Wish List

The other day my girlfriend, Emily, came to me with a rather unusual reques. She wanted help writing her Christmas wish list. Emily explained that her sister, Eileen, wasn't sure what sort of clothes to get Emily for Christmas because they don't see each other on a regular basis and Eileen had grown unfamiliar with Emily's fashion sense. I have the same problem with my brother.

Emily's sister, Eileen, suggested she take photos of herself in her most regular outfits and send them over. I think Eileen was expecting Emily to stand in front of a mirror with her camera phone, but once I heard about the assignment that just wasn't good enough for me. I certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to take photos of my favorite model.

Im on a BIKE

I finally got over my shopper's remorse and bought a bike. I ride it almost every day so I don't know why I was so hesitant to buy it in the first place, maybe it's a northern thing.

Like any other photographer who buys a new toy, the first thing I had to do was take some photos of it. This is my favorite.

New Studio

I recently moved back to Lawrence and into a house with a shed that is big enough to use as a studio. It wasn't the reason we decided to live there, but when I realized I would have the space all to myself I was pretty excited. I swept out the dust and spider webs and this is what I got.

One benefit of having a studio in a garage, that I didn't anticipate, is having unexpected visitors from the wilderness. I don't know any bee keepers, so I can't claim to have planned this, but I tried to take advantage.

Well, it is white...

Sometimes you just have to use what you have. The day I took these photos I had a laundry room with lots of windows, a dryer with a white top, and girlfriend that wanted to make some crepes.

The Clearing

There is something funny about the original name for the area that is now inhabited by the City of Portland. Although there is a lot of open green space in the city, "clear" isn't the first thing that came to mind when I visited the city. Portland is a bustling metropolitan with a multifaceted tone that takes more than a quick glance to digest.

Powell's Books If you're ever in Portland I definitely recommend checking out Powell's Books. They have a whole section devoted to books about growing roses. If you cant find it at Powell's, you cant find it.

The reason I went to Portland to start with was to see my Brother who lives there. I'm sure I'd catch some flack if I didn't include at least one photo of the two of them.

My Nephew Edison. He like to smell the flowers.

Portland has a well used public transit system that makes it really easy to get around town. Plus you never know what kind of characters you might meet.

On the way back I flew over the mountains. Luckily it was a clear day and there was plenty of inspiring geology to see along the way. It made me wish I could just charter a plane and shoot all day.

All Things Considered

For this post I would like to direct your attention to a piece that is, in my opinion, as good as it get. Elissa Eubanks is a staff photographer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She made this piece on the return of Evander Holyfield to boxing ring. It is quite clear that Eubanks has gone through all the possibilities of how she wanted to put this story together and considered every detail.
There are a few things here that I want to talk about. First of all I would like to talk about the pace of the piece. It starts off slow and brings the viewer into the story. I tried to imagine it starting with some quick burst of jabs, hooks, or some other boxing move. I think that would have been effective but in a very different way. It is important to consider what type of message you are trying to convey through the work. To me, this piece is about his personal struggle to work harder and harder and the viewer needs the intimate slow pace at the beginning to reach that personal connection. The combination of the slow transitions between images and the dialog bring the viewer into the story. Once Eubanks establishes that connection she can boost the intensity.
Boost the intensity she does, and it works perfectly. This story will be naturally fast paced so it makes a lot of sense to have runs of sequences. But you cant just sequence through an entire piece or your viewer gets overwhelmed. Further, if it doesnt make sense with what is going on in the story than it will just look like you are trying to show off. Eubanks balances everything perfectly, she bursts off some shots and then brings us in close with a detail shot. By going back and forth between fast sequences and single images she is able to keep the viewer's attention and lay out a framework for her story.
Then she brings in the voice overs. By using tracks of Holyfield and his trainer Eubanks keeps the story... a story. I think it often tempting for photographers to showcase their work and try and put an emphasis on there best images. Eubanks doesn't do that, it is all about telling a story of a struggling boxer.
The last thing I want to mention is how well everything works together. When the audio track changes energy so do the visuals. Eubanks doesn't use video or sequencing just because she can, she put it in where she wants it and where it works with the message she is trying to convey.
As far as I am concerned it doesn't get much better than this. This piece is definitely going into my favorites file.

The Next Step

If you haven't heard of FLYP yet, well you're a little behind, but here it is. It's a new wave of media that, in my opinion, is best utilizing the power of broadband and interactive applications. Several newspapers and magazines have dabbled with this but FLYP is definitely taking the world of online media in a new direction.
As much as I hate the phrase "thinking outside the box," the people who created this site are so far outside the box that they have created a new box. All the content on the site is typical of new magazines; little politics, little sports, nice personality feature, things that are generally fun to read. But FLYP takes those stories and turns them into something of an experience.
Traditionally, magazines' web pages consisted of navigation bars and helpful links to take readers to information that they deemed valuable. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with this but the site quickly becomes a database for articles and statistics rather than something you sit down and read through.
So the challenge is to keep readers who enjoying sitting down with a magazine happy even though you are moving online.
There are a few things that I think are valuable about rising to the challenge. For one I think your readers are going to be happier with the final product. FLYP is so different from every other online magazine that its readers remember it and spread the word.
FLYP has another leg up on its competitors given that it is much easier to spend a long time looking through pages. Other sites let you search, find your data, and be done with it but FLYP keeps you turning to new pages. I didn't see any advertising on the pages of FLYP but when the time comes to advertise FLYP knows readers spend more time actually looking at their page.
The funny thing about FLYP is that it isn't that much different from a normal magazine. They took what they already know how to do and just moved it online. Yes, they have added flash, video, and sound but generally all the layouts look and feel like a magazine. They are making the digital transition the right way.