Posts tagged vacation

Work Hard. Play Harder.

Aug 5th

Posted by MacNessa in Business Talk

1 comment

The rewards of working your butt off are many.

For one – there’s job satisfaction. Always a biggee – afterall we do spend our lives at our jobs (mostly) we best do a good job, enjoy it and be proud of our efforts.

I am so blessed to be able to do something that I love. That I absolutely thrive on.

Occasionally though, one does need a break.

A complete break to replenish the creativity stores.

A change of scenery to get the mind the hell out of that box that things like routine and familiarity put it into.

Sometimes I like to go to my quiet place in my head.

It’s on a mountain, near Banff, Alberta, and I’m riding a palomino horse, taking in the crisp mountain air. The grandeur is awe inspiring. (It’s a real memory, that I go back to when I need to stop and breathe).

stratoAnother time I’m picturing fast paced Vegas vacations!

Golfing weekends in the desert!

A photoshoot in the Neon Boneyard!

The living, audacious lights of The Strip!

The ching-ching-ding-a-ling of a million slots tempting me with promises of wealth and fortune.

The things I could buy with my brand new, vast empire of wealth.

Just one more quarter.
:)

Happy Day Dreaming it is an essential part of your day.

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Wow, New Wordpress.

Dec 20th

Posted by MacNessa in Photo Edits

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So I just upgraded to the new 2.7 Wordpress, and frankly I’m impressed.

It’s far more streamlined. Very Web 2.0-ish.

Cleaner.

Tidier.

But not so ‘new’ that I don’t know where to find stuff. Geeky though I may be, I’m still a chick.

_______

So with all the great weather we’ve been having, I’ve been taking ludicrous amounts of photographs of the kids in the water.

Heck, yesterday I got *into* the water *with* my camera (I know, shudder, gasp, how could I) but Reebok* (my eldest *not his real name) was under strict instructions not to splash, and Nike* (the youngest *not his real name) was doing a great job of kicking under the water anyway.

One of the new tricks I’ve been trying is ‘blueing’ the water of the pool. While the OPU (other parental unit aka my husband) has been doing a sterling job of keeping it clean and sparkly, on occasion it does tend to lean towards the greener side of ‘aqua’ and it’s probably exacerbated by all the foliage that overhangs it, the light etc anyway. So I had to find a way to blue the water, without making the kids look blue!

Meet my new best friend…the Magnetic Lasso tool in Adobe Photoshop (I’m running CS). Simply drag that baby around your happily swimming child (the bits above the water anyway) click on >Select >Inverse (to deselect your cherub, and re-select all the water around them) then run the ‘Cooler’ Action from The Pioneer Woman’s awesome SECOND free set of Photoshop Actions, and voila – beautiful blue sparkly water now with half the chemicals! :) FYI I also ran her ‘Sharpen THIS’ action from the same set, and just painted on where I wanted to sharpen the waters’ splashy bits, to make it a bit more sparkly.

Go forth and be creative folks!

_________

Also, given that at this time of year, one is prone to expect many family and friends, or general guests, if you are in need of temporary sleeping arrangements be sure to check out sleep number bed that link, for an affordable range of air beds and mattresses etc.

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Vacationing, When You Work for Yourself.

Sep 19th

Posted by MacNessa in Business Talk

No comments

Working for oneself has many, many well documented rewards.

Working to your own schedule, choosing your own clients, working your own hours, and best of all, working from home.

Personally I think that being able to put in an hour or two while still in my jammies rates *very* highly on this list! Even taking a short local weekend break need not mean I’m out of the loop.  With my awesome Macbook, and 3G mobile internet plan, I can easily put in necessary hours, or respond to any potential problems quickly and easily.

Sometimes though, and this is probably the hardest thing about working for yourself, is taking a real vacation. One where you are not reachable by phone, and you neither can, nor want to be contacted by email. This is especially hard if you work alone.

Here are some possible solutions, that I apply to my business:

  • Complete any outstanding projects, and delivery of photographic orders before leaving.
  • Do not commit to any new assignments for the period during which I wish to take leave.
  • Either rebook required appointments to a more suitable date, or refer the client to a trusted photographer friend who will be available – knowing that she would do the same for me in return.
  • Let blog sponsors know that I have certain blackout dates during which I will be unable to complete assignments.
  • Pre-write some blog entries using wordpress delayed publishing service, so that some material is published in my absence.  It’s usually a good idea to include posts containing links using your affiliate code for sites like Bux.To so that even in your absence you have the chance of gaining some referral who will make money for you in your absence. (Nothing like making some passive income while you’re getting a great massage!)

With all these ground rules in place, I’m free to start daydreaming about my next break, and start searching through great listings like St. Barts villa rentals and start to make some plans!

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