While Roy and I were out looking for an apartment for him we had a spot of time to kill so I took the opportunity and free time to drive about taking photos.
Here we are

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Well I have a few new photos from this weekends photoshoot.

Ya so i am uber excited for the potential Photo shoots this weekend and I am totally stoked about this one model that I have booked for Saturday. I am very excited and I am looking forward to it. I am thinking about doing some fun Yoga photos in black and white. MMmmmm… Thinking about cool things to do.

Today I stayed home sick becuase I was well sick. I woke up around two and decided that some food was in order. So over to the Save On I go. I bought some food and drink and I was wobbling my way back home when I look up a little and all I can see is smoke. So I hauled my sick ass into the car and away I went and here you are.

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So on Friday night after work Miranda grabbed me from downtown and we went to the E&C to have beers with Cory who was in town. It was fun to see Cory again. It was sort of like he had never really left it was just like old times we were even sitting in the same table and the same drinks and the same old everything. It was sorta odd. We also got to meet the girl that Asylus has been yacking about for a while, the very same girl that causes the entire shoe fiasco:) It was good times however I only had like three beers and I was pretty pissed. We got home at about 3 in the morn or so. At 6 in the morn I had planed to go out and about with mike and doing some photos of various things around Edmonton and we had agreed that he should call at about 6 when he was ready to come over. Well he called and me being the trooper of a photographer I hauled my drunk ass out of bed and went out for some photos. It was damn cold. But we may have some cool shots of refinery row. Time will tell. :) At about 9 or so Mike and I decided that their was far to much snow and the it was to damn cold so we called it a morning and I came home and slept back in again till around 11. I got up again and got ready for my photo shoot with Arianna after running across the river to pick her up we started our shoot at corona station and worked our way towards City hall. We were expecting it to be a slow day with very few people and that we would have the downtown area to ourselves. Well it seems that there was some sort of religious conference being held in the hotels and such in the area. There was, according to the guy at the Greek donair place, over 6000 people at this crazy God conference. So needless to say there was very little in the way of solitude for us and our photos. At about five we called it quits and I drove Arianna home and immediately came home to get ready to go for diner with Aslyus and another coworker of thiers from Montr?al. We grabbed Aslyus and met up at Savoy on whyte. Man what a swanky place that is. I have never been but it was filled with all kinds of pretty people :) After dinner Sundancer and I rented Pirates of the Caribbean. ArRrr

Sunday I woke up at 10 or 11ish and proceeded to get ready for another model that I had booked in, but she was late so we had an entire afternoon that was free so Sundancer and I went to the SPCA and got a new kitten. She is a cute kitten that looks a lot like Darwin :) We got her because Darwin has been so lonely as of late and now that I am working he is even lonelier. So we got him Luna (Photos to come)
We went out and picked up Roy and Jessie from there swanky new pad and came back to wait for the GB’s Well Erin and Mel from the GB’s You see we offered to Help them build a press package CD. So we burnt and printed and sprayed 40 Cds, drank some beer, played with kitten, and bitched about the weather :) Good times were had. Any way ya
I go now

Arianna From today Will talk later

Well all I can Say is Busy Busy Busy, that si what I have been the last week or so. You see I was pretty busy a couple of weeks ago, you know the pre That place where I work world, and well that hasn’t changed in any way except now there is about 40hrs that are sucked out of my week and while I can use some of this time to catch up on my email I am afraid that My blog has been neglected. So here is a feeble attempt to pay some attention to that.

Last Night I got home and did stuff till about 11 or so and fell asleep and basically slept till around 12 today, I was really tired. :) I woke up drove Miranda to work at 7:30ish went back to bed, got up to let the matnence people in went back to bed, Miranda phoned like three times ignored it and stayed in bed. I woke up at 12is when Miranda phoned for the 5th time. And played with my tripod while I woke up from my deep slumber. At 1 I got ready and well I came to work and I am still tired. But I will survive. I have this underlying concern that I may in fact be getting older and require more then 4 hours of sleep a day. I deny it and will continue to deny this till I am at least 85 but the evidence is slowly gathering against me and my 4 hour theory.

Cory is in town and I think that we are going to fire out to the E&C on white tonight and have a few beers and what have you. It should be interesting I haven’t had beers with cory since the fucked off to Van to begin with. He was actually gonna call me yesterday and we were going to get together after work and discuss this Photocataloging thing that he may be making me :) But I am sure that he was uber busy and all and I am not really sure how much good I would be in the sleepy state that was last night.

