M.I.A

Sorry I've been M.I.A!! March was a busy month. Justin, my friend from college, visited me for a week and we spent three days in San Francisco. We rented a car and took Route 1/the PCH up the coast to get there. It took 10 hours to get there (instead of 6 or 7 hours via Route 5), but it was worth it!! I wasn't too impressed with Pebble Beach but the drive along Big Sur was amazing. We hit up all of the typical San Fran locales... went to Alcatraz; drove down Lombard Street; found the REAL Full House House (1709 Broderick Street); Visited Alamo Square/Painted Ladies; walked 1/4 way across the Golden Gate Bridge; took photos from the Marin Headlands; went to Fisherman's Wharf; ate Thai food. All and all, a fun trip!! I also introduced Justin to Pinkberry and now he is an addict. We ate Pinkberry (sometimes for breakfast!!) at least 4 times that week.

Also in March, my favorite boss Dave Nagel landed a HUGE job for Best Buy. It was a four-day shoot with 11 models and an excellent crew!! We shot at 5th and Sunset studios whose in-house chef spoiled us with breakfast and lunch every day. Breakfast burritos; bacon and eggs; French toast and fresh fruit for breakfast. Pork tenderloin on Monday; grilled chicken on Tuesday; salmon on Wednesday and skirt steak on Thursday--always accompanied by salad, sides and dessert!! Did I mention there's a coffee bar?! Best studio to work in!! During the four days, my boss shot an impressive 11,759 photos!! I shot a lot of production stills and videos that will available after the ad campaign debuts this October. I have to admit, I am impressed with the quality of Canon's 5D Mark II video setting... but the fact that it's manual focus is a drag. I had the opportunity and pleasure to work with Kirk Weddle, my boss's longtime friend, who produced the shoot. (For those of you who may not know, Kirk shot Nirvana's infamous baby underwater album cover for their album "Nevermind." You can read the whole story here). Watching Kirk and Dave interact and hearing all of their crazy college stories was a blast!! Can't wait to work with both of them again... which luckily will be soon!!

I've been drawing a lot of cutesy comics lately which I am hoping to display on a personal website. I just created an awesome summery comic but it's still spring so you'll have to wait to see it!! I'd love for a website or magazine to want to buy my comics for their publication. I should really look into it but I have to find the right market for them first.

And that pretty much sums up March, other than consuming lots of delicious Ice Pan, babysitting, going on an ebay spending spree and having my Polaroid camera break... luckily two replacements are on their way!!

BUSY BEE

a look back on my busy, busy week...

monday: retouched photos for my favorite boss dave. :) i love working with dave because he's so easy going; a great person to talk to; and sometimes we even accomplish A LOT.
tuesday: modeled for james. i secretly love getting my hair and makeup done. the photos came out great.
wed and thurs: retouched photos for my favorite boss dave. and i even passed on getting pinkberry. wow.
friday: dealt with my car. retouched for a few hours and babysat from 6 pm to 12 am.
sat and sun: worked a two-day promotion.
monday: finished retouching photos for my favorite boss dave. ate thai food with rick and james. packed.

i have been incredibly busy lately... which is GREAT!! especially because i am taking a looong vacation and heading back to NJ til october. yes, i'm probably crazy for staying that long but i think it's a wise decision. my cousin is getting married in october so instead of flying back and forth, i decided to extend my stay in order to spend more time with family and friends. my grandmother recently broke her femur bone so i am glad i will be able to keep her company while she is living in a rehabilitation home. my birthday is in september, so i will be able to spend the day being showered with gifts from loved ones. ;) hahaha. as much as i enjoy living in california and am SO grateful for the opportunities i have been given, sometimes i feel like i'm missing out on the simple things in life... like being able to hang out with your best friends or spending the weekend with my mother. luckily nobody has a problem with visiting me in california (hehe), but being able to go back to the comfort of your childhood home is priceless.

most fun work day

i worked for my favorite boss dave on thursday and it was thee most fun work day i ever had!! it was very mellow, but very productive. first, dave shot photos of me with an iphone... mostly torso shots that would make killer iphone ads. then dave's neighbor's daughter arielle came over and i shot photos of her on dave's swing and photos of her with her dogs. then dave shot photos of her. then dave shot photos of me and arielle doing cartwheels. then i shot photos of arielle doing handstands and some mid-air jumping shots. then dave's wife mary came home and became a mid-air model. dave took some really good photos of mary with their foster dogs. then dave shot photos of me, arielle and mary jumping. and finally, i shot photos of dave and mary jumping. we shot exactly 1,000 photos... lots of good ones dave can hopefully sell on getty images which is why i can't upload them onto here. but i will post a link after they've been accepted by getty!! so stay tuned. :) :) :)

hard work.

today was a grueling day of work at nagel photography. i love working for my favorite boss, but sometimes it's more work than i anticipated. i started at 6:30 am and was so busy i didn't get a chance to sit down until 3:00 pm!! i had to clean alllll of my boss's camera equipment; program his computer so lightroom would stop screwing up; iron and sew a VELVET backdrop that was 14 x 20 ft long; build an entire set (basically from scratch) for our upcoming baby shoot, edit 283 images; give his dogs a bath; set up his digital cable; make him lunch AND fold his laundry. sure, those seem like manageable tasks, but his phone would not stop ringing AND i had to quickly learn japanese in order to talk to the adobe help tech who was walking me through the new beta version of lightroom. i cut my finger on a shelf while i was organizing all of my boss's camera gear in his garage but luckily, my boss let me take a two minute break to get a band-aid (he's such a nice guy). he also let me work two minutes overtime. i didn't get home until 7:15!! and then i had to cook dinner.

