1. Read the already released manuals so you are ready to rock when your camera arrives.
2. If you’re getting  the D800 or are going to be shooting/editing video for the first time, determine if your computer will be able to handle the new demand for disk space and processing speed.
3. If you’re new to DSLR video, go watch all the videos over at www.learning DSLRvideo.com and www.dslrvideoshooter.com. This will provide hours and hours of distraction and good information.
4. Give your other camera body some love, by giving it a good cleaning to reassure it you still love it, and that nothing will change with the new addition to the family. Then go clean all your lenses.
5. Perform a random act of kindness, like paying for the coffee for the person behind you in the drive-up – this will no doubt increase your karma factor and bump you up on the waiting list for your camera

As you probably already know from the subtle title above, I am stoked to say one of my images is on the Patagonia website. Patagonia is a brand that I love and respect and it is an honor to be a part of their story. The image was taken while on a family trip to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas.  After a day of climbing we stopped off at the kids favorite tree swing to finish off the day.  The great thing about the swing is that ground falls away below your feet giving you a sense that you are WAY off the ground. As you can tell the kids LOVE it.

Vimeo Video

Well the time has finally come to address the whole issue of a “real” logo for my business. With 20-years experience in marketing I knew enough not to tackle this on my own, but to instead work with those that are even more right-brained than I –  Thankfully I’m friends with the two cats up above. Clifton Alexander on the left and Chase Wilson on the right of Reactor Studio. Clifton and I met several years back in the Shawnee Chamber Leadership program and have been friends ever since. The crew at Reactor understand branding and definitely understand the vibe of what I’m trying to achieve. But more importantly they LOVE tacos and I LOVE tacos! This fact drove the crucial decision of meeting at El Camino Real to lay the groundwork for the design.

Our discussions centered on who I ultimatley want to appeal to, whether the logo needs to be more polished and clean or rough around the edges.  I shared with them that I am always drawn to logos that have a strong mark.  At the end of the meeting it boiled down to a logo that will appeal to those that appreciate good design, art and photography as well as provide a  sense of my style that is both polished yet rought around the edges.

Stay tuned!  These guys will no doubt come up with an EPICICALLY AWESOME design.

For the creek crossing shots I did use as Nikon SB-800 speed light to rider right on top of the embankment. I was shooting in Aperture Priority and underexposed by about 2 full stops to bring down the ambient quite a bit. This required me to bump up the the flash output 2 stops to get the punch I wanted.

It turned out to be a very successful day for Team Ethos as they were on the podium something like five seperate times with four of those being 1st place finishes.

I’m also very pround to have my images featured on their website.

The previous night as Jeremy and I were doing our typical late night Facebook Chat he mentioned “…you won’t believe what I brought back” to which I replied something along the lines of  ”…so what sacred artifact did you remove from China”.

So while we were eating our chips & salsa at lunch, he gets this grin on his face and reaches behind himself to pull out what appears to be a catalog.  But this isn’t just any ordinary catalog.  Apparently three years ago he produced several t-shirt designs for this outdoor  gear/apparel company in China called High Rock. After completing the designs he never heard back from the company – even after several attempts to follow-up.

Fast forward three years  – while he and  the others were walking the streets of Urumqi, China he sees that a local store carries High Rock products and decides to check it out.  He is immediatley blown away to see all of his t-shirt designs on the racks.  Their translator tells the shop owner that Jeremy was the designer of those shirts.  It was at that point the tiny clerk dashed back to the storeroom and returns with this catalog opened to a page with a full-bleed image of Jeremy in his studio. 

Jeremy shows me the picture at lunch today and to my amazement it was a picture I took of him in his studio three years ago. It was one of those situations where Jeremy asked me to shoot him while he was working – something he can share with galleries as a part of his profile. I was happy to oblige as I needed the practice.  Apparently High Rock had requested a profile picture and he decided to send them the one I took.  At the time they gave no indication that they were producing a catalog.

 Holy crap – my first time in print and it is for a Chinese Catalog.  Had Jeremy not gone to China I would have never known. I’m still trying to get my mind around this very strange coincidence.

Anyway, here is the image as it appears in the catalog. The unfortunate part of the story is that at the time I was just only kicking around the idea of pursuing photography seriously and didn’t have enough sense to put a Copywrite Watermark on my image that may have resulted in some sort of reimbursement. Oh well – lessoned learned. But hey, I can now say I’m an International Photographer!

High Rock Catalog Cover

Our boys really haven’t seen this level of skateboarding up close and in person.  The heat really didn’t stop the Level2 Team and competitors from going all and putting on a great show.  We met some really great people while we were there and I’m guessing the boys will be asking to go to the skate-park from time to time.

As for the images, the event took place from noon to 2:00 – not the most desirable time of day to be taking pictures with the sun directly overhead, which typically cast some pretty bad shadows on your subjects faces.  However, in this case the concrete of the skate-park worked as one giant reflector and bounced plenty of light from below resulting in some really nice shots. 

All that aside, photographing skateboarding was a blast – lots of great action and interesting subjects. Can’t wait to do it again.

Nikon D700 | 24-70mm f2.8 | 70-200mm f2.8

Cedar Wright on “Brick Attack” 5.12b – Cave Creek, Arkansas

Nikon D700 | 24-70mm f2.8