Too many of you assholes see something on the internet and think, “HEY! I can do that too! I’m gonna be fucking rich!”.

No, you can’t. And no, you’re not.

Just give up now before you litter my precious Internet with your crap. And before you start saying “but my idea is new and better and different”, just stop right there. It’s not new. There is nothing new. It’s all been done already. Yes, all of it. And it’s not better. It’s not even as good. Someone better looking, with more money and more time already did it. An no one wants different. We say we do, bit we’re lying. If you make something different, that just means it sucks that much more.

Save us all the trouble. Don’t clutter the Internet with your crap. Just give up now and go back to eating Cheetos and playing “Left For Dead” on an XBox that you didn’t and could never have invented.

My Self Portrait Project is a good example of how well this works. In that two week span, I produced an image almost every single day. At least half of them are among my most popular images. Of course the other half are pretty trite and uninspired. The two sort of go hand-in-hand.

Additionally, I spend a lot of time photographing landscapes. However, due to time constraints imposed by my day job, travel time (both by car and by foot), external cooperation from nature, a very narrow operating window, and the huge editing requirements, it’s one of the most difficult types of photography for me to engage in right now. Right up there with a full-blown portrait session (the more difficult of the two depending on specifics, like the model’s flexibility and travel distances). The point is, there are other forms of photography that are more casual and fit better into a packed lifestyle. They need some exploration.

So here are the tentative goals, subject for review in 2 or 3 weeks. Notice there’s a difference between what I take and what I publish.

Self Portrait – 3 concepts per week; Publish 1 per week (personal)
These are very beneficial. Not only do they allow me to work without any assistance or requirements from any one or any thing other than myself, they allow me to try new concepts on a willing subject, and offer advantages in my personal life by improving my body image, forcing me to work alone, giving me time for reflection, and encouraging me to improve myself, physically.

Casual Baby Portrait – 3 photos per week; Publish 1 per week (personal)
For a photographer, I have WAY too few photographs of my own child. This is uncalled for. We do a porttrait session with her once a month and, at this point, that’s plenty. There’s no excuse for not taking more of her outside of the studio. However, if I were going to make one it would be that when I’m around her, I’m either holding her, driving, or she’s sitting in her chair which makes for a boring backdrop after a while. This will encourage me to vary my interaction with her and to be more creative with my surroundings.

Other Portrait – 1 concept per week; Publish 1 every other week
This can be in the studio, a lit location photograph, or taken casually. Because it is concept driven, it should be pre-thought, even if that means only 5 minutes before. Generally speaking, each concept should produce 2-3 usable photos. However, due to the fact that this requires me to either approach strangers, steal photos of friends, or set up appointments each week, I’m being a bit lax here to see how much I can handle. Planned sessions with other people always add a layer of complexity because there are two schedules to mingle and if either person is late it can really throw things off.

Landscape - 1 outing per week (3-5 photos); Publish 1 per week
Despite being difficult to engage in, it’s still a whole lot of fun. Considering evening walks with my family, sunrise shots with my dad, late night photography, weekend hiking, and the occasional solo outing, this should be doable.

Non-Landscape – 3 photos per week; Publish 1 per week
Not being 100% certain on how this will work, I’m being a bit lax here as well. Regardless of where I go or what I do, I should be able to manage taking 3 photographs a week. These can be the result of concepts or taken casually.

Stock / Advertising – 1 concept per week
There’s a lot of money to be made in advertising photography and stock photography. Despite this, I very rarely venture into this realm. One concept per week will be my method of dipping my toes in and seeing how it goes. This can vary from a product shot to a photo meant to convey a particular feeling or message and may or may not include a human element.

Publish at least 5 photos per week while meeting all of the above requirements (1 self portrait, 1 casual baby portrait, 1/2 of an other portrait, 1 landscape, 1 non-landscape). The self-portrait and baby portrait may be published personally (depending on feel) and, therefore, not count towards the 5 photos. Additionally, categories can be combined. If I take a product shot in studio for baby soap that features a woman bathing Celeste it’d count as my Advertising shot, my Baby Portrait, my Other Portrait, and my Non-Landscape photo. I’ll stick my foot in frame and make it a Self-Portrait too. Additionally, the photographs being published do not have to be those taken that week.

