I'm a huge believer in fate/destiny/no coincidences/signs. So when I got this little gem in my inbox:
I found it very fitting that the very next day I got to see this page:
Notice the big, beautiful "PAID"? Best thing birthday money ever bought.
I used to be a REALTOR, once upon a time ago. Needless to say I never went very far with it. I sold two houses, both to people I already knew. I put as much, if not more, money into it than I got out of it. I met a lot of successful people (and many people who were struggling... like me). But really, I attribute most of my shortcomings to the fact that I don't play golf.
But not all was lost. I learned very valuable lessons from talking to people on the phone, how to wiz through contracts, lots of legal terms, great investment ideas, the beauty of tax write-offs, the value of being nice to people, how to put up with people you despise, and most important of all: that I was in the wrong damn profession. My first clue should've been that I spent more time and effort into designing my beautiful business cards than I ever did learning about sales.
I could go on and on about every soul-crushing moment I endured while putting on my slacks, fake smile, and dancing around all the other people who live to put on slacks, a fake smile, and do the dance. But maybe I'll save the soul-crushingness for when I write about being a waitress. In truth, I hadn't been an actively licensed agent for over a year and had mostly forgot all about it until I received the aforementioned email. The very next day I ordered Sue Bryce's 28 Day Workshop and I felt a subtle, yet profound, turning page in my life. Life has led me here and now I will "blossom where I am planted," as my REALTOR buddy Greg would say.
Having vigorously absorbed all information regarding photography in the last year or so, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and lens focal length have thoroughly been shoved down my throat. So when creativeLIVE was hosting John Greengo's class on Fundamentals of Photography, I figured it would be nothing more than a five day workshop on nothing but aperture, shutter speed, etc... For some reason I played the beginning of the first day as background noise while roaming for something else and I was quickly sucked in to the wealth of information that John was throwing at me. The slides themselves were worth watching! Anyway, I watched the full five days and learned a ton. I've tried to push my way through the jungle of technical speak on the internet and as soon as anyone starts debating the difference between camera sensors my girl brain shuts off (and to think, the only subjects I thought did that were guns and cars). It was so refreshing for John to sit there, figuratively look me in the eye, and figuratively say, "This is everything you have struggled to learn and attempted to learn for a year. And I'm doing it in laymen's terms." So here are three things I learned, that I never learned before, and can't guarantee I would've ever learned if someone wouldn't have sat me down and showed me:
- Telephoto lenses compress images to bring the back and foreground visually closer together.
- If you do not have a full frame sensor camera the focal length of your lens will be different than the actual number. Here's a hint: If you didn't spend at least four paychecks on your camera, you probably don't have a full frame camera. For the rest of us here's an example: a 50mm lens will become the equivalent to roughly 35mm with a 1.5x crop sensor. (Focal length divided by sensor size = ~adjusted focal length) 50/1.5=~35.
- If you have a Vibration Reduction lens, turn the VR off when you put it on a tripod. Otherwise, your camera will spend so much effort to correct for something that doesn't exist.
You're welcome.
