Asheville Photographer Katie Damien presents The Katie Chronicles

Kickstarter Success!

2012-01-12T11:42:00.002-05:00

We did it! I really was loosing hope in the end, but I got my Christmas wish and funding for my documentary was successful! The campaign was 104% funded by 85 people! Everyone who pledged played a part in making this happen. I’m so grateful to my friends and family who helped and also to the complete strangers who contributed. Now I’m able to move forward and get this documentary finished. It’s back to the grindstone. My goal is to have this documentary finished by this summer in time for some big film festival deadlines. Thank you everyone!

Katie

Trick or Treating at the Hospital

2012-01-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

I belong to this group of female, horror filmmakers and one of them posted a story about when her son was in the Hospital over Halloween and how bummed he was missing out on trick or treating. That night a group of actors came through in costume and handed out toys for the kids and visited with them and that just made his Halloween.

She told her story to us and challenged everyone to visit the children's hospital in their home town on Halloween. So that's what I did. It was so rewarding, the kids really loved it. I collected lots of donations from local businesses, including a local comic book shop that gave every kid two comic books. It was awesome. So the next time Halloween or another holiday rolls around in your neighborhood, don't forget about the kids stuck in the hospital.

Katie

Would you like to buy a documentary?

2011-12-23T13:15:00.004-05:00

I have always hated asking people for money. Ever since I was a Girl Scout peddling my cookies to neighbors and friends, I knew any job with the word “sales” in it would not be in my future. “Would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies? You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. They’re kind of expensive. That’s okay, I’ll just go.” That was my sales pitch going door to door.

I hated it, even when it was a product I believed in. I believed in Thin Mints. I ate many a box growing up…probably because I couldn’t sell any, my parents took pity on me and bought a bunch. I never liked pressuring people to buy something. And yet I find myself very much in “sales.” Every time I try to book a gig, I’m selling my services. Doing freelance work you’re always having to market your talents, convince potential customers that you have something the other guys don’t, you pretty much have to sell yourself.

So here I am, trying to sell something. Something I believe in. And this time it’s not cookies and it’s not me. It’s a project. A documentary about clean drinking water and a community in Asheville, which at this very moment, is fighting for that very thing. I’m selling their story, their suffering, and a peek into the system we have set up to take care of problems like toxic waste leaking into people wells and coming out their faucets.

After putting everything that I have and everything that I am into the project for almost two years, I’ve realized that it’s too big for me. I need to hire some help. So I’m doing this fundraiser that is dangerously close to failing and almost equally as close to succeeding. I’m $2000 away from the funding I need to finish it. Maybe that’s too much to ask in times like these. Maybe it’s too much for a town where jobs are hard to find and people don’t have money to play with anymore. Would you like to buy a documentary? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s kind of expensive…That’s okay, I’ll just go.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Here's a Clip from the Documentary

2011-12-21T12:11:00.003-05:00

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary/posts/152588

Only 4 days to go. I'm burnt out on trying to get the word out about this kickstarter campaign. I only have a few hours in the day to devote to this project and I need help. I need all of you to google environmental groups, bloggers and other communities with superfund sites that might be interested in seeing this movie. Send them an email, give them this link, tell them to contact me. Whatever you can do, even if it's just one community leader, one environmental group, one other person that you contact on an individual level, it will be a great help.

Thank you,
Katie

Only 9 Days Left!

2011-12-16T11:58:00.002-05:00

Screening a Clip of Toxic Asheville!

2011-12-13T16:45:00.005-05:00

This Friday and Saturday at the 7pm and 10pm shows I will be screening a ten minute cut from the documentary and will be there before and after the movies with a table by the ticket booth to answer questions. I'll also have some prints to raffle off. So if you're in town, come see a movie and support my documentary!

http://ashevillebrewing.com/2011/index.html

Katie

P.S. - If you can't show up, you can still pledge: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary

Over $1000 Pledged to my Documentary!

2011-11-22T10:49:00.003-05:00

We passed the S1000 mark and someone from Japan even pledged. There's still more to go. Please share this project with friends and help spread the word and thank you everyone who has already supported the project.

Katie

Kickstarter!

2011-11-16T11:42:00.006-05:00

My kickstarter page is launched:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/233019965/toxic-asheville-feature-documentary

Go pledge your support to this project and help raise awareness about a problem most Americans don't even know about. Clean drinking water isn't just an issue for third world countries. We have our own set of problems right here at home. Hint: watch till the end of the video, there are some funny bloopers.

Katie

I'm Crowdsourcing my Documentary!

2011-11-13T17:09:00.000-05:00

So what is crowdsourcing? Well, instead of funding a project through a few large investors, you use a large group of investors giving a small amount. The site I'm using is called Kickstarter. You can check out my profile here: http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/233019965

They have lots of artists who need funding to complete their projects. The project I'm working on is my feature length documentary "Toxic Asheville." With kickstarter, if you don't meet your goal, no one pays. I will be fund raising for 40 days and my goal is $5000. The really neat thing about this site is that when you pledge and the goal is met, you will get different rewards for your pledges. For example, with my project if you pledge $25 you'll get a thank you credit in the movie and a DVD of my movie when it's finished. So in a way, it's kind of like pre-selling. I won't go into detail here, because that will all be on my page when I launch it.

So why and I telling you all this now? I'm hoping everyone will go and pledge on my opening day (Wednesday the 16th) or shortly there after. You don't have to give big, just $1 on Wednesday will get me some attention. If I can generate a big start with a lot of interest in my page, it might be featured as one of their "New and Noteworthy" projects and hopefully get seen by a lot more people. So go check out kickstarter and register now. The payments are made through Amazon.com, so if you've ever bought anything on Amazon, it will be easy to set up an account at http://www.kickstarter.com. I'll send out a reminder on Wednesday with a link when the page has been launched. Wish me luck!

Katie

Halloween Party

2011-11-09T22:12:00.006-05:00

I had an awesome Halloween party at my house. The winners of the costume contest are below. My good friend George was "Ashevegas" as a casino dealer with the table attached as part of his costume. It was both an awesome costume and a functional game, as everyone at the party took turns playing poker. Mom was a dumb blond who heard there was a costume party and wore a "mask." And I learned how to make sugar glass, which is basically just hard candy. I broke up a sheet of it and stabbed it into red velvet cupcakes with a little red icing for some awesome bloody cupcakes. I love Halloween.

Katie

Asheville Cinema Festival

2011-11-08T16:44:00.011-05:00

I had an amazing weekend at the Asheville Cinema Festival! The festival was very well organized and they treated the filmmakers really well. I attended great panel discussions on screenwriting and distribution and my movie screened 4 different times. The most exciting screening was at Regal on a really really big screen! I met a lot of great people and now I can't wait for next year's festival. The film that got in is a very short claymation (1 minute and 15 seconds in total) called "On High" and I'll have that posted soon.

