# Look What I Saw Today!



## sm4him (Aug 26, 2013)

First ever post in the Professional Gallery--wow, I feel so Important and Responsible and Confident now. :lmao:

Some time ago, I created a thread asking advice about shooting some portraits on a city bus.

Today, for the first time ever, I saw THIS:



A freakin' BILLBOARD with one of the photos *I* took on it!!!!!!!!!!
At work, I took it completely in stride, like I couldn't really care less because I do this sort of thing All. The. Time.
But inside...man, I was more excited than a kid at Christmas to see this! My photo on a Billboard??? Yeah. THAT Rocks. Hard.  :lmao:

By the way, it's the billboard on the left, not the "Learn to Ride" one.
and I had no hand in the graphic design, just took the photo.

There are, in all, four different billboard photos in various locations around town.  Additionally, there will be, I think, about 8 different photos that will be used for bus wraps which should start showing up on the buses in the next couple of weeks.  Then there will also be newspaper ads, but what I'm really pumped about are the billboards and bus wraps, because I have NEVER seen one of my photos quite THAT big before!

Happy Happy Happy.


----------



## Ilovemycam (Aug 26, 2013)

Fantastic....GREAT for you!!


----------



## Ysarex (Aug 26, 2013)

:cheer::cheer::cheer:


----------



## tirediron (Aug 26, 2013)

:hail:


----------



## SCraig (Aug 26, 2013)

Congratulations!  Way to go!


----------



## MSnowy (Aug 26, 2013)

Cool! Congrats!


----------



## Tiller (Aug 26, 2013)

NICE!!


----------



## pgriz (Aug 26, 2013)

So, do you get one for your living room?


----------



## DarkShadow (Aug 26, 2013)

May I have your audagraph now that your famous. A TPF Party is in order for Sharon, I got the cake who got the party hats.Congrats:hail:


----------



## leighthal (Aug 26, 2013)

Bravo! So happy for you.


----------



## JacaRanda (Aug 26, 2013)

Cool deals, congrats!


----------



## Derrel (Aug 26, 2013)

Oh, Sharon, it looks wonderful!!!! The shot looks great, and the way the text has been overlayed and the image toned...it all looks wonderful! That's pretty cool! Good for you. I knew it'd work out for ya'!


----------



## oldhippy (Aug 26, 2013)

Way to go Sharon, You just keep improving. I know you have to be proud


----------



## mishele (Aug 26, 2013)

Wooohooo!! Congrats, Sharon!! That is awesome!!


----------



## Robin_Usagani (Aug 26, 2013)

The WB is off, the 2 cars at the front is distracting, blown background.


----------



## KrisztinaK (Aug 26, 2013)

Congratulations!  I'm really happy for you !  
I'd be over the moon if I were in your shoes.


----------



## baturn (Aug 26, 2013)

Big time congratulations!!!


----------



## sm4him (Aug 27, 2013)

Thanks all! I'm still pretty excited; going to go find one of the others today!



pgriz said:


> So, do you get one for your living room?


Haha, yeah, maybe I can get several and wallpaper a whole room of my house in it! :lmao:



DarkShadow said:


> May I have your audagraph now that your famous. A TPF Party is in order for Sharon, I got the cake who got the party hats.Congrats:hail:



PAR-TAY!!! Yes!! Forget the hats, though, someone just bring the margaritas! :mrgreen:



Derrel said:


> Oh, Sharon, it looks wonderful!!!! The shot looks great, and the way the text has been overlayed and the image toned...it all looks wonderful! That's pretty cool! Good for you. I knew it'd work out for ya'!



Thanks, Derrel! Your help was invaluable and made me feel MUCH more confident going into the shoots!



Robin_Usagani said:


> The WB is off, the 2 cars at the front is distracting, blown background.



:lmao:  The WB is *definitely* off--is it just me, or does she have kind of green tint to her? :lmao:


----------



## paigew (Aug 27, 2013)

That is totally awesome!! Congrats


----------



## PixelRabbit (Aug 27, 2013)

That's beyond cool Sharon awesome job! HUGE congrats! Enjoy!


----------



## imagemaker46 (Aug 27, 2013)

Congrats on this great achievement for you, hopefully the first of many.

