Party of the Year

Miriam's party tonight was fun. They had a lot of good food - loved those chocolate chip cookies! I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but enjoyed the time watching Miriam put Joker make up on Thomas. There were a lot of great costumes including the Black Swan, an angel, Ghost Busters, a doctor, a toga warrior & Julie as Dorothy! I loved Miriam's princess dress and her boyfriend, Garth, as a (frog) prince.

I tend to not be a very social person in new situations, even when I'm around 20 people, but I did talk to a few guys about my photography. John pulled up my blog on his phone after I gave him one of my business cards.  We talked about my previous pictures and he wants to set up a shoot later this month. & I did learn that, in spite of the fact that Halloween is all about getting to be someone different for a day, I should stick to someone I would actually want to be. If I really wanted to play the part of Ke$ha, I would have been drinking and dancing on tables with everyone. That seems to be what some people were expecting out of my costume, but obviously that's not me. I spent half the time to myself, watching movies they had playing on TV.

Final Cut

Last night I went through all my Domestic Violence clips to find the parts that I wanted to use in my video. Its about 2 and a half minutes right now, so I'll have to cut it some more and narrow it down. I noticed that a couple of the girls had really good facial expressions that I don't remember when I was actually on set. One girl looked nervous; kind of shaking and blinking alot, so I will definitely be using those shots. And I think the second when the flash is on the screen looks really cool, hence my screen shot choice. --->
I'll be making the noodles for Miriam's Halloween party soon and Julie will be coming over around 6:30pm. I'm trying to convince her to be Dorothy!

Fight for your Rights

Today our Meet Up photography group had a shoot to support Domestic Violence Awareness. Originally Michael was going to be one of the make up artists, but with his HHN schedule, he wouldn't get enough sleep, so another girl named Amber Norell did all of the make up effects. We all met at her house around 10:45am. She had an area with a black backdrop and those umbrellas used for the flash when you take the picture. I was there to mainly get behind the scenes video, although I snagged a few shots as well. I'll be editing the video over the upcoming week or two. I probably won't make it very long, due to all the feedback I got from the "Girls of Paradise" video last month. More like a PSA, 30-45 seconds?

(Starting in the back, from the left, the models are Lizeth, Elle, Hannah and Rebekah. Teala is seated in the front. The photographer in the foreground is Hien.)

*I previously found this visually impressive PSA. Worth sharing.

Shift Change

I woke up at 10AM - terrible that it's the earliest I've gotten up in weeks! But now I have to make sure to stay awake the rest of the day so I can get up at 8:30 tomorrow for the photography group's next shoot. I forgot that Christopher & Meredith were coming to visit and go to Halloween Horror Nights with Michael, even though it was on the calendar. They got here around 12:30pm, which gave me time to organize, put away all my scrapbook items that were sprawled all over the floor and vacuum the whole house - including the tile floors! Michael dusted last night. We took them to see his GoreFX shop then had lunch at Jason's Deli. They left a few minutes ago to check in at their hotel and Michael is off to work. I'll be spending the next few hours personalizing and mailing off these cute Thanksgiving cards that I made. They seemed necessary since I only sent one Halloween card. 

*It was these scarecrow pictures that I was taking outside before I saw the anorexic kitty last week. The middle picture was the one I was planning to post on November 1st, as I mentioned before, but now I'll find something new!

Lazy Wasp

I am currently nothing like this Busy Bee that I took a picture of earlier today. It's dreary outside and, not counting a tiny something I'm working on, I have nothing productive to do. I would like to fast forward to Sunday morning when the photography group I am a part of is having their Domestic Violence Awareness shoot and again to the following night when Miriam's costume party is. Until then, nothing.. Enjoy your day!

(Perhaps I will do some cleaning - it's always needed - while I listen to this upbeat cover of the song "It's Not Unusual", sung by Darren Criss from Glee.)

