Mission Accomplished

So it all began when I enrolled my 4-year-old son in ballet classes last February. Yes, my son. I wrote in this previous post about having my boy in ballet.

Anyway, I brought my camera to take pictures of the class one day because I wanted some pictures of my adorable boy dancing. I mentioned to his instructor (who owns the dance studio) that I am a photographer. That statement was both true and misleading.

True because I take pictures, and love doing so. You can see some of my hobby work here. Misleading because I had never actually had a paying photography job. I mostly just took pictures of my adorable boy.

So the studio owner told me she was looking for a photographer and we should talk sometime. Here's how the "interview" went.

1) Showed her a disc of my photography.
2) Showed her 8x10 prints of my photography
3) Talked about backdrops and studio lighting like I knew what I was talking about
4) Got the job to do dance portraits for all of the dance students (around 30)

Here's how my preparation went:

1) Thought about how I only had 3 backdrops, 1 black one which I ruined by washing and drying it, 1 white one, and 1 chromakey green one.
2) Decided white was too boring and wouldn't work well with all of the costumes. Decided I would do a chroma key (commonly referred to as green screen) backdrop even though I had no experience with it.
3) Told dance studio owner I was going to do green screen portraits.
4) Practiced taking photos of my son in front of green backdrop
5) Realized I didn't own Chroma Key software
6) Bought Chroma Key software
7) Continued practicing
8) Decided my backdrop was cheap, crappy, and would be a pain in the ass to use.
9) Decided my lens was not the right lens to use
10) Decided to borrow equipment from borrowlenses.com
11) Couldn't get feet to show up in pictures without green covering them.
Pictures looked like this:

12) Went shopping at Home Depot for floor props to fix the cut off feet problem
Pictures looked like this:

13) Freaked out about doing the pictures. Decided I was in over my head, and completely crazy.

14) Decided it would work out.

15) Decided I would mess it up, and it would be a disaster. Also remembered I am scared of working with kids.

16) Didn't sleep all night the night before picture day.

17) Nearly had a nervous breakdown because 4 girls had green AND blue dresses which would not work against the green screen.

18) Packed up and brought my white background and decided to figure something out later.

19) Had husband help me transport and set up backdrops, lighting, and props.

20) Took some Adderall, and got through the day.

21) Had to move equipment and take pictures again a week later.

22) To make a long story short: Finished taking pictures.

23) Edited pictures and added backdrops.

24) breathed a sigh of relief.

25) Studio owner told me I should do the pictures for the Christmas recital.

26) I agreed with studio owner.

27) The End.

Here's how the pictures came out!

So now I feel like an actual photographer. I need business cards, a website, and a listing in the phone book. I might add that I'm glad this job is almost over because I'm a bit burned out on it.

Thanks for reading!