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[06 Dec 2009|09:10pm] |
Today was a day full of stuff, which nicely contrasted with yesterday. To start with, there was tree finding/acquiring, and we ended up with this itsy little thing that is absolutely adorable. Then there was car fixing, wherein we brought the new Hyundai to Sears to get it checked out. That took a while, so we browsed the mall, since Lady needed some more warm things (amazing how FL clothes really don't hold up to freezing weather) and gifts are still needing to be gotten. It was nice up until the mall got too busy - got some free coffee and cider, petted alpaca sweaters, oogled silly household things. Then car was snatched and it was time to head home.
Or was it?
Somehow, someway, I managed to talk lady into going to Carkeek and spending a little time in front of Jekyll. It was cool - brought the strobe and umbrella, set them up, and then started firing away. I've gotten so much better about that - I went from being terrified to pull out my camera in public or when there might be anyone else around, to being terrified to pull out my strobe in public, to calmly setting up a light stand and not even pausing when people walk by. Also, the whole shoot was done in fifteen or twenty minutes - long enough for my fingers to freeze and stop working, at least.
I think Lady enjoyed it, liked being on the other side of the strobe and not being the light stand for once. She's gotten much better at mugging for me. Also, who knew she was adorable in pink?
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[04 Dec 2009|09:34pm] |
I pretty much took this week off, photo and writing-wise. Aiming to kickstart that back up again this weekend - among other things. In store is tree purchasing, gift finding, apartment cleaning, writing, hiking, car checking, food making... and possibly sleeping. I do enjoy sleep.
It's also supposed to get wicked cold this weekend. Well, wicked cold for me and Seattle, at least. Which means delicious warm things, like tea and coffee and hot cocoa. Because winter is here.
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[02 Dec 2009|06:35am] |
December, December. It's time to dismember. L4D2 is downloading and tonight will be a night of zombie bashing, now that NaNo is done for the year.
The end of the year is coming up, along with all the looking back and looking forward that goes along with it. And it's also apparently the end of a decade - huh. Has it really been 10 years since that whole y2k buzz? I feel... old. Thankfully, I already had my life review back in August. So instead of fretting about the new year, I'm just going to see how my goals are going since I established them a few months ago, since it's probably better to check in on them every once in a while instead of forgetting and going "oh shi-!" once August is here again.
November messed up pretty much all of my goals except the one most important one, writing every day. My daily photography fell by the wayside and I'm still trying to pick the motivation back up for that one. I think I'm overthinking it too much instead of just picking up the camera and shooting. I have finished a complete revision, on the writing side, and I'm set to begin revising again after setting that sucker in the dark for a week or so. Or nomming on something that's been picking up dust for a while. Can't quite decide yet, but not worrying, 'cause it'll decide itself.
As far as my other goals - losing weight by December, spending less time on the computer - ah... well. Going to work on those. And I was doing so well with both until October.
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| Good Morning, December |
[01 Dec 2009|08:55pm] |
The workshop I had been looking forward to and half dreading (since it would be smack-dab in the middle of the last weekend of NaNoWriMo) finally came and then was gone before I could give it a proper greeting. And it was fantastic. I not only got to meet ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kylecassidy , but a plethora of local photographers. It was pretty sweet being in a room full of people who knew what they were doing and all had their own separate styles, so if you had a question someone (oftentimes everyone) would have an answer or three. So much so that I felt a bit like a noob, even though nobody treated me like one.
Still, being a noob meant learning a lot. The workshop started off simple, going over the basics of cameras and photography, and quickly stepping it up to the various light sources at one's disposal. Our first model dropped by early and we worked her with window lighting and reflectors. I've used available light before - kind of hard not to - and then I leaped from there to strobes, never considering how you could still work what you have. Seems kind of duh, now (as things do), but using reflectors you can take what's there and make it work for you, instead of resorting to artificial light. Acquiring a reflector (or making one) has been moved to the top of my list.
From window lighting we went to studio lighting. I've been wanting to play with a softbox for a while now and finally got my wish. Fun stuff. I love the way it diffuses the light evenly, although I'm not sure I've quite got the difference between the softbox and an umbrella.
A certain amount of photoshop action followed, hence the lovely model on the couch holding a grey card. I learned more about what secrets the newer versions of photoshop hold. CS4, you tempt me so!
