A couple of weeks ago (actually the Saturday before last) I had the opportunity to do a real photoshoot. With an actual trained model and everything.

Sarah, who is way more socially connected and networked then I will ever be, knows Tracy McElfresh, who is a local seamstress who custom makes vintage-inspired dresses, introduced the two of us and basically set everything up. The whole purpose of the shoot was to catalog some of Tracy’s new dresses and new designs. (Sarah wrote about observing the shoot in her blog)

We all met up – Sarah and I, Tracy, and Mandalynn (the model) – at The Clash, which is a consignment store/art gallery in downtown Dayton. The shoot itself took place on the sidewalks and in the alleys surrounding the store.

It was my first time working with an actual model (previously when shooting people my style has been along the lines of “just keep doing what you are doing and pretend that I am not even here”) and I was relieved that she pretty much knew what to do, and that I didn’t need to give her a lot of direction as to how to move and pose.

Basically, the whole thing was a lot of fun and I took a lot of photos (most of which turned out really well). Hopefully I will get to do something like this again sometime.

(Shameless commerce plug – you should go to Tracy’s shop and order something. She does really good work. I am planning on getting her to make me something, I just have to decide what!)

Cropped jacket

Pink wool, tie-waist, capelet

Plaid wool capelet (you can custom order this one from Tracy's shop)

Pink satin, 1950's style, slip dress

Actually we don’t have it. Not to own, anyway. Like all of the large, fun, power tools that we have enjoyed lately, the drum sander is a rental from Home Depot.

The big household project this weekend (and for several days into the coming week) is to strip the bamboo flooring and then reseal it properly with polyurethane.

Several years ago we ripped out all the carpeting from the living room, and put in bamboo flooring. This ended up being a rather back-breaking job that took up every hour of a very long three day weekend. And by the end of the weekend we were more then ready to be done with it. So instead of continuing on to sealing the newly installed floor with polyurethane, we shrugged and said “eh… it has a factory seal on it… that should be good enough for now”.

Since then “strip and re-seal the bamboo flooring” has been a repeat item on my New Year’s Resolution list, and now is finally the time.

John is running the drum sander over the floor right now. I can’t really help yet, since drum sanding is pretty much a one-person job. However, once that is done, I will be there (in the completely sealed off living room) with him cleaning up the dust and then coating the floor with polyurethane.

We ought to put down 6-8 coats of the stuff, and the recommendation is to put down no more then two coats per day, to give each coat enough time to dry. We will probably only be able to get one coat down today, which means that we will not be able to finish the project and put everything back in the room until Thursday. Ah well, such is life.

By the way, there is nothing like totally emptying out a room to reveal all of the hidden filth.

Right now the entire contents of the living room are stacked in the library and dining room, and the fish tank is shoved up against the kitchen counter.

Percival is perturbed by the whole process. (Of course, he is perturbed by the vacuum cleaner.) He is spending most of his time upstairs, avoiding the noise and disorder.

Merlin doesn’t seem to care, and is sleeping on the floor cushions, which are temporarily stacked in a corner of the library.