...NOT. ;)

"I LOVE MY JOB!!"

for the past two days, i worked for my favorite boss dave who keeps me busy/employed so i don't move back to new jersey. i'm helping to plan/coordinate his upcoming stock photo shoots for infants and children. within one hour of posting the casting call online, we received 150 submissions for the infants shoot (of which, we will choose six infants). and due to a posting error which made mothers believe they will be receiving $300 per HOUR instead of $300 per DAY... we received 650 submissions in one hour for the children casting call!! (of which we will choose ten kids).

usually a shoot will keep me out of trouble for three days but a few weeks ago i had the pleasure of working for dave and his wife mary for a week. i worked as dave's photo shoot coordinator (which consisted of booking/contacting models; building a production book and assisting in wardrobe). the shoot was for the cover of a midway video game called BLITZ 2, a "vice city" style football game where steroids are optional. dave rented a studio and hired an awesome prop stylist who transformed the space into a mini patch of football field. the models who were hired were once athletes, muscle-y football player types.


on the day of the shoot, i served as "girl friday" to the crew - helping the prop stylist lay sod; assisting the grip guy move lights; lending an extra hand to dave and hal (the digital tech); shooting production stills; and writing checks to the crew and models. in addition to all that, i had the honor of rinsing mud off every crevice the prop stylist caked mud into the helmets and cleats. the shoot ran very smoothly (as always) with dave occasionally exclaiming "i love my job!!" between shots (as always). i know i've said this before, but it's so nice to work for someone who actually loves their job. dave's career is a constant inspiring reminder that "work" and "fun" can coexist and that you can get paid for having fun. (yes, it's sometimes hard work and can be stressful at times... but it's well worth it).

after wrapping up production (billing and budget stuff), i worked for dave's wife mary, resizing a plethora of images and preparing them for print. mary works for a london-based clothing company who recently purchased a bunch of worn vintage frames of all styles and sizes for in-store displays. after the images returned from the printing press, i assisted in framing... which consisted of stripping the frames; cleaning the glass; cutting/trimming the photos to fit (usually in odd sizes); and reassembling the frames. the highlight of the day was finding a newspaper from 1923 from england hidden behind a signed artist's proof/lithograph from the same time period - hello, antiques roadshow!! hehe. a cleaning person tried to covet it, but they got it back.

in addition to a generous paycheck from mary's company, mary included some gnomes from their last in-store display!! this little guy was one of three i adopted. on day two of the project, i took home a giant outdoor gnome. so there i was, jena poulain, walking in beverly hills with a giant gnome under my arm... which i may have to do more often. it made a lot of people smile... and point at me. haha. here's me and the gnome in the elevator:
aaaand then on monday of that week, dave took me back to high school. i assisted him while he provided hands-on lectures to five different photography classes. it was really fun!! dave showed the entire process of a commercial shoot: 1. receiving the idea/sketch from an ad agency. 2. the thousands of photos shot during the shoot. 3. the chosen, retouched images. 4. the final product (which in this case was the box/packaging of a video game). we set up studio lights and groups of kids got to pose and take photos of their friends using dave's camera and equipment. everyone seemed to be really interested and having fun!! it was entertaining to go back to high school and see the little cliques and unabashed fashion choices and personalities.

afterward, dave and i stopped at his friend's house for a pair of sunglasses he left behind. his friends live in the neighborhood rick and i used to live in... awww!! so it was nice to be in that area again. (i miss it!!) and that concludes the awesomeness that is my boss and his stylish wife.

hearts, love and cupcakes. and MSG.

i worked for james on valentine's day, assisting a jewelry product shoot. my job was to clean titanium wedding bands with acetone to make them as lint-free as possible. after the acetone treatment, we used compressed air to blow them off. so basically we were just inhaling acetone and freon. after that, james showed me how he retouches his images and had me try it. i did an awesome job but i took forever. (he gets one image done in 20 min!!) so i have to get faster. the plan is for me to retouch his images while he's shooting so he can accept more work which is good because more work for him means more work for me!! i like working with james because i can get away with saying things i normally wouldn't say to a boss. needless to say, he teases me right back. he's a good guy though.

rick had to pick his brother up at the airport after work and drive him to their parents' house (a good hour long drive each way) so that gave me plenty of time to go to the foodstore, go online and bake some heart-shaped lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting and heart-shaped sprinkles. Mmmm!! rick didn't get home until 7:30; luckily we exchanged gifts at 6 am that morning. i got him a nice button-down quiksilver shirt, a pair of brown quiksilver pants, a pair of khakis and a box of hand-picked See's chocolates. he got me a pelican case for my camera (i really needed one) and two necklaces i ordered myself on etsy. :) i am seriously addicted to that website.

