my camera has been in the shop for about a week now. it’s due back any day now, but of course it’s been a long wait for a photographer. i haven’t done any shoots since it went in, spending my time doing consults, random errands, and attending the wedding of friends in upstate new york. as i returned from new york and ran out of significant errands to do (besides consults), i started to get antsy. today i took shots of random things around the house with my rebel…just because going long periods of time without taking pictures makes me feel strange.

it’s always nice to take a break. when my camera first went into the shop, i saw it as an opportunity to get stuff done that i’ve been putting off that aren’t business related. but now most of my errands are up (woah!)… besides laundry, which i always manage to continue putting off. tonight geoff and i have dedicated to working solely on our wedding…and perhaps catching a missed episode or two of house.

running errands all day long for a business can be rather monotonous. especially when your camera is in the shop. so in between consults, mailing cds, putting together a more cohesive consult binder, and visiting upstate new york (and freezing there), i have been:

1. making button earings

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i got the urge to start making earrings a little bit ago and received some posts and my first hot glue gun on my birthday. how did i manage to go for decades without a hot glue gun? simple: i lived in pittsburgh and frequently stole my mom’s. but now that i’m in north carolina, mom’s hot glue gun is not as easily stolen, so they got me one of my own. :)

hot glue guns reach some crazy high temperature where your skin is easily scalded, so the primary objective was to keep the kittens away from the hot glue gun. of course, anything that kittens are supposed to be kept away from immediately attracts them, so i found myself locked in the bathroom hot glueing buttons to earrings. i have way too many button earrings, but i really figure you can’t get enough. i pretty much have buttons to match any outfit. i don’t know why i like them, and several friends have taken to calling me “coraline”, but i still think they’re pretty awesome! :P

2. organizing my jewelry box

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my sister got me this adorable necklace for my birthday. and in between that and the button earrings i decided it was high time to reorganizing my giant mess of a jewelry box. i got halfway through it when i got overwhelmed and threw a bunch of random earrings into a box that i dedicated to “sorting later,” but we’ll see how that actually pans out. but the button earrings and camera necklace are now safely stowed away when not in use.

3. re-reading old favorites

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my parents found me georgie and jenny’s birthday book and gave them to me over their visit a few weekends ago. they were my favorite childhood books that i got out of the library on a regular basis. it still cracks me up that kids can read the same book over and over again and it never gets old. georgie (above) totally rocks and jenny (below) reminds me significantly of what buckles would look like if he were animated and went on crazy adventures in new york city. it was great to see these books again – good memories!

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4. hanging out with dolfy

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buckles is much more on a schedule than dolfy. buckles wakes up to be fed in the morning, sleeps literally ALL day without fail, and wakes up sometime around 6:00pm and remains awake and ALL OVER YOU until you go to bed. buckles, highly resembling cartoon cat jenny, is difficult to photograph. he is black and often sleeps in dark places. our living room has very low light in the evening by preference, so you kind of have to be purposefully following around buckles with a camera to get a decent shot.

dolfy, however, is awake whenever you are and annoying you whenever you want to be left alone. he has no schedule – sleeping on and off pretty much whenever and waking you up anytime between 2am and 6am, depending on his personal preference that day. he has a piercing ACDC-like meow that he uses constantly and for every mood he has. it’s pretty much like having a two year old child anytime i’m home. he’s extremely demanding. so whether or not i like, i’m always hanging out with dolfy, but not always by choice. :) :P

the camera SHOULD be back this week. if not, i’ll keep shooting with the rebel because i’m ready for my little camera vacation to be over. it’s always good when you take a break though, because often you feel more fresh and creative when you get it back.

october is crazy!

okay, so my promises to update everyday except for friday got thrown out the window lately due to an increasingly intense schedule. doing tons of editing, emailing, consulting, post-office-visiting lately and have been super busy. friends were over, more friends were in from out of town, and family moves on in this weekend. wedding in new york the weekend after, then things settle down for a week… then pick back up again. :) it’s a good thing! but unfortunately my faithful blog suffers slightly.

we have all of our wedding stuff to do on top of this and, more importantly, have to start dragging the halloween decorations out of the storage closet. :) of course, i ran out of printer paper, laundry detergent, and dish washing detergent today. this should tell you something about what our lives have been like lately.

