christina's journal

After being pretty down and stressed for a couple of weeks I think I might be back in a creative mood. Philip, of course, says I’m always in a creative mood, creating all the unsatisfactory scenarios in my life like the weekend. Whatever, I think I’ve got the time and the right attitude to get back into the illustration. I had hoped to get a lot more done by now, but I’m making it a priority.

I found the istock meetup pretty frustrating, and left at lunchtime yesterday instead of going through the afternoon. When working with groups I usually found myself going last by which time we’d run out of time, or someone else had snaffled some of the models we were working with, or else it was getting late and the light wasn’t good enough for what I wanted to do. I’m just not pushy enough to get a fair deal in any kind of group context, especially when resources are limited. If I want to do two and three model shoots I’ll just have to hire them myself, rather than spending all my time assisting someone else to get the shots they want. One concept I wanted to shoot with two models was hampered by flash problems, and no time to fix them as time was running short. So someone else shot my concept instead. Just go it alone Christina.

Yesterday was pretty exhausting. I ended up with 153 shots and I hope some work out OK. I had a lot of problems with best focus and movement. For some silly reason I decided to shoot a couple walking along a path at a time of day when I had to use 1/30 shutter speed!! I think I’ll be lucky to get half a dozen good pics actually, and even those will exercise my PS skills to the max. Anyway, more shooting today.

The start-off party (just quiet drinks) for the istock meetup was good. I met chemc and mevans and had a chat to a few fellow photographers. Tim Wilson was very entertaining. Seems most of them work in the art/design area. No surprise there. Anyway, I need to sort out my lights for today. Hope there are no problems there. I’m still not feeling very inspired. I doubt that I’ll end up with a Vetta image.

With the tedious stuff behind me, I’m moving along. Three new books on cartooning arrived from Amazon yesterday and, as it’s a wettish greyish day I think I’ll spend time getting back into that so I can get on with the job for Iliana. I’m feeling pretty good, pretty positive at the moment. I have great plans for the next few months. Become an istock illustrator, build my port in both illustration and photography, lots of work stuff too (the good bits). Maybe get back into 3D, although I might be best to consolidate my 2D skills before I do that.

8.45pm    Busy day. I’ve spent quite a lot of time drawing, and should be producing useful work tomorrow. Meanwhile my phone and email have become inaccessible – probably due to unpaid accounts. They’re paid now but I guess I’ll actually have to ring(?) to have them turned back on. I also went out to reshoot some photos that were rejected by istock for lighting and artefacts. Haven’t had too many of those rejections lately, until now. Comes from trying new stuff I guess. I’ll get it right eventually.

Meanwhile, my head feels as though I banged it on something but I can’t remember actually having done so. Maybe I knocked myself out!! Another possibility is that I’ve got shingles. Dad had pains in his forehead from shingles. Hope not. He never did get rid of his.

My neck and back have been very stiff lately, no doubt from carrying a fairly heavy camera bag over one shoulder so much. I succumbed and bought another backpack like the one that was stolen. Trouble is it’s very hard to hide, and if that goes I lose just about everything. At least I’ve got all the receipts ready to send this time. That last claim took over a year to settle, although quite a bit of that was my own fault.

Results are in. Real deadline (tomorrow) met. Now I have to get in my application for an ongoing position. Deadline for that is also tomorrow. Not sure if I’ll make it (or how real that deadline is) but I’ll have a go. After that no deadlines for three months. I’ll be busy of course but don’t have to worry about what I’ll be teaching at 8.30 tomorrow morning, or about what assessment task I’ll be giving at 1.30 tomorrow afternoon. Or about getting all my correction done by COB Friday. Woohoo.

I’m currently at position 9550 on the istock contributor charts. Not an exact figure, as some contributors are not on the charts, and it only counts by hundreds these days, but pretty close I guess. I was at 10,630 in May.

400 downloads. I made 300 in September. I don’t think I’ll reach 500 by the end of the year, but probably not too long after. Meanwhile, lots of work to do. I’ll be marking all weekend. Can’t wait to finish this job.

The sessions with the Chinese delegation this morning seemed to go well. The Powerpoint presentation I spent hours on last night for apparently little result actually worked out fine because of the time the interpreter took to translate it. The session in the PC lab worked out well, and I think they actually enjoyed having something practical to do instead of just listening to talk all the time – which was exactly the point of the exercise.

By the time we had finished I was exhausted and came home for some sleep and a break. Of course that means I’ll need to spend the next three days working but I really did need a break. Hope I can finish it all off before the end of next week. I’ve got other things to do.

I hate this time of year. I’ve just finished writing an exam for 4.30 this afternoon, and it’s just 7am here now. Still loads of marking to do, and the official deadline for results is Friday. Meanwhile I have to entertain a delegation of visiting Chinese academics all tomorrow morning, and will need to spend quite a bit of today organising that. The heat isn’t helping…

I did manage to square it with the admin officer who processes results to get the last ones in early next week. That means I can continue to struggle through the weekend in 35° heat instead of going without sleep for the next few days. Or just making numbers up in desperation. Needless to say, everything else has gone on hold. I hate this time of year.