Back in town

I just got back from some travel, mostly to the big island of Hawaii.  I took lots of underwater pictures and I'll try to get some of those up shortly.  I bought a (relatively) high end point and shoot - the Canon S100 - for the occasion and I really, really like it.  Shoots in RAW mode, nice small format, image quality's definitely a step up from any point and shoot I've used before although obviously not up to DSLR standards.  Expensive for a point and shoot but cheap compared to a DSLR.  It's a good compromise if you need to travel light, or just want to always carry a camera with you that has fewer compromises than the one in your cell phone.  The Underwater Case works well - this is the third Canon underwater case I've had over the years and the only problem I've ever had was when some bored rich teens stole one of them (sigh).

The video's really nice, too - I'll put together some of the underwater video as well. 

So basically the plan is to wrap all that up and then think about doing some outdoor shoots once we get some rain and clear out all this junk in the air.  We've been having a mini drought but the rain people say the jet stream mumble mumble blah blah rain next week maybe.

Little notes

Local art note: the Francesca Woodman exhibit at SFMOMA's worth seeing.  It's there for another couple of months and then on to New York.  As far as I can tell it covers her entire creative output from sophomore year in college until she killed herself at 22.  The first couple of rooms... well, I really think they could have started junior year, you know?  There was maybe one shot I liked.  But then apparently something clicked and she started producing really good stuff... and just when it's getting exciting the exhibit just ends.  Well, crap.

Speaking of art, I'll probably be starting back up again in a month or so.  I was intending to do some outdoor work but it's been goofy weather and I haven't run into any compelling models that I haven't already worked with.  But we'll see - I have two little ones to take care of, and I'm reminded of what happened to Imogen Cunningham when she had twins.  For a  couple of years she basically just started shooting things around her for a couple of years - shots of the kids of course, but also the magnolia blossoms in her front yard.  And it's some of her best work.

Local food note: Soleil's African Cuisine.  They've been at some local Farmer's Markets and their food is wonderful.  They just opened a restaurant.  I won't have a chance to try it for a while but if you're local and looking for something different give it a shot and let me know what you think.   1544 Webster Street Alameda, CA 94501 510-228-6747 Hours: Wednesday-Sunday from 4pm-9pm

Rachel Coleman, aka "The Signing Time Lady",  is going to Ghana again.  If you are looking for one last charity at the end of the year that link takes you to some information on the current trip.  She went three years ago, which is how I heard of her, and only later discovered Signing Time which has literally been a lifesaver (we diagnosed a potentially fatal disease in my daughter because she was able to communicate a problem when she was pre-verbal.  She's had surgery and is fine now.).  Anyway, if you go here you can read about the 2008 trip.  The short form is that being a deaf kid in much of the world is miserable - they just write the kids off as stupid and unteachable and even just touring around and introducing teachers to Rachel's deaf daughter, Leah, is a real eye opener for them.

Sorry I've been so quiet.  I have a few more odds and ends I've been meaning to write about, and I'll see if I can get that done sooner rather than later.

Landscapes

Yet another quick update - I updated the Landscape shots I have for sale to include the most recent trip to Yosemite.

11x14s on eBay

Just a quick note - I cleared out a decent amount of my 8x10 supply on eBay so I listed some 11x14s.   You can find some of each here.

Quick Reminder

I have eBay items ending shortly, and I've added some more since the last announcement, so you might want to take a look.  Last I checked there was some light bidding but everything's still really cheap since everybody's spread out to different items.

Shots on eBay

I'm slowly gearing up after my semi-hatus / paternity leave and as part of that I started a few items on eBay at low prices just to get things rolling again.  Hopefully you can find them here.   I have zero idea how viable eBay is for selling art these days - the last time I tried it, I made some sales but the traffic #s were really low.  Traditionally things would pick up around the time change (people spend more time online when they get home and it's dark already) so I'll probably list a smattering of items through the end of the year and then we'll see if it's worthwhile or not.
 

Ice Cream Sandwich Statue

Somebody may appreciate this: I was at the Android building at Google today moments after they installed this.  They put up a little statue thing for every new operating system they put out, and the current one's named Ice Cream Sandwich.  Cute.

New Model: Bixby

Whew, got these done a day early, even.  Here's the set with Bixby.  They're at low prices for a couple of days to reward people who check in often (or use the Facebook/Twitter/Feed links in the sidebar).  No promises as to the exact time - I'll get to it when I get to it.

That's the last of the cluster of shoots I did before things got crazy - I'm thinking at this point I may wait until the first rain of the year clears out the smog and then do some outdoor work.  We'll see.

Outtake

Just an outtake I ran into - I always love it when a model slips in the occasional purposeful goofy expression - sticks their tongue out or whatever.  You might need to click on it to really get the full effect.

 I'm hoping to have the last of the shoots from before the new baby online in a day or two - to be sure to catch them, you might look at the Facebook or Twitter links in the sidebar.  When I'm posting new shots at a slow rate like I am for this year I tend to start them at low prices for a couple of days to reward regulars.

Also note that because I only keep the four latest sets on the new work page, this will push off Katy, leaving behind only any shots I might have put in the "best of" section.  And come to think of it, even that is due for a revision - it's a bit bigger than I'd like.

Post Shoot Notes: Bixby

This shoot was actually months ago - before the baby was born - so it feels really weird to be writing some post shoot notes up since I usually do those right after the shoot. 

It's a nice shoot - I'm basically done going through it and I think some of the motion stuff came out especially well.  I'll upload it on the 1st, or a little before.  As always, there's some links to get you updated in the right hand sidebar.

Little updates

I actually had a model scheduled for today. I use the past tense because she hit me up for a bunch of money a couple of days ago - and I do mean a bunch - more than I've ever paid a model. Not sure what the deal is with that - is it her usual procedure? Would she ask for even more the day of the shoot? If I said no and she agreed to the old deal would she be bitter and not even show up? Basically there's nothing you can do in that situation except tell her no, and I've removed her from my schedule. Hopefully other photographers aren't putting up with that kind of nonsense either!

I don't have anything else scheduled - I just wanted to get one shoot on the calendar to get a bit back into the groove of things and so the studio doesn't turn into too much of a storage/kids play area.

The good news is that I have one shoot I never edited from before the new baby showed up, so I'll get that edited around the first of the month. I'll most likely stick with the every other month update schedule I've been doing until the end of the year, and then we'll see what makes sense from there.

3TB drives getting cheap

Amazon has Western Digital 3TB drives for $150 now.  I remember blogging about 1TB drives breaking the $400 barrier.  I have quite a few external drives - I like to scatter backups around different locations including offsite so any costs basically get multiplied by three.  They're not as fancy as a RAID system but I think cheap but decent external drives are the best bet to get data offsite in a usable form without spending big bucks.

New Model: Chloe Camilla

OK, I just finished uploading the pictures of Chloe.  I'll keep them at introductory prices for a couple of days to reward people who have been checking in often enough to see these early.  I'll probably upload with the regular template on the 5th, exact time at my convenience.

One month!

Hard to believe it's been a month since the birth. No real news - I still have the goal of getting some new shots up July 1st but we'll just have to see how it goes.  Baby fussiness usually peaks at about six weeks so it's possible the next couple of weeks will be a little too... interesting... to get much done.