Finally getting organized at StorybyVideo.com. We launched the site in a rush last year and, busy with many projects, let it flounder. But, we know we do good work and we need to put ourselves out there, so we’re gearing up and reaching out — looking for work. Tell a friend.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

Three yards and a cloud of shadows

It had been a while (10 years or so?) since I last photographed a football game, so when The Virginian-Pilot called about photographing Old Dominion University at University of Rhode Island, I jumped at the chance. But wait, ODU football? When I lived in Norfolk, ODU didn’t have a football team? But, they do now, and they’re pretty good. ODU 31, URI 23.

A little rusty, under-lensed and cursing the clear blue sky, it was a nice challenge and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

AScottWeddings.com is open for business. The WordPress site uses a new theme called Sidewinder — and a boatload of excellent customer support — by GraphPaperPress.com. GPP and Sidewinder in particular, work hard to maintain a minimalist design, emphasizing the photographs. Maybe it’s a little too minimal — the little link icons in the lower right corner of the opening page photos a little understated. If you click that link, the galleries open up, sliding left to right, displaying that gallery. Beneath that gallery you will see navigation arrows taking the viewer (brides!) to more galleries in the collection.

Footer links and menu links direct viewers to a pricing page, information about albums, how to purchase prints, answers to wedding questions and an availability calendar — you gotta love Google.

In the not too distant future, there will be password-protected Your Wedding pages, where brides and grooms, family members and friends can post and retrieve information — itineraries, directions, to-do lists and reminders, view album layouts and video, links to the gallery to purchase prints without pestering the newlyweds and more. A menu link called Wisdom is a place for couples, let’s be honest, mostly brides, can offer advice, coupon codes or other wedding wisdom. The Wisdom section and the Your Wedding pages will be developed in the coming months.

Thank you to my Facebook friends who offered guidance about whether or not to use “kick-ass.” (Not!) But, I have adopted that phrase as a state of mind and will let the brides decide. After all, what couple wouldn’t want a kick [butt] wedding photographer?

We are ready for some comments — remember, just click those little links?

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

Thank you to Thad Allender and Graph Paper Press for a mention in a blog post about early adopters to their themes.

For the past couple weeks — with much help from the incredibly responsive GPP support forum — I have been working on a new wedding photography website, ascottweddings.com which uses a spanking-new GPP WordPress theme called Sidewinder. Wedding Photography by Scott Kingsley is almost ready for primetime, so please check it out. Any suggestions, please comment here or there.

And of course, take a look at the other very cool GPP Sidewinder sites:

A tribute to early theme adopters

Users who adopt version 1.0 of anything deserve serious respect. Without these early adopters, software developers would be permanently stuck in beta testing mode. So, today we’re paying homage to these pioneering users who have adopted early releases of our themes as a way to say thanks. Sit back and enjoy!

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

It’s tonight. But hey, it’s free!

I’ve been asked to pass this along to all my big-wig photo friends. I guess they mean you. Apparently they don’t think my big-wig photo friends need much notice. Are we that desperate for something free to do on a Saturday night?

Here’s all you need to know:

• AS220 Photo Grand Opening Party
• Saturday, February 5, 2011
• 7-10 PM
• The Mercantile Block, 131 Washington Street, Providence RI
• (Entrance on Martha Street, Mercantile building rear)
• Free

Here’s the invite verbatim:

AS220 will host a grand opening party to celebrate the expansion of the traditional black and white photography program to include digital printing and editing, framing, matting and photo finishing, film scanning and studio lighting.

Since 1995 AS220 has offered affordable access to photographers of all skill levels through the Paul Krot Community darkroom, a traditional black and white darkroom.

The photo program has expanded into the newly renovated Mercantile Block, along with the Fab Lab and the Community Printshop, which comprise AS220’s Cottage Industries. The mission of the Cottage Industries is to provide self-sustaining, public access art studios.

On Feb.5 from 7-10pm AS220 Photo will officially open it’s doors to the public, featuring a 50/50 Photo Sale, with work from local photographers and volunteer members Scott Alario, Danny Floyd, Norlan Olivio, Kelly Phillips, Arielle Affigne, AS220 Youth Photography Instructor Miguel Rosario, Darkroom co-founder Scott Lapham and current program manager Krystal Grow.

Guests will also have the opportunity to participate in a “Classy Raffle,” with a chance to win one of several photo classes at AS220 and learn more about new membership options in the darkroom and digital photo lab.

Enjoy refreshments from AS220 Foo(d), photo-themed cocktail creations from new AS220 Bar Manager Noah Anacleto and live music from special surprise local artists!

Please contact Krystal Grow for more information about this event and to hear more about the expanded photo program at AS220.

Krystal Grow

AS220 Cottage Industries Coordinator

AS220 Photo Manager

401-831-9327

krystal@as220.org

www.as220.org/darkroom

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

To Kick-Ass or Not to Kick-Ass

I’m working on a new wedding-only website — using a WordPress theme by Graph Paper Press, a side-slider called Sidewinder — but what do you care about that?

The question is the use of the hyphenation — kick-ass — on the About page in the site description and in the site description meta data. Will brides be offended by someone who is, or claims to be, a kick-ass wedding photographer? If I were a bride, I would definitely want a kick-ass wedding photographer.

What should I claim to be? Awesome? Really, really good? Better than average? Superb? Super-duper? Nice?

