My Current Video Project Color Beautification
•Flatification
•Desaturafication
•Curvification
I Need A Nap
Tokyo Dreams from Rogue on Vimeo.
It takes an excellent filmmaker/editor has the ability to keep somebody mesmerized for ten musicless minutes of watching people sleep. Story told! Well done. This is very inspiring.
Apple. Let it go.
Abraham Lincoln Built The Leaning Tower Of Pisa
About Life of Haiti from Life of Haiti on Vimeo.
Got my newest video project finished! It was a long and crazy process! It was great to see it be finished! I am sure the feeling was a lot like the guy who built the Tower of Piza… All straight and symmetrical. Not flawed in anyway. Very Special.
So this is the first video to be put out for Life of Haiti! What is Life of Haiti? What a well question. Life of Haiti is a Social Good Company that I cofounded with my cute girlfriend created to raise awareness and money to go to organizations in Haiti that are making a difference for the people there.
Sooooooooo I decided to create the music for this video after hours of trying to find something that would work. If You have ever edited a video You know music is the hardest part but it is the icing in the Oreo. I finally had an idea of what I wanted and decided the best way to get it was to just make it myself. Just like Abraham Lincoln. This short was hard freakin work. But that work made the finished product be very special to me. We definitely have more video plans as well. SUSPENSE!
Today I wanna throw some love out to my newest productivity app “Vivo”. It’s simple. You tell it how long You want to work and if you try to check Twitter a baby somewhere explodes. You also have the option to just let You know when time runs out. Excellent, minimalistic, pretty app that actually helps me focus and get more done. That is the point right?
New Photo Project!
I have a new street photo project that I am very excited about! It will be a series for shots of street performers I have taken over time. Many of these shots are from my trip to Annapolis last year so that makes me double excited because sadly not many of those photos have been touched yet. I am thinking the name will be “Sound Of The Street”. Now let me get back to work.
Love James.
Ansel?!?? That’s A Girls Name!
I have been very inspired in my photography lately. All that is on my mind when I am not holding a camera is how I can create excellent art that makes a difference. I am happy to say that the second thing on my mind is what my next lens should be.
Last night I watched two thirds of a PBS documentary about Ansel Adams. I still have to finish it. If You don’t know of Ansel he is possibly the most famous photographer in history. His prints hang all over the world. You have probably seen many and did not realize it. He is a landscape photographer who fell in love with Yosemite. He also had a beard.
The first half of the doc was all this painful guitar picking and “Ansel was a different boy” stuff. But when they got into his life as an artist I was glued to the screen. What I was so intrigued by was his fight to portray what he felt when he would look at the beauty and hugeness of the mountains. I could really relate to this in my work.
One day he had a long hike up a mountain taking photos. When he made it to the top he had only two glass plates left. He shot film so He couldn’t just pop in another SD card. He was taking a photo of “Half Dome”. He took one shot and realized the photo wouldn’t convey what he was feeling as he stood there in front of this beast. So he had the idea of using a heavy red filter to darken the sky and create a very specific, very haunting look. Below is that final shot. This is how he figured out how to portray what he saw in front of him. He found a way to make a mountain look how it feels. This was a big step forward for Ansel and his beard.
Ansel Adams - Monolith. The Face Of Half Dome.
It made me draw a line to how I use Photoshop. I don’t know why God didn’t just go ahead and let me see the world in 70s Kodachrome film. I connect with photos that look like film. I don’t know why. I just do. It’s built into me. And I use those beautiful tones and washy shadows to convey what I felt in real life at that moment. Whether a person or trees or music. This was incredible to hear that Ansel and his beard had that same urge as an artist.
Overall the film inspired me to renew the passion and purpose for my work and continue to seek that with everything in me. To go deeper into my heart and create from there. And to grow a beard. Get a camera. Whether it be Your 7D with a 50mm ƒ/1.8 or Your iPhone and go make inspiring art! Tell a freakin story!
Boston Thoughts
So it has been a big week for Boston and for America! I plan to talk about the absolutely moving photojournalism that happened but in this post I just want to share my overall thoughts.
It started with pure confusion and devastation. Photos of blood and people without legs. Fears of another 9/11. I was scared we were going to have news break of a other city being attacked. So much confusion. But that did not last long. I gotta say. I am proud of the men and women who did not sleep until they found these guys. And I know that is an incredibly CNNesque quote but I am serious. Boston and the FBI showed what they were made of this week.
One of the things that I kept feeling this week was that while Boston took a cheap shot to the throat. They came back up with an AK-47. We in America are so organized and we have excellent processes for dealing with attacks like these. What a crazy thought right? This first hit me when one of the head surgeons of the hospital said “we were ready for this”. This floored me. You never hear this man!
The officers, military and people on scene acted quickly and heroically. I mean overall I am just so amazed at how quickly and efficiently all the injured were in a hospital room. Having been to Haiti and seeing the difference in their police force and pretty much everything else makes this so much more apparent. We are so blessed in the pure orginization and planning that has been put in to place.
Three days!!
When I first heard the situation developing Thursday night and realized how close it was to Boston I pretty much knew it was them. Sadly a young officer lost his life but that started the two suspects spiral. And once again our preparedness showed its self. Hundreds of cops closed in and locked down the entire world for these suspects. As soon as I heard what was going on (when nobody knew what was happening) I had CNN, CBS on Ustream, Reddit, Twitter and the Boston State Police scanner all updating at once. I was up until 5am listening to the live developments. Everything got quiet after the first suspect had died until about 7PM. I heard the officers on the radio saying “we are going to check the boat” which looking back was incredible to have heard that. And of course finally they get him! Alive! Incredible! I am just amazed at how they all came together and achieved justice in three days. Normally the suspects are found in a basement in Canada 11 months later. Now ironically the guy is having his life saved in the hospital. All I can say is this was a job well done for everyone involved. And of course I love Jesus and I do believe that God was all over this. My heart at the end of this all is what I said on Facebook last night. I have love in my heart for this guy and I truly want to see him turn his life around.
