One thing at a time!

I dunno about you, but for me, creativity comes in spurts. My muse or inspiration or whatever you want to call it seems to have two modes.

off. dead. neglected. take a nap.

and

ON FULL BLAST BALLS TO THE WALL CAN'TSTOPTHINKINGOFAWESOMEIDEAS!!!!!

Pretty much nothing in between.

Currently, I'm in the middle of the "ON" stage, where my mind cruises at full speed coming up with new shots, ideas, concepts, campaigns, and so on. I can't turn it off and I wouldn't even if I could - but it does tend to make things a little hectic.

If I tried to actively pursue every idea that came to me during this "ON" stage, I would find myself switching gears every 5 minutes and starting a new project that would ultimately die an unfortunate and unfinished death. Nothing gets done at all that way and it feels a lot like this:

image courtesy of fugly.com

Instead, I have to record the ideas that I think are worth going after, and save them for later. Tackling one idea at a time means that I can get a little boost of creative juice even when my muse is doing a Garfield impersonation.

image courtesy of ebonyink.wordpress.com

I have several methods at my disposal to record fun ideas/projects/whatever for later use. Right now I'm using a combination of my giant whiteboard, my sketch book, and the ToDo app in my phone. Eventually every good (and not so good) idea I have gets written down somewhere for later use. I might rediscover it next week or a year from now, but eventually I'll come back to it.

The tough part is choosing which project to pursue first. I need to decide how long it will take me to complete, whether I have the necessary knowledge and equipment to get it done, things like that. 

Right now I'm working on getting some interior images of a hotel that's agreed to give me full reign and total access. After that I'm doing to do a fashion/modeling shoot in the same hotel, and then I'll move on to a special project for the dreamTrip. During/in between, I'll be shooting cars. 

Technically I'm taking one thing at a time - but I'm going to do all that in the next 5 days, plus shooting basketball and track for work. It doesn't really *feel* like one thing at a time... but technically I suppose it is.

Do you have a way to manage your creative spurts? Let me know in the comments below!

Lightbulb! (why I love photography)

It's been a while since I used my phone to take a picture that I liked.
My LG Optimus S phone does some weird stuff to the images that it produces... like a ton of noise reduction and some funky sharpening. Regardless, I got this picture the other night:

Honestly, I was surprised my phone could even capture something this bright. 

Are these pictures masterful works of art? No, they aren't. Do I like them anyway? You betcha.

More and more often these days I feel pressured to use my cameras to make amazing, life-changing images. You know what? That isn't what photography is all about. Sure it's great to do that once in a while... but photography is about expression. It's about showing the way you see the world around you. It's about creation. It's about the sound and feel of the shutter.

That's why I love photography. Because I am creating. I am making something that nobody else ever has. Even if the concept has been done a bazillion times, when I press the shutter I know what no one in the history of EVER has done exactly what I just did. Photography is a powerful drug feeling. Looking through my viewfinder, I am The Creator. I am the all-powerful master of the seen universe.

When I'm holding a camera, I feel like Mufasa is standing next to me, whispering in my ear "Everything the light touches is our Kingdom."

Photography makes me The Creator, and it makes the world My Kingdom. It empowers me to express how I feel and what I see. The simple act of creation is what makes photography, painting, drawing, or playing music worth it. Honestly, it doesn't matter if my pictures change the world. It doesn't matter if anyone ever sees my photos, because every time I push the shutter, I'm creating something.

That is why I love photography.

I love blogging too. Not because I'm an attention whore with an absolute need for recognition. I know it seems like that sometimes, but honestly - that isn't why I love it.
I love blogging because it allows me to share. I can share what I have created. I can share the work of others. I can share Willow Smith's greatest video (you know you love it). I can share whatever I want, with a (potentially) world-wide audience. Anyone with an internet connection can read what I have to share.

That's the end of my rant for today.

Here's another random link to an old post

Swimwear: concept fail

Let me preface this post with an important concept.

Failure is inevitable. Failure is good. Failure will teach you.

With that out of the way, let me tell you how I failed my most recent personal photo shoot.

It started with a concept. A model, slowly rises out of the water. Black goggles cover her eyes and water pours down her face as she stares down the camera, looking deep into your soul.