It was time to head outside after that, into the cold, cold November afternoon. Okay, only slightly chilly. Thankfully, it had stopped raining the day before, but we still had the cloud cover which allowed me to pull out my strobe and not worry about it being overpowered. Here's Tina, wearing my jacket, with my voice-activated lightstand just out of view. This was mostly play time, as models showed up and were shot by various enthusiastic photographers.
Then, back inside, where everyone slowly regained the use of their frozen fingers, a black background was unrolled and hung up and we were given free reign with the studio light + softbox, and it was portrait time. I really started digging the softbox at this point, and those peacock feathers in Sharon's hair. Then - suddenly! and with absolutely no prompting! - someone threw a cat at Sharon! Neither kitty nor model were harmed in the making of this photo.
The afternoon wound down into evening from there and I got a little more play in with the softbox before it was pretty much time to go and to summon Lady to come pick me up. Only once in the car did I realize I hadn't eaten anything but a cookie and some carrots since early early that morning. It had just been too exciting.
One tofu sandwich and 500 words later, sleep was had.
The full set from Saturday is here.
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[30 Nov 2009|06:10am] |
50,183!
Yeah!
I managed that with 7k yesterday, 3k Saturday, which makes my first 10k weekend in... well, ever. I'm not a very fast writer, so the 7k yesterday easily shattered my previous records, which were also set this November. And it's over. And it's done. And now that I've won NaNoWriMo for the fifth time (out of seven years), I'm going to return to real life (and those photos from this weekend). But only for a little bit before diving into revisions.
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[29 Nov 2009|06:00pm] |
Car! And it drives fantastic!
Post detailing the excellent workshop that occurred yesterday to come soon, but I have ~5k left to write before midnight tomorrow and I am going so slow.
Ack! Back offline now - NaNo!
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[28 Nov 2009|05:34am] |
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Car acquired. Hyundai Sonata. Pictures and Details to Follow. NaNo right now. Workshop in a few hours.
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[26 Nov 2009|09:58am] |
Happy Turkey Day!
The butternut squash stew is in the crockpot, the yam is in the oven, the cranberry sauce is cooling, the pecan pie is on top of the toaster oven, and I am full of early morning scrambled tofu. This is going to be a grand food day.
We still don't have a functional car, I'm 10k from finishing NaNoWriMo, and I'm two days behind with my 365, but it's all good.
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[22 Nov 2009|08:35pm] |
We had many things on our agenda for the day. And we completed a few of them, namely the acquiring of a warm coat. I've been needing a warm winter coat since, well, last year, and had made do with sweaters and a flimsy coat from Goodwill. Then we wandered into a shop in Ballard today and there it was. The coat I'd been looking for.
So, yay.
And now, I am very very behind on NaNo, so if you'll be excusing me...
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[21 Nov 2009|09:06pm] |
Not doing so well with NaNo currently. Kind of hovering around 30k when I need to be at 36k... This past week at work has really been a blow to my word count. It was crazy and it was hectic and I put in more than one 10 hour day only to come home and essentially pass out. There were a few days where I only wrote 100 or 200 words. I've failed NaNo in the past by giving up within a few days, but I've never failed NaNo by just barely getting 50k. So this is starting to stress me out a little. I need to write 10k this weekend to catch up. o.o And it's already 9pm on Saturday. I can still do this...? I have a four-day weekend coming up, at least, even if one day is a workshop and another is food-stuffing. And then there's the car...
Oh yeah. The car. So, it's been making horrible noises. We took it into the shop this morning, waited around at Panera's, and eventually got a call saying the light had been fixed and the smell was just a loosened valve and the noises were just loose struts, nothing to worry about. We wandered over to the shop to check out and Lady asked about the belt, which had been a problem in the past. The tech's response? "The belt is the least of your problems." Lady and I were both like, "Wait. What?" But the tech was gone at that point and we were leaving, confused, when we decided to go back and get clarification. The tech wasn't there, so we stood around until the manager asked if we needed help. So we said, yes, we were a little bewildered by the tech's comment. And the manager was like, the Mazda, right? Yeah, it's not in any good shape and it's not safe to drive. He talked to the tech and then brought out the checklist which showed a long list of horrible things, under which was written, and I quote, "EVERYTHING IS RUSTED!!!"
