Just to break things up, today I give you a photograph of the view from the Pearl Street Bridge in Grand Rapids, Mi. Grand Rapids is a beautiful city. It might be a surprise you that Grand Rapids is the second largest city in Michigan (after Detroit). Although the city is rather large, I think you’ll find the downtown area more than inviting.

Some possible uses of an image like this might be: banners, Web headers?

If there are photographers out there that want to participate in #MIcrush, please do so! I’ll post links here as I come across them (so leave a comment here or tweet the hash tag #MIcrush).

Download (24 MB JPEG)

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Heart wrenching short film shot on a Canon EOS 7D.

I’ll be honest, I felt like a fish out of water. Both Retha and Jean are pros, so I was the rookie on the team. Plus, most of the photography I’ve done has been candid, due to the fact it usually involves children running around. So working with models was a stretch for me. Lucky for me though, Joey and Gina were easy going and a pleasure to work with. After watching Retha jump in and make a few shots happen I found enough courage to make a few of my own.

I had such a great time shooting this weekend that I’m going to organize something similar on the west side of the state for late February. If you’re interested, please let me know!

Event Photos

Horsing around in Photoshop

Major thanks to Retha for putting this event together and to Joey and Gina for standing in for us!!

Be sure to visit:

Moments Captured by Retha

Mathewson Photography

Krow Photography

(In the middle of corn fields, Kurt (pictured) and I found a bridge that had been tagged - if you could call it that)

Kurt, Ken (my brothers – twins) and I went camping last weekend despite the cold wet weather. Ken and I went for a quick 5 mile jog and Kurt and I went on a quick scavenger hunt for something interesting to photograph. It was dreary, wet, cold, and otherwise boring scene – which was what made this hunt interesting.

As creatives we often get assignments that inspire about as much enthusiasm as that cold wet photo hunt. Yuck. As much as we like to tell ourselves that we’re only going to do the “fun” projects we inevitably have to do the boring ones as well.

When we’re faced with projects like that we can either piss and moan about it or we can look for something interesting to bring to the surface.

I think this is a mark of a seasoned creative. Pulling the interesting out of the mundane often takes hard work and special attention to subtleties.

I wont go on about how the creative industry is flooded with shallow, lazy, copycats – rather, leave you with this:

The next time you’re tasked with a boring gig – dig in and make it beautiful. Find it. It’s in there. It will make you a better creative. I promise.

Flickr has had the “Blog This” feature for quite some time. It’s a handy feature that allows you to post to your blog from a photo. They have taken that same thought and applied it to Twitter. All you need to do is connect your Flickr account to your Twitter account.

1. Log into Flickr and head to your account page.
2. Click the tab “Extending Flickr”
3. Add or edit “Your blogs”
4. Choose Twitter from the “Add a blog” helper
5. Authenticate your Twitter account – head over to your Twitter settings on Twitter.com and make sure you approve Flickr in your “Connections” tab

You are all set to start tweeting your Flickr photos! To do this, just jump over to the photo you want to send out. Above the photo you’ll see all the things you can do with that particular photo.

Click on the “Blog This” button and choose your Twitter account. Flickr will then grab the short URL for you and put it in a Twitter post.

Nice and easy!

Several weeks ago I noticed tweets with links that used the Flic.kr as the URL base. My first thought was that there was a Flickr service at Flic.kr that would shorten my Flickr url or better yet, allow me to post a photo to both Twitter and Flickr at the same time. That’s not what you find at Flic.kr but a few short weeks later ¹ the problem has been solved.

The Twitter to Flickr thing has been worked out. Great. But what about a short URL from a Flickr photo to Twitter? That’s where flic.kr comes in. Not quite seamless, but accessible enough for those willing to invest in the integrity of the internet (more on that in a minute).

Want a short URL for your Flickr photo without using a 3rd part service? Here is how!

Flickr publishes a short URL for every photo via the tag. View the source of the page you want to send people to and look for

<link rev="canonical" type="text/html" href="http://flic.kr/p/6uYrJN" >

Grab the value of the href and you’re good to go!

OK, I can hear the non-technical people hating on the idea of viewing the page source. Like I said, it isn’t seamless. This is where you can give Flickr a pat on the back for using the tag though. Go to: RevCanonical and paste in the URL of the photo you want a short url for and it will look up the link for you!

The whole process is still NOT seamless, but it’s only a matter of time before Flickr or a 3rd party makes it so. Until then, hardcore Flickr users can take advantage of these methods – while making the internet a safer place!

Further Reading and Resources

• RevCanonical
• Chris Shiflett – Save the Internet with rev=”canonical”
• Unweary – The Security Implications of URL Shortening Services
• Joshua Schachter’s post on url shorteners
• Flickr URL shortening information
• Twitter your Flickr

Footnotes

¹ Flickr has done well to adapt to Twitter shaking things up. Twitpic may have the lead, but it lacks the depth and appeal that Flickr does long term – IMO.

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My little brother (one of two that are both bigger than I) went on a short photo safari last night around Grand Rapids. We ducked in and out of buildings as the clouds let a few rain drops loose which only added to the excitement of the evening. We had a blast.

We both commented last night on how shooting with someone challenges one another and inspires the creative eye. I had forgotten what that felt like. As a creative, I tend to live in my own little world and its rare that inspiration comes from an actual human interaction – most of mine comes from the Web, environmental design, nature and architecture. I can see where I’ve been missing out – which will change.

Grand Rapids in focus

• Flickr: Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Flickr: Grand Rapids in Detail