Blog Without a Reader

Thoughts Without a Thinker; Blog Without a Reader.

I missed a few days of blogging while house-sitting in Windemere over the weekend, but I don't think anyone was too affected by the gap in internet time line. My one faithful reader 'John', the greatest giver of comment and compliment, may have noticed but has yet to say anything of the sort.

3 Highlights of my weekend in order or awesomeness are as follows:

Kayaking early this morning on Lake Butler. Beautiful, I wish I'd had a camera. The only non-awesome things about this was realizing how much of a wuss and how out of shape I am. I burnt a few layers of skin off my thumb just from paddling friction. It was worth it.


This is me in the backyard Friday night

Photo shooting is always a positive. This weekend's mini-shoot was particularly exciting because it is only the 1st stage of a big project, to be revealed in it's greatness at a later date. Oh, and extra-awesome points for my subject matter being Matt. :)


Matt of Smatt in Windemere

And the number 3 awesome thing about this weekend was the extra cash I scored from friendly tippers at Busey's Sausage Castle party. The hurricane/monsoon-like weather could blow down the tents, but couldn't stop this shin-dig. The bands set up in garage attached to the stage and made as much noise as they could until the cops shut it down.

That's all I have to share with you all at the moment. ;)

Bogart

Bogart is the extremely cute puppy I took photos of yesterday. He's super soft! While he hasn't quite learned to control his long skinny legs yet, he was still wonderful to photograph. Here are a few of my favorite shots:






I realized yesterday that I enjoy photographing people because they're unpredictable; a dog is this same spontaneity intensified. I really enjoyed it. Hopefully my upcoming baby shoots will provide the same satisfaction from new, uncharted photo territory. :)

25 things to do before I'm 25

1.) Buy bowling shoes
2.) Go on a ski vacation in Park City
3.) Strip & stain bedroom furniture
4.) Finish decorating the living room
5.) Make some attempt to work on my spanish
6.) Start a new sketchbook and use it
7.) Continue to blog nearly daily
8.) Book 10 more weddings
9.) Have my prototype bag sewn
10.) Learn 3 new songs on piano
11.) Post more how-to piano songs on youtube
12.) Go to the Epcot food & wine festival
13.) Put a substantial amount of money into my savings account
14.) Plan a trip to Europe
15.) Run 100 more miles with my Nike plus
16.) Try wake-boarding again
17.) Attend a wedding that I can enjoy/relax without being the photog.
18.) Paint more. A lot more.
19.) Become a better tennis player
20.) Get my car stereo fixed
21.) Figure out how to cook dinner for Matt one evening
22.) Learn more about how to use Photoshop
23.) Clean out my closet and donate a lot of clothing
24.) Find a way to get back into scuba diving
25.) Go on a road trip with Matt

Finished Refinishing

I work from home, so building a nest I'm comfortable in is all the more important to me. When we lived in Crane's Landing, all of Matt's ugly furniture was tucked away into his own room and I never had to visit. In our new apartment, we only have one bedroom for bedroom furniture and the result has been waking each morning to depressing orange stained wood with black painted panels. It's everywhere. I couldn't take it any longer.


I finally convinced him to let me have at it. So today, after a weekend of poisonous chemical paint strippers, sandpaper, stain, dust, and sweat I have my first sweet reward. A night-stand I can stand to look at!


This photo is the other textures of the room with the new night-stand.
*sigh of accomplishment and relief*

Gimme Your Stuff!