This may seem to be going in the opposite direction of what I need right now — a very clearly defined niche to claim as my own in order to gather more interest in my work, more free time, and a looser schedule. However, I think that forcing this work will allow me to get back into a place where photography becomes an extension of my life and part of the routine. Taking more photographs and making photographs easier to take will help me to develop that niche.

Your thoughts, comments, and offers of assistance are greatly appreciated. At the very least, wish me luck. I’ll revisit this in a few weeks and make any needed adjustments.

Yes, I’m very clearly crazy. You knew that already.

Every day I see Photographers making it big. And every day I see photographers loving the craft, doing what they can, and not even trying to make it. But I didn’t realize how many people there are out there in my exact same situation. And most of them aren’t photographers.

I like looking to musicians when thinking about photography because like the public’s taste in music, taste in photography is subjective and attracting people to it is way more complicated than just creating the best image.

– Rob Haggart // where are all the goddamn photos

Creating the “best image” is only a very small part of this. Yeah, Martin Prihoda is awesome. But as I watch him work behind the scenes with Delerium, aside from appreciating the results, which are fantastic, my single strongest thought is, “DUH!”. The lighting is simple. The framing, average. The location, obvious. Yes, it’s a fantastic shot. But it’s certainly not outside of the realm of what I’m completely capable of. But he’s getting paid, and I’m not. So, there’s something more to it than getting the “best image”. A lot more.

The photographer has got to stop thinking they deliver a product TO BE framed. Rather, they need to deliver a product that is already framed. Build the story, build the frame and you can grow the revenue.

Here’s the real kicker, though. You have to have to have something to say. And it’s a hell of lot more work to build that frame.

– Sean Cayton // comment

I’ve always considered this to be the case: in this crazy, overstuffed, digital age, being the best isn’t enough. Lots of people are the best. I’ve got to have a story, and a reason, and a drive. I’ve got to be different. I’ve got to be special. I’ve got to have someone as interested in looking at the subject I’ve selected as I am in photographing it. And it helps a lot if I bring a few people with me.

But if I’m passionate about a subject, and I’m following a particular photographer who distributes (for free) a work-in-progress on that subject, and once it’s finished she asks me to pony up for the book?

It’s a no-brainer. Of course I’m going to, ’cause I’m a true fan.

– Sean Cayton // comment

Regardless of your choice of art form, if you leave out the “big break” effect, the True Fan is the key. For every head-over-heels, stark-raving-mad, TRUE fan you have, there is a circle of friends that surrounds him wishing he’d just shut up about you. And that’s they key.

Anyone producing works of art needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

[...] Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

– Kevin Kelly // 1,000 True Fans

I used to think that finding True Fans began with my friends. I thought that if I could impress them with my work, gain their interest, acceptance, and word of mouth, that it would spread like wildfire. What I’m starting to realize is that people aren’t generally stark-raving-mad about their friends. Not publicly, anyway. Not to strangers. And if you’re good friends, then you already know all the people they know, which rules them all out too. I have an example of this exact situation.

I met a girl once at a party. I had only a very vague idea of who she was, but she knew me. The minute she realized I was me she became giddy and star-struck. The whole thing was surreal and amazing. I was high from it for weeks. I wanted more. I thought that the best way to nurture that fanatic was to befriend them. I don’t regret that for even one second as she is a fantastic friend to me. But that whole giddy star-struck thing went away as soon as I became real and human to her.

Friends are often willing to say, “I know a guy who take photos. You should talk to him” when the conversation is directed that way. But friends aren’t the people who post a new blog entry that says “Have you seen Daniel’s newest photo?! OMG, I want to have like 10,000 of his babies!”

Friends are great. They fuel my work, they support its creation, they offer ideas, and subjects, and sounding boards, and shoulders. They are incredible, and amazing, and beautiful, and necessary. But they don’t pay the bills.

