A Breather

I had thought I should attack all that retouching I need to do, but, after editing 862 images down to 282 and putting them into a web gallery for Alison, I didn't feel like attacking much. It's also much easier to get caught up in the adrenaline of producing the next look book rather than focus on touching. But I also played some Lego Star Wars and tried to take it easy. It's supposed to be Lazy Sunday.

Super Cute, Super Fast

More art direction from LV...

This is me and the designer, Alison from Project Runway Season 3, hustling to get through 14 looks. Without her knowing exactly what she likes and having two great models from Race Management, I'm not sure how long this shoot might have taken. Our call time was 10 a.m. and just about everyone got lost. So we started around 11 a.m. and still finished by 4:30 p.m.

Then, completely unprecedented, people stayed to hang out after the shoot.

It was a good shoot.

T-24 hours

LV and I wake up. I'm not sure how I ever got to sleep, but I did and I woke up. LV asks me to restate my plan for the day. My plan--even though I've never spoken with the designer and I've put myself into this frenzy of a search because she just wanted to know if it was *possible* to shoot Saturday--is to go pick up the rental lens, pick up LV's comics, and buy a lot of snacks for the shoot.

LV says he'll go get the lens--I need to be at the computer to keep wielding deals and make this shoot happen. I don't like to sit still when I'm that stressed. My cleaning started probably as soon as I had booked the second shoot. By this point, I had locked in a make up and hair stylist through LV, but I had no models. One agency was almost out of the question. (It wasn't completely out of the question because it was Elite, but they wanted too much...) The other agency I had only spoken to for the first time ever at the end of the previous business day, so I had no idea if they were going to come through for me with two models.

While I waited to hear if the new agency would be able to come through for me and then if the designer would want the models (or if she really did still want to shoot on Saturday), I relocated the dishwasher. Yeah. I pushed the yet-to-be-installed-after-two-years dishwasher from one end of the house to the other to give the kitchen more space. Then I swept. Then I vacuumed the refrigerator coils. Then I mopped the kitchen floor. Three times. Then I checked my email again.

The booker from the new agency was leaving at 1 p.m. It was after 12. I was completely freaking.

Shoots just come together, though. It's a mystery, but they do. By 12:45 I had two models that satisfied the designer and all the right stylists. The shoot was on.

Trying

It was a trying day. I'm too tired to copy all of the words related to "stress" that are in the thesaurus, but they accurately describe what it feels like to be the photographer who says, "I can produce a shoot for free," and then finds out the shoot is in four days on a holiday weekend.

It was a trying day. I tried to get through the retouching I was getting paid to do. I tried to contact as many people as I could to secure models and makeup and hair for the two look book shoots. I tried not to lose my mind. It was a trying day.

Look Books

Yesterday, I met with a company in the morning about shooting a look book. I had thought I would be going home to retouch, but instead I found out that I would be shooting another look book. So began the scramble to find four models, two hair stylists, two makeup artists, possibly two wardrobe stylists...

I had promised two look books to be produced for free in less than a week. I've never shot a look book. I had no idea that agencies and stylists despise look books. My notes about today include the phrases "freaked out some more" and "wanted to cry."

It was a stressful day to say the least, but at least I secured my insurance.

Craigslist

I absolutely love craigslist (except when they delete my ads for TFCD gigs almost as soon as I post them). You can find just about anything there. I've found three fantastic hair stylists, an amazing wardrobe stylist, and some pretty cool gigs. I thought the gig for today would be just as cool. So did two other photographers and a videographer, apparently...

My understanding was that I would have 30 minutes to shoot the band leader with four girls in devil/angel theme. Whatever I wanted to do creatively was up to me. When I got there, the manager who had contacted me told me to talk to the lead singer. He was too busy. And because I had worn a white tank top, I blended in with the dozens of other girls there that night wearing white. Four models and one photographer had obviously turned into, "Tell everyone yes just in case someone doesn't show."

Before I left the house, I decided to take my ring flash with me. Unfortunately, I completely forgot that the power cord was not in the case. I packed an extension cord but no power cord... Luckily, I still had three things no other photographer there had: LV and two fast lenses.

After so many freelance gigs that require so little art direction, LV the director was unleashed on that rehearsal space. He told the lead singer to stand more at profile to my camera. The lead singer did. He told the lead singer how to pose with his back up singers, and they did it. I said I wanted all the girls on the couch. LV put them all on the couch. (This is the lighting test with the manager and the craigslist "models.") He told other photographers to get out of my way. He told the band how to stand for their group photo. They did everything he said. At one point, two other guys tried to get in there and direct the models on how to stand. LV ended up fixing the arrangement for them.

I had come into the event thinking that I would be popping and dragging, but the ceilings were so low and the room wasn't dark enough. I just turned the flash off for most of the shoot. This was turning out to be nothing like I had thought I was getting into.

The lead singer was really crazy about LV, though, so hopefully something good will come of all the time I spent on photographing them. I was there for much longer than the 30 minutes I'd been told and ended up with no credits on MySpace. I have to add that to my to-do list...