Katie

Max Patch

2011-10-26T23:09:00.007-04:00

I went to shoot time lapse footage at Max Patch. It was amazing! When the weather gets warmer, I want to go back and camp there. All these pictures were shot with a fish eye lens I rented for the shoot.

Katie

Asheville Brewing Commercial Contest

2011-10-24T15:12:00.004-04:00

I entered a contest for a beer commercial that's too hot for TV. I have to give a very special thanks to David Ostergaard for staring the spot and letting me use his house to shoot in.

I Made it into the Asheville Film Festival!

2011-10-24T14:32:00.005-04:00

A short film I made just got accepted to the Asheville Cinema Festival! (Formerly the Asheville Film Festival) The film is called "On High" and it's a short little 2 minute claymation I did under mom's Christmas tree. For anyone in the Asheville area, my movie will be playing in the shorts blocks in the morning on Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th at the Masonic Lodge downtown (80 Broadway Street across from Olive or Twist.) I'll be there for the Q&A at the end of the screenings. You can get tickets online or at the door.

http://ashevillecinemafestival.com/short-fiction

Katie

The Oscar Party

2011-08-17T22:17:00.008-04:00

I totally forgot to post last year's Oscar pictures. It was a great night with lots of black swans and feathers strewn everywhere. I was the black widow from Ironman 2. We had a gay gardener from "The Kids are Alright" and even Sean Connery. Lots of great costumes this year.

Katie

Asheville 48 Hour Film Festival

2011-08-08T00:59:00.003-04:00

The team I'm in for the 48 hour film project just won the audience award for best picture in our group and the best use of character award. The whole movie is below. It was an awesome experience again this year!

Katie

Team: YA Productions
Genre: Thriller

Character: Tommy or Tina Darnes (a mechanic)
Prop: Apple
Line: "Don't be so sure."

In addition to these requirements, the film had to be more than 4 minutes, but less than 7. And all this in just 2 days.

48 Hour Film Project Trailer

2011-07-18T13:21:00.006-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzEaxUeOC0

For those who don't know about the 48 hour film project, it basically goes like this: you register a team, show up at a designated place and time, they tell you what genre you have to do, all teams have to use the same character, prop, and line of dialouge, then you have to write, shoot, and edit your movie... oh it all this has to be done in one weekend. We just finished our film and I've attached a link to the trailer. The whole video will be up later, when all the screenings are finished. I had a great time doing this again this year. Our team was amazing! More on this later.

Katie

My40 this Morning LaZoom Asheville Promotion

2011-07-11T12:51:00.004-04:00

First of a series of 3 spots I produced for our morning news show.

Special thanks to the LaZoom comedy troupe for performing in these spots. More info: http://www.my40.tv and http://www.lazoomtours.com

Katie

I Won 3 Emmys!!!

2011-06-29T10:25:00.007-04:00

I just won three Emmy awards: one for writing, one for News Image Campaign and one for special effects make-up. The official event photos aren't out yet, but these pictures were posted by a woman taking a few at the Southeast Regional Emmy Awards. I'll post some that I took later on.

Katie

LaZoom Comedy Bus Tour

2011-06-12T16:02:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I went on the LaZoom Comedy bus tour (www.lazoomtours.com) around Asheville with my good friend George. We had a great time! I've used the guys from the LaZoom troupe before in a promotion for WLOS and I'm using them again for some more really funny spots I'm shooting now. Look for these same actors in posts to come. They'll be easy to recognize.

Katie

Glass Blowing

2011-06-10T10:23:00.000-04:00

In Asheville there is a section of town called the River Arts District. There, a community of artists have taken over dilapidated warehouses from our town’s bygone days of manufacturing and turned them into beautiful studios and homes. All the artists leave their doors open so people can just walk in and see them creating and buy a piece if they want.

I was out one weekend looking for interesting people to shoot for a promotion I’m working on (coming soon) when I passed a sign that read, create your own hand blown glass $50. Now I know $50 is a lot to pay for one pint glass, but this is a special pint glass because I helped make it. And glassblowing is not an easy thing for a person to do on their own, you pretty much need an assistant. I got a lesson in glass blowing, some experience actually doing it and I got to help support the amazing community of artists that call Asheville their home. If anyone in the area is interested in making your own hand-blown glass you can visit: www.ashevilleglass.com theyhave regular classes as well.

Katie

Chris and Sara

2011-06-07T12:48:00.000-04:00

I shot two of my good friends/colleges engagement session at the NC Arboretum. They are just so cute. They were worried about not being able to pose well, but really they had nothing to worry about. Wedding coming soon.

Katie

Chamber 5k

2011-06-06T23:19:00.007-04:00

I did my first marathon. The Asheville Chamber of Commerce 5k. I walked the whole way... well I did run for the last bit of it because we could see the finish line and the countdown clock was about to go to 1 hour and we decided we wanted to get in under an hour, so we had to run the last little bit. WLOS had a team and I decided to join. It was fun. I cut up posters so we could have themed costumes. I'm the "Body of Proof" poster.

Katie

The American Muslim Project

2011-05-14T13:10:00.003-04:00

My friend Sarah approached me a while back to do a video for the American Muslim Project (http://www.theamericanmuslimproject.org/) It was created to combat ignorance and help create a more tolerant America. This video was made in answer to their call for videos to help combat Islamaphobia. I think it's a great cause and I am happy to support it.

Katie

5 Emmy Nominations!

2011-05-10T11:11:00.005-04:00

I've just been nominated for five Southeast Regional Emmys! The awards gala isn't until June 18th, so I have to wait a whole painstaking month to find out if I won or not. The news guys had a Emmy nomination party at Dave's house and everyone was on some digital device following the twitter feed to see who was nominated next. Here's what I'm up for:

Writer - Short Form
Editor - Short Form
Craft Specialty - Makeup (with Brian and Cindy from Homeward Bound)
Promo - Image - News (with David Saich and Paul DeWitt)
Promotion - News Promo - Campaign (with David Saich and Paul DeWitt)

The Promo Image News is really Dave's. I'm in that one because I helped with that spot. The campaign has some of the time lapse spots I did and Dave's one big spot and Paul did our graphics. So in about a month, I'll be off to Atlanta to find out if I get to take a trophy home!

Katie

Road Trip to Miami

2011-04-08T09:33:00.006-04:00

I went to Miami on a whirlwind road trip to attend the Miami International Film Festival for the 48 Hour Film Project's Filmapalooza. Back in July the film I directed (Touched by Angels) for the 48 hour film project won the city award for best film in Asheville. That put us into the international competition (Filmapalooza.) Even though none of the other team members were able to make it, I managed to get my friend Ashley to drop everything she was doing and come along for the trip. She's just that awesome. So here is a little video I put together. Enjoy.