because of the time, we had to flake out on our thai food reservations near the grove and instead, we went to a closer, smaller restaurant i recently discovered and loved. on our way to the restaurant, we stopped at james's house to drop off some cupcakes. he was pretty happy about that. :) our dinner was good. we did what we usually do: order and split three meals because we are pigs when it comes to thai food. unfortunately, on our way home i discovered that the food at the new thai place i found gives me sinus headaches. :( it happened last time too but i didn't think the headache was caused by the food. i usually don't get headaches, so when i got a headache 20 min after eating at this restaurant AGAIN, i realized it was the food. damnit!! my theory is they use a lot of MSG.

when we got home rick almost immediately fell asleep on the floor with miss gray and i wasted time online. and yes, of course i teased him about it today.

busy week!! :)

monday and tuesday: i worked for james. on monday we shot headshots for his new website. (look for mine, i'll be on there too!!) on tuesday i assisted him while he shot a line of jewelry for a client. the woman used two models, her husband and her 6'2'' best friend and the photos came out amazing. we ate a late lunch/early dinner at this tiny thai restaurant. i was a little weary at first because the sign said "thai-chinese cuisine," but there was nothing chinese about it (which is good because i like my thai food to taste like thai food) and so *drumroll* I HAVE FINALLY FOUND A THAI RESTAURANT IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THAT LIVES UP TO MY STANDARDS OF THAI FOOD!!! finally!!~hoo-ray.

wednesday and thursday: i worked for dave and his producer kevin. i built the production books with kevin and delivered them on wednesday. i also bought tons of junk food and over 150 cans of soda (that barely got consumed on thursday!!) on thursday dave shot four olympic athletes (tyson gay, amanda beard, reese hoffa and nastia liukin) for a sega's new "bejing 2008" video game. the shoot went really well. all of the athletes were friendly and down-to-earth, especially miss amanda beard. she liked the necklace i was wearing (one i purchased from stoopidgerl on etsy) and so i introduced her to the wonderful world of etsy.com!!

friday: i worked for dave again, this time on a last minute shoot for another video game cover. the inspiration for the shoot was lara croft and james bond. the female model was russian and in need of a green card and the male model the company chose was off the hook. he was british, full of energy and highly entertaining. at multiple points during the night, he was running up and doing back flips off trees. pretty crazy.

saturday: rick and i went to melrose to return the clothes and hooker boots dave purchased for the video game shoot. most of the garments were non-refundable or final sales (boo!!) but as a bonus, my boss dave is allowing me to use the store credit. so i have $150 to spend in on questionable clothing. (no, i'm just kidding. it's not that questionable). on one of the final sales, the guy working there allowed me to exchange one of the corset tops for a large, silver panther head necklace.

sunday: was supposed to be an LA Polaroid Nerd Out on the santa monica pier but not many nerds could attend, so there was a mini Nerd Out at jake and george's house with lou, and me and rebecca as models. jake is the proud owner of forty or more of wallace seawell's handpainted backdrops. so it was pretty awesome to be photographed against the backdrops that were once used for portraits of peggy lee, sophia loren and gregory peck. jake took some ridiculously awesome shots of me wearing my canvas mossimo cut-out dress, a blonde crackwhore wig and retro rollerskates. wait until you see...

what i've been up to the past two weeks...

monday, nov 12: had a job interview for a p/t receptionist position at a political consulting firm. "so i see you have a bachelor's degree... why do you want this job???" the lady asked. then she told me i was "over-qualified" for the position. lame.

tuesday, nov 13: i don't remember.

wednesday, nov 14: worked for my favorite employer dave. called ad agencies and employed dave's new targeted marketing strategy which seems to be working. saw dr. 90210's (aka: robert rey's) wife hayley at the grocery store. zero makeup. skinny. looks exactly how she looks on tv.

thursday, nov 15: worked for dave again. :) ate lunch at a lil greek place.

friday, nov 16: assisted a shoot for james which consisted of shooting 30 amplifiers at a small place where they're actually made. the brand is called Matchless and the amps are used by such artists as: johnny rzeznik, sheryl crow, carlos santana, joe perry, aimee mann, michael bolton, lenny kravitz, and jewel. pretty damn kewl. ate mexican food for lunch.

saturday and sunday: MADONNA INN with the polaroid nerds.

monday, nov 19: escaped a 7-hour-long video game focus group and hung out with hal all day long instead. tagged photos for him. ate lunch at wahoo's fish tacos. started to seriously plan our business venture. met hal's friend naomi. went wallpaper shopping. got lost in the fog on my way home. too embarrassed to say where i wound up.

tuesday, nov 20: re-shot a couple of amps with james. ate a late lunch. taught james some new diner table tricks. :)

thanksgiving: made a cheese pie. went to rick's sister's house. ate an early dinner. watched the beginning of shrek 3. colored. chatted. played with rick's nieces. spent the night over rick's parents' house (they were in mexico).

black friday: woke up at 7 am to go shopping. first time rick and i ever participated in crazyness of "black friday." hit up radio shack, kohls, the mall and a board shop. scored some good deals. bought a nice sweater zip-up from pac sun. covered a few bases for christmas. ate lunch with rick and aldo. jonathan stopped by. watched a marathon of the dog whisperer with rick and his brother. rick's parents returned home from mexico.

