I've been slacking, it is true...

...but only as far as this blog is concerned.

I'm going to make an attempt at catching the world up to speed.

The last career related post I made was landing the Studio Manager position, which I never really said much about. Position is rockin and Luciana is a trip, the good kind of course. Days are spent consistently looking for new clients and more work (a full time job in itself), printing/packing/sending out promos, retouching images, invoicing, and paying the bills. Busy and monotonous, but at least now I can say that I would be completely comfortable running my own studio.

It must be said, meeting Rich has been the better things to come out of it thus far. He has become quite the mentor, consistently feeding me new information and introducing me to the city and its inhabitants...and I am ever so grateful.

Thanks to him I was:

• taken on a whirlwind photo gallery tour of DUMBO, where I would meet the man behind PDN, and the photo director for Mass Appeal who I would later in the week meet for drinks to discuss his line of work.

• taken on a guided tour of the AIPAD photo show.

• invited to a meet-up of industry kids where I would meetSouraya, Gabi, and a young photog named Olga. Which led to an invitation to a swaray in the upper west side, which I would attend the next night and meet Kara (studio manager for Diego Utchitel), and two other photo assists. From this, I have received invites from to photo groups, photo meet-ups, get-togethers and a launch party. Also met with Kara for beers and an eye-opening studio manager talk. All in the span of three weeks!

This past weekend I shot the jewelery collection of a friend of a friend. 10 hours on 40 pieces of jewelery. Followed by a 10 hour day of style assisting on an editorial test shoot with Carlos. This morning I met with Eena Maria for a job shooting their spring collection of handbags (I think my rate was too high for their cheap asses). And at the end of the day met with Total Management for a Producer gig, where I would work closely with a french stylist for Vogue. I'm very excited to hear back about this one.

This weekend I am chillaxin and retouching. Next week is a night on the town with Souraya and Rich, and the launch party for Resource Mag!

This is what life as a young new photographer in this city is all about...networking networking networking...a little partying, a lot of work...and more networking.

Exhausting, yes. But I'm still chugging along and still motivated as fuck to seek out the next best thing. Way too much opportunity in this city to sit back and let it all pass by.