hidesy’s blog

Long Time

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:52:41 +1000

Well, the reason I've been away for so long is that quite some time ago, we found out I was pregnant. Since I felt that this blog was more about posting about my istock portfolio and career posting lots of stuff about morning sickness and pregnancy seemed a little out of place. Since I realise that this means no posts for 7 or so months though, I've reconsidered - particularly when I realise that this would mean probably no more for at least another 3-4 months - maybe longer. So I'm going to post a bit in my last little bit of pregnancy (I'm 37.5 weeks pregnant now - about 2.5 weeks left to go... in theory anyway) and during the first stresses of new motherhood. If you guys can survive all that, hopefully I'll get back into istock and be able to write about that again ;)

Ist2_1871786-ovarian-cysts

One thing that many of you may or may not know about me is that about 3 years ago, I was diagnosed with PCOS - polycystic ovarian syndrome. This basically means that I have multiple cysts on my ovaries which can have all sorts of unpleasant side effects, including rare or non-existent ovulation. The pictures on the right (for some reason VOX isn't actually finding images on istock so I had to put it in in the old fashioned way - the image on istock is here if you're interested - you can zoom in to look) are an ultrasound of my ovaries - all the dark patches are actually cysts - and they're fairly classic ones at that - the "string of pearls" effect where you can see that they're all actually around the outside of the ovaries is very common.

When we found out, Michael (my hubby) and I went off birth control with the attitude of "if it happens it happens and if it doesn't we'll try something later when we really want kids". And so time passed. About 2.5 years. So when I was feeling sick I put it down to some sort of stomach bug and didn't pay a lot of attention. But I noticed a couple of other strange things... sore nipples for one... and the "stomach bug" didn't seem to be easing off. I meantioned it to Michael and he said " get a pregnancy test to put your mind at rest about it. Since this has happened about twice before in our marriage (for various reasons - probably which were realated to the PCOS without us being aware of it) we didn't expect anything to come of it so when we got home with the pregnancy test, and two little lines appeared (see top picture), I assumed that I was somehow misreading it. I actually called Michael into the bathroom and said "I'm reading this wrong aren't I?". He looked at it for a few minutes, actually checked the instructions that came with the pregnancy test and then just looked at me. We were both stunned - we hadn't been expecting a POSITIVE result :) So then we decided to call a few members of family to make it seem more real.

Ultra

It wasn't until we had the ultrasound done though, that I actually believed it. We had to have one done straight away because since it had been at least 6 months since my last period we had absolutely no idea of how far along I was (I was panicing that I might be half way there and not know it) - but it turns out I was about 6 weeks along, and the baby at that point was as pictured on the left - smaller than a jelly bean, and with about as many features. So that was a relief - plenty of time to get used to the idea, and possibly even get some things ready :) I was still pretty morning sick though - in fact it was getting worse not better - some mornings were so bad that I woke michael up early to go for a drive to take my mind off it - and a couple of times I actually threw up when driving - not fun. They kept telling me that it would probably go away when I was about 3 months pregnant - but it didn't really ease off until I was 4.5 ish months pregnant - and I still get spats of it every so often, even now.

135weeks-pregnant

Pregnant001

Copy of pregnant-manda

Preg36weeks

Here's some photos of me - the first at 13.5 weeks, the second at 18 weeks, the third at 22 weeks pregnant and the last at 36 weeks pregnant. I had all these ideas of getting good pregnancy photos, but for some strange reason (exhaustion etc) I just haven't done it. Still I have time, so maybe it will happen. I have a big list of pregnancy shots I'd like to do for istock but we'll have to see if it actually happens.

I've been surprised at how little istock I've done since I found out I was pregnant - I've been either exhausted or sore throughout a lot of it - and now the braxton hicks contractions I've had make it nearly impossible to do anything - even walking around is a pain. Still, on the home stretch now.

One thing I have managed to do is get some photos of my piggybanks - which I imported from america - and they came over in huge boxes. I've got a huge list of shots I want to do with them... but they're a patient group of piggys so they can wait. You can see some of them here though... or just go here to see all of them.

