Last Assignment!
Today I completed my last assignment for my Fundamentals of Design certificate. Granted, it’s the first round and typically the professor chews up my work, and spits it back out for me to work on some more. But! it’s the first step to the last round before I begin my digital imaging master’s. Yes, I know these are arbitrary titles, sort of like how Scientology creates its super duper medal of valor in times of despair honor, or names its sentry silly titles like the Sea Org, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a right of passage and I have spent a lot of time on these projects.
This project challenged us to create a label for a ficticious flavored olive oil company, Olivio. After lurking several Farmer’s Market I think I’ve done sufficient market research on the product 
) I originally was planning a much more serious design but I ran across this font and loved how it lent itself to the heart healthy benefits of EVO as well as how I was able to suggest an olive with a pimento in the final “O”. We shall see. I also got to play with the studio stuff a bit. The light source, they sent me the wrong one, was absent but that was ok because with my D700 I can shoot easily at high ISOs with minimal noise! I love the way the backdrop looked in the pictures of the bottle.
Ooh, I’d love to go into more detail and perhaps tomorrow I will but the TLC channel beckons. It seems some cheeky women passed the better part of the year complaining of weight loss and stomach upset only to plop an infant out at the end of 9 months….too too tempting. (God, I’m cool)…
Here’s my assignment!
WV
Filed under: School | 1 Comment
Tags: design, photography, School
I am a know-it-all. I realize I am and try to rein it in most of the time. And like most know-it-alls, I really don’t know what I’m talking about. This weekend E&I were in Central Florida. In our dream to become successful wedding photographers we are planning that E is going to second shoot one day in our Vee Team. For E to be able to do that he needs to learn proper exposure techniques in the DSLR world. He’s always asking me for help and I’m all too willing to help (afterall, I AM a know-it-all). What’s odd though is listening to myself explain ISO and shutter speed and aperture to him, I realize that I really do get it – I think. That doesn’t mean I nail it all the time, but the theory I got. Just like in college. I was theory queen and could derive equations all day long. I know I know….at this point you’re thinking….”Wait, Wendy is a know-it-all and a nerd? I *must* invite her to my next party” ….Well, invite away, I say. My schedule is wiiiiide open. Anyway, the point is it really helps me understand that I understand while I’m explaining things to E and what’s more if he asks me something I don’t know..well, then I just fake it, but then later look it up and act like I knew it all the time. I know. I’m insufferable. I don’t know how he puts up with me. This weekend offered plenty of opportunity to stretch my know-it-allness. E and I went again to the Farmer’s market – giving the jam/jelly circuit a wide berth, of course, and two outdoor parks whose names escape me right now, and a vegetarianfest/craft show we just stumbled upon I actually wish we’d known about that beforehand..being a veggie I’m always on the lookout for likeminded individuals, even if they do reek of patulie oil and incense…and because it was the weekend and we wanted to make the most of the day, we started shooting in the morning and didn’t stop until the evening. This meant we shot during the harsh sunlight hours. This gave us excellent practice exposing for shaded subjects in a bright foreground. It was really difficult. Sunday we went to Celebration, FL which was apparently built by Disney to be the model for an ideal community. It was very Disney…very clean friendly and expensive! There we ran into another Farmers’ Market complete with Craft Fair. While a beautiful area it was a little Stepford feeling and I wanted to beat it before I saw a short blonde woman carrying a camera with a southern accent coming my way. Next we went to Mt. Dora and ran into a, of course, craft show. (I must say I’m proud of myself for leaving the day without purchasing one water bottle macrame huggie or recycled bottle cap art.) Mt. Dora was very nice but way too many people. I was happy to end the day at the Azalea park, which actually had no azaleas, but we did run into two wedding photogs there doing engagement sessions. I was confused to see flashes on their cameras. I didn’t stick around to see if they used them but it seemed odd to me to want to use a flash a 6:00 in the evening.
Well that was a our weekend..we parted this afternoon and will see each other again on Friday when we both fly into New Orleans to take care of some family business and get ready for the Pictage Partner Con! Yay!
Here are some pics from this weekend. I will add more later but for now, I’m bushed and tired and thristy…if only I had some cool device I could use to keep my water bottle handy…..
WV
Loved the outdoor ambience of this little Greek Restaurant where we at Sat. night!
Crazy butt gourds we saw at a pumpkin patch at Celebration
CORN! ’nuff said
View from wooden adirondacks at Celebration…You can almost hear “It’s a small World” in in the background
Hotel in Celebration
Hotel in Mt. Dora…I was playing with my wide angle lens!
Loved the quaint address and gate at Mt. Dora
Filed under: Personal, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Tags: central Florida, Craft Fair, photography
Wanted: Photographer’s Identity
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to interact with those folks who want me to take their picture. During the Portfolio + Workshop I attended last week I watched as several leaders in the wedding photography business interacted with the models. There was a frenetic energy guy and a couple of flirty guys who, though benignly, flirted with the girls. I understand that this is their way of getting the models to relax and have confidence, which is at least half the battle to getting a good picture, and we did get some doozies. But it left me wondering, how I could get the same result if I was interacting with these beautiful young women. How do I relate to them? We all know that women can be notoriously catty and jealous. I also know that even if the cat is staring at me from the other end of the lens, I can relax them by rolling over on my back and exposing my belly, metaphorically speaking of course. To do this I have to let them know that they are top dog (or cat in this case) and that I’m no threat either physically or intellectually – meaning they can’t think that I’m purposely going to take bad pictures of them, make them look fat…etc….I know this dynamic exists because I’ve been guilty of avoiding it myself. SIGH…women are, well, complicated. But then, who am I? I’m much older than my prospective clientele but not old enough to be their mother (or so I’d like to think). So who does that make me then that could relax them? I guess I could be the older aunt 
But am I the aunt who tells them to sit up straight and get their elbows off the table or am I the cool aunt who takes them to get a tattoo when their mother is out of town? I would guess the latter, but then I remember the story I told my nephew when he was acting up during one family vacation. I told him that he was, in fact, not my sister’s first child, that she had another boy, Scott, who died because he didn’t listen to his mother when she told him NOT to slide down the stairs on his pillow. Scott died in a tragic stair sliding accident. Yes, I really did that. It didn’t work, but up until last year he wasn’t sure if he had an older dead brother. So is that my angle? Tell these girls that if they don’t pose correctly they’ll go the way of Scott? No, that can’t be it. Do I pull on my roots as an engineer and take measurements of their head, eyes, and cheekbones run some calculations to find the best angle for them to be photographed? Who am I? What will work? This will be my challenge in the coming months. If you are a woman and reading this blog, let me know how and what puts you at ease in front of the camera, especially if there are a pair of double ‘X’ chromosomes on the business end of the camera.
