mamapants

Do you love this? Do you not just LOVE IT? I don't know why, but this print by Niki Kelce just speaks to me. Clearly it's the uber-pregnant chick with the sailor tattoos, which I am a) not and b) not in possession thereof. But it delights me all the same.

So! We're back! The wedding was out of control, as most things that involve my family can be. I remember most of it as a big blur, punctuated by my flash and several memory card dumps into my laptop. I took about 950 pictures, with 600 or so being usable, so I'm currently in post-production mode... the final step of my wedding present to my uncle and new aunt is an Asukabook, custom-designed by yours truly and coated in some shiny crap and SWEET LORD does it look FANCY! I can't wait to get it back from the printers - it's also going to be my sample book, so I'm stoked.

And yep, I have another wedding tomorrow, at the Tucker House in Raleigh. Have I ever been there? Noo. Do I have any idea how to navigate Raleigh? Noo. But am I excited? Oh my yes. God, I love this job.

Posted in: consumerlust, work on 3/23/2007 at at 7:26 PM 1 comments  

Sunday's wedding was good. Really good, actually. I went outside my comfort zone in a big way, and learned that sometimes that's just what you need to succeed. (And now that little "The More You Know" star will shoot across your screen. Really! Just watch!)

Nah, seriously, I'm happy with how my work turned out, this one in particular. Bass Lake is a lovely location for a wedding - the wind and completely unexpected and unforecast chilliness moved the ceremony inside, but whatchagonnado... we did the portraits on the deck, and it was lovely.

So now I prep for my uncle's wedding in Daytona Beach, which is on St. Patrick's Day - we're leaving the Tuesday before, so I'll have plenty of time to test lighting, shove my lens in everyone's face 4000 times, etc. I think it's kind of funny, what with mon oncle being 50-something... we're partying in Daytona during high spring break season, baby! He's so excited about it, though, that I can't really laugh about it without feeling like a jerk. And besides, it's Norah's first trip to Florida, and we MIGHT be able to pull off a trip to see Mitty and Mannie Mouts, don't you know. It's going to be fabulous.

Posted in: out and about, work on 3/06/2007 at at 1:18 PM 1 comments  

I've got a wedding tomorrow (for real dollars! woohoo!), so I felt obligated to go check out the site today. Good thing, too, because Mapquest totally lied and sent me in the opposite direction from where I needed to go, making Norah and her buddy Lillian rabid from hunger. (Jasmine and the girls joined us, because my plans are always SO ROCK SOLID AND RATIONAL.)

We eventually got to Bass Lake, which actually turned out to be pretty cute - although I'm wicked nervous about the lighting situation. At 4:30, the sun will be shooting death rays directly behind the happy couple's ceremony. Backlighting makes me panic... but it's okay, because I've been studying up, practicing, all that jazz, and I think I've got it. Still - cold sweats all over the place. Cross your fingers for me.

And from the "how fun is THIS gonna be" department: the park guy I talked to there said he would be happy to take me out in the little ranger motorboat so I could shoot back at the deck, and he also said I could climb onto the roof to do group shots. If I don't drown or break my neck, pictures up soon...

In other news, Norah has decided that talking is for sissies, and she's moved right on to screaming her conversations. We'll be trotting merrily through Macy's, and she'll break into "MAMA! SEE PURSE! SEE NORAH'S PURSE! I PURSE! GET IT! I LOOOVE PURSE! AND HOT DOGS!" which actually comes out "hoddogs." Hoddogs get thrown into most of our conversations these days. What should we have for breakfast? Hoddogs! Where's daddy? Get Norah hoddogs! What can we use as a handy doorstop? YOU JUST GUESS.

Posted in: babychatter, out and about, work on 3/03/2007 at at 9:19 PM 1 comments  

Rob's working in the ER for a month, which means regularly scheduled shift work, a reasonable number of days off (at least one a week! hold me!) and very, very late nights. Weekend shifts are 12 hours, which doesn't make much sense to me - wouldn't you think the crazy people would be out in force on the weekends, thus having more drunken nailgun accidents, thus increasing the workload for the trained monkeys residents, thus inspiring the powers that are to send said residents home before they go nuts from overwork? I dunno, maybe it's just me.

But since he's gone, and since I'm inspired to wait up for him (because that's the kind of sweet thang I am, baby) I have been spending some time diddling around on the internet. What did we do before there was internet? Would I be staying up late doing something useful, like making my own soap, or canning? All's I have to say is, thank God for Al Gore.

In my travels, I have discovered these two blogs, which shall now be given prominent linkage in my list over there, which has until now been populated entirely by criminals.

