Full Plate :)

So school is over for the time being. I have one more semester, but I have about a month off to relax, recharge, and get on top of things I've been wanting to do.

Things I need to do:

• learn more photography
• do Client Previews for Phillip Ritchie
• do SAG photography's website
• do Joylyn's website
• create some silver solder rings to sell 
• create some metal silhouette figures to sell on etsy.com
• finish some paintings to sell
• finish Danny's mom, Danny's grandma's christmas present.
• finish 2 presents for my two best friends.
• figure out what to get Danny for Christmas
• make Christmas Cards to send out (which will probably never get done).
• Update my modeling website.
• Get my Graphic Design website updated (and hopefully get a new URL and somehow pay for it).
• find a part-time job
• CLEAN MY ROOM!
• Clean out my closet to make some Holiday donations.

Lots of things to do!

However, these are all things I look forward to doing. So hopefully I can just lose myself and let time pass without me knowing it :)

Oh! And here is one of the photo I took of Danny (read my previous post). It was the last photo taken that day. I had to keep the nice ass in the photo. Tee hee hee. 

I'm Back!

*sigh* It's been a long time, hasn't it?!
Well, if you haven't heard the news, I did not get accepted into the Graphic Design program at CSULB. They didn't explain why (because they never do, otherwise they'll have 40 students to explain to every semester). But, I'm guessing it had something to do with me not going above and beyond like all the other students (ie. Industrial Design, photography, electronics, etc.).

So to start off my come-back to the world of Mayhem, I hung out with Phillip Ritchie on Saturday, December 4th. I'm currently on the quest to better myself at different trades, so I wanted to learn Product Photography. Phillip lent me his old Canon camera and taught me how to LOOK for a photograph. So, with Phillip's help and my boyfriend, I able to capture a few images (pictures to come later when my laptop would re-charge). Basically, Phillip just turned on a light and sat Danny down on a chair, and I had to figure out how to create different lightings and find a composition. IT WAS HARD! And that's only a tiny step towards photography. SO I still have a long ways to go!

Afterwards, I went to Daniel aka Team Strider's meet and greet. The food wasn't that great, and they didn't have hard alcohol to wash it down with, but it was great seeing everyone again after hibernating for so long!
I definitely missed out on a lot since I was gone.
However, I can happily say I do not miss some of the drama.

Also, a certain model is just as rude to me as I remembered - still don't know why - but at this point, I don't care to find out. I'm too grown up for that crap and too good for her attitude. Seriously, rudeness and disrespect are two things that pisses me off.

Anyways, that's just an update on me.
I will be done with school in 9 days. So excited. I can start shooting again. Well, I'm also hoping to get a part-time job too. I need me some money!

Oh yeah! While I was gone, I was able to get two tearsheets!
Thanks to Gilbert Castillo (photographer) and Maly Siharath Inc (wardrobe stylist), I'm in two full pages of Koncept Magazine.
Let's hope I'm still wanted and can get some nice pictures :P

XoXo
Kelly

So Much Work!

I really haven't been doing many photoshoots this year as I had last year.
This year's photographers basically consisted of Orlando Perez, Michael Magers, Phillip Ritchie and Gilbert Castillo, and Zion Studios (and some from meet and greets). Being as it is October already, that's not that much.

I feel like I'm slacking off on the networking... but at the same time I'm so over-whelmed with my work load.

This next 6 weeks is going to be amazingly difficult for me.
I will be going through portfolio review to get into the BFA Graphic Design program at CSULB.

Here's what it is:
After taking all my Pre-Graphic Design classes, I have to submit a 10 to 12 project portfolio. This will then determine if I get into a special Bachelors of Fine Arts program for Graphic Design.

All the pieces have to be fully expanded. Such as if I'm designing a logo for a hotel, I would also should design their toiletry set, gift bag, gift box, and possibly their restaurant menu - all of this counts as one project. So imagine doing 10 of theses!

Also, about 20 to 24 students are accepted into the program each semester while there are 50-60 students who apply. So it is extremely competitive!

I have 4 projects ready and I need at least 6 more to do within the next 6 weeeks! AHHHHHH!!!! And this is on top of all of my homework assignments. It also does not help when I get stuck and cannot find a solution to a problem.

