Ready, steady, edit!

Today will be mostly spent editing, printing research, (hopefully) printing my recently edited photos and scanning in the negatives that I processed yesterday. I used 120 Black and White film, they seem to have turned out really well. I was panicking a little the other day since both studios are now unusable due to the smaller one being filled with tables, chairs and other random things and the bigger studio is being turned into an exhibition space. 2/3 mac suites have also been dismantled and only one remains. There's a definite atmosphere of stress and chaos in the air and I think I'm picking up on that too. I'll be glad when this week is over. I'll be more or less free for 3 months then :)

So far I've edited 5 photos, and I'm about to edit some more. I don't think that's too bad for just over an  hours work. If I keep the pace up I should be able to have some free time tomorrow. It's what I'm aiming for.

I've also recently learnt that I really, really need an external harddrive. A big one. I'm looking into getting a TB or 1.5TB worth of storage. I've got over 10 DVDs full of images. That's easily 30GB+ of images to sort though while hoping they don't end up corrupting. Thankfully I don't have to edit them all, I'm just choosing the best ones. I'll try and print some contact pages though just to show my tutors/markers how much work I did. They like that kind of thing.

I find it strange to think that another academic year has flown by under my nose. At this rate I'll be 30 before I wake up tomorrow. Each year goes by faster, and each year I realise how important it is to grab opportunities with both hands before they slip you by, if you want them. If you don't make an effort to live your life, then nobody will live it for you.

Right, back to work!

UPDATE: I've printed all my research (yay!) and now need to cut it out, stick it in and annotate. Fairly easy. Then I've got to edit some more photos ready for printing tomorrow, thursday and friday. I also have to edit down each photoshoot to include the best from the several images taken to include as a contact sheet, and then choose from those which ones I want to digitally manipulate and tidy up in photoshop. They then get printed out on A3 paper on a special printer in college which is pretty awesome. I'm just thankful that my screen is colour calibrated already, means I can hopefully avoid the repetitive printing out, scrutinising and printing out again cycle that takes hours. To be fair though, that was me panicking trying to get it just right for a customer. I'll be aiming for the same high quality, but it won't be nearly as stressful as last time.

...and breathe

So I've gotten the BA1 fashion shoots done. Now the editing begins and I can concentrate more fully on finishing my project for next Friday. Only one person hasn't picked up their images, I'm not too sure why. I've got things to do though so they know where they can find me. It puzzles me that they'd want images and then not bother to collect them when the deadline is today. Oh well. I was getting pretty confused yesterday as I was being asked by everybody for their images and ended up giving one person the wrong images. It was because she'd done the hair on the model so I thought she'd wanted it because of that. It was soon sorted out :) I almost missed the bus yesterday and caught it just as it was pulling away. I'd have gotten there sooner but my laptop had decided that it wanted to swallow a DVD-RW at a crucial moment. After trying to launch terminal (and failing) and threatening the computer (don't we all? :P ) it finally let go and gave it back.

I got some really good images over the course of the day, and I enjoyed doing it. I'm glad I was able to help so many people and I hope they all make good use of the images. I saw some printed today, and though I know I took the images and am confident in my abilities and their quality it's funny to think that it was indeed me who took them. Seeing them printed is so different to seeing them on a screen. It was a great feeling :D

Something worth noting is the camera I ended up using yesterday due to my own camera dying on me. I ended up using the Canon 450D (as previously mentioned here), which belongs to Foundation. It got the job done and I got some interesting photos from it. I loved it when I was on foundation and I wanted to buy one. It's pretty much what introduced me to DSLR photography on a grander scale than the occasional use of my Mum's D70, so maybe it's just me being used to my Nikon D5000 (it's almost like an extension of me when I use it, I'm very familiar with it now) but I really didn't like using the 450D at all yesterday. The controls were all over the place, the light changed often and it couldn't cope, the white balance was all over the place....I think 50% was user error/not being used to it and 50% it being a lower end camera. It's a nice camera, but I think I'll stick to my Nikon. I'm going to buy a new battery for it soon to avoid a repeat of yesterday. Also, I packed my charger today! I probably won't need it but it's a good habit to form. Eventually my D5000 will become my backup camera and I'll upgrade to a D700 sometime around the end of second year. I used one once and I love it. I'd like the D3X but the price difference is something I'm not too sure I can justify. At least with the D700 I can take full frame images and afford some kick-ass lenses at the same time. Lenses is where it's all at anyway. My 50mm would finally be able to autofocus with the D700 too :D

As a side note, my Spyder USB plug has finally arrived in Switzerland. I'm hoping to get my brand new replacement Spyder in the post within the next couple of weeks. Hopefully this one will work.

Here comes the bride...

Today I'm sitting among all the fashion students on the verge of sneezing my brains out due to the high percentage of hairspray in the air. I'm on my second day of shooting for a BA1 fashion group who have all made bridal corsets. I had a great time yesterday and got some fantastic images that I'll be sharing (I'll have a LOT more free time after today, editing here I come!). Since I'm waiting for makeup and hair to be finished by the hairdressing and makeup students from another campus, there's no reason to panic even though we're running 30 mins over schedule. I'm reasonably happy watching students use tools that look like they were designed for torture and learning about what they're actually meant for.

Again today I have 3 models in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, thankfully we've been blessed with good weather again today so if need be we can work outside. The second group yesterday were certainly keen on doing that and I can't blame them, we got some gorgeous shots with some blossom trees and a willow. The lawnmower man was adamant that he'd be included in some of the shots however. Bring on content aware fill from CS5. I'll have it some day I'm sure. The corsets were all lovely and there's some more interesting ones on the way. Not all have finished yet in true student style :P Everything is ready and waiting, so while I carry on waiting I'll put my laptop on charge and hope I can get everything done in the time given. I'm quietly confident it'll all get done :)

EDIT: Disaster strikes! Well, sort of. My camera battery had less juice in it than I thought it did. It has about 20% left but I have the college's Canon 450D on backup (and currently on charge). Course, the only day I don't bring in my camera charger too is the day I need it. From now on I'm never leaving the house without it. Lesson learnt!