We bought a car! It's a grown-up's car and everything. I originally wanted a Honda Civic - the ones with the spaceship dashboard and rocketship handles and had my heart all set on one but I looked at several & they're REALLY expensive, unless they're slightly older or have lots of miles on the click. My stepdad put me in touch with a dealer near him that he knows & they agreed to discount on down to my price range! We took a road trip up there with wife, baby & father-in-law (who is loaning us the money for it,) but then when we got to the place, the Civic had gone! Should've called ahead. Oh well. It ended up being a choice between a Golf & a Passat & I went for the big boy car!
I do love it. I've had a car pretty much constantly since I was 17, until this last two years when we've been relying on just my income & we couldn't afford to run one and being stuck in the arse end of nowhere with no car has gotten to me more than I realised. Now I have one, a weight seems to have been lifted. I can get out of this village/town any time I like. I might not, but just having the option has made me feel loads better. Plus it should actually cut down on costs for the one day a week I work at the portrait studio out at Center Parcs in Thetford, whereas previously I'd been spending up to £250 a month hiring a car one day per week to get there. Also now I can drive straight home instead of going to the next town to drop the hire car off & catching the train back. Bliss.
I've got a wedding to shoot this week - ceremony on Thurs, reception on Sat, for a guy I work with. Looking forward to it, especially since I'll be shooting again at the same reception venue in August for another couple. I've gone a bit crazy buying extra gear for it. I've bought 4 Pocket Wizard Plus X flash triggers (£260) a new softbox for a flash, sandbags to weigh down my lightstands, new business cards, an extra Compact Flash card for my camera, and a couple of other bits, so between that & the car, it's been an expensive month. Luckily I've been paid for both weddings.
Next thing to work on is getting more leads. Advertising in magazines has resulted in zero phone calls. Not just no bookings, but not even one phone call! Same with Yell.com. I need to work on getting more leads. Next up is a decent crack at Google Adwords/Facebook/Twitter ads & see how they go.
In other news, I now occasionally wear glasses, due in part to advancing decrepitude. I spent a while choosing them & they cost me waaaaay more than I really should've paid. Thank fuck for credit cards eh? Here's what I look like in them:
I'm sure that will end up as my profile image at some point.
Also, I shot a set with @darkdreamer_ just finishing up editing & then hopefully you'll see it in member review soon. Check out her profile for a sneak peek! I need to organise another couple of sets that were on the cards now that I can jump in the car & go shoot!
Stay well my lovelies.