I’ve been in Louisville, KY for over a week and it has been an eye opening experience. It is markedly different from my previous internship experience. I think it’s great that I’m having 2 different experiences and it’ll afford me some perspective when deciding where I’ll be most successful/happy/otherqualifier.

Long story short: exciting changes are afoot! Case in point: physical fitness! Since I got here, I’ve been pretty consistent about working out. Last week, I logged over 15 miles of walking/running and did a lot of strengthening exercises (arms/legs/abs). This week, I have already logged over 12 miles (8 of those on the StairMaster) and continuing my strength training routine. I feel stronger, fitter and firmer already.

Accordingly, my food intake has changed although not as drastically as I would like. I am a bit cautious about overcompensating for my increased physical activity but I live with a group of fantastic girls who are great models to watch & learn from. One of them is a marathoner who, so far, has gone running almost every morning since we all got to Louisville. Yep, she’s dedicated alright.

And that’s all I have! Check out some S4 photos of my time thus far: Louisville, part 1.

This summer, I shall be leaving my warm state of Georgia for somewhere comparably warm. Last summer, I was in Oregon which was enjoyable but I’d like to see what else is out there.

#random
Toying with publishing this post on 5/13 to mark an exact year since I last wrote anything on this blog but I’m impatient.

The Portland Saturday Market can be best described as an explosion of people selling a lot of artsy type stuff. I saw a lot of T shirts, jewelry, etc. However, what stood out to me was a guy who was selling scorched wood as art! Believe me when I tell you the stuff was quite good! He was essentially using fire to make pretty patterns on wood. I will be back next week and hopefully will get to walk the length & breadth of the market. It was almost too much to take in for me especially as there were 100s of other tourists around & I was in a fog of sorts. Brief directions to get this: Hop on the MAX Blue Line to Gresham/Hillsboro and get off at Skidmore Fountain. From there, I made my way to the Portland Willamette River Walk which is pretty much like it sounds. I didn’t do the whole thing but I will be sure to complete the entire route before I leave. Then, I got a little lost in downtown Portland but instead of freaking out, I simply  … walked. I probably walked ~ 3 miles today and I’m seriously considering the purchase of a little pedometer or a FitBit to keep track of my activity. As I tweeted earlier, I think I could end up being in the best shape of my life if I kept up with my current walking/exercise regimen!

Speaking of exercise, I think I have pretty toned appendages (towards the end of the Spring semester, I did a lot of arm/leg work). My current exercise favorite is power walking on the treadmill. However, I do have a tendency to focus on exercises that I’m pretty familiar with i.e. exercises working my arms/legs/back. So, one of my fitness goals for this summer is a stronger core. I’ve settled on Russian Twists as one of the ways to do this and I would appreciate any recommendations regarding exercises to do. That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading any tips about places to visit or things to do while in Oregon!

PS: I’m uploading some cellphone pics I snapped today. There’s not artfully composed or anything. Just enjoy, dammit.

Long story short, I ended up with a backpack full of items plus 5 plastic bags worth of stuff. All told, yours truly was toting over 40 lbs (my really conservative estimate) of stuff after being done with shopping. The sad thing is people saw me struggling with the items but no one stopped. In a weird way, it was a good thing no one stopped because I don’t think I would have taken a ride from a stranger. Matt & I watched Cold Case Files before he drove me to the airport and let’s just say it brought out the hypervigilant & semi-paranoid side of me out. lol. So, it was up to me to haul my stuff home and boy, I made myself proud. I slogged through it and I learned that mental strength (& physical!) is incredibly important.

I pride myself on my ‘fierce’ independence and that side of me came out in full force because I knew I had no one else to depend on but me to get me & my stuff home. Basically, when it was down to the wire, I delivered and I feel like I could conquer the world right now. When I reached my apartment, a young couple in their car saw me and asked if I needed help. After a 2 second pause on my part, the girl hopped out of her car and insisted on helping me which has redeemed this place in my eyes. She helped me up the flight of stairs and I collected myself enough to ask her name. I believe I’ve made a new friend!