I'm not exactly used to having to drag out the problems your car has from a shop, so it was a little weird that we had to go back to get this information, with the conclusion that the car wasn't safe to drive anymore. Apparently the entire underside is horribly rusted and the struts and such what which keep stuff up are about to give. Good thing to know considering we were about to leave thinking the car was entirely fine to drive. Yeeah. So, it can be fixed, but it'll cost more than the car is currently worth, so Lady has decided that it's not worth it and it is time to get a new car. So, hopefully, in the next week we will have found and acquired a new car. Because I have a workshop next Saturday. And I don't know how to get there by bus.
The rest of the day was good, though. Had tea with Hosanna, and then dragged her out in the cold and the wet to the locks where I soon discovered that it was really too dark for one flash. Well, I persevered and got a few good photos before my receivers gave up and my flash stopped working. I don't get why it has to be so moody; I think it might be the cold, since it's rarely so temperamental inside. I guess I should probably look into something more reliable, because not having my flash work is really annoying, and ends up putting an early end to a night photoshoot.
Oh well. Time for writing extensively. I'll probably be on even less until Dec 1. I've promised myself L4D2 if I finish.
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[15 Nov 2009|09:14pm] |
This one is from the STD shoot I did yesterday for another coworker/friend. She wanted something postcardy to send out for her wedding with their wedding bands, so I put together a make-shift light box and went to town. Out of 80 photos, there were maybe three acceptable ones, which was a bit of a blow, but I do like the acceptable ones. Either way I got dinner and tea out of it, so I'll rate it a plus plus.
I am behind on NaNo. I had resolved to catch up this weekend but didn't make it nearly as far as I needed, so after entry this is one last push, then my 365, since I'm behind on that, too. Darn! Need more quick ideas. I'm not lacking in ideas, just most of them take more implementation than I have the time/energy for. Or need to be done outside, but by the time we get home from work it's usually dark.
So off to NaNo!
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[08 Nov 2009|08:47pm] |
Holy freaking Cod. Today was a photoshoot with my new friend/coworker Sam. Short, funny story: during the Halloween party at work I was running around shooting photos of everyone and when I got to her area, I starting snapping photos only to have her jump through them. "Take another one of me jumping!" she said. So I did. And when I commented on her eagerness, she said, "I just like getting my picture taken." Immediately, I knew what I had; a ready and eager model. So I booked her for this weekend.
Leading up to the weekend I was plagued by doubts, trepidations, and pure unholy terror. What if I took too long to grab a shot and she got annoyed? What if she knew more about cameras and lighting than me? What if it rained? What if we ended up in some really sketchy part of town and got apprehended by the cops/hobos? What if I lost all of my carefully horded photographic knowledge and just stood there gibbering like a drunk fool? None of my photos would turn out and she would hate me!
Well. It's hard to talk objectively about my own photography, but I think some of these are the best things I've ever taken. I am so excited - and here I thought I was plateauing. Now I fear an inability to replicate any of these. But it's all just parameters - I know the variables and the constants. This can be done, and I intend to do it again.
But in the meantime, I'm about 5k behind in NaNo. Whoops.
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[07 Nov 2009|09:32am] |
Today is a rainy day and a good day for getting caught up with NaNo. I'm not as distressingly behind as I imagined myself to be, but I've still only just catching up with yesterday's word goal. My aim is to write a ton today and hopefully squeak the rest of the way towards 15k tomorrow.
It's a good day for cleaning and cooking and writing, that's for sure. But hopefully it'll clear up by tomorrow because I have a friend I'm using as a model and I was hoping to do shots outdoors to practice lighting outside. Hmm. Hmm.
Alsoalso, before I go, finally heard something about the photography workshop later this month. I'm going to need to put together a portfolio, apparently, which is both daunting and confounding. How do you put together such, exactly? I mean, I get the whole thing about picking out what you think best represents your collection, but, well, how big do they need to be, what kind of presentation, how many, and I'm betting I can't just print out a couple and bring them in like that...? I am probably way, way over thinking this. No, I know I am; I even had a little bit of a nightmare last night where it was day of and I'd woken up late and hadn't put together the portfolio and it was taking me half an hour just to put on my shoes and then I was late leaving and arrived without my camera. It was awful.
Maybe I should distract myself with some Halflife...
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[06 Nov 2009|05:00am] |
I went to bed early, but was woken up by a very violent storm last night. I'm talking FL-scale violent - there was lightning and thunder and hail that poured from the sky like a regular FL deluge. Of course, it was a little frightening, because it was freaking hail, but overall pretty awesome. And over with fairly quickly.
