Tag Archives: San Diego Photographer

October 4, 2011

The beginning of the beginning

Hello everyone.

There are exactly 5 full months between April and October. Did you know that? I did. I do.

First, let me say, I can’t believe people are still visiting my blog even tho it is very clearly neglected. A big thanks to all of you that come check it out even tho it’s barely alive and breathing!

Second, I’m just dropping by to say that the moment before I logged into my blog, I was working on my website for katiemauerphotography.com. That’s right, I’m finally doing it. It took a year. Or more. Probably more. But I made a promise to a bride, and I can’t break that promise. So in the next few weeks, expect it to be up and running. I’ll be tweaking it until the day the internet dies, so please bear with me as I make a mess of things and eventually clean them up.

And another big thanks to everyone out there who has encouraged me, told me they like one or two or all of my photos, told me I could make a living at it, pushed me, bugged me, made me uncomfortable, and overall supported me (and continue to support me). I have a tendency to doubt my abilities and talk myself out of things because I’m afraid to fail, but you’ve all been there with me, telling me I can do it and helping me to believe in myself. And you guys are the ones that I will blame if all of this ends up falling down around me. :) Just kidding.

Maybe.

Leave a comment | tags: 2011, california, Katie, katie mauer, katiemauerphotography.com, Mauer, photography, san diego, San Diego Photographer | posted in Uncategorized

August 22, 2010

The Journey of Five Customer Service Reps

By katiemauer

For my birthday, my dad gave me the Photoshop CS5 upgrade that I had been wanting. But because I have a hand-me-down Photoshop suite from my brother, the upgrade that my dad bought for me wasn’t going to work. No way, no how.

Thus began The Journey of Five Customer Service Reps.

Unlike my Verizon Shenanigans post, I won’t tell you word-for-word what happened, but instead I’ll give you the Cliff Notes version.

CS Rep #1 laughed in my face and told me that the upgrade that was purchased for me was not going to work.

CS Rep #2 told me that I was basically sh*t out of luck and that I’d either have to spend an additional $600 or an additional $700 if I wanted it to work.

CS Rep #3 told me that I could purchase a $200 student edition and then upgrade to the version that had been purchased for me.

CS Rep #4 told me that I could purchase the student edition, but it would not work with my upgrade. I could purchase the $100 Elements 8 and then use my upgrade. I repeated back to him exactly what he told me so I could confirm that I wasn’t misunderstanding. I purchased and downloaded the program. The upgrade didn’t work.

CS Rep #5 told me that my specific upgrade wouldn’t work, but that there may be something that she could do about it. She put me on hold for 5 minutes and when she came back, she had the solution.

I now have a working version of Photoshop CS5 on my computer, and it only took 2 months, 5 CS reps, $100 software purchase and 10 minutes of troubleshooting to get it done. How simple!

Advice to Adobe: WORK ON ALL OF THIS. MAKE IT BETTER.

This leads me to the things that made me happiest this week:

CS Rep #5 for making things happen as painlessly as possible.
Hand-me-down Photoshop versions to hold me over in the meantime
WEEZER concerts!

Sushi to go
BATCH PROCESSING! *choir of angels singing*
Much needed girl time

Summer finally arriving in San Diego (and the AC to go along with those hot days)
Birthday dinners at new and interesting restaurants
http://www.katiemauerphotography.com (there’s nothing up yet, but hopefully there will be soon!)
My first set of photos that someone paid me to shoot! Groupe Car Club.
Danny likes vampires.

1 comment | tags: 2010, adobe, Adobe customer service, batch procession, cat, Danny likes vampires, girl time, Group Car Club, Katie Mauer Photography, kitty, MAKE IT BETTER, Photoshop CS5, Photoshop Elements 8, San Diego Photographer, sushi, vampires, Weezer | posted in photo, photography

August 17, 2010

Big Announcement

By katiemauer

Here it is everyone, the big announcement that I mentioned last week.

I’m starting my own business! *applause*

It will OBVIOUSLY be a photography business, and I’m leaning towards calling it Katie Mauer Photography, because what else would I call it?

Work has taken a turn for the worse, and it’s getting increasingly hard for me to make myself get up at 4:55am every day and drag my ass into the office only to be miserable for the next 9 hours. It would be far too easy to mumble and gripe about it and feel miserable, so instead I’m channeling all of my energy into getting this business up and running so I can be successful without a Fortune 500 company dictating what I do for the majority of my life.