0_0

With a grand concept like that, I was bound to fail. Nevertheless, Alexandra and I had fun and I ended up with an image I rather like. This was my second time working with Alexandra, who has been modeling on and off for the last 7 years. I called her the day before my shoot and gave her my basic idea. Even though she's still getting over a cold, she agreed and I picked her up and headed out to the location.

She jumped in the (very warm) pool and we started shooting. Light was provided by one Einstein 640 with a 20 degree grid. I had her go underwater and then come up approximately a bazillion times. I had her stop and hold at a variety of positions. I tried a few different techniques to make things work, and this is the best of them:

Fail.

It immediately became apparent to me that the original concept simply wasn't going to happen. Not with the ambient light in the pool. Not without a C-Stand or a VAL (strobist terminology for Voice Activated Lightstand, or someone holding the light on a pole). So I had her take the goggles off her eyes and we did a few frames like the one below.

Again. Not what I was after and not an image I'm particularly proud of. 

I knew I wasn't going to like these nearly as much, so I bailed on that concept and asked Alexandra to swim through the sunny spot in order to take advantage of the ambient light that I had been trying to conquer. 

In doing so, I ended up with the frame I like best from the shoot:

Sometimes it takes a major concept fail for me to realize that the best way to shoot is to use what you have available. Half the wall of the pool is windows, and we had a bunch of sunlight streaming in. We did 4 or 5 takes of this and wrapped the shoot. I'm going to go back next week with a different model and a different concept. I'll probably tackle my original concept again when I've decided how I'm going to light it (probably with a C-Stand and a big softbox)

Speaking of stands:

I use the Heavy Duty 13' stand I bought from Paul C Buff. Getting a light with any kind of modifier up even 8 feet requires weights on the stand for stabilization. I know a lot of photogs use sandbags or lead shot bags. I've found a cheaper alternative:

These are ankle weights from Gold's Gym. I bought them at Wal Mart. 10 LBS (5 each) for $8. They're super portable and they velcro to themselves, so I can keep them directly on the stand. I'm going to buy two more so I have one for each leg of the stand, and one for the middle. That'll be 20 LBS of extremely convenient weights that I don't have to take off my stand. Makes the stand a bunch heavier, keeps it stable and keeps the weights out of my bags. Plus, they're super cheap and they don't leak at all!

ZaZa Gallery canvas

First off, up front, a full disclosure:

I discovered ZaZa through twitter, where they were advertising a promotion. In exchange for a 16x20 canvas of one of my own images, they asked that I place a link to their site (see the link list on the right) and that I write a review of the canvas that they sent me.

I sent Hugh an email and offered to participate. I had the image below blown up and printed 16x20.

This morning, my canvas arrived on my doorstep. In total, the turnaround was 8 days for them to print and ship my image. A little slower than I'd like, but then again, I didn't pay for it.

It arrived in a box.

Fairly well packaged - though I will point out that MPIX (the company I get my paper prints done with) does a much better job of packaging their material.

The canvas itself is gorgeous. The colors are perfect, the texture is amazing, and there must be a zillion staples holding it in place.

It now has a well-deserved place on my wall

For what it's worth, MPIX also offers gallery canvas wraps. Though a fair bit more expensive, their canvases show up ready to hang, and will also come with better packaging. To be fair, I don't think the packaging really matters all that much, especially since my print from ZaZa wasn't damaged in any way.

The moral of the story is: when I need canvas prints done in the future, I'll go to ZaZa. They reached out to the photography community and offered this opportunity. Their prints are less expensive, and they get the job done well. Communication was personal and practically instant whether via email or Twitter. I recommend ZaZa Gallery to anyone looking for great canvas prints of their images, and I'd still recommend them if I had paid for my print.

Google analytics

I suspect that many of my readers have their own websites.

There are a lot of ways to keep track of how many people are visiting your site. I recently switched to Google Analytics, and I'm sticking with it.

My blog is hosted by Google (they own Blogger), so it just made sense to add analysis tools to the list of services that Google provides to me for free.

I don't get a bazillion hits every day, so it matters to me where every visit comes from, how long they stay, and what they view while on my sites. Google Analytics shows me everything, and much much more.

Above is your typical statistics page. It shows how many visits/pageviews I get on the Vault Blog. It shows where my visitors are coming from (google, facebook, twitter, etc) and it shows which pages get the most views. For me, that's the landing page of the blog.

