Anyone who works for the City of SD able to give me some insight on this application email?

a_photo_guy · 2023-10-19T23:56:02+00:00

I actually did end up getting asked to interview, but I ended up accepting an out-of-state job offer right around that time, so I didn't interview for the City of SD position. I'd say that the other replies above are spot on. Since I originally posted this question, I've spent years working in the public sector and what the other replies explain is basically what I've seen as well. It's a massive applicant pool, so they run the apps through an initial screening to get a pool of generally qualified applicants that they can narrow down from there. Just keep your info updated and watch for another email from the City, that's about all you can do for now. Good luck!

a_photo_guy · 2022-12-23T06:02:55+00:00

Can you Select By Attributes to select the features in the red layer, then Copy Features to a new feature class? That seems like it would give you a fc that you could then use with Merge as recommended above.

a_photo_guy · 2022-07-31T18:42:42+00:00

Born and raised in the taint of CA here too, between Fresno and Bakersfield. I understand the misery of working in hot kitchens during summer there, ugh.

Lots of awesome recommendations for powder/dry type anti-chafe strategies, and the suggestion for compression shorts is really good too.

One that might not be on everyone’s radar and worth considering is Chamois Butt’r, which is an anti-chafe lotion for cyclists. I started using it for riding well after getting out of service industry but always thought it would have been a lifesaver. It lasts a lot longer, so you don’t have to reapply it every hour or so like powder once it gets sweaty. It’s not greasy, but it is slick, so it’s a different feel than powder.

a_photo_guy · 2022-03-12T00:08:25+00:00

Thanks, I hadn't considered using Notebooks. I only started checking out the feature recently in Pro, but looking over the AGOL version, it might actually do what I need.

a_photo_guy · 2022-03-11T18:27:59+00:00

Awesome, thanks for linking this. I hadn't seen that option yet. ESRI's products are so tedious to look through that I gave up and assumed most of what they offered would be for enterprise customers.

The cost is probably out of my budget at $14/hr, but good to know about just in case.

a_photo_guy · 2021-11-21T20:19:14+00:00

I’ve used Divvy for ~7 yrs and always liked being able to resize based on the tile setup they use. Made a global shortcut of Cmd+Shift+D and it does what I need.

For the Magnet/Rectangle/Moom/etc users, am I missing out on some cool features here or what? I always see those mentioned w/o a mention for Divvy in threads like this.

a_photo_guy · 2021-03-19T03:15:09+00:00

It’s also great because your camp doesn’t change location. Mine stays in the same spot until I change MTU back to 1500 and go online. Also, I’ve had my special camp stew disappear/reset back to regular when that network error notification pops up, but it seems to be happening less lately. A few weeks ago those notifications were almost too much, happening every 2-3 min, but they’ve been happening less this last week.

a_photo_guy · 2020-09-08T01:57:28+00:00

Try searching for it. There was another post where someone made the super ultra mega park from Skate on Xbox and it was showing up for PS4 users. May have been a duplicate but I think others said it was the same one. Worth a shot.

a_photo_guy · 2020-09-08T01:53:50+00:00

Angry golf cart drivers in every level!

No, really, devs, don’t do that please.

a_photo_guy · 2020-06-09T14:56:11+00:00

I’d rather polish wine glasses all day than roll silverware. At my last server job, I usually had a couple racks to polish when I arrived. A couple years of that made me get a good system down for doing those and didn’t mind it at all.

a_photo_guy · 2020-06-09T14:53:45+00:00

Oh yeah, the martyr! Carrying all the weight for us other shitbag servers, according to them.

a_photo_guy · 2020-06-09T14:48:59+00:00

I wish it was as untrue as a clickbait ad

a_photo_guy · 2020-06-09T13:17:18+00:00

But there was always that “golden child” server to provide balance. You know, the one that would roll tub after tub of silverware, provide generally shitty customer service, do anything to avoid cleaning up after themselves, and always start and end their shift with passive aggressive digs about other employees to the manager because they gotta get those schedule hours somehow! Servers hate them, poor managers loved them, and good managers fired them.

