Trippin'

Ok, and now for a few trip photos and not just long rants exposing how much of an old iritated woman I am.

First of all, as far as pictures go, no they are not THAT beautiful... it's a beautiful place, but it's hot and wet and sandy and we were relaxing so there was no hauling around of the Canon... plus which the Canon desperatley needs to be cleaned. Instead you are subjected to crappy fuji point and shoot pictures... but since no one really loves to see all that many vacation photos of others, somehow i'm sure you'll survive.

This is the beach directly outside (about 30 feet outside)
our room... soooo beautiful. And yes, a Corona commerical
in the making.

John at Smuggler's Cove on our first day. Pretty
Good snorkeling.... ridiculously clear water.

John enjoying a pina colada from a beach
vendor at Smuggler's Cove.

Our 'three' shadows on Cane Garden Bay Beach.

The view on our drive - this is Cane Garden Bay
Beach on Tortola.

Hard to have tension just looking at this pic...

We took a day sail charter and went out to a
couple different islands, did some snorkeling,
saw 'the baths' and hung out on the boat.

Snorkeling by Cooper Island.

From the beach at Cooper Island... our boat is just beyond
that palm leaf.

From the boat looking looking out on Virgin Gorda.

"The Baths" - Virgin Gorda

Going for the water... gotta keep hydrated.

Always the most flattering pic you can take.

Eating some lunch on our balcony... Rough Life.

On our sail...

I'm Back... and a Rant.

So we're back. Boo! But at least we had a good time and it was so great to get away. I'm sure I'll post pictures and stories soon, although they're nothing to write home about.... I was hardly about to drag my nice camera out into the hot, humid, wet, sandy areas we were in, and there is no art with a point and shoot, haha. (Glad i didn't i totally have sand in my little crap camera's lense.) But we were about reeeelllllaaaxxxinggg...and that's really what it was all about.... mmm. I do also have a few jobs to edit that I must get to quickly, so we'll see when I can deal w/ the vacation photos!

And now I wanted to relay this story, in hopes that perhaps someone can tell me why this type of person annoys me SO bad. It's probably just plain hypocritical for me to be this annoyed... but oh well! :)

Here is the scenario: After a long day of travel and several time zones we are now in baggage claim in SLC. It is midnight essentially. There is a large crowd of people at baggage claim all waiting for the revolving wheels to start turning and bags to start appearing. To our right John and I watch a couple girls hug and squeel, obviously two came to pick up the third. Fairly young - I'd venture a guess at 19-20-21. I must, because it is important later, describe what they look like. One has jeans, tshirt, jacket. Average. One is in basically pajamas. It's late, so acceptable. The third girl is wearing a black 'newsboy cap', a very short black dressish kinda trenchcoat (presumably also a very short black dress underneath... it can't be seen as the trench is tied), a very open weave set of black fishnet tights and shiney black pumps with a heel, probably 3 or 4 inches. Also her hair and make-up is normal/light besides black lipstick. I had only noticed them because of their loud excited greeting and then I went back to standing there in a very tired, dellusional, impatient to get my bag and get the heck out kinda haze.

A few moments later, the girl in the black ensemble, steps into the center of the crowd and announces, 'Hey everyone, my name is --- (don't even remember), it's my friend Kate's birthday today, and I was wondering if you all would help me sing happy birthday to her?!?!' No I don't want to sing happy birthday to your friend, no one even likes to sing happy birthday to their friends and relatives while the candles are burning really. I'm tired, it's been a long day, and I don't care in the slightest about Kate. In fact, truely i'm embarrassed for you right now, and this whole thing is embarrassing me and I'm not even the one talking. She starts and gets a very quiet, mumbled, unenthusiastic version of the requested song from the crowd. Of which I am not appart.

Moments after, as they're standing not too far behind us, I hear the girl who spoke to the crowd say, "Is it because of how I am dressed? People just don't get me here. I should be in London, I would fit in so much better in Europe." (English friends, please don't pee your "pants" at this point.)

I wanted to turn around and say to this poor victimized girl:

A) No it's not because of how you're dressed it's because it's late, we're tired, we don't KNOW Kate and we don't wanna. This isn't exactly a bar or a birthday party or a concert. Why do you even want us to do this?

B) Good luck w/ the Europe thing, clearly you've never been as from my experience, especially in England, loud, pushy Americans who make loud, pushy annoyingly public scenes are everything they hate in life. So you should fit in grrrrrreeeeaaaaatttt. Move imediately.

C) Why do people work so hard at being a big victim in life? Poor misunderstood rebels. Particularly those who can't pull it off. Girl, you're young, white, probably middle class and probably still have white, middle class parents who still pay some/all of your average bills - Have tragicly looking hookerish clothes and black lipstick all you want - you're still not a hip, misunderstood artist. No one is buying what you're trying to sell, it's all been done before. Grow up.

Am I jerk or what? I am, I know. Why does this girl and other girls exactly like her bother me so bad? Someone figure it out for me, and let me know.

I Wanna Be A Supermodel...Well Actually Not.

So in college John took a couple digital photography classes, as required by his major. Well for anyone who hasn't taken these classes, in general you have themes, and you're not just taking random snap shots of whatever you wanna take pictures of. So it becomes a kind of production, finding the stuff he needs, and then usually you need a model or models, and they're not just coming to take simple portraits. Therefore, models are hard to coax, hard to find, hard to direct.

So it won't come as a surprise for me to say I became a model more than once. Well, after doing a head shot for a 'white background' shot for John where I was channeling my sexy, John made the mistake of telling me his photography teacher had commented I 'looked uncomfortable and frizzy'. Thus effectively ending my modeling career.

On occasion at John's job he now puts together 'lifestyle' shots for products they make and sell. I have agreed many a time to help, as props mistress, as director's assistant, but held firm on my decision to not debut in FRONT of the camera again. So I was a tad nervous when John said he needed to quickly pull together a shot for a product they have helped develop for another small company, an outdoor movie screen. One, because he planned to just bring it home - and we now live in Brigham where we don't know people who we can drag over into the photo. There are John's parents... pretty much that's it. So then this ended up becoming the approximate conversation:

John: Well I can put it on a tripod and then we can get in the pic with my parents.
Me: We?
John: Well, it really just has to be the back of your head.
Me: I don't model.
John: Come on, it's really mostly screen, I just need the back of your head.
Me: JUST the back of my head?
John: Yes.
Me: Not my massiveness or frizzyness or uncomfortableness?
John: Just the back of your head.
Me: Ummmm.....

So of course I got talked into it... but I decided it would be fine. Just the back of my head, and I could just be all wrapped up in a blanket. No weird facials, no seeing tummy.

Last night, we get everything set up, but, something in this picture is a little off my original ideas. See if you can tell what...