Tomorrow Morning Bright and early Mike and I are having a reminiscent of last Dec/Jan go out at 6in the morning and shoot some photos outing. He is going to pick me up and out and about we are bound.

At about Noon I am hooking up with the ever-delightful Erin again for another photo shoot. We are going to try and go out and about and do the LRT and pedway circuit. I have a wack of ideas and such that I am dieing to try out but we will see what happens and how that goes.

Saturday night we are going to the CJSR 20th B-day party at the sidetrack. It should be a good time with some good music. I hope I can get some decent
photos

To help assist me in my never ending quest to get good photos I bought a new Tripod. I spent the first 200 dollars of the B-fund on a spanky new Manfrotto Tripod that has a ball head and these very cool legs that are independent of each other. No more shaky pictures for me. :)

This Sunday I have a photo shoot with Taline a model from OMP I am the first real photographer that she has worked with and she sounds quite excited about it. I am somewhat excited about the prospect of being busy with models all weekend. I haven’t had a photo shoot with anyone since the beginning of December. So I am what you would call Jonesing for a photo shoot. I am super excited about going out with mike tomorrow as well It has been a long time since we have done that.

This Sunday night Erin and Mel form the Gb’s may come over and we may work on there demo cds that they are sending out. We will see if that pans out they are as busy as me and I Erin wasn’t sure if Mel would be able to come?
On Monday night after work I have a photo shoot with Sommers (another model from OMP) I am just going to do this one at home But it is home time :)

Well It is now 10 o’clock and I am again at work. It is funny cause this is only my third day on the phones and I think that I have the hang of it. My questions are few and far between and I am already thinking about how to get the Not Ready time down. But that is all work stuff and well I am sure that most of you don’t really care about it.

But I am sending out all these emails pout to these models and what have you and I haven’t been getting any replies so I started sending emails out to new models and now they all seem to be getting back to me at the same time. Which is cool but I have been so bloody busy as of late that I now cant find a mutually good time to book these people in:) Oh well when it rains it pours I guess. I am working on backing up all the raw photos that I have taken in the last year and a bit for off site backups I am also looking at a way to have them thumb nailed in a database sorta thing so I can find photos by date/category and subject. While having the bulk of the files being of site. I will see how that sorta thing really works out but I hope. :) any way It is almost the end of my shift and I need to haul ass to catch the right LRT so I will sign off.

Well after re-reading my last post I can safely say that constant interruptions to my train of thought are highly detrimental to my writing. Man I sound like a lobotomized chimp in that last post. I mean I will be the first to admit that I ramble on about nothing, my grammar is more then often atrocious, that I make these especially long run-on sentences that should have far more punctuation that would make even Douglas Adams roll around and dance the macarania in his grave. But that was the most awful, uninspired, and pointless block of text that I have ever had the displeasure of writing. I apologize to any one that may have actually been reading it in the hopes that buried beneath the incorrect there/theirs and the copious number of words that are not even in the correct context and have no place even with in the sentence that there may have been a nugget of wisdom or profound insight. Rest assured that there was in fact not. For that I am humbly sorry. I have to admit that I never actually proofread any of my blog entries so for all I know the last post may be entirely indicative of most of my posts. But being that beyond this apology I both don’t care and haven’t the inkling to rectify this in any way shape or form. If the unrefined nature of my post is not to your liking then I must implore you to bear with me and my blatant disregard for literary clarity and quality. If one was unable to bear with the blatant butchering of the English language, I do happen to post a lot of pictures, this of course being a photo blog and all.
Nuff said :)

I am just as before rambling away to my self so ya :) in other news Erin from the Gb’s cam e over and picked up the Cd. She seamed really happy with it so I am glad. She especially really liked the printable cd thing. I printed off another colour on so she could show it to Mel. They are going to talk about it but they may get me to help them with there press kits. SO that would be really cool. My darling Miranda has looked it to using a protective spray or something to help seal the ink so it isn’t so water-soluble. I would hate to have the ink come off or smudge and what have you. So They are gonna yak about it and let me know :) That printer is just so bloody cool.
So this weekend I am going to have coffee with drew and see if he can help us out with our site in terms of having it Database driven. We may try and do it our self but it would be nice to see what he has to say about this. He can have an idea if what we are doing is actually feasible :)
Because this is a photo journal that I have been posting very little in the terms of photos I am going to post more Mark Birtles Project