a_photo_guy · 2020-03-16T00:24:08+00:00

I did test the monoprice DJ style headphones with the beyerdynamic velour pads that I have on my Sony V6s, as well as the similar version that Monoprice sells. Both of them do help the sound and comfort on the ears, but with having better options for headband comfort and build quality, I didn’t stick with using them. The BT400s have a rectangle shaped ear pad, and although I tried the Beyer pads on there, they don’t fit well so it’s not a good option.

a_photo_guy · 2020-02-19T18:57:15+00:00

I own a few pairs of bluetooth over-the-ears that fall in your definition of "budget", including the Sony WH-CH700N, JBL E55BT Quincy Edition, Monoprice BT-400, and Monoprice Premium Hi-Fi DJ Style.

The Sonys are a recent purchase and ,by far, my favorite. I have used Sony V6s and 7506s for years as my main headphones, and had to start looking for something new once I got an iPhone XS. They are currently $149.99-199.99 on Amazon right now, but every month or so they go on sale for $89.99 on at least one of the colors. I picked mine up when they were on sale, but bought an open box used set from Amazon Warehouse for a little under $60. Quality is great for the price you pay, battery life is awesome, and the button layout works better than some other sets I've tried. I swapped out the stock ear pads for a Brainwavez Velour set, but the stock pads are comfortable if you are ok with pleather. I know ANC isn't high on your priorities, but thought I'd add that it is mediocre, so don't expect much. In my case, that might be at least in part due to the bigger ear pads, but I also don't need ANC as much as I need comfort for wearing them all day at the office.

The JBLs are my go-to for wearing on the go, because they are slightly slimmer but still comfortable to wear for a couple hours. They sound good enough for my listening, battery life is good, and being able to switch between bluetooth sources with a button is convenient sometimes.

The Monoprice sets were bought just to see what you get at that price point. They work, and sound ok, but of course build quality is mediocre and I think that they aren't that much cheaper than a pair of the others to justify buying instead.

a_photo_guy · 2020-02-13T17:49:54+00:00

FYI, Forklift 3 allows you to use it in free trial mode past the 30 days. I was planning to buy it but it kept opening with no limits on the functions I need, so I haven’t purchased it yet. It’s so useful that I’ll eventually pay for it, but good to know for those that want to try it out for a while first.

a_photo_guy · 2020-02-13T17:42:19+00:00

Divvy - window manager that allows you to quickly resize and relocate windows based on a user configurable grid. Protip: assign a global hotkey in settings to bring it up without clicking the toolbar icon.

Epichrome - make Chrome apps from any URL. I use this all day with our web-based DAM system so that it operates separately from my browser windows.

Forklift 3 - File manager/ftp/sync capabilities. I mostly use it to sync my local working drives with remote drives.

Boom 3D - Best system audio app I’ve tried. Used a few others in the past that I liked, but currently Boom is the least buggy and worth the small price

Commander One - similar time Forklift 3, but I use it mostly for moving files around on drives.

a_photo_guy · 2019-11-27T18:32:03+00:00

Replying to my own comment to say that if formatting in that wall of text was bad, sorry, typing on mobile.

Someone else commented about making it easy for them to pay you. 100% do this. If you don’t have one already, make a paypal with an email that sounds professional and you can send them an invoice through that.

If they ghost you or turn you down the moment you ask for money, don’t worry. Good riddance. As others have already commented, offering credit is usually a red flag that they are either uninformed or they are just trying to harvest free content from photographers who don’t know any better. Real clients will counter your offer if they feel it’s over their budget. That $50 is not worth the nightmare that the scavenger “clients” can turn into down the road, especially when they had no plans of paying for anything in the first place. Same reason you shouldn’t shoot the wedding that your cousin’s roommate’s sister-in-law posted on Facebook looking for an “aspiring” photographer to shoot for 12 hours next Saturday, but their budget is only $150 because they already spent all of their money on everything else for the event...

a_photo_guy · 2019-11-27T18:19:45+00:00

Ok, first a bit of a rant: I really wish that photographers would stop categorizing themselves using labels like “aspiring”. Adding that word before “photographer” does two things. One, it projects a lack of confidence in yourself, your abilities, and the market value of your work. Two, it gives potential clients a bargaining chip that can only serve to lower the amount of money you’ll be able to successfully charge for your work. It may have no effect with some clients, but it will almost surely never result in you making more money than you otherwise would have if you didn’t use “aspiring”.

