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Exploring & Road-Tripping in Gaspésie

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I recently got back from a work-vacation trip to Gaspésie, a wonderful mix of business and pleasure, a little getaway from the big city chaos to the calm of the nature and from daily routine to road-tripping and exploring. It was freakin' awesome! Gaspésie is truly a beautiful place, and I couldn't wait to write this blog post, tell you you all about my adventures, give you some travel tips, and share some beautiful photos. 

Carleton-Sur-Mer

View from Mont Saint-Joseph in Carleton

Carleton is a cozy little town on the south shore of Gaspésie, with nice views and friendly people, and it was my first stop. I had amazing accommodations there, thanks to some truly wonderful friends, and I also had a work thing there. Actually it was Olivier's (my boyfriend) contract with the Circuit Régional des Courses de Chevaux du Québec, to photograph two horse races in Nouvelle (a municipality right next to Carleton). I was assisting, taking my own photos and selling prints. It was fun, especially since I had never seen a horse race before, and I also got really good feedback on my images.  

Percé

After two days in Carleton we continued our road trip towards Percé, a little town at the end of the Gaspé peninsula, and a really beautiful place. The view there is just gorgeous, with the Percé rock and Bonaventure Island, plus there are so many beautiful places to explore around Percé. The first thing we did when we got there was to hop on the boat cruise towards Bonaventure Island/ Île Bonaventure, which is just off the Percé shore and is home to one of the world's largest (and most easily accessible) sea bird colonies. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore the Island, as it was almost afternoon when we got to Percé and the last boat off the island is at 5 PM (so yeah, if you're heading that way, make sure you plan accordingly). 

After our boat trip we went looking for a camping spot. There's quite a lot of options in the area, but after a bit of looking around we decided to set up tent at Camping Côte Surprise. It was really the best option. It's situated high on the shore, so the view is absolutely gorgeous, and there's a side of the camping which has a lot of trees so you're sheltered from the sun. It's not very remote, so if you're looking for privacy, this is not your spot, but it was fun and we made some friends in the camping. The place is clean, and they have decent Wi-Fi...I personally recommend it. 

La Grotte & Rivière aux Émeraudes

Day two in Percé was a hot sunny day, and we had found out from our new camping friends about this place called La Grotte (The Cave) and we decided to check it out. To get to it from Route 132, you turn on Route de L'Église and go to the end of it. You get to a big church, and you need to take the road behind it (there's also a map there so you can't miss it). It's an approx. 30 min walk through the forest, and then you get to this small cave with a waterfall...really beautiful. The water's quite cold though, you can't really get under it (not for long at least :) ). 

Our next stop was the one that I had been most excited about: Rivière aux Émeraudes/ Emerald River (Rivière du Portage). It's known as one of the hidden treasures of Gaspésie, and it's really beautiful because its cristal clear waters look green of the sediments in it (I believe), and under a blue sky the water looks turquoise, almost tropical. A real gem of a place!!! To get there you take Route 132 east, up to the intersection with Chemin de la Carrière. Turn on Chemin de la Carrière and you can either park at the first parking and walk along the river up to the waterfall (4.5 km) or park at the end of the road and go straight to the waterfall (10 min walk through the forest). For lack of time I chose option 2. The place itself it's not really a secret so there were some people there, mostly tanning and chilling on the rocky beach, some were swimming, but the water is quite cold, but awesomely refreshing on a hot day.  

Rocher Percé

The following day we spent it in Percé. We found out that when the tide is low (Low tides schedules here) there is a place where you can actually walk up to the Percé rock so we had a very nice afternoon walk. Useful tip (wish I would've known): bring water shoes or at least flip flops; there might be a portion where the water didn't fully recede. and the rocks are painful to walk on barefoot. 

Sea Shack

For the last part of our road trip we head off to Sea Shack. Sea Shack...fun place...It's a bar on beach, kind of hippy, with cozy terrasses and chilling spots, with a hot-tub overlooking the water, with camping spots right on the beach (they have other types of accommodations too), with friendly staff, fun people, and good parties. But you really have to be there to feel the vibe of the place to understand...it's really all about good vibes and good times. But if you're going there hoping for some peace and quiet, you're in the wrong place; there's music at the bar till the wee hours of the night and there's people around the fire on the beach till the sunrise. I wish I took photos that actually capture the feel of the place. We had a little thunderstorm the night we got there, so I only have pictures from before it started to rain and I put my camera away. 

