Photography
I recently accepted a photography job, to shoot a brew pub in the south suburbs of Chicago (special thanks to Rebecca!). I ended up bringing the XTi, and shot with the 16-35mm f/2.8 mainly, and I also shot with the 50mm f/1.4 for the food photos. All in all, I was happy with how things turned out. But I was a little annoyed at the location of the shoot. My shot list called for tight shots of young, cute, 20-30-something demographic. That's fine. The problem was, the place was dead. I knocked out the majority of the shot list in less than an hour. I rocked it. But the problem was the shooting of the young, pretty people. The place was sparsely filled with folks in their 50-60s and a few teens from the local junior high school. So I did what any good photographer would do: I waited for my shot.
Well, I ended up waiting for 3 and a half hours. A only about 3 more people that fit my target demographic came in. So I shot them and continued to wait. Since I had an appointment to show my motorcycle in the city at 6pm, I decided to throw in the towel at around 5pm. That was a horribly long time to spend on what was supposed to be a quick shoot. Regardless, I was happy with what I shot. And I'm looking forward to my next shoot.
Motorcycles
I am looking for a buyer for the 2005 Yamaha FZ6. I love this bike. But I just got the 2008 FZ6. It's awesome. I only have about 40 miles on it. But I just got it yesterday. Today, I transferred the frame sliders from the 2005 to the 2008. I just dropped $91 on the frame sliders from Motovation Accessories. They fit perfectly, and they look good - not too noticable.
I had a guy come out and look at the 2005 FZ6. But he was a sketchy dude. He was early, didn't stay on the sidewalk like I asked him to - while I went inside the garage to get the bike. I noticed he rode his motorbike in. So he asked a couple of questions, asked to take it for a test ride, to which I responded with, "You can only ride it if you put a downpayment as collateral. It's a safety issue. But I am more than happy to ride it up and down the street for you." He immediately responded with, "Okay, thanks, bye!" I looked at his 1993 POS motorbike and was glad that he left. I've heard of horror stories of people dropping the bike, riding off with the bike, etc., and I wasn't about to become a police statistic. Whatever the case, I still am looking for a buyer, though I'm tempted to keep both bikes since they are both ridiculously cool.
Music
So Zerostars played at the 2009 International Pop Overthrow Festival yesterday night. We played at The Spot in Uptown/Edgewater, a strangely eclectic hipster/country/biker-looking club. We played an abridged set of 5 songs, debuting 2 new songs "Blonde Gone Blue," "Dear Advisor." It was a good show, but very difficult to hear on stage. The floor monitors were too difficult to hear. But I felt like we played a good show. The venue was very small, but well-attended, so it felt good to play to a decent crowd. It was our 4th year playing the IPO Festival. Special thanks to David Bash and the IPO crew for all their support.
One thing I wanted to mention was this strange photographer that seems to have been at all the IPO shows we've played. He's been telling everyone that he shoots for Rolling Stone magazine, which is a complete lie. He was shooting us as we were playing with his flash on fast-strobe, which was highly distracting as a performer and very annoying as a human not accustomed to bright rapid-fire strobe lights going off in my face every 10 seconds. I was not only annoyed as a performer but mainly as a photographer who's shot bands before. The cardinal rule is to never use flash and to "be invisible." This guy was anything but. Hey, dude taking photos of the IPO festival, word to the wise: STOP USING YOUR &%$!#@ FLASH. Invest in some fast glass and stop annoying the performers. Sheesh...
