Adventures in Loveland... Part 3

Anyone who knows me well (aka my family) will tell you, I am not one to travel off the beaten path. I am a creature of habit and when I don't follow my habits, I get a little anxious. When I go to a resturant for the first time, I am always biting my nails not knowing what to order. Then, once I find something I like, I will order it every time I go there, nothing else. I really only know a single route to any given place, and that is the road I take. You know what I mean? Anyway, it is something I am working on.

While chatting in the photo studio with Joe, we got on the subject of fine arts students. I mentioned that one of my uncles has a degree in Fine Art from Nazarath College. He asked what he "does", and I told him sculpture. Joe said "well, don't ya know, Loveland happens to be one of the sculpture capitals of the world!" Huh what? Loveland? What are you talking about?



Turns out Loveland/Ft. Collins really are famous for sculptures. There is a huge sculptural event every year that basically shuts the cities down. And just a couple of turns off the beaten path I was taking everyday was a place called "Bensen Park Sculptural Garden". The link takes you to a cool site that shows a map of the park, you can float your mouse over the numbers and a photo of the sculpture in that spot will appear. More then 120 pieces in one little park!

We wrapped up shooting early on Friday and I found myself with a little time on my hands. Not enough time to go up into the mountains (an adventure I wanted to take with my friend Debbie on Thursday but the weather was uncooperative), but enough to take a little detour. I don't think y'all realize what a huge step that is for me! And I truly "enjoyed the moment".



There are lots more photos from Benson Park in my Flickr photostream. Go check them out!

Another "playing" highlight of my business trip was getting to see an old friend. She isn't old, lol... but our friendship is. Debbie and I have known each other since 7th grade(that would be circa 1990). We had sleep overs, her family introduced me to having popcorn with pizza, we always made cookies when we were at her house, and once, we did a movie about Anne Frank in her living room with her nine brothers and sisters for an english project. When I got a car, we drove to school together everyday. After our weddings we lost touch. We have sent emails now and then, but life with kids makes it tough. You know I have three, and she has four herself (ages 6, 5, and twins almost 3). Once she moved to Colorado we really really lost touch.

As fate would have it... Debbie lives just about 20mins from where I was in staying!! She met me at the apartment the first night in Loveland and we headed out for a bit to each and lots of chatting. Thursday while I was there was her birthday! And we hung out in her kitchen cooking and chatting like we have never been apart. LOL... and I answered her question "was high school really as bad as I remember it?" with a resounding "YES" and she said "I knew I would get an honest answer from you!!" Oh how I wish we were closer. I would love having her and her crew over for backyard picnics and wine nights in the winter (or spring or summer or fall for that matter). I am sad to have left her there!! But hopefully, she will be here in NY next year visiting family and I can return the favor of a night of good food, lots of chatting, and good times.

Adventures in Loveland... Part 2

It is early Friday morning here in CO, it's barely 7am. I have been up since about 5:30 "working" on the computer at some behind the scenes stuff for book #2. I am trying to stay on NY time, which means it is really almost 9am and a lazy bum, but oh well. Today is the last day of shooting and WOW! so much to tell you all about.

First, by the hits on my Flickr photos, lol, I can tell y'all couldn't wait to see what was going down at the photo studio. I have so many things I want to remember to tell you, now I don't know where to begin! Hmmm... I will start with the man behind the lens... Joe Coca. Such a cool old guy, lol. I think he would be very comfortable sitting on the beach with Jimmy Buffet as he is working behind a camera. There is such a gentle laid back quality to him. I am loving getting to work with him. The photo above is the very unassuming entry to his studio. It was a grocery store in the 19 teens. And now it is a studio, with his wife and him living in the flat above the store. An absolute dream of a spot if you ask me.



Behind that front door is this. A HUGE room with vaulted ceilings, blocked out light, more camera equipment then I have ever seen in my life, and a gigantic MAC screen. Too cool, huh?

Wednesday was the first day of shooting. I created a "shot list" several weeks ago outlining each and every photo we would take for my book. When I counted them up there was 264, if memory serves me. We end up taking 4-5 of each shot so the art director as lots of angles and options to choose from. Do the math and we have literally taken more than 1000 photos.

It wasn't a task we jumped right into though! The morning was relaxed, I unpacked all my tools and all the jewelry, piece by piece. And as I was unpacking, editors from Interweave arrived. I got to meet my art director, my acquisitions editor, and the assistant editor (Rebecca, who has spent the whole shoot with me!). All the ladies are great, and so good at what they do. The first task was deciding which color background to shoot the process shots against. It sounds like an easy thing right? WRONG! It took almost two hours! The feel of the book is going to be very playful, fun, and fresh, so no dark serious colors. I have very pale skin, so anything too like and my flesh tones look weird.