Katie

ADDY Award Winning PSA

2011-03-03T14:35:00.008-05:00

The PSA I made for Homeward Bound just won two ADDY Awards! The ADDYs are given out by the American Advertising Federation for many different aspects of advertising. They give out Gold and Silver awards, plus Best-in-Show and a Mosaic Award for multiculturalism and diversity in advertising. We took home Gold and the Mosaic Award! All Gold winners are automatically sent to the regional competition and if it wins Gold there, we'll be sent on to the national competition! Attached are some pictures from the Awards Ceremony published by the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Katie

P.S. - here's a link to the PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-waS0ZxaDRo

Rebecca's Visit

2011-02-17T15:28:00.007-05:00

Rebecca finally came home for a visit from China, with her husband and one year old baby. We had lots of family over and a great wedding blessing at the house. It was so good to see Rebecca again and meet my brother-in-law and new nephew. Hopefully it won't be long until they come back for another visit.

Katie

Asheville Hot Air Balloons Commercial Footage

2011-01-27T17:13:00.002-05:00

Here is the hot air balloon ride I took.

Katie

Hot Air Balloon Ride

2011-01-15T20:23:00.008-05:00

Sometimes, I really love my job. Today I went on a hot air balloon ride. Asheville Hot Air Balloons needed a commercial and when they came asking, I jumped at the chance to shoot it. If you've ever had a dream about flying, probably the closest way you can get to that sensation is in a hot air balloon. Whenever I dream about flying, the wind never factors into it. When I was skydiving, I definitely felt the wind and it was a huge rush. Riding in a hot air balloon was more like levitating. It was peaceful and incredible. I'll have a video posted soon from the commercial footage I got. What a trip!

Katie

Ryan and Estee's Wedding

2011-01-12T14:13:00.006-05:00

I shot Ryan and Estee's wedding back in October and it was awesome. Their ceremony and reception were held at on Broadway in Asheville. Dave Saich did an action movie trailer of them for their wedding video. They are such a sweet couple. I had a great time shooting their wedding.

Katie

11pm Timelapse News Promo for WLOS, News13, Asheville

2011-01-03T13:28:00.007-05:00

Here it is. My pièce de résistance. This promo was a long time in the making and was finished just before the year ended. Enjoy.

Katie

Happy Christmas

2010-12-25T14:51:00.002-05:00

I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family. We woke to a magically white Christmas this morning and shared our gift unwrapping with our neighbors, who are like family, and had baked brie and champagne! So decadent and so wonderful. Every day is a gift, but this one came wrapped up special. I hope we all will take a little time to give generously not only to others, but to ourselves as well. Now, off to do some sleding.

Katie

Baby Finn

2010-12-15T23:03:00.007-05:00

I just had the luckiest baby portrait session. The plan was for Finn to be asleep for the potrait session, but babies are unpredictable and Finn decided he didn't want to sleep when he usually does. So we just kept to cross our fingers and hoped he didn't fuss. Boy, did we luck out. He gave us a full twenty minutes of happy cuteness! The result was great awake baby photos with Finn and mom, Brie.

Katie

PSAs for Homeward Bound

2010-11-27T11:30:00.005-05:00

I just finished a new Series of PSAs (Public Service Announcements) for Homeward Bound, a local non-profit in Asheville that helps move homeless people into permanent housing. Check out the one minute spot below:

Katie

Homeward Bound PSA from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

Drift Off 10pm promotion

2010-10-11T20:04:00.001-04:00

Okay here is the underwater spot.

Drift Off from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A promotion for WLOS News13 at 10pm. Shot in Asheville, NC. Featuring Chris Hamilton, Coranna and Eruch Adams, and Jenny Wrobel. Shot entirely with a Nikon D90. Underwater footage acquired with a homemade rig. Special thanks to Leigh Lewis for letting us use her pool.

Katie

Underwater Videography

2010-10-05T00:12:00.001-04:00

I just had my first adventure in underwater videography. I wrote a script for our 10pm news where people are falling asleep in front of the TV and then drifting off...literally. So to do the floating, drifting off shots I put my actors and my camera underwater in a pool. I used the blue of the pool as a giant blue screen and keyed them over background plates of the living rooms.

I have a still camera that shoots HD video in 5 minute bursts. So I had dad cut me some windows in an army ammo can and glue Plexiglas to the front and back. Then I would set my camera to roll, wedge it in the ammo can and seal it up before sinking it underwater. It worked out really well and my makeshift underwater rig didn't leak a drop. That video will be coming soon. In the mean time here are some photos of the underwater housing I used.

Katie

Jason's Head Shots

2010-09-28T21:17:00.005-04:00

Anyone need a good actor? I just did some head shots for Jason Garcia. He has a great voice too!

Katie

Estee and Ryan

2010-09-20T23:48:00.009-04:00

I work with Estee and Ryan at WLOS. They're engaged and getting married in mid-October and I was thrilled that they asked me to shoot their wedding. We did an engagement session recently at Dave Saich's house, or rather his barn. They are such a cute couple. I'm so happy they found each other.

Katie

Wilmington, North Carolina

2010-09-20T23:43:00.002-04:00

I visited Wilmington, North Carolina for the first time ever and I loved it. I hadn't realized how much I missed the beach. I got to stay with my good friend Ashley who I worked with on ships. She rents a room in a gorgeous house in the Historic district. We just played all weekend and it was fantastic! I can't guess what one of the plumbing fixtures is. Do you know? The faucet was labeled "F" and "C" and I did figure out that that is French for hot and cold: Froid and Chaud.

Katie

Time Lapse AM News Spot

2010-07-24T14:32:00.005-04:00

Morning News Promotions for WLOS from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A time lapse spot that I shot for WLOS in Asheville, NC.

Continuing with the year of awesome videos, I've started dabbling in time lapse. This is my favorite spot so far. I went out and shot night after night, experimenting with settings until I had something I really loved. I plan on doing another time lapse night time shoot to promote our 11pm news, but that won't be for a while. I have another spot that I'm working on now that will take a while and I need to get my camera professionally cleaned before I shoot more nighttime stuff.

Katie

P.S. - if you have a good Internet connection and want to see this spot in high definition, you have to click on the link to take you to Vimeo's web page. Then click on the 4 little arrows in the bottom right corner of the video to make it go full screen.

Weather Promo

2010-07-15T16:54:00.001-04:00

Continuing my journey through videos of awesomeness. I made a weather promo for WLOS to promote our web page.

Spring Weather Spot from Katie Damien on Vimeo.

A spot I produced for WLOS to promote our weather. Shot at the New French Bar in downtown Asheville and featuring Don Brodie of Hendersonville with Nikki of Greenville, and Tess and Jack of Asheville. Thank you everyone for making this an awesome shoot.

Just Won Best Film at the 48 Hour Film Festival

2010-07-01T23:16:00.004-04:00

The movie that I just directed, shot and edited with the team "the young adults" just won the Best Film award at the 48 Hour Film Festival. That means we're going to the national competition!

