so today . . . i realized i haven't blogged in several days. again. i've been a little distracted lately...
we need to buy a house. like right now. after looking at several, we put an offer in on one that we liked. the owners finally accepted and signed our offer, but it took a court order to make it happen. and time. we have spent a lot of time just waiting. but finally their signatures are on the right lines...
this was no simple task. first the wife signed, but the husband wouldn't. so the wife took him to court and the judge ordered him to sign. so he did. but not on the same document as the wife. or on the correct line--he signed on the buyer's signature line, not the seller's...
i'm starting to think that he doesn't really want to sell this house...
but the judge ordered the papers to be signed last monday. so we scheduled the home inspection for friday afternoon. we were pretty excited. we made a plan. rollie was going to follow the inspector around so he understood all the technical "inspectory" stuff, and i was going to take photos like crazy and measure everything! because we want to have new windows installed upstairs, and some grass put in the back yard, and some carpeting possibly replaced. and we will need window coverings and a security system. so if i take pictures and get measurements, we can have all that scheduled as soon as we know when we will get the keys!
which was a great idea, until we got the call on wednesday saying the home inspection had to be postponed, because the husband's sister, who is living in the house with their parents, was sick. and apparently was planning to be sick through the weekend. so we had to put all our excitement on hold for four more days...
four more days is an eternity to me right now. patience is not one of my virtues. in fact, patience doesn't even try to hang out with my other virtues! (hey! i have other virtues... i'm sure i do...) so of course, all i have been able to think about since wednesday was the house. and not being able to see it. and mentally placing furniture in it without knowing if it would actually fit. and wondering if milo will be able to haul his chubby little body up the stairs since they aren't carpeted. and worrying that the inspection will uncover insurmountable issues and propel us back to square one! and we will have lost three weeks in the process! and we will have to live in a tent in the park!
this is why i haven't blogged. i am not so much funny right now, as sort of starting to come apart at the seams.
and i don't have time to come apart at the seams, because buying a new house is not the only thing in my life right now! i wish it was!! but it isn't...
school is winding up for the year in just five weeks. open house is next weekend, which means producing copious amounts of amazing artwork, mounting it, and hanging it on the walls. which means taking down all the stuff the kids have been randomly taping up for the last several weeks. which seems kind of backwards to me... so now i have to decide how to incorporate the amazing artwork i am sure we are going to do this week, with the "artwork" they have been producing on their own that they are so proud of, and display it all! and clean the room from top to bottom. and prepare my presentation for prospective kindergarten students. AND complete the curriculum that we have to complete this week. and then spend four hours at school on saturday morning AT the open house...
oh, and create a photo album of one of diandra's weddings for an impatient bride. i say impatient, but she is just excited to get her album. and we promised it to her by the weekend, so i have to get busy! i should have started it weeks ago, especially since i am using a new program to create it which will take time to figure out. but as i said, i've been a little distracted...
and then, assuming we get to do the inspection tuesday afternoon, you know where my mind is going to go... it is going to go into house fixing overdrive!! and then there will be the packing to do. and now i am freaked out about packing anything, because after the cock roach blog, my mom said to be careful that we didn't take any WITH us!! YIKES!! i hadn't even thought of that! so now i am afraid to pack my boxes in case those sneaky bugs (and i'm not really sure they should be called bugs, because they are waaaay to big to be squashed...) try to hitch a ride and move with us!
and so, i haven't blogged much this week. i didn't think you would enjoy hearing me whine about my life every day. so, to spare you, i just crammed it all into this one whiny blog that covered the whole week.
lucky you ;-)
Showing posts with label photography job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography job. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
if only i didn't need a paycheck...
so today . . . i am thinking about quitting my job and becoming diandra's photography assistant.
diandra had a big photo shoot today. it was a styled shoot, and as she was telling me about all the vendors involved, i asked her how many photographers would be there, and she said... just one. it sounded like a very complicated shoot, and it soon became clear that it would be good if she had some help. so i sent some text messages and talked to some people, and was able to take the afternoon off work and rearrange an appointment so that i could go with her.
i dashed home at noon, changed my clothes, grabbed an extra sweater and a coat (because we were going to be at the beach and it was cool today,) and we headed south to san clemente.
it was a beautiful day! we were right by the beach, but we spent most of the day at the venue, which was beautiful!!
it was an old casino, built in 1937, that had gone through several transformations during the last century. in world war 2 it was a naval lookout station, it was a moose lodge for a while, and was also used as an entertainment venue. it has recently been remodeled to host weddings and events, and it was a gorgeous place! there are beautiful outdoor areas with fireplaces and native vegetation, a ballroom with a domed lighted ceiling, terracotta tiled floors in the large meeting rooms, and details, details, details. it was so unique, it made me want to plan a huge party! i'm sure all five of my friends would come ;-)
we met the other people who were going to be involved today, and then diandra started shooting details.
