The weekend #3 part: Saturday evening

 I love the material I've gathered, I think it will be great, even though it was a lot more tradicional than initially intended - we kept wanting to have a zombie wedding and backscene parents 

cake fight while the unaware couple has no idea and stares lovingly into eachother's eyes.... :D 

But in all the chaos, we just did the safe, usual, lovely shots, group and otherwise. There should be 

more than enough for two wedding books, one for the couple, one for everybody else. I think. But 

certainly enough for a wedding impression. And a video of a friendly band playing a Bon Jovi song. 

My accommodation wasn't arranged, but that in some small sense is a blessing in disguise, as now I can opt for going home and sleeping with my babe, instead of in another strangers' bed - cold and empty as a bed away from home can be. Even if I WERE young, pretty and single, it would not appeal to me the thought of pursuing a one night stand with one of these people. Harmless as they may be, I am like an alien among them. We just wouldn't be compatible. I have looked in none of their eyes, I remembered none of their faces. 'Twas not my job here. ;) I photographed food, dances, toasts, more food and occasional humiliation act, played very lightly 

on one of the ceremony participants (her best man must sing and do rooster noises to buy back the 

wedding boukette that's been stolen.) personally at this moment I am hiding, tired and uninvited, 

waiting for the boukett toss and the cake slicing :D Though, quite frankly, I cannot quess what people 

will be doing for another four hours to last this long. It's now a bit pass eight, the fun stuff is at 

midnight... It is very, very wise on my side to always come supplied with Red Bull. Otherwise it might 

have been very tragic - I am, after all, penyless and very far away from home. 

The weekend part #2: Saturday morning

THE ART OF ARIVING AN HOUR EARLY.... As oppose to the art of always arriving a minute too late. 

Funny, how... Not even deep down - quite plainly, actually- I am a babe in the woods in the real world. People must literally take care of me. They must make sure I eat and drink, I get transportation, I am not exposed to harassment of any sort, even if it's just people standing close. Alright, this state is not acute, I don't freak out or anything, but I do get tiresomely distracted and I do feel unhappy. I would love to be able to rely on someone, an assistant if you will, to actually do all the "reality heavy lifting" in my stead - but then again I don't rely on anyone but the General and he thinks I’m just fishing. People are faulty. So what then? A robot, haha?? No, I don't trust robots either. I trust this little 

pad just so as to lean onto my brain, not support it. Look at what it’s doing to my text arrangement?

But there's a funny thing about me when it comes to work. Okay, firstly I should relax a little bit. The girl who ought to take a better care of me this weekend is constantly upset, even more so tonight when she got drunk and probably had yet another fight with her boyfriend. She is the type to think they know exactly what they want and when the rest of the world can’t keep up, she completely loses it. Oh my, how familiar that sounds! Even the tone of his voice when the boyfriend guy talks to her is enough to unsettle her. Sure, understood, nobody likes to feel underappretiated, but things 

do happen, cars do break down, trains do arrive late, prices do rise and batteries run out, even the spare ones. 

Which sucks hard, when you're in the middle of an unique event... But breathe. So much of this shit can be 

organized beforehand. Yes, it takes ten minutes to walk to the station, twenty to ride a bus to catch a train

 and then two hours with the fast train to arrive to the next point in the plan. But it's Saturday at six am, I

 have never walked to the bus stop and can get lots just long enough to arrive five seconds wrong, and the

 train ride is long - any amount of construction could be going on. Yesterday it took us four hours to 

navigate through city traffic rush hour. It would have been faster to walk.

So I am an hour early almost everywhere and writing these endless inner monologues in waiting mode - or would be, if things didn't go wrong. Ergo, I am on time. I could have even taken the early regular train to have enough time to stop midway, run to kiss the General,  run back and hop on the fast train, but what if the regular runs just a little bit behind? 

Anyhoo. I loaded the iPad full of episodes of Wallander ( and New Girl, in case it turns out to be too depressing ) and sat down with a cup of orange juice, resting tranquil in between plan stops. Luckily I have both - Kill Bill AND Enya on my playlist. As fun as adrenaline is, there are almost twenty hours of shooting before me and an unpredictable 

tomorrow. Pacing oneself is rather a wise approach.

The weekend: #1 part: Friday

I picked up the 580 Speedlight thingie from the rent shop today and felt like a royal idiot, because I honestly never used a non-inbuilt flash before, and very rarely the one on Porky, as in the time-honored tradition of cheap flashes, it would burn the foreground into a blazing white and leave the background in the pitch black void... Of course I had no opportunity to test it, because I haven't been able to buy its batteries due to traffic jamps, but.. long story short, as soon as the General left, weary and sick of the large city with it's arsehole traffic and expensive... everything, my instinct, as predictable as a clock, to just go home, get out, go after him, curl up and hide in the bed, kicked in. 

BUT. As soon as I put the strobe thingie on, took a single shot, all my hopes to find this asset pointless, evaporated. This strobe little machine is awesome. It is EXACTLY what I've been missing, damn it, so used to pushing the Mark in such terrible darkness.... I have no idea just yet how it will function in sync my photoshop routine, but for the "shiny happy wedding peeps" it should do perfect. Funny, I am so happy about this. It did push the 580 so far up my wishlist it's not even funny anymore, considering I can't even begin to afford it, but I want it. I want it. I will learn so much about it in these next two days I will prove to Santa I deserve it :D

It is SO weird, being the official photographer someplace... You move through the place as if the doors and doormen do not exist.. You get free drinks and T-shirts and wardrobe and places you can sit or stand... You get the shiny bracelets that distinguish you from the regular crowd. I haven’t gotten the hand stamp in my entire life. And there's music!... You know how I cannot understand music and always find it noisy and distracting. Well, sometimes, on concerts, it makes such sense. Even to me. Especially to me. It falls into place and becomes a story, powering me up, making me feel warm and not sleepy. Makes me want to dance. Makes me want to capture the songs with photographs, capture the light, freze the mood of players and their focused roadies. I like roadies. Art is only possible if you got the techincalities out of the way and in photography you have to be a technitian first and an artist last. 

But then of course the show is about to start and it gets noisy again and crowded, smoky and strange and I get the urge to leave again. Things to me are only fascinating before the step from behind the curtain and into the violent sheen. 

Haha, a cute dialogue I had over text messages just now:

- Okay, I'll be a little late, I'm coming over as soon as it stop with this downpour..
- Certainly; it's doomsday out. Don't go anywhere without fishing boots and a rain-cape.
- Or a small rubber dingy.
- And the paddles, of course. Can't forget the paddles or you won't be gettying anywhere.
- Hmmm... I admit, I was thinking about just tying Starbark up front and tossing individual bits of her chocolate chip dog cookie somewhere in the desired general direction, but okay. She'll just have to do with paddles.


lOl

Tamara in the park shoot

... Working on Tamara's picks from yesterday... Plenty of them to work with, but soooo many things to do that I should do first! ... Yeesh. The negotiations for the books are at another peak, a busy weekend is nearing in, laundry needs to be put on the lines, I need to make myself something to drink, considering I've eaten two bags of popcorn in the past two days and forgot I also need H2O with my grease and salt.