I need to attract some fans to my work — some true, stark raving lunatics. Thankfully, I’ve got an excellent, inside source of information on them: I just happen to be one.

Scott Church (scottchurch@LJ, The Art of Scott Church) recently visited Dallas. In fact, I think he may even still be here. While our photographic styles and subject matter are most often quite different I find much of his work to be an inspiration. And, from time to time I see a photograph of his that strikes me as something I’d enjoy creating.

One of the first photos he posted taken in Dallas, a candid really, I find incredibly inspiring. A woman wearing pants and an unzipped long sleeve shirt, topless underneath, applies paint by hand to a large canvas propped against the wall of what appears to be a kitchen. In the foreground is a topless toddler with paint spread accidentally on her pants and stomach. A portion of a table is visible left in the frame, and under it is an errant juice cup. From this topless painter to her, presumably, topless daughter, to the juice cup rolled under the table — this image reaches out to me. I feel like I belong here, in this warm, open, family.

Later, he publishes another incredible image. It is a moody, monochromatic image of a young woman in front of an abandoned, wooden walled building. The out-of-focus foreground grasses, darkened sky, and blurred hair give a fleeting feeling of movement, with two bare-branched trees framing the whole scene. Again I feel like I am there. I feel like I am breathing this moment in. Despite the uninvited feeling an abandoned building and thoughts of trespassing can bring, this image makes me feel as though I am very much invited and a big part of this single slice in time.

This work is yet one of many things that inspire me.

I’m driven to create more, experience more, build more, dream more, and share more, despite the obstacles that constantly present themselves. And I’m inspired to bring as many beautiful people as I can along with me for the journey — as subjects, as fans, as patrons, as co-conspirators.

Thank you to Scott Church, and others like him, who continue to dream, and create, and share with me. And thank you — all of you — for being a part of this with me.

Of course, Scott’s Journey ended in a bit of trouble with the law. Hopefully they won’t be too hard on him. If they saw these images the way I do, they’d have let him go without a second thought. (Ha. April Fools!)

My Group DITL photos are almost ready. I’ve got them narrowed down to 109 so far, plus a couple from each of two photo events. It either needs to be closer to 50 or really exciting to keep interest. So… I’m getting there. It was a huge success and tons of you did it which makes me very happy. On Saturday-ish I’ll have a nice post with all the participants and awards and such.

I’ve decided I need to limit what I plan to get done each day. As it stands now, I find myself looking back at each day and seeing that I either worked myself to exhaustion with little to no time for anything personal (the baby, my wife, e-mail, photos, etc), or, that I was so overwhelmed with what I had to do that I did nearly nothing at all — watched TV, did a few chores in the most mediocre of fashions, etc. So, in the effort of trying something new, I’m just going to pick a handful of things for each of several categories to do each day and completely push everything else out of my mind. If I find myself less frantic this way, then I’ll start making a list of all the things I didn’t get done so that I can choose a bit more wisely on future days.

Celeste will be a month old this Saturday. A MONTH OLD! Time flies.

My sister-in-law was in a pretty bad accident this past weekend. She is at home and doing better now but it has happened at a very difficult time for her and my brother which certainly doesn’t help. If you believe in such things, please send your good thoughts, prayers, and energy their way. It’d mean a lot to me.

A good friend of ours had their first boy of four children last Saturday. He was a VBAC and born happy and healthy at 1:02pm on Saturday. We are very happy for them and are filled with hope for our next child.

Today (1/23/08) is a DITL Day in the DITL LiveJournal Community. Since I won last week’s (woo hoo!) I can’t win this week, but I wasn’t doing it to win anyway. I just find it fun to do and fascinating to look at.

The 3 minutes I had has turned into 18. I really need to shower and get to work. More later…

The idea is that all participants would document the same day in their lives through photography. Then, over the following week or so, everyone will share the results of this effort. There are several groups on the Internet doing this already — in particular, the DITL LiveJournal Group (their next DITL day is tomorrow, BTW) and several groups on Flickr (most of which don’t seem incredibly active). However, there’s always room for improvement and localization.

