Here’s the final version of the music I mentioned yesterday.
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Written, Performed, and Produced by Kevin MacLeod
Why the Internet is awesome:
I’ve been scouring the web for a day or two looking for some royalty free music to use behind a voice over for a radio ad we’re doing at Batter Up. I have a friend in Virginia Beach who’ll likely be doing the final VO work, but I was having a hell of a time finding the right music.
I stumbled on to Kevin Macleod’s website last night and listened to just about every track the guy had online. I liked what I heard, but couldn’t find the right piece. Alicia and I are thinking something reminiscent of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Over the Rainbow. So I emailed Kevin out of the blue this morning.
About twenty minutes ago I got back a response with a spec audio track included.
We won’t have exclusive rights to the final version, but for $50 and one day of turnaround, we’ll have an original piece of music for the radio ad.
I really can’t recommend him enough right now.
Kevin MacLeod FTW!
Just back from an enjoyable dinner with Alicia and Travis at Carrabba’s at Chesterfield Town Center. The food could have been better… mine was fine, I guess, but Alicia ate very little of hers. She said the fish was off, and wasn’t impressed with the crab-stuffed shrimp. Hmmm. Glad I went with the Pollo Rosa Maria.
She had been at a wedding show manning our booth at a bridal show this afternoon. Yes, I said our booth. Assuming all goes as expected, she and I are teaming up in her cake business, Batter Up Cake Company. We don’t expect it to be able to support both of us for some time, but the goal is to eventually have our own store front where both of us go to work each day.
So where have I been? Working for Alicia. Most of my energy during the last week has been focused on putting her WordPress powered website (in case you missed the link above) together. There’s still more to do, and I’ll get to it, but I need not to be looking at a computer screen for the night.
So, if you’re in Richmond (or the surrounding areas) and need a delicious and awesome looking cake for your event, give us a call (804-405-1088).
How can I solve your
problem if you can’t tell me
what the message read?
It’s like this guy has a video cameras installed in my bedroom. Excepting the baseball bat, this could be classed as a Short Subject Documentary.
BTW, the kitteh’s itching seems to be abating. I’m not sure if it’s the mite-be-gone & amytriptalene or the food she’s been on since the beginning of June.
Here’s a few more of a new cake I brought home today. There are more wide shots, but the focus is really off. I need to set up another something for a background… I don’t want to have the same curtains in the shot for every cake I shoot.
Having these cakes here without any time constraints or people standing over my shoulder has been great. I’m able to take a bunch of shots and see what works. The one location shoot I did for her was sort of lucky because I hadn’t thought much about what I was going to do. I was really unprepared but managed to make some thing work with what was there. I’m glad I managed, but I want to be more proactive next time around.
Alicia and I were also talking about coming up with some props to include in some of the shots. It’s a great idea, so we’re planning a shopping day sometime soon to hit a few of the discount housewares stores (like Big Lots, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, etc) to find cheap things to add to the ambiance of the photographs.
Once we’ve accumulated another half dozen or so cakes I’ll put together a bound photo book for her to use as her portfolio when she meets clients and goes to wedding shows.
I really need to finish up her website… another cake or two and I’ll have plenty of images from which I can work up the remaining graphics.
I’m super pleased with the diffusion panel as it stands right now, but there’s one thing I’d like to improve on.
I really don’t like the couplings as a means of joining two spars into one. It’s bulky and far less refined than I normally like. Sure, it works in this prototype, but I need a better solution, so I drew up a hub to be made from delrin or some other plastic. It’s out for quote right now, and if I can get it made inexpensively enough, I might just have a bunch extra made and sell them to anyone interested in making their own. The design includes a hole through the center face to allow for a post of some sort so that it can be mounted like an umbrella in a clamp like these. It also includes other holes on the face (at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock) to allow for other accessory attachment points. It’s a pretty simple design, but I think it’ll make this project that much nicer.
I’d like to make another diffuser or two as well as a couple of reversible reflectors based on this design.
I just don’t get it.
Design Milk posted about a new product available from a company called Pfeifer Studio. Here’s the description:
Fun, vibrantly colored earth-friendly line of sophisticated, rough cut, solid Pine log tables inspired by traditional Southwestern architecture, American Colonial-era finishes and techniques, and colors from earth-bound pigments rooted in nature and once seen in interiors of the past. A Pfeifer Exclusive available directly through the design studio, the tables are made in New Mexico from locally-harvested Pine logs historically used in traditional Adobe homes as exposed ceiling beams called Vigas. Dried in a solar kiln, harnessing the energy of tomorrow, they have a 100% natural finish free of toxins. Hand-painted with a VOC-free milk paint
IT’S JUST A F&*$ING LOG! I’m clearly in the wrong business. Who in their right mind would pay upwards of $260 for a painted log? And never mind how ridiculous a proposition this thing is to begin with, consider how much it’ll cost to ship it from New Mexico?
Mr. Emperor, your new suit is ready.
Last weekend Alicia made this fake wedding cake so I could take some more pictures. I brought it home Monday, but decided to buy a couple more flash guns so pictures had to wait until this weekend.
I’m using the beauty dish behind the diffusion panel in these shots to the right of the camera as the main light along with a snooted flash opposite the main aimed at the flowers on top. I’m still learning lights and mostly just throwing stuff up and seeing what works. So far, I’m getting results, but it’s mostly pure dumb luck at this point.
Something else I’m learning from Dawn is that the shot is only half the battle: post-processing can make or break a photograph. Which isn’t to say that the capture itself doesn’t matter. The thing I have to keep in mind is that the two work together to varying degrees. I’ve known this, for sure, but it’s nice to be reminded of things every now and then.
These were taken in my kitchen with Ginny’s curtains as a backdrop. In the future I’ll wait until it’s dark out to shoot in there so I have to do less work on the background.
