furiousBlog

Bullets make it fast!

• I'm still working on cleaning out the room.
• I've decided to paint the room a neutral gray. I did some research about photo studio wall colors and the consensus was that in a smaller space like mine, the darker the better. Black would allow me the most control of the lighting, but it's pretty depressing and would make the room feel even smaller than it is. So, a slightly darker than middle gray it is. This will help to control light bouncing around without affecting its color.
• All of the new equipment that I need has been ordered and most has shipped.
• I've decided to leave the closet for the time being. I'm going to see if I can work around it, since it'd be nice to have somewhere to store all the equipment that is easily accessible. If it turns out that it is in the way too much or whatever, I'll take it out. This also means that I'm postponing any decision on the floor and sticking with the carpet for now. This is ok since I decided to go with cloth backdrops instead of seamless paper (the paper would crumple or tear if walked on with carpet underneath, while the cloth will be fine).
• I've got my first client. A lady at church approached me asking if I did portraits. I can't remember why she said she thought to ask me, as most people don't know that I do photography, and no one really knows that I'm starting the studio. She wants a senior portrait of her son taken. It'll probably happen in March.

Today, I moved out from behind the wheel, switching from driving slugs (move along little sluggies) to being a slug myself. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see my original post about slugging.

To get to my office, I would drive up 95 to Rosslyn, drop off my slugs by the Metro station, and then head west towards Falls Church. A while ago, I started musing about the feasibility of catching a slug ride to Rosslyn and then taking the Metro to my office. I looked into it some and found that it would actually save me a little money in addition to the other, more obvious, benefits like not having to drive and being able to do something else (read, sleep, etc.) during that time.

So, I ordered a SmarTrip card which allows me to board both the subway and busses and not have to worry about transfers or whatever. It came on Friday, so today, instead of getting in line to pick up slugs, I parked and hopped in the back seat of the first car.

As an aside, it was certainly interesting to see the difference in driving technique between my anonymous driving benefactor and myself. My slug-driving philosophy is to draw as little attention to myself as possible. I set the radio to one station (NPR news, no music) and leave it; I don't fiddle with the air much; and I drive relatively conservatively. I mean, I drive fast, but not aggressively. I thought that the nature of slugging would drive most people to do the same, but my driver today obviously thinks differently. He drove pretty fast and even tailgated here and there. He was constantly changing the radio station from (mostly) bad music to lame morning talk shows all while obsessively adjusting the heater. But he got us to Rosslyn in good time, safe and sound, and I had my mp3 player to drown out the radio, so I don't really have any complaints, just observations.

At Rosslyn, my train was waiting for me as I entered the station, so I hopped on and enjoyed a quick (ten minutes or so) drive out to the West Falls Church Metro stop. There, I disembarked and went out to wait for the bus--my only waiting of the commute and it was only about five minutes. It was kind-of a nervous wait, though, since I wasn't 100% sure that I was at the right stop. But, the bus pulled up, I boarded and off we went. Another ten minutes and I was at my office.

Total travel time was just over an hour, so it was right on par with my normal commute. All in all, it's a great way to commute and I'll definitely continue.

Joss Whedon will no longer be writing and directing it:

Satin Tights No Longer

You (hopefully) heard it here first: I'm no longer slated to make Wonder Woman. What? But how? My chest... so tight! Okay, stay calm and I'll explain as best I can. It's pretty complicated, so bear with me. I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated.

That's too bad. I was kind of looking forward to it. So now it'll be just another bad comic book movie. Weak.

Friend, don't delete this, it's not spam! I am the former king of Djibouti, recently deposed and in possession of several million dollars that I need your help to get out my country...

Actually, I'm starting a little portrait photography business based out of my home. Today I took the first 'official' step on the path to inevitable fame and fortune. I say 'official' because, while I've taken several steps including planning and researching, this is the first thing that I've done that involves the outside world.

Today, I visited the charming Old Manassas Courthouse (pictured right) and registered my new business' fictitious name which basically just means that I can start doing things under this name. These 'things' include opening a bank account and applying for a Home Employment Certificate that allows me to operate a business in my home.

I was prepared for the fictitious name registration process to be the standard government bureaucratic hassle, but it was pleasantly quick and painless. Hopefully, the Home Employment Cert will be equally painless.

Our new home has a fourth bedroom on the lower level that will serve as the studio. It's currently serving as my office which is being bumped to the utility room. There are a couple windows that will come in very handy when I want a natural-light portrait. I've got a couple studio lights already, but they're el-cheapo and in various states of disrepair. I'll be investing in some new lights and a couple other pieces of equipment. Since this will be a side business (weekends, mostly), I'm going to minimize the initial costs as much as possible.

In addition to some new photo equipment, there's some work that needs to be done to get the studio ready. First, of course, I need to move my office. Next, I'll be removing the closet for more space. Lastly, I'll be installing new flooring. It currently has some older carpet that is pretty blah, but the main thing is that I want a hard surface under foot. I'm planning to do some nice, light-colored pergo.

We'll also be improving the entryway. We were planning to do this already, so this isn't really a business-specific expense. Our entryway is painted a horrible speckled pattern with 1-inch horizontal copper stripes about a foot apart. It's really quite ugly. We'll be painting that and putting in tile. We haven't decided if we're going to do the tile ourselves or have someone do it.

I'm hoping to have the studio and entryway ready in sometime in March. At that point, the plan is to do a bunch of free portrait sessions of friends' kids and families, etc. This will serve a few purposes: to build up my portrait portfolio; to get comfortable in the studio space, seeing what works and doesn't, where the problems are, etc.; and possibly to generate a little word-of-mouth.

After that comes??? How do I get clients? How much do I charge them? What services do I offer? How do I handle prints? and so on and so on. It should be fun, a lot of work, but fun (and somewhat terrifying).