I often wonder the very same thing.

I quoted that from the book "Purple Cow". It's a book I'm currently reading about business and marketing. The "remarkable" part in the quote is related to a product, not an individual. In the book, Seth Godin says to create a product that targets a small niche. You can't create a product to please everyone. The people who play it safe are the ones who go unnoticed. If you fit in, you're failing. If you create something remarkable, you'll be disliked and criticized by some), but you'll also stand-out and find success. In any case, to answer your question, remarkable is what we strive for.

Thank you! That means a lot. Next time we're in Florida, we would love a friendly tour guide, but first we have to know how to find you. :)

I'm still learning about graphic design, but I don't steal. The internet is full of so many great resources for graphic designers, and I take advantage of what's available. I only use graphics that give me legal permission to use them and try to give credit where it's due. If graphic design meant making everything from scratch, it would be extremely time consuming and not very profitable. Most designers have not created a single font. It's ok to use fonts and basic graphics and make them your own by adding onto the design.

Dafont is an amazing font resource and using their fonts is not stealing. If you use Times New Roman on your computer, it's the same concept... you're using a font created by someone else. I really like the Graphics Fairy because it's a collection of vintage print graphics and it's fun to put that old/classic touch into my work that's been around for a long time.

I just answered this a couple questions ago. My (Julia) parents were worried when I changed my direction from nursing studies to graphic design/photography because the job is not as stable/available/profitable as the health care field. I was a little worried myself. We've had time to prove ourselves, and they are happy to see we are able to live off of our photography business, they can see we love our job, and support us completely. In the end, parents just want you to be happy!

We had a debit card (or bank card) with us and withdrew a couple hundred dollars at a time at ATMs in the local currency. This was less risky than carrying a huge amount of cash with us and also more profitable because you pay for converting cash at a foreign currency exchange. Our bank charged a small amount for each withdrawal, but we didn't have to pay a percentage that the currency exchange people take.

For added safety, we had a family member back home hold onto the money we saved up and deposit chunks of it into our bank account periodically. This way if our debit card was lost or stolen while abroad, the thief wouldn't have access to a large amount of money in our bank account.

We can't say how the economical situation of the country has affected prices since this was our first time there. It was certainly cheaper than other parts of Europe (like Paris and London). If you don't stay a super fancy resort on the beach and eat at a gyro stand every once in a while instead of only sit-down dinners, it's definitely reasonable. A gyro costs 3 euros and fills you up. Our hotel in Santorini was 30 euros a night (it was in Fira and a little away from the beach... nothing luxurious, but very clean, comfortable, and charming).

They don't mind it. They're still fascinated that we can make a living off of photography alone and tend to ask if we have enough jobs booked. I (Julia) know my parents are really proud. I was initially going for nursing and they were worried when I told them I wanted to pursue graphic design/photography instead. Honestly, I was worried too! But I think we've proven ourselves to them and they can see I'm really happy. Our parents have never asked for free photos but they deserve them.

I didn't realize they live there! Maybe I will contact them to meet. They have a great blog.

No way. I used a paper cutter for for the straight pieces and a circle punch for the little round ones. Both available in craft stores.

In our opinion, the best learning experience is practice. Read about the basics of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO online, then go out and shoot a lot on the manual setting to see what each function really does. You'll remember it so much better that way. With time and practice, you'll learn to focus faster, find better compositions, etc. Only so much can be taught in a classroom.

You can also look for a photography workshop in your area to learn from a professional and learn with other beginners.

We haven't been to either! Wish we could be more help.

We received an email from a guy that was planning a gay wedding and looking for a wedding photographer. We've never shot one before and were not confident we'd do the best job, so we recommended some fantastic photographers in our area that have photographed gay weddings before. It was not personal. He wrongly assumed we hated him because he's gay. He deserves a great photographer on his wedding day and I told him so.

Formspring is more time-consuming that we expected so we usually don't answer questions daily, but we do our best.

We've been to Vancouver and Whistler many times, but haven't seen the east coast of Canada at all. We have heard so many good things about Montreal. We're really excited! If you have any suggestions of what to do/see, we'd love an email from you. juliamanchik@gmail.com

We always wore our camera on the strap around our neck. Pretty hard to steal it in that case. We didn't have a camera bag. If we didn't feel like taking pictures, we left it in the hotel room.

I think having a prime lens on your camera (which is what we have) instead of a huge zoom lens makes it looks a lot less valuable and appealing to thieves. Primes lenses are a lot more compact and don't stand out so much.

One tip we have is to remove your camera strap that says "Nikon" or "Canon" in bright, bold letters and replace it with a generic strap so people can't really tell it's an expensive brand-name camera. You can even tape up the logos on the camera with black tape to "cheapen" it, but we didn't go that far.

Also, I've been meaning to buy one of these because I think it would be awesome for traveling: http://bit.ly/mDPItP

I was responding to a question about why I would post pictures of myself without makeup. I see a lot of girls on Facebook who only post photos of themselves dressed slutty, wearing way too much makeup, making obnoxious kissy faces, showing cleavage, etc. It's not who they really are in real life and it doesn't really portray a great image of them. I don't think they have bad values... maybe low self-worth and no modesty. I wasn't trying to pass judgement, just trying to answer for myself and my photos. I think it's ok to have nice hair and makeup (I wear it almost daily), I just want to encourage girls to feel comfortable posting photos of themselves without makeup because it's real. Whoever asked me that question obviously thought I was crazy to post photos of myself without makeup.

Yeah we were a little skeptical and bargained ALWAYS. It helps to ask around before you commit. We walked into a few hotels before picking one so we knew what the regular prices were in that area and for that season. Even for taxis, we would ask the driver for a quote. Then walk to another taxi and ask for a quote. Then walk to another taxi and tell him how much the other guys quoted us, and often times he'd give us a better price so we'd go with him. Sometimes, taxi drivers doubled or tripled their prices because they could see we were tourists! But when they saw that we didn't just fall for the first price and did a little research, they gave us an honest and reasonable price.

We found that hostels were always really helpful to backbackers and travelers. They always have the best deals for activities to do around town and will give you honest advice about where to avoid high tourist prices and traps.

My Toms were awesome travel shoes. Really comfy for walking and they're easy to pack since they're made of cloth and they flatten. I loved that I could wear them with pants, shorts, dresses... pretty much everything. Not many shoes work with both casual/dressy outfits.

Get a half size smaller than what you usually wear because they stretch out with wear. You don't have to break them in.. they're super comfy from the first time!

Actually, laundry was never hard to find for us. In Europe, we went to a self-service coin laundromat. In Asia, we just dropped it off at the laundromat and they hand-washed it, line-dried in the sun, and even ironed/folded our clothes. Every city had one within walking distance. We wore our clothes several times before washing. I washed panties in our hotel sink in between laundry days since I didn't bring that many. You can buy laundry detergent capsules here in the states to take overseas in case you ever need to do laundry in the sink.

I bought a little bag of dried lavender in Croatia and put it into my suitcase to help it smell a little fresher. Regardless, my clothes did smell a little funky sometimes and was wrinkly always! Made me appreciate my closet more upon returning home. :)