Looking Up

I awoke to this in my driveway on Saturday morning. Sometimes things just happen ...

Now today ... there are 2 foot drifts there. But for a few hours before things melted ... Someone left two hearts for me to find.

Not Much New

There isn't much new to report in the way of photos. I haven't been working on them this week and I don't have any new shoots scheduled. However, I do have tentative plans for 2 more friends to get in and do some portraits. I want to have enough good images banked (oh yeah - AND have model releases) to be able to assemble my website. I know I need to have something "out there" that advertises what I can do ... instead of just relying on faith.

So with all the recent good weatheredness (yes, I made that up) I still feel like pullin' up "warm days" pictures. Here is my car. Top one is obviously the before ... my mother took this picture. And when I got ahold of it made a few changes and made it a bit more "about the car" instead of all the clutteredness of the background. Things that could have made this picture better - different angle, being higher up, and having the shadow fall under the car instead of in front it. But I do think that given the starting point - this isn't too bad of an ending point, don't you?

Frantic

It has already been a rough day and it's not even 1pm. This morning started off badly because the new plugins that I purchased (or thought I had) hadn't shown up in my email. So I begin trying to figure out why that got bounced back. Thought perhaps it was because of my email address (being a Yahoo account) and come to find out that my credit card had stopped it because they thought it was fraudulent activity. Great.

Got to the office to continue the frenzy of people packing and trying to figure what to do. Meanwhile, I get asked to rework the entire employee handbook. It was started in Quark, completed in Word ... and now I get to try to layout it nice in InDesign. Woohoo. PS - our office is moving in the next week ... this should get fun.

The phone had been ringing nonstop. And strange people keep coming in ... oh how I hate salespeople. AND don't forget I have been trying to get the freelance jobs done, too. Got one customer all done yesterday ... and now my larger of the two showed up. It is three projects rolled into one for simpler payments ... um ... right.

So - enough about my psychotic office. It is now dead silent and I am taking a short break to show you what I so deseparately wanted to buy ... the plugins!

This is the Noiseware Pro plugin that I have been (im)patiently waiting for. I got a NAPP discount ... and had to wait for them to renegoiate their discountage all of last week. It is going to help me with the portraits especially (there was a plugin called Portraiture but I've played with that one too much yet). Anyway - as you can see - it greatly reduces the noise which you may or may not care about ... all depending on your print size. But I have decided to make it my general rule to work on everything as large as possible ... should someone need bigger than 8x10 prints ... I don't want to be stuck doing all the work over again.

What do you think? I turned down the smoothing a little bit on one of the settings. It was starting to look too fakey ...

Is it spring?

I spent a very unproductive weekend ... just laying around. Well, I did get some things accomplished like got my hair done and went to the grocery store. But otherwise, I would have never left the house.

I thought I was going to busy with a shoot and working on some freelance jobs. Unfortunately, nothing panned out - and of course my freelance jobs show up today. Needing to be done, honestly, yesterday!

But on Sunday, I lounged around (thought I was going to the casino - but that didn't happen either!). And I had spring fever ... I just wanted it to be warm(er) out and I wanted to go for a walk with just a sweatshirt on. It looked nice out ... but it was really 20º so I spent an hour on the treadmill instead. So here is a picture of warmer days. It was really hot out the day of this photo (which I spruced up with some extra shineability). My brother had nothing but problems restoring this car ... and last week he goes - I think I'll sell it. That kid is never happy. Know anyone who wants to buy a Camero?

Expensive Checks

I didn't realize how expensive checks could be. I haven't gotten any in almost 6 years. Yeah - my first order pretty much set me up for a while. I had ordered from two different places, 4 boxes each. And one of the places sent me the wrong design - so they fixed it with 4 more boxes. So I've been sittin' here with 12 boxes of checks. When we moved (2 doors over) I kept my license in my check book to show that it was correct. I wasn't buying new checks for an address change of 2 digits ... and the exact same everything else.

