I bought a new macro lens for the beauty shoot because... Well, I think because LV likes to buy things. But with two shoots coming up and the number of hours I'd waste traveling to pick up and return a lens, I decided it made sense to go ahead and buy one. To help get some mileage out of it, we went to go see the new nephew and get some really tight shots of him.
Today Scrappy had a playdate. They went to the movies and held hands and shared popcorn. It was very exciting and had to be documented.
What's a third day of shooting in a row? If anything, it makes the 4-hour long recital go a bit faster.
My picture-taking was a bit limited this year seeing as Scrappy's mom owed the dance school some money, so we didn't get tickets for the show until the only available seats were behind people like this. (We sat front and center last year, which was great for photos.)
"Marilyn" has the same expression on as most of the audience.
I basically had the chance to hone my blown-out white background skills immediately. The beauty was only with two models, but we stuck with the happy bright white background to make it more commercial.
This is the lovely clean white background I was able to produce with two lights on the back blocked by foam core. (The model specifically requested this look for the re-shoot of her January session.) Next time I'll have to be better about keeping the model in a fixed position; it's a lot harder to tell on the preview when her light wasn't exposing her properly.
With the laptop still being fussy about its connection to the camera (I specifically bought Aperture so I could shoot tethered...), we had plenty of time to talk about the Secret and how it's worked for her.
I suddenly decided it was high time we rearrange the office so that it was more conducive to happy two-person workspace. LV was not excited about this. That's a lot of furniture to suddenly move.
This was before: http://dinosaurgirly.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-computers.html
I think it's much better now. Although, this means I can't hide out on the couch, watching cable and writing comic books all day.
After a day of moving furniture, LV had to carry home 8-foot slabs of foam core for me so I can shoot blow-out white backgrounds. He's the best.
In much less than the two weeks I was told I'd have to wait, I received an email from iStock today saying that I need to reapply because my submissions were too similar in subject and/or style. I thought that was really stupid. I should submit three photos in completely different styles of completely different subjects to show that I have no idea what I'm doing and happened to luck into taking three decent photos? So annoying.
After sifting through all the possible candidates of different subjects and different styles that don't require me to track down a model release, I still wasn't happy. I didn't bother to finish up the illustrations for my vector illustration application like I had planned. Between my annoyance with the first rejection and my inability to copy Illustrator successfully onto my laptop, I just didn't feel like it.
Then to really ruminate on self-doubt, I went to the Click! blog to see if there were any updates on the exhibition that opens next week. Approximately 78 if the 389 pictures that were judged for the exhibition will be on display. There's no way of knowing yet which 78 are in the exhibition and what size they will be displayed.
Luckily Camp Rock premiered on Disney tonight, and watching the hardship of being a 7-year-old who has to wait all the way until 8 'o-clock at night (waiting through two hours of Cash Cab and Jeopardy and other non-Jonas Brothers shows!) for the Jonas Brothers movie to start reminded me that life could be more difficult. :0)
We drove out to Long Island today for a surprise birthday party. It was a chance to test out the rental car we'll be driving to Chicago in July. I wasn't so impressed, but it beat the car we drove to Vermont.
This is LV trying to get Scrappy to dance. I don't think it properly portrays how enthusiastic he really was...
LV requested I shoot more toys. The greatest tag teams are plenty exciting, but I wanted the really old weird toys, too.
Before we started shooting toys, though, I shot our broken doorknob. I've been looking into joining different stock sites. I thought maybe doorknob could be abstract...
Before I started shooting a broken doorknob, it had to break. That was a fun afternoon adventure. Lunch at Brooklyn McDonald's: $13. Break-in after lunch: $75. New lock: pricey.
I was supposed to re-shoot headshots from January today, but the actress was called in for a TV gig at the last minute. We pushed our shoot to next week. This left me with time to use LV as a guinea pig for blown out backgrounds. I also shot more of his wrestling toys--the best tag teams. I like the pictures, but I haven't transfered them from the laptop to the desktop yet.
I also started my search for hair and makeup for the beauty shoot I agreed to do, but no pictures of the models yet.
I kind of felt like an idiot sending out so many postcards when it seems logical that with a bad economy and readily accessible stock sites, none of these 299 contacts were going to hire me any time soon. Everyone uses stock. I decided it was time to become a stock photographer.
Although I rarely used iStock when I was searching for images, they claim to be No. 1, they claim to keep a better eye on protecting your images if you sign with them exclusively, and they pay better than Shutter Stock. So, I filled out the application, took the photo test, and sent three pictures of food. Now I'm supposed to wait two weeks for a response.
In the meantime, I answered some ads on craigslist this week. One woman called me back about a beauty shoot with three models. That sounded good, but I have no idea what the models look like. That makes it tough to talk stylists into donating their time and talent to the shoot...
Today a little voice said, "Hey, why not just buy rolls?"
"Do they sell rolls? They raise the price of stamps too often."
"Of course they still sell rolls. Three rolls. Much easier than counting how many times 18 goes into 299."
"You're just trying to avoid doing the math," I told the little voice. But then I bought three rolls and made my life so much easier... Two hours later, I had 299 postcards in the mail.
