Photography in the Time of Sorrow

Or, One Artist’s Voice Speaks For Many

Two posts in one day. Who can live at that speed? I was surfing the web today, looking for an artist agent for myself. Along the way, I stumbled upon Altpick.com. For whatever reason, the fairies of the Universe conspired so that the first page that opened featured a fellow Atlantan I have never met, one Mr. Zack Arias. I loved what he had to say in his ‘Artist Message‘, so I naturally moseyed on over to check out his blog. That’s where I watched this video. I literally put my head in my hands and wept great big gobbets of tears. I have never heard words before that so clearly articulate what it can feel like to be alone with your creative demons.

pathos


Studio Lighting for Headshots – Tutorial

Or, The Other Money Shot

There are at least as many ways to shoot a headshot as there are ways to skin a cat.  We won’t go into WHY someone would want to skin a cat, but I can tell you why people would want to shoot headshots.  This is a great basic skill to have in your repertoire.  Think of it as The Little Black Dress of photography.

It’s amazing at all the different types of people and professions who need headshots; realtors, editors, authors, entertainers, models, CEOs, dancers, moguls, rock stars, travel agents, ministers, entrepreneurs, business owners, internet marketers and even the occasional porn star, just to name a few. Being able to shoot reliable, polished headshots can bring in infusions of cash, and hey, who doesn’t like a little infusion, from time to time?

Studio Lighting for Headshots - Photography Tutorial[…]

Make a Beauty Dish for Studio Lighting

Or, How To Whip Up A Little Something In The Kitchen For The Studio

Occasionally in my web surfing I come across things that strike me as quite clever.  One such example is a homemade beauty dish I stumbled upon on lifehacker.com.  Well, actually the lifehacker page was really the entry to a rabbit hole I eventually went down, that lead to  David Tejada’s blog for commercial photographers, where he references Tyler Burk‘s instructions for this clever little item on Flickr.  Such is life in cyberspace.[…]

Deborah’s Excellent Adventures In Commercial Photography

Adventures in Commercial Photography

That is me up in the ‘cherry picker’ basket of a state of the art, quarter million dollar service truck! Oh. My. Gawd. I thought I had died and gotten a lift right up to heaven!!! I swear to Good Golly Miss Molly, I had SO MUCH FUN I would’a almost PAID the company that hired me to do it! Okay, just how many is TOO many exclamation points?

So, here I am, preparing for lift off with the driver/operator, a really nice guy by the name of Eddie. We’re right smack in the middle of downtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street. This is after Eddie so sweetly and precisely maneuvered that basket right down to the sidewalk, so I could practically walk right in.

Here we begin our ascent.

Going….

Going…..

Gone.

Here I am photographing the ground crew, who was photographing me : )

This is a view from the top looking north on Peachtree.

A slightly different, vaguely queasy making view.

Another shot from the ground crew, showing the scintillating action!

No matter how high I go in life, I still love the little people……down there on the sidewalk.

And here I am , all safe and sound, but completely JAZZED about the whole experience. Most of the people who know me realize I’m really just an overgrown 10 year boy in a 50 year old woman’s body. The 10 year old HAD A BLAST AND WANTS TO DO IT AGAIN!!!

Oh…..before I forget. So, what exactly was it I was photographing?

This:

Now don’t tell me life ain’t grand.