I’m looking for some help here — what’s better than kick-ass? Kick-butt, perhaps, but that’s just backin’ away from it without taking the heat. If you’re kick-ass, you can take the heat, you know? Please, brides especially, what do you think? Leave a comment!

Take a look. Weddings.ascottkingsley.com is a work in progress so don’t believe everything you read there yet, but I think you’ll see that Graph Paper Press is a kick-ass theme producer, and, well, I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good too.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

New Camera for Christmas? Want to Learn How to Make It Do Your Bidding?

The good people at Bristol Workshops and Oggi Photography in Bristol, Rhode Island can help you learn how to use that new-fangled digital camera that you just had to have for Christmas. Here’s co-owner, Julie Brigidi‘s invitation:

How many times have you wished that you knew how to work that new digital camera (or not so new!)? Do all those buttons and dials do things that you understand or are you getting out of focus, overexposed images that are useless? (Don’t you LOVE photographing your children and pets?)

The recent digital technology is a gift if you know how to use it. There are websites and books that can teach and are very helpful if you are able to learn by reading. I’m not one of those people. I need a teacher, a patient, real person that can explain things to me – sometimes a few times in a few different ways until I “get it”. So that’s what I wanted for those of you that have asked us countless times, “Where can I take a class that will help me learn how to use my new camera?”

Our parent company, Bristol Workshops in Photography is offering classes that teach you how to use your camera! Mark Abbott teaches the classes. He’s patient, really really smart and funny. In short, he’s a terrific teacher. (You can read about him and see some of his beautiful photos on our Oggi website.)

Mark Abbott of Oggi Photography, Bristol, Rhode Island

Read about the classes on the Bristol Workshops website for details or call us at 401-253-2351

Classes are:

January 23, 2011 – Intro to Digital Photo. Bring your camera and a manual.
February 6, 2011 – Intro to Photoshop. Bring a laptop if you have one.
February 26, 2011 – Intro to Digital photo.

Check the Bristol Workshops website for more dates.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

Johnson & Wales University Chancellor, Morris W. Gaebe

Uncommonly Snowy

The baby snowman with owl-like eyes, nestled in the statue’s lap, was reason enough, I guess, for me to make this photograph of the statue of longtime JWU Chancellor, Morris W. Gaebe. But what I really liked was the snow sticking to the “whites” of his eyes and the rolling-his-eyes impression those little bits of snow create.

Mr. Gaebe sits at the entrance to Gaebe Commons on the JWU campus in downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

Motivated by Free LinkedIn Ads

I’m not sure why I am surprised that after I responded to the LinkedIn offer of $100 worth of free self-service ads, people actually are clicking on them.

My ad is for website video and, following the advice in the LinkedIn ad guidelines, I’m sending my clicks to a page that shows what I’m offering. And boy, was that page ugly! So I’ve spent the evening trying to figure out the web-ubiquitous JW Player, adding video and thumbnails and getting organized. I knew it had to be done sooner or later, but who likes to organize their sock drawer, you know?

It’s all looking good enough now, so here’s hoping some folks spend the oncoming snow storm viewing the vids. I’d be overjoyed if someone could tell me why the control bar insists on shortening and hopping up into the video, as in the example here:

At least the socks stay where you put them.

If you’d like to use the free ad coupon code, just let me know, it’s good for a few more weeks — until 2/9ish.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -

Patrick Lynch, former RI AG and Brown '87

Great Power and a Really Sweet Jump Shot

Former Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch is famously fond of the Stan Lee/Spider Man movie line: “With great power comes great responsibility.” All of the power and responsibility that comes with serving two terms as the RI AG has seemingly not hurt his jump shot at all.

A few days before his term ended, Mr. Lynch, Brown ’87 — a star on Brown’s 1986 Ivy League championship basketball team — was perfectly at ease knocking down three pointers with a gummy old basketball at the South Side Boys and Girls Club on Louisa Street in Providence.

The Brown Alumni Magazine asked me to arrange a portrait for an article marking the end of the notable alum’s service to the state and the beginning of his new job as the Institute for International Sports’ ambassador to the 2011 World Youth Peace Summit. He agreed to squeeze me in between engagements in his final days in office.

At the conclusion of a small press conference about the achievements made by his office and community leaders in the fight against lead poisoning in children, I asked Mr. Lynch to take off his suit coat, loosen his tie and roll up his sleeves for the portrait. He was happy to oblige, saying that he was very comfortable in the Club gym — a place where he spent countless hours playing basketball during his youth.

Mr. Lynch is a good-looking man — tall and trim with an easy smile — and he photographs well. We chatted a little between shots and he repeatedly told me to take my time as I scurried around adjusting the lights. He certainly didn’t seem like a man who was too worried about being late for his starting-any-minute lunch meeting across town.

Between setups, Mr. Lynch and a fellow from his office couldn’t resist playing a little ball. They even talked gentlemanly trash as Mr. Lynch swished jump shots over his much shorter associate. As I reset the lights for another portrait, I kicked myself for missing the spontaneous moments as the two big boys played basketball.

After a few more quick photographs, the AG buttoned his sleeves, tightened his tie, thanked me for my time,  and, late for lunch, shuffled out of the gym.

To read Gordon Morton’s article in the recent issue of BAM: Just click the cover.
Comments are always welcome, encouraged even.

Scott Kingsley | ASK Photo/Video | Providence, RI -