The Real Jenty

I’m about to go shopping, I need a bit of a break, and I had the following thoughts…

I need to go shopping to get new printer cartridges.  This is a necessity.

I would like to look for new shoes while I’m there, because I need new shoes of course, what girl doesn’t?  I have no qualms buying shoes, but will try and not walk into Aldo’s or Nine West, because I can’t justify their prices.

I’m currently earring-less, because I realised this morning that for some reason, I only put the one on… the other one is now in my car.  Weird.  Second time this week that I’ve done that.  I would like to buy another pair of nice earrings because mine are a little old and sad. But again, I wonder about whether I should spend that money.

I’ve finished a bottle of perfume.  I would like to get another bottle, yet I wonder about the waste of money.

However, get me wandering onto a camera site like Orms or SACamera or a new site to me CameraQuip, and I have no qualms about spend x times the amounts mentioned above on a new lens, and I immediately start scheming about how to justify the cost of buying a Canon 5D Mark II.

Or, take me into a kids clothing store, and I have no issues with filling bags with clothes and shoes for the boys.

Another example, is this morning, when I was trying to work out whether I should buy a new car, just because my back gets sore in my Jazz! And you know how I am about new cars!

Is it just me?  Maybe it’s the fact that the things I ponder about are for me personally.  I immediately think it’s a waste of money, and can think of hordes of other things to buy instead.

Oh hell, enough of this thinking, I’m going spending!

I asked Bradley to take a few photos of me… and the dogs decided that it was play time… it’s utter chaos at home!!  I think the photos are pretty awesome actually, considering Bradley is 7 years old.  I’ve done no cropping to these photos, just used a preset to pop the colours.

I finally did it… after threatening for the last 6 months… I actually started my admin on my photography business.

Mostly spurred on by the fact that I need to get my ducks in a row for the taxman… but at least it’s started.

And Oh My it’s scary!!

I had NO idea how much I’d spent in the last year on my little photography lark.  It’s no small fry.

What I’m still finishing… and that’s more strenuous because of the way I’ve recorded it… is my income from it.

I’m almost positive I made a loss last year, based on the enormity of my expenses… but I’m sure that this year is a better, more rosy picture.

And I promise to set aside one night a week for this in future!!

Naming your business is important right?  You have one try normally.

When I started my photography blog, my own domain… I decided after searching long and hard on the internet, to use my real name.  Not Jenty.

The thing is, I’m kinda known as Jenty now though, because of all my blogging over the last few years.

In fact, today, Andy Hadfield asked me why I didn’t use Jenty for my photography.  I didn’t really have a reason.  He reckoned that Jenty would suit a rock-star photographer… yet Jeanette Verster is the name for a pro-photographer.

Hmmm…. I like the idea of rockstar. I like to think of myself as not run of the mill, and kinda funky.  Yet, Jim the other day commented that he’s never seen a funky woman photographer… which made me laugh.

Anyhoo, the deed is done, it’s Jeanette for my photography, and Jenty for blogging and other social media… no wonder people are constantly confused

It takes a while for people to connect the dots and realise I’m the same person.  I’m not just a photographer… I do have a day job LOL even at work it’s confusing for people… especially when they meet me for the first time because most people at work call me Jenty too.

1. Connor thinks that my dad needs to get Bakugans for his 60th birthday which is coming up soon. LOL!! Can you imagine?
2. I arrived 10 minutes early for a meeting… the person made me wait on the street outside their house until the allotted time. LOL! How weird is that?!
3. I made a HUGE blunder by going to meet a prospective client…. without my portfolio!! LOL! I’ll be surprised if I get that wedding
4. I didn’t take a photo for my 365 day challenge… just never had the time
5. The Mac specialist at the Incredible Connection store in Fourways looked at me blankly when I said that I needed an adaptor specially for the Macbook Pro… dude had never noticed that the 2-prong plug on the machine is non-standard. And then promptly told me that they didn’t sell them… seems useless to me… how can you sell a machine without selling the thing that’s going to allow it to work properly!
6. Prolabs is driving me nuts… this photobook I ordered is taking forever and no-one can seem to tell me for certain where the hell the book is!! They better find it by tomorrow! To say that I’m annoyed is an understatement. In fact, the book was supposed to be the subject of my photo for the day.
7. I still haven’t found the time to collect my new Moo card shipment from the post office.

It was one strange day…

… I wish I did photography full time.  I got asked this morning, by a client, when I’m going to take the plunge… and the truth is I’m not ready.  It’s a scary thought, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to earn enough from it… I also think I would have to consult to top up my income.  And I don’t think I’m ready to consult until this project I’m working on is complete.  And then I’m hoping I’m not too old.

Don’t knock me for the age thing… it’s a serious worry of mine… there’s an age thing in my head about funky women photographers and I wonder how sustainable photography would be for me.

