What do you do for a living?

[denishr]

I just read a longish thread on apug.org - "what's your profession" or something like that, and I thought, why not - let's see what we do for a living, actually...
I know about few other members, from various previous threads (e.g. "camera at work"), and I thought it would be interesting to see what the other RFF members do in "real life" - are we mostly technical types, IT engineers, programmers, etc...?

To begin with myself, I'm a translator and (to a lesser degree) interpreter. I'm certified, which means I can do official Court translations and interpreting, and I'm self-employed - freelancer. I work from home - that's why you can find me online at all times 🙂.
I have a good background in computers, which enabled me to put up my professional Web page back in 1995, advertising my English-Croatian translation services - which at the time meant that anyone looking for this particular language combo would surely find me... I soon started out with software localizations for major international players (Corel, Microsoft, etc.), but also kept my "original" clients - local law firms, doing also legal/financial translations for various international companies setting up businesses in Croatia. Boring stuff, mostly.
Lately the majority of my work is translating screen messages and user manuals for mobile phones...

OK, enough with me. What about you?
Also, a photo at/of your workplace would be nice.

Here's me at my workplace - a room at our house I've set aside as my office, with several computers, but also a stereo and TV - AND my camera collection 😀

It's nice to go to work in your slippers - and to be able to wake up when you feel like it. No alarm clock for me - and no rush hour traffic 🙂


Denis

 

[Stanton]

I am a not quite retired lawyer. I left my firm 2 1/2 years ago intending to be done with practicing, but I have a small number of clients who refused to leave me. I practice from my home without any staff. It took a long time to figure out that when the overhead goes to zero, the profits go up significantly. I also teach law at the local university.

 

[Solinar]

I'm a former high school physics teacher, who has been managing a Lecture Demonstration Lab for about 8 years.

My official tiltle is Research Scientist Associate, but in truth I'm an educator.

 

[back alley]

very interesting work guys.

denis, i spent a short period of time working as a sign language interpreter (asl), i was dreadful.

i have spent most of my 'career' working as a group facilitator.
i have facilitated everything from 'life skills' for unwed mothers (many years ago, very old term) to anger management to working with abusive men and i now work with women who have left abusive relationships. basic communication and problem solving courses is what it is mostly.
during times out of group i have held management positions with small not for profit agencies.

joe

 

[FrankS]

I'm an educator, teaching the most productive years for learning (IMHO), ages 9 and 10, in the public school system. I love working in the classroom with the children but hate the paperwork. Sorry, no photo.

 

[Todd.Hanz]

I am a professional photographer traveling the globe on assignment capturing images of exotic places and exotic women, I also freelance for Playboy:angel: .
O.K., now that's out of the way.
I am a small business owner (A/C and Heat) here in Texas. I am currently finishing my degree in Nursing and will specialize in emergency/trauma care after graduation (summer '05). My plan is to get my masters in forensic nursing (like CSI).
Until then I will stay on staff with Leica as a consultant and test all new rangefinder/lens prototypes they send my way ( I hope they read this!)😉

Todd

 

[Peter]

I am a Nurse Clinician here in Singapore. I specialise in Gerontology nursing (aged care). But to tell you guys the truth, I always wanted to be a documentary photographer.

 

[Marc Jutras]

I work as a photographer/cameraman (video)/Photoshop "wizz" for a local studio.

I'm trying to find some time off in hope of working on some personal photojournalism projects. I plan to use the coming hollidays to get my research going.

 

[DougK]

I work in technical support for electronic government payments processing at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In the past, I've also held down various support roles for Sierra On-Line and Microsoft as well as project management and process engineering at Rockwell Automation and Key Bank. Ironically, every time I'm asked what my dream job would be, "National Geographic photographer" just pops right out of my mouth...

 

[Todd.Hanz]

Peter,
from the looks of your galleries I'd say you're a "documentary photographer" waiting to be published!

Todd

 

[wlewisiii]

I'm a stay-at-home dad with a nearly three year old boy. I have a couple of part time jobs to pay for my toys and perhaps with luck I can sell some artistic prints someday.

My wife is a nurse on the evening shift and that pays the bills.

William

 

[sfaust]

Backalley/Joe, if that's sign language in your avatar, I can see why you didn't feel you did well at it 🙂

Todd. How do you photography those hot women in exotic locations, as well as run the business in Texas? Oh, wait. I got it. Hot women in cool locations, heat and A/C to balance it off. NICE!

