Archive for the ‘reviews’ Category

Review of New SmugMug Downloader

Posted by ScottJarvie at 24 March 2010

Category: Tips For Photographers, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I have a lot of pictures on SmugMug which gives me peace of mind in case something ever happens to my SmugMugPro.Luckily nothing has
I have a lot of pictures on SmugMugPro which gives me peace of mind in case something ever happens to my DroboPro.
Because I could use a cool program and download the images.
USES
Luckily nothing has ever happened to them and I’ve never needed the pictures because of something bad going wrong. If I did need them I could re-download them from SmugMug for my clients. I did however once need the pictures while on the road away from the computer.
MANY TIMES i’ve wanted to put them on facebook, not just one or two but most of the album… I used to rt click on each picture… then I learned it was much faster to drag and drop into an album. Now i’ve learned it’s much faster to use a program that’ll download them for me, like all at x2 size and then upload to facebook.
Why get them from SmugMug? Because it preps the pictures to look mighty nice on facebook which is known to have problems… it also puts my watermark on, which saves me tons of time.
What’s out there
I have always used AlbumFetcher which works perfectly and only works for Windows. I haven’t used RapidFetcher which I’m told is cross platform.
SmugMug Downloader Review
But I tried out SmugMug Downloader which is a Java app – so I’m assuming it’ll run on both mac and windows. It looks nice, it seems simple. But it’s lacking a ton of functionality. I wonder if they’re just gonna keep it simple or make it more robust and usable?
For one: I have a client needing their pictures like right now for a political campaign. This program requires a password which I’m not going to give to a client. I also don’t see where to select the size pictures you want to download. Which makes it so it doesn’t help me out.
Organization can only be sorted in 3 ways and one of them is not date gallery was created. So for someone with almost 1000 albums of pictures yeah it makes it hard.
But I will say kudos to trying it out and making it look nice. I would hope there are some people out there with some good use of this program.
For now if you’re on Windows Album Fetcher is pretty complete.

I have a lot of pictures on SmugMugPro which gives me peace of mind in case something ever happens to my DroboPro. Because I could use a cool program and download the images.

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How winter photography is easier this year

Posted by scott at 4 January 2010

Category: Tips For Photographers, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

This is how my winter photography has gotten so much easier this year.

I wear warmer shoes ready for any condition and ready for any place I might have to step.
Sometimes I’m even ready to wear thermals so that I can wear a sweater and avoid a big puffy jacket, because that gets in my way.

I’m still willing and able to get down on the ground for the shot.

But most of all my hands are staying warm.

I bought these gloves and they work like a charm and were well worth the money.
I bought them at Outdoor Photo Gear

Buy them here and have a better winter

There are other options
Certainly plenty of much cheaper gloves and perhaps many are “good enough”, but if you’re still looking for something this will be better.
If you’re happy with where you’re at then I guess you don’t need new gloves anyway.

I will say that this is a photographers glove not a glove that happens to work for photography.

Anytime you’re bothered or burdened and not putting you’re best towards the client it decreases your abilities exponentially

1 Comment

Coupons and Questions : SmugMug

Posted by scott at 10 December 2009

Category: reviews

Tags: , , , , , , ,

So SmuMug has released a feature I’ve wanted for a long time ever since David Terry told me about the idea.
(BTW happy birthday David)

I’ve been waiting for a version of coupons that would ease the way to let the clients choose their pictures straight from the site.
Like a little shopping spree. But allow me to still be in control of the end result.

As a photographer I want to focus more of my time on creating better pictures and not spending so much time picking pictures and dabbling in business things and I would hope my customers would appreciate this.
I also like the fact that it all still goes through me when they select pictures, and I’m sure that’s what the customer hopes for as well…
I love their print delay feature… having a few days to review their order and enhance the pictures before they’re sent to the printer is perfect.

There are 4 types of SmugMug coupons.
Percent off
Dollar amount off
At Cost
Print Credit (Gift Card)

I’m mostly interested in the last of these… which is also probably the most complicated type.

