Last week I talked about the creative process behind my photo shoots. There was so much information, I decided to break it up into 2 parts. Part 1 was last Friday and dealt with conceptualizing a photo shoot, location scouting, and organizing a team. Part 2 covers what happens on shoot day and after the photo shoot. Enjoy!

Step Five: Shoot Day!  

This step essentially explains itself. Most of my shoots are all day. My most recent Brigitte Bardot shoot started at 9:00 am for hair and makeup, and ended at 4:00 pm. Sometimes photographers like to break up the shoot into two half-days, but I just like to shoot all day and get it over with in one day. Hair and makeup take about 1 hour each. While hair and makeup is being done, I organize the garments with the wardrobe stylist and decide the order of the outfits. In larger scale shoots, there would have been a fitting done prior to the day of the actual photo shoot so that I wouldn’t have to do the prep work last minute. Wardrobe and hair and makeup changes take about 20 minutes, depending on how intricate the new hair/makeup/wardrobe look is. I like to keep things simple and change up the makeup and hair just a tiny bit; like changing lip color and easy tweaks like that.

Step Six: Editing and Post-Processing  

A lot of people mistakenly use the terms editing and post-processing interchangeably, but they actually mean different things. Editing refers to narrowing down to a select few of the strongest shots out of the entire body of photographs taken, whereas post-processing refers to the actual retouching of the photograph (adjusting brightness, contrast, color, retouching skin, blemishes etc.). I can take anywhere from 500-1,000 photographs when working with my digital camera, or 4-6 rolls of film when working with analogue. I generally try to narrow down to my 30 best, retouch those, then narrow it down to 15 from there. In the end, about 6-10 final images get published.

Step Seven: Post your work for the world to see!  

Again, pretty self-explanatory. This is when I post my work on this blog, my online portfolio, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Anything for self-promotion! Another possible step is submitting to a magazine. I do not always plan on submitting my photo shoots to magazines, although if the images come out good enough, I may pitch my shoot to a few magazines on a whim and see what they say. For larger shoots, like this past shoot I did, it was intended to be a submission to a magazine. In this case, I cannot post the final images until I hear back from the magazine on whether or not my submission made the cut, which is why you’re only seeing the behind the scenes shots right now and not the final product

Annnnd there you have it: a photo shoot, from concept to execution! There are a few small steps I’ve left out (there are many emails, phone calls, and meetings to further discuss the logistics of the shoot), but these steps give a general overview of how my photo shoots usually work. If you have any more specific questions, please feel free to leave a comment below or else drop me a line at hello@drifterandthegypsy.com.

instagram photos by erin of calivintage

I alluded to this project on Instagram a few weeks ago, and here it is in the flesh!

My latest project for SCAD was a paint swatch sculpture. Using easily accessible/recyclable items (and the A+B+C modular design scheme), we had to design a sculpture for our hypothetical client’s (the owner of a small chain of organic food stores) waiting area of his/her home office. The A+B+C modular design scheme is basically when you take one item, (which equals unit A), then repeat unit A in some pattern to make unit B, and then repeat unit B in some pattern to make unit C (a good example of modular design would be bricks).

This project reaaaally made my mind work and all week I was racking my brain trying to come up with a good material to use for my sculpture. One day, I took a browse through the hardware store for inspiration and bam! passed by a wall full of paint swatches. Needless to say, I got my idea:)

At first, I wanted this design to be a lantern and have it hang, but the paper ended up being too thick and opaque so no light could shine through. Sad face:( It ended up being a sitting sculpture instead. I’m still pleased with it though!

Materials:

Scissors, white thread & needle, drafting tape (to temporarily hold the swatches in place), and-of course-paint swatches.

I began by folding each 3×5” paint swatch sample in some sort of random triangular origami form I came up with by playing around with the paint swatches while watching TV one night. This created my A unit.

Then, I hand sewed (tedious!) two paint swatches of the same color together to create a diamond form, which was my B unit. After my B units were completed, I hand sewed the outer four edges of each B unit (more tedious stuff!). After the B units were sewn together, they formed a spherical form.

…And then a paint swatch sculpture was born!

I was so pleased with the result, I took my sculpture down to Pottery Barn for some sneaky pictures in one of their staged furniture displays:

A bit of nature and a bit of technology:

one: some flowers I picked by my house // two: iPad cases c/o The Snugg

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned I was trying to be healthier with my eating. I’m not saying I wasn’t a healthy eater before (I completely cut out refined grains, processed foods, etc. from my diet 3 years ago), but I’m trying to be more moderate… more balanced.

I have a tendency to wait until I’m COMPLETELY starving, then eat a whole bunch and end up overeating. Lately, I’ve been trying to eat more frequent, smaller meals. I’m pleased to say that 1 month down and it’s going quite well! I’ve started photographing every meal I eat to serve as a food diary and I’ve realized I tend to gravitate toward sweet foods (fruits, honey, cinnamon, etc), especially for breakfast. With that being said, I’ve made it a point to try to incorporate vegetables in my meals as well. For instance, I’ll make myself a spinach salad or veggie soup for lunch instead of a PB&J. Or I’ll put kale and arugula in my breakfast oatmeal or something.

Speaking of oatmeal, I’ve discovered the beauty of this humble breakfast food. I’ve never liked oatmeal much on its own (bland), but if you treat it like a blank canvas, you can doctor it up with some amazing things. I could go on and on about oatmeal, but I’ll save that for another day

I tend to eat a lot of wheat (only whole wheat though, not the refined/enriched white stuff!), so I’ve been divvying up the wheat intake by eating such grains as oatmeal, flaxseed bread, barley, corn tortillas, etc. There are so many other options out there once you investigate! And lastly, I’ve started sprinkling chia seeds and flaxseeds on my oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, etc. for more fiber.

