It's February... almost March, and it's 76 degrees outside and sunny.
How's that for great? haha!

It's so perfect out, I think I'm gonna hit the lake and do some shooting.
Yep yep.

Sounds like a plan.



Clubs:

I have a curse.
I am a freak magnet.
If you are a freak, you will seek me out. I don’t know why I’m this way, but it just can’t be helped.
Here’s the story of my latest freak…

About a week ago, I was contacted through e-mail by a woman who told me she knew someone who I’d just shot their wedding, and asked me what my prices were.
I told her that until I knew all the details (a trick I’ve recently picked up from Modelmayhem), I couldn’t really quote her a fair price, but that I didn’t shoot for less than X.
She immediately tried to get me to lower this, which is very low for a wedding photographer, and threw a hissy fit when I wouldn’t budge.
Told me that she was entitled to a cheaper price because so and so got her wedding done for much less than that, and it was unfair for me to charge “so much”.

I was very firm with her… Yes I did shoot the person in question’s wedding for much less, but that was then and this is now. I don’t feel it’s in my best interests to shoot for less than what I quoted her.
She got over it, and asked me if I would meet up with her the next day.
She said she wanted to discuss the details of her wedding with me, and that it would give her an opportunity to look at more of my photos.
That’s fine with me, but she told me she expected me to bring every photo I’d ever shot in the two years I’d been shooting.

She went on to tell me that her reasoning was that even though I appeared to do really good work and she was probably getting a really good deal, she didn’t trust the images I had on my website because they were probably either “accidental or heavily photoshopped”.
And while she liked her friend’s wedding pictures, there was probably something wrong with those, too.

I told her it really wasn’t possible for me to meet up with her, as she lived about 100 miles from me and was refusing to meet me anywhere but her house.
I could meet her halfway, or come out if she was willing to pay for the gas, however, but she was unwilling to do that.
She then told me she would send me her mailing addres and expected to be receiving disks from me of said photos.

Well, I’m like… fuck that bitch, no way!! (I didn’t say that to her, but I wanted to), and when she finally got around to telling me the date of her wedding, I told her I was already booked.

She then sent me a final message, telling me that she found someone who was giving her a better deal and that it didn’t matter anyway because she a. Didn’t trust a band photographer with her wedding and that b. I’d have had to dye my hair a normal color before the wedding because she couldn’t have her wedding turned into a freakshow.

Yeah…
Thanks…
I kind of have a feeling that wedding is going to be a freakshow whether I’m there or not.

I recently discovered that one of my favorite vintage stock accounts, *Lorivintage55stock was holding a contest.
The object was to take one of her stock photos and a photo of her and merge the two to create a new piece of art.
I submitted a piece of my own, and offered to feature the winners in a journal, since I still have a subscription.

I ended up not placing, but that doesn't matter. I had a lot of fun creating my piece, and I'm really glad I have the opportunity to support one of my favorite stock accounts!

So here they are, grouped by category.

Beginner:

1st 2nd
3rd

Intermediate:

1st 2nd
3rd

Advanced:

1st 2nd
3rd

Congrats to everyone that won!!

My Clubs:



My Contest Manipulations:

for Week 31 of *createbyweek

for [link] by *sammykaye1

for [link] by *Lorivintage55stock (over)

Some of my Favorite Manips: