Just got back from a fantastic vacation in Maui.  It was great to get away and relax for a week.  Now it’s back to work.  Lot’s of fun stuff to look forward to.

Just to prove I haven’t gone soft.  I can still roll up my sleeves when I need to.

Our good friends and Maui roomates Matt and Meighan.

Isla’s first time in the ocean.  She loved it!

We didn’t bring our yeti on this trip.

View from our room.  Not too bad.

Surprised to see something other than stylized portraits?  From the beginning, the goal with this ongoing personal series was to create something completely different from my portrait work.  Last fall, I decided I wanted to push myself to create something outside of my comfort zone.  I would prefer to let these images stand on their own without adding a story or context to them, but I also realize it is important to talk about one’s work.  If not the meaning, at least the process.  I have attempted to explain these to a few close friends, and the best explanation I have come up with so far is that this good idea evolved from several really bad ideas.  What this means is I began with an idea and talked about it for a little while and really wrestled with the concept and how it would read.  The first few concepts never really sat right with me, but thinking and talking about them with others eventually led to what you see here.  Even after I began shooting, the concept continued to evolve.  I worked with a great post production studio called Gigantic Squid, and collaborated with Ian Goode on the final look and feel of everything.  This really has been an experiment and exploration of a different type of photography.  As much as I pulled away from my portrait work in this process, I came to realize just how important the human element is to me in my work.  I learned how to respond to what I was shooting and adapted my approach as the images came to life.  That is not something I get to experience when working on an ad campaign which has to be planned out completely before shooting.  So far, this project has taken me across Washington and Northern California, and I am planning a couple more out of state trips in the months to come.  I have learned so much from this experience and I am excited to see how this continues to evolve and shape me as an artist.

Over the past few years, I have registered several domains with GoDaddy.  There, I said it.  I’m sure most of you are familiar with GoDaddy’s extremely obnoxious commercials.  I have thought to myself on several occasions, “I should transfer my domains from them.”, but I have just been too lazy to actually do it.  On one hand, they are very smart in their marketing.  They advertise like crazy on a consistent basis, as well as take advantage of multiple advertising platforms.  Whether you like them or not, most people probably think of GoDaddy when they think of registering a domain because they have been so consistent.  Photographers, and freelance artists take note of the power of consistent advertising.  There is a reason so many people use GoDaddy, however insulting their ads may be.

Recently, Bob Parsons, the GoDaddy CEO did something I could’t ignore.  He traveled to Africa to kill elephants, and made a video of it.  He dresses up the whole thing by claiming he is helping farmers who’s crops are eaten by the elephants.  Needless to say, this has become a hot topic since the video came out, and Bob has since promised to kill more elephants in 2012.  I have serious issues with Bob as a person, as well as GoDaddy and the way he run’s it.

I started the process of transferring my domains from GoDaddy and if you also feel this is not a business you want to support, I would encourage you to do the same.  It’s a pretty easy switch and it doesn’t effect your website at all.  You just need to login to your account and go to the Domain Manager tab.  From there, click on your domain, and click the “Authorization Code: Send by Email” link.  This will email you a code which you will need to give to your new registrar when you sign up.  And that is it.

I have had several people message me asking where I switched to.  There are obviously many good options out there, but I chose Network Solutions.  They even have a discount right now for people transferring from GoDaddy if you use the code “ELEPHANT” when you sign up.  You may have to call in to use the code, but it is $6.99 per transfer and you keep whatever time is left on your domain plus one year for free.

*4/14/11 – Update*  Do not go with Network Solutions!  They do have a great introductory offer for transfers, but after that they are ridiculously expensive!  I am not going to make a recommendation for another place because I think there are many good ones out there, but on the basis of price alone, I am not going to recommend NS.

I understand not everyone is going to see this the same way as I do, but I just want to present the information and you can make whatever decision is best for you.  Thanks.

Here is my new video interview on Adorama TV, hosted by Mark Wallace.  I was really impressed with Mark’s questions, and I think the video turned out great.   Some of the questions include the gear I use, what it was like photographing Annie Leibovitz, how I approach photographing celebrities who are aligned with hot issues, and much more.  I am going to keep this pretty short because of the video, and there  isn’t really anything I need to add.  Thanks for taking a look, I hope you enjoy it.