This shows me which browsers my readers are using. This is important because some browsers are much more competent than others, and my site needs to be accommodating to whichever browser the majority of my readers are using. In this case, that is Firefox. Of course, if Firefox isn't the most widely used browser out there, it soon will be. This chart also shows me the connection speeds of my users. If I was posting huge videos and all my readers where on dialup connections, I would have a problem. Knowing how fast your users can load what you are posting is important.

This chart shows me how loyal my readers are. It looks like I have 11 people that check in every day, regardless of whether I post anything or not. One of those people is me, so I have 10 super-loyal readers. I don't know who they are, but to them: Thank you! 

What I hadn't realized is how many one-time visitors I have. Most of what I post here tends to assume that my readers have been around for a while. That isn't the case, so I'll be posting more internal links to previous posts, which allow my new readers to catch up and see what I've been up to recently.

Google even keeps track of which operating systems my users have, what version of flash they are running, their screen resolution and whether they have java support enabled.

Not surprisingly, most of my readers are running an Apple operating system of some kind. OSX and IOS together make up about 55% of my readership. The rest of my users are running either Windows or Android.

Going deeper, I discovered that Google Analytics keeps track of where my users live! Unsurprisingly, most of my views come from Colorado and Arizona, where nearly all my friends and family live. I also get a healthy amount of traffic from 17 other states (really light green) including Utah, New York (thanks Simon Hucko) Texas, Florida and Missouri, among others.

I haven't even begun to explore all the power of the analytics system that Google has to offer. There is much more to be discovered and utilized. I encourage anyone running a website of any kind to add Google Analytics to your arsenal. Like all of Google's services, it is free and very simple to set up.

Thanks to the users who gave suggestions in response to my call for post suggestions.

If you missed it, I posted a call for participants late last night - check it out!

A random post from back in the day: DIY Pizza box Softbox

dreamTrip - Call for participants

Last week, I started officially planning the adventure I'm calling dreamTrip 2011.

I haven't decided on very many things, but I have hammered out a few basic concepts.

1) We are going to be on the road for 7 days. March 12-19, 2011. 
2) Starting from Flagstaff, AZ we will caravan approximately 475 miles to Death Valley, CA
3) As much as possible, we will avoid freeways. Traveling through small towns, eating at local eateries and meeting local people is a big part of the experience
4) Anywhere that any person on the trip wants to stop, we will stop. We will shoot in the forest, the desert, in hotels and cars... basically anywhere that strikes our fancy.

In addition to a whole bunch of awesome still images, I expect to produce (in collaboration with others) a final video showing the highlights, behind the scenes and of course, bloopers. Maybe we'll get enough material to do one video of each. Andrew Paffrath of lanternCity Media and Fotography has already signed up to be our key video shooter.

Noelle Wells has also signed on as a shooter and transportation master.

Of course I'll be along, representing Vault Photography, as will my girlfriend, Dahlia Stack (she doesn't have a website. Shame on her!)

In order to make this trip a success:

We need more people! Models! Photographers! Videographers!

Everyone will pitch for fuel costs and for the sketchy cheap-o motels/hostels we stay in. Overall, I don't expect it to be insanely expensive for any individual. We will do our best to photograph places for free, rather than paying entry fees or going on tours or whatever.

If you're interested in coming along, please drop me an email or a comment below. It is going to be an awesome creative experience. Lots of collaboration, making new friends, learning a LOT and basically having a crazy awesome adventure.

Sound good?

A call for posts...

Dear readers,

What do you want me to blog about? Over the last year or two, I've posted nearly 550 times. Maybe three of those posts were due to requests from readers or friends. Everything else comes off the top of my head.

My current ongoing project, in addition to the headless portraiture series, is the planning an execution of the dreamTrip, which is starting to come along quite nicely. In fact, I'll be posting on it later this week. I'm curious though - is there anything you'd like me to touch on? Are there any topics I've never covered that you'd like to see covered? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I'm starting to get back in the swing of things in terms of photography. I'm planning a personal shoot this week. I hope to execute it Thursday, though there are no guarantees.

I'll check back when I have something fun to post. In the meantime - please drop some comments on what you'd like me to write about!