In addition, we also took home Best Sound Design, Best Actress, Best Overall Line of Dialouge, and the Audience Award. I'm still on cloud nine! If we're chosen as one of the top ten in the next competition, our movie will play at the Cannes Film Festival. I can't imagine what the competition will be like, it's just so exciting to be in the running.

So where can you see this amazingly awesome film? Check it out on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXuVGiLguUU

Katie

48 Hour Film Project shoot

2010-06-21T17:11:00.009-04:00

I just wrapped up work on the 48 hour film project. I joined a team already assembled, save for a cinematographer and editor. A friend of a friend got in touch with me and I joined forces with the team "The Young Adults." It was an amazing experience. In the end I wound up directing as well as shooting and editing. Our team was wonderful and very well organized. Our movie came out great and I will share more soon.

If you want to see it watch my movie ("Touched by Angels") with some of the others from the 48 hour film project they're screening at the Asheville Pizza and Brewing on Merrimon on Tuesday @ 4pm, Wednesday @ 10pm or join me Thursday @7pm. Get tickets in advance, I'm told these screenings tend to sell out. These pictures are of us shooting the last scene of the movie on a rooftop downtown. We crashed my friend Dave's surprise birthday party and gave Dave a cameo. It was perfect!

Katie

LEAF

2010-05-13T16:46:00.006-04:00

The Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) is an annual event that happens in Black Mountain. I had been meaning to go for years and hadn't been able to until this year. It was a bizarre and interesting mix of everything having to do with art. There were performers, crafters, musicians, even the healing arts were represented. The areal artists who do flying trapeze lessons that Becca and I did a long time ago were there and when I glanced down at one of their signs I saw ME! In the photo at the top right, that's me grabbing that dude's arms. Cool event.

Katie

My heros

2010-05-07T09:47:00.003-04:00

It occurs to me that I haven't introduced the team of creative individuals I work with on a daily basis. So here's a group shot of us at the office. Actually, we were hanging out in the break room with Spiderman and the Flash. Then, I'm not sure what happened. I think someone made a comment about spandex and that was it. All hell broke loose. Anyway, this is my team in the Creative Services department at WLOS.

Katie

The Oscar Party

2010-03-23T23:13:00.015-04:00

The Oscar Party was by far the most exciting yet. So many costumes, so much fun. We had a full house, and were wishing it was larger so we could fit more people! Those that came were all decked out. Here's just a small sample. My new roommate, Carie, is the one with the kimono.

Katie

Videos of Awesomeness

2010-02-19T21:20:00.004-05:00

There are two projects that I’m attached to for the South East Regional Emmy Awards, which take place in June. They’re both station image promotions. Really Dave did them and I helped, but because I helped I get to get an Emmy statue if we win. I also had two commercials in competition for the local ADDY awards, but I found out this week that neither of them were even nominated for those awards. I’m really bummed about that, and I was disappointed that I didn’t have enough work from this year to enter anything in for an Emmy on my own.

So I’ve decided to redouble my efforts through out the year so that come next Emmy season, I’ll be ready. And to kick off my coming year of amazing work, I did two College Basketball Opens. These are the opening titles that played before our televised basketball games. There’s one for the men’s games and one for the women’s games and they’re both posted on vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user2464102/ videos So feel free to check them out and look for many more videos of awesomeness to come.

Katie

Cookie Bake

2010-01-05T14:02:00.010-05:00

I forgot to post the Christmas cookie bake. Back before Christmas we had our annual cookie bake party. Lots of dough was eaten, lots of sampling done, and some cookies were finished in the process. And yes, Mae is wearing a doggie snuggie...not my idea.

Katie

Cinema 2009

2009-12-30T14:32:00.001-05:00

It's the end of the year and you know what that means...heavens no, not dieting. That's right, time to start thinking about the Oscars! Here is an amazing culmination of the movies of 2009 cut together beautifully by some guy I've never heard of, but thanks to YouTube you too can see it. Start thinking about those costumes. The Oscar party is just around the corner.

Blizzard: Day 3

2009-12-26T11:35:00.006-05:00

Here it is. The end of my snowed in Blizzard days. By the third day, we were covered in snow and it took on a pretty glittering quality in the late morning sun. While I was in the hold up in the quilt room I made three stockings for my house and hung them on my staircase when I got home. Even if your Christmas wasn't white, I hope it was fun just the same. Merry Christmas everyone.

Katie

The Blizzard: Day 2

2009-12-22T19:25:00.006-05:00

At the end of day one we lost our power. Day two didn't turn up any power either, but it proved a most productive day. Mom made a snowman and snow angels. I attempted to sled, but didn't do too well. And dad shoveled snow so that we could walk from the house to the road and dug out the van so we could drive, not that we really went anywhere. The little cold I had developed turned nasty and I ended up curled up in mom's quilt room working away on a project you'll see in day three's chronicle.

Katie

The Blizzard: Day 1

2009-12-20T12:08:00.008-05:00

Our white Christmas came a little early this year. We had a massive winter storm dump over a foot of snow on us over night. Mom and I took the dogs out for a short walk. It was brutal and beautiful. I almost didn't make it over from work, but now I'm snowed in for the weekend with a nice woodburning stove, a sled, lots of hot cholcolate and christmas cookies, and mom's quilt room at my disposal. It doesn't get much better than this.

Katie

My new roommate

2009-12-16T00:12:00.000-05:00

Richard is my new roommate. You might recognize him from the sniper pistachio nut commercial I did (neither commercial made it into the top ten of the competition.) We were talking right after the shoot and he mentioned that he was looking for a place in Asheville and I mentioned that I had a room to rent. He moved in a few days later. Richard is an actor, model, and masseur among other things. He's currently working on starting a non-profit, but in the mean time he needed head shots. So we went around town in the freezing cold and then ended up shooting some at home. I traded the photo session for a massage. It was a great trade!

Katie

Game Night

2009-12-12T15:50:00.000-05:00

A while back I hosted a game night at my house. Everyone had a blast. Ashley was over to visit, and you might recognize Tim making a funny face in one shot from the Dating Game I did. Throw a game night party, or go to one, they are loads of fun. Just have everyone bring over their favorite games and play.

Katie

Commercial Contest for Pistachio Nuts

2009-11-30T10:50:00.005-05:00

I made two commercials for the Wonderful Pistachio Nut Commercial Contest. You can check them out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XhOsalMd_0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed0Pj5Lsox4

Richard is the sniper he works as an actor and model among other things. The angel is my neighbor Annie who was nice enough to be in my commercial with no notice. I shot them with my still camera and put the commercials together frame by painstaking frame. It was long and tedious, but I really like the results.

The judges will go through almost 600 entries to come out with the top 10 they like best. Then everyone will vote for the best one out of the 10 on youtube. So stay tuned for more.

Katie

Meet Sadie Rose

2009-11-15T13:29:00.001-05:00

I got a new dog! Her name is Sadie Rose and she's so cute. She needed a home when her family had a new baby and their dogs and children became too much for them to handle. A friend from work was walking around asking if anyone had a home for a Boston Terrier that needed one. And that was that.

I've only had her for a few days, but she is already sleeping with me in my bed. She is two years old and she's house broken, but doesn't have much training beyond that. We're working on sitting, walking on a leash, chewing only toys and not being afraid of the kitchen.

Katie

Scapegoat Marketing Shoot

2009-11-11T10:54:00.000-05:00

"Scapegoat" is my friend Dave's feature film. It's taken him about three years from start to finish, but he's finally there. He needed some marketing and publicity photo for his movie and I volunteered. I took these photos just before his screening. He has entered the film in the Sundance Film Festival and is looking into other festivals.

Katie

Scapegoat Screening

2009-11-09T11:04:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago I shot stills for Dave's Screening of his feature film "Scapegoat." It was an awesome event held at the Carolina Cinemas. These are some of the portraits I took of people at cocktail hour before the screening. I'm hoping to have an online gallery up soon for people to order prints from. I'll let you know as soon as it's up.

Katie

Paul Visits...and installs my door knocker!

2009-10-31T23:47:00.000-04:00

Well the door knocker wasn't the only thing Paul did for my house. He also put up my medicine cabinet and helped me move furniture. Be careful when you come to visit me, I might put you to work :)

The knocker is an antique and a special housewarming present from my family. It's a good match for the photo at the bottom that I took in Spain. I love my new, old door knocker!

Katie

Mountain Climbing

2009-10-10T23:56:00.009-04:00

When I was a kid Monkey bars were my favorite playground play thing. I have never attempted mountain climbing before, but there's this climbing wall downtown on the street and I've seen people climbing it all the time. I've seen little kids scamper up the thing like it was nothing. So I figured, if they can do that, so can I. I'm in pretty good shape. How hard could it be?

Well let me tell you, it's hard! Paul and I went to tackle the rock climbing wall when he was visiting here and at least he made it half way up the thing, I couldn't even go that far. My forearms and hands were like jello. I tried a few times, but the longer I climbed, the more my strength waned. I finally had to call it quits for the big wall outside. I felt a little better when I made it to the top of a wall that was inside and wasn't leaning out at an angle. I would love to do it again, but I think I will have to strengthen my armpit muscles. That's right, I said armpit muscles. Did you know you have muscles in your armpits? Well you do, and if you go rock climbing you will realize that they are there the next day.

Katie

Portraits

2009-10-10T11:01:00.000-04:00

I did a photo session a while back with Russ Bowen, a news anchor and reporter at the station. Russ and I worked together nights when I was a news editor. He was volunteering at a charity dinner and needed a photo to help promo the event. We had a fun time shooting. Russ is great in front of the camera, its no wonders he’s a good anchor.

I managed to get a photo of Dave while I was at it. Dave is the guy I work with in promotions. You may remember him from a previous chronicle I did when we were shooting a promo in Brevard. He stands in front of a camera with the same reluctance a child would display going to the dentist. I only convinced him to stand in for me because I needed help adjusting my lights for Russ’s shoot. I got one really awesome shot of him that I really like, but that’s as much of a smile as I could get out of him.

Katie

Kyle Visits

2009-10-06T18:38:00.005-04:00

Kyle came up for a visit from Florida and we went berry picking at Graveyard fields. It was the perfect day for it and we had a beautiful drive on the parkway once we got past the fog. Kyle was the first guest to stay in the guest room of my new house. I have more chronicles to come so stay tuned.

Katie

I finally bought a house!

2009-08-22T18:59:00.007-04:00

I finally bought a house, for real this time. It’s paid for and everything. I just started moving today and it is only now that I realized how much crap I truly have. Moving was an all day event that took three strong, burly men from work to accomplish. I’ve attached some pictures of my house before I started moving stuff in. It’s a brand new construction, two stories, three bedrooms, one and half baths on a little lot that is right next to the train tracks. Literally, the train is a neighbor of mine. I’m sure in a week I’ll know all the regular conductors. Well, I’m about to go sleep there for the first time! I’ll send more pictures once I get everything moved in. A big thanks to my brawny men, Todd, Jim, and Dave for helping me move.

Katie

The Dating Game

2009-08-20T23:42:00.007-04:00

The Asheville Brewing Company is one of my favorite places to go in town. You can see a movie on the big screen for three bucks, eat pizza, and drink beer...all at the same time. So I was on their website to see what movie was playing when I noticed a sign up for a live dating game they were going to start doing once a month. I signed up and then promptly forgot about it until I got a phone call one day.

I ended up playing in the game show and the dude who was asking questions picked me! We just went out on our "date" tonight and it was great. The guy's name is Tim and he's so cute. I can't wait to spend more of the prizes we won.

Katie

Shooting in Brevard

2009-08-16T22:44:00.006-04:00

Dave and I frequently find ourselves running all over Western North Carolina collecting footage for promotions. On this particular day we ended un in Brevard, NC and I took my still camera along. The town is really cute, except for the lifesized toy soldiers outside one store, they were creepy.

Katie

News 13 Image Spot

2009-07-28T21:00:00.003-04:00

This is the Mack daddy of promotions. Once a year we do a news image promo. The image promo basically promotes our news product. It’s a big deal and this year was no exception. Dave, my comrade at arms, and I ran all over Western North Carolina collecting footage, we took a news truck out and did some time-lapse shots around downtown, we went on location with our news team as they worked, we even arranged a rooftop shoot with our news talent. In this video there’s a thirty second spot, a fifteen second, and a morning image spot. Enjoy!

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llLaVK3Rktk

Promotions

2009-07-12T22:44:00.004-04:00

Here's a spot I just did to promote a news series called: Person of the Week. It's a great series all about people doing good things in the community. This is the news promotion side of what I do.

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xJCc89i0hs

My commercials

2009-07-04T15:10:00.003-04:00

Well, it looks like I won’t be buying that house after all. Things got hairy in the end. After I had my inspections done, we found that all the pluming and electric work had to be ripped out and redone. At first the seller was going to take another 5,000 off the price of the house, which was the estimated amount it would cost to fix the problems, but the bank didn’t want to loan money on a house that wasn’t livable because it was too risky for them. At that point the seller needed to make the repairs, but they refused. I don’t know what they will do, but it’s out of my hands now. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Soon I’ll be out looking again. There are still plenty of houses on the market and prices are still going down. It’s still a great time to buy. So the search goes on. I’m lucky to have a really great realtor.

On a brighter note, work is great. I’m making commercials, both promotional pieces for the news and local commercials for retailers. I’ve attached links to two really fun commercials I did for a mattress store. I know mattress stores don’t sound very fun and exciting, but this owner is open to doing new and different things and he has a great local actor who writes his commercials for him. I produced these commercials and Mark Warwick is the actor in them and also the writer. Next time, I’ll share a news promotion I did.

