What did you do while OSP was down?

Juergen just sent me this for the Question of the Day....I think this might be a long thread!

Good question Juergen!

oh dop I just asked the same q 10 mins ago lol...but basically I slept, shot my gp's 65th wedding anniversary and hell I even went to a movie . its good to be back!

photographed some great weddings, did a fun kid session and enjoyed my family! Nothing too different except I was online less.

A lot of crying and eating. Then I joined Digital Wedding Forum, but that's just methadone. This is the real deal.

Oh, and I took pictures of these guys: http://www.shanesnider.com/slideshows/orangesband

I tried to keep myself busy with other photo sites, but they just weren't the same. It feels so good to be back.

I completed work that really needed my attention -- Mostly I MISSED you all!

Love me some OSP

Karen

We are really boring at our house. We worked a whole bunch. We have actually gotten to the point that we are almost caught up! We started seeing the light at the end of a very long tunnel late Wednesday night. We have been extremelly busy with Christmas portraits this year. We have three more this week, then I think we don't have any more until after Christmas. Of course, we keep having people schedule last minute, so we could still get more. Friday evening I had someone who wanted to know if there was any chance we could do a portrait session and get the prints back in a week. I said sure, as long as they could come in at 9:00 the next morning! They came, Adam photographed, I proofed with them, they made a huge order and we were done in 40 minutes. I sent the order last night and they should have it by Wednesday at the latest (probably Tuesday). I will have one happy customer when I call them!

I also spent time with the kids, drove our daughter to play rehearsals over and over and over again, attended Annie 3 times this weekend (Adam only went twice), went to a potluck and Christmas Pageant at church (that one of our son's was in), baked cookies for the play and pageant, shopped for clothes for our family to wear for a portrait, and pretty much ran around like crazy.

Oh, yeah, and the wireless access on my laptop quit working, so I probably wouldn't have been on OSP much anyway since the only place it is working is one spot on my kitchen counter. Not the most comfortable place to hang out. Spent time at the Apple store trying to figure out what is wrong with my computer. Still don't know.

I, like DJ used the time to reflect, grow, and plan!

1) I met with 2 brides to finalize albums
2) Exercsed Every Day
3) Worked on an entry for a free trip to Europe
4) Installed a php Server on my laptop
5) Began to clean-up and optomize BanquetBuzz.com

I've got another month before I have a wedding to shoot so I should be able to make that a sweet site!

Oh, yeah - I updated my avitar!

I was on vacation so if it had to happen, it was a good time for me, as I had no internet access on the beach anywho.

I stared at my monitor and continuously hit the refresh button.

TONS of albums.

Wow, I really hate putting together matted albums. REALLY hate it.

But I'm way more caught up than I was before, so I guess thats good.

finally finsihed getting my stuff together for a new website. I got everything to the web dude and a very very needed new and improved site is on it's way!! Uber excited about this.

found that my other forums are just not nearly as fun.

oh and I forgot to add that my husband came in and asked me if I wanted a puppy for Christmas and I was soo excited because I have had puppy fever for the longest time and one of the guys at his firm had a West Highland Terrier puppy that was ready to go to a good home. I went out an bought a collar and lots of stuff for the new "baby" and I could not wait until this morning when I was going to get to go pick up my puppy. I recieved a call a little while ago that the guys wife decided she wanted to keep the puppy

I am bummed.

Oh, and I sat in the corner and just rocked back and forth, humming to myself....

Jeebus!! I got so much work done, LOL!!
I hired a second full time employee to manage our new cool viewing room, and also to help me out with making books. YAY CATCHING UP!!
We shot a billion weddings, and a trillion portraits, and processed like 40 xmas orders (the last part is reality!!)

I roamed around southern California looking for forest fires to shoot pictures of with my new Holga camera...and I worked on my next WPJA application...

Oh, and I went fishing...

Well, missed everyone tremendously!

Shot pictures with Santa for a PTA fundraiser, with lots of orders for reprints afterwards!
Shot more pictures just for the heck of it
Cat shot a family portrait session
Surfed OSP folks blogs over and over
Went to Zack and Marks studio party
Visited some of my old forums and realized how different they are from OSP
Put up Christmas decorations
And who knows what else!

HI EVERYONE! Wow, thanks so much for caring and getting this up you guys Totally missed you even though we have been uber busy!

Hmm..

1) We moved out of our Orlando house which I'm really sad about...and yes, moving really really is no fun!
2)Moved into our Altamonte, FL condo serving our second home for when we're in town for weddings.
3)Still waiting to close on Orlando home
4)Made the 10 hour drive to TN to move all our junk in a storage place.
5) Looking for a new house in Chattanooga somewhere.
6)Photographed a Ft. Lauderdale, FL dest. wedding this past weekend
7)Families, friends, clients, and work and parties to go to in between
8)A couple of e sessions - one in Ft. Lauderdale
9) Booking some cool weddings for 2007-one in Norway...ahhh! And another in Santa Barbara, CA!
10) Some family portraits
11)Was able to actually GO to the movie theater, (its been 2 and half years since we've gone!!) and watched "The Holiday" starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!! Loooved it.
12) Finally our couch for the studio has been delivered and we put up a Christmas tree, its all complete!
13)Right now we're in Orlando and getting ready to fly back to Chattanooga
14) Worked on family Christmas postcard and already arrived for me to send out and I'm going to need your address!!!!!!!!!

Truly this was when OSP was down...was that two weeks or one?

I had to do work for a change....go figure!
With OSP being down I was actually able to get most of my Xmas shopping done on-line.