Moral lesson of the day: I am a strong, independent and capable young woman. I hope to take advantage of my time here to perform some self introspection, grow personally & professionally and heal some wounds. That’s all for now! I’m off to spend some of my giftcard-cash at Starbucks! Tonight, I guess I can skip the cardio and will focus on core strengthening by doing the Russian Twists. With that, I bid you, my darling reader, adieu.

Life is good. Matt and I celebrated our 5th year of marriage and boy, have we grown together. He seriously completes me and makes me stop to smell the roses (this actually happened in the non-metaphorical sense). I’m enjoying my current course of study and I am about to embark on a 3-month long internship where I’ll be doing nothing but coding. I’m understandably nervous. I mean, the other students in this internship program have some serious pedigrees (IVY league, well regarded CS & Engineering schools, etc) but I’m trying not to be too intimidated. In fact, I think I’ll be better off taking advantage of the smarts of this group and learn from them! Maybe their smarts will rub off, who knows?

Not all is hunky dory in paradise. There are ups and downs but I work through them and take things step by step. I still have trouble being extroverted although people who talk to me in public fall for my acts of extroversion. I do have a neat story to share (about that).

At the PDX airport, an older white lady caught up to me after watching me from a distance and asked where I was from. I told her I was Nigerian and turns out she lived in Nigeria (in the 80s) as the child of missionaries! We got to talking and I learned quite a bit from her. She even gave me a hug as we parted ways! I love meeting people although the first step (stepping out and saying ‘hello’) is usually the hardest. In this case, she took the leap of faith and reached out to me & both our lives were enriched from the information exchange that ensued! Anyway, I’m hoping to use this blog more to keep my family posted about my shenanigans in Oregon. I’ve reunited with an old college acquaintance and I’m super excited about my yet-to-be-had adventures!

Cheers!

Counting down to the official start of Summer. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Here are some recent photos I’ve taken (best viewed in large as a slideshow):

1. Flowers from my hubby
2. A Bird Family: A bird set up ‘shop’ right outside our apartment. I missed the opportunity to take photos of their lovely blue eggs, but the chicks are more fun anyway.
3. UGA Trial Gardens Open House: This happened today and I’m much more comfortable photographing inanimate objects or unsuspecting citizens.
4. Summertime: Ongoing summer series.

Feel free to check out my Photo Blog (hosted on Tumblr) and don’t forget to become a fan of Jane Ullah Photography on Facebook!

An emergency trip to an Ingles store was made and as these unexpected emergencies go, the prices at said Ingles store caused me to temporarily consider the good old wash-and-wear-a-cloth-towel, but I thought better. Then, I had a brain fart: I’d heard so much (via commercials) about the Always Infinity Pads and decided that I might as well ‘splurge’. For 18 pads, the price was a little more than I’d spend for a pack of the same quantity. Still, I was in an experimental mood so I pulled the trigger.

First impressions:

1. It’s thin. It definitely feels like you’re wearing a pantiliner versus a thick pad.
2. The pad ‘pulls’ the absorbed blood into the layer below so that you’re not really seeing the full picture of how heavily you’re bleeding. Looking at the underside of the Always infinity pad will give a more accurate picture of the quantity. I like this feature because I felt cleaner; I felt the pad wasn’t just passively absorbing the flow, but actively keeping the area ‘unclogged’. You just have to try it to experience the moisture-wicking thing.
3. It comes with an extra-sticky back and longer wings than I’m used to. I’m firmly on the A-Sticky-Back-On-A-Pad-Is-Always-Better side. Longer wings are also good because it means there’s a reduced chances that you’ll ‘dislodge’ your pad. Don’t ask.