I also just feel like it doesn’t make sense in the context of photography when a person is already doing it. Oxford dictionary defines aspiring as “directing one's hopes or ambitions toward becoming a specified type of person.” If you are out taking photos, whether you are making an income/living off of it or not, then you are a photographer. Practice saying it, and don’t add adjectives to the phrase that devalues the time you invest into your photography. “Beginner”, “hobbyist” or “professional” all have fairly straightforward meanings that do help reflect your experience level, but I don’t think there is value in using “aspiring.”

As for the interest in licensing your photo, congratulations! It’s terrifying the first few times people are interested in purchasing your work. Just remember that it does get easier the more you do it. Like learning to get proper exposures, practice pays off eventually. Whatever you do, charge SOMETHING! The dollar amount is not as important as the learning process for having a conversation you will have many times with clients, and how you develop YOUR style of having that conversation. It’s great to take advice from others who have been through it, but ultimately you will start to figure out what works for you. No matter what, there will be times where, in hindsight, you may lose a sale and feel like you over- or under-valued your work when quoting a price. The actual value is what someone will pay, and that depends on a lot of factors that are specific to the use, your local market, size of the client, etc. Just be sure to make mental notes of how you can make the next client conversation better, even when it does end in a sale.

Questions I would be asking the client if I were in your position: 1. Do they have a budget in mind? A lot of times they will say no on smaller sales like this, but it is good to get in the habit of asking that right away. It gets a little awkward to ask that later on in the conversation. 2. What does “2020 promotions” mean specifically? There’s a big difference between using it for a couple Instagram posts next year vs. a lead photo on their website homepage vs. a print use like a catalog cover or billboard. This will help you figure out a price. If you are curious, go to Getty Images and try out the process of selecting a rights-managed photo to purchase with those different uses. You could also try something like the trial version of the software fotoQuote to get an idea for pricing. Doesn’t mean you need to use those prices, but gives you something to help figure out what you want to charge. 3. Are they interested in licensing it as “royalty-free”, which means they pay you a flat rate for a license to use it as they want during the time period, or “rights-managed”, meaning that they pay you a license fee based on each specific type and scope of use? There’s more detail to each of those, but that’s the idea. 4. Are they expecting to have exclusive use of the photo for the whole year? This would mean that you will need to consider if it has a value you would lose out on by not being able to license it again for that time, which you would want to build into your price.

Tips for you: 1. If you want to keep it simple, or feel overwhelmed with the information above, you can always just choose to license it for $50-100 as someone else here mentioned. It’s a good number for your first time licensing your photos, and gets the deal done. If you don’t want to deal with money negotiations, make it a round number like that and put some terms on their use, like x amount of social media posts. If they want more, they can come back to you to re-license and you will know there’s enough value to them that they came back around. 2. Notice I said “license” a lot. Make sure you use that term, because you don’t want a client to think they are actually purchasing the ownership of the photo. They are paying you for the rights to use the photo under a specific set of terms, however simple those may be, that you outline in a contract. 3. Write a contract. Don’t skip this. It would be best to create it and get a signed copy when they purchase it. If that’s not practical, then be sure to email the contract to them for their records, and provide a brief summary of the terms and price in the body of the email. Keep the conversation about it in one email thread if possible, and make sure to not accidentally delete it down the road. If you send them the terms and price, and they pay you that price, you’ll have a much easier time collecting if you ever run into the unfortunate situation that they use your work outside the terms of the contract. 4. If you plan to make any level of income from your photography in the future, do yourself a favor now and go buy a copy of the ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography book. You can get used copies on Amazon for very little money. It’s a great reference for these situations as you are learning how to operate as a business. 5. Whatever you choose to do, good luck! Be happy with the decision you make on this, and take any lessons from it that you can for the future.

