Scott has been generous enough to let me release this series out there for others to download – I have been planning to make this available for download at New Worship Media but since I’m in the middle of a redesign for NWM that will have to wait. So for the time being you can download the series right here from Echo Faith.

Included in this download is the 35 second intro video, a title graphic slide (widescreen and standard), a background slide for sermon notes, and a lower third slide for those who use a live video feed.

I would love to hear back any feedback if you use this in your church – I hope it serves others well.

Enjoy!

Download “Baggage” series: baggage_series.zip

Quite a while ago I was inspired from a church sermon to celebrate others around me, to embrace the achievements and abilities of those who inspire me.

Today I’m celebrating Benj Haisch.

Benj Haisch is a portrait photographer from the Seattle/Tacoma area, check that, an amazing photographer from the Seattle/Tacoma area. Though not exclusively, he specializes in tilt-shift photography which he uses for portraiture rather than architecture.

Interview

When did you first get into photography and what led you into it?

I first dabbled in photography on a 3 month trip to India I did for mission work in 2005. I didn’t know a thing about photography at all, but knew I would need to document the things I would experience in more than just memories but also in photos that I could look back on. So my parents gave me a little point and shoot camera for Christmas and I shot away! From there I began to work with video until another trip to Europe in 2007 sparked my interest again to invest in a DSLR. From there people saw my travel photos and started asking if they could pay me to take pictures of them for various things like portraits and weddings. I did jobs and used the money to buy new equipment every time. Now I’m deep into it and can actually make money from shoots :)

Do you have a favorite piece/project that you’ve worked on?

I don’t want to come across as a really lame artist who is just trying to sound good for clients, but I honestly really love all the work I get to do. Whether it’s documenting a wedding, a Seahawks game, a senior portrait session, city life in the area, or random travel photos in other countries, I really just enjoy photography. I hear its not good business to shoot so many different aspects of photography, but I think it makes me an incredibly well rounded photographer and artist.

How long did it take before you felt like you’d found your “voice” in photography?

I still don’t think I’ve exactly “found” what I’m looking for in terms of my “style” or “voice” as its still a work in progress but I think I have settled into a place where I know what I want my work to communicate and that is helping me develop my “voice”. What I’m realizing lately is that its great if I like the work I’ve done and I really do want others to enjoy it as well, but is it what my clients want? I attract a different type of person than your ma & pa photography studio but I still want people to look back and see great photos years from now and not just me relying on the cool, trendy photoshop actions or processing.

Don’t think that will come overnight though, I’d probably shot a good 25K photos at shoots before I could start to feel a somewhat of a unique style I’d want to develop. Shoot a lot and know what you’re going for before you just start snapping away. I’m trying to make my portraits speak through expressions and my weddings tell stories through real moments.

How long has tilt-shift lens technique been a part of your photography?

I’ve had my tilt shift for about a year now and really enjoy the thing. It really is a very unique piece of equipment and I’m only just now starting to really understand how to properly use it. It’s become a huge trend in wedding and portrait photography lately so at least I feel I’ve had a little bit of a head start on it. Most photographers looked at me like I was stupid when I told them I bought a tilt shift, but now it’s catching on a lot. I originally had seen its use on a few other high-end photographers sites/blogs, really dug the look, and knew it would be a good way for me to make my work stand out in a way that others simply couldn’t. Now it’s probably my favorite lens and most of the photos you’ll see on my blog have been taken with it.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I actually find a lot of inspiration other places besides just still photography. I’m a huge music lover so I actually really get inspired to shoot from music a lot. I’ll be listening to a song and think up how I’d want the music video to look and feel. I also watch for a lot of different elements in the cinematography and editing in movies and TV shows. You can learn a lot about composition, framing, lighting, and processing through watching a good movie or TV show. I also frequent a lot of photojournalism blogs from news organizations from all over the world that really show emotion and creativity in their photography.

Who would you celebrate?

This is going to be way too difficult, but I’ll drop a few bits of goodness on here of people whose stuff I dig and I’m sure you will too.

First off, I’ve gotta plug my bros band Algebraic Satellite. Their stuff is really good and they are just too lazy to really promote and go somewhere with their talent. Go take a listen.

Algebraic Satellite

Another musical group that deserves some recognition is Roman Holiday. I did some photo work for their promotional materials and really think their music is some solid stuff. Well constructed and catchy. I find myself jamming on their tunes a lot when I’m editing.

Roman Holiday

As far as wedding/portrait photographers go, I think these dudes are probably my current favorites. One is here in Tacoma, one is shooting my wedding and from Eugene, and the other is clear out in Australia.