Present day ... I have two checking accounts. Double the fun. I don't wanna spend $100 for spending money ...

Well the photo of the day is my version of solarization. One of the guy's in the Camera Club does full on film ... black and white ... and his images last time were all solarized. So I had a filter to play with that would do it, too. Don't get me wrong ... I like the color and the b&w normal versions better ... but this would be pretty interesting on metallic paper ... don't you think?

Sister's Birthday

Got another shoot scheduled for Saturday now. I like it ... keeps me busy and out of trouble on the weekends. Heehee. However - all laughing aside - I will have a signed model release BEFORE the shoot.

Also going to be getting my hair done by the lovely, Miss Nikki again. I have been refering everyone to you - I swear!!! Anyone in the Green Bay area should be getting their hair done by Nikki H. at Bella Salon & Spa on Anderson Drive.

I'm still working on putting together a proof book for Nikki. And I need to get some definites from Kristen about her order. I am really getting into some of the *effects* photos I've been coming up with. Like this one ... I'm likin' the black & white.

On a side note - it is my sister's birthday today. I like to remind her (both of them actually) that I will always be younger. Hooray! Haha. Well, I'm still waiting to give her present though ... she's not at my building today.

I Loathe Forwards

I really hate receiving Fwds. I just cringe when they show up in my inbox. Why? Because they are always so stupid. I don't mind ecards or something that specifically pertains to me ... and my friend just had to show me. That I don't mind. But when people just hit Fwd and sent it on to everyone in their known Address Book ... I just wanna hit delete. Or better yet - JUNK! But I know that if I hit Junk (which we all know it is) ... then every email that I get from that person will end up in the Junk folder. But I wonder ... would it really be that bad?

So anyway - today's picture is when I was in my retro-everything-phase. I was morphing pictures and making them 60s & 70s-ish. But one of the steps brought me to this cool bitmap-type image. I like it!

PS - I got my black & white prints (done on metallic paper) today. All I can say is they are very "poppy." I wonder if that is how they make 3-D prints ... hmmmm ... where are my specs?

Rough Morning

So I started out the day with a shot of hair spray in the eye. On the plus side, I don't think it will be going anywhere.

I spent a couple hours last night, getting together and sorting through all the shots I had taken at the studio yesterday. I had the opportunity to tag along with someone who's taking the advance digital photography class. I thought it was going to be the studio people talking and showing us stuff (I would have liked to have asked them about pricing) but instead - we (the class) had the whole studio to ourselves. We could play with the lights and props ... and the instructor had a guy come in and model for us.

Things that could have been better ... I could have shot at a lower ISO, eliminating the need to use a noise reducing filter (on every single shot!). Could have used a tripod - but I didn't bring one. Other that that ... I think the trip went rather well. I had to stop myself a few times from hi-jacking the class and telling them more than I was supposed to. I can't help it ... I wanna be a teacher ... if only it weren't for the people! =P

Lab Printing

I got accepted at the pro lab Miller's yesterday. And boy is their intro pack confusing. Well, it all just seems a bit overwhelming until I actually place an order. I'm sure it will make more sense then.

Because I had ordering on the brain, here is an image I needed to order (and I went with Mpix just because I knew what was going on!) but I am trying out something new with it. I'm having it done on metallic paper. Oooooo. Shiney. Should be pretty cool. I have heard mixed feelings on the metallic-ness of stuff. I can see how it might not be the desired effect on something like ... color photos of people.

I'm excited to get a proof type book put together for my friend. She did pictures with me over the weekend and wants to have them on hand for clients (she works at a salon). Not that I want to turn away clients of any nature ... but I do think I would like to narrow my target demographic to the younger crowd. Senior portraits really call to me for some reason. I just think you can't go wrong with jazzin' up an image because all the seniors want something unique.

***Update***

Real world lesson was learned tonight. Never assume! Have everything documented. Business is business - regardless of other relations.

