My Monthly Highlights series and blog as a whole have been on a bit of a hiatus lately, and for that, I sincerely apologize. So many life events (more on those below) have been happening that I hadn’t even realized the last Monthly Highlights blog was published in July. As a result, this is a catchup post summarizing the past three months.
August 2016 Stats
Monthly Highlights Series
19
Photo shoots completed
*10 more than July
908.1
Business miles driven
*628.9 more than July
137.18
Hours worked for the month
*2.11 less than July
116.5
Miles walked
*61.46 less than July
19.3
Miles ran
*19.3 more than July
September 2016 Stats
19
Photo shoots completed
*same as August
435.8
Business miles driven
*472.3 more than August
167.25
Hours worked for the month
*30.07 more than August
150.33
Miles walked
*33.83 more than August
5.9
Miles ran
*13.4 less than August
October 2016 Stats
17
Photo shoots completed
*2 less than September
134.1
Business miles driven
*301.7 less than September
140.07
Hours worked for the month
*27.18 less than September
119.02
Miles walked
*31.31 less than September
21.7
Miles ran
*15.8 more than September
What Went Well
Life Events!
In my July post, I announced that my partner Martin and I had become first-time homeowners. That in itself was a huge life change that has consumed much of August. Soon after the home purchase, we had just several weeks to move into our new place and furnish it as best we could as Martin’s parents arrived from their hometown of Bulgaria on September 1 and stayed with us for an entire month. Thus, September was full of entertaining our house guests and taking them on adventures out of town every weekend of the month. This was when major life event number two happened: on the afternoon of September 10, high atop Mount Constitution on Orcas Island, Martin and I got engaged! Now we need to figure out what to do next… 😉
A family weekend at the Fremont Oktoberfest in Seattle.
Whirlwind Travel
Amidst all of the aforementioned life events, work had to go on since we now have a monthly mortgage on our hands. For me, that meant a fair amount of travel in August and September. Luckily, all of that travel was local, although thanks to time constraints I ended up flew from Seattle to Portland for the first time ever rather than drive as I normally do. End-of-summer travels were packed into August and September and they included a mix of old and new experiences:
- a long weekend in Ellensburg while photographing the Watershed Country Music Festival
- a long weekend in Seattle while photographing the Bumbershoot Music Festival
- a few days in the Hood-Gorge region of Oregon on a press trip
- a long weekend in Portland photographing the 5th annual Feast Portland food festival (best food festival in the Pacific Northwest region, in my opinion!)
- a weekend on Orcas Island for relaxation and showing family around
When September came to a close, Martin and I firmly decided on no travel for October to give ourselves a mental break, finally enjoy our new home, and gear up for kicking off the winter ski season in Whistler in November.
From a wonderful trip to the Hood-Gorge region of Oregon before Feast Portland.
Tons of Photo Shoots
Despite all of the travel and life events, August and September ended up tying for second busiest months of the year with 19 photo shoots apiece. They’re topped only by June with its 22 photo shoots. As expected, the shoots for the last few months have been centered around my three main concentrations of corporate events, food and restaurant, and live music. To my delight, there has been a big uptick in food and restaurant photo shoots lately, which has been my goal for this year. Photo highlights include:
- Restaurant photography of Vestal Restaurant in South Lake Union
- Food photography of Wanderfish Pokè in Capitol Hill
- Food photography of the fall menu at Heartwood Provisions
- Food photos of Hitchcock Restaurant and Verjus on Bainbridge Island with Chef Brendan McGill
- Concert photos of Sia, Journey, Garbage, Foals and 90’s superstars including Coolio and Salt-N-Pepa
- Corporate event photography for American Express and HBO
Chef’s tasting menu at Hitchcock Restaurant on Bainbridge Island. A must-do experience!
Diving Back into Web Design
Even without this year’s major life events, summer and early fall tend to be my busiest times of year for photo shoots. As a result, projects such as web design tend to get put on the backburner. October was intended to be a chill month, and even though it had a fair amount of photography, the lack of travel made it easier to focus on other ventures. This personal break couldn’t have come at a better time since a bunch of software that I use to design websites went through a major upgrade in October.
Wanderfish Poke, a new photography and web design client.
As a web designer, this is both a good and bad scenario. In many cases, these software updates do result in a better overall product, but the process of upgrading often times leads to broken websites that need TLC to assist with the transition. In some cases, upgrades were quick and flawless, and in other cases, they took days to sort out. My lesson here was to be extra cautious of the software I choose to invest in, prepare for ample time whenever an upgrade takes place, and communicate all of this to my web design clients.
What Could Be Improved
As usual, my main personal critique for the past few months has been a lack of a consistent personal health routine. Due to intense travel in August and September, my three-times-a-week runs were close to non-existent, although it bounced back considerably in October when travel was at zero. Finding and sticking to a workout routine that I can do even while traveling is something I need to work on.
