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My website is now featured in the Graph Paper Press showcase.
Graph Paper Press is a developer of Word Press themes for photographers, writers, and videographers, and I have been a proponent for almost a year now. Their themes are very powerful, efficient, intuitive, and make it easy to create a content rich and socially connectable website.
More about Graph Paper Press, and their minimalist themes can be found here.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the WordPress platform, do yourself a favor, and read more about it.
Nov 29, 2010 | Categories: News & Updates | Tags: Featured Site, Graph Paper Press, November 2010, On Assignment | Leave A Comment »
Thanksgiving is now over, and some of us worked off our feast by hanging Christmas decorations. The rest of us continued to eat, and are still eating. I did both, but not before I photographed the turkey carcass.
Here’s to next year.
Nov 28, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Day to Day | Tags: Thanksgiving 2010 | Leave A Comment »
When I discovered that there was to be a theme about Texas in Pictory Magazine, I immediately started to put a number of different stories together. Although this was not my first choice of stories to submit, it is one of the closest to my heart, and won out against the others. My instincts paid off, and it was published in the showcase. This is my 8th contribution to Pictory.
I have been pleasantly surprised with my success in submitting to this magazine, as it seems that most entries elsewhere go unnoticed, or just get lost amidst the thousands of other images. Regardless, I will continue to craft my photo stories, submit to the themes, and hope that my good fortune continues.
Thanks again to Laura Brunow Miner, and the rest of Pictory Magazine for publishing my story.
The full showcase can be seen here.
Nov 28, 2010 | Categories: Blog, News & Updates, Published | Tags: Everything's Bigger in Texas, November 2010, Pictory Magazine | Leave A Comment »
Among things Texas is known for, easily one of the most famous is the Cowboy Boot. And among Cowboy Boots, few hold the reputation, history, or quality of a good pair of handmade Nocona Boots.
Founded by Miss Enid Justin in 1925, the Nocona Boot Company became known for their quality hand craftsmanship, legendary fit, and feisty female owner. Under Miss Enid’s compassionate ownership, every single pair of boots was handmade in Nocona, Texas; the birthplace of both of my grandparents, and my mother.
My grandfather worked in this very building, and my grandparents live not 100 yards from where it still stands. Sadly, the factory was closed in 1999, taking the jobs of many of the townspeople with it. Nocona boots are not made in Nocona anymore.
Though this once famous factory is now closed, the history and pride of this small Texas town is still very much alive. And if you head up towards the Red River, you can still find a handful of the skilled bootmakers that helped make this town so famous, and I reckon they’d love to tell you their side of the story.
And as the box of a new pair of Nocona’s used to say, “Let’s Rodeo.”
Nov 11, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Short Stories, Writing | Tags: Montague County, Nocona, Nocona Boot Company, November 2010, Texas | Leave A Comment »
One of the images from my photo essay on the Lewes Bonfire Night was recently published on the Flickr Blog (the first vertical image on the left). I was unaware of it at first, and after I received close to 16,000 views on my page in 3 days, I investigated the cause, and discovered this.
If anything, it is a testament to the power of the internet, moreso a blog that is read by lots of people. Blogs have become an alternate information source, and in some cases have become a more popular news source than many major sites.
Either way, I am honored to have been published on the Flickr Blog, and can only hope that it isn’t the last time.
The original post on the Flickr Blog can be found here.
My photo essay on the Lewes Bonfire Night can be found here.
Nov 09, 2010 | Categories: Blog, News & Updates, Published | Tags: Flickr Blog, Guy Fawkes, Lewes Bonfire Night, November 2010 | Leave A Comment »
Whenever I browse people’s profiles on Flickr, many of them have photo sets of “explore” or “interesting” images; images that Flickr chose for a variety of reasons for others to see. Regardless, these photos show up on the Flickr homepage and explore page, and get a lot of views as a result. I always wondered when one of my images would be considered “interesting.”
Over the weekend my phone was blowing up with emails from Flickr, notifying me that close to 50 new people had added me as contacts. At first it was annoying, but then I started to realize that something really good must have happened, and one of my images was probably featured on the explore page. Having moved this weekend, I hadn’t got on my computer until now, Sunday night.