I photographed Dan Savage for the March 28, 2011 issue of Time Magazine.  Dan is a sex columnist (Savage Love), and the founder of the It Gets Better YouTube campaign supporting bullied gay teens.  Thank you to Marie Tobias at Time for working with me on this assignment.  It was a lot of fun to think through the lighting for a Black-and-White portrait for a change.  There aren’t many assignments for B&W these days, and it really does take a different lighting approach than working with color.  This is my favorite image, as well as the one running in the magazine.

Congrats to Mark and Summer and welcome to the family baby Allister.  As of yesterday, Isla has a cousin and I am officially a crazy uncle.  It seems society has always warned us of crazy Uncle John’s, and now I am one.  On the bright side, I now have a valid excuse for my crazy behavior.  I guess I can also test new parenting techniques on someone else’s child before introducing them to Isla.  Lots of good times ahead!

That’s my neighbor Mark Miller, reporter for ABC affiliate KOMO in Seattle, getting water thrown in his face.  No, I am not waterboarding him.  That wouldn’t be very neighborly at all.  I am simply teaching him a lesson.  Ok, I’m kidding.  Mark sees some pretty interesting stuff at his job, but I would guess this is the last thing he expected he would be doing when he woke up today.  ”Hey neighbor, would you be up for getting water thrown in your face while I take a few pictures?”  He did mention he expects nothing less when I call, though.  Fair enough.  Why did we throw 121 bowls of water in his face?  I just finished shooting an ad campaign and it is in post production this week.  Today we realized we needed a few more assets to really make this thing shine, so with Mark’s help, we made it happen.  Mark won’t be in the final image, but I needed to capture water splashing on skin.  It’s going to look great when it’s finished.

Thanks Mark!  You are a true professional and a good friend.

I have had several opportunities to guest blog, as well as give some interviews over the past few weeks and I thought I would share some of these with you.  There will be a few more in the weeks to come.  Blows my mind to be able to say that.  I am really enjoying writing and speaking which is something I have begun to do more of.  I struggle with writing or giving advice when it has not been asked for, but when someone asks me a question I find I have no shortage of thoughts and opinions.  Part of that is a hangup I have about wanting to be genuine, but I just feel much more comfortable responding to a question, rather than giving unsolicited advice.

To start off, Luke Copping asked me, along with 17 other creatives, to answer the question: How do you get out of a creative rut?

Here is the beginning of my response:

You can continue reading my response along with the rest of the post at 18 Imaginative Thinkers Break Your Creative Block.

Also worth mentioning, A Photo Editor gave me a really nice shout out last Friday, in relation to the Creative Block piece on Luke’s blog.  My first time on APE, so that was especially exciting.

I just started using FoundFolios, which is a great online portfolio site for connecting photographers with art buyers.  I will be rolling out some new work on there in the near future, and the FoundFolios Blog just posted a short blurb about my Liberia photo shoot for MiiR Bottles.

Last but not least, I gave an interview a few weeks back for the Smartpress Blog which is geared toward people who are just starting out in photography.

Thank you to Luke Copping, Rob Haggart, Juliette Wolf-Robin, and Sean Taylor for expressing interest in my work, and sharing it with others.

My website updates are finished, and I am pleased to announce I have a new Liberia gallery in the Selected Work section of the website.  If you subscribe to this blog in a reader you may have see some strange posts come through during the update, but that has been fixed and everything should be back to normal now.  The current selection of images is basically round one as I will be adding more images in a few weeks.  I feel really good about this first edit.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  I hope you like them.

Wow.  That pretty much sums up how I am feeling right now.  Late last night I posted Zachariah’s Portrait along with some information on sponsoring a child (Zachariah specifically) with the hope that maybe one person would feel inclined to support the work being done to educate and love children in Liberia.  Those kids, and the Liberian people, have really been on my heart lately, and I just felt it was an opportunity I needed to share.  Well, not only was Zachariah sponsored as of early this morning, but all four of the children needing sponsorship have now been supported.  I heard from Daryl Finley, the founder of Well Done Organization tonight, and he has received numerous emails from you asking if you can still help.  I didn’t expect such an outpouring of love and support, and I just want to say thank you.  You really touched my heart today.

Although there are no children currently listed, there are still several children who need sponsors, and it sounds like the program will be expanding shortly.  Please make sure to check the website from time to time, or if you want to get on the list you can also use the WDO contact page.

Thank you to everyone who stepped up today to help.  Some of you donated your money, some of you helped spread the word on Facebook, and many of you ReTweeted  my blog post link.  Thank you to everyone.  It is so great to be part of this community and to see what we can accomplish when we work together.