A Change In Personal Programming ....

This week marks a big change, the culmination of a gradual change in thinking. 18 or so years ago, whenever Microsoft Access 1.0 first was launched, I started using Access to keep track of the things our accounting program couldn't track. The first project was weddings and which wedding vendors provided services to which wedding and how the wedding couple liked / rated their services. We used this to follow up with photos for the vendors and to know who to provide as a referral for couples looking for services.

Well, I was constantly developing the program and every few years I would look at software management programs for the portrait industry .... none of them did what mine did, so I would continue adding to my program until it now does all sales and banking including payroll with all needed reports for taxes and yeah - a bunch of other stuff ... I could ramble on ....

The program that I wrote kicks butt, it could easily be commercial, except for a few things ... I don't want to be a full time programmer and it is built in a bubble - my concepts with no feedback from the industry. To improve the program further it was also becoming evident I would have to learn languages outside of Access (PHP, Visual Basic, etc.). I was also feeling that whenever we had an idea as to how to improve our marketing or systems within the studio it meant changes to my Access program, so those changes were implemented at the speed of my programming - not a very 'nimble' business model ...

Because of these thoughts, back in March after MUCH research we purchased StudioPlus to manage our business (http://www.studioplussoftware.com/). Finally, a program that does what mine did and more. (Yeah there are things I miss, but live with it Roger!) Besides the stuff my program did it emails and syncs calenders and client info with phones and palm systems, etc. etc. etc. ...

Well, a week ago we are finally up and running, StudioPlus exports to Quickbooks (while my program did both sales and checkbook) and our checkbook actually balanced! Everything in process before the conversion date had to be pretend posted (cause you don't want to count it twice and it needs to be in the current system ... this means I didn't miss anything :-) !!!).

It took from March to now (November) because every time I sat down with StudioPlus I would run into questions about how to do what we did in our old program in the new, everything is really different, I could ramble on with examples, but just trust me ... most waking moments since March have been filled with this puzzle, how much info to migrate and what info not too, and what the work flow would be so we didn't lose track of orders and things in the process ...

It was a hard decision, going with a different program - my Access program was my BABY, and worked perfectly. But now I am free to spend more time with my sweetie, solve studio management puzzles within the framework of the StudioPlus program instead of programming, become a little more of a social networking person (there is a lot more to this life and business than just the systems approach), exercise a little more, figure out other stuff I might want to do and yes, even Blog more :-).

Just wanted to share this big transition in our business and life and give a reflection of the kind of obsessed problem solver I can be ... If anyone has any Access or studio management questions fire away ... ;-) Yeah, OK, photography and Photoshop questions are OK too ... ;-)

The Elixir of Love - for the Chorus ...

We photograph each of the Sacramento Opera's performances at their last dress rehearsal. This last performance was the Elixir of Love - sacopera.org .... I love photographing theater, I love the music and the lighting, and I really enjoy being able to share images from the performances with the fans and the chorus.

OK, so the Good news and the Bad news ...

Good News = Elixir is a fun show!

Bad News = Normally by this time I have a whole opera full of images posted to our web site with free access to the images for the chorus, but the web server that we are hosting our opera galleries and shopping cart from is about full (we use Total Choice Hosting for those that are curious). I need to research whether we should remove some old galleries or pay for more server space (right now we are paying for 3 Gigs). We are in the middle of Christmas rush, so posting Elixer needs to wait until I have time to figure it out.

Each opera takes a bit of room on the server and I have been of the mind set to leave them up forever so that the Sacramento Opera has a living archive of their work .... maybe this is an unreasonable approach, or maybe this is really a good thing ... I would appreciate any feedback from the chorus and others on this .... I can see doing any mix of the following ...

• post all operas as we are now
  
• weed down each opera to fewer images (takes more time to weed more and it is hard to know who might be in the background of a photo and really appreciate the shot)
  
• remove each opera after a period of time (just post last 24 months?)
• post favorite images to a blog like this and not to our gallery - those that are interested in seeing the others can come by our studio ...
• any other choices??????

The photos are available on our web site for free, and this blog also by right clicking on an image and choosing Save Image As (or something like that). As always, please give us and the opera credit if you use the photos anywhere.

Here are some of my favorites from Elixir - I made sure to include some chorus shots ;-) ...

Great Legs .... :-)

Yes, I am running around the sides of the stage, I used to not, but then Jennifer at the Opera said she needed more close ups for press use ...

I don't know the characters, my focus is all on visually what is happening (and I have never been interested in the stories, just the music and the theater of it). I have photographed all of the Opera's performances since they started performing in the big theater and I love the music and catching challenge of catching the fleeting moments.

Everyone in the production really gave it their all! even light on their feet ...

This is kind of how I feel sometimes when I am trying to get kids to smile ....

Yes, that is a giant hypodermic needle ...

Love it when the light is behind some and in front of others ...

So darn giggly ...

Cute show ... Thanks!