NaNo is limping along and would probably be doing a little better if I didn't have the photo project, but I am not putting that on hold. Had a bit of fun earlier this week when I dug out my old point&shoot, which has an amazing 2 megapixels. Remember when that was a lot? I think most phone cameras now have more pixels. But anyway - did a pin-up type photo of it for a lighting exercise, then decided to turn around and try and take a photo of Jekyll with the p&s.
And I had forgotten why that camera had pissed me off so much. No control, whatsoever, and the thing takes almost five full seconds to focus, so by the time it actually takes a picture, whatever you were trying to take a picture of is often gone or moved. Plus, I accidentally used the flash and ended up killing its battery in one go. Whoops. The photo doesn't do Jekyll justice at all, but it does do the p&s' shooting capabilities more than enough justice. I don't think Jekyll will be getting any awesome portraits anytime soon, unless I can rig some sort of elaborate mirror system or I win the lottery and can afford another camera body. Mmm... d90. Nonono, that way lies madness. Or rather, poverty.
And one more photo for this post, because this week at work has essentially sucked major balls. And I mean that as negatively as possible. According to the IT guys, daylight savings screwed something up and that's why the system takes half an hour to do -anything-. According to any other IT guys, it's because our network was set up wrong to begin with. So basically, what should have been a week where I did my stuff, then helped out the other NW dude with his massive list of Friday stuff, turned into me trying to do my own stuff while SW dudes scrambled for any help at all. So I still have stuff for today on my own list which should have been done by Wednesday at the latest, plus other NW dude just got around to working on the massive amount of Friday stuff yesterday and is nowhere near close to being done, plus the SW dudes also have a shit ton for today which they both have had to put off to today due to our system!fail and just because today was going to be a heavy load anyway. So - ARGH!FIST.
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| November 1st |
[01 Nov 2009|07:21pm] |
And NaNo is off and running. I think I have a good start; going to write a bit more tonight to make it a solid start.
Yesterday was the Emilie Autumn concert and it was fantabulous. Lady and I were a little terrified because all the yelp reviews and word from people we knew at work was that the venue was seedy and horrible, but really, it was just a tiny space. Could've been much seedier. Srsly. They were forced to start early because there was another band playing later for some Halloween show, but they ended up going over, so it was all good. The place was packed and almost everyone was dressed up. The only issue I had with it all was that the crowd sucked. They were appreciative, but there was no energy, no jumping up and down, no moshing. I expected a little bit of moshing, but they were so polite. Argh.
It was more of a show than a concert, as well. They sang, but there was a lot of interplay between the characters on stage; and they really were characters. A selected member of the audience got to make out with Veronica, which was awesome, and there was bra throwing, which was awesomer, and EA played a ton of my favorites as well as one or two I'm not sure I've heard before. And there were a few I hadn't cared for too much before, but seeing live made all the difference. Heck, all of her songs are so much better live. And some of them are freaking awesome to begin with. So, Opheliac live? Amazing.
Now's the time to stop farting around and go back to upping the word count.
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| Samhain |
[31 Oct 2009|02:46pm] |
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Emilie Autumn - everything I possibly own |
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Happy pumpkin and glee and orange and black and leaves and candy and squash and chili and pomegranate and costumes and ghosties and monsters and candy corn and caramel and apples day! I have an Emilie Autumn concert to get ready for, but I noticed I haven't updated in a while and tomorrow is NOVEMBER which means NANOWRIMO and holy shiznits. If I can jam out 3k today, I will have done 20k this month. Hahaha. Not going to happen, but it's good to know I've made it that much further from September, despite October being full of rampant paranoia and depression.
But yesterday was good - the guy at work who is the otherside of the NW, henceforth known unaffectionately as NW-buddy, was less of a bastard than usual. He was even, well, chipper. Which considering how much he's been glowering and angry and silent lately was off-putting. Whatever. The office itself was a blast - they have costume and department decoration contests every year. Last year was rather droll, but this year everyone seemed really into it. I brought my camera to take pictures of people in costume and ended up taking more of the decorations. Special Assets really outdid themselves. Also, aside from taking a metric shit ton of pictures (well, for me, at least), I also learned that a few of my coworkers were photography enthusiasts as well. This can only lead to good things.