I was in network software engineering during the Internet craze, or as I like to say, "When the Internet super highway was still a dirt road!". And funny thing, I never did see Al Gore anywhere around the office🙂 (insert bad political joke)

After around 15 years of that, I got bored with corporate life and tried to find a way to work in something that took advantage of my computer background and my hobby, which was visual communications in video and/or photography. I wanted something where I was more independent, self employed, and could regulate my work environment. I ended up starting a business producing training and marketing videos for high tech and medical firms in the New England area, as well as some photography. I somehow convinced a couple former colleges that I might actually know how to do it, and they gave me my first couple reasonable paying jobs making some technical training courses. Well, I've been doing that now for about 10 years now, so something worked out well.

I also base my business at home. I took over two rooms in the house, opened up the wall between them, had a separate entrance, and made a nice office and edit suite. They are now filled with 4 computers, 7 monitors, lots of video decks, mixers, editors, etc. A small portion can be seen in the photo with a few of my favorite cameras, The R2 and QL17. I also have a small studio in the basement that I use for both video and photography. I also picked up editorial and corporate photography clients for product, annual reports, and magazine work along the way. So now photography is also a big part of my business.

The most interesting thing that I got to do through this work, was to do a video segment for a lawsuit with one of the major airlines. We did a short recreation of the pilots viewpoint during a plane crash. There is an interesting story behind the whole affair. The least interesting was to spend 5 days in a very small room (closet in my opinion) trying to film a training film with a guy that had the most monotone and boring speaking style I have ever heard! I would have rather listened to a clock ticking the entire time!! Other than that, its been fun, and full of ups and downs. But I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Corporate life? Well, I'm never going back! I'd rather dig ditches!

 

[don sorsa]

Well now, this is certainly a thread I'll follow. Like several others in the group, I'm in education, starting doing educational-type work in 1969 when I was organizing protests around antiwar and civil rights issues. I've taught at universities in the Chicago area for 13 years ever since I grabbed a couple graduate degrees. I'm currently director of online learning for a local university, but between the olden days and today I worked in a steel mill, a paint factory, a water treatment plant, and drove a taxi in NYC.

 

[Nikon Bob]

I have put in 30 years at a pulp and paper mill and will be eligible for parole err retirement in 7 years. Photography keeps me sane sort of.

 

[doubs43]

I've had a pretty tame life, I suppose. I gave the US military a little over 24 years of my life - more than 10 of them in Asia and Europe - and now I work in real estate.

I maintain the website for my bosses and take all of the pictures of the homes we offer. I use a Sony F-828 and for interior shots I have a Vivitar 283 flash. I put the camera on manual and for 95% or more of my shots I use bounce flash. Pictures are manipulated using Corel Photo-Paint 12 and 99.9% of my pictures are not cropped in any way.

You can visit our website at: www.billandcarolphelps.com

Before the military I worked in a feed (flour) mill, on farms, in grocery stores, construction and as an electrician. In the military I was in aircraft maintenance and worked on airborne electronic navigation systems.

I'm also a full-time grandfather..... the best job in the world!!! 🙂

Walker

 

[Kin Lau]

Tech head here.

2nd line software support for a vertical market accounting program.

Show a picture of my desk!?!?!? Not likely. I usually just shovel all the papers off my desk into the recycle bin every month or so 🙂

 

[Todd.Hanz]

sfaust,
Like those ViewSonics do ya? Nice monitors AND cameras! (esp. the black Canon).

 

[sfaust]

Actually, I got the viewsonics cheap with an upgrade on my system. But yea, I guess they are good. Never let me down!!

The black QL17 GIII is my favorite, next to the black Kiev 4a. For some reason, I just started collecting black classic rangefinders...35cc, S3, QL17, 4a, 35ES, etc. Must be the disease I caught from you guys here!!!

 

[thmk]

I am just a small IT guy working for a big company in the 3rd level support for groupware.

 

[Doug]

I took a break from university studies to be a weather observer in the Air Force, then went on to engineering work for Boeing. That was followed by a "life of leisure" as owner/operator of an apartment building, which I've done now for over 30 years. During all that spare time I served a decade as a police officer, first as a volunteer reservist and full-time on a temporary appointment. Later I did local Mac computer support and was an Apple Certified Developer making computer typefaces. One font I released as freeware keeps popping over the years, kinda fun... for instance I just spotted it at http://www.amdmacpherson.com/classiccameras/index.html