redesign and rephotograph the catalog

And I should close this goal. Much was learned, much to be learned still.

And the boss is quite happy with it all. Yes, I haven’t posted in ages. Became totally submerged by the project and found little free time, which was spent eating, sleeping, and generally remaining acquainted with the wife and chum (not that bad, actually, but bad enough).

Raced to the finish line (July 15), had that moved out (Aug 11) through no fault of my own, and ended up really needing that time to finish it right. Then flew down to Orange County for four days to oversee color correction on the print run. That’s the short story.

The longer version involves lots of whisky, gambling, the love of a good woman, and and a plan to start a new life only to be pulled back for one last “courier job,” which involves riding a horse behind enemy lines till it was felled, gun fights, sword fights, a swim across a swift river and a final run to safety. Oh, wait. That describes much of the modern pentathlon. Maybe I’ll take that up…

Yesterday was incredibly long, a bit over 12 hours. Came home, collapsed into a chair with glass of sherry, went to bed and read, and turned out the light.

Maybe a minute passed, seriously, when the chum woke screaming. Much soothing by WN and two hours later we everyone was finally asleep.

So today became a bit of a day off as the chum and I woke up with enough time to eat dress and get out the door for the chum’s first soccer lesson. I made coffee but forgot to drink any. After the lesson we were off to one of my favorite java joints for a much needed boost and then the park to watch WN during her kayak class and play at the park.

Not so much play this time, but really interesting. We watched tennis players and talked about how to play the game. And when we decided to watch mommy on the lake we saw a couple ten year olds with lacross gear. Of course we had to watch them and talk about that sport. Off to find mommy, but couldn’t pass up the swings. Once started he could propel himself. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy. After seeing mommy, we had to go look at ducks on a pier. And there were kids and a mommy fishing. So we talked about fishing. Back to find mommy, all off for a nice lunch and grabbing a coffee at another great coffee shop, because we both needed it.

When I finally got around to doing some work, it was late afternoon. Managed a few hours, uploading pictures and dropping rough images into the layout. Sent off a PDF to the boss and got back a short, short email saying everything looks good. That made a nice finish to the day.

I constantly waffle over how much this project is under control. There are days where I feel great, then I reflect on what needs doing to meet the deadline. But the boss is very please with how it all looks.

Most of the data entry is complete, only 14 pages or so to enter. I’ve still got to work on the color selection matrixes for most of the catalog. I’ll work on those for the next few days as I haven’t done so in a month.

Another product shoot coming this Friday. It’ll be a long day, and well into the evening. Then days of processing.

Recently finished the post production on two dozen or so images. The boss is very happy.

This week has been a bit slack with work while trying to be present for WN and the Chum. Sense of doom approaching, must reintroduce the shoulder and wheel for, lo, they must spend quality time together. Now.

No, not the catalog. The world. And my office, which also happens to be the bedroom. Got past 90F in the shade today and predictions are for over 100F. I’ll probably move the computer downstairs temporarily. The “office” is upstairs and not air conditioned, so it turns into a sauna during the summer months.

Work proceeds apace. Stumbling along through Photoshop using notes from a workshop taken many moons ago. I’ve written down the general process and amending it as needed. That ensures consistent output for me. The work is chugging along, though I need to finish up two more pages and send a pdf off to the boss.

The day was a strange bust from what was planned. I went to a local copy shop to print a full-size, nice quality version of the current work, walked in with my flash drive, and walked out when they said please come back for your copies in a few hours. Well, next time off to Kinko’s in another town.

That wasted jaunt made me a tad late, but the boss was later still. Not a problem, took time to set up. When he arrived we went over the most recent work, thought I could make a printout using his printer, but discovered it was out of ink. Mother-in-law went to brother-in-law’s house to make printout.

In the studio, we discovered my strobes wouldn’t fire. Broken wire? A half hour or more of methodical trouble-shooting isolated the bad part. We then decided to go through all the product for the shoot, then he worked on cutting down the shoot list, there’s too many products per page.

Time for lunch, and dismantling the part to see what’s wrong. It contains two wires, and one was busted from the solder connection. Get a soldering iron from brother-in-law, re-solder the connection, put part back together, and test the strobes. They work. Go back to main house to talk with boss.

He’s marked up the pages, so we go through them so I clearly understand what he’s asking. Then Waterfall Nymph and The Chum arrive shortly after five.

Time for family dinner night. All her siblings and families arrive. What a day.

Tomorrow we shoot. Fingers crossed.

It’s nice to know at least that part goes fairly quickly. Only thirty-two more pages to go. Great time to catch up on podcasts or rock out!

Another photo-shoot tomorrow. Only three-quarters of the catalog to photograph still.

Heard back from the print technician. Sounds like most of my concerns are negligible. Probably being overly cautious. I need to re-read his response, mull it over and decide what changes, if any, I need to make. Instinct tells me none.

Got a good deal of data entry done. Lets see how the next two days go for that. This segment is speeding up as I get familiar with many key commands and smart use of copy and paste. Really want to put myself ahead of the game by doing a bunch of data entry.

We’ve got a couple photo-shoot days starting Tuesday. The last couple sessions went well. Yes, the Father-in-Law/boss is very picky about composition, but I’ve made peace with that. Better he’s picky during the shoot that afterwards. My mantra- no re-shoots, do right at first; we have no spare time.

I was happy to hear the boss being happy with the photography. The less time spent in Photoshop the better off we are.

The print shop is another story. Been in contact with them trying to iron out problems early on. It’s why I’m moving forward on so much data entry. There are a couple doosies about how they prefer work done. Drop shadows are bad when done using InDesign, must be done through Photoshop- come on people, vector art can be your friend.

This catalog uses drop shadows and transparency on photos, page titles, and tables. Ugh. My InDesign instructor has been a great help through this, though. She’s been giving me coaching for dealing with the print shop – I hope they’ll bite at my suggestion to use the latest print standard and that I’d be happy to provide test documents for them. Nudge, nudge.

Recently got a brand new spilt-keyboard, free from the other Father-in-Law. It’s a great help with wrist issues. Used one at the office for eight years or so, when I went to an office.

And WN has been a great through this all. But she’s got to endure for a while more…

Yeah, I got myself into this. Got behind and have to put in quite a few long days to catch up. I can cope with that, but there is the three day long, local Scooter Rally I’m missing. It’s sunny, warm, and always fun to zip around town with 100 plus scooterists. But, I must work. Ugh.