i babysat her lenses, held the diffusion shield, kept track of what the client wanted, moved stuff around and put it back, and generally did what i could to help diandra so that she could focus on getting the shots she wanted. and i loved every minute of it!
and then she asked me for her wide angle lens...
uh oh. i looked into her shoot sac. i saw four lenses. apparently one of them was a wide angle lens, but i had no idea which one. i surreptitiously took one out and looked at it. nope, it didn't say "wide angle" anywhere. i checked the next one. it said 50mm. hmmm, it didn't say wide angle either. i picked up another one. still no words, just numbers, numbers, numbers. after checking the last lens, i knew i was in trouble. i did not know which one was the wide angle lens. i didn't want to hand her the wrong one, and i was trying to act like i assisted her all the time, so i didn't really want to have to ask her. i quickly checked them all again, but it became clear that i was going to have to get some help. i walked over to diandra and quietly said, "um, it doesn't say wide angle on any of the lenses."
she is still laughing about it.
she explained the numbers to me, AGAIN, and soon i had it figured out. in fact, i learned a lot of things today, so i was thinking that maybe it was time for a top ten list...
TOP TEN THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANT TODAY...
10. wait to take a bathroom break until the photographer is ready to take a bathroom break. it isn't good if the photographer is standing around, wasting their valuable time, because the assistant drank a huge diet soda on the way to the shoot and had to go use the facilities. even if your excuse was that you were scoping out locations...
9. don't drink more than the photographer. why? see #10...
8. remember where the shootsac is. the shootsac is the most valuable item at the shoot--except for the camera. it is filled with lenses, batteries, memory cards, business cards... in other words, it needs to be available to the photographer at all times. i tried to keep the shootsac with me, but sometimes i had to put it down to shade the details diandra was shooting. and then we would move on to something else. and then i would turn around to get a lens and the shootsac would be gone! and i would have to try to remember where i had left it and go get it. it seemed like no matter where we were, the shootsac would be hiding the lenses at the other side of the venue. i think the shootsac thinks i am after it's job! it's pretty smart, because i might be :-)
7. the food is just there to look beautiful. don't eat it--at least not until the photographer says she is done shooting it!
a styled shoot is all about the photographs. sometimes that means the food isn't exactly real. but today, the food from sweet cream bakery in san clemente was real. and beautiful. and delicious. i know it was delicious, because after looking at it all afternoon, we finally got to eat it. i ate a red velvet cake pop. and then i ate another one. i was really, really glad that the food was real at this shoot! so was everyone else. everyone who was involved today was standing just out of camera range, waiting for diandra to say, "ok, i'm done shooting the desserts." those biblical locusts had nothing on us!!!
6. don't put a small point and shoot camera into the top of the shootsac. i was carrying so much stuff back and forth that it seemed like a good idea at the time, and maybe it was... right up until the moment that it fell out of the shootsac onto the ceramic tiles... which brings me to...
5. don't drop my camera. of course i had my camera with me! it was a day full of photo ops!! i looooove to take pictures of diandra taking pictures.
but i had to squeeze that in between juggling her lenses and the diffusion shield and tweeting about how much fun i was having. i've dropped my camera before, and it has always survived, so i wasn't really worried. but then, the next photo i took looked like this:
suddenly i was thinking maybe i should have stayed at work and earned my paycheck this afternoon, because it looked like i might be replacing a camera... thankfully it was just a lens cover malfunction. i fixed it, and then took some more pictures of diandra shooting pictures.
4. keep extra ponytail bands in the shootsac. it was a bit windy yesterday, and we were outside most of the time. i spent a lot of time with my arms fully extended above my head holding a diffuser shade. which was fine, until the wind blew my hair across my face, and i couldn't breathe--or move to brush it away!! it was kind of like having a bug crawling up your arm or a tiny rock in your shoe. it drove me crazy!!! thankfully, diandra had an extra ponytail band in the shootsac...
3. know when to shut up. it isn't as easy as it sounds! when i look at pictures, i always see the messy background or the hair that is out of place. i see the scrap of paper that has blown under the adirondack chair, or the four yellow dandelions in the yard full of beautiful green grass, or the sprinkler head in the middle of the picture, and so i want to make sure they don't get in the shot. but i also don't want to break diandra's train of thought as she moves through her shoot. sometimes i see a shot from a different angle that i think would be a great picture, so i suggest it. but i also don't want to sound like i am trying to tell her what to do, so sometimes i don't. it is a fine line to walk...
