therealkatiewest:

Katie West, MFST*.

*Mutha Fuckin School Teacher

The title of this photo should be:

‘How to improve attendance in schools and consequently raise the education level of the world’

This is one of only a few Black and White photos i took during this shoot.

On most shoots, i think i usually shoot about 2 rolls of 220 color film, but only 1 roll of 120 black and white film. So i end up with about 48 color shots and only 12 b&w shots.

After i go through all the photos, I always end up really loving the B&W film shots and vowing to shoot more than 1 roll ‘next time,’ but I almost never do.

I’m not sure why that is… maybe i just fall in love with the colors too much when i’m on set that i can’t imagine excluding them from the photo. Roxanne has such wonderful long red hair, and i probably couldn’t imagine leaving it out.

but the hair definitely works in black and white too.

therealkatiewest:

Hello Internet.

Many of you have been asking me after my sad camera post if there is a place you can donate to me some buckaroos to help with the fixing. Actually, the majority of you seem convinced that my fans will buy me a new camera. You are crazy. I think all the people who like my work are just as poor as I am, and we spend all our time buying each others work, so we are even more poor. But! I learned long ago to never say no to people wanting to give you money, instead you say Thank You.

So, if you want to, if the spirit moves you, and you’re crazy (in a good way, mind you), my PayPal is iamkatiewest@yahoo.ca.

And thank you. Stop being so awesome. I hear it’s going to become illegal soon. And then the Awesome Police will be after you, and if they’re anything like the Cute Police, you better watch yourself. I’ve had many dealings with the Cute Police on behalf of my cat Bruce, and they’re no walk in the park, let me tell you! They’re brutal! Brutal and unforgiving! And I’m sure the Awesome Police will be no different. Mark my words.

Hey Katie, do you want my old Rebel XT (350D)? It’s been sitting in my photography tupperware locker thingie and has been unused and unloved since February after i got my 5Dm2. It’s ‘body only’ since i’m using the lenses, but you’re welcome to have it. Or if you want to save up for something fancier, you can use it in the interim til you get a new camera. It’s in sparkling good condition and was well loved until my Hassy came along. I would be honored if it ended up helping you with your art. I’ll send you an email too on your paypal address. lemme know…

a thousand.

.

So a little over a week ago, i had a Flickr user add me as a contact and he became the 1,000th person to ‘follow’ my photostream. Back in early January of this year, after being on Flickr for about 3 1/2 years, i hit 500 photostream subscribers. It’s amazing for that to double in a little under a year.

I know that compared to a lot of the Flickr superstars, that’s a relatively small number, but It’s quite a milestone for me, especially since I don’t really promote myself on the site via groups or tags. I don’t even really post new photos that often. It’s flattering that most people seem to have found my stream after seeing my photos under the favorites of other Flickr users.

I attribute the spike in my ‘popularity’ in the last year or two to an  impromptu one hour photo shoot back in the Spring/Summer of 2008 with ‘Isabella’ (who actually goes by ‘Sarah’ now) so it seemed right to  commemorate this interesting statistic with another photo of her.

The shoot with her was quite bizarre in how it happened. I had wanted to make the most of a free Friday that i had that week, so I put up a casting call on Model Mayhem and found two models who had a mutual interest in working with me. At the last minute, my first choice canceled on me, and later, my backup  had a sudden change of plans.

So there i was at close to midnight on Thursday without anybody to work with the next day. Luckily, just before 1 AM,  ‘Isabella’ sent me a message saying she had seen my casting call and was free for an hour that day.  I was blown away by her portfolio and after a quick conversation, made plans to work with her about 12 hours later.

So what seemed like a series of unfortunate cancellations ended up becoming a photo shoot with a remarkably talented and beautiful artist. That photo shoot also ended up becoming a stepping stone to the ‘Not Too Late’ video a year later.

So anyway, i just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who’s visited my photostream. I feel blessed to have received such wonderful feedback, support, inspiration and new friends from the Flickr community.  thank you.

Rael

there’s something about women tying their hair that i find alluring.

I hope to write more about ‘the road’ sometime soon. I think it’s one of my favorite films of the year. I saw it last week at an advanced screening with Viggo Mortensen and director John Hillcoat in person for a Q&A.

It comes out on Wednesday, the 25th. GO SEE IT. I would put up a link to a trailer, but i believe that 99% of trailers are evil and full of spoilers. If you know you’re going to see the film anyway, why risk spoiling parts of it?

I’ll read the book in a few months once the film has settled a bit. It will put my ‘watch the movie before you read the book’ opinion to the test.

i was cutting through central park on my way to see a film at lincoln plaza when i noticed her standing there.

winter 08

via (o o n a)

i love this.  The beige and white tones just play together with the wonderful daylight bouncing all around the room creating so much softness. . I love how everything about her is flowing downwards, from her head to the fabric, to the bottom tip of her dress. It’s like she’s melting into the ground.

.you don’t always need a vibrant exploding palette in color photography.

There aren’t a ton of photos on it, but her entire stream is good. check it out.