Self Promotion

I was really excited when I figured out who I was going to dress up as for the Halloween Party. I love Dorothy, but I have worn that dress so much and that isn't me being creative. So luckily I thought of someone else [NO SPOILERS PLEASE]. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I loved the end result!! Now I just have to think of what food item to make and bring to the party on Monday night. (I don't want to make a habit out of using pictures of myself for my blog, but I can't yet upload any from the topic below. However, they have already been edited to my heart's desire and I am quite impressed with the shots.)

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy; I'm telling you it's going to be worth it." A friend had that quote on her Facebook page and it motivated me enough to push through and finish editing all of the band's music video pictures last night rather than dragging it on throughout the week. Not only am I done and have one less thing to worry about, but I'm proud of myself and now I can push for more creative work each day! I did learn some things towards the end. Like how the process could have been much simpler and saved a load of steps if I had been using Adobe Photoshop CS4 the whole time. Instead I wasted time using 3 different programs.. Oh welllll.. Sometimes we just have to learn the hard way!

Anti-crastination..

Why is it called "procrastination"? I thought "pro" was supposed to be a good thing.. Well, its taking me longer than I hoped it would to edit these pictures, but at least I'm not feeling rushed. I'm giving myself a October 30th deadline. I will email the Ornimental pictures to their manager by that night. With 200 pictures left to edit, that's 40 edits each day.. I can do it! 

I'm getting excited about Miriam's potluck costume Halloween party I was invited to last night. It's not until Monday, but it sounds like it's going to be really fun and she is talking about having a photo area set up with a black back drop covered with fake spider webs and props to pose with - hats, scarves, boas.. I told her I could bring a bunny ears headband, a bunny mask I made and long black satin gloves that go up to between the elbow & shoulder. (Michael bought me those the other day before the picnic and was proud that I went into the creepy Party Store. I hate all those laughing zombie babies!)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

& Ta-Da! 

This is the latest result of me watching too much "Top Model".

Self Portrait: 

I did the make-up myself. 

The white part across my eyes is just water based paint. 

I took 5 Polaroids as well.

But this one, using the Canon Rebel T2i, is my favorite of the bunch. 

Editorials

I've been watching Australia's Next Top Model lately. Unfortunately I can only find the most recent season online, but did find a website with every "best" picture taken of each girl before they were eliminated, as well as other work they have done outside of the show. I am a huge fan of editorial photos - the ones that get published in magazines - where the girls (or guys) are wearing items of clothing that one might not necessarily wear together out in public, but it looks cool and they have on crazy beautiful make up. The main thing for me is to find volunteers who will let me mess with their face and hair..

But today I will probably spend a lot of my day tweaking my favorite pictures from the Ornimental shoot. I deleted all the ones where they were making weird faces while singing, blinking or that just weren't quite in focus. (Which honestly narrowed me down to less than 300 out of the 1,600 - but I did take a ton of repeats and those, later become unnecessary, once I filter through and keep the best ones.) Here is one that I took of Jeff and Donte during one of the takes.

The Little Things

Today has been very nice. It started off very early this morning with a 2AM date. I met Michael after work at Waffle House. I got the five strips of bacon and he got his pecan waffles. The waitress convinced us to take home a whole chocolate pie so she wouldn't have to cut one piece for me. [Fast forward until Noon..]

Once we woke up for the day, I ran some errands with Michael to Sam Flax, Hobby Lobby and a couple Halloween stores. *shudder*. The weather was great, so we rode with the windows down and the radio on, playing good music. One song had a chorus of "gotta live like we're dying". I wonder how many people do that..

 After repeatedly asking Michael (over the past couple of weeks) if we could go on a picnic, he finally gave in and later admitted that he had a better time than he thought he would. We didn't pack sandwiches, but stopped at a couple food places. I got a wrap from Jason's Deli and he got Five Guys. We had to tie Sasha up so she wouldn't run away, but that didn't stop her from darting at every squirrel she saw.

Excuse the Hiatus

A fellow Full Sail classmate, Jeffrey Moore, was directing a music video for a new metal/rock band from Miami, called Ornimental. He posted online saying he needed someone to take BTS pictures, so I volunteered. Yesterday at 1PM, I met Jeff and the band in a huge field behind someone's farm out in Christmas, FL. Donte, another Full Sail friend, was there to help with the bounce and shiny board to keep light on the talent whenever possible. I ended up taking over 1,650 pictures of the band during the two hours that I was there. I just finished going through all the photos earlier today and ended up keeping around 500 good ones. I will be editing them during this week, although I'm not allowed to post any until the video is cut together and released online.

On my way back home, I pulled over to take pictures of a corner that had some Christmas decorations set up. (We were in the town of Christmas.) You could tell they were worn and had been there for who knows how many years. There was a Nativity set as well with Mary and Joseph, but the baby Jesus was missing! I also passed a street sign that said "Blitzen Ave". Clever. (You can view Jeff's work at Axtravaganza Films.)

Risky Business

While Michael was out seeing a scary movie with his Halloween Horror Nights make up friends last week, I designed these business cards for myself. (I hope you like them.) When Michael got home, he put them into Photoshop and sized the files correctly to fit in to the format provided before ordering them from Next Day Flyers. There was another website I originally wanted to, where I could have a bunch of cards that all looked different on the front, to show off more of my photography, but their rates were about 5x more expensive.. Anyway, so I have been checking the mail every day and they finally arrived this morning. Not how we were expecting though.. At 7:28AM, we got a loud knock on the door and although Sasha barked a little, Michael stayed asleep. I had to wake him up and he made his way outside. It was the FedEx guy. Honestly, why so early?

Getting the Chills

Although it has been Autumn/Fall for almost a month now, its only today that feels like the seasons are beginning to change. There have been a few nights over the past couple of weeks that were cool enough for me to need a sweater. At 9:30 this morning, I went to the mail box to drop off a letter and was planning on going for a walk after that, but was very surprised when I got outside that a tank top and soffee shorts were not weather appropriate. I only made it to the mailbox and back before jumping into bed again with my sleeping husband and stayed their until he got up at noon. By 4pm, probably the warmest part of the day, it was good enough to go for a walk without a sweater, although I did have jeans on. As I walked the two full loops around the complex, I kept my eye out for things to feature on today's entry. I decided on showing off the trees also getting into the cooler season.

Bokeh, Not Boca...

Whenever I take pictures for more than one reason each day, I often think "well, I'll save these extra photos for my next post in case I don't do anything cool tomorrow".. But then I feel like I should post it anyway, that way when tomorrow comes around I am forced to do something cool! So here is yet another day of double posts ~

I feel like I have slowed down on my Polaroid pictures lately, so I was trying to find cool things to do to "spice it up". I have been wanting to try "bokeh" pictures.. a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.. basically something with a shape cut out is covering the lens and the lit areas take that shape. When I used my Polaroid camera later in the afternoon, it came out differently. In a cool way, but more like a border.

When the sun was completely gone for the day, I played around with the shutter speed and was thoroughly entertained when I began racking the focus while the shutter was open! I've seen bokehs mostly at night, so I tried that too. It didn't work as well as I had hoped, mainly because I was confused at first of how to get it right and also I don't think we have enough lamps in our complex? I'll try again another night when Michael is able to help me and I've learned more about it.

Pinching Pennies

I was going through my scrap book papers last week and "re-found" some great ones that I fell in love with. More so than when I bought them, I suppose. They are small journal cards by the company, October Afternoon. I have been nagging Michael to give me some money so I could buy some more because I saw new themes on the website. But he kept telling me no, so I dumped out the jar of coins I had been collecting. I had just over $5.80, mostly in pennies. After counting them twice, I bagged them up and headed to Scrappy Boutique! I kept my price in mind, and got the cards I wanted as well as two other cute pieces of double sided 12 x 12 paper. My total was $5.19 ~ Yay! The ladies trusted my counting skills, so I didn't have to count out the pennies a third time. These are the journal cards I got today. (Right click on the photos & zoom in for full size!)

