kemie’s blog

I had completely forgotten that last year I posted my new years resolutions.
Here's the balance for the year

• Start uploading video to istock Nope, didn't happen
  
• Upload at least 4 images a week (last year i tried 1 a day, but the reality was about 3 a week) Managed a little more than 3 a week. Not bad, but not quite the goal.
  
• Spend more time developing my personal projects Yup, not as much as I'd have liked, but more than before for sure
  
• Say NO to difficult clients (in order to have time for the previous resolution) Yes! Managed to trade in difficult clients and acquire some good ones. Quality of life went up up up.
  
• Spend more time and energy networking-- I'm usually bad at keeping in contact with people Check, I'm getting a bit better.
  
• Learn enough PHP to make a simple CMS No way
  
• Start drawing with pen and paper again Very little
  
• Start writing a book on CSS Nope
  
• Post to my other blog at least once a week Um.... managed that for a bout 4 months out of the year.. does it count?
  
• Keep my inbox tidy Again, getting better, still some way to go,
  
• Lose 3 kg., exercise more, call my mom, yadda yadda :) Lost 2kg, excercised a bit more, called my mom oncec a week.
  

Overall, a positive balance for 2007!

Yay! I'm super excited. My recent cute attack paid off. Checking some strange referrers, I realized that the extended licence i got on my übercute bunny image on istock was from none other than Vox, who used it for a template. Not only that, but they were nice enough to give me credit! and with a link!

So of course I had to make it my new theme and go "awwww" :)

So it's been a month now since i started my one photo a day project, and I'm very glad I'm doing it. It has been really liberating to not only give myself permission, but force me to take non-stock pictures.

Once again I'm on the lookout for interesting colors, textures, subjects, without having to worry about whether it's sellable, whether the lighting will produce too much noise, or whether I'll have to clone a logo out. It's liberating! I've also been able to experiment a bit more with post-processing (aka photoshopping) in ways that would probably make istock inspectors reject for overuse of filters.

I dont deny there's been days when night comes and I just take something not too thought out because I have to take something, but it's far from the majority. I'm still skeptical on how long I'll be able to keep this up, but so far, so good :)

I don't know what's with me all of a sudden. I'm attracted to all kinds of things cutesy-wutsey. I've never been the kind of girl that likes the pink hearts and the kittens with big eyes, but lately- eek! Not only am i seeing and liking things with an exteme cuteness factor, but I'm actually producing them myself (see exhibit a, happy easter bunny and eggs)

Now I have a cute wallpaper, a cute IM avatar, and

I'm begginning to worry.
I find cute icons while surfing for cool ones. Heck, the other day I even broke down an visited cute overload, hoping that a quick megadose of bunny rabbits would make me get my cynicism back, but I just ended up oooh-ing and aah-ing for half an hour on the site.
No clue what caused this. Maybe it's the winter, maybe it's valentine's coming up or  my SO being away, but now, i think it's hopeless. my only option: embrace the cuteness.

Istock has ruined me. It has made me, every time i look through my camera, to think: does this have sales potential? is the lighting good enough for the inspectors? how many photoshop hours will it take to make this istockable? do i need a model release? i should crop out those logos!

This year I'm starting something new, photography-wise. Inspired by Project 365, I'm aiming to take one photo a day. One non- istock, no-purpose picture. I'm not even pressuring myself to make it a great picture. I'll be content with a blurry, noisy picture with crappy middle of the winder in sweden lighting. Cause the pic is for me and for me only. Well, I'll share (maybe), but there's no expectations other than my own.

I hope the drive will continue the rest of the year (I'm a bit doubtful ill have the discipline for EVERY DAY), but at least it will be a nice way to get creative and out of the stock photo frame of mind...

As soon as I read that we could customize our themes, I just had to do it. It's not that I wasn't happy with my cute little bunny design before, but the temtation to do my own was just too big.
Of course, having decided that I wanted to do it, the problem as exactly what I was going to have in my header. I thought about branding, I thought about concept, but in the end I just decided that what I needed this gray and rainy season was something sunny and cheery. I adapted one of my istock illustrations to make a spring themed header.
 It turned out almost too cutesy-wutsey, but I figure when i get my cute overdose I can always change it to something more exciting...

just testing the (in)famous istock photos on vox

Dont expect too much from this blog... not yet!
i'm just getting my bearings around here :)