Monique Reddy passed away on October 30th, 2011.
She is loved and missed by her family and friends. For the time being, this site will be kept online as-is, as a memorial to her art as a photographer, her life, and her love for her family, friends, and anyone whose lives she touched.
-Zach Reddy, Nicki’s husband and site admin
So after having caught the “Con Crud” and being put down for the count for the last half a month I am editing the photos from the convention and will start posting the ones I like the best soon. I do have a bit of a pickle though, as I am really fond of all the panels I took and I have no idea where I want to start, I have been given a plethora of wonderful and beautiful people to work with, so I have John Schneider, Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day, James Marsters and Wil Wheaton Levar burtan with Jonathon Frakes as my choices. Does anyone have a paticular one they would really love to see first?
I had made a rather tough decision to leave the daily working job to work on starting up my own studio. This has of course advantages and disadvantages. I have clients that are waiting for me to feel fully prepared so that I can do a few photo shoots. I have a few things left before I will be a fully up and running studio. This leaves me in a bit of a conundrum. What does one charge for their services. I have done research on other photographers that are focused on the same sort of photography that I would like to focus on, and their prices were all over the place. One of the biggest advantages that they have over me is… Stuff. They have far more props that I do and of course back drops, professional hair and make up artists. However in the whole of things the props seems to distract from what I really want to take a picture of and that is the person. Costuming is one thing, it is a part of the person a part of their personality. I see the advantages of having things and props to frame your picture, and perhaps as I grow more comfortable adding something to the simplicity of the human form I may start adding additional stuff for framing. All of this though kinda leads me to questions of what my pricing should be. I have found that most artists seem to have the same difficulty so I need time to ponder. Any one else have this issue and wanna chime in with ideas? For now I am going to finish full prep on the studio, and decide when all is set up.
This weekend was the mighty machine that is Phoenix Comicon. Having worked at several of the them over the last 5 years, I have to wonder who sold their soul to bring this convention the to time and space it currently resides. The number of convention goers near doubled from last year and even in something as large as the Phoenix convention center, the crowd was felt. I went again this year to work in their photography department. Being only the second year of a brand new department there were kinks that still needed to work out, but over all I enjoyed my assignments. One of the Co-managers, I happen to find to be not only extremely smart (and his wife is stupidly talented also..grrr) and talented he understood, that giving a photographer several assignments that they want to do, they will do well at those assignments because they are excited they CARE and so will work hard to make those photos special. And when given assignments they may not like as much, they will still work hard and take care of those because they just came from something they really liked. I have yet to go over the pictures I took as I got good and sick on Saturday night and into tonight, so looking over pictures took a back seat to looking over health. I can tell you however I did to go to some fantastic events and get some awesome pictures. I can’t tell you the events nor am I allowed to post any pictures until the manager of the photography department gets to review and post them to Phoenix Comicon flickr account. So for now I am going to rest up and wait ever so patiently for me to be able to post my pictures so you can see them.
Edit/update
Happy Birthday to me. I was asked by a good friend if what I posted here would be good in a professional blog. I stand by my words because they were told in truth, and a calm truth. But a friend giving good advice is something hard to find so instead I write this.
I am not made to fit into ANY ones box of who or what I should be, or who or what I should take. Photography should be a joy to me not something that feels like I am heading back to the salt mines. Nor does it look professional to wear head to to black with little room for fun, it makes for an almost funeral environment. Essentially I may give photo studios another chance, perhaps I simply chose the wrong one to get hired at, but simply the wages they expected me to accept and the work they expected me to do in no way came close to each other. I know my value and I was not given even close that.
I KNOW my value.
I did two interviews before taking the current job at my current photo studio. We have already had the discussion of the rather painful lack of decent pay, which in hindsight actually makes huge amounts of sense. The few other other workers I have met at the store have been young. High School young. Parents made them get a job young. They would be accepting of the pittance offered up as reward for dealing with bossy moms and screaming hellions bent on destroying sound as we know it. I took the job because I wanted to have that professional photography stamp of approval, I love photography, I love doing photography. In the long run I want to do the photography that I like the best. And that I tell you will not be of infants no matter how cute. They start off in the adorable phase so you drop your defenses. Never believe a smiling child under the age of 2, an ear splitting scream is waiting. That is neither here not there just a slight rant. My first photo session went no so well as my manager quite literally threw me to the wolves. I survived and the lady purchased some pictures and we are all happy, except my photography looked horrid. I am trying to follow this “Guide to photographing children of all ages” and let me tell you this is no hoopy frood who can find her towel when following this guide.
Back to the actual reason I am writing this post. I have received two other phone calls from other photo studios wanting to seduce me away from the one I am currently at. What do I do? When said manager was asked he simple answer was “Watch out for number one.” I can take this any number of ways. I believe I am going to at least make a phone call and maybe sit down and talk to them. If I can keep the part time nature of my job, but get better pay it would be worth it. Also both studios are closer saving on gas. At the very least I am going to finish out the training this week, get pictures of family and friends and cheapo prices before moving. Also I have to make sure they are ok, with me not being able to work over memorial day weekend. Who knows they may not even want to hire me, and all of this is over nothing. Or it could be I was simply given the chance to work in one studio before moving to the next so that I do have a small pay check heading my way before moving. My one beef with this studio is I feel like my training has been almost nonexistent, sure I can do a few things pretty well, but for someone like me who is a fast learner and can understand and process information quickly this is even fast for me. How am I supposed to be selling anyone anything if I have no clue how the flaming software works. I feel like I am being set up for failure. I almost want to get hired at another studio, go through their training and see how I do.
