Photo School

I was sifting thru some old papers and found this grade sheet from when I was in community college studing photography. I was a solid c - student. The teachers thought I spent too much time being silly and not enough time looking like olan mills. I found my teachers website. So glad I stopped taking photo classes. They could have ruined me.

job interview

i'm nurvious. i have a big job interview today. i made it past the first stage of interviews and today is the final round. the job is shooting stock photography for a big agency in town. it would be work for hire and they edit everything. meaning all the money is up front and they make any residual profits. i'd work five days a week once every month or two. the nice part is it pays enough in the one week to support me for the whole month so (in theory) i could stop taking lots of little jobs I don't want to do and focus on my big goals. they want to see all new work that isn't on my website. this is scary. all of that work has been out for a while and people have liked or disliked it and i'm comfortable. most of my new work has been seen only by the person buying the photos. YIPES. it'll be ok. i just need to focus and be my regular charming self.

I'm famous!!!

Yipeee. Strange thing. I picked up a magazine at the gym because it was the LOST collectors edition (of entertaiment weekly) and Scott and I are huge lost fans. I left the magazine at his place and never got around to reading it. Today when I got to his house he was laying on the couch looking at the magazine - then he turned it twords me and there on the page was one of my photos!!!! It was a photo of the band v0xtr0t. I was first very excited, but then i realized the never paid for the photo, it ran with out my name and they didn't ask if they could use it. I'm excited that my photo is getting national exposure but I WANT MY NAME TO RUN ON MY WORK, or at the very least I'd like a nice paycheck.

Glenn

My brother cut his hair. He has had dreadlocks for the last 12 years and today he cut it all off. He wants to start a life a new. Wow. It is so strange to see his face. He has worn a long beard for the last 6 years. He looks so much like my fathers side of the family. My heart is still pounding from seeing him for the first time. I hope more than anything else I've ever wanted that this will be a first step to him recovering. I gave up on it ever happening long ago, but maybe I shouldn't have.

Do you think he looks like me? I think he does. We have the same beeming smile. He has dad's ears! The stick out. I, luckily, didn't get that gene. Wow. I'm sooo happy!!!!

Out of touch....

Gmail why have you forsaken me? I'm only blogging because I can't check my email. AHHH. I feel so out of touch. I check my email hourly. With out it I can't get the rest of my work done for the day. I have come to depend on it as a place to store address, phone numbers and I NEED TO READ MY EMAIL!!!

The photo is from Willie's ranch in Luck. I was invited out to take some photos of a band recording. Best part is the sound engeneer liked me and has invited me back to do some stills during the summer. He said he was tell Willie about this great still photographer (instert my name here don't want google to find my blog)

Ok. I'm going to walk the cat. Ahhh. Not having email makes me sick to my stomach, or maybe I'm just hungry.

the movies

went to see the daniel jonson movie with mom today. she hadn't been to a movie since the time i took her to one in highschool 10 years ago. such a strange duck. she insisted we get to the theater almost an hour early to buy our tickets. this might be understandable on a friday night, but it was the 1:30 tuesday matinee. luckily it was bring your baby to the theater day so noone threw popcorn at us when she talked during the movie. :) i love my mom, but she really needs to get out more.

the movie was pretty good. parts of it were funny because of how the reflect my life.

No TIME

I'm feeling stressed. I have no time for myself. If I'm not on a shoot I'm editing and if I'm not editing I'm with Scott - although lots of the time I spend with Scott I'm also editing...

So I've decided to start hiring people. Today I hired my old nanny to clean my house. I sort of feel like also need a personal assistant, but that just seems so self important. Photography is a funny business. When it is good it is AMAZING and when I'm broke I'm totally broke. It always seems to be all or nothing. I hate to be wastefull and splurge on lots of help, but I'm not getting things done fast enough and my quality of life is suffering.

Ok. I'm done venting back to editing.

super 8

back in the super 8.

New Photo

Here's a new photo I like!

Lucky Day

Yipee!!! Today has been a very very good day. The statesman hired me to do an ad layout in June and mastercard just asked me to do another shoot. I'm so excited. In the past few weeks jobs have been coming out of the woodwork!!! If I can stay this busy I'll be able to afford some new camera gear - or a house! The bad part is... i shot the wrong band for the chornicle on Friday. I think R may let me go. Yikes. I don't need the money now like I used to, but I've always loved working for them. I tried to call and make a mends with R, but he didn't pick up when they paged him.

