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During my three weeks of intensive Photoshopping, I'd planned to post a handful of "canned" (already written) articles here but opted not to because I knew I couldn't be interactive. This is my community, and I want to be a part of it, not just post and run.
Three weeks, six hours and 43 minutes after my marathon Makeover Madness shoot, we completed retouching a full memory card of glamor-type portraits of high-risk teenage girls. Some readers have requested I share more details. The number of pictures I snapped was somewhat humorous. Every year, I tell anyone who will listen I take "about 600 shots." When I finished downloading on November 6, I saw that I had exactly 600 shots. Exactly! Probably couldn't do that again if I tried!
At 1:59 a.m. last Sunday morning, I finished the special effects photos I provide each girl. I still have to make movies of the stills, put them to music and burn CDs as of this writing, but hopefully I can kick all that out in a couple of nights, without staying up past 10. Fingers and toes crossed.
Every year, we have at least two or three girls who want nothing to do with the makeover until they see some of their peers going through the primping and posing. Every year, we have at least one girl who wants nothing to do with anything feminine. No makeup, no curls, no nail polish and definitely no boas or sequins!
This year, we had only one girl who didn't want to participate, and we had only one girl who thought our props were "stupid." We managed to get at least 12 poses each out of both of them. So they will receive photo albums in their gift bags, just like the rest.
One of my volunteers brought a Santa hat with a tiara on top! Who'd have ever thought of such a thing! And my goodness, was it ever popular!
I had one first-time volunteer this year who had so much fun with the girls, she filled out an application on the spot to volunteer year-round with the residential treatment center.
Another first-time volunteer is leaving the state later this year. She hopes to take this project to where she lands, and she hopes to be able to volunteer with high-risk girls there.
Every year, the makeup and hair volunteers finish their part faster than I can work through the made-over girls. So we end up with girls watching, sometimes poking fun at, the girls being photographed. Some of the girls being photographed get nervous about being watched. Some of them refuse to pose while others are watching.
This year, one of my young, exuberant and very hip volunteers recognized the situation and distracted all the waiting girls with impromptu Diana Ross and the Supremes lessons and impersonations. She played Diana and taught the girls how to be Supremes, and they all used water bottles as microphones!
Every year, we do buddy shots after we finish the portraits. This year, one of my volunteers volunteered to play basketball with the girls after we finished, and ALL the girls went to play basketball! No one wanted buddy shots. Staff members told us they typically get three or four girls who want to play basketball. Never the entire group!
Every year, I begin to get depressed and discouraged as I retouch my 350th or 400th photo or so. Every year, I begin to feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, that I will never get done, and that I'm going to spend the entire Thanksgiving holiday zapping zits once again. Every year, I try to bribe myself: Finish by Thanksgiving, and you can go mountain biking in Moab! For the second year in a row, I didn't get to go to Moab.
This year, I'm just 72 miles away from a 3,000-mile year of cycling. Every weekend of retouching featured the most beautiful and tempting weather. But I kept plugging away. I wanted Moab.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, we thought I might be able to take a short ride on Saturday if I could get 90 photos done on Friday and 90 more on Saturday. By Saturday morning, I realized I would not be able to get that much done, and I didn't want The Lizard to miss out on his ride, so I told him to go without me. I promised I would finish up so I could take Sunday off and not have to be on the computer at all.
The Lizard sacrificed his own ride and helped me finish up the girls. He spent nearly the entire day Saturday blowing up teenage faces to bigger than life so he could smooth out skin and remove scars.
We didn't get to ride over the four-day break, and we haven't been to Moab all year long. Every remaining weekend of the year will likely be snowy and icy, just because I can ride. But I can ride in anything but lightning. I will get my 72 miles. Watch me!
The best part, of course, is that I'll have My Lizard along for every ride. Even though Thanksgiving wasn't what I hoped, I am more thankful than ever for everything I have. Especially My Lizard!
Tomorrow's my big day. As a photographer, it's one of my biggest shoots of the year. I'm a bundle of nerves, as I am prior to any wedding or family reunion or charity event I'm shooting. I always worry for days in advance the camera will malfunction, the strobes won't fire, or I'll be blond and forget to check my settings before I start. I don't want to do anything wrong!
Readers who have been following along might be curious about the biggest "big service project" I do every year. Those who know me know not to ask anything of me or expect anything of me during November and sometimes early December.
What's it all about?
A group of friends and co-workers make an annual pilgrimage with me each year to a residential treatment center for high-risk teen girls. My friends and co-workers do the hair and makeup of the girls closest to emancipation and graduation. One of my co-workers poses the girls like fashion models (and tries to make each girl believe she is beautiful on the inside and out), and I then shoot approximately 600 glamor-type portraits in about eight hours.
I will then spend the next month or so retouching the girls every waking minute I'm not at work or church. This is where it gets sad. Some of the girls have horrendous complexions. I fix them. Many of the girls have scars. I fix them. Some have facial tattoos they regret. I fix them. Some are meth addicts and will not smile because they don't want their teeth to show. Ever. I fix them. I don't Christmas shop. I Photoshop. :)
Then I make movies choreographing still photos to cheery, motivational music, a movie for each girl, and then burn DVDs they each get to keep.
My mother-in-law and a co-worker pay to print all the photos, and several other co-workers donate and assemble photo albums. We also stuff the albums with motivational quotes printed on fancy paper with fancier fonts.
