Easter Hill Shooting

...sigh....so what I am going to write is very personal and to this day I cant believe that none of us were hurt and that we survived. Im going to tell you everything from what I remember...so here it goes...

It was a sunny day and My brother and I were playing tag or I hanging out at a friends house in the front yard. The yard was sectioned off by a gate. My brother was inside and I was outside with our other friends. The house was on a corner and next to the house was a cement path that went down in a roller coaster descent. I dont know who said what or how we ended up looking at what was coming our way. 

I remember us looking down the hill and seeing six people dressed all in black and they were all carrying something in their hands but we couldnt see that far. they began running up towards us and thats when a kid starts yelling that they have guns. everyone scatters and goes inside the house and some of us start running the opposite way back to our house. I noticed that my brother had gone inside the house and he was safe. my friend was in front of me like a few feet away. we were both running and i remember saying " please let the door be unlocked "

as i was running towards my house which was 5 houses down the block. I look back and I see one of the gunmen go up to a man who was in the street. the man puts his hands up and gets shot in the head as they continue to run- i felt like they were running towards me- i push the gate open and i reach for the door knob and felt to relieved when the door opened. I closed the door and thats when they started firing. i ran to the back of the house and i kept hearing glass break and bullets going through walls. I lay down near the washing machine and then it was over. I get up and i hear someone coming down the stairs and realize its my dad covering his cheek near his eye. Blood was all over his arms. within seconds he was gone out the door. and a couple of minutes later police arrive and the whole entire block was outside with people and police. as i was walking out i remember looking back at the neighbors window which had been shot down. I saw people dead in the living room, it seemed as if they were watching tv when they started shooting and got everyone. this event has been engraved in my memory ever since. 

My Mom & dads side of the story.

days later after the shooting took place a couple of our family members got together and my parents told us their side of the story...

here is their version.....

My parents were both watching tv in their room while my oldest  sister(she is now 20) was in my aunts room and my youngest sister (whom is now 19) was still in diapers in the crib sleeping. my mom says she remembers hearing gunshots and both my dad and mom ran to get both of my sisters. my mom got andrea ( youngest one ) out of the crib and get on the floor. My dad grabbed my other sister and he says til this day that when he grabbed her she somehow got out of his hands and got up and stood next to the window. my dad quickly got up and grabbed my sister and pulled her away and as he did a bullet grazed his temple near his eye. he got back down and soon after the firing comes to an end. minutes later my dad gets up and comes rushing down the stairs and thats when i see him with blood all over his arms.

we got lucky. thank god no one was seriously injured. life would have been different if any of my family members would have been taken away that day. 

i cant even imagine life without them.

Much Love,

AG

stand your ground

so I had a shoot planned for May 8th. I had met up with the client two weeks prior and we talked about what the whole shoot was about and who was going to be involved and all that. hairstylist, make-up artist etc. this client owns a beauty salon and wanted beauty shots for his salon. he mentioned no one was going to be paid and that everyone was pretty much doing it for free and told me he was going to pay me. I was like oh ok. thats cool. so i got home and figured out how much time it was going to take to shoot the stuff on the 8th. so through texting back and forth . i had to be at the salon ready to set up gear at 9:30am. the shoot would begin at around noon and be over around 5pm. 

today i met up with the client again to talk about what was his actual budget for my photography and he tells me that he can only afford to pay me 250$....I was like thats way cheap for what your asking me to do. he asked how much would I want. I said I want 400$ . and he was like sorry the most i can give you is 275 $. 

I think about what to say next....

so im like....your asking me to be here at 10am and its pretty much a full days shoot plus me going home and work on the images is another process that I need to do.

he kept throwing the word "broke" around as if im suppose to feel bad that hes broke and how everyone is doing it for free and im the only one getting paid.

I tell him..yeah thats great but this shoot benefits you more than it does me...i dont shoot beauty

-well you can use the images for your book

-I wouldnt put those images in my book

-well you need to let me know if your going to do the job or not otherwise i need to get another photographer...think about it and let me know by tonight.

so that was that..im on my way to work and thats when i send him a text saying , hey im really sorry, I would love to work with you but not for the price you offered me, thats too cheap and I know my work is good enough for me to get paid a decent amount.

he replies.

wow. pulling out at the last minute. lose my contact information and good luck with your photography here in New York.

I didnt and im not going to respond to that. talk about being professional about how you handle business right..? smh.

so to all my fellow photographers out there hustlin..here are some pointers....

1. dont be afraid/timid to talk about money..its what your going to live off of so why hold back.

2.let them know what your offering them from the beginning, that way there's no confusion afterwards as to whos getting what and how many.

3. if you have any ?'s ..ask away, client has the answers ( most of the time )

4.never do something just cuz its money..you have to look at everything that you do ..

which is...your equipment, editing, setting up, shooting , your time and more importantly they are hiring you because they love your aesthetic. so stand your ground and ask for what you think your time is worth...just because someone says ..yeah its 250$...its money and all...but at the end of the day your going to be the one doing all the work and 250 $ is going to feel MAD cheap  when your working on the photos...especially if the client isnt happy for some reason and demands more pics or just becomes picky for some dam reason.

anyways if you have any ?'s about some shit your trying to figure out about how much you should be charging or when should you start charging, send me an e-mail or hit me up on facebook.

stay hu$tlin

much Love,

AG

and you see any grammatical errors up in this bitch..its fuckin 4am so give me a dam break english teacher

dueces