Unmasked Tato

Really, I don't NEED anything on that wishlist.

I could benefit from a few things like the lights for my painting area because I tend to hold stuff in my lap instead of on the table, but I do ok with the lamp I have. I could benefit from one of those worktables in the bathroom but I'm getting along without it ok.

There are just parts of this that I don't want to do, like the photography, while also wanting the lighting to stay consistent. I feel like the lighting changing like that is a misrepresentation of my work.

I bought the AC adapter for the camera years back so I don't have to worry about forgetting to charge the battery, but I don't know where I've put that and never used it...

Maybe some sandbags on the feet of the tripod??

That won't fix the floppy connections for the phone mount and ring light, though.

@prismatic-bell mentioned a wishlist for salon stuff. It's been here the whole time:

There aren't any tripods on there, though. I haven't been looking, yet.

I actually have like three tripods. None of them really work for what I need because they're all too easy to bump into and move, and moving them is what messes up the lighting.

The only difference between these two photos is the position of the phone on the tripod.

Look how that affects the lighting. The left is warmer and darker, the right is cooler and more washed out.

At one point I did try putting the ringlight tripod in front of the other one with the camera IN or just behind the ringlight, but that doesn't work because this phone mount doesn't come off.

And putting the ringlight behind the camera doesn't work because then the camera casts a shadow.

This tripod isn't meant for photographing stuff, though, it's meant for selfies and streaming, but it's not great for that, either, because the junctions are all too easy to move so stuff shifts around on me. Like the ball joint for the ring light can't hold tightly enough at all and the light sloooooooooowwwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyy points down over time.

I need stuff to not move.

Except I also need it to be movable because sometimes I have bigger things to photograph than fit into that space.

.... Maybe what I really need is a different background. I like the cardboard box because there is no brown in the ponies so there's no washing out no matter what.

It's closer..... Ish...

I really don't want to add more work to this process I'm already burnt out.

Other things that would help would be some sort of brackets screwed into the floor so I can't move the tripod, and some sort of permanent fix to the position of the ring light and phone holding arm because both move a lot. The ring light's support bracket comes loose and drops the light slowly over time and I don't always notice.

Or maybe what I need to do are designate certain days for certain things?

Like Soup Day, and Hair Straightening Day, and Photos Day so I can focus more on one aspect at a time?

But that won't work out so well with me not having much space to work with.

I can only lay out so many ponies per station per day.

Maybe it's time to remove all of the personal projects that are waiting for me to work on them to some other place, but there is no other place....

Been down to the salon. I didn't get much done other than unsouping and photographing a few ponies. I did put some conditioner in.

I'm getting burnt out and have such a long waitlist.

I used to be able to do this a lot faster, but a lot of that was because I had room to work in the kitchen. Now that I'm down in the basement bathroom, there's not much room to function.

Between that and now working in a windowless space with ugly orange walls, I just don't work as efficiently anymore.

I am looking for a different color to paint the walls.

Ugh, having trouble with inconsistent lighting again.

The lights haven't changed. The distance between the phone and the subject likely has. I can tell the angle has changed, too.

I ought to get a better tripod and set up the DLSR but if I ever move it even the tiniest bit, I'll never get it focused again and I bump the tripod often. The floor also wobbles under it when I step to the right of it, and being right handed, I always step to the right so I can reach into the lightbox to move ponies.

Add to that the need to remove the camera from the tripod to get to the SD card.

Literally anything moving messing everything up.

Ugh.

Photography will never be my thing. Cameras are numbers and I can't fucking do numbers.

Look at this shit.

Same lights, same pony, same phone, same settings on phone (auto.....) The only things that changed were where the tripod is, the position of the phone on the tripod, and the cleanliness of the pony.

Maybe I need to pull the camera back a bit, tack the white balance card to the background, and try using Picasa's auto-white-balance or something...

Been down to the salon. I didn't get much done other than unsouping and photographing a few ponies. I did put some conditioner in.

