Thank You Note

A few weeks ago, I participated as a volunteer in Scouting University to teach Girl Scouts between the ages of 11-13 about photography so that they could earn their "photo badge". I cannot stress what a thrill this was as someone who has always admired the teachers who dedicated themselves to learning every single day.

My father has always encouraged me to volunteer, and while I'm certainly no sergeant of the Salvation Army, I decided Scout U would be the perfect starting point for volunteer work. It started out as a bit of an emergency. One of the photography teachers had canceled less than a week before the event and Danielle was scrambling to find a replacement. I offered to teach or assist, and she immediately recruited me. Two days later, Danielle called me and said that the other two photo teachers had quit. Holy crap, I thought. The average class was 20 kids. Was I supposed to teach a class of 60 scouts?

I offered to try to find a replacement, and thank God, Taylor Emannuelson completely came to the rescue. Taylor is a great friend of mine who used to work devotedly to hone her craft as a photographer "back in the day".

So when the class began, my secondary and I began the lessons and I tried to make it as fun as possible. A big thank-you goes out to Zac Lehr, assistant photo editor of the Morning News, for coming as a guest speaker.

I know it's silly, but one of the coolest parts of Scout U was when the kids all called me "Mr. Putt" What a trip! I'm a Mister? Ha ha haaa.

So the entire event was a total success and just recently I received a Thank-You note from the organization, which included a couple of "Teacher Evaluations" written by the Scouts. They were:
"I learned a lot about the Camera"
"It was cool to meet a real photographer"
and my favorite... "Mr. Putt is really fun and knows how to make us laugh."

I'll see if I can round up a photo soon!

SXSW Day Four - "The Show"

Dustin Woods of A Good Fight gets medieval on a guitar riff during their set at the Habana Lounge Saturday night.

It wasn't long before the stage gap closed in at the Habana Lounge in Austin, TX.

Guitar

South by Southwest was by far the most intense music event I've attended. I noticed so many great things, especially the charity-based shows such as Project AK-47 , a charity aimed at rescuing and eliminating the practice of enlisting adolescent boys into rebel armies in 3rd world countries. Also, an anti-depression outreach called To Write Love On Her Arms, or TWLOHA. Those two especially spoke to my heart and I wished I was able to buy some of the merch. At least I can write about it and try to get my friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas involved/aware.

AGF is already talking about next year and I'm hoping I'll be able to reach out to other bands from remote cities that need photography!

South by Southwest : Day Two and Three

Yesterday, Eddie Love handed out balloons with A Good Fight's insignia printed on. It was a hit with the kids. The weather held superbly and aside from a bit of tardiness, everything that was to be gotten done, got done.

A rag-tag marching band held a miniature parade in the middle of the day. Drum major shown above.

Balloon.
Eddie Love stopping on a stairwell in a downtown Austin parking garage.

I like the rimlight in this photo. This particular bar, Troubadours, was so crowded that the above shows one of only a few vantage points. The crowd still enjoyed themselves.

A two-piece made use of a blender to drive his song home.

Rap Battle

Tap Battle

Sidewalk Art II

Popular electronics magazine "Wired" interviews Love and Sean Marriott. Marriott plays drums for A Good Fight.

South by Southwest : Day One

South by Southwest... Wednesday wasn't much for the "free food" and "free booze" that I'd been hearing all about since arriving, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the shows and taking in Austin's beautiful weather. Temperatures hovered around the 80's for most of the day and settled down into the mid-60's by nightfall.


Eddie Love, lead singer for Fayetteville, Arkansas' A Good Fight stands in the middle of 6th Street as passerbys, well... pass by. Love spent most of the day handing out placards for his Saturday performance to be held at the Cabana Lounge. Wednesday night's activities included exploring... more or less ambling up and down the street trying to figure out where to go.

Benton cooled off with a little H20 to the head.

Sidewalk Art

Mode of transport.... the back of a pickup. Truly, this is Texas.

Finally, got a gallery!

After looking at several flash-based photo galleries, I decided to settle on "Autoviewer" which is very similar to SimpleViewer, only instead of having thumbnails, it is constructed more like a slideshow. Clients can simply press "play" or click the little arrows as much as they want until something catches their eye. (Hopefully they don't click too quickly).

This is going to be for my wedding and family photography website, "LiveStill Photography". I'm still working on several of the elements, such as my trademark, the letterhead, and so on.

Right now, I just want to get a working concept up as quickly as possible, and then hopefully have someone who knows what they're doing come in and make it look professional... cough... lushinnovative.com ... cough. (I wish)