WORKING TOGETHER = FUN & MONEY

The last few weeks have been busy! I was in PA visiting family and as soon as I got to LV I was fortunate to get a really lucrative gig for a large ad agency in Las Vegas. It was such a large gig that I needed a lot of help pulling it off before heading to MEXICO on the 15th of March for a shoot.

The job came in and it was up to me to pull off about 2 weeks of production in 3 days. To shoot on the following Monday & Tuesday. The only way I could do it was to pull Aeon in and have him help me.

Aeon is a natural at production. He is very task orientated, give him a list and he'll get right on it and get things done.

By weeks end, we were in a rhythm working together in the same office. I think we only snapped once, and that was due part to lack of food. (We both get a little moody when we're hungry)

We rocked it, pulled this production off and entered the shoot Monday more prepared then ever and I owe a lot of that to Aeon.

Then, on the shoot, he assisted me. It was fluid and we were professional. The client was very pleased with the entire shoot and it was such a great success. I'll blog more in detail about it on Jana Cruder Photo blog.

After the GVC shoot Aeon and I were able to finish out the week working together on a shoot for a NYC photographer I work with frequently... He was in LV shooting for a NY magazine.

It was a hectic, super busy week, with 18 hour days every day and I realized we work really well together.

Plus at the end of the day we take care of each other. That is something so precious to me. How tender and loving A is with me, I only hope to return such beauty and love to him.

The pictures above are some behind the scenes shots from my shoot for GVC as well as some shots of us standing in for the other shoot we worked on together later that week.

Here's to love and working with those you love!!!!!

Thank you A. I couldn't have gotten through the last two weeks w/o you!

Mammoth Ski Weekend with the Hermosa Crew

from L to R: B-Dub; Jana, & Mikey V makes 3 (or Family on a chair)!

So I haven't been skiing in more than a decade - ever since I took up snow-boarding back in '96, to be precise. Snowboarding was nothing that radical or new by then, and I've never been one to adopt a fad from the very start, but I sure loved that hip-rocking back-and-forth motion you made while carving turns on the slopes WAY more than I ever liked bounding side-to-side on a pair of skis.

But this past weekend Jana and I piled ourselves and a metric shit-ton of winter gear into her car and drove to Mammoth from Vegas via Amboy (about a 6 hour detour down near Joshua Tree in order for Jana to scout out a shoot location) in order to do just that - GO SKIING!

And you know what? I had an absolutely BITCHIN' time! Jana doesn't snowboard and I'd never tried those new 'parabolic' shaped skis that they have out so I thought I'd stick with Jana for the day and give those a shot. And, to be honest, I think I did pretty good. For not having been on a pair of skis for so long, it sure didn't take much for me to get back into it. As much fun as it was, I did miss snowboarding and am really looking forward to going back to Mammoth to do just that!

But it wasn't just the time on the mountain that I enjoyed. The boyfriend of one of Jana's friends, Eric, booked a house right on the ski resort slopes for everyone and we all (24 of us!) fit into this nice little condo with a hot tub (yeah, yeah!). We arrived and Jana went straight to work fixin up Spaghetti for everyone who would be there for Friday dinner. It was good! Big, heaping plates of garlic bread (Mmmmmmm, I looooooooooooooove garlic bread) and pots and pots of pasta and sauce. The best part about bringing all of our crap in from outside while Jana cooked was the smell of garlic and olive oil cooking on the stove. Just simply delicious.

And it wasn't just the condo and the food - the real prize of the weekend goes to Jana's Hermosa Beach friend group. It is a pretty rare event that you can enjoy such a varied and large group of people down to the last person. And it's one of the things that attracted me so much to J to begin with: she doesn't hang out with douche-bags! Hey, it may sound stupid, but it's important.

One shining moment of wonderful companionship that I won't soon forget was on one of the first runs of the day when I got a little overly confident a little too early and hit a small jump on the skis. I went airbound and my feet went airbound even more behind me. So I tucked my head and did a digger into the fresh powder. I stuck a perfect landing right in front of EVERYBODY - and, of course, they all clapped and laughed - what're friends for? But lo and behold, just a couple seconds later here comes B-Dub and he does the SAME STUPID THING! So I did what anyone would do - I told him to pose while I snapped a portrait of him there in the snow. Its the first image on the left, above. And that's what I mean about the quality of this particular group of people: I only met B-Dub the night before at the house - I already knew most of the other folks from HB, and I didn't really even spend that much time with him Friday night because I was getting drunk with Mikey V and being camera nerdy. So really... HOW COOL IS THAT?