It’s going to be a long and hard road, but I believe in myself and I believe that I can do it. I have a lot of really supportive, caring and SMART people on my side helping me work out the kinks. So THANK YOU to all of you that have listened to me talk about this, offered services and advice, and generally just been there for me while my sanity is teetering on the edge.

I actually had my first paid photo gig on Saturday! A few weeks back, a coworker drove a really sweet ’63 Chevy Imala LOW RIDER to work and I took some pictures of it. A few days later he asked how the pictures came out, I showed him, and he liked them so much that he told his car club about them and about me, and they hired me to come take some photos at a car show! I’m still processing thru all of the photos I took, but as soon as I get them done and get them to Client, I will show you guys!

And on that positive note, here’s what I’m thankful for this week (sorry it’s a few days late):

Lazy Sundays on the beach with my beau
Sleeping in

Little girls who take their naps

Anniversaries (3 years!)
Brothers who like to help (Thanks, Nick!)
Paid photography gigs!!!!
A clean condo
Big corporations who motivate me to better my own life

Minty fresh love notes in the morning

And a few more pictures just for good measure:

Pretty lights at El Vitral

This has been taunting me for over a year. I finally decided to take it’s advice.

New self portrait, fresh haircut.

It’s finally summer here in San Diego!

She’s mighty pensive for a 3 year old…

5 comments | tags: 1963 Chevy Impala, 2010, big announcement, california, Coronado beach, Coronado Bridge, El Vitral San Diego, I LOVE YOU, Katie Mauer Photography, lilies, low rider, new business, Nick Mauer, san diego, San Diego Photographer, self portrait, summer, toothpaste | posted in amazingly awesome, best idea ever, million dollar ideas, photo, photography, Thankful

August 6, 2010

I am thankful for…

By katiemauer

Dear lovely readers,

I am deeply sorry for my prolonged absence from your blog-reading lives since my last post about becoming famous. You may have already guessed from the lack of TV appearances that I did not become famous in a week’s time.

However, I do have some rather life changing events about to take place that have been occupying my thoughts, rendering me incapable of producing a quality prose worthy of your time.

And I will be keeping those life changing plans a secret for a little while longer while I give my thoughts some time to become one cohesive plan. But you can have confidence that once I can get those thoughts all heading the same direction, I will reveal exactly what it is I’m babbling about.

In the meantime, in addition to the sporadic postings I do on a whim, I will be adding a more regular feature to my blog. Once a week, most likely on Friday or Saturday, I will be filling all of you in on what I’ve been thankful for that week. Every now and then it’s good to get out of your own head and notice the good and beautiful things that surround you. It’s good to remind yourself of the things that make you smile. (These will be accompanied by pictures, of course).

This week, I am thankful for:

New shoes to follow a kind of crummy week, especially when I got an excellent deal on them!
Great friends who listen when you need them to, and give advice when you need that too.
And a great boyfriend who knows exactly when you need a hug and to veg on the couch and watch endless episodes of Friday Night Lights.
Let’s go ahead and put Friday Night Lights on the list too. Love that show. Love Tim Riggins.
Hilarious typos that change vernacular. “He’s such an Ashlee!”
BEEEEYOOO-tiful southern California sunsets.

All photos (except for the sunset photos) taken with my Droid and processed with the Vignette app.

1 comment | tags: Droid X, Friday Night Lights, great boyfriend, great friends, katie mauer, Katie Mauer San Diego Photographer, life changing events, new shoes, photo, photographer, photography, photos, san diego, San Diego Photographer, secrets, Southern California, Southern California Sunset, Steve Madden, sunset, sunsets, thankful, Tim Riggins, typos, Vignette photo app | posted in Thankful

July 1, 2010

World Cup Fiasco

By katiemauer

If you’re alive in this country, into sports, and love to jump on bandwagons, you know that the World Cup has been going on since June 11th.

I have a friend – Becca – that has been loyal to the USA soccer team for a long time. On Saturday, we met up to watch the USA vs. Ghana game. This is how it went.

We arrived at Nicky Rotten’s on Saturday morning around 10:30 am. Yes, it’s kind of early for being in a bar, but with our past experiences of Gaslamp bars and World Cup games, we knew we’d have to get there early if we wanted to be able to sit and watch the game.

We casually reviewed the menu of burgers with cute – but stereotypically Italian – descriptions. Da one ita gonna maka bigga messa…did maka bigga messa.