They Make My World Go Round

2. A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

I'm modifying this. Because, growing up in a small town, I've been friends with a lot of people for a really long time. But being the closest with them. Hmmmm. How about the two people that have been the most amazing people and influences in my life for the last 13 and 11 years. I think that counts. 

Erin and Joelle have been with me through everything. Erin has been one of my best friends since we were 8 years old and everyone had their little cliques, and we were the "spies" in between. We had a rough patch from 5th-6th grade, but since then, we've been inseparable. Joelle has been my best friend since the day I met her in 6th grade. We've been in one fight ever. For a stupid reason.

So. Between these two, I'm always safe, I'm always happy. I always get stuck sleeping in the middle. But I couldn't live without the two of them. They've been the closest to me for the longest, more than a decade for both of them. And we're still young. They'll be in Savannah in 31 days for my senior showcase, and they're staying through my graduation. I can not wait to see them, I've never been as homesick and missed them as much as I have in the last 6 months.

Challenges and Facts.

On occasion, I attempt to do challenges in photography, like the Flickr 365 challenge (I think I got to day 55). So I'm going to attempt to do a shorter one. 30 Days, a picture every day. So. Here's the whole list... what to look forward to...

1. A picture of yourself with 15 facts
2. A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
3. A picture of the cast from your favorite show
4. A picture of your favorite night
5. A picture of your favorite memory
6. A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day
7. A picture of your most treasured item
8. A picture that makes you laugh
9. A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
10. A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with
11. A picture of something you hate
12. A picture of something you love
13. A picture of your favorite band or artist
14. A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
15. A picture of something you want to do before you die
16. A picture of someone who inspires you
17. A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
18. A picture of your biggest insecurity
19. A picture and a letter
20. A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel
21. A picture of something you wish you could forget
22. A picture of something you wish you were better at
23. A picture of your favorite book
24. A picture of something you wish you could change
25. A picture of your favorite day
26. A picture of something that means a lot to you
27. A picture of yourself and a family member
28. A picture of something you're afraid of
29. A picture that can always make you smile
30. A picture of someone you miss

Day 1: A picture of yourself and 15 facts.

1. My life is not what I expected it to be. At all. Not in a good way or a bad way, just different than I planned, hoped and expected.
2. I consider cutting off all my hair daily. But I don't think I can bring myself to do it because it just took so damn long to get it the way it is.
3. I'm terrified of graduating college. I really feel like I have no direction at the moment and it scares me that I spent $100,000 on my education and I don't know what to do with it.
4. Women with curves are sexy.
5. I will always have an obsession with chocolate. It's just too good to give up and it doesn't make me break out, so I love it. I will always love it.
6. My cat, Earnest, makes me ridiculously happy. Even when he's trying to chew on my eyelashes at 4 am.
7. I am really, seriously obsessed with my iPhone. I don't know how I functioned without it, I can multitask so much better now.
8. I want to move to Seattle, and have a fresh start. Yes, I know it's rainy, but I also wanted to go there for school 4 years ago. I still want to go, want to try, and I can deal with the rain. I'll just buy a cute rain jacket.
9. I want to travel the world, and I would love to work for a travel magazine.
10. I've just recently realized that I'm quite terrified of water that I can't see in. As in almost every body of water on the East Coast, minus some sections in Florida. At first I was just snobby about swimming in water that isn't clear, but then I realized I'm actually afraid of it.
11. Regardless of the fact that I might be slightly terrified of gross water, it will always make me feel better, feel more grounded if I'm upset and I get in a large body of water. Tahoe works best, but I'll make due with the Atlantic, Pacific or a variety of swimming pools.
12. I have realized that men really, honestly are intimidated by confident women. And not in the "he's just not talking to you because he likes you" type way, but in the fact that in the last 6 months, I've had three men whom I've given multiple chances over the last six or seven years, all of a sudden decide to tell me that they were naive and cared about me and were just afraid to admit it. I mean, come on. Get over yourself. I guess I'm intimidating.
13. I actually decided to go to SCAD and move to Georgia on a whim. It obviously worked out, and I'll take it as a sign that I should follow my gut more and do what feels right.
14. My personal philosophy includes "If it's meant to be, it will happen".
15. I'm addicted to sourdough bread.

Fo...cus.

