Picture Time!

Last night I Hosted Karaoke at Gabe's and it was by far one of my busiest shifts in the past year.  Even I have to admit, while I'm normally very accommodating and patient, for some reason, last night, that was being tested.  Apparently, I should have done Yoga before I went to work!  I'm not going to get into details and complain because that does no good; constructively, I'll be more prepared the next time I'm feeling like that, take a deep breath, and smile.  How people treat you is their karma, how you react is yours.  Since it was such a crazy night, and we had a Birthday as well, everyone was singing!  I actually didn't sing very much because I wanted to keep things moving as quickly as possible, so my new song of the night was 'Sweet Dreams' by The Eurythmics, which I realized was extremely repetitive, but one of the few songs I could try since I've had a cold for the past week and my voice was giving out.  I was just happy I could try something new!  When I got home I went straight to bed because I had a Photo Shoot on Saturday in Downtown LA.

I was glad I had started to set out my clothes and options for the shoot on Saturday already on Friday night so I wouldn't be rummaging around last minute trying to figure out what to bring or wear.  We were shooting Headshots and I wanted to shoot some styles I hadn't done before, Business, Business Casual, Country Girl, along with some Commercial and Theatrical shots.  It was super hot, so I packed a pair of shorts as well, along with some jeans and slacks, my heels and wedges.  I was even bringing my glasses so I could do some of the photos with them as well.  I was shooting with my friend, Alex, who I shot a Short Film with years ago, so I knew we would have a lot of fun.  So Saturday morning after I showered, had straightened my hair, and did my make-up, I was on my way to Downtown LA!

When I got to Alex's apartment we went through my wardrobe options and after picking out some choices were on our way to our first location.  It was kind of hipster/artsy with wooden planks that had some graffiti on them and we shot two different outfits there, and 4 different looks.  Then we were off to our 2nd locations which was near an overpass in a more industrial area, where we shot 2 different outfits.  It was more windy but we got some really great shots.  While we're shooting, I'm going through a story in my head, so my eyes don't look blank.  I have ideas, thoughts, (pertaining to the shoot, running through my head) and am making sure that I'm moving or changing with every click of the camera.  So while we were at our first location, I was shooting in a flannel along the graffiti wall, with my glasses and was thinking about how I was an Art Design student, enjoying the afternoon, but was on my way to grab coffee and do some work at an outdoor cafe.  What can I be cast-able in?  When you think it, you become it, you live it; as an actor.  Our third location was the Walt Disney Hall where we shot against the silver building 3 different business attire looks.  With and without glasses, wearing a pony-tail, looking like an angry boss lady, or perky president.  We even got in a few Kim Kardashian style shots in one of my tops.  

The whole shoot lasted just about 2 hours and we got almost 200 photos; so I will have tons of choices and pictures to look through.  Alex put them on a disc for me, and I knew I would be editing all night tonight :)  So I've been working on them for a couple hours and decided to take a little break to write a blog and then it's going to be back to Photoshop for me!  Nothing crazy, I usually like to work with the contrast or levels a little, and fix any make-up flakes or blemishes.  Headshots have to look like you, so you can't do anything more than enhancing an already great picture, hopefully!

From today's shoot with Alex!

Ta ta for now...it's back to work...