Almost all of my co-workers and many friends and loved ones who've become involved with the project over the years donate gift bags and things to go inside them. Socks, jammies, pillow cases, shower scrubbies, scented soap, stuffed animals, lip gloss, journals, candy, colorful pens, makeup, shampoo, perfume, stickers... things teen girls love. And each girl gets a handmade scarf. A very fancy handmade scarf.
For the last two months, my co-workers, some of whom don't craft or make handmade things any other time of year, have been cranking out scarves, just like they do every year, to make sure each girl knows someone cares about her. Someone who doesn't even know her cares enough to make something especially for her.
Once we have the names, another co-worker will machine embroider each girl's name on ribbon, and the ribbons will be affixed to the gift bags.
After a bag-stuffing party, we cherish the delivery party. That will be sometime in December. It happens before Christmas. But it's Christmas for those of us who do it. It's what Christmas is all about. Some of us don't fully experience the meaning behind Christmas without something of this magnitude. To see these girls' faces as they dive into those bags, flip through their photo albums and then excitedly trade wallet-sized photos with each other... words cannot describe.
Before and after photos would tell such a story, but that's never going to happen. Some of the girls go out on a limb to trust us, and some of them need bunches of coaxing. Then they receive their gift bags, and we behold them transform. Like magic.
One day I will share why I am so emotionally connected to this project. (No, it's not what you think. I was quite the opposite growing up, a "total goody two shoes," according to my adopted daughter.) For now, I'll just say Makeover Madness has been an emotional makeover for me through the years.
This year, I've been asked to talk to one of the girls, one on one. Three or four years ago, I would have been intimidated. I don't know that I could have done it. Time truly does heal all wounds. Time, and sometimes a little service to others who are hurting.
Now, I feel honored to have been chosen. I feel blessed. I'm excited to be valued, and I look forward to the opportunity to possibly make a difference in the life of a girl in need of a shoulder, a connection and a positive role model.
Bottom line: With this, another 109 miles I'm determined to log on my bike before the end of the year and my first-ever public craft fair in just two weeks, Snowflake Mondays and Wordless Wednesdays will continue while I zit zap, but I can't guarantee I'll be posting as frequently during the next few weeks. So if you don’t see me, nothing's wrong. I'm just not connected to the internet while I'm Photoshopping. But I'll be back; I promise!
Guess what I have in my hot little hands!!! Two DVDs of more than 600 retouched Makeover Madness photos! Actually, they are not in my hands... they are in the DVD drive and being uploaded for printing as I type.Light at the end of the tunnel!I thought I'd finish the retouching Friday night. But with just 14 photos left to go, I could no longer keep my eyes open. I retired for the night unfinished.Because I thought I was so close to done, I splurged Saturday morning and shot the sunrise for the first time in what feels like forever. Jackpot, too. I could not have picked a more perfect sunrise or location to shoot. Watch for Wordless Wednesday.When I got back home, My Dear Lizard wanted to go on a bike ride, being as the weather was so perfect. So off we went, me wasting a good three hours when I could have been retouching. But I had only 14 photos left to go. I could afford such luxury. I was one happy camper. Or maybe I should say happy cyclist...About 5 p.m., I picked up where I'd left off on the retouching and finished at 6:08. You should have seen my happy dance!But then a couple of hours later as I was building the slide shows I make for each girl, I found another folder of photos. One more girl. And of course, it would have to be the one who needed the most retouching. My heart sank.I finally finished the last round of retouching (and this time I did make sure no other untouched folders were lurking in the dark recesses of my hard drive) at 11:38 p.m. I slept through the sunrise Sunday morning, sang a duet in church, served in the nursery of my new ward for the first time, then made sugarless maple pumpkin muffin crowns for the women I visit teach, went visiting teaching, and picked up the slide show project once again after dinner. I really, really, really wanted to be done last night. I had planned to do another snowflake pattern today.But it was not to be. Once again, I had to go to bed before I finished because I could no longer keep my eyes open, and I had to get up in time to be at work today.At 6:10 this morning, I finished the last of the slideshows, got everything backed up in three different locations and then burned DVDs, still making it to work on time! Now I just have to order the pictures and schedule the scrapbooking party for all my volunteers to assemble the photos into albums and fill the gift bags, and the residential treatment center will be getting Santa early!It feels SO good to be done!!!
Three weeks, six hours and 43 minutes after my marathon Makeover Madness shoot, we completed retouching a full memory card of glamor-type portraits of high-risk teenage girls. Some readers have requested I share more details. The number of pictures I snapped was somewhat humorous. Every year, I tell anyone who will listen I take "about 600 shots." When I finished downloading on November 6, I saw that I had exactly 600 shots. Exactly! Probably couldn't do that again if I tried!
Another first-time volunteer is leaving the state later this year. She hopes to take this project to where she lands, and she hopes to be able to volunteer with high-risk girls there.
Every year, I begin to get depressed and discouraged as I retouch my 350th or 400th photo or so. Every year, I begin to feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, that I will never get done, and that I'm going to spend the entire Thanksgiving holiday zapping zits once again. Every year, I try to bribe myself: Finish by Thanksgiving, and you can go mountain biking in Moab! For the second year in a row, I didn't get to go to Moab.
