Photography 2.0

Time is so valueable!

Well it’s definitely been a long time since I posted on my blog, but I have many reasons why I haven’t kept up so I’ll start from the beginning.

First, I’ve officially started a photography business called Photography 2.0 and I specialize in model portfolios and shoot anything and everything. If in need of an excellent shooter of events, births, weddings, or just some senior pics I’m definitely your guy. It’s been fun getting all the paperwork filled out and taking time to make sure it’s all done right the first time. Business has been good and it’s steady so I really haven’t had much time to work on personal things… hence my blog tardiness.

Now I know running a business is hard, but it can be rewording and worth the struggles. It may be exciting to a point, but something more exciting thats happened is the addition of someone in my life that means more to me than photography. I met a nice girl while shooting and we have stuck together like glue ever since. Katherine if you ever read this know that I love you and you’ve been the greatest influence in my life!

I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve just given up on personal shooting until I took a nice break. I stopped cold turkey doing model photography because it was just getting in the way of my new relationship and trying to run a relaxing life so the last month or so I’ve called it quits to shoot for myself.

Here is one of my favorite shots I’ve taken during this time off from the real world and I know you’ll all enjoy it.

I love nature and have spent at least three quarters of my free time outdoors snapping lovely shots of insects and even some furry creatures. It’s always a smart thing to just take a break so your body can calm down and gather enough energy to start working at 110% again. This time relaxing has taught me to take more short breaks so I’ll be working hard again this July and in the middle of August I’m taking Katherine and hitting the road for an extended vacation. We will be staying at some of the best Bed & Breakfasts in the midwest for 5 days and just sitting back and enjoying our company while getting out from time to time to bond with nature and with ourselves.

I’ve started to build up resources to help with the hectic schedule and keep me running at full stride while not burning out and getting foggy headed in the process. One was to sign up for a Tennis league, which means that once a week I will be out for a couple of hours relieving much stress while getting some fresh air. The next step was to stay organized so I picked up a new phone… supposedly it’s a “smartphone” but I’ve yet to get the smart part, but it is a neat phone. It’s a Motorola Q9h from At&t and it’s definitely the perfect phone for keeping organized while still having enough advanced features to keep me from getting board. Oh, if you haven’t checked my google calendar lately it used to be bare and now that I learned how to sync my phone to it you can keep up to date with my life and what is going on. Check out my calendar at http://photo2dot0.com/calendar and let me know if my life is getting a little crazy.

I’m going to sign off and wait for Katherine to call so we can catch up on our hectic lifestyles. My next venture on here is to make sure I post a bit more often and my next post will hopefully be a tips and tricks study on Macro Photography focusing on bugs.

-Chris Warkocki
http://photo2dot0.com

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The FUN in FUNctionality…

Welcome all and I hope everyone has had an enjoyable week.

I’ve been keeping myself busy by purchasing cool new gadgets for the photography biz I officially started. I’m still waiting for the final papers to go through so I can officially run my business under the name Photography 2.0, which should arrive in the next couple of weeks. When that happens I’ll throw an little online party and share a toast with everyone that has been helping me out with all of this.

As you all know you have to have cool things and I’m one of those people who jump on something that will help me out especially if it helps out the biz. Here is short list of where I go for those fun, hard to get items I need to shoot the way I shoot.

Flash Zebra… the guys at www.flashzebra.com are awesome to say the least, but carry the one item that really makes things easy for me. I used to have to buy $20 worth of cables and adapters to connect my PocketWizards to my flashes, but now I have a simple attachment that saves space and is extremely effective. This item here will allow any PocketWizard to connect to any hotshoe flash! I love it and it works! I just picked up a caddy for my PocketWizards from them and it is just awesome. I hate having my $200 investment just hanging and the caddy is secure and built very well for the price so check it out if you’re ready to protect your equipment.

Thomas Distributing… Gotta give props to the local guys here in Illinois. I’ve never had service this fast anywhere and they carry the hard to get chargers and batteries I need to keep on shooting. You can check them out here and don’t forget to buy lots of stuff from them because it’s worth every penny. I personally buy only the Sanyo Eneloop batteries and these guys carry them in bulk and at one heck of a cheap price. If you need batteries and go through them quickly I highly recommend you save the environment and buy a households worth of them. I also am I huge Maha battery charger freak after buying my first last week. You can’t go wrong with this charger by Maha, but if you wan’t the elite you have to try the C9000 charger, it’s just ridiculous and fast plus it makes you look cool.

Business cards have to go through Overnightprints.com! The guys at overnightprints are fast as heck and the system they have set up is painless and fun. You can create a card from your own photos or from the millions of options they have in their editor. They average $80 for 2000 double-sided UV coated cards, which is an amazing price and these aren’t flimsy little cards. I’ve had nothing but compliments on the cards just because the colors pop so well and the build is tremendous.

