Monday, September 27, 2010

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.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

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 :).

Sunday, September 12, 2010

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.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

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.