• Geese Aplenty (commentary, newsy news, and giggly stuff like this: "The big uproar in California these days is an idea by Assemblywoman Sally J. Lieber; she plans to submit a bill proposing that California become the first state to make spanking of children 3 years old and under a misdemeanor. Penalties could include child-rearing classes for offenders or one year in jail. This topic is excellent for blogging, because it allows you to use the word “spanking” repeatedly and thus boost your site in Google search results. My hope is that Lieber’s next proposal will be about building more tall monuments near the state capitol, and then I can talk about how her constituents would like to see more frequent erections.")
  
• Suburban Bliss (Melissa, the Mom Behind the Latest Epidemic! of drinking at playgroup! Everybody panic! Melissa was honest about her playgroup's occasional glass of wine while the kids frolic around with their Legos in the next room... and she talked honestly about it ON THE TODAY SHOW. I would have been so overwhelmed by the bounciness of Natalie Morales' hair that I would have locked up and keeled over - forget about speaking up about something for which several people were publicly damning me to motherhood hell. What a brave, real, classy broad.

Go thee and enjoy my late night labors - I'm off to knit my own bed linens, or possibly write a novel. I still have two hours before Rob gets home, after all.

Posted in: Dr. Rob, Me Me Me on 2/24/2007 at at 9:55 PM 0 comments  

Holy crap, y'all, I booked a dozen weddings last week. A dozen means twelve. TWELVE! The only thing that comes in dozens that has thus far made me feel quite this ecstatic is covered in a sugary glaze... but this! This does not pay me in calories, it pays me in GOOD OLD AMERICAN DOLLARS!

Oh, maaan. Lately everything I say ends in exclamation points, and the birds sing in a carefully orchestrated Disney movie chorus, and I am so damned delighted with my current situation. Maybe I'm not the best photographer out there, and maybe I'm not making as much as some of them, but this first year is going to be my best ever, even if I make three times this much next year, or 10 or 300 times this much - because I am doing what I want to do, and IT IS WORKING OUT. (Okay, that's sort of a lie - if I make 300 times more money, I'll be rather excited then, too.)

Happy dance!

Posted in: Me Me Me, work on 2/22/2007 at at 9:09 PM 1 comments  

GOOD GOD IT WAS COLD TODAY. I know this because I was outside for all but about three daylight hours, and I have yet to recover feeling in my extremities. The soccer tournament was incredibly long, and I did nothing but run from field to field, since the other shooter didn't show up, and I have decided that Norah will never EVER EVER EVER play organized sports. Not because I don't think she could (although the fact that she's my kid does not bode well for her coordination) but because I don't want to get in the pissing contests all the mothers were getting into at the fields. MY kid made the state whatever, but MY kid scored 180 goals in the last three games, but MY kid blah blah blah... I wanted to say, "Hey, MY kid can blow snot bubbles bigger than her face!" but for some reason, it felt inappropriate.

I took 951 pictures in just under four hours, so I feel kind of badass. These are some of my favorites, which of course I assed around with, because I can't resist Photoshop widgets.




Right after the above shot, the red kid elbowed the kid to his left in the face, and there was much blowing of whistles and threatening remarks from the other players. I got scared and went to buy some nachos at the snack bar.

Posted in: work on 2/10/2007 at at 9:04 PM 3 comments  

Norah's still not sleeping well, but we've got it figured out, because we are specially-trained babyraisers with advanced degrees in Toddlerese: she's sick! Ah HA! I thought that her sniffles were in actually just sniffles, but as any parents (other than us, because that part earlier about us being super geniuses? Total lie) know, sniffles are rarely just sniffles. They do in fact have the power to cause sleeplessness, or lack of interest in food, or mass casualties in the manner of a dirty bomb. In Nonos' case, they have caused all of these things, culminating in a fried-eggs-on-the-forehead fever at about midnight last night. It is a miracle that I still have a face and she didn't manage to claw it off yet, and that I was able to chisel enough dried snot off her face to separate her from my chest, where she's spent the last several hours. My poor kid, she's a messy mess. God bless Motrin and the entire Vicks family of medications.

ANYWAY. I got cold-called today to do some sports photography, which I've never done and wasn't really interested in doing. Someone who knew someone else referred me to a sports photography agency to shoot a multi-team, multi-day soccer tournament, about which I know absolutely nothing. I guess they're in the habit of hiring freelancers, so that's how I got in. I'm excited, but I'm nervous - I'm going to be paid a lot of money, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I told the guy from the agency that, and he seemed relatively unaffected. "You shoot kids," he said, "so I bet you're used to working fast. You'll be FIIIINE."

Um... I guess.

I'm working it tomorrow from 8-12 (and I have a wedding in the afternoon, yippee!) and Sunday, whenever I can get the kidlet into a good playdate. Who knows, maybe it'll be fun, I'll get all sportsy and start working for NBC or SI. (I am, however, drawing the line at this, despite the pleas of every guy I know.)

Posted in: parenthood, work on 2/09/2007 at at 2:38 PM 0 comments