kate's thoughts

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So I had my first shoot with a real client yesterday, one I mentioned a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it was only one (Jenny) of the two singing students from TAFE, as the other student (Zac) had an audition in Kew and couldn't make it back in time.
But its all good - Jenny and I had a blast. We warmed up to each other relatively quickly, figuring out what each other needed from the shoot (she needed shots for publicity, I needed shots that had a good ISO rating for istock *heh*), and we did 200+ photos. I had to delete some, as my 2GB card quickly filled up (RAW photos at 8-10MB each!), but I obviously kept the ones that were promising.

So, I haven't really had a chance to go through them all, as I have 2 and a half weeks left before all of my homework is due (EEK! OMFG!), but I will grab some of the good ones soon and send them to her.

Jenny-and-the-Joyriders

Because I had some time to kill after our shoot, I followed Jenny to their band practice. Figured I might get a few snaps of them playing because I had a little bit of room left on my card. Unfortunately, the rooms in here had horrible lighting, so this is taken at 1600ISO.
Also, I think they were missing one of the band players. I'm not sure. So I don't think this is the whole band. But you get the drift :D

Anyways, I'd better head off, have some lunch and get stuck into my homework again.

Well, I'm finally getting my first 'previously-unknown' clients! I say this, because I have been working on a corporate identity for Josh' mum's business for a few weeks, but I've known her for years so that has helped me with the negotiation process.

So! I'm freaking out about this, but I've been organising via mobile and email with two students from my TAFE that are doing Singing Certificate IV. They need photos for publicity and other assignments, I need to fatten up my photography side of my portfolio (and hopefully score some model releases for istock) so it should work out.

But yeah, I'm freaking out about it because I don't know what these two people want from their photos, when they're free, how they act, how friendly they are... Ack! I guess this is a good way to start getting my portfolio built up, for my confidence to increase and all that crap :D

Wish me luck!

But I think I will need the most luck on getting through all of my homework in 4 weeks.

I've sat down this morning and figured out all the things I have to hand in, complete and find space to accommodate any extra work I might (and probably will) receive. I have so much to do that its a little over whelming, but I know that if I ignore the scared side of my mind I can get through it all and make it look awesome.

Yesterday I was whinging and complaining about how much work I had to do, but Josh helped me snap out of it and now I'm seeing that this is a good opportunity to get my organisation skills a good work out and to understand that this is a part of life.

It is overwhelming, but I know I can do it. Anyway, I'm so far ahead of the rest of my class that I know I'll get more done and it'll look fantastic :) (just to toot my own horn)

Okay, enough talking. Better get back to it before I have to head off to class.

I was just looking at the amount of posts I did over the past few years (I couldn't believe I've had this blog since 2006!) and the amount I've done this year compared to last year is a big difference. I've been so wrapped up in thinking about all the things I need to do rather than just sitting down and starting somewhere.
I'm sure everyone else can sympathize with that... Its so frustrating.

I've been wanting to get all these little doodles I've been doing over the past few months into vector form and get them uploaded to istock, but I've been rejected by a few that were "not suitable as stock" that I've been feeling a little downhearted lately. Vectors sell so nicely because of the fixed rate, that I really want to get more of them up. Plus, it will encourage me to be more imaginative, creative and will make me continue drawing... which will in turn, lead to me become better at drawing... but I just can't get my butt into gear.

The other thing that is making me hesitate is that when I started uploading to istock, I would just upload willy-nilly, not worrying about how many rejections I would get. Now that there's that little percentage of accept/reject, that number for me is really quite low, and I don't want to make it any worse.

But, I have been doing some digital artwork. I've been using my google reader like mad lately, and I've subscribed to a bunch of websites that do tutorials on random things. Most of them, unfortunately, are for Photoshop (not Illustrator), but this is allowing me to stay creative and keep the juices flowing. I've found a few more Illustrator ones recently, so I'm hoping I find some neat tricks soon :)

Also, last week I went to AGIdeas again. This helped me feel a bit more inspired, as some of the speakers there were fantastic. Unfortunately, because this conference was through TAFE, I have to write up a big essay about it, which has added ontop of my already large pile of homework...
This is the other obstacle that I've had to face when it comes to doing things for myself/for istock. I've got so much homework this year (final year) that whenever I have some free time, I feel like I should do my homework, not sit and play around in Illustrator :)
I have been trying to do more things for my work that include vectors with the possibility of it being stock material, and its starting to work, but they're sort of specialised stuff (or ripping off others work - which is fine as long as I don't try to sell these and keep it simply as school work).

I'd better go. I've got 40 minutes left of my shift, so I'd better look sharp ;)

I promise I will try to update more often. I really want to do more random non-istock photography, so I will hopefully come here to share that with anyone who's interested.

Not sure whether this is worthy of stock photography - the focal point seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that I'm looking at it 100%...

The focal point is almost half way through the 'scribble', whilst the pen is out of focus. What does everyone think?

IMG_0677 kate

Hey - what do you think of my banner? I <3 it muchly :D

Haven't been here in about 6 weeks. Sorry!

Not much to report really. Been really focused on TAFE work so far. Had 4 weeks already, and whats cool is only 2 more weeks until holidays! *hehe*
Part of our curricular is to go to AGIdeas again, which this year falls during term 2 (which is nice :) ). I'm really psyched for it, as I didn't know what to expect last year. Now I've been, I know a lot more about it! I've been browsing the speakers over the past few weeks and there seems to be some really interesting people. I hope I can learn a lot :)
Also, on the note of TAFE, apparently the specific building that I go to (there are 4 campus') was on fire last night! I'm curious as to what this is going to mean for my classes, but I don't have to worry about this until Tuesday, as tomorrow is Labor day (which is a public holiday).

I'm currently at work right now, and this German lady just walked up to me. I reckon she must be taking a few too many pills or something, because she was talking to me like I was an old friend and mixing German in with English.
Just smile and nod...
Crazy old woman *hehe* Customers can be funny sometimes.

I have to share, because yesterday this boggled my mind. I was playing with my kitty Misty. I was running my fingers underneath a piece of material which was underneath her, and she was batting and biting at my finger. After a minute or two, I wasn't concentrating hard enough and she got a good hold of my left index finger's nail and started to chomp down hard. It hurt like hell, I pulled my hand out to examine it and found out she cracked my nail! It's broken half way down! It didn't break off (THANK GOD) but it bled a little underneath and smarts a lot. But, I don't think it'll take long to grow out, but I think I'm going to have a bruise for awhile.

Hmm... so bored. But I'm writing boring things, so I'd better go. At least the first 1hr, 45min has gone relatively quickly. I hope the other 5h, 15min go just as fast *fingers crossed*.

Ciao!