Hooooo-boy. All this work I've been up to? It's about to come to fruition. This photo here is of the new issue of vita.mn, which hits the stands on Thursday afternoon (the photo is from deadline night tonight). Vita.mn turns five years old this week! Can you believe it!? I've been art directing it for five whole years! And if you live in town, you should come to our big birthday party Friday night at Epic. Lots of great music and fashion and art! And food and drinks! You should celebrate with me. Me and the Hold Steady.And if you pick up this week's issue, you can see all the work I've been up to. Oh, and don't just pick up one issue. Aim for all five. Uh-huh.
I have big ideas. Do you know that about me? You should. I'm very much of the "go big or go home" variety. Because of this, I've been looking into remodeling our basement so that it is, in fact, finished to my satisfaction (which does not include fake wood paneling glued to the foundation walls, as we currently have). This plan would provide a great studio space for my photo clients (with a laundry room on the side). And it would add a shower to the basement bathroom so that when guests visit, we can be more flexible with the bathing schedules.I'm gonna be honest here, this is probably going to be way more money than I really want to spend (because when someone says $1000 for flooring, I tend to think "That's airfare to Europe!"). But it's something that we are weighing, and we're relishing this part because this is the fun part. The dreaming. The thinking big. The actual doing? I'm imagining that is not the most fun part.
How cute is this girl? Today she got an adventure to the dog park and then back to the photo studio where she was fed salmon treats and got to play with new toys (while a Collie two floors above attempted every possible form of communication). Lucky girl.But seriously, I have a total soft spot for boxers. They are so fun to shoot because of all those wrinkles on their foreheads. And? When they run their ears flop in the wind. Adorable.
Today was a tad about recovery from last night, but mostly about getting the house in order. There's been so much "real work" around these parts, that the, um, housekeeping has kinda fallen by the wayside. So we worked all day today to fix that, and man does it make a difference for me to have a clean living space.Then later this afternoon my buddy Stacy (seen above) stopped by so I could help out with a photo project for her class at MCAD. And by "help out on a photo project" she needed me to throw clothes out the window at her while she shot it. Yes, yes I can do that :)Plus, knowing she was coming over and needed a bunch of summer things to be thrown out the window was fantastic motivation to clean out the closet*. Win-win!*Note that most of the items on the ground are hers, because let's be honest, if they were all my summer things they would be black, grey, and brown. Not very photogenic.
I told ya I was gonna see Deer Tick on Saturday, and man did they live up to expectations. It was a wild and raucous show, and they sounded fantastic. The crowd was INSANE with love for the band (which at some points was kind of ... weird... but yet really great for them) and the setlist was perfect. All my favorite Tick tunes with some Replacements (Bastards of Young!), Nirvana and even a touch of Sabbath thrown in. Now if only I could see the show again tomorrow...For more shots of the evening, 
Oh hi! Don't run away! I'm not going to yell at you today about work performance, I promise :) Today was a tad better, and it's Friday, and my man is takin' me on a date to see the new Justin Timberlake movie tonight! (Hush... I know it didn't get good reviews, but it's JT! And sci-fi! And I eat that up!)But how about that photo up there, eh? That's my "old" camera. The camera that I have been shooting with for the past... um... forever with (actually the last 2 years). Here's the thing, I'm kinda hard on camera (see the scuffs?). I mean, I take really good care of it, but I'm shooting anywhere between 40 and 2500 photos every single day right now, and that's a lot of wear and tear. Like, see that rubber flap on the right? That used to seal up the side of the camera... until I shot a super hot and humid show at First Ave this summer and the rubber piece swelled up and never fit back in. Also? My screen in the back took on a blue tint, and it's really hard for me to judge my white balance with that sort of issue.So I figured it was time for a replacement. Well, that's not really true. Let's be honest, eh? I've been waiting for Nikon to release the D800 since last February. With all the weddings I'm shooting, I really wanted to upgrade to the 800 and use my 700 as a backup camera. But natural disaster after natural disaster in Asia has shut down several Nikon factories, and I just reached a point where I couldn't wait any more. (That point was the odd slow clicking that the mirror in my camera started making). Oh, and should anyone from Nikon be reading this? How 'bout a factory in CANADA?! Nothing ever really happens there! And the equipment would ship to me faster. Everybody wins.But back to my saga. I ended up getting a new D700 this week, and it's pretty and shiny and the photos are lovely when I look at the LCD screen in back. I will now aim to repair the old one and then I'll be set. But the real moral of the story is that when you spend this much money on a new camera (no, I won't tell you how much, if you are that curious you can google it) and you're not even excited about the new toy, but rather like "cool, this will work better." That's when you know that you're no longer a hobby photographer, and you really are a working pro.Either that or you had a rough week at work.
Kids, it's time for some "real talk." I try to keep this space pretty upbeat and fun and positive and .... you know, happy. But this week has been tough (and I've had a little wine, as you can see above), so we're gonna get honest.Let's talk about work and success. Here is the lesson that I have learned over my many years in the workforce. If you want to be successful (or hell, screw success, let's aim for *liked* or *respected*) you need to do what you say you are going to do (and this next part is important) WHEN you agreed to do it.That's right. I fully believe that even if you do a mediocre (or even less than mediocre) job, but simply accomplish what you have promised by the time you agreed to, you have a 70% success rate. And if you have agreed to a deadline, and you are FAR from making it? You know what a good idea is? To tell the people who expecting your work. Because just not getting it done, and not telling anyone? That work doesn't go away. It simply pisses people off and makes you lose any ounce of respect you may have obtained prior.OK. That's enough of that. I'm sorry to be such a downer. Tomorrow should be a tad better. And Saturday? Saturday is Deer Tick, so you better believe that's gonna be a fun photo. Send me some good juju this week, in case you can't tell, I could use it.
Today was better. I mean, really, we had no where to go but up, right?That big work thing I've been tackling for a few months is finally coming together, and I got to go to lunch with Miss Margaret today (as you can see above). One of my favorite things about my friendship with this lady is that if I have a problem, all I have to do is state the first sentence of what may or may not be a dilemma, and she knows me well enough to fill in the entire rest of the scenario in her head and, between laughter and comments about how we're both going straight to hell, she helps me find a solution. We all need buddies like this in life.Also? Besides helping me with life's problems, she found