Journalese

I found an interesting and funny article on "The Onion" that I thought would be fun to look at. You can read the article here http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-breeding-program-aimed-at-keeping-moderate-rep,27371/

Here are the couple things I found in the article that I believe are journalese...
critically endangered
complete extinction
Beltway-area
dire need
three-election-cycle
once-teeming
totally eradicated
trapped up - in a quote
poor little guy- in a quote

Words, Words, Words!

My new favorite words...

Obliteration
Jotting
Ghastly
Wistful
Adorn
Ruffian
Iota
Saunter
Bestow
Illustriousness

I also decided to ask all of the writer's I work with to tell me their favorite words too...

Psychomachia
Hooligan
Unbelievable
Onomatopoeia
Bereft
Legacy
Elated
Magnitude
Vast
Benevolent
Racket
Plethora
Cathartic
Denouement
Myriad
Asteroid
Superfluous
Concur

They also gave me words they did not like...

Moist
Banana (they like actual bananas though)
Pineapple (it has nothing to do with pines or apples
Vicarious
Sherbet
Slice

Think Small

After seeing the VW ad from last week I remembered seeing this ad show up in Mad Men. Thought you all might like to see it too. It's a little slow in the middle but keep watching...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQqVM140Npk

Orange Element

Orange element is a Baltimore-based design company that I have a few pieces by from a few years ago that are now hanging on my wall. I was doing an internship at the Baltimore Business Journal and they were doing a story on Orange Element. The company had designed costume wrapping paper and giving it to costumers as a thank you for giving them their business. In my opinion that is a great way to say thanks and connect with your costumers. They also has some kick-ass designs if I do say so myself which is why I have them in my living room. Here are some of the pieces they gave me a few years ago.

When I thought I would blog about Orange Element, I went to check out their website and found that they made another special poster that they decided to give away as limited editions. The poster was also featured in How magazine's 2009 International Design Annual for posters.

http://www.orange-element.com/project/28/

Logo and Tagline

One of the companies that I have had to do a feature on for our newspaper or magazine is A Bright Idea. They are an advertising/marketing/public relations firm in Bel Air. I really think that their logo is absolutely perfect for what they do. It is simple and clean. http://www.abrightideaonline.com/

A website that I visit on a regular basis is Strobist. Strobist is a small light, lighting tutorial for amateurs and professionals alike. David Hobby, a former photojournalist at the Baltimore Sun started the site a few years back. The site talks about more then just lighting but 80% of the posts are about light and how to use it. I think their tagline is clear and to the point "Learn How To Light". If anyone were to stumble upon the site they would know that it was a lighting website. I highly suggest anyone with interest in photography to check him out. http://strobist.blogspot.com/

Not What It Seems

Last year my friend Lily Susskind won a 2011 Bakers Artist Award grant. She is a dancer and is the founder of Effervescent Collective which is a Baltimore based dance organization. They are amazing and you all should check them out the next time they have a show. http://effervescentcollective.org/

Lily had to turn in a photo for her award to be hung with her profile in the Baltimore Museum of Art and she asked if she could use one of the photos I had just taken of her and clearly I said yes! That meant that one of my photographs would be in the BMA.

I went to the BMA once the Bakers Artist Awards exhibit was up and took a look around at all the other artists that had made it. There was one that I was just fascinated with, it was the work of Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen. It was an installation that from far away just looked like floral wallpaper and even when I got closer all I could see was more floral wallpaper. Once I read the plaque next to the installation I took a closer look and realized that what I thought were just flowers were actually bombs and bullets and explosions. It was completely blown away and couldn't stop looking at all the little details on the wallpaper.

Check out their page on the Bakers Artist Awards page http://www.bakerartistawards.org/nominations/view/nolenstrals/

Turning the World Inside Out

A while back someone sent me a link to a video about a photographer who's one wish was to turn to world inside out. He goes by JR and he was a 2011 TED Prize Winner. JR is a photographer from France and he decided to start a project where he travelled around the world and took photographs of people and posted them extremely large outside on walls or stairs or whatever he could. Each one of his projects focused on something different and was absolutely amazing. Take a few minutes and watch this video, just click on "Watch the Talk" http://www.tedprize.org/jr-2011-ted-prize-winner/

JR also wants to other people around the world to join in on this project and I am going to participate as soon early as summer if school allows me to. A good friend of mine helps at an after school community program in Reservoir Hill and she asked if I would like to teach the kids a little bit about photography. The last time I was in the neighborhood was to photograph an event that she had put on for the community and the kids were fascinated with my camera and just wanted to take a million pictures. Of course I said I would love to and hope to make something happen over the summer. I think JR's project would be perfect for this and I hope to get pictures of all the kids and a photo that each kid took and post it all over the neighborhood. Here is a link to his global project http://www.insideoutproject.net/#@section=home