sheesh. i'm tired. just a warning...lots of rambling straight ahead.

It's been, wow, alotta years since I've worked a traditional work day. I have gotten a reminder of what that's like in the past few weeks. It started out with a friend saying that the company her husband works for was looking to hire a photographer to shoot some product. I wasn't really that excited about it because lots of people say stuff like that and nothing ever comes of it. And then the last design job I had ended up with me spending dozens of hours on a design project, not getting paid, and was the end of a 20 year friendship. Which, you know, sometimes it takes dramatic things to see someone's true character. I have had lots of moments like this over the past several years and actually, it is quite liberating to know where you stand with people and to just move on with your life without those kind of people in it sucking the life out of you (you know, kind of like the Death Eaters in Harry Potter...see, I warned you I would be rambling.)

Anyway, I digress. So back to the job. So I ended up talking to this company and it sounded like they were really interested and I thought they were going to hire me and then I realized they were also talking to two other photographers and then I thought, oh well, good thing I didn't get too excited because who knows if they will hire me. And then they asked for some samples and I was busy so I just hurried and took some pretty simple shots and then...I got hired! And then I went to their offices and put boxes and boxes of their product in my car to take home to photograph. And then I made two trips up to Logan to photograph this stuff...books, watches, candy, cookies...lots of gifty stuff. 

And then they said, oh we really like your photos but the owner is concerned that you don't have a stylist. A stylist? The last time I saw a stylist was in 2001 on a shoot in Dallas for Chick-Fil-A where this lady was spending hours rearranging the celery in the coleslaw with tweezers. Did I have a stylist that I would like to work with? Uh, no...I actually don't know any stylists here (or anywhere actually). So they hired a stylist to work with me and then we started shooting at their offices because of the sheer number of products. 

Before the first day I was so so nervous. I had no idea what I was doing. But, I am good at just rolling with it, not so great at planning, but this is where the rolling with it is a good thing because otherwise I would have realized the immensity of the project and would have run away to hide under the blankets in my room. But instead I just dove in head first. The stylist was wonderful and experienced and talented. So then this project that I thought I would be working on for 3 hours a day during the month of April turned into something quiiiite different. So today and tomorrow and the next day and for three days last week and two days the prior week I have been getting up, getting the kids ready, dropping them off at school, hurrying home to get ready, driving to Salt Lake and getting there a little after 10, taking pictures of candy and cookies, and dried fruit and nuts for 8 hours. Driving back to Utah County. Pick the kids up in Springville from Tyler's. Drive back to Provo, get the kids to bed. Spend an hour or so uploading and cropping the pictures of the day. Staring in to space for awhile because I am too tired to actually get up and walk down the hall and go to bed. Getting distracted by something on social media or some photography education video once I get in bed. Going to sleep too late, and once again, cursing myself in the morning when the alarm goes off for going to bed so darn late. Repeat.

So we have 120ish photos done and 240 to go...and the deadline is in 12 days... hmmmm...I do believe in miracles, I do believe in miracles, I do believe in miracles... Especially because now I not only have a stylist working her magic but now she brings her assistant too to help things go faster. So, we'll see. I am learning a lot. And I am really happy with the photos. And I am really, really, really exhausted.

Here are a few of the photos from the shoot...

The end.