The Zimmerman verdict

The trial is over but the issues remain unresolved.   I’m mostly a conservative in my thinking.  I believe people have the right to bare arms and defend their lives and property.  But my feeling about this is that it was an accident waiting to happen.  Zimmerman essentially put himself on guard duty in his neighborhood.  Trayvon’s only mistake was walking past this junk yard dog and getting himself shot.

The really hard part about this issue is the racial elements.  It’s difficult far many people to look at white on black killings and not see burning crosses and bed sheets.   But, I really think that the racial issue can also cloud our vision and make us miss what really happened.  Was this really a racial crime?  I’d wish we were past that but I also can’t kid myself.  I can’t know if Travon had been white if Zimmerman would have ignored him.  I’m pretty sure that when Zimmerman looked at this kid he didn’t care if he was black or white.  He saw this as his chance to be the hero.  I think Zimmerman has fantasies of being a hero.

I can almost see in my mind how things unfolded.  Zimmerman swaggered up to the kid with his hand on his hip.  Like he was Blart the mall cop leading with his holster.  He had no real authority, but he thought his gun gave him all the authority he needed.

Recently, Zimmerman helped a family after an accident.  This proves my point of him wanting to be the hero.  Unfortunately, now he’s looking for redemption.  This guy wants his gun back.  I wouldn’t give him a slingshot.  I think a man with a hero complex who is looking for redemption is dangerous because I think he may get someone else killed in his attempt to redeem his reputation.   This kind of guy will run into a burning building and try to rescue someone only to have the building fall on top of him when he should have waited until the fire department got there.  He’s like a cowboy on a mission to prove something to everyone.

I see this through the eyes of being a former soldier.  A hero complex can get people killed and in my mind that’s EXACTLY what happened here.

Bad attitude = bad customer service = bad for business

So, I was recently talking to a friend about a recent purchase she made.  She was excited about what she had bought, but was pretty upset about the service she received.  It seems the person she bought from has a real arrogant attitude about him and is EXTREMELY condescending.  Well, I know this particular sales person and I know this particular store pretty well.  I’ve bought merchandise from them in the past.

To be honest, I recognized what she was saying about the sales person because I have seen him do the same thing myself.  In all honesty I took it to be him just “breaking my balls.”  I’m a guy and after being in the military, being a fire fighter for 4 years and having 2 other brothers, I know when someone is busting my chops.  For the most part it never bothered me.

Until now.

See what he failed to do was read his audience and learn to curb his sarcastic nature when it was necessary.  His comments to her were mean and insulting.  To be honest, I was horrified that he would talk to her that way.  You need to understand that for me to even use the word horrified means it was really horrific.  I tend to understate things and I hate drama.  But during his conversation he insulted her professionalism and her knowledge.  She tried to ask questions and instead of being helpful, he insulted her by commenting,”I thought you are a professional.”  He acted like she should know the answer to her own question.  To add insult to injury, she had just spent over $400.00 in this shop.  The object she was asking about would have cost another $300-$400 which she was actually willing to buy on the spot – even after he had been insulting her since she walked in the door.

It was a lost sale & a lost customer.

Finally, don’t ask me what store.  I won’t even mention the type of business.  Nor will I mention the names involved.  I’m not the kind of person who will try to hurt them with mentioning their names.  I’ll just take my dollars somewhere else.

There’s another lost customer.

I was slapped around today and I deserved it

I was slapped around today and I deserved it

I headed out to my first job this morning and I received a facebook message from a contact.  She was upset with me for not responding to her previous messages.  She called me an ungentleman for ignoring her and told me she was leaving the group.  WHAP!  I took that to mean the fashion 315 group.

My first reaction was to respond with one my typical arrogant sarcastic responses and say something really smart ass and inflammatory. ” I didn’t realize this was a timed test.  I usually do better on tests – Sorry, Epic Fail.”

After thinking for a while I did respond with a comment of “I didn’t realize this was a timed exercise”, but I wished her well and told her good luck – No sarcasm intended – I was being honest in wishing her well.

Then as I always tend to do when I receive criticism, I took a look in the mirror and I realized that she was right.  I DO SUCK at follow through/followup.  Here I am trying to start/run a business and someone sends me a message and I don’t even have the courtesy to respond.  Well, I’m not a person who accepts excuses in other people and I try to hold myself to a higher standard, so I had to realize that the answer is “Yeah, I screwed up.”  The truth is, I suck at following up with people, and there’s really no reason for it.

So, tonight, I’m going to get off my fat ass, and make sure I update everyone that I’ve missed over the last several days.

Oh, I removed the model from my friends list.  I can’t work with her.  I won’t out her by mentioning her name and I won’t ever tell who she is because I don’t work that way.  See, I like people to give me head shots and tell me to get off my ass, but when we go from 0-witchy in 30 seconds I only see drama queen.  Male or female.

Why Pinterest isn’t the best option for organizing anymore.

Okay so I’ve previously talked about using Pinterest to organize your inspirational photos from the internet.  I still think that’s a good way to start, but my biggest gripe about you is that it’s not slideshow friendly.  What I mean is that the I want to use the photos in a slideshow, however Pinterest doesn’t have anything build in for that.  That totally screws up my organizational plans and doesn’t allow me to quickly view photos during an actual shoot.

My solution to this is to use Microsoft one note which comes with Microsoft Office 2010.  I really like the notebook approach.  Think of a scrapbook and One Note is perfect for this.  A cool feature is that you can actually drag and drop photos into the application.  Another words, drag a photo from a web page you like right into the application.

The other part is the ipad app for one note allows you to sync between the ipad and PC so your images are right there.   You can add your photos to a table and then add notes about what you like or don’t like.

Today I’m organizing photos that I’m actually had on my computer and I’m putting them into one note so that they are in better categories as well.  I’ve been wadding through all the photos that I have collected over the last few years and I’ve been picking and choosing the best to keep and organize.  I’ve got all kinds of different categories including dance, lingerie, glamour, and bit of boudoir.

Of the photos I’m keeping, I LOVE the beauty and elegance of the images.  I’m not into raunchy stuff.  When I work with a model, I want her to leave my studio feeling beautiful and powerful!

Here’s a screenshot of my notepad.  The categories are along the top.  The subcategories are on the right

 

Models wanted to shoot this weekend

Looks like it’s going to rain again so if you want to come out to the studio and shoot a glamour shoot, let me know. It will be with 2 photographers, myself and Lexy Page. No hair or makeup will be provided.

Escorts are always welcome.
no Children or pets please.

PM me for details

Some videos for inspiration

This is for close up shooting – beauty.  Great talk about the eyes.

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I was looking at this video.  It made me think of a deer in the headlights.  Her expressions were quite scared.  Until she disengaged from the camera.  Also, every shot she had her mouth open.

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I Love how this talks about making a model an actress.  In every photo shoot, I try to tell the model to play a role.

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