Don't count your chickens before they're hatched

Well Most Excellent Blog Fans, here ends another chilly day in London Town for your photographic correspondent. After some rather terrifying moments yesterday dealing with "computer issues" (firing up the disc drive caused the computer to emit sounds reminiscent of a Boeing 747 on take off), I have managed to today hunker down in the digital darkroom processing photos.

Unfortunately, while an actual photo shoot might only be a few hours long, the post-processing can take many, many hours (days, weeks!!) to complete. And outsourcing retouching work just isn't an option unless the work is for a magazine or advertising- just think of a figure per hour in your head and triple it!

Retouching isn't simply about making someone 10kg thinner, lengthening legs to Naomi Campbell-esque proportions or removing an ex from a photograph (although all these things are possible)- it is about colour tweaking, ensuring the white balance is correct, "enhancing" beauty, creating different moods etc. Yes, it is best to get things right "in camera", but in my view, most photos are helped along by a little post production zhooshing. Retouching has always been around... it just used to be done in the darkroom (with lots of stinky chemicals) rather than on the computer.

Now to my post title....well, blog fans, as some of you know by now, I have received word that a travel article and photographs I took for a magazine have been accepted for publication!! I am, of course, extremely excited by this news (think: Labrador presented with an unattended buffet at a wedding reception) and can hardly wait to see my work "in print". I can already picture myself at Borders, proudly clasping an armful of magazines, telling strangers that "um, yeah, see this article here, well, um, yeah, see I WROTE IT!!!!"

It is, of course, against my nature to announce such news before seeing hard evidence of same (and it could all go VERY pear-shaped) but I am throwing caution to the wind and counting my (organic, free-range, happy lifer) chickens before they hatch.

Good things people, good things :)

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Posted in Messy Musings , photography

Joy

Joy because: it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, snow is predicted (woo hoo! y'all know how much I love snow :)), I am officially a blogger WITH viewers (thanks guys- you seriously rock), I have a very fun photo shoot planned for tomorrow (more on that later) AND I got to eat the above excellent sweet treat from one of my favourite coffee bars in London, Fernandez and Wells...actually I only got half of it because Mr Messy snaffled the other half :)

On a slightly different note, here is a teaser from my new project, "London Calling: running with the fash pack":

I shot this hip young man about town in Soho about 2 weeks ago. I love his look- the directional hair, the pushed up sleeves, the chunky scarf, the fab jacket and boots...I think the key to his look is that he owns it and knows he looks great. Confidence goes a long way to looking good, non? Oh yeah, and guess what he does for a living?... fashion student :):)

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Posted in "London Calling:running with the fash pack" , Fashion , London Food and Drink , photography , Street Photography

First Tentative Steps...

So, I have spent the entire day trying to set up my blog- somebody please shoot me, or at least hand me a large Gin and Tonic in a tall glass with extra lime! The worst thing is...setting up a blog is suppose to be SIMPLE. I can get myself on an international flight (in joke with Mr Messy aka "the husband"), hustle my way around a Harvey Nicks store on the first day of the sales, appear on behalf of a client in front of a Judge (okay, so I really hated that one but I still managed it!), whip up a mean raspberry clafoutis and a diirty martini* but computers? Arrggggh. Not how I roll.

I am guaranteed of at least one computer related "moment" per day- generally involving photoshop CS3. But today it was this jolly blog! I have been messing around trying to get my FTP's, DNS's and http's sorted from my url's and sFTP's. Around 3pm I went completely shouty crackers and took myself for a soothing photowalk - it worked, sort of.

So, why am I entering the heady world of blogging? Well, this is what I have come up with so far:

1. I refuse to be the last person on earth without a blog;


2. It is terribly self indulgent- and I adore a bit of shameless self indulgence!


3. My "proper" website is "under construction" and appears to be more or less permanently so due to my computer, um, "issues";


4. I am sick of whinging to myself (it never gets me anywhere) so now I can whine to the world at large. Sure, it will probably still get me nowhere but it feels so good;


5. I am supremely confident that an art director from a glossy magazine or advertising agency will randomly happen across my blog, LOVE my work and commission me for a big editorial or advertising campaign. Yep, this is DEFINITELY going to happen and sooner rather than later ;)


6. My friends and family back home in Aussieland often wonder what the heck I am up to over here in London due to some rather, um, re- lax-ed emailing habits (she types while looking around, whistling ) so this is a way of conning my A-List (you know who you are!) into looking at my photographs while letting them know I haven't been trampled to death by Christian Louboutin wearing fashionistas on the mean, lean streets of London;


7. I am useless at keeping up with flickr, MySpace is way too cool for school, and facebook, well, I am a teensy bit over it;


8. I am a self confessed blogstalker- now I want MY own blogstalkers. Even if there is only 2 of you.....(A listers, this is where you come in and make me look super popular- pleeeeeease!);


9. I do a fair bit of "street photography" and often get asked by people why I want to take their photo. I normally mumble something unintelligible about a portfolio, street fashion, a project I am working on etc- which are all true- BUT don't make me seem overly sane (nobody comment on my sanity or lack there of, please!) or professional. At least now I can proudly say that "it is for my widely read and uber cool style blog!"


10. Just because...

*um, yeah, so I don't really know how to make a dirty martini, not even a martini but it makes me sound rather hip!

**the photograph landed at the top of the post- it was suppose to be at the bottom. Mmmmmm another slight technological problem I need to sort out...along with about 20 others! I took this in London a couple of days ago- a young boy, his boisterous pup, playing chasey in the park- I couldn't resist a photograph. The dog's name was Charlie- I didn't catch the boys name. Typical Messy ;)

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Posted in Blog , Blogging , photography