I hope this post has inspired you to get out there and be healthy! Have you changed anything in your diet recently to be healthier?

I occasionally post my food on Instagram, so if you want to keep up with my meals on a daily basis, follow me @drifterandthegypsy.

This quarter at SCAD I’m taking a 3-D design class. That means I’m creating models out of different 3-D materials, like clay and wire and foam board and such, (aka nothing I’ve done in my life, ever.) This wire sculpture was my first project.

The purpose of the project was to study the different types and functions of line and construct a 3-D sea creature out of two types of wire: 1 thick for the primary – or exterior – contours, and 1 thin for the secondary – or interior – contours.

We were given a hypothetical scenario: The client (the owner of a regional aquarium) is opening a new exhibit titled “Creatures of the Deep Blue Sea.” As a part of the installation, they would like to have a large-scale sea creature underwater as the focal point for the exhibit. While they want to have a signature structure that catches the patron’s eye, they do not want something that interferes with the viewer’s engagement with the actual exhibit. Therefore, they would like a composition that uses line to depict the underwater creature.

I chose to construct a whale and have it hang from the ceiling, as if it was leaping out of the water. (if you want to have a bit of a laugh, this was how the whale looked when I first started)

I know this isn’t really the type of stuff I blog about, but I’ve spent so much time working on this little whale guy… err girl (I’m calling her Orla), I thought she deserved some recognition here on the blog.

This project was alllll about taking our knowledge of 2-D drawing and translating it to 3-D. Since I like to do a lot of crosshatching and mark-making when I draw, I depicted the whale with wire loosely, trying to mimic the same style of my drawings and to create texture.

This project was really challenging and stretched my imagination, but that’s what learning’s all about, right? All I know is after working with wire for two weeks straight, my hands and fingers are definitely feelin it.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with Ms. Orla now that she’s all said and done… perhaps I’ll hang her in my room. If I keep it up with these sculptures, after my 3-D art class, I’m sure my room will look like a hoarder’s!

Every once and a while, I get in a rut. Which gets me motivated to change that rut (which I talked about on Monday). Do something differently. Turn over a new leaf.

Lately I’ve been in a food rut. I tend to get busy with work, forgetting about eating until I’m so absolutely famished, I raid the cabinets and gorge myself out on anything I can get my hands on. Which usually ends with a spoiled appetite (…and maybe a stomachache) for dinner. Which isn’t very balanced at all.

On Monday, I decided to change this pattern and eat more balanced *read: normal* meals. This ain’t rocket science here: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a few snacks in between. So far, it’s been going well. This new routine is taking a bit more preparation and cooking (yes! there’s cooking involved!) to prepare myself more healthful, nutritious meals instead of just grabbing whatever I can find the fastest (like 5 pieces of bread with peanut butter or something). I’ve been eating more whole grains like oatmeal, nuts (my mom makes the most DELICIOUS trail mix), and drinking more *almond* milk. And you know what? It feels pretty pretty darn good! The other day for lunch, I made myself addictive Brussels sprouts salad and mixed that in with some leftover Mediterranean Barley with Chickpeas and Arugula from dinner the night before. It was so yummy!

With that being said, I’ve also started documenting my meals with my iPad via iHad. It allows me to visually see what I’m putting into my body. It also makes me more conscious of portion control and my food’s presentation. And when I take the time to think about my food’s presentation, I take more time to plan my meal in a balanced, wholesome manner… even get creative and try out some new recipes! It forces me to be more patient when preparing my meals and not to snack on my food WHILE I’m making it (because that would ruin the presentation, you see!). I’m only posting a few of my meals on Instagram so as not to clog everyone’s feed with every. single. meal. I. eat, but you can follow a little of my food journey @drifterandthegypsy.

Along these lines, a few of my favorite food/nutrition blogs are Oh She Glows (awesome recipes!), Considering You (a fairly new wholesome lifestyle blog), Daily Garnish (a family/running blog), Never Homemaker (mainly love her running recaps, but also healthful eating), Live Laugh Eat (another running blog), and Hungry Healthy Happy (yet another running blog). Can you tell I’m a runner? My DIY Food contributor, Ann, also inspires me to get going in the kitchen!

How do YOU get yourself out of a food rut? What are your favorite food blogs? And do you have any favorite healthy recipes?

Have a happy Friday and HEALTHY weekend!

Doing my schooling from home has its benefits: I have a flexible schedule, I save on gas, I get to be home with my dog, I get to spend time with my family, etc. I love working from home and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

BUT it has many disadvantages as well. Lately I’ve fallen into the trap of the disadvantages: Snacking too much at home, getting sidetracked on the Internet (Facebook, I’m lookin at you), not getting dressed in the morning, not putting on makeup, and just being lackadaisical in general, etc. There comes a time when I have to say, “Micaela, put down the jar of peanut butter and DO something!” I’ve been lacking structure. And I need structure.

Today is not only April 1st, but it’s also a Monday, which seems like a perfect day for a new beginning to me.

Today I got up, did Pilates, got dressed, put on some makeup, and even pressed off my shirt for the occasion. Now I’m off to the library with my laptop, a to-do list, and a clear mind.

What do YOU do to stay focused?

photos from drifter & the gypsy instagram

ps. Here’s an awesome post on staying focused at home