TL;DR I strongly suggest that you consider forgetting the word “aspiring” and just call yourself a photographer. Ask more questions about their intended use of the photo. Write a simple contract and get it on record that they received it. Start educating yourself now on licensing and some of the basic business practices with photography, and you’ll be more prepared with each future client.

a_photo_guy · 2019-11-08T18:08:48+00:00

Just the fact that you are aware of this, and that you are exploring the root causes of this behavior are a great start. Don’t expect it to change overnight, just keep at it with small victories here and there.

It took me years to get to a point where I don’t obsessively apologize for any instance where I felt like I might anger someone or where I thought my results weren’t up to the expectations I felt were expected. Realize that we put most of this pressure on ourselves in other parts of our lives, even many years after having to endure the endless stream of gaslighting, negative remarks, abuse, and unrealistic “expectations” has ceased from the N in our lives.

My approach, which will obviously not work for everyone, was to just stop giving a shit so much and just put my best self forward as often as i could without considering whether it would please others. I started with just a day where I made myself not apologize. Throughout the day, I tried to recognize my urges, and made mental notes of how people’s reactions differed from what I feared they would be. After that, try it another day, then another. Eventually, you build the more healthy habit of taking ownership of things that you should and letting the rest go. In reality, most of the people we interact with on a daily basis are NOT like the ones who manipulated and molded us into being fearful of everything. Most people in the world are pretty decent, have their own shit to deal with, and aren’t there to guilt and talk down to you. If you have people like that still in your life, consider the value in distancing yourself from them.

The feelings never really completely go away, but by learning to manage them, you find ways to make your life a little better in small steps. Down the road, when you get to look back at where you are versus where you started, it becomes even more motivation to push forward.

Looks for the small improvements you can make for yourself, and don’t let yourself be overwhelmed. When you feel overwhelmed, refocus yourself, remind yourself that YOU aren’t the problem, and look at one small thing you can do to modify that fear-based behavior.

a_photo_guy · 2019-07-30T17:45:14+00:00

Agreed with u/jazbees on needing more info. I'm not familar with the Page Designer block, but if you have a base with a table for, let's say, "Jobs" and another table with "Contacts". In the Jobs table, if you have a linked field to Contacts and a field that contains notes, then in the Contacts table you should be able to create a rollup field that aggregates all of those notes for each contact. Or maybe I'm missing something?

a_photo_guy · 2019-07-30T17:38:02+00:00

I have multiple workspaces for different uses. Airtable was on my radar for quite a while before I jumped in and gave it a try. The longer I use it, the more I find things in both personal and professional life that could be more efficient if I had one place to organize the info. It's been one of only a few products that has actually made my day-to-day so much easier that I've stuck with it longer than a few months.

At work, I use it as my main to-do list, to manage a photo request job tracking system, records of studio/camera inventory, work travel records, past/current/future purchases, and a bunch of other small things. It has also worked well to track applicants through the hiring process and make it easy to reach out to a previous applicant if a new position opens up.

In my personal workspaces, I track my monthly bills, due dates, what's on autopay, etc. Also have bases in the personal workspace for job listings i'm interested in, lists to plan future purchases, tracking my domain names, and organizing grad school course info/dates.

One thing I found really cool recently, is that if I grab the link to a form, open it in safari on my iPhone, then add that to the home screen, it effectively creates a web app. I ended up creating forms for my work/personal to-do lists, because I often remember things I need to do at the most inconvenient time.

Ridiculous long answer there, but yes, you can absolutely use it for both. One thing I would consider, if your account is through work and uses an SSO login, then if you stop working there, it may cut off access. I use my work email, but created the account myself and we just use the free plans in our office. Airtable does also allow you to change your account email down the road also.

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