The Mad Maggies hired me recently to do a shoot for them.

These are the photos from that day, at Sutro Baths in San Francisco.  They were great sports and happily trekked about with their instruments in tow.  This drew a handful of onlookers, especially when playing a song or two for some photos.

If the weather was more predictable, I’d say the National Park Service ought to consider a summer concert series – “Bands On The Bluff”

Check them out at TheMadMaggies.com and download a few free MP3’s!

Have you photographed a band in a unique location? Are you in a band that’s had an interesting photoshoot?  I wanna hear about it. Post a comment and links to your images!

I get that news stations are suppose to be objective, but I’ve often wondered why they rarely give solutions.

I know solutions are never easy, but you would think the news could report on the problem and then report on the things their audience could do to better the situation.

Have you seen this? If so, where?  Did it help you decide to do something?

[As always, click the doodle to enlarge!]

Last night I built a wall hanging planter out of discarded cheese crates. Pictures of that may come eventually once soil & plants have been added.  Drifting asleep, I had this idea for a wall hanging piece using river rocks & ground covering.  It’s much more controlled than I typically like to see plantings, but I thought it had potential.

An absolutely stunning shoot was done with Trang recently.  One of these two pieces will be sent out as part of a poster this summer. If your office uses photography, design, or illustration, drop me a note & I’ll send one your way.

The first one is a bit classic, with a stunning example of strength & sexuality veiled beneath an air of mystery.

The second one is a bit more engaging, in my opinion.  The hypnotic gaze, the tadpole eggs, the glistening skin.  Which is your favorite?

You saw Rebekah’s photoshoot, right?! Well, photoshoots have been aplenty at Studio Sean Pete.  Here’s a test shoot with the amazing Meghan.  I was very happy to be able to capture her spunky attitude in this first portrait.  The background, a mix of ferns & plywood, will show up in a future photoshoot, but they will involve more focus on their self-similar growth pattern & highlight them as nature’s fractals.

The second photo of Meghan is taken at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, one of her favorite finds after moving to the Bay Area.  This portrait, I was excited to see, conveys her athletic & strong personality.

What’s your personality? Let’s take some gorgeous photos.

Rebekah texted me last week asking when I’d be free for a photoshoot. I packed up my gear & we did a shoot the following evening.  Here’s a couple of our favorites.  Very classic shoot shot right at dusk.  I personally love the nontraditional composition of the second photo.  What do you think?

The more a web-based company is able to disguise itself, the longer it’ll last.  Our ADD culture may not worship a popular site that changes too slowly or changes in predictable ways much longer.  This I fear is how Facebook may meet its demise.  Its been extremely popular in part to the access for developers to create components & make money off of those projects. Cash always keeps stuff around.  At least for a while.

Society may need a chameleon.  Facebook may appeal to that with its Farmtown, Mafia Wars, & other ways you can immerse yourself into a specific experience.

Google is, in a way, a chameleon that pops up in totally new ways.  They brand their products uniquely – with that, I think Google’s products will be sought after for much longer than products by companies like Apple. The i-Whatever branding will start hurting Apple if they keep it another 5 years.  The more experiences people have with an i-Product, the more genericized the line will become.  It may become “just another i-widget” instead of a product purchased with revere.

Is importance shifting from branding to versatility?
Jack-of-all-trade companies preferred over specialty copanies?
What’s your take on the future of web-based social businesses? What do they need to do to survive & thrive?

Tomorrow the Chicagoans will be dumping dye into their river & the Irish cops of New York City will be dancing down Fifth Avenue in their annual parade.

Out west this past Saturday, San Franciscans celebrated early with a parade & some rowdy music. The Mad Maggies asked me to photograph again this year as they closed out the day with a two hour set. By the end, the audience had made it up on stage to dance & knock things over.

Enjoy some pics & per usual, click to enlarge.

See you next year.

This week is the Game Developers Conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco. I’m there on double duty for a few days – photographing for NetbookNews.com and meeting companies to see who might be interested in my illustration, design, & marketing.

If you’re a GDC attendee or exhibitor, drop me a note in the comments and say “Hello.” If you’re not involved with GDC 2010, here’s a small peek of what was going on.

What does watermarking your artwork say about your relationship with your audience?

You don’t trust them.  I used to tag my pieces with semi-opaque copyright symbols, my name, URL, & other such nonsense.  Then I realized I wasn’t showing my best work; I was showing a version of work that was obstructed with distractions.  The eye couldn’t move around the piece naturally. Simply put, it looked horrible.

If I find somebody to be using my art in unacceptable ways, I can pursue that as needed, but why should one (potential) bad apple spoil the bunch?  Tagged in a corner discreetly is my URL.  If somebody regurgitates my work on Tumblr or a similar site, it only promotes me. Sure, it would be great if that person paid me $5 to reuse that image, but that will never become the norm.  Visual artists must find new ways to share, build, & create.  Fighting syndication of your creations makes you look like a lunatic. If it’s good, it will be reposted somewhere.  It’s time to embrace change & figure out where you fit in.

Going forward, all photography, illustration, & layouts that I share here will available for use with Creative Commons licenses. Sharing projects I worked on for clients will be tricky & mostly saved for my portfolio at ItsNotArt.com, but I will try to share any elements that I can – textures, custom typefaces, or maybe even color pallets.

Join me for this experiment. Use my stuff. Share your stuff.  If you’re already using CC, drop a link in the comments.

In regards to previous posts on this blog, if you have interest in using bits in your own project, just send me a note or comment & I’ll let you know what’s available to play with.