2. don't leave the lenses at the location. this seems somewhat unnecessary to say. and yet, i walked off to the car at the end of the day without the shootsac. thankfully i remembered before we got out of the parking lot.
and the number one thing i learned about being a photographer's assistant today...
1. if they borrow your diamond ring for the shoot, make sure to get it back! yeah, we were sitting in the car, ready to leave, when travis--the groom model--came running across the parking lot with my ring in his hand. several times during the day i had thought, "don't forget to get your ring... don't forget to get your ring..." but by the end of the day, it was dark and we were tired, and i just forgot... luckily we were working with honest people!
on the way home, i told diandra how much i had enjoyed the day. i even offered to quit my job if i could be her assistant. she said it had been a big help to have me there today, but that usually she didn't really need an assistant. i tried to convince her that she did! she told me that she probably couldn't match my paycheck. this is probably true...
...but my paycheck doesn't buy days spent in the sunshine watching my daughter do what she loves best, and getting to be a part of it!
diandra had a big photo shoot today. it was a styled shoot, and as she was telling me about all the vendors involved, i asked her how many photographers would be there, and she said... just one. it sounded like a very complicated shoot, and it soon became clear that it would be good if she had some help. so i sent some text messages and talked to some people, and was able to take the afternoon off work and rearrange an appointment so that i could go with her.
i dashed home at noon, changed my clothes, grabbed an extra sweater and a coat (because we were going to be at the beach and it was cool today,) and we headed south to san clemente.
it was a beautiful day! we were right by the beach, but we spent most of the day at the venue, which was beautiful!!
it was an old casino, built in 1937, that had gone through several transformations during the last century. in world war 2 it was a naval lookout station, it was a moose lodge for a while, and was also used as an entertainment venue. it has recently been remodeled to host weddings and events, and it was a gorgeous place! there are beautiful outdoor areas with fireplaces and native vegetation, a ballroom with a domed lighted ceiling, terracotta tiled floors in the large meeting rooms, and details, details, details. it was so unique, it made me want to plan a huge party! i'm sure all five of my friends would come ;-)we met the other people who were going to be involved today, and then diandra started shooting details.
i babysat her lenses, held the diffusion shield, kept track of what the client wanted, moved stuff around and put it back, and generally did what i could to help diandra so that she could focus on getting the shots she wanted. and i loved every minute of it!and then she asked me for her wide angle lens...
uh oh. i looked into her shoot sac. i saw four lenses. apparently one of them was a wide angle lens, but i had no idea which one. i surreptitiously took one out and looked at it. nope, it didn't say "wide angle" anywhere. i checked the next one. it said 50mm. hmmm, it didn't say wide angle either. i picked up another one. still no words, just numbers, numbers, numbers. after checking the last lens, i knew i was in trouble. i did not know which one was the wide angle lens. i didn't want to hand her the wrong one, and i was trying to act like i assisted her all the time, so i didn't really want to have to ask her. i quickly checked them all again, but it became clear that i was going to have to get some help. i walked over to diandra and quietly said, "um, it doesn't say wide angle on any of the lenses."
she is still laughing about it.
she explained the numbers to me, AGAIN, and soon i had it figured out. in fact, i learned a lot of things today, so i was thinking that maybe it was time for a top ten list...
TOP TEN THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANT TODAY...
10. wait to take a bathroom break until the photographer is ready to take a bathroom break. it isn't good if the photographer is standing around, wasting their valuable time, because the assistant drank a huge diet soda on the way to the shoot and had to go use the facilities. even if your excuse was that you were scoping out locations...
9. don't drink more than the photographer. why? see #10...
8. remember where the shootsac is. the shootsac is the most valuable item at the shoot--except for the camera. it is filled with lenses, batteries, memory cards, business cards... in other words, it needs to be available to the photographer at all times. i tried to keep the shootsac with me, but sometimes i had to put it down to shade the details diandra was shooting. and then we would move on to something else. and then i would turn around to get a lens and the shootsac would be gone! and i would have to try to remember where i had left it and go get it. it seemed like no matter where we were, the shootsac would be hiding the lenses at the other side of the venue. i think the shootsac thinks i am after it's job! it's pretty smart, because i might be :-)
7. the food is just there to look beautiful. don't eat it--at least not until the photographer says she is done shooting it!
a styled shoot is all about the photographs. sometimes that means the food isn't exactly real. but today, the food from sweet cream bakery in san clemente was real. and beautiful. and delicious. i know it was delicious, because after looking at it all afternoon, we finally got to eat it. i ate a red velvet cake pop. and then i ate another one. i was really, really glad that the food was real at this shoot! so was everyone else. everyone who was involved today was standing just out of camera range, waiting for diandra to say, "ok, i'm done shooting the desserts." those biblical locusts had nothing on us!!!6. don't put a small point and shoot camera into the top of the shootsac. i was carrying so much stuff back and forth that it seemed like a good idea at the time, and maybe it was... right up until the moment that it fell out of the shootsac onto the ceramic tiles... which brings me to...
