Posts (page 2)
OMG! I don’t think I have felt this stressed EVER before in my life. Never ever! I have assignment work coming out of my ears, not to mention a huge UNEXPECTED (and totally unprepared for) response to the Hafla photos – I’m getting work thrown at me from all directions. Good lord, I don't know if I am cut out for this!
It’s officially DEFCON ONE, peeps.
[Cue sirens]
I had a feeling this would happen… I am so busy for the next 2 weeks so I don’t want to think about too much else other than my folio & course work but when I got home today, my inbox was flooded with orders for photos from the Hafla. All well and good, and okay, just a little bit cool that people want to buy MY pics, but just not what I want to be dealing with right now. I haven’t even worked out prices! I’m more interested in making contacts though so I might do this on the cheap (just my costs)… I dunno, I have no idea how much I should really charge cause you know, I am kinda pov so a little bit of funds would be nice. The photos aren’t particularly all that good though, so I even feel a little bit bad at charging for them...? Bah! More to worry about because I’m big on service and don’t like to keep people waiting for responses or for their stuff, but I just don’t see how it would be conceivably possible to run around and deal with pro labs during the next 10 days with everything else that I have on.
Anyway, I got back my pics from my product shoot, and at first glance I was really pleased with them. Pleased until I saw the scanned in images and realized there are a hundred things wrong with them… But there’s not much I can really do about it because I only have a few days left before I have to send all my folio pages off to the lab to be printed. It’s so frustrating! We get a 2hr theory lecture, a 15 min demo, get given the assignment, and then we are expected to nail it the first time simply because there isn’t enough time for every one to have a go at using the light table and the studio because of course, there is only one light table and only one studio that’s available during set times and about 30 students vying for it. I’m not known for my brilliance at mastering lighting/studio techniques the first time around… I need to learn from my boo-boos which generally means I need a couple of go’s in order to feel comfortable with it all. It certainly doesnt help when you are on a time limit and there is no one around to ask if you're not sure on something.
TSo this is what it looks like so far:
The strawberries and that are a bit dark in the front which is CRAP, but thank god for photoshop – I just might be able to save it with a bit of work. Clearly, I need more practice!
It was another late night last night… Since Friday night I have had a total of 14hrs sleep and that figure will only be getting smaller. I find that I can’t sleep well at the moment anyway. I feel guilty for sleeping when I have so much to do, but I’m crap at stuff when I’m tired. I’m pretty crap at stuff in my prime, let alone when I’m half asleep. I thought I would fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow last night, but instead I just lay there staring at the ceiling and listening to the possums fight. It’s such a weird sensation, not being able to sleep. Normally I am one of those people who can sleep anywhere and never have troubles getting to sleep because I am just eternally tired. Strange.
Right! Enough with the babbling, I need to get to work get photoshoppin’ (ugh, more) and also have something to eat. A packet of chips and a can of coke does not a nutritious lunch make!
I don’t operate too great on reduced sleep so please forgive me if I don’t make much sense in today’s post. I’ve been busy all weekend working on my folio and sorting out all my pages ready for printing. I can tell you now, as much as I love working with my digital files on the computer, and as much as I adore photoshop, after 30 something hours of sitting here I’m kinda sick of it.
But it has to be done. I have another 4 or 5 to do by Wednesday morning so hopefully they won’t take too long. I finally did up a page of my belly dancers for my folio which I absolutely love (which of course guarantees that my tutors will hate it) and it felt good to be excited about my own work for once. It’s been a while since I’ve just enjoyed creating something for myself and felt satisfied with it.
I did take some time away from the computer to shoot the Belly Dance Hafla last night. I was dreading it all day because I was so tired and it was waayyy over the other side of town from me, so it was even a decent drive to get there, but I tried to have a little sleep before I headed over. Didn’t quite work because as soon as I closed my eyes, all I could see was pixels and layers and levels and colour balance dials… I just started to panic about how much I still have left to do and had to get up.