saturday, nov 24: my grandmother's birthday!! i worked a cosmetic promotion. rick went back to his parent's house to spend some more time with his brother (who is visiting until sunday). watched My First Mister which was eh, alright. definitely sad. the part that was the most unbelievable was the fact a 17-year-old girl drove herself from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, NM. and didn't get stuck in traffic to there or on the way back. yeah riiight. ;)

sunday, nov 25: polaroid nerd meet up in LA. tomorrow is not going to feel like a sunday to me...

being a PA is better than being from PA.

trust me, i lived in PA for 4 years. : P

tuesday: worked for my favorite boss dave. :) i was mainly there to inspire dave to work, but i made a few calls to ad agencies, looked through a really interesting (and inspiring) photojournalism book from 1978 and got lunch. it was a pleasant afternoon. dave is letting me borrow his lomo action sampler camera so expect some fun photos soon!!

wednesday: long, tiring, productive day. i assisted a product shoot for james. he rented a studio in hollywood and shot boating accessories (wake board racks, speakers and lights that attach to the "tower," if that's what it's called). the pieces were all round and chrome so it was nearly impossible to shoot with the amount of resources (mainly white cards and c-stands) we had with us. but we did it!! and the man and his wife who designed and patented these parts were really nice. they were an older couple with southern-ish accents who drove in from san diego. james is a really great guy to work for because you always learn something. i'm hoping to work for him more often (assisting small product shoots in his studio) after he returns from new york. and i might even be one of his apparel models for a test/webpage shoot.

thursday morning: was ready and waiting to buy foo fighters tickets to the special album release show at the henry fonda theatre on my birthday. both rick and i tried to get tickets. we both clicked the button AS SOON AS IT HIT 10:00 and -sold out- ...how the hell??!! :(

thursday afternoon: worked for dave again. i e-mailed ad agencies and dave tested out his flash on me (since he has to use it on a friend's wedding this weekend). dave's not a wedding photographer, but he looooves shooting weddings... NOT!!!! i helped him pack, we talked shop and i played with his pseudo-dogs (that really belong to his neighbor). i can't wait to assist dave's upcoming stock shoots. :)

busiest saturday ever.

9:30 am - 1:00 pm: assisted james during a product shoot.
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm: commute back to apt.
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm: ate and changed at apartment.
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm: commute to second gig.
3:00 pm - 10:45 pm: served/helped cater an outdoor wedding.
10:45 - 11:15 pm: commute back to apt.

assisting james was fun. he shot an assortment of day planners, greeting cards and gift sets designed for moms by a moms. i helped prep the set and the products. i've assisted a clothing line shoot before, but never a product-only shoot. the idea that most products aren't shot on a level surface never occurred to me. we actually stuck the products to a white seamless backdrop using a sticky putty. assisting a variety of photographers has helped me narrow down which photography fields i would like to pursue professionally. i'm working for james again on wednesday on location for a boating-product shoot. he's thinking we'll need extra C-stands which means... lots to haul and set up.

serving at the wedding was pretty hateful at first. the guy in charge was 45 minutes late because he had a lot of last-minute stuff to do. we were all scrambling around doing nothing because we didn't know how the guy wanted it to be done. there were 6 of us... quite some characters, almost stereotypical, as if from a movie:
1. the masculine woman of questionable sexuality (not that there's anything wrong with that).
2. the annoying chick/borderline know-it-all who is waaay too enthusiastic about the job.
3. the older (indian) guy who you wonder why or how he ever wound up doing this.
4. and 5. two girls (one tanned and of hispanic decent. the other, a redhead) who know each other and paired off.
6. and me. the judgemental girl. ;)

one of the chefs was french and i swear he said "hamBERGarr" over a million times. he also looked at my shoes (black vans with pink stripes) and said, "you're were those??? non, that iz not good. you need black shoes. those are not acceptable."
and i said, "are you kidding me?!!"

the wedding was semi-formal, meaning there were burgers, lemonade and port-o-potties, but nicely done and decorated to look classy. there were couches covered in brown seude-ish material, round paper lanterns, lots of candles and champagne dyed blue to match the color scheme. as the night progressed, i wasn't hating it and some moments were disguised as fun. perhaps the most memorable moment occurred while i was carrying a tray of (filled) champagne glasses and one of the guests was headed right for me. i made an "UH-UH-UH-UH" kind of noise and lightly swerved to avoid him. he noticed me and put out his hands as if he were going to dodge me, but he didn't move and just kept walking straight into me. spilt and broke all but two glasses. amazingly no champagne wound up on either of us. and he cleaned up all the broken glass.

so that was my night. i got paid more than i antipated. so perhaps this could become a semi-regular thing on the weekends. :)

remind me never to work in a soap factory...

i assisted a shoot for james lemmo at a soap factory... actually a sponge-soap factory. (they make sponges infused with scented soaps that last 10-30 washes). it was interesting to see the various machines but, needless to say, the scent of allll of those soaps was INTENSE. the best parts were the little details... like the fact that they workers had JUST painted all of the bars and poles around the equipment (to make it looked nicer) and every time we'd brush against a pole or put our hands on one, we'd get blue paint on us. and the fact that this factory that makes their own soap, but use another company's soap in their bathroom. oh, the irony.