Sean Flanigan

Jay Eads

Jonas Peterson

And lastly, I think this blog by the Wall Street Journal is very well edited and always gives me something to think about after looking through the photos each day.

Wall Street Journal: Photo Journal

You can see more of Benj Haish’s work at BenjHaisch.com, BenjHaisch.com/blog, or you can follow him on twitter @benjhaisch.

I still enjoy the world of grunge design, perhaps even more so, but I’ve noticed a change begin to happen in the past couple of years. I am no longer satisfied with just design.

I still love print/web design, and I’m excited for upcoming prospects that html5 promises, and I still scour the web for new grunge texture techniques and inspiration… but as I’ve begun to dip into the worlds of Motion Graphics and Photography, I am finding new venues to engage my creativity.

I can’t focus on one, as I’ve said many times before – I was made to create. And though I understand the business strategy of focusing on a narrow genre niche, I can’t bring myself to stop learning and engaging new ways to create.

My perfected specialty is to never stop learning more and keep expanding my skillset.

Wish me luck.

They closed out the festival with a great set, plus some fun cover songs including Cake’s The Distance, the theme song from The Office, and the Five Dollar Footlong jingle from the Subway commercials.

Best of all, they ended the night with my favorite song of theirs, the 10+ minute epic “Deathbed”.

Temperatures are predicted to be in the 99ºF – 102ºF so that should be… fun.

See ya in a week!

If you want to grow as a developer and expand your skillset, then take on a challenging project that is over your head. Here is a client scenario:

Client: Can we get that really complex thing that you don’t know how to do?
You: Sure, we can do that.
Phone call ends.
You: Crap, how are we going to do that.

Classic. Though Noah is speaking to developers, this is a principle that applies to pretty much any creative professional. When you stop being willing to learn and try new things, your passion will begin to fade and you will become stagnant. This will reflect in your work.

I have found that my personal skillset has grown leaps and bounds when faced with similar situations. The motivating thing is, 90% of the time, the challenge is easily conquered with a little research and thought.

Today anything and everything can be discovered quickly and easily through a simple Google search. The library of Alexandria had nothing on the internet – take that free knowledge, learn it, and do something with it.

As I’ve said before “I would be a horrible web designer if it weren’t for the internet.” ;)

Baggage – Week 1 from Jesse on Vimeo.

This is the intro video I did for a sermon series by Scott Harris of Brooklake Church. Really happy with this piece, stretched myself by doing a few things I haven’t done before.

First, I created all the little “baggage” stickers and used Mod Podge to glue them onto an old suitcase from Value Village, and if you know me, you know I am not one that normally excels at any sort of “craft” type work.

Second, I did my first actual video work (with the help of my wife who helped control the camera and offer shot ideas). My Nikon D90 held up great for some decent HD video.

The music is from Future of Forestry’s “All I Want” from their Twilight album.

Here is the promo graphic for the Brooklake website based on the elements from the video.

The target market seems to be primarily netbooks—small, inexpensive, and low-powered laptops—so you likely won’t see any video processing apps or anything much more powerful than, say, Photoshop’s web app.

It’s been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

See full announcement

God On Film — Teaser from Jesse on Vimeo.

Here’s the teaser video for eastlake Community Church’s current sermon series God On Film. It’s a 60 second cut from all the other videos.

The audio is taken from Skillet’s “Forsaken” from their Collide album. Stretching its short instrumental breaks into 60 seconds with no lyrics was somewhat of a challenge, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

AT&T is merely pushing this to counter negative press, which most likely will work. Profit over customer satisfaction after all?*

* I do know how subsidies work, and technically it is a loan… but still, I thought AT&T was going to take a higher road the same way Apple did in a similar situation.

ORIGINAL:
Kudos to AT&T for choosing customer satisfaction over profit.

All of that said, we’ve been listening to our customers. And since many of our iPhone 3G customers are early adopters and literally weeks shy of being upgrade eligible due to iPhone 3G S launching 11 months after iPhone 3G, we’re extending the window of upgrade eligibility for a limited time.

We’re now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18.

God On Film (Week 4): “Moon” – Our Search For Identity from Jesse on Vimeo.

Here’s week 4 of a series of videos I did for Eastlake Community Church for an upcoming sermon series God On Film. Each week focuses on a different topic taken from one of this summer’s films.

This one just happens to be my favorite, all the other intros are similar in style just using different clips of course.

The audio is taken from Skillet’s “Forsaken” from their Collide album.