I love packages. So, what's more fun then one filled with random surprises? Not much! I found this super-cool blog called Gimme Your Stuff where you trade trinkets with people all over the world, like a cultural exchange of sorts. I think it's a really fun idea and would love to try swapping with someone foreign! :)

Stuff I can offer:
♦ seashells
♦ stationary/notebooks/stickers
♦ cute things; keyrings . . . trinkets . . . playing cards. . .
♦ Nearly anything 'Disney' themed as I'm in Orlando, FL
♦ american candy
♦ felt crafting patterns and materials/other crafts
♦ print of any of my photography that you like (www.SamanthaYeakle.com)
♦ books/magazines/postcards/maps or guides from FL
♦ mix CD of my favorite music
♦ Siesta Key sand (whitest and finest sand in the world!)
♦ anything else you'd like! :)

Stuff I would love to receive:
♦ anything local including unique spices, hot sauce, etc.
♦ stationary/stickers/notebooks
♦ anything cute w. animals (my favorites are sharks) but I also like owls and birds.
♦ mix CD of your favorite music
♦ jewelry (i love wooden beads)
♦ Bento box (kawaii maybe?) i love the color green!
♦ postcards. . . candy. . . random trinkets :)

If you're interested please leave me a comment! Thanks :)

bowling for shoes

Bowling alleys are like casinos; there aren't any windows. It's another world, a world of oily lanes and french fries. A world that USED to be walked through on mismatched and colorful shoes.

I'm on a quest to become a better bowler. To help this dream transform into a reality I've been researching how best to invest in my bowling future. I've decided the first step is purchasing my own bowling shoes. There's just one problem: bowling shoes aren't cool anymore.

They look like white and bulky sneakers. Well, I call Bull Shit. They're ugly! And not in the ugly-cute kind of way a boxer or a pug is. They're ugly-Boring-ugly. Bowling shoes are supposed to be embarrassing to wear. And they should Never in no way, shape, or form match your real world clothing.

While I am on the search for colorful wonders for my feet I will continue to rent my 8.5s at the alley. eBay has become a destination of choice to search for my new old shoes. $2 Tuesdays have become part of the Smatt routine. We accept all company and we're even open to playing on other evenings. League anyone?


Matt performing the classic "Get a load of THIS girl!" move.

Summer Showcase

Some argue if summer ever really ends in the sunshine state. Assuming the season is strictly during the months designated to be so, it is drawing to a close for 2007. Seeing as I'm a photographer with a blog, it only seems reasonable that I blog photos. So here it is, my mini summer oh-seven showcase.





Why not start the summer with legwarmers. This is my lifelong friend Tanya in the hallway of my apartment building. I told her to bring over some colorful clothes and after a little scavenger hunt through my own things put together this ensemble. She's a shy girl and felt a bit ridiculous trotting around the neighborhood dressed like this with my big camera and I, but it was for art.



Next up is Kevin. This construction worker hadn't had his photograph taken in years. Despite his loathing of photos of himself, he needed one for his new profile. Kevin was preparing to look for love online. I hope he found it, he was a very nice man.



This is MTV Jackass' Bam's uncle Shitbirdz. *phew* That was a mouthful. My friend Mike Busey called Matt and I one summer afternoon to ask if he could borrow Matt's riffle. He was filming a pilot reality TV show. It was an insane day that I've already blogged about here



Here is Mike Busey hosting a Girls Gone Wild event down at the Mojo Room. This was Sada's birthday so we drove down to Port St.Lucie for the madness.



And then this is Sada at her birthday party when we got back up to Orlando. She likes balloons. She also thought she'd like Ben to have a black beard, so he dyed it at this party. I don't recommend it.



Marcc Gregory is a musician living up in Cincinnati. He set up a shoot with me while working on his new record in Orlando. We walked around downtown to get that urban vibe. He took his shirt off a lot, which was great because he has an awesome body. I recently found out one of the photos from this shoot has made the cover of his new album!



This was my first summer working as a wedding photographer. I had my first, and last, experiences with sub-contract work. I didn't feel comfortable taking wedding photos this way. I didn't know the brides beforehand, understand what they wanted, they'd never seen my photos before, it all felt wrong. I just showed up, found the bride, took photos for a number of hours, and that was it. Awkward. Matt and I run our photography business very differently.