The debate over which background ended with the one in this photo. A very neutral gray, that isn't too blue and isn't too yellow. Nice. The next debate was the angle to shoot from and how much "hands" to show. My art director hates "fleshy books" where when you flip through the pages all you see is skin. My acquisitions editor likes hands and thinks it is important to have them to show how to use the tools and do the technique. As we took each photo we kept those two points in mind... as little flesh as possible while showing the technique as clearly as possible. *sigh* it is so much harder then it sounds.

Once all the details were worked out we just started ticking things off the shot list. We worked through the entire "basics" section, all the earrings, and a couple of the bracelets the first day. Yesterday, Thursday, we finished up all the bracelets, all the necklaces, and did drop outs. Drop outs are images of the jewelry on a plain white background, so photo peps can lasso the object and drop it down on the finished page so it looks like it is floating. There was a point yesterday afternoon where I was just beaming with pride as I looked at Joe's computer screen and saw these huge images of my jewelry looking just absolutely amazing. It is something I highly recommend. If you can ever find a way to swing it, have a professional take some images of your work. It will give you a whole new perspective on what you are creating.



This last shot is just to make y'all jealous... look at all my pretty wire! I ordered this before I left and oh rainbows make me happy. LOL. We will be using this box of goodies today to shoot the "color wheel" section of the book and then it is on to the bits and bobs about tools 'n stuff.

WOW! That is a long post about the photo shoot... it made me tired just thinking about all the work we have done. I haven't kept 9-5 hours like this in years! I best hop in the shower and get the morning moving so I am not late for "work". More coming soon on the "playing" I have done in Loveland. All work and no play would make for a very boring trip dontcha think?

Adventures in Loveland... Part 1

*sigh* yes... I am here. LOL. First of all, before I dive into the tales of Loveland, my internet access is hit and miss. So if you are waiting for an email from me, sorry, updating the ole blog won out. But I will get to emails when I can, and if you suddenly don't hear from me until Sunday, it is because of the lack of internet.

Anywho. YES! I am here. On my first ever "business" trip. It truly is wild. I think being distracted by working on prep stuff for book number two kept me from stressing and working myself up about this experience. I didn't have time to nit pick each and every aspect of what might happen. I didn't picture what people would be like, I didn't worry about finding my way here and there, I didn't want to know what would happen before it happened... I am just sort of being in the moment. I am experiencing everything as it comes. And it all feels really *right*. Like this is what I am supposed to be doing.

The flight sucked getting here, lol... so don't think I am all rays of hope and sunshine. I am dreading getting back on the plane. Denver is a very bumpy city to fly over. Add a sudden storm off the mountains and 30 minutes of circling over Nebraska and you have a very ill, cold sweating, green sweater wearing passenger. I held it together though and didn't actually vomit on the two women on either side of me hogging the arm rests. No, I just tried to breathe and get the hell off that plane as fast as I could.



The views here are s.p.e.c.t.a.c.u.l.a.r. I mean, seriously, beautiful. I have lived in NY, and Florida, and Texas, but never seen mountains like these. We have the Adirondacks in NY, but they ain't nothing next to these fellas. I had about an hour drive from the Denver Airport to the Interweave apartment in Loveland. OH MY STARS!!! The expressways!! The speed limit is 75...with everyone going at least 80. I am used to 55 in Rochester, 65 at the most. These people are maniacs. LOL. But AH, the view as you speed through the state! I don't know why people are in such a hurry, I could go 30 the whole way and not mind one bit while starring out the window. :)



So, with mountains out the car window on my left... there was a rainbow out the window on my right. What a treat after the storm that had us circling for so long!! Wish I could take better 'while driving' pictures, but alas, my camera sucks at candids like these. I will just have to cherish the memory of a pretty pop of a rainbow. Hey, maybe I should write it in my Token journal when I get home! A token of love from Mother Nature. LOL.



Here is where I am staying! A cute little one bedroom apartment that Interweave has for authors (and others) that come in for various publishing stuff. It is cute, yeah, like I said, lol. (I think I feel a little jet lagged.) No tv though, and I already mentioned the spotty internet. Makes for a boring time all by my onsie, but I did have a visit with a good friend from high school my first night!! More on her later in the week though.

Up tomorrow is Part 2... all about my first day at the photo studio! If you can't wait to see, just hop on over to my Flickr stream and check out the photos I posted.