sure enough…

i got onions. phew.

otherwise, today was my first photo gig for the Bristol Observer!!! There was a street fair and auto show in downtown Bristol, and i was so grateful to my long lens… got some good shots, people were all very friendly and happy to give their names for their photos. that was a nice change from quasi-nightmare shots like the one at the carousel at Bushnell Park where i couldn’t take near as many shots because kids were eeeeeeeverywhere and parents were paranoid.

i’m proud of myself! Before i went to bed, i had this one shot in mind that i knew i could get: someone bending down to look at a classic car, with their full reflection/expression in the window. I didn’t get exactly that, but i did get extremely close, and it’s fun to have these assignments for myself. i love to imagine what i want, and on the way to getting there, i get some other good shots. there’s still so much to learn (there always will be, thank god), and i’m loving learning it.

AND! Ross left me a message suggesting that i shadow with him or some of the guys from the courant. Are you KIDDING?!?! Shadow members of the photo staff for one of the top 10 photo papers in the country? Shadow nationally-known, award winning photographers who have been in the field longer than i’ve been able to spell chrysanthemum (it was a momumental achievement at a very young age, i’ll have you know!)?

sure. you bet i’ll shadow your guys. you. bet.

my heart lept into my throat. i am so grateful for that guy. i don’t know what i did to earn his attention and generous help, but i’m so glad for it.

And the Atlanta Photojournalism seminar is coming up! I’ll be flying down to Atlanta with Ross, where he’ll introduce me to even more insanely talented, driven people, and hear some of the big-big-BIG shots speak. I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like, so i’m a happy blank slate, sure i’ll take a whole lot away from it.

my business cards are in-transit, by the way. !!!

AND! Git is working on my old music website! my name dot com. Cool, cool, cool!

AND OKAY ONE MORE THING!

if you email me at my first name @ my first and last name dot com, it’ll WORK! Finally, things are getting professional around here. Actually, i felt professional this morning when i laminated my Observer press pass… More professionalism is good!!

Time for bed, satisfied.

(alright ONE more last thing… on Friday, i met the president of National Public Radio. The PRESIDENT. of NPR. And he asked for my name after chatting. And then he WROTE IT DOWN. THE PRESIDENT OF NPR WROTE MY NAME DOWN. I am going to find him and email him and send him the pictures i got of him and ask him how i can establish NATIONALLY, a photojournalism department for NPR. If i did it with the sign language training program for t-mobile, i can do this for NPR.)

so i’m going on a cooking binge!!! I’d gone to the grocery store the other day, and they had buy one, get one free not only on ground chicken breast, but in-tact chicken breast! So i’ve decided to make lunch/dinner to bring for the next few days. And if you can fathom it, i’m OUT OF ONIONS.

it’s like i don’t even KNOW myself anymore!

the onions i DID have were growing tentacles trying to escape from the fridge, so that’s out of the question. had i realized i needed more, i would’ve gotten more, but ah well.

so everything i’m cooking would be 3000% better with onions, but i’m going without. ah well. it feels nice to slave over the stove, and wonder HOW the hell my mother did this for her house full of 6 people. Unreal.

oh, another thing about the Tori Amos dream! She pulled up in a Saab. And i so smartly said to her, “well, i guess i’m gonna have ‘Ireland’ in my head for the rest of the day.”

i had a dream last night that Tori Amos came over to hang out before a concert, and that she invited me to the show, backstage, of course, and i was so thrilled, and i forgot my camera.

impossible.

how cool.

my friend Gitamba (who recently moved to San Francisco) was helping me set up a new email account with my name after the @ symbol (letting your wild imaginations develop this one, in the interest of keeping my name outta this blog to avoid being successfully searched). So it’s my first name @ my name (with the exception of the 12,234 middle initials) dot com! AND AND AND i’ve made a new flickr account like i’d planned, JUST for the event photos i’ll be taking. (www.flickr.com/photos/CWPhotos)

and then i made business cards!! Finally. Time to get MOVING, you know? Next step – website.

anyway, what’s really cool is that git also works for Apple, and he hooked me up with a great deal on my macbook a few months ago. we were instant messaging about setting up the email address, and POOF! My camera on the monitor pops on and all of a sudden we’re video chatting!!! It’s amazing how technology shrinks this world down to the size of half my monitor. of course i took pictures.

life is amazing. really, really. i’m so lucky to be here.

