Appreciating the Art of Photographing

Yesterday I was on a photo shoot with photographer Paul Heckel of Heckel Creative.

Paul is what many people would consider one of the best commercial photographers in Sioux Falls and it was fun to watch him work. 

Upon walking onto a set, he evaluates lighting, composition, framing, staging of scene, and staging of talent. Then there's everything dealing with the mechanics of the camera: exposure, shutter speed, iso, camera lens, what stop to set lights, and probably a thousand other things that were too subtle for me to pick up on. All the while, he's making the talent feel relaxed and at ease.

It's not just the end result, or the photography, that's art. It's also the process. 

 

Where's Santa in August?

Santa's summering right here. Not just here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but here at Insight. And he's in Doug's office.

Doug Moss is bringing Santa to life through his astonishing illustrations for Santa's Prayer, written by Tom Roberts. I've had a sneak peak at this children's book, which  was created to benefit Children's Home Society.

The story tells how Santa works to bring back the true meaning of Christmas. What I especially like is that Santa -- who's reluctantly become a symbol of holiday materialism -- is just as distressed about the materialism as the rest of us.

Children of all ages will be delighted by the book. Check out this story that appeared last night on KELO for the inside story.

Magazine, Meet Video. Video, Meet Magazine.

I grew up in a small town, and when I mean small, I mean 420 people, two bars, one post office and one gas station kind-of-small.

I vividly remember a project in elementary school that our teacher had us create. She said, “What do you think Irene will look like in the year 2010?” So, there I was, sitting at my desk with pigtails and stone-washed jeans thinking what my town will look like in 15 years. I drew a Super 8 and a mall with a movie theater. In my mind I imagined Irene to be something similar to Sioux Falls at that time. If you drive through current day Irene, you will find the population sign, which now reads 423, the same two bars, post office and gas station. 

My 5^th grade visions were far from reality.

When I think about times like these I realize that some things will never change. On the flip side, as a 5^th grader (View this photo) I never would have thought by the time I was 25, I’d be part of a generation where magazine and video meet to create powerful advertising.

Currently, CBS and Pepsi Max are pairing up to promote the upcoming fall season on CBS. Entertainment Weekly will feature 40 minutes of video and sound, including a Pepsi Max commercial, with a small plastic screen. Copies will be sent to a limited number of subscribers in New York and Los Angeles.

According to USA Today “Pepsi Max joined the promotion because the shows' audiences match up well with Max's 25-to-39-year-old male demographic, and those consumers like new technology.”

I like it. I want a copy. How can I get one?

Online Music Management

From time to time I come across interesting websites and apps in my searches for new trends and ideas.

Lately I've discovered a number of items related to music, so I thought I'd share them with you.

First, my old standards.  I've used Pandora and Blip.fm for quite awhile now and really like both.

Pandora works like so: you enter the name of a song or band, and based on the information about that item, Pandora suggests other songs that sound similar. You give songs thumbs up or down, perfecting your "station." You can also add additional tracks or artists to your station to broaden your station's range.

Blip.fm is what I use when I have a particular song in mind. If I need to hear Piano Man I can go and "blip" that song, meaning that I get to listen to that particular track right now. My blips are collected in my "station" and others can choose to follow my station and if they so choose give me props (I'm not really sure what I do with them, but really, who doesn't want props?).

Recently I discovered Last.fm, and was impressed. Last allowed me to sync my entire iTunes library and play count numbers to the service. It then created a station with my entire music library, meaning I can now remotely listen to my tracks. It also provides feedback and statistics on my listening history and suggests new music I may enjoy. Other features include iPhone apps for listening on the go and notifications of when bands you enjoy are performing in your area. I've only begun to uncover what this site can do, but I'm sold. Check out my music profile.

TidySongs is an amazing little app. It costs $30 but is totally worth it. The app goes through your iTunes library and updates all of your tracks with the proper titles, artists, albums, artwork, track number, date, etc. You can use its automated system or go through your tracks one by one. The best part is that for each track the service checks it gives you a percentage telling you how confident the service is in its answer. For example, common tracks typically have a score of 90% or above. But that bootlegged copy of Swedish techno may only score a 5% because the app struggles to find info about it on the web. I think it's great and I'll definitely be investing in the app.

Go try these out for yourselves!  Tell us what you thought of each in the comments!

Summertime Popsicle Stick Blues

One day I went to throw away my fudge bar stick, thinking I should save all of these so that my daughter and I could make a fun craft project together.

But they are sooooo boring. Why haven’t they made some fun popsicle sticks?

Not only could they look cool, they could have fun messages or even advertise. Check out how Colgate effectively reminded consumers to brush.

Granted you aren’t going to able to make too many craft projects from these Popsicle sticks, but the idea is pretty clever.