Criticisms:

1. Truthfully, I have never complained about my pads being too thick because I don’t wear skimpy or tight things when I’m on my period. Period. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). Between the pain and icky-ness of it all, I definitely don’t feel my sexiest during this time. My point is: a subset of women like myself are of the opinion that making pads thinner should not jack up the price so much. To me, a thinner pad seems to be the crowning achievement of the Always Infinity pad. Not enough to make me want to purchase an Infinity pad for the next go-around.

Alright, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

This weekend, we went camping at Lake Russell Campground and as always, I had my camera, Sigma 10-20mm & Nikon 18-200mm with me. As always, you can check out my website, Jane Ullah Photography or visit my companion Tumblog for photos. Cheers!

1. I still have my job *knock on wood* although we have no idea what the next round of budget cuts will bring.
2. I have a second wedding to shoot in June! This is awesome and I’m learning to be patient in this business. It’s all about networking which I suck at, but will have to learn in order to survive! I’m improving on my skills as well and enrolled in a photography class.
3. I celebrated my birthday several weeks ago. I’m officially in my mid-twenties.
4. Matt’s done with his spring classes. He smoked his GIS class with an A and passed his CompSci class with a B. So proud of him. . Crazy man that he is, he raced a 6hr mountain bike race on May 1, 2010 before his finals this week! It was his first race of the ‘season’ so he’ll only get better from here. Check out my photos from the Dirty Spokes 12/6hr MTB race on my site. The pics are on Facebook as well for you to tag anyone you know! I shot with my Sigma 10 – 20mm and the Nikon 18 – 105mm kit lens for the D90. My pictures weren’t “tack sharp”, but I did the best I could. I had a lot of fun shooting pictures of the bikers who were great. The biggest issues I faced while photographing the race were:
   1. I like using natural light, but in the woods with the trees blocking the light, my lens needed some help getting light in. The 18 – 105mm lens has a maximum aperture of 3.5 at 18mm and 5.6 at 105mm. Zooming in to 105mm meant the light I’d get with the f-stop of f/5.6 was not enough to keep the scene well exposed. An ideal situation would’ve been for me to rent the much faster 70 – 200mm f/2.8 lens which has a wide aperture and more zoom to it. So, I resolved to shoot in raw where I’d be able to bring up the exposure/brightening of some salvageable pictures without depleting the quality too much by editing the jpg directly. I also used my SB-600 flash at certain points to help with illumination and exposure.
   2. I do well with still photography (if I may say so myself. ). Action photography would prove to be a challenge because you’ve got bikers flying past you at over 20mph. I had hoped to get close-up shots of the bikers’ faces with their bikes, but doing this was tricky because I need to stop the action by using a high shutter speed and get the scene properly exposed at the same time. An all-too-common scenario for me shooting at 105mm without the SB-600 flash was that the scene was dark so I turned the flash on which helps “freeze” the frame as well.
   3. I kept trying to make my lens compensate for the light situation by lowering my shutter speed to ‘unsafe’ levels (unsafe meaning I took the risk of increased blur in my photos to get more light. After getting disgusted with the expectedly blurry pictures, I kept the flash on throughout the event. Depending on how far you’re zoomed in or out, the maximum shutter speed the SB-600 will let you shoot at may vary. I also discovered I might need a battery pack for my flash (or a different grade of AA batteries, possibly Ni-Mh) because my recycling time was painfully slow in comparison to how quickly the bikers were flying by me! Anyway, I’ve learned a LOT about action photography primarily and I am excited for Matt’s next race (whenever that is). Hopefully, what I’ve learned will translate into better race pictures. For more of what I’ve been up to (pictorially), keep tabs on my other blog with photos.
5. Last month, I won an HP TouchSmart 600-1000t computer!! Surreal, right? Talk about God providing for his flock. Seriously, we had over 300 lbs of single-purpose electronics (60lb speakers, 1 clunky TV, a VCR player, a DVD player, a PlayStation 2 and a bunch of power cords). Our living room was a mess and then comes the most beautiful email I’ve ever seen saying I’d won the TouchSmart 600. You just have to read my post on Jane Talks Tech to find out more, but suffice it to say that the TouchSmart was what we needed. It rendered said 300lbs of single-purpose equipment redundant.

