Today is the 31st of January. As if I could have planned it, Nomad’s Land isn’t making it out the door today. I had said January 2010. I joked in my mind that that would end up being 11:59:59pm on January 31st. I joked and laughed nervously.

I think I need to go away for a few days.

Nomad’s Land will be finished soon. If I can find the time to finish it. Which would be the days away that I really need. I have too much stuff going on.

By the way, the video was all edited with Sony Software, both the music and the video using Sony’s ACID and Vegas software.

I’ve been tasked with creating a five minute video for a rather large trade show coming up soon in Las Vegas. The format of the video will be a combination of HD video, stills, and a score, all of which I’ll be shooting/composing/editing together.

I need to have the video done within two weeks so I need to shoot all photos/video this weekend.

I have two models already lined up and I need one to two or even three more. I’m looking for female models between 18-25. If you’re in the South Beach/Miami area, please contact me immediately(!!!) and send me a link to your portfolio.

I’m going to make final decisions on models by Friday, January 29th by 6pm. Shooting will take place on Saturday and Sunday depending on schedules.

Please pass this information along to anyone you know who might be interested. There is no pay involved, however, all models will be getting rather significant exposure in front of an audience comprised of entertainment industry professionals. Also, you’ll receive copies of all processed photos as well as a copy of the video which you can use in your portfolio.

Thanks!

Shortly after I published this video, the gnome disappeared. If you have any information about his known whereabouts, please contact me. No questions asked.

South Florida Daily Blog is holding the 2009 Post of the Year competition right now and a video I put together is in the running. I want it to win.

This is the video.

South Beach, Paradise

South Beach, Paradise.

I’d like it to win for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason is that I want it staying on SFDB’s sidebar as Post of the Year for a year.

And I want it on that sidebar for three simple reasons:

1) We forget. We forget about issues of substance sometimes. And we forget humanity sometimes. In everyday life, we forget.
2) Exposure. Maybe it’ll make a difference. Maybe in someone’s life, it’ll have a really positive effect.
3) SFDB gets a lot more traffic than I do which goes back to reason #1 and #2.

It’s important. I made the video because it matters to me. And it matters to everyone. If not, it should. And for however much I am judged for the rest of my photography/videography, this isn’t something that should fall into the wash.

I’ve gone tit for tat on this, so to speak, in trying to get people to vote for it. On my flickr account where I receive the most traffic, I’ve posted a photo from the video (actually, two) and encouraged people to take the time to vote. I draw a certain audience and I want it out there. This is one of the photos posted (the other one is nude), also one of the primary stills in the video.

It’s funny, a long time ago when I first started shooting models, a friend and I were joking about my tagline. We thought, “Come for the models, stay for the homeless,” was catchy.

I wish that were the case.

And so there. Tit for tat. It matters to me and I can reach a very broad audience. I want this video to be the 2009 Post of the Year and fill that space on SFDB.

I’ve been telling people not to blindly vote for the video. Perhaps, upon reading the other posts, they’ll see another post that they feel is more appropriate for 2009 Post of the Year. By all means, vote for that one.

But seriously consider South Beach, Paradise. Homelessness isn’t something that unusual. Poverty isn’t anything that unusual. In South Beach and in Miami, it’s a little more pronounced because here you have this obvious dichotomy; a world of luxury filled with lush landscapes serving as backdrops for the destitute and the poor. And so here, homelessness and poverty are all the more dramatic. And, in truth, it should never be anything less than dramatic. We forget sometimes. I want this video to be a reminder of that.

Vote here (in case you haven’t already jumped).

As some of you may remember, last year when I arrived in LA after being on the road for 35 days, I fried my Mac. I bought a laptop while out in LA and then had to go through the process of getting software again.

I remember sitting at a coffee shop at a beach far south of LA and I got an email from the promotions manager of Sony Creative Software. He had read of my situation, was a fan of my work, and offered me a copy of their professional video editing software, Vegas.

Hero.

I. Love. Vegas.

During that brief period when I was using the Mac, I was using Final Cut to edit video. Final Cut has a rather steep learning curve, but Vegas is easy to use pretty much right out of the box. Every video I’ve pieced together since June of last year has been done in Vegas.

Lately, I’ve been using some of Sony’s other software, ACID Express to create tracks for the videos rather than using existing music/songs.

Sony’s sending me a full version.

Scott is happy.

I got this email a few minutes ago. It’s time-sensitive material and I’m working so… well… This will just take a minute, thanks.

Dr. Seuss  ( don’t  delete )

Don’t  laugh at this! Just do it!

I’ve  done this 3 different times and every time  within a ½  hour my  wish comes true!!!
&
My best friend  did this and wished for a promotion and she got the call this morning and she got a promotion!!!

The  last time I did this it worked for me too. I  wished for a baby, and you all know

What

Happened

(approx. Months later).

I  had to give this a shot…

I’m  So sorry about this, but I had to keep it going.  The last time I
Sent this exact e-mail out,  I20 got a new job and now I’m superstitious

..

Start  thinking something you really really want,  ’cause this is astounding…. The person that  sent this to me said their wish came true 10  mins after they read the mail so I thought ‘what  the heck’.

‘
**

******

*******

YOU HAVE  JUST BEEN VISITED BY DR. Seuss’S

‘CAT  IN THE HAT’

.

He  will grant you one wish.

MAKE  YOUR WISH WHEN THE COUNT DOWN IS OVER.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

~~~~~~~

MAKE  A WISH!!!!!

~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~
~~~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~
~~~
~~
~
~~
~~~ ~~~~
~~~~~
~~~~~~
~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~

NOW  SEND THIS TO

10

PEOPLE  WITHIN THE HOUR OF READING THIS.

IF  YOU DON’T,
YOUR WISH WI LL BECOME  THE OPPOSITE!

(From ipanemic: whew, that was close. I feel sooo much better.)

(Update: Oh. If you could just copy and paste that text, that would be awesome. Thanks.)

For both those of you who don’t do web development and for those who do…

I think what would be rather impressive for their site is a listing of some of the larger online businesses/sites which use MySQL as their db backbone. As a developer, you can look at any number of sites and say, “Yeah, that’s PHP/MySQL.” And it’s not just small fellows. It’s all OVER the web. All made possible BECAUSE of open source technology.

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass from OK Go

From WWTDD.com:

OK Go has become famous for their single-shot videos, and their treadmill video for ‘Here It Goes Again’ has almost 50 million views on youtube, making it one of the most popular videos ever (just behind the sneezing panda but ahead of that goofy little dick on his way home from the dentist).

Needless to say, following something so famous was gonna be hard. The most obvious way would be to dress like a high school marching band in a field and have the wind and horn section in sniper camouflage. And so that’s what they did. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it.

Five million photo views on Flickr? Check.

Today is a good day. I guess I go for 7.5 million now?