Hey-oh. Tonight was the sold out Robyn show at First Avenue. You might remember the last time I shot her, and yeah, she is still *amazing* to see live. You can see more shots from tonight's show over here.Other than Robyn, the big milestone for today was finishing my taxes. I had to refrain from putting that last sentence in all caps because I am *finally* done with that... for 2010 at least, and damn it feels good. Man, do I hate numbers and details and receipts and excel spreadsheets and boy is it a good thing I have a creative job. Cuz I would be The Suck at a gig in the financial world. And after finishing my taxes? I took a two hour nap and woke up thinking it was tomorrow. Yeah, math is hard.

Today I got to shoot the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra at their rehearsal -- which is held in this nice, sunny church that provided great light (and great sound). I didn't really know how I would like this assignment, since classical music isn't normally my thing, but I gotta tell you, it was SO MUCH FUN. I think I just love shooting musicians in general. Their concentration and instruments and the emotion they show while playing just can't be beat. And an orchestra! So many instruments and so much variety! It was great fun to photograph. Tomorrow I go back to capture them in their formal attire, and I can't wait...

 

I shot a 6 month session today with Mackenzie here -- which was much more fun than her newborn photos because having your eyes open and making faces is a whole different ballgame! Anyway, I just loved her eyes and lashes in these shots.I also went to the Best Coast and Wavves show tonight at the Varsity (see? It's not all babies and puppies around here) and those photos are up over here if you're interested. Pretty boring show, I thought. Or maybe I'm just too old to get it. I've got Robyn to shoot on Sunday and Justin Townes Earle on Monday -- those should be a bit more interesting.

Wow, what a day. This morning I had the very unusual opportunity to shoot a photo of Topher Grace and Dan Fogler. You probably know Topher from That 70s show, or from my favorite movie of his, Traffic (or from cameos in the Ocean's movies... LOVE those). And you might know Fogler from Fanboys... if you're a Star Wars geek like me. And if you're my mother, you have never, ever heard of these people. And that's OK.Anyway, they were in town doing a press junket for their new movie Take Me Home Tonight, and one of my dear editors needed a photo of them after the interview to post on the blog. Why yes! Yes I can do that! Except that my plan was a little foiled.You see, we patiently waited through the video interview, which was like a very charming interview you see on Letterman or something, and then as the actors were getting up to leave my editor introduced himself and asked if we could get a photo for the blog. Now, I am very much a "behind the scenes" person. I like taking the photos and designing the pages and generally working in the background. So I'm quietly waiting and the actors agree to the quick shot and my head is going something like this "Wow, this Topher is taller than I thought... I thought actors were short. And what a nice jacket, and man is he cuter in person than on TV. OK, well I don't want to shoot this photo up at him because that will not be attractive so I should probably ask him to sit, and I might want to adjust my aperture since Dan keeps stepping forward -" And that's when Topher stuck out his hand and said something like, "Hi! I'm Topher. I didn't catch your name?" And then he's shaking my hand and saying my name back to me and all my thoughts about how to get this great photo leaked out of my head. Because I'm thinking "My name is Leslie. My God you're tall and cute and polite. And built just like my husband..." And then I just snapped the photos as fast as I could.Sigh.And the photos are about the least flattering shots of Topher ever taken, and of course I forgot to change my aperture so only one of the actors is in focus in each of the shots. If you want to see him in focus, you can look at the Strib blog over here. Since I wasn't that happy with how he turned out in that photo, I chose this one to post where he's a little fuzzy. Man, way to hold your shit together, Leslie.

Tonight was Vita.mn's annual Hotness party. We have this issue each year that chooses the hottest male and females in the city (based on who gets nominated by their friends). Then the night before the issue drops, we have a big party to celebrate. This year's event was held at the Women's Club of Minneapolis, which as far as I can tell is like the Junior League. Lots of rich, older, charitable women run this place... and I think they might have been a tad worried about handing it over to us. Mwahahaha. But it was fine, and I think everyone had a great time. My favorite part was how these sweet elderly women kept bringing out trays of appetizers and pushing them on people like only grandmothers can. "Try these -- they're really good. NO. NOT THAT ONE, THAT'S COLD. Yes, this one over here. That's better, sweetie."This shot is technically not great, but I love examining everything going on. Because there was a fashion show at this year's event, the Fashionistas were fully represented -- and that's always entertaining. For instance, can you spot the giant fur hat in the photo? Also, Margaret and Pat are in there as well. Along with my buddy Carlos. And Cadillac Kolstad is playing piano in the back corner. I guess what I'm trying to say is, the people watching at these events? Yeah. That's the best part.

Today was a good day. I got a lot of fun stuff done at the office (hired two illustrators, wrote up a few contracts, designed six pages, processed a gazillion photos, got approval for a photo location -- stuff like that), and I wrapped the day up with dinner at Rice Paper with Meredith. Dinner with Meredith is, as I'm learning, a three hour affair. Why? Because we have so many amazing and hilarious conversations. Today was a good day.