"Get There A Few Minutes Early In Case We Have A 10:00"

...that's what my boss said to me Tuesday night...
and that's what I did Wednesday morning.

Except for the fact that getting up early does not mesh with my night owl bones, I like opening the studio. It's just me and the incredible camera I work with. Nikon. But I won't hold that against it just because I'm a Canon girl.

The first thing I do is go straight to my enormous capture device and free it from it's dust-free purgatory. Then plug in the battery pack, twist on the transceiver and wait for the beep that lets me know all systems are go. Today...no beep.

Turn off the transceivers, switch 'em back on. Nothing. Take everything apart, put it all back together. Silence. I start to panic. The transceivers are what send the flash signal to and from my lights so I can work. Try new batteries in the transceiver. Still...no high-pitched shrill to let me know we are functioning and ready. I'm spread out on the floor trying to figure this thing out, all the lights and numbers on this board thing (I still have to investigate as to what exactly it all means), not being able to run my QC (daily camera quality check through the computer to make sure there is no dust and the gray-balance passes), and my first sit will be here before I know it.

Luckily, my boss comes in. "Help," I sigh, exasperated. "Oh, I forgot to tell you," she says. It's not working right now so we have to plug it in. (Whatever that means.)
I spend the rest of my shift trying to maneuver around background drapes and kid's props with a cord coming out of my camera that keeps tripping me up.

Oh, and by the way, my QC passed with flying numbers. At least I know I am pro at taking an extreme close-up of a gray board. More on how that functions later...

Alas...

...home sick this week. This ENTIRE week. Not fun...would have rather been at work. (Imagine that.) Nothing to report on right now, but I am feeling better and am scheduled to work on Wednesday.
I did get a chance to go to Barnes and Noble and grab a book on lighting so at least I am still learning from my death-bed.

What The Heck Does That Mean?

Once upon a time, during my first stint as a "professional photographer", I was taking pictures of tourists feeding the birds at Lorikeet Landing of the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Never being the one to do things normally, to get people's attention, I would yell out "Cheese!" before snapping my shot. A little boy caught my attention once when he yelled back, "Cheese and applesauce!", a big grin on his face.

In the very near future, this blog will start growing with information. My second job that allows me to call myself a "professional photographer" (a title I happen to love), is currently at a portrait studio. All the technical, creative, and anecdotal things that I'm learning will be shared with whoever might happen to as geeky as me and read this.
Stay tuned...