Sunday, February 27, 2005

Guess what Daddy just bought

Whew!

Yeah, so I think I need to go puke or something. I just sent a guy quite a bit of money. Why you ask. 'Cause I just purchased a used Canon EOS 1Ds.



Its a low numbered body but it only has 9800 shutter actuations. This body is rated to last for at least 150,000 actuations so I expect to use it far into the future. It'll be nice to have for some wedding and fashion work I have scheduled.

-SIGH-

I hope I'm as into this business thing as I think I am. I've been signing contracts and working on some paying deals lately. Now I have some interest in someone rep'ing my photos for fine art prints. This really seems to be going in the direction I want. Now I just have to live up to my end of the bargain and start taking money from people who benefit from my service and skill.


Thanks,
Kev

Friday, February 25, 2005

I'm dead tired . . .

but have to keep going on.

I shot with 4 people this week, interviewed for one wedding, worked a regular week at my career (up until today when I took off), filed my taxes, spent hard-earned business money on equipment and delivered tons of images to people. WOW!!!

I got to shoot with some incredibly lovely young women but they all need their images to mail out immediately for a contest they're participating in. You've seen some of the images if you read the previous entry. Here's a shot of the young lady with whom I worked tonight. We started shooting around 8:30 and finished at 12:00! It was worth it (I think) and I look forward to working with her again. She had such a great personality and she (like the other girls before her) was a blast to work with.

NOTE: You can now click the link to see several more photos from this shoot.



Thanks for reading,

Kev

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Whatcha want

I don't support the "do what you want" theory in the extreme. I think you should live a principle-based life but that you should make some personally fulfilling choices in an organic way (where things don't always fit together with 90 degree angles and straight lines). You don't always have to have the answers and no one else needs agree with you.

For me, I get to photograph people who want to sit for me. Last night I photographed two young women who are trying to get into a calendar for a national chain. I've gotten negative comments about the choices I made as a photographer (none as a husband or father yet so you could always be the first if you want to take either of those tacks). As my wife said, "Are you satisfied with the work?" I have to answer Yeah. I like the shots.

In a mostly unrelated story, a guitarist for Korn (or would it be ex-guitarist) has had a religious/spiritual experience and decided to leave Korn news story. (thanks, Jim, for pointing out the correct info on this story)



Thanks for reading,

Kev

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Career & Hobby

Work is going well lately. I found a solution that saved weeks of annoying messages popping up for end users. The last time the corporation upgraded users' software users had to make extra clicks every time they opened Word or Excel and those are two apps my business clients use everyday. I saved them that PITA. Good deal. To top that off, the application that I inherited from two other developers that has dragged on for months and months is finally going into Production in the next couple of weeks. Thank God!


The hobby is starting to pickup. I'm meeting people for wedding consultations and I'm getting pretty busy now that I have a studio where I can shoot high-quality images for people. Don't get me wrong, I like shooting outdoors and I enjoy the challenges that come with that but nothing helps my confidence like producing a relatively high number of keepers with even less frames shot. That is a direct function of being able to control all the lighting and background. I'm already wanting more furniture and a couple more lights, too. I shot today with a co-worker and I'm happy with what we produced. I have a couple of sessions this week after work and more next weekend. I'm starting to get booked a month or more in advance now. This is awesome. I just have to be satisfied with what I can offer and remember to save time for my wife and daughter.

Here's one of the photos from today. Click the image to be taken to the gallery where you can see all the images.



Thanks for reading,

Kev

Monday, February 07, 2005

Sick daughter; busy weekend - lingerie

Got home Friday afternoon. Sat down in the floor to color with my daughter and we had less than 30 minutes together before she erupted like Vesuvius. She was on the carpet so I picked her up to reassure her that she was alright (she'd only thrown up once before I didn't know if she'd know what was going on). Yep, there came the next wave. Got me all over the front of my shirt. And before I knew it, there came the next round and it was all over my shoulder and down the back of my shirt. I handed her to her Mommy and she got to clean up the kid while Daddy stripped down to clean up the clothes and the floor. Fast forward 90 minutes and we're all back downstairs where she's held down small doses of Pedialyte. She gets up to run and -SMACK- there comes the next load. At least she didn't have as much to let loose with this time. She heads back upstairs to cleanup again and I took another go at the floor (thankfully this time almost all of it was on the kitchen floor).

Saturday I had to getup, get ready, setup the studio for an 11:00 AM shoot (photo to follow) and prepare for a mad dash to my evening shoot. Yep, I shot some portfolio work for a young lady from 11:00 'til about 2:30 and then left the house shortly after 3:00 to go to an event where I photographed (with my friend) the banquet attendees (hey, its contract work and it pays). I rolled into home about 12:30 am Sunday morning. Unload the van, setup the computer again and grab a bite to eat before heading to bed. Sunday I got up, got ready and rebuilt the studio that I had to tear down Saturday. I had a 1:00 pm shoot scheduled (photo to follow). The young lady called me just before the session and asked if it was OK to bring a friend. Sure, given that we'd already worked together before and I felt comfortable with her I didn't think it'd be a problem at all (see this shoot was for me; it wasn't for her portfolio or anything). They showed up and we shot for about 90 minutes or maybe a little longer and her friend had been making some comments about the shots and how she liked several of the poses and what we were getting. At one point I think she kidded the model about wearing spike heels (Yeah, I had her in 5" FMP's) and I joked with her saying that if she wasn't careful we'd get her in the shoot, too. She responded and seemed eager to join in. I figured what the heck, sounds good to me. We finished out the set with both of them and I'm very happy with the work we produced. I'm still not thrilled because I know there are girls & guys out there that shoot more polished, more provoking or more passionate work (and I want to reach that level where I can evoke emotion in my viewers - not disgust so much as appreciation or longing or excitement); I am, however, happy with the quality of work we produced given how long I've been at this and how my quality of work had improved.

Without further ado here are two photos, one from each session.




and



Thanks for reading,

Kev