it was a 5-hour long shoot (with an hour-long lunch at denny's) and it was just a matter of packing and lugging equipment around to set up lights in different locations. (the wires and the bottom of our shoes got covered in a waxy soap. there was even soap remnants on the handles of the water cooler!!) the tricky part was lighting the inside of a such a big space. i learned things that will be beneficial to me during future PA jobs, so that's always a plus. and (of course) i got to take home samples of the product. :) i don't plan on using them right away though because they make great air fresheners. and i finally saw where the infamous "Randy's Donuts." unfortunately, i didn't have my polaroid camera with me, but at least i know how to get there now.

james is a great guy to work for. he pays the day of the shoot and he's full of interesting experiences as a ex-director for tv, movies and music videos. what strikes me funny is how fortunate (and lucky) i am to find such great employers. networking was never one of my strong points until i moved to california and now, since i am a freelancer, i rely on networking. without it, i have no jobs. :( as a production assistant, you can find a lot of crappy employers, but luckily i've been finding great guys who are willing to take me under their wings and keep me in mind for upcoming projects. can't wait til more jobs roll in... :)

sidebar: when i got home, rick and i went swimming. (the pool was SO WARM!! but full of teenagers). aldo stopped by and we started watching Laurel Canyon which was so horribly predictable and awful that we just fast forwarded through it.

this and that.

i want to make this.

if only i were this productive. (dang, girl!!)

this is one of my guilty pleasures. (and of course, this is my other guilty pleasure).

this sounds interesting... but i'd rather see this.

and this is just plain awful.

this week: designing albums for michael on wednesday. working with james lemmo thursday (and possibly saturday) as a production assistant for a factory shoot. promo event on satuday. and tomorrow... possible beach day??? :)

work and unwork.

wednesday: i met up with a local wedding/pregnancy/child photographer named aleasha. i was second shooter for a small shoot she did in a park. it was with two kids, very mellow and well-behaved given the circumstances, for a christmas card photo. (yes, people plan that far in advance. crazy). it was the first time meeting aleasha. she was extremely nice and pregnant, hehe. that's why she is looking for an assistant/2nd shooter/someone to whore out as a photographer while she is out of commission. so the day was more or less a test to see if she liked me and my work. i think it went well. i took a lot of images and innovatively saved the day when the mother of the children realized that her little girl was missing one of her tiny elastics for her pigtails. (hello, cabbage patch doll!! hehe). soooo hopefully she'll think i'm a keeper. :)

wednesday night: rick and i bought some toys for our spoiled kitty, miss gray, and she loves them!!!!!

thursday: i assisted a shoot for James Lemmo. it was a small test shoot with one model and three outfits, so i mainly acted as a stylist. the model was really down-to-earth and friendly and james was a really great guy to work for. before the model arrived, james shot a few photos of me outside and they came out REALLY nice.

i stayed for lunch and we talked about movies (he has directed and written a bunch)!! he also had some really great-sounding recomendations of foreign movies (my fave) that i've already queued on aldrin's netflix account. james said he could use me for some upcoming product shoots and i really look forward to working for him again. he's really to the point (he's from NY) and has a lot of knowledge about the film industry.

aldrin stopped by thursday night before his car meet, ate some fish and dropped off two movies that i put on his netflix (Delicatessen and Dark Habits films by two of my favorite directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Almodovar, respectively). :) Aldrin's a good guy... we just need to find him a girlfriend named Jen.

friday: unwork day. met with michael brannigan and david frey to discuss a new job position creating layout for their wedding albums. it's a tad low-paying to start but it's better than nothing and at least i'll be doing something dealing with photography. michael said the best way to learn about photography is to look at other people's photographs... and if that's the case, with the amount of time i spend on flickr, i'm already a pro!! hehehe. but he did bring up a good point about being exposed to all of those photos... while doing the layouts, i'll be able to see which photos the clients selected and i will get a good idea of what clients like/expect/want.

after that, i went to the home depot to introduce myself and charge a battery for a promotional demo scheduled for saturday. i also ran into target and bought some homer simpson magnets for rick.

friday night: went to the dodger game (dodgers vs. the angels) with rick, jonathan and his friends!!




it was my first time at a professional sporting event and it was pretty fun. we all had a good time!! dodgers won. :)

saturday: worked a six hour demo at home depot that basically consisted of me drilling a couple screws into a 2 x 4. only two people bought one of the powerdrill kits i was promoting and when they did purchase them, it was a major hassle because all of the sku numbers were wrong and we all realized that home depot didn't even have the 7 piece kit they were promoting!! they just had a 5-piece kit marked at the 7-piece kit price and i had to go to the register with the people who were buying them and explain why these people were adding tools to the kit for free to build the 7-piece kit. ugh, it was quite a headache. the highlights of my day included meeting the hispanic version of my friend barry; being blessed by a costumer; and witnessing an older man sitting on one of the patio chairs "hiding" on his wife by holding a box up to his face and seeing her walk right by him TWICE before he finally lowered the box and she "found" him. hehehe.

to each his own (and gael garcia bernal is in everything).

