The Deadline Doth Approacheth...

Regular readers of this blog should recognize the name Leslie Burns Dell'Acqua, law student, photographer's business consultant and author of the always excellent Burns Auto Parts website & blog, a place where there is no information about cars, auto parts or anything even remotely automotive related. What you will find there is lots of helpful advice and information about the business of photography.

Lately, you will even find a little bit more... as a few weeks ago, Leslie began the first of what promises to be a series of fictitious editorial "assignments" to participate in. The first one I missed, regretfully, and centered on the theme "PEACE". On January 29th, the second of these "assignments" was announced. For this assignment, Leslie borrowed a news story on the current mortgage crisis and asks readers of her blog to submit photography to illustrate the article. Submissions must be emailed to Leslie by the 11:59PM, February 27th deadline. You can find the details and submission guidelines for this "assignment" by clicking HERE. I'd love to see some of our local Hawaii talent and readers of this blog participate, so get cracking... there's only 8 days left to turn in your submissions.

I promised myself, after missing the first assignment deadline, that I would make a concerted effort to turn in a photograph for the current assignment. In fact, I turned in two, designating the fishbowl shot as my "official" entry. As the article this assignment was based on opened with and continually mentioned the idea of mortgages being "underwater", I felt this image was more true to the story the assignment was based on. What fun it is to attempt to wrangle a live goldfish into position. Goldfish are certainly NOT one of God's more cooperative creatures. (Disclaimer: No goldfish were harmed in the execution of this photograph. This one swims happily in his little bowl beside me as I peck out this screed.)

Another phrase constantly being thrown around by the media these days is "mortgage meltdown", on which the second image is based. This one was also fun... trying to figure out how to best melt those tiny plastic Monopoly® houses. First attempts using a propane blow torch ended up blackening the melted plastic too drastically, I felt. I finally settled upon a Pyrex® baking dish, the bottom sprayed with WD-40 (to prevent the melted plastic from sticking... sort of worked). Various times were tested with nuking in the studio microwave until the desired "melts" were achieved... the longest nuke time being about 20 minutes for the full melt.

A Portrait & a Link

Today started with an early morning portrait session, a bank executive head-shot... straight forward, vanilla, color portrait of a smiling man in a suit (and aloha shirt just to be safe).

Fortunately, I left all the lighting set-up in place when a friend dropped by to share some wisdom & combustibles and I was able to beg, coerce and otherwise flog him into sitting down in front of the lens for a few minutes. A quick re-tweaking of the lights into a configuration a little less revealing and 15 minutes later, there was a very fun series of very expressive portraits, though I don't quite know exactly what it it they are expressing. Thanks to Ray Gooliak, musician, songwriter & recording artist for enduring my abuse & cajoling and contributing his considerable talents, wrinkles and follicle-challenged skull to yield the two images above.

On a completely different note, Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua is a name that has appeared on this blog on several other occasions. Leslie is a photographer's business consultant of wide repute & publisher of the website Burns Auto Parts. This is not a place to find parts for your broken down jalopy. The website contains lots of interesting and very helpful materials, advice, books all pertaining to the business & marketing of commercial & editorial photography. You can also find a link to her "Super Premium Blog" and it is well worth a read.

Leslie is at it again. This time... over at the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) website, you will find a 25 minute video clip of a presentation Leslie made to ASMP members recently. You don't need to be a member to view the video... just click on the link here. In the video presentation, Ms. Burns Dell'Acqua discusses how to fine-tune your website and portfolio for bigger bang and better impact. Grab a cuppa and spend a few minutes of precious time watching the video. You'll be glad you did.