(p.s. i got my GPS!)

last night, i spent a few MIND BLOWING hours talking about photography with Ross Taylor.

To keep it to the point… There’s a thousand more ways for me to be doing photography, a thousand places to go, narrowed down to a few… CT is my breeding ground. It’s safe here, i’m learning the technicalities here, i’m beginning to find my style here. Then – where to go? Depends on what i want to do. With zero interest in causing my mother to have a heart attack, i’ve always pondered doing war photography. And it can be done – getting embedded with a troop and shooting away. absolutely. James Nachtwey actually did it on his own most of the time, and is world-famous and absolutely incomparable in his skill.

then, there’s Mike in L.A. – frankly, celebrity photography a la Mary Ellen Mark, is not only very interesting, but will always be a needed thing. Sort of like how Annie Liebovitz was a TOUR photographer for the Rolling Stones (i LOVE this job description: Go on tour with one of the world’s most famous acts, and take a shitload of amazing pictures. sure thing!), and now she takes pictures of the Queen of England when she’s state-side, and makes so much money that she can do whatever she wants in the meantime. Brilliant. So, L.A., and my brother nicely introducing me to people, could be amazing as well.

Then there’s NYC – my true love. I’ve always wanted to live there and on my last trip there, i decided that it’s GOT to happen. In fact, it’s being planned as my next big step in the next handful of years. NYC is a plethora of opportunity to do anything i want, really. So. War, L.A., NYC. Narrowed down. And once i wrap my head around what i think i want to do for the rest of my life or how i want to get there, i’ll know what to do next. Do i do war photography now? i’m young enough, which IS a proponent to being able to do that job… The work and experience will indeed be life-changing, and the work i’ll do will propel my name immensely. I don’t know. Part of my time here in CT will be developing and nursing these ideas and seeing what seems right. Then i’ll know where to go.

In the meantime. I need a website and business cards and to go to the photojournalism event of the year in Atlanta with Ross. Inch. By. Inch.

OoooOooooOoooOo! I’ve got a bone to pick with UPS.

For my birthday, i wanted a GPS unit for my car. especially with getting this gig with the Observer (i know next to nothing about the geography of Bristol), i think it’d totally come in handy. So mom and guy gave me a check with which to buy this GPS unit. I find a great deal online, and they’ll only ship to my apartment.

Since i don’t have a landline, the buzzer system doesn’t work, so after the first failed delivery, i contacted UPS to have them change the destination address to be sent to my work. I have ALL my packages sent to work, because 1. i trust the people there, and 2. someone’s always there to sign for it! makes perfect sense. I expected the delivery today and nothing came.

i get home tonight to see a note from the UPS guy saying that Paul in apartment 26 has my package.

are you KIDDING me?!!? Who the hell is Paul!?!??! And why did this happen!?!?

It’s a little late to go knocking on doors, so i’ll go a-knockin’ tomorrow, but doesn’t this whole thing make no sense at all? What if Paul was my stalker? And now i have to see him to get my stuff? What if Paul denies ever been given the package and just got himself a new, free GPS unit?! There’s a thousand things wrong with this whole process.

So i called UPS to complain. This is the first time i’ve EVER called anywhere to complain, but frankly, if this driver did this with my package, he is probably doing it to other people’s and as hopeful as i am about the state of humanity in the world, i know full well that sometimes people lie and steal (i.e. Josephine who side-swiped me and then later claimed that it was MY fault. Cunt.), and i’d changed the address for a damn REASON, people.

