I've recently been working with Lift Interactive to redo my photography website... a fortuitous partnership as they have just recently launched a new portfolio management tool called Parade
Parade is a web based intuitive portfolio management tool that provides stunning, thoughtfully designed, fully editable Flash website templates that allow for easy instant edits. Right now they offer a selection of templates, but I believe that in a few months they will also be launching a custom design service that is based on the same backend system so that photographers or creative professionals will still have control over the content of their site.
Some of my images are being used in one of the demo sites, but make sure to check out all of the different designs. It's a really cool and useful service for photographers.
And stay tuned for the announcement when my new site is launched. It's going to be exciting.
It's the Year of the Pig, but I thought I might remember 1982 and revisit the Year of the Dog.
People born in the Year of the Dog possess the best traits of human nature. They have a deep sense of loyalty, are honest, and inspire other people's confidence because they know how to keep secrets. But Dog People are somewhat selfish, terribly stubborn, and eccentric. They care little for wealth, yet somehow always seem to have money. They can be cold emotionally and sometimes distant at parties. They can find fault with many things and are noted for their sharp tongues. Dog people make good leaders. They are compatible with those born in the Years of the Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit.
--Year of the Dog
I'd forgotten how when I lived by myself I rarely cooked anything spectacular except when I had company over. Although I am not the primary chef in my current household (duties are shared on a random schedule) I have been a bit more inspired to cook multiple pot/pan meals. However, having been left to my own devices for 10 days or so... (approx. day 5) I haven't felt the desire to make anything. Over the weekend I finished off the leftovers in the fridge... and today I ransacked the cupboard for something that I might find moderately appetizing for lunch. I was disappointed to find only tomato soup. At lunch I was reminded why that particular type of soup was not a good choice. I detest plain tomato soup. I was hoping that the addition of rice would be enough of a change for me, but unfortunately it was not. Needless to say I'm quite famished right now.
In other news, I entered a photo contest a while back and two of my photos placed in the top ten (I entered four), one received a honourable mention denoted with a gold sticker. My photos are on display at City Hall until February 28th. I visited the display on Saturday and in honour of my achievement, took some photos of my photos. If you're in Edmonton, make sure to make a visit to City Hall before the display comes down.
I'd like to interrupt all other thoughts I might be having at the moment to talk about customer service...
A week ago I was booked for a photoshoot at a local restaurant here in Edmonton. The client was looking for photos that captured the ambiance of the restaurant which posed an interesting challenge in regards to the lighting of the shots. Although my photography has not yet made it into cost-recovery mode (which is why I have a full-time job) I decided to invest in a wireless transmitter for my speedlite. As I had lamented in an earlier post, the transmitter was not available in Edmonton so I had to order it from The Camera Store in Calgary, which I did... last Monday. I called the store first to verify that they had one in stock and I ended up having to place my order on the web since that was how they were no longer doing phone orders. It wasn't that big of a deal though, the guy on the phone told me that he was holding the item for me and made a note for the web sales guy to look out for my order as I was hoping for the item to arrive before the end of the week. As I work during the regular delivery hours of Canada Post, I chose to have my order shipped to work, not thinking that the order wouldn't go through since my billing and shipping address are not the same. But then Thursday rolled around and I still had not received confirmation that my order was shipped. I started to get worried... it was only coming from Calgary but if it hadn't shipped that day it wouldn't arrive until the next week, too late for me to use for my shoot. So I called, only to be transferred to the web sale guys voicemail. So I leave my message, my plea to have my order looked into, asking the gentleman to call me back asap. However, no phonecall do I receive... no instead I get an email telling me that my order hadn't gone through because my shipping and billing address are different. Blast!
Why is it so difficult for some stores to understand (particularly camera stores as I have had this experience in the past) that an individual can have different shipping and billing addresses. Amazon seems to understand it all right.... so why can't these stores. I emailed the web sales guy back as I couldn't get through on the phone, sent him my billing address, asked for the item to be shipped to work (my credit card recognizes my work address as a valid shipping address) explaining that otherwise it would be delivered to my apartment only to be sent back to the post office for me to pick up after one o'clock the day following the unsuccessful delivery attempt (again, after my shoot). But no... the package is sent to my apartment... there is no one at home to receive it and back it goes to the post office, waiting overnight, not to be used in the photo shoot it was intended for. Curses!