Right.
Not able to do that at all. I feel like the hours of every day are so slow and the days are so fast. Everything is scheduled for the same time, and I watch the minutes tick by on my laptop in classes, but then the class is over, the day is over, the week flies by and I somehow only have three of each class left. Maybe I just need to make a to do list. And a list of classes. Things that are due in each class. My hours of work.
Even though I have a smart phone, and can put all this stuff in it, it still doesn't seem to be helping me. In two weeks I'll be in St. Louis with all my print friends, but regardless, I'm not quite ready for the conference. Nor am I ready for the end of the quarter to actually happen, but I'm ready for it to be over. I feel like time has just moved so fast over the last 10 weeks.

It's been overwhelming as well listening to lectures about money every day in multiple classes. As much as I try and avoid it, I feel like my life is revolving around money... or the lack thereof. The tools that I need for my industry are so expensive, though I feel like so much of it is upfront costs, not necessarily things that I have to purchase over and over again...

5D Mark II: $3,299. 50 mm 1.4 $379. 27" iMac $1699. Lensbaby Composer kit $449. WD 2TB external $137..... $5963.00....... 

CS5 Student Price $299, Lightroom 3 Student $81.56.... Bringing my total to... $6344... rounded up of course....

That's just to start. Just getting up and running. There are so many elements that fall into it, as well as the fact that I have to purchase things such as CS5 and Lightroom 3 before I graduate, which then would need to be downloaded on both my laptop and my iMac.... there are just so many components to do what I love. But, it is what I love and what I want to do.

It's hard to focus on school when I just want to move, and to go and to shoot. And travel. Everywhere. I feel like I don't want to be tied to anything at all, and though I'm not technically tied to anyone anymore, I have so many EVENTS that I'm tied to. I would love to just be a cruise ship photographer for a while... make some money, meet some people and just SEE places, but what am I going to do about the weddings I'm attending and shooting? Those aren't for months, so it's not as if I can sign a contract to go out to sea for 6 months and just take off for those weddings. It's not how it works.

I just can wait to clear my head... both over spring break and after I graduate. I just need to go, to drive, to be able to come back and be inspired again. But of course the planning involved in everything is just consuming me.

I'll Be There For You

It's oh so fun to be a starving artist. I haven't been to the grocery store in six weeks. It's horrible. I've got a lovely things like cheese, crackers, chicken, rice and corn. That's really about it. I think that I'm going to apply for another job, just because as much as my box office income is good, it really doesn't work to well when I'm living on that paycheck to paycheck just to make rent. It's kind of an indication on how the future is going to be I'm sure, but I hope that it won't be that bad and that I can still have some form of expendable income... hence the need for the second job.
But today. On my lovely day off when I have no plans at all, I'm just sitting and watching Season 4 of Friends. Which truly is my favorite thing to do, to make me happy. To make me not worry about everything else going on and feel better. Nothing quite like a lazy day. Which I'm sure will turn into a job search at some point.... 

I Think I'm a Mis-Matched Sock

Laundry is the most constant thing in my life. And the dishes. They both just pile up every day and accumulate until I'm drowning in them.
Right now I feel like a mismatched sock. Which, might I add I have more than 30 of. Half of these socks I had no idea I even had. And I kinda feel like them right now; off to the side and just waiting for something to happen to me. Waiting for my match to miraculously appear from the dryer. Or a drawer. Or under the bed.
Anyway. I'm horrible at writing down my actual thoughts. I try to. I have THREE notebooks in my purse. My little black book (I've written on the first 5 pages) my little brown book (4 pages) and my yellow book (6 pages). I think about writing all the time, and my head thinks in these grand, rambling sentences. But I can never manage to find time to put pen to paper, which saddens me, because I can find so much to type. I type all day, every day. Thousands of words, and it takes me half the time that it would to write it down (which is 90% of my appeal I suppose), but it drives me crazy sometimes to not be able to actually write what I want. To create an actual piece of paper that has words on it, not just a digital reference. I suppose I'm rambling, but I feel the same way about my artwork right now. Everything is digital, on the computer, not something that I'm touching and feeling and MAKING. That's why I love printmaking so much, but even that just feels like such a bit of digital imagery to me right now, even though it shouldn't because I'm making huge monotypes full of ink and I'm usually a hot mess and covered in ink when I'm finished. But besides those actual moments when I'm covered in ink.... I feel like a mismatched sock.





And a quote from my grandmother to leave this off: "Carly you can do anything you put your mind to. ANYTHING. I just hope you don't decide to be president because I think I'm getting to old for the campaign trail."