But yeah, this is basically to update you guys on what's going on and why you might not here from me every once in awhile. :)

No Free Logos

Ah, another month equals another rant.

So I made a new friend on facebook this week. He was a new photographer and wanted me to create him a logo. So we e-mailed each other back and forth this morning with ideas, etc.
So after about 6 e-mails in 4 hours, I gave him an estimate how many hours (5) it would take me to do it, with $20 an hour, a number of how many drafts he'll be able to see before deciding on which one to finalize, etc. So I basically gave him a quote.

He writes back:
"I wish you would have been more clear on how much you were going to charge. Since you never gave me a price in your first reply I thought you were going to do this for free. This is very unprofessional of you. Thanks but no thanks i'll take my business else where."

WHAT THE HECK?!

Apparently someone doesn't understand that not every project is the same therefore they do not cost the same. How can I have given him a quote when I didn't know what he wanted? He had a simple idea, so I could have done it fairly quickly with two or three different ways of executing the idea.
If I had given him a quote ahead of time, without knowing what he wants, I could've been charging him 25 hours for something that was only going to take 5. So I'm just doing something honest here.

It's totally different when I give them a quote and they say no thank you, they can't afford it. That's perfectly okay because it happens a lot. but to assume that it's automatically free? That's just stupid.

Needless to say, I deleted him from my friends list and blocked him from my facebook account. What a waste of my time.

He's lucky he didn't have a running website or model mayhem listed or else I would've been trashing talking him right now. UGH.

I have done many logos before. A few were paid with cash. Some are TF for photoshoots. But I don't do them for free. Such as the Style Pose Click graphics I created. That took me about 20 hours to do everything. I did it for because the host had shot me TF 6 months before the event, and I wanted to return the favor.

I'm negotiable. Such as trading a photoshoot or two for a logo.
Or even trading with MUA's. Such as they'll do my makeup for however-many shoots.
Or half trade and half cash.
If it's something I can use, I will consider trading.
But free? Not in this lifetime.
and free for someone I don't know? Not a cold day in hell, buddy.

Michael Magers

So as some of you know, I've caught a nasty flu that lasted over two weeks. Well I'm all better now, so I actually have the brain capacity to write!


So, on September 10th, I did a shoot with another dear friend of mine, Michael Magers.

I haven't shot with him for a really long time, so we figured it was about time to do something. Didn't really have a concept, so Mike just said "Let's do a glamour set" and that's what we did.

I had the hardest time finding a makeup artist, because we originally had someone, and then they cancelled. So I was stuck finding one last minute. No luck, so i did my own.

I don't own a lot of lingerie. It's just not my thing. I'm also not a Glamour model, so I never saw a point in stocking up on lingerie. So I showed up with black panties and a bra in my bag. I also had a lil red dress from a shoot that was suppose to happen a long time ago and the photographer flaked on me.








It was a really fun and quick shoot, with the leg of the couch breaking off every few minutes because of my fat ass. Haha. Mike finally fixed it.

So these were the photos we got from the shoot.

Here we have a very rare photo.

Kelly Vy is actually smiling! I don't smile in photos because it's just too "cute" for my taste. Plus, my face gets all chubby with my cheeks and my eyes are not actually symmetrical (I have stitches from when I was little and ran into a sharp coffee table corner).

We thought this pic was great because most glamour photos don't have smiles :).

Munch's Madonna

I absolutely love it when I can tie what I learn in class with modeling :)

I recently learned about Edvard Munch (pronounced "monk") in my Modern Art history class. Most of you would know of Munch not by his name, but by the art work here on the left, called the "Scream."

In Munch's later career, he's become very obsessive-compulsive. So he would re-paint different versions of the same painting over and over again. So, there are many of these paintings and lithographs all over the world.



The reason I brought Munch up, is because of this painting, which he named "Madonna."

I am inspired to do a Photographic version of this one day. Well, a non-nude version of this.

There is a saying in Munch's time that the Femme Fatal is always linked to Death - and I think this is what Munch was trying to represent here.

Looking at the painting, you can see that the figure is nude, eyes half closed, and her facial expression kind of says "bliss" or "pleasure."

Around her are rapid, wavy lines. I think it represents movement of her body.

