SketchFest Seattle

SketchFest Seattle, a wonderful sketch/stand-up comedy festival asked me to do their event photography this year (I know, right? So legit). I had a ridiculously good time and met a huge list of excellent people. I'm absolutely not going to list them all but Kate Montgomery (Event Manager), Clayton Weller (Artistic Director), Ben Laurence (Media Director),  Sonja Furney and Beth Peterson are all fabu and I hope to work with them again soon. 

To see more, go check out the massively huge update in the Events section, where I've culled out my favourite photos and linked to all the various people. 

And here are some people looking angelic at pre-show at the Pocket and Travis and Kevin being irresponsible: 

More Myths and Fairy Tales

Please direct your eyes to two new series Cupid & Psyche and Tea with Red and a few new ones in Horns & Crowns. All done with the help of my gracious models, Irene, Nate and Katie. It's always nice to finally cram some of these ideas out of my head and into a memory card and Cupid and Psyche had been nagging at the back of my brain for the last few months. Naturally, there is also Red Riding Hood, once day I'll have that worked out of my system. Probably.

Irene, as you may know, is a fellow photographer and she did several series over the same weekend. I did some modeling as Faust (which you can see here and here) and Winter (which you can see here and here). They're well worth checking out, and I particularly like that first Winter one. 

Have this behind the scenes photo, taken while everyone waited for me to get the lighting right: 

Archives, New Models and the Sarcastic Voyage Live Show

Plenty of updates over the few months. All the archives from my photo-a-day blog (giantblackalbatross.tumblr.com) have been duly uploaded, captioned and tagged. A big job, but nice to have everything in one place. You can find the archives under Daily Photo. 

Had a few excellent weekends with very game models and was able to scratch a few ideas off the list that I've had for some time. I slapped some elf ears to the side of Kimby's head and was finally able to get out to that Elvin Grotto and get some proper sword and sorcery pictures done. AAlgar and I were able to begin what will probably be a series of various drowned people, another idea that's been stuck in my mental craw. I've uploaded these into the series section of the site (Then Elf, Now Elf, Her Own Fairy Godmother and the Drowned Man). 

Finally, the Sarcastic Voyage Podcast celebrated it's 5 year anniversary with a live performance at the Pocket Theater. You can see these at the top of the Events section. 

Behind the scenes while making elves: 

Behind the scenes while making comedy: 

Drop the Root Beer and Run and Fresh Sketch Showcase

It's been a very click busy month for me. I highly recommend you check out the Events section because I have some new stuff up there. 

I'm currently continuing to wear out my welcome at the Pocket Theater, where he extremely funny sketch troupe Drop the Root Beer and Run let me mess around with some photography for them.

Also, the Fresh Sketch Writing Group (that I've been known to occasionally provide a sketch for) did their second live show. 

In order to muffle the horrible clacking of my shutter for these theater events, I've purchased a muzzle for my camera. It looks like a bio-hazard suit. Poor little guy looks as embarrassed as a cat in socks: 

Now With Dames

I was recently pleasantly surprised to be asked to do some photography of Now With Dames during their latest live show, hosted by the Pocket Theater and Seattle SketchFest. I took a whacking great pile of photos and I've posted a few of my favourites on the events page. If you are in the Seattle area, it's a good month to be a sketch comedy fan. If you, like myself, live on the internet, check out Now With Dames' Facebook page for some funny videos.  

Words on a Photo Blog

Website started.

Good day to you, I'm Amanda. 

A bit of background: I started a photo a day blog a few years back with my little point and shoot camera, you can still find the old stuff on Tumblr: Ugly Pink Camera. Buyer beware, it's early work, limited equipment and very rough around the edges. Here is a photo I took of myself and my old camera in fancy bathroom. 

When I proved to myself that I actually did enjoy photography and wasn't just going to throw my camera into the sea at the first opportunity, I upgraded the equipment a bit and started an improved daily photo blog on Tumblr, Giant Black Albatross. And here is the new camera and myself in another public toilet. 

As I still found that I didn't seem to be stomping on my gear and burying it under the earth, the upgrades continued. I've done a bit of class learnin' and began to trick people into modeling for me. 

I'm still very partial to Tumblr, and I do intend to keep posting my daily photos there. But, recently, I've gotten it into my head that sorting my photos out of the huge pile I've thrown them in, where they are sitting in the internet equivalent of a shoe box, might be a good idea. I particularly wanted to do this, now that I'm starting to do more planned photo series. And, voila, here we have Giant Black Albatross the website.

I do intend to cross post my daily photos here, going forward and I'm in the middle of the rather daunting task of copying the old daily photos here as well, so that this website is girth-y with content. 

I also want people to be able to get a taste for what I do without having to slog through years of photos. You'll be able to browse my photo series, the work I've done for other people and events and finally, I'm also splitting out what I consider to be the cream of the daily photos in the favourite photos section. 

 My comments are open, I have a contact link and you can also reach me at giantblackalbatross at gmail dot com.