I guess I have at least talked myself into calling the other studios and setting up interviews with them. Even those these studios are more sales oriented if I can get some good solid photography under my belt then it will be worth the stress of sales. And again part time works hugely in my favor.
As some of you may know I recently won a job at LifeTouch Portrait studios at the JCPenny at Ray and the 10 (It was a no holds bar cage match, I may be short, but I am scrappy and fight dirty). I have spent the last two days having terabytes of information being shoved into my brain pain. I am seriously overclocked to capture all of this. But the more I learn to more I am excited about working there. Yes it is part time, but I fully plan to try and come as close to full time as I can. They have people who go and help at other stores when it is needed. They are called floaters, but for obvious reasons a new name will be chosen as I patently refused to be referred to as a floater.
The camera has a nice lens, it is about as nice as mine. The camera however costs more than my car, it is beauty in SLR form. I only had just a couple of short hours in the camera room, learning props, lighting things like that. Now it is sort of sink or swim, my job is to hunt up family, friends, suckers, who won’t kill or maim me if their pictures turn out horrid. I think my boss has a rather morbid sense of humor, he would get along with my family and friends.
In new and sorta only exciting for me category, I am ordering business cards along with all kinds of other nifty freebie things. For whatever reason paper, paper craft, stationary and pens all make me happy. I collect blank journals for the joy of having something to write in someday. And so now I have all kinds of extraneous stuff for Monique Reddy Photography. This makes me happy indeed. Zach designed my business card directly off of the site because I loved the look so much. Zach is awesome you should check out his other stuff at his website. We are both going to Phoenix Comicon, he has a booth, T70b, Look for the standee with the dinosaur, steampunk angel, and sexy plasma sword wielding red head. Here is a link to what it will look like You will quite possibly pass it any number of times if you have to go to the bathroom. I only the other hand will be the sexy Sony a100 digital SLR wielding red head. No nearly as cool as a plasma sword but i will be wondering about taking pictures. When I am off duty, I will either be napping or perhaps being a booth babe for Zach. I have a steam punk costume I am designing and determined to wear, I full plan to show it off. If not, I will simply hang my head in shame.
No new pictures posted today I had no time to fiddle around with photoshop to resize them, I was too busy playing about with all the stationary possibles. But I promise new and amazing pictures. If you are extra special good, May will be a month of shock, awe, and wonder. If I hear any rumors of naughtiness however, So help me I will turn this month around….
This is a place for my photography as as you can see, I change it out and move things around now and again and soon may even have separate galleries for which you to peruse. For now though I rather like the jumbled mixture of colors, and people. Poses different or even slightly the same, some drawing the other eye, others not. It is a bit of a game for me, to see if you can pick out what is different and what is not. But that is not what today is all about. Today is the start of a dream. Anyone can throw together a website (and Zach did not just throw this together so much as carefully crafted) and put up some random, semi decent pictures that that managed to get sometime and call themselves a “photographer”. I am getting the chance to work the crucible of the photography world and learn on some of the most expensive equipment ever made. No I am not working at a high end modeling studio, or for Vanity Fair ( Though if Annie Leibovitz is reading I am your biggest fan and make me an apprentice PUUULLEEEAAASE.). No I am working at a small photo studio directed toward families and capturing their little angels formative years. You may be asking yourself (or not) “Monique, your photography is decent enough that you have clients who are patiently waiting for you to set up your studio, why put yourself through this nightmare?” First off, there is always something new to learn from someone, you are never going to stop learn from people, and why not go to the relative experts in portraits and learn from them? I am getting paid to do it, and though the pay is enough to keep my cats in food and litter, it is not the other way around also. It is forcing me into a sink or swim sort of situation. Either I can do it or I can’t. Simple enough, if you can deal with screaming children and bossy parents all day you can deal with fussy models who worry their belly might be too fat. Also it is a craft I LOVE, and while I am building my own clientele, (way different from portrait studio moms) I will be practicing every week and improving my skills with every shot I take. Not many people get this chance and it would be just plain nut bar crazy to grasp it with both hands.
Obviously I will not be posting my stuff from the photo studio, but I have some stuff on the back burners just hanging out waiting for me to bring forward. Monique Reddy Photogaphy will be here and price lists and further pictures added soon. And the beautiful women with lovely curves will soon be joining my portfolio. For now, luck, as the new job starts today. (*KERMIT ARM FLAIL*) Though self esteem forces that me to tell you I am already perfect in every way. Oh and the dress code is emo, black head to toe.
Hello and welcome! What you see before you is hours of work by my loving husband Zach Reddy, who is the brilliant mind behind Zach Reddy Art. Take a few minutes to look around, things will change quite often. I encourage you to drop by to see the newest, latest and greatest. This site is not just dedicated to my photography but also to the photographic process, expect to have posts about new and interesting photos, along side my mistakes, victories and the things in between. I would love to have feedback on my photography, if you see something you like please let me know. Also if you have any nifty tips or tricks to offer an up and coming photographer I would appreciate you sharing them. As fair warning though I do a number of conventions, and now weddings. I also do glamour photography so there will be some nudes and partial nudes, though the gallery will be carefully marked as so. Enjoy your stay and the photography, please don’t forget to let me know what you did and did not like.