I got to the concert with plenty of time to spare, which was just as well since there wasn’t a designated area for me so I had to stake out a spot right up front for about an hour until it all started. That has to be one of the most boring parts of the job, and I was kicking myself that I didn’t bring anyone else with me (like my mum) who would have enjoyed the show and helped guard my spot in case I needed a snack or a toilet break. I sat in the same place (on the floor) from 5.20pm to 10.15pm and couldn’t leave to go to the loo or get a feed for risk of loosing my spot. By the end I was freakin’ starving and feeling a bit faint since I stupidly neglected to eat anything before I left home at 4.30pm. On the way home I stopped at the first sign of civilization (KFC) I saw and got a big serve of hot chips for the drive home. I’ve since discovered that I’m not very good at dunking chips in potato & gravy and driving at the same time (my car is manual and has no power steering) since I ended up with most of the potato & gravy on my shirt rather than on my chips.
When I got home, it was a mad rush to get the images web ready and uploaded as soon as possible for the dancers to have a squiz at. I got an email from one of the dancers that I’m scratching my head over a little… She requested that I take down the images that have her in them… I dunno, I kinda assumed that if you put yourself on stage and in the public eye, then you can pretty much guarantee that you’re going to be photographed and since I was the official photographer for the night - they all knew I would be there taking photos so it’s not like it was a surprise… I don’t know what the problem is. I can understand individual pics being taken down, but there are a couple of group ones up there too and I don’t think it’s fair to them to take down the pic because of one person… but then again… Dunno, I haven’t had this problem before.
Anyway, the plus side of the concert was that I got front row seats to see some fantastic women perform. Women of all shapes, sizes and ages too… It was great! I am so keen to start some lessons. As soon as my course finishes up and I have my time back, I’m going to go to a couple of belly dance lessons. Those women were so beautiful in their costumes, with the bright colours, the hip movements, the jingles of the hip scarves and jewelry and the inherent confidence they exuded. I don’t know what it is but the music and the dancing and the food… it all just spoke to me. Maybe I was a turk or an Egyptian or something in a past life, because it all seems to strangely familiar and comforting when I’m around it. I dunno, that must make me sounds like a total loony and I can’t really explain how it makes me feel. I just feel it in my bones. Very weird. But I love the music, the food, the dancing… Just love it.
I’m thinking of doing a freelance journalism course over Xmas too. At least until I score myself a job in the new year. It’s only a correspondence one through TAFE but I think it will be a handy acompliment to my photography. Especially if I do some travel next year like I plan, so I can write some articles to go with my photos and send them off to mags. I’d like to think I’m okay at stringing a sentence together… I mean, I’m not a great writer (like Phil for example) or anything but I do a bit of fiction writing every now and then. I have two novels (sci-fi and a medieval fantasy thing) on the go at the moment which I have been writing here and there for years. Nothing fit for public consumption of course, but I hope that with a bit of training behind me, the ability to write short articles could become a handy skill to have for future employment. As long as I still get to take photos. Besides, if the article writing turns out to be crap, well, that’s what editors are for, right? :P
I notice that they also run an ‘Advanced Romance Writing’ course as well. As corny as it sounds, I can really see myself as a Mills & Boon author one day. In a little seaside house with a bunch of cats… I write a bit of romance fiction when I’m bored or feeling down now. It’s my way to escape to a world where I have total control and everything works out with a happy ending (surprisingly that’s something my sci-fi/fantasy ones don’t have). And I can write love scenes to make your toes curl! I blame my high school sweetheart for that. In lieu of actually having sex, we created two characters set in a fantasy world to represent each other and would swap ‘love chapters’ we had writen. No wonder I never got any study done in year 12, hehe.
So, with any luck, I won’t take too long to get those short courses under my belt and I’ll have a bit of knowledge on how to deal with newspapers and magazines ect when I head overseas next year.
Had a little bit of a break today so I watched the latest eppy of Survivor: Cook Islands (no links due to risk of spoilers) with the bf. Don't know if anyone watches it- it's probably the only reality teevee show (other than The Biggest Loser) that I watch and really enjoy. At the moment I have a bit of a crush on Ozzy. He's such a monkey! Monkey-ish as in quick, nimble,inteligent and kicks ass in all the challenges. For a guy who hasn't shaved, showed or washed for weeks, I reckon he's pretty hot. And 'cause I'm so nice and I like you mob, I'll share a pic or two... okay, you twisted my arm... here's three :P
The bf likes to tease me that I have a celebrity crush. How embarrassment.
