Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Not Christmas music yay!
Currently Obsessed With: Dexter. and Death Cab For Cutie.
Reading: Why Women Hate Men(rated r...or x even) [link]
Eating: Pretzals
Drinking: Cherry coke
Sammy is: Home alone since I'm at work

Ok apparently I was high or drunk or something because last week I agreed to teach a class to 4Hers on Equine Photography. Its just a one day one hour deal, but involves public speaking which I hate. Hate. HATE. I was always terrible with my public presentations in 4H since I got nerves so bad BUT anyway, I cant back out now so I need your help.

I have a general idea of what I plan to talk about, but would love to hear your thoughts. So if you were students going to a basics of horse photography class, what would you want to learn? Is there anything in particular you'd like to see as far as visuals and hands on learning?

Heres what I was planing to cover so far:

Camera basics (how to use it, what equipment works best, focal lengths + distortion, f stops, depth of field etc), Lighting (time of day, positioning for best light), adding horses to the mix (controlling horses for the best shot, attention getters, timing for trot, canter etc). I also plan to briefly talk about the basics of copyright and horse show photography etiquette since I think they're important issues that a lot of young people are clueless about.

So what do you think? More? Less? Whats missing?

Oh and FYI, there is a good chance what I put together will be shared on DA so if theres a burning equine photography question that you have, nows the time to throw it out there!

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Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Brand New
Currently Obsessed With: Dexter. OMG Wants MOAR!
Reading: Why Women Hate Men(rated r...or x even) [link]
Eating: Nothin
Drinking: Orange juice box
Sammy is: gnawing on a raw knuckle bone I got from work

Theres been a lot of hubbub in town about Monroe City Council proposing a law including BSL, which stands for breed specific legislation (learn more about BSL at ). The law that they were proposing would have deemed all dogs that were on a list of 12 breeds, any mixes of those dogs OR any dogs that LOOKED like they might be mixes, "potentially dangerous" which is a classification for animals that have already bitten and/or shown aggression to people or other animals. So essentially it would charge innocent dogs of crimes they hadn't committed just because of their breed or appearance. Needless to say, the responsible dog owners of Monroe were not pleased.

Sammy's best dog friend Chico is an American Pit Bull Terrier and Sammy is an American AWAG dog (thats Anyones Wild Assed Guess ) who sometimes looks rather like a pit bull, but theres no proof shes ANY breed. I was outraged that MY dog and my friends dogs could be suddenly guilty until proven innocent just because of their breed or looks.

ANYWAY all of that to say that the city council meeting was last night and not only did they REMOVE the breed specific parts of the proposed law (for now) ....but I was in the paper...AND on TV

This was the pic from the front page of the Monroe Monitor [link] I'm the chick in the middle with the small sign Yay protesting!

Heres the news story from KOMO 4 [link] I'm the one in the pic holding the "BSL hurts responsible dog owners" sign I kinda look like I'm picking a wedgie You can also see me in the video marching. Sam, who they talk to in the vid, is my boss. I also put together all those signs (Sam had them printed up). Yay for marching!

The video clip also contains what may be the BEST misquoted statistic ever from an asshat city council member who's quoted as saying this: "60% of all fatalities last year were caused by pit bulls." ......ORLY?... 60%...of all fatalities...ALL fatalities? Step aside cancer and heart disease, its the pit bulls you have to worry about! I know he meant "60% of dog related fatalities" (which is ALSO not true) but thats not what he said

Its now a running joke at work. 50% of all drunk driving accidents are caused by pit bulls. 90% of all hangnails are caused by pit bulls. 80% of all unplanned pregnancies are caused by pit bulls. etc

We're not out of the woods quite yet though, the council is going to do research and bring the subject back up in six months. Hopefully their new plan will not include BSL or you might see my scrawny ass on tv again lol

It wasn't a REAL 15 min of fame or anything, but it was enough to amuse me lol


tl;dr
BSL SUCKS!
I'm in the paper! [link]
I'm on tv! [link]

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Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Whirring computers
Reading: Why Women Hate Men(rated r...or x even) [link]
Watching: Dexter...just started watching it...morbid but strangely appealing
Playing: with my css...sort of
Eating: Nothin
Drinking: Water (for once)
Sammy is: Sulking since I wont
take her outside in the rain

