mbarrick | Creative Endeavours

Well, it appears I have re-entered the realm of freelance web development and programming. I presented some "sketches" to a potential website client and they loved them. I use the term "sketch" to mean rough design options that are not so polished as proper mock-ups, the idea being to have some ideas on the table so I can get a sense from the reactions about which design direction I should follow through on. Once upon a time, in the early days of the web, I would literally show up with hand-drawn sketches for this purpose. That approach doesn't fly so well anymore, but I still think of and refer to this early stage in the design process as "sketches".

Anyway, this puts two half-decent contracts into my sales funnel, which isn't bad considering I haven't been actively looking for this kind of work at all. I also have two prospects for full-time work in Toronto.

In the mean time, I'm keepin' on keepin' on with my other ~~autistic~~ artistic endeavours. Last Sin City I got to try out the new flash is a somewhat controlled environment for the first time. Funny (but not unexpected), having the more professional gear in hand had people lining up for photos. A few of them I was quite happy with and added to my portfolio page. Most of them, however, I'm a little disappointed with. I should have been using a longer shutter speed to catch more ambient light outside of what the flash was illuminating. Next time I'm thinking of bringing in a coloured light to put in the corner that the offset flash isn't reaching.

Also along the lines of person projects, I finally got around to using both the IP addresses available to my ADSL to logically split Gothic BC away from my personal sites, and

valerian's personal site and store. Presumably because of the odd nipple, Gothic BC has managed to get included as "adult content" by more than a few American-produced content filtering products. My rule of thumb is to not show anything you couldn't find in a European fashion magazine

-- Or, for that matter legal to do in public here in Vancouver (yes, a woman can legally go topless in Vancouver). Anyway, putting all the other sites on a different IP than Gothic BC solves that problem. It's not really cool that someone trying to look at my résumé get an "adult content" warning.

Which takes me off into another tangent. The other day

valerian and I went to Dressew for a few odds and sods and I bought a few bolts of fabric for the express purpose of using as backdrops as I approach setting up more of a studio, since I'm getting more and more interested in doing more controlled shoots - not that I don't still love doing the nightclub, runway, and concert photography I've been doing these past several years, just that it is time to branch out a bit more as my photography has long since moved from a means to gather source material for paintings and drawings to and end unto itself.