1. Registered to get a free Employer Identification Number with the federal government a.k.a. the IRS. It was an online process and rather painless. I opted to receive a one-time PDF download that contained my EIN number. This number is great because it allows you to do business without putting down your social security number (SSN) every time you do business with a vendor who requires an EIN or Tax Identification Number (TIN).
2. Registration with the state is surprisingly more painful and I’m not completely clear on what needs to be done to be recognized by the state. I did visit the State Tax website and registered to pay taxes on whatever income (which is not existent at this point) I may earn.
3. Registration with the county in which you are operational. What you actually need is a trade name application or a “fictitious name” application which allows you to ‘officially’ call yourself “J and J Photos” or in my case, Jane Ullah Photography. Thankfully, my county’s website was much saner than the State of Georgia’s so I have the paperwork and know what I need to get submitted i.e. 1 form indicating your operational business name which costs $30 and apparently, I’ll have to run an advert in the newspaper for 2 weeks which will also cost $$! Overall, I expected that I’d run into these administrative fees so I’m keeping meticulous records and planning on including these expenses on my Schedule C form for the tax year of 2010.
4. Rented a P.O. Box that will serve as my ‘official’ mailing address to receive correspondence. Mail meant for Jane Ullah Photography (fan me on Facebook!) should be addressed to: Jane Ullah Photography, P.O. Box 943 Athens GA 30603
5. Designed and ordered business cards for my business! I’m pretty proud of the work I did on my business cards. I heartily recommend that you use UPrinting.com which gives you a chance to preview what your card will look like called a “proof” in the PDF file format! I can’t stress how helpful that free feature was and they ship the cards promptly too!

It’s clearly a work in progress, but I look forward to becoming a small business owner/sole employee! Of course, I *still* have my day-job which I like and will be keeping, thank you very much.

Overall, it’s not as painful as I anticipated, but I’ll surely keep you informed if that viewpoint changes!

What have I been up to? Well, a LOT:

