I’m delighted to announce that over the weekend, we (with much help and support from Roxanne) launched my Etsy Shop to display photographs from 4 of my current Photographic Series:

• ʻAwapuhi (Ginger)
• Kāwele (Towels)
• Mea (Objects)
• Holoholo (Cruising)

Currently only about 1/3 of the photos have been uploaded. I’m uploading a few more each day.

I’ll also be launching a Facebook Fan Page and will be adding a Portfolio and Gallery section to my site here. Lots of work still to do…

I hope you’ll drop by my shop on Etsy, take a look around, and let me know what you think!

"Abstract 8167"

A few weeks ago I submitted several of my photographs to my very first Juried Photography Exhibition. I’m thrilled to announce that one of my abstract photographs, “Abstract 8167“, was accepted!

The exhibition is titled, “Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2010: The Second Annual Statewide Survey Exhibition.” It is sponsored by University of Hawaii at Manoa Pacific New Media and was juried by Jerry Omo and David Ulrich.

From the exhibition description: The Second Annual Survey Exhibition Sponsored by Pacific New Media. This juried exhibition is open to all artists using photographic processes: traditional silver or color prints, digital imaging, alternative processes and mixed media explorations. Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2010 is meant to offer artists that use photographic processes a venue for exhibiting work and to provide a snapshot of the “state of the art” of photography in Hawaii.

Hawaii residents, amateurs and professionals, are welcome to submit images. Works must show evidence of a photographic process in their creation.

The photographs I submitted for the Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2010 exhibition were created completely in camera. I don’t even own Photoshop. Yet! Additionally, the 16 x 20 inch photographs are created by a state of the art process that infuses dyes directly into the surface of specially coated aluminum sheets. Because the image is infused into the aluminum surface and not simply printed on it, the prints are archival without requiring frames or glass; ultra-hard and scratch-resistant; completely waterproof and weatherproof; can be cleaned with any commercial glass cleaner; and radiate a brilliant and luminescent quality that cannot be achieved with high quality paper or traditional printing techniques.

The painterly abstracts where created by experimenting with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and by manually adjusting aperture, focus, and shutter speed. I imported them directly from the camera into Apple’s Aperture where only lens dust specs were removed. No color corrections, filters, or enhancements of any kind were applied.

Here is a short “unboxing” video that Roxanne shot when the photographs arrived from the printer. The first photograph is from my “Negatives” series that I haven’t yet posted.

Exhibition details:

Location: Frame Arts Hawaii (couldn’t find their website)
Address: 627 South St., Honolulu, Hawaii
Dates: April 1 – April 30, 2010
Times: Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturdays 10am – 5pm

Opening Artists Reception: Friday, April 2, 2010, 6pm – 9pm

Below is the exhibition poster.

Contemporary Photography in Hawaii 2010

Rox’s dad, Bill Benton, lost his 15 year battle with 5 different cancers last night. He quietly and peacefully slipped away in his Florida home with his wonderful wife, Blanche, and two of his four daughters, Barbara and Judy, by his side.

I feel honored to have gotten to know him over the past 8 years and I will dearly miss our discussions and his stories over glasses of his favorite wine.

We’ve created a simple web site and will continue to update it as plans for services continue to evolve. http://www.williampbenton.com

It’s just after 11:30pm here on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and I’m tapping out this blog post on my iPhone, in the dark, while pearched on the roof of our house. The “trades” (that’s what we here on the islans lovingly refer to the Trade Winds that blow in off the Pacific ocean) have returned and are blanketing our sleepy little town in all their fresh ocean breeze goodness.

Over two and a half hours ago I sat down, on the sofa in the living room with my laptop like a normal person, with the sole purpose and intention of writing the first blog post on a new blog/business we’re launching. After staring at that blank, taunting screen for a few minutes, I noticed a little number “3″ sitting quietly along side the “Plugins” link in the WordPress sidebar.

“I’ll just do those plugin updates quick.” I thought to myself. Well of course that led to some plugin update problems; a “Thesis” (Thesis is the WordPress theme powering this site) update that I remembered reading about; some additional exploration around the spiffy new WordPress 2.7 Control Panel; and the obvious thought that I should update my own blog software, and switch it to Thesis, while I’m in the groove of these other updates. Astute readers will have already noticed that my last post on this, my personal blog, was 362 days ago.

“It’s the new year. I’m going to start posting on my personal blog again and I should get it updated and ready!” I cleverly convinced myself.

So, why am I on the roof, at 11:57pm on a Sunday night,in the dark, tapping out these words on my iPhone?

Sometime over the past 4 years while living in this cute little house, I discovered that I get a lot of great ideas on this roof. Mostly at night. I’m not sure why? Perhaps it’s that, at night, our friendly, close-quartered neighborhood is quiet? People quiet. Quiet except for the occasional car and the rustle of the trades wandering through our giant mango tree and the broad-leafed palms in the neighbor’s yard. And it was on this very roof, on a night not unlike this one over a year and a half ago, that the original idea for our new business, the one I’m supposed to be writing about, burst into my brain.

