Indelible Adventures: March 2015

Friday, March 27, 2015

Horses for courses!

Isn’t “horses for courses” such a strange saying? I suppose the origins of this saying are now well and truly blurred with history, but I definitely feel its appropriate for this weeks blog – read on to find out why.

Each of us have a range of skills that we excel at, then there are another range that we’re so-so with, clearly not our expertise but giving it our best shot, and then there are the ones that you haven’t a clue about.

Earlier today I met with my accountant to help me synchronize and reconcile QuickBooks for my business, he’d been prompting me to come in for sometime so I could get a lesson as to how he wants me to enter my invoices and expenses so that they balance and are accurate – what a concept!

Picture this, as I thrust the accordion file of receipts onto his desk there was a visible gasp… Say no more! Yes in TW vernacular it was a complete “dog’s breakfast”, no offence to dogs but it was a complete and utter mess. I promise I’ll do better! ☺

Now, don’t get me wrong I took a swipe at logging my expenses for a time but with no real understanding of how he’d set up my Chart of Accounts or categorized the various accounts I was completely “at sea” and eventually gave up inputting until I had a lesson…(yes, I realize that’s a bad thing) and definitely not proud of taking a collect and guess approach but there you have it.

I then spent the next three hours going through receipts, VISA statements, and bank account data for the past six months… trying to reconcile and figure out how I’d screwed it up in the first place. That was the easy part…clearly. Unraveling my creative accounting methods was the tricky part, but then also trying to remember what I’d purchased or spent money on for the past six months was another matter completely.

The big problem, I soon realized was that when you start a new business your personal finances are inextricably intertwined with your business finances, well at least until you start generating enough revenue to meet your expenditures. This coupled with my poor accounting skills (as you can tell I have no real interest in accounting more’s the pity) put me into this mess.

However, after correcting the ills of my books and having a better understanding of how he wants me to input my expenses I feel good about moving forward. If things get out of whack again, it will be due to my lack of discipline vs. my lack of knowledge. Enough said!

Strangely when I was a secondary school I studied accounting for three years, but let’s face it those days are well and truly behind me so I suppose I can be excused…maybe just a little.

As I write this weeks story I’m sitting on a plane waiting to push back from the gate as I’m heading to New York city for the weekend – awesome! …and now we’re parked. The excitement was soon dashed with the infamous push back from the gate, and head out like we’re going to take off but then go sit somewhere on the apron of the tarmac until we have clearance to fly into New York. La Guardia airport is notoriously busy and so irrespective of when your flight to NY is, you actually fly only when there is a space open to let you in. Good to know!

The captain just made an announcement and is hoping that it will only be a 45-minute wait time. Given this information I wonder why they even have a flight schedule into NY given the uncertainty of getting a landing slot? I suppose its one of those mysterious things in life that you have to just accept as “it is, what it is”.

Anyway, enough of the frustrations of flights into the Big Apple as there are much more important things to discuss.

The reason I’m going to NY this weekend is to build my photography portfolio, the objective (typical TW) I’ve set for myself is a minimum photo haul of 1,000 photos, but hoping that I can push that out closer to 2,000 over the course of the two days.

As you’d expect I’ve created a “shoot list” that begins with me being in the Financial district first thing tomorrow morning (preferably before dawn) so I can capture first light on Wall Street and adjacent streets. Then the list goes on from there…for much of the day and even into the night.

The reason is that I’ve been bidding on photography work through a company based in NY, but soon realized that my portfolio, although reasonable is nowhere near where it needs to be if I’m truly going to be a professional grade photographer. Not only don’t I have enough depth in my portfolio, but I also need to broaden my genres of photos so that I can bid on a broader variety of jobs.

Unfortunately this also doesn’t take into account my abilities as a photographer ☺. While I’m okay, I’m still learning the trade which is both fun and challenging but far from making the grade.

I guess the differentiator as to whether I’ll begin winning photography work is in my diligence and discipline (hey, twice this has come up today). However, in this case I definitely have a passion for photography and images that I can create, and the emotions I can evoke and so feel confident that I can push this to a point where I begin winning work. As I tell Zach and Sami if you truly believe you can make anything happen!

I can hear you all thinking, so what genres is TW going to expand into??? Well I think I’m going to keep that a surprise for now, but as you know I always add photos to my stories so eventually you’ll be the beneficiaries of my expansion.

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On that note, I am looking for both male and female models to conduct a series of photo shoots (non-paid - sorry) in a variety of settings. If you’d like to participate, expand your personal portfolio, and get a raft of free high quality digital photos in a variety of settings then let me know and we can schedule accordingly.

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Here are a few photos from my last visit to NY with Zach and Sami to keep you going - enjoy this weeks choices!