Here are the samples from my newest batches of cards:

Let’s talk a little about SmugMug… I run my website Photography 2.0 through SmugMug and for a lot of really really really big reasons. One is the upload capacity and the bandwidth I’m allowed. I now have unlimited upload capacity and 1000 terabytes of bandwidth, which to purchase that through a hosting service would cost you a few grand a year, while SmugMug costs $150 a year. I’m not sure if money is important to you, but it is to me and for the amount you pay for a pro account is worth every penny when you compare just the server space you have to upload your photos. They also print and mail photos to your costumers at what ever price you want to set. Just amazing because I’d hate to take credit cards over the phone or pay for secure credit transactions on my website. They also have the site setup so you can have a basic website to sell stuff without any special knowledge of coding, but if you want to customize you can to your hearts desire and they will even help you every step of the way. You can’t deny that they are the best and I’ll never switch unless something crazy happens or I’m a millionaire and can afford my own hosting.

This will be enough for now and I’ll talk about more about what I purchase and why in the next installment of FUNctionality!

-Chris Warkocki

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Getting Better Every Day!

Ahhh, the sweet smell of spring has come to the town of Rockford and it’s time to get out and shoot!

I’ve locked myself away in the studio for the last 4 months shooting model photography and learned a lot while having a great time. You’ve seen my new toys I’ve built as well as watching my photography skills get honed. I’m not much of an indoor person the outdoors is where I belong so any opportunity I have to shoot outdoors I will take it. With that in mind I’ve been shooting as much outside as possible and have had some wonderful success from all the things I learned in the studio.

Here are a few examples of that success I was blabbing about:

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Thats just a taste of what I’ve started shooting. I went out yesterday and had the time of my life shooting with my new favorite model Anna Wang. This girl is amazing and such a character… oh gosh. She is definitely the one person I’ve probably had the most fun shooting and it had nothing to do with the great pictures that came from the shoot, but the fact that she is just so much fun to be with. The poor girl woke up super early to get to Rockford and was still an enjoyable person. I think we honestly shot for 4 hours non-stop and talked the entire time.

A little background on Anna is in order. She is a singer/songwriter from Madison, WI that has the looks and the voice people. When I first found her on a modeling website she had a link to her music and OMG is she good. Just a stunning voice from such a young girl is amazing. I even had my own personal show at my house while we picked out the good images from the shoot together. If you want to hear her music you have to check out her site at www.purevolume.com/annawang because it’s totally worth it. From what I hear she is working on a CD and I’ll be one of the first people to get one (I better get one right away Anna, or else) and I’ll put up a small review when I get the chance to.

I had originally planned to shoot indoors in the studio with Anna, but the weather outside was too perfect to pass up. On such a beautiful day you can’t pass up getting out there in the field and snapping off 400 pictures! We traveled to three locations and got pretty dirty in the process, but it was well worth it folks.

I’m already planning on shooting with Anna again real soon because it’s so much more worth shooting with someone you can have fun with then someone who is a drip and you get bored in 10 minutes. The next shoot will most likely be along the lines of my more typical style of shooting at night and lighting it up real cool-like, but we will see. Anna seems pretty much down with anything and as long as I find something for her to climb she is happy so I guess it’s time to drive around town looking for those special locations.

I’d like to thank Anna for her time and effort as well her her stunning personality. It’s tough to find people like Anna and anytime you get to spend with someone so happy and joyful is worth every second. You just feel so much better as a human when the people around you are happy so if you ever get the chance surround yourself with happy people because it’s good for your health. I’m so excited for the next shoot that I may actually have things figured out way ahead of time. How crazy is that folks?

Well, back to business, but I’ll leave you with a few more pictures to look at from my shoot with Anna and if you want to see more of her modeling work check out her site at Model Mayhem and also on my website at Photography 2.0 .

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Brand Spankin’ New!

Welcome!

I’ve been working on making an additional website to one I currently have (http://photo2dot0.com) and decided to create a real blog. I love the idea of being able to make my ideas and opinions heard and hopefully have someone out there wanting to listen. I’m going to hopefully update this blog as much as humanly possible so about once a week or so if I get enough sleep.

I guess I should tell everyone a little about myself…

I’m an aspiring photographer from Rockford, Illinois. I run a company called Photography 2.0, which specializes in model photography and event photography. I know thats a massive range between fields, but skills I’ve learned from both have allowed me to combine a style that I truly enjoy. I’m slowly building up the business with tons of portfolio work and hitting the random wedding and event to make some extra money to fund my endeavor. I’m hoping to make it to the next level by next year, which is to work very part time at my day job and do mostly photography during the week and weekend. I’m setting small goals and hoping to accomplish them and build new goals in order to keep myself motivated. I know I love photography and I have some talent to work with, but it’s never easy to drop life and start something like this out of nowhere.

Well, thats all I seem to have for now as I really want to get back to editing this blog and also edit some more pictures to put up on to my main site. Thank you all for being there and believing and I hope to help you all out one day.

-Chris Warkocki

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