So this weekend I'm headed off to Moses Lake to the Pro-West rodeo convention Its pretty much the end of year meeting and awards banquet so I'm going to hang out with Al (prorodeopix.com a little pimpage for my buddy ) talk about lighting and catch up on all the latest rodeo gossip (thats the best part really lol). Also I guess theres booze. Sweeeeet lol

I'm totally excited to get away for a while, even a day. It will be cool to get to meet people in the Pro-West since I havent been to really any of the events since I got my card. I'm hoping I'll be able to talk with the other photographers other than Al and we can hash out which rodeos we'll be at, so I might actaully have a schedule of rodeos to shoot next year! That would be awesome

Well its late and thats about all the exciting news I've got at the moment. Liz and the Raper Van are hitting the road!

UPDATE: I thought I'd tack this on here since my BSL ramble went so long. I had a good time at the convention although the first like 5 hours I was stuck in Roberts Rules of Order HELL since it was the general members meeting. Everybody and their brother had proposed rule changes and had to argue this way and that before they got voted on. It took effing forever.

Finally we got to the eating and boozing part and I alternated between feeling totally clueless (mostly about who people were) and being ridiculously shy. Example: I had been sitting at the same table as Daniel Beard and his family for at least an hour before I realized who he was...and then I went all shy and quiet like he might bite me or something (for those of you going WHO?? go check out all of my and ~saudimacks pics from Helix, they're Flying Diamond broncs. My pics probably include rants on how I worship Flying Diamond stock...Daniel Beard OWNS the Flying Diamond stock company. )

Al bought me some drinks and I, not being much of a drinker at all, promptly forgot the rule of "beer before liquor you've never been sicker". While I was considering throwing up Al asked if I knew how to jitterbug (a band who I believe escaped from an old folks home somewhere was playing). I don't but I had had enough to drink that it sounded like a good idea. Jitterbug apparently involves a lot of spinning, which is something I would not recommend if you are considering throwing up. Later a cute, but extremely drunk, bullrider asked if I wanted to dance but, since the alcohol had worn off some and I had gone back to being absurdly shy, I turned him down. Also because I'm an idiot.

So Al was my hot date for the night (err yah). None of the other photographers showed up at the convention But Al and I ended up hanging out and going though shoots he had done and gossiping about other photographers until like 2 am. I never did get a straight answer on lights which was a big question on my mind though.

Anyway, all in all it was a fun time. Hopefully I can get out and shoot some rodeos this year so I actually know some people next time...any I'll try to remember to show up late for the general meeting lol

PS for a Technicality: I think Daniel's brand is now the Hanging Diamond and some of the horses in the Helix shots are Sparkling Triangle and the sideways Flying Diamond, however that reads...they're all related, whatever.

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Well here was my drama yesterday. At about 6 I get a call (I'm at work at the time) from a publisher working on the PBR Finals program (yah, the PBR finals program!). A client of mine, one of the stock contractors whos bulls I photographed for the futurity, want to use one of my images in their ad and the publisher needed a high res file. According to the publisher the client said it was paid for. I didn't remember selling a digital file that can be used for ads etc and so asked when they needed it by. "Well it goes to print tomorrow...so....tonight".

So I scramble online to check my sales...Well wouldn't you know it, my "client" has NOT paid for the image...he hasn't even bought a print of it (or of ANYTHING. I've gotten zero money from this guy). So dipshit client has now put me in a position of either saying no he cant use the image without payment, having said dipshits head explode because I screwed up his ad, and not have my photo in the finals program, OR let them use it and just HOPE I get my money for it. Its only like $80-100 but thats A LOT right now...and its MY image damn it

So I made extra super sure the publisher was getting my photo credit in in BIG letters and am sending my "client" a bill.

Anyway, thats the latest drama of my futile attempt to make a living as a photographer.


tl;dr: A client screwed me out of payment, but I've got a photo in the PRB finals program! w00t Vegas! As far as shit goes its not the stinkiest


I need to post more pics, I've really been slacking

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