Well, it's sad but true. I've been blogging on this site for over a year and a half and it is now coming to an end. However, I will not be leaving the world of blogging (how could I??). I have kept a separate photography blog all along and as I'm moving more towards defining myself as a photographer, I feel I should simply have the one blog where I write about everything from my personal life to my career adventures in one spot. No doubt, the photography blog will probably never be as deep or personal as this has gotten...but then again, who am I kidding? I will always be an open book. Please join me at the new blog where it'll still be me, just with pictures :)
This will be the last entry for this blog.
Thursday, April 30
Saturday, April 11
So Happy - So ME!
Woooohoooo! I finished rebuilding my website today and I LOVE IT! lol. Seriously, this whole branding thing has opened my eyes to something I've been telling other people for years...there is no one else in the world like you. You are unique, celebrate what makes you YOU. It's a duh statement, but how many times do we go around in circles trying to figure out who we are "supposed" to be, when the answer is staring us in the mirror? Geez.
I was hard pressed to design a logo so I always just used my company name - until I realized today that the way I've always signed my initials looks like YLD (used to look like YTD) because I do it in script with a circle around it. So I wrote it, scanned it, and TADA - instant logo :) Love it.
I'm just so happy to finally have a website that reflects who I am and what I'm all about. I'm going to be adding videos and other fun content to build a community and keep people coming back to the site.
Please check it out and leave me your feedback. xoxo
www.yadiralaguerre.com
I was hard pressed to design a logo so I always just used my company name - until I realized today that the way I've always signed my initials looks like YLD (used to look like YTD) because I do it in script with a circle around it. So I wrote it, scanned it, and TADA - instant logo :) Love it.
I'm just so happy to finally have a website that reflects who I am and what I'm all about. I'm going to be adding videos and other fun content to build a community and keep people coming back to the site.
Please check it out and leave me your feedback. xoxo
www.yadiralaguerre.com
Thursday, April 9
Branding and Marketing
"Don't look at someone else's cake (finished product) and lament because yours doesn't look like that. Realize that you have all the right ingredients - mix it up and make your own cake!" - Thesha Bove (my good friend)
I have been led lately to reinvent myself as a photographer/business person. I started last year and strictly put myself in a box as a children's photographer. Everything from my website to my business cards were geared towards getting that market. Yet the people who have sought out my services have been musicians, actors, models and entrepreneurs. I realized that I truly enjoy photographing adults, and if I need a children fix, I've got my own beautiful subjects :) Not that I will never take pictures of other families and children again, but I'm just busting out of that box.
So in my quest to market and brand myself, I reconnected with a good friend from years ago, Thesha Bove. We attended the same church at the time (the infamous Jesus Is Lord) and have both since gone in separate directions. I had no idea that she is a marketing guru extraordinaire in the making. She has in two conversations reawakened me and lit me on fiyah! It's nice to have someone else do that for you when you absolutely love doing it for others (what's that thing about sowing and reaping? lol). Everything I had read said I had to pick a certain aspect of photography, that I had to label myself. She made me realize that I am a photojournalist, an editorial photographer, one who tells the story through pictures...and that story can be anything. She confirmed that the best advertising I can do is through networking (which I've avoided but can totally get into). She reminded me that my image needs to be edgy and artsy (which my friend Tarsha told me years ago). That completely resonates with me.
In searching out different branding/marketing articles on the web, I inadvertently came across Jasmine Star, a born again photographer from California. She is absolutely amazing and speaks to me on so many levels. She left law school to become a photographer after being inspired by her own wedding photographer (David Jay) and is now at the top of her industry after only two years. When Thesha told me the girl reminds her of me, I was floored. Seriously? That's when she said what I quoted at the top of this page. I am so super excited to mix up my own ingredients and get a cake, instead of trying to get the ingredients that will make all the pretty cakes I've seen. David Jay is another born again photographer from California who is equally amazing. He tours the country and gives lectures about photography. I just became his fan on facebook (lol).
I say all this to say that today I am inspired. I am inspired by my friend, Thesha, who has marvelously gotten me back on track. I am inspired by these two wonderful photographers that I've never met who are bold bodacious Christians, excellent in what they do. Most of all, I must say, I am inspired by all the wonderful things that are in ME that I get to pull out and use to paint a beautiful tapestry. I've spent so much time pulling out the gifts in others compared to the amount of time I've spent looking inward to find out what Yah put in me. I have a feeling there's some good stuff in there and I'm looking forward to what my own "brand" will look like. Let the baking begin!
I have been led lately to reinvent myself as a photographer/business person. I started last year and strictly put myself in a box as a children's photographer. Everything from my website to my business cards were geared towards getting that market. Yet the people who have sought out my services have been musicians, actors, models and entrepreneurs. I realized that I truly enjoy photographing adults, and if I need a children fix, I've got my own beautiful subjects :) Not that I will never take pictures of other families and children again, but I'm just busting out of that box.
So in my quest to market and brand myself, I reconnected with a good friend from years ago, Thesha Bove. We attended the same church at the time (the infamous Jesus Is Lord) and have both since gone in separate directions. I had no idea that she is a marketing guru extraordinaire in the making. She has in two conversations reawakened me and lit me on fiyah! It's nice to have someone else do that for you when you absolutely love doing it for others (what's that thing about sowing and reaping? lol). Everything I had read said I had to pick a certain aspect of photography, that I had to label myself. She made me realize that I am a photojournalist, an editorial photographer, one who tells the story through pictures...and that story can be anything. She confirmed that the best advertising I can do is through networking (which I've avoided but can totally get into). She reminded me that my image needs to be edgy and artsy (which my friend Tarsha told me years ago). That completely resonates with me.