Interview with the AMAZING Matt Armendariz

For my business class, my professor had us conduct interviews with photographers that we found inspiring, and on the list of my top three was photographer Matt Armendariz. He's a photographer that lives and shoots in Long Beach, California, and his true passion is food. He's primarily a food photographer, though both his website and his food blog have featured bits on both people and travel, so he really covers pretty much all the things I love! His blog is the number 7 food blog in the world, according to the Times Online, and he has been featured on Martha Stewart as well as in many magazines. I was so happy that he answered some of my questions about business and random studio questions, though I was really most pleased about him sharing his passion with me about food and photography. I have some of his answers below!



Are you a Californian (I am :) ) or have you lived elsewhere and has that influenced the way you work and conduct business?
I am originally from Austin, Texas but have lived in Chicago and San Francisco before settling in Los Angeles. I think this has influenced how I run a business, most definitely. Having worked with different designers and photographers in those cities has shown me the things I love about running a business, the types of services I value as well as the things I did not want to do. I'm not sure it's affected me creatively as much as it has in running a business.

What inspired you to become a photographer? Did you attend school for photography or are you self taught?

I'm self taught everything. I started as a graphic designer and art director. I was hiring all sorts of photographers for projects as well as the stylists, booking the location, creating the story, etc. I started having moments towards the end of my art direction career that became exceedingly frustrating: what i was getting back from the photographer wasn't what I was seeing in my mind. So I'd work with another photographer. And the same thing would happen. Mind you, the photos were perfect -- beautiful, correctly exposed, nothing wrong technically. But this issue kept nagging me until I realized that the problem wasn't with the photographer but with me. What I was seeing in my mind wasn't the same as what I was getting by putting together 4 people or how ever many to make an image. So I realized the only way to remedy this was to learn how to shoot myself. If I couldn't learn and figure it out then I'd have to learn to communicate better with the photographer or find someone that shot the exact way I wanted. Granted, that's a bit of a problem...one should hire a photographer based on what they can bring to the project. So becoming a photographer was the only logical choice I could have made.

For 3 years I never put down a camera. Not once. It went everywhere with me and I mean that literally. I had to learn to become comfortable with it in my hand, how to make it become an extension of my mind. I already had the creative part down -- I spoke the language of color, proportion and perspective fluently from all those years in design. What I needed to learn were the technical aspects, specifically f stop and aperture. Once those all started working together I began to make the images that I had in my head, it was a huge moment of self revelation. I haven't stopped since.


You said you like to shoot travel and people as well, have you ever considered shooting those as your primary focus? What is the allure to the food photography industry for you? You've said that all cuisine has beauty, but is that why you started/continue to shoot it?

I probably won't ever stop shooting food. It's the thing I love most. There are times when proportionately it's less but it won't ever be out of my system I'm sure. Also, with my background in food I feel as if it gives me an advantage on set. I can't tell you how many times I've let my big giant multimillion dollar clients know that something won't work on set or that this food subject isn't in season right now or culturally this group may like this photo but this other group would see it differently. And this is all just about food! I think the allure is that I know it, I breathe it, it's what I do even when I'm not shooting food. And we will always be taking pictures of food, always.

But back to my answer up above, that really explains why I started shooting food. By default I was in the food business and I was able to use my own images in my work once I felt like I was good enough.

Aaaand I'm Back!

I might not be in France anymore, but I find that I still think about writing a lot, as well as the fact that I'm HORRIBLE at keeping a journal, but I can type like nobody's business. I'm finally just getting back into the swing of things here in the states, and I'm all the way through mid-terms in my second to last quarter of SCAD! I only have two classes left that start in March; Senior Project and Alternative Processes.
I'm both thrilled to pieces to be finished (one of a handful of my graduating class from high school to actually finish in four years) and scared half to death. Due to a major change in my relationship status as of late, I find myself without a plan, a place that I want to move, a job that I want and a place to put my furniture in June. But, I still have my cat, Earnest, my camera and my ridiculous amount of spunk about life. So everything will be okay, because in the end, whatever is meant to be will happen. That's the outlook that I'm taking at least.
My (new) website should be up and running sometime this week! I've been working hard at trying to figure out what I want to put on it... I truly have so many photos. I think that France will have its own section, but that will take quite a while to sort through as I still haven't even looked at half of the photos that I took there. I don't even have any new work to really put up, I've found it hard to shoot after the intense overload of France. But, soon (hopefully my birthday, but probably graduation) I'll be getting a big, beautiful 5D Mark II, and then I will never want to put it down. It will be like falling in love with photography all over again.
But. It's late, the laptop is dying and I have a shoot in the morning.

Ahhhh, what a good feeling to write again.