Student Report# It doesn't matter anymore

What did you accomplish in the last week?
I can't say I've accomplished anything this week. It's been rough.

What problems did you encounter this week?
Personal problems.

What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
In the next week, we have to design our logo for AP, and as such, I will hopefully be able to design my business card.

What provided you with satisfaction this week?
Pretty much nothing. Although, I got to include the name of a very important person in my hallway piece. Not much. I just figured that if "I" am going to be in this school for a while after I graduate, I would like to have a little piece of her here with me.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
Not being able to concentrate on any of my work.    

First Photoshoot in a While

So today, after school, I'm going to have a photo shoot with my friend, Nicole Abelove. She's one of my favorite models to work with because we are very comfortable with each other. And through my little bit of experience with working with models, comfort is a big deal. I can't explain how hard it is to work with models who you don't personally feel comfortable with.

• Miranda- The first person I worked with. My friend, Kim, was designing clothes for the schools fashion show, and had asked Miranda to model for her. She was originally going to take the photos herself, but since I happened to be around, she figured I would take the photos and she would direct Miranda. Looking at the photos now, they really were not that great; maybe 5 total that I personally liked, but regardless, it was the fact that it got me started.
• Lauren/Haley- My ex's neighbor Amy was the first to hire me to take photos. Sadly, it was photos of her two children, Lauren and Haley. Cute kids, but I feel awkward directing them. I feel like it's not my place to order them around. This is how I feel about all kids, such as my step-mom's cousin's daughter. She's 8 (I think), but she's a child who is just not fun for me to be around.
• Kevin- The first guy I worked with, and was honestly the easiest. We picked a location, he had outfits, he brought a prop (his guitar) and we just went. Even though we weren't personal friends, he could tell me what he wanted in the photos, which gave me a guideline of sorts/boundaries in which I was free to work with. I loved that. Having all of the control puts too much pressure on me, and then I panic, and then it's just bad times for everyone.
• Lauren (Lawr)- A good friend of mine, who is very confident in front of the camera. Working with her is a dream, because she has range. I've noticed that some models, not just ones I've personally worked with but in general, tend to have their go-to pose, or the blank/pissed off face. I don't particularly like that, at all. Lawr, on the other hand, can go from angry pissed off to flirty/seductive to happy/bubbly. And she takes direction very well. Writing this has just made me want to set up another shoot with her.
• Nicole- Working with Nicole is fun. There is no pressure to get good shots. After our first shoot, there was only one that we both truly loved, and it happened completely on accident. The rest of the shoot was just us messing around, and it was such a great experience to be able to take photos without any pressure. And today, we are having another photo shoot. This one is going to be a bit more racy, I guess, and initially I'll try to be professional, but knowing the two of us, we'll be joking about the entire situation and just having fun again within a few minutes.

I kind of lost track of where exactly I was going with this, but basically:

I'm excited.

Student Report# The one after the last.

What did you accomplish in the last week?
In the last week, I've started uploading my AP portfolio. Two weeks and 200+ points off later, but at least it's going. And as per AP art, I've started the first clone photo I've done in months.

What problems did you encounter this week?
My review. If I had any other problems, they have been pushed to the side by my review.

What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
In this week, I want to finish my hallway piece as soon as I can and replace a photo in my Concentration.

What provided you with satisfaction this week?
The positive feedback I got for my hallway piece made me pretty happy. It's good to know that my personal mark on this school will hopefully get a decent grade.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
The review. Forever and always, this review.    

I Hate This Review. So Much.

Between getting my AP work together, (trying to) start my online class, and posing for Alyssa, I have had next to no time to do this damn review.

• It litterally took me two hours to label each photo I took with the band members who are in it. I understand that not every band is going to have a website or a facebook page; I would love it, cause that would make life so much easier, but I get that it won't happen. However, for the bands who do have pages, why can't you have either each member with their instrument or a group photo with each member labeled? Is that really so difficult? Seriously, come on.
• Also, as a whole, I really don't like it when bands drop out of shows. Again, I understand that stuff happens, considering quite a few bands I'm friends with have done that before, but still! The way Talent Farm works is, when you pay to get in, you get a wrist band that has every band (in order) who is playing that night. Now, when bands drop out, and you don't actually know who the bands are, it messes up who you think is playing. This makes my job much more difficult.
• Also, when bands suck. Not that I personally care, but this one band said "Hey, we've only practiced twice before, we don't know what we're doing... MIAMI HARDCORE!" and started playing. They were okay, but it's hard for me to write about it.

So yeah, I hate this show, and I honestly regret doing it. But now I don't even care if I get paid or not, I just want to no longer have this review looming over my head. If I miss another show, that looks pretty bad. This really is a great deal for me, being able to get into shows without spending any money, and I really don't want to lose this.


I'm just never going to cover a show without prior knowledge of the bands themselves. That was incredibly stupid.

Tired. Sore. Dissapointed.

Last night was my first show at Talent Farm for OutLoud and to be completely and brutally honest...

It sucked.

Hard.

It's not that the music was bad or anything, I actually thoroughly enjoyed having a change of pace from my usual upbeat Ska to the Hardcore that was assaulting my eardrums, but a HUGE part of the fun I have at shows, at Talent Farm or Solid Sounds especially, is that I get to take hundreds of photos of the bands and the crowd as well.

This was not the case last night. I was already pissed off because after biking from Davie to my house, to my dads in North Lakes, back  to my house, and then hauling ass to Talent Farm to make it there by six,  I find out that there is next to no one there, and the show didn't start for another hour and a half (time I could have spent for homework). But you know what? Fine. Talent Farm is never on time, but I'll deal with it. Even if I'm tired as hell.

But oh wait, there's more.

During the last song of the opening band, the memory card randomly wiped everything like it has before. And with that, 100+ photos that I hadn't been able to put onto my laptop are now gone. Of those, there were 5 or 6 that I wanted to use for my personal project, but oh well. I guess I just wasn't meant to have those. It's not like there was an entire 90 minutes I spent by myself, bored to tears, waiting for this damn show to start that I could have been using to back everything up. Oh. Wait. There was.

At this point, the show is in full swing. Litterally. At hardcore shows, the method of dance is primarily to swing your limbs as hard and fast as possible, with little to no care of who the hell is around you. Even if I wasn't the youngest one there, the smallest one there, the weakest one there, I still had to take care of my camera. And I can't exactly hold my own against huge pissed off men. So that made taking quality photos all but impossible to do. If I didn't have people flying between my camera and the bands (all of whom decided "let's set up on the floor guys! Give the crowd as little room as possible!") I had to worry about fists and feet swinging at me from my blind spots. Several times I could hear the woosh of air pass inches from my head, and with none of my friends there to look out for me, I was honestly terrified.

So not only am I incredibly dissapointed with my photos, as far as writing the review for the magazine, I don't know what I'm going to do. The band's didn't play in the original line-up, I'm pretty sure one band didn't go on at all, and I doubt any of them have web pages for me to check out the band members and what they play (the information I need to label each photo with).

And on top of the astronomical amount of SUCK that was my night, it just wouldn't be finished unless I had to ride my bike for 40 minutes in the dark through near abandoned, poorly lit streets in Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches, scared that I'm going to get mugged and/or killed.

So yea, I need money and I need to build up my portfolio, but I refuse to do shows for bands I don't personally like. $20 bucks is incredibly not worth it.

Student Report # I can't remember

What did you accomplish in the last week?
In the last week, my major accomplishment was getting my breadth and concentration together.

What problems did you encounter this week?
As far as WISE is concerned, I didn't really have any problems. 

What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
In the next week, I want to start working on getting an official portfolio together. I don't expect to be "done" soon, but I hope to get the bulk of it going.  


What provided you with satisfaction this week?
Critique for AP art was very satisfactory, seeing as how I now have a Concentration that would actually work.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
I have nothing to be dissatisfied with, I just wish I had gotten more blogs done like I had planned. But I do hope to get back into blogging cause even when the year is over, I want to keep it going.

It's Been A While

My dear blog, I have been neglecting you, and for that, I am terribly sorry.

I wish I could go over everything that happened, but sadly my memory can't handle every awesome detail. But here are some of the highlights.

• I was published again! OutLoud published my review for Streetlight Manifesto, and I got my check and three copies in the mail.  I realized how much my editors can change what I've written; one line in particular was given different punctuation which drastically changed the infliction I was trying to give. I am not exactly "proud" of this review, and only two of my photos were put in the magazine, but on principle alone, it's still pretty awesome.
• My laptop is in recovery. Afraid to have it on for extended periods of time, I'm trying to backup all of my important files first. Right now, I'm backing up music files onto CDs, and next will be photos that I haven't already uploaded to Facebook. Whenever I get a steady paying job, I intend on buying a new laptop. Hopefully it will be before my current one crashes completely and will make the file transfer process much easier. Possibly.
• Before my laptop initially crashed, I was at a concert where I discovered how to do my Ghost photos that I mentioned in an earlier post. Not only have I recovered those photos (and finally sent them to the respective bands) but at a show on Sunday, I discovered how exactly I got that effect. I am now proud to say I have started my 3rd(?) series of photos, which I have already titled "Ghosts from the Pit." I am very, very glad to have that again.
• One last major point: I now have a Breadth AND Concentration. Between my AP backup, already printed out ex-concentration pieces, and new photos, I have been able to recreate my Breadth which is to be uploaded early next week. And as far as my Concentration, I am actually ecstatic. My original idea was fun, but not visually cohesive and had no progression. But now, I've been told that due to my controlled lighting and tendency to favor the right side of the frame, my photos are cohessive, I have found Visual Voice, and there is some progression.

I have quite honestly pulled an entire year of AP work out of my... Hat. ^-^