hello from Seattle

Hey everyone!

I've had the most hectic week, but I'm visiting a friend with a baby, and suddenly everything has to slow down. The house is asleep by 8:30 pm, which is surprisingly giving me a little downtime to get some photo editing done! Speaking of, this photo above is from a set I captured of Mida Mae that I just finished editing from our Bali trip. I REALLY love these photos. I often give myself a lot of crap saying I should be a better photographer, but this set I'm quite happy with. The light was beautiful, the model was beautiful, I felt like emotions were captured perfectly... so anyway, I'll post the set up soon :)

This trip has had some ups and downs for me. I got to catch up with a few friends as well as models (Kristy Jessica, Mida Mae, SaraLiz), but the work side has really been rough on me. I spent almost a grand in overhead on flights, rental cars, etc and I had 3 cancellations-2 of them within 24 hours of the shoot, the 3rd was within 48 hrs-none of that, of course, leaves me with ample time to attempt to rebook. What happens is these people leave me hanging about 75% of the time and I never see a penny from them when my trip and rent is reliant on the shoots they booked me for (I do have a cancellation policy, but many people just ignore it).  I'm overwhelmingly frustrated with the people who abuse the women in my field because photography is their hobby, so they have a complete disregard for the fact that it is how I make a living.  

 This is a nagging reminder that my field desperately needs a legit pay upfront art and glam booking agency (not a porn agency!), and a union so maybe I could actually get decent healthcare and a raise more than once every 10 years. If any of you are union organizers or booking agents, hit me up, lol. This is also a big kick in the butt to travel less frequently and put more into patreon. I would much rather spend my time with you all - people who appreciate my art and respect what I'm doing. 

Sorry about the ranting yall. I'm just frustrated. Fortunately for me, I head home tomorrow and I don't have plans to travel again until the end of May for Utadventure (which is a workshop event that I'm really looking forward to!). Next week will be spent frantically doing taxes, and then after that, I'll be surviving off of ramen noodles, doing photo editing, and sewing cool shit for Dragcon. Outside of the taxes part, I can't wait to get creative and spend more time with you all... plus Game of Thrones is about to come back (anyone else crazy excited?!) and it is Renfaire season. Shit is about to get real!

xoxo
Carlotta

PS, to see more of Mida Mae, you can find her here:

 https://www.instagram.com/mida_mae/ 

 https://www.patreon.com/midamae