Teja B.

Some more pickies from the B & J wedding :)

All Saints

Lovely trip to Prekmurje today :D Foggy first, then the sun came out and the day, although full of talk of the dead, proved to be also full of family and pretty pretty scenery :D

Cool stoream :) (Story dream. Those I'm really good at. You'd believe me, if you could see one. :))

I dreamt about being in the storyline of General's Daughter tonight. Not perhaps as southern flavored, but the whole female raped in the male environment thing was straight from that book. There were also elements from movies such as The Whistleblower, Captain America and Terra Nova. And a lot from real memories of my army period.

      The story was basically about a vast field training campaign where there were LOTS of people and lots of stuff going on – almost everything in range had something to do with the army. Many people there, though, were volunteers and reservists, so they weren’t a) really taking things seriously or b) they weren’t being taken too seriously. In my unit, because I am not so physically fit, we were just a bunch of women, nothing militant about us. In fact I was being laughed at because I was the only one doing the proper marching turns. Even the commander (The Taylor guy from Terra Nova) mocked me, so of course, like I did thorough my entire service, I would fight and challenge his authority. At some point, though, I saw officers dealing with gender issues (The Whistleblower) and I approached them, insisting on their attention until they made me one of their department. I was sent to deal with a case of a young woman being attacked amidst us – the lesser military ranked candidates. She wasn’t raped as such, but several men attacked her and when she fought back, they beat her up really badly. After some research, I managed to identify the jerks and made a whole show of arresting them. However. The only punishment they got (because they were proper special forces and we were basically just secretaries and extras on press conferences material), were very harsh warnings. All in all the poor girl got no justice at all.

      Upset, I emptied a bottle of something I must have seen in the pilot of Person of Interest, and would stop in the late night town street, throwing stones at that propaganda life-size mirror poster from Captain America – where there’s the front soldier with a mirror instead of a face. I broke several shop or movie-theater windows and the cops started to come down the avenue. A car pulled over, a convertible, with the drill sergeant (Taylor) behind the wheel. He yelled at me to get my ass into the car and we drove off just in time. He also tried to pull my bottle away and got nasty language and a couple of bitch-slapping attempts, albeit very drunk, in return. Don’t touch me! I would yell at him, stubborn and slightly dumb with liquor (or so he thought). Do you like being touched?! Or maybe do you love being groped, oh my god, are those some big guns stretching your T-shirts, you MUST work out!... I mocked him, also hitting him some more and then climbing into his lap to nearly strangle him and he had to pull over so we didn’t crush. It probably wasn’t his intention to include anything sexual in the already very bad day, but he could understand why I was feeling very poorly and could tolerate me a bit further before he had me court-martialed for picking on a superior arsehole.

      Not rightly sure how we got to the fucking bit, but there was some of that, too, in his bed, rather nastily, until I woke up, realized what has happened and skadaddled out, chanting Oh Fuck Oh Fuck Oh Fuck…

      That same morning, the entire compound was administered a routine drug test and everyone had to stop whatever they were doing, take a cup and go into the nearest tiny screen shelter and pee. The sergeant was slightly worried about my results – but not as worries as when he got the tox-screens back and saw that my blood was thoroughly clean of any alcohol. His, on the other hand, has certain traces of THC. It didn’t take him very long to comprehend he’s been royally screwed. On the positive side, I chose to involve him because I could see he felt bad for that girl getting a rotten end of a deal, but on the bad side, he was now in a position he wasn’t used to being in. Knowing that I myself would never be taken seriously, I stood no chance alone and frankly, at that point, I didn’t care about some stuck-up old military jerk. But I think together we found the way to turn the tables and got the assailants into a civilian law frame, ultimately achieving graver punishments – graver at least than a slap on the wrist. No idea how it all ended, though, as I woke up. An hour early, as it turns out: today the clocks switched backwards. Some earlier than others :)))

I shot my first professional model today. Oddly enough, as it turns ut, I asked her once, a while back, if I could shoot her sometimes, but we somehow never got beyond the first line. Today she was the one who was after my services and her boss, the proprietress of the model agency, was the one who asked of me to deliver the beauty shots. We worked at the magical Acman building, using some of daylight and some of Matt Drury's false light gear. Matt has tought me how to do this odd looking kind of photos, using a speelite blitzer. Although I am probably getting in a world of trouble with the IRS (don't ask), I will probably go shoot another one with her Sunday night. 

As tests go, I should think I passed this one with Kodak colors, though of course only time will tell..

On the curiosity of evil...

I was just thinking... (Yes, it's early and I haven't had my coffee yet.) Also an important shoot today and I feel like I should probably be stressing more...

         Anyway. I was thinking about evil. It's funny how all religions have their Devils and Lokis and Iblises and Baals, but it doesn't really matter how powerful they are supposed to be, how destructive and disarming, any one of them could be taken back to school by some of our HUMANS.

         People's memory is so very short. We think we are aware, but in truth we forget how it was before peace came into fashion. We remember Hitler and his posse, as the worst that could possible be... But before Hitler there was Napoleon, before Napoleon there were many. So called great leaders, great war lords. Atilla, Caesar, Torquemada, Richard the Lionheart, not to mention Henry the VIII. And the contemporary greatest hits, such as Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin (okay, pretty much every ruler of Congo), Ayatollah Khomeini....

         The works of devils seem ridiculously naive by comparisson to the scourge of some of these people. I can imagine Satan getting the morning newspaper and reading an expose on something like the Nanking Massacre, exclaiming: "Seriously, what the fuck?!"