I logged in, and checked the stats.
In the last 3 days, my Flickr page had 15,541 new views, over 150 favorites, and nearly 75 comments.
I am not really sure what happened, or why all of a sudden so many people started to look at my page, but I am going to take the opportunity to try and keep the attention of some of those viewers with quality posts.
I have posted fairly consistently over the last 3 years, seemingly mostly to my family and friends, but it seems that I now have a larger audience, at least for the time being.
Thanks to everyone for your views and comments, and I hope to keep posting images that you feel are worth looking at.
Nov 07, 2010 | Categories: Blog, News & Updates | Tags: Flickr, November 2010, Photo Presence, Views | Leave A Comment »
Among my monthly submissions is PhotoShelter’s featured photographer slideshow. If chosen, your image is placed on the buyer homepage for a month, and is sure to be seen. Perhaps it was luck of the draw, or perhaps strength of image, but my image was chosen on my first submission.
I joined PhotoShelter to try and get some more mileage out of my images, sell some prints, maybe even some rights managed downloads, and this little bit of good news is helping me fuel that vehicle. I hope to expand my archive in the coming months, and pursue other areas of revenue that were not available to me before now. It is certainly better than having the images sitting on a hard drive where no one can see.
This particular image has had recent success in a few areas, and I will continue to try and utilize it as long as interest is shown. After all, sometimes all it takes is one image to reach millions of people.
The PhotoShelter Buyer homepage can be seen here, and my Photo Archive is here.
Oct 19, 2010 | Categories: Blog, News & Updates | Tags: Featured Photographer, October 2010, PhotoShelter | Leave A Comment »
I am honored to be able to say that I made it into a Pictory Magazine showcase for the 7th time.
Though the story I wrote for the showcase did not make the cut, a contribution of slightly shorter length did make it. Putting down Bram Stoker’s Dracula for a moment, I picked up my phone, and typed out the first thing that came to me on the topic of happiness. I have become quite fond of the short format of Twitter, and will continue to use it as a sidearm to the lengthier, more in depth short story format.
The rest of this excellent showcase can be seen here.
Thanks again to Laura Brunow Miner and Pictory Magazine for selecting my work for publication.
Oct 13, 2010 | Categories: News & Updates, Published | Tags: Dracula, Just Like Heaven, October 2010, Pictory Magazine | Leave A Comment »
In the Kilombero Valley, deep in the heart of southern Tanzania, lay the Mlimba Camp. I was stationed there for 3 months, filming and photographing a handful of adventure seekers and buffalo hunters. I shared a tent with my good friend and head guide Georgie, and we were the kings of the camp.
Every morning before sunrise, coffee, tea, and a basin of hot water for shaving was brought to our tent before we set out in search of signs of buffalo, and the best fishing spots. When we returned in the evenings, a campfire and cold beers awaited us, while the days fare was quickly prepared for the evening meal. We had hot showers, solar power, an open air land cruiser, and an entire Game Reserve to explore.
Though the days were brutally hot, and the filming difficult, the freedom and privilege I experienced there was like no other, and I will always remember the months I spent there as some of my happiest.
Oct 13, 2010 | Categories: Blog, Tanzania, Travel Tales, Writing | Tags: Africa, Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, Travel | Leave A Comment »
Tusked Matron in Nat Geo Archive
Every month, I submit photos to National Geographic through the “My Shot” section of their website. A dozen are selected for daily online publication, while the even more fortunate few are selected for publication in the opening pages of the magazine itself. I however, got an email asking if I would like to add my image to the National Geographic Stock Archive.
At first, I didn’t really believe it. I had to read the email about 4 times. I sent it to a few people and asked them to read it.
It was for real.
So after a rigorous upload and quality control process, and a few weeks wait, I am proud to be able to say that I now have an image in National Geographic’s Archive.
It is a start, but certainly not the end for me. I have much bigger plans for that publication, but they just don’t know about it yet.
Sep 02, 2010 | Categories: News & Updates, Published | Tags: National Geographic, September 2010, Stock Archive, Tusked Matron, Tyler Sharp Photography | Leave A Comment »
My website is now featured in the Graph Paper Press showcase.