The British Biggins. This very nice couple renewed their vows while on vacation near Disney. They found me online and had me come out to take photos of their small ceremony with their adorable daughter. As it turned out, the hotel didn't allow outside photographers so we lied and said I was a cousin that lives in Florida. Well, I do have british citizenship...but the on-site photographer actually walked by at one point and didn't seem to buy our story. Ah well, nothing he could do. ;)



Teresa and James were our first couple to get married in a church. It was really beautiful. I'm reminded every time Matt and I shoot together how much I enjoy working with him. It's fun to share our photos and sort of feed off one another's energy.



David and Nan was my shortest wedding job to date. 1 hour! :) They had a small ceremony in the rose garden in Winter Park. They had a very casual vibe which made them so easy to work with. It rained just enough to get some really beautiful shots of them under and umbrella.


One of Matt's best friends moved into a new house this summer. He has this incredible old furniture I've been wanting to photograph and the move seemed like the perfect opportunity. I asked another of Matt's friends, Darrah, if she'd model for me. She was a great model; let me style her however I wanted! There was actually a house warming BBQ party going on the day we shot, which made for a lot of surprise visitors (all male of course) The man power was welcomed as they helped me move the furniture around. ;)



The band Less Than Perfect was a handful! It's tough to work with a group of guys. They came in like a tornado and the world didn't seem to settle back into place until they left that night. More wardrobe options, styling products, and alcohol then I'd ever seen at any of my shoots, but it was a great experience. My first time shooting a group with my studio gear. :)



Tara is a poet and spoken word artist. She also publishes a poetry magazine up in New Jersey. She was very easy to work with and interesting to talk to. She's lived a very full life. Sometimes you can just sense a strong core in people. Tara is one of those people. This photo is a composite using a photo I took in central park over st.patrick's day weekend.



Jessica, a UCF sorority girl, was beginning work as a promotional and trade show model. She needed some fun studio shots to promote herself better. She was a pleasure to shoot because she smiled so much and was a natural with the bubble-gum pop happy posing. Which is great because it's the kind of photos she needed. I think this shot is my favorite shot b.c it's not really like that at all, a bit more seductive instead.



Terrel was my 2nd client and we still shoot together! This was Terrel's 3rd session, and we switched it up by using the studio gear. He's a christian rap artist, so I thought it would be fun to really use the light almost as a prop.


My little brother has proven to be very difficult to shoot. I'm not really sure why. It just seems every time we take photos nothing really jumps out as the killer portrait. Ah well, I'm sure I'll take many more photos of him. We're still young ;) This photo is an edited composite of the two of us in a really neat park I recently found.



After living with Billy I began understanding make-up better and my interest grew. I liked what I had done with Darrah but wanted to try something more colorful. Rachel is usually up for anything, so she was the perfect model for this shoot. As well as some studio work with a lemon, that highlighted the make-up more, we also took some shots on the tennis court at my new apartment. I like the energy of this shot. I imagine there might be aliens landing. (maybe when i get better at photoshop i can put some in) ;)


I've known Audra since middle school and while we've remained friends we started spending more time together over the summer. I'd never photographed her, so I was excited to do so. We bought lots of tulle in a rainbow of colors and then my favorite shot turned out best in black and white. It's funny how that happens, no matter the amount of planing, I never seem to know where the image is going until I'm there clicking away on the camera. :P


That was a BIG, LOOONG blog! I'm hoping that I post every day, or at least almost every day. What can I possibly do tomorrow that will match an entire summer or photos?

new travels to old places

Matt of Smatt had a little vacation time so we decided to venture out of the greater Orlando area to visit parental units along the coast lines. Between the homes we call home we found ourselves in the town of Arcadia (right off the big dot in the middle of our phallic shaped state). We found a beautiful old opera house that has become a large antique store. Some of the old trinkets were quite interesting, but I don't feel the need to own relics of other's past pasts. Instead, we took some photos.




I've come home feeling a bit more put together, maybe a result of the circular path of our travels. Maybe family just does that naturally. Regardless, I hope to travel more and have decided that rather then dreams of waking up in Barcelona every morning, I'll try to focus on making my way there for at least a few mornings a year.

blog?

blog smog frog blog,
fog sog bog dog?

a new place to blog if only i had something to blog about.