Ah, it’s been refreshing to spend a little bit of time thinking about something other than my folio work, but I must get stuck back into it. It’s going to be another late night tonight, methinks!
Have a great week, guys!
I just thought I would share my exhibition print with you all… this is the one that I had to fight my tutors both tooth and nail to use. I really like it, but they hated it and thought it was "awful".
It looks better as a silver gelatin print (the highlights & levels are a bit blown out in this digi file) & framed, but you get the idea.
I'm tired, stressed, grumpy, hungry, and pretty much incoherent. So today, this is all you get:
Highs
· scored a free (hand-me-down) laptop that we’ll probably pick up on Monday. Yay!
· had the bf home all day with me since he dad a day off, so he was on ‘keep deb calm’ duties. He did a pretty good job, thank god. He's the only reason why I'm not actually sedated and in a straight jacket right now.
· had the bf to taxi me into the city to an out of the way art shop so I could fork out $100 on a folio case, meaning I don’t have to lug the thing home on the bus (oh, and it was less than budgeted for- yay!)
· got flea treatment for the boys, so now we can all stop scratching and itching.
· got a new 320gig hard drive for the computer as a stop fix til we get a new system
· picked up my films from the lab this afternoon instead of having to wait ‘til Monday
· bought a pack of 8x10 b&w paper, and discovered it comes with 10 free sheets. Nice.
· talked seriously with the bf about heading overseas to work/live for a while () next year
· scored a new eppy of SGA to watch instead of my beloved BSG, that I’ve saving for some ‘me time’
· resisted the urge walk out with 5 books under my arm from the library (no mean feat for me) and instead stuck with the one
Lows
· got bitten by a horde of raging green ants in the yard… oowwwwwwwuuuuchhhh!
· discovered after 20 mins of trying to find a car park at garden city that rabbit photo has disappeared, and the Harvey Norman photo place take 3 days to get prints done. Also, that I'm too fat to fit into an 'L' from TEMT
· discovered brand new $20 batteries (put in on wed) died on my camera just as I was about to shoot an assignment this morning
· slept in because i was so tired from the late nights and ran late all day with errands
· had some kind of stress/anxiety attack involving lots of tears, screaming and scary emotions at about 2pm
· discovered I could have unwittingly poisoned my cat due to dodgy advice from the vet’s receptionist
· got a headache
· got stressed so much I forgot to eat… nothing all day bar a scone. Also dehydrated.
· was subjected to sheer, unadulterated terror as a spider ran across the windscreen of my car
· Now have spider guts on the underside of my thong. Ew.
· ran out of milk so I couldn’t even my much needed calming cups of tea
· got stuck in nerdy computer shop twice because we didn’t have the right cables for the new hard drive (see above)
· picked up films from lab, only to discovered they aren’t quite right (due to my dodgy lighting techniques, not the lab)
· currently living in a bomb site (with no end in sight)
· got a library fine for overdue books
· have to wait some crazy amount of hours while my bf it ninja does ninjery stuff to the computer and fixes it. Which means I also wont be able to do any Photoshop work or get on the net in the meantime
· have to still process 5 rolls of b&w film to as soon as it gets dark tonight, despite the fact that all I want to do is sleep
· still have a large batch of food shopping to do. On a friday night. I have no life.
· ran out of loo paper
· went to get a choc chic cookie just now and discovered them covered in ANTS. God, I am so SICK of these freakin’ ants!
That's all for now. The end.
Boy, did I get a shock this morning when I opened up the ol’ faithful Tupperware container to get out my breakfast (some of those delightful homemade corn & zucchini muffins I love so much) only to discover THIS:
Ewwwww! Like, what the hell is that?? My muffins have suddenly sprouted enough hair to jump on stage and perform ABBA routines. That’s so freakin' gross, man. And to think I actually ATE one of those yesterday… That makes me a bit sick to think about, because for something to be suddenly that bushy this morning, it must have been growing for a while.
Ugh! Today I’m sleep-deprived, grumpy, and now breakfast-less to boot…
Grrr. Yeah, you heard me.
