My poor beleaguered husband. Imagine, for a moment, you are the spouse of a photographer. And you have no kids. Can you imagine the inordinate amount of time my husband has to spend in front of my camera because I want to "test something out"? Back in the day, this could take hours. I've gotten a lot faster at "testing" and he gets off a lot easier than when we were dating (but then again, we were dating) but he still ends up in front of the camera fairly often. "Oh god the light is so good here," I might say, already reaching into the bag for the camera. He'll sigh and give me that "yeah yeah go ahead" look. Most of my photos of him feature said look.
But every now and then I get a genuine smile. Truth is, it's easier to make George smile than my couples - I know all his flaws and things and can exploit them mercilessly.
And sometimes he's not expecting it.
And though I have to remind him sometimes that he needs to put the "little black square" on my face and even so, there are major focus issues (yes, George, major focus issues!) he can still manage to make some very nice compositions. You know, when I force the camera in his hands and say "make me a new 'about me' image."
This one I love. Who knew George had a knack for "moments"?
And, finally, some fun and how I can't tell the difference between two ridiculously different colors. Soooo about my jacket. See up there how it's red? That's the color it is. But when I was in the H&M getting excited about it, I was
completely sure that it was "Amber Wilkie Photography" orange. I even tweeted about it! It wasn't until the next day when I looked at the jacket in the bag that I realized "well hey, this jacket looks really red." No, no, I thought, it's just this lighting. But after careful photographic analysis, I have to conclude that the jacket is, indeed, very much red and I am ridiculous.
But then in comes the magic of Photoshop! One red-orange hue slider, a copy of the layer and a mask to bring back the red in my face and glasses and voila! It's an orange jacket! (PS: Isn't it weird having two of me staring at you? We know things...)
And for those of you interested in the whole photography thing from a technical standpoint vs. just looking at nice pictures - these were shot at the edge of an overpass. There is bright, bright sunlight hitting white pavement right in front of me and George, just out of camera. Sun is camera left, but I'm standing in the shade of the overpass. Yeah, boy, natural reflectors!
Here's another anecdote about this city. I recently attended a photographer meetup. It was a great time - I got some new headshots (you'll see them soon enough) and chatted with my local 'tog friends. There were maybe 12 people at the meeting. At one point, we talked about how long we had all been there. Out of said 10 or 12 people, with my 4.5 years in the city, I was the second-longest resident. She won with 9 years. There are pros and cons to all of this, of course, but it means that you're continually being exposed to new people, and continually have chances to make new friends. Seriously, I love DC.
And because I haven't had something useful to write about the random photos I've taken around the city recently, here are just a few more. Me in the bathroom at this weird little coffee shop near U Street (sorry, don't recall the name and the barista working there was possibly the worst I've ever encountered), a shot from the metro and finally our plethora of tomatoes. We have a plot in a community garden that I neglect the hell out of and George occasionally drops by to water and scoop up any produce available. Have you had heirloom carrots? They absolutely destroy supermarket carrots. Til next time, folks!
