Mary Kay

Mary Kay Cosmetics consultant Karen Bindner and a few of her fellow consultants hosted a Valentines Day photo shoot for their old and new clients.

Women came in bare (or close to), washed their faces off with the great Mary Kay skin cleaners, moisturized, applied their brand new face, and came over to me to get their photos taking.

This took place on Tuesday and I have just finished the photos.

This was a little confusing because they originally thought that they would be receiving every photo that I took, but I never give out unedited images. Its my principle. I made minor adjustments to the photos with Lightroom, then took them into photoshop and did very light editing to them. This is how I was able to give them such a discounted price, all shot with in 2 1/2 hours and barely any editing.

They came out great! These women truly are gorgeous and they made my job very easy. All and all it was a wonderful experience. Rich even helped and managed to keep his mouth shut. This was quite a step for him giving that he has problems trying to take over my shoots. He told me before the shoot that he wanted to prove to me that he could work with me with out being a dickhead. He achieved it. I would give him a grade of 87% if it were an assistance quiz. He still has room to improve, but has made great strides. For those of you who don't know, Rich is my life partner and also a great photographer. Him and I have very different styles of working and subject matter. Find his work at richcastro.blogspot.com.

Rich and Fermin, Rich's dad, helped me make a giant heart made out of crinkled newspaper inside trash bags. After I taped the bags together and formed it, I covered it with plaster gauze. Its almost the size of me. It was used as a decoration at the event. I'll be taking photos with it in the near future and will post them, but I don't want to ruin the surprise by posting images of the heart too early.

Here are the completed photos from the event.



They turned out really good. The makeup looks great consultants!

If you are in need of a make over or are looking for quality products contact Karen:

Karen Bindner: karen2bnatl@cox.net

If you want to have a Mary Kay party with before and after shots let me know. I don't photograph events, but this is more like glamor shots. Its a lot of fun.

Kris Turner

I finished two jobs today. Thank goodness because the holidays prolonged the completion more than I would have liked.

A tip that I learned. Double the time the you expect to get work done around the holidays. Everyone's response times are delayed.

Kris Turner is an educator. She tutors children. In the short time that I have spent with her, I have recognized a spectacular glow that I have seen in few people. She truly is an individual.









Isn't she pretty?

Shirtz Logoz and Promoz

There's this little print shop on Water Street called Shirtz Logoz and Promoz.

A couple months back they won a gift certificate of mine and we have been working together to get them images for a brochure that they will be making.

For those of you who are still learning the ins and outs of clientele, this was a case to learn from.

I had chosen what I had believed to be the best photos technically and showed them those photos to pick from. Darcy and Robert were insistent on seeing all of the photos that had been shot, even though they I believed them to be basically the same thing.

I uploaded the photos that I had considered bad and Darcy found a couple that had a shelf in the bottom right hand corner that she thought summed up the store interior more precisely. I hadn't noticed this detail because the image had many technical errors.

I then discussed the technical errors with Darcy and explained that in other photos this had been corrected. I asked if there was something in particular that she liked about this photo (at this point I did not know it was the shelf that she liked).

When we discussed the issue of the photo she explained that it was the shelf that drew her eye to that photo. She wanted it incorporate into a photo that was superior technically.

So indeed I did. Here is that particular photo.



Even though this communication caused the final product to take a little bit longer, the out come was worth it. This image now gives the feel of a larger, brighter store than the original photo exhibited, but it still has the hint of that shelf on the bottom right hand corner to allow a relationship between the real interior.

Communication is the number one asset a photographer or artist has when working with a client.


These are the other two photos they asked me to edit.





Go Check them out!

Shirtz Logoz and Promoz
www.lasvegaslogoz.com
11 S. Water St. Suite D
Henderson NV 89015
702-565-1522

I made shot of the week on Melissa Rodwell's blog!

Melissa Rodwell is a photographer I have recently found that runs Fashion Photography Blog. Her work is incredible and the information she provides on her blog answers so many questions that beginning photographers have. Its a great resource.

She just started a shot of the week contest for her viewers to submit to.

I am proud to announce that I made the first ever shot of the week!

The photo that I had submitted was the first for Wear Recycle.

Photographer and sculptor: Nicky Watts
Location: Nicky Watts Studios, Las Vegas
Model: Zaya Kharkhuu
Make Up Artist: Samantha Henrikson
Hair Stylist: Valarie Zwahlen
Assistant: Jeannette Spradley

Thanks to Melissa for choosing my photo and also holding the contest.

Also thank you to the wonderful team that works with me on Wear Recycle. Without them this project would be a bust.

You can find the image and right up on:

http://fashionphotographyblog.com/2009/01/nicky-watts/

Melissa Rodwell's websites and blog are:

blog: fashionphotographyblog.com
Commercial website: www.melissarodwell.com
Art/exhibitions: www.melissarodwell.net


Hurray Hurray!



Here's the image that won:

Getting Plastered in Maui Hawaii

I just returned from paradise last night and thank goodness its nice here in Vegas or else I might have reached a solid level of depression resulting from the departure of my new favorite place.

Hawaii proved to be nothing less than my vivid imagination predicted. Seeing my good friend Dan in his beach boy element added to the joy of the experience.

I want to thank Dan for both entertaining Rich and I while we vacationed, but for also helping me to advance Wear Recycle.