1. At work, I have my hands full and while I love being busy and I love my job, but at time, how I long for the slightly-less-hectic days of fall. My year-end evaluation was great and reflected what I felt about my job/bosses and coworkers. I *am* blessed to have a job that lets me thrive and allows me to be able to leave the job at work & come home to do whatever else strikes my fancy like blog about technology, blog about my photos and work on my business (Jane Ullah Photography)!
2. I inked my first contract to shoot a wedding this February. It’s my first wedding flying solo and I’m understandably nervous, but in a very good way! I want to exceed her expectations and get a good review too. So, wish me luck! I’ll be renting a backup camera, lens and dedicated flash from Borrow Lenses. I’ve never experienced any deal-breaking issues with lighting or camera, but I won’t jeopardize my job by not have a backup plan. I intend on attending her rehearsal for free in order to get acquainted with the church, etc.
3. I purchased a new HP dv7-3080us laptop at a ridiculously low price ($200 for a laptop that’s worth $1499!). I participated in a penny auction site (Swoopo.com is like eBay meets gambling) and I initially paid $150 for the laptop ($50 actual price I won the auction for, but I spent ~$100 in bids). Being a lousy gambler, I ended up losing $100 more on the site so I tell people I paid $250 for the laptop counting my $100 loss in. Read all about my penny auction win here and remember that my results are not typical. Matt has inherited my HP dv9700t customized notebook and he’s absolutely loving his increased productivity and our old desktop computer will be inherited by his dad (to replace his ancient 2000-era desktop computer).
4. Matt and I will be pet-parents! I adopted a 5-year-old mutt named “Ellie” and we are going to be moving in order to accommodate the need for a pet-friendly apartment! We will miss our old place, but now is the time for a new chapter in our lives: pet-parenthood! lol
5. I’ve been learning about using social media to my business’s benefit and here are the steps I’ve taken towards to that:
   • starting a twitter account dedicated to highlights samples of my work (@janeullah)
   • starting a photo blog (powered by Tumblr and it also autoposts to the twitter account above) that showcases samples of my work and keeps potential clients/visitors abreast of events/developments in Jane Ullah Photography
   • registered my business with the IRS:  Getting my Employer Identification Number (EIN) number was surprisingly painless and don’t get suckered into paying money to ANYONE for getting your EIN number from the federal government. I’m currently filling about forms to register my business with the state and my county as well as opening a business checking account for photography related purchases. In order to open a business checking account, you have to be registered within your state and have your DBA (“doing business as” or fictitious name registration form submitted to the state/county). Even if you don’t have employees, it’ll be smarter to use your EIN for business related issues versus your personal Social Security number. I’ll keep you posted on my progress with getting registered and all. It promises to be interesting to learn about my small business tax obligations, et cetera.
   • Getting listed in several search engines (Google, Yahoo Local and Bing (pending) as well as directories online like Wedding Wire, Gathering Guide, and Eventective. To increase visibility, I took advantage of a $100 Google Adwords credit which didn’t last long (surprisingly) and I ended up spending ~ $63 on Adwords.
   • Creating a Facebook Page for Jane Ullah Photography and using that as another avenue to spread the word! Tip: get over 25 fans for any page you create and you’ll be able to create an easy-to-remember username for that page. For instance, to visit Jane Ullah Photography on Facebook, check out http://facebook.com/janeullah. My personal page on Facebook uses my other handle: http://facebook.com/janetalkstech.
   • Registering for a “Fundamentals of Photography” class which counts towards the earning of a photography certificate! I can only go so far with the manuals. I think having deadlines and class assignments will take my creativity up a notch.
6. Matt’s kicking butt and taking names at his classes. He is currently on track to earn a certificate in Geographic Information Systems and will put those courses towards earning a degree in that field. It’s a LOT of work, but he is committed and I’m glad he’s letting me tag along to some of his IT-related classes! We’re such a quirky couple and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
7. So, I could rattle on and on, but the point is: good things are happening in Jane’s world. I’m in love with life and I hope you are too!

Enough of my horn-tooting. Duty calls! Ciao.

1. The biggest change that happened this year was that Matt and I have become more spiritual. By no means am I a bible thumper nor can I recite bible verses longer than 2 lines, BUT I’ve found a church that appeals to my core and I can’t wait to become a full member of this church. I’m SO looking forward to nourishing my soul with the Word of the Lord tomorrow (God willing).
2. I got an award at work for being so helpful during the use of the facilities at work by a government agency. Hopefully, little things like this will translate to a pay raise although this recession pretty much guarantees that I’ll be at my current pay grade for a year or two. It’s not too big of a deal, but it was nice to be recognized for my hard work.
3. Sometime in June, I quit biting my nails. I backslid twice, but never back to ground zero (i.e. as bad as it used to be) so I was always able to bounce back and I recently posted pictures of my hard-fought battle on Facebook which is what you see in this post. That picture signifies the personal, figurative and literal growth that is my life. I wish you the same.
4. Back in June, I submitted my application to the USCIS to remove restrictions placed on my permanent residency because Matt & I were married for less than two years. I can appreciate the reasons this limit was instituted, but for couples together for genuine reasons, it can be a nerve-wracking time. We filed the application without the aid of a lawyer because they charged over $1,000 for their use. In an amazing turn of events, our application got approved in less than 4 months and as I write, I am in possession of my 10-year permanent resident card, more commonly called the green card! This is awesome news and what this means for me in practical terms is that Matt & I will have the freedom to plot our travels.
5. I broke the 1 year curse. lol. Just kidding. My first real job after leaving grad. school for personal reasons was cut short due to funding issues after 9 months. I found another job in less than 2 weeks after that and it’s been over a year since I accepted the task of running a small laboratory. It’s been great and I discovered that I’m good after working with people and that managing *might* just be my thing! *Gasp*
6. I kicked off Jane Talks Tech! which mixes technology tips/advice for the common man and it’s already seeing upwards of 100 visitors per day AND at a Google pagerank of 3! This has been thanks to my timely posts about my Nokia E71x phone, getting publicized on Twitter (by being recommended on Twitter for #FollowFriday by Scott Hanselman) and just me pushing out good posts that get indexed by search engines & found by people!