Craziness

The day started out slowly, answering some emails and planning to do retouching. Around 3 'o-clock things change. I get a call about retouching. Okay, cool. Paid retouching. I get a call about shooting a look book. Okay, let's meet and see if we can work together. I get a call from the production company that hired me last month to finally explain what the PR firm is thinking they want from me--they'll pay per download if I release the images to wire services. Whoa.

A week ago, I was thinking I should give up on photography as a career. Today I'm negotiating rates for retouching, lining up a shoot for next week, and calling Getty and Corbis about selling my pictures.

That's a lot of change for one week.

Saturday

More boring HTML work to help fund the photography...

Re-branding, Re-organizing

I thought I was going to attack all the places I appear on the internet and perfect my branding. Instead, I ended up playing Bratz Rock Angels, sweeping the apartment, animating more web banners, and (mainly) reorganizing my bulletin board that is supposed to keep me on track. The board was actually a big accomplishment. When I started today, it was full of contact information for people I won't work with and shoots that will not happen and really big, vague goals (like "perfect my branding"). When I finished, the contacts were streamlined, the shoots and other projects were more realistic, and the goals were more specific (like "email so-and-so").

Non-photography

Before I got started on that ad from yesterday, I decided I was going to beat Bratz Forever Diamonds for the PS2. I have no idea why I felt the need to play it all. Probably that it meant for an hour my biggest problem would consist of following a puppy while it looked for pieces of a lost makeup kit...

One text-heavy web banner isn't enough to pay the insurance, so LV asked me to help him out with a new client and design some more web banners for them. Wee. More web banners.

Blech

Today I finished retouching, proofing, and sending files from my previous model's test shoot. Then I started seriously looking for insurance, and wanted to hide under a pillow. I'm just starting out. Where am I supposed to get the money to pay to join an association in order to pay more money for insurance...?

Magically I received a request to design a web banner with too much text, and it reminded that I have to become insured as a photographer so I don't have to go on doing stuff that sucks.

New Pictures

I thought I had two shoots today, but it turns I was just way too excited about being double-booked. My second shoot is next Tuesday.

LV says it's too soon to give up on trying to be a photographer, so I've been going crazy trying to book more shoots. With today's shoot, there were no stylists. That makes booking the shoot so much less stressful. Less stress means feeling less like giving up. Which is good.

Retouching

Today I finally sent the makeup artist the high res from last month's shoot. It doesn't feel like it's been more than a month since we shot...

If only he could do the dishes...

I mean, as long as he's up there...

Invoices

Nothing says Friday like catching up on all my invoices. I should get paid in October. Wee...

Thursday

Blonds might have more fun, but I colored my hair back to "light brown" today. It's more brown than light. But I guess they couldn't go all Crayola and call it "brown light." No one would buy that...

Busy

I thought I had been slacking off--that maybe I hadn't done anything since February--but then I started gathering updating this blog. I've been busy. Everything from June 19 to today just went up.

Meeting

I went to interview for a gig off craigslist. After waiting an hour, I didn't get to meet with the editor was I supposed to meet. Instead, two other editors looked at my book, told me the shoot location had to be switched, said they didn't know where the new location would be, and promised to be in touch after a photographer was chosen.

I'm not holding my breath over this shoot.

Something Needs to Change

I didn't like finding LV's drawing materials on my vanity. The whole reason I had cleared off the vanity was so that I could use it as a vanity. But he took that as opportunity to stack up comic boards and rulers and pencils on surface *and* the stool. Something had to change.

We have two kinds of walls in our apartment: those that are impervious to drills (ask the DirecTV guy who ruined his drill) and those that can't support more than a nail. Shelves are out of the question unless they are part of a bookcase. But I was determined to make the office better. Or at least find a new home for all of LV's drawing materials.

The idea didn't hit me until after I had streamlined every other shelf in the apartment. (We have sooo much clutter. "So much" = Christmas cards LV bought and then lost track of among all the books and receipts and action figures on one particular shelf.) When LV came home, he was slightly freaked out that furniture had moved and his toys all had new homes. I had asked him if I could throw out all the receipts, so he knew something was going to be different.

"Where's Venom?"

"With the second shelf of comic-based DVDS."

After he located everyone, I showed him what had happened to the folding table:

He now had a dumping ground for drawing materials that he could also clear off and actually use for drawing. He was excited.

Can't Hardly Wait

Some might say, "Another Star Wars movie?" Not my family. They say, "Another Star Wars movie!" And then make masks to really get into the spirit.

*cough*

I spent the week trying to get rid of cold that just won't go away. Now I'm ready to get back to working. And it seems like I'm not the only one getting into the spirit.

Sweet

I've nearly paid for the macro lens with all the work I've spent illustrating for these pet food labels. LV comped up cans with the final versions of every design, and then I shot them for the presentation. (A good time to have that macro lens on hand...) LV took this picture of me (under the umbrella) struggling to figure out how to light shiny cans. I'd like to think it didn't take me *that* long to pull out an old milk jug and turn it into a reflective tent. Not quite the pretty blown out white backgrounds I had with my models.