Almost gone...

IMG_0092
Originally uploaded by SleddPhotography.

One of the very good things about being me is my mother has a crew of workers ready at a moments notice. I'm not sure what I would have done if not for the lovely crew of chainsaw wielders! if look closely at the background of the photo you can see my mom standing in the back of a truck giving orders and in the foreground is Six - one of my favorites because he is always sweeping. at the shop when everything else is still and quite i can still here the woosh woosh woosh of mr. sixto's broom.

Thank you for not coming for the STORM

IMG_0037
Originally uploaded by SleddPhotography.

Wow. Glad noone actually came when I called them to come watch the storm!!! My angels must be watching out for my friends. The tree next to my house fell on my driveway and would have CRUSHED any cars not in the carport (only room for my car.) So. Wow. What luck that noone came. I have no idea how I'm going to get my car out. I've asked my mom to bring home the chain saw. The city is such a mess. Down trees everywhere. I'm worried it'll be days before I can get my car out. *sigh* i have a wedding to photograph this week. I went ahead and reserved a car from Avis for the shoot. Maybe I should reserve one for the whole week... hmmm... bet lots of people are going to be renting cars.

thunder storm

why won't anyone watch the storm with me? makes me very sad. it is one of my pet peives when everyone is too busy to watch it rain. also makes me feel like i'm very isolated because i don't know more than about 4 people who live in austin who i would feel ok asking to join me at my house on short notice. i used to have lots of friends, but they all moved away or got married or got married and moved away.

Deviated Septum

That isn't just any deviated septum - it's mine! The only way to fix it is with Septoplasty. I would have never noticed had it not been for a creepy doctor I visited a few years ago. While examining me he said I had one of the most deviated spetums he'd ever seen and it was a miracle my nose isn't crooked. he also asked me to have drinks with him sometime, but thats another story.

lately I've been having trouble opperating the skinny nostril and I think it maybe the culprit for my frequent sinus infections and headaches. i can't figure out why my ear nose throat doctor (my only doctor besides my girlly doctor) never suggested i have it fixed. i'm not much of one for expensive painful medical procedures, but i think i'm going to suggest it next time i have to go in for antibiotics because of the painful infections in my face.

Work'n

You shouldn't be looking at blogs. You should be working, like me.

My Closet

My friend bradley wanted me to help him with his 5 x 7 piece for Arthouse. My plan was to use my drymount press and matt cutter to affix his photo to his board. In my shining moment of arty helpfulness I couldn't get my press and cutter to work perfectly. The press would work if I had a tacking iron, and the matt cutter would have worked if i hadn't been using it wrong. So - the one time I've actually need that silly cutter and the press I couldn't get them to work ... so i decided i didn't really need them. I listed them on craigslist. Someone came to pick up the drymount press yesturday. Today I needed to use my matt cutter so I spent more time figuring it out. Turns out it works great and I think I will end up using it more in the futurue. Problem is I had already told someone they could come look at it - even though they didn't want to pay full price for it. So I sent him an email a few hours before he was supposed to come and I tried calling the number he had given me, but it didn't work.

I'd almost forgotten he was coming over and I was watching this fun video about Colbert. Then I hear pounding on my door. POUNDING not knocking. Instead of getting the door and just telling the guy the matt cutter was no longer availabe I hid in my closet. I could still hear the funny video and I felt pretty silly sitting on the floor of my closet. The guy left after pounding on the window and slamming the screen door. Next time I'll handle things differently. :) he did send me this email which made me feel pretty guilty.

"May the fleas of a thousand
camels infest your armpits."

Next time I'll do the right thing.

Second Invoice

The big problem with freelance photography (freelance anything for that matter) is waiting to get paid. Some jobs it takes me almost 6 months to get paid. Frequently I will have already paid assistants and stylists from my pocket then I have to wait months to get paid. It makes me want to focus more on weddings. The nice thing about weddings is you get a deposit and then the balance on the wedding day. What could be better?

Last week I sent out three invoices and already two of them have come back. So nice. I don't usually get that fast of a responce. It is hard to have money and know that I can't spend it. Must save for the skinny times that are to come. I want to save enough that I can not get paid for 3 months and still be a-ok.