That’s all for now. Until next time, cheers!

1. Eventective: Jane Ullah Photography on Eventective
2. GatheringGuide: Jane Ullah Photography on GatheringGuide
3. Yahoo! Locals (pending verification)
4. Jane Ullah Photography on Google Locals

It’s hard especially in an economic downturn, but I’m ‘consoling’ myself by reminding myself that I’m currently building my portfolio as a showcase. I’m not in debt and I have a day job so I’m not panicking yet. In the past months, I’ve shot two (2) weddings and 1 high school senior’s portraits. The leads on these were courtesy of Blane Marable, Owner of Blane Marable Photography who has been kind enough to let me tag along on his photoshoots.

Feel free to check out my work and leave comments critiquing my work. Cheers!

A sample of some photos I took at the Georgia vs. South Carolina game on the 12th of September, 2009. It was a nailbiter of a game, but I’m glad Dawgs won! Cheers

At least, I know what to do and what NOT to do this time around. For instance, I was a little shy to begin with so I was hesitant when the stadium wasn’t too crowded. That was a mistake I won’t be repeating because it becomes even harder once the stadium fills up with people! To make matters trickier for me, I was assigned to a section that had fans of the opposing team. lol. Talk about feeling like I was in the lion’s den or in enemy territory. Thankfully, I batted my baby brown eyes and sweetly asked for permission which, for the most part, was granted. Here are some videos I shot using my Nokia E71x phone about my experience! Cheers!

In other news, I’ve been a little blah on the photography front. However, this week, I applied for a gig as a fan photographer. I was invited to a group interview and I regret that I didn’t toot my horn more. However, I sent the lady in charge a follow-up email which she receives favourably (I hope). Basically, on game day, I’ll get to take pictures of Georgia fans and give them instructions on how to access those pictures in print for a fee. I hope I get picked because that’s right up my alley! I mean, if I were attending any of the games, I’d still take pictures. At least, if I take pictures for an organization, this way I get to be ‘legit’ and not have my subjects look at me cross-eyed whenever I say I’m a ‘freelance’ photographer. lol. In yet other news, I might be assisting a photographer friend of mine in shooting a wedding amongst other things!! Yes, you heard right. A. Wedding. I am floored that he is taking a chance on me and I hope I bring my A game to that wedding. I’m so excited about the possibilities and just grateful to God for opening my heart & eyes to different options and paths that I could take. As always, man proposes, but God disposes.

In yet yet other news (lol), Matt’s getting a root canal done! His tooth got infected and it finally started hurting. After much nagging prodding from yours truly, he went to the dentist to hear the bad news he already suspected. It’s an allegedly painful procedure that he’s scheduled for next week and he’ll pretty much be ingesting liquids for a time after he’s had the procedure. On my first EVER visit to the dentist, I got some tartar removed and got told that I had ‘nice teeth’. That was nice. So, wish him luck! He’s got his plate full between being at school full time, working over the weekends and car trouble, he is reaching his capacity for busy-ness. lol. Thankfully, he’s hanging tight and using the tricks he learned from his programming course in the summer. I’m so proud of my man!

That’s all for now. Stay blessed! I hope to write more stuff in this personal journal. In the meantime, stay safe and stay informed over at my technology blog, Jane Talks Tech! Cheers