Piggybank-photos

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Clean of Unfinished Uploads

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:12:33 +1000

Unfinished

For the first time in a LONG time, I have no unfinished uploads on istock. Now that may not seem momentous to some, but when you realize that at one point I had over 700 unfinished uploads, and that I haven't managed to get my queue down to nothing for probably at least 12 months, it may seem more significant. I was aiming to get it done yesterday - but I think I'd spent too long on the computer - my vision was going funny, so I finished this morning.

YAY! Now to fill it up again.

I worry me.

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New Printer

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:25:26 +1000

Printer

well here it is ladies and gentlemen... the one I've been waiting for! My printer arrived yesterday afternoon, and having had a bit of a play with it, I have to say it kicks some serious @ss.

After it took 4 grown men to get it up the stairs (and they were red faced and tired at the end of it) I decided against photographing it in my studio, and used my strobes to light it where it was - and worked on making a clipping path for it. It's a long job, but I'm pretty happy with it.

BTW, for those that are interested it's a canon ipF8000.

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Better today

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:38:55 +1000

Well - I was grumping yesterday wasn't I? Never mind, feeling better this morning - everything's looking better and I'm feeling a lot more like my usual optimistic self. thanks for being so supportive guys - it's great to have friends on the web who'll help you feel better :)
Onward and Upward!

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Not a good day

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:51:22 +1000

I've had a crap day today. I've been to see a specialist about a recurring health problem I've been having and the guy turned out to be a TOTAL loser... he ignored what I was saying about my own body, and when I said that something that physically disproved his opinion of what was wrong, he simply put it down to "coincidence". And to top it of he was weird in an unpleasant, creepy sort of way. I'm not going back that's for sure. Since the health thing has been getting in the way of my life for months, this was really a low blow.
I've also had a stack of istock rejections today - which to be honest doesn't happen much that more - so I got sort of confused about that - about 15 images from a shoot were rejected, where all the others were accepted - and the reasons were strange - keywording, isolation and lighting - for a studio set up where the background was blown out. Yes, I've written to scout, but I still go through the agony sometimes of "what if I'm not good enough? what if they start rejecting all my images because I'm not very good at lighting". I guess I'm just down.
I've also been really tired lately - and getting up enough enthusiasm to actually achieve anything is hard.
To top it off, I've been waiting 2 weeks for a wide format printer that they promised would be only 2-3 days, and today they rang to say that they'd "misplaced it" and so it's going to be another week or so :(
Maybe I should just go to bed early today. Might help with the headache ;)

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145 images keyworded in one day

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:34:25 +1000

Today. What a marathon keywording session. I'm going to sleep now...

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Done!

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:48:07 +1000

Great day yesterday! I got a stack of great images - of course I went hard all day, and so did the wonderful models I found - but now I'm sick - sore throat and tummy pains. Urgh! Why do I always get sick after big shoots???

A couple of examples of what i did :)

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Calling all Brisbanites

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:26:06 +1000

I'm doing a shoot tomorrow at my hubby's workplace (so an office and a science lab) and was wondering if anyone out there living in Brisbane is interested in giving me a hand by being a model business person and or scientist for a couple of hours. Because it's such short notice, I've got one payed model and a couple of friends coming so far, but I'd like a few more. Any takers?

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Outside

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:23:23 +1000

I've been cooped up inside for several days because it's been cold and unpleasant here - so I decided to go out and get some shots. We got rained out after about 30min, but I think we got some good ones. Even more shockingly I've not only photoshopped and uploaded them, I've keyworded them too!

I'm still trying to get through disambiguation - I've been working really hard - trying to get 100 files rekeyworded a day. I know it doesn't sound like that much, but I find that it really is - it's not easy.

Still, my income is improving so I guess I can't complain :)

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Backgrounds

nobody@vox.com(hidesy) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:22:10 +1000

I'm starting a "background" pictures collection... I've been out taking background photos. It's hard with the drought.

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