While in Maui I was able to cast 8 people! This included

Casted at the beach:

Dan Schultz's knee: elementary school art teacher and professional volley ball player for EVP

Grant Wistrom's hand in the sign of "Da Shocka": Stay at home dad

The top of Tom Thayer's foot: Sports Broadcaster for the Bears

Casted at Dan's house:

Sean Sultan's boxer brief view of his crotch: manager of Chrome Lotus in Lahaina



Sierra's hip: waitress at Moose McGillycuddy's restaurant in Lahaina

Jesse's neck and collar bones: body guard



The back of Melanie Van Duyn's neck: Office manager at Fed Ex

Lisa Joy's ankle heel and calf in a very awkward position: hair stylist in Canada
Lisa-Joy actually lives in Canada but was visiting Hawaii....so I nabbed her. ;)




Aside from this incredible work, our adventures were great. Rich and I actually hiked an 11 mile adventure through volcano Haleakala. This occurred on the night of the full moon. We started approximately 3:30pm and finished about 11pm. We had no flash lights, Rich's knees were giving out, and by the end I wanted to lay down and sleep on the jagged rocks, but we made it through! It was an amazing achievement that left me sore for days. The moon was incredible. We saw it peaking out of the mountain and watched it quickly expose itself to the quiet landscape.

We managed to hike 8 more miles in different parts of the island before we left; and Rich played 3 games of beach volleyball. We were in heaven.

You can see Rich's photos from the trip at flickr.com/photos/dickyc

Gaza Strip

My heart breaks every time I see or hear a news story about Gaza Strip.

One who is not there can not quite understand why Israel has attacked Gaza or why the Hamas were sending Israel rocket fire. The only thing that I can understand is that many people who do not deserve it are being killed.

My heart and sorrow goes out to those people. Many people are being wronged right now. Many people's lives are being treated less than they should be.

I know writing this does nothing more but announce my opinion of the situation. I wish I could be a giant fire proof teddy bear and shield those people. They don't deserve it any more than we do.

They are every day people who are being killed and its not right.

The situation is just not right. It breaks my heart.

S-Corp

Today I met with my corporate lawyer, Darci Poloni at Poloni and Associates.

I have hired Darci to file my S-Corp paper work for me. With this service comes trade mark licensing, State ID registration, S-Corp submission and paper work, but most importantly Darci has sat with me and walked me through every step.

Darci explained the Bi-Laws and what is expected of me legally each year. She even gave me this wonderful leather book organizer to place all my corporate papers. She explained that I need to have a meeting with my share holders each year and what needs to take place in this meeting. She explained the rights I have compared to the rights that my share holder has. I actually think I'm starting to understand this business stuff.

Now onto the next steps. Once the papers that were submitted today are processed, I'm a C-Corp. A C-corp is not appropiate for what I do because I'll be taxed twice. So I will need to send back some paper work that my other share holder signs and Darci will be submitting that all for a Tax ID number. Once the tax ID number goes through than I will be considered an S-Corp and I can apply for the business licensing. Once that is complete I start the banking process and become complete and legitimately separate than my company.

In a few hours I will also be meeting with my insurance agent and all my corporate insurance will be submitted. This includes corporate insurance for my equipment as well as liability so if anyone hurts themselves on location or during an event with me than that person can't sue me personally. I've have been waiting to have this for over a year now, but needed to wait due process.

This is all very exciting. Its only been about 6 years since I first worked under Nicky Watts Studios. Its like a dream come true to have it becoming a full blown business. There's still a lot of work to do, but its in the right direction. I just can't wait until I can focus most of my time on making and creating rather than all this paper work business.

You can find Darci at:

Poloni & Associates
780 Coronado Center Dr, Suite 110 J
Henderson, NV 89052
702-616-9240

I hope she can help you as much as she helped me.

HBRC

Wow!

I am excited that today I turned in my work for the Henderson Business Resource Center. It was a job that I had a lot of anxiety over because the organization has been detrimental in my growth as a business owner and I wanted to give them my best work.

Rebecca with HBRC enjoyed the photos a lot. She is incredibly nice and encouraging and I felt both proud and a sense of relief giving her the cd of images.

Here are a few examples of the work I did. Its nothing terribly exciting compared to some of my other projects, but its a great strive in my development as a photographer.









Everything takes one step at a time. This is one more step!

Hawaii

Oh yeah!

I am going to Hawaii on Friday to make some casts....and explore of course.

Dan Schultz is going to talk to the administration at his school to see if I can cast them.

I'm hoping to get a full large group. Maybe everyone who works at one restaurant or something. Or a really large family. I don't know, we'll see how it goes.

Its getting crazy. I have casted 16 people now, shot 5 and have almost finished 1 more sculpture. I am in desperate need of recycled paper to continue. There are about 25 people on the list of future castees.

This is all exciting. I wish I could just do this all the time and not have to focus on starting my business too. Oh well, soon the beginning paper work and developing systems will be all set up and I will be able to focus more on making.

I hope Tricia will move here to help too. That would be great. Lets all send Tricia some warm thoughts about moving here.

Wear Recycle in the newspaper

Las Vegas Sun (Home news, Henderson) published the article front page!

Congrats everyone involved in the project.

If you are interested, here are the links to the newspaper story and the slide show:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/30/reusing-arts-sake

www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2008/dec/30/reusing-arts-sake

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEL_k_n5XCo

Go to the Las Vegas Sun's YouTube site and comment on the video....so they know how much we love it!


Thanks to everyone involved, this is wonderful, thanks.