5. don't drop my camera. of course i had my camera with me! it was a day full of photo ops!! i looooove to take pictures of diandra taking pictures.
but i had to squeeze that in between juggling her lenses and the diffusion shield and tweeting about how much fun i was having. i've dropped my camera before, and it has always survived, so i wasn't really worried. but then, the next photo i took looked like this:
suddenly i was thinking maybe i should have stayed at work and earned my paycheck this afternoon, because it looked like i might be replacing a camera... thankfully it was just a lens cover malfunction. i fixed it, and then took some more pictures of diandra shooting pictures.
4. keep extra ponytail bands in the shootsac. it was a bit windy yesterday, and we were outside most of the time. i spent a lot of time with my arms fully extended above my head holding a diffuser shade. which was fine, until the wind blew my hair across my face, and i couldn't breathe--or move to brush it away!! it was kind of like having a bug crawling up your arm or a tiny rock in your shoe. it drove me crazy!!! thankfully, diandra had an extra ponytail band in the shootsac...3. know when to shut up. it isn't as easy as it sounds! when i look at pictures, i always see the messy background or the hair that is out of place. i see the scrap of paper that has blown under the adirondack chair, or the four yellow dandelions in the yard full of beautiful green grass, or the sprinkler head in the middle of the picture, and so i want to make sure they don't get in the shot. but i also don't want to break diandra's train of thought as she moves through her shoot. sometimes i see a shot from a different angle that i think would be a great picture, so i suggest it. but i also don't want to sound like i am trying to tell her what to do, so sometimes i don't. it is a fine line to walk...
2. don't leave the lenses at the location. this seems somewhat unnecessary to say. and yet, i walked off to the car at the end of the day without the shootsac. thankfully i remembered before we got out of the parking lot.and the number one thing i learned about being a photographer's assistant today...
1. if they borrow your diamond ring for the shoot, make sure to get it back! yeah, we were sitting in the car, ready to leave, when travis--the groom model--came running across the parking lot with my ring in his hand. several times during the day i had thought, "don't forget to get your ring... don't forget to get your ring..." but by the end of the day, it was dark and we were tired, and i just forgot... luckily we were working with honest people!
on the way home, i told diandra how much i had enjoyed the day. i even offered to quit my job if i could be her assistant. she said it had been a big help to have me there today, but that usually she didn't really need an assistant. i tried to convince her that she did! she told me that she probably couldn't match my paycheck. this is probably true...
...but my paycheck doesn't buy days spent in the sunshine watching my daughter do what she loves best, and getting to be a part of it!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
pre-vacation craziness
so today . . . i am getting ready to leave town again.
yes, i just got back from visiting my parents in oregon, and now i am leaving again. but tomorrow, rollie and i head to san diego for a pastors' conference. it will be work for rollie, but fun for me. we are going to point loma nazarene university's campus--which just happens to be right on the pacific ocean!
i had heard about how beautiful the campus was, but until i actually saw it a few years ago when diandra began her freshman year of college, i really couldn't imagine it. diandra spent her first year there in a HUGE room with three other roommates. one whole wall of their room was made of glass, with a spectacular view of the pacific ocean. i wanted to stay there myself and send her home with rollie! honestly, i don't know how any of the students ever pass a class . . .
but i digress . . .
there is always a mad frenzy of house cleaning to be done before i can go anywhere overnight. i'm not sure why i am like this, but i have learned that i am not the only one. oddly, though, i have yet to meet a man who feels the need to do this. usually the man is packed and in bed at a reasonable time before leaving on vacation--at least rollie always is.
but not me. technically all my vacations begin the same way, with me working into the wee hours of the morning before i leave--dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and generally trying to make my house neat and clean for my return. (and also, in case my vacation kills me, i won't be embarrassed for people to have to come into my house after the memorial service.) so i am always up until well past midnight the night before i go anywhere.
thankfully, since i was just on vacation, and since my husband is the neatest person i know, there wasn't much to be done. but, of course, i managed to find things that suddenly had to be completed before i could go. like learning how to use photo shop . . .