wednesday: i assisted my friend hal's shoot for a non-profit computer center that caters to people with disabilities (hearing, vision, you name it). it was pretty amazing. the center has a variety of machines that allow people with disabilities to use computers and the internet. one man, a paraplegic, was able navigate online with a small box on top of a monitor that corresponded with a small adhesive circle placed on his forehead. the shoot ran fairly smoothly... we only blew one of their fuses. there was a thai restaurant across the street that was taunting me the entire afternoon so after the shoot, hal treated me and his friend/art director che to dinner there. the food was pretty good and i got rick some pad see ew to go. hal and i stopped over dave's house to return some equipment and chat.

thursday: i worked a promotional event at a fair. there were about six of us and our goal was to solicit smokers (21 and older) and ask them to complete a short market research survey which included scanning their driver's licenses. participants got to choose one of two FREE tee-shirts: one had a music design and the other said "free and easy." i don't think i have to tell you which shirt was more desirable to this crowd. participants were also entered in a $250 cash prize. SO guess who got the most amount of people to take the survey... me!! i got 30 people, which is A LOT considering the circumstances (who the hell willingly wants their license copied?!). the person who came closest to my score only got 17 people to take the survey. i rocked. :)

friday: i carpooled with rick to work and met with a local photographer who might hire me as a full-time second shooter for weddings. he's not a fan of polaroids, but to each his own... i know a lot of people who like my polaroids. i even have a fun couple wanting me to photograph their wedding with polaroids. (how kewl is that?!) after rick got out of work, we stopped at the food store so i could fuel my pretzel addiction. (i eat waaaay too many of them). then we took a nap. we planned on taking a thirty minute nap but wound up waking up around 8:30 pm. haha. then we made dinner and watched Dot the i which was REALLY good. i read a few bad reviews, but was glad i took them with a grain of salt. i recommed seeing the movie without knowing much about the plot because there are many clever twists and turns.

rick and i have been watching A LOT of gael garcia bernal movies. (kind of hard not to, the man's in EVERYTHING!!) it was funny because after we watched Dot the i, we finished up another movie, Russian Dolls, we started the night before. Russian Dolls sucked to the point where we had to fast forward just to get through it BUT it was funny because rick was like, "wait, what happened to gael garcia bernal's character?!" and i was like "you have to be kidding me... he's not even in this movie!!" hahaha. but that's because we've seen THREE of bernal's movies (Babel, Science of Sleep, Dot the i) within the past week.

this weekend: i will be home spending time with friends and family!! :) but missing rick. :( we endured a looong distance relationship for two years and are finally living together. we had a record going of consecutive time spent together (a little over 5 months) and now i am breaking it... but only for two weeks. and although we've spent as much as three months apart at a time, it's still going to feel weird being away from him. my plans for when i am home: beat my mom at scrabble; celebrate mother's day and my mom's birthday; go shopping and watch movies with my grandmother; hug my cat; hang out with andrea, lindsay, justin and margot; go to work with my cousin; work, assisting a local photographer; eat lots of utz pretzels; clean out my garage; take photos of my aunt's crazy bengal cat; and take lots and lots of awesome polaroids.

playing with fire.

well... i wasn't, but they were.

yesterday i assisted ryan's Phoenix Projekt shoot. it was nice to finally meet ryan. he was a fun guy, very easy-going. oddly enough we met on craigslist (rick and i bought his entertainment center from him) and then we got to talking about photography, hehe. hopefully he'll get more gigs in the future that he'll need me to assist!!

it was a looong day, (i didn't get home until 11pm) but it was fun and i took a bunch of good portrait polaroids that i am in the process of cropping. ryan also let me shoot with his 20D and fisheye lens. can't wait to see the photos!! everyone was really nice and interesting and i can't complain about the fruit, hummus and pretzel crisps either, haha.

it was pretty hectic/crazy at times because there were 22 people ryan had to take individual shots of. he used two cameras and three different lens, so my job was to switch out the lens every other person. i was given a bag FULL of random fabrics and put in charge of "dressing" the sets. so i chose a color scheme, picked out all of the orange-y colored fabrics and draped and tied them to a tall bamboo fence which could have looked tacky, but the way i did it came out really kewl.

the location was fun. it was a community center with a stage inside and a skateboard ramp outside. while it was raining, all the kids who were skating started sliding down the half-pipe like a water slide, hehe.

there was also this unubtrosively interesting girl in a bright red jacket (not part of the phoenix projekt) who was kind enough to serve as my model for a few polaroid shots. i had THE SHOT in my mind all set up. location, pose, everything. but she was videotaping and i felt kinda weird approaching her so i just asked if i could take her picture. i did that and the photo came out eh-ok... she was a bit nervous i suppose. she went back to videotaping and THE SHOT was still eating away at me. so after a few minutes, i approached her again and said "i thought of another good shot for you!!" she was game so i led her over to where i wanted to take the photos and then directed her how to pose. the shots turned out so good!! probably my favorite polaroid shots of the day.

the weather was pretty crappy and rainy for most of the day, but we made the best of it and the firespinners were still able to do their thang by the end of the night. it was pretty awesome to watch and photograph (AND DODGE!!) the firespinners. there were guys with fire nunchakus, girls spinning fire, girls eating fire, girls with fire-fans and a man blowing a fire-TUBA!!

there was also this awesome lady with a fire hula hoop that she spun around her NECK while she was in s split. shesh. i was even just impressed by how she was able to dance while continously spinning the hula hoop. makes me wish i could even hula hoop. now i might have to go out and buy one and practice. hmmmm.

polaroids are now up.
production photos to come.