Went home to visit my family in Michigan
Got more done than usual
Spent more time with my husband
Wore out my refresh button on my keyboard
Less time online

Neal Jacob Photography
PO Box 1744
Front Royal, VA 22630



This is the one time of year I get 99% something other than bills!
(well, until Jan, then the bills are 100%)

It was a good time of year to be down

I got a bunch of albums ordered
sold some extra albums that weren't in the packages
sold a bunch of holiday reprints
booked a few weddings
read two books
purchased a Nikkor 12-24mm f-4 AFS lens
lifted weights
christmas shopped
looked for a new car
got my emergency wilderness bag all packed for snow shoeing
talked to some friends on the phone
backed up new data on DVD
worked on a few fun projects

Hmm...good question. haha Let's see.

I actually worked while at work instead of being on OSP all day.
Finished designing an album, and finalized another one.
Went to a show (Panic! At the Disco!)
Actually hung out with some of my friends I haven't seen in awhile
Got a lot of work done on some Christmas presents I'm making

All in all it was a productive time away, but man am I glad to be back!

I just kept hitting refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh (etc.)

A lot!

I designed 4 BIG wedding books and posted them online with ShowIt.
These books were originally 20-30 pages (pre-purchased at set page counts) but I applied the Fong method to them and they all ended up with 60+ pages, the clients love'em and are trying to make it work in their budgets!

I booked another 2 weddings.

Started using WHCC to fulfill my orders (instead of PIctage) and the turnaround is so much better, my clients love it and I love the fact that I am making my money right away!

So I am all caught up for the year. In fact, I am wondering 'what's next?'

And have started planning for my 2007 season and how that will translate into 2008's season.

Oh, and I have also been working on a 'National Idea' with some really cool concepts added to it.


I find that large quantities of green (iced) tea and no OSP makes me really, really productive.
But, I can't give up OSP so I figure that larger quantities of green iced tea is necessary to stay so productive.

Let's see, I got a LOT done without the disctraction! ........... but I missed my distraction

I photographed my last two Chrstmas sessions, one couple & sisters for their parents, and one newborn put together SEVERAL collage prrofs, SOLD several collages

Placed many orders

Sent out Christmas deadline order reminders

Placed many more orders

Got the photo session slideshows online couple/sisters newborn

set up my online shopping cart

Spent time with my family

actually got almost caught up

but I am SO glad to have OSP back! Chris just joined before it went down, and he was already getting addicted! he kept asking me if it was back online yet!

oh, and actually got our own family photos taken on Saturday (MAN, I can't believe I've been so on top of reminding everyone to get their family photos done early for christmas and I'm the one that leaves it to the last minute!!!)

Read about these guys who were in Cancun

Kept clicking my OSP bookmark

That's about it.....................................

+1

I REALLY need a life....

Freaking hilarious! ...there actually was a fire I think!

I kept clicking on the bookmark button on my menu called OSP over and over and over again hoping that it would appear, even if only for a short minute. It's been a long week

I had a Holiday Sale here at school yesterday and I made Photo Notecards and postcards with photos I took of the campus. I actually had everything done early and didn't have to pull an all-nighter on Saturday night to get my product ready. I was really bored Saturday night and Sunday morning and decided that I'm more sane when I procrastinate.

Ditto! I saw it last nite and it was way better than I thought it would be - It even got applause at the end in our theater. Definitely recommend it.

Besides that...
Shot seniors when it wasn't raining...
Saw a Dierks Bentley & Miranda Lambert concert...
Got the majority of my Christmas shopping done...
Helped a bunch of family and friends with their Christmas tree hauling/decorating, etc...
And spent most of my evenings w/ friends instead of on the internet

We had one down here...actually it was like 5 mini ones! Some jerk had driven up the freeway and started 5 small fires about a mile apart on the side of the freeway!

I'm going to have a lot of fire images on my site in the coming months. The brides may not understand it but I'll tell 'em that several of my clients are now H+W smoke-jumper teams...I just used some action shots for their e-session...

Setup a marekting strategy for next year
Backed up everything twice
made a studio sample album how I want it, not how the client wants it
rode my bike
got the flu...that was a fun 7 days...
Prayed
Stressed about having only 2 bookings next year. Seriously, I am begining to really get concerned about this. Things were really moving along for me until about a month ago and everything just stopped.
Prayed more

....I can't remember.





Got all my projects finished!!! Completely!! Yeah! So hardly any work until the new year! Answered emails. Read.
Did photoshoots with my brothers and sisters and watched Highschool Musical more times in a row than can be mentionable....LOL

Me too, every ten minutes! I can't really say much else.
My therapist and I are trying to "work through" this dark time...

I made a version of the home page in Photoshop and left it on my screen for a few hours.....

Like a ticking clock to a puppy!................

P

me too!
though i did have a few weddings, a bridal portrait and multiple family portraits thrown in there too.

I did a wedding, a handfull of portrait sessions, got caught up on a lot of stuff (still lots more to do!), spent time with my daughter and husband and checked OSP about 50 times a day to see if my prayers had been answered! SO glad to be back! I finally added an avatar too - from my October trip to Arizona!

Autumn

worked on my "to do " list and twidlded my thumbs waiting for OSP to come back!

...desperately missed OSP! And stayed so grateful for this community and that DJ let his mind stay on vacation. And fulfilled the last set of holiday orders. And decided that it's past time to start posting. And worked on prep for the big Q-day. Less than a week to go...

...went to Cancun, saw DJ's muscles that were NOT photoshopped.
...launched my new site
...ordered my Macbook Pro
...PAINTED MY A$$ OFF (and still not finished)
...did bookwork today and am rewarding myself with OSP at lunchtime!!!!!!!!

a little bit of while I was and then some .

I picked up my camera again...for FREE!

Kept looking and looking and looking for someone ANYONE to post an update.....PLEEEEEEEEZE!

It was down?