Nevertheless, the shoot went really well. All the models had been organized by a local communications firm and two of their reps were on hand to make sure everything ran smoothly. I just had to show up with my equipment and model releases. I dealt with the lighting challenge as best I could... no matter what setting I used, on camera flash killed the mood of the place so I shot with available light only. I'm a little disappointed with the whole delivery debacle because I really wanted to use my flash off camera. I reviewed some of the shots last night when I got home and I think there are some quality images in there that the client will be pleased with. Now begins the arduous task of winnowing down the 600+ photos to a more reasonable amount. Mercy!
Tonight I will pick up my package from the post office and this weekend I think I will buy a photo umbrella and continue my journey into the world of portable strobes. Hurrah!
I let my passport lapse a few years ago, and because I didn't have any plans to travel abroad in the near future I didn't renew it. I'm planning to renew it soon, not that I have any real plans to travel anywhere, but it's nice to have the ability to just buy a plane ticket on a whim to go some place deliciously warm.
I long for heat... I'm tired of the cold wind as I walk to work in the morning. I'm exhausted by the miserable grey tones. Give me colour, give me sunshine, let me forget about wearing socks to work everyday.
All of the live music performances by well known artists have been extremely memorable and thoroughly enjoyable. I have not had such luck with live theatre performances... I went to a stinker of a play last week at the and the play I saw at the Edmonton Fringe Festival was horrendous. I quite like live theatre, but I think there are so many more chances for me to dislike what's going on. A band could perform a few songs I don't care for much but the overall performance can be redeemed by the rest of the set being excellent. However, if an actor's performance is lacking or a script is weak, I tend to walk away from the show disappointed. Maybe it is just that my tastes in theatre are much more limited than my tastes in music.
My run of good luck with excellent music performances continued last night at Rexall Place where the Barenaked Ladies played to an interesting demographic of fans in their early teens to early 50s. It was quite interesting. And in the midst of it all was medium sized me, in row 15, seat 21... almost directly in line with the mic stand for Steven Page. I had an almost unobstructed view of the stage, with the exception of the two woman directly in front of me who were treating the concert as their own private living room. I don't know how they were enjoying the concert as they were talking throughout the entire performance.
As you can see from the image above (more here), I brought my camera with me to the concert. I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't have any venue staff question me as I walked in to take my seat. I was a bit wary though and at the beginning of the concert I tried to be a little more discreet with my photography. However, that can be extremely difficult when your lens is bigger than your camera body, weighs 4 lbs. and is white. But as the concert got started I started taking photos in plain sight. The opener, Tomi Swick, performed just long enough for me to figure out my camera settings (he was pretty good, you can currently listen to his album on his site). I kept taking pictures with no problem and it wasn't until about two thirds of the way into the show that an usher came up to me to ask if I had a media pass. I had debated bringing my camera with me, but I had read a recent CBC article where it was talking about how the Barenaked Ladies were really getting their fans involved in their music, encouraging them to remix their tunes, as well as post recorded content (video, audio, images) from their concerts online to share with other fans. The band was also selling so-called bootleg recordings of their live shows, available immediately after each show on a USB stick or on their website. The band are also advocates for a DRM free world, which is always refreshing to see. But I digress...
I did not have a media pass and because my camera has removable lenses it is categorized as professional equipment (which I can't really argue with). In the words of the usher, my camera was "too good." Had I been in the mood to argue more I might have been more difficult and refused to check my camera unless they decided to check other cameras with a similar range optical zoom and mega-pixel rating (some compact cameras pack a lot of punch in the optics category), but I really just wanted to enjoy the concert. So, I gave in and checked my bag with the almost elderly lady at the security station who promised me that no harm would come to my camera. I was equally concerned about my images though, so I kept the camera battery and memory card with me.
Despite my little run in with low-grade concert security (I didn't get to deal with any of the burly security guys in their red shirts, only mature women wearing hardware store style tool vests) the concert was fantastic. The Barenaked Ladies really know how to entertain. Their banter back and forth was amusing and they almost seemed to perform non-stop. I'm a little tired today as a result of last night's fun, but it was well worth it.