Here is something that’s NOT complicated. Probably the simplest, happiest thing in the world. Enjoy
WV
PS This is NOT Scott.
Happy Simple Good
Filed under: Personal | 2 Comments
Tags: photographer's identity, photography identity
That’s what my husband told me yesterday over the phone as he was reading my blog. Weird, because I see comedy in everything we do! Since we’ve met each other we’ve had sleep overs, beauty night – complete with mani-pedi’s and facials – and scary movie night. We’ve also had funny movie night, romantic comedy movie night, and on the agenda is mobster night. Neither of us has seen every Sopranos episode and we’ve talked about doing it forever. So next on our Netflix queue is The Sopranos season 1. It kind of makes me wish we lived someplace cold. Somehow curling up to a gangster movie marathon under a blanket with some popcorn sounds just awesome. Instead, here in south Florida we’re treated to balmy 75 degree weather nights with the ceiling fan on high. Anywho…we’re big on the movies. Other old people things we do is call our dogs our children and refer to each other as Mommy and Daddy when speaking to said children. Maybe I’ve been in Florida too long. I always remember what they said about Florida….it’s for the newly wed or nearly dead…If I start blogging about what a great deal early bird specials are at the IHOP, or if I buy tennis balls halves to put on the bottom of a walker or reference anything called a “Rascal” please send help as I’ve been in Florida way too long.
If any of you reading has been reading for any time at all, you know I’m starting my own photography business. Never did I think I would enjoy working such long hours (technically I’m working now…blogging counts as work, I decided). I do enjoy it, but I’ve been wrapped up in the business end of things lately….In the past few days I’ve attended an SEO webinar, designed and ordered business cards, registered a domain, created a website (go HERE! http://wendyveephotography.com) and set up a studio. Well, let’s say I halfway set up a studio. This bit is killing me. I first ordered the studio lights and requisit soft boxes only to have the lightstands backordered for 2 weeks. For those of you who know me in person, you know I’m not a patient woman. I set up the softboxes and they’ve been lying around the house in wait for the lightstand. I was thrilled when they came this week. I set the first one up then went to my light to attach it to the stand. At first the jingle jingle sound it made when I picked it up reminded me of Christmas. How fun! Then I wondered if that sound would get in the way of shooting. Then my brain woke up and I realized that was the shattered light tube inside the chamber making that sound. Great! Now I have lightstand and softboxes, but no light!! SOO frustrating. I contacted B&H about it and can’t tell you how refreshing it was to talk with folks who are so dedicated to customer service. They wanted to make things right so quickly and badly that you just can’t help but be impressed. I recommend them to everyone – wholeheartedly! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve called them for an item and they’ve actually presented me with LOWER priced items. I love those guys.
Was I going anywhere with that? I think I started with being so caught up in the business side of things that I haven’t been able to shoot this week. It’s driving me nuts! I feel like an addict without her fix. Tomorrow I WILL shoot. Tomorrow I WILL call my neighbors who told me they wanted to do portraits at the beach. While I’m at this let me throw in some things I will NOT do. I will NOT eat an entire roll of Sweetearts just to get to the purple ones. I will not squirt whipped cream in my mouth directly from the container and I especially will not ingnore the huge pile of laundry in the laundry room. I promise … 
Because I love my husband and I think the 70s were an awesome time for clothes, here’s a picture of him from back in the day. I don’t think I was born yet…..
Filed under: Personal | 1 Comment
OK, after struggling with Showit (the easy website for photographers) all day, I attended a Webinar on SEO. For those of you not hip enough to know what SEO stands for (I thought it was some sort of executive officer at first), it is Search Engine Optimization. After listening to the proper way to market and promote your business coupled with struggling to get my burgeoning website to do what I wanted it do do, I seriously considered outsourcing this part of the business. You know, the easy way out! Just throw money at it because it’s hard! And then I remembered 3 things: 1. I AM smart enough to figure this out 2. I really want this to work and need to understand all aspects of the business and 3. I have no money…….So there it is, and here I am. During the webinar tofurious (www.tofurious.com) recommended blogging using WordPress because the web crawly thingies do more mumbledy jumbeldy stuff and people find your site easier. Pretty straight forward, huh?
So, just as I was getting comfortable enough to kick the tires and stretch out with my old blog, I’m hopping over here. Good news is that I haven’t been at this for very long, so I think I can convince my 2 followers to hop over here. )
So here it is…Short and sweet for today, but I’ll post a picture to get the hang of it and because I like to look at pictures. More later sports fans.
Cheers!
WV
The picture below was taken at the precise moment I understood SEO
This is a picture of me taken at the precise moment I understood SEO
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