Mayhem with music and film!

Ok, I met with Mike for music this week, but the traffic and other things cut our time short. Still it was good to touch base, and see where we are at after missing a couple weeks of connections. which is all we really had time for since he had other plans. the good news: Mike had a way to record a couple of tracks of our progress especially for HIrsh, so I hope to provide a link to that soon, Yay!

I feel so blessed that he is so talented, resourceful and patient with me and my super sucky timing issues. He has never let any frustration show, though it must lurk there, He usually laughs at me, and is very encouraging to help count me in, when I start to early or late. I am blessed to have such a great and patient conspirator. His lovely wife Teresa is very kind to letting me invade their home once a week and monopolize his time and assistance with this creative learning project. I always have a fabulous time, and am very grateful. I want to do more of it. I need to make it more of a priority.

practice, practice, practice.


Olympia film society: I went to another meeting last week, and checked out 3 Japanese art films to screen. They are so far mostly boring drivel. The film meetings are every other week, and were all setup on the first week. I have never received an email about them,I just show up. So far the one gal tends to monopolize the direction of the conversation, and the ear of this years directing coordinator, dropping band names and obscure films from other festivals, but I always learn a lot, so It doesn't bother me. It does make the meetings run long and a bit under productive to my way of thinking, but that's collaboration for you.

My own photos have not been particularly inspired, so I have a lot to plan out this weekend. I haven't gotten a straight answer from any of the filming students I've tried to connect with, so it looks like I am on my own. Even Don has speculated three different ways I could assist, but not pinned down a single one yet. And works on with out me. I have to make a power point, do more reading, and figure out how my film will best document my progress...

So many projects so little time!

I had another 10+ hour photo shoot with Mark. Here are a few samples of yesterdays work. Obviously I do not post the best ones online, and Mark and I share ownership of them, so you can see more on his site. Check the link.

We conspire well together with great ideas for costumes, locations, and moods. We meant to keep it breezy this time, with only three looks, and three locations, but the time still got away from us. By the time I left his place with my copies, we still had over 700 photos! And that was after the initial sorting where I trash the obviously ugly ones.

Honestly, it usually takes going through them several times over several days to look past the art value of form and content, expressions on my face from sun in my eyes, and any blurriness. It can make a long day into a very long day, since we have to dump and preview each batch between locations. No complaints though, I always enjoy our work. We worked for over 10 hours yesterday, and it took another 4.5 hours today to do a second sort of my copies into keepers for projects, and re-size them to upload here. It will add even more time when I crop or edit the ones I plan to use for my next project.

I am learning a lot by working with Mark: such as how to work with a photographer that only occasionally gives suggestions, and very little actual direction once he's behind the camera. It is truly collaborative to have more freedom as well as responsibility in the shoot. It was really fun when his girl friend went with us to the beach and helped direct me a bit.

Sometimes I wish we worked over several days, instead of all at once, so I could process what I learn from each shoot and bring it to the next. When there is to much time between shoots I don't remember subtle body angles I want to change, or make up and expression tricks for harsh sunlight. When there is not enough time, such as back to back shoots, I don't get a chance to visually and mentally evaluate my own performance and contribution to the project, past initial facial expressions.

Other photographers I have worked with were very constant and commanding in their direction for body positions, and head angles, expressions, etc. Which I usually appreciate, since there is so much to distract one on location shots. Weather in the face, passersby and onlookers, balancing at weird angles, combating vertigo while trying to look comfortable, watching for wildlife or bird bombs, and showing just enough skin without overdoing it... But I am learning more this way. ;)