I want to start off by asking how hard it can possibly be to make a decent scone? I mean, I'm not a baker (more of a cook actually - baking is too unforgiving for my taste), but every coffee shop and bakery on earth seems to know how to make a scone...except for the place in which I'm currently sitting. I'm not sure if they make them here or bring them in - but regardless, something needs to change. Yuck. Oh, and the smoke detector just started going off - because they toasted a bagel. In Leesburg, VA - we have slim pickin's.
Ok, now that we have that out of the way, a little update for everyone. No new work yet - which is partly because my wife dropped our laptop and destroyed the hard drive - which means I ended up losing my copy of Photoshop for Mac. I have a PC version on my desktop at home, but I find it pretty difficult to do work in my office of that nature right now - hopefully that will become less of an issue as my office gets in better shape. But, it's been on my mind.
One thing I did manage to do is purchase my first piece of major photo equipment (besides pocket point-and-shoot cameras) since high school. Yes, you heard right - since high school. One might ask how that is possible for a "professional" photographer - and honestly, the answer makes sense when you think about it. When I graduated high school, I got a Nikon FM2 - which I still have and will never get rid of. I shot with that camera all through art school, "borrowing" medium and large format cameras from the school studio on an as-needed basis. I continued to use that camera once I got out of art school for a little while, until I began using pinhole and plastic cameras to create my work - and those are what I continue to use to this day. Though I would have loved a Hassleblad, 4x5 camera, etc - but I just couldn't justify the cost since they weren't necessary for my work - and in fact were not even appropriate for it. I didn't want to spend the money on a DSLR - I just wanted a decent point and shoot digital that I could throw into the diaper bag when needed. But, my 5 MP Casio that is now several years old has been dropped multiple times (sensing a trend here?) and is no longer cutting it, so it was time to step it up a little.
I still decided I didn't need a DSLR - but I wanted some more control so I could be "full-on" digital. So, I settled on the Compact Lumix LX3 - which arrived last week. When I worked on Ara's shoot, the digital tech's and assistants all had the predecessor to this camera, and when I looked at it, I was immediately sold - and knew I had to have one....partly because of all the features and partly because it just looked so damn cool! Of course, it took me 6 months to actually spend the money, but you gotta remember that I've been using $20.00 technology for years now. Spending real $ on cameras is not something I've done for a very long time.
When I was at Ara's shoot, I didn't have much time to examine the camera - I was a little busy during those two days. And when I finally decided on it while in Chicago a couple of weeks ago, only one store in the entire area had it in stock for me to test out - and they only had it in silver, not the super-cool black that I wanted. I went back to my in-laws, bought it online from a NYC store and it arrived last week. It looks like this:
I think it's gonna be fun to learn. Work has been sapping every bit of energy (creative and otherwise) out of me, but I have the battery charging now and plan to test it out at my daughter's birthday party this afternoon. Yesterday was also my wife's birthday, so - Happy Birthday to my Princess and to the Queen of Our Castle.
I'll probably also do some playing around with it in a fine art sense - and I'll post some snaps when I can.
So, no work yet, but the tools are being put in place. Stay tuned for results...!
-Marc
