blankphotography’s blog

One of those nights, my friends. Here's what I remember:

1) A tiny skiff.. And I mean really tiny, because I was really tiny.  A half-drowned stuffed squirrel was my passenger.  I was being pushed around by a seal.

2) Graduate school back in Boston.  A new degree, and I was a year into it.  I kept skipping classes though, like the deal was already done.

3) Conversations with a blond named Lori who I thought was interested in this freewheeling professor.  

4) There was a dance or something... I kept talking about sailing. 

5) Finally an opportunity for one-on-one and she kissed me after I expressed solidarity for whatever she was saying.

6) I was in a position to have some kind of contact with people high in the government.  Maybe cabinet members.  

7)They were all huddled in a corner because the Arab world had unified and decided to shut off the oil supply.  

8)Finally an opportunity to change society!  I think I was a deputy science advisor but I have no idea why. 
 
9) I was spouting off ideas.

I got the distinct impression that the whole message of this dream sequence was of hope.  

I have news that isn't news, so I'll just make y'all a list.

1. I was laid off my day job in December.  Severance will allegedly follow.  Yes, I'll be looking for another day job.

2. Had to lay off my studio search since no job means no financing.

3. Done some small amount of shooting since last post.  A multi-model shoot, a Crawfords theme shoot, and a Flickr walk.  

4. Had to postpone a shoot I had scheduled for this Saturday because of schedule conflicts and the flight of our makeup person to Montana after her breakup.

5. I'm thinking of other ways to accomplish the studio task.  Maybe share space again?  I dunno.

6. Any thoughts about my next day job, send 'em my way!

So!  Here's the story.  

I'm looking for a building.  Been looking for two years, haven't found anything that met my specs.  
This building?  In my head it's a brick commercial building, two or so floors, high ceilings, and under $100K after all 
repairs or immediate upgrades have been done.

What I want to do with this building is live in it, and have a photo studio in it.  

I think it's about time I have my own studio.  If I don't have a studio, I will never escape corporate America.  If I don't have 
a studio, I will never really learn to control light.  I'll never build momentum toward true mastery.  

Plus, it would be cool, and I'm tired of renting, but I don't want a house if I can avoid it.  Shades of suburban doldrums.

Needs to be in a suburban range to my hometown, though.  Within a half hour commute.  And did I mention the price tag?

Yeah.

I may have found a place.  I'm pricing it out.  I'll let you know how it turns out, once I'm ready.

I'm getting up to speed with the season, shooting every week, either with models or friends.  
Little side trips, long 5 hour drives, or early evening shoots.  Some shoots thrown together, some more planned out.
It's all good.  Gives me reason to learn new skills, and take out my cameras and really think about what they can do.

Plus, I meet some really nice people this way!

So for any new members, what do you enjoy most about working with models/photographers?  

I visited the Jones coffee shop today.  I really like that place.  Add to its charms that it's not frakking hot inside, and I'm so there.  Today a couple additional charms were there too.  One, a fellow to whom I'm now something of a friend, who happens to be the father of one of Jones' owners.  He's 65 and just last week had a pacemaker replaced.  Two, a young woman named Jill, who as it turns out is both charming and photographically inclined.  We chatted for the better part of an hour, and I showed her Lightroom.  She'd already seen the pictures I had loaded into there, and knew three of the four women I'd shot with for that series.  She (again) charmingly wrote a little note with her info asking if she could be something of a photo intern with me.  I am very charmed at this point, and moreover I'm curious to see her photos.  Which I suspect are quite good.  She shoots with a Sony Mavica, one of the cameras I'd considered back in the day before I had gone digital.  

I had a shoot in Iowa City Saturday night.  Tomorrow I shoot again.  And then on Saturday... well, we'll see about that one.  But I hope Jill becomes more than a Myspace friend.  Hopefully we'll get together in a non-accidental way sometime soon and get to know each other a wee bit better.  

That's how cool things can be when you don't stay at home after work.

 See, some people think growling is sexy.  It's not some kind of menace.  I mean, how many things do we have exposure
to these days that actually growls?  I can think of only one.  Dogs.  And if they're growling at you, there's usually a good
reason.

People only growl back when we're feeling playful.

So... who's going to growl back at me today?

Evidently I clicked on something at some website, because I got a phone call late yesterday that threw me for a loop.  This lady, Margaret, asked me a few questions basically amounting to a prospective interview.  There didn't seem to be a job per se in the offing, but the questions were like a job interview.  I didn't have the answers on the tip of my tongue... Frankly if it were a real interview I still probably wouldn't have had answers for her.  Going to have to work on that if I get called for a Paypal interview.

I haven't completely shaken this cold yet.  It's an unusual cold because my eyes turned pink.  A little sleep seems to have taken care of that though. 

I'm playing phone tag with a model for a shoot this weekend.  Wish me luck! 

I'm not impressed with Java and ActiveX based websites.  Or Flash.  Why?  Because they're hogs. 

And they're not usually very compatible with Opera, which has been my browser of choice but may not be for long. 

For instance, I can't seem to get the line to not scroll to the right without hitting enter.  Alarming.

But I am willing to try anything once. And here I am.

I'd rather be shooting photographs.

Last month, I finally made bumper stickers for my 2000 black Civic.  I'd been planning to do so for months.  

One says "Blank" and the other says "Bird."  In orange text with black background.  And there are blackbird eyes on either side.  (Note:  It just put in a break automatically where I 
didn't want one, and then I had to manually hit enter to prevent scroll again.  Blogger does this too sometimes.)

Only after I bought my Civic did I notice how common Civic hatchbacks were.  "Common as blackbirds," I noticed.

But my signature is Blank, so my car's a Blankbird.  And the orange is from the stripe on my awesome leather jacket.

It all fits together.  Better than Web 2.0.