Tag Archives: photography

9 Oct

Life is a Fashion Show After All

sat3

Back in my high school days, I wanted to walk the hallways and go to class looking sleek and sophisticated, outside the relaxed sweats and PJ’s ‘uniform’ that ruled the school. I thought it was cool, most of my friends thought it was cool, but my parents said the same thing to me every day, “Allison, life is not a fashion show. Hurry up and lets go.”

Now that those days are long gone, I still want to leave my apartment looking put together and as best as I can be no matter who tells me to hurry up! Not to impress anyone, not to follow any trends but just for my own sanity and it seems I’m not the only one.

On a search a while back for photos for a post I was working on, I stumbled upon The Sartorialist and was sidetracked for about 45 minutes. I was stuck, ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ over the ridiculously perfect dressed ‘everyday’ people walking the streets in New York City that are photographed and featured on the blog. I couldn’t change to a new tab or close the window. Seeing these pictures of people walking to work, walking to the store, going on a stroll, whatever they were doing – they were doing it in impeccable style and inspires me to do the same!

sat4 The Sartorialist was started by Scott Schuman to share photos of people he saw on the streets in New York City. A veteran of the fashion industry for 15 years, Mr. Schuman was surrounded by style and design professionals and soon became interested going to the streets to see what real people in real life wear, ideally repairing the disconnect between the industry and the streets.

Granted, most of us don’t consider New York City to be ‘real life’ paired with ‘real people’. We know it’s filled with glitz, glamour and everything fabulous. However, the photographs do bring the oh-so-cool, non-celebrity, non-socialite New Yorkers to our fingertips to filter through like one ongoing, live look book for every day inspiration and ideas.

I scan the Sartorialist as often as I can, absorbing the NYC (and sometimes world) street style Mr. Schuman provides. And it always makes me feel good to know that life, after all, is a fashion show for all to see and create.

10 Jun

Eye-Fi Looks to the Pros

by Michelle Lentz

If you’re not familiar, Eye-Fi offers memory cards that upload your photos directly to the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection. According to a post on VentureBeat this morning, they’ve now launched the Eye-Fi Pro.

The Eye-Fi Pro is aimed at professional photographers and serious enthusiasts. It’s a 4 GB file and it supports JPG, various video, and the format that will make many people happy – RAW. New options include geo-tagging photos, uploading via Peer-to-Peer (no router needed), and easier access to Wi-Fi hotspots. There is also Selective Transfer to choose which photos will be automatically updated. Nikon and Casio are offering Eye-Fi connected cameras as well.

Eye-Fi connects to 25 online sharing sites, including Flickr, and costs around $149.

Hmm … maybe I need one of these to take to Alaska with me.

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10 May

Disruptive Media: Stockholm, Sweden

by Brian Solis

Following my trip to Hamburg for the Next09 conference, I flew to Stockholm Sweden to serve as one of the keynote speakers at Disruptive Media hosted by Annika Lidne and Bjorn Falkevik. It was an incredible and inspiring opportunity to meet and learn from the catalysts who are changing the media and communications industry in Sweden. Fellow new PR and social media pioneers Steve Rubel and Chris Heuer also joined me.

Extending the discussion of the Social Economy I reviewed during Next09, I explored the separation of the “Me” from Social Media and the advantages of a holistic practice of concerted listening and ongoing observation to shape our participation in the Social Web.

Collectively, we all share the need to discover who we are and why matter to those with whom we wish to connect. But, we should also share a common desire to rise above the noise and establish a formidable and valuable online presence and defined human network that transcends from the online world to the real world.

Why is anyone better off for following or friending us?

As a digital society, we are individually investing in our social capital spurred by unconscious and also deliberate acts that unknowingly convey complacence and fuel an ambition to acquire notoriety and recognition.

Self-importance versus self awareness…

While we are captivated by the ability to broadcast through the statusphere and in the process, procure friends and followers, we loose sight of the true opportunity represented by the Social Web. It’s not the ability to share what we want, when we want. It’s not the rewards of popularity and the illusion of fandom. This is a chance and a means to forge a network of influence based on the expertise and knowledge we amass and share.

Social Capital isn’t the currency of The Social Economy after all, it is merely a stature that is representative of what we share, the relationships we earn, and the perception others form based on our participation and contribution in social networks and IRL (in real life).

Attention has officially emerged as the portal to the Social Economy and in order to capture it, we must create or share content so intriguing, relevant, and thoughtful that it forces action and ideally triggers a response.

Content is still king and therefore information symbolizes the true currency of the Social Economy.

Twitter, Facebook, TweetDeck, FriendFeed, Seesmic, PeopleBrowsr, Tweetie, et al, have emerged as our attention dashboards. It’s where we share, update, consume, and learn. We click away and return based on the content that flows through our timeline. It’s the ideas we share, the personality we portray, the stories we tell, the individuals we spotlight, and the dissemination of the things that inspire and teach us that increase our chances of capturing attention to connect and motivate.

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION?

Sometimes we benefit from the art of practicing restraint in order to breathe in the essence of the community we wish to galvanize. The Social Web is not a right, it should be embraced as a privilege. In the end, we earn the attention and the relationships we earn and nurture.

We must transform how we participate and engage online to shift from talking “at” people to investing in the collective consciousness of those communities we wish to influence, foster, and promote.

We must believe we have something to learn.

We must have something of value to share.

None of this is Social “Me”dia, it’s about the journey we share and not the destination. This is our time to contribute to a more meaningful and mindful future of media and communications. Our culture and societal values are ours to define – for better or for worse. The question is, whether or not we take responsibility for the social physics that shape its direction and governance.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Chris Heuer

Annika Lidne

Paula Marttila

Henriette Weber

Björn Falkevik

Brian Solis

Pictures of Stockholm, Sweden…

Please visit my albums on Flickr for more pictures from Disruptive Media and Stockholm Sweden.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, or Facebook

1 Mar

San Francisco @Night

by Brian Solis

The other night, I co-hosted the Bi-Coastal Birthday Bash for Julia Allison & Randi Zuckerberg in San Francisco with Sarah Lacy, and Dave Morin. The night was clear, still, warm and intimately lit by the city lights and the moon. I was inspired to take a detour to and from the party to capture a memento of the night.

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story…

Bay Bridge

Ferry Building

For additional pictures from San Francisco @Night, please view the album on Flickr.

Connect with me on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, or Facebook

22 Feb

A Passenger’s View of the World – Part One of an Ongoing Series

by Brian Solis

I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately and will continue to do so as I hit the road in support of the new book written with Deirdre Breakenridge, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.

The views that I’ve enjoyed are captivating and inspiring. I’ve started a new series of photographs as I travel in planes, trains, and automobiles to share those views with you. Enjoy.

A Passenger’s View of the World…