Lorene Drive updated their myspace page and loaded it full of my photography. I heart them, my work has never looked so sweet!
I'm enjoying the free wi-fi at the Sacramento airport. What a novel idea! Something free in an airport. Next they'll be giving away soft drinks and peanuts or something. I also got a salad and coffee for under $5. Sacramento wins the airport challenge for this leg of my journey. Sitting next to the only obese lady on the last flight however was not fun. Luckily I can sleep through pretty much anything as long as I have headphones, so her ever present elbow in my ribcage wasn't too much to bear. But seriously, she jabbed me every SINGLE time she turned a page in her magazine. I wanted to tie her arm to the arm rest.
It's been raining about every stop on the trip. My widget says that it's 70 and sunny in LA, and raining in Burbank... reaaaallly. Could be, but I highly doubt that it's doing both of those things in the greater Los Angeles area at the same time.
I wish I felt motivated enough to photograph these airports on Halloween. It's kind of hilarious to me that people dressed up. In Spokane the TSA people were decked out in devil horns, (fancy that eh?) and before I almost got onto the wrong flight there was a woman in one of those huge inflatable fat suits handing out cupcakes to the crew. Then a woman with a spider hat directed me to the correct gate. Running on too little sleep, and changing the gate 5 minutes before boarding a flight at the same time is NOT nice.
... A woman just walked by dressed as a jockey.

I HATE AIRPORTS! Actually I enjoy people watching, but I HATE security, checking in, the act of flying in the plane, and everything else associated with flying. They canceled my flight, then uncanceled it and screwed everything up. So I didn't get a boarding pass, they gave me the stink eye at security, and then... get this... did a special check of my scarf. Apparently I look like a terrorist in it. Great.
So I had to go on standby, but I got a ticket and I will soon be on a plane to lovely Oakland California and then on to Los Angeles. I hope someone is picking me up. I'll start doing a freak out about it in Oakland. God I'm tired.

Montana is awesome. Hide and Seek are awesome. I love the new line, and how the pictures came out for the catalog. Good times. I don't really want to go back to LA and reality. It's going to be non stop as soon as my plane hits the ground. Ugh. Well anyhoo here are my two favorites from the Hide and Seek shoot.

I'm off to talk to more photo kiddos.

I have four paid shoots the week I get back from Montana. When it rains it pours!

I made it back to Montana in one piece! The cool weather feels so great after the 97 degree spell we were having in LA. It feels good to be back in the Montana swing of Allie and Byron's place. The new Hide and Seek merch is AMAZING and I'm going to have the hardest time picking what I want haha! Zak is coming up to help with the shoot tomorrow which will be so much fun. I get to see all of my favorite models again, and even photograph a couple newbies. Grand times will be had!

Oh and on a side note, Alternative Apparel's catalog is wonderfully photographed. You should all check it out.

Doing laundry, still editing pictures, packing my lights, eating anything perishable of mine in the fridge, doing dishes, cleaning up, making lists... wondering where the heck my roommates are... I hope Bassett is alive enough in the morning to take me to the airport.
Ugh. I hate packing. At least I don't fly out until 11, trying to get to the airport earlier than that would be a nightmare. I do not like flying. I worry about every little thing. Are my lights going to be okay? What if I don't get all my equipment there? I have so much stuff to do while I'm home. I'll probably hide out in the digital lab for three days in Bozeman to edit Hide and Seek and hang out with people. I'm bringing a gigantic bottle of tension headache drugs. I can't wait to see everyone! I hope it's less intense than the past two weeks in LA.

I'm a procrastinator... and Kevin Connoly left his Flip video recorder here.

I think that any time studio lighting is involved you will have one of two reactions.
1. People avoid it by going to the balcony
2. People bask in it and take advantage and end up in every photo.

