More test runs :)

 My blog this be. I can publish any amount of test pickies I want :P Yaaaarrr.. The bright ones.

 

After the flood :p

          The weather cleared today, after four days of relentless downpour, and so everyone went for a walk :) It seemed like an excellent opportunity to go for a test drive :D

... and so on and so forth.. Nothing escaped me :)) The General was training the beast, listening to music and I toddled behind, experimenting with the setting, learning how to rely less on the machine and more on my ambitions. It was - and that's not even mentioning the morning and the lovely lunch - a lovely post floodish day :))

Ze flooooood...

Amazing, how three rivers came THIS close to overflowing and yet stopped - twice - and the city was spared entirely? Amazing, too, how they always build the most populated areas at the lowest parts of the valley. Praise to those who ordered cemeteries and city landfills to be elevated, at least. I followed the General when he went to check on their depot four times. At some point they got so nervous when they couldn't find him (we were at the movies..), they called MY parents... But the rivers never spilled. At some point four out of five ways out of town were under, though just shortly - the downtown passage was pumped dry and one was just very wet, not really dangerous. Not that it wasn't scary or that anyone around here takes the water lightly. A 21-year old girl tried, missing the road and driving off into the main stream, quite literally, and thus became the only casualty so far.. It was a miracle none of the gawkers fell in. The event of the city of Goga :p

         The photos aren't the most dramatic, but then again you'd have to be there to understand why it's better to be afraid and stay at home..

Hah. I can't sleep :D Today was the day we were supposed to go get the body for the camera (the lens already arrived! Though the retard courier left it in the hallway, in the rain...) and the rivers are flooding - or they will be very soon. I like floods :) If you are not so misfortunate as to live in an exposed parts of town, they're quite eventful. (Nobody ever dies, of course, they're not at all violent - just very wet.) I'll grab Porky later on and go see what's happening with the junctions (big river's so fat and fast it blocks the small river from joining it and so the small river tries to turn back, respectively..) But I'll swim to the shop if need be. The backpack looks bulletproof, so... hehe. But next time I'm choosing the color...The rusty red is so lovely, but when you're running through a crowd in a war zone, you may now wish to have a bright red bag on your back. Yes, yes, black is the next invisible, but it's still boring. I'm a girl, not a black ops groupie. 

          The General was called into the distribution center, all hands on deck, as they may need to evacuate all the movable units and equipment: their vicinity is a few feet away from the smaller river.. It was a challenge getting to it as well. I think two out of four access points are already out and that's not even considering the landslides. 

Have to get protective gear for some of the parts. I think I'll buy the dog's anti-winter-salt slippers, while I'm at it. And an umbrella for me :)

Lyra all over the place :D

 

Wait till you've seen the footage :P...

Watched some of The Hire again... The Madonna one, obviously, because it's so funny, but I can't help, ever, to go around the Powder Keg. It's one of the most powerful things ever filmed. Even if my dad was not a war photographer once, when he was young, having to suffer for it, his dreams enslaved by the horror he witnessed, and reported , as he got older and the mind chose to the remember the ugly, but because this is such a well well done story. Perhaps not even the first part so much, even though it's super sad and righteous, but the last half: when the Driver comes back to the 'real world', with that song playing in the back : "The words are saying nothing...", to the mother, *failing* to say to her he was with her son when he... ...And *failing* to say the man won the Pulitzer, because he can see it couldn't mean less to her... And then surrendering the dog tags, in Braille, highlighting the entire absurdity of the whole thing, that this man, who only had a blind mother, was a photographer - and a photographer of things he was only to happy his mother could never see...

         I cry like a goldfish every time. A bowl-worth of tears just for this one minute of footage. It is probably one of the rarest sad things I willingly watch. But I do it so I would never look down on that kind of grit.

Funny how the General handles things, when (something like) bullied. I mean - he handles them the right way. I wouldn't. Example - the folk who stole my design, publishing my work few weeks back, when not even the draft was paid for yet - he called them today, as agreed, for they failed to even remove the add yell alone pay for it, to warn that the deal was they either understand my position or he presses charges. He did it after we went to the mall (he hates malls, so he was adequately not happy) and when the guy got nasty - angry and snappy - unlike me, General went to calm him down. I would freak out and got all hysterical and pissed off. But no. He simply said there is no need for things to get unprofessional, this isn't anyone's real blame, we are not looking to point any fingers, we are simply expecting - considering my work is my livelihood - a fair exchange.. and that he will drop by come Friday. A curious strategy indeed, stepping a step back and giving the bully more room, because the guy then probably felt foolish and stopped being a dick.
          I wonder if I'll actually see any money from the stolen add. I'll make sure he is prepared for anything: the nice civil settlement or two thugs with knives in the shadows. Better safe than sorry, in this scary world of art.

Countdown...

Somewhere out there, there is a tiny box with my name on it. Literally. In it is magic. Purpose and soul. I am so happy about this, it is difficult to breathe. Already I am begining to see with photographer's eyes all anew: every foggy morning needs to be judged by quality of light and standpoint, every afternoon forest path needs the right amount of glittering day flies, every streets needs people of the balanced fashion to highlight the whole picture-that-could-be... I am wild with imagining photo-shoots, a process not many comprehend: how much work needs to be put into something... if you want. If it's fun. Yes, certainly, it can be just the model, the photie and her dog, but I have pictures in my mind that will require a make-up artist, two reflection/light handlers, perhaps a fan guy.... and another assistant. Why? To play with the dog, of course :p