EngelFish.Net

(nods to Beth Cherry for the post title)

I don’t even know where to begin.  The last two weeks has been pretty rotten for a number of reasons, none of which I want to go in to.  As for where things stand for us, we’re still in the apartment and we still haven’t found a house to buy.  They’re still doing construction on our place and installing the new HVAC system.  We still have holes throughout our place, but luckily none that the cats can creep out through.  The studio is gone for the time being, since there is all kinds of constructions supplies and debris in there as they’re jackhammering holes in the walls.  My camera is smashed, a victim of a fall from about 6 feet up. 

On the plus side, I’m a participating photographer in Exposure Time, a fundraising event at Raleigh’s Contemporary Art Museum.  Many other local photographers will be involved, including a few other flickr folks, so it should be a good time.  I’m still working on finishing the wedding work I’ve done this year, and I’m close to being done on most of them.  I think I’ll be 99% finished with them by this Sunday.  It’s been fun, but I’m ready to move on, and I really need to clear the decks before I start on the weddings coming up in September and October.

IMAGE:  Ethan invited me to come along on an assignment a few weeks ago where he had to shoot portraits of standout players from NCSU‘s football team.  I was playing body-double for him here.  Our high-tech backdrop…….  a bedsheet.   Cutting edge stuff!

I’ve got way too much going on right now, and I’m pushing hard to close out my big projects.  Photographically, we had a laid back Flickr meetup last night in the studio.  A few folks did some photoshop training, and afterward a group of us went to MoJoe’s for a late dinner.  I also have some product shots I need to take for my company to help prep marketing materials for our new product launches.  I have several other printing/bookmaking projects which need to get wrapped up soon. 

We’ve also found a house near Mom’s that’s really terrific, and we’re planning on making the owners an offer this weekend.  They started advertising it with a guesstimate-price, and they’re having it appraised this week.  I don’t want to say too much or get too excited, but I have my fingers crossed because I really love the place for a number of reasons.

So what do you do when you’re having an extistentially challenging day?  I had a great night’s sleep, woke pleasantly, and kissed my beautiful wife goodbye when she left for work.  I enjoyed a bracing shower, downed a hearty breakfast, and dashed unimpeded through traffic during my commute.  So why did my desire to do or accomplish anything drain away the moment I dropped into my chair at the office and raised my computer by nudging the mouse?  I know the list of things I need to get done, which grows daily.  There are people waiting for me to finish things requested weeks ago, office and photo projects that are alarmingly overdue.  Urgent things which pull at me and demand doing, but I’m like a boat at anchor, refusing to be moved by the outgoing tide and ongoing work.  I’ve spent the better part of the day trying to get motivated, pushing myself to get important things done.  It’s almost time to go home, and my efforts have been wasted.  My list of things to do has only grown.  I seem to excel today soley at sighing heavily and staring out the office window.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.

IMAGE: This image drew third place in the voting for the Raleigh Flickr Challenge: Portrait.

I am making a book of the images from the Raleigh Flickr Challenge: Portrait, and need some expert help.  If any of you know your way around Adobe InDesign, I would really appreciate a bit o’help.  I’m having the book printed by lulu.com, and I’d like to do it rather soon, so please get in touch.

Yesterday was my brother‘s birthday, so those of you that know him… please call and say hello!  I haven’t been able to get him on the phone, but I’m still trying.

I’m also trying to answer the question, PC or MAC?  I’m quite comfortable with my PC, but I’m feeling the urge to buy a MAC, if only to use for photoediting and such.  My PC friends say stay true to the cause, my MAC friends want me come over to the dark side.  Anyone out there have a foot in both camps that can give me a bit of advice?

I have, as usual, a mile-long list of things to do.  I intend to finish up my existing wedding work by Sunday, and then I’m going to be working on chrisengel.com.  It’s going to be low key, as it’s only a portfolio/photography site, but it needs to be done.

IMAGE: Gennie came by the studio for some portraits the other day.  We had a long and productive session.  I really like some of the images we created, and I enjoyed working with her too.  It always helps to have talent on both sides of the camera.

Not that it’s a good excuse, but I’ve been really busy lately and haven’t been doing much posting.  I’ll try to do better.  Promise!

The Raleigh Flickr Group Challenge: Portrait is well under way.  The shooting occured last weekend, and the voting on Tuesday at the Humble Pie in the Raleigh Warehouse District.  Outside of a few minor hitches, it went down really well.  I think all the participants had a great time, and we had a fantastic mix of flickristas and non-photo junkies in the crowd.  I’ve tallied and posted a short video slideshow of the highest scoring images to youtube, so swing over there and check it out.  The next steps are to post all of the images shot that day, assemble some prints to share with the Rick from April & George, and start building the companion book to the show.

I did get to spend some time with Gennie, peanutbuttertuesday from flickr, last night.  She came by the studio and we had a pretty good time making some pictures of her.  She’s going to post most of them to her flickr stream, but I’ll put at least one of them up on mine eventually.

On a really down note, Taryn’s father was robbed the other day.  Apparently someone has been watching his house, and broke in while he was at work one day last week.  They lost a lot of smaller, easy to carry stuff, but it’s still really
horrible to have that happen.  Even though he doesn’t like them much, he’s installing burglar bars on the house.

If anyone knows a good, thorough, and trustworthy auto mechanic or garage in Raleigh, please get in touch with me.  We’ve been having problems with the Jeep, and the guys we have been taking it to are running up the bill but not fixing the problem.  We’re breaking up with them and finding a new mechanic…. but they just don’t know it yet.