Anorexic Kitty

I was on my way back upstairs after a quick Thanksgiving themed shoot (which I probably won't post until November 1st), when I saw a kitty in the bushes! Thank goodness I had the good camera with me, unlike last time when I just had my Polaroid.. those were a waste of film. No offense, kitty. I ran upstairs and got a handful of turkey slices for him. I followed him along the wall, by the air conditioners, and took a lot of pictures between throwing turkey pieces on the ground for him. However, after 179 shots (for real - the more I take, the better chances there are of finding a really good one!), I realized that I don't think this is the anorexic kitty that I have seen around the complex before. He was still skinny, but I feel like the other kitty had more gray on his back.. Whatever, hopefully I made this kitty's day better. ♥ I will be putting a few more of my favorites on Flickr later tonight.

Professional Responsibility

I've been printing out Photo & Video Release forms for Wild Photography. The other day at Painted Oaks, Hannah had waivers for the models to sign and I automatically wished that I had some. And now I do! I had an extra binder in the closet and designed the side with my logo. I want to print out some of my more recent photos to make a front cover, but I will do that later this week. Its going to be another rainy day (according to the weather channel online & it is pretty overcast right now) and I have recently realized that I do not like going out when its storming really bad.

Breaking Dusk

Our good friend, Drew Prescott, recently purchased a Lastolite Soft Box and since he needed a test subject, I agreed to volunteer. It was a fun shoot, although I was basically in the same pose for about 30 minutes while he and Julie (his girlfriend, who was holding the Soft Box for him while he took the pictures) tested it in several different positions. I think its strange, yet funny, that in most of the pictures, the water and trees behind me look like a backdrop, as if I was getting these pictures done in the mall! The area was very pretty with amazing houses along cobblestone roads. After the shoot, Drew treated Julie and I to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. (Thanks, again!)

Although I normally prefer pictures of myself smiling, below is my other favorite picture from the shoot, however, it did not include Drew's Soft Box:

You can view Drew's blog here. Today he came over to work on a piece about Michael and how he negotiates wages with clients for Special Make Up FX projects.

*Both photos courtesy of
Drew Prescott.



Click here to read the article that Drew wrote tonight, specifically about Michael's Special Make Up FX company, GoreFX, LLC.

This is Just the Beginning!

Phew! I'm cutting it pretty close to my daily deadline by running into "midnight overtime", but it took longer than expected to filter through all these wonderful pictures then edit & tag my favorites. A photography group that I joined a couple weeks ago (thanks, Hannah!) had their first "Meet Up" today! A handful of us got together at Painted Oaks Academy. I had never been there before and was excited when I noticed that they had horses. There were also a lot of parents and kids there to ride the horses and to pick out big pumpkins and decorate little ones. I worked with a lovely young woman, Diana Santos. She was very nice and fun and easy to work with. Diana had no problem posing in my America's Next Top Model "broken" type positions and I love that in certain photos she looks like the actress, Emily Browning. I also got a few cool snaps of the pretty horses. 

Blood Widow

For three weeks in June, I worked on a low budget horror feature called "Blood Widow", as the 2nd Assistant Director. The director, Jeremy Buckhalt, and the producer, Chad Coup, have been editing short press junkets together to get all slasher fans ready for the movie's release (the date has yet to be determined). 

A couple of days ago a "Behind the Gore" video was released. Michael did all of the Special Make Up FX on set, so the video is him talking about his experience and how he became a part of the project. Also, in the info area of the video, I am properly credited as Camera Operator (for Michael's interview), as well as Behind the Scenes videographer and Behind the Scenes photographer.

For more Behind the Scenes pictures, Cast & Crew List, as well as Blood Widow's first teaser trailer, click here to visit the official website!