In searching out different branding/marketing articles on the web, I inadvertently came across Jasmine Star, a born again photographer from California. She is absolutely amazing and speaks to me on so many levels. She left law school to become a photographer after being inspired by her own wedding photographer (David Jay) and is now at the top of her industry after only two years. When Thesha told me the girl reminds her of me, I was floored. Seriously? That's when she said what I quoted at the top of this page. I am so super excited to mix up my own ingredients and get a cake, instead of trying to get the ingredients that will make all the pretty cakes I've seen. David Jay is another born again photographer from California who is equally amazing. He tours the country and gives lectures about photography. I just became his fan on facebook (lol).
I say all this to say that today I am inspired. I am inspired by my friend, Thesha, who has marvelously gotten me back on track. I am inspired by these two wonderful photographers that I've never met who are bold bodacious Christians, excellent in what they do. Most of all, I must say, I am inspired by all the wonderful things that are in ME that I get to pull out and use to paint a beautiful tapestry. I've spent so much time pulling out the gifts in others compared to the amount of time I've spent looking inward to find out what Yah put in me. I have a feeling there's some good stuff in there and I'm looking forward to what my own "brand" will look like. Let the baking begin!
Wednesday, April 1
My church life...then and now.
Pierre went to work and left me the car so I could join him at church later. He told me to let him know if I wasn't going to come so he could find an alternate way home. The very fact that I would even consider not going to church with a car sitting in my driveway sparked a lot of internal questions. I actually didn't end up going because it was raining - but there was a time in my life when that would not have been an excuse.
Say what you want to say about Jesus Is Lord Church in Holtsville, Long Island, but that place kept me on target. We had Monday night prayer, Wednesday night choir practice, Thursday night service, Friday night dance practice, Saturday night Cross Fire (youth) and Sunday morning service. Yes, folks, I was in church at least 6 days a week...when we had a special guest or tent revival it was sometimes two weeks straight, twice on some days. Did anything stop me from going to church then? Nothing. Seriously, NO THING.
I got into a car accident on the way to church once; totalled my brother's car. I called for a ride and still went to church that night. There were many times I didn't have a ride - I would walk the 4.5 miles, most of which was along a busy highway with no sidewalk. I took taxis to church a few times. There was one time I drove to church in a serious blizzard, with my muffler dragging in the snow behind me the entire way. Those are just a few of the things I remember doing to get to church. There was never an option not to go...and I most certainly was never stopped by rain.
When I first started coming to Faith Exchange, the fervor carried over. I would leave work early for midweek service so I could catch the LIRR and get to church. I would take that same LIRR home and arrive back in Long Island after 1am. I was a live-in tutor at the time with a very nice family who used to wait up for me every week to turn off the alarm and let me in. I did a lot of crazy things to get to church back then. Tonight I was stopped by rain.
Well, Yadira, you have a family now. You can't be doing all those crazy things with two young ones. True. I wouldn't do the things I did back then...but drive my own car door to door? That's hardly crazy. The fact is that although Faith Exchange is my church home, something(s) is/are missing - and have been for a while. I have the main course, but without the appetizer or the dessert. I have the green smoothie without the fruit, the raw diet without guacamole...the pasteles without the ketchup!! Until I find the pieces to fill in those missing parts, the rain that once spelled blessing and melodies from heaven only serves to douse my fire. I love Yeshua. I do. ...and I need more.
Say what you want to say about Jesus Is Lord Church in Holtsville, Long Island, but that place kept me on target. We had Monday night prayer, Wednesday night choir practice, Thursday night service, Friday night dance practice, Saturday night Cross Fire (youth) and Sunday morning service. Yes, folks, I was in church at least 6 days a week...when we had a special guest or tent revival it was sometimes two weeks straight, twice on some days. Did anything stop me from going to church then? Nothing. Seriously, NO THING.
I got into a car accident on the way to church once; totalled my brother's car. I called for a ride and still went to church that night. There were many times I didn't have a ride - I would walk the 4.5 miles, most of which was along a busy highway with no sidewalk. I took taxis to church a few times. There was one time I drove to church in a serious blizzard, with my muffler dragging in the snow behind me the entire way. Those are just a few of the things I remember doing to get to church. There was never an option not to go...and I most certainly was never stopped by rain.
When I first started coming to Faith Exchange, the fervor carried over. I would leave work early for midweek service so I could catch the LIRR and get to church. I would take that same LIRR home and arrive back in Long Island after 1am. I was a live-in tutor at the time with a very nice family who used to wait up for me every week to turn off the alarm and let me in. I did a lot of crazy things to get to church back then. Tonight I was stopped by rain.
Well, Yadira, you have a family now. You can't be doing all those crazy things with two young ones. True. I wouldn't do the things I did back then...but drive my own car door to door? That's hardly crazy. The fact is that although Faith Exchange is my church home, something(s) is/are missing - and have been for a while. I have the main course, but without the appetizer or the dessert. I have the green smoothie without the fruit, the raw diet without guacamole...the pasteles without the ketchup!! Until I find the pieces to fill in those missing parts, the rain that once spelled blessing and melodies from heaven only serves to douse my fire. I love Yeshua. I do. ...and I need more.
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