by YTP on February 7, 2010
You may think these photos are totally random, but I am obsessed with them. I have spent hours pulling out specific pixels of color to emphasize how vibrant and striking these things looked in person. I love taking photos like this – of basic, boring but totally vital things like corn and rice, and turning it into something fun and special.
Both of these photos were taken in a small village around the area of Sapa, Vietnam in the northern highlands region of the country. The rice crops there are amazing, because they are grown on impossibly steep hillsides. The nice wide shot of rice here was taken at the top of the mountain, which is why it is a large field. Talk about a tremendous amount of work.
The corn was the end of season harvest put out to dry on a large tarp in the middle of the road. It was huge, and absolutely covered in corn of all colors. The sun was incredibly bright, and the corn just gleamed in it.
All in all, this was one of my best photography walks ever. (All photos are, of course, copyright ACMJ Productions)
Click on the photos for an expanded, and much better, view.
by YTP on January 31, 2010
One of the biggest myths out there about switching careers is the idea that you can only do it when you are young. Ironically, you can’t really call four years in the work force a “career”, so it is hard for young people to be the ones doing all this career switching that everyone is talking about.
The reality is that career switching can happen at any age. You just need to plan differently if you have, for instance, a large mortgage, young kids, health concerns, or other complicating factors that a younger person might not have had the time and life experience to accumulate. But this does not mean, at all, that you cannot switch careers if you are older. In fact, your age may give you the experience and insight you need to make the switch.
A couple things to consider: one thing a career switch always requires is a lot of extra work. You have to learn a new trade or profession, often at the same time that you are conducting your previous one. Extra work takes energy. Energy takes sleep, the right diet, some vitamin D, and moderate exercise to sustain one to two years of doubling up. In other words, your collective act needs to be together if you are going to undertake a career switch and live to see the end of it. Burn out isn’t fun, and my general rule of thumb is that is takes twice as long to recover from the time you spend burning it at both ends as the time you spent, well, burning it at both ends.
Also, a career switch requires you to know what you want to do next. This is the hardest part for many people. What do they want to be? Do some serious soul-searching and note jotting. Research careers on the internet, take personality tests and read job descriptions. Make sure you look really hard before you leap.
However, if you can handle those two things – balance and research – you can easily make a major career switch no matter what age you are. You just have to be willing to put in the hours to two careers for a while, or save to take the time off to gear up.
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