In this case, at least at first, I’d like to try to arrange some sort of group event to occur on the same day. That way we’d all be photographing our lives and then, at some point, those lives would come together and then, later, separate again. I’m aiming for either this Saturday (the 19th) or the next (the 26th). I’m thinking I should either try to arrange something to do (picnic, movie outing, dinner, walk around the lake, party, etc). Or, perhaps I should just encourage you all to get together with one another that day by having some silly awards for the person who has the most photographs of other people taking photographs from that same day. Something like that.

So, what do you think? Any ideas? Would you like to participate? Let me know.

I’ve decided to enter my first JPG Magazine Submission in the “Surroundings” category. I’d be honored if you’d take the time to go vote for it.

First the image: You might remember seeing a similar image from me in the past. In fact, that image is one of my most popular on Flickr. I had to edit it again in order to submit it to JPG Magazine because of their photo requirements. They don’t allow extensive editing and that particular photo was a blending of three images taken at different exposure levels with heavy use of masking in Photoshop. The version you see above uses only levels and curves adjustment, some color balance correction, and a bit of sharpening and everything you see comes from the same source image instead of taking parts from three different places.

Finally, JPG Magazine: I’ve know about it for several years and I’m still not sure if I think it’s a good thing or a blah thing but I’ve decided that it’s not an evil thing, and, therefore, worth trying. So this is my first submission. Accepted works get a 1yr subscription to the magazine and $100. In this category, select images will get win a $600 5MP camera phone. It’s not a whole lot but, then again, submitting isn’t really about making money.

So, once again, if you’re so inclined, I’d really appreciate a quick visit and your vote for unused railway at JPG Magazine.

Thanks.

However, while it lasted it made me feel great. I felt accomplished, and creative, and alive. Sure, there were moments of frustration and difficulty and not every image was a visual success. But, in some small way, every image helped me to grow. 7 of these 12 images remain amongst my most regarded images on Flickr and I have a hard time believing its because of my choice in models.

My point is, I need a new project.

Part of the problem with the above project was that one of the requirements was that I be the subject. It’s difficult enough to plan an image, prepare any needed materials, travel to a location, setup the shot, make photographs, clean up, get home, edit the photos, and then publish an image all in one day. Throwing me in as required subject matter and making me play both photographer and model only adds to the complexity. It’s not that I can’t photograph myself once a day. That’s easy and certainly fruitful for a self-study or an adventure in amateur photography. But photographing myself in a new and interesting way every day becomes a bit more of challenge.

So I’m working on cooking something up. Something that will require daily work but not daily results. Something that will allow me to be the subject when needed but not as a constant requirement. Something that will enforce deadlines, but not without giving me a little room to breathe, work, and live.

I’m all for ideas, if you have any.

Here is a brief summary of my qualifications:

* 10+ Years Web Development Experience. Familiar with all of the leading technologies including AJAX, RSS, OpenID, PHP, Ruby, CSS, HTML and much more.
* 10+ Years UNIX System Administration Experience. Well versed in most leading technologies including Linux, Apache, MySQL, Postfix, Exim, Asterisk, Bind, DHCP, SMTP, VoIP, and HTTP.
* 10+ Years Database Architect Experience. Very familiar with MySQL and SQLite. Moderately familiar with Informix and SQLServer. Somewhat familiar with Oracle.
* 7+ Years Application Development Experience beginning with research gathering and design, through implementation, and concluding with rollout and support.
* 2+ Years Project Management Experience, beginning with project definition, through implementation and reporting, and concluding with follow-up processes.
* 8+ Years Photographic experience including film-based photography, film development, digital photography, photo editing, and post production. Fluent in Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint, Adobe Lightroom, and various digital asset management applications like Adobe Bridge, iView, and IDIimager. Experience in landscape, portrait, and product photography. Experience with studio lighting and location based lighting techniques and equipment. Portfolio available upon request.
* Ample Training Experience teaching classes with greater than 30 attendants.
* Limited Management Experience leading a small team of Application Developers.
* 10+ Years of Experience working at a leading Telecommunications company. Authored methods and procedures and maintained primary provisioning and inventory systems for translations design, special circuit provisioning, and fiber optic media technology. Acted in a supporting role for a customer facing internal organization. Saved over $150 mil in costs by developing and supporting a process to recover lost revenue in existing plant. Acted as liason between IT department and various internal organizations.
* Very fluent in all the latest technology trends including Voice over IP, bluetooth, blogging, video blogging, podcasting, and social networking.
* Excellent customer service skills.
* Outstanding follow-up skills.

