Over-inflated Egos and Not so Nice People

So as everyone knows, at the beginning of this month my roommates decided to kick me out of my own apartment for no reason- no reason meaning they have no given me a reason.  Between modeling, planning for the wedding, and trying to move all of my property to my fiance's house life has been crazy busy.

With that said, my topic today is I just don't understand people's attitudes.  My roommates went from being my good friends who were going to be bridesmaids in my wedding, to bitches who kick me out and refuse to talk to me.  It makes me wonder if they ever even were my friends and how long they have been pretending for.  It's creepy to think about considering all I have done for them thinking I knew who they were.

I also received a message from a photographer on Facebook.  He did not have a page posted on his profile (MM, OMP, etc) but did have some photos posted.  Honestly, they were technically correct- lighting, composition, etc, but they really weren't anything special, they were just nice photos.  Also the girls in the photos for the most part looked like attractive girls, but their poses and facial expressions did not seem like those of a model, more like those of a pretty girl looking to become a model.  Like I said, nothing wrong with that, they were nice photos, but I have been past doing TF shoots for nice photos for a long time.  I was polite and thanked him for his interest and sent him my rates.  Almost immediately he messages me back all huffy with a hurt ego.  The thing that got me most was " I give up to 40 hours of my time with the retouching of many pictures and every model I have worked with will tell you it was worth their time."  Forty hours?  Really?  For the type of photos he was doing- casual, commercial sort of look, very plain- unless these girls had God-awful skin or he does all his lighting in post, why does he need forty hours?  Most shoots I do are about 4-6 hours, that would mean 36-34 hours of post work!  For how many photos?  I saw about maybe 10-15 photos per shoot.  So that's about three to four hours editing each photo!  Why?!  As a busy person I like to do things as efficiently as possible, so why anyone would spend that much time on very Sears family portrait photos is beyond me.  Maybe if you are Michael Rosen who gives out only one photo per shoot because he spends days editing a single photo I can understand, but besides that you're just being ridiculous.

Leading in to my main point- why do photographers think it's an accomplishment to spend gobs of time on editing a handful of photos?  The most common response I receive from inexperienced photographers who think they are a special-snowflake is "I spend X hours on editing my photos, that's why I'm awesome!"  To me that just says you're spending 3 hours dicking around not knowing what you're doing and maybe about 10-20 minutes actually editing the photo.  I work with photographers who spend gobs of time editing photos to get them perfect because they love what they do and the only thing they mention about the time it took is "Hey, here are the photos, I'm sorry it took me so long to send them to you.  I just wanted to make sure the X, Y, and Z were like A, B or C."  I always find it odd that it's the inexperienced photographers who act like jerks and the experienced photographers never say a word about how much effort they put in and how I should grovel and be grateful.

That's my little rant for today, I just wish some photographers would realize that if doing photography and editing photos is a chore then they might not be in the right field and should pursue something else.

Bringing in the New Year

So it's New Year's Eve and it's my resolution to try and keep a regular blog, at popular demand by people I work with.  I have worked hard on creating a name for myself in modeling, and I think I can say with confidence I am somebody to be taken seriously in the industry.  I started June 2008, two and a half years ago, with my best friend Ophelia Darkly.  I never imagined either of us would be where we are now.  Here is a full list of my work for 2010:

January 11- Pink Label
January 15-Milwaukee M&G Fashion Show
January 16-Wally World Workshop
January 17-DJW Photography
January 23-Painted Muse 2
February 2-Christian G Carlson
February 13-Seth Garcia Photography
February 13-DevoidandDeveil Fashion Show
February 14- David Bracho
February 25-MakeUp and Hair by Anita A
February 26- Concept Weekend
March 6-Ohio State Reformatory
March 13-Anything Goes 5
March 16-Pink Label Griffin Lounge Fashion Show
March 20-DW DALLAM Photography
March 21-DW DALLAM Photography
March 22-DW DALLAM Photography
March 23-DW DALLAM Photography
March 24-DW DALLAM Photography
March 25-DW DALLAM Photography


March 26-DW DALLAM Photography
April 2-Sugar and Spice
April 3- Christian G Carlson
April 9-IADT Schaumburg Imagine Fashion Show
April 14-Pink Label Maison de Couture Spring Trunk Show
April 17-Studio MLP Open House
April 22- Graffiti Photography
April 24- Christian G Carlson
May 1-Leather and Lace
May 1-Graffiti Photography
May 20-Vinyl Photo
May 22-Barbie and Ken Photography-United Event
May 25-Sugar and Spice
May 29-Christian G Carlson
June 11-Griffin Lounge Fashion Show
June 19-Aquatica Pink Label Fashion Show
June 24-DiLi Summer Trunk Show
June 25-Robert A Photography
June 27-DevoidandDeveil Fashion Show
July 2-The Kindred AMFF
July 9-Sugar and Spice
July 9-Pink Label Fashion Show
July 10-Basilare Jewelry
July 22-Legio X Studios
July 23-Synergy M&G Graffiti Photography
July 24-Synergy Workshop
July 25-Synergy Workshop
July 26-Synergy Workshop
July 29-David Bracho
Aug 5-GenCon
Aug 6-GenCon
Aug 7-GenCon
Aug 8-GenCon
Sept 9-Vinyl Photo
Sept 9-Pink Label Fashion Show and Contest
Sept 18-STUN Photography Monsters and Motors
Sept 25-Scott Kashian
Oct 9-Nailed Jello

Oct 10-Scott Kashian
Oct 17-Stix and Roses Boutique Fashion Show
Oct 20-WRK Photos
Oct 20-Alatus Photography
Oct 23-Halloween Bash 3
Nov 2-Christian G Carlson
Nov 5-Christian G Carlson
Nov 7-Scott Kashian
Nov 9-MUA shoot with Vinyl Photo and Ophelia Darkly
Nov 13-Legio X Studios and Kimberly H Photography
Nov 17-Latin Webzine featuring Fashion Frost
Nov 19-Fashion Frost Fashion Show
Nov 24 Red Rum Collaboration
Nov 27-Nailed Jello 2
Dec 4-No Name Workshop
Dec 5-Model Chicago Magazine
Dec 9-Pink Label Shop IN Chicago Winter Trunk Show
Dec 11-Christian G Carlson
Dec 12-Scott Kashian
Dec 16-Minx Parlor Fashion Show
Dec 18-Cynergy 67 concert stage performance
Dec 19-Scott Kashian

That's about 80 events!  I'm sure I've forgotten a couple of photo shoots, most likely because I never received photos from them in order to properly document them.  Last year I had only about 50 events and only about 20 events in 2008.  (All not counting TF shoots where I did not receive photos-glares at the unprofessional photographers)  It's been a great year and I hope to have even more events next year!