i am on to editing photographs of my lovely friend abby and her boyfriend matt from last week! the first pictures from that will be up tomorrow. i’ll be starting them now and finishing just in time to hike it to pittsboro to visit our reverend!  phew!

in the meantime, i’m also burning a cd of laura’s cats that she’ll be finally receiving this weekend when she comes to visit. :)

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after a long string of posts dedicated to wedding photography and other shoots, i’ve decided to post a blog or two to update everyone on what i’m up to personally, etc… you know, what’s been happening in the whirlwind that has been the past few weeks. :)

yesterday i took a day off editing. i had just finished nichole and kevin’s wedding and was about to start the con-way freight edits, so it’s nice to take a break in between large projects in order to refresh yourself. one can only spend so much time immersed in photoshop. that reminds me, a lot of people ask “what do you mean by ‘editing’?” editing simply means (in my business) color correcting, making little touches like blurring edges or making something black and white, fixing any blemishes requested by the client, etc. obviously a wedding is going to have more artistic touches than say, a banquet event, but most require some miniscule editing. some don’t. it just depends.

also – in other photography related rantings – i saw a post online the other day for a bride looking for a wedding photographer. she wanted the wedding photographer to take engagement shoots, bridal shoots, and shoot the 9 hour wedding for close to free because she didn’t want to pay “these insane prices professional photographers are asking.” she ranted for a while about how we shouldn’t charge anything because it doesn’t cost us anything to take pictures. really?

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my first digital SLR…aww, the memories. now part of an extensive equipment backup team, just one of the many expenses of a photographer.

now i understand that wedding photography is expensive, but not only are you paying for the photographer to be there and work all day at your wedding (which involves posing people, gathering groups together, creatively framing shots, organizing formal shots, contacting your other vendors to make sure we understand the wedding timeline as to not miss anything, etc.), but you are also paying for editing time, wear and tear on camera equipment, assistant fees, travel fees, website fees, advertising fees and other micellaneous expenses (DVDs, CDs, labels, shipping fees, telephone bills, etc.). and this is just for the business. :) since most photographers support themselves through photography as their full time job, they also have bills of their own to pay. i believe that some photographers do charge ridiculous prices, as do a lot of professionals in every career imaginable. however, i’d like to think that most of us charge reasonable rates for all of the issues and expenses listed above.

none of my clients have ever complained about expenses and i believe that most brides are reasonable people and understand where the money is going. however, i just wanted to bring up the subject just so people know where their money is truly going because weddings really are expensive and most people are on a budget. it is completely different to try and book an affordable photographer and to try and make a deal with them due to budgetary constraints. most photographers will gladly work with you to compromise and meet everyone’s needs. i just wanted to put a good word out there for the photographers and try to justify our prices a little bit. :) i stayed out of this whole online conversation but did follow it out of curiosity. in short, several other photographers replied to her post and some nasty words were exchanged to which she retorted how she is “the bride and can’t believe anyone would treat a bride like this. everyone needs to be nice to the bride no matter what.” now… i’m a photographer and a bride, and i am totally on the photographers’ side on this one. :) woah.

um, anyway. :) yesterday, on my day between editing projects, i decided to get stuff together for our own wedding instead of someone else’s for once :). unfortunately my friend sent me links to a couple conspiracy theory websites that had me occupied for several hours and i got little to nothing accomplished. but it did feel good to relax… if you can call becoming increasingly paranoid via conspiracy theory websites relaxing. we are getting married in an art gallery (artspace!) in downtown raleigh in october 2010. all of the vendors i’m working with so far have been wonderful and super helpful. i’m grateful that all of the people are so nice. i will eventually be posting a master list of who we are working with in order to help their local businesses and give you recommendations. we’re excited!

so today i uploaded the pictures from the con-way freight banquet and discovered some ones i took of dolfy and buckles that i had forgotten about. the boys are doing fine and have recently discovered balls of yarn from my old school knitting days.

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while dolfy played with yarn, buckles decided to show his unwaivering support for the team this past sunday. buckles shows his love, even when they lose:

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well, maybe he was a little upset…

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