“Print Credit – This functions just like a gift card. If a customer does not use it up in an order, the balance will remain to use on future orders. You can optionally set a start and end date for its use.”

So thanks for the coupons SmugMug and I hope my customers love the idea as much as I do and look forward to incorporation of coupons in 2010 packages.

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Now for the questions and requests:

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JarvieDigital Highlights : All The Photographers BLOG

Posted by scott at 23 November 2009

Category: reviews

Highlighting JarvieDigital

For the rest of the month I’ll be highlighting the many projects and sites found on the JarvieDigital launch page http://jarviedigital.com

The launch page itself was designed by Thom Allen and Jake Spurlock with some prior input by Jonathan Bond

It seems fitting for the first highlight that I present a brand spanking new project… a blog.

All the Photographers BLOG

Finally here

I’ve been developing the idea for a while now, and have just recently freed up enough time to get it going.

Each day we’ll highlight a different photographer from all around the world doing different kinds of photography at different skill levels.

At the moment you’ll notice a lot of Utah photographers, as it was easiest to start off dealing with people I know.

There are already 10 photographer reviews and we have another 10 drafts which we’ll release on a consistent basis

Multiple authors

Next I’ll be training other authors how to log-in and create their own reviews.

If you are interested in being another author please drop us a line blog@allthephotographers.com we’d love to consider you.

Purpose

To share great photography with aspiring photographers and non-photographers alike.
The site is a jumping off point, these are only recaps of photographers, there will be links so people can go see more of their work.

A place you can go to find new people you might never have heard about.
It will also be used as a place where  people can search for photographers (by type of photography, country/state, and keywords)

We intend that the site inspires people with all the wonderful work and creativity.

Goals

To make great photographers more well known.
To share beautiful art.

I also have a personal goal to have several authors with multiple posts a day.
I also have a goal to hit 10,000 consistent readers by June .

To get involved

If you’re interested in either
Becoming an Author
Being reviewed

Feel free to send an email to blog@allthephotographers.com

I hope to stock pile a good 30-40 reviews in advance.

Photographers
If you’re a photographer or aspiring photographer, this can be one of the best opportunities to learn and be expired.
I know many of you already spend a lot of time searching for photographers.
Why not spend 20-30 extra minutes and create a post and share your finds with the rest of the world, and make better connections and network with other photographers.

Highlights so far:

Charles Uibel

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Whitney Lewis

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I used a LensBaby in “Real Life”

Posted by scott at 19 November 2009

Category: Wedding Pictures, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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Hey look!!
I used a lensbaby on an actual photo-shoot.

These are wedding detail shots from two weddings.
Both were pictures of rings.

That’s not to say I probably couldn’t use it even more and get some really fun results.
But I just haven’t… many times the situation wasn’t right or I didn’t have enough time.

Focusing takes a lot longer so the situation had to be right.

Taking pictures of rings are cool… because they don’t move.
I did these without a tripod and it took a while.
I was using the macro filter adapters, and focusing and the depth of field was so narrow it was really hard to nail down.

I ogirinally bought the Lensbaby because I was trying to purchase the Nikon 105 macro and pictureline was out of stock that day.
Therefore I used the lensbaby to get Macros.

Next wedding I’m taking the G11 and testing it out to get some macros (details)

May I add I had a second generation lensbaby years ago… tried it on one wedding and never used it since.
The LensBaby composer is much more user friendly in my opinion.

To learn more about LensBaby go here

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This is probably the most iconic LensBaby look… with the blurred edges.

First wedding that I used it on was the following

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Am I supposed to own a Mac as a Photographer?

Posted by scott at 7 November 2009

Category: reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are we going with MAC as an industry for some actual reason?
Or just because everyone else is doing it? Is it all HYPE a sort of placebo affect?

(FYI: I own a PC and a MAC.)

What actual benefit does MAC have on graphics that everyone says

“If you do anything with graphics or video, 100% hands-down, no option go with a MAC.”

