My Photo Week

Since my last update, I've shot some florals last work-week for a coworker who received flowers on her Birthday. She enjoyed the pics and as I write this, the bouquet is almost expired. She'll have the photos to remember them by.







Last Saturday, I spent the day with friends (rare for me), which included going to the Snow Goose Inn when one of them had a gig that evening. Most of my friends know that my camera is a constant companion, so of course I got pix.



... and on Sunday, I stopped in at Stewart's Photo to window shop on behalf of an out-of-town friend who owns a DSLR. She wants to buy a wide zoom lens and has her sights set on the Canon 16-37 L (pro) lens, but is balking at the $1500 price tag. I suggested that she might get near the same image quality by considering the Tamron 17-35 at $500. I did some side-by-side test shots with both lenses.


(tamron)


(canon)

Then it was back to work this week. See below for the details on THAT! But I did stop to shoot a coworker friend's new American Bulldog puppy named Deja.





That brings you up to speed. It's been a couple days without fresh material, and I will TRY to take it easy this weekend, but will probably get some shooting in. I've been missing some spectacular sunrises on Mt Susitna this week because it conflicted with getting to work on time.

The rainstorm of my life

A friend suggested that if my life is a rainstorm right now, I should just pull my rubber boots on and splash in the puddles. In other words, things will get better so just chill. With that in mind, here's an update on my week:

I was successful in getting our payroll dept to cut me a check for the missed 2 days of holiday leave. I would have survived on the smaller paycheck, but I'm happy that this was resolved. I am also re-taking the typing exam next week. I'll find a good typing practice program and get cracking.

The cough is still with us. But I'm taking today off to rest (making it a 3-day weekend). It's also my Mom's B-day today!


Thanks for listening to me this week. :)

The Latest

My cough from a couple weeks ago is still hanging on, but slowly getting better. Because of this, I have been teetering on the decision to see a doctor (leaning against).

Related to that subject, I was out of work for a almost 5 days a couple weeks ago at the onset of this bug. I thought I had enough paid leave time to cover it. Guess again. I got my paycheck yesterday and it was shorted a couple days. Ouch. The funny thing is that I actually did have the leave time in the form of a couple of 'floating personal holidays' that can be used during the year at my discretion. I didn't mark my timecard to reflect that and payroll didn't think to ask when I was out of regular leave. Someone is asking to see if it can be fixed after-the-fact. Wish me luck.

Finally. There is no word yet on a replacement show for the lost Noble's one. But I intend to get back on the horse.

Ouch

Those of you who knew me from my OLD myspace account were used to me blogging about pretty much anything and everything that happened to me. I'm not as chatty here, but have had a somewhat shitty past 24 hours. So I thought I'd share!

So...

About this time last night, my teenage daughter begins to complain about sharp chest pains centered on the bottom of her ribcage - right side. Hurts sharply when she breathes or moves. Not showing any signs of fever, I figured it would keep until today. I didn't rush her to the ER, but the idea did cross my mind. My sleep was short and broken as she would go into moaning fits in her room. My alarm woke me at 545am for work.

I dragged my ass through my morning routine and was a bit late to leave. I still had time for a Kaladi stop (to-go) on my way, and managed to make it to work about 2 mins late. I called my daugher in sick for school. On my plate at work today: training someone to cashier. My trainee and I will be the 'backup' to the main cashier for the remainder of the week. We cover her lunch and two breaks. The rule is that she gets to call the break times, and the backup works their own lunch and breaks around that. She chose noon-1pm lunch. Great. I hadn't eaten yet today. I phoned the doctor's office to see my daughter. They had an opening at 4:45.

Lunchtime: driving to my usual dive, I phoned my wife to let her know when the doc's appointment was. She answered the phone crying. Her morning was spent with a bad migraine and she couldn't see straight. Driving was out. I would have to leave work at 4pm to take her myself. I brought my laptop to wi-fi over lunch, and got some news from a fellow photographer. Noble's Diner, where I am slated to have my first gallery show this summer, is going out of business. If you've never tried them, you have until Saturday. After the day thus far, that news was a bit of a gut-punch. Food was good and I spent the time chatting with a friend.

When I returned from lunch, the main cashier wanted a break. No time to catch up on paperwork at my desk - we headed out to cover her. My PM break (taken after hers) was spoken for. There's a job opening in my office for a secretarial position. It's two salary grades above mine. One of the requirements is a typing speed of 70wpm. A test is required. I took the test on my afternoon break. Scored in the mid 50wpm range with plenty of errors. :( I'm allowed to retake it in a week, so we'll see. When the test was done, there was just enough time for the trainee and I to count-out our cash drawer. I left by 4:10.

Traffic was, for some reason, worse than my normal 5pm commute. I was running late and wanted to change into some jeans before taking my kid to the doctor. Luckily the drive BACK to midtown was faster. My teen said that she didn't want to tell the doc everything because 'they won't believe me'. Ugh. Teen drama. I decided to accompany her. With me in the exam room, she did spill all the details. The prognosis? Costochondritis. Kiddo tore some cartilage between her ribs. Painful but not dangerous. The only real risk was that she would be tempted to remain inactive (movement = pain) and might be prone to shallow breathing. Risk of pneumonia. She just needs to pump heavy amounts of anti-inflammatories for a few days, and keep active.

After the doc, we made stops for dinner takeout and groceries. Finally, home and with dinner done, I opened my laptop to be greeted with an iCal (Macintosh calendar) alert. The one monthly photography group meeting that I like was tonight. I missed it.

End of rant.

...

On the up-side, I'm still booked to show my work at the Title Wave Kaladi Brothers in September. Looks like I need to drum-up some new shows!

Sick for a week.

I've spent the last six days being sick with a cold. I HATE being stuck in the house. There is only so much that I can photograph from the living room chair! End of rant.

Update: My photo weekend.

Yesterday I edited about 90 shots destined to go into a going away album for a retiring coworker. I'm inching away from iPhoto and towards Adobe LightRoom. I've only had Lr for a week and it totally kicks ass! I've wanted to buy Apple's Aperture but my old G4 doesn't meet the minimum requirements. Sigh. Now that I have Lr, I'm glad that I didn't go the other way.



I also edited all of Ryan's modeling portfolio shots in Lr. Speaking of Ryan, I accompanied him to auditions today at the Anchorage Marriott. He won't learn if he made the cut until tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

One Month!

It's been a month since I have posted anything here; and it's been a busy one! After my week off, I took a couple more Fridays off to make 3-day weekends. I managed to eek a few good shots from the extra free days:



On the day that this shot was taken, I found myself 60 miles from home in below zero temperatures - and my car started making funny noises! I cut the photoshoot short, drove back to Anchorage and spent the remainder of the day waiting for the car in the shop. Turned out that I needed a break job.

The next major project was the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous festival. 'Fur Rondy' for short. The festival features a snow sculpture contest, dogsled races, art shows, craft fairs, outdoor sports, and a model railroad show to name a few. Plenty of fodder for my photography!







... and then an an break from the outdoors with some floral photog:





The next week was the world famous 1049mi Iditarod sleddog race which starts here in Anchorage, and ends in Nome, AK (over a week later). The race is ongoing as I write this.






And finally last weekend, my latest photographic foray was trying my hand at studio portrait work. I have a friend who wants to start modeling and needs a portfolio. He asked for my help. I managed to rig-up a studio on a very shoestring budget (under $50) and we tried our first shoot!



Whew!

My current project is to take employee photos for a going away album for a retiring coworker. We have over 300 employees, and I've been shooting on breaks and lunches for the past week.