Today at work i got "worked over" ( ;D ) by Pierre. Pierre does massagesm akupuncture and other stuff like that, and he will be coming around once a month all winter. Oh yes he will :]
Also, I'm trying to put toghether a good portfolio. Ugh. It's hard.
A few years ago, when I worked in advertising, I too had to put together a portfolio. It's quite daunting to start with. See your portfolio as a journey, not as a destination. You're creating a garden, not building a house: it's a never-ending process -- and you will never finish. Bob Dylan said: "An artist has got to be careful never really to arrive at a place where he's at somewhere. You always have to realize that you're constantly in a state of becoming and as long as you stay in that realm you'll, sort of, be alright." That's a great motto for living a creatively interesting life, whether you're taking photos, making art, writing books, or whatever: just keep moving.
Once you have the physical plastic book/binder (or whatever you will use), you can almost start anywhere. Fill the thing up immediately. Put in as many photos (in my case it was advertisments) as the thing will hold. It's quite good to do this with a binder of limited capacity -- something that will hold only a limited amount of stuff. Mine used to hold only about 20 or 30 pieces, I think. The limited capacity forces you to keep selecting your strongest work. That may be much easier than putting together a Web portfolio, where potentially you could have any number of photos -- and nothing is forcing you to pick the stronger work or reject the weaker. Others may disagree, but I feel that's a mistake. In time, as your portfolio improves, your new work will have to get stronger and stronger to get in: the bar will be rising all the time. That will drive you to be better too. The current contents of your portfolio will become the standard you have to beat each time.
What do you put in to start with? Anything. It doesn't matter. Just start the process, that's the important thing. It's also a good idea to keep showing your portfolio to as many (honest, informed) people as possible. Don't instantly act on what they say, of course, because it's all just opinion. They may be idiots! But over time you'll get a sense of what really is your strongest work. I guess you could mirror your physical portfolio on a website if you wanted, but I'd keep the amount of photos limited in the same way. Something new arrives, something old must give way to make room for it.
Well that's the end of the waffle. It worked for me, sort of. Good luck....