No visit to NYC can be complete without a visit to D&D!

There's just something about the grittiness of the NY subway system

Lights under glass at the Rockefeller Center

Love the detail on the Brownstones

Crappy view for the Lion...

Better view for the Lion! At the NYC library

Office building reflection - Bryant Park, NYC

Traditional iron fence at Bryant Park

One of my favorite images - art deco reflections

Interesting name for a restaurant - Brooklyn

My favorite bookstore near Union Square

NY Subway - line 1 above the platform

Feels like I'm on a permanent movie set...just sayin

Old school iron girders in the NY subway - I bet they could tell some stories!

Friday, March 20, 2015

Context & Spin

Come check out the Indelible Adventures website as I'll be posting podcasts in the next few days - yes, something new in the "Listen" section.

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Since returning from Ireland last Friday, the weather in Toronto this week has been fantastic. There I said it, I can literally feel Spring in the air, even the 3.5 feet of snow on my front lawn before we left for Ireland is now down to a mere 2 feet and shrinking daily, and just to be clear when I look out from my front porch there is no snow at all on the north side of the street!

Now this coupled with the advent of daylight saving has brightened my mood considerably, nothing like coming home from work and it still being sunny outside. I’m not sure about you but seriously my whole attitude to life changes when I can finally put winter behind me and can move on.

That got me thinking about context and how our lives for the most part continue on a relatively linear path, whether it be the regularity of the seasons, your family or work – all remain generally constant. Lets face it we bring the drama and emotions to bear, others may call it color and excitement, but again it depends on the day and the situation. I like to think of it as my personal “spin”. All I know is that at the end of the day we can either put positive or negative spin on every situation or moment to either create drama and angst or let it go gracefully and step back emotionally and see it for what it is - noise in the greater scheme of things.

Lets look at one of my favorite examples of spin, as many of you know I grew up in the much more temperate climes of Australia and although having now lived in Canada for many years still show significant amounts of despair when it comes to winter. I think for the most part because it’s so cold and grey for sooooooo long. Now what gets my goat are those of you out there (yes, you know who you are) that delight in telling me that you “love the seasons”… Bugger the seasons is my consistent response!

Give me summer, and maybe a week or two of spring and then throw in a week of the Fall and we’re done. I would be deliriously happy if that were the case, and if for some reason I was desperate to see the snow (I do love to ski and snowboard) then I could get on a plane and go do it once or twice a year to satisfy that craving.

See total spin because we had winters in Australia, and they could be cold, albeit no snow, but Australian houses don’t insulate nor do they have central heating and so therefore for the most part houses don’t retain their heat that well which can make for a rather chilly winter experience – a chill deep into your bones if you know what I mean. On a positive note the winters are relatively dry and short so for the month or two that the temperature gauge hovers around 8 – 10C as a daytime high I could generally bear it no worries.

I even remember during my first year of University it snowed one winter’s day, and probably left about 4 – 6 cm on the ground. One of my lecturers at the time was on exchange from Cranbrook, British Columbia (yes, he had a funny American sounding accent J) and so he suspended our lecture that day so we could go build a snowman and have snowball fights out near the residence buildings. It felt so foreign, but cool at the same time.

Anyway, back to the context of spin…where was I?

I’m a big believer in the theory that when you wake up in the morning you choose what context you’re going to see your day through. I don’t think its a conscious decision for the most part, but you definitely get a sense for how your day is going to pan out within the first 30 minutes of your day.

What happens if you stub your toe when you get out of bed, or perhaps get shampoo in your eyes in your morning shower, then burn your toast before realizing that you’re late for work. Not a great start to the day, but it depends what sort of attitude and spin you put on the start of your day. You could laugh it off, or be as mad as hell and frustrated....all day long!

I’ve personally found that you can alter your perception of the day depending on your outlook, almost no matter what happens short of something life threatening just by having a positive attitude and letting go of the emotions to the situations that you run up against.

This is an invaluable realization and life lesson that I’ve tried to impart on Zach and Sami, in that it’s all about the context and spin you apply to things. The second part of this lesson is the self-realization that the only person that controls your emotional state is you. You get to choose!

I guess growing up where and when I did, I had to figure life out for myself but I feel like I’ve learned all of these great life lessons over my lifetime that I want to share with Zach and Sami and for the most part I make no bones about sharing them, but I do worry sometimes that they aren’t being given the opportunity to learn them first hand, the hard way but perhaps that's just my spin! J

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To celebrate and say a big thank you to my readers for surpassing this huge milestone of reaching a 100,000 readers I'm going to post a photo per day on the Indelible Adventures website, feel free to share the link and definitely come and check em out! Enjoy.