I’ve lived in D.C. for over seven years, yet I’ve never been to New York City. It’s a mere four hours away, but there has always been some reason for not going. I’ve always said that my inaugural trip to the Big Apple should be by myself, camera in hand, moleskine in pocket, and no agenda to speak of. I just want to explore the city on my own and see what I find there.
Tomorrow I’m finally making that happen. In 7 hours I’ll be getting on a bus headed to New York with little more than my camera and moleskine. Life is too short to keep putting it off. Can’t wait to see what happens…
I gotta say a big thanks to my friends Rodney and Lacey for subtly encouraging me to pursue this simple dream. I’m so thankful to have friends who inspire me!
I don’t think this review will spoil anything, but it probably will color your perception with a little bias. Either way, here’s my short review… Read the rest of this entry ?
Two nights in a row I have successfully made it to the theater without having heard a word about either film I was about to see. In keeping with this “unpoisoned well” mentality I will refrain from commenting. …until after the link below.
SPOILER ALERT!! For realz, if you haven’t seen the movie then you shouldn’t read this one yet. Read the rest of this entry ?
Everyone already knows about the twitter outage today, but even since it came back online I haven’t been able to post anything. Thus, I have decided to log my day here in tweetlike fashion.
around 11:30 AM - “Um, BOTH twitter and facebook aren’t loading for me. …maybe that’s really not so bad after all.”
12:38 – “Wedditing like a boss today.”
2:17 – “Twitter simply refuses to update from the web today.” (I actually started typing that one on my phone until I got distracted by gchat)
3:24 – “Just posted new photos on flickr and facebook! Russell Family Photos http://tinyurl.com/mcapqe “
5:22 – “Sweet action! I got 3 packages today! Refurb’d flash, removable hard drive trays, and a sample album.”
5:28 – “Mad props to Nikon for repairing my flash for free even though the warranty expired two weeks prior. Thing looks brand spankin’ new! #NikonFTW”
6:02 – “Heading out to teach a lighting ‘workshop’ for the folks at Marsden Media! …although really it’s just a few friends getting together to play with speedlights.”
I had been looking forward to seeing Away We Go since I first saw the trailer a few months back. It seemed like it would be an enjoyable and simple story; and I fell in love with the song “All My Days” by Alexi Murdoch that is featured in it. Last night I finally saw the film, and I thought I’d take a few minutes to write down what I gleaned from it. More thoughts after the jump.
I’m gonna take a break from writing about photography for a minute because I promised someone that I would write a follow-up to a previous post about my experimental New Balance shoes. After all, they gave me a free pair of shoes, so the least I can do is share what I think about ‘em. I’ve now had about a month to give them a run for the money (pun fully intended …maybe that’s why it’s not funny) and overall I’m very impressed.
Here’s why…
For starters, I have an absurdly wide foot. I have always had a hard time finding shoes that fit. Wes, the owner of Tri City New Balance, was able to find a shoe that was a perfect fit on the first try. In fact, they might very well be the best fitting pair of shoes I’ve ever had. I was amazed that Wes was able to determine what would be best for me without ever meeting in person. He clearly knows what he’s talking about.
So far they have held up surprisingly well. Granted, I’ve only had them for a little over a month, but compared to my last NB experience these new puppies are in a whole new league. I’ve taken them out for some hiking, walking, biking, and playing some friendly football.
The laces on them are ingenious. They appeared to be somewhat lumpy, but when I stopped to consider why I realized that they stayed tied (and tight) better throughout the day because of the bumps in them. Unlike every other shoe I’ve had, these don’t feel like they gradually loosen by the end of the day. It’s subtle, but it makes all the difference.
The only thing I don’t like about them is the little plastic “N” on the sides of them. I think they could have done a better job incorporating it into the design of the shoes, but as it is, it feel like they designed the shoe and then said, “Shoot, we’ve got to put our signature ‘N’ on here somewhere. …ah, just glue it on the side there.” After examining it further it’s clear that it was more intentional than that, but it still feels cheap for an otherwise fantastic shoe.
Man! All this talking about ‘em makes me want to just put them on and go run around or something =)
Thanks again to Wes for reaching out to me and changing my opinion of New Balance! I’m a fan and I would gladly recommend them to others. Shameless plug, baby!
It’s not that there is a shortage of opinions about any given movie (particularly this one), and it’s not that I have any special insight; I just want to make a point to ruminate on the images that flashed before me in hopes that I can learn from them. Hopefully I will be a better storyteller because of it.
Less than two weeks ago I was fed up with my New Balance shoes, and I stated that they would be the last pair of NB I would buy. Today, I am wearing a brand new pair of NB shoes thanks to Andrew, a social media expert, and Wes, the customer-friendly owner of Tri City New Balance.
In a nutshell, Andrew (whom I’ve never met) found my twitter status about NB and followed-up with me via email. He then put me in touch with Wes. Wes asked a handful of questions and then offered a solution. … That was the first thing about him/NB that impressed me. He made a point to connect with a complete stranger, and then took steps toward making me a long-term customer. No other shoe company has done that.
As it turned out, the shoes I originally purchased (473s) were an admittedly low-grade, generic shoe distributed to large sporting goods stores. Wes explained all this, and then said, “If you’re willing to give us another shot, I’ll send you a free upgrade, and you can send the old ones back.” Talk about great customer service! He went so far above and beyond his job description, it’s almost ridiculous! =)
So that brings us back to today. I’ll be trying out the shoes over the next couple weeks, and will write a follow-up post to let you know how they’ve treated me. In the mean time, if you’re looking for a new pair of shoes be sure to check out tricitynewbalance.com Their prices are great and the customer service is exceptional! It’s so refreshing to see a company that understands and utilizes social media! Good work NB!