The Femme Fatal is also considered a sex symbol - even today. All the bad-ass chicks you see in movies are usually death-dealers (Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba for example). So, Munch created a red border with sperm loving around. Presenting a woman's ovaries.

However, there is a skeleton of a fetus in the bottom left hand corner. Is it a dead fetus? Or a live fetus? It shows that the Femme Fatal can be a death dealer, but also be a bringer of life - whatever she chooses to be.



I think this would be an awesome photoshoot to do someday. Not exactly sure how I would be able to pull it off without being nude. It would require a lot of shadows. Munch's Madonna also has really pale skin, which made a wonderful contrast to the dark background, but I am a pretty dark brown myself.

Anyways, although I'd love to use this concept myself, I would love to see everyone else's photographic version of it if you ever attempt it.

Desert with Gilbert and Maly

So about  two weeks ago, I did a shoot with a dear friend of mine, Gilbert Castillo. He is the first professional photographer I ever shot with when I first joined Model Mayhem.

This shoot was planned by Maly Siharath. Maly is extremely talented. She's involved with so many projects and all different industries.

Anyways, the purpose of this shoot was to show off Maly's wonderful Wardrobe Styling skills.

Maly and Gilbert thought it was a good idea to go out to the desert and shoot there, so we did.

I seem to shoot in the desert a lot. Most of my best work seem to occur here.

Well, the shoot started off with some fun. The wind in the desert was so high, that my hair and Maly's hair was blowing everywhere! It really sucked because we just got it styled by Esmee. By the time the shoot was over, our hair was no more.


Maly was full of fun that day. With her margarita drink, her pink see-through dress (which she didn't know about), a dress she ripped (it was so difficult to put on!) and half her toe-nail falling out. It was a blast!






I got a little sick on the way back. Most likely from the heat. Then we had yummy In N Out Burgers and I felt a little better :)


There was one more look we wanted to do in Fullerton, but our hair was so messed up that we had to plan for another time.

OMG! I'm Asian! WTF?!

Just got home a little while ago from shooting with Phillip Ritchie. As always, it was packed with fun and interesting concepts. What more can you expect from the man?

Phillip wanted to shoot me on the couch. Phillip wanted to make me look Asian. That's what we did.

Originally, it was suppose to be more of a Beauty concept, focusing on my racial background, but then we both ran through some troubles of really rude, and offensive makeup artists (we each got someone different).

As a result, we proved that we didn't need them.

Yes, it's nice to have a professional makeup artist, but it's not always necessary when working with Phillip.

I did my own makeup with some contouring help from Phillip and this is what we created.

I have never done a shoot where I was dressed in Asian clothes and I'm really happy that this was my first.

They are both very sexy, classy and elegant which is what I love.

At the same time, it's also kind of cute. Although Phillip keeps saying he does not do "cute," I

think he had been corrupted by a fluffy white bunny.

I never really show my parents my modeling photos. Sometimes it's just too sexy for them to look at (which they will nag nag nag at me about for days) and sometimes they just nodd and not say anything.

Well, I showed my mother these photos and she LOVED them. I guess she just appreciates the Asian influence on it. Of course, she has to always say something negative like "That's not a Vietnamese dress. That's a Chinese dress. You're not Chinese." But hey, if that's the ONLY bad thing she has to say about it, we're good to go.

Ninja Soccer

Sunday, August 8th, was my second shoot with Phillip Ritchie. It was also the second time I had Brittney Long to be the makeup artist. We also had male model, Matteo, in the shoot. My boyfriend, Daniel, was also there to help out.

Boy, was it a fun and energetic shoot. Actually, "fun" is an understatement.

I know most people don't like having too many people on set. However, I like it. So many people can come up with different solutions

on how to do something. I'm not talking about telling each other what to do such as telling a model how to pose or act or how to set up lighting. I'm talking about real problems, such as when I wasn't getting far enough off the ground or when I was having a hard time holding my

balance, and we all put our heads together to try to solve it and then we all took on different "jobs" to assist each other throughout the shoot.

So the day started at 10 AM and the first thing Phillip says to us, is how cool Daniel's corvette is. *sigh*... men... and then I got a hug AFTER that. hahah. So then we went inside and Phillip talked to us about the concept and how he wanted me to look. Then Brittney and I went off to go do makeup.

