Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

It's been a full Thanksgiving weekend and we still have two days left. Thanksgiving was filled with play and cooking. Patience, Zoey and I were exhausted by 5 pm. Patience fell asleep right as dinner was being served.

Today we finally got to rake the leaves. We lucked out that it has been so warm lately, 60˙ on Thanksgiving day, and melted the light snow cover. We even had time to make a red and green chain link to decorate the kitchen entrance way. Patience glued and I cut and assembled. Later after the raking Patience and Namdev put the final touches on our mini-christmas tree.

Up next the Holidazzle, if Miss P can stay awake.

Made for Walking

With the new shelving being installed, the shoes had to be taken out of their old shelving. This means 800 pairs of shoes are filling up every bit of extra space in the research lab. Putting the shoes back in the shelving will be a slow process because each pair is going to have it's own archival carrying case. For each pair the carrying cases need to be assembled and then the shoes need to be secured with a wide linen string.

Since the shoes are out we decided to photograph them. So until the end of December I will be getting an education in the history of women’s footwear. Maybe this is why I have become obsessed with trying to find a pair of boots. I got shoe fever.

Labour

One of the challenges of the Goldstein Museum of Design literally being inside of the College of Design are the small rooms and low ceilings. Photographing can be a struggle especially if I need a light overhead. The movers installing the new shelves for our shoe collection could really sympathize with me. Luckily the shelves did fit in the elevator and didn’t require dismantling. With about an inch or two to spare and the assistance of knee pads the shelves slid through the doorway.

Nokomis

I am thinking about starting a new project. I'm just not sure what it might be yet. Either way I thought I should start by going out and shooting to get the creating energy flowing.

It was indeed cold out at Lake Nokomis at 8:30 this morning. I think I need to purchase some fingerless gloves if I decide to continue shooting outside this fall/winter. Brrrrr.

The first image is my favorite. I think it sums up the Nokomis experience.

Back to Basics

Apparently I photographed this dress backwards. It looks right but when I uploaded the image to the archiving system the metadata said it has a cowle neck front. Hmm. I went and showed it to Eunice and we stared at it. Then I said, "look for the tag?" Yes, indeed there is a tag on the inside of the v-neck. I have to go back to basics here and remember what my mother taught me growing up, tag goes in the back.

If I am having trouble with a simple garment like this, I fear how many times I will have to photograph the more complicated historic pieces. Good thing we are taking a break from dresses soon and moving on to shoes. 800 pairs to be exact!

Tip of the Iceberg

Strawberry Suit


Hand Bags

I photographed this sweet strawberry suit on Wednesday. It reminded me of my dear friend Lark. This job makes me want to shop.

The ladies (Eunice, Jean, Rebekah, Jenny & Caitlin) have been very busy getting everything together for next week's opening that there have been some oversights in my induction to the Goldstein. One of the major oversights was showing me where the storage rooms for the archives are located (and the security codes!).

Thursday was a wash for Rebekah and I, so Rebekah decided to give me a tour of the various storage archives for the Goldstein which are located throughout the 2nd and 3rd floor of McNeal Hall. Most of the storage is similar to your home closet, not an inch of space left, boxes crammed everywhere. The 2nd floor also has new archival storage closets that are on hydraulics to move the units back and forth. The room is all white and felt a little like THX 1138. When Rebekah opened up the first metal storage unit to show me the hand bags, the "thrift store" smell punched me in the face. Once I got over that and began looking at everything contained in these closets, I thought to myself,"This is the best thrift store ever!" I think the alarm system caught on to my thoughts because next you know we tripped the burglar alarm and the police were called. We ran downstairs to the gallery and our handy dandy intern Caitlin punched in the overriding code. Phew!

ps Please forgive the camera phone images. They are trying their best.

New Digs

Set


Office


Shelves

October 5th was my first day at the Goldstein Museum of Design as their senior photographer.
This job has been challenging for me on many levels.

Over past 7 years I have been working at the General Mills photography studios. In that time I became accustomed to working with a large crew of people, the newest equipment and all the resources I could ever need. The crew at the Goldstein is just me and the bare bones equipment I inherited from the last photographer. This week I learned to adapt to photographing in small spaces and to make due with the equipment I have. The first day was very hard for me; hauling all my own gear and setting-up without help or a cart to transport my stuff. Since we do not have a dedicated shoot space, everyday I must set-up and breakdown which can be tiring. I think a cart to move equipment with and weight lifting may be required in the future.

I was given the goal of photographing 15% of their collection in one year. That is 4,350 pieces to shoot in 96 days (it's a part-time job). It works out to be 45 pieces a day. Wow. My first day I did 12 pieces. Each piece is photographed at 4 views plus details shots. The image count at the end of the day totaled to 112 final shots. Yes I have a lot of Photoshop in my future.

I have my own office but unfortunately it is on a different floor away from the rest of my department. I do like having my own office though. I have one of the only windows that opens too. No one is in on Fridays so it's just me and Pandora working on files. It's kind of nice.

The Goldstein is trying to raise it's visibility within the school and community which will hopefully bring more money to the department. My job was made possible by a grant to help digitize their collection. The museum exists as a tool for design students so they can inspect and reference how certain objects are constructed. It is a also a good archive of the history of manufactured design.

ps Please forgive the camera photo images. They are trying their best.