– BEFORE I BEGIN –

I want to mention something very quickly. I’m adding this after I wrote the blog, so that’s why it’s a bit out of place.

My close, close friend and amazingly talented photographer Heidi, from Heidi J Photography, was robbed of her livelihood today. Her photography bag, with all her camera gear, and her MacBook Pro, about $20k all in all, not to mention pictures she’d taken for clients that were on her Mac, were stolen today…

This comes at an already difficult and painful time in her life. Please go visit her blog and leave her a comment, lend her a hand, do what you can so she can get through this.

Heidi, you’re smart, talented and hardworking. Add persistence and determination to the mix, both of which you have in spades, and I’m convinced you’ll get through this.

I’ll leave you with a quote:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
- Calvin Coolidge

Back to the blog as I wrote it before getting the news from Heidi…

———-

I noticed I accidentally skipped a day, but the overall day numbering is still right. So I’ll pretend nothing happened.

Here we go.

Day 279/365

Ray & Crystal. These guys were a ton of fun to shoot with and I’m really happy with how some of those shots turned out. Thanks for letting me tag along again Heidi!

Also, I just have to tell you the coolest thing Crystal said after wrapping the shoot.

We’re outside this abandoned house. It’s dark. I’m packing up my gear, Heidi and her assistant Kaity are helping me do so and Crystal is standing around making small talk with us.

And then Crystal says, “Can I just say something weird?” At this point, I’m still looking down, packing my gear, so I just kind of assumed she was going to say something to Heidi, Kaity and me. Just, you know, to the group.

“I really like your nose.”

And still not looking up, I remember my first thought being “That’s true, Heidi does have a nice nose.”

But then everyone went silent. I look up and everyone’s looking at me…

“Whu– Who me???????” They all laughed at my surprise. I couldn’t believe it! She was talking about ME????

That was, without question, the most flattering, even uplifting thing I’d ever heard about myself! I’m still giddy just thinking about it! Keep in mind, that compliment came from someone whose hair is naturally that curly. Yeah. Go back up and check out their pictures. She was made fun of in school for her hair like I was made fun of for my nose.

“They’re just jealous”, she said. “They don’t have anything that distinctive about themselves.”

And that knocked me out too. I came out of my past experiences with a negative image of myself because of my nose. She came out of hers with a magnificently positive attitude.

I love that. I think we can all learn from her.

So Crystal, if you’re reading this, thank you thank you thank you!!! Not only for your compliment, but for displaying such a positive spirit. It’s contagious. And I hope everyone whose life you touch gets infected with it.

Day 280/365

My alarm system might someday turn against me… (iPhone photo)

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000

Day 281/365

Books that have been sitting on my desk… (iPhone photo)

Day 282/365

Wandering around the neighborhood with my camera and long lens, trying to see the same old things with a fresh perspective.

Day 283/365

Anthony & Rose’s formals. I just realized something. These types of shoots are basically bridals with the groom thrown in. So in the past I’ve jokingly called them groomials. But some people call them formals.

So I have an idea… How about froomials? Anybody? Anyone?

Froomials it is.

Here’s Anthony and Rose’s froomials:

And here’s a quick shot I grabbed on my way home from said froomials (iPhone photo)

Day 284/365

Ok, so earlier this year I shot this really beautiful muslim wedding. I’m at the reception and one of the bride’s maids walks right up to me with one of those and pins it on my chest. Someone objects, “Hey these are only for friends and family.” The bride’s maid responds:

“He’s our friend now!”

I love shooting weddings (iPhone photo)

Day 285/365

On my way to the store, I look over and notice the colors of the clouds. In a rare vocal display, “Wow” slips right out of me. I pull over and snap this.

It doesn’t even remotely do it justice (iPhone photo)

Day 286/365

The first day of snow came down hard this year! (iPhone photo)

Day 287/365

These are the 4×6 postcards I send out to future brides. A lot of times, they come back to me. Maybe the bride forgot to include her apartment number, maybe there’s no forwarding address, who knows. But they bounce back to me.

So instead of chucking them, I usually blot out the names and addresses and slip the cards inside bridal magazines at the Walmart on 5600 West and 6200 South (just in case any of my readers live nearby and go to that Walmart too – in which case, HI!!).

I figure hey, if you’re looking at bridal magazines, you’re probably getting married. Here’s a postcard (iPhone photo)

Nothing new to report, and I’ll be blogging with new images soon, but I just thought of something kinda funny and had to share. Hope you get a good laugh

I made some tabouli the other day and messed it up. I must have been distracted, because I forgot that the onion, for some reason, can’t be thrown into the food processor. You have to just tough it out and cry through chopping the onion.

