Actually, here’s one more photo from the shoot:
I love this one for the following reasons:
They’re in! Yesterday I received my disc with the photos I selected from my shoot. Can I just say how much Knottie Pictures rocks? They were fun and professional to work with, had a really quick turnaround time on everything, great quality photos - and a really nice disc with a custom label and icon and a fancy case. (The little things like that really add to professionalism, in my opinion.) I definitely recommend them!
Here are three photos from the final set. I’ve put all of them on Flickr, set to “friends only.” I might make them public later, I haven’t decided yet… I’ll just have to decide how comfortable I feel about anybody and everybody having access to them. Anyway, I sent a guest pass to a few folks who aren’t on Flickr, but if you aren’t on there and want to see the full set, comment or email me and I will send you a guest pass as well (unless you’re creepy!).
I’m really glad we found the little purple “I’m Scared” guy. Ever since I saw this photo of him I knew I’d want to try to track him down when we got there. He was in a room off of the hallway where the solitary confinement cells were - so creepy that we almost didn’t go in there.
The final word on my photo shoot? “Yay!” :)
Yesterday was my birthday photo shoot (as mentioned here), and it was an amazing experience. THANK YOU to Bryant and Sadie for being so professional, fun, organized, and making me feel comfortable and relaxed - at least, as relaxed as possible when half-naked inside an abandoned prison!
Yes, we did the shoot at the old Atlanta Prison Farm. There’s an entire Flickr group for the place - 788 photos and counting - and apparently it’s kind of passé among “serious” urban explorers. But screw those pretentious people! It’s a really cool place and it was exactly the sort of thing I had in mind for a location.
Info about the prison:
Inmates at this facility, who served sentences for ordinance and traffic offenses, were routinely assigned to farming, livestock, cannery and dairy operation details. This enabled the detainees to benefit from vocational training and contribute to their sustenance. The 77-year old prison farm, though effective in the past, became too inefficient to manage the change in the detainee population and was consequently closed forever in 1985. (Note: I read another source that says it closed in 1995. Not sure which is true.)
The shoot took three hours and we went to several different areas of the prison. I managed to incorporate three different outfits - or really three and a half, as one was a last-minute partial switcharound. It was definitely a weird feeling changing in the middle of a big open former prison cafeteria, for example; even though I knew the place was deserted I felt very “exposed.” I got over it pretty quickly, though.
Walking around in heels was also not easy, because there was so much debris and because one of the pairs of shoes I brought is a pair I can barely walk in under normal circumstances. I didn’t bring my old reliable chunky black stripper heels because I actually dance in them at least once a week, and I didn’t want to mess them up. I don’t think the other shoes had any permanent damage done (just a lot of dirt!), but I didn’t want to take any chances. I know it sounds really cliché and possibly annoying, but standing around in heels for several hours isn’t easy. I now have a very real appreciation for how this sort of thing is not just standing around. I also had to contort myself into some positions that felt weird, stupid, or awkward, but hopefully they’ll turn out looking good! I know that a lot of things have to be exaggerated for photography.
Also, make-up looks cool but is a pain in the ass! Thank goodness Sadie was there to do mine, otherwise I don’t know what I would have done. I just do not know how to apply make-up other than your basic eyeshadow-and-lipstick routine, and even then only if I’m really under duress. I liked the way it looked yesterday - although it did feel a little weird and “not me,” but again, I know it has to be exaggerated for the photographs - but if I had to do that every day I would lose my mind. I just don’t have the patience. But as I’ve said before, my not wearing make-up is simply because I don’t want to; it’s not some kind of political statement. I hate that I feel compelled to say that, but there it is!
I got a few mosquito bites and almost touched some poison ivy, but hey, all in the name of art. And naturally I made the requisite quip about how my stripper name is Poison Ivy.
What else… really, I don’t know what else to say. It was just a really positive (and tiring!) experience, I’m glad I did it, and I can’t wait to see the results! Maybe if I’m happy with the way they turn out I’ll try to do actual modeling gigs… I don’t know, I guess I’m getting ahead of myself; I’ll have to decide later. But it was - dare I say it?? - empowering for me!
Not sure if I will post the final 15 shots that I choose online, or what. I’ll probably post at least one. Stay tuned.
Oh, and next time? We’ve gotta do a shoot at the old shower door warehouse - check it out, they have poles!
I go through phases with blogging. Sometimes I want to pour my heart and soul out, and other times I’m just not feeling it. This past week has been one of the “just not feeling it” times. The only two three posts I’ve done haven’t been remotely personal, and were mostly blockquotes. I’ve been finding myself falling back into some old patterns of not taking care of myself and not speaking my needs, and I’ve been trying to focus on how to make that stop.
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House-hunting will resume possibly next weekend.
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A while ago I had a dream that my mom was trying to force me to wear make-up. I was really distressed and started crying and saying that I didn’t want to wear make-up, but she kept insisting. This kind of happened in real life when I was a teenager, though never to such an extreme. And besides, I actually did wear make-up when I was a teenager (most of the time) - I even used glitter eyeshadow! By the time I was in college, though, I’d decided it wasn’t my thing.