Marvelous Mothers

This morning I could not pass up taking pictures of our dog, Sasha, snuggling with her lion. Too cute and she stayed asleep for most of the pictures too. Normally she will walk away or be distracted by something, so I'm glad I could snag this one!

Yesterday, we got a box in the mail from Michael's mom with Halloween goodies, including Igor Karkaroff (ha) and a lot of candy ~ much more than in the picture! And today we got a package from my mom which came with pretty little nail polishes and a super cute hand towel. Thank you both so much for making our apartment more festive (and delicious)!

Home Improvement

Something has been going on with our air conditioning lately. We normally keep the temp at 73* in our apartment, but on Monday we noticed it kept getting hotter, all the way up to 80*. I went to the office and got a new filter, but that wasn't the problem. A guy came out and told us they needed to replace the circuit and they did. However, last night before dinner, it was 80* again and a couple hours later another guy came to our apt. He said the problem was often caused my lizards getting into the vents.. 

Anyway, so that is why I am spending today scrap booking. The office is the coolest room in here. Along with the "Birds of Paradise" Polaroid page, I wanted to share with you this video. Last month these beautiful young women had a photo shoot and I was able to be the Behind the Scenes videographer. I had a very fun time and didn't even mind getting up at 5:30am for it! The digital photographer (I took the Polaroids) was Ian Davis and you can check out this shoot as well as his other work here. He snapped a picture of me* as well, right there! --->

For the "Once Upon a Time" Polaroid/ Dream page, I took apart an old necklace and glued the charms down. I had been holding onto that necklace for a long time, just to use it in my crafts. I'm glad I finally found the right place for it. That's all I feel like scrapping for now. If I make more pages, (I have done 5 today and did 2 when Ryan was over), I will add those too.

Birthday: Part II

As the years go on, our birthdays tend to become less exciting. (We should definitely work on changing that!) Since we stayed up until 4am watching "Stepbrothers", Michael's birthday consisted of sleeping in very late, which was fine because we didn't have anything else important to do. He had a couple chocolate mini cupcakes for breakfast, including this one (pictured). I sang to him and he made a wish! We drove to the mall to get my engagement ring and wedding band polished and also stopped by Auntie Anne's for delicious sugary pretzels. After running a couple "man errands" to stores that sold power tools, we made our way to dinner at Bahama Breeze. The service was really good/quick tonight. I got a virgin Bahama Rita (so it was like a smoothie) with my meal. That's about it.. Happy Birthday, Michael!!

It Is Your Birthday.

A few hours ago Michael went to see "Dream House" with some of his friends from Halloween Horror Nights. It looked scary so I stayed home and designed some business cards. A front and a back. They aren't very traditional, but I like them a lot. Michael just ordered them for me. They should be here by Monday. I will definitely be showing them off and passing them out like candy! 

But more importantly: Today is now officially Michael's 23rd birthday, since it's after midnight. He got a bunch of cards in the mail today! (And money to save for us to move to Los Angeles in a year or so.) We picked up some baby cupcakes from Wal-Mart as well as a bottle of champagne and orange juice so he could make mimosas.

Crafternoon

Today has been a fun day. I woke up at 10:30 (what a bum, I know!) to get ready for a Voice Stress Analysis that I had to take for a job I'm in the lengthy hiring process for. Although I was a little nervous, I had a fun time because the guy was really funny. I was in a good mood when I left, probably from laughing so much (and because he said that I passed the test). I stopped at Target on the way home to pick up ingredients for a "Football Special". Its basically a chip dip with cream cheese, chili-no beans and shredded cheese. My dad always used Nacho Doritos, so that's what I used today. My brother and I have never really been into sports, but we were willing to watch a half an hour of big guys jumping on each other with my dad while we ate the Football Special. ♥

My friend Ryan came over around 5:30 to scrapbook!! I like this picture of my Polaroids laid out with the ribbon. I started a couple pages, but will work on it more over the next few days and post new pictures when it's complete. Ryan (the cute baby in the second photo) made the collage of her mom, grandmother and great-grandmother. She later added letters to spell out "Four Generations" long the side.

