My husband is a vector artist with serious compatibility woes right now. CS2 isn't compatible with his intel Mac, CS1 doesn't have the AI8 compatibilty (as far as he can find, and wow, has he looked) for iStock, and the freeware vector program he found isn't compatible with EPS files. Check out his blog post about it and lend a brotha a hand?
What were you afraid of as a child that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by navelgazer.
The usual. Spiders.. wide, empty, flat spaces.. stepping on cracks.. my father.. needles.. clowns. Well, I lied, actually. I'm still scared of all of that. Except empty, flat places. And I'm only scared of stepping on cracks when my stress level is really high for some reason. And I got a tattoo, which was kind of my way of saying, "Fuck you, needles!" I still get scared of them though.
The models had a ton of fun too. Karla was great-- she was really shy when I started working with her, and nervous before the first shoot on Saturday. But by that evening, she had an awesome diva attitude and the ease in front of a camera to back it up. So good for her!
Honestly, what I'm proudest of from this whole experience, creatively at least, is the makeup from day two. I did the makeup both days, but I think the more fantasy-inspired stuff I did for Jasmine Hill was some of my best work to date. I don't go outside the box with makeup as much as I'd like to, so I'm not always certain what I'm capable of in that regard. I was a bit nervous about how the other photographers would react to Adrienne's first look, especially with the light green shimmer to her lipstick to complete the tarnished coppery effect, but everyone seemed to like it. So yay!
Anyway, I'm pooped. Two months of planning followed by three days of no sleep, and then I worked a full day today. Working a full day tomorrow too. At some point I need to find software to read Canon RAW files-- Becca was so incredibly awesome to let me shoot with her 5D when we couldn't get the pocket wizards working, and I want to start playing with my images. The 5D is incredibly hot. I love Nikon, but the 5D is cheaper than the D2X, and OMG, soooooo sexy. So, so, so sexy. Of course, Shoe and I are going to fight over who gets a new toy first-- he wants a Cintiq, and they cost about as much as a 5D.
Working a whole ton lately. Work is crazy. Lots of people coming in for Christmas portraits, and apparently this is just the beginning. I'm not a kid or baby photographer, so I've got a huge, week-long headache from all the screaming toddlers and infants.
What are your top 25 most played songs?
Submitted by Cooxie.
I'm almost embarrassed, my sensitive singer-songwriterness is showing. I do have an eclectic taste in music, for really real, I swear.
These are in no particular order.
With or Without You -- Scala and the Kolacny Bros.
Creep -- Scala and the Kolacny Bros.
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room -- John Mayer
Another You -- John Mayer
Gravity -- John Mayer
Bold As Love -- John Mayer
In Repair -- John Mayer
Trust Myself -- John Mayer
Pull Me in Tighter -- Rilo Kiley
Mandy -- Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Where Eagles Dare -- The Misfits
32 Flavors -- Ani DiFranco
Deeper -- Tim Fagan
Corners of This Room -- Jen Woodhouse
Breaking Point -- Jen Woodhouse
Fall -- Kay Hanley
Galapagos -- Kay Hanley
Legs -- Darondo
Fields of Gold -- Sting
Where No One Knows Me -- Jann Arden
Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight -- Amos Lee
Our Time -- Tyler Hilton
Glad (Acoustic Version) -- Tyler Hilton
Leaving Town Alive -- Bethany Joy Lenz
The Way You Make Me Feel -- Michael Jackson
Okay. A couple notes of justification. The huge amount of Johnny is because he has a new CD and it kicks ass. Michael Jackson may be a perv but he knows how to write a catchy, upbeat, awesome song. Or did at one point in time.
What was your very first job?
Submitted by Laurel.
I was a supermarket demo girl. Demo-ing is like modeling, only weirder and more degrading. I used to write poetry on scraps of paper when things got slow, and then stuff them in my pockets and plaster on the fake smile when someone would come by. There's a whole world of supermarket demo girls out there. Apparently I was too pretty to demo pizza, too exotic for household cleaners, and not pretty enough for shampoo or conditioner.
For the longest time, whenever someone on the internet asked me what I looked like, that's what I'd repeat verbatim.
I have officially signed up for NaNoWriMo due to a cocktail of peer pressure and, apparently, self-loathing. Because I have to hate myself if I'm pledging to write thousands of words during my first month back in the working world, while trying to put together a mini'lypse, and watching my three-year-old whenever my husband is at his job. I'm leaning towards doing something fantasy related, which is a bit of a stretch to me-- I've done that genre before but it's never been my strong suit. I've mostly been reading fantasy lately though, so that's probably why.
I'm thinking about (and cringing thinking about) making yet another blog to chronicle my NaNoWriMocity. I like to keep this mostly about iStock and my photography, and with as much as I post already I'd hate to bore some of the people in my neighborhood who aren't into writing. We'll see.
Mostly I'm thrilled that I was able to talk Ikselam, AKA my good buddy Roger, into doing this with me. It's been forever since I tried to write anything, so it's nice to have someone in a similar situation to commiserate with. He's a step ahead of me though-- already, he has an idea for his book. Robots. I think it'll be a page-turner. :D
So Shoe and I were going to settle in for a night of Moe's takeout burritos and the CW when I got a call from my friend/manager/assistant Dana, asking us to meet her at a new restaurant for dinner. So we skipped the southwestern stuff and headed to India Palace, the new/only Indian restaurant in town.
A couple days ago, I played with it for the heck of it. The day we shot this, I'd also been borrowing a 6x6 TLR medium-format film camera; of course, I suck with film, so none of the images turned out the way I wanted. I cropped this the way I'd wanted it to look when I'd shot it with the TLR, and cross-processed it the way I hoped I'd be able to, had the color film turned out. I faded the cross-processed effect because whenever I do it, I always get rejected for over-filtering, but other than that it looks exactly how I envisioned in my mind. As a lark, I uploaded it on iStock-- I figured it would be rejected for over-processing, or as I'd already uploaded a version of it years ago, for too similar. To my surprise, it got accepted, and in just a few hours already has six reviews! So awesome. I'm so glad that I'm finally happy with one of my favorite images, and that other people are responding to it.
