Got a call from an uber photographer yesterday.  Not going to say the name until I’ve gotten to know them.  They’re looking for a dependable digital tech for when they’re in L.A - someone they can trust to work for them time and time again.  I am very. Very.  Excited about this.

 

Yesterday I got a free softbox.  Today its a cake.  Fringe benefits of photo shoots is that whenever there is something you don’t need by the end of the shoot someone is usually taking it home.  Last week I took home fifteen - maybe twenty pounds of cheese.  I know what you’re thinking: But Dylan, aren’t you allergic to cheese?  

 

Why, yes.  I am.  But I’ve been finding good ways to use it.  I discovered that Meredith is a big fan of grilled cheese sandwiches which used to be my specialty before I gained my allergy.  Anyways free cheese, right?  Right.

 

That brings me back to the softbox because my client decided his S was old and used-up and said I could take it. That’s what’s so great about being around the industry is that you get to absorb the waste.   I realize that I’m painting my life as somewhat similar to a dung beetle but I assure you that’s only a partial truth :)

 

So today we’re shooting birthday cakes and I’m thinking there might be leftovers by striking time today.  My favorite cake is store-bought cheapo sheet cake.  I don’t care what kind of icing or color it is.  Give me a standard issue birthday cake.  In lieu of the fact that I think this post may be straying a bit from my intended topic I’ll leave it at that.

 

Yeah so fringe benefits of being an assistant that you don’t normally think about.  Free props all the time.  Last week I was close to rescuing a fake brick wall that was being thrown in the dumpster.  The stylist had cut a really convincing hole in the middle of it and it really looked like it had been busted through by someone.  It was just a few feet too wide to get it into my car.  If it had only been a little smaller I would’ve been hanging my coat on it tonight when I got home.  Good props like that aren’t cheap and are hard to find when you want them.  Unfortunately you gotta have storage space to keep them.

 

This prospective and unnamed client is apparently a guru of Flexcolor so tonight I am going to go through every dialogue and remind myself of any subtleties of the program.  I get the feeling I will be put on the spot to demonstrate that I know the program inside and out.  

 

The problem with Flexcolor is that there isn’t very much to know.  It’s a bad rip-off of Capture One.  I don’t know what other people’s experiences are with the program but I find it to be buggy, neurotic, and often times anti-intuitive.  The concept of these different floating inspector palettes just doesn’t work in my opinion.  Who wants a bunch of these unorganized windows floating all over their screen?