Thursday, October 28, 2010

Winter.

I'm trying to accustom myself to the fact that we won't have 80-degree temps for another like 6 months. I still cry myself to sleep at night.

Hah. Just kidding.

However, I am trying really hard to find things that I do look forward to about winter.
Here's what I'm coming up with:
  • Boots, leather and otherwise
  • My pink fuzzy slippers
  • Food. Pumpkin pies, turkey, stuffing, chocolates, soup, need I say more?
  • Heated seats in the car
  • Being with family during the holidays
  • Hoodies (Pssst. Are you a Baseman Studios' fan on Facebook?)
  • Mannheim Steamroller Christmas tunes
  • Being able to take holidays off. (Heh. Sort of.)
Anyone else have one? Goodness knows, I'm having difficulty with this list.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Halloween

We were lucky enough to get invited to a Halloween party/potluck, so that's pretty sweet. :)

However, I don't really feel like spending money on costumes.

Nor do I have creativity to think up something original that doesn't cost much.

Hm.

Any ideas?

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Adorable, no?

With any luck, when we have kids, they'll look like these munchkins!



Monday, October 18, 2010

Huh, what?

Sorry, I'll explain that last post.

It's been a very frustrating last couple weeks in dealing with a last-minute commercial client. I've never done commercial work before (but the images turned out pretty sweet), and he had never used a professional photographer before.

Like I said, it was last minute. The model, which I had met at a wedding I was second-shooting at the Saturday before, called me at 3 in the afternoon on Monday for the shoot at 6pm that night. Their photographer's camera broke, apparently. I'm guessing that was his excuse to get off the hook for that job.

I thought things were fine and great. We met up a week (one week! that's a short time frame) after the shoot, and I gave him the disc.. 26 images, fully retouched and edited to perfection. He was expecting every single image from the shoot, edited and retouched, which was over 90.

Obviously, there were some massive errors and omissions in what was expected from both parties, mostly what he expected from me.

Long story short, he emailed me then, pressuring me to give him all the images, saying he'd invested a chunk of change into this venture (I was only paid 1/5 of that amount, so I'm assuming the other 4/5 went to the model...? Dumb.). So I carefully explained to him that for the number of hours I worked on his project, including shooting time, resulted in me getting paid $5.20/hour with no compensation at all for the images... the going rate for professional commercial images is $50-75.

Despite the fact it was my first official commercial job, I still expect to get paid to expand my portfolio, especially since the images were extremely well done.

I think he folded (HAH! His business deals with poker) since he was apologizing up and down. But I'm not really giving him an option.


Not just anyone gets to boss me around, and no one takes advantage of me unless I let them.


However, this isn't the first email war I've won. :)



(This was one of the images from the session.)

Fail.

He failed, that is.

Don't even start an email war with me. I'll win. Every time.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Hooray!

Got my tuition credit check finally!

This means Baseman Studios t-shirts and sweatshirts, meeting next week with the company to finalize things.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Post.

Hah, Suzanne. I posted.

Actually, I've been really busy lately. But these are some of my highlights from today.

--A PBN with Turbs. (post-breakfast nap) I've been super tired lately. But I've not been busy lately, so there's no possible explanation.

--This article: http://www.ispwp.com/the-secret-life-of-wedding-photographers.html

--Posted a new ad on craigslist. In looking over the "competition," I managed to see a ad from a somewhat relative and friend photographer. I also found this webpage, complete with a dancing purple monkey:

(Don't mind all my links up on the browser; I'm just lazy. And isn't firefox awesome? I can make my browser pink!)

Suz stopped by for a bit tonight. Love that girl. :) Even though she forced me to play piano while she videoed from above me. Better not see that one on YouTube.

My aunt was in town with her co-worker the last couple nights, so they stayed with us... even cooked us supper Wed night. Roast in the crockpot all day, with scalloped potatoes, garden squash, and salad. Mmm.

Workers are coming for 2 (?) nights, tomorrow and Saturday, so that should be fun too! Any MSG-free ideas? I think I've got it covered, but it's nice to have some options.

I have a co-photographer session tomorrow, so expect an introduction to my second photographer next week, along with some new promo images of myself. Eeep. I would so much rather be in FRONT of the camera.

Did I ever let the blog world know that my business plan passed? The Small Business Development Center passed it awhile ago, which means I'm getting a nice fat tuition credit back... hello, Baseman Studios t-shirts and sweatshirts!!

Plus I should be wrapping up the deal with my car sign/sticker next week. Woo hoo for cheap marketing!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Oh, PS.

Just in case you hadn't heard, last week we heard the final decision from the helicopter company in California.

They were able to see and understand that we had no money to pay them, so they wrote the entire amount off!

It was a little victory celebration here. :)


Pssst. Read the original (California) story here, a random whining post here, and a specific whining post here about their company. Or don't. I wouldn't wish that on you.

Happiness.

...is finding you have 4 (!!) grape fruit snacks in your little pouch.

Or having a dog that's this stinkin' cute. :)

Monday, October 4, 2010

Laundry

A little conversation this morning:

"Mariah, do these jeans look too small?"

"Mmm. A bit."

"Oh, well they're the last pair clean."

"Oops."



This ever happen to you?
Disclaimer: I am not a registered dietician, I do not have any type of medical training, and my workouts and training are only intended for my personal recollection and your curiosity. Anything documented on this blog is my personal opinion or a learned experience. All images are subject to a personal copyright unless otherwise noted and cannot be used without permission. If you read to the end of this, congratulations.