TOO FUNNY.

so i sent my grandmother some production stills from the shoot i assisted for CJ...

"did you get the pictures i sent you???" i asked.
"yeah, i saw that CJ Burton. He's a bit strange looking..."
"uhhh..."
"i mean his hair," she said.
"yeah, i guess it's sorta flat to his head," i said, half questioning.
"what are you talking about?! it was standing up all over the place!!"

and then i realized who she thought CJ Burton was...




"wait a minute," i said between laughs. "why would the photographer's face be painted RED?!!"
"what?? i just thought he had a ruddy complexion."
"and what about the pictures i sent you of the guy holding a camera??" i asked. "who did you think that was??"
"someone who worked for him!!"

aye, my grandmother. one of the many reasons why i love her.

for the record, here's what CJ really looks like.

thursday thru sunday... let me fill you in.

thursday i worked a casting call for dave and, as always, it was a lot of fun. dave is currently casting baby boomers for an upcoming stock shoot. when we arrived on location there was no one there to let us in the studio dave rented, so we upgraded to dave's friend's big, beautiful studio on the second floor with lots of windows and great light. lisa (the stylist who i met at dave's spike tv shoots) stopped by for lunch. she gave me the name of a good thai restaurant that i am definitely going to check out because i have yet to find a really good thai place around here. there was a good turnout for the casting call... we saw about 110 people. quite a few characters and a handful of really good, workable people. toward the end of the day, dave let me shoot some people!! i loved making them do all the "Oooo's" and "HEY!'s" and "WOW's" and funny faces dave has them make when he is casting. i always find it amusing how easily people comply when a camera is involved, hehe.

friday i bummed around/stayed in my pjs all day long. i emailed a few photographers and looked for work on craigslist. found a few promotional jobs. rick and his dad picked up his rick's sister and her family at the airport and guess who they saw... GREG BRADY!!!! haha, yep, barry williams was arriving from somewhere and rick didn't even take a photo with his cell phone!! :( i think i would have had to sneak one... it's not every day you see Greg Brady.

saturday i met up with rebecca (rutabegabunny on flickr) at her dad's house and saw his infamous celebrity pool!! herbert anderson (the dad from the old 'dennis the menace' tv show) was the previous owner of the home rebecca grew up in. the pool is extremely photogenic... very retro looking, with a lot of curves. soon after admiring the pool, we were off to melrose for a thrift shopping spree.


we hit up SLOW which USED TO BE one of my favorite thrift stores. i hadn't been there since may 2005, and A LOT has changed. first off, the store now over-employs a bunch of teenage hipsters. secondly, most of the clothes were NEW. and thirdly, they did away with alllll the kewl tee shirts that used to be on the second floor. :( the prices are still reasonable, but i still am highly disappointed. we ate some soup and shopped at wasteland, crossroads trading co. and a few other places. i would up buying rick a hooded sweatshirt/zip-up and a REALLY nice quiksilver zip-up that is more like jacket. it was only $25 and it looks brand new. i bought myself three shirts that i'm sure you'll see photos of in the near future. rebecca wound up buying a few shirts too and a pair of marc jacobs pants. and no shopping excursion is complete without a dressing room photoshoot!!

sunday: rick went to church with his sister and his neice and then went over his parent's house. he always lets me sleep in, which is nice, but then i feel bad about not going to his parent's house with him. i played boggle online with my mother. some of the people on the boggle site are waaaay too damn good at the game!! (try your luck here). i also did dishes, went for a walk, caught up with justin and talked to margot's mom. sunday night, i watched Dark Victory, a pretty gloomy bette davis movie. i also uploaded some new photos to my flickr so be sure to check em out!!!!

workin with CJ.

tuesday and wednesday i worked as 2nd assistant to CJ. the first day i was mainly a gofer, which i didn't take to too well. in fact, i called dave, complained and told him i decided i want to work for him for the rest of my life (which i would gladly do). i ran to CJ's hotel, and to the paint store, and then the 1st assistant/studio manager asked me to run to supermarket to buy more soda (and trust me, we didn't need any more soda). OOOO, guess where the 1st assistant got her photography degree... BROOKS!!!! my favorite place on earth, hahaha. poor Brooks' alum/students. this girl is pretty well established and works for 6 photographers but it seems she has lost her shot at becoming a photographer. she feels like she doesn't have a style... and that's after three years at Brooks!!