So with my laptop’s battery now depleated from all the downloading and uploading and FTPing and refreshing, I decided to head to the roof with my iPhone to tap out a few inspired ideas that, no doubt, will be delivered to me…

Instead, I end up writing this meandering post to my severely neglected personal blog?

You see, here’s the Good News and the Bad News about the roof: I have no control over what is “delivered” to me. Sometimes it’s company changing ideas. Sometimes it’s just stars playing peek-a-boo behind the clouds and jet planes bound for the Mainland. And sometimes it’s just a string of words, tapped out on my iPhone, in the dark, while everyone else in in my Windward neighborhood sleeps.

And the trades.

Back to work today after taking the past two weeks “off,” which basically meant I didn’t check email and now have to deal wtih over 400 real messages in my Inbox.

Completely overwhelmed with everything in my To Do lists and on my whiteboard that didn’t get done during the “break.”

Trying to remind myself to take it one little task at a time. No matter how good your GTD system, at the end of all the gathering and filing, you still gotta just get the stuff done…

First full day in Park City and we went rock climbing, out to dinner, and then to see Ocean’s 13.

The rock climbing was the most fun and you’ll have to watch to find out why.

Travel day from Santa Fe to Albuquerque to Phoenix to Salt Lake City to Park City. Planes were late but I got where I was supposed to go and my buddy Lana was there to pick me up. Good day!

I just finished IM’ing (Instant Messaging) with someone that I’ve only recently met via Twitter. He recently received an invitation to blog for one of the Presidential campaigns and had some questions that he thought I might be able to answer.

An hour later and he was so inspired that he decided to go for it! Doesn’t mean he has the job, or even an interview, but the combination of his opportunity plus Twitter, IM, and a little bit of time could turn into a life changing event.

I’ll update on my blog and at Viddler if anything comes of it.

It’s late. I’m tired. Running out of time to get my Viddler and Flickr today pics up.

Was a great day. Very big new client. More info to come.

Where to star? Where to start? So much going on:

Old and new clients calling and emailing us for work.

I should have been on a plane back to Hawaii early this morning but have extended my stay in Santa Fe, NM for 3 more weeks until July 10th. Long time to be away from Roxanne and Lexi but I get to see them every day at Beach Walks with Rox and be connected via Rox’s Twitter and iChat.

And next week I’m heading to Park City, Utah to spend 5 days with our friends Chris & Lana who recently moved from Hawaii to Utah. Crazy? Yeah, we think so. But they love it there and I’m looking forward to seeing their new home and biking and climbing in the mountains just outside their back door.

Yesterday, Colin Devroe sent me a link to his blog post “Are you a ‘fanboy?’”

Based on a couple of responses that he already had, I only had a few minutes to leave a comment before an appointment. But I knew I wanted to followup with more since I’ve often been accused of being a “fanboy” by accusers that use it in a derogatory way.

If you find any of these ideas or observations interesting, then you’ve probably enjoy Beach Walks with Rox. The ideas I talk about below cover a lot of the philosophy Roxanne talks about on her daily video walk. And they are examples of how she and I relate to each other, our friends, our clients, and the world in general. As we like to say, “It’s simple. But it’s not easy.”

Here’s the comment I left for Colin:

I think there are a couple of things going on with “fanboy haters” or put another way, those uncomfortable with the enthusiasm exhibited by others.

I think this is a great topic that is really about human nature and the society we live in. I’m going to write more about it on our company blog and link back here later today. But for now, here’s a summary.

1) Idea of Scarcity. This is the idea that there’s not enough of something to go around. So if you have it, that means I can’t have it or I can’t have as much of it as you do. The idea of scarcity can lead to resentment.

2) Group Mind. This relates to a feeling of being powerless which can also lead to resentment. If all your friends are really excited about and love something, and you don’t, then surely your opinion counts less than theirs and and perhaps there is something wrong with you. Almost everyone I know loves “Lost” but I don’t get it. My opinions on “Lost” must therefore be less important than everyone else’s.

3) Making Comparisons. I have a car and you have a car. Different Makes and Models but similar list of features. They both get us where we want/need to go. But, MAN you love your car. You’re excited to tell anyone that will listen how much you love my car and why. Hmmmm…. My car is similar but I sure don’t love it as much as you seem to love yours. Perhaps I made a mistake buying my car? Why am I not as excited about my car as you are about yours? These aren’t the questions I ask out loud. Instead, I exhibit self-doubt, confusion, and most overtly, resentment about your enthusiastic excitement about your car.

Those three issues are pretty basic to human nature. And just like Colin’s reply to my comment, a lot of your reading this will probably recognize this in not only yourself, but most people you know at one time or another.