Well it looks like I am getting close to the end of the shift, so I am going to start wrapping this blog entry up and yes I am going to reread it before it is posted :)

So here I am at my first real day of work :) It has been fine and the first call jitters are leaving slowly. I think that this whole 611 thing ill be a breeze and if it ever gets boring I just have to think about the 16 bux and hour that I am getting to do this and It becomes a wonderfully entertaining job again :) It is nice to be on the phones and not have every single caller that I take being really and justifiably unhappy. That was what it was like at my old helpdesk job, I did nothing but deal with very unhappy people that thought I talked funny (they were from the states) This is kind of neat I get to talk to little old ladies and other charming people that truly think that I there to help them :) It is good times. For example the person that I just talked to had to assure me that she wasn’t angry with me at all.

I got a few emails back from models tat I emailed in past weeks, so I will email back and see what comes from them. I am quite excited because some of the people that I really wanna work with are the ones that emailed me back so I hope that our schedules will jive and that we can come up with something that works for both of us. I am hopefully going to get the GB’s Cd to them tomorrow as well I am excited to do more work with them and see if we can get something better. I am happy with the photos that we have thus far but I think that we can definitely do way better and get some great stuff. We will see if we can again jive the schedules :) I am excited to see what they think of the shots that we do have as well.

On another note I have to admit that I have been playing far to much 1942 with Roy and Mike. Oh ya Roy is in town to look for a home so we have been apartment shopping around for him, We went out to westlock and got him on Friday and we have been running around apartment shopping with him. It was almost like the apartment Gods wanted him to live in familiar places. One of the first apartments that we looked at was actually the first apartment that Mike P and I moved into when we first moved to Edmonton. The second place was the same apartment building that Miranda’s Mom lived in when she went to Uni. It was sort of neat to say the least. It also felt sorta weird to be apartment shopping again. It makes me realize just how fantastic our place really is. I am looking at these apartments and they are so.. well… apartment like. I guess what I am saying is I like my home. :) So I have just 2 more hours left to go and I get to go home :) This is definitely interesting this call centre work thing. It has been a long time and I find that I am really tiring to use old greetings and processes that I used to use at ConvergASS. It has been like two years and I have these things that I am tiring to say almost as though I am on auto pilot :). It will take some time to break old habits and make new ones. SO ya I think that I already yakked about this but you have to understand I am writing this blog over an eight-hour period in small two-minute increments. But I got some emails back from prospective models, some people are really interested in working together Very happy Indeed. I have been jonesing for a new photo shoot, it has been a long time I think that Erin was the last person that I had a one on one shoot with and that was simply a quick and impromptu thing. The house painting and X-mas and all that has sorta set me back little bit from where I wanted to be. But the equipment I will be able to get in the near future will really help out a lot. I am amazed at how fast time passes when I am writing a blog in-between calls. I mean it seams that I just got off of break a min ago. But it has been a half hour already and It will be home time soon enough. I bet you are all wondering what the point of this all is and I feel that I should let you all know that there is no point. There never was and as far as this post is concerned there never will be a point. I am simply rambling along to pass the time. If I had access to my laptop I would accompany a photo or two with this post But alas I do not so there for I will not. I think that I should be about due for a call soon so It is had cause I really don’t wanna get into any particular thought cause I know it is going to be interrupted and I am unable to hold a thought then.

(after phone call)

Ahhh ah I new it I was so right. So ya I am wondering what my next model based project will be I am thinking about getting a little more artsy and less glamour but I really like the glam. Ohhh decisions, decisions. I am also going to do a lot more still life and such. I got some ideas yesterday when we went to L’Paper (sp) on white ave. You see they have all these cool greeting cards that gave me a lot of ideas :) I really wanna do more black and white suit & tie in an odd local type stuff. I still really wanna do the B&W Enlarger thang… I am very excited to try this sorta stuff. I may just take a photography class at GMC and then have all kinds of access to enlargers and what have you. Try it all out, see what works and what I don’t know and take it from there. We will see. I am losing all that stuff that I learned about film from plain old disuse. IE: Miranda and I developed a single roll of film, and I had to really think and look up the mixes for the chemistry and the times and all that stuff It wasn’t all fresh in my mind. I also still really miss B&W. I miss it a lot. I however haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities of using red B&W filters on a colour digital camera. I have read that if in Photoshop you isolate certain colour channels and you shot the picture-using colour filters that you can come up with some fantastic results. I will see what I can come up with. I may go down to Classic Camera Exchange and see what he has there for my filter size. If memory serves me right he has a pile of filters of all kinds in a box near the wall.

