Hanging with the Mayor

I received this via email from City Hall--wait a moment after you click on it because it seems to take a moment to load. The woman to my right (facing picture) is the City Councilwoman for the downtown district, Patty Sheehan. She was the first openly gay person to be elected to the City Council as far as I know. Apparently the city had cut the funding to pay the photographers ($100) per image and she paid it herself. Now I've no idea exactly what she means by that but I, in turn, sent the money to the save the Eola fountain campaign. Here's how you could do the same if you are so inclined: Save the Fountain
(JPEG Image, 3216x2136 pixels) - Scaled (36%)
By now you would think I'd be over my daisy fixation. Apparently it has yet to run it's course.

And here, yet another link:Healthcare Reform, from the NYT magazine, a must read for anyone who seriously would like to see health care reform. I won't get on my soapbox, (well, maybe just a little), to complain about what I've seen thus far. In my humble opinion there has been no discussion about health care reform, instead it's been focused primarily on how to get more people insured. For starters, let's outlaw all pharmaceutical, malpractice attorney, hospital, and doctor advertisements. We are paying for all that nonsense with higher health costs. The article is lengthy but it offers some concrete ways that as a patient we could see better health care. Enough said.

This morning I cooked, this afternoon I'll be doing a photo shoot. The Flint girls were accepted by a modeling agency,now they need comp cards with 3/4, and full length body shots. As such, I'll be doing one girl this afternoon, the other tomorrow afternoon. That should prove easier than our previous session. One of the girls is way more comfortable in front of a camera, or at least she was when last we met. We'll be shooting in a park about three doors down from their home which will make clothing changes much simpler. Lastly in the plus column is the weather, today is the prettiest day that I can remember in months,and months, and months. We had that little cool snap which was almost too cool--we went from bathing suits to coats. Today I'm wearing capris and a short sleeved t-shirt, unimaginable just a week ago. Hurray!

I read that because so many older people have signed up for facebook that all the young people have gone over to Twitter. I could have told them that.

I just looked over my spreadsheet from Roger regarding what he's made for me. Street Art blows everything else out of the water, closing in on 200 prints of one size or another. Who could have predicted that?
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Listening to: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
via FoxyTunes

Something New

This morning, around 7:45, I met my subjects at Delaney Park to do my first photo shoot of children. Although I tried to dissuade their mom with the horrors of modeling, they'd like to give it a try.

I'd meant to do a little research prior to meeting up with them, but only got around to it this morning around 6:30. One of the first things I discovered was the child should wear something plain, but colorful. Because their mom said she'd looked into head shots and such, I figured we would be ok. Not so. The girls wore identical white sun dresses. Fortunately, they live fairly close allowing Mom to return home to rummage around for something suitable. I know these girls slightly from the market where everything begins; after Mom left we got comfortable. I sent them to the swings to get happy, and it wasn't long before we began to have fun. Torrential rains the night before made things a little dicey to begin with; fortunately Polly brought towels.

Wouldn't you know it, my favorite picture of Mattie is in her white dress:

And her is Claire with her gorgeous strawberry blonde hair and the perfect shade of green.

After about an hour we were all hot and sticky and called it a morning. Hopefully there is one great shot of each of them. I do so hope I can do more of this kind of thing to improve my skills. I'm never quite sure where to start when photographing people formally which is weird because I am totally comfortable with just about anyone I meet. I got the girls talking about favorite things which seemed to loosen them up just a bit. As well, I showed them the "Smarties" I had in my pocket which they are used to getting each time they visit my booth. Anyway, I'm hoping it was a success but only time will tell....


Here's a quote I found online which I believe shall become my goal.
"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." Robert Frank, LIFE (26 November 1951)

I've been super busy the last two days and now it is time to load the car for tomorrow's market, which if it weren't for the fact that I'm not a quitter, I'd have quit by now!