ON THE BUSINESS SIDE: Meeting with my Accountant

I intended to meet with my new Chartered Accountant, John Karram from Norton McMullen & Co. LLP a few weeks ago, really....I did! It's amazing how time slips away.

Fortunately, I had spoken with him in March and had gotten most of the information I needed to collect ahead of time.

I'm surprised he didn't laugh out loud at the amount of Revenue I have vs. the amount of expenses. But hey! I still have a full time 'day job' and photography equipment and supplies are expensive!! ;) He was also surprised at how little mileage I had listed down and was sure it was a mistake. Once I explained where my 'day job' is (approximately a 90 KM round trip each day), the numbers made a bit more sense.

He sent me away to try and find more revenue, more mileage and a few other things. Funny thing was, I actually did find some. Seems I need to keep a bit better track of things. How did he know?!

Amazingly enough, despite my tardiness, it sounds like there's even a chance that they will complete our returns by the end of April on time! Of course, I forgot to confirm what the cost will be. I'm bad that way. I'd buy time if I could. And of course, it was the first thing Paul asked me.

So even though I was relatively organized, it was quite different this year getting things ready for someone else to do our taxes, as well as having to track the business expenses for the first time. I'm sure next year will be even more straight forward. I think I'll invest in Quickbooks though. Seems it would be a bit simpler than using my 'start from scratch' excel worksheets.

The final file of information has been e-mailed to him and now we wait to see how it all turns out.

Don't forget the deadline to file taxes in Canada is this Thursday!!

-- Lisa P.

CONTINUAL LEARNING: Daytripper Photo Algonquin Trip

What does less than 2 hours of sleep, having to be in Newmarket by about 2:30am, a ride in a big limo, sore arms, legs and pretty much the rest of my body and a memory card filled with over 350 photos on it mean??

It means I must be crazy!!!! No, it means I went on a Daytripper Photo excursion today to Algonquin Park :)

Since everyone already knows how behind I am in my photo editing, it's pretty certain that I won't be able to finish processing these photos for a little while. But that doesn't mean I can't put up a little teaser. :)

Here Comes The Sun!

Our Ride

(No, not the van - the van was our lead vehicle)

Scenery

Not a Moose

That was a little hint of what's to come. ;)

It was a fun time. It was nice to go on a trip like this with other people who are actually interested in photography too. There were 9 participants and I think 5 others, in addition to Bryan Weiss (Daytripper Photo), who were there to educate, guide and help us along the way. We were able to test out some lenses. I tried a 120mm-400mm telephoto zoom lens. Hence the sore arms. It was nice to have the opportunity to try it out in a real situation.

Thanks for looking. Hopefully I'll have more posted soon. :)

-- Lisa P.

FROM MY PHOTO LIBRARY: Our Jamaica Holiday 2009 - Part 3

I think the main attraction of the YS Falls is swinging off of the vines and jumping into the water. But of course, we didn't go there to get wet. We went there so I could take photos :)

YS River Falls

From Near The Bottom

There Are Always Rules To Follow

A Few Of My Favourites

Such a beautiful place :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

FROM MY PHOTO LIBRARY: Our Jamaica Holiday 2009 - Part 2

It's amazing how quickly the time passes by. I've been sick for over a week and am behind in pretty much everything. I've managed to continue making my way slowly through the 700+ photos I took on our Jamaica vacation. I can't believe how many more I still have to go through!!

Here's a few more:

Heading Out To Snorkel

Beach Volleyball

Just To Prove I was Actually There ;)




The Infinity Pool Looking Out To The Ocean




Poolside Loungers




Six Beach Chairs With Our Names On Them




For When We Needed Shade

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

(Note for my family & friends: There are more photos located on our personal photo web site, so check it out when you have time)

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR FUN: Hello Spring??

Yesterday was quite a nice day. The sun was shining and Im pretty sure the temperature was over 10 degrees celcius where I live. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside, sick in bed, with the blinds closed to stop the light from adding to my already pounding head.

Now, let's fast forward to today. I'm still sick in bed, however what's going on outside was quite a surprise when I actually took a look! Unfortunately I'm not feeling up to venturing outside, so I took these from my back door at around noon today. I think it's still snowing out there. The tobaggan hill looks like it's ready for use again!!

I assume it will most likely be all gone in the next day or two. But for today, school buses were cancelled and we have a snow day in April. Thankfully my 5 yr old goes to a daycare before and after school so he didn't have to stay home with me. While his intentions are always good, he really isn't that good at taking care of me when I'm sick ;)

You can see in this first photo that some of the tree tops really suffered from the large amount of snow, ice and wind we received over the winter. Many of them are leaning over.

If I were feeling better, I'd venture out to get some more shots, as I really do love how peaceful and clean things look right after a snowfall. Especially in the country. But I think I'll stay under the covers with my juice, chicken soup and box of kleenex.

EDIT TO ADD UPDATED PICTURE:

I took another shot about 6 hours later. I think there was almost another 2 inches of snow. And it's still snowing out there tonight too!! If it keeps it up, we might lose a few more trees tonight. The snow is very heavy because it's wet and there are a few smaller trees REALLY leaning over with the winds. :(


-- Lisa P.

CONTINUAL LEARNING: Terms of Use

Over the past year or so I've spent way more time doing research online. What have I been researching? Everything from photography techniques to best business practices to the legal aspects of photography. I never used to pay much attention to things like Terms of Use when signing up to photography related sites or if entering photo contests, etc. Well you can be sure that I do now.

Here are links to a few blog posts from www.photoattorney.com with related information:

http://www.photoattorney.com/2009/03/photo-contests-here-and-abroad-grab.html
http://www.photoattorney.com/2009/03/newspaper-gets-rights-beyond-sharing.html
http://www.photoattorney.com/2009/03/photo-contest-takes-license-for.html
http://www.photoattorney.com/2009/02/facebooks-terms-of-use-to-be-revised.html

I think the most important thing is to make sure you educate yourself. It's not necessarily a bad thing to contribute to contests and sites as discussed in the above posts. The exposure and experience you receive may be well worth it. The main thing is that you are aware what rights you are or aren't giving away. Then you can make a conscious choice to submit or not submit.

-- Lisa P.

FROM MY PHOTO LIBRAY: Our Jamaica Holiday 2009 - Part 1

I can't believe it's been about a month and a half since we went to Jamaica on vacation and I haven't posted one photo on here yet of that trip. To be totally honest, I haven't even finished processing all of the photos yet. But I have gotten through a few. Most of the photos are just fun ones of us and our friends doing the things you'd typically do while on vacation and are more appropriate for my personal photo site. But I did get a few interesting shots that I'll share here.

We went on a boat down the Black River to see some crocodiles. Here are a few photos from that excursion.

The Mangroves

Sunbathing Crocodile

Someone's Got An Eye On You

What I'll do is post a few at a time as I work my way through them. :)