me at a rest stop on the very long road trip back from Cali
3. This caught my eye later on the road trip in Roseburg, Oregon
4. Portland's beautiful "welcome home" scenery
5. We had an appointment at the children's hospital after we got back to Portland. The Noodle
is 100 percent good to go after that awful CRPS event with his foot.
6. Our beautiful front yard tree saw a lot of action in the glorious spring sunshine this weekend
7. I always wanted to take take photos from the Burnside Bridge at eventide & Saturday I finally did!
Spring Pretties + Email List
03 April 2012 14:44:00
Recently glimpsed in Portland....
and recently glimpsed in California...
Also, I recently launched an email list which will include specials in my Etsy shop, new Sweet Eventide products, inspiration and exclusive images just for subscribers! I hope you will sign up, I will operate my list with utmost integrity -- no spam or anything icky like that from me. You can sign up using this link.
It's Nearly Spring
15 March 2012 09:17:00
Good morning! I wanted to share some new but quintessential photographs I've taken recently with you, because although it is still quite wintery here and we are headed to the snow no less, I know that spring is nearly here. I love rain and clouds but even I can't deny I am looking quite forward to the joyful energy of spring.
Portland is starting to bloom
© Jessica Nichols, Sweet Eventide Photography
Updates: the Noodle is walking, running and playing again after the past few weeks of work with an amazing pediatric physical therapist at OHSU Children's Hospital. He is not done yet, but the progress has been amazing and uplifting. We are headed to an extended family getaway in the snow, and we miss them all so much so we are very excited. Hello Soul Hello Business (HSHB) is still changing my life and I'm in the thick of it, and behind on the work actually. We are applying to charter schools for next year here; meanwhile we quietly began homeschooling about six weeks ago and we're quite happy with that transition. Mostly, I am anticipating all the photographs I plan to take as I document my first spring in Portland.
Thanks for visiting, I will be returning to regular blogging at some point as it has become very clear in my HSHB work that this space is of prime importance for me.
Much love,
Jess
Peaceful
24 January 2012 14:34:00
Ashland, OR -- January 1, 2012
Hello my friends! I have been wanting to come in and say hello this month. We had a lovely holiday season with our family and friends in California. We are enjoying having several visitors in Portland which is wonderful for us. We also have an injured little boy (his ankle/foot) so it's good I am still not committed to any extra things as the Noodle needs his mama. As for Sweet Eventide, I am taking photos almost daily with no expectations and much, much joy. I am enrolled in Hello Soul, Hello Business which is offering me the much-needed introspection I was intending to do when I began my sabbatical.
I think of my blog often and miss being in this space regularly. Until next time, I wish you all a peaceful, beautiful new year.
Love,
Jess
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