What happens when you throw the onion in the food processor is that no matter how hard you try to fix it afterwards, the whole thing ends up being way too bitter.

Lesson learned! Throw the parsley in the food processor, leave the onion out and chop it up instead.

This concludes another exciting episode of…

DON’T PUT THAT IN THERE! <— FUNNEH!!!

…I am typing this blog post from behind a pristine, glorious, 30″ LCD monitor, courtesy of HP’s customer care department!

Finally, the broken monitor which was replaced by another broken monitor has now been replaced by a working monitor!

Now to figure out what to do with my old broken 19″ and the temporary but still functional 14″

Day 274/365

I broke someone else’s hard drive… (iPhone photo)

Well ok, not really. This one was defective. It refused to stay on. The USB cable seemed to fit kind of loosely since it was purchased and it would turn off randomly. Per the advice of a tech guy, I opened the enclosure containing the portable hard drive to see if it would help it stay on.

It didn’t.

I found myself having to push the cable in and twist it clockwise, HARD, and then hold the USB cable in that position to keep the hard drive on. If I flinched, it would turn off. It’s hard to operate a computer when both your hands are busy pushing and twisting a cable…

Refund please!!

In other news…

Day 275/365

My replacement monitor just got here a few minutes ago!! Here’s to hoping that it’s not defective too (iPhone photo)

Just three more big boxes and I’ll finally be able to call jaws of life to pry me out of my basement!

Day 273/365

Took a little walk to take a break from editing. This is uhh… a wooden fence (iPhone photo)

I forgot to write it as such, but that last post was actually Day 268/365. So today, I start with Day 269/365 in what will hopefully be the last segment and exciting conclusion to the Broken Screen Trilogy.

I’m still trying to attach Spielberg as the director for it but we’ll see.

Trilogies are psychologically satisfying. They are the basic building blocks to any good story.

Beginning, middle and end. Exciting introduction, obstacle, resolution.

You could condense a movie trilogy’s story structure into a single movie as long as you keep its three act structure and it wouldn’t lose anything except the extensive details that allow Hollywood to milk as much money out of a franchise as they possibly can. But money aside, the three act structure is as old as time. Ok the Greeks came up with it but whatever. Go read up on Aristotle

Here’s the story arc to my little adventure:

Act 1, I received my new monitor and started setting it up. Exciting Introduction!

Act 2, I found out it was defective. Obstacle! RAWR!!

Act 3, I received an email from HP saying they’d send a replacement. Resolution!

Ball’s in your court Mr. Spielberg! I envision a $700 million budget with me in the lead role. I’ve instructed my imaginary agent to ask for $699 million of that. Good luck making a movie for a million bucks.

Day 269/365

The big monitor box, sitting there waiting for its replacement to arrive, while its two significantly smaller friends hang around in the background (iPhone photo)

Day 270/365

After a tiring downtown shoot, I went up to Ensign Peak to relax and enjoy the view. I only managed 2 shots with my iPhone before I was caught.

I really love this shot. Anonymous, natural and best of all, peaceful (iPhone photo)

Day 271/365

Ben & Liz

Day 272/365

I actually shot maternity pictures that day, but the subject insisted I didn’t post any pictures online. Oh well. Lightpost in a parking lot (iPhone photo)

So my screen is still broken, but now it’s new and it’s huge.

But’s it’s still FRIGGIN’ BROKEN!!

Awesome (30″ screen next to Heidi’s 14″ temporary monitor):

NOT so friggin’ awesome!

There’s a thin yellow line running all the way down on the left side of the screen. Customer Care is going to be calling me within the next 2 business days. To do what, you ask? No clue. The person giving me the case number wouldn’t tell me.

My hope? They’ll send someone out to my house with a new screen.

Realistically? They’re probably sending someone out here to kill me and steal my defective screen.

There’s no thrill quite like murder and stealing broken equipment!

Waiting anxiously for anything to get here when FedEx is in charge isn’t much fun. With UPS I know I can expect a package anytime between 3:00 and 3:30pm. In fact I’m expecting a print from them today. But with FedEx it’s anytime between noon and 4 or 5pm.

And I need that new monitor!

This wouldn’t normally matter that much, but I’m required to sign for this one. It’s getting here today at some point, so I’m listening for the door as I write this. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to interrupt this blog and say “We interrupt this program for an important news bulletin: Luigi! Dee monitor! She’s ah-heer!”

Anyway, I remembered at about 11:50pm last night that I needed to find something to shoot for the day. And now that I look at it, I could have done so much better. Maybe I’ll revisit the idea today and give it more care.

Maybe…

Here it is:

Day 267/365