The guy on the phone was cool. I asked him if drivers normally do this? Ahhh, not so much. I said maybe he’s new to the job. There was no leasing office to drop it off at, just some total stranger who happens to live in my building (can you imagine if he DOESN’T!?) who has my fancy GPS. So the UPS guy on the phone said i’d be receiving a phone call to speak to the local office to resolve the issue. I know how to complain (and how NOT to, given my retail sales experience), and it’ll hopefully prove to be productive.

And i hope i get my GPS thingee. I’m sure i will. But still. The principle of the thing, you know? Just handing a stranger my package like that… SHAME, UPS, shame.

feh.

i’m photographing Faith Middleton’s headshot tomorrow! I think that’s pretty fucking cool.

I have been SO busy! i. love. busy.

proof is in the photogery: FLICKR.

and still, i want more.

i’ve come up with some projects to exercise my photographic muscles…
-Photograph my friend Anna-Marie’s story. She has Traumatic Brain Injury, and her and her family are astounding. Would love to document a day/week in the life, a la Ross Taylor’s “Gloria’s Goodbye”. NOTHING can be like Ross’ work, it’s sharply his and gut-wrenchingly special. But the idea of sharing someone’s story. Anna-Marie and the family are down for that, and i want to begin at one of her yoga sessions.

-Photograph my friend Rachel’s day/week in the life… She’s a professional competetor in Muscle Mania. We sang in an a capella group in college, and although always fit, i never ever ever ever ever ever would have predicted her amazing work that resulted in having a body that could cut glass. I’m in awe every time i think of her and her passion. I know i’d get some great shots and show people looking a world they’re not familiar or comfortable with. And maybe they’d share my awe. that’s the goal. for this one and for Anna-Marie.

-Color spectrum project!!! Easy: Base a photo on separate main colors… Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, White, Purple, Pink, Gray (with an “a”, not an “e” dammit)… This will be an ongoing project, and i think is really fun to keep in mind as a personal assignment.

i keep thinking of all these personal assignments, coming up with ideas to photograph. hopefully it’s fair trade for the people who agree to be documented like this. they’ll get some great pictures that reflect their lives in an honest way, and i’ll get more work done, and maybe we’ll all learn something new. Fair trade, i think.

and by the way, i have to find a way to talk to the right people to get myself to be an automated lady. you know, like the 411 machine? “Your. NUMber is. EightSIXZEro…” I’m better at being the automated lady than the automated lady is. I am 100% confident in my abilities, and frankly just let me talk for 5 seconds to a voice-agent-person and i’ll have THEM signing on MY dotted line. It’s crazy. I feel like Kanye West.

His new CD didn’t blow my mind, by the way.

And i’m still obsessed with Emily Haines.

I really have to get my ass to see Mel in Chicago. She warms my heart.

I also have to convince the station to let me keep a minidisk player and a mic on me at all times. i’ve missed too many interviews but made up for it by taking pictures.

i just saw Fil for the first time in months. It was wonderful.

Time for bed. (peas!)

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning, i met with one of the photographers and editors of the Bristol Observer, showed him my portfolio, talked shop, and i got my FIRST freelance gig!!!!

I am so excited, i don’t know what to DO!!

This is amazing. I’ve always appreciated photography, and only in the last five months have i really applied myself to it, and the results and work i’m getting are astounding. everything falling into place. one step in front of another. WNPR wants to start paying me, the Observer WILL be paying me, my stuff has been published in Reuters, on NPR.org, and other local and regional sites… I have so much to learn, and i’m learning FAST. This is amazing.

time to celebrate and sit still and get more tattoo work done by Alana in a bit, then dinner with Mom & Guy who are freshly back from their exciting trip to Quebec. Life. Is. Good. Even without all this good news.

All i want in this world:, originally uploaded by Chion Wolf.

every DAY i’ve checked to see if they re-stocked on their small sized zippy, and today they DID!!!

WOOOOO!!!!!!!!!