So Miami was fun for the most part, but pretty damn exhausting. The best thing was coming right back to a birthday dinner, scotch, and waking up to find out we have won the Webby Business Awards.

The bodybuilding season is over now for me, so I get to relax until the end of February of 2004. This was one of the last girls I shot, who was a heavyweight that I think will be a pretty popular athlete. I guess I’ll see if my talent spotting skills are still honed or need polish!

Also read a pretty interesting article in the New York Times Magazine about cell phones and technology. I haven’t gotten into text messaging or the camera phones, but I suspect I will have some of those features in whatever phone I do get next. Hm, guess I have two more weeks to geek out and figure out what to get and then I have the option to switch to any cellular provider and take my treasured # with me!
🙂

Saw the Matrix Revolutions last night under the influence and it was farily enjoyable. While some of the themes were a bit overly obvious and it drug on in parts, it was good enough. I think my order of enjoyment starts with the original, then Reloaded, and finally Revolutions.

I guess the thing I missed most about each successive film was the dilution of the themes of what reality is, and the post-modern worldview that seemed to become more and more special effects/Hollywood-ized in the second two films. Plus the Merovingian scenes could have been much more exciting, and worst of all, there wasn’t enough Persephone… (some of these thoughts I just saw echoed on this site)

I did see a preview for The Return of the King, and that was the only preview I did like. That should rock, and I’m definitely eagerly awaiting the final installment of that trilogy.

So yesterday I finished taping my first television appearance. It was for A Dating Story, a show on The Learning Channel.

It was all quite an adventure since I’ve never done anything like it. I did like the format for the most part though since they do ask you to talk about philosophies, thoughts and perspectives on dating as well as your life. Since Orange is the biggest thing in my life right now, it was a nice little promo for the company, and I’m very interested to see how it’ll all turn out.

The most awkward thing was talking to my date on camera as our interactions off-camera may have been a bit better conversation-wise, but I think overall it went really well. I guess I won’t spoil the show and I really have no idea how it’ll appear once it’s all edited together…

shit, I have been devastating myself physically but somehow aside from being wiped out mentally, I’ve been ok.

There have been a lot of events lately, and for the first time ever, I was late to a gig. It sucked big time, but luckily it was someone I’ve known for a bit so he was not so pissed about it.

The events have all been fun though. I love the challenge of making them interesting while I work although I don’t know how good the photos are, but the drive to build relationships and keep our biz pipeline filled is a great motivator. Plus I love the whole Robin Hood-ness of it all…

Continue reading if it doesn’t kill you… →

Yep, that’s the nickname of the town I spent most of my formative years in and where my parents still live. I was down in New Orleans to shoot an event, and since my flight didn’t leave until two days after the work was completed, I was originally going to enjoy the Big Easy but instead opted to rent a car and drive the over 12 hour round trip to make a surprise visit to my parents, who are now suffering from empty nest syndrome with my sister having moved far enough away not to be able to see them regularly as she could before.

It was nice to see them, and I could tell that my mom especially was elated for me to be back home, and that made the long driving all worth while. I can tell she’s having a hard time adjusting to being at home all alone with no more kids around. For about 30 years she was used to either me or Lisa being there, so I was happy to spend the two days in town with them. We went bowling and generally just relaxed, which is about all you can do in Auburn on an away game weekend…

Here’s a few shots from when I finally took my camera out.

(photo by Lyndsey Hawkins who also had her work on display)

So I love going to check out art on gallery nights and although I haven’t gone for nearly a month, last night we checked out some work where Jack and I had submitted photos that got selected for a nightlife photography award. Although once we got there it was obvious that there weren’t enough entries but hey, it still was a good cause and there were free drinks and food.

But getting back to the point, it’s really weird to have your work out and watch people’s response to it. It’s a fun activity actually. The biggest thing I heard were people saying that I should have had a matte and that it didn’t look as
‘professional’ without it.

I will have to look around tonight to see if I can see how the artists may be watching for reactions to their work.

I think this is my favorite image from Burning Man this year. My camera died on Thursday so that was all I got, which in a way was for the best, although the two most memorable experiences I had happened after then.

Continue reading Burning Man notes… →

On many weekends, I am off shooting bodybuilding events and it’s not as fun as it may sound but it is certainly interesting. One of the worst things is the Sunday morning shoots. Inevitably I have to wake up very early and basically have back-to-back shoots throughout the day.

Here’s some shots a videographer friend of mine shot while he was working in his conference room at the hotel…