Pictures look real pretty on a MAC and I hope my clients view on a really nice big mac display.
But I run a color calibration to get Real-as-they-should-be-looks and it seems to take away all that niceness so I can view the picture as it really is.
(So doesn’t that erase the benefit of those displays?)
This is because of the way they build their displays and do their color profiles… so should i just be buying a Mac Display?
(Aren’t the color profiles replaced when you do a color calibration?)

(more…)

12 Comments

SmugMug 1000GBs Later

Posted by scott at 30 October 2009

Category: news, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I signed up for SmugMug Apr 2nd 2008 – And this is my review

(200K+ pictures and 1000Gbs later)

Read the FULL long and Intensive review after the jump

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GorillaPod for the Big Boys

Posted by scott at 20 October 2009

Category: reviews

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(D300s with a 14-24 on – taking pictures every 20 seconds for about 3hrs – don’t ask me if that’s normal i just kinda made it up as I went)

I’m gonna make this short or I’ll get overwhelmed and you won’t see many more of these.

I just wanted to take a minute to say I loved having the Joby Gorillapod while in Mexico for a week.
It was small and easy to cary around, weighing next to nothing and attaching to the outside of my bag.

I love pictureline and all and me them are all friends, but I must say the pictures on their site are less than astounding as you can tell from their lack of photo of the product on the website. Tisk Tisk!

But nevertheless here’s the link

GorillaPods aren’t perfect you have to fiddle with the legs for sometimes TOO LONG and the screw in base isn’t that great, but I was too lazy to screw in my kirby tripod head into the gorillapod and have a better option.
So I dealt with it.

But overall it came in way handy as I photographed pictures.

I did 2 sets of time lapse projects.
Both of a group of humanitarian workers working on a cement floor for someone less fortunate.

I probably won’t get to compiling them for a while but it was fun doing it and at least I have the raw footage.

having an extra battery made that all possible. Also getting an umbrella over the camer on one of the non-cloudy days was comforting.

While those pictures were being taken with the interval timing function (found on most mid to high level D-SLRs) I was able to use my other camera to do other pics.

The GorillaPod did seem like a little too expensive at first. But I was viewing it’s small size and comparing against the other gorillapods that are for the smaller cameras and cost a lot less.
But i’m very happy I bought it. I used it much more than my nice fancy pantsy carbon fiber tripod. As it just wasn’t practical to lug around to these humanitarian jobs anyway.

For now I’ll keep you in suspense until I complete the time lapse videos. Keep checking back… haha… someday it’ll pop up.

More on my trip to mexico to come.

Including a few more words on
photographing while river rafting
photography in a foreign country
photographing from a car (my speciality)
photographing with a GPS device connected (I realized that after almost a year of ownership I still haven’t written a proper review on the GP-1)

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First Underwater Picture Experience

Posted by scott at 15 October 2009

Category: Tips For Photographers, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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UNDERWATER CAMERA

I bought a small camera (A Canon G10) and the corresponding Underwater Housing.

I’m in Mexico at the moment at a nice resort.
It’s on the beach and has a nice pool.

I’m whitewater rafting on friday, I couldn’t think of a safe way to bring along a DSLR on this event… So i tested out the camera today.
A DSLR underwater housing would be cool but it costs well over 1000 and wasn’t readily available and certainly not in time for the trip.

I bought my camera and housing from pictureline the day I left for Mexico.

Plus some other considerations were that I wasn’t going to have many opportunities to use it and I tend to upgrade cameras so which camera do i buy it for? (D700? well it’s already hit over 150K clicks and is ready to be replaced just as soon as there is an upgrade)

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OTHER GOOD POINTS ABOUT A SMALL CAMERA

Might I add having the small camera has been nice for certain situations.

It doesn’t make any noises making it even more sneaky for times when you didn’t want people to know.

It’s more acceptable in certain situations such as malls or airports or other places they look down on my big cameras.

And the obvious is that it can fit in my pockets (bigger guy pockets)

MY TESTING

It’s fun!