ANYWAY... on tuesday i did dishes, varnished a veneer panel and painted a large square of linoleum "weathered brown." it was exciting to be involved in the making of the set (for about two minutes) until the fumes started to get to me. on wednesday i served as the model fill-in and packed up a very large desk. each afternoon lunch was catered by local places like Tender Greens and Bamboo!!

the shoots were pretty fun. there was an earth, wind, fire and water theme which involved a lot of hair and makeup. it was interesting to see how CJ works and what a different style he has compared to the other photographers i've worked with. CJ is really precise. he starts with sketch and follows that sketch to the very last detail. instead of shooting a bunch of various shots, CJ has ONE shot in mind and he achieves it. personally, that method would scare the crap out of me because i like options, but if you have a high-end client (in this case, Geiger Furniture) and you sent them a sketch for an ad they are paying big bucks for, i can see why you would want to be precise.

overall, CJ was really professional and personable and i would like to work with him again. he said he'll contact me the next time he has another shoot on the west coast. :)

What did the mom tomato say to her little kid tomato when they were walking into town?

..................Ketchup!!

thursday: i bummed around. all. day. long. i called dave who will have some work for me the end of the week. he wants to have another casting call. rick brought me home roses... just because (aw!) hehe. i did dishes and played scrabble and boggle online with my mother. she always beats me at scrabble (only online) but i always beat her at boggle. rick and i watched The Best Years of Our Lives, a black and white film (from 1946) about three WWII veterans who return home and must adjust to being a civilian again. it's a REALLY good movie. i highly recommend it. there's a man/actor in the movie who has hooks for arms and he is amazing with those things!! the movie has really good story line; only one thing irked me and that was one of the main characters' sons. he was barely in the movie and they his family never invites him anywhere. it was almost as if he was just a fill character. i didn't understand his purpose or significance in this film.

friday: turkey burger night at aldrin's house with tim and their friend fonz. aldrin made his special turkey burger patties mixed with bacon served with ranch dressing and potatoe chips. i made some veges to go along with the burgers. we rented The Jerk, a classic steve martin comedy. rick and i stayed at aldo's til 11 pm then we stayed overnight at rick's parent's house while they were in washington d.c. i also got a package from my mom filled with eastery goodies and my dad's old camera AND a package from my aunt stuffed with a new spring-y bedspread. :)

one of many crazy hats:


why skippy doesn't like tim:


saturday: worked an easter promo in a furniture store from 10:30-4:00. i was the polaroid photographer. good pay, easy job and it was fun. it was kind of a funny scene tho... me talking to a giant bunny. i felt bad for the guy (paul berg) who was the bunny though... that suit was hot!! and he talked in his bunny voice the entire day, in case any kids were lingering nearby. paul was pretty interesting though, he's a puppeteer and has worked on a few snuggles the bear laundry detergent commercials as well as Men in Black I and II. (he controlled the lungs of the little alien who lived inside the big alien's head). after work, rick and i got some jamba juice and watched 13 going on 30 on tv (cute movie). later that night, we picked up his parent's from the airport.

easter sunday: my mom had groceries delivered to the apartment again!! :) this time she sent over mangoes, pineapples, strawberries, swordfish steaks, asparagus, grapes, clementines and beef jerky. my mom is the best!! rick went to church and then we went to his parent's house. we were expecting a low-key BBQ with his parents, but his old neighbors stopped by as a surprise. they were very nice, brought a cake and stayed for dinner. the daughters (nicole and racquel) are our age and are living in pasadena now, so we will probably go out with them sometime. rick's sister and her family stopped by and rick's niece isabel taught me some new patty-cake rhymes. then rick's neighbors all came over and lots of funny old stories were exchanged.

my mom loves me:


monday-wednesday: i work for photographer CJ Burton. wednesday is ricardo's birthday!!!!! so hopefully i won't be working too late that day because i have a few plans up my sleeve ;) i just hope i have the time to accomplish them all!!!!

work and movie review.

tuesday i worked as assistant for dave. the shoot was in pasadena in a bike shop for a magazine article. it was thee easiest job... one light. one person. one hundred shots. quick and painless. dave and i were talking about movies and i mentioned that rick and i saw Shooter and dave said, "you know mark wahlberg is my neighbor, right??" i accused him of lying because i thought he meant next door neighbor, but really dave meant mark lives RIGHT NEAR his house. so on our way back to his house, dave showed me mark wahlberg's compound and demi moore's house too. then i organized dave's photo equipment shelf in his garage and he showed me some photo programs (photoshop cs3, bridge and aperture). i'm not quite sure what new features photoshop cs3, but i bet the upgrades from cs2 are insignificant (at least, to me).

monday night: rick and i watched the movie Thirteen and it was HORRIBLE. yes, the point is that the main character is "growing up" too fast but the plot jumps ahead waaay too quickly. one day the main character is shunned by the popular, bad girls at school and then the next day they talk to her because she's wearing "cool" clothes. that wouldn't happen. i was expecting to learn that the main character was raped by her mom's boyfriend by the way she'd freak out and have mini flashbacks every time she saw him. the dialogue is lame and the story becomes unrealistic at times. whenever the bad-influence best friend wanted sympathy and didn't want to get kicked out of the main character's house, she'd just say her uncle burned her and pushed her into a fire. VERY UNCONVINCING both in the way the lines were delivered and the fact that the character only had one odd scar on her back. i'm not sure why this film won awards and nominations especially in 2003 and 2004 because seemed outdated. i think i'd be more understanding (and less critical) had the movie was made in the early 90s... it seemed cheesy enough.

bottom line: you can tell a thirteen-year-old co-wrote the screenplay.