Speedy Stranger Photos

About a year ago, I joined the 100 Strangers Project group on Flickr. I love the idea of forcing oneself out of the normal comfort zone to ask people you don't know if you can take their portrait.

One evening, while at the street music festival with my husband and another friend, Tony, we decided to power through the strangers project, seeing as I had only taken 2 Stranger photos in 9 months.

I didn't get most of their names and I didn't spend any time with them, hence not really following the guidelines of the original project. This was still super fun, but I realized that I was making a NEW project, which could in turn become a new group: the Speed Strangers group was born.

The challenge I am creating for Speed Strangers: take as many quick one-person stranger portraits as fast as you can. If you randomly end up with their name or any other personal info, get it quick and move on. See how many random strangers you can photograph. The caveat: please try to take at least a little time to create nice portraits. The Strangers must know you are shooting them. NO random street strangers. Please ask people to take their portrait, snap it and go forth, por favor.


As a nod to the inspiration for this group, please see the rules for "100 Strangers:"


"The challenge : Take 100 photographs of at least 100 people you don't know. Approach a person or group of people and ask for permission to both take a photo of them and to post it to this group. Get to know your subjects. Who are they? What is their life like?
Try to tell a small story with each photo you take. This may be a story about the person or how you felt approaching that particular individual. You may have, for example, tried a new approach or used a new photographic technique. Try to learn something from every encounter you make."


http://www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
thank you, "100 Strangers, " for the spin off idea!


Now, for a few random strangers and a link to my flickr set! I don't want to set a number yet for how many you should take. 100 will go really fast, so for now, the group is set as "speed strangers." numeral TBD at a later date.



enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/speedstrangers/

free classes

Creative Techs, a Seattle design company offers free Adobe CS4 design classes. Did you hear that? FREE!

Now go out and learn something.


http://www.creativetechs.com/

More Awesomeness!

This comes from a very talented photographer that is one of my Flickr contacts. This is seriously the coolest marketing idea that I have seen lately. SO brilliant!

http://http://onelovephoto.typepad.com/heathergilson/2009/04/the-blist-and-our-little-cameras.html

Stylin' Camera Bag

What every girl needs!

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/bowler-camera-bag

Art CRUSH!

There's an artist whose work I am totally (newly) crushing on. I had heard of Andy Goldsworthy a few years ago, but kind of filed him in the back of my dusty head somewhere over the last few years. I was looking for an artist & project to teach at my daughter's school this month and stumbled back across him.

I am crazy about the idea of making art for art's sake. It is so easy to become attached to the things we create. I cannot imagine being in the mindset that all of my works created in order to

d i s i p a t e. Furthermore, Goldsworthy often produces his sculptures far away form any normal human pathways, so there is the potential that the only person who will see the piece in real life is the artist himself. Luckily, Goldsworthy documents his art in photographs so that the rest of us can taste a slice of what he has made. I imagine that a photograph is nowhere near as emotive as seeing his sculptures in the wild: kinetic, soulful, fragile, audacious and powerful. We hold on to our things so very much in this culture, that it is hard to wrap my head around an artist that does exactly the opposite that every time he creates. Every time. Fascinating.

I presented a few clips from the documentary, Rivers and Tides, to my daughter's class. We also flipped through several beautiful books of Goldsworthy's artwork. The kids were as fascinated as I was at his simple, yet extremely sophisticated works. Goldsworthy's art is stunning and fantastic, yet speaks to us on a Jungian, collective conscious level.

Kids are natural artists. It is insane what comes out of their souls when they are allowed the freedom to express themselves through art. Photos below of some of their creations.

Where the Wild Things Are!!!

Can't wait! Can't wait! Can't wait!

Maurice Sendak's amazing children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, is being adapted into a feature film, directed by none other than Spike Jonze. The hip factor does not stop there: author Dave Eggers collaborated with Jonze on the script; Arcade Fire's song, "Can't Wait" backs the just-released trailer; and music by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will be featured on the soundtrack. Wha, WHA???!!!

It's going to be a long wait until the film is released on October 16th, 2009.

Thinkin' of a Master Plan...

One reason to be thankful for the recession? I have had to get creative in thinking of business ideas, career opportunities, and how to bring in some cash. My part time photography business is still going successfully, but I am ready to expand my career.

I am very interested in the ad/branding/graphic design industry. After researching some ads on CraigsList and realizing that I don't have very much experience in that world, I decided to pursue an internship with a friend's company: guruuve.

Guruuve is owned and operated by two amazing, smart and creative women, Sharon Backurz and Jeannine Axelson. They were more than happy to have an extra hand at the office. When I contacted them, they were in the process of brainstorming ideas for their website, which is currently a glorified "under construction" site at this point. I came at just the right time, as they were looking for assistance with styling the front end of the site as well as someone to photograph all of their products. They are teaching me the basics of the Mac as well as instruction in InDesign. Luckily, I have tons of experience in Photoshop, so "indie" does not feel extremely foreign to me.

I am one of those people that is overflowing with ideas. I need to keep a notebook with me so that I can write them down when they come to me. Luckily, I had a notebook with me for my latest two ideas. I won't reveal them here, but I will say that one is an idea for a book that I plan to work on with my good friend, LV, and another is a business idea that my husband and I are inspired to work on. LV has another book idea that we are excited to collaborate on as well.

With so many people unemployed, it seems to me that this is a great opportunity for people to explore new careers through internships, volunteering, taking classes, etc. I know that can be tough to find the time when people's basic financial needs are not being met. Putting food on the table trumps pursuing your dreams, but I wonder how many people would benefit from taking this time as an opportunity to reflect and then act on where they would like to go.

Do we all feel like we are still searching for who we want to be when we grow up? Maybe now is the time to figure that out and go after it.