I can see how a Snorkler or Diver would have a ton more fun!

Small cameras are frustrating sometimes. The lag from when you hit the button.
Frames per second…. yeah right. I can take fast shots for nothing!

I wanted to take pictures of the waves rolling in and it was frustratingly slow.

Timing means so much in photography, difference from a good shot to a great shot!

The biggest test was passed… no water got in!

I couldn’t hardly tell i was shooting through an underwater casing, until I was out of the water and the beads of water were on the glass rolling down. Kind of a pain…. maybe there’s a trick.

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This is our huge Gulf of Mexico waves, i think this one topped out at 6

6 inches!!

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The D300s … introducing video

Posted by scott at 28 August 2009

Category: news, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

What Am I Introducing

So we’re not really introducing video to cameras,

But we are itroducing video to this blog.

And I am introducing the D300s

Since now I own a camera that does video it makes it so easy to record video, upload to smugmug and imbed that video here on this blog.

My disclaimers are:

This is the first video on my blog, my first video I’ve recorded for a blog. So I did several takes because I wasn’t about to spend the time to edit and splice stuff.
But I still made verbal mistakes and since I only have owned the camera for a few hours I still don’t have a handle on the focusing.
I also did hand hold it…
So basically don’t get too after me about the quality of filming.

But I do aim and can promise I will get much better.

D300s

Rundown on new notable features.

  • Video
  • 7 frames per second without grip
  • faster access to live view – 2 button clicks to start recording
  • on camera mic and plug in for external mic
  • better d-lighting
  • quite mode – means take a picture without much noise. (forgot to mention on video)
  • dual CF and SD slots
  • Better latch for memory card slots
  • the cool center button I love (like introduced on D700)

If you want me to talk about anything else… I might be persuaded to make a few more videos.

This blog also happens to be a test of the amazing video features of SmugMug – the place where I happen to put all of my pictures.

I searched for a while to figure out how to embed video into this blog (it being my first time) there were ANY good resources I could easily find online (we know how a mess the internet is)
So I’ll quickly say I grabbed the embed into web code from smugmug much as one would get the embed link for a picture.
You must keep in mind this is code and not a URL or link… so you switch over to HTML on your wordpress editor and drop it into its place.
This suposes you know how to do a lot of what i just explained. But for me that’s exactly what I was hoping to find out that took me 20 minutes to figure out on my own because there were no good sources.

Shameless plug: Who wants to buy a used D300 (or even a much less expensive D200)

7 Comments

Best photo editing computer

Posted by scott at 10 June 2009

Category: lightroom, reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Disclaimer

I’m talking about tons of editing… fast editing.
A computer for tons and tons of editing with fastest speeds possible.
Not a computer that will be used from time to time to edit.
Because if you have other pressing needs for the computer then your decision might differ.

My solution isn’t for the pretiest or the most user friendly… I’m talking effeciency!

Fastest, most powerful machine to run Lightroom or Photoshop. = Saving Time

Winner = Hand built PC for serious editing

If you want the fastest machine possible (at the moment) for picture editing you’ll have to stick with a PC for now.

-Good news is it will be abt half the cost (Roughly $3000 less)

-You’ll either need to set it up yourself
OR – Pay someone a couple hundred to set it up.
Still much cheaper than a Mac by several thousand.

Price has a lot to do with my consideration… so if several thousand for a similar powered machine isn’t a concern… by all means go Mac.

I don’t like store bought PCs

Thing about PCs is that stores sell cheap PCs or sell the good ones too expensive.
(Not an efficient move)
The PCs in stores aren’t that good… companies trying to make a buck on shoddy stuff. Therefore the whole PC system gets a bad rap.

And I must admit Macs are great for people who don’t know much about computers and have no desire to learn. But they just aren’t as fast for the same cost… and the options are way limited in comparison. (Stick with them for laptops)

Get a really great one set up by someone

Like i said just pay some techy friend to set it up…
or I’ll find you a techy friend to set it up for you.
Spend the couple hundred you save by buying hand selected parts and pay someone.

