Photo Shoots Make Us Crazy

January is going by quickly.  We both looked at the calendar the other day and suddenly realized just how few days are left in the month.   Can it be only that few?  Oh-oh.  We have some homework due by February 1.

 When the kids were in school I used to yell at them about putting off assignments til the last minute.

"What do you mean you need a costume, a 3-D replica of the solar system and six dozen cookies by tomorrow morning?!   How long did you know about this?" 

They would hang their heads sheepishly and say, "About a month."

"A MONTH?!  You knew about this for a month and I'm first hearing about it NOW??"

But I would try to make the deadline, pulling out all the stops.  And my hair.  And I dragged them right along with me; I wasn't going to suffer alone.

"There, we're done, and look, it's only 3AM," I'd say out loud to no one but myself since the culprits were fast asleep. 
 
Every year we submit a picture of one of our stained glass lamps to the Association of Stained Glass Lamp Artists for their annual calendar.   People from all over the world belong to the Association and there are usually well over one hundred photos of lamps sent in for consideration and voting by the membership.   We've been lucky to have a lamp picked the last five years in a row which is a really big honor.  For the 2013 calendar, our Rosebush shade was selected for December.  We were amazed. 

Submissions of photos for the 2014 calendar are due on February 1.

 Ummmm.....suddenly I feel about as sheepish as our boys did so many years ago.  Gosh.......I wonder where their procrastination tendencies came from?  Surely not from their Parental Units. 

24" Tiffany Reproduction Rosebush

Photographing a lamp is an amazingly difficult thing to do.  We take hundreds of photos (thank goodness for digital photography) and agonize over camera settings, lighting, shadows, hot spots, glare, position of the shade, which side to feature and on and on. 

Just like a Super Model, we have to go over the make up several times.

2012 Photo Session Madness

So, here we go again....we're trying our best to get a good photo of the latest lamp to be completed, the Laburnum.  1,986 pieces of fun.

There's Carl today, working on the lighting and details.

Here's a photo of the Iris after all the fuss and bother a few years ago. 

Along with the calendar photo submission, the Association also has an annual stained glass 'quilt' put together of submissions of panels from the membership.  We had our panel done well over a month ago but it, too, is due in Washington state by February 1.  This year's theme is 'Clematis', and here's our submission. 

Every panel sent in is put into the Quilt, and when they are all joined together, it's glorious.

I have a lot of fun making these quilt panels; we have scrap glass in abundance and this way it is put to good use.  But if I don't get this thing in the mail by tomorrow, it will be past the deadline for the quilt. 

So, looks like we'll be burning the midnight oil again, since Carl's taken over three hundred photos already and none of them are 'it'.  Here we go again.

Here's the best one so far.......

I owe our sons an apology.  The Procrastination Gene was definitely inherited.

But at least we don't need a 3-D Solar System and a costume.

Six dozen cookies sound good about now, though.