Thank you for your time.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.

My photoblog, Arranging Light, is listed there (VFXY Profile) as are thousands of other outstanding photographers.

I spent yesterday hanging out with my Grandparents who are in town until after my sister’s wedding and helping my Dad install two light fixtures in his kitchen. I brought my laptop and several flash cards over to his place so that I could edit a few photo sessions as we sat around and talked afterwards. I need to get a couch and a TV up in my office. That way, I could do more editing while doing other things. It seemed to work pretty well.

Skwid and the Moon

(click to enlarge)

Skwid dances with Glow Sticks under the Full Moon at Myschievia 2006.

Despite the fact that I have a huge pile of unedited photographs and lots of unfinished projects, I want to create more. There is so much spinning around inside of me right now — changing, building, breaking down — and I feel like this outlet is my way of expressing that and trying to understand that. So I’ve got this desire to get out and go and do. At the same time it’s coupled with this strong need for social interaction. Photography, however, isn’t really a spectator sport. So, I either need to find some like-minded individuals equally interested in the subject at hand (which varies, of course) to accompany me, or some like-minded individuals willing to be a part of the photographs themselves. Or, of course, find a way to go on my own without wishing I had someone to share it with.

If I didn’t have so many obligations already this weekend, I would have accepted Johnny’s offer to go to Hamilton Pool. Of course, the next three weekends are all at least partially booked as well so, despite this being my favorite time of year to get out into nature and enjoy the world around me, I’m not getting out there very much. So, I’m trying to plan a trip into nature for the weekend of 11/18 or 11/25. I don’t know what or where just yet. Something far enough away that I feel like I’m out of town, and yet close enough that I don’t have to spend a lot of time getting there. 3 to 6 hours away seems appropriate. If you’re interested in coming along, let me know which weekend works best for you and if you have any location suggestions.

Jess and I might head out today for a hike and some photographs. Probably out just past Sherman on the Texas / Oklahoma border, though that’s hardly set in stone. You can come if you’d like just give me a holler.

We had a lot of invitations to Halloween parties this year. However, after much deliberation we’ve decided that Jess, her cousin Ericka, and myself will be at Skwid’s Halloween party this year. Not that we didn’t want to go to the other Halloween Parties or that they wouldn’t have been just as cool. But Skwid’s parties are always fun, I can bring friends along, and many of the people I enjoy spending time with are going to be there. If you don’t have Halloween plans yet lemme know and I’ll see if I can bring a few more along.

We have a few chores to do today before we go out for our hike. We have to prepare a room and such for Ericka, who is coming tomorrow to visit us for a week. I also need to finalize my plans, pack my bags, and prepare for my trip to Indiana. I leave tomorrow at 10am and I get back just before 5pm on Wednesday.

I started out with a long work day (from home, thank god) mostly spent defending myself, my team, and our efforts from one person who went into panic mode when he realized he hadn’t been paying attention and passed that panic on to his boss. I did what I could to convince them that I’m not trying to single handedly take over our department and then called it a day.

an inner peace

(click to enlarge)

I managed to edit quite a few photographs. Including the one of the sunset I “mentioned yesterday”:http://revjim.net/2006/10/03/freedom-costs-a-buck-ofive/. If you weren’t one of the few people that mentioned wanted to see it, then just don’t look.