When alcohol is involved after a while option 2 seems like the only option. These are from the beginning of the night right after we finished promos. I left the lights up thinking that we could take a break have a couple of beers and keep shooting after everyone was more into it. We kept shooting, but none of the entire band... mostly just Dan doing backflips on the Tempurpedic mattress, and the boys from the other bands "fighting" for the camera, or taking "prom" photos. I've yet to find a photo that isn't really amusing from this night. I wish I could bring all the Victorville bands to live in LA.

Oh and DUDE. The guy in the top photo is Tom from Primavera and he is Brady Turk's doppelganger! It was seriously freaky how much they looked alike.

I think any time I photograph a band and it turns into a party afterward I'm going to have to set up my lights. The pictures from the hotel are SO cool! I have about 100 more to go through, but this one made me smile. It's Kevin and Dan from Lorene Drive and Lyle from Primavera on the bottom. I think Lyle and I might have been the only blue eyed people at this party.

Wheee! I love these guys! I hate that they don't live in LA. Everyone I like should just move here. It would be so much more convenient for me socially.
Anyhoo here's Lorene Drive's first finished image. I kinda like it. The burly security guards were the bomb! Super into the shoot, and started having so much fun. They want me to send them all the pictures for their company website. hahah!

Fear Before are sending my promos to their label to use for the release of their new album. NEAT.
I got back to the house at 8am then woke up four hours later and photographed for the book for five hours, drive back to Beverly Hills to get my battery which I forgot this morning, and now I'm sitting down to edit even more Fear Before promos and THEN starting on promos for Lorene Drive. Damn son. It's going to be an even longer week than last week.

Right now I'm working. I'm in a hotel room in Beverly Hills with Lorene Drive where I just finished shooting their headshot promos for their website. They just played in a contest to win a recording contract and $20,000 and an opening spot with Motley Crue. Fun guys. Check them out.
I still haven't grasped the fact that this is work. I love my job.

So I guess I get to camp out at Guitar Center on Sunset tomorrow to chill with the Lorene Drive guys. Totally confused about what is up with that. Dan's texts probably make perfect sense but I am not following anything lately.

In other news Vegan Gumbo was AWESOME! Best batch yet I think, and then the guy at Bright Spot gave us about a billion refills on our coffee after we told him not to. I can't not drink coffee if it's in front of me! So I'm totally awake at 2am and I'm pretty sure Mike will be too after biking home. Agh! I have to be up and "business Megan" in 7 hours. Eff.

I might be really really overworked and exhausted, but I just wanted to state that this picture is amazing and pretty much sums up that I love my job, and love LA. This is from Tuesday night's shoot with From Aphony. My favorite little brothers from Seattle. They made me their "official" photographer about ten minutes later. The three dudes on the right are from the band Radio Suicide, soon to join the Megan Picturetaker family.

I need money. I should sell my eggs. I hear lots of people want really freaky tall kids these days.
I've been staring at my computer screen so long I think I have a permanent rectangle burned into my retina. We finish shooting the book tomorrow I think. I'm going to be in it as an "emo hipster chick" what a stretch. I get my hair dyed and extensions put in I think. Should be really really weird. I get to wear big ass headphones.

I'm going to shoot two bands in the next couple of weeks that are... wait for it... PAID GIGS. Might be three bands if Dan from Lorene Drive would e-mail me back. We're also doing a music video for The Syncope Threshold a band I met twice in the past week. Really cool guys, I'm doing their promos when they get back from tour.

I'm so glad this week is almost over. I'm declaring Sunday "Vegan Gumbo and Soydream and Bad Movies night" I haven't seen my friend Mike in like two or three weeks because I've been "working" so much.

I shot my friend Rosie in Goodnight Sunrise's new cute merch for their website. Goodnight Sundies...

Probably as close to smut as I'll ever photograph. We'll see how poor I get.

Bryant is a good sport. Hahaha!

Fear Before (the March of Flaaaaames!)

