Goodlives’ Neighborhood

Last few months I was busy shooting ad traveling. I went to Portugal, Norway and Malta and did short road trip to Cardiff (Wales). In Portugal and Malta I hang out with other istockers especially with my friends Kori and Nuno Silva and friend from London Stu.

One the way back home to Canada Kori and Nuno stayed few days in London. And we did a photo shoot together with one my friend Davide who posed for me before.

Check out those two links to see more photos of Davide & Kori.

Next few week I'll work to finish my photos from Malta and from last beauty shoot I've done with Anais. Links to the gallery will post soon.

I was importing my credit card and bank statements into QuickBooks when I noticed a charge I didn't recognize.  The merchant was SYS INC and the amount was $9.10.  I logged in to Bank of America so I could review the charge, but it only listed the merchant as a Stationary, Office & School Supply store.  There was no phone number or other identifying information.

I do quite a bit online shopping, but this was my business Visa card so the charge really bothered me.  When I checked the date of the transaction it occurred on the day I went to Six Flags for the first time.  I know I didn't use my business card that day.

A friend of mine worked some Google magic and found an online forum where people were complaining about this company and its fraudulent charges.  Apparently the scam usually involves a phone call first, but I never received one.  Charges were always the same, too...either $9.05 or $9.10 (my charge).  Sometimes a phone number appears on the statement, but no one ever answers...it's just a generic voice mail message telling the caller to leave a message.  The recording doesn't even mention a company name.  The number, in case you're curious, is 866-529-6539.

I was able to call Bank of America and have the charge removed without any issue, but now it makes me wonder how SYS INC got my credit card info to begin with.  So, please be sure to carefully check your statements.  If you see a charge from SYS INC in the amount of $9.10 or $9.05 go ahead and file a dispute with your credit card immediately. 

I was about to just ignore the charge and chalk it up to me being forgetful.  My guess is SYS INC counts on this very thing.  There were probably hundreds of complaints in that forum thread, and there's no telling how many people have been suckered without realizing it.

Sibling Rivalry

I entered a photo contest on iStock … they want football (soccer) images and the community gets to vote and decide the winner. Please help me out and check out my entry! (Vote for me if you like … ;))

June 28, 2008

My husband LOVES his cigars. He smokes one just about every day, so I use the opportunity to take photos! I’ve just started doing this, really, ever since embarking on Project 365 on Flickr and I needed my photo-of-the-day. He doesn’t really like a camera pointing at him though, so I try not to be too pushy when I take photos. I was really happy that he was willing to sit down and smoke in the garage while I snapped some photos with my light set-up … I think they turned out okay (I need to get some barn-doors to really get the perfect look I was looking for).

Still Strong

My friend Amy had a Frisbee thrown in her face on Friday, and I though it would be a great opportunity to get some powerful images with her black eye! She’s never modeled for me before, but we had a lot of fun and the images turned out great! (You know how sometimes you can just see the perfect image in your head before you shoot? It feels soooo good to actually capture it!)

I decided to use this image for the recent TWiP challenge. The funny thing is that the theme they used for this challenge (strength) was suggested by me, but I had no idea what image I would actually take to accomplish the theme. When I thought up this shoot just a few days ago, I realized that it would also fit in well with the challenge!

She is cute as heck! Trying to keep her from the rest of the hose while we move in!

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Room to stretch out.....who needs furniture

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