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7O3DJa-AKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7xNLiyXdOs

Paul visits

2009-06-19T22:13:00.001-04:00

Paul stopped by for a visit on his motorcycling road trip. We had tried once before to get to Mt. Mitchell last time he visited and like the last time we met with defeat. Before the road was washed out, this time it was too foggy and rainy to see anything when we finally got close. We beat the rain down the mountain and I still managed to snap a few pictures. Paul also helped me haul another load of bricks. Beware, if you come for a visit, I might put you to work doing manual labor :)

I may have jumped the gun in saying “I bought a house.” I should have said I’m under contract to buy a house. You’d think it was as good as bought, but in this case not so much. I’ve been going though paperwork for about a month and until yesterday everything was on track for me to close next Thursday, but in the inspection process we found some problems with the pluming and electric. The seller agreed to pay me the amount to fix the problems at closing, but the estimates came back higher than they were allowed to pay. So we had to take the money off the price of the house. Then the lender got all the paperwork and said, we couldn’t do that either the problems have to be fixed before they will approve the loan. So that’s where I am right now. I have to wait for them to fix the problems, get the house to pass inspection, and then get the lender to okay the loan. I’ll keep you updated and I’ll be sure to let you all know when I have actually “bought a house.”

Katie

Bricks!

2009-06-14T21:47:00.003-04:00

Mom and I just finished salvaging a gazillion bricks this weekend. There was an old brick house in Asheville that’s been torn down and is going to be replaced with new green condos. Part of making the whole project green is in recycling all the construction waste from tearing down the old house. They’ve had scrap metal people come in and take the metal recycling and they’ve opened the loose bricks to the public to take. When mom read about it in the paper, she got me out of bed and we hightailed it down there with the van and started loading up. We were amazed that there was only one other person there when we arrived.

As the morning wore on, more people came and went, but only a few stayed. Most people were ill prepared to haul bricks. They came in sandals with no gloves or tools, as if they expected a bunch of pristine bricks would be stacked in neat piles along the sidewalk where a valet would take their car and load it for them while they waited. Fat chance.

It worked out really well for me and mom. People would walk down to where we were and either see that there was more work involved than they were willing to do and just turn right back around and leave, or they would daintily scoop up a few bricks and not come back. It was like we had the place to ourselves. We made five trips back and forth and now I’m going to make a walled garden in my new yard and mom has a few landscaping things she is going to do around the house. It was backbreaking work and my arms feel like wet spaghetti noodles, but it was defiantly worth it.

Katie

Rebecca is Getting Married!

2009-06-03T21:40:00.006-04:00

For those that haven’t heard, my sister Rebecca is getting married. She met another professor while teaching abroad in China and they have decided to get married and live there together. They will spend this Christmas with his family and next Christmas with ours where they will have a second ceremony here in the United States. His name is Chun Xiao, but I call him Mr. Yang because I can pronounce that. He teaches art history and calligraphy and they met when he was taking a class that Rebecca was teaching.

I know you’re wondering what pictures of dew drops on leaves have to do with Rebecca getting married. The answer is- nothing. This was just a tomato bush that I planted and thought looked cool. If you want to see what Mr. Yang looks like, send me an email.

Katie

Photography Show at Green Sage in Asheville

2009-05-25T20:03:00.005-04:00

My travel photography has found its way into Green Sage coffee shop in downtown Asheville. So if you’re in the area stop by and have a look. It will be up until July where it will be moved again into the Lobster Trap restaurant.

Katie

I Bought a House!

2009-05-23T20:39:00.006-04:00

I haven’t been posting Chronicles lately because I’ve been busy looking for a house and I’ve finally I settled on one. I close on the 26th of June. My new house is little (around 500sq. ft.) but it has a full basement and sits on about a quarter acre of property. It’s inside Asheville city limits, but the dead end road it’s on is quiet…except for the trains that will rumble by on the tracks that aren’t too far away. I think this house will suite me well.

I’ve attached some of the pictures that were listed with the house. When I move in, I’ll take some of my own. I’ve been waiting, and bargaining, and probably even insulting people with my low offers for months now, but it’s finally paid off with this very good deal. Since I’m a first time homebuyer I’ll be getting $8,000 from Uncle Sam and with interest rates really low my mortgage isn’t bad either. Yep, this is a good time to buy and I’m excited to finally own my own home.

Katie

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

2009-03-27T19:28:00.009-04:00

I got a promotion! On April 1st I will be moving from the news department at the station to the creative services department where I will produce commercials and promos.

On one of my last weekends working in news, I decided to shoot a story on my own. I profiled a family who were in the middle of a journey to overcome obesity and the personal trainer who got them started. I've attached the link for the video that aired here. Enjoy.

Katie

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6oU5ul3euU

More from Rebecca

2009-03-25T02:48:00.001-04:00

Rebecca sent more pictures. She says spring is starting to bloom around her. Rebecca stays in one of the apartments in the building on the opposite side of the lake pictured here. She really likes it over there and is thinking about going back again next year. She has to return home to renew her visa, but that might only be for a short while. She’s still working on learning Chinese and says she can ask for food and people understand her, but when she tries to speak Chinese to her students they just laugh.

Katie

Pictures from Rebecca in China

2009-03-21T10:57:00.002-04:00

Rebecca sent some pictures from China. This is the sunset on the campus she works at. She said she’s working up to getting herself in a photo, but it’s hard enough taking pictures of things. She’s studying a lot and sounds very busy, but I think she really likes it over there.

Katie

The Quiet Fluffy Stuff

2009-03-08T22:41:00.004-04:00

The best snow of the winter has come at the very end. Even late in the morning when I finally woke up the snow still layered each and every branch. Even though I’m not a fan of cold weather, I couldn’t help but get excited to go out and tromp around in the quiet fluffy stuff.

Katie

Splashing in Puddles

2009-03-03T02:25:00.005-05:00

First came the slush, then came the snow. We had a major snow storm that dropped buckets over the last two days. On the first day it snowed a little and it rained a little. Sam and I went for a walk and along the way we decided to splash some puddles. Never underestimate the power of puddle splashing to bring back your youth. There is something inherently thrilling about dirtying your clothes in the mud. I have to admit, Sam is a better puddle splasher than I, and I have to give my thanks to Sam for grabbing the shot of my moment playing in the mud. Next the snow.

Katie

Art in the Airport

2009-02-27T11:13:00.002-05:00

From March thru July three of my photographs are going to be hanging in an exhibit in the Asheville Airport. Anyone flying in or going to the airport should check it out.

Katie

The Katie Chronicles

2009-02-23T14:09:00.007-05:00

It was a great night for Oscar. Hugh Jackman was the perfect host, though I think my favorite part was the very end of the Barbra Walter’s Special where he did a lap dance for Barbara. People turned out for the Oscar party, despite the frigid weather, in some great costumes. The Champaign flowed and laughs abounded. Brian (in the suit and fedora circa Revolutionary Road) beat out everyone with 17 correct winners and Michael collected the razzy with only 2 correct. So till next year, get out to the movies and keep an eye out for future Oscar gold.

