I'm not a professional photographer, but I've had some fun paying gigs. All of the food photography I got in the habit of doing for 14850 Dining also certainly helped me get the web communications manager job for Campus Life, which includes Cornell Dining!

One of the side effects of doing photography and social media for Pixel, a Collegetown bar and club, has been that I've gotten several paid gigs for fraternities and sororities. Even though they're fun events, I probably don't charge enough. That's especially true for Kappa Alpha Theta, which just finally paid me for their spring 2014 formal. Asking the people who'd hired me, and asking friends who'd connected me with Theta, wasn't getting me anywhere. Finally I found the local chapter advisory board chair's name and e-mailed her.

Even more fun? Food photoshoots for friends with new restaurants! I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon at Luna Inspired Street Food in Collegetown, a week-and-a-half-old restaurant with a food truck and street food theme, taking pictures of most of their menu items. I got to eat some of the food there, got to share some of it with staff and the mailman, who happened in at just the right time, and got to take quite a lot home and to a dogsitting friend.