That being said - you will notice that there is no picture in the post below this one ... even though it sounds as if there should be. There was - and it has been removed. Model releases are a MUST. Let me add in my defense I had a verbal agreement that one would be signed, therefore I went ahead and posted the image. Tonight when it was time to sign ... didn't happen. (And this was with my SISTER people!!!)

So color me a bit annoyed that I wasted the day shootint and fixing images ... that will never do me a lick of benefit - save for my own personal practice.

Even Steven

So here is what I did end up accomplishing Sunday. Steven came over was extremely cooperative. He's quite smiley too which isn't entirely what I wanted. Here is one of his un-smiling shots. There weren't many.

I also found a new blog over the weekend that I like. It's called Totally Unprofessional. I entered the contest with a little something ... Check me out! http://totallyunprofessional.com/forum/index.php?topic=121.0

Other than that, not too much else to report. Saw my tax guy and I have to back again next week. Getting to be a regular Monday routine! And I have a camera club meeting tonight. Argh. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I hate our meeting place! I want it to be somewhere where I feel I can actually bring my equipment and not worry so much about it.

Sunday Morning

Today was the first day I didn't need my alarm clock ... since I can remember. I woke up about 10am and remembered that I had asked Steven to come over for some portraits. But we had never set a time.

I had a very sluggish morning. And even longer afternoon. The day didn't really feel like it got started until about 4pm this evening. What a day.

Here is a photo of Nikki (my shoot from yesterday). I have been increasingly more aware of my lighting. I wasn't sure I was going to like a lot of them because I left the lights in about the same position as the shoot I'd for the girls - which didn't turn out as planned at all!

But I have been slowly going through the shots from yesterday (I had been preoccupied with the ones from today!). And I know should have saved all of this ... for during the week. That has been the plan from the beginning. Shoot on weekend, work on fixes during the week, get photos ordered weekly. I don't that has happened yet!

Landscape of Deception

Across the street is a university campus and every once in a while the sky just looks so unnatural for our area. Like I would think this was somewhere tropical ... not Wisconsin!

This was from a while ago. Probably the fall. I wouldn't dream of taking my camera out in the subzero temperatures! I'm not too thrilled about transporting my laptop these last few days.

So think tropical ... as it's -14 here. =P

Interview Today

I have an interview today for a camera assistant position. Well, the funny thing is ... there wasn't like a posting or an official listing of a position - I just kind of emailed a photographer and let her know that I was available to help! So - I'll know more about what I do (if I do) this afternoon.

In the meantime, you'll see a bit of this victim ... I mean model. This is the friend I had over last weekend. We got through three backgrounds and 3-4 outfits. Not too bad. However, I didn't fall in love with as many pictures as I thought I would. Here's one I did like though.

Fun Foto

What do you do with a photo that doesn't turn out quite to your satisfaction? Turn it into something fun! I had one quick shot (this guy is very ellusive) and it was blurry and I had to use a flash ... and it was all very spur of the moment. He hates having his picture taken - naturally.

So I did a bit of Photoshopping and turned it into a Wanted Poster. Those little flecks are bullet holes and I did blur out his name. Why is he only worth $20 you say? Well, if you knew this guy - you would know that anymore than $20 ... and he'd turn himself in. I've blurred out his name ... though some of you may already know who he is.

Best part is - I taped it to his office door!

New Wave

I decided I'm going to use this space to post photos that I've done. I'm not going to take down the old stuff - but I hope to convert my blog into something more gallery-like from now on.

I think it's only fitting to put up this postcard that caused so much drama on a forum I chat on. Tell me you hate it. Tell me you love it. I've already had them printed and plan on handing them out next week.

I had a friend come over this weekend to do some portraits. And I have another scheduled for next Saturday. I would totally be "doing" the pics I had taken this weekend - except I am getting over being sick and I had a complete mental block and left all my images at home. Oops.

I promise to get some more up later this week.