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ridiculously excited
May. 22nd, 2010 03:05 pmI am ridiculously excited to take pictures tonight. I have already taken hundreds of photos of roller derby, but this time I have a different rig. Work let me borrow one of the new-ish Nikon DSLR bodies-- the D5000, which has been out around a year. I wanted to borrow the D-90, of course, which is the top of the consumer line (the fanciest one that still has the scene mode dial, instead of requiring you to use it in manual settings all the time). But we didn't have any in stock. So I got this one instead, which has the same sensor, just a smaller body and a few other features that make it about $200 cheaper. The main thing I wanted to try is that my old Canon has a) very poor low-light settings, meaning I can't shoot it in high ISO mode without getting crappola for results, and b) a slow card reader / frames per second, meaning it's locked up writing to the card half the time when I want to take another picture. (I shot a scrimmage with it in continuous mode, i.e. press the button and hold down and it takes up to about six or seven pictures-- and I'd do so, and it would then have to sit and think for about thirty seconds, which is a damn long time during a sporting event that occurs in two-minute maximum increments. So I shot the last game with it in single-shot, which was fine except that I'd take a picture, and then have to wait seven or eight seconds to take the next one. Next time you're in a car accident try counting seven seconds. Just saying, it's a damn long time.)
So we'll see how this goes. I also borrowed a fantastic lens and a somewhat expensive off-camera flash. I couldn't believe they let me use that much equipment at once. So I made a padded neck strap cover for the borrowed, slightly manky neckstrap they gave me along with it. The neck strap says the store name on it, which I embroidered on there because I realized that stenciling it would take longer including the work of cutting the stencil. I'd have to find my fabric paint, I'd have to look around for the stencil stuff, I'd need to get a fresh Xacto blade... and the embroidery floss was right here, and the needle right there, and the scissors right there, and I could just do this now and make it happen... So I did. I counted how many letters there were in the name, drew it tentatively on paper, drew it straight onto the fabric with a water-soluble market, and just sat and did it. About two hours' worth of stitching, all told, while Z was napping and I'd've been bored and disillusioned anyway.
Then I had to assemble it. Which didn't go fantastically well. I'd embroidered too close to the edge, and the fabric, "upcycled" from an already-dismantled old pair of work-issued uniform pants two jobs ago, was fray-ey. (It's lined with bamboo-cotton muslin, and padded on the neck side with some bamboo batting-- we'll see, as it's muggy today, whether that stuff really is good in moisture.) And the loaner Singer was a piece of shit and preferred leaving big tangles of fabric to actually sewing, you know, seams.
I was in the midst of struggling with this, having set it aside last night knowing I'd need to seam-rip the whole thing, when I got a call from Singer that my machine was back. I said I didn't think I'd have time to pick it up, but then I put the phone down and looked at the seam ripper in my hand and looked over at Z and said, "Can we spare an hour?"
So we did. I went and got my machine and it took me all of three minutes' sewing with it to finish assembling the strap. It's beautiful.
I think I'm going to suggest to my boss that I start writing blog entries for the store blog, because I've got some fantastic material by now. But I'm only doing it if I get paid, I'm not doing it on my own!
Anyway. Got my fishnets on, am wearing a shirt entirely covered in sequins, have done all my makeup etc. already so I don't have to fight over the bathroom with Z's prolonged moustache-waxing routine, and have packed up a camera bag I scavenged from work (having intended to dismantle it for parts). I'm bringing the old Rebel too; it's only got a shitty lens and I can't find my good memory card, so I can only take 70 pictures with it, but it's a good backup. If the other photographer there, who shoots Canon, has a spare awesome lens, as he'd mentioned he might, I will shoot a few pics with it; otherwise, it's just a backup. I don't have a spare battery for the D-5000, but I think it'll be OK. Well... we'll see. I'm excited anyway.
So we'll see how this goes. I also borrowed a fantastic lens and a somewhat expensive off-camera flash. I couldn't believe they let me use that much equipment at once. So I made a padded neck strap cover for the borrowed, slightly manky neckstrap they gave me along with it. The neck strap says the store name on it, which I embroidered on there because I realized that stenciling it would take longer including the work of cutting the stencil. I'd have to find my fabric paint, I'd have to look around for the stencil stuff, I'd need to get a fresh Xacto blade... and the embroidery floss was right here, and the needle right there, and the scissors right there, and I could just do this now and make it happen... So I did. I counted how many letters there were in the name, drew it tentatively on paper, drew it straight onto the fabric with a water-soluble market, and just sat and did it. About two hours' worth of stitching, all told, while Z was napping and I'd've been bored and disillusioned anyway.
Then I had to assemble it. Which didn't go fantastically well. I'd embroidered too close to the edge, and the fabric, "upcycled" from an already-dismantled old pair of work-issued uniform pants two jobs ago, was fray-ey. (It's lined with bamboo-cotton muslin, and padded on the neck side with some bamboo batting-- we'll see, as it's muggy today, whether that stuff really is good in moisture.) And the loaner Singer was a piece of shit and preferred leaving big tangles of fabric to actually sewing, you know, seams.
I was in the midst of struggling with this, having set it aside last night knowing I'd need to seam-rip the whole thing, when I got a call from Singer that my machine was back. I said I didn't think I'd have time to pick it up, but then I put the phone down and looked at the seam ripper in my hand and looked over at Z and said, "Can we spare an hour?"
So we did. I went and got my machine and it took me all of three minutes' sewing with it to finish assembling the strap. It's beautiful.
I think I'm going to suggest to my boss that I start writing blog entries for the store blog, because I've got some fantastic material by now. But I'm only doing it if I get paid, I'm not doing it on my own!
Anyway. Got my fishnets on, am wearing a shirt entirely covered in sequins, have done all my makeup etc. already so I don't have to fight over the bathroom with Z's prolonged moustache-waxing routine, and have packed up a camera bag I scavenged from work (having intended to dismantle it for parts). I'm bringing the old Rebel too; it's only got a shitty lens and I can't find my good memory card, so I can only take 70 pictures with it, but it's a good backup. If the other photographer there, who shoots Canon, has a spare awesome lens, as he'd mentioned he might, I will shoot a few pics with it; otherwise, it's just a backup. I don't have a spare battery for the D-5000, but I think it'll be OK. Well... we'll see. I'm excited anyway.