Next I headed out for shopping and planning for the “Myschievia Portrait Studio”:http://revjim.net/2006/10/05/myschievia-portrait-studio-when-plans-crumble/. Unfortunately, all four hours spent doing so were utterly fruitless.

After getting home, Jess and I had a quick dinner and then headed to Rob’s house to pick up the supplies he was lending us. He went over a lot of things with us and I’m very grateful for his support and advice. I feel 100 times better about what I’m doing having spoken to him.

After we left Rob’s place we went to a WalMart which didn’t have what we wanted, and then on to another WalMart which did. After much shopping and a lot of planning on the drive home, we unloaded the truck and fell into bed just after midnight.

I should have taken today off too, but I didn’t. So, I’m at work today. I’ve got some shopping to do on my lunch break and then I’m going to try to get home as early as possible. Then tonight will consist of eating pizza, drinking whiskey, sewing curtains, gathering supplies, packing bags, doing a trial build of the the camp, taking photos in it, and then tearing it all down. You’re welcome to come if you’d like to join us.

And then, at the last minute, I realized our plans wouldn’t work at all.

So now, with less than one day before departure, Jess and I are running around like mad to make sure everything comes together.

I spent 4 hours yesterday travelling from store to store looking for a Car Canopy (also known as a Quebec Garage to the Northerners) to use as a structure to house the studio. After failing miserably Jess remembered that our friends Rob and Vicki used one for camp “Pizza Smut” at Burning Man two years ago. Not only did Rob graciously lend us his Canopy, he had everything organized and accessible, gave us tips for putting it up, and included support ropes and rebar stakes. Rob also lent us a 5 day cooler (in the event that this year’s event doesn’t manage to secure an Ice Princess) and a “camp shower” which we’ll probably use for purposes other than it was intended. “Wet t-shirt contest” photographs anyone?

Talking with Rob made me realize a few things.

First, I’m crazy. I’ve never been to a burn event, ever. I’m all about jumping into to new things with both feet, an open mind, and a desire to be right in the middle of it all, and that’s good. But this time I’ve jumped in the deep end, head first, blind folded. As a virgin burner, I probably shouldn’t have undertaken setting up a theme camp of my own. That’s a bit much. Of course, it’s too late now. And I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

Secondly, I did everything I could to avoid using a generator. I don’t know why, really. Something inside told me that having a generator would just make everything infinitely more complicated. Now, looking back, having a regular source of power might have been a lot easier. Not only would it allow the studio to use common household lights, recharge batteries, power laptops, and use fully fledged studio strobes, but out living quarters could have included a fan, an electric skillet, and an AC powered method of producing music. On the plus side, I don’t have to drag a generator or gasoline out there with us. I guess after this weekend’s over I’ll know for sure which one I would have preferred.

Third, no matter what happens, people will appreciate the effort we put into the project. And, even if it isn’t everything we had dreamed of, it’ll still be cool, and interesting, and serve its purpose.

Fourth, we can do this. As impossible as it seems right now, we can do this.

Finally, above all else, the whole point is to let loose, enjoy ourselves, enjoy the experience, and not get too caught up in the things that we can’t change. If we don’t have any fun, then it’s not even worth doing. So we’ll plan like mad, prepare the best we can, and pack everything into the truck with the best of intentions. From that point forward we can’t change anything. So, we’ll work hard, have fun, roll with the punches, and enjoy everything the experience has to offer.

Thank you Rob for the sound advice and vote of confidence.

So tonight Jess will be sewing 60 feet of black curtain while I setup the canopy and make a final gathering of all of our supplies. Once she’s finished, we’ll put the studio together to ensure that we have everything we need, and then take a photograph in it for posterity. Then we’ll tear everything back down and go to bed. Then, early tomorrow morning, we’ll load the truck up and head out. Hitting the grocery store on our way.

If you’ve got nothing else to do this evening, you’re welcome to join us for sewing, building, packing, photo taking, pizza and beer.