at 10:00 tonight, with my packing still undone, laundry still going, and picking up to be done, i sat on the couch while diandra showed me how to use photo shop. (if by some chance, any of you reading this are photographers or clients of diandra ann photography, don't panic! i am not going to be editing your photos!! diandra is just helping me learn the program so i can work on some other projects . . . ) there she sat, clicking through different steps, and downloading photos, and layering, and tweaking . . . and i am thinking, "i will never remember all of this. in fact, who am i kidding?!? i will probably not remember any of this!!!" but i tried, because she is going to be at camp this week and i am going to be in san diego. we will be far, far apart.
yes, i am going to be in san diego, staying on the beautiful campus of pt. loma nazarene university. probably in a dorm room, which i am guessing is not going to have a tv. or a microwave. or a refrigerator. so i will have lots and lots of time to try to learn photo shop. when i am not reading or napping. or playing games on my phone. or organizing my computer files (i defragged it today, so now it is nice and neat--really, i'm not insane.)
or enjoying the beach :)
blogging may be sparse this week, because i can already hear the ocean calling my name . . .
but first, i need to get that last load of laundry out, and mop the tile floors, and scrub the bathrooms again, and maybe vacuum.
i know i said i wasn't insane, but the day before my vacations, i think i might be knocking on that door.
yes, i just got back from visiting my parents in oregon, and now i am leaving again. but tomorrow, rollie and i head to san diego for a pastors' conference. it will be work for rollie, but fun for me. we are going to point loma nazarene university's campus--which just happens to be right on the pacific ocean!
i had heard about how beautiful the campus was, but until i actually saw it a few years ago when diandra began her freshman year of college, i really couldn't imagine it. diandra spent her first year there in a HUGE room with three other roommates. one whole wall of their room was made of glass, with a spectacular view of the pacific ocean. i wanted to stay there myself and send her home with rollie! honestly, i don't know how any of the students ever pass a class . . .
but i digress . . .
there is always a mad frenzy of house cleaning to be done before i can go anywhere overnight. i'm not sure why i am like this, but i have learned that i am not the only one. oddly, though, i have yet to meet a man who feels the need to do this. usually the man is packed and in bed at a reasonable time before leaving on vacation--at least rollie always is.
but not me. technically all my vacations begin the same way, with me working into the wee hours of the morning before i leave--dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and generally trying to make my house neat and clean for my return. (and also, in case my vacation kills me, i won't be embarrassed for people to have to come into my house after the memorial service.) so i am always up until well past midnight the night before i go anywhere.
thankfully, since i was just on vacation, and since my husband is the neatest person i know, there wasn't much to be done. but, of course, i managed to find things that suddenly had to be completed before i could go. like learning how to use photo shop . . .
at 10:00 tonight, with my packing still undone, laundry still going, and picking up to be done, i sat on the couch while diandra showed me how to use photo shop. (if by some chance, any of you reading this are photographers or clients of diandra ann photography, don't panic! i am not going to be editing your photos!! diandra is just helping me learn the program so i can work on some other projects . . . ) there she sat, clicking through different steps, and downloading photos, and layering, and tweaking . . . and i am thinking, "i will never remember all of this. in fact, who am i kidding?!? i will probably not remember any of this!!!" but i tried, because she is going to be at camp this week and i am going to be in san diego. we will be far, far apart.
yes, i am going to be in san diego, staying on the beautiful campus of pt. loma nazarene university. probably in a dorm room, which i am guessing is not going to have a tv. or a microwave. or a refrigerator. so i will have lots and lots of time to try to learn photo shop. when i am not reading or napping. or playing games on my phone. or organizing my computer files (i defragged it today, so now it is nice and neat--really, i'm not insane.)
or enjoying the beach :)
blogging may be sparse this week, because i can already hear the ocean calling my name . . .
but first, i need to get that last load of laundry out, and mop the tile floors, and scrub the bathrooms again, and maybe vacuum.
i know i said i wasn't insane, but the day before my vacations, i think i might be knocking on that door.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
of traffic and photographers and a very special woman
so today . . . i went to the orange county smug mug meeting. it's for photographers. of which, i am not one . . .
but diandra is, so i went with her. if we go together, we can drive in the car pool lane, and since we need to travel on the 405 freeway at 5:30 p.m., it is much quicker if we can drive in the car pool lane. of course, we have to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get there from the on-ramp, but it is rush hour, so how fast could the traffic be flowing?
i was driving. we left the house and headed toward the 605 freeway, and diandra said, "you know how to get there, right?"
this was a reasonable assumption on her part. we had gone to the smug mug meeting together in august, and i had driven. of course, we had used her gps, so i hadn't really paid that much attention--i just went where it told me to go! i knew we started out on the 605 and then got onto the 405. the problem was, i didn't know exactly where to get OFF the 405. but i wasn't worried--i figured either diandra would know or we would recognize it when we saw it.