Mammoth Mountain is an amazingly huge area and I'm looking very forward to going back there to snowboard it with Jana. I would feel lucky if the HB crew were to come along on that trip, as well.

Jana gets a point for dragging me along.

A~

__________________________________________________________________
Hi Ya, I wanted to chime in here... first of all I wanted to take a second to honor and love my man!!! He's the sweetest most amazing man in the world. That post was so beautiful A.
Now, MAMMOTH kicked some serious ass this year. We had so much fun! Aeon is a really great skiier, I was impressed with his pick up and go ability. Since he hadn't been on skies in over 12 years. It was a treat to bring Aeon around the HB crew. These are the people that have become family to me over the years. It was so great to see everyone, even better everyone loved Aeon (after all who doesn't),

We're looking forward to going again next year!!! Next year I'll take some snowboard lessons and snowboard alongside my sweetie.
~ J

It's worth the wait while this picture loads...

So we're all moved in - FINALLY...  Phew!!!

As much as moving sucks normally... this time was not really any different!  However, we weren't just moving some crap from one place to another...  Oh no!, we were actually CONSOLIDATING all of our crap from several places into one solitary place!  The process of this can be seen in the photo above... if you give it time to load. (go and make a cup of coffee while it does that - trust me, it's worth it)

 I'm glad to report that we did all of this with minimal drama and have settled quite very happily into our new home.  We now have the art on the walls, the didgeridoos on the wall above the fireplace, the bed made, the dishes put away, the rugs on the floor, the closet organized, books arranged in size order on the bookshelf (thank you, Jana) and, finally, after a purchase of a new vacuum cleaner, the floors cleaned up after all of the move-in shenanigans.  And we are nearly completely unpacked, too (I have two more boxes to go through, still - and giving the nature of what's in those boxes means that's going to take some time)!

 Living together is sure to bring about some unexpected surprises along with joys and doubts and, perhaps, setbacks and letdowns.  I love Jana so much, though, that I've got absolutely no regrets about moving in together.  This has been one of the best decisions I could have made.  

 I'm looking SO forward to the next phase of our relationship which J's already blogged about: PUPPIES!

 

Caffiene Makes my Eye Twitch

Moving = Stresses

I'm not sure we realized just how much stress we put our bodies under in our day to day lives, and with "everything" going on in the world ( Obama, taxes, printing $ with no back up, lay offs, rent due, the environment, Las Vegas has a crap recycling plan & much more ) piling on top of our daily life stresses ( work, growing business, maintaining self, supporting friends emotionally, new apratments, expenses, credit card payments ect ) one has to ask.... how much can we possibly take before we give and break down? Well the thing is we're all human, and in this move I've realized that Aeon and I are getting stronger as a couple as the days go on. We're encountering and communicating through things I never thought I'd share with another person. Successes & fears, up's and downs. The best thing is we're here for each other, supporting one another daily in smiles and tears. The report from Las Vegas is optimistic and we're trying to stay positive. I'm so blessed to have such a loving and cherished friend and love in my life.

Here is a pic of Aeon being Aeon ... on a shoot I had last week here in LV. Oh, and I've realized that Whole Foods coffee beans have 10x more caffeine then most other coffees ... that is what was causing the eye twitch ;-)

PUPPIES & Pups

Attached are some pics the beagle puppy Aeon and I looked at in Jan. They were all so precious, and cute as all get out but none of them grabbed us like we anticipated. We're looking for a pup and so badly want a little 4 legged friend to add to our home and life together. We started looking a little prematurely right before my January trip to LA and right before we moved into our new apartment. The little beagle puppy was almost coming home with us when we decided to go look at the shelter...
At the shelter we ran into Sunshine a little mutt with blonde fur, who could run and jump like no other dog I've seen. She was calm and smart and fast and could keep up with us on our adventures into nature. She was precious and absolute perfection... we were so excited and we looked at each-other with tears of joy in our eyes and the dog between us ... and said "we're getting her" and hugged(dog in middle). Sunshine was so so so excited she looked up at us with absolute excitement... she knew... she knew she had found a family. When we went to the front to ask if they could hold her for a few days while we sorted out the apartment and got all the paperwork taken care of to have a pet .. the shelter let us know THEY DON'T HOLD animals.. its a first come first serve facility. We couldn't take her that day. We called and exhausted all resources and we ended up not getting her because we weren't moved into out apartment yet and it was going to take some time to pull the pet deposit $ together... talk about trauma. Word to the wise don't go to the pound and look at pups unless you're ready to walk away with one. I was heart broken and I could tell it really got to Aeon too. Its a no kill shelter so hopefully she went to a beautiful home where she was loved. Soon, we'll start the process of getting a pup.