But I think the biggest thing that gets people in trouble is:

4) Making up a Story. Believing it’s True. And then Acting on as if it Were True. This one is really really easy to fall into and can cause the most confusion. The first part, Making up a Story, is easy enough. We all do it every day. We see a young kid with a lot of tattoos and automatically make up a story that he must be a punk and a troublemaker. We see a pretty woman, dressed well, walking briskly down the street not paying attention to anyone. Obviously she’s a bitch! Right?

Once you’ve made up a story, it’s easy to convince yourself that it’s true. To say to yourself, “I just know it’s true.”

Now the dangerous part. Acting on it as if it were true. Rather than engaging openly and with curiosity with the “tattooed punk,” you might ignore him, or worse, disrespect him or even seem fearful of him. Same with the pretty woman who was just in a hurry to perhaps visit her dying friend in the hospital. You don’t know their situations or what’s going on in their world. So you’ve made up a story that you now believe to be true, because you know everything, right. And now you’re acting as if the story you made up in a fraction of a second was true.

Then, when the tattooed kid happens to be having a bad day or the pretty woman doesn’t hear you when you say, “Excuse me.” when you’re trying to reach the coffee creamer, you get to be right. You get to self-fulfill your own story, that you made up, and say to yourself, “I knew it. She is a bitch.” or “Yep. What a tattooed punk.”

After a while, making up stories, believing they’re true, and then acting on them as if they were true, becomes a way of life. And we don’t even know it. It just happens. And it’s really difficult to break the pattern once it becomes a way of life.

Combine any of the above 4 items together, and it’s very easy to see why there are so many problems in the world. Why it’s so difficult to understand each other.

Hell, if we eliminate just #4, most of the shows on Network television wouldn’t be possible.

Who thought it would be a good idea to try to turn a comic-book, sci-fi movie into a gushy romantic thing???

Please, Hollywood, more character development, special effects, better dialog and plot. Less predictable, gushy, romantic crap in the sci-fi/fantasy films.

No time for a post. Taking myself to a late movie at the new theaters in Santa Fe.

Was a very productive day. Couple of bumps but managed to keep up spirits and get around them.

See you tomorrow.

Better late than never. Tried to record my “Viddler MeTday” earlier but had an issue with our connection.

Also spent some time working with CamTwist. I’m using CamTwist with the built-in cam on the MacBook Pro to insert the graphics directly into the video stream. Then I use Viddler’s “Record” function to record directly to the site.

This all means is that I don’t need a video camera, no video tapes, no importing/recording into iMovie, no exporting from iMovie, and finally, no uploading to Viddler. Just launch CamTwist and Safari, go to my profile page on Viddler, and click Record. Couldn’t be easier.

In this MeToday, I show images from Harry’s Roadhouse where I had lunch with friends and then images from The Lofts where our Loft is.

And finally, using CamTwist’s Scrolling Text, I inserted the websites where I can be found:
Bare Feet Studios
Beach Walks wtih Rox
BizzyCast
Me on Viddler
My new blog
Twitter

Video recorded by user’s WebCam on Sun Jun 17 22:19:55 MST 2007

Some people just can’t handle their “baked” goods.

Inspired by Colin I just did my first “MeToday” post using Viddler and my built-in iSight cam on my laptop. Recorded it right to the Viddler website and didn’t even have to open iMovie to edit.

That’s the attraction for me. There’s already too much to do every day and so to be able to just open a web browser, click “Record” and “Save” and have it automatically post…. That’s awesome and very exciting!

Thanks Colin!

Here’s my post on Viddler.

Lexi Girl

Originally uploaded by beachwalks

There’s a saying in Hawaii that goes, “Lucky we live Hawaii.”

This photo taken of our Lexi Girl by my sweetie, Roxanne, is visual proof of how lucky all the creatures of Hawaii are.

Update from Colin Devroe at 11:34 EST: plasq is planning a full scale release of Skitch in a matter of hours.

I’ve been looking forward to Skitch for months now since I saw a video of it demoed back in January 2007 at MacWorld in San Francisco.

I am constantly firing up Photoshop or Fireworks to do little image tweaks or manipulations. Skitch Looks to be the answer to 95% of my image manipulation needs.

In the mean time, here’s a 3 minute video that highlights all the amazing features of Skitch.

PS: It’s Mac only. Sorry Windoze. All the cool stuff is on Mac.

PSS: Thanks to my bud, Colin Devroe, for keeping me updated on Skitch and sending me an invite to the mySkitch private beta earlier today!

This is my first blog at ShaneRobinson.com. I’ve had a few others that didn’t last too long over at www.notm.org and www.noneofthismatters.com. But I’m working on “Personal Branding” as inspired by CC Chapman over at Managing The Gray, this year and so thought it best to start with the name of my blog.

Here’s to reinvention.