Today is edit day! Edit and drink tea day!
Apparently Fear Before the March of Flames is now just Fear Before. Whatevs. Still the hugest band I've had the opportunity to photograph. I need bands with daytime shoots! I'm sick of editing pictures of bands in the dark.
It's going to be hot today : (

This is Levi before the Fear Before the March of Flames and I am the Ocean show on Monday night. I shot my little Canon ring light hand held out in front of him at full power. I wish we had done this about 20 minutes earlier because the magic hour light in this place was incredible.
I'm sick finally. The past few days of no sleep, loud music, and networking till 5am did me in. Vanessa had to cancel today because of the fires getting close to her family's house. I'm supposed to photograph Will from Straylight Run tonight, but he really doesn't seem into it, and they are super busy so I might just tell him to hit me up next time. I'm driving to Anaheim to see Levi and all the Fear Before and Ocean guys one more time, and hopefully get to show them their promos. I'm not as happy with Fear's as I would like, but they wanted to shoot in the snow in Montana when we cross paths in a couple weeks again. I love those guys!
Ok off to chug about 7 packets of emergency.
YUCK.

Midnight photoshoot with From Aphony in my parking lot. I love my lights!

Ok here's a few pictures from the festivities last night after Dan from Lorene Drive suggested I bring in my camera and gear and take some "Super sick pictures of everyone chilling" Best idea EVER. I now have a million studio lit photos of my new friends. They are ridiculous.

I haven't slept yet. Just got back from wherever the heck the show was last night. Such an amazing time! I got to do promos for Fear Before the March of Flames. ACK! Great guys, and they're hooking me up with the Lorene Drive guys. I can't add thoughts into a sentence now. Sleep. Shooting From Aphony in like two hours, then marathon shooting with Vanessa. Holy mother I'm exhausted.

Doot dah doot

Eli again...
Here's Eli in another Betsey Johnson. Just found out she's submitting these to Betsey Johnson for something. Cool. I'd love to shoot for Betsey in my dreams.

This is Eli. I want all of her Betsey Johnson dresses! Her clothing collection only furthered the idea that I need to make lots of money to afford designer clothing like hers. UGH I love Betsey Johnson! We shot her in at least 4 different wardrobe and makeup changes. This is the first one I shopped, more to come tomorrow of her as a disgruntled housewife... with fire.

Full house today.
Kevin Connoly is crashing here till Monday and I've got another living room shoot with a model named Elli. I need to talk to Vanessa about being on time. We were supposed to shoot at 9. I got a text at 10 till to tell me that they were starting hair and makeup at 9 and she'd "text me when they were on their way" now it's 10am and I reeeeally could have used that extra hour of sleep. I think I'm going to go run some errands or something in the mean time.
I'm excited for the shoot today. Elli has about a million Betsy Johnson dresses that we're using, and I'm totally in love with Betsy Johnson's work. It's going to be fun!

I'll bet you five dollars that Chris Anthony thinks I'm weird.
Be that as it may, meeting him kicked so much ass! I just want to work work work now which is great. Ugh! His apartment is amazing, it looks like he lives him one of his photographs. I want to be half that cool when I'm his age. I barely even remember what we talked about. But he did give me some good marketing advice, so woo hoo to that! I got to see some of the costumes from past shoots and it made my life! Everyone should get to meet their hero at least once in their life. Seriously.

I get to meet Chris Anthony tomorrow! Wheeee!

The shoot today was so much fun! I love the twins, they are a blast to work with. We're shooting again next week for my personal portfolio. This is from the "Gossip Girl" themed shoot today. I've done so much stuff out here for people who want to be on that show I think I should download it or something for research. I've never seen it, but it's getting me a lot of work. Hm.

I figured out how I'm going to send out my self promotional pack for magazines. I found a website where you can self publish if they select you and I asked and got the go ahead. So now I'm spending all my free time in Photoshop making fake ads, and writing articles about the bands that are in there. It's fun! I think it will be a cool way of promoting my work. But just choosing a cover is making me crazy!
Making the fake ads is weird. I don't know what sort of companies to put in. Amy, wanna help me out?

Just found out that From Aphony's gonna be here next week. I need to do new Hide and Seek promos with them, and I think they are crashing here for a night... and Kevin Connoly's here as well. Aaaaand then Levi's crashing for a night on his way through with I am the Ocean and Fear Before the March of Flames. Wooo! Free tickets!