 

After Sea Shack, we went back to Carleton for another horse race gig, then off to Montreal. Gaspésie was really beautiful and fun. It was nature explorations but done my own way: with the camera in one hand and my phone in the other looking for connection in the forest "Wait for me!!! I was answering an e-mail; they want to order some prints for Saturday"...Ah! That freelance life :)))) 

So these are my Gaspésie stories. If you've been there, I'd love to hear some of your stories too, so please feel free to leave a comment down below. 

For my everyday stories, follow me on Instagram.

Cheers!

Tora

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My Freelancing Story - A Beginners’ Guide in 10 Steps

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I’m writing this as an introduction to a series of blog posts about freelancing and creative entrepreneurship and solopreneurship that I will be publishing. I’ve noticed lately that I keep being asked for advice on the topic and I realized that people need real life tips (not just general practices) to help them with their own businesses. And I am happy to help. I guess having a business degree gives me more knowledge and understanding to properly organize my freelancing business. So if you’re thinking of doing a career change to freelancing, or you’re simply looking for help juggling the multiple hats of solopreneurship, keep reading and keep following my blog. 

What follows is a list of steps that I took in my path as a freelancer, more or less in chronological order. I will expand on some of these in my future blog posts:

1. I had been working on switching careers for a while. I initially invested in professional photo gear, then I started preparing financially. When I quit my job I had enough savings for a well-deserved time off and to smooth my transition. I cannot emphasize enough how important having a financial cushion is. If you’re planning to do a similar career change, make sure you either have a consistent amount of clients lined up or a solid savings account.

2. Register your business: this is one of the first things I did after quitting my job. In Quebec you can work as a freelancer without having a registered business, as long as you are using your own name. So in my situation, my name in my ID’s is Teodora Chirila, but I really wanted to use my nickname Tora. In order to use Tora Chirila, or Tora Photography I needed to register with Registre des Entreprises, which was a really easy process. You follow this link, you fill in all the information (the form is available in French only), you pay $34 (annual fee) with your credit card and it’s done. As part of the same process you register your business name. In Quebec you have to register a French name & they allow you to also register a translation in other languages for the same name. So in my case, I had to register my business as Tora Photographie and the English name Tora Photography as a translation of that name which I am using. I did call several times before registering and I asked and explained clearly that Tora Photography is what’s in my logo, and they seemed to be totally fine with the use of English, as long as what I register as the main name is the french version. If you only need to register a French name, it’s easy. If you want to use English branding it gets more complicated and I advise you to give them a call. 

3. Social Media: If there is something I wish I had done much more earlier was solid social media marketing. It’s slow building but it’s very time consuming, so unfortunately I only had the time to invest in this after I quit my full-time job. Even though I’m focused mainly on Instagram & Facebook, i also have Linked In, Twitter & Pinterest. I tried a few    others (more niche) such as Behance, 500px, Model Mayhem but it’s getting too much to juggle so I almost never go on those websites anymore. (More on this topic in a future blog post) 

4. Set up contracts, invoices & base pricing: This is generally one of the most challenging parts of a freelancing business, and it was challenging enough for me as well. The contracting part was easy though. My previous business education & business law classes I had taken helped me with this + in photo school they actually taught us how to do a photo contract. I just designed a template for myself, included some standard clauses & the rest is on a case by case basis. Depending on the industry you work in, I suggest doing a solid research on standard contracts and see what must be included in your contract. For photographers, CAPIC and ASMP offer really good resources. The pricing part is very complicated though and it’s a very case by case situation. (More on this topic in a future blog post)

5. Logo & Business cards: I designed my logo myself (but I’m thinking of working with a designer on a new one; if you’re a designer, contact me). But don’t get stuck on the logo design (like i did), and procrastinate launching your social media or printing your business cards. Talk to a designer, or buy something from a website such Fiverr or Creative Market. I ordered my business cards from Vistaprint and I recommend them. They’re fast, they always have sales (don’t order full price, wait for a sale) and their customer service is really good. To see their products/paper you should order a free sample package before ordering your actual cards. I also considered MOO, but they are much more expensive. I did order a sample package from them and they do offer really nice quality, but it’s pricey. 