Grrrr.
Now, listen up boys and girls… Here’s what NOT to do on a 5x4 shoot!!
I don’t know if many people are familiar with 5x4/large format cameras these days. In fact, I don’t know if anyone other than students who actually use them in a professional environment anymore (at least not in Brisbane). They’re pretty big and bulky and while they can do some pretty cool stuff with distorting/correcting perspective, they can take hours to set up. Hours stuffing around in the studio, setting up, making calculations… all for one shot. That’s right, ONE. And if you’re really lucky and have extra double dark slides, you might get 2.
The term 5x4 relates to the size of the piece of film. A piece of 5x4 inch colour transparency film costs me about $6 (plus another $8 for processing) so I don’t want to take too many go’s to get it right. Now, see this piece of sheet film here? This is $6 I might as well have just flushed down the loo. Obviously, because the film is light sensitive and you want to keep it in the dark. Exposed like this means that piece of film is just FUCKED. Luckily, I was able to take 3 shots today, thanks to my classmate P who once again came to my resuce and lent me her double dark. Just as well, because I need 2 at least for my folio.
I did splash out and buy those $10 raspberries, though which I’m glad about. I just don’t think the shoot would have looked right if I didn’t have them. Maybe that’s been my problem in the past? Too tight to buy all the stuff that I need, and end up with half assed efforts because I was too cheap to spend money, lol. Anyway, the table top stuff looked pretty cool in my opinion, despite the fact that the strawberries and the raspberries were kinda mutant looking. I never realized how hard it was to find one single perfect strawberry/raspberry in a punnet! And I also had to buy some stuff to spray on my fruit to create a water drop effect on the products so I came out of the pharmacy with Glycerol. Glycerol, I have since discovered, is actually a laxative. Heh, maybe I should have offered some of the fruit I used in the shoot to my tutor… *snicker*
But it’s a relief to get it out of the way…. Assuming the shots worked! I’ll get ‘em
processed on Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Oh, and here's a pic I took on the digi - you can see how wrong it is because my lighting was all set up for film & totally wrong for my digi, but you get the idea... Check out the spots near the top... Those are dust on my sensor...EEK!
I only just got home now after the shoot – which was supposed to only take an hour and a half but which blew out to 2.5. Suffice to say, I didn’t get to catch up and hang out with Jac after all. Instead, I have days and nights ahead of me filled with Photoshop and virtually being chained to my computer because I have 12 pages for my folio I have to retouch, crop, colour balance, level, design blah blah blah… all to be ready for Wednesday next week when they’re due to go off to a lab for printing. I really wish I wasn’t shooting this Belly Dance Hafla concert thingy on Saturday night now because that is really going to sap time away from my folio. Ah well.
In other news, my house has currently been invaded by tiny black ants with serious sweet teeth. It’s gotten to the stage where I have to store our cordial and honey in the sink filled with water to stop the ants from getting to it. They ignore everything else, but head straight for the sugar, cordial, and honey. Freakin’ little bastards! Does anyone have any ideas how to get rid of them??
Here’s a bit of randomness since my head’s been a bit scattered today…
I had a weird dream last night. I thought it was pretty cool, but Lulu will probably find it kinda creepy. Heh.
As you know, next year I have every intention of jetting off to and making a stop to along the way. Hopefully, while I’m in I’d like to catch up with Lulu. So, last night my dream was about meeting Lulu in . In my dream, Lulu had bright red hair - do you have bright red hair, Lulu? And she took me to her apartment that she shares with Shumpei which was HUGE and had views out the windows that looked suspiciously like Brisbane and she showed me her TV and then that was it. LOL. Told you it was a weird dream!
Anyway so tomorrow I have a product shoot in the studio for a LUX body wash – the Berry Frappe one to be exact. Sounds and smells bloody nice, but I need raspberries as part of the shoot. Do you know how much raspberries cost right now for a punnet?? $9.94 at Woolies. You heard me! Nearly $10!! I couldn’t believe it! The reason I chose the Lux body wash stuff was because I can’t afford fancy bottles of Absolut Vodka or other fancy chocolates or liquor like all my classmates (I’m so poor right now!!) so my shoots consist of lux body wash, clariols herbal essences shampoos (mmm, citrus!) and some cheap fizzy apple juice I found tucked away in a lonely aisle at Coles. I can’t afford freakin’ $10 for some lousy ugly lookin’ fruit that I probably won’t even eat… sheesh man. Screw that! I think I’ll just do the shoot with strawberries and leave it at that. Actually, I just realized that the fruit won’t even be edible once I squirt it with glisterine to make it look purty. Ugh!
