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Yesterday was a really bad day with a few isolated high points. Spent much of the day really depressed. Not quite sure why, but will speculate at a possible cause- we had breakfast and dinner with J. and M. from next door and lokheed, all of whom damashita has known for years and years, but whom i've never been particularly comfortable, and always feel somewhat judged whenever i'm around all of them. Combine that with how i generally fare around this time of year and it's mildly remarkable that i survived the day without finding a major vein to open.

Keeping with the general tradition, everyone got a few gifts to open. Many thanks to ithilien and gwynn_aaron, and to arienm. You are wonderful friends. Thanks also to skyewolf1, for the same reason. Love you all. :-)

Hopefully we'll squeeze in a few visits with friends in the upcoming week. Awaiting confirmation from mediavore whether she'll be stopping by to hang out a bit one day (Saturday); and figure i'll borrow staxxy for an afternoon or evening as well (just tell me when's a good time, Stax). We've also a run to make up to the Northern Wilds (tm), so can hopefully stop in and see heddo98 and transcendence1.

Doing much better today, thankfully. Maybe cutting out the anti-depressants right before winter holidays wasn't such a good idea, eh?

(no subject)

At age 50, photographer Herb Ritts has died from complications to pneumonia.

Along with Annie Lebovitz, Alfred Stieglitz and Man Ray, Herb Ritts was one of the photographers who most influenced the style i was working toward developing during my days as a struggling professional photographer.

I never quite developed the vision these masters of the art possess, but enjoyed the pursuit of thereof. I'll certainly miss seeing new work from Mr. Ritts, who is survived by his mother, brother, sister and partner.

Resquiat im Pace, Herb. May there be film and developer in the Summerlands.

(no subject)

Oh, my gods!

After seeing the Herb Ritts obituary, i started thinking about photography again, and that nearly none of the people who are my friends now have seen any of my work.

So i started digging around in the basement for my portfolio. It's quite dated- i don't think a print has been added to it since 1995, but there are still some images in it of which i'm proud. Since i still haven't a functional scanner, within the next day or so, i'm going to make digital copy-prints of some of the images i like better, and put them up here and on my website (on which they've been overdue for nearly a year).

Looking through what's there, i've picked a few architecturals, but mainly portraiture. Two of the chosen prints feature a cosmetologist i used to work with named Carrie. I'm amazed at how much more than a little she resembles mediavore.

I need to shoot again. As long as i'm not relying on photography as part of an income, i should be able to enjoy it quite a bit again. I know the bits i've shot with the digital in Seattle and around the Sound have been really nice to do. It'd be nice to go some of my own printing again- i think photo chemistry is one of those things, like the smell of theatrical makeup and greasepaint- that once you get it into your system become a part of you.

Edit: 1:27 AM, Friday, 27 December 2002: Just because you're awake and waiting for pages to download from the internet doesn't make it a good time to turn on lights and start shooting copy-prints. Lighting failure from tungsten and halogen lights works just the same on digital cameras as it does on their conventional film cousins. Besides, there are way too many prints done on glossy stock (primarily because that's what the clients wanted, and it tends to confuse labs when you order prints on gloss and matte (or in my case, more generally pearl) papers within the same order, and they tend to charge higher handling fees when low quantities of prints are ordered, so it's not quite cost effective to do them seperately. Will try with daylight tomorrow, assuming we have any- i'm NOT doing the colour corrections it'd take to deal with household lighting.

Edit: 1:57 AM: Oh, yes- the Carrie/Sarah similarities still are freaking me out a little. Something about redheads with big brown eyes, i think. And they have similar facial bone structures. Thinking about it, similar racial/ethnic stock as well- German/Irish.

Carrie was a great pal. Those of us from the studio used to go shoot pool and drink beer or margaritas fairly regularly on Fridays after work- usually Carrie, our tiny but fearless receptionist Yolanda, Pyotr, and myself, and occasionally one of the other cosmetologists or photographers (all depending on who was around and how busy our day was). Of course, that was back in the day before i became completely jaded and cynical.