6. My website: I had a website & a domain for a while but at one point last year I redesigned it. My website is with Squarespace, so I was able to do everything myself. I’m happy with Squarespace but nowadays there are so many website solutions out there. Do your research and invest in something professional looking. It will pay off (I’m telling you from my own experience) (More on this topic in a future blog post)

7. Home office: Since I am working from home, it was really important to me to have a dedicated office workspace and a studio. It was a longer process, but I pretty much had to redesign the whole layout of the place around my office and studio.

 

8. Accounting: having a system of actually recording and keeping track of your revenues & expenses is really important, not to mention required by law if you’re a registered business (No, not a shoebox!). I tried a few options (Excel, Quickbooks, management software). I’ll expand on this topic in my next blog post. 

9. Networking: this is something that I did instinctively. I really liked the Creative Mornings concept so I started attending, then getting involved more and more. And if Creative Mornings is not for you, nowadays there are so many networking events you can easily find on Facebook, from all sorts of industries. You just need to do some research. And you will see results, maybe not right away, but it’s really important to go out and meet people. (More on this topic in a future blog post)

10. Collaborations with other creatives: This one was a big one for me; that’s how I started doing makeup. My personal projects are generally collaborative projects. Whatever your field of work is, I really recommend creative collaborations; this will help keep you inspired and it’s also good networking. 

I will be releasing more blog posts on the topic of freelancing in the upcoming weeks. Keep following my blog. And if there are other topics you’d like me to address or you have questions, please let me know in the comment section below.

Cheers,

My Experience with Photography School

Last night I attended Visio 2016, the vernissage of the new Dawson College Commercial Photography graduates. It felt a bit like a trip down memory lane, after all, I was in their shoes not that long ago. I had fun, saw some old friends and my teachers, and I loved to see the beautiful creations (some of them were really amazing!). Congrats to all!! And the experience was also rewarding to me: having my makeup work in some of the images, it’s the third semester when a piece of my creativity is on the Dawson walls. These being said, I felt inspired to write this blog post talking about my experience at Dawson, which represented an important turning point in my life.

A bit about my experience

The program I attended at Dawson is the Commercial Photography AEC, which is a 2 years full time continuing education program, with classes 4 nights a week, therefore catering to students already working full time day jobs. I'll tell you one thing: i did the program while working a full time job and it was really INTENSE but do-able. It did get very stressful at times, but I loved it.

The school has a well equipped studio, computer labs, professional printers and for pretty much free education (free for QC residents; i only paid about $140 in admin fees/semester), it was an awesome learning experience. The program walks you through all sorts of types of photography, in studio and on location, from portraits to fashion and beauty, to product etc. You'll also learn a lot of Photoshop (oooh how i loved Barry's beauty retouching class) and printing (I don't like printing). There's also business classes, which I personally loved but my more artist colleagues generally hated, but it's definitely very useful real life knowledege such as contracting, invoicing, pricing etc. But enough about the curriculum. My experience overall was definitely positive and definitely not just limited to the scope of the classes. Some people that I met there are like family to me now, and not to mention that I also learned makeup in the process. 

Do I recommend it?

And by it I don't only mean Dawson, I mean photography school, or any other creative trade school for that matter, given YouTube university or all the other knowledge and courses available oftentimes for free online. Is a formal education in this sense worth it? After all, by highest level of education I am an accounting major, not a photographer and makeup is something I picked up along the way so to me the value of formal education is definitely blurred out. Well, the first thing I gotta tell you is you have to know your WHY. Why are you considering that particular school and is that why worth the time and money investment? And what are you trying to accomplish? Second of all, the value of actual diplomas in themselves is diminishing and in the education and job market of the future what will matter more will be what you know, your experience, your portfolio, who you previously worked with, who you know, etc. Did I use my accounting diploma? Not really. Did I use my photo diploma? Can’t say that I have; I don’t think that particular piece of paper is very relevant when I’m negotiating a contract. What I used is particular bits and pieces from the knowledge i accumulated. So do I recommend photo school? Yes (and no). It was definitely a greatly positive experience. I learned and grew so much and met amazing people. But sometimes I think to myself: Imagine two years from now I decide to quit photography and I make it as a makeup artist…where will the value in education be in that??? But that's just food for thought. 

Truth is, what photography school has taught me is how to be a professional creative, how to deal with creative deadlines and cope with inspiration blocks. No, it did not make me creative, that’s within me. It just taught me rules and techniques so that I know how to work well, fast & efficient and know how to break them. But no matter whether you’re considering formal education or not, the most important “school” you’ll need to go through on your way to greatness is your 10,000 hours.