My chair wont lock in the upright position. I am sort of un-comfy because I am leaning back and have nowhere to stick my feet up on. You see at home I have a foot stool under my desk and my feet are firmly planted on the stool as apposed to the floor. But it is either here nor there. I am simply just coming into the last hour stretch of my shift and I am looking for something to talk about :)
But I think that I am just gibbering and not really saying much so I will simply shut up now and read my email :)

ast night we went to the Power Plant to watch some of the bands
The Mark Birtles Project was the only one that we were in time to see cause when we phoned the Powerplant they said doors at 8 and show at 9:30ish so we showed up at 10ish and it was almost over. Oh well i managed to get some good shots none the less but only of the The Mark Birtles Project which I have to say was a rocking good band. They were.. how you say… animated. :) During the first song they played, almost all their shoes flew off their feet and in various directions. On even ended up on Miranda and Roy’s table. But the reason that we went there in the first place was because I was Second prize :) Yup you heard right I was second prize well I guess my photography services are second prize. But it is cool none the less. And as promised here is a shot or two.

There is more to come but I have just been busy

Ahhh I am done!!! I am caught up on all the photos that I have taken as of late. I know that I am toting this as the monumental feat of the century but it some times seems that way. I reality the number of photos that I have taken is utterly pathetic compared to even two months ago, but there has been a great deal of things that have been devouring my time as of late. But anyway the George bushes photos are done, all the other ones that I have taken are done as well. I am just waiting for my computer to finish a batch conversion so I can burn them onto CD for them. I do hope that we can get out again before to long and do some more non stage photos. I vow to get out to more shows and do more band photos. I used to think that band photos were a little hokey and uninteresting but I am starting to really like the whole process of it and what have you. But anyway because I haven’t been taking many photographs as of late and I haven’t anything but band photos anyway I am going to dig out a few older shots that haven’t been posted.
This an exposure from a photo shoot that I did with Adam in the beginning of November. Ahh now that I think of it I haven’t finished those shots. Arrrg I guess I am not as caught up as I had thought. :)

So today we are off to Ukrainian Christmas at Miranda’s Baba & Dido’s. But ya I have all this stuff that I need to do and I have no idea when it is going to get done. I am as I am writing this going through Photos from Boxing Day and before in an effort to get caught up. It isn’t easy. I think back to last year at this time I was able to finish the days photos in an hour or less. But I think my good photo vs. bad photo ratio is getting better so I have more pictures that are potentially good to go though and the files are larger and more complicated then they used to be. However, I think that I will prevail.

Here is another shot from Boxing Day at New City. It is of the crowd that was dancing to Old Reliable

One of a member of Old Reliable

The George Bushes From the smaller more intimate cave upstairs.
(i listen to far to much CJSR)

Well I am almost done going through the Photos from the shoots with The George Bushes I am so for behind on everything but I vow to finish these shots before the weekend is out. The Car went in this morning for a new rear window, something that has been missing for a long long time. It is neat that when you are driving it there is no crazy draft behind me :) The Guy at the glass place was really bored because he was uber chatty and seemed quite disappointed when I said that wasn’t able to hang out and wait for the car to be done. (it was only three blocks from our house) but a 100bux later our car isn’t leaking.

We had two different people email us over the holidays about wedding pricing and info, one of which we met with this morning to discuss further. I am pretty sure that our style of photography isn’t what they where looking for, but it did make us get of our asses and get some of this info down on paper and start thinking about it a little more in depth. Miranda is awesome at this stuff when it comes to weddings. It might have something to do with me not liking them :) To help facilitate the info packages and what have you we bought a printer. A new Epson photo printer. This neat thing is that it has the ability to print directly on to CD’s and DVD’s not to mention that it is an awesome 6 Colour photo printer with individual ink cartridges and all kinds of other cool stuff. But alas I should get to bed or something