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SteveinMN
5-25-13, 5:59pm
I just posted in the May Gratitude thread about completing one year without working for The Man -- and not regretting that I left.

I figured that moving on from being a corporate working stiff would be a transition -- and it was. I spent the first three months in my new status doing almost nothing, just letting myself get used to not running at 100-mph (160-kmh). Finances were an adjustment as irregular paychecks and refunds came in and new bills (COBRA'd insurance, etc.) appeared. We became aware of just where our money was disappearing as I managed to track our expenses for an entire year (about 10-11 months longer than we'd ever managed the task before). Some money went into savings; other money came out to cover big expenses like property taxes.

But in this "new" year -- presumably a more stable one -- I want to figure out how much farther we can go. DW finally caught the fever of simplicity (though not as fervently as me). I am reminded that, even after a year, there still are projects I haven't tended to and way too much stuff around for my liking.

So my challenge to myself for the coming 12 months is two-fold:
- One, nothing major comes into the house without something else going out. We've pretty much stopped accumulating; now I want to work on minimizing. Items "exchanged" don't have to be equivalent (for instance, a new album forces an unlistened album out the door). But something has to leave. Maybe it's that garden utensil we've never actually used. Or that gizmo I keep meaning to list on craigslist and never do. Or maybe admit to myself that something that fills the need 80+ percent of the time is good enough to not justify keeping the specialty items around.
- Two, I want to re-examine our spending. DW has been getting a little burned out at work, and it seems there are few jobs out there which will pay her what she's making now. We can't accommodate less income on her part without either ramping up mine (a possibility, certainly) or (better, in my mind, because it works for both of us) cutting expenses further. Can better planning result in buying fewer things at the fancy supermarkets, saving $$? DW's mobile-phone contract is done in August. Is that the time to let DD keep the old Family Plan and get our own? Go prepaid? Go with an MVNO? Time to get past the low-hanging fruit.

I realize none of this is new New NEW to folks here. I'm just hopeful that, by stating it publicly, I add some accountability so we can push on when it's easier to just add Item A to the house without getting rid of Item B right away.

I haven't decided if it's best to use the blog format that Kelli and some others have been using for their longer-term projects. Maybe I would do it weekly to keep it from being an onerous extra responsibility for me and to avoid putting people here to sleep. Gotta think about that. But the intentions are now words. Time to get moving!

iris lily
5-25-13, 7:37pm
Good plans, all of them!

SiouzQ.
5-25-13, 8:55pm
Wow, congrats, it's already been a year for you! How is your photography business going these days?

fidgiegirl
5-25-13, 10:00pm
Awesome, Steve!! I also am feeling like the low-hanging fruit has all been picked and that we can look deeper. We shall see.

One idea that's worked well for us on the purging side . . . have an outbox always going. Then if you have some new things come into the house the old items go into the outbox to be sorted periodically. For us they usually all go to the curb for Epilepsy Foundation when they pick up, but this spring we gave them all to a coworker's garage sale. It's worked well for us. We very very very very rarely want to pull anything back out.

Tussiemussies
5-25-13, 11:43pm
Sounds like two great plans Steve. You'll have to keep us up to date on how it is going. Yes, by the way how is your photography going?

Blackdog Lin
5-26-13, 11:08am
You go Steve! Wishing you the best in your new endeavors.....

SteveinMN
5-26-13, 2:29pm
Thank you, all!

Kelli, we do have a Goodwill box. We could be more zealous in identifying candidates for the box :). Or maybe put things in it destined for craigslist. Not everything we put on craigslist sells, and we're not the type to list the same item every three days forever; we'll donate most items after cl's 45-day expiration. A key to success here is keeping the box handy. If it's in the garage or the basement, items don't get there very quickly....

As for the photography business, well, it has remained pretty much a hobby. I've done some shooting for pay, but nowhere near enough to cover the expenses of maintaining the business name, insurance, etc. However, now that I've gotten to most of the home projects I had eyed when I was working, I want to get out of the house a little more. I also now know that whatever I earn in the business (beyond what it costs, of course) is good because we're doing okay on just DW's salary. This does not have to be a full-time or full-time-plus endeavor.

The challenge with the business at the moment is how to handle fine-art photography along with the bread-and-butter residential work. Having both kinds of photography on the same Web site strikes me like Ford selling Focuses, Fusions, F-150s -- and bananas. Which one does not belong? :D There's still a little pricing work to do, too, though I may have to find that level by seeing which jobs I get and which I don't and it's far more critical for the residential photography than the fine-art photography.

If anyone wants to look at the Web site, you can check out http://www.therightpixels.com . The site is a bit rough right now -- I haven't had a chance to test it with many different browsers (especially including mobile browsers). I'd prefer that the URL not be passed around until I've got more testing done on it. But you're welcome to look for now. Please let me know if you see anything that looks wrong as you peruse. Thanks!

rosarugosa
5-26-13, 6:27pm
Hey Steve: I think your website looks great! By residential photography, do you mean you'll be doing "family portraits" of customers' homes and gardens?
We have some similarities in our household. I'm the one doing the corporate job thing and DH left the corporate world in 2010. It makes life easier for both parties if someone stays at home to do all those necessary things, doesn't it? And there really are a lot of them! DH worked a seasonal job for a couple of years and now has a year-round, part-time job at a local hospital that he loves. It's pleasant, no stress, and he's only scheduled to work 10 hours per week, but he can pick up all kinds of extra hours if he wants (covering vacations, absences, etc). The problem is that we know we can make it on my income, but it seems like we're getting a little less disciplined with the frugality when DH brings in extra money. We really should be challenging ourselves to do better and not slacking off. The hospital has a Mon -Fri 10 - 3 shift, and I have a future vision of us both doing something like that some day. That seems like perfection as far as work-life balance goes, but we're a long way from being able to live on that, unfortunately.

