Changes....

So I finally made the switch to using Wordpress for my blog. This will be my last official post on here. Please go ahead and bookmark the new address for the blog, www.shawncollie.com/blog.

Also, the launch of the new site should be official in about 48 hours. I am waiting for the DNS servers to propogate correctly across the cloud we call the internet.

Lack of updating...

right when i started working on making some kind of daily blog for the website, I got busy with a couple different things.

The first thing that has been pre-occupying my time is the decision to migrate this blog over to WordPress. This has been a slow process unfortunately as I am also finalizing the design for the new website. I am wanting to make sure the blog and the website create a seamless experience. I will keep you all posted as this gets closer to rolling out.

The second thing that kept me away from writing new content for the blog was a business trip I just got back from last night. I had the opportunity to have my hand in some of the artwork that was installed and displayed at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. I flew out Thursday afternoon and was immediately whisked away to the hotel for a tour of the amazing facility. I have never seen such amazing branding that spanned every aspect of the hotel. Then drinks and dinner with some of the project coordinators. After that was a long night of drinking and dancing with some of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Once Thursday was over and done with, the rest of the trip was about relaxing and enjoying the City of Lost Wages. Pictures from the trip will be posted soon, unless you want to see a bunch of photos from the phone.

Now, I am back at home and having to start playing catch up on some personal work here. Namely migrating the blog to WordPress and moving all the existing content here to the server as well, and the official launch of the new website.

Getting organzied, staying productive and doing it all on time!

Yesterday morning I posted on Facebook my praises for the Evernote app. I just discovered this app and absolutely in love with it. You can literally remember everything imaginable and have it in a nice little index. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

On a related side note, I was reading Luke Copping's blog this morning and he posted a link to a great read from Freelance Switch. This link is chock full of ways to stay organized, increase productivity, and time management.

Some great things to check out today....

I am trying to get myself in the habit of posting and writing new things every day. Supposedly it takes 21 days to create a new habit. So I am working on writing or posting some kind of new content everyday for the next twenty days so that this becomes the norm for me.

Today is one of those days that I will just share some great things I came across today.

First up is this great link that I came across thanks to Jay B at Public School. It features some great work by Ted Sabarese.

Next is this gem featuring the work of Elias Wessel. This guy's portfolio is stunning. I am not sure if I should be inspired or shaking in my boots.

I stumbled across this great mix of music via Luke Copping's blog. The mix is put together by 99% and is available as a stream or a download via iTunes. If you keep late hours while working on projects, this is the perfect mix of music for you.

And one more link to end today's post. This one is from the guys over at Permission to Suck. I will warn you that it may seem a little depressing at first, but I choose to see it as a way to explore how I can start focusing on the multiple ways I can add extra value to my clients needs and wants. If you have a couple minutes (read this as 20 minutes of spare time), you should definitely read this post and watch the accompanying video.

New Work: ATOM WILLIS

Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to work with an up and coming designer on some images that may become part of his look book. The whole shoot was a bit impromptu as it started around 11:30 at night...in his back yard.

Everything about the shoot was really organic. Things just kind of flowed around and came together thanks to some really great local modeling talent. And a great location that is the designer's house. Here are a couple sneak peeks at what we created!

New Work....Finally!

The holidays have been keeping me incredibly busy....go figure. But I did manage to shoot something new. The image to the left is a preview of what I have been playing with the past two days. You can view the final image after the jump below.

I have been working more on the re-launch of the site a lot and have been trying to shoot some new content for it.


More after the jump

The Experiment

So...this past Saturday my house was invaded by a total of 7 kids. All but one were family. I am OK when it is just our kids at the house. I tend to freak out and get really stressed once more and more children arrive and overtake the house some kind of plague.

As the day progressed, I became more and more stressed out and aggravated. The better half came up with an idea that was inspired by this video:

So, off to the store we go to track down as much sour candy as humanly possible. After all the lighting was set up, we decided to tell the kids what we were going to do. And we were immediately rewarded with smiles, laughter, and an all around want to be a participant.

