Thought I'd share a recent lesson I've learned.


Somehow, one of my snowboarding photos won an amateur contest over at Transworld Snowboarding(link takes you to the page). I don't know how it won as there were some sickkk shots in there.


The photo associate from TW called me to say congratulations (I felt like I won American Idol, the lottery, and deal or no deal all at the same time). He also said that he'd like to see my portfolio of snowboard images. I've only been "legit" shooting snowboarding for this year, so needless to say, my "portfolio" is not deep.


Observation #1: If you're looking to go pro, or get published, always have some sort of portfolio handy. Duplicate and save your portfolio images in a folder and keep it on your desktop or somewhere handy. You never know when opportunity will come. (I had to scrounge around my computer and external HD to find the images I wanted to send).


Observation #2: Do what the publication person says. The photo associate suggested I send my files via yousendit.com. I didn't. Upset photo associate. (Since the folder was "only" 13MB and gmail can handle that, I sent it with my normal email. His email bogs up if he gets an attachment much over 2MB. That's a big difference).


Hopefully I didn't piss him off too much, so he'll still check out my stuff.


I'm definitely not professional and absolutely do not have experience in the magazine world, but I feel like I've learned enough last night to share those observations.


Rodger