Then I got home from the shoot  this morning (which was postponed in the end anyway), and on the way I got an offer for a wedding in the middle of the week, which I had to turn down.  I had to turn down another offer for today from a corporate because I actually need to spend at least 2 hours a weekend with my kids… and I completed an invoice for a company whose function I’m doing in September only because it happens after working hours.

There’s just so much business I’m starting to turn away during the week, because it’s just not possible.  And in fact, I’m even turning away weekend work now because I need some family time too.

I hate turning things down… but I’m still not ready… not yet.  I wonder if I’m ever going to be ready.

On Wednesday evening I got a very odd phone call.  It was from Joey, who owns Ultimate Functions, to tell me that someone had used her photos on their website, and she’d noticed that one of my photos was there too.

After looking at the Perfect Kids Party site later, I saw that she was right.  A photo of a cake, that I’d taken at a party last year, was on this website’s cake-gallery.  But this “woman” didn’t just download my photo, all she’d done was display a photo from Google images and she’s linked directly to my website.  This means that anyone who clicked onto the photo, would come to my blog.

It’s not just that she stole the photo, that makes me as mad as hell, it’s that she’s implying that she made the cake.  She’s selling a skill that she doesn’t necessarily have.  It’s fraud!

Anyhoo, after checking out all the other photos on the site, I realised that it wasn’t just me. She’d also used photos of events done by Monkey Magic and she’d used cakes from overseas cake companies and blogs too.

So, on Thursday morning, I decided to phone her.  And she put the phone down in my ear when she heard what it was about!! Man, there’s nothing that makes me more livid!  She didn’t even listen to me, and thought I was Joey on the phone… she told me she’d removed that photo and slammed the phone down!

COW!

Then I got angry.  If she was just ignorant about photo usage, surely she would have removed all the images that she’d stolen after she’d received the first phone call!!

So, I’ve now contacted every single other company that she’s stolen images from too.  Monkey Magic quickly changed their image, so that there’s a massive STOLEN written across their image; but because of the way she’d linked to mine and Google has cached it, I haven’t been able to do the same.  I’ve also contacted Jozikids, where she is listed, because it seems she used some of their other images too; as well as Party Craze an Australian cake website, the Baking Shop, and Wonderful Wortel World

I’ve got a letter that’s ready and prepared to send to her ISP, but have decided to wait until tomorrow before sending it.  And that’s only because I spoke to her again on Friday night and she told me that after speaking to Merle from Jozikids that she agreed to remove them all, but she hasn’t got internet access until Monday.

She has until 8am tomorrow morning, or else her ISP will definitely know about it!!

How STUPID can one person be?! She’s destroyed the reputation of her fledgling business completely.

From looking at her Perfect Kids Party site, there’s no way to tell now which parties she’s actually done.  Maybe every single one of the photos is fraudulent, and she just got lazy when putting the page together and started linking sites instead of downloading photos.  I sure wouldn’t believe another word that came out of that woman’s mouth!

I love watching people at events, and doing the photography at events allows me to see and hear things that I would ordinarily not notice.

Because I’m looking for interesting photos all the time, I look for interactions between people and sometimes you get to see the funniest and strangest and sometimes creepy things too.

On Sunday, there was a girl that didn’t know who Liz Hurley was, when one of the speakers referred to her.  That made me smile.

Interactions at tables are always interesting to see and often I get relationships wrong because of the way people look and relate to each other, and sometimes it’s downright embarrassing.

When you’re next at an event take a walk around the periphery of the hall and watch people interact, while they’re watching speeches or some kind of act… you’ll be amazed at what you see.

aka can’t I split myself in two?!!

I’ve taken the day off on Friday. I booked myself on another wedding photography workshop and I’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.

And then, it happened.  It was guaranteed to happen.  I get torn between 2 things.

You see, last week there was a blanket drive on Twitter, and because of my blog post about the D Hani Creche in Soweto a few months ago, the school was chosen as the recipient of all the blankets collected at the rugby on Saturday and at the #TBD in Sandton… and I’m thrilled that Mme Dipho is going to be able to try give a blanket to every child in the informal settlement.

However… they’re going to hand the blankets out on Friday… the SAME day!! I want to take photos there damnit!!

I was hoping that I’d be able to do both, but after reading the program just now, it’s going to be impossible.

I wish I could split myself in two

Maybe another blogger should do the creche story… I’m so sad I’m missing it though

Got a wedding tomorrow!! This bride contacted me in August last year to book the date

So, not going to be interacting much tonight… I’m preparing for this. Getting inspired, charging batteries and cleaning CF cards and lenses.  Packing my I-files from the workshop.  I couldn’t get anyone to second shoot with me… but it’ll be fine

In fact, I’ve completely got this organised, and have got loads of ideas from other photographers that do it alone.

Wish me luck!!

Edited:  Not too sure why I blogged this actually.  I get nervous before every single big event… and I’ve done plenty events.  I think it’s because this is the first wedding that I’ve got no backup at all.