I love working with Brittney. Michael Magers had recommended her to be two months ago, and I just loved how she made me look, so of course I had to hire her to work with me again on this shoot.

Then we shot a little, and I had to BEG Phillip to cut my dress, so then he finally did and made me a cool like headband out of it. Tee hee. Then we finished up shooting.

It was so fun! Daniel was on the ladder, working on the pole with the ball. Matteo was diving around and Phillip had to keep telling him to close his legs and be more lady-like. As usual, no one knew what Phillip was trying to tell us to do. I broke a box with my super-high heels at one point and we had to replace the piece of wood.

No one really knew how Phillip saw the photos in his head. Somehow, even in all that clutter, Phillip was able to get things together and got the images he wanted. After looking at them, we finally knew what the guy was talking about.

Phillip said I looked like a Ninja, since all Ninjas play soccer in high heels.

The heels are to die for! and here I am playing soccer in them... oh... the things i do for phillip..

.

Here's a photo of Matteo, dashing across Phillip's gigantic studio, trying to hit the ball, but Daniel was on the ladder, pulling it away from Matteo every time.

Matteo pissed me off, so I gave him the evil eye.

Who's gonna get to the ball first? You bet your ass it was me!

To read what Phillip Ritchie has to say, please visit his blog.

Space Invaders

So here another look I did for Kevin Connery's box series.

This look wasn't really planned, but when I arrived, Kevin had this awesome knee-high boots and I just cannot turn down high boots. These were a size 7, so they're actually more of a thigh-high on me. Hahah.

So Kevin dug up some silver outfits and we decided to go with this one.

I had these pair of Cyclop-style sunglasses, and I just brought them with me to the shoot. I'm glad I did.

This was the last look we did, and I was pretty tired of my black hair. So, I asked Kevin for a wig - and after trying them on, I decided to go with this one.

So, this is the Space Alien in the box.

Boxes

So yesterday, (July 31st), I did a photoshoot with Kevin Connery and Al Ray at Al's place in Diamond Bar. Oh my goodness, the houses in that area are just so beautiful.

So the idea behind this was: Kevin had built a box and was doing a series of it. So, we decided to put me in the box too. It was a bit harder for me to occupy the entire space inside the box, being that I'm so petite - but I think I made it work!

I had brought a whole lot of outfits and we did a lot of looks and had a lot of fun. The shoot ran a little later than expected because the model before me took two hours longer than expected. It was fun though, but boy, I was starving by the time I got outta there!

I did a tutu look, two silver looks, a pink look, and a "girl scout" look. The whole idea for me was to have some fun, bright colors since my bubbly-ness allows me to go a bit kooky.

So without giving away TOO much, here's a sneek preview of one of the outfits:

This was taken by Al Ray.

Makeup by Sarah Bachman

And yes, I'm actually smiling. Hahah.

Si Scott, Farsai, Sweet

Okay, time for a real post, as I am suffering from insomnia right now.

So, as some of you may know, I'm a Graphic Design student. I never really made a connection with modeling and Graphic Design, as they are two separate forms of Art. I know, some of you are saying Graphic Design involves Photoshop and it can be related. Well, photo manipulation is not what I do. I am more involved with Logos, Packaging, and layout design (posters, business cards, spreads, etc.).

Well, a few days ago, one of my absolute favorite designers came out with new work. Well, I guess you can say he's an Illustrator more often than he is a Graphic Designer. Anyways, his name is Si Scott. And this Airborne bee is his latest work. I absolutely LOVE how he creates images using free-form lines and curves. The process and layers and layers of work he does is amazing. And he does it with pen and ink!

Well, Si Scott's work reminds me of a shoot I did exactly one year ago. The shoot was with the talented Jeff Farsai. Well, let me just start off by saying that Jeff is a hell of a cool guy. First off, I was being a scatter brain, and messed up the date and time we were suppose to shoot. Which, I thought, created chaos. However, mister Farsai somehow managed to get everything together and running in less than 24 hours! He got a whole team going. And the photos came out amazing! I loved all of them! AND I got images back extremely quick.

So anyways, the body artist for the shoot is Adam Sweet of Human Being Inspired. I absolutely loved the designs he did on both sides of my face. I remember the makeup artist walked me over to the mirror and I was SHOCKED at my reflection. Her makeup skills and his design was phenomenal.

