Today my sister and I worked on a Christmas gift for our father. In this case the camera was high enough on the tripod that I couldn't see through the view finder, so the framing was a best guess sort of thing. She really liked this one, for some reason. It is kind of cool looking but I'm not that big on it as a portrait. I'm all OOF and cropped out even more than she is... Actually now that I think about it... that might be why she liked this one :)

So I processed all the images for Daniela and sent them to her. They came out great! I'm very happy with them. She seemed as happy as one can, in an communication medium as emotionless as email.

After her model release came back to me in the mail today, and I saw a couple of cool images on a photographer forum. They inspired me to try processing them again. This time with cool colors and more style. My first versions were nice, but pretty straight forward, nothing really exiting.

So I sent her an email thanking for the prompt return of the model release, and letting her know I was making new Totally Frelling Cool versions of the images . I didn't use those words, but that's what I said in my head.

I finished 2 Hours later. I had a dozen images that now were Totally Frelling Cool, as I previously stated, was what I was going for. I sent them to her, and put a few up on my Model Mayhem page.

Now that might seem fine, but I'm still working on them. Tweaking a little here and there. It's as if, I think I'm finished and send them out, or use them. Only after, do I realize they aren't quite right, and have to adjust them again.

That's what makes me a N3wb. If I were a real pro, I would make my adjustments. Look at them again in a week, tweak them a little. Then wait another week, and if I still like them, only then would they be shipped out.

This is a version of a desktop I'm working on. Something to remind me every time I sit at my computer, that I can be a good photographer. I hope it works.

Yesterday I shot a set with a new model Daniela Velez. Pretty girl, perfect sunset, I got a lot of really great shots in only 40 minuets.

They are much better than what she had on her ModelMayhem page. Better than a few I have as well. So they will help out both our portfolios. I wasn't sure what to expect because she's only 16. But she was very level headed and professional. Her mother wasn't over my shoulder watching every move. It was all very simple and easy. I will definitely work with her again. She does Parkour (think foot chase at the binging of 007: Casino Royale). In the spring we will try to get some cool action shots of that.

I went back to some photos from earlier in the year. I originally turned an entire shoot for a friend from NXP into black white high contrast things for a Sin City type portrait. This time I decided to take some of those and make different color versions.

The concept was for rap album covers. What do you think?

Yes I'm still alive... for now. I may not survive the next 20 hours.

Last weekend I assisted with shooting 2 weddings, Friday and Saturday. Same goes for this weekend. But this one will be a little more rough. Today's wedding starts at 4pm and runs to about midnight. Tomorrows wedding starts at 7:30am... in Rockland county almost 2 hours away. So I have to be on the road by 5:30am. After I only got to the house a 1am.

I have done the marathons before, it doesn't mean I have to like them. I'll check in with a progress report later.

Update: Oct 5th, 2008 1:43pm

I'm ok. No damage done. The shooting the second wedding on only a couple of hours sleep was easier than I thought it would be. I guess I should have expected that. Many nights I go with only a few hours of sleep. When I ran the 28 hour paintball games, going like that wasn't too hard. I effectively slept till noon today, and now it's all good.