new equation

I made this on March 31, Iliana's 5th birthday. We had a party for her at Grant Park (right across the street from our new house!). I decided to bring my Diana with me and shoot some color neg. It was fun, and I got this great picture of her with her friends. She's a happy little girl.

I'm scanning some personal photos this week. Here, we're at Zoo Atlanta's panda habitat. You may be able to make out the panda over Iliana's shoulder. She had no interest in endangered animals that afternoon.

I really love this picture.

This is the morning of November 1st, 2004. Melody is still trying to sleep off Halloween. We were staying in my friend's apartment while they were out of town. They live in Melbourne, Australia now. Curiously enough, they're expecting within weeks of when we're expecting.

This was in Las Vegas in 2004. Melody and I walked down Fremont ST making pictures of the old hotel signs with my Hasselblad. We were never harassed by anyone, but we got a lot of curious looks. The further we went, the more we felt like we were a walking invitation for trouble.

Here's one of the gems that line Fremont ST.

My friend Blake has a six-year old boy who's into launching rockets. I haven't made one since I was about 12, but however rusty my rocket science may be, I decided I'd try my hand at it again. So yesterday, Iliana and I invited Blake and his kids out to my grandmother's farm where there's 40+ acres of land to play around on. We cooked out, climbed trees, launched rockets and tore up the grass with my FJ. We had a great time.

And the rocket flew (as evidenced by the above). I was very precise with the gluing, but the painting was pretty lousy. I sprayed a clear enamel over the entire rocket before the paint was dry. It began to resemble an astropop in mid-melt.

Thanks to Jake, Blake's oldest, for the picture of Iliana!

My niece sent these shower crayons to Iliana for her birthday this year. She really enjoys drawing for us on the glass shower door. Melody and I are a pretty attentive audience for these unfortunately temporary works of art.

They're here! New promo cards will be shipping out this week. These are from the self-assigned taxidermy project I shot last year:

http://gregorymillerphotography.com/taxidermy.html

A poster for shipping mid-June is currently in the design process (thanks to Gabe Benzur over at Iconologic).

Design students from Savannah College of Art and Design came by to listen to me talk about how to conduct a photo shoot today. Their professor is a brand manager I work with on some catalog projects. I discussed the entire process for an advertising job I did earlier this year, explaining the role of my rep, the AD, the account manager, the crew and myself. This is the campaign:

They had plenty of follow up questions (hopefully a good indicator of their interest in my presentation). Many questions were on camera choice, b/w vs. color and traditional vs. digital. One was about my collection of old consumer cameras I have on display in the studio. I brought out my favorite, the Polaroid Swinger. On google, we found this great TV spot for it when it went on the market decades ago. Complete with volleyball, go-go dancing and quiet walks on the beach, meet the Swinger....

On the topic of teaching, I had to decline teaching a summer class at Portfolio Center. Summer has tended to be the best time for me to teach, as work slows down for summer vacations. This year, our baby boy comes along (August 24!!) right in the middle of summer term.

We had a cookout on Saturday. Melody made sangria and guacamole. I made four kinds of burgers with different meats: bison, lamb, pork and turkey. The lamb was really good; in addition to rosemary, I put a little piece of gouda inside the patty. It's my new favorite burger.

I'm meeting with Gabe today to go over the design for the taxidermy poster.

Sunday, I'll be flying to NYC for a shoot Monday at Pier 59.