My freakin’ battery died on my freakin’ mp3 player and my freakin’ spare was freakin’ flat this morning. Do you have any freakin’ idea how BORING the bus ride into the city can be without music???? Normally I just zone out on the bus. Sometimes I listen to the radio, sometimes I listen to my music, sometimes I listen to my positive thinking stuff and at ALL times I ignore any one stupid enough to take the seat beside me. That’s probably the ONLY advantage to lugging around 3 bags and a tripod everyday… fills the seat beside me quite nicely. Until the guilt gets to me when I see someone’s granny clutching for dear life to the railings when the bus goes flying around the corner, cause you know, buses can’t be driven sedately. Hell no. It’s fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants-excitement on the buses here in . Damn drivers! Once I saw an old lady actually fall out of her seat going around a corner because the driver was being such a tool.
Why is it whenever I am home alone, I eat pretty much everything in sight, and then think that 15 minutes on the x-trainer is really going to do anything?
And what the hell is it with people on the street trying to sell stuff? I hate people who stand on the street and who try to grab you as you walk past. First off I was relieved when they didn’t single me out, then immediately after I was wondering what was so wrong with me that they didn’t try to grab me.
Saw some guy pissing on a fence at the bus stop today. Classy.
I’m not much of a list person. Usually I’m pretty good at keeping all the relevant info in my head but for some bizarre reason today, I just ocouldnt get my act together. It took me about 4hrs just to get out the house this morning! And I still forgot half my crap! Oy. So I made a list of stuff I had to get and do tonight- and promptly lost it! That’s why I don’t make lists… they just get lost then I am making lists of lists. Never fun (except maybe for Jac, hehe).
My kitty, jack Dee 2.0 has been the biggest sook lately. I’m so worried there is something possibly wrong with him, but I’m too pov at the moment to take him to the vet. I don’t really have much to go on, except that he’s been more affectionate and more demanding of attention. Not that I’m complaining about the increased attention. He’s pretty cute when he’s sprawled on his back like a dirty whore.
Only a couple more days until I get my next ep of BSG. Frak me, I freakin’ love that show. Just when I think that I’ve figured out what’s going on, something will come out totally left field and throw me. Love it. UPDATE: It's not on for 2 weeks- Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! *cries*
I really want to get my hands on a copy of The Princess Diaries 2. Apart from being a cutesy chicky flick, I also have a bit of a celebrity crush on Chris Pine. Mmmm….
I did a little cleansing ritual on the weekend and got some rose quartz crystals for the bedroom (one in each corner) and I have to say, I reckon there’s been a real difference with the energy in the house. Much much more positive between the bf and I. Quite nice actually.
My head’s been hurting a bit tonight, so I’m looking forward to crawling into bed and having a good sleep. I notice that as soon as my exercise regime slows down, the aches in my neck get worse… and if I don’t do some, I risk it growing into a full blown migraine. But since I have been a Vegetarian and exercising and been off the pill, I don’t cop the migraines like I use to. I think this is the 3rd month where I haven’t had to be laid up in bed for days at a time dosed up on merysndol. Cool, eh?
Hmm, I think that will do for one night... I'll just go have a little sob at the news about my beloved BSG- Waa!
Isn’t it strange how motivation seems to go in cycles… and that a lot of blogland seems to follow them?
Just a few weeks ago, we were all super motivated and seeing some great results… now with something like only 5 weeks left until Xmas, that motivation starting to wane.
Myself, I’ve hit a bit of a brick wall with my weight loss. I’m happy to be at 75 but I’m terrified to go back up. Thank goodness for the X-trainer to help keep those extra kilos at bay!