I received confirmation today that I will be shooting another wedding in June... and next Monday I have another photoshoot for a local restaurant. I was planning to buy a wireless transmitter for my flash, but none of the stores here in Edmonton seem to have it in stock (it's a special order only). I've ordered one from The Camera Store in Calgary and hopefully it should arrive in time for the shoot. If not, it's not a big deal, I can shoot without it. However, I'm trying to track it as we speak... hopefully it will arrive on time. It's kind of annoying though, all of these stores are channeling their orders through their web store but there is a two-three delay in order processing for security reasons. I've shopped there before and they have my information, but yet they still couldn't process the sale over the phone. Too much fraudulent activity going on these days I guess. If they could only see my honest face I'm sure they would change their policy, if only for me.
Hurrah! One more day until the weekend.
Every so often I wonder why I am working full-time when I should be pursuing life as an academic. I think... shouldn't I be completing my masters or PhD by now? Then I look at my assorted bills and other such financial responsibilities and I remember that I am trying to avoid life as a starving student facing life in a debtor's prison (instead I'm a slightly chubby photographer/non-profit employee facing life desperately attempting to improve my money pit through feng shui furniture arrangement). Nevertheless, I am no less interested in the topics related to my past academic pursuits.
This morning I read a rather interesting blog post about the benefits and limitations of walled gardens (online communities like myspace). The author, Dana Boyd, a PhD student in the School of Information at Berkeley and a fellow at USC Annenberg Center poses some compelling questions about the value of walls within the public space of the internet. The whole post is worth a read but the author summarizes her three main points quite nicely. (However, in order for her points to have any relevance you must read her post in it's entirety... don't worry, it's really not that long).
(Dana Boyd, about those walled gardens, 02/05/2007)
- If walls have value in meatspace, why are they inherently bad in mediated environments? I would argue that walls provide context and allow us to have some control over the distribution of our expressions. Walls should be appreciated, even if they are near impossible to construct.
- If robots can run around grabbing the content of supposed walled gardens, are they really walled? It seems to me that the tizzy around walled gardens fails to recognize that those most interested in caching the data (::cough:: Google) can do precisely that. And those most interested does not seem to include the content producers.
- If the walls come crashing down, what are we actually losing? Walls provide context, context is critical for individuals to properly express themselves in a socially appropriate way. I fear that our loss of walls is resulting in a very confused public space with far more visibility than anyone can actually handle.
This gave me much to ponder over yesterday morning. But I wasn't able to finish posting any of my thoughts - and what fleeting bit of insight I might have had yesterday has left me. Instead I am in eagerly anticipating the end of the work day. Tonight I go see the Barenaked Ladies in concert... I have been told repeatedly that they put on a really good show so I am quite excited. Apparently cameras are welcome so hopefully I will get some good shots (we'll be sitting in the 15th row).
I've been back from Vancouver for about a week now, having returned just in time for the return of winter here in Edmonton. I have no further comments about the weather, I will express my disappointment through silence.
My trip back to Beautiful British Columbia was quick and filled with visits to many restaurants in the city, almost too many to really enjoy properly. Despite all my hopes otherwise, I did not get the chance to have some dedicated photography time (or time to visit with family and friends in the area) but the weekend was not really arranged with my photographic pursuits in mind... we were there for the birthday celebrations of the paternal kind (Aryn's father).
Since returning I've been contacted about shooting two more weddings for the summer as well as another commercial photoshoot. Working full-time in an area that is not photography related, I don't usually get the chance to actively advertise my photography so I'm always a bit surprised and excited when I am contacted about more work. With my new responsibilities as a homeowner, I have even less option to attempt to work solely as a photographer, but even if we were just still renting I would be unable to dedicate myself full-time. But if I continue to get work on a regular basis, perhaps in a year or so I may be in a position to reconsider my career options.
Despite thinking about many interesting things over the past week, I have not written about any of it. I think I must have started about three different posts and discarded them all for the lack of any connection to what I've written. What I've included so far hasn't been that meaningful either, but I always try to include something with the images that I post. Once again my words fail me.