Katie

Nice Day for a Picnic

2009-02-15T22:56:00.004-05:00

We’ve been lucky enough to have perfect picnics weather, so Sam and I took advantage. We decided to have a nice long picnic in a field by Warren Wilson and wouldn’t you know there happened to be a guy practicing his spear throwing. That’s right I said spear throwing…only in Asheville.

Katie

A Quick Interview With Me

2009-01-28T19:46:00.002-05:00

Interviewer: Aubrey Stevenson

1. I saw in your 'about me' section that you love anything Coldplay. Tell me how music influences your life and the one album you would pick to take with you on a hot air balloon ride!

I use music when I'm writing. It's like the video accompaniment just plays itself in my head. If I'm feeling good, a little reggae will have me bouncing through the day. If I feel bad, Tom Waits will commiserate with me. If I had to take one album with me, I'd say Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head." That's good for all occasions.

2. What are the most difficult and the most rewarding things about photographing animals?

The most difficult thing about working with animals is getting them to be still when you want them still and getting them to move when you want them to move. The most rewarding thing is getting the shot; because usually there's so much work and time that has gone into it when you finally get something good, it's really satisfying.

3. I see you live in North Carolina. Do you like living there? Why or why not?

I love Asheville and the mountains. I hate the cold though. I miss Florida and the humidity. It sounds insane, I know, but when you have dry skin and perpetually cold feet, a tropical environment is just what the doctor ordered. Asheville is a neat place to be. There are good people here. I have trouble staying put in one place for any length of time, but I'm trying.

4. What inspired you most when deciding to write your first novel?

I think being rejected from the master's program I had applied to was my biggest motivator. Most of the time when I set out to do something, I expect to get it. It's arrogant, but that's me. When I didn't get into the program, I just said, "fine, I'll do it myself."

The story idea came when I saw a quote from the bible about Nephilim and an interpretation about them being half human half angel. I was like, "I read the bible, and I don't remember that part." So I looked it up and there it was. I thought, "how cool is that. What would I do if I suddenly discovered I was half angel?" and the story grew from there.

5. I saw your short animated film. Very funny! Any thoughts about bigger film projects in the future?

I have a couple of ideas. I'd like to do a horror film. I've been wanting to shoot a feature for a while now, but it's all about the story. If you don't have a really good story, the rest is irrelevant. I'm in development now trying to flush out a script. I really want to finish my book first so I can move on and get to movie making.

Here's the directions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The Magic of Childhood

2009-01-28T01:51:00.006-05:00

Being a kid is just magic. It’s a time when opening a peanut shell and finding a nut inside is like discovering a pearl in an oyster. In childhood stairs work better than slides and no matter how bruised your butt gets, going down them never gets old.

Katie

Baby Brandon

2009-01-17T02:49:00.005-05:00

Remember a while back how I said the two most difficult things you can shoot are animals and children? Well I must just love the challenge of it, because I had to go and tackle the children half of that feat. I was so excited that my trip down to Florida happened to be right after my cousin’s baby was born. I’ve never shot a newborn and I was ready to go all Anne Geddes on him. Brandon, the baby, had different plans.

The first night I was there, he couldn’t settle down and sleep. He also didn’t want to lay down, or be held in any of the ways I wanted him held. He would seem to relax and then when everything was in position, he would start crying. I did get a few nice shots that night, but it wasn’t nearly what I had hoped. Luckily I was able to go back the next day and Brandon slept through the entire shoot. I guess what I’ve learned from all this is that children and animals work on their own schedules and you just have to be patient enough to wait for them…that and catching them while they’re sleeping helps too.

Katie

Jacksonville, FL

2009-01-13T11:32:00.004-05:00

It’s been years since I’ve seen Carl and Zack and I’m amazed how much they’ve both changed since I saw them last. Everyone told me how tall Carl was, but it didn’t sink in until he was standing next to me... and he was the tallest! We had fun shooting fireworks, that’s Zack shooting a roman candle. And I couldn’t resist getting some pictures of their dog Kaylee whose tongue sticks out like Maes.

Katie

Kayaking in Jacksonville

2009-01-11T11:03:00.005-05:00

Before going to South Florida, I spent a day in Jacksonville with Aunt Marnie, Uncle Todd, Carl and Zack. Aunt Marnie and I went on a kayaking trip through a tributary that lead to the St. Johns River. It was eighty degrees out and I had to borrow flip flops and shorts. I got a few turtle shots, but my favorite is a turtle butt as the turtle slipped away into the water. We passed a canoe with a pet parrot at the bow; I thought that was pretty neat.

Katie

Denmark, South carolina

2009-01-09T01:40:00.005-05:00

I’m just back from a whirl wind trip to Florida. I had just three days I could take off from work, so I decided to use them to go see my family in Florida and meet my cousin’s brand new baby. On the trip down I took a small country highway through South Carolina and I passed some really neat old southern style mansions. I had been making good time up until I decided to stop and take pictures, but it was worth it. Most of these houses were in or around the small town of Denmark, South Carolina.

Katie

My first Animation

2009-01-01T22:57:00.002-05:00

The animation wars have begun. It all started when Ben, a friend of mine at work, showed me an animation he had made. It was a simple movie, but it inspired me to make a simple animation myself. So armed with clear plastic notebook sleeves, paper, and some dry erase markers I came up with the following movie. After I showed my movie to Ben, it was on. He is now working on a claymation movie, to which I will answer with a claymation of my own. For now, here is the first animation. I estimate, it took me about 4 hours to draw this out, and 2 hours to edit.

Katie

ktdamien has shared a video with you on YouTube:

The Horror
A stickman discovers his hometown is over run with zombies. Will he make it out alive?45 seconds of cheezy animated horror movie goodness. Drawn using paper, clear plastic sleeves, colored pencils, and a dry erase marker.

If you can't see the link above, copy and paste this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qftYDY2EzYM

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T12:25:00.005-05:00

In the film and photo world there are two notoriously difficult subjects to work with: children and animals. I chose the latter. When deciding on a subject for a holiday greeting, our dogs just seemed like the natural choice. They’re fairly well behaved animals, they know how to sit and stay, they even rollover sometimes when pressed. I was sure with a little bit of cheese for bribery I could easily get my Christmas shots.

Well, after a few failed attempts to get them together, I decided to shoot each dog separately and photoshop them together later. Huney (the hound) didn’t care to have anything on her head which she made it abundantly clear with her expression. Mae West (with the tongue) was the consummate professional and was fairly sedate and easy to pose. Her only problem was that whenever a “treat” came out, she would immediately rollover three times to prove how worthy she was to receive said treat. Silvia (the young pug) is persistently hyper and the mere fact that we could get her to sit still for a few seconds at a time was miraculous in itself. So here it is my deceptively simple Christmas greeting. Enjoy!