The new issue of Alternative Press makes me want to curl up and die! I swear all the good photographers in there are gone. Now everyone in that mag is 18 years old, and shoots for cost. UGH!!!!! I HATE IT! It's so easy to shoot for cost and call yourself a photographer when you live at home and your parents buy you every piece of camera equipment that your heart desires. Bite me. If you put a 4x5 in front of these kids they wouldn't know what the hell it even was! They don't know f-stops, they don't know lens speeds, they don't know when their images look cyan or even what it means when they do. I love the fact that I went to MSU. I know so much more than the digital brats coming out now. If the world lost all digital technology we would still be able to make art. So for that reason we kick ass. Don't let anyone ever tell you any different.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos from yesterdays shoot with Goodnight Sunrise.

First ever photoshoot at a pool for me.
Dangerous. Bassett was my rockstar lighting assistant. He basically ignored the warning labels on the strobes and made sure that they didn't fall into the water, but got juuuust close enough.I'm stoked with the results, the band is stoked with the results, and the two clothing lines we shot for are REALLY stoked with the results.
It was a good day. But it did start raining pretty hard at the end there. Boo. The sky was soooo dark. We did the shoot at around 3pm. Yeah.

So I know a bit more about the PDN competition. I'm going to be in the November PDN in the PixDigital competition. I won something in the Student Emerging talent category. I'm pretty stoked! Last year's competition only had 8 winners in that category, so I feel pretty good about my work. I finally got all of my images to upload to the site, and I'll be featured in the gallery for the contest till the end of time... or end of the internet or end of PDN whatever. The issue must be going to print really soon, I figured it would have to be the December issue at the very earliest. There's a huge gala party in New York for the competition and I really really want to go. But it's on the 24th of October so I'll have to be there in spirit. Maybe I'll give my invite to Eileen and she can wear a sign that says "in spirit of Megan E Thompson". Then people will think I'm dead and buy my art for thousands of dollars mwuahahaha!

Goodnight Sunrise is here! They are playing a show tonight then tomorrow we shoot for their promos, Hide and Seek Clothing, and Rocket Clothing. Big day. We're shooting at a pool! I'm stoked.

I had a meeting with Vanessa over the "really huge" thing she wanted to talk about. Apparently she likes my work so much she wants me to reshoot pretty much her entire makeup book that's being published through Harper Collins. So this book that's going to print 20,000 copies minimum and be sold all over the world is going to have not just a couple photos by me, but about 90% will be me. That's not the half of it. She wants to contract me to do it through royalties and give me 20% of the revenue from the book. This week has been really insanely weird.
I also met the twins I'm shooting on Tuesday. They are the sweetest girls I've ever met. I'm really excited to work with them. We spent a good chunk of last night casting the male models for the background of the shoot. There were some really er... interesting submissions. There are a lot of weirdos in LA. Never underestimate that.
Even more exciting is that I finally got my pod back!!! I have a bed, and I'm not sleeping on the floor tonight! Boo ya! Goodnight Sunrise is on their way to LA right now. I got their package of Hide and Seek shirts in the mail today so I have two shoots to do in the next two days. I like being busy. I really really like being busy. It gives me less time to linger over how poor I am. Tomorrow we get internet! So that will pay for itself in saved revenue from buying the mandatory cup of coffee every time I need to check my e-mail. Good times.

Here's this week's Cinespace picture. It's my favorite so far I think. Rian is drinking Newcastle out of a wine glass. He's apparently classy.
So I entered Critical Mass: Check
But I can't for the freaking life of me get my hi-res images uploaded to PDN! It's driving me nuts so I already e-mailed them being all like... "Dude. Why won't this work?!" We'll see what happens.
I bought a desk at Ikea for $60. It was a good day.

My luck is bi-polar.... SERIOUSLY
I just got an e-mail from PDN...
I won in Pix Digital....
I'M GOING TO BE IN PDN!!!!!!!