I had kind of a terrible session yesterday. Bought some standard and thick gunge a week or so ago. I also bought a tripod/ring light so I could have 2 of them as opposed to just one. One camera always has bright footage and clearer footage, and the other is always darker and disappointing. So the ring light/tripod came in the mail, and it was missing the piece that holds the camera, so I couldn't do anything with it. I actually had an extra holder (from what I don't know), but it wasn't compatible with attaching in any way with the tripod. I packed it up to return it and ordered another one and it took 6 days to deliver...well, actually I don't have it yet.

Amazon sent me notifications saying it was out for delivery, I'd have it between 1:15 and 3:15 around 1:20 it was 5 stops away...So I started mixing up the gunge to get ready, I wanted it to be a little warmer since it's starting to get chilly. Figured I could mix it up, let it sit while I washed and did my hair and make up, set up and it'd still be warm...So I've got a couple more minutes of mixing, the tracking says I'm the next stop, shortly after my bell rings, I hear someone else go down to the door, I mix a little longer and I go down there and there's a package for my neighbor, but nothing for me. I brought her package up, left it at her door and assumed that she mistakenly took mine...shortly after she came out and started talking to her other neighbor. She's Russian, they don't speak much English, and I'm trying to ask if she got a package that wasn't hers and she comes out with the one I brought inside and up to her door and I'm like "Yea, I brought that up for you...but someone rang my bell and I'm supposed to have a package too and yours was the only one out there..." I don't know if any of that got through but she basically just shook her head, went around and looked in all the places I looked and that was that...

So I called Amazon...and he tells me it's a glitch in the system and my package should be delivered by the end of today or tomorrow...so why does it say the package was left on my porch and why did my bell ring around the time it said it was about to be delivered? So I dunno if someone else swiped it or if the Russian neighbor still has it or if it's coming tomorrow or what...It wouldn't be the first time a mail deliverer has rang my bell for no reason...but it was kind of weird having my bell ring around the time it said I was supposed to be getting the delivery...

Anyways, I had all the gunge mixed up, and I don't know how long that's supposed to sit so I figured I'd better use it.

Thick gunge wasn't really that thick, a little thicker than standard, that's all, and the color was a dark blue, I hoping for a lighter shade of blue. The light green one was a bit different than the regular green I'd previously used, but in the end it all just ended up getting mixed together and you couldn't tell. Also there was so much drain plugging clumps in the gunge...I don't remember there being any clumps last time I used gunge, it was from the same company, and I mixed it the same way...so that sucked for clean up. I use a special drain plug to catch hair, because when you have long hair it's gonna shed and try to go down the drain and clog it up, so it's best to catch it before it goes down the drain. Anyways that thing got all clogged and plugged up with the clumps and it was a whole thing with cleaning up.

Cleaning up sucks! Haha. Doing this solo sucks too, because you've got cameras on tripods and you're messing yourself and you can't touch the cameras because your hands are all gooey...a camera stops working, you can't turn it back on...and you gotta watch out for the one in the tub, can't kick it over. At one point the camera started slipping out of the holder, and I had to use my drying off towel to wipe off my hands so I could touch the camera...and of course while reaching out for that towel, gunge is dripping off my arms onto the floor and mat outside the tub...

Footage on camera one without the ring light turned to be pretty much complete shit. Even darker than usual. And grainy. I tried using the cameras 4k setting as opposed to the 2k one I've used in the past, and I think that might be why. Pretty disappointed by that, also the camera shut off early. I have like 20 some of files on my card, and there was still more than half left, I can't see the 4k eating that much space over the other ones...but maybe it did.

Footage on the second camera was better, but aligned vertically as opposed to horizontally because it was in closer proximity to me, and horizontal would cut off some of my hair, and I like to see all the hair messy, so I usually do the one in the tub vertical and the one outside horizontal. The light balance kept shifting from good to bad. I dunno what I did different, thought I had it set on the same brightness level as prior times, maybe I used another setting.

I snagged pics from both, and honestly most of the stuff on the first camera is just too dark, you can barely make out what's going on. Sometimes they can be salvaged in photo shop, but not so much here, couple decent shots at the beginning, then it goes to complete shit. Second camera got some better stuff, but all in all, I think most of this session was a complete waste, done so much better in the past.

So yea, disappointing at the outcome. I was excited, and honestly, I'll probably steer clear from gunge all together from now on. Mess wasn't bad, nice gooey hair gloppage, but the clumps killed it for me, made it much harder to clean up everything...I ended up tossing the outfit in a bucket and just getting out out of the way so I could just dump it in a trash bag because I didn't want to deal with trying to clean it in the shower and having more clumps come out and clogging up everything. Sucks that I lost the outfit, it was a cheap school girl outfit off of Amazon, I'm trying to spice things up and do something different from the random red girl shirts I have...and the one leopard dress.

I guess the clumps are easier to get rid of if you have an immersion drill or whatever, I don't, and I don't really want to buy one. I already have enough junk I hardly use lying around, don't need to add one of those to the mix (haha puns) too. You get just as much out of cake batter for a cheaper price, so I'll probably stick with that, I can do a little more now that I have a second bucket.

Since this was such a disappointing thing, I might try again for another session on my vacation in a few weeks. I was kind of planning on not doing anything because I'll have a fresh tattoo, hence why I did the session yesterday...but I can probably cover it up with saran wrap. Another reason I did the session yesterday was I wanted to try to preserve my hair color since I'm getting it dyed later today...

I gotta work on testing camera stuff out before sessions I guess. I always rush right into it because hair looks best right after you've done it up, and I get everything in the tub, hop in, turn it all on, and hope it's good. Also rush because I don't want batteries to run out on me. So I just gotta sit down one of these days in an empty tub, run both the cameras on multiple light settings, record, and then review the footage and see what works best. Despite my cameras and lighting being shit, I think I can do better.
Tthis is just a fun little thing for me, I'm not making any money off it, so I'm not going to invest in some 1k and up cameras and lighting rigs, I barely have enough room for the lighting ring tripods as is...

So long story...First off Amazon screwed me over. I need to get easier to clean up messes (gunge is nice and a bit different from batter, but those clumps were a nightmare). I need more consistency with camera and lighting set up. I'm not getting any younger, my content is my favorite to view since it's exactly what I want, but I gotta be a little smarter about it. I'd love to have someone else take care of everything for me, sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong part of the world, the UK seems way more popular for sessions and people doing all this WAM stuff...anyways, late night, wide awake, bored, and killing time here...I guess I'm done writing this.