Originally, I was trying to narrow my advertising mailing list down to about 150 people because I didn't have that many postcards left. Then the second batch of cards arrived, so I finally finished my advertising list with 300 contacts--mostly art buyers. I printed the labels, discovered I had one duplicate, and now have 299 postcards ready for stamps.
I seem to have completely forgotten about finishing up my mailing list of advertisers. After all the supplies arrived so that I didn't have to pick only 148 names from the 500 I have in my database, the thought of postcards somehow went out the window.
Father's Day started with LV making breakfast. Then he got to open presents from Scrappy and the cats. Hallmark had Father's Day cards from cats and dogs. If I hadn't seen them, I wouldn't have thought to include the cats in the celebration because LV says he's so not a cat person. (Yeah right.) Luckily for LV, the cats were included. They bought him Mighty Muggs.
There was plenty of sun and humidity at the start of the birthday party, but, without fail, it rained on the BBQ.
Doing work for free can be a pain, but free publicity is always great. In anticipation of relaunching his theater production company at the end of the summer, an old roommate emailed me to see how things were going and if I'd be willing to update his site. I'm not crazy about the web anymore, but, if it meant I could keep up the links to my portfolio site, I'd be happy to redesign the site I created in 2004-ish. Plus, he was open to having me take a picture of the staff members in a studio setting. A group shot for someone that will be used outside a wedding album or Tavern on the Green frame? Sign me up.
Plus, coming into Manhattan for lunch meant getting to not eat more peanut butter and jelly and going out for a date in Manhattan with LV. It was a good day. Now I just have to my homework to get the site redesigned.
One of the seminars I took when I was weighing my options of becoming a fulltime freelancer said to floss all the time--"Dental work is too expensive." Having already had to sign up for a medical credit card to cover an inlay MetLife didn't see the need to pay for, I started to floss all the time. It was rather exciting to have the dentist smile and say my teeth look really good instead of using the deep frown lines in his forehead to remind of how seriously I should take flossing.
Afer my dentist appointment, I walked all Midtown to exchange a Father's Day gift and pick up my portfolio from Men's Fitness, who, sadly, confirmed my idea that my prints are too green. It looks I'll be spending a few more days reprinting and cramming pages into my portfolio.
My dad wanted a new car for his birthday. I didn't get it for him in time for his birthday, but I sent him a Z3 for Father's Day. Look how happy his in it.
After weeks of exchanging emails with vague references to when we should get together for lunch, I finally met up with a former boss to see how possible it would be for me to take on assignments for the magazine he's currently at. As with all business lunches I've ever been to, 75 percent of the lunch of spent off-topic. We came up with some ideas. Things are looking up. And I forced him to take the portfolio with him to make sure I left feeling like things were moving along.
With the heat wave, the cats aren't doing much except conserving energy. This was Sunday...
Monday afternoon...
and Monday night.
Last May I ordered my first portfolio, a 40-page landscape 12x9 (bottom). This year, I ordered a portrait 9x12 book with the capacity for 80 pages (top). But I only purchased 60 pages because I just don't have 80 pages of material yet. Also, I thought it would be easier to fit 60 pages into an 80-page book than it had been to fit 40 pages into a 40-page book. I had no idea the fight I was in for.
Late Saturday night, after all my pictures were printed and trimmed, I set to work placing them in the new book. I was already unhappy about the color of the pictures, and my mood was not improved when I could barely fit 40 pages into an 80-page book. The books are designed with a flap that folds around three bolts that hold the pages in place. I've never needed another person to help push the pages down in a fight against that flap. I always win against the flap. Saturday night, LV and I were no match for that flap.
LV concurred that there was something wrong with the book, but said that I was also overly harsh and overly tired. He said I should call to complain on Monday. I left the 30 pages we could fit fastened into the book.
Monday morning I was nervous about calling the portfolio company because I knew I would sound like an idiot. The fear of sounding like an idiot would make me super-defensive. Nothing would be accomplished except for me feeling like an idiot. So before making any phone calls, I took out the portfolio to see what could be done about fitting the rest of the pages.
The spine of the new book really was larger than the spine of the old one, so there had to to be a way to make those pages fit. First I took out all the pages in LV's book and all the pages in my book to swap bolts. Then I learned that, though 60 pages fit perfectly on his bolts, they were just too large for my book. So I put all his bolts and pages back.
Then I started cramming pages into my book, pressing at the center instead of the edges like I do with my 40-page book. Between the new pressure points and the time the 30 pages had spent pressing on the flap the previous day, I was able to just barely fit all 60 pages into my new book. I still think the pages need to be reprinted, but I was happy they all fit.
Cupid was being oddly quiet today, but that didn't stop him from finding ways to let us know he wanted to play.
The Murakami exhibit had a few pieces we thought were too graphic for a second grader, but we sat down for a while in the lobby of the Brooklyn Museum to let Scrappy try drawing the pieces on display there. (This is the museum tag attached to LV's shorts.) Nothing in the Utagawa exhibit, which we had gone to see, really grabbed her attention that way, but LV and I were fascinated by the wood cuttings. She just wanted to see the museum's mummies again.
