Jasmine Star Workshop: Part One

I'm back!! Betcha didn't even know I was gone huh? Cause I am sneaky like that and set up auto-posts! I am so 2000-and-late and still am the only working photographer without a laptop! I had to check my emails daily from the Laguna Beach public library. I guess whatever gets you to the beach right?? But it was actually nice to be kinda unplugged.


I have been setting little goals. And since I am very limited on money and time, I told myself if I book so many family sessions or another wedding, I can get more gear or go to a workshop. When Jasmine's first workshop happened, I didn't even know who she was yet. Then I signed up for her newsletter and got the notice for her 2nd workshop before it went public. I contemplated going then but ....yeah that sold out in a millisecond. So I told myself I am going to go to her next workshop, and since I get her newletter I will be one of the first to be notified. Well the day it was announced I wasn't notified......Burn! She had technical problems and no one was notified and it went public instead. So the minute I saw it on her blog I jumped at the chance! I either am really lucky I got in or it just solidifies that I have no life except to sit at my computer waaaay too much. I felt like I won the lottery!

I had an amazing time in Orange County learning alongside with so many other photographers. The only thing I do regret is not staying with everyone at the hotel. My family came along with me and we have a place to stay there. So I didn't get that extra time with everyone on a more intimate level. There were so many cool people! I get a little anxious and either don't talk or talk too much. And I think I may have talked too much at the dinners! Then the day of the workshop we go around and introduce ourselves and tell our story. Everyone has these great little monologues and all I say is..... Hi I am Tina....ummm..... Jasmine literally had to finish my sentence and say ........and she is from Arizona and has stagefright..... Feeling like and Arse Part 3!

Having the opportunity to meet Jasmine in person was priceless. She is everything she represents on her blog and more. All around beautiful, hilarious, grounded, smart........but most importantly REAL. The workshop focused on Branding and what defines you. That is a hard question! Because truly at the end of the day we are no better photographers than the next person. So what makes you special?? What makes you stand out?? I guess you can ask yourself this question even if you aren't a photographer. I am still trying to find the answer and not quite sure what I am looking for either! Most of you who read her blog knows she makes up her own words. She actually has her own catchphrases that are HILAR! My favorite is still Don't fake the Funk people! All I can say to that is WORD sista.

The starlet in action.....

Showing us how it is done ANTM style........Tyra would be proud.......that expression......Now that is ferosh......

Jasmine's gun show............

I love this one. She looks so adorable with her freckles! Here she is with the talented photographer/entrepauner Bernie Aho from Canada, whom I unfortunately didn't get that much time to talk to but love his work......

Now some sneaky peeks of the shoot coming up tomorrow with all the yummy details..........

Feeling like an Arse: The Sequel

So now that I have Google Analytics installed and working. I was thinking about all the things it tracks and stuff. It tells you what sites are referring you and you can go to the site. Sometimes that person will have wrote a post on you or linked you somehow. Then it dawned on me. Back when I first started this whole journey I wrote this post. And he commented! And I thought I was so cool because I got David Jay to comment on my blog! At the time I didn't know how he knew I wrote about him. I was thinking.........Does he read my blog?? Does someone he knows read my blog and told him??? Are the big ballers of the photography world wanting to know what I am up to ??? Hehehe............ Yeah right! Hahaha! Now do I feel stupid! He probably has Google Analytics! So I didn't link him this time. I don't want him coming here and laughing at me! I will assure you the Feeling like an Arse installments might quickly become a monthly post since my Friday Firsts seemed to fizzle.


I have a real doozy of a feeling like an arse when I went here the other weekend. Not quite ready to talk about it............

Have you ever felt like an arse?

So I had a second callback the other week for a Lifetime movie that is being filmed in the Valley. I belong with a local agency and mostly do print or commercial work (not fashion, TOO SHORT!). I always hate going on movie auditions because I SUCK at acting. Heck, I can't even act happy when something is bothering me! This movie has an impressive lead actress from a popular ABC series, so to be part of it would have been awesome. Parts of the scene were in Asia, so when they are looking for a type it does make it a little easier.


So I go on the first audition and slate my name and deliver the line. Not bad. Now the casting director says, "okay do it again but more flirty". Easy enough. I did it again, feeling good about it, and I leave. So I get a call a few days later and they want to see me again for a callback. So I am thinking, just do what you did the first time and you will be fine Tina. Now callbacks involve way more people than the initial audtion. I walk into the room with the casting director, an assistant casting person, the director of the movie, his assistant, along with some random people and a video camera. I have anxiety sometimes so this just really sucks!! So I slate again, deliver the line. Now the director looks at me and says "Do you want to be in this movie?". Um, well yeah? "Can you do it with an asian accent?" ...............Huh? Are you for real? I was born in Alabama! I don't know how to do this! So I tried to chanel my inner mother. My sisters make fun of me because they say I talk to my mom with an accent thinking it will help my mom understand me better. But all I could hear and chanel was her yelling at me and what she would say, in Vietnamese. I could probably say "clean your room" or something. However they wanted me to flirt with a guy on an airplane! Needless to say I botched that audition. I just couldn't do it. I have no idea what I said or how I said it. I think it was more of a nasally English accent or something. Ugggh, I cringe just thinking about it! So embarassing! I just wanted to crawl under a rock, just bang my head on the wall, or let out a big Homer Simpson "d'oh".


It reminds me of how I felt the first time I did a family shoot with a family I didn't know. I remember saying "okay you guys ready? Say cheeeeeeese!" ........Really Tina?....... People pay you for this? ......Why don't you just say Macaroni while you're at it? .......Sigh. Sometimes I feel like this.........