i was wrong.
diandra didn't know which exit to take, and i had no idea either. thankfully her amazing and awesome, sort of new cell phone has a gps in it. and thankfully she remembered the name of the place we were supposed to be. so thankfully we didn't have to depend on either one of our brains to get us there! but we did have to get across those five lanes of traffic . . .
when you live in a metropolitan area, you learn to deal with the traffic. i have never been intimidated by freeways. but then again, until moving here, i have never driven in twelve lanes of traffic going in two different directions. at night. during rush hour. and while i am not intimidated by it, it can be a little bit nerve-wracking at times. seriously, it is a miracle that i have not had an accident. rollie likes to say that when i get in my car, God sends angels on motorcycles to surround me. and i am pretty sure it is true . . .
anyway, we made it to the meeting in plenty of time, traffic and all. we got a good seat and settled in to listen to the presentation, made by jasmine star (who, as you know if you have been reading my blog for a while, we think is awesome!) i had been looking forward to hearing her speak. i pulled out my pen to take notes . . . and found it wouldn't write. at all.
i had just used that stupid pen a few days earlier and it worked perfectly fine! and now, when i needed it most, it was refusing to give up it's ink! now what? everyone around me was frantically scribbling on their paper (because jasmine talks FAST!) everyone, except me, because my pen decided to take the night off. i tried to take notes on my phone, but i couldn't keep up, typing on those teeny, tiny keys. so i finally just sat back and listened. and laughed. and realized that she wasn't really giving out information anyway. she was talking about being the kind of person who cares about the people they come in contact with.
it was interesting. here we were at a meeting for photographers, listening to one of the premier wedding photographers speak, and she wasn't talking about camera settings or rad actions or marketing or equipment. she was talking about developing relationships with people. she wasn't discussing how to set up formal shots or how to pace the day of a shoot or how to manage your business. she was talking about helping people and making them feel comfortable and doing things seemingly unrelated to photography--just because you care.
it was interesting, because that is not the way most people think about developing their photography business. it was interesting, because it wasn't about how to get ahead or be the best photographer. and it was interesting, because we have seen up close and personal, that jasmine practices what she preaches.
a year ago, she did a photo shoot for diandra.
it was an amazing succession of circumstances that led up to that meeting, and it was a life-changing experience for diandra. and not just because jasmine took some beautiful pictures of her, but because jasmine cared. the photos were lovely, and we would have appreciated them even if jasmine had just been friendly and skilled at what she does. but she was more than that--without even knowing what diandra was going through, she was able to make her laugh, and remember that she was beautiful and smart and funny and wonderful. jasmine made her feel like she was someone worth knowing.
i look back now, and i know that day was a turning point for diandra. i can see it happening in her eyes and in her expressions when i look at those photos. and i know that the interaction between two people who had never met before was more valuable than either of them could have known at the time.
people are important. it is so easy to get all caught up in the details of life that we forget that. it is easy to get so busy and tired and focused on our tasks, that even if we remember it, we don't have the energy to do anything about it. it takes energy to care about someone--energy and time, both of which can sometimes be in short supply. but i am thankful for the people in our lives who take the time to care. because you just never know when the few minutes you spend with someone today might be a turning point for them.
much of what is good in diandra's life right now can be traced back to that day, on the beach, talking to an incredible woman behind a camera.
one person really can make a difference.
but diandra is, so i went with her. if we go together, we can drive in the car pool lane, and since we need to travel on the 405 freeway at 5:30 p.m., it is much quicker if we can drive in the car pool lane. of course, we have to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get there from the on-ramp, but it is rush hour, so how fast could the traffic be flowing?
i was driving. we left the house and headed toward the 605 freeway, and diandra said, "you know how to get there, right?"
this was a reasonable assumption on her part. we had gone to the smug mug meeting together in august, and i had driven. of course, we had used her gps, so i hadn't really paid that much attention--i just went where it told me to go! i knew we started out on the 605 and then got onto the 405. the problem was, i didn't know exactly where to get OFF the 405. but i wasn't worried--i figured either diandra would know or we would recognize it when we saw it.
i was wrong.
diandra didn't know which exit to take, and i had no idea either. thankfully her amazing and awesome, sort of new cell phone has a gps in it. and thankfully she remembered the name of the place we were supposed to be. so thankfully we didn't have to depend on either one of our brains to get us there! but we did have to get across those five lanes of traffic . . .
when you live in a metropolitan area, you learn to deal with the traffic. i have never been intimidated by freeways. but then again, until moving here, i have never driven in twelve lanes of traffic going in two different directions. at night. during rush hour. and while i am not intimidated by it, it can be a little bit nerve-wracking at times. seriously, it is a miracle that i have not had an accident. rollie likes to say that when i get in my car, God sends angels on motorcycles to surround me. and i am pretty sure it is true . . .