Friday night over coffee with Josh and Erica at “Art 6″:http://www.myspace.com/artsixcoffee in Denton, I learned that “I talk with my hands a lot”:http://flickr.com/search/?w=54599034@N00&q=daniel%2Ccoffee%2Cfaces&m=tags and that I seem to have “a very odd tick”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdmeBhBQxFY. Thank you for that, Josh.

Saturday morning I helped my dad fix his fence. This meant digging a very deep hole, straining a lot, bashing my ankles up with falling boards, and covering myself in a nice coating of splinters.

Afterwards we went to “Arlington Camera”:http://www.arlingtoncamera.com/. My Dad bought a new flash and some equipment for it. I helped him pick it all out and then wandered the store dreaming of all the things I wish I could justify spending money on. Even flashes that I don’t have to “repair on my own”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/29/ive-got-the-poets-touch/ would be nice.

Then I met with a guy about photographing his upcoming wedding. No, I’m not “back in business”. If you knew how little I was charging him you’d agree. The idea interested me so I went with it.

Then I held reflectors and helped to coach as my parents photographed my sister and her fiancee at sunset on the shores of Lake Grapevine. I got a bunch of candid shots and a really cool picture of the sunset. Maybe I’ll show you if you ask really nice.

Then we had dinner and headed home.

The really difficult part is when you write a song and it’s like, “Oh. I don’t want to sing that.” But, no, that’s the song – I can’t turn it into a song about chicks and cars. People connect with the honesty. That’s really my job. Sometimes you’ve got to seinf the stuff that you don’t want to say. You have to be vulnerable.

– Mike Doughty, from his “bio”:http://www.mikedoughty.com/bio/.

Sunday morning my parents came with my sister and her fiancee to be photographed in my studio. We had a good time and I think I got some pretty good images. I haven’t even had a chance to consider looking at them yet.

Then we taught them how to play “Bartog”:http://cp.yi.org/cameron/bab_bartog/ which is quite possibly the best card game ever invented. In the midst of that, my sister’s fiancee invented what is by far the best Bartofg rule ever. I’d tell you what it was but that would spoil the fun. You’ll just have to play with me to find out. My mom was so utterly confused by the game that she insited on Vodka shots to help her understand better. I think this is a good strategy.

Nic and Emily showed up and then my parents left. Then Emily got in front of my camera. After a little of that, she convinced Jess to get in front of the camera with her. Maybe you’ll see some of those images. If you ask nicely. Or maybe I’ll just keep them all to myself. Yum!

After the photo session was over we headed to Sweetwater for dinner and drinks where we met up with Mike and Lisa. We spent a few hours there and then headed home and collapsed.

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

– Dwight Eisenhower

Yesterday Jess and I went for a jog and then started watching “Team America: World Police”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/. It was funny in that Southpark sort of way. Despite that, I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open and fell asleep half way through we’ll watch the rest tonight.

I’m hoping to get home from work a bit early today and take a big bite out of some picture editing. If all goes well, I’ll have three more sessions uploaded before the evening is over. In addition to a jog, dinner, the rest of Team America, and some Myscheivia planning, we’ve got a full evening ahead.

My plans for the Myscheivia Portrait Studio are falling apart. If you have any ideas on what visual and functional items can be used to make a plot of dirt and grass appear to be an obvious, though make-shift, portrait studio, I’d love to hear it.

As if camping for 4 days in mid-80s weather in the East Texas Piney Woods wasn’t fun enough already, you’ll be doing so with me, a handful of other friends, and a whole group of new friends waiting to be made. On top of that, you’ll be participating in a temporary community, a gift economy, and enjoying a whole host of “Art and Theme camps”:http://ntxb.org/index.php?div_page=2006_art.camps (pay special attention to the 8th item in the Theme Camp list).

So go “get your tickets”:http://ntxb.org/index.php?div_page=tickets. Once you’ve done that, take a look at the groups you can “volunteer”:http://ntxb.org/index.php?div_page=participate to work with and if you see something you like join in. Or you can volunteer to help me as a fluffer, assistant, or personal slave at the “Myschievia Portrait Studio”:http://revjim.net/2006/09/15/myschievia-portrait-studio/.

Hurry!