SteveinMN
5-26-13, 7:54pm
Thanks, rosa! "Residential photography" certainly could mean "family portraits", though I would need some additional ($$$$) equipment to do that job absolutely correctly and I don't yet have access to the kinds of folks who would be likely to want to do that. One market niche will be pictures of houses for MLS listings and real-estate agency Web sites. But I'm thinking a bigger part of the business -- if I can price it right -- could be "after" pictures for remodelers, who typically take their own pictures for estimation and documentation purposes. I have to figure out how to price remodeling shoots because they'll take much less time than shooting an entire house but they won't cost much less to roll my car to the location, set up and take the shots, and deliver the images. I don't suspect customers will pay for a room or two what they'll pay for an entire house full of images.

Tussiemussies
5-26-13, 8:09pm
Steve attorneys use photographers to take pictures of scenes of where some of their cases are. I once took a photo for a lawyer of a dip in the road but they didn't keep me on since they said I didn't make it look strong enough for the case. They pay well too. Might be a good option for you if you could get work with a couple of lawyers. You would need a portfolio I would imagine....chris

iris lily
5-26-13, 10:21pm
My mother was fairly house obsessed. When she moved from a couple of them, the nice old ones, she got professional photographs taken of the interiors. I would probably do the same thing for us leaving here, this, the house that DH built from rubble.

SteveinMN
5-27-13, 8:48am
she got professional photographs taken of the interiors. I would probably do the same thing for us leaving here, this, the house that DH built from rubble.
Yup, there's that market for "after" remodeling pictures. Especially when you've done as much work on a house and you and DH have. :)

Tussie, yes, what you mentioned is called "evidentiary photography". Some of it can be pictures of roads and faulty products and the like; some of it can be pictures of bullet entry sites and body parts on corpses in the morgue. I haven't decided yet if I'm up to that latter kind of shooting -- and you really don't get much of a choice to say no.

Tussiemussies
5-27-13, 4:51pm
Yup, there's that market for "after" remodeling pictures. Especially when you've done as much work on a house and you and DH have. :)

Tussie, yes, what you mentioned is called "evidentiary photography". Some of it can be pictures of roads and faulty products and the like; some of it can be pictures of bullet entry sites and body parts on corpses in the morgue. I haven't decided yet if I'm up to that latter kind of shooting -- and you really don't get much of a choice to say no.


Hi Steve, I wasn't aware of the morgue/corpse issue. Pretty sure I couldn't do that.....

SteveinMN
5-27-13, 8:19pm
Okay, here we go: my new blog (http://simplythenextlevel.wordpress.com). Just the first installment; I'm thinking there will be several closely-spaced posts as I provide background and then they'll space out some. If you choose to look, please let me know if you see anything weird.

Kestra
5-27-13, 9:07pm
Okay, here we go: my new blog (http://simplythenextlevel.wordpress.com). Just the first installment; I'm thinking there will be several closely-spaced posts as I provide background and then they'll space out some. If you choose to look, please let me know if you see anything weird.

Nice. It looks good to me. I like the simple design you chose. And your writing is clean - nothing bugs me more about a blog than obvious grammar and spelling errors. Hopefully you don't mind if I try to absorb some motivation off of your great start and try to get more than 1 post done on my blog.

SteveinMN
5-28-13, 8:36am
Thanks, Kestra! The design template choice was deliberate; there were other styles I much preferred esthetically, but this is supposed to be all about minimalism and simplicity, right? :) And I was a technical writer in an earlier life. It would kill me to let something loose that hadn't gotten a go-over. It sometimes happens here and I don't like it....

By all means, if this blog can serve as any motivation for anyone, carry on!

SteveinMN
5-28-13, 9:59am
Second post (http://simplythenextlevel.wordpress.com/).

Gardenarian
5-28-13, 1:17pm
Congrats on your year of freedom! And, for keeping your priorities at the forefront.

As for the website, I don't think it's awkward to have all kinds of photography on there - it kind of shows your residential clients your chops. My husband has similar issues with his site that showcases his jazz and bluegrass CDs, gigs, and teaching - but they seem to feed off one another. A student's mom hires him for a company gig, someone who has seen him play wants lessons - one-stop shopping.

(BTW, your website works and looks great, running Firefox on Windows 7 Starter [netbook])

SteveinMN
5-28-13, 1:48pm
I appreciate that, Gardenarian. Also the data point on your DH combining his disparate talents....

fidgiegirl
5-28-13, 6:05pm
Loved it! I subscribed!

SvenV
7-5-13, 1:03pm
Hi Steve

Your homepage looks good, I like the photos... Keep going!

Good luck..