anyway, we made it to the meeting in plenty of time, traffic and all. we got a good seat and settled in to listen to the presentation, made by jasmine star (who, as you know if you have been reading my blog for a while, we think is awesome!) i had been looking forward to hearing her speak. i pulled out my pen to take notes . . . and found it wouldn't write. at all.
i had just used that stupid pen a few days earlier and it worked perfectly fine! and now, when i needed it most, it was refusing to give up it's ink! now what? everyone around me was frantically scribbling on their paper (because jasmine talks FAST!) everyone, except me, because my pen decided to take the night off. i tried to take notes on my phone, but i couldn't keep up, typing on those teeny, tiny keys. so i finally just sat back and listened. and laughed. and realized that she wasn't really giving out information anyway. she was talking about being the kind of person who cares about the people they come in contact with.
it was interesting. here we were at a meeting for photographers, listening to one of the premier wedding photographers speak, and she wasn't talking about camera settings or rad actions or marketing or equipment. she was talking about developing relationships with people. she wasn't discussing how to set up formal shots or how to pace the day of a shoot or how to manage your business. she was talking about helping people and making them feel comfortable and doing things seemingly unrelated to photography--just because you care.
it was interesting, because that is not the way most people think about developing their photography business. it was interesting, because it wasn't about how to get ahead or be the best photographer. and it was interesting, because we have seen up close and personal, that jasmine practices what she preaches.
a year ago, she did a photo shoot for diandra.
it was an amazing succession of circumstances that led up to that meeting, and it was a life-changing experience for diandra. and not just because jasmine took some beautiful pictures of her, but because jasmine cared. the photos were lovely, and we would have appreciated them even if jasmine had just been friendly and skilled at what she does. but she was more than that--without even knowing what diandra was going through, she was able to make her laugh, and remember that she was beautiful and smart and funny and wonderful. jasmine made her feel like she was someone worth knowing.
i look back now, and i know that day was a turning point for diandra. i can see it happening in her eyes and in her expressions when i look at those photos. and i know that the interaction between two people who had never met before was more valuable than either of them could have known at the time.people are important. it is so easy to get all caught up in the details of life that we forget that. it is easy to get so busy and tired and focused on our tasks, that even if we remember it, we don't have the energy to do anything about it. it takes energy to care about someone--energy and time, both of which can sometimes be in short supply. but i am thankful for the people in our lives who take the time to care. because you just never know when the few minutes you spend with someone today might be a turning point for them.
much of what is good in diandra's life right now can be traced back to that day, on the beach, talking to an incredible woman behind a camera.
one person really can make a difference.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
once again, my plan is thwarted . . .
so today . . . i wasn't going to blog. i have spent the day sitting on the couch with my computer and the tv--really very little human interaction--so i don't have much to blog about.
i tend to spend my time doing the urgent. for the last few weeks, the urgent has been dealing with all this stuff that we have accumulated that we don't have space for anymore. this morning a whole bunch of that stuff made it's way to the curb outside and into a big truck that took it off someplace to where other people can use it (i hope.) so for now, dealing with the "stuff" has been moved from the urgent list to the "i'll deal with the rest of it later" list.
today the urgent was working on the music files on my computer. yes, i know i talked about doing this a while back. you were probably under the mistaken impression that i had finished that project. i did finish a portion of it, but there is still a lot of music hiding on my computer that cannot be accessed by itunes. which is a problem.
it is a problem, because i have new musicians in the band at church, and they need more practice than i can give them during a 1 hour rehearsal on wednesday nights. so it would be really helpful if they had the songs we are learning on their ipods (because, as i am finding out, EVERYONE has an ipod--even if they don't have a cell phone, they have an ipod . . . ) but first, i have to find and retrieve these songs that are hiding from me and then import them into itunes--which, as you know, hates me.
so after lunch, i sat down on the couch with every intention of staying right there until i was done. i really need to have this music ready to distribute by tomorrow night. it could take several hours, but that's ok--it was time to take charge and get it done.
when i sat down, i saw the note diandra had left for me about taking care of some photography business for her. i figured it would take me less than an hour, so i decided to do that first. THEN i would tackle the music, because who knows how long that is going to take . . .
i pulled the photo files up on my computer and got started. of course i had issues with my dvd drive, because when has the dvd drive on any computer i have ever owned worked properly?!?! i kept trying different things until i finally successfully burned a cd. then, all i had to do was remember how i did it so that i could burn the second one. if i had known that what i was doing was going to work, i would have paid more attention to how i did it . . . i finally managed to get the second cd burned and then started on the next project. it turned out to be somewhat more complicated, mostly because i was working with almost 5 gigabytes of photos! that is a lot of pictures to be manipulating.