My old PC vs New MacBook Pro

I have a brand new MacBookPro for traveling but it’s way way slower than my PC. (1 yr Old quad core)
But laptops are small and convenient and great for travel. I don’t expect to use it all the time, just travel… that’s what it does best.
Why mac for laptop – macs don’t have a huge price difference when it comes to the higher end. I think it was only a few hundred more than the HP and it was smaller and had better battery life. The mac laptops are great…

BUT… For serious editing – use a desktop with real power

But come on, don’t use a laptop for editing if you do lots.
If you edit just a bit… it’s ok, by all means… get a laptop and plug it into a monitor and use a mouse.

COST

Top of the line PC can be built sub $2k (w/o monitor)
(See details below)

Throw in a dell or a mac 30″ monitor and then you’re loving life, you’ve saved several thousand by going PC why not.

MAC = $5549  (w/o monitor)
8cores 2.6, 2 video cards, 2HDs
(NO FAST HD option like an SSD … at least not from their store… so you’ll need to get one of those somehow and reinstall OS)

So yeah it’s a fast machine I can only imagine, perhaps due for an update… but it’s nice.
They really don’t have a lesser version I would recomend unless get the 4 core instead of the 8 core.

Mac is $3000 dollars more and isn’t technically quite as fast. (Not sure how it compare honestly)
But it is prettier and the Mac/OS is nice for many people.

But let’s face it… you’re using Lightroom and Photoshop not finder or laucher all day long.

Seriously I’ll find someone to build it for you

Specs=

i7 8cores, 12gb ram, SSD fast HD with several 1.5TB HDs, best video card or two for up to 4 monitors, full tower, best MB with tons of toys.

Crazy fast for Lightroom editing.
Add in a 30″ monitor or a couple of regular size ones.
I recomend always having a couple of monitors

Oh and if you play games on the side… You’ve pretty much built the ultimate gaming machine

Yet another reason to get a PC for editing?
Fusion IO is coming out with their incredible new pro-sumer HD and it’s a PC device!
And no longer do you have to spend $3-$10K to buy one!

11 Comments

Everyone needs to get RICH in their life.

Posted by scott at 20 February 2009

Category: reviews

Tags: , , , ,

This is partly a response to another blog post

Via the other blog we learned that one type of person we need

The points were these:
- Find someone that shares your passion
- Find someone nice that is fun to be around
- Find someone that will be a really good friend to you.

But there are other types of people we need in our life.
We need a Rich Legg

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Spare a moment for URL introductions:

http://www.leggnet.com – Blog

Twitter

Facebook

He desperately needs more facebook friends… so don’t forget to add him! He’ll cry if you don’t :(

He’s a stock photographer so his portfolio of photography can be found there
He’s one of the top stock photographers in the country.

And he loves to teach and give back.

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—————–

What kind of person do we need?

  • We need someone who believes in us.
  • Beyond that, who believes in us so much they’ll tell everyone.
  • They’ll boost our ego (… or confidence is a better way of saying it.)
  • Someone who sits at the cool kids table and in front of the whole school invites you to come on over… and makes you feel like you’re now one of the cool kids.
  • Who makes your job easier because they’ve taken it upon themselves to help you.
    Whether it be teaching or being your best advertiser.
  • All in all we need someone who appreciates us.

-Also-

  • We need a person that will play around and joke with you but that you know that when the joking is done it’s nothing but a real solid friendship and caring.
  • Someone who does something in complete and opposite style… but you can both really appreciate what the other person does.
  • Someone you can bounce ideas off of.

And if you know Rich… then you know that even if he jokes around and plays with people… that he really is a great person.
And he does these things and more.

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Look how he’s being all tough… like he’ll beat up anyone who messes with his friend!
Stands behind you and believes in you… that’s what we all need!

5 Comments

My Report on D700

Posted by scott at 12 August 2008

Category: reviews

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I want to give you my personal feelings and observations on the D700

No facts just opinions

There’s plenty of sites with specific details on this new camera so i’ll not repeat this but give you a little of my opinion and leave the stats and facts to them.