Katie

A Night Out/In

2008-12-21T01:11:00.007-05:00

Sam, Mom and I just had a fabulous night out or in rather, watching the new Sex and the City movie over at our neighbor’s house. Of course we had to dress for the occasion and though I wouldn’t give the movie my highest rating, the night was a smashing success. The dogs… well they were lazing about today and are thrown into this Chronicle for extra cuteness.

Katie

Skiing at Chataloochee

2008-12-20T13:24:00.006-05:00

The Cataloochee ski area in Maggie valley was having its annual canned food drive, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to go skiing. Sam and Ashley had never been skiing before, being from Florida and Louisiana respectively, so we all decided to go up and ski for the day. Sam took to it like someone who was born around snow and by the end she and I had progressed to a more difficult slope. Ashley had a little more trouble her first time out, but she kept at it and we all had a blast. On the bunny slope there was one little girl who hadn’t so much learned how to stop as she had learned that sliding down the slope on her butt would eventually make her come to a stop. One time she came careening at me and ended up stopping right under me. I snapped a quick shot of her in her stopping pose.

Katie

Cookie Bake

2008-12-14T13:40:00.005-05:00

Friends and neighbors came over for our annual cookie bake. But the cookie bake isn’t just about eating and watching Die Hard 1 and 2, (our idea of Christmas movies) it is a working holiday party. Everyone took part in rolling dough, cutting and frosting their cookies, and of course doing the occasional quality control taste testing.

Katie

The WLOS Bear

2008-12-11T13:15:00.005-05:00

The news station has a bear. Well, we don’t exactly have it, but it’s shown up a few times and everyone gets so excited when it’s in the parking lot, they all run outside to see. Sometimes I think they get too close. I was standing in the bed of my truck with one of news photographers when the bear wandered down in our direction and we both got some great shots. We think it’s blind in one eye and might be sick. It was way too thin and didn’t seem to be bothered by the crowd near by. We called the park service and they said they couldn’t do anything so we stopped using the outside garbage cans in hopes it will move on.

For those who don’t know, my sister, Rebecca, is now working abroad teaching advanced English at a University in China. She is going through training where she teaches young students, but at the start of the new semester she will be teaching college students. She’s not very good at keeping in touch with people and I expect if you tried to email her, she wouldn’t respond. She just asked that the few people who are getting her emails pass them along to other people who are interested so here are some excerpts from emails she’s sent:

Katie

“First as I viewed the plane, it was like this big white bird thing with small narrow eyes and pilots for pupils.”

“The Beijing airport is pretty busy and thank goodness my new friends helped me get through all of the security lines and bag checks.”

“I have arrived and my place is on the first floor, there are neighbors who live up on the second floor, and they invited me for dinner, then the people who I will be working with invited me for dinner also. So I had two invitations on the first night, I feel like quite the social success.”

“I have an extra bedroom and one of my toilets [Western] flushes really good, so if you want to come and visit keep that in mind.”

“I have three new friends today. I can't pronounce their names so I just call them by the first letter A, B, and L. But they took me shopping and thank goodness because the grocery story is three stories.”

“On the first day the kids were so excited to see me, their new English laoshi. When I arrived, they all ran up to touch me and say halloo. I was in a swarm, holding their hands all the way up stairs to the teacher's office. And then under the desk, more children were hiding so that they could see me too. Once everyone was shooed out of the office, I had some hot water and went to class. Here the kids like to repeat every word that you say. And when I started talking, some of them looked so confused. Their little faces scrunched up as they were trying to understand the new English accent. It seems they can understand English, only if it is spoken with a Chinese accent.”

“Apparently if you want cheese in China, you have to go all the way to Beijing. My upstairs neighbor brought me back some today; I am very excited about it…I also never thought anything could be cheesier than Spanish soap operas, until now. The Chinese may not have a lot of cheese, but they certainly have a lot of cheesze.”

“My evening classes with the adults are the most fun… I gave them each a piece of Dove and told them to smell it, not eat it, and then I made everyone tell me a few descriptive words about the smell. Some people said that the smell made them think of sitting beside a peaceful river, some said that they felt greedy, and some said that it just made them smile. And I told them that there were no wrong answers.”

Cover Shoot

2008-11-22T22:58:00.003-05:00

The cover shoot for the catalog I was working on, didn’t go as well as I would have liked. I haven’t seen the finished product yet, but I did get to see the cover attached here. There were a number of different factors that wreaked havoc on the day. If I could do it again, I would not agree to do so many different looks and set ups in such a limited time frame. Susan Rienhart, a writer for the Citizen-Times and our model for the day, was a real trooper and Sam did a great job as my assistant. She even shot the behind the scenes photo of me.

Catalog Shoot

2008-11-20T02:01:00.007-05:00

Here are some highlights from the catalog shoot I finished last month. I had to shoot a myriad of products, which made the job very challenging, but also very interesting. I shot everything on a white background so they could all be easily cut out and placed on different color backgrounds for the final catalog. Next up, the cover shoot.

Katie

Fall Snow

2008-10-31T01:21:00.005-04:00

Ah, Fall. The cool crisp air, the warm, vibrant leaves, the snow…yes, I said snow. I’m not a fan of the cold, but I say if it’s going to get cold enough to snow, it may as well. Freezing cold weather without snow is like crème brulee without crusty caramelized top, and what’s the fun in that. So I guess if it has to be freezing this early in the year, it might as well snow, and man did it ever. Our brightly colored leaves were blanked with fat white flakes of it and what a magnificent sight.

Katie

Parade of Homes

2008-10-19T20:52:00.004-04:00

I’ve been shooting the most amazing homes in Asheville for our local Parade of Homes Contest for the paper. I got to go out, peruse, admire, and photograph a hand full of some really unique houses in the area. If I had a few million kicking around, I might be tempted to snatch one of these up.

Katie

Flying Trapeze

2008-10-05T20:56:00.007-04:00

How does that flying trapeze song go? Someone flies through the air with greatest of ease? Liars. Doing the flying trapeze is really difficult. The song writers only picked those words because they rhyme. I had the great fortune to have a flying trapeze lesson and I flew through the air with great difficulty. It was a lot of fun though, I had a blast. There are some flying trapeze artists in town who are giving lessons for a month. If you are in the Asheville area and have always dreamed of running away to join the circus, here is your chance for a taste. You can find all the info you need at the following site. Click on Flying trapeze:

http://www.ashevilleaerialarts.com/

Katie

New Catalog Shoot Coming Up

2008-10-04T02:09:00.006-04:00

When it rains, it pours and I have been in a deluge of work over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been prepping for a catalog shoot that I just became the primary photographer for. I’ll be shooting clothing, food, and artwork, among other things. I’ve attached the spec sheet of clothing that I shot. I also attached some of the pieces that I sent as samples of my product photography. On top of that, I’ve been shooting gorgeous houses for the parade of homes for the newspaper’s website, and I’ll be sending highlights from that soon. For now, I need to catch up on some sleep. More news to come.

Katie