To get those scales going down again, I know there are a number of things I should be doing which worked when I seeing some good results:
- Listen to my motivation tapes every night
- Plan meals – really concentrate on my Low GI eating
- EXERSISE more. I usually do about 20min on the Xtrainer at varying intensities and then I get bored. I need to find something else other than my WW MOVE MORE dvd to mix things up a bit
- Stay positive and BELIEVE in myself.
It’s funny that I still believe that I can loose this weight, even though I’ve had dismal results in the past 3 weeks (gosh, have I been stalled for that long??) and I think its just because I am thinking about College so much and trying to get through these last few weeks that its really sapped my weight loss motivation. It kinda feels like I am waiting for my real life to start once I’m done with college but I don’t want to feel like that. I want to be able to focus on my weight loss AND whatever else is going on in my life too!
There’s just something not quite right in the world when I can’t click on D’Jen’s blog at 9am in the morning and NOT see a new post!
D’Jen, I demand you come back and post at once! Entertain me! *stamps foot*
Yesterday turned out to be a bit of a crazy day. First off, a pinch of surprise… that my tax return for 2 years took all of 10 minutes and cost me $240, then there was the non-event of seeing the Ex.
Then there was the nervousness of meeting Audrey and Jac for the first time. I was so nervous I walked straight past them, because I was running late - as usual, and the two of them were chatting like old friends that it didn't look like they had only just met so I didn't recognise them. It was so cool to spend some time with them in person. They are two gorgeous women and I am SO GLAD we hung out. I feel like I can really call them my friends now. Before it didn’t seem quite right to say that when they were only online buddies. I hope we’re going to be friends for a long time.
When I finally got home though, it ended up being a mad rush to get my stuff together for the exhibition opening at college (we were at coffee for nearly 3 hours!). We arrived a little late and the place was so crowded. Only the students plus one guest was allowed to come, and the college people were such cheapskates they fed us all cheap cask wine and those $5 a kilo chicken nibbles things from Coles (needless to say, I starved). They were being so cheap that the plastic cups they served the wine in came with a warning to ‘hold onto yours’ because there wasn’t enough for everyone… Classy! Myself and the other students just had to shake our heads at that one. Funny how no-one was surprised by it.
Along with our framed prints on the wall, there was a slide show to music of some of our work which was pretty cool. People were cheering as our names came up. I was nervous about the bf seeing the slide show cause I was worried he’d see my stuff and think mine wasn’t very good compared to everyone else’s work. Instead, he sat there grinning the whole time, especially when my stuff was up. I felt really good that he was enjoying it, and he kept telling me how proud he was of me. He said that the next time we would be in a room full of people sipping wine and looking at stuff on the walls, we would be at my solo exhibition (either that or at a parent teacher night for our first kid hehe). It was a nice thought.
But no matter how crappy the college is or how frustrated with the place I get, I will alwats remember last night as the highlight. It was kinda special to hang out with my classmates and seeing all our work really fired up my desire for photography once again which was nice. It had almost died completely for a while there.
Afterwards my friend P & her bf and us headed to Dos Amigos at Taringa for a well deserved dinner (all I had all day was a few cups of tea, a hot choc and some piklets). Gosh I love Mexican, and Dos Amigos even more. Best Mexican in . I was naughty and had chimichangas with sour cream and guacamole… mmm mmm mm! We stopped off at on the way home for a coffee, but I don’t think I’ll be going to La Dolce Vita anymore. The service was terrible! I ordered a small apple & rhubarb crumble (I was VERY naughty last night). The guy behind the counter was so rude to me, rolling his eyes and looking me up and down as if to say ‘Do you really think you need that?’. He grabbed the crumble, tipped it onto a plate and practically chucked it on the counter so hard the plate nearly broke. And then he disappeared. It took me almost 5 minutes to pin down another staff member to give me a spoon & a napkin so I could eat the bloody thing. Shame though because we have been going there for years, but I think its time for a new café stop I think!
Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty awesome day yesterday. I have a kinda full on weekend with my assignment work. I spent this morning shopping around for stuff for some of my assignments and while I was out I stopped in at Target. OMG! I was so excited by all the cute dresses & outfits that I was almost hyperventilating with excitement. I tried a few things on but then got a bit overwhelmed by all the choice and ended up not buying a thing, lol.