My Camera background:

I’ve owned the following cameras

D70
D70s
D200
D300

I use lenses that are low light 2.8 or lower.

D300

That being said earlier this year I bought the D300 primarily because I wanted to be able to operate at higher ISO

While I’m happy I have the D300 i must say that I haven’t been operating at higher ISOs with it.
I think I’m getting pickier and pickier and the way they “get rid” of the grain wasn’t to my liking.

So once again I got a new camera hoping that it would work well in those high ISOs.

Problem Solved

And my first opinion is… it most certainly does seem to solve my ISO problems.

To someone taking pictures in darker situations (receptions or indoors anywhere) that’s a big deal and could be worth the $3k

Right now I’m looking at some pictures I took at a reception. It was dark outside they were cutting the cake and I wanted to be at a faster speed to avoid movement blur when they smeared the cake in eachothers face.

125th of a second speed and 1000ISO and the picture was completely useable… and that’s what it’s all about.

I haven’t been afraid to go up much higher than 1000ISO but I haven’t tested exactly the level that I am comfortable with. My guess is I’d probably go all the way to 3200 without too much concern. And if it’s alright to have a moody grainy picture I might even go up to 12k.

UPDATE: I’ve been looking at a lot of the pictures taken at 1600 and I’ll absolutely use them without any hesitation. They look great! They’re somewhat soft and maybe not crisp as most pictures but had I taken them with another camera the grain would have been prohibitive or at a slower shutter speed the pictures might have been very blury (and that’s worse)

Not only was the grain not a factor but the colors were beautiful!

A Pleasant Surprise

I wasn’t expecting that!
It will take some more shoots to really get a handle on it but my first impression is that the color of the pictures might be way better on this camera… which certainly saves me a lot of time in editing.

Enjoyed it more than I thought.

I always considered myself more of a telephoto kind of guy.
So when I picked up the full frame camera and lost that 50% increase in telephoto I thought it would just be alright. But I must say I really enjoyed it. My 28mm lens acted just like my 18mm lens of old.

Now this just means I’ve got to get a 14-24 2.8 nikon lens for $1600 later in the month.

This is my perspective and it comes from my opinions of my D300 and how it compares… If you have any questions ask away.

2 Comments

So you think you can Photograph?

Posted by scott at 1 June 2008

Category: Photography Info, Tips For Photographers, reviews

Tags: , , , ,

You know… like “So you think you can Dance?”

There are a lot of people wanting to Take pictures out there. Awesome!

But I’m gonna take a shot at classifying their level of interest in photography.

1. In word only -
It’s an excelent thing to want to be better at photography
In this stage someone would have to push you to actually do something
What it means to me:  40%/30% commitment… me doing most of the work
Meaning… I love your appreciation for photography and hope it goes well
If you’re really attractive it could be worth it. haha

2. If it’s convenient
This means you really want to, but there are a lot of other things just a bit more important.
Photography doesn’t have to be #1 for everyone. I suppose it’s better for business :)
What it means to me: It’s kinda like a 50/50 commitment. Usually results in getting the basics down and being satisfied. One photography Lesson is typical. But they’ll cancel the lesson if something comes up.

3. Stop at Nothing.
They’ll figure out how to be a better photographer wether or not I help them.
What it means to me: It’s like a 100/100 partnership.
They are resourceful and persistent and that makes me more willing to help.
What I like about it the most… I’m not the one arranging the times.
If you really are #3 I won’t be the one setting up stuff.
I might inform when I have a job you can come watch/assist.

The point is… I understand all 3 and it’s alright to be 1 or 2
But i probably won’t be as helpful for 1 and 2… unless it’s convenient for me (Or she’s cute)

This goes for everything… there’s a lot of people out there that are willing to teach and help. But what do you bring to the table? And showing thanks doesn’t have to be material… but above all it comes in the sincerity of your desire and your appreciation.

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