It's Toy Time!

Once again, Crazy Colored Glasses is listing the Top 10 toys of the year. So he came up with 12 or so for me to shoot. (Last year there were 20.)

For details, check here: Crazy Colored Glasses

Cheering Section

I wasn't sure if I was going to cover the marathon again. Last year I ran around the city to cover as much as I could. Last year there were no 8GB cards on sale (so all I had were some 512MB cards). Last year I didn't really know what I was doing. This year, though, I knew I didn't end up doing much with the pictures I took. In fact, I did so little, I didn't even post them on this blog. I was thinking this year it might be fun for the three of us to go down to the marathon and sit and be spectators and cheer.

The weather was pretty nice. We found a sunny spot at the 4-mile area, saw the wheelchair, women's, men's, and the rest run past. On the left is the winner, on the right is Scrappy doing a dance to keep warm. We left in time to get home to see the lead women and men finish on TV.

Playing with Light

I was thinking about watching that episode of Chuck I had on DVR when I realized that I should probably continue to get my money's worth out of the rentals. I had wanted to see what the difference was between the reflectors and the diffusers included with the umbrellas, but decided instead to use my softbox and ring light. Why catalog lighting I don't own? The white board (and positioning of the slippers) is my catalog for future reference...

Getting My Money's Worth

Shoots never come together quickly. This was an exception. A makeup artist and a model contacted me about shooting. I said I would shoot avant-garde beauty with them. They were both excited. I really know nothing about avant-garde, but I wanted something different and I wanted to use my rentals at least one more time.

I totally expected one to say she couldn't shoot--not on such short notice. Both were available Monday, both had no problem with the location, both were responsive to emails. This was bizarre. Shoots don't come together in fewer than three days.

Thirty minutes before the shoot, I get a call from the model. She's hoping I can excuse her tardiness--she spent the night in the hospital after a life-threatening asthma attack. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to shoot. She couldn't wait.

It was a good shoot.

Toys!

LV really wanted me to shoot his GI Joes. They've been waiting in a bag all summer. But his idea was to show the new Joe with the old Joe. Unfortunately, most of the rubber rings in the old Joes need to be replaced and no one in our neighborhood sells those rings. So we shot other toys instead, like the new Indiana Jones and Violet from the Incredibles.

I wanted to try something new with the lighting, so, even though I was using the rental umbrellas, I dragged out the giant light table.

Lighting

I tend to light everything high and directly in front. But on this day, I quickly learned to shoot with back light. It made things completely different from any shoot I've done before.

The sunlight in the picture on the left is was started all the back lighting. Then I wanted to exaggerate what was happening in the doorway. Then I needed to recreate that in the laundry room (before we got kicked out). I don't think I'll ever go back...

More Abstract

I saw an ad on craigslist for a web designer/photographer. Trying to swap web designing for group shots didn't prove to work out previously, so this time I offered to photograph what they needed in exchange for what I needed. Not until the morning before the shoot did the idea really strike me for how to anchor the shoot. I wanted something more emotive than what I had, but "anxiety" and "happy" were just too vague. I wanted something specific. I decided to pull the more interesting announcements from my Facebook account. The picture above is "[Name] cannot wake up. :("

This is a picture LV, my lovely assistant, took of me taking a picture of "[Name] wants to bury her head in the sand and not wake up until 2009." LV's not into the absurd, so it really wasn't his cup of tea. I am his cup of tea, though, so he bared down, made nice with all the pigeons on the roof, and was a great assistant.

This wasn't really part of the series. More just to make use of the sunset and a group shot.

Flash Pop Bang

A model I previously shot referred another model to me. It was really great to have a paid shoot, but that didn't really put any cash in my pocket. On the last look, the flash stopped triggering. Model lights, good. Flash, no go.

Meanwhile, though, I did learn how to change the flash tube when I finally plugged in the third light I never use.

Two Events

In the morning, I hit a local grocery store for the follow up event to the tasting that had been canceled the day before.

Then I headed out to the mall for two fashion shows.

Mostly, I was interested in seeing how all my pictures from July were being used. That's my portrait of Christian in the phone. :0)

Boston

I was so glad I booked my trip by train. (I was even happier I got on the Acela.) It rained all day. So much that the event was canceled, but I took pictures of the signage in the subway before heading to the hotel.

Day Three

Day Three of shooting was so long, it easily felt like a week. We shot a meet-and-greet in the morning, prepping for the show in the afternoon, the show, and then the wrap party... It was definitely a good time.

On the Big Screen

After a second day of shooting Christian Siriano (that was the shoot in July where I couldn't disclose details), I had to go check out the billboard created from the July shoot. (The red dot in the middle that says "LG.")

While my pictures made it into the reel playing on the screens at the fashion show and make up a bunch of the content on the lglotus.com (you can download my work as wallpaper!), my stills weren't in the 10 seconds on the billboard. (Christian looking at fabric on the screen just right of center.)

Still, I was part of that billboard in Times Square. :0)

Props and Sets

I can't post the pictures I took earlier in the day, but this the family enjoying the new studio prop.

Test Shoot

Because I don't have enough on my plate with needing to turn around images, I stuck to my test shoot for this week. We did a variety things, ranging from kind of bizarre to totally bizarre. (The are slightly bizarre and normal.) And then she got hurt. And it was 90 degrees outside. And I kept getting phones calls from my contact person for this coming weekend's shoot. The posing was good, the lighting was good, but "the shoot" was... eh.

More Clothes

I can't believe that's my yard. I also can't believe I figured out how to light that. It's like I've been reading. It's more like I woke up, having learned from all my past mistakes. And then my yard turned out looking this lush.

Stuff

Kind of crazy to think that less than a year ago I quit the office job and a little less than a month ago I almost gave up on this photography idea. Here I am shooting, shooting, shooting...

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.

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...

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.

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.