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Next Thursday, I turn 29. I’m trying not to have an existential crisis about it. Not only is that cliché, but I really should save it for when I turn 30. (I already had the requisite “quarter century crisis” when I turned 25.)
I decided that for my birthday, I’m going to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time - get professional photos taken. I’m getting déjà vu writing this, but I swear it’s going to happen for real this time (but that’s another story). I’ve paid the deposit, picked out my outfits… and the shoot is set for next Sunday. We’re still working on a location but I have no doubt we’ll find something great; I just hope it’s not too cold.
I don’t want to write more about it right now because I don’t want to jinx anything. But, if this goes well, I might do it again!
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I am very disturbed by this. I mean, what the fucking hell?
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Recently while looking for my DVD of Lost In Translation, I found the video I made after completing my senior project in high school. I interned at Flagpole for two weeks, and what I learned was that I didn’t want to be a journalist. I haven’t watched the video since the day I showed it to my class. As I mentioned previously, our VCR died, but fortunately thanks to Twitter I found out Jen has one she doesn’t want, so as soon as I get that from her I can watch the video and digitize it and put it on YouTube. I remember it being pretty good; we’ll see if I still feel that way 10 years later.
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Last night I was at Barnes and Noble and they had this stupid “Porno for Women” display:
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I saw chickens in front of an abandoned school on Huff Road:
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I need to write a full post with my thoughts on this. I love AV Flox’s blog, and if you aren’t reading it, you should be. This is the sort of writing that someone should be getting paid for! It blows me away. One pet peeve about the post in question: Emily Gould did not coin the term “overshare.” Dooce used it in a 2005 interview in Glamour magazine, and that’s just what I know of. Someone else probably used it before that.
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I’ve been having fun with my Tumblr (I think the actual correct terminology for an individual Tumblr blog is “Tumblog,” but I refuse to say that, because I think it sounds stupid). I should probably warn you that it’s not safe for work, but I hate that whole “NSFW” thing, so… consider this an ass-backwards non-warning, I guess.
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We should probably do a new episode of Mostly ITP soon. Who should we interview?
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Tonight on the phone, my grandmother said, “These stupid people who say they haven’t decided who to vote for! How can they be undecided at this late of a date? I think they’re just imbeciles.”
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Jenny: where are your dispatches from the Obama campaign??
I was looking through my photos on Flickr trying to find one to crop for a submission to the 2008 Blogger Boobie-Thon (I decided to go with this one) and I came across my photoset from our December 2007 trip to Columbia, SC and remembered how happy I was then.*
I was talking to someone recently (can’t remember who) and telling them how happy and at-home I felt in Columbia - but that realistically I probably wouldn’t want to live there. But I just feel a deep connection with the place - probably because of all the family history there.
Btw, my grandmother found an old photo of the family home at 1429 Laurel St., hiding in a random dresser drawer! There’s no date on it and it’s damaged in two corners; I’m going to take it to Myott Studio next week to be framed in archival glass so it can be well-preserved and put on display, not hidden away in a drawer.
Now, back to trying to write a post about all this business; I’ve been having such trouble finding the right words.
* Not to imply that I’m unhappy now! Just that I have really good memories of that trip, it was a really great time, and something about it felt very special.
For any of y’all who will be in town Friday night, two of my photos are in the latest Atlanta Photography Exhibit at The Granite Room. The exhibit is part of the Castleberry Hill 4th Friday Art Stroll. I’m excited but also nervous about having my photos in the same exhibit as a bunch of professional photographers! (And I’m still pissed about the shitty frame job on one of my photos, thanks to Hobby Lobby not knowing how to cut a mat correctly. But theoretically if anyone buys the photo, they’re not buying it for the frame anyway.) I hope to see some of you there Friday night. And yes, it’s free!
I’m finally going to get off my ass, confront my fears, and do something I’ve always wanted to do: model for a studio photo shoot! I figure, I walked right through my fears and took up pole dancing - why stop there? How long am I going to let fear hold me back from doing the things I want to do?
Happily, I will be working with kick-ass photographer Frank Lazaro (of Atlanta Urban Photography Exhibit fame). He wants me to scour the internet for stuff I like, and send it to him for ideas; but see, my problem is that when I see something cool (example: check this shit out; Angela rocks), I know it’s cool and I know I like it, but I’m not creative enough to come up with my own ideas. Eh, I’ll just show him a few good photos I’ve seen and let him run with it… the photographer is supposed to have a artistic vision or some shit, right?
Will keep you all posted. Any thoughts/ideas on what I should do or what would look awesome? (Maybe involve podcast equipment, somehow?) It might be weeks before this happens.
Yesterday I went to Fast Frame to pick up two things I’d had framed (my M.I.T. diploma, only two years after the fact, and a picture of my grandfather and great-grandmother taken in 1917). While I was waiting for them to get my stuff, this customer, an older gentleman, asked me, “Are you a photographer?” Turning on the quick wit, I answered, “Well, I take a lot of photos, but I wouldn’t call myself a photographer.” To which he replied, “Oh, I just wondered, because you look like a photographer.” Then he asked me for my opinion on the best frame for this picture he had with him. Anyway, I thought it was kind of an odd comment, but I’ve decided to take it as a compliment.
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