So, the whole connection with Si Scott and this shoot is the design. I don't know if Adam's work is somehow inspired by Si Scott or not. But a lot of Adam's work involves different line styles merged together, and it's super cool. So being that I love Si Scott, I guess that's why I love the look of this.

oh, and we found out a few months later that the Pussycat Dolls did a similar body art design for their "Bottle Pop" music video. Haha. Not as rad as this though!

Lazy

I've been extremely busy lately, kind of lost my inspiration to write an entry.

Well, yesterday, I assisted Phillip Ritchie with his blog, and he's been yelling at me and forcing me to write a new entry. So here it is. Hahaha.

Not sure what to say, or if anyone even reads this. but there it is!

Go read Phillip's blog. Subscribe and comment on it.

What Annoys Me

I've been having this issue for a long long time and I know it's never going to go away so I really need to get over it - but I just find it extremely annoying.

I known a model for quite awhile and she's always assumed that all my photo-shoots are "Trade" or "TF." One time, a few months ago, a photographer had messaged her to offer her a photo-shoot and told her his discounted rates for her. She wrote back to him stating that if he had shot me for free, she should be able to get to work with him for free too. Of course, the photographer gets back to me, and was not too happy about her attitude.

So here is my opinion f all of this. I would NEVER EVER tell another model how much a photographer (or hairstylist or makeup, etc) charged me, how much they paid me - nor would I tell them if it was TF or not. I find it to be non of their business. If they wanted to know a photographer's rate, they can contact the person themselves. Why would it matter if I got something for "free" or not? How would it benefit that person in any way? Ugh, don't even get me started on when she asks me on how much a photographer is paying me!

When a model contacted and asked for a reference, I would give them my opinion on the photog and how he works, his photos, etc. Often, the reference would ask for how much I pay them, and of course, I would ignore that part. The last thing I would want to do is eliminate the possibility of the photog losing a client because of me.

Another annoying thing is that most people assume that if I'm really good friends with a photographer, the shoot would be TF. Such as Michael Magers for instance. Yes, I do shoot with him a lot - but that's because he gives me images that benefit my portfolio. I am not a free-loader, so I do not take advantage of people, therefore, I pay him. Sometimes I pay him his full rates, sometimes we work out a payment plan or an exchange of some sort.

Gilbert Castillo is the same way. I work with him because we have the same interest in themes, gore, and craziness. Sometimes it's TF, sometimes I pay him, sometimes its TF but I give him a large and generous "tip."

Same thing when I'm getting paid. Sometimes I get paid my full rates (which is super cheap, trust me), or I get clothing as compensation, or I get a combination of both.

Just saying - there are many ways to compensate one another on a photoshoot. Not everything has to be Trade. And it's annoying when everyone wants something for Free and assume that others are getting it for free.

Starting Over... Again

I've been lacking in the Inspiration area lately. I recently created a blog for Phillip Ritchie and just speaking to him about why he wants a blog, and how he wanted to let people in on why he shoots the concepts and the people he shoots (for his artistic photos - not the commercial ones), it was really inspiring.

My old blog used to be about my site updates, and that was pretty boring. So I guess I'm starting all over with a new blog -- a blog about my life as an aspiring model. I'm sure this blog will not get very far - as I am not known outside of the O.C. and L.A. area, but I figured this can be something I will be able to look back on a few years from now. Maybe my modeling career will be over and I can look back on the good times. Or maybe I was actually able to make something out of it, and I'll be able to remind myself of all the things that helped me along.

So, to start off my first post in the new blog, is a new photo, taken by Zion Publishing. There will be many more coming soon. Makeup was done by the wonderful Brittney Long (no website yet). I would also have to thank Michael Magers for lending me clothes and for coming to my rescue by hooking me up with Brittney at the last minute.

This shoot was really different from what I am used to. Normally, I would do the poses, and if the photographer sees something he/she likes, I would be told to hold the pose while they get it from different angles, etc. However, Zion had me kind of semi-hold my poses, and when he counts to three, I would then make eye contact with the camera, suck in my gut, and then fully do my pose. He sees it as a fresh, new, and raw look. It was a bit painful to do, because I had to tell my body to do so many things all at once, but it was fun and the pictures did come out great. I should be getting a few more pictures e-mailed to me in between this week and next.