More after the jump

more busy days are upon me

It has been a little while since the last time I wrote. The past two months have been really busy and hectic. But, that is when life is usually the most exciting.

I have been taking some classes this semester to keep things fresh and new for me. Plus, it doesn't hurt to learn something new and grow the box that you live in. One of the classes I am taking at ACC this semester is Studio Management. Despite the course name, this is actually a class focusing on the business side of photography. We have had lecturers of all types come in...bankers, lawyers, insurance agents and may different photographers. The photographers that we have had come visit us range from portrait and wedding photographers through commercial and editorial photographers. Recently, we had Kirk Tuck come in and speak to us. This man has and continues to have a great career in commercial photography. He had some amazing things to share with us about running a business and how to remain successful in the current trying times. Keep an eye on his blog, Visual Science Lab. Kirk updates this blog daily with some great material that everyone should read.

On a side note, I just returned from a job shooting a ton of new images for a local Texas busines, G and S Fish Market. I am finishing up the images for delivery as we speak. This was, in my head, going to be a fairly easy, but fun, assignment. So of course there were some slight issues to overcome. Remember, shooting shiny and reflective items will require you to think a little outside the box and challenge you to work harder.

Enjoy your week!

What to do when it snows in Austin, TX?

So, I am going to start this off with a bit of history. Sunday afternoon was in the low 80s. By Monday morning, the weather had dipped back down to about 50 or so. This morning I awoke to it snowing. Yes. Snowing. In Austin, TX. So what did I decide to do with the opportunity? I went and took pictures.

Last Thursday, I got my hands on a Cambo large format view camera. I didn't get much opportunity to play with it and shoot until Sunday afternoon. And even then, I only shot 2 sheets of film. I forgot how much I loved working with the view camera. There is something magical in the tilts, shifts and swings of the standards. It is a very organic and slow process. You bring out the legs and then set up either the short or long rail, then the standards and bellows. And then you start framing your image. By the time you have framed and composed your shot, you can easily have spent 30 minutes before you are even ready to contemplate loading the film and setting the aperture and shutter speed. That process alone is an art form; ie. bellows extension factor.

Quick Update and other tidbits

I figured I would take advantage of the brief amount of downtime I had before I ran the last of the house to school.

This year has taken off with a bang. And hasn't let up at all.

I am enrolled in a couple classes that have re-arranged my schedule some so there has been a slight learning curve, to both mind and body. The classes I am taking this semesters are definitely some interesting eye-openers and I am sure more than a couple will spark some new posts. One of which is in draft form as we speak.

On a side note, I tweeted about this yesterday. It appears that the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, TX will now be the press photo archive for Magnum Photos.

Magnum Photos has sold its archive of more than 185,000 press prints to Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computer, and two other investors for an undisclosed amount, the agency announced today. Under the terms of the sale, the prints were moved in December 2009 from Magnum's New York office to the Harry Ransom Center, the humanities library at the University of Texas in Austin.

The full details of the sale and how this is going to work can be found here on Magnum Photos or through PDN Online.

A New Year...What is in store for us now?

I had a couple other blogs I had been working on to publish right before the new year and after. The holidays kept me quite busy with family and the kids, so many of my unfinished thoughts are swimming around in half full bottles on the windowsill.

Its 2010. Its amazing how much has happned in the past year. Let alone the past 9 years of this decade and the millenium. I wont bore you with a top 10 list of things that happened last year. There are plenty of those floating around the internet as it is. And I'm not going to make a list of predictions of what I think is to come (even though i will go on a tangent or two before I am done).

We are entering the last year of the first decade of the millenium. So much has happened and changed the world we live in. Technology and the internet has put the world at our finger tips and its hard to stay afloat of all the information we have available at times. Cameras have changed. Computers are faster. The internet has become this huge and vast library of so much information and misinformation. But is all this technology and the advancements a good or bad thing?

more after the jump

contradiction in terms pt 1.5

So after a longer weekend than planned that included a small family trip to Port Lavaca this past saturday and then family portraits for my family on sunday back in Austin, I am finally finishing the post about this image:



more after the jump