~ Jana

a HUNDRED bucks per minute!

What would you do for a hundred bucks/minute for work?  

I'll tell you what I did:  I got hired by MTV to play the part of a Paparazzi-style photographer for a new 'gotcha'-type reality TV show pilot called MTV: Spoofed.  

So I show up at noon at the designated meeting place (a park in central west Vegas) with all of my camera gear ready to rock n roll. The call sheet said '12:00 show, 2:45 paparazzi go'.  I'm thinking I'll be done by 3:00 with a hundred bucks in my pocket and all the happier.

11 hours later and two payscale increases later we paparazzi spring into action and work (shooting low res, low size .jpg images with the flash popping to give a realistic paparazzi effect) into the rear sliding-glass door and startle the poor sucker who was gettin' Punk'd.

I worked for exactly 2.5 minutes.  Rounding that up to 3 minutes means I got paid a hundred bucks/minute!  Never mind the 11 hour wait.  JESUS!!!  Is TV always like this???  I was assured it was not.  However, this being my first TV experience, it did leave me somewhat skeptical.

I did get to network and talk shop with a couple of other local photographers (for hours) and got some very valuable information about the photography opportunities here in Vegas.  I also ate very well all day.  That is one good thing about working in television, I suppose - they make sure you're fed.  

~ Aeon

Reno with Family

Over the holidays we headed up to Reno area to visit Aeon's Family and extended family. I have to admit I was a little nervous at first meeting everyone and wondering what they would think of me. They welcomed me with open arms and hearts.

Our visit was full of laughter and good ole' family time. Aeon even said to me afterwards that this year was one of the best years. There were very few material gifts given this year, but everyone ... including all the little ones had a wonderful time just being together and doing what families do. We played games, watched the babies play, cooked, ate, drank, started the kitchen on fire (don't worry it was put out quickly) and told stories.

I have to thank Aeon's family & Aeon my love, for such a wonderful holiday. Looking forward to many... many more.

This was taken on one of our little walks ...

Moving DAY

Arizona Hot Springs

L:R  Mikey V, Murbina, Lanita & Jana

So I decided to take Jana to one of the local hot springs near Vegas, Arizona Hot Springs, this past weekend.  And we thought it would be fun if we invited friends along with us.  Our roommate, Mikey V, and one of the girls that Jana works with and her friend joined us.  

We had a really great time!  Most of the morning was spent sleeping in but noontime found us at the trail-head working our way down the was to the springs.  Once we got there we did what everyone else did.  We soaked!  We soaked to the bone.  

It's a beautiful little hike and I would recommend it to anyone who is a hot-spring-a-phile like J and I are.  Pics up on my Flickr site.

  Not sure what we're doing next weekend.  Maybe I'll have a job by then!!!  Not going to worry about it... that's for sure.  

TTYL,  Aeon

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN VEGAS WHEN

So I'll start this post with a nice, little, pretty picture I took in Tahoe over the Holiday. So you can stare at that while you read this post. Now I'm here, in VEGAS, getting settled in and adjusting the best I can.

It's dry, windy and, well its the desert! The most exciting thing so far is the realization that at the end of the day I can't wait to go home! This is a totally new feeling for me: I can't wait to get home and see Aeon. I miss him through the day. Its very cute & mushy, I know.

Now I have a little, humble office in the "ARTS DISTRICT" of Vegas. I like my office because it is in a building with other artists and I'm around friendly people who are all working for their dream. I sit in my office working away, most times with my door open. People walk by, stop in and say HELLO and chit chat for a bit then continue on with their days. I enjoy this aspect of my open door policy.

The other day, I was sitting here, as usual, with the door open and a gentleman stopped in. He was an older, slightly balding, gentleman.  He was heavier set and had a friendly demeanor. He mentioned he was looking for a photographer. I was like 'cool.. come on in and have a seat.' He sat on my little black stool and started to tell me what he needed photos for. He was looking to do some "tasteful" erotic nudes. My eyes widened, and I noticed I was blinking a lot. I was calm and nice and as professional as possible. I was happy that he felt comfortable enough to share with me all the info as to why he wanted these photos and what he wanted his poses to be. I uhh huhhhed and smiled, and let him know that I may not be the best photographer for him, that I specialized in fashion and commercial imagery. However I may be able to recommend someone who can help him out.

After our conversation, I sat back and took a deep breath.
The realization hit me.. you know you're in VEGAS when.....

Here's to an interesting start to this new town. ~ Jana