Do You Pinterest?

I recently opened a Pinterest account at the suggestion of my brother and sister in law.  Not sure if you are even aware of what Pinterest is, I wasn't, so I'll explain.  Pinterest is basically a web based bulletin board. I can create a bulletin board on my page and post whatever images or videos I find on the web to that bulletin board.  That's the pretty simple version of what Pinterest is.  But here's what Pinterest can do for you.  Exposure.  You see anything you post on a bulletin board can be liked by other Pinterest followers as well as re-pinned.  That means they can post your images you pin onto there bulletin boards.  Every image you pin comes with the link where it was pinned from.  That means if someone clicks that image it takes them to the original page that it was pinned from.

So here's the deal.  I pin my own work on my own bulletin boards, because it brings web traffic and interest in my work.  Is that vain or is it intelligent marketing.  I believe its the latter.  Imagine if the right person saw your work.  It could be life changing.  You could be photographing for your favorite designer tomorrow because they saw your work today.  Cool right?  Yes.

I thought I would show you some images from the Pinterest web site and interface and maybe you can get an understanding of the flow of it all.

Front page.  Notice its blanketed with my images, that's because at that moment in time I had pinned a bunch of my own images so they were on the homepage for a brief amount of time.  And guess what?  People liked them and re-pinned them.  Scoreboard me.

This is what the behind the scenes part looks like.  These essentially are my bulletin boards.

Here's the inside of one of my boards if someone were going to look at it.

I'm beginning to love Pinterest.  Learning it was a little weird in the beginning, but understanding what it can do for me was enlightening.  Check it out and don't forget to follow me.

Busy Busy Busy

We had a lot of things going on today as a family.  First, Scout started her new small group for children.  It's kind of a baby bible study group.  I think its pretty cool.  She probably already knows more about the bible than I do.  Then we had to run out and buy a gift for Bryden, we celebrated his first birthday today.  Happy Birthday Buddy!  Then I had to leave the party early and go straight to photograph another birthday party.  The young lady turned 60 and there were 60 people their to celebrate.  How cool is that?  I also got paid to shoot video tonight which was my first paying video gig, so look out for a whole lot more of that.  That was incredible.  So I really don't have a whole lot to say tonight.  I'll let you off easy.  I just wanted to share a few photos of the kids and one from Bryden's birthday party.  Take care.

 I let Lincoln pick out his clothes for church last Sunday...so this is what I get!

Then we went to Target, where he felt the need to go surfing in the buggy.  Just like his Daddy.  Maybe we'll live somewhere coastal one day buddy and Dad can teach you to surf for real.

And lastly here is the birthday boy with his beautiful Momma.  He's a little bewildered by all the noise and people, I'm sure he did quite fine with the cake though.

Disclaimer: All photos shot with an iPhone...sorry for the image quality.

Hoover Dam

Sometimes I like to shoot landscapes, and I say sometimes because it is definitely not a strong point of mine.  But if I see something I really like, I find a way to take home an interesting photograph of it.  And who doesn't like the Hoover Dam.  It really is a beautiful thing.

Vintage Me, Vintage You - Old Aerial Cover

Here's a little known fact about me.  I had an aerial photography business for a short period of time in Las Vegas.  It was awesome.  We photographed construction job sites mostly, but I took advantage of every opportunity I had in the air to make something I loved.  I recently had some hard drives crash and thought that I had lost all of those images.  Well tonight I unearthed some of those photographs and I'm pretty excited about that.  Unfortunately they are all relatively small jpeg files, but I'll take what I can get.  At least they aren't lost forever.  I'll be sharing some of my favorites in the coming weeks.

On an older version of my website I used to change the cover of the page every month or so.  I typically would do some kind of graphic design work that was often inspired by a moment in my daily life.  A lot of those covers revolved around Scout, or something she did.  But I happened to find this one.  It gives a good look at the types of things I would focus on from the helicopter.  Looking for graphical elements in the desert floor or cityscape.  I love things to fit in little boxes in an image.  I love very strong lines, almost  Piet Mondrian-esque.  He was a master of compartmentalization in his art work.  That's what I call it anyways.  Strong grid like creations.  I would consider him the father of web design to tell you the truth.  His work is amazing.

I am not Piet Mondrian, but I can find inspiration in what he did.  It was very direct and unapologetic.  I love that.  Anyways here is that cover I was talking about.  I'll share more covers and more aerial work soon.  Enjoy!

Q and A

I had my first small group meeting with other young artists in my church tonight.  It was interesting to sit and talk to like minded people.  To try and learn and grow from what they are doing.  I think its important to surround yourself with people who have similar goals and outlooks on career and life that you do.  I can tell I will gain a lot from this and I hope others do as well.  


So tonight I'm going to take a few moments to answer a couple of questions from Brandon, a loyal blog reader:

Q: What are the top 2-3 most memorable moments you experienced there? (in regards to attending Brooks Institute of Photography)

A: The first would definitely be the experience of being a part of an international documentary.  I was one of six students chosen to go to Argentina to work on a documentary for six weeks.  The ups and downs, the emotional highs and lows were so intense and so unforgettable.  We really poured out our souls in those 6 weeks in Argentina and the two months in post production.  That trip really exposed the intensity and the dedication that it takes to be successful as a photographer.  Not to mention the passion it takes.  If you aren't passionate about your story, or about photography in general, you're not going to make it and the story you are trying to tell won't do the subject justice.

The second most memorable moment would be getting to sit in a room with Nick Nichols and hear him speak first hand about his work and the sacrifices he had to make to get it where it was.  The marriages he lost and the time he lost with his kids.  He produces amazing work, but was it all worth it.  Thats something I address every day, something I address right now as I'm blogging instead of spending time with my wife and kids.  I often think about that lecture and how innovative he was with a subject that seems so typically photographed, wildlife, and what he is capable of doing with the subject matter.  And I think why can't I do the same with people.  There were a couple of lectures from professionals that were life changing, but to sit in a room with a National Geographic legend and to try and apply some of the principals of his work and learn from his mistakes was priceless.

Q: How critical were your professors on you while critiquing your work?

A: The critiques were pretty harsch at times.  It wasn't so much that they would tear your work up for aesthetic reasons, though they did, they would break it down for content reasons.  You have to consider that I was in a journalism program.  I remember they told us that they didn't care what we used to take photographs with, a $5000 digital slr or a throwaway film camera from Walgreen's.  What ever you use, there better be content in your images.  So you could have the most beautifully composed image of the critique, but if there wasn't any content, if there was no moment, it was garbage.  We weren't still photography students in the traditional sense, every image you took had to contribute something to what was trying to be told by the story.  So they were very critical, just not for aesthetic reasons. 

Brandon I hope I answered your questions to your satisfaction and look forward to hearing from you and all the readers soon.