The photoshoot

The bees are still buzzing, one of those weeks, but so far, it's a good busy.

Just back from a nutrition lecture for rowers. Bottom line? Carbs are important for rowers/endurance athletes. And, maybe I don't really need to eat before an early-morning row. Will have to experiment.

Willa is staring very intently at me. Because she hasn't been sitting on my lap for the majority of the day or sleeping with me at night or following me around during the day. She's like a freakish infinity sponge -- the more you give, the more she needs, to infinity. Good thing she's adorable. Usually. Except when she's being mean to Sucio.

Anyway. What was I saying? Carbs. Think I was done there.

Let's see, I owe a photoshoot story.... Relevant facts: I hate having my picture taken. I am not a photogenic person (my mom thinks it's genetic, from her). I can deal much better with black and white pictures. The photographer in question, Jessamyn (great name, right?) is awesome -- mellow, talented, nice, recommended by a friend, creative, all good. And, and, she has an adorable shy dog named Max. Max the Shy Dog. Because of his shyness, he couldn't directly comfort me much, but he was there, hiding in the background, feeling my pain. Turns out, she hates having her picture taken, too. Jessamyn, not Max. 'cause Max is a boy. Who maybe doesn't mind having his picture taken; I didn't actually ask him. But -- oh -- the other great thing about Max the Shy Dog? He's the canine version of Sucio! Two sweet beings who happen to find most of the world Very Scary (they would totally find each other Scary)....

So she set up in her amazing apartment (bright lights! white paper! aaaahhhh!). And was exceedingly patient and great. I got a couple outfit changes in (how fashion model, right?) -- my favorite suit jacket that I thought was the sure shot wound up producing the stiffest pictures. Huh. The funnest part was the last sequence when she was talking about props and I was joking about what that would be for me -- a pen? a laptop? Well, I was sitting on a giant sheet of white paper ... it would be kinda fun to write on ... so we did. It was much more comfortable for me because I had something to do (and didn't really have to look at the camera anymore), and it was, y'know, writing ... something I kinda do.

So, it was definitely a successful shoot. Oh yeah, and there was the confirmed fact that I'm "a blinker" -- really, it's a special gift, not many people have it.

She already got me proofs to look through -- I know you want to see them, I can already her you clamoring ... too bad! I've gotta pick yet! What I will give you is a link to her blog and, yes, she did post ONE picture of me there, so you can see that. But you have to promise if you ever need a photographer in Boston to use her.

Because of the wonders of digital, I got the proofs in color and black and white, and it's funny. There are a few of the color ones that I'm like, well, I guess that could work, but I like nearly all the black and white ones. So, turns out it's color pictures of myself I don't like. There are some that are cool and interesting that I don't know if they'll work for this professional headshot thing I need, but might offer other uses. And definitely some that should work for the professional headshot deal.

So, there you go, one story told. Then there's the amazing volunteer experience I had on Sunday, inspired by wanting to do some good acts in memory of my brother. And there's the great row in a single (Hello, Pepper! been a while!) this morning. Probably something else. But now, now it's almost bedtime.