Going Downtown

The other day on the Weather Channel, it said that today was going to end up being rainy again with lightning storms. So I told my friend Julie that we needed to reschedule our trip to Typhoon Lagoon. For some reason, it sure was bright, warm and sunny all day! Julie had made other plans and since Michael is a Special FX Make Up Artist for Halloween Horror Nights and didn't get home until 2:30am (meaning he sleeps in until noon), it was too late to change our minds. Instead, Michael took me to Downtown Disney so I could get out of our neighborhood and work on my photography in a happy and fun environment! I value his opinions on my pictures and he did say that a lot of the ones I took looked like I just went on a trip to Disney rather than for "work". I'm still glad I got them. The Princess Parade (all the little girls with their hair and makeup done, wearing Jasmine and Ariel dresses) was really cute. I can scrapbook the other pictures later!

*Click HERE to see some of Michael's Special Make Up FX work.

Agree to Disagree

Last night Michael was going through some of the other photos I took for my "Macro Morning" entry. He loved this one and said I had to post it. However, after I edited both, we were unable to agree on which was better. (Not could I find a sufficient place to add my nifty logo).
Michael likes the color version better because you can see more detail, specifically the wood grain, but I prefer the black & white because it looks like something you would see at an art gallery. I want my photography to be risky and not constantly follow the "rules" I politely acquired the professional opinion of others, asking which edit was more appealing to their visual taste and why.

COLOR:
"The color keeps the rings of the wood, as well as the rust from the tac." (Jay)

"The color makes the picture look more alive." (Miriam)

"It separates the foreground and the background very lovely!" (Lisa)

B&W:
"If you wanted it to be an art piece, I'd go with the black and white." (Cory)

"I feel that the black and white actually speaks louder and holds your interest for a longer period of time because you feel the need to study it." (Nina)

Thank you.

Tis the Season

Over the past few days I have realized that my husband knows more about me than I thought. The main thing today is that "if I have money in my bank account, I will spend it". He was right. Darn him for being so smart. (Luckily he takes care of the bills and savings; I just pay for groceries.) It didn't spend it all, but I have been wanting some of those mini pumpkins. They were considered gourds, buuut.. they still look like mini pumpkins! Only 99 cents each & so colorful. Here they are in their own personal photo shoot, complete with tree (to hang tiny pictures) and a glittery bat for scrapbooking!

Rain Rain..

I'm a little bummed because I was really looking forward to going to the (outdoor) Art Festival with Michael today, but it's been raining non-stop for the past few hours. And it was raining last night when we went to sleep. I'm not going to let it get to me though. There is plenty of time left to get a good photo for today! Two of my friends are coming to visit from out of town and we're going to Downtown Disney for a bite to eat. I'm hoping to get some good shots there.

*8 hours later.. the rain has not stopped. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet with either of my friends. After some driving around in traffic, with cars honking all over the place, I picked up some tacos and headed home. However, during my Target run a little earlier, I did buy some Halloween goodies (decorations). That brightened my day a tad!

Macro Morning

Day 2, as promised. I've been waking up pretty late recently and by the time I got moving today, it was raining. However, once it stopped I figured "now would be a good time to get some of those beautiful macro raindrop shots". I found that there are a lot more flowers around our apartment than I thought. I guess I never looked enough or I was walking by too fast, missing out. Although it's not a flower, this one is my favorite shot from today!

Welcome to the Show!

Hello! I am so excited to start this fun blog to market myself, my talents and those who I work with on various projects. I plan to update you with my current works and would love to get your feedback to help me in the future! Today my husband, Michael, agreed to be my model. Here are my favorites (click the photos to view the full size)!

I would like to keep this blog current and keep looking forward, so instead of posting pictures I have taken in the past, I shall share with you my Flickr page and you can view my previous works there!