while i worked, i finished watching season one of meerkat manor. i first saw meerkat manor when i was out of town and staying in a motel that had cable channels. since we don't have cable at home, we love to watch the discovery channel and national geographic and tnt when we have the opportunity. we happened upon meerkat manor, and those little critters were so cute that when i found the shows on netflix, i thought, "yay!"
let me just say, i now know that this is not a show about cute, cuddly, furry little creatures. i mean the meerkats are cute and furry, but their social system is brutal. the matriarch, who someone should have named "attila" instead of "flower" rules the roost and it is not always pretty. they fight, they have forbidden pregnancies, they are ostrasized. they have to deal with predators and rival meerkat families and the elements of living in the african desert. sometimes the babies die. i almost stopped watching. rollie keeps reminding me that it isn't about being nice, it's about survival. i happen to think there has to be a way to survive and still get along with each other. but they are animals not people, and i guess even people have trouble with that one sometimes . . .
i finally finished the photograhy project, but it took several hours. i am happy with the result though, so i guess it was time well spent. i was working on wedding photos today, and they were just beautiful--so many sweet and fun moments!
and now it is past midnight. and the music files i need are still hiding from me on my computer. they did not make it into itunes. again.
oh well, "tomorrow is another day . . . "
i tend to spend my time doing the urgent. for the last few weeks, the urgent has been dealing with all this stuff that we have accumulated that we don't have space for anymore. this morning a whole bunch of that stuff made it's way to the curb outside and into a big truck that took it off someplace to where other people can use it (i hope.) so for now, dealing with the "stuff" has been moved from the urgent list to the "i'll deal with the rest of it later" list.
today the urgent was working on the music files on my computer. yes, i know i talked about doing this a while back. you were probably under the mistaken impression that i had finished that project. i did finish a portion of it, but there is still a lot of music hiding on my computer that cannot be accessed by itunes. which is a problem.
it is a problem, because i have new musicians in the band at church, and they need more practice than i can give them during a 1 hour rehearsal on wednesday nights. so it would be really helpful if they had the songs we are learning on their ipods (because, as i am finding out, EVERYONE has an ipod--even if they don't have a cell phone, they have an ipod . . . ) but first, i have to find and retrieve these songs that are hiding from me and then import them into itunes--which, as you know, hates me.
so after lunch, i sat down on the couch with every intention of staying right there until i was done. i really need to have this music ready to distribute by tomorrow night. it could take several hours, but that's ok--it was time to take charge and get it done.
when i sat down, i saw the note diandra had left for me about taking care of some photography business for her. i figured it would take me less than an hour, so i decided to do that first. THEN i would tackle the music, because who knows how long that is going to take . . .
i pulled the photo files up on my computer and got started. of course i had issues with my dvd drive, because when has the dvd drive on any computer i have ever owned worked properly?!?! i kept trying different things until i finally successfully burned a cd. then, all i had to do was remember how i did it so that i could burn the second one. if i had known that what i was doing was going to work, i would have paid more attention to how i did it . . . i finally managed to get the second cd burned and then started on the next project. it turned out to be somewhat more complicated, mostly because i was working with almost 5 gigabytes of photos! that is a lot of pictures to be manipulating.
while i worked, i finished watching season one of meerkat manor. i first saw meerkat manor when i was out of town and staying in a motel that had cable channels. since we don't have cable at home, we love to watch the discovery channel and national geographic and tnt when we have the opportunity. we happened upon meerkat manor, and those little critters were so cute that when i found the shows on netflix, i thought, "yay!"
let me just say, i now know that this is not a show about cute, cuddly, furry little creatures. i mean the meerkats are cute and furry, but their social system is brutal. the matriarch, who someone should have named "attila" instead of "flower" rules the roost and it is not always pretty. they fight, they have forbidden pregnancies, they are ostrasized. they have to deal with predators and rival meerkat families and the elements of living in the african desert. sometimes the babies die. i almost stopped watching. rollie keeps reminding me that it isn't about being nice, it's about survival. i happen to think there has to be a way to survive and still get along with each other. but they are animals not people, and i guess even people have trouble with that one sometimes . . .
i finally finished the photograhy project, but it took several hours. i am happy with the result though, so i guess it was time well spent. i was working on wedding photos today, and they were just beautiful--so many sweet and fun moments!
and now it is past midnight. and the music files i need are still hiding from me on my computer. they did not make it into itunes. again.
oh well, "tomorrow is another day . . . "
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