Scott


----------



## tts (Aug 28, 2013)

Awesome


----------



## Steve5D (Aug 28, 2013)

What is it that you do for a living?


----------



## o hey tyler (Aug 28, 2013)

Congrats Sharon!


----------



## ronlane (Aug 28, 2013)

Awesome.


----------



## manaheim (Aug 28, 2013)

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.


----------



## krystalynnephoto (Aug 29, 2013)

Very cool! Congrats!!


----------



## sm4him (Aug 29, 2013)

Steve5D said:


> What is it that you do for a living?



I work for the city's public transit system. My "official" title is Information Specialist. When I started, my job entailed mostly doing all the editorial work, producing schedules and programming the electronic destination signs on the fronts of the buses. Since that time (8 years ago), I've morphed the job into something else entirely. I no longer have to deal with the destination signs, but I still do all the editorial work, much of the graphics work (although we do contract outside for big things like this ad campaign--but I am creating ads for some of the smaller newspapers in town), plus I mantain the website and manage all of our social media outlets.
And--I do our photography. The photography part is not in my job description, but neither is most of the rest of what I do.

It's a fairly reasonable trade-off; they pay me a ridiculously low income for doing what they would otherwise have to hire three different people to do, and *I* get about as much job security as a person can have these days, plus a pretty flexible work schedule and a boss that I actually like working for.


----------



## sm4him (Aug 29, 2013)

Here's another one I saw yesterday. This one is just about a mile from my house--I think it's a little bit odd that it advertises a route that is NOT in our part of town, but oh well. 

This is just a cell phone picture of it:



This was one of my favorite "models." This girl just had such a natural beauty about her. These are NOT models, by the way--they are all actual bus passengers. We held a contest and asked people to submit cell phone pics of themselves on the bus and tell us how they like to use their commute. We selected about a dozen of them and did full photo shoots with them.


----------



## runnah (Aug 29, 2013)

Good work Sharon.


----------



## DiskoJoe (Aug 29, 2013)

Did you get paid?


----------



## Warhorse (Aug 29, 2013)

Sounds like it is part of her job.


----------



## sm4him (Aug 29, 2013)

DiskoJoe said:


> Did you get paid?





Warhorse said:


> Sounds like it is part of her job.



No, this wasn't really a "required" part of my job. My boss asked me if I'd be interested, but I had the option to turn it down and there would have been NO ill will on anyone's part if I'd done so.

No, I did not get paid. I considered that, but the truth is, I really didn't know at the time that I had the skills to pull this off (see original thread about this, asking for input, here), so I decided to do it without requesting payment for it.

Really, it's a fair trade-off. I did the shoots for free, but in exchange, not only did I gain experience, but I also ensured even greater job security for myself, and it was already just about as "secure" as anyone can hope to be these days. So, by saving them all that money they would have spent on an outside photographer, I basically ensure that I will continue to have a job making next to nothing for as long as I live. :lmao:

In all seriousness, I really didn't feel that confident that I could pull it off. I made myself almost physically ill the day before the first shoot (there's also a thread about THAT around here somewhere).  I have no real intention of ever trying to make a living at this, so I didn't feel like I was potentially shooting myself in the foot or anything.  Maybe I'll regret that at some point, but I doubt it.

My photography goals run more toward maybe having a gallery showing of some of my wildlife, abstract and/or macro stuff someday. I have no desire to do portrait work for a living.


----------



## CherylL (Aug 30, 2013)

Congrats!!!


----------



## kundalini (Sep 2, 2013)

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy.......


----------



## jackjemphotographer (Sep 4, 2013)

Great Job Sharon!!!
your effort has been shown in this photography. Looking forward some more artistic photograph ....:hail:


----------



## Steve5D (Sep 7, 2013)

Well, kudos for taking shots of such quality that they want to use them but, if it's not a part of your job, you should be getting paid. The city's getting a lot of mileage out of them. You, too, should benefit...


----------



## MartinCrabtree (Sep 7, 2013)

Great. Congratulations.


----------



## raventepes (Sep 7, 2013)

Fantastic job!  

You know...really...all photographers...deep down...we're a bit of a vein lot when you stop to think of it. We like our egos boosted. True story!


----------