Tamara by the river (tuesday photoshoot)

The pretty pretty accessories are courtesy of the Rosa store.

Tv shows and otherwise updates...

Ah, yes, as my live merrily rumbles on, the weather has gotten bitch cold and gray gray winter is upon us. I can tell, because I've been delving a lot more heartily into literature than I have into photography. Probably a fault, as for once my photography is the breadbringer of the week. But then again things change so quickly around here, I may probably wake up two more times and find myself running for election. 

Gloomy Saturday was the day Barky got her hunting licence and the bleak and drizzly Sunday was when we had our first hunt. It was a perfect hunt. (Perfect especially in a sense that 23 hunters and 12 dogs caught absolutely zero game. My deal with Old Lord Herne remains solid.) But oh how I love the communal hunting. I wasn't entirelly dressed for it, catching a bit of a cold, only a bit, but the way it was, all the things we saw and how well the trek did me, was very worth the wait for the mut to be ready. Barky performed flawlessly - she searched, sniffed, stayed close, didn't fight, ran around and pursued various random wood things until she learned how to differ between what's to waste strength upon and what not. LoL, only creeks still pose a problem, for both of us. None of us really wants to get our tooshies wet. 

The Monday was a funeral day - General's grandma passed on, so we stayed with the urn for the better part of the day, then I stayed in the car while there was a religious service and then we had to go eat and talk nice about the old lady. It was good to hear the stories, it's what makes me think that now she's in the Catholic heaven with the people she loved, dressing up as she liked and being young and vital as she was in her wit before old age put thick blankets over her, as it does us all. It lasted for almost ten hours and as we got home at seven, I just sent some photos of the Spa commission and crawled into bed.

Early in the morning of course I already had the answer on the photos waiting, being told that clearly I've stopped bothering with them and asked if this is the product I wish to see myself be known for. Honestly, I did not bother to reply, I simply mentioned I bothered with then plenty, as they can see all the background has been edited and the like, and are there now any other excuses on the their part left not to pay me still? I will always find it funny how you show something you can do to the client, and they like it, but when you say this is what you get it you pay me my fee, but after they pay me just a tiny fee and I deliver the basic outcome, they get so mortally insulted. That's not what we asked for! No. This is what you paid for. Decent, dull product. You want all my skill, you don't treat me like some half-blind village snapshot reporter. I was willing to go all the way until they began insulting me. After that, sorry, I owe you no kindness, only a professional measure of what has been agreed upon.

But. Not all is gloomy and bleak on this fine Tuesday - I also woke up to find several new stuff to download and that always makes my coffee taste so much better. Recently I've been watching Homeland and Boss as serious stuff, Person of Interest and Mentalist as fun procedurals, Hart of Dixie just because I like it so much, even if  nobody else does, Castle, House and Dexter as ongoing classics and - lo and behod - a very pleasant surprise in the form of Once Upon a Time pilot...

For a little while I was afraid this will be another attempt at Game of Thrones for viewers with weaker stomachs, done by the people who hoped nobody remembers the Tenth Kingdom, HOWEVER... And I don't particularly enjoy watching any female lead from House in movies (Olivia Wilde in Cowboys and Aliens is just painful to watch.), but Mrs. Morrison is kind of very cool here. She does look a little bit older than 28, but only a little. Given she's had a hard, cold life as story goes. And she's very cool as a tough, way-too-both-feet-on-the-ground would-be savior of all magic kingdoms. Not as strong as the kid (what is it about nerdy kids that is just so awesome to watch on TV?) or the evil Queen/Major, or the funny shape of Snow White's ears, who is simply beyond adorable, as a teacher AND as a girl that brings flowers to comatose strangers in the hospital... Plus any show with Robert Carlyle is worth giving at least two chances.

Like I said, and say again, I am really looking forward to more of these characters. Nobody is denying that Boss is not an awesome piece of television, but for some reasons, oh, I dunno, it's really fucking depressing to watch and it does nothing for my sense of needing a hug. Once Upon A Time, however, makes me want to pick up my old dust-cowered sword, have sex with the sheriff and maybe the evil queen, too, and rescue some dragon or something.... 

I know. I usually miss the whole point of fairy tales. I know. I grew up with all the odd priorities :)) :P

Illyria Starbark, the graduated Beagle buhtl 8)

So proud :D Starbarky for a change got so confused during the PNZ hunting exam today, that she did everything PERFECTLY!!! (PNZ is sort of TNB = Test of naturally given basics - to see if she has her breed's instincts or not.) She didn't even blink when they were firing guns around her, she went into the woods (although she kind of needed encouragement from another lady Beagle to go very far the first minute), she barked with all her might when she found and chased the trail and then, after 20 minutes she came sprinting after the hunting party, straight to the General, to get her reaward :D  She is now proudly sitting on her throne and tomorrow we are going to go hunting for real :D Finally she'll be able to meet other cool doggies and chase with them around the forests like she was born to do! :D Can't tell you how excited she is :D Almost as much as me! The General, on the other hand, is super tired. Haha, he will never admit how nervous he was :)))) Why don't people ever believe me when I say we have the perfect mut?? :D

B & J wedding 1/2

But on the other hand, life is kind of magnificent and you can do what you like AND be happy about the results. So it comes back full circle and you feel good about yourself again :D

These are from the B & J wedding from the other weekend, the first half that I've gotten through. Weddings are pretty much the only places where you can get to shoot people that want to be shot, dressed nicely, happy and smiling and posing for you - that are not paid to be there. Weddings rule :D