The third Thursday of April is recognized as National High Five Day. It was my sincere desire to make a short film to commemorate this blessed occasion, but alas I was not able to do it in time. Instead I have embedded a series of videos by some truly expert high fivers. Watch and be amazed!
To my usual readers: Unless you’re looking to procrastinate, you might consider skipping this one. Boom! Instant time-saver!
I’m looking for an old friend and mentor named Jonathan Bridges. He went to school at Ouachita Baptist University, did an internship at Community Bible Church, and is/was a big fan of the Dallas Stars.
I have had zero success finding him on Google or any of the popular social networking sites, so I’m trying a rather backwards search here. My hope is that you, Jon Boy, will someday google yourself and find this post listed among the search results. It worked for me once before, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I’d love to hear from you!
Backstory: Recently I connected with an old friend/mentor who stumbled across my blog. I hadn’t heard from her in years, and it was great to finally reconnect. Long story short she googled herself, and my Wall of Gratitude page was included in the search results. “Yes, I love technology!…”
That made me think, “I wonder if I can find another friend this way…” So, here goes nothing!
Recently I got an email that talked about managing stress. Its message was simple: “Give a situation time and energy in proportion to the amount of control you have over it.” This idea of control got me thinking…
There are 169 million registered voters in the US.
I am one of them.
Therefore, I make up 1/169,000,000 of the voting population. That comes out to 0.000000592%
We vote for our President on a single day every four years.
There are 365.25 days in a year, and that means there are 1,461 days every four years.
There are 35,064 hours in that four year period.
There are 2,103,840 minutes in four years.
And 126,230,400 seconds.
Let me get this straight. I have 0.000000592% control over the political landscape of this country. If I devote that same percentage of my time to politics, then I will spend less than one second every four years shaping the future of this country.
P.S. I’ve spent 12 minutes writing this post. I should be set for life! =)
My girlfriend recently took me to see the film Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a fantastic story, and I highly recommend it. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet, but I did want to comment on one technical aspect of the film that I really liked.
It’s kinda hard to quantify, but I would say that approximately half of the film is subtitled. Normally subtitles make it difficult for me to really engage in the story. I’m not a fast reader, so I often have to choose between watching the visuals or reading the dialog; rarely do I feel as if I can do both well.
Slumdog Millionaire got a lot more creative with its use of subtitles, and for that I applaud the film editor. Rather than having all of the subtitles appear centered at the bottom of the screen, they are juxtaposed right next to the characters –interacting with the other elements on screen. It makes it feel as if the words are coming from a certain direction, and it actually carries the story along visually rather than detracting from it. It’s those little details…
Though I’m a PC user, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, I gotta give Mac credit for their unprecedented design and innovation. The two-finger scroll, magnetic power cord, and rounded edges are just a few details that showcase how well they think through the products they create. This new one is no exception…
It’s always fun to see the creative costumes that people come up with around Halloween. This year, Amanda and I went as Napoleon Dynamite and Deb. We had a killer time.
Wow! October has been the busiest month I’ve ever had in terms of the number and variety of clients. The work has been great, and eventually I’ll get paid for all of it (*subtle hint about my frustration with the bureaucracy of corporate accounting) and it will be quite rewarding I’m sure. But right now, I’m just plain tired.
I have a pretty good understanding of how beneficial sleep can be, yet I’m the type of person who likes to stay up until something is finished. Sometimes I’ll get so tired that my productivity will come to a screeching halt. I reach the point where I can’t get anything else done and I must get some sleep.
So it was around one o’clock in the morning, and I was working on a large batch of photos in Lightroom. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I really needed to finish the editing. … Ya know how your body just seems to get heavier when you’re asleep? Your jaw drops open, your head falls forward, and your shoulders relax. Yeah, normally that’s fine, but the problem was that my hand was resting on the keyboard –specifically on the “x” key.
Those of you familiar with Lightroom know that pressing “x” marks a photo as a reject. Yeeeeaaah… by the time I woke up, all of the photos were missing and all of the work I had struggled to stay awake for had been undone.
Last night as I was coming home from a shoot I noticed a box in my parking garage. Someone had scribbled on it: “free books!” so my curiosity got the best of me and I peeked inside. The first book I pulled out was called, Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture. I have never heard of it before, but after reading the back cover I couldn’t help but think that God purposely dropped it right in front of me. It totally made my already awesome night even more awesomer! To top things off, 14 out of 15 people on Amazon gave it 5 stars. Can’t wait to read this one!
Thank you, God, and whoever happened to leave this book behind! ‘Tis much appreciated.
Tomorrow I’m finally making that happen. In 7 hours I’ll be getting on a bus headed to New York with little more than my camera and moleskine. Life is too short to keep putting it off. Can’t wait to see what happens…
As it turned out, the shoes I originally purchased (473s) were an admittedly low-grade, generic shoe distributed to large sporting goods stores. Wes explained all this, and then said, “If you’re willing to give us another shot, I’ll send you a free upgrade, and you can send the old ones back.” Talk about great customer service! He went so far above and beyond his job description, it’s almost ridiculous! =)