Photography is going well. Missed a day last week, so I plan to make that up somehow this weekend. I feel like I'm slowly reaching the plateau, but I can also see a definite progression in the 365 photos. Getting better at what's interesting, at least.
Okay, need to clean, need to write, need to get ready and do EVERYTHING EVER.
P.S. Photos from the office party are here if you feel like being voyeuristic/creepy/stalkerish.
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| Thirty-Five |
[18 Oct 2009|04:11pm] |
Today was what I had been intending to do for a while now; that is, do a proper set of autumn photos. I hope to continue this trend, but I'll have to do it quick because it won't be long before the full crazy color blast is over with. It seems like it only took a week for all of the trees to get the memo that now is the time to drop their leaves. So it's both exciting but urgent, since I remember from last year how soon all the color is gone and we're left with naught but grey and brown.
We went to the farmer's market this morning and we got both a handful of tiny squashes for cheap and also a very large zucchini. Lady was absolutely fascinated by these zucchinis - this one vendor had both zucchinis as long as my arm and as tiny as my pinkie. She had to get one - I think she intends to make zucchini bread with it. Anyway, she also had to have a picture of it. So we stopped by the Gas Works parking lot on the way home, which is overwhelming saturated with autumn, and took photos. So much leaves! I would have rolled in them if it hadn't been raining the past few days and therefore very wet.
This evening I am going to finish making the pumpkin pie I started last night. We had to get a sugar pumpkin a few weeks ago because it was so cute, at the same time effectively destroying my vow from last year never to make pumpkin pie from scratch again. Well, having an actual blender helps a lot, apparently. Who'd've thunk? So I have pumpkin puree sitting in the fridge, just waiting for us to go to Target and pick up some crust. I'd try my hand at making crust myself, but I have, alas, failed in similar endeavors in the past way too often.
Writing tonight; there's only 13 days until NaNo and I have only managed 2k once this month. And five days until Lady's birthday!
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| A Month and Beyond |
[16 Oct 2009|11:04pm] |
It's been raining rather steadily since Wednesday. I expect this is what they mean when they say Seattle is a wet city - it feels much more like the way I expected it now than it ever did during the past year. Not that I mind - I love the wet. But last fall it really didn't rain very much. Now, however, I'm very glad we got those rain jackets when we did.
Obviously this is a fairly amateur photo; I'm hoping to get some practice taking pictures of rain over the next 24 hours with the expected 2 inches of rainfall. I just took the flash in the same way I did during last winter to catch the snowflakes. But how do I get falling rain? I can freeze it midair like in this photo, but then it doesn't look like rain anymore.
I think this is one of my favorite photos from this project so far. I was working on the second lesson at Strobist Lighting 102, where you vary the distance of your light source to fade the bg to black and got this while Lady was laughing. Can you see why I love her? And not just because she posed for nigh on half an hour while I fiddled with the strobe.
Tomorrow is going to be exciting. A friend/coworker is coming by and we shall hang. I believe there will be tea involved, and cupcakes. This is significant, because we have not "hung" with a coworker outside of work yet, even though I am starting to call a handful of them friends. I am hoping to also be able to force her into that chair and practice my lighting on her tomorrow. As well as feed her cupcakes. I believe this is way more exciting than it probably should be.
Tomorrow is also the seventh day of Lady. Just a few more until her birthday next Friday!
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| Twenty-Nine/Three Hundred and Sixty-Five |
[13 Oct 2009|05:38am] |
I love Halloween and Halloween decorations. Not only do they make for excellent, quick photos, they're just so happy.
Ahh, fall. I want so badly to have a yard with a maple so I can rake together all of the leaves and jump into them. This is an experience I have not yet had in my life, having never really experienced a fall until we moved out here. This is my second autumn and it is still epic and overwhelming.
Also, the food - yesterday we discovered the local bookstore's cafe, which besides having excellent coffee beverages also had excellent autumn meals. I'm talking mushroom pot pie, baked squash, hot apple cider... mmm. It was fantastic. And I am going to have to try making some of that pot pie myself. Oh - and tiny pumpkin pies! I'm getting the feeling that this weekend is going to be a baking weekend.
One last thing before I start my wordcount for today, Kyle Freaking Cassidy just got back from being in the photographer entourage of the Dalai Freaking Lama. He has two interesting posts up with tons of photos here and here. Seriously, this man is who I want to be when I grow up. The Dalai Lama, too, but that might be a wee bit harder.
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