I'm getting burnt out and have such a long waitlist.

I used to be able to do this a lot faster, but a lot of that was because I had room to work in the kitchen. Now that I'm down in the basement bathroom, there's not much room to function.

Between that and now working in a windowless space with ugly orange walls, I just don't work as efficiently anymore.

I am looking for a different color to paint the walls.

Ugh, having trouble with inconsistent lighting again.

The lights haven't changed. The distance between the phone and the subject likely has. I can tell the angle has changed, too.

I ought to get a better tripod and set up the DLSR but if I ever move it even the tiniest bit, I'll never get it focused again and I bump the tripod often. The floor also wobbles under it when I step to the right of it, and being right handed, I always step to the right so I can reach into the lightbox to move ponies.

Add to that the need to remove the camera from the tripod to get to the SD card.

Literally anything moving messing everything up.

Ugh.

Photography will never be my thing. Cameras are numbers and I can't fucking do numbers.

I need a moldy smelling pony for this experiment and I do not have one.

Why the fuck is that blurry.....

I do have a baity Confetti that smells just a LEETLE off, and a smoke-scented Wave Runner in my bait box.

Guess we'll see how this stuff affects the vinyl, glitter, hair, and UV hair at least.

Confetti's water is cold with about a tbl of sanitizer, and Wave Runner's is hot with the same amount. I used so little because this stuff is VERY concentrated and is heavily perfumed.

I predict it'll just slap a scent on top of the smoke scent on Wave Runner.

I really want to see how this would affect a mold-smelling pony.

Ok, so at this point the product smell has certainly overpowered the smoke smell, but it kind of feels like fabric softener. There's kind of a slimy feel to the mixture.

Unlike fabric softener the sliminess washed off with soap.

No obvious effect on the vinyl, hair, or glitter.

Now we wait and see how it feels and smells once dry.

Ok, it's the next day.

This pony was already brown all over.

There is absolutely some sort of residue or film left behind even after a soapy wash.

It does not feel like the waxiness of fabric softener. It does feel just barely, vaguely kind of oily and transfers to my fingertips. The vinyl feels unusually smooth vs an untreated pony, like the residue filled in the dips and pores in the vinyl.

No changes to how squishy the vinyl is.

Her insides are VERY STICKY. I don't remember if they already were or not.

The glitter is fine. The hair is fine though with a little residue-feel to it.

There IS a scent, of course. I can no longer smell the very barely musty smell, only the perfume from the laundry sanitizer and I have to get about 2 inches away from the pony to smell it clearly though I do have a stuffy nose. I think I'm a little bit allergic to the perfume. I can't say whether the musty scent was eliminated by the sanitizer, or only covered up by the perfume.

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Wave Runner has the same slightly oily, too smooth surface texture. Her insides are just barely sticky, but are a little sticky.

The perfume scent has kind of joined the smoke scent (NOTE: This is NOT cigarette smoke scent, it's more like this pony was in a house that had a fire but wasn't directly burned), but that's what I expected to happen since smoke isn't something a sanitizer affects.

I only tried this with Wave Runner to see how well the perfume in the sanitizer covered up the scent of smoke. It IS slightly less off-putting smoke smell, but it's still there if you give a real good sniff.

Her hair feels a little more oily than Confetti's, but Confetti had better-textured hair to begin with. The residue in Wave Runner's hair is transferring to my fingers, and so is the scent but it's very light.

Even though the smoke scent is still present under the perfume, I don't recoil from it anymore.

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As far as scent coverage/replacement goes I'd say this works ok on non-cigarette smoke scent. I have to really get close to smell smoke at all anymore.

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I guess this is another one of those things that we can't tell how it'll really affect the pony until a lot of time has passed.

I still can't say how effective it would be at remedying mold smell because I didn't have a good test subject. If I ever